Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963)

Summary

Trilateral agreement negotiated by the US, USSR, and UK prohibiting tests of nuclear devices in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater. Allows nuclear testing to continue underground, so long as radioactive debris is not allowed "outside the territorial limits" of the testing state. The treaty has since been signed by a total of 116 countries, including potential nuclear states Argentina, Brazil, India, Israel, Pakistan, and South Africa. Though two major nuclear powers, France and the People's Republic of China, have not signed, they are now abiding by its provisions. In 1992, China exploded a bomb beyond the LTBT limits.

Narrative

The Test Ban Treaty of 1963 prohibits nuclear weapons tests "or any other nuclear explosion" in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. While not banning tests underground, the Treaty does prohibit nuclear explosions in this environment if they cause "radioactive debris to be present outside the territorial limits of the State under whose jurisdiction or control" the explosions were conducted. In accepting limitations on testing, the nuclear powers accepted as a common goal "an end to the contamination of man's environment by radioactive substances."

Efforts to achieve a test ban agreement had extended over eight years. They involved complex technical problems of verification and the difficulties of reconciling deep-seated differences in approach to arms control and security. The uneven progress of the negotiations reflected, moreover, contemporaneous fluctuations in East-West political relationships.

Prior to SALT, no arms control measure since World War II had enlisted so intensely the sustained interest of the international community. The United States in November 1952, and the Soviet Union in August of the following year, exploded their first hydrogen devices, and rising concern about radioactive fallout and the prospect of even more powerful explosions spurred efforts to halt testing. Succeeding events gave the dangers of fallout concrete and human meaning. In March 1954 the United States exploded an experimental thermonuclear device at Bikini atoll, expected to have the power of eight million tons of TNT. The actual yield was almost double that predicted, about 15 megatons, and the area of dangerous fallout greatly exceeded original estimates. A Japanese fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon , was accidentally contaminated, and its crew suffered from radiation sickness, as did the inhabitants of an atoll in the area. In another such accident, radioactive rain containing debris from a Soviet hydrogen bomb test fell on Japan.

As knowledge of the nature and effects of fallout increased, and as it became apparent that no region was untouched by radioactive debris, the issue of continued nuclear tests drew widened and intensified public attention. Apprehension was expressed about the possibility of a cumulative contamination of the environment and of resultant genetic damage.

Efforts to negotiate an international agreement to end nuclear tests began in the Subcommittee of Five (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and the Soviet Union) of the U.N. Disarmament Commission in May 1955, when the Soviet Union included discontinuance of weapons tests in its proposals.

Public interest in the course of the negotiations was active and sustained. In individual statements and proposals, and in international meetings, governments pressed for discontinuance of nuclear tests. A dozen resolutions of the General Assembly addressed the issue, repeatedly urging conclusion of an agreement to ban tests under a system of international controls.

The three-power meetings began on July 15. The long years of discussion had clarified views and greatly reduced areas of disagreement, and a Treaty was negotiated within 10 days. It was initialed on July 25 and formally signed at Moscow on August 5, 1963, by U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, the Foreign Minister of the USSR, Andrei Gromyko, and the Foreign Minister of the U.K., Lord Home. On September 24, after extensive hearings and almost three weeks of floor debate, the Senate consented to ratification of the Treaty by a vote of 80 to 19. It was ratified by President Kennedy on October 7, 1963, and entered into force on October 10 when the three original signatories deposited their instruments of ratification.

The parties to the Treaty undertake "not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion, or any other nuclear explosion," in the atmosphere, under water, or in outer space, or in any other environment if the explosion would cause radioactive debris to be present outside the borders of the state conducting the explosion. As explained by Acting Secretary of State Ball in a subsequent report to President Kennedy, "The phrase 'any other nuclear explosion' includes explosions for peaceful purposes. Such explosions are prohibited by the Treaty because of the difficulty of differentiating between weapon test explosions and peaceful explosions without additional controls."

The Treaty is of unlimited duration. Article II notes that any party may propose amendments, and that, if so requested by one-third or more of the states Party, the Depositary Governments are to convene a conference to consider the amendment. This article stipulates that any amendment must be approved by a majority of Parties, including the three Original Parties. Article III opens the Treaty to all states, and most of the countries of the world are parties to it. The Treaty has not been signed by France or by the Peoples Republic of China.

In August 1988, six countries (Mexico, Indonesia, Peru, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia, and Venezuela) presented a proposal to the three Depositary Governments to amend the LTBT and to have a special amendment conference to consider this proposal. Their proposal was to extend the LTBTs prohibitions to all environments, transforming the LTBT into a comprehensive test ban. By late March 1989 the Depositary Governments had received the requisite number of requests, in accordance with Article II of the Treaty, to convene such a conference for consideration of the proposed amendment. The Conference was held in January 1991. The United States, strongly opposed to using the LTBT as a vehicle for negotiating a comprehensive test ban, made it clear to all participants that it would block any attempt to amend the LTBT by consensus.

Source: Department of State
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: To offset its bleeding losses, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation has recently proposed an 18.5 per cent increase in ticket fare. The state government is yet to take a final call on it.A senior BMTC official told The New Indian Express the proposal was submitted to the government a fortnight ago. The hike has been proposed due to the consistent increase in diesel prices and the massive expenses incurred by BMTC due to the wage revision for employees effected last year, he said. The corporation suffers losses ranging between Rs 20 crore and Rs 25 crore a month, the official added.

BMTC expects to mop up an additional revenue of nearly Rs 220 crore if the government okays the fare hike proposal. The official added, Even then it would be difficult to help us break-even in operations.

BMTC had last hiked its fares by 15 per cent in April 2014. Its revenues increased but ridership steadily declined in the subsequent years.

Principal Secretary, transport department, B Basavaraju, said, We received the proposal from BMTC recently. It has been sent to the finance department. The government will take a decision on it soon.

The 6,149 BMTC buses in the city clock 12 lakh km daily. It suffers a loss of Rs 74 lakh daily on an average. An average of 45 lakh riders presently use BMTC daily, a major dip compared to the nearly 52 lakh riders it carried in 2012. Many commuters have switched to Metro or cabs.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A man allegedly shot at a woman after barging into her residence after their break-up, police said today.

The incident took place in northwest Delhi's Bharat Nagar last night, they said.

They were in a relationship but after the woman ended it, he allegedly attacked her, the police said.

Following which the accused was arrested, they said.

Further details are awaited.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Launching the GHMC Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Managements (EVDM) dedicated Disaster Response Force wing (DRF) with 120 staff, vehicles, equipments and other machinery, MAUD Minister K T Rama Rao said that keeping in mind the safety of Hyderabad, as many as 10 lakh surveillance cameras are planned across the city, of which four lakh have already been installed and the remaining six lakh would soon find their places. The residents welfare associations and the police department have extended complete support in taking up the works, Rao said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had recently released a report praising the State police force for its contribution in maintaining law and order in the city as well as the State, the minister stated, adding that the DRF will reach out to the people during emergency situations such as flash floods, heavy rains, building collapse, fire mishaps and any other emergency situations.

After Mumbai, Hyderabad is the second city in the country to have a dedicated DRF as well as an exclusive EVDM wing. The decision to set up the EVDM wing was taken after the incident in which eight construction workers died when an under-construction building collapsed at Nanakramguda, the minister said. However, there is a need to increase strength of DRF and set up more exclusive teams in various zones for immediate rescue operations during emergency situations, he added.

Hyderabad city police commissioner Anjani Kumar welcomed the DRF force. Opining that the force would play an important role during emergency situations, he added that the introduction of DRF has added a new chapter to the city. EVDM director Vishwajeet Kampati explained the methods and functioning of the newly established wing. The teams would be available round-the-clock, he added. Khairatabad MLA Chintala Ramachandra Reddy, GHMC mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan, GHMC commissioner Janardhan Reddy, HMRL MD NVS Reddy were present at the launch.
Dhinesh Kallungal By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In an effort to boost the ailing spices sector in the state, the Agriculture Department has decided to observe the Malayalam New Year as Spices Year. The new year starts on Chingam 1, which falls on August 17.All year long, priority will be given to spices cultivation - chiefly pepper, cardamom and nutmeg - and their marketing in Kerala. The state had similarly observed Nellu Varsham in 2016 and Coconut Year in 2017 to infuse new lease of energy into coconut and paddy sectors in the state.

Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar told Express that spices sector, mainly pepper cultivation, has been facing a host of challenges over the past few years and the price crash has further enhanced its difficulties. Price fluctuation in the international market, coupled with smuggling and import of cheap pepper from countries like Vietnam through Sri Lanka, has resulted in a huge crash in domestic price. The state governments effort to address such issues resulted in the Ministry of Commerce fixing a minimum import price (MIP) of Rs 500 a kg in December 2017. But this was later watered down when smuggling and illegal imports continued unabated.

In this backdrop, the Spices Year, with its year-long programmes, is expected to help better the prospects of the spice farmers. As part of programme, the department will distribute high-yielding varieties among the farmers with an objective to increase the production.Further, the year-long attention is expected to provide the sector much-needed support in terms of training and exploring new markets. Funds will also be set aside to help the sector, Sunil Kumar said.

The state is also planning to procure pepper from farmers in the state on the lines of paddy and coconut procurement for which the support of the Centre is required. We have already held a couple rounds of discussions with the Central Government including Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu. The state will soon submit a proposal in this regard. If we can start pepper procurement, the issues in the sector can be addressed to some extent, he said.

Minister said the enforcement measures must also be strengthened to curb illegal trade. For instance, Nepal has been importing pepper through Kolkata port. A large part of their import floods the Indian market due to smuggling through porous borders of Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. Such illegal businesses must be curbed to protect the Indian pepper farmers and the local spices market, the minister said.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The Festival on Democracy programme will discuss the challenges faced in the Empowerment of SC /ST communities in Independent India. The programme will be inaugurated by President Ramnath Kovind on Monday here at 11 am.

Governor P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, SC/ST Welfare minister A K Balan, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and Deputy Speaker V Sasi will participate.

Rahul V Karad, Executive President of Pune World University and P S Krishnan, former advisor to Andhra Pradesh government will participate in the seminar which will be held at the South Auditorium of the legislative complex. Discussions will be held on Judicial systems interference, experience and possibilities; Caste system and upliftment of Scheduled Castes; Judicial reality and expectation based on Constitution; and Reservation: Reality through Indian democracy.

N K Jayakumar, Dalit activist and academecian Kancha Iliah, Prof. Gopal Guru and Venkitesh Ramakrishnan will participate. Former Loksabha Speaker Meira Kumar will inaugurate the open forum which will take place after the plenary forum at 11 am on Tuesday. More than 50 MLAs from various states and more than 1,000 delegates including peoples representatives and social workers will take part.
By PTI

LOS ANGELES: Disney's "Christopher Robin" has been denied a release in China by film authorities.

No reason has been given for the film's denial, but according to the Hollywood Reporter, it is because of China's censorship of Winnie the Pooh images that started last year.

In China, the authorities have been blocking images of the character on social media because of memes comparing Chinese leader Xi Jinping's appearance to Pooh's.

In June, the country started censoring mentions of HBO comedian John Oliver and HBO's website after his show, "Last Week Tonight", ran a segment criticising China and Xi, specifically, for the increasingly authoritarian policies of the Chinese Communist Party, which he leads.

The segment also mentioned the Winnie the Pooh jokes and Xi's sensitivity to them.

Disney has not reacted to the snub of the live-action/CGI film, which stars Ewan McGregor as a middle-aged British businessman and carries a PG rating.

Winnie the Pooh, the character created by British author A A Milne as a companion for an eight-year-old Christopher Robin, comes to life in the film to help his now-adult friend regain his imagination.
By PTI

LOS ANGELES: Actor Paul Rudd has said that he had "geeked out" after he got the opportunity to meet the Marvel superheroes during the making of "Captain America: Civil War".

The 49-old-actor, who portrays Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, made a brief appearance in the 2016 superhero ensemble alongside Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.

"(The Avengers) are all pretty impressive. I experienced this on 'Civil War'. I kind of turned into an eight-year-old because I saw all the Avengers in real life and I kind of geeked out," Rudd told Heat Magazine.

"It was that feeling of, 'Wow, there are a lot of people who would like to be standing where I'm standing now.There's Captain America's shield and the Winter Soldier's silver armour. Everybody is very nice and I liked all of them," he added.

The actor also appeared hopeful about his character's appearance in the upcoming "Avengers 4".

''You'll have to ask (MCU boss) Kevin Feige, but I'd say that there's a chance. You know, you'll have to talk to. Maybe some other bugs will show up, I don't know," Rudd said.

The actor most recently played the superhero in "Ant-Man and the Wasp", which also featured Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Douglas.
By PTI

LONDON: Actor Ewan McGregor has said he is ready for a solo film based on his "Star Wars" character Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The 47-year-old actor said that though he has not heard about any project on Obi-Wan, he would still do the film if the studio gives a go-ahead.

"I would totally do it, of course. There's no plans as such to do it, as far as I know. I've been asked this question for years and years. I'd be happy to do it," the actor told The View.

"There must be a good story to tell as they're doing spin-offs - there's likely to be a good Obi-Wan between me and Alec Guinness. I've answered 'yes' so many times it looks like I'm touting for work!" he added.

There have been rumours swirling around an Obi-Wan Kenobi solo movie but the likelihood of one coming to fruition were hit after the disappointing run of another "Star Wars" spin-off "Solo: A Star Wars Story".

McGregor played the iconic role in three "Star Wars" films -- "The Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith".

Before him, actor Alec Guinness had played the part in George Lucas' original trilogy.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on Thursday said it is not impossible to make a political cinema in India, but the process of fighting the system scares many filmmakers, including him.

Participating in "Neta Abhineta" session of an international media forum at the Media Rumble here, Kashyap said: "It's not that if I wanted to make political cinema, I wouldn't do it because of the fear for censorship, but it's the process of fighting it which scares me.

"You can't just give up at the first level -- you have to go through many levels, the executive committee, the revising committee, the tribunal, and maybe even all the way to the Supreme Court in the end."

The filmmaker, known for movies like "Gangs of Wasseypur" and "Bombay Velvet", however, said that "the most restrictive regimes in the world" come out with "the best films".

He said that a political movie faces obstructions such as censorship cuts, bans and protests, making it a tedious process for filmmakers to pursue.

Kashyap acknowledged that this was, however, not the case in India alone.
PS NISSIM By

Express News Service

Most think of travel as a means of experiencing the world and broadening the mind. But the mindset when one travels affects the outcome more than youd expect. In Revolutionary Ride, Lois Pryce, a British travel writer, receives an anonymous invitation to visit Iran. This invitation comes in the form of a note pinned to her motorcycle back in 2011, when the diplomatic tension between England and Iran was at its peak.

The British media at the time is playing up the fundamentalist forces in Iran, painting the whole country as one of the most dangerous places in the world. Habib, the writer of the note, is clearly distressed about Irans public image in the British media, and requests Pryce to visit his country in person and see the truth.

Pryce takes up the invitation. Getting the visa to enter Iran itself turns out to be a suspenseful process. But eventually, Pryce travels with her motorcycle to Turkey, from where she loads the vehicle into a train for Tabriz, over the Iranian border. From Tabriz, she bikes on a month-long zigzag route across Iran, ending at the ruins of Persepolis and finally Shiraz.

As a Caucasian woman on a motorcycle, shes a rarity and is stared at, but equally frequently helped out by the people she meets on the way. She passes through both polluted, smoky, crowded city streets and isolated mountain roads. Pryce enjoys every minute of the driving, and as willing co-passengers, we enjoy the ride, too.

Along the way, she meets a cross-section of people, from businessmen to clerks, from students to housewives. The usual topic of conversation is the Iranian Revolutionthe ouster of the Shah of Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini in the late 70s. Everyone she meets is displeased by the Khomeinis Islamic Republic, and hates the regressive laws related to clothing, womens rights, and religion. Again and again, shes told that the people dont support the government, that life under the Shah was better, and the revolution misguided.

Pryce repeatedly concludes that the people here are almost normal people and that they have the same interests, and passions as people anywhere else. Its strange how shes able to make this out purely on the basis of a single hot-button topic, to the exclusion of the myriad things that make up daily life.

The Orientalist mindset creeps through in these interactions with the natives. Iranian history, for Pryce, seems to begin only a century ago, when the British-partnered oil company was set up. People with a Western mindset seem the most normal to her. Revered Persian poetry is reduced to a fortune-telling game with a parrot. And the one man who airs a grudge against the British for the outcomes of Colonialism is portrayed as a grumpy, deluded man even though he makes a very strong case.

As a travelogue, this book is an engaging read. But as an exploration of the Real Iran, it feels way too shallow and blinkered to have real value.
By Sudipto de By

Express News Service

A gastronomic journey is a travel through a legacy of taste. The juxtaposition of culture and history creates a flavour that stays on the palate for some time to come. While heading to the islands of Indonesia in the South China Sea, eating the Nasi Goreng should be the last thing on anyones mind. Here is a journey that will take one from the volcanoes of Lake Toba to the highlands of North Sulawesi and from deep within Javanese territory to the Hindu-dominated Ubud. Although South Asian food had made quite a significant dent in the eating scene of Delhi, Indonesian food is far from recognisable for the Indian palate.

The best idea is to start off the gastronomic journey in the volcanic mountain ranges of Northern Sumatra. As one traverses over the ridge from the airport, the vast blue expanse of the Lake Toba breaks through. The sun slowly setting on the horizon streaking the sky with orange is the perfect setting for a meal at the TB Silalahi Center Museum. This modern building complex is at odds with its surroundings as it holds the remnants of one of the oldest tribes of Indonesia, the Bataks. The museum at the TB Silalahi Center is tasked with preserving the cultural aspect of the Bataks. But it also hosts a restaurant that celebrates the indigenous food.

One of the definite try-outs includes the seafood platters, which are quite famous here. It consists of giant lobsters and small fishes, the likes of which arent found anywhere else. The small fish crunches effortlessly across the palate as the taste of the giant lobsters will make anyone go into a stupor. While Northern Sumatras seafood tickles ones taste buds, Central Java almost transports one back to the medieval era. The place is replete with hues of aristocracy in the form of Keraton Kasunanan (palace of the Pakuwubono kings) and Pura Mangkunegaran (palace of the Mangkunegara kings).

Neatly tucked into a corner of Ngarsopuro night market is the Omah Sinten restaurant where a famous Javanese dish has made its name as the dish that represents Central Java. People can be seen sitting outside and gossiping over bowls of chicken. The modern restaurant is a cornucopia of activity as a group of young professionals will sit down for a meal with you. With sleeves rolled up and ties tucked away neatly, they dig into the chicken feet with alarming speed. The feet have been broiled for over six hours before being dipped into a medley of sauces. It imbibes the best flavours of Java.

Ubud will definitely catch the fancy of people who are either Hindus or are in love with their culture. One of the specialities of this island is the Crispy Duck (Bebek Goreng in local Bahasi). Cooked as a whole, the baby duck is first boiled before being deep-fried until the outer skin becomes crispy while the inside remains succulent. Very akin to the Pecking Duck found all over the world, sprinkle some sugar over the duck skin to give it a flavour of its own. The duck is accompanied with the omnipresent Sambal and some greens to cut across the oily duck.

A visit to the much-famed caves of Tana Toraja is not complete without a meal at Sallebayu restaurant. Located in the middle of paddy fields on all sides, a cool air drifts in as the Beef Rendang is served. Cooked in a mildly flavoured curry which had quite a few red chillies on top and sambal on the side, this dish is best enjoyed with steamed rice. Being an Indian, one can probably never have enough dessert and find quite a few favourites here. Deep-fried bananas, very similar to Keralas Banana chips sprinkled with a dose of sugar and cinnamon powder, is an explosion of sweetness. The unique taste of Indonesian food is what one needs to experience on a visit to the Island nation.
By Supriya Sehgal By

Express News Service

One would think that spotting a kiwi in New Zealand would not be too ridiculous to expect. To an outsider, the bird seems ubiquitous enough to encounter on a daily basison brand names, on team tees and anything that solicits a mascot and a symbol of national pride. But the absence of spotting a kiwi in the country can be an abiding presence. Several years ago, small-scale conservation spots called Kiwi Houses used to dot the region between Hamilton and Rotuora. These are now elusive. But this is where Rainbow Springs Nature Park comes to the rescue.

Established in 1975, it is one of the few Kiwi Houses in the country that rescues and rehabilitates their sparse population. With only 68,000 birds left in New Zealand, and the population depleting at a rate of up to 3 per cent each year, the Nature Park is resilient in boosting the numbers. Unfortunately, the kiwis themselves are unhelpful to the cause of saving their species. After all, they are unwittingly the worst parents in the world.

One can find this out in a fascinating hour-long tour with the in-house conservationists. The tour starts outside the Kiwi room, where the guide orients people to the current state of the kiwi population and then everyone is ushered inside the dark room to spot the birds behind a large glass enclosure. There is one strict mandate though. Visitors are allowed to speak only in hushed tones and camera flashes are prohibited inside. The Kiwis are shy and sensitive birds that flee even at the slightest disturbance. The chances of spotting them in the wild are bleak. Since the lights are dimmed to emulate nighttime they come out to look for food. If the visitors are in luck, then evening is the best time to spot them.

The path inside a dark hall is flanked by large glass enclosures. It takes a while for eyes to get accustomed to the diminished light, but the conservationist helps everyone navigate through the viewing. Visitors stay indoors for about 15 minutes, spotting all three occupants of this large room. From darkness its onto more elemental parts of the parks conservation centrea room with blasting air conditioner. This is the hatchery and the place where visitors learn all about the mal-parenting practices of the kiwis. Even though kiwis, once having found a partner, remain monogamous, they dont have much to show for parental skills. After laying an egg, the male takes the onus of incubating the egg for 60-90 days.

Kiwi chicks have another battle to win on their own. They have to peck and kick the eggshell, in order to see the light of the day. And the process can take up to a week. A time-lapse video of an egg hatching can be seen here. It is sure to leave everyone jaw-dropped and gooey hearted. Next is the Burrow Room, which promises some more action. Here, names of the hatched chicks appear on a whiteboard. This is where one can see chicks early into their development. Later, they are released in the wild. Some make it to the breeding programme and some are left free. And heartening stories of the population rise is what keeps Rainbow Springs going.
ravi shankar etteth By

As a nationalist metaphor, the cow is the soul of India. As historic fact, it plays an integral role in the Indian economy, that over time had entered religious beliefs and practices. Legends and myths are often images recovered from the long-lost mirror of time, which the legerdemain of history transforms into icons of the coming ages. The Vedic narrative believes Aryans invaded the Indus Valley to capture cattle and land. The word for war in the Rig Veda is Gavishti, meaning the search for cows.

Cattle were trophies of war and some scholars even interpret the beginning of the Mahabharata war as a conflict between two tribes to recover stolen cattle. At the time of the Aryan intrusion into India, and during its expansion, tribal societies were redrawing the map of the subcontinent. Anthropologists espostulate that there were more noble clans than actual kings.

This is illustrated best in Episode 44 of the Mahabharata. The cows of Virata kingdom are stolen by King Susarma who takes King Matsya captive. Arjuna, who along with his brothers was living in King Matsyas palace as the eunuch Brinhala, helps the kings son Uttara win the battle and saves the king. Both the King Matsya and his cows are rescued and brought back home and Yudhisthira reveals the true identities of the Pandava brothers. The importance of the cow to the kings of ancient India was undisputable. The role of cattle in itinerant tribes like the original Aryans and pastoral economies in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro was predominantly economic.

Bulls were for tilling the land and cows gave milk, butter, ghee, curd and buttermilk as food, urine in medicinal potions and dung to be used as manure. The Mahabharata also tells the legend of King Prithu who chased the Earth during a famine urging it to sustain his people. The Earth took the form of a cow and appealed to the king to spare her life and gave them milk. This transition marks the point when the cow becomes a giver of life instead of just a sustainer. Since cattle play a holistic role in agricultural societies, it entered the pantheon of religion as sacrificial animals and divine beings. In nationalist India, the cow has acquired a political identity as wellboth a uniting factor and a polarising force.

The gentlest of beasts, which has nourished mankind for countless centuries, is at the centre of a controversy over mob savagery, imperilling the very idea of the modern Indian identity. The deadliest year for cow-related violence across the country was 201711 people died in 37 incidents of lynching mostly in North India: Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The data agency India Spend counted 289 victims in 158 major assaults between 2010 and 2018. The number has come down this year; so far five people have died in nine separate instances.

The uproar over the lynchings has been so loud, reverberating across the Western and Indian media prompting the Union government to draft a law against mob lynchings. Eighty-four per cent of victims of cow vigilantism are Muslims, according to the agency. The animosity of Hindus towards Islam was born during the religious tyranny of Islamic rule when millions were forcibly converted, temples defiled and razed and religious tax enforced. It was under British rule that communal hatred became institutionalised.

The reason behind the cow becoming a contentious symbol was partly due to British ignorance about Hinduisms subtleties and partly to emphasise the division between Hindus and Muslims. For Hindus, the cows pastoral heritage deems it to be an apologue of life itself. Gopastami is observed by Hindus in many parts of India as a holiday in respect of the cow. In British India, festivals often were occasions marred by cow-related riots. The years between 1880 and 1925 were the worst. According to a historical survey of major communal riots in India between 1717 and 1977, 22 of 167 incidents were over cow slaughter.

An IFPS report showed that the first incident of cow-related violence happened in April 1881in Punjab, which less than a century later witnessed the most savagery after the 1947 Partition, when the Muslim population was forcibly expelled from East Punjab and the Hindu/Sikh population in West Punjab. Punjab has been communally volatile for centuries. In 1881, the Multan British administration specified a particular gate on the outskirts, only through which, beef could be carted into the city. Muslims rioted and were put down by a special police force. A case of cow slaughter two years later would set Punjab on fire. In 1893, a pamphlet surfaced depicting a man telling a meat eater shown as a demon holding sword, Dont kill, cow is life-source for all. Muslims interpreted the demon in the pamphlet was they.

Irony has a long memory. Mohammed Akhlaq was killed on September 28, 2015, in Dadri by a mob that suspected him of eating beef on Eid. In 1883, during Bakr-Id, a British magistrate restrained a maulana in Multan from killing a cow he had purchased from a Hindu. The cleric approached the Lahore High Court, which told him to go ahead. The judgment emboldened Muslims in Punjab and during the next Id, the number of slaughtered cows rose from 30 to 170 and reached 450 by 1886. The same year, in a manner reminiscent of Dadri, Hindus seized beef from Muslim butchers accusing them of breaking an 1849 law. In October 1886, during Muharram, beef-centric riots broke out in Delhi, Hoshiarpur,

Faridpur, Alapur, Etawa and Ambala. In 1849, the British government banned beef in Multan. But communal riots flared up in Varanasi and Patna. Was beef such a contentious issue during Mughal rule, when Islamic imperial ambitions were at its peak in Asia? Historians depend on translations of royal biographies and travelogues to understand the past. No mention of cow slaughter is found in Tuzuk-i-Baburi, Baburs biography. His son Humayuns biography, Humayun Nama, also does not contain any references.

Killing cows were banned by Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jehan until Aurangzeb is recorded by historian J Gordon Melton as ordering a cow to be slaughtered on the premises of a Jain temple. There is recorded evidence of a cow slaughter trial presided over by Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar later. For the Mughals, banning beef was a pragmatic administrative decision than a question of belief. They had no desire to provoke Hindus in occupied territory into rebellion, which would have hindered tax collection and disrupted the agricultural economy.

A grazing tax was imposed on people regardless of religion under Ala-ud-Din-Khilji (1296-1316). The Akbarian treatise on animal husbandry Ain-i-Akbari stresses the importance of taxation on cattle owned by a family though there was no tax on goshalas. The emperors grand vizier and biographer Shaikh Abu al-Fazal ibn Mubarak notes that the Emperor used to pay personal attention to the improvement of cattle. Besides, the Mughals were signing treaties with Hindu states, which saw the advantage of diplomacy over war. Since the holy cow is central to the Hindu way of life, successive Islamic rulers felt it was wise to keep intact the status quo in bovine matters. Religious despots Hyder Ali and son Tipu Sultan who converted millions of Hindus by the sword decreed that anyone found killing cows would lose their hands.

The patient inclusivity of Hinduism is responsible for the transmutation of Islamic influences over a period of time. A 19th-century illustration at the Philadelphia Museum by an unnamed artist from Jodhpur, Rajasthan shows Kamadhenu as a white zebu cow with a crowned, frontal female face, colourful eagle wings and the peacock tail of Buraq, the animal which the prophet Muhammad rode to heaven on his night journey (Miraj). Zebu cows were popular in the Indus Valley. From the 15th century on, Persian artists gave Buraq an equine body, wings and a womans face. A similar sculpture of Kamadhenu in the Batu Caves, Malaysia, indicates the geographic spread of this synthesis.

The Mughal policy of utilitarian tolerance changed with the advent of the East India Company in Mughal India. The difference between the two regimes lay in their economic outlooks. While the Islamic conquerors put down roots in lands they conquered, developed them for taxation and integrated their culture, forming an indigenously grafted society, the purpose of colonial invasions was to find and export raw materials in conquered territories to industries back home.

Notes Karl Marx in Das Kapital, The twin processes arose in the 19th century with the destruction of important Indian hand industries, chiefly textiles, and the conversion of Indian agrarian economy into a source of raw material for the workshop of England. Since the Vedic civilisation, the Indian economy has been agrarian, with the cow playing a vital role. The intensity of Hindu-Muslim animosity in Ayodhya probably has its origins in British India. In 1912, cow-related violence in Faizabad and Ayodhya continued for three years until an emergency order was passed in 1915 forbidding cow slaughter in Ayodhya during Id. In the rest of the country, it was a different story. Native anger against the British in many Indian princely states succeeded in uniting Hindu and Muslim nationaliststhe 1857 Mutiny being the most historic. The unification theory ran in concurrent streams.

Hinduism had been under siege for centuries: first by the Mussalman kings and later the British. In uniting Hinduism, the cow was the glue. In a letter dated December 8, 1893, to Lord Lansdowne, the Viceroy of India, Queen Victoria wrote, Though the Muhammadans cow-killing is made the pretext for the agitation, it is in fact directed against us, who kill far more cows for our army, etc than the Muhammadans. The British Empire was at its zenith. Its armies needed a constant supply of meat, and beef was the most in demand. Swami Dayanand Saraswati who was at the forefront of the anti-cow slaughter movement wrote a seminal draft, Goukarunanidhih (Ocean of Mercy for the Cow), to inspire Hindus.

The British Origin of Cow-Slaughter in India by Gandhian expert Dharampal and T M Mukundan published in 2002 and commissioned by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lays the blame over communalising the cow squarely at the door of the colonisers. Using documents at India House in London, it concluded that the slaughterhouses that mushroomed in India after the 1857 Mutiny, when troops were sent from the United Kingdom to consolidate British hold, were responsible.

To prevent a second Hindu-Muslim military confederacy, the Divide and Rule policy came into existence. Licences were issued to mutton shops to be turned into Qasais where cattle could be butchered to meet the growing demands of English soldiers for beef.

However, reverence for the cow in India predates Islam by hundreds of centuries. The Indus Valley Civilisation, a contemporary of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, had over 1,052 cities and settlements; the largest being Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Irrigated by the Indus River system, it was a rich agricultural and thickly forested ecosystem. In the northwestern region of the subcontinent, excavations show evidence of domesticated animals.

By 2600 BCE, the Indus civilisation became urbanised. Cows were vital to nomadic people, both for food and trade. Botanist and historian M S Randhawa notes that artefacts found in Western Rajasthan dating between 2450 and 2300 BC proves animal husbandry was a well-developed science. Later records of the Mauryan and post-Mauryan period (324 BC-320 AD) tell the same story. After capturing cattle from the Asvayanas and Asvakayanas, Alexander had ordered the bullocks to be used for draft purposes and the cows for milk to be used in feeding his troops, making butter, ghee, cheese and as offerings to the gods. Scholar of the Maurya period N N Kher noted that cow milk was used to treat eye diseases of elephants while cattle dung, bones and raw beef were used as manure. Royal officials were posted to keep cattle healthy. The Arthashastra mentions penalties for ignoring cow welfare; any cow owner who delayed milking his animals forfeited his profit from the sale of milk. Vrajabhumis, colonies populated by lower castes and tribals which ringed towns and villages, kept vast herds of cattle in sheds (pasusthana and vraja).

The sophistication of cattle maintenance of the period is evident in the comparison with 16th century Europe where cows were scarce since methods to maintain cattle in the freezing winters had not been invented. Millennia later, colonial intervention in traditional rural Indian economy would devastate Indias agricultural backbone. Randhawa cites the forcible increase in cotton export to the textile mills of Manchester, which resulted in the shrinking of food crops at the cost of growth in cash cropsan example of what economic historian A Gunder Frank calls the development of underdevelopment. A consequence of such British policies was the shrinkage of pasture, resulting in fodder famine. As the Independence movement gained traction, the cow as a symbol of the Indian gestalt was reactivated with a vengeance by Gandhi. At a public meeting in Muzaffarpur, he declared: If we cannot stop cow slaughter by the British, we have no right to raise our hands against Muslims.

The resurgence of the holy cow in the politics of rebellion obscured prevailing inconsistencies in Hindu texts. The paper titled Hinduism and War by American theologian and Indologist Robert R Hume has references to Rig Veda hymns describing Aryans marching into battle, invoking Vedic gods such as Indra. Many of these expeditions were to grab cattle from indigenous dwellers. A Sanskrit word for warrior is gosu-yudh, the fighter for cattle.

Writes Hume: It is noteworthy that in the Rig Veda the work of cattle-raiding is expressly likened to the doings of certain of the deities. The reason for variations in the cows significance in holy texts could be that most of them were written over years; some even over centuries. They reflect the practices and prejudices of each period and often have dissonances that have kept obscurantists in business. Some commentators on the Vedic period quote the Rig Veda to question the authenticity of the Indian Rights anti-beef movement by proclaiming that ancient Indians ate the flesh of cows. The 900 BC Brahmana ritualistic documents allow the slaughter of a bull or a cow to honour an esteemed guest. An unverified story of the ancient Hindu sage Yajnavalkya saying the meat of the cow can be eaten, as long as its tender is widely quoted as proof. However, the Shatapatha Brahmana forbids the eating of either cow or bull; a clear contradiction to the belief that cows were widely butchered and cooked. Much of religion relies on interpretation. The saying the cow is food in Vedic texts could be a metaphor for the milk, ghee, butter and cheese that are products of the sacred animal and its dung that is used as fertiliser for crops. In Vedic rituals, Aditi is symbolised by a cow and cow products are sacrificial foods.



The Vedas attribute Creation itself to Aditi. The cow is the Mother of Creation in the Vedic narrative; the cosmic waters which were released by Indra from confinement in a cave are described as coming forth like lowing pregnant cows who then give birth to the Sun. The Vedas extol the cow Aditi, meaning boundlessness, freedom, expansionboth in the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda, Aditi is called prithvi (the wide one: the earth). The Rig Veda describes the earth as feminine; she is Prithvi. In the Atharva Veda, hymn to goddess Earth, Aditi is a plentiful source of milk to worshippers. One of the Naighantukas, compilations of rare Sanskrit words used by sages to understand esoteric texts, equates the cow (gau) with earth, heaven and speech (vach).

Over time, the ancient feminine symbol as a divine gender prototype went on to become the universal Hindu allegory of a holy entity by itself, nourishing the Universe as well as sustaining it. Says the Rig Veda, Any female at all, whether a deity like Usas, or a cosmic element like the Waters (apas), or a human queen, or just a beautiful young woman seems flattered if she is called a cow or compared to a cow or is characterised as a mother of cows. The gods belong to gojata. The cow is described 16 times in the Rig Veda as aghnya (not to be slain). The cows five productsmilk, butter ghee, urine and dungare used in sacrifices and other rituals even now.



As Aryan society formed into kingdoms and fiefdoms, the caste system came into being as a social code. The cow came to be associated with the Brahmins, and was paid as fee after a yagna. Its linkages to Brahminism and vegetarianism is closely associated with the rise of Buddhism and Jainism in the economically flourishing Mauryan period. The cow became a symbol of wealth and prosperity, prized by the priestly class. As in all religions like the Greeks, Egyptians and Romans, the priestly class was the exclusive channels to god. In ancient India likewise, it was the Brahmin who was the powerful arbiter of affairs between the king and divinity; the solely authorised agents to conduct sacrifices. Hence, the economic factor and the religious aspect of the cow became one; it was considered a sin to kill a cow belonging to a Brahmin. Hume notes that the caste system in its present form did not exist among the ancestors of the modern Hindus.

The society of the Indo-Aryans and their brethren the Iranians had a triple vertical level comprising priests, warriors and commoners; and not necessarily hereditary. After the Aryans settled down into permanently agricultural communities after enslaving the racially different former inhabitants, the caste structure was formalised in Hindu society, as noted partially in the Rig Veda. The fourth caste was the conquered indigenes, who were the lowest rung of the Hindu empire. Hume observes the three upper castes were distinctly Aryan. The conquered aborigines, described as inferior (adhara), flat-nosed (an-as), and the black skin (krsna tvac), however, were left to follow their practices; which suggests political pragmatism of a new ruling order of not interfering with the conquered race to avoid conflict since the Aryan civilisation needed time to grow stronger. The aborigines could eat beef unhindered.

Sociologist M N Srinivas believes the economic structure of the caste system evolved through Sanskritisation by which lower castes could move up the social ladder. The price for their promotion was abandoning their practice of eating beef. The high numbers of vegetarians in Hindus of that period, especially among the upper castes, could be attributed to two factors: differentiation from lower castes and to meet the challenge of Buddhism and Jainism. Ahimsa was the abiding philosophy of both the new faiths, which disapproved of the killing and eating of living beings. The lower castes, attracted to the new prophets, formed a challenge to the established order in spite of their food preferences. Slaughtering is taboo in Buddhism and protecting cattle brings good karma. A new translation of the Buddhist text Sutta Nipata from Pali by Saddhatissa quotes the Buddha describing the ideal mode of life of Brahmins in the Golden Age.

The truth of cattle being killed behind the spate of cow-related violence today is not all about religion. In Haryana and Rajasthan, local toughs supported by politicians and the police are running extortion rackets in the name of gau raksha from cattle transporters. In a gaushala in Dwarka, Delhi, 48 cows died mysteriously. Cow shelters, operated by fly-by-night trusts, dubious swamis and politicians are ploys to get cheap land and funds from the government.

The Upanishads say that you are what you eat, but when faith and politics clash, the result is a mixed model. Pork is banned in Muslim countries like the UAE but is sold in malls. In spite of the lament that cow vigilantes are destroying the Indian meat and leather industry, beef exports have gone up by 16 per cent since the BJP came to power in 2014. The Indian beef industry sends out mostly buffalo meat; last year, Indian beef exports to 65 countries amounted to $4.3 billion and expected to grow by $200 million in 2018.

As much as 1.53 million tonnes of beef come from Indias 115 million buffaloes. The vast majority of people working in slaughterhouses being Muslims, the crackdown on the illegal abattoirs has become political manure for the BJPs opponents. However, the production and export figures do not match, say industry experts, who fear that illegal cow meat is entering the stream regularly. India has 76 million cows, producing 140 million tonnes of milk a year making us the worlds largest milk producing country.

After the crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses two years ago, the Indian leather industry posted a decline. But in 2017, exports grew by 1.48 per cent at $4,388 million between April and December 2017 as against $4,324 million for the same period in 2016. The Centre will spend Rs 2,600 crore to create about 3 lakh jobs in the industry. Four mega clusters with tanneries, leather goods and footwear manufacturing units and training centres are being set up in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

The economics of beef has inevitably taken precedence over the politics of beef. Religion and its elder sibling, history, is a leitmotif of avatars. The world is today engaged in a war of not only civilisations but the essential tenets of divine race. Christianity, though the worlds largest religion at 34.1 per cent of the population, is slowing down. Islam is rising faster and 29.7 per cent of the worlds population will be Muslim by 2050; 2.8 billion Muslims compared to 2.9 billion Christians. Hinduism, the worlds third largest faith, continues to be self-sustaining and eternal in spite of the invasions of India and its cultures by outsiders and subsequent conversions and genocides.

At the core of its belief system is Kamadhenu, beloved of sage Jamadagni. From fable rose the mother-goddess cult of ancient Hinduism. The Mahabharata describes her story as a battle between good and evil: the thousand-armed Heheya king Kartavirya Arjuna took away Kamadhenu after destroying Jamadagnis ashram, only to be slain and the cow returned to the sage by his son Parashurama. Blood is being spilt in its name once again, and ancient enmities are stoked to inflame the land. However, the heritage of ancient India has never reasserted itself as much as today to rescue the sacred, gentle and benevolent animal from the warped violence in God's name and its own.

ROBERT CLIVE BUTCHERS GAMBIT

The foundation of the British Empire in India was laid by Robert Clive, its first Commander-in-Chief. Bengal was a coveted prize, being Indias thriving industrial region. In 1750, India accounted for 25 per cent of global economic production compared to Englands 1.9 per cent. The fertile Ganges River Basin made Bengal an agricultural powerhouse. After defeating Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah at the Battle of Plassey, Clive consolidated British rule in India. His strategy was to divide and rule, pitting Muslims against Hindus. In 1760, Clive opened the first slaughterhouse in India, with a daily capacity to kill 30,000 cows. The butchers were Muslims, for whom beef became financial sustenance. By the end of the century, the cattle population had declined dramatically and India faced a fodder and fertiliser crisis and had to depend on industrial manure from Britain. Indias domestic economy was broken and communal discord was sown.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The CPI (M) today demanded enactment of a comprehensive law to tackle crimes like mob lynching in the current session of Parliament to meet the apex court directions.

After the two-day meeting of the politburo which concluded today, the Left party said that the government and the law enforcement agencies "cannot turn a blind eye to such crimes".

"The politburo reiterates its demand for the enactment of a comprehensive law in the current session of Parliament to meet the apex court directions," CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters.

"Many BJP leaders have come out openly in support of such criminals and the very fact that the culprits, even when identified, go unpunished speaks volumes of how they are patronized by RSS and BJP," he alleged.

Yechury asserted that the law by itself is never enough until it is implemented.

In the backdrop of Imran Khan, who is likely to be soon sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan, expressing his desire of holding talks with India, the party demanded that the Centre respond to the offer.

The politburo also took stock of the situation consequent to the publication of the draft NRC rolls in Assam and condemned the statements made by BJP President Amit Shah.

It alleged that Shah made misleading statement with regard to the exclusion of 40 lakh people declaring them as "illegal migrants".

Such irresponsible statements only add to the fear and anxiety of an already harassed people, the party said.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: After months of impasse, President Ram Nath Kovind signed the warrant of Justice KM Josephs appointment to the apex court on late Friday night along with Justices Indira Banerjees and Vineet Sarans, who were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium only last month.

Justice KM Joseph

All three judges will be sworn in by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday. Under the provisions of Article 124 of the Constitution, the President issued the warrant of appointments for the three judges.

Though Justice Josephs name was sent first on January 10 along with that of senior counsel Indu Malhotra, who is now a Supreme Court judge, and his name reiterated on July 16, he will be at bottom in the list of seniority. On the bright side, Justice Joseph will serve for more than four years in the apex court.

The government had returned Justice Josephs file, citing his lack of seniority and inadequate regional representation of some states in the apex court. But, the rules state that if the Collegium recommends a name for the second time, the Centre has no choice but to accept it.

ALSO READ | Legal fraternity hails Josephs elevation

The Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justices elevation to the Supreme Court ends a protracted stand-off between the government and the judiciary.

A section of the legal fraternity as well as the Opposition parties had criticised the NDA government for segregation of the Collegiums proposal. The Congress had accused the government of not clearing Justice Josephs name due to his ruling in 2016 that cancelled Presidents Rule in Uttarakhand and brought back to power the Grand Old Party.

With the Centre clearing the appointment of three judges, the present strength of apex court judges comes to 25 but there is still six vacancies.Justice Indira Banerjee will become the eighth woman judge to enter the apex court. For the first time in its 68 years of existence, the Supreme Court will have three woman judges Justices Indira Banerjee, R Bhanumathi and Indu Malhotra simultaneously.

Will serve for more than four years

Though Justice Josephs name was sent first on January 10 along with that of senior counsel Indu Malhotra, who is now a Supreme Court judge, and his name reiterated on July 16, he will be at bottom in the list of seniority. On the bright side, Justice Joseph will serve for more than four years in the SC.
Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: Even as the Bihar government on Sunday placed under suspension 13 officials of the social welfare department for irregularities noticed at several shelter homes, a rift surfaced in the ruling NDA after a top BJP leader sought the resignation of social welfare minister Manju Verma.

Senior BJP leader and former Union health minister CP Thakur said Verma, who belongs to Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JD(U), should resign from the cabinet owning moral responsibility for the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

She (Verma) should own moral responsibility and resign because calls for her removal are growing She should think of the lapses that were overlooked by her department. The matter should not go out of hand in such a way that it is discussed at international levels, said Thakur.

Also Read: Minister Manju Verma defends husband, says she will hang him at public square if he is found guilty

JD(U) leaders, however, continued defending Verma and ruling out her resignation or removal from the cabinet. The minister faces allegations of gross negligence in ensuring proper functioning of the shelter homes. Besides, her husband, a former MLC, has been accused of entering the Muzaffarpur shelter home for minor girls without anyone accompanying him. As many as 34 girls were allegedly raped and tortured for years. Eleven people have been arrested in the case so far.

There is no need for the minister to resign because she faces no charges in the entire episode. Neither her husband nor anyone else should be arrested on the basis of a mere allegation without any basis, said JD(U) national general secretary KC Tyagi. He also attacked Opposition leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, for attending the RJD-organised protest in New Delhi on Saturday on the issue.

Bihar rural development minister Shravan Kumar and minority welfare minister Khurshid Alam also strongly defended Verma, saying there was absolutely no need for her resignation from the cabinet.

An embattled CM Nitish Kumar said the Opposition leaders were busy dragging one negative issue and overlooking all the positive developments Bihar has seen under his rule. No one who commits a crime will be spared. They will go to jail. Even those who try to protect the guilty will be sent to jail. I have never adopted laxity in matters of crime, said Kumar at a public programme.

Assistant directors of the social welfare department in six districts and child protection officers (CPO) of seven districts were placed under suspension for delay in taking action after massive irregularities at shelter homes were reported in an audit report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

The suspended officials include Devesh Kumar Sharma, the assistant director of the social welfare department in Muzaffarpur who had lodged the FIR after the sexual abuse of minor girls came to light. Sharma had also lodged a second FIR in the matter of 11 women inmates missing from another shelter home in Muzaffarpur run by the NGO of Brajesh Thakur, who was arrested on June 2.
By ANI

PATNA: One among the 14 girls, who were rescued from a shelter home in Muzaffarpur and shifted to a NGO in Madhubani has gone missing.

Pragya Bharti, who runs the NGO in Madhubani attributed the loss to security lapse.

She told ANI, "In our NGO, we have 10 beds in the special unit. We earlier had 11 children. When those 14 children came, the authorities told me that they would be shifted later and demanded me to keep them. I didn't have the capacity to accommodate 20-25 children, but due to pressure from the government, I kept the children. The children were not shifted after that. I did my best to protect them."

"The condition of those 14 girls were not good. So, we wrote a letter to the district administration demanding security. There were four people who were overseeing the security. We had adequate security but somehow a girl went missing due to security lapse or conspiracy. This case is being given a political colour. This should not be made into a political issue at all," she added.

Also Read: BJP leader CP Thakur seeks minister Manju Verma's resignation, but JD(U) disagrees

Bharti further said that she immediately registered the complaint with the police and also submitted copies of the CCTV footage for further investigation.

Asked whether the police or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) approached her in connection to the case, Bharti replied that there was no questioning done.

Furthermore, she rejected rumours of her organisation doing malicious activities.

Asked on the condition of the 14 girls, Bharti further said, "I spoke to them. They were physically weak. After conducting counselling sessions, they started talking. There are some girls who are recovering right now."

Meanwhile, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday suspended seven Social welfare department officials for not taking timely cognizance of the social audit report by a leading research university situated in Mumbai, which unravelled the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

Notably, it was this organisation's report which revealed that as many as 40 girls have fallen prey to sexual abuse at a Muzaffarpur shelter home.

For those unversed, on July 24, 11 employees of the shelter home in Muzaffarpur were arrested for allegedly sexually harassing the girls.

On receiving information, the police raided the vicinity and rescued 44 girls. The shelter home was run by Brajesh Thakur.
Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma, whose husband is accused of often entering the Muzaffarpur shelter home for minor girls without anyone accompanying him, on Saturday strongly defended him and said she would hang him at a public square if he is found guilty in the sex scandal.

Some people are busy levelling baseless charges against me and my husband with ulterior, political motives. My husband has absolutely no role in what has happened If he is found guilty, I will have no qualms in hanging him at a public square, said the minister at a programme in Begusarai.

Shiva Kumari, wife of the arrested Muzaffarpur district child protection officer Ravi Kumar Raushan, had alleged that Vermas husband, Chandeshwar Verma, a former MLC, had often been entering into the rooms of the minor girls at the shelter home without anyone accompanying him. Kumari had alleged that Raushan was framed in the case by officials of the social welfare department for not toeing their line after the shelter home sex scandal surfaced.

Ever since Chandeshwar Vermas name surfaced in the case, the Opposition parties have been demanding Manju Vermas removal from the state cabinet and the arrest of her husband. The minister has, however, claimed her husbands innocence and insisted that she, as the minister, had approved the social audit of Bihars shelter homes by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which first brought out the sexual and physical violence endured by the inmates.

The ministers security personnel had manhandled journalists in Patna on Friday when they approached her for comments on the charges levelled against her husband. After emerging from a public programme, she refused to take any questions from the journalists and got into her car.

Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi has defended Manju Verma, saying there is neither any evidence of her involvement in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal nor had she protected any of the people accused of wrongdoing.

As many as ten people, including the head of the NGO running the shelter home, Brajesh Thakur, were arrested in the case in June while one accused is on the run. Buckling under pressure from the Opposition, CM Nitish Kumar ordered a CBI probe on July 26.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Reiterating that the BJP would walk away with a better tally in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls than 2014 in Uttar Pradesh, party chief Amit Shah on Sunday challenged the united opposition saying that the saffron party would increase its seats from UP despite the SP-BSP-Congress alliance.

He made it clear that UP was top priority for the BJP as the route to Delhi's throne would pass through country's most populous and politically crucial state.

"The BJP will win no less than 74 seats in UP even if Bua-Bhatija-Baba (BSP-SP-Congress) join hands. It will not make any difference to BJP, which will emerge stronger than ever after Lok Sabha polls," claimed Shah while addressing a gathering after renaming of Mughal Sarai railway station as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway station in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Railway minister Piyush Goel.

Shah attacked the opposition for maintaining silence over the issue of National Register of Citizen and said the BJP was committed to throwing out illegal immigrants from the country.

Asking the opposition leaders to clear their stand on the NRC, Shah said he had been trying to get a response from Rahul Gandhi for the past four days on the Congress stand on the issue.

"Mamata Banerjee and Congress say that NRC should not be done. I ask Rahul baba whether NRC should be conducted in the country or not. But, he does not answer. You all should say whether Bangladeshi infiltrators should be pushed out or not. "Today I would like to ask the SP, the BSP and the Congress whether they want the infiltrators to stay in the country or they should be driven out. I know the answer of the people of UP. The answer is that not even a single infiltrator should be allowed to stay in India," he said.

He also exhorted the Congress to clear its stand on the 123rd Constitutional Amendment Bill 2018 to be passed by the Rajya Sabha, where the NDA lacks the numbers.

Meant to provide strength to BJP's Dalit and backward outreach ahead of 2019, the Bill that was passed by the Lok Sabha provides constitutional status to the commission for Other Backward Classes.
By PTI

A 28-year-old Gujjar man was killed and another injured when the Army allegedly fired at them in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district on Sunday.

The police have registered an FIR against jawans of the 58 Rashtriya Rifles. Jammu-based defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Devender Anand said the Army personnel had retaliated after they came under fire.

SSP, Ramban, Mohan Lal told TNIE that locals informed that at around 3.45 am, jawans fired at the duo who were out to search cattle feed at Kohli village in Gool tehsil.

While Mohammad Rafiq Gujjar died on the spot, his accomplice Shakeel Ahmad, 30, who sustained multiple bullet injuries, was rushed to a hospital.

Soon, protests broke out forcing senior police and civil officials to reach the spot and assure the locals of a probe. Later, the locals held funeral prayers and buried the body of Rafiq.

Ahmad claimed the Army men opened fire while he and Rafiq were searching for cattle feed.

Lt. Col. Anand said the jawans were out at Kohli area in the early hours for an operation after they received specific intelligence inputs. "At 3:45 am, an Army patrol noticed some suspicious activity and our men challenged the suspected individuals. However, they opened fire following which the patrol team retaliated. Details are being ascertained."

But, Lal said the Army's claim of firing on its men was a matter of investigation. "An FIR was registered against the Army unit for murder and attempt to murder," the Ramaban SSP said.

Condemning the Ramban episode, the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation demanded a judicial inquiry. The foundation wrote to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging her to take action against the jawans. It also demanded compensation for the families of the deceased and the injured men.
Amit Agnihotri By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In a clear shift of stand over the National Register of Citizenship issue, the Congress on Saturday said it supports the NRC process as it flowed from the 1985 Assam accord signed by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi but cautioned the government over the multiple anomalies in the final draft NRC list.

The change in partys position came after feedback from the Assam unit that opposing the NRC too much could be counter-productive as status of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was a huge emotional issue in the north-eastern state.

ALSO READ | Congress accuses TMC chief Mamata Banerjee of double standards on Assam NRC issue

Concerned over the lack of uniform view over the NRC within the party and fearing that the BJP was out to derive political mileage, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi chaired a meeting of the Congress Working Committee to debate the issue threadbare.

After the CWC meeting, the party harped on the fact that the process was started by Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in 2005.

Assam leaders told the CWC that those excluded include people from indigenous tribes, religious minorities, Bengali Hindus, Bodo and Gorkha communities who had settled in Assam. The CWC urged all party leaders to fight the BJP propaganda over the issue.

ALSO READ | Narendra Modi government will implement NRC: Amit Shah

Several Congress leaders had attacked the NRC when the complete draft list was published on Monday.

Genuine Indians should not be sent out of the country. The NRC should not be politicised and used as a vote bank. It is a human rights issue, not a Hindu-Muslim issue, Ghulam Nabi Azad had said in the Rajya Sabha.

Mallikarjun Kharge, his colleague in the Lok Sabha, said that it was a question of 40 lakh people.

On Saturday, Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala said the BJP was using the NRC as a tool to divide the society along communal lines to distract the people from its colossal failure of governance.

ALSO READ | Congress gears up to play sacrifice card to counter BJP attempts to polarise voters over communal, citizenship issues

The party believes that every Indian citizen excluded from the list should get an opportunity to prove his/her citizenship and Congress will help them to do so, said Surjewala.
By PTI

KOLHAPUR: It is time for Congress workers to take to streets and not to attend camps, as 2019 general elections are drawing close, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said here today.

Chavan's comments came days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting was held in Delhi.

"Parliamentary elections are not far.

The Congress workers should take to the streets now instead of attending camps," the former Union minister told reporters.

Chavan accused Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of "cheating" the Maratha and the Dhangar communities by promising them reservation.

The Maratha community is agitating for 16 per cent quota in education and government jobs, while the Dhangar community members are demanding ST (Scheduled Tribe) status.

ALSO READ: Maratha quota stir: CM Devendra Fadnavis agrees for partial withdraw of cases against agitators

Chavan said the discussion to replace Fadnavis as the CM started in the BJP of late because the party leaders have realised that he is a "failure" on various fronts.

Chavan said he had forwarded to the then Central government a proposal demanding a ban on Hindutva groups like Sanatan Sanstha for their alleged role in the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.

"I had forwarded a proposal for banning these organisations to the then (UPA) government at the Centre.

However, the proposal was set aside by the NDA government after it came to power (in 2014)," he said.

Referring to the recent controversy over Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Chavan said the government should ask Google to pay fine.

ALSO READ: Was UIDAI helpline number 'inadvertently' coded in 2014 or 2015? Google to answer

"I am not ready to believe that it was a mistake committed by Google.

Why did the UIDAI chief meet Google officials? If this episode (pre-storage of Aadhaar helpline number) was the result of a Google mistake, then the government should ask them to pay fine," he demanded.
By Express News Service

LUCKNOW: In a twist to the bungalow row, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav announced a cash award of Rs 11 lakh on Sunday to anyone who could give information about the culprits who damaged the plush property at 4, Vikramaditya Marg.

Akhilesh has been accused by the Uttar Pradesh government of damaging the property after he was asked to vacate it. The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government had warned that action would be taken against Akhilesh as he had damaged the bungalow while vacating in June.

ALSO READ: Action will be taken against Akhilesh Yadav over damage to official bungalow: Uttar Pradesh government

The amount of Rs 11 lakh will be raised through contributions of Rs 2,000 each from the Samajwadi Party members, Akhilesh said at a programme to mark the birth anniversary of socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra.I would tell my friends from media that on the fateful night, some people from news channels had gone there. You tell us the names of those who damaged the building, we will pool in and give a cash reward of Rs 11 lakh, he said.

Akhilesh had vacated the bungalow following a Supreme Court order. The apex court had observed that former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office.
By PTI

BHOPAL: The Centre should have consulted all parties to work out a "unanimous mechanism" before going ahead with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav has said.

Taking a dig at the Modi government, the former Union minister said it has been unable to ensure the safety of women and girls in the country but talks of cow protection.

The NRC, a list of Assam citizens, was published on July 30 with the names of over 40 lakh residents of the state not being included in it.

"The government should have called an all-party meeting to find out an amicable solution to the problem in Assam. But if you do it just like that, you won't be able to do it by just declaring a cut-off date. You will get tired," Yadav told PTI in an interview.

The former Janata Dal (United) chief said he agrees that the issue of Assam has "reflections on democracy", but asserted they should have found a "justifiable solution of the problem and a unanimous mechanism" for it.

Criticised the BJP, Yadav said, "This party is not giving ticket to any Muslim. Therefore, we are not ready to believe that it will do justice with them."

"People have come here from Tibet. Bangladeshis had come and gone to Bangladesh. When Pakistan was created, a large number of people went there and were called 'Mohajirs', and Sikhs too had come here from there," he said.

This movement of population took place maximum in India, he claimed.

"No proper debates are taking place in Parliament. Many agitations are going on in the country. If you find on which date a person had come to this country, then it (country) will get destroyed," he said.

On the bill tabled in Parliament to overturn the Supreme Court verdict putting safeguards on arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Yadav claimed the government has done so "under pressure" in view of the bandh call given by all opposition parties.

"Dalits came to my place and strategies for both (bandh) 2nd (April 2) and on ninth (August 9) were formulated. Everyone, including Ambedkarites and others like Sharad Pawar, and other parties supported it," he added.

The bill was brought under pressure, otherwise the government could have fallen on the issue, he said.

"The government should have brought it at the time when the Supreme Court had given that judgement of diluting the SC/ST Act," he said.

The Supreme Court had in an order on March 20 diluted certain provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

It had laid down new guidelines for police officers on how to ensure that innocent people, especially public officials, are protected from false complaints under the Act.

Dalit groups had organised protests across the country on April 2 against the "dilution" of the Act.

Asked if he would support the candidature of Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the prime minister's post in the next elections, Yadav said the party had itself clarified its position on the issue.

Therefore, there is no need for him to make a statement on it.

The Congress said its first objective is to stop the BJP from coming to power in 2019, he noted, adding that saving the Constitution and democracy is a major issue.

"The time is to save the democracy, like in 1977. That was a declared Emergency but this time it is undeclared, in which one cannot predict where things will go wrong," he said.

Further criticising the central government, Yadav alleged that it is unable to protect women and girls and "talks about cow first".

"They have become a champion of cows," he quipped.
By ANI

UDHAMPUR: Unidentified men opened fire at Gangera Hills area in Udhampur on late Saturday night.

Additional SP Udhampur Tabussum Parveen said, "According to locals, a car with about four people on board reached the area, fired three rounds and fled. This seems to be a case of local crime and not militancy."

The police also recovered empty shells of bullet from the spot, and said, "It is too early to comment on this but we will investigate the matter and arrest the culprits soon."

No casualties have been reported yet.

Further details are awaited.
By PTI

THANE: A 21-year-old man allegedly hacked his elder brother to death over a monetary dispute here, police said today.

The accused, Simon Patrao, was apparently angry with his elder brother Wilfred Patrao (36) for having withdrawn Rs 20,000 from the former's bank account without his knowledge, said Assistant Superintendent of Police Atul Kulkarni.

He killed the victim, who worked as a security guard, at their home in Bhayander township yesterday, by allegedly attacking him with a sharp weapon, the official said.

The accused, presently jobless, then called up his another brother staying in Dubai to inform about the incident.

After that, he walked into the Navghar police station in Bhayander and confessed to the crime, Kulkarni said.

Based on his information, the police recovered the body, with the head and limbs severed and found packed in plastic bags, from their house, he said.

Some of the body parts were also found stuffed in a plastic bag dumped in the bathroom, the official said.

The accused was subsequently arrested and booked under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), he said, adding that further investigation was on.
By PTI

CHANDAULI/LUCKNOW: Mughalsarai Junction will be formally renamed after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay when BJP president Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath arrive at the iconic railway station later today.

The three leaders will flag off a passenger train and a goods train with an all-woman crew, and also launch a 'smart yard' project at the century-old station on the busy Delhi-Howrah route.

The building is being touched up with saffron paint at places and signboards with the new name being put up.

Upadhyay was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the Mughalsarai station in February 1968.

Mughalsarai is also the birth place of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The leaders will launch a project to upgrade the yard at the station, officials said.

Ekatmata Express, now set to follow a new route from Lucknow to Mughalsarai, will get the green signal.

Railway officials said it will be the first time in the country that an all-woman crew runs a goods train.

Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior BJP leaders will also be present.

On paper, Mughalsarai station got a new name after Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik gave his assent to the proposal in June.

The Centre gave its in-principle approval last year to the state government's proposal to rename the station, which is among the busiest in the country.

The move drew flak from the opposition which accused the ruling party of attempting to tamper with history.

UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey today said the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre had imbibed Deen Dayal Upadhyay's philosophy of 'antyodaya', or caring for the last person in society.
By IANS

PATNA: The Bihar government has suspended six officials of a state child protection unit in the wake of the Opposition's demand to take stringent actions against the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district, authorities said on Sunday.

The state's Social Welfare Department suspended the six Assistant Directors of the unit on grounds that they did not act despite being informed over the ill treatment meted out to children at shelter homes.

The officers were from Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Bhojpur districts.

The CBI is currently investigating case.

The horror came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday alleged that BJP President Amit Shah lied on the deportation of foreigners and demanded his apology, claiming that the UPA government had deported 82,728 Bangladeshi foreigners during 2005-2013, while the count was only 1,822 in the last four years of the Narendra Modi government and also noted that NRC was a Congress' baby.

On deportation, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala recalled three replies given by the Home Ministry in Rajya Sabha on three different occasions in 2008, 2016 and 2018.

These replies state that 88,792 Bangladeshi nationals were deported between 2005 and 2013 (during UPA rule). The replies also said that from 2014 to 2017, 1,822 Bangladeshi nationals were deported during the NDA rule.

READ | Congress to launch mass movements over corruption under Modi government

The first reply was in October 2008 by then Minister of State for Home Affairs V. Radhika Selvi (from DMK, UPA-I). She had said the number of deported Bangladeshis in 2005 was 14,916. In 2006, it was 13,692 and in 2007, the number was 12,135.

The second reply was given by Minister of State Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on March 9, 2016 in the Rajya Sabha (from 2008 to 2014) and the third reply was given again by Rijiju on March 14, 2018 for the period 2013 to 2017.

Surjewala also accused Amit Shah and Modi government of duplicity, deception and double-speak and said that "NRC is the baby of the Congress party".

"Amit Shah should now apologise to the nation for manufacturing lies and misleading the country purely for political vote garnering in a sinister fashion," said Surjewala.

Daring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, Surjewala said: "On one side, they are shedding crocodile tears on NRC and claiming deportation of foreigners, and on the other, Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC."

"Instead of fooling the people, Modi, Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal must answer whether they support the NRC process or whether they support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 as both are directly in conflict with each other.

"NRC process will fail once citizenship is given to everyone as per the Citizenship Amendment Bill," he added.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Bracing up to unveil the mega health insurance plan ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reviewed the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

Top officials of NITI Aayog briefed the Prime Minister on the progress made so far in preparations to launch the scheme, which aims to cover 10 crore families with Rs 5 lakh health insurance.

ALSO READ | NITI Aayog seeks World Bank's help to prevent fraud in Ayushman Bharat health scheme

The Prime Minister has entrusted the NITI Aayog with the task of rolling out the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The government aims to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families under the scheme, in which the beneficiaries can avail of cashless benefits in the event of hospitalisation.

Top officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, NITI Aayog and PMO briefed the Prime Minister on various aspects, including the preparations in states. They also briefed the Prime Minister on putting in place the technological infrastructure to ensure a hiccup-free launch of the scheme, said a senior official of NITI Aayog.

The NITI Aayog is apparently bracing up to finalise the blueprint of the ambitious scheme for the Prime Minister to unveil it on August 15.
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (L)

meets with Indian Minister of State for External Affairs V.K Singh (Source: VNA)

At the meeting with Indian Minister of State for External Affairs V.K Singh, the two officials highly evaluated the close Vietnam-India traditional friendship as well as the new development in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries in the recent time, especially the regular exchange of high-level visits.

The two sides agreed to realize the important results reached after the state visit to India by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in March 2018, and further deepen the bilateral defence-security cooperation by disbursing two defence funding packages pledged by the Indian Government for Vietnam.



Minh and Singh also underlined the need to make more efforts to promote economic, trade and investment ties and further expand collaboration in the field of oil and gas in Vietnam.

Singh affirmed that India supports the maintenance of peace, stability and security as well as safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS), and the full and strict implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and working towards an early formulation of an effective and practical Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).



He thanked Vietnam, as the coordinator of ASEAN-India relations in 2015-2018, for promoting the effective and practical cooperation between the two sides, thus to deepening the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership.

Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Brunei's Minister

of Foreign Affairs and Trade Erywan Yusof (Source: VNA) During a meeting with Brunei Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Erywan Yusof, the two ministers agreed to further foster collaboration in potential fields such as agriculture, fishery, education, and tourism.

They held that it is necessary to open a direct flight connecting Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City with Brunei to promote exchanges in all sectors. The two diplomats urged the signing of an agreement on setting up a hot line to give prompt support to fisherman and fishing activities.



Yusof affirmed that he will request relevant agencies to speed up the granting of Halal certificates to Vietnamese food producers, and lauded Vietnams increasing rice and farm produce exports to the Brunei market, helping the country ensure long-term food security.

Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Philippine Secretary

of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano (Source: VNA)

The same day, Minh also had a meeting with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano, during which they agreed to continue intensifying the bilateral strategic partnership in important spheres such as defence-security, economy, trade-investment, and marine cooperation.



Minh asked both sides to soon organise the 9th meeting of the bilateral cooperation committee and complete the building of the Vietnam-Philippines action plan for 2018-2023, thus creating favourable conditions for promoting bilateral relations in the time ahead.



The ministers also affirmed the importance of strengthening cooperation and coordinating the two countries viewpoints at regional and international forums, especially within the framework of ASEAN.



They agreed to enhance the ASEANs solidarity, self-resilience and unanimity in the regions security and development issues, including the East Sea issue, and accelerate the building of a practical, effective and legally-binding COC./.
By PTI

JAIPUR: Citing an order of the Supreme Court, the Rajasthan Information Commission has asked all courts in the state, including the High Court to reduce Right To Information (RTI) application fee.

Disposing of an appeal of Anndaram Chaudhary, a resident of Merta City, the Commission in its order given last week, the copy of which was made available today, has expected from the Rajasthan High Court administration that it will reduce the RTI application fee considering the apex court's decision.

Chaudhary had filed an RTI application in the office of the chief judicial magistrate, Merta, which he claimed was rejected citing Rajasthan RTI High Court and Subordinate Court Rules 2006 that require Rs 100 judicial stamp for filing application in courts.

The SC in its recent order concerning a case of Allahabad HC had directed that RTI application fee and photocopy of the document provided to the applicant should not be more than Rs 50 and Rs 5 per page.

So, courts in the state including Rajasthan HC should reduce Rs 100 as RTI application fee charged by them, RTI Commissioner Ashutosh Sharma said in the order.

The order copy has been sent to Rajasthan HC Registrar in Jodhpur.
By Express News Service

KOLKATA: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung on Saturday claimed that the West Bengal government was secretly measuring land in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal to settle those people who names would not eventually come up in the final list of National Register of Citizenship (NRC)

Releasing a press communique from an unknown location on Saturday, the absconding GJM leader said: I have been made aware of the fact that the state government is secretly measuring land in our hills. If this is done to settle illegal Bangladeshis from Assam, then it creates a national security threat as the chickens neck region connects the Indian mainland with the northeast and is highly sensitive.

No one should dream of undermining the indigenous population of north Bengal by hoping to settle illegal Bangladeshis who have been kicked out of Assam, he added.

If they attempt anything like this, all Rajbanshis, Adivasis, Meches and Gorkhas from the Dooars and the Gorkhas of the hills will unequivocally speak against it.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader said he wont stay quiet if the locals of north Bengal are undermined due to fears of influx of people from Assam into West Bengal as a result of the NRC.
By PTI

PATNA: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das termed today as "dirty politics," the protest by political parties in Delhi over the alleged sexual abuse of young girls at a shelter-home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur, saying it lacked genuine concern for the victims.

In a show of opposition unity, almost all major political parties, including the Congress, had yesterday joined the protest at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital, organised by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

"What we saw at Jantar Mantar in Delhi yesterday was dirty politics, there was no genuine concern for the (Muzaffarpur) victims," Das said addressing a function of elected representatives from the 'Teli' and 'Sahu' communities here.

ALSO READ: Bihar shelter home rape case: BJP leader CP Thakur seeks minister Manju Verma's resignation, but JD(U) disagrees

Lauding his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi for taking "quick action in the matter" by arresting the accused and handing over the case to the CBI, he also urged them to press for day-to-day hearing in the case so that justice could be dispensed at the earliest.

The BJP leader also took potshots at Tejashwi Yadav, saying the young RJD leader had joined the ranks of "political leaders suffering from the disease of Prime Ministerial ambitions".

The chief minister alleged that Bihar reeled under lawlessness when it was ruled by Yadav's parents, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, and remarked that "their corruption had affected what is now Jharkhand."

ALSO READ: Bihar shelter home rape case: RJD's nationwide strike today

"It is in this part of the undivided Bihar that the fodder scam had taken place," he said.

Asserting that the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained undiminished, Das said in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, people of the country will be choosing "between democracy and dynasty politics".

"On the one hand, they have the BJP in which a former tea-seller can rise to the position of prime minister on merit.

On the other hand, you have parties run by people who choose their children or relatives as their successors," the Jharkhand chief minister said.

At the event, Sushil Kumar Modi said most steps for the betterment of the OBCs in the country were taken by non-Congress governments of which BJP was a part.

He also lauded the Modi government for getting a bill passed in the Lok Sabha to accord constitutional status to the National Commission for Other Backward Classes.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A hotline between the armies of India and China could be a possibility as the two countries will attempt to resolve differences on the issue during Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe's upcoming visit later this month.

Both the countries had revived the long-pending proposal to set up the hotline so as to avoid flare-ups between the two militaries along their disputed border after the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April.

Modi and Xi decided to issue "strategic guidance" to their militaries to strengthen communications and build trust. The move was seen as aimed at avoiding a Doklam-like standoff between the two militaries.

Sources said that the Indian Army has been maintaining that the hotline should be between its Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and his equivalent official in Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and Beijing proposed that deputy commander of its Chengdu-based Western Theatre Command would engage with the Indian DGMO.

While, currently, India and Pakistan have a hotline between their DGMOs, it was first mooted between India and China in 2013.

Sources said that Chinese PLA has also conveyed to Indian Army that they do not have any DGMO in its headquarters and that it was favouring engaging the Western Theatre Command which looks after the Sino-India border.

However, the Indian side feels the protocol must be maintained and equating the Indian Army headquarters to PLA's Western Theatre Command in Chengdu was not proper.

On the proposed hotline, the official sources said there were certain issues relating to engaging translators for Mandarin and English and technical aspect of the hotline as well.

Three commands of the Indian Army, the Kolkata-based Eastern Command, the Central Command headquartered at Lucknow and the Northern Command, headquartered at Udhampur, have been tasked with keeping an eye on the nearly 3,500-km-long border with China.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The BJP is treading with caution as it prepares its response to a host of demands of Dalit activists ahead of their proposed Bharat Bandh on August 9.

While a number of its Dalit MPs and allies, including Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, want it to respond positively to their demands, several BJP leaders are advising caution, as an overzealous response from the party-led government may not go down well with its core support base.

Sources within the BJP have termed the party's silence on the demand of removing National Green Tribunal Chairman Justice AK Goel "strategic", as supporting or openly opposing such a call is fraught with risks.

Several party MPs said on the condition of anonymity that their traditional voters -- from upper castes and sections of Other Backward Castes -- have firmly backed the party so far despite their reservations about issues such as quota for Dalits in promotions and alleged misuse of a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribals.

"We want the party to respond fairly to the issues of Dalit interests. But it should not be seen going out of the way to meet every demand of Dalit groups, as the BJP draws its support from most sections of Hindu society and should take into account their concerns too," a party MP from Uttar Pradesh said.

He said seeking removal of Goel, a former Supreme Court judge who was on a bench that introduced several safeguards in the Schedules Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, for "one verdict is politically motivated".

LJP chief Paswan has said that Goel's appointment sent out a wrong message and his son and party MP Chirag Paswan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking for his removal.

Dalit BJP MPs like Udit Raj have also backed the demand.

The BJP has lent support to the opposition on the apex court's order which "diluted" the Dalit atrocities law, with the Union government filing a review plea in the court.

The government has also moved the court seeking resumption of reservation in promotion for Dalit and tribal government officials.

However, it has not yet responded to the demand that it bring a fresh bill in Parliament or an ordinance to overturn the court order and restore the original version of the Act.

"It is the Modi government which had amended the Act and made it more stringent. We have nothing to hide, but we will not fall into the trap of our rivals," a party leader said.

Dalit groups under the banner of All India Ambedkar Mahasabha (AIAM) have given a call for 'Bharat Bandh' on August 9 to press for their demands.

While the government has kept its communication channels open to the organisers, AIAM, it wants that the day pass off incident-free if they go ahead with the 'bandh' call.

Violence during a similar 'Bharat Bandh' on April 2 had left over 12 protestors dead.

It is believed that the 'bandh' and accompanying violence, including police firing, was a setback to the saffron party's assiduous wooing of Dalits ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Shankkar Aiyar By

It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years that count  Adlai Ewing Stevenson

It was a rare occasion in Parliament, of political piety, of consciousness, conscientiousness and consensus across the political divide, among MPs from the left, right and centre.

On Friday, the members of the Rajya Sabha defected from Benthamian utilitarianism to Kantian deontology, and devoted time to a troubling question, on how to improve the productivity of Parliament. The moment presented itself when Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral moved a private members bill, The Parliament (Enhancement of Productivity) Bill, 2017. The bill moots that Parliament meet for a fixed number of days, at least for over 100 days, as it was in the first decade of the Republic.

Gujral observed that European parliaments meet for 200 days. Jairam Ramesh proposed 120 days. There were also suggestions for the house to start at 10 am instead of 11 am, and an annual special session for national issues. The two-hour-forty-minute discussion, which will be continued, and the transcript of which is nearly 80 pages long, saw references to the French Revolution, the Constituent Assembly, economist Albert Hirschman being quoted, and recitation of poetry.

So far so good and much of what was said is welcome. What is problematic is the approach. To paraphrase Adlai Stevenson, the count of number of days in session is important, but what is critical is to make the days count. For sure the quantity of time available matters, but what matters much more for ensuring public accountability is the quality of discussions and debate, the audit of both the intent and implementation of government programmes.

This year, as per the budget, Government of India will spend `24.42 lakh crore through departmental allocations, and the public sector enterprises would be spending `4.78 lakh crore. In total, the government of India will be spending `29.20 lakh crorethat is `8,001 crore per day or `333 crore per hour. How well was the budget scrutinized? On March 13, the Lok Sabha, the other house for the Rajya Sabha MPs, passed the budget of over 90 departments with over 200 amendments, including a bill to hike MPs salaries, in 30 minutes, without any discussionin effect the cost of abdication or price of non-scrutiny was `97,300 crore per minute. The Rajya Sabha, which discussed productivity of Parliament, simply did not discuss the budget.

The Rajya Sabha is the house of states, meant to represent the interests of the states as also raise issues relating to people in different states. Ten years ago, the total expenditure of the Centre and by all the states was nearly the same, `8.99 lakh crore and `8.82 lakh crore. This has undergone a paradigm shift. In 2018, the budgetary spending by the Centre is `24.42 lakh crore and the expenditure of all states is estimated at `35.59 lakh crorethat is over `9,750 crore a day or over `400 crore per hour. It is no secret that the level of scrutiny in some states in the legislatures is pathetically poor as sessions are held for barely a week and sometimes just two days. Shouldnt that lack of productivity be a concern?

The government of India spends around `7.08 lakh crore or over `7 trillion on what is defined as Central Sector Schemes. The money is spent by the Centre towards interventions across ministriesBudget 2019 had 99 demands spread across 704 items. These include `20 crore for National Young Leaders Programme, `5 crore for National Discipline Scheme, `770 crore for river conservation (besides `2,300 crore for Ganga clean-up), `454 crore for Overseas Promotion and Publicity, including Market Development Assistance, `11.45 crore for Integrated Wool Development Programme, `500 crore in scholarships to SC, ST and OBC students, `20 crore for Mission Mode Project for E-Panchayats, `50 crore for Solar Charkha Mission and so on, `100 crore for Special Industry Initiative for Jammu and Kashmir and so on. Shouldnt the MPs be asking how or why or why not of these allocationsfor instance, `20 crore for e-panchayats?

Piety in politics is all very good and necessary, but it is only words unless followed by outcomes. Last year, the government spent `4.94 lakh crore on creation of infrastructure. This year, to create employment and aid growth the government will spend an estimated `5.97 lakh crore on infrastructure. This begs the question, how many jobs did the `4.94 lakh crore spend create and how many will `5.97 lakh crore deliver? It is true that departmental committees do flag issues, but their reports are only tabledwhy shouldnt these be discussed/debated? The establishment cost for the year for the Central government is estimated at `5.03 lakh crore. Is the taxpayer getting a bang for the buck?

In 1996, a large corporate made a bid to build the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The price quoted was `1,800 crore and land rights. Nitin Gadkari, then the public works minister in the Maharashtra government, drafted RC Sinha, set up a corporation, trashed antiquated government rules, issued contracts and built the road at around Rs 1,300 crore. This government claims to have built more roads, renewed more rail kilometres, constructed more ports and airports, electrified more areas and produced more power than before. The question is, has the trillion crore spend power been leveraged and how wellhas it delivered savings, for instance, is the government building roads faster and cheaper than before?

The fact that the MPs are elected to represent the people and not just parties is frequently obfuscated in the noise of democracy. The abiding concern is How India is doing. The aspiration is will s/he do better this year than in the last. Seeking the answers, dear MPs, would qualify as enhancement of productivity.

shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com
T J S George By

We pay a price when we let other countries set our pace. One day Donald Trump includes India in the list of those who are robbing America and threatens to levy high taxes on thousands and thousands of Indian motorcycles imported into America. This was when India cut duty on the glamorous Harley-Davidson from 75 per cent to 50 instead of the 0 per cent Trump wanted. Another day Trump praises India and green-lights the sale of unmanned aerial combat vehicles to India, a deal that was previously denied. These missile-firing drones have a sea variant reputed to be effective in coastal defence. No doubt, they can be decisive in beating back attacks such as the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai.

Is India expected to cringe when Trump threatens it, and feel elated when Trump flatters it? Our concern should be not that this is a man the world mistrusts because of his unpredictable mood shifts; our concern should be the assumptions that are taken for granted, seemingly by all, in US-India dealings.

The American turnaround on the sale of hi-tech weapons such as the drone is a case in point. This looked like a systemic shift rather than a Trumpian twinkle. Nevertheless, India needs to be cautious for at least three reasons. First, America now recognises India as a full partner in its defence strategies and considers this as an upgradation of India. Second, Delhi sought a favourable nod from Washington before moving to buy an anti-missile defence system from Russia. Both these factors are linked to the third: Washingtons eagerness to block Chinas growth as a world power.

Barack Obamas America had formally accepted India as a major defence partner. But the partnership gained muscle only when Trump moved India into Americas tier-I list of countries to which sensitive weapon systems could be exported without special licences. Trump has repeatedly stressed Indias importance in what he calls the Indo-Pacific region. This recognition led to Washington waiving its sanctions provisions and thereby enabling India to buy Russias 39,000-crore air defence missile system.

What does all this really mean from Indias standpoint?

It is easier to see what it means to America: It opens a big market for American weapons and gets a major regional power to be involved with American defence policies in the region. There could well be a section of Indians who see it as a sign of progress when (a) America upgrades Delhi to tier-I for military sales and (b) permits Delhi to buy Russian weapons. Other sections may see it as demeaning when (a) India is expected to feel good about upgradation for purposes of buying American weapons and (b) sanction-scared Delhi seeks American permission to buy Russian weapons.

Both schools will have to see as unacceptable the extent to which India is dependent on other countries for its essential defence needs. The proud exhibit on our weapons front is the Brahmos missile. But 65 per cent of it consists of imported components. INS Vikramaditya, the pride of the Indian navy, was formerly a Russian vessel mothballed because of age. Arihant, our first indigenously built nuclear submarine, took in extensive help from Russia. HAL, a competent public sector company, has received discouragement from successive governments.

Its Tejas aircraft has been waiting for decades to get operational clearance. Its plans over Rafale jet fighters fell flat when the project was taken out of its hands and given to Anil Ambanis company. Last year an Indian-made rifle was rejected by the Indian Army. Even bulletproof jackets made in India are unpopular with our defence personnel. Despite a long history of defence research, proud achievements in rocket science and slogans like Make In India, India remains the worlds largest arms importer.

When America recognises as a major defence partner a country that cannot produce even a rifle, it is clear that it sees India as a profitable market for its pricey weapons. In the process India loses opportunities to develop foreign policy, especially China policy, for Indias benefit as distinct from the benefits of Indo-Pacific. China is currently producing weaponry so sophisticated that the US has started to worry. India need not have been left so far behind. The achievements of its space programme and of its scientists in Silicon Valley point to the talent available to India. But the defence ministry is manned by IAS generalists while the country is at the mercy of parties and politicians who put their interests above the nations. How can one get more than what one deserves?
Prabhu Chawla By

The road to the capital of the nation begins from the capitals of states. Over the past week, the 63-year-old diminutive but fiery chief minister of West Bengal walked tall on the political highway from Kolkata to Delhi in search of a national prototype, which both the Gandhis and some regional rajas have filled on occasion. Didi is not talking Ma, Mati and Manush in town. Instead, she has chosen a pan-India narrative to display her political vocabulary. On a three-day visit to the capital that reeked of personal promotion, she met leaders from all political parties, including a selected few from the BJP and sections of Delhi society. Born in an impecunious Bengali family and living in a roadside semi-pukka Kolkata home, Mamata is on the prowl to grab the palatial 7, Race Course Road PMs bungalow.

Like Narendra Modi, Mamata, too, comes from a modest background. She has struggled by herself to reach where she is. She built her party from scratch. With just two Lok Sabha members in the Lok Sabha in 2004, Trinamool Congress won 34 out of 42 seats in 2014. TMC also swept almost two-thirds of the Assembly seats. The credit for pummelling the cadre-based CPM to the dust goes to Mamata. In ruthlessness she is second to none. Like some Old Testament avenging angel, she retaliates with an eye for an eye against all threats to her cadre and herself.

Like Modi, Mamatas personal past is her strongest assetif he can move from a chief ministers office directly to South Block, why cant she; a party chief, CM and once a Union Minister? She, too, is single and has endeared herself to the lower and middle classes with her frugal habits and dominating persona. However, unlike Modi she doesnt have a Gujarat model of development to offer the national constituency. She is neither a darling of the classes nor the markets.

Though she has been courting corporates with investment meets, all of them, including other opinion makers, havent expressed any confidence in her skills to manage a vast, socially, culturally and politically unwieldy giant like India. Yet a new prime ministerial prototype is taking shape, like in the initial Nehru-Gandhi years, and the initial years of Modi, which traced the personal outlines of national power. Mamata hasnt declared herself an alternative to the charismatic Modi. Her party has. The TMC leaders and Mamatas promoters do not see her as a damsel in distress. Instead, she is perceived as Durgas political avatar, ever ready to vanquish evil in the system.

They believe a hung Parliament awaits in 2019, with the BJP getting fewer than 175 seats and TMC as the third largest party, like it is today, with at least 35 MPs. So far, Mamata has taken on the BJP from the blue citadel of Kolkata. Now she has taken the battle to New Delhi. She has escalated her aggression against the BJP since November 2016, when Modi announced demonetization. The next level is her railing against the exclusion of 40 lakh voters from the National Register of Citizens in Assam. Since the Congress stand on NRC has been foggy, Mamata has converted immigrant rights into a majority vs minority battle. Consistency not being a political virtue, she had quit the Lok Sabha in 2005 when her demand to deport illegal Bangladeshis in Bengal went unheard. A former NDA ally, she had rejoined the constellation after resigning from the Vajpayee Cabinet in 2001.

True to the prototype-in-progress template, Mamatas tone and tenor is more national than regional. To acquire the umbrella space vacated by the Congress, all she rants against is neglect of Indias marginalized. Last week in Delhi, this newfound awareness resonated in her roar, I am a Christian, thats why I will be isolated. I am a Muslim. I am Tribal. I am a Dalit, thats why I will be isolated. If this continues, dont you think it will end in civil war?

With a single, bold stroke, Mamata invoked the social philosophy of the Congressthe party that created her four decades ago. It is floundering: true to type, it has moved from one Gandhi to another while abandoning its inclusive economic, religious and social vision. It is limping towards soft Hindutva. Rahul is nationally known, but not nationally accepted yet. Hence, Mamata has donned the mantle of secular icon, seeking acceptability from her peers. She has learned her lesson from previous regional leaders and chief ministers whose thirst to become PM was thwarted by the unpredictable swings of the political calculus. Only Deve Gowda had the dubious fortune after VP Singh and Jyoti Basu rejected a combined United Front offer. Later, Chandrababu made some feeble bids to take Delhi unsuccessfully.

Mamata believes a non-elitist ethos is driving Indiathe optics to bring the Opposition leaders under the TMC umbrella, if not at least its shade. She met Rahul and Sonia Gandhi. She had a long meeting with Sharad Pawar. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal is in her pocket. She has Akhilesh Yadav and Omar Abdullah on speed dial, though Naidu and Chandrashekar Rao are not in the bag yet. Mamatas optimism is based purely on political arithmetic.

Her research team has concluded that Vajpayee lost in 2004 because the BJP failed to form an alliance with winning regional parties like the TRS and DMK while losing some others. In 2014, Modi won over 230 seats from the north and west. But it is unlikely to make any dent in the 130 southern constituencies after the TDP divorce next year. The AIADMK is losing glamour after Jayalalithaa s passing. Mamatas immediate agenda appears to be forcing a direct national fight with the BJP and its allies. She is promoting regional confederations instead of a national alliance; even including communists in her anti-BJP agenda. In the past few years, many unimaginable political marriages occurred all across IndiaBSP-SP in Uttar Pradesh, JD(U)-RJD in Bihar, and Congress-JD(S) in Karnataka.

Congress proximity is growing with TDP and even Shiv Sena. Mamata is reinventing herself as the anchor for all non-BJP parties to collectively face the saffron party. She has called their leaders to Kolkata for a grand rally on January 19, 2019. By then the Assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh would be over and the direction of the wind would be sanguine.

It is evident that TMC is all set to convert next years poll battle into a face-off between Modi and Mamata. Maya doesnt have the numbers. Moreover, the Bengali Durga wishes to avenge Bengal, against which the fickle fates conspired to snatch the prime ministers chair from both Pranab Mukherjee and Jyoti Basu. It seems singles will decide the innings in 2019Modi, Mamata, Maya and Rahul. Ideology is dead. Long live the loner.
Pushkar Banakar By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently hailed the NDA governments Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and even as the Centres own target of making India Open Defecation Free (ODF) approaches fast, around 18,000 villages across the country are yet to be declared ODF.

A total of 18,134 villages are yet to be declared ODF with Uttar Pradesh topping the list of with 7,198 villages. It is followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra which have 2,016 and 1,076 villages respectively which are yet to be declared ODF.

Ministry officials, however, are upbeat and claim they are well on course to meet the target. If you see the numbers in percentage, it amounts only to two per cent of villages. We have about seven months left. We will definitely achieve the target of making India ODF by March 2019, a drinking water and sanitation ministry official said.

There are three states Kerala, Manipur and Sikkim  which can boast of being ODF while some others like Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana are close to being declared ODF. They have 57, 65 and 91 villages respectively which are yet to be declared ODF.

Ministry officials claim that it was a conscious effort on the governments part to effectively implement the scheme in regions which are considered to be remote. We took a conscious decision to reach out to the remotest of places and the results are there for everyone to see. The northeastern region, which has been neglected by governments, is one of the best performing regions in the country. Two of the three states which have been declared ODF are from the region. We are putting in a similar effort in other regions of the country as well, the official said.

Experts have mixed opinions on the trend.

While some say that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has progressed as expected, others are sceptical about its implementation. If the data is true, it is a remarkable achievement for the government. Also, WHO would not praise the scheme if they did not see merit in it. If you calculate, they have covered 98 per cent of villages in four years and I do not see any reasons why the remaining two per cent cannot be covered in the next seven months, Professor Pallabh Bhattacharya of the Symbiosis Institute of Rural Studies said.

Profess HR Solanki of the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad said the scheme cannot be termed successful just by stacking up numbers. The real question here is if the toilets that have been built are being used. The Centre cannot achieve anything by constructing toilets and letting them be unused. They need to educate and make people aware of the benefits of not defecating in the open, he said.
George Poikayil By

Express News Service

KASARGOD: "Each file has a throbbing life behind it." That was Pinarayi Vijayan's words of advice to officials on his first visit to the Secretariat as the chief minister in June 2016. He has repeated them several times in the past two years to drive home the message that officials should not sit on files. Last Sunday, the chief minister said that again after an 81-year-old man, running around to make his ration card BPL, threatened to end his life in Aluva.

But the bureaucracy's binding knot of the red tape is almost impossible to untie.

The lives of Chathunair, 94, and wife Narayani A, 80, of Karaduka panchayat, are ebbing away in one such file somewhere in the Secretariat. Five years ago, the Forest Department agreed to buy their isolated house and 74 cents deep inside Karaduka forest at Chettoni because of frequent elephant attacks.

"I gave the formal application for our rehabilitation to the forest department on March 13, 2013," says Narayani, who owns the property. After four years in 2017, the Revenue Divisional Officer and the Agriculture Officer valued the property and crops at a little over `19 lakh.

The RDO sent the valuation letter to the North Zone Chief Forest Conservator for further action on April 19, 2017.

And that is the last we have heard from them, said Chathunair, who is battling cancer. A source says the file had reached the Secretariat. But the family could not wait until the government gives them the money. Every summer is a nightmare, says Jayashree A N K, 39, the aged couples youngest daughter-in-law, who is living with them, with her children aged nine and six.

In 2017, the couple moved out of the forest to a small house at Shantinagar in Karaduka panchayat. The house owner, Thamban Nair, takes only Rs 1,500 and does not bother them even if they miss paying the rent. I dont know how long we should live in penury before the money arrives, says Narayani. Jayashrees husband and the couples youngest son Ratnakaran, 44, have now gone to Dubai in search of a job on a visiting visa. The couples other three children are living in shanties.

Chathunair, who does not know about his illness but knows he is dying, says: All I want is a small plot of my own, where I can be cremated. I dont want to end up in the public crematorium. In the 65 years he lived inside the forest, he grew 350 acrecanut trees, scores of coconut trees and hundreds of plantain on his 74 acres. Elephants would cross the Payaswini river every summer and destroy the crops, says Chathunair.

Jayashree  who is originally from Chembarika, a semi-urban locality  was in a for a shocker when she came to Chettoni after marrying Chathunairs son in 2006. The first thing that struck me was there were no neighbours, she said. Today, the nearest house was 20 minutes walk away after crossing a stream and ducking the solar fence. She says the elephant menace started in 2008. They used to come in a herd of six to eight, including their calves, and dangerously lurk in our backyard, she says.

The family scares away the elephants away by throwing fireballs made of old clothes dipped in kerosene. And forest officials also used to come to our rescue even when we call them at midnight, she says.

But in 2013, elephants destroyed 400 arecanut trees of the neighbouring plantation and then wreaked havoc in Chathunairs property. That was the year, forest officials asked us to sell our property to the department and find a safer place to live, says Narayani.
These meetings took place within the framework of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM-51) that officially opened in Singapore on August 2 with the participation of foreign ministers from ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh applauded efforts to expand cooperation of ASEAN 3 (China, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan) in such areas as digital connectivity, e-commerce and smart urban in order to narrow development gap, and promote micro, small-and medium-sized enterprises, food security as well as responses to natural disasters and diseases.

He affirmed that Vietnam will continue to constructively participate in cooperation activities of ASEAN 3.

Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh and other delegates at the event reiterated the important role played by ASEAN 3 in promoting peace, stability, security and prosperity, looking towards building a community in East Asia in the long run.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (fourth, left) and other delegates at the 19th ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers Meeting. (Source: VNA)



They noted that trade turnover between ASEAN and China, the RoK and Japan in 2017 made up 32 percent of the ten-member groups total, and 27 percent of tourists to ASEAN came from Northeast Asian nations.

The ministers voiced their support for free multilateral trade and equality in the region, and agreed on initiatives to step up collaboration between ASEAN and the three countries in food security, education, culture, exchange between residents, health care and issues relating to youths and the elderly.

During the eighth EAS Foreign Ministers Meeting, Minh said efforts and resources should be focused on fully implementing the Manila Action Plan for 2018-2022 and backing the adoption of the statement on cooperation in response to emerging transnational issues at the 13th EAS.

He held that the EAS members have potential for maritime cooperation and connectivity, which also match the interests and demands for collaboration in the region.

The official shared concern of the EAS countries over militarisation activities that have eroded trust and increased tensions in the East Sea.

At the event, ministers from ASEAN and its eight partners of China, Japan, the RoK, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the US consented to enhance result-oriented cooperation in a range of realms like environment-energy, education, finance, health care-diseases, natural disaster management, connectivity, economy-trade, food security and maritime affiliation.

Some expressed their deep concern over the recent militarisation activities in the East Sea and demanded no actions that would complicate the situation and unilaterally change the status quo in the area.

All disputes should be addressed peacefully in line with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), and on the basis of respect for legal and diplomatic processes, they said.

Addressing the 25th ARF, Deputy PM and FM Minh suggested the ARF focus on effectively materialising the Hanoi Action Plan and make more renovations in operational method in order to flexibly adapt to regional and international changes.

He used this occasion to announce Vietnams initiatives to host an ARF workshop on enhancing cooperation among law enforcement forces at sea, and another on applying the UNCLOS 1982 and international legal tools to cope with marine challenges.

The 25th ARF brought together foreign ministers from the ASEAN member countries and its ten dialogue partners (Australia, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the US), along with Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

At the forum, the ministers agreed to adopt the ARF statement on disaster relief cooperation, the list of the ARFs activities in 2018 and 2019, and the ARFs work plans on maritime security and disaster relief in 2018-2020.

Discussing the regional and global situation, they underscored the importance of a rule-based international order and the role of multilateral organisations.

The ministers also voiced concerns over emerging security challenges, including terrorism, trans-national crimes, marine security, cyber security, and natural disasters.

They reaffirmed the significance of maintaining and promoting peace, security, stability, and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, and settling disputes based on international law and the 1982 UNCLOS as well as respect for diplomatic and legal processes.

They said concerned parties should not use or threaten to use force, and not carry out militarisation activities, while fully and effectively implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), towards reaching a Code of Conduct in the East Sea./.
Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

KOLKATA: After a lull of six years, Maoist activities have started afresh in West Bengal districts bordering Jharkhand, most notably Jhargram and Purulia.

Akash

Alarm bells have been ringing in the state after an armed squad of CPI(Maoist) guerillas led by the banned outfits West Bengal committee secretary Ashim Mondal alias Akash were spotted several times in July.

They are feared to have sneaked into West Bengal following intensified crackdown on the Maoists in Jharkhand following the killing of a CRPF jawan on July 11 and six Jharkhand Jaguar Force jawans earlier on June 27.

Fearing that the Maoist squad could spark off another round of rebellion on the lines of one in 2008 led by Maoist leader Malloujula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, which had claimed over 700 lives, Jharkhand and West Bengal police have launched a joint combing operation in Jhargram to nab the ultras.

Though the area has long been sanitised of local guerrillas, there are still Maoist sympathisers in Jhargram and Purulia, a top police official said.

The squad led by Akash, a native of Chandrakona town in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, has prominent Maoists involved attacks on security forces, including Ramaprasad Mardi, Dilip Singh Sardar, Kamal Maity, Madan Mahato and his wife Joba.

Akash reports directly to the CPI(Maoist) eastern zone (comprising West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam) chief Prasanta Bose alias Kishen Da, a 70-year-old politburo member based out of Jharkhand, who is considered next only to the outfits general secretary Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy.

Akash is the sole surviving member of the CPI(Maoist) West Bengal committee formed by Kishenji whose encounter in 2011 had brought an end to the Maoist insurgency in West Bengal.

During his recent visit, CRPF DG Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar confirmed that Maoist activities have increased in western part of the state. There are reports that Maoists are trying to regroup in Jhargram, he said.

While four of 23 districts of the state were earlier categorised as Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected, the recent list released by the Centre has only Jhargrams name on the list.

It is feared that the Maoists may exploit the present political turmoil in the region to spread their wings in the tribal heartland. The district elected BJP members in a large number of gram panchayats in the May panchayat polls. However, 45 of the winning BJP candidates joined the ruling Trinamool Congress on July 21, which has created a sense of betrayal among the people, sources revealed.

Two BJP workers were found hanging within a span of three days in Balarampur block of Purulia district in May- June. Posters were stuck to the back of one of them, a trademark Maoist-style executions in the late 2000s.

With Lok Sabha elections approaching, security forces fear that the presence of the Maoists in the tribal-dominated regions could be a major security threat.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The Ram temple can wait. The Yogi Adityanath government has new plans for the holy town of Ayodhya.In order to put the temple town on the global religious tourism map, its planning to build a new, or Navya Ayodhya, a modern township with world class facilities between Ayodhya and Faizabad.

The highlight of the proposed new township will be a nirvana abode or Mukti Dham  a place to seek and attain moksha (salvation), and an abode for those wanting to end their days in the land of Lord Ram. After approval from the tourism department, the township project, reportedly prepared by London-based consultancy firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers, has been forwarded to the state government for its approval.

To be built on a 500-acre area along Faizabad-Gorakhpur national highway, about 10 km from Ayodhya at an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore, the ambitious project envisages facilities like five-star hotels, riverside resorts, multi-storey buildings both commercial and residential and underground systems for drainage and electric wiring.

The work on the township is likely to begin later this year.According to highly placed sources in the Ayodhya- Faizabad Development Authority, the work for land acquisition on the identified site has already begun.
By Express News Service

TIRUPATI: Population growth rate of Andhra Pradesh has remained stagnant for the past few years and now it is in an alarming issue, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said and wanted that there should be an increase in population as the imbalance is creating several societal issues. Speaking at the Jnanabheri programme at Sri Venkateswara University stadium in the temple town on Saturday, Naidu said, I was the first person, two decades ago, who took the initiative and implemented some Central Government schemes actively to reduce population growth. Later, I realised that at certain time there will be no younger generation due to population control. Take the instance of Japan and China, though robots are there, robots cannot be an alternative to humans.

As part of the programme organised by the Chittoor district administration, the Chief Minister interacted with students. Though it is a personal issue, I appeal to every youngster to get married and lead a family life for the growth of society, he said.India is the only country where young population share is more. Every fourth techie is an Indian and every fourth techie is from Andhra Pradesh and the future of the world is based on technology and every one should be aware of it, the Chief Minister said.

Naidu went on to add that Hyderabad, Cyberabad and united AP achieved rapid economic development because of his vision and hard work. But now, we stand at crossroads with `17,000 crore deficit in the annual budget. I am committed to putting AP on top. Though we are not getting Central government cooperation, with peoples support, I will make Amaravati a dream capital, Naidu said.

On development projects, the Chief Minister said the government would bring water to Chittoor through Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi within a month. Water would be brought to Balaji reservoir and Mallemadugu very soon through Somasila-Swarnamukhi. In Ease of Doing Business, AP stood first in the country. Efforts should be made to maintain Number One position in Ease of Doing Business in the coming years, he said.AP will be the first in knowledge economy and for that the State government is coming up with several plans. Jnanabheri programme will be organised in all the districts in the State to enlighten youth, he said.
By Express News Service

SRIKAKULAM: Two people died and seven are critical after being administered an antibiotics drug at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here. They were given a dose of Ceftriaxone on Friday evening and started developing severe reactions to it by night, following which the three worst affected were rushed to King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam, but two of them  E Sailaja, 24, from Kasipuram village in Kotturu mandal and S Anitha, 38, from Palasa  succumbed to the medicines side effects on Saturday morning.

The seven whose conditions are critical are at the ICU of RIMS. Ten of the 19 patients who were administered the drug escaped with mild reactions and are still being treated at the womens ward in the hospital. A total of 19 victims had vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, rise in BP and breathing problems immediately after being administered the dose, RIMS resident medical officer (RMO) Dr Appalanaidu said.

After they showed negative reactions, we administered an antidote to all 19, moved seven to our intensive care unit and sent three to KGH as their health was deteriorating rapidly. Ten continue to be treated at the womens ward as their condition is improving, he added. Sailaja was admitted to RIMS on Friday as she was suffering from fever and Anitha on July 31 with more or less the same symptoms.

The other woman who was moved to KGH, D Santamma, a resident of Ichchapuram, recovered by Saturday morning. Though Ceftriaxone was administered to people in other wards on the same day, none of them showed any reactions. The medicine which was manufactured in March this year is usable till February 2020. Medical college director Dr Krishna Veni ordered an inquiry into the incident after informing the same to the Directorate of Medical and Health officials and other higher officials.

Suspecting that the problem may have been either in the preparation of the injections using diluents or a particular pack of medicine, medical authorities sent the samples to Kolkata for a laboratory test. On coming to know of it, Srikakulam drug inspector A Krishna rushed to RIMS and spoke to the doctors and nursing staff as well.
By Express News Service

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Visakhapatnam Airport has achieved substantial growth in the cargo handling in the first quarter (Q 1) of the current financial year and the authorities are expecting considerable increase in the near future. According to the AP Air Travellers Association (AP ATA), the airport has achieved 15.43 per cent growth in the Domestic Cargo section and 747 per cent growth in the International Cargo section. The APATA and the Vizag Airport authorities are jointly working to provide more facilities here and hopes that the airport has much more potential to increase cargo revenue in the near future. In the Q 1 of the current financial year, the Vizag Airport has successfully handled 1,481 tonnes of cargo _ 557 tonnes of imports and 924 tonnes of export cargo.

There is an overall 15.43 per cent growth when compared to Q 1 of 2017-18, where the imports were 516 tonnes and exports were 767 tonnes of the total cargo of 1,283 tonnes. For the entire 2017- 18 FY, the cargo handled was 4,846 tonnes _ 2,260 tonnes were imports and 2,586 tonnes exports. On the international cargo, the Vizag Airport has got permission for the cargo transport to other countries six months back and one exclusive international cargo complex on the Airport premises, facilitating increase in cargo transportation. In Q 1 of the current FY, the Vizag Airport has successfully handled 133 tonnes of cargo, which comprises 49.29 tonnes in-coming and 83.74 tonnes out-going cargo. There is a 747 % growth when compared to Q 1 of 2017-18 FY, where the imports were 12.75 tonnes and export cargo was 2.94 tonnes, totalling 15.70 tonnes. For the entire 2017-18, the cargo handled was 296.86 tonnes, comprising 142.21 tonnes imports and 154.65 tonnes exports.

The growth in the domestic and international cargo sections was possible with the continuous effort of APATA and with the support of the Airport authorities as well as Vizag MP K Haribabu and former Union Civil Aviation minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju in resolving various issues in consultation with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) periodically. We will do our best to improve further in future, O Naresh Kumar, DS Varma and Dr K Kumar Raja, the office-bearers of the AP ATA- Vizag, told TNIE.

In view of the developments in the Air Cargo section at the Airport, some of the pharma companies started exporting/ importing pharma products through Visakhapatnam cargo terminal instead of using airports from the neighbouring Telangana and Tamil Nadu by saving fuel and time. Many pharma companies are continuing their export operations from Hyderabad and Chennai where they have their head offices and also availability of several airline offices.

We are going to convene an exclusive meeting after the monsoon session of Parliament concludes, on increasing cargo handling at the Vizag Airport with the collaboration of the APATA and Airport Authorities, all leading airlines and pharma companies to discuss and ensure discounts are made available at the Vizag Airport for the highest growth rate in future, said Haribabu.

On the textile sector, Brandix has benefited by importing raw material and exporting finished products directly from Visakhapatnam Airport. The multi- product units of VSEZ have benefited by importing machinery parts/engineering goods and exporting diamonds through Visakhapatnam cargo terminal. The marine industry has also taken advantage of the new facility and planned to use the same for importing (brooder stock) mother shrimp/ (seeds) and exporting marine products.

We hope that with the available facilities and further expansion in future by adding multi-product temperature control zones, high quality packaging equipments and bigger X-ray machines and latest cargo handling equipments will lead to further growth in cargo exports from Vizag. We are also hopeful to bring dedicated cargo airlines to Vizag, O Nareshkumar from AP ATA emphasized.

Highlights

Opening of International Air Cargo complex

Expansion of infrastructure of domestic cargo

Creation of Temperature Control Zones for perishable cargo

Sanction of dedicated CISF/Customs Manpower at cargo terminal

Appointment of Drug Control Officer for pharma exports

Sanction of animal quarantine officer to clear marine live exports
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: As many as 10 infrastructure projects in Bengaluru, which could not be taken up as they passed through defence land, will now see the light of the day as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has decided to handover the required land for the same. Following a meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy here on Saturday, the former announced that land in parts of Bengaluru will be handed over in exchange for land of equal value in other parts of the state. A Cabinet resolution has to be made for the transfer of land. Meanwhile, MoD officials have been instructed to allow construction works, she said.

MoD has now decided to hand over 45,165.84 square metre (11.16 acres) of land worth Rs 282.09 crore for eight projects. Apart from it, MoD will also handover rights for use of defense land on a licence basis for two railway overbridge projects.Of the land to be handed over, almost half of it  21,600 sq m  will be for the construction of a road as per Master Plan-2015 from Ejipura Inner Ring Road to Sarjapura Main Road. Other major projects are construction of a road connecting NH 7 to Sanjivinagara in Byatarayanapura ward and a road connecting Hebbal Sarovara Layout to NH 7. Use of defence land on a licence basis will be for the construction of railway over bridge at Byatarayanapura and Byappanahalli.

The CM had met the minister on July 18 to highlight the need for transfer of defence land. Following this, state government officials met the vice-chiefs of the three Armed forces to discuss the modalities of the land transfer. Both MoD and state government will work together for completion of the projects, the minister said. Though there are other projects concerning defence lands in the city, discussions will go on, she added. Kumaraswamy said the MoDs move will help in completion of projects which have been stuck in a limbo.

Task Force

Issues raised by the Army regarding the occupation of its lands by agencies was discussed. It was decided to set up a Task Force to resolve issues.

BBMP to transfer 210 acres

In exchange for the land by the MoD, BBMP has offered to transfer 210.8 acres in Bengaluru and Tammanaya-kanahalli, Anekal. A major chunk of the land will be at Survey No 23 of the village (207.59 acres, valued at D352.85 cr). Also, 1.5 acres at K-Park valued at D64.07 cr and 1.69 acres along Kensington Road valued at D71.5 cr have been offered. MoD will provide 11.16 acres inside the city worth D282.09 cr to BBMP.
By Express News Service

KASARGOD: A class XI student was killed during a fight for a pair of scissors with his classmate at a madrasa on Sunday, said police.

The deceased has been identified as Mohammed Midhlaj, (16), son of Halima and Yusuf, a cook in the same school, which is five km from Kumbla police station.

Police have arrested the 15-year-old accused and charged him with murder.

"The accused is a native of Bantwal. He'll be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board soon," said Kumbla inspector Premsadan.

He said both the boys were students of the residential madrasa run by the Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker faction.

On Sunday, they were attending the madrasa with 20 other students. Around 8.30 am, during the breakfast, the two boys got into a tussle for the paper-cutting scissors used by the accused, said the police, quoting the students who witnessed the incident.

"In the pull and push, the sharp long blades of the scissors pierced into Midhlaj's chest and he fell on the low desk in the classroom," said Premsadan.

The boy died before reaching the hospital. After the inquest, the body has been sent for post-mortem at the Pariyaram Medical College. The accused has been charged with murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

"Only investigation would reveal if it was an accident or intentional," the police said.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The State government cried foul over the announcement of the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings, in which the Telangana stood in second place after the first ranker Andhra Pradesh. There are mistakes in the calculation of EoDB rankings. If they are done perfectly, the TS should have got the first rank along with AP, said the officials of the State government. According to highly placed sources, Chief Secretary SK Joshi recently wrote a letter expressing the States discontentment to the Union government. However, there is no response from either the Ministry of Commerce or the Centre. When the top officials of TS Industries wanted to meet the Ministry of Commerce officials to raise their issue, they are not being given any appointment, sources in the government told Express on Saturday.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) released the EoDB rankings on July 10. As per the rankings, AP stood in the first, Telangana in second and Haryana in third. The evaluation is spread over 372 reform action points. For 2018 rankings, the evaluation has two components - implementation and feedback from users. The final score is a combination of the implementation score and the feedback score. The DIPP had declared the feedback and evaluation methodology in August, 2017. With computer tools, one would expect that the calculations would be simple and accurate. However, a closer look at the figures revealed that several mistakes were committed by the jury while arriving at the final scores and thereby the rankings, official sources explained.

For example, take the case of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. For Telangana, out of 372 questions, 4 were found to be not applicable so the evaluation was on the basis of 368 questions. Telangana implemented all 368 questions and achieved 100% implementation score. On the 78 feedback questions, Telangana got 83.95% feedback score. Each of the 78 questions, 0.5 marks was given for implementation and depending upon the feedback, maximum of 0.5 marks for feedback. For example if out of 5 users from whom response is taken, 4 say that reforms is implemented, then the score on feedback would be  X (4/5) =  X 0.8 = 0.4. For questions where no feedback was taken, one mark was awarded if reforms was implemented and zero, if reforms is not implemented, the sources explained.

Thus, in case of Telangana, since they implemented 368 reforms ( 290 without feedback and 78 with feedback) total marks due to implementation is 290 X 1 + 0.5 X 78 ( Since in case of feedback question 0.5 marks is for implementation and 0.5 marks for feedback) i.e, 329. For feedback out of maximum 39 marks (78 X 0.5) Telangana got 83.95 % or 32.741 (39 X 0.8395).
Sana Shakil By

NEW DELHI: Indias ambitious plans to shape Lakshadweep as a major international tourist destination has run into an imminent health advisory  with doctors refusing to serve in the islands and many posts lying vacant in the union territorys health sector.

In order to develop Lakshadweep along the lines of Maldives and Mauritius, the Union Home Ministry is now planning to give special perks and better pay to doctors in Lakshadweep, The Sunday Standard has learnt.

The ministrys plan has been appreciated by a parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs.

Linking promotional avenues of doctors to comply with the posting in Lakshadweep can be a viable solution to ensure that the government doctors are posted permanently in Lakshadweep, the committee has opined in its latest report on administration and development of Lakshadweep.

To encourage doctors to serve in Lakshdweep, the committee has also recommended an amendment in the Central Health Services (CHS) recruitment rules for incorporating a provision for compulsory posting in the Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The committee has asked the Home Ministry to take up the matter with the Health Ministry at the earliest.

Besides suggesting improvement in public health and medical facilities in Lakshadweep, the committee has also recommended better network connectivity, night landing facilities for aircrafts and the possibility of operating water drones in Lakshadweep.

The governments think-tank NITI Aayog is already working out a roadmap for the development of Lakshadweeps 26 islands so that they can offer the same services as are offered in the tourist-friendly South-East Asian countries. The Home Ministrys proposal comes a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly issued instructions to NITI Aayog to immediately ensure that at least two islands get tourism facilities on par with Mauritius and Maldives.

Reportedly, the PM has made it clear that he wants at least one island in Lakshadweep and another in Nicobar to be ready with infrastructure facilities before the 2019 general elections.
Kanu Sarda By

NEW DELHI: Though the Lok Sabha has passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which provides for stringent punishment for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12, theres a catch.

According to the Bill, which prescribes the death penalty as the maximum punishment, the trial of these cases should be presided over by a woman judge, and should be recorded by a woman police officer. And, theres an abysmally low of number of women in the judiciary.

The Bill fixes a two-month deadline for the completion of trial in rape cases, and a six-month time limit for the disposal of appeals in rape cases. But women constitute barely 27.6 per cent of the current strength of 15,806 judges in the lower judiciary across the country.

Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, J&K, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have lower representation of women in the subordinate judiciary than the national average.

In Bihar, womens participation in lower judiciary remains lowest despite the government allocating 35 per cent quota. The strength of women judges is below 11.52 per cent. Reservation for women in lower courts is present in at least 11 states, ranging from 5 per cent in Jharkhand to 35 per cent in Bihar.
LONDON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Whether you drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week or totally abstain from it during middle age, you could probably at increased risk of developing dementia, according to a study released Thursday by the University College London (UCL).

Researchers from French national institute of health and medical research (INSERM) and UCL investigated the association between midlife alcohol consumption and risk of dementia into early old age.

Their findings are based on 9,087 British civil servants aged between 35 and 55 in 1985 who were taking part in the Whitehall II Study, which is looking at the impact of social, behavioural, and biological factors on long-term health.

Participants were assessed at regular intervals between 1985 and 1993 on their alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence. Alcohol consumption trajectories between 1985 and 2004 were also used to examine the association of long-term alcohol consumption and risk of dementia from midlife to early old age.

Of the 9,087 participants, 397 cases of dementia were recorded over an average follow-up period of 23 years, and average age at dementia diagnosis was 76 years, according to the study.

The researchers found that abstinence in midlife or drinking more than 14 units a week was associated with a higher risk of dementia compared with drinking one to 14 units of alcohol a week, said Severine Sabia from UCL and INSERM.

Meanwhile, among those drinking above 14 units a week of alcohol, every seven unit a week increase in consumption was associated with 17 percent increase in dementia risk, said Sabia.

In Britain, 14 units of alcohol a week is now the recommended maximum limit for both men and women, but many countries still use a much higher threshold to define harmful drinking.

However, the researchers said that this is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and they cannot rule out the possibility that some of the risk may be due to unmeasured factors.

The study has been published in the journal BMJ.

[ Editor: WPY ]
Kanu Sarda By

NEW DELHI: Justice KM Joseph was finally appointed to the Supreme Court late Friday night. But theres a catch: he will be the juniormost judge of the apex court. Ending a protracted stand-off between the government and the judiciary, President Ram Nath Kovind issued the warrants of appointment to Justice KM Joseph and Justices Indira Banerjee and Vineet Saran to the Supreme Court almost at midnight Friday. They will be sworn in by Chief Justice Dipak Misra on Tuesday.

The Collegium had recommended Justice Josephs name on January 10 this year with the name of senior counsel Indu Malhotra, who is now a Supreme Court judge, but the government, citing lack of seniority and inadequate regional representation of some states in the apex court, returned the file. His name was sent again on July 16.

By putting him last on the list of three judges appointed late Friday, the government has ensured that Justice Joseph is the juniormost judge, since a judge in the SC gets seniority from the time he takes oath. However, he will serve a term of over four years.

The earlier rejection by the government was criticised by members of the legal fraternity as well as the opposition parties. The Congress accused the government of being vindictive towards Justice Joseph due to a ruling he gave in 2016 against the BJP government in Uttarakhand, cancelling Presidents rule in the state and bringing the Congress government of Harish Rawat back in the state.

Justice Josephs father K K Mathew was a judge of the Supreme Court of India, and chairman of tenth Law Commission. With the Centre clearing the appointment of three judges, the present strength of apex court judges comes to 25 but there would still be six vacancies.

Meanwhile, Indira Banerjee will become the eighth woman judge who made it to the apex court in its history. The Supreme Court will now have three women judges simultaneously for the first time in its sixty-eight years of existence.

How the apex court determines seniority

The date a judge was appointed to Supreme Court

If two judges are elevated to SC on the same day, the one sworn in first becomes senior

If both are sworn in on the same day, the one with more years of high court tenure would be ranked higher

Woman judge

Indira Banerjee will become the eighth woman judge who made it to SC in its history. The Supreme Court will now have three women judges for the first time in its 68 years existence
Amit Agnihotri By

NEW DELHI: For the next three months, the Congress will focus on reinforcing its organisational set up to emerge as the single largest party in the opposition camp in 2019.

Party first, alliances later, says a Congress insider, and points out that the entire focus over the next four months would be to cover organisational gaps, which would determine how many seats the Grand Old Party can win in the next Lok Sabha. This will enable it to play the anchor of the anti-Modi front and lay claims on the PM post.

Project Shakti, an IT-based platform, is taking care of spreading the booth-level teams, something which the party failed to do since losing power in 2019. This plan has now covered most of the states and will help us immensely in managing the polls, says a senior party leader working closely with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

Besides dedicated booth-level teams, an idea borrowed from the BJP, another attempt is being made to connect with the voters through a revamped Sewa Dal, which was mostly involved in flag hoisting at party offices on Independence and Republic Days.

Congress insiders acknowledge that the partys presence has shrunk across India in big states like UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh and mobilising support will not be easy with functional teams on the ground.

A weak organisation is one reason why we are looking at alliances in UP and Bihar, which together send 120 members to the Lok Sabha. But there is no escape from the situation in the long run, says a senior AICC functionary.

Already, Rahul has inducted several younger leaders as AICC secretary in-charge of states and asked them to travel extensively to pep up the local leaders. This way, we also get to know of their problems and are able to iron out any factional fights which can hurt us, says an AICC secretary.

Alongside, state units are directed to identify and to reach out to traditional Congress families who went into hibernation after regional parties started calling the shots.The issue of strengthening organisation has been overlooked in the past decades, but we need to quickly cover the lost ground if we want to be counted in 2019, a Congress veteran comments on the changes happening in the party. If we emerge strong, we can negotiate alliances from a position of strength.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

GUWAHATI: Back in 2008, a lesser-known Assamese man started hogging the limelight for his sharp attacks on Paresh Baruah and his insurgent group, the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) for, none, at the time, had the courage to speak up against the dreaded insurgent leader. Ten years later, Abhijeet Sarma is virtually a household name in the state. It was due to his  and that of an elderly couples  relentless efforts that the Supreme Court issued directive to the Centre to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the complete draft of which was published on July 30.

Abhijeet Sarma

Over the past 10 years, 44-year-old Sarma, leader of the NGO Assam Public Works, really had to break sweat and spend his hard-earned money shuttling between Guwahati and Delhi to be present during the hearings of a PIL filed in connection with illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Reminiscing of the events that led to the filing of the PIL, Sarma says he was concerned over the harassment of people wearing lungi and skull cap and over the vote-bank politics on the issue of illegal immigrants.

In 2008, we realised that the Bangladeshi issue was assuming alarming proportions and various parties were playing vote-bank politics. So, we started thinking how the issue could be resolved. One day, we visited the house of senior citizens Pradip Bhuyan and Banti Bhuyan. We told them about our plan. They were excited and ready to help us. They wanted to do something for Assam. We were lucky to have got their support, says Sarma.

Soon, Pradip started preparing a draft even as we began collecting data and documents on the immigrants. A senior advocate helped us prepare the draft. The next year, we filed the petition and that was the turning point. It was based on our petition that the Supreme Court issued an order in 2013 directing the Centre to update the NRC.

He says the NRC publication made him only 40 per cent happy as it is just a draft. Those left out include a lot of indigenous people. So, there is no reason to be happy or excited. The APW mission is to clear Bangladeshis, not the locals, he says.

This (draft NRC publication) is the first step. People who will be detected  whatever their number is  their names have to be deleted from the voters list. They should be made stateless, but given work permits, he further says. Sarma admits it is practically impossible to deport the illegal immigrants.

When the names of all illegal immigrants are deleted from the voters list, we will be 100 per cent happy. Secondly, vote-bank politics, donations collected in the name of fighting the issue and harassment of people on the suspicion that they are illegal immigrants have to be stopped. It is only then that we will be successful in the mission.
Ritwika Mitra By

The Supreme Court order diluting the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act continues to agitate Dalits who are observing Bharat Bandh on August 9.

In March end, Pandits in Tatarpur village in the Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh, destroyed the crops of Bhishm Siddhu, fought with his family members and thrashed his minor son. The reason: Siddhu, a 42-year-old Dalit social worker, had complained against a liquor shop creating nuisance at the start of a Dalit road. A month, or even two weeks ago, this wouldnt have perhaps happened. But the Supreme Court judgment of March 20 that ruled against immediate arrest in cases filed under Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 2015  to prevent misuse of the law by vested interests  changed the power equations in society once again, as Siddhu says.

With the legal weapon they had rightfully been given to claim their dignity blunted, the Dalits across the country have been feeling a deep sense of anger and betrayal by a system  dominated by upper castes  that they feel has conspiring to keep them subjugated.

The SC judgment lay down a number of guidelines for the arrest of the accused under the Act, 2015 to avoid frivolous cases against public servants and citizens to settle personal scores. The court ruled that a person accused under the Act will be arrested only after the superintendent of police gives the go-ahead while a public servant if accused, can be arrested with the permission of the appointing authority.

The reaction among Dalits across the county was fierce and spontaneous. Without any political prodding, Dalit groups across the country mobilised to hold a Bharat Bandh on April 2.

Given the rise in attacks on Dalits in various parts of the country in recent years, the reaction was not surprising. From the Una flogging incident to the lynching of a Dalit youth in Rajkot and hacking of three Dalits to death in a village in Tamil Nadus Sivaganga district, the community has bore the brunt of extreme caste prejudices. Thats the reason the pot of Dalit anger has been kept boiling. Another Bharat Bandh has been planned on August 9, even as the Central government, feeling the heat of countrywide Dalit anger, has decided to introduce a Bill in the ongoing Parliament session to overturn the SC order and restore the original Act.

For the Dalits, thats not enough. The damage that the dilution has done will take longer to repair. Earlier when we approached the police, they would hear us out. When we went to the police station after the incident that day, they refused to register our complaint. The entire blame for the incident was put on my family. The judgment had a direct impact on our daily lives, said Siddhu. That explains what the judgment meant at the ground level: reinforcing the caste equations that would have deprived the Dalits of the legal shield the act gave them.

Said Badri Narayan, a Dalit idealogue and professor at JNU: The law was an instrument in the hand of Dalits. They require this sharper protection to preserve their dignity.The August 9 bandh coincides with the Quit India Movement and World Indigenous Day. Dalit activists assert that this protest is about preserving their dignity and not about demanding opportunities they have lost out on for decades.

The Dalit groups have said the August strike would be called off only after the Centre agrees to two demands  the release of five leaders imprisoned under the National Security Act and withdrawal of arbitrary charges slapped on Dalits during the April 2 bandh. The five Dalit leaders imprisoned include Chandrasekhar Azad, a founding member of the Bhim Army, Shivakumar, Sonu, Upkar Bawre and Yogesh Verma.

It is unfortunate, but we have to go ahead with the protest if the government does not accede to these two demands said Ashok Bharti, chairperson of All India Ambedkar Mahasabha, an umbrella organisation fighting for Dalit rights. According to Deepak Gahlot, part of Lawyers Initiative Forum which collected data from the ground, over 800 cases were filed against protesters in Meerut alone. They were only protesting for their rights, said Bharti.

Eleven people lost their lives in the country that day. These were targeted killings of Dalits leading the protests in cold blood. The media tried to falsely portray this as a violent protest. Politicians failed to stand by the families of those killed in the April 2 protest, Bharti. According to the National Crime Records Bureau data, 7,001 people were convicted in 2016 for crimes against the Scheduled Caste population while 21,079 people were acquitted. In 2016, the conviction rate of those accused of committing atrocities against the SC/ST population was 25.8 per cent. The Supreme Court is saying that the law is being misused, but the question where is the law being used? asked Bharti.

Being on the bottom of the caste hierarchy, Dalits have not just lost out on educational and employment opportunities but atrocities have been perpetrated against them despite all various legal provisions.

Shibkumar, 26, in Farooqabad tried unsuccessfully to clear the UP Police daroga Recruitment. His aim to get a government job remained unfulfilled. Now he gives tuitions to children in the locality and runs a small dairy business. Upper-caste boys in my class went ahead in life. I could not. My cousin could not even secure an attendant's job in an office as they would not drink water served by a low caste person, said Shibkumar.

Nidhi in Saharanpur has a similar story to share of missed job opportunities. A BEd degree holder, she failed to get a teacher's job in a government school. According to the socio-economic caste Census of 2011, only 3.95 per cent SC households in rural India have salaried government jobs. Among ST rural households, 4.36 per cent have government jobs. The dismal state of employment opportunities for Dalits even today is akin to them being unemployed, said Rajkumar, a social activist in Saharanpur.

Politicians eating food in Dalits households while the ground situation remains unchanged reduces these acts to political gimmicks. Vikas Dayal, social activist in Hapur, said, The politicians are eating in the Dalits' houses. But that's being done at the cost of taking away the food of Dalits.It is necessary to gain economic independence for Dalits to defy the systemic oppression, says Kapil Burman, an activist in Saharanpur. That's why we have to fight for our right. The upper caste deeply resents the rise of Dalits into a strong middle-class, said writer Chandrabhan Prasad. A Dalit on a horseback is feared.

TARGETED FOR CASTE

Shirdi, Maharashtra: In May 2015, a Dalit youth was brutally assaulted and killed in the temple town over his mobile ringtone of a song on Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar

Una, Gujarat: In July 2016, four Dalits were lynched by cow vigilantes in Una town for skinning dead cows

Anand, Gujarat: In October 2017, a 21-year-old Dalit was killed by upper caste Patel men for attending a garba

Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh: In February 2018, a Dalit law student of Allahabad University died after being attacked with iron rods

Attappady in Palakkad, Kerala: In February 2018, a mentally unstable tribal man, Madhu Chindaki, was beaten to death by a mob of 40 people after he was accused of stealing food

LEGAL SHIELD

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015, made the previous SC/ST Act of 1989 more stringent. It added new categories of actions to be treated as offences committed against SCs/STs and amended certain existing categories.

Key features
By AFP

ROME: The Rome public prosecutor's anti-terrorism section is to probe the appearance of hundreds of Twitter accounts which demanding the resignation of President Sergio Mattarella in the midst of an Italian government crisis in May, media reports said on Saturday.

The Twitter accounts popped up as Italy was mired in political chaos on the evening of May 27 after a days-long standoff over the composition of Italy's government cabinet.

President Mattarella vetoed the nomination of fierce eurosceptic Paolo Savona as economy minister, enraging the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and far-right League and prompting their prime minister-elect to step aside.

That night, nearly 400 Twitter accounts calling for the president to resign were created in a few minutes before being deleted within hours, according to a police inquiry, the reports said, adding that the probe, which will open next week, would be led by the anti-terrorist section of the Rome public prosecutors' office.

Ministers in the new government, however, said they were unconcerned by the allegations.

"I was not aware of it and it does not worry me in the least," Interior Minister and League head Matteo Salvini said in an interview published Saturday in the daily Il Foglio.

"It's been months since I read that the Russians are influencing Brexit, the US, French and Italian elections. For me it is total nonsense," added the minister, an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
By AFP

TEHRAN: Five years since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office, here are country's key moments under his leadership:

Promising change

Rouhani takes office on August 3, 2013, after being elected with 51 percent of the vote on a moderate platform. He promises to promote dialogue with the West and push for "unjust" sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme to be lifted.

He took over from hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose eight-year term had been marked by tensions with foreign powers.

As he is formally sworn in on August 4, Rouhani asserts that the only way for Western countries to communicate with Iran is "on an equal footing".

Historic phone call

On September 24, 2013, the Iranian president shakes hands with French President Francois Hollande at the United Nations in New York.

Three days later, on September 27, Rouhani speaks to US President Barack Obama on the phone. The conversation is a historic first direct communication between the leaders of the two nations since 1979.

Nuclear deal

On July 14, 2015, Iran seals a landmark nuclear accord with world powers. The deal with the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain puts an end to 13 years of crisis after 21 months of negotiations.

Under the accord Tehran agrees to limit its nuclear programme, in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions.

The agreement comes into force on January 16, 2016.

Syria war

On September 16, 2015, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad acknowledges that Tehran is providing military and economic support.

Alongside Russia, Iran is a key ally of Assad's regime in Syria's devastating conflict which erupted in 2011.

But unlike Moscow, Tehran denies sending professional forces and instead says it has only provided military advisors and organised brigades made up of volunteers.

Split with Saudi Arabia

In January 2016, Saudi Arabia breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran.

The crisis comes after Riyadh executes a prominent Shiite cleric, after which a Saudi embassy and consulate are attacked in Iran.

Riyadh accuses Tehran of interfering in the affairs of Arab countries and fanning the flames of regional conflicts.

Rouhani re-elected

On May 19, 2017, Rouhani is re-elected for a second four-year term with 57 percent of the vote.

He is backed by reformers and young Iranians, but he faces accusations of not keeping his campaign promises on social and economic affairs.

On December 28, hundreds of protesters rally in Iran's second city Mashhad, while demonstrations take place in other cities against price rises, unemployment and the government.

The unrest spreads to dozens of towns and cities, turning violent with at least 25 people killed.

Trump quits nuclear deal

On May 8, 2018, Obama's successor Donald Trump pulls the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Washington announces sanctions will be imposed once again on Tehran and companies doing business with Iran.

On July 22, Rouhani warns the US not to "play with the lion's tail", saying that conflict with Iran would be the "mother of all wars".

Trump responds on Twitter with an all-caps tirade, telling Rouhani not to threaten the US.

"OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," he wrote.

Further protests

On August 3, Iranian protesters attack a religious school in a province near to Tehran.

Days of demonstrations in the country's major cities see Iranians voice concern over water, while expressing anger at the worsening economy as US sanctions approach.
By AFP

KHOST: Hundreds of mourners Saturday buried the victims of a twin suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, as the death toll rose to 35, officials said.

Two suicide bombers dressed as women struck a Shiite mosque in Gardez, capital of Paktia province, Friday as it was crowded with worshippers for weekly prayers.

The burqa-clad attackers shot at the mosque's security guards before opening fire on worshippers then detonating their explosives.

"The death toll from Friday's mosque attack in Gardez has jumped to 35 with 94 wounded," Paktia governor Shamim Khan Katawazi told AFP.

Provincial police chief Raz Mohammad Mandozai confirmed the toll.

Officials had earlier said 29 people were killed and more than 80 wounded.

"Today, we held funeral ceremony and buried all the martyred of Friday's attack," a weeping Sayed Moharram, who lost his 16-year old son, told AFP from a graveyard on the outskirts of Gardez where hundreds of people attended the ceremony.

"It is very difficult for me to accept my son is no more with me," he said.

Haji Sultan, 70, who also attended the burials, accused the government of "negligence" in providing security for the Shiite minority.

"The enemies of Afghanistan want to create division by carrying out attacks on Shiite people, but they cannot win, it will further increase hatred towards the enemies," he said.

The Islamic State group, which in recent years has carried out attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, the US-based SITE intelligence group reported, citing the IS propaganda channel Amaq.

The Taliban denied involvement.

"Around 150 Shiites and security force members were killed and wounded yesterday in an attack that targeted a place of worship for Shiites in the town of Gardez in Paktia in the east of Afghanistan," Amaq reported.

The attack comes as urban areas across Afghanistan have been rocked by a surge in violence in recent months, with both Islamic State and Taliban insurgents targeting security forces and government installations.

The Taliban had not claimed a major attack in a city for weeks as they come under increased pressure to agree to peace talks with the Afghan government.

But IS has carried out multiple attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad and the capital Kabul in recent months, targeting everything from government ministries to a midwife training centre.

Last month an IS suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar.

The uptick in violence comes as US and Afghan forces intensify ground and air offensives against IS, and the Taliban step up their turf war with the group.

Earlier this week more than 150 IS fighters surrendered in northern Afghanistan -- in a move that Afghan security forces and the Taliban hailed as the end of the extremist group in the north of the country.
By AFP

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged students Sunday to go home as police fired tear gas during the eighth day of unprecedented protests over road safety which have paralysed parts of Dhaka.

Students in their tens of thousands have brought parts of the capital to a standstill after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

The unrest quickly spread beyond the capital. Authorities have shut down mobile internet services across swathes of the country, officials and local media said.

Bangladeshi students shout slogans as they block a road during a protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo | AP)

On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighbourhood, with more than 100 people injured as police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators.

A car carrying US ambassador Marcia Bernicat was also attacked by "armed men" but she escaped unscathed, the embassy said.

The violence continued Sunday with police firing tear gas into a large crowd marching toward an office of the ruling Awami League party, an AFP correspondent said.

Hasina warned Sunday that a "third party" could sabotage the protests and put the safety of demonstrators at risk.

"That's why I request all guardians and parents to keep their children at home. Whatever they have done is enough," the prime minister said from her office.

Some youngsters were rushed to hospital on Saturday after being attacked, allegedly by pro-government activists, witnesses said. Hasina's warning came as protesters marched towards the scene of Saturday's clashes chanting "We want justice!"

Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, and injuries were consistent with rubber bullets.

The Awami League has denied allegations that its officials beat up students.

ALSO READ | Bangladesh student protest over road safety enters seventh day

On Saturday, US ambassador Bernicat's vehicle was set upon by a mob.

"As she was leaving about 11pm and getting into her car, a group attacked her car," said rights activist Badiul Alam Majumder, who was hosting the ambassador for dinner.

The US embassy confirmed an official vehicle "was attacked by a group of armed adult men" but the envoy and her team departed unharmed.

- Internet shutdown -

The country's biggest-circulation newspaper Prothom Alo said 3G and 4G internet services have been shut down for 24 hours since late Saturday, shortly after the violence broke out.

Social media has been filled with comments from Bangladeshis unable to access the internet via their phones, although wireless and wired networks appear to be unhindered.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said it would comment later Sunday.

A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: "The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government."

Bangladeshi medical students hold placards as they block a diplomatic zone during a protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo | AP)

The move may be an attempt to try and limit the ability of students to mobilise or express growing online anger at how the government has handled the protests, hours after police and unidentified men wielding sticks and stones clashed with students.

Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by ruling party activists have flooded social media, prompting renewed anger.

Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous. As news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government.

Hasina's government has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by separate mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment.

Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid fears the unprecedented teen anger could spark widespread anti-government protests before a general election due later this year.

But their pleas have had little effect.

An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, fuelled the flames last week. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before.

There have been widespread social media demands for the minister's resignation despite his subsequent apology.

High schools were shut on Thursday as officials promised students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered.

The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka, which already suffers from daily gridlock, and elsewhere in the country.
By AFP

BEIRUT: The head of a Syrian government research centre fabricating weapons has been killed in an explosion targeting his car, a Britain-based monitor said Sunday.

The pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper confirmed the killing.

General Aziz Asbar was killed late Saturday along with his driver in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Asbar headed the research centre in Hama's Masyaf, which was targeted in Israeli air strikes last month and in September last year, the Britain-based Observatory said.

According to the United States sarin gas was being developed at the centre, a claim denied by Syrian authorities who say the country does not possess any chemical weapons after a 2013 agreement to hand over its chemical arsenal.

ALSO READ | Islamic State killed hostage from Syria's Sweida: Media, Monitor

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said that experts from regime ally Iran were present at the Masyaf centre, which was developing short-range surface-to-surface missiles.

"The general was close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to Iran," the monitor said.

Al-Watan reported in its online version: "Doctor Aziz Asbar, head of the scientific research centre in Masyaf, has been killed after an explosion targeted his car in the Hama countryside."

An Israeli air strike targeted the centre on July 22, Syrian state media and the Observatory said. At the time an Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on the report.

ALSO READ | Attack on Southern Syria: Death toll rises to 150

A strike in September 2017 caused material damage at the centre, according to the Observatory which said a fire broke out at a weapons warehouse where missiles were being stored.

Israel has carried out numerous raids inside Syria since 2017, according to the Observatory, targeting regime forces and their allies from Iran and Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011.
By Associated Press

TEHRAN: Iran acquired five new commercial aircraft on Sunday, a day before the U.S. begins restoring sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

The arrival of the ATR72-600 airplanes at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport represented perhaps the last benefits Iran will see under the nuclear deal after President Donald Trump withdrew from it in May. Economic woes are sparking sporadic, leaderless protests across the country.

The rhetoric between the U.S. and Iran remains heated, despite Trump tweeting last week that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard on Sunday acknowledged conducting recent naval exercises near the crucial Strait of Hormuz after renewing threats to cut off the waterway to oil traders.

In this photo provided by Tasnim News Agency, a traditional water cannon salute welcomes an Iran Air's new commercial aircraft at Mehrabad airport in Tehran, Iran.

(Photo | AP)

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported the arrival of the five ATR72-600 airplanes, which are twin-engine turboprops used for short-distance regional flights. Their arrival means state carrier Iran Air has received 13 of the 20 it ordered from the French-Italian manufacturer in April 2017. The deal had a list value of $536 million, though buyers and manufacturers typically negotiate lower prices.

ATR, jointly owned by European consortium Airbus and Italy's Leonardo, has been pushing U.S. officials to allow it to finish its delivery of aircraft to Iran. The Toulouse, France-based firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The nuclear deal lifted international sanctions in return for Iran limiting its nuclear program and allowing regular inspections. U.N. inspectors said Iran was complying with the deal, but Trump felt the agreement did not go far enough. He has called for a new accord that would include a radical transformation of Iran's policies, including its military support for the Syrian government and regional militant groups, two issues not covered by the 2015 deal.

Iran had hoped the lifting of sanctions would allow it to replace its aging commercial airline fleet, but the U.S. withdrawal has halted billion-dollar deals struck with Airbus and Boeing.

Iran's economy has rapidly deteriorated in recent months due in part to uncertainty over the atomic accord, fueling protests. The Iranian rial has fallen to 99,000 to the U.S. dollar despite a government-imposed rate of 44,000.

In recent days, protests have broken out in several cities, with at least one person shot and killed. Some protesters have shouted "Mullahs get lost!" and "Death to the dictator!" the semi-official Fars news agency has reported.

U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian trade in automobiles, gold and other key metals will be re-imposed on Monday, while sanctions targeting the country's energy and banking sector will resume Nov. 4. The sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry could cut off a crucial source of hard currency.

The U.S. has been pushing its allies to halt their import of Iranian oil ahead of the November deadline. Among the top importers of Iranian oil are China, India, Turkey and South Korea.

Rouhani has suggested Iran might block the Strait of Hormuz in response to a shutdown of its oil exports. The strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf is crucial to global energy supplies as about a third of all oil traded at sea passes through it.

Iran's navy and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard routinely conduct seaborne exercises in the Gulf and the strait. U.S. officials last week said Iran carried out a similar exercise, though Tehran did not immediately acknowledge it.

On Sunday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Guard spokesman Gen. Ramezan Sharif confirming that its forces held a military drill in the Persian Gulf and the strait. He said the exercise, which he described as an annual drill, was aimed at maintaining the security of the international waterway. He did not elaborate.
At a working session with first Vice President of the Legislature of Buenos Aires city Javier Francisco Quintana, Tam told her host that as the countrys economic locomotive, HCM City contributes 23% of the national gross domestic product (GDP) and 30% of the State budget.

HCM City always creates the best possible conditions with flexible, open policies for foreign investors, helping them run long-term and stable business in the locality, she stressed.

Quintana expressed his admiration for Vietnams Doi Moi (reform) and economic development over the past decades.

Speaking highly of the friendship and cooperation between Argentina and Vietnam, the official noted his hope that Tams visit would contribute to reinforcing cooperation between the two countries as well as between HCM City and Buenos Aires across fields.

Vietnam is one of Argentinas important partners in Southeast Asia and a bridge helping the country expand its economic and trade ties in the region, Quintana said.

Host and guest talked about organisational models, exchanged operational experience of people-elected agencies, and discussed measures to spur development of HCM City and Buenos Aires.

During their stay in Argentina, Tam and her entourage studied the planning management and operation of the Buenos Aires Port - one of the major maritime gateways in South America. They also visited some cultural and tourism centres of Argentina, and laid a wreath at President Ho Chi Minhs statue in Buenos Aires.
By AFP

BAGHDAD: Jihadists have attacked a high voltage power line serving several Iraqi provinces for the eighth time in two months, the government said on Sunday.

The electricity ministry said it had to once again repair the 400-kilovolt line between Kirkuk and Diyala after "terrorist attacks of sabotage... which caused the line to cut" on Thursday.

The damage was "the eighth attack on this line in two months", the ministry said in a statement, plunging Kirkuk, Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces into darkness.

ALSO READ | Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi suspends electricity minister Qassim al-Fahdawi over poor service

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared "victory" in the fight against the Islamic State group in December, after the jihadists had seized nearly a third of the country's territory in 2014.

But IS pockets remain, including in the mountains around Kirkuk.

The damage to the line between Kirkuk and Diyala has now been repaired and power restored to residents, a source in the electricity ministry told AFP on Sunday.

Iraq is grappling with severe power cuts, due mainly to a dilapidated grid infrastructure that has suffered years of neglect.

ALSO READ | More than 300 sentenced to death in Iraq for IS links

The shortages have fed into protests over the last month, as residents contend with summer heat reaching 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit).

Abadi fired electricity minister Qasim al-Fahdawi on July 29 in a bid to quell the protests, which originated in Basra in the oil-rich south and spread to several other cities including Baghdad.
By AFP

BEIRUT: The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida last month, a Syrian news website and a monitor said Sunday.

IS killed the 19-year-old male student on Thursday after kidnapping more than 30 people, mostly women and children, from a village in Sweida during a deadly rampage last week, the head of the Sweida24 news website Nour Radwan told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, which was seen by AFP, showing a young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a rocky landscape.

His is wearing a black T-shirt and his hands are tied behind his back.

The video could not be independently verified.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said it was the first execution since the kidnappings.

On July 25, IS carried out a series of attacks in Sweida's provincial capital and several villages that killed more than 250 people, mostly civilians.

It was the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and the secretive Druze religious minority that populates it.

During the attack the jihadists abducted 36 Druze women and children from a village in Sweida's east, the Observatory said at the time.

Four women had since escaped while two had died, leaving 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, according to the Observatory.

At the time, another 17 men were unaccounted for but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadists over their release.

Sweida had until last week largely remained isolated from Syria's seven-year conflict.

Druze, which made up three percent of Syria's population before 2011, are considered Muslim but IS see them as heretics.
By UNI

NEW DELHI: There has been significant drop in the number of Indian workers in Kuwait between 2017 and 2015 but there is no such scale down in other Gulf countries, official sources said here.

According to sources in the Ministry of External Affairs, in Kuwait the number of Indian workers from 70,765 as in 2015 came down to 38,871 in 2017.

There is no scale down in the number of Indian workers in other Gulf countries since 2015.

The Government has signed Labour and manpower cooperation related Memoranda of Undertaking (MoUs) or Agreements with countries that are destination for a large number of Indian migrant workers.

These include all the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries namely, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

ALSO READ | Why sponsorship system is bane of Gulf migrants existence

The agreements and MoUs seek to ensure that the respective host country has to take 'measures' for the protection and welfare of workers.

Moreover, the recruitment and terms of employment should be be in conformity with the laws of respective countries.

With regards IT professionals issues in Singapore, sources said the Government of India as part of its engagement with Singapore side consistently takes up economic and commercial issues and maintains regular engagement on all matters with authorities in Singapore.

These developments assume significance in the context of Singapore government lately tightening norms for hiring expatriates in that country.

Singapore has in fact slapped several 'tough conditions' making it difficult for companies to hire resources from India.

According to market analysts, after H-1B visas in the US, developments in Singapore has added new woes for the companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

In this context, the government sources have, however, said that with matters related to Employment Passports and other concerns of IT firms and professionals, New Delhi has "conveyed at various levels on multiple occasions" that Singapore's policies should be consistent with provisions of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).

The Indian government wants that all Indian companies should be able to conduct their business in the region without difficulty.

In fact, in this context, Minister of State for External Affairs Gen V K Singh informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply during the ongoing Monsoon session that as a result of efforts by Indian government, a number of major IT companies have conveyed "improvement in situation".

K C Ramamurthy, Congress MP wanted the government to clarify whether "one after the other country" is rejecting Indian IT professionals.

He also wanted to know how Singapore's contention is 'justified' since it is in violation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Gen Singh, however, denied the claim of the lawmaker from Karnataka.

"The government of India continues to monitor the situation and takes up relevant issues in mechanisms such as joint Working Groups (JWGs) and bilateral meetings," the Minister said.

A comparative statement of number of Indian workers in Gulf, officials say that the number of Indian workers increased in Bahrain from 2,10,081 to 2,27,239 and from 6,50,000 to 6,91,539 in Qatar.

READ HERE | Keralites make outward remittances too; Rs 1,500 crore sent to relatives abroad last year

Similarly, number of Indian workers from Oman 6,69,882 in 2015 increased to 6,88,226 in circa 2017.

The sources also said that Indian workers going for overseas employment to the Gulf countries are employed on contractual basis and have to return to India on completion of their contract period which is generally 2-3 years.

Therefore, the number of workers returning to India after completion of contract - from Gulf nations - is not a definitive indicator of any trend that there is a shortfall of Indian workers in those countries.
By AFP

PORTLAND: Activists hurled rocks and bottles during a rally in the US city of Portland, Oregon organized by two far-right groups that drew a counter protests, said police, which ordered demonstrators to leave not long after the marches got under way.

Police in the western state of Oregon's largest city had maintained a heavy presence during the dueling demonstrations, which had raised fears of a replay of last year's "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Virginia that ended in bloodshed.

The projectiles were thrown at officers, said police, who ordered those in the area to "immediately disperse" -- warning "failure to comply with this order may subject you to arrest or citation, and may subject you to the use of riot control agents or impact weapons."

Footage of the rallies that drew hundreds showed plumes of smoke rising in the city of about 640,000 people. Portland police later said "protest officers seized firework mortars," while some activists on the left accused police of shooting "stun grenades."

Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, right-wing groups linked to violence at a previous Portland rally, were marching in the city's Tom McCall Waterfront Park in support of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who is running as a Republican for the US Senate.

A group called Popular Mobilization had also organized a counter-demonstration at the park, accompanied by a marching band and protesters in clown costumes.

Meanwhile, on another counter-demonstration's Facebook page, organizers of that event said they "make no apologies for the use of force in keeping our communities safe from the scourge of right-wing violence."

Counter-protesters prepare to clash with Patriot Prayer protesters during

a rally in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. | AP

'Serious threat'

Following the police order on Saturday to disperse, Portland's branch of the Democratic Socialists of America pinned blame on officers, saying on Twitter that "a little bit before 2 PM all seemed normal in the crowd."

"Then without warning, the cops shot stun grenades into the anti-fascist crowd and started forcing people to disperse," the organization said, pointing to Portland's police as "the ones who escalated and created a dangerous situation."

On Friday, the city's mayor Ted Wheeler had voiced concern "that individuals are posting publicly their intent to act out violently," saying "we don't want this here."

Police had warned protesters to leave their guns at home even though holders of valid Oregon concealed-handgun licenses are permitted to carry their weapons at the park.

They had said officers would screen people for weapons at entrances to the park, and explosive-sniffing dogs were also to be brought in.

"The potent combination of bigotry and violence on the streets of Portland poses a serious threat to community safety, and particularly to residents who are people of color, women and LGBTQ," said a statement from the Western States Center, signed by around 40 activist groups.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group that monitors extremism, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have appeared together at several rallies in the Pacific Northwest since 2017.

A rally on June 30 was declared a riot and shut down by police after marchers and counter-protesters clashed, leaving several people injured.


By AFP

KABUL: A suicide attack claimed by the Taliban killed three foreign soldiers on patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the deadliest assault on US-led NATO troops for many months.

"Three Resolute Support service members were killed by a suicide bomber during a combined, dismounted patrol with Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan," NATO's Resolute Support mission said in a statement.

A US member of the patrol and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, it said, without giving the nationality of those killed.

"Resolute Support has a policy of never publishing the nationality of victims before it is made public by the relevant national authorities," it said.

ALSO READ | Afghanistan mosque attack: Death toll rises to 35

The attack by a lone bomber on foot happened at 6am in the city of Charikar in Parwan province 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Kabul, said provincial governor's spokesman Wahida Shahkar.

The Taliban in a statement claimed responsibility, saying they killed or wounded eight American soldiers in a "tactical explosion".

The NATO force largely ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 and pulled out the bulk of its troops. A 16,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

Of these, the US accounts for 13,000 soldiers, about 2,000 of whom are assigned to anti-terror combat missions.

Last month a US soldier was killed and two others wounded in an "apparent insider attack" in southern Afghanistan.

ALSO READ | Afghanistan: Burqa-clad suicide bombers kill 29 in Shiite mosque

Casualties among the NATO force have fallen dramatically since most were withdrawn from combat. But the Taliban and the Islamic State group have recently stepped up their bloody attacks against government and civilian targets.

On Friday two suicide bombers dressed as women struck a Shiite mosque in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, while it was crowded with worshippers for weekly prayers. Thirty-five were killed and more than 90 wounded.

The burqa-clad attackers shot at the mosque's security guards before opening fire on worshippers and then detonating their explosives.

Last month an IS suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar.

Both attacks were claimed by IS, which is trying to make inroads in Afghanistan.
By AFP

ISRAEL: An Israeli drone attacked a Palestinian militant base in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, moderately injuring two people, security officials in the Hamas-ruled territory said.

They said the facility, north of Beit Lahiya, was used by a small group known as Al-Mujahedeen, which despite its name that means holy warriors in Arabic is not a Salafist movement.

The Israeli military said one of its aircraft fired at two targets in the strip's northern area, describing one of them as "a vehicle that served a terrorist squad for launching arson balloons".

It also attacked "a terrorist squad that was launching arson balloons from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel", the army said in an English-language statement.

Palestinians in Gaza have been flying balloons and kites carrying incendiary devices across the border into Israel, starting hundreds of fires.

It is the latest phase of border demonstrations that began at the end of March, in which at least 159 Palestinians have been killed while one Israeli soldier has been shot dead.

According to unconfirmed local media reports, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to meet members of his security cabinet later Sunday to discuss a possible truce with Hamas.

Hamas leaders have been meeting in Gaza over the weekend but no details of their talks have emerged.

According to a senior Hamas source, they were expected to deal with UN and Egyptian ceasefire proposals and the lifting of Israel's decade-long blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

Israel insists its blockade is necessary to isolate Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008.

Critics say it amounts to collective punishment of the coastal territory's two million residents.
By AFP

GENEVA: Twenty people died after a vintage World War II aircraft crashed into a Swiss mountainside at the weekend, police said Sunday.

"The police have the sad certainty that the 20 people aboard perished," police spokeswoman Anita Senti told a news conference.

There were 11 men and nine women aboard, including an Austrian couple and their son, she said.

The German-built Junker JU52 HB-HOT aircraft, dating from 1939 and nickamed "Iron Annie", was a collectors' aircraft.

The photo provided by Police Graubuenden shows the wreckage of the old-time propeller plane Ju 52. (Photo | AP)

It crashed into Piz Segnas, a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) peak in the east of the country on Saturday at an altitude of 2,540 metres on the mountain's western flank, Senti said.

ALSO READ | 18 killed in Russia helicopter crash in Northern Siberia

According to German-language newspaper Blick, the flight had taken off from Ticino in the south of the country and had been due to land at the Duebendorf military airfield near Zurich on Saturday afternoon.

Swiss reports said the passengers were returning from Locarno, a holiday spot in southern Switzerland on Lake Maggiore, where they had arrived early Friday.

The 20 Minutes newspaper quoted a witness who was on the mountainside at the time of the crash.

"The plane turned 180 degrees to the south and fell to the ground like a stone," the witness said, adding that the debris was scattered over "a very small area" -- indicating that an explosion was unlikely to have been the cause of the crash.

Andreas Tobler, Grisons canton chief of police said there was "no longer any hope of finding anyone alive."

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the accident.

ALSO READ | Small plane crashes in Switzerland, several people killed

As this kind of collectors' aircraft is not equipped with "black box" flight data and voice recorders, investigators must rely on eyewitness accounts and analysis of debris.

Daniel Knech of the Swiss safety investigation service SESE said the crew did not have time to send out a distress signal. He said hot weather conditions did not contribute to the crash.

Undated pic of a JU-52 aircraft of the JU-AIR in the air. A JU-52 of the JU-AIR crashed on Saturday afternoon. (Photo | AP)

The aircraft belongs to JU-Air, a company with links to the Swiss air force, the ATS news agency reported.

JU-Air CEO Kurt Waldmeier told reporters that the plane had undergone maintenance inspection in July.

Deeply saddened

JU-Air said on its website that it was "deeply saddened" and its "thoughts were with the passengers, the crew and families and friends of the victims".

The company's flight operations were suspended, it said.

JU-Air says it runs a small fleet of four Junker planes, all built in 1939, which are for hire. Its pilots are ex-military and professional pilots, all of them volunteers.

The Junker JU52 is made of corrugated steel and was built by the German firm Junkers from the 1930s to 1950s. It was used as a military transport plane as well as a bomber during World War II.

On its website, JU-Air mentions one past accident, in 1987, at the Koblenz airport in Germany in which no one was hurt.

In another Swiss plane crash on Saturday, a tourist plane carrying a couple and two young children crashed in a forest in the Nidwald canton and immediately burst into flames. No survivors have been found.
Egypt's military and police forces have killed 52 militants and arrested dozens of suspects in an ongoing crackdown in Sinai, the army said in a statement on Sunday.

Thirty-nine "very dangerous takfiris" were killed by military forces in different raids in central and northern Sinai and 13 others were killed by national security forces in the North Sinai capital of Arish, military spokesman Colonel Tamer El-Refaie said in a video showing footage and photos of the operation which was published on his offical Facebook page.

The statement said the militants were killed over the past few days.

The attacks are part of a major security operation, Operation Sinai 2018, which was launched in February to target terrorists in Sinai, the Nile Delta and the country's Western Desert. The months-long campaign involves the army, navy, air force and police.

The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to hardline Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

The air force, which has been conducting airstrikes in northern and central Sinai since the operation started, has destroyed 15 vehicles loaded with weapons and ammunition while attempting to infiltrate through the country's western border with Libya. Seventeen other vehicles were destroyed south of Cairo, the spokesman added.

Fourty-nine suspects were arrested and 26 hideouts and caches used by the militants were destroyed during raids by military and civil police forces in north and central Sinai.

Military engineers have discovered and destroyed 64 bombs planted to target forces at operation sites. Forces also destroyed four tunnel openings in the border city of Rafah in North Sinai.



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Rain likely. High 52F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

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Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will head to Washington for a two-day visit on Monday to discuss US aid to Egypt and other issues with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

During his visit Shoukry is also expected to meet with White House national security advisor John Bolton, and to discuss investment projects in Egypt with members of the American Chamber of Commerce, a statement by Egypt's foreign ministry read.

According to the statement, Shoukry is also expected to meet with representatives of American companies and individuals who may invest in Egypt.

Shoukry is expected "to discuss various aspects of bilateral relations, including the US aid programme to Egypt in its various economic, developmental and military aspects" with Pompeo, the Egyptian statement by foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid read.

In July 2018, following talks with an Egyptian military delegation, the US said that it would shortly release $195 million in military aid to Egypt which it had suspended since August 2017.

"Shoukry will be keen to brief his American counterpart on the economic developments and social reform programme adopted by the Egyptian governmentas well as the Egyptian efforts in the fight against terrorism and the militarys Sinai Operation 2018," the statement read.

With Bolton, Shoukry is expected to discuss ways to boost bilateral relations during the next phase and regional developments in the Middle East.

Abu Zeid said that "the visit comes in the framework of maintaining a high level of communication with the American administration."

The visit also aims at "strengthening the strategic relations between the two countries and highlighting the importance of the implementation of bilateral interests in various fields."

During the visit, officials will coordinate on the date of the planned strategic 2+2 dialogue between the two countries defence and foreign ministers.

"Washington and Cairo are keen to intensify consultation and coordination to enhance stability and peace in the region," Abu Zeids statement read.

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The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi says President Elect, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa will be inaugurated on or after 12 August, 2018.





The results of the presidential elections were announced early Thursday morning with Cde Mnangagwa winning by 50.8 percent, while his closest rival, Nelson Chamisa got 44.3 percent of the vote.





Three days after the announcement, Minister Ziyambi was at hand to clarify the law and put to rest recent speculation on social media platforms over the purported delays in the swearing in of Cde Mnangagwa.





According to section 94 of the constitution, the inauguration of the president is supposed to be done on the 9th day after the declaration of the results by the independent electoral commissionso what has happened is that we have started counting from the day when the results were announced when Justice [Priscilla] Chigumba declared that Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa is the duly elected President of Zimbabwe. If you count from Friday, you will realise that the inauguration day comes on Sunday [12 August 2018]. You might also want to know that a president continues to be president until another one in sworn in, so President Mnangagwa continues to be president and his new term begins when he is sworn in on Sunday, said Ziyambi.





Giving his acceptance speech on Friday, the President Elect, responded to a question from journalists regarding the matter and he clearly clarified the law.





Cde Mnangagwa has already laid the groundwork and clarified his vision for the country since he took over leadership of the country in November last year to finish the presidential term started former President Robert Mugabe.





His inauguration will see him starting a fresh mandate as the second president of the republic and entrench his mark on Zimbabwes new journey into the future. zbc
(Newser)  People don't get flesh-eating bacteria very often, but it happensand it's good to know it when you see it, LiveScience reports. A South Carolina man nearly lost an arm this week after contracting the infection while swimming, per WSPA, and USA Today reports on nine cases in Virginia this summer, including one fatality. One study found roughly four cases for every 100,000 Americans every year. That said, here's what you need to know:



People usually contract the ailment, known by doctors as necrotizing fasciitis, with a break in the skin that allows bacteria to enter. Think burns, scrapes, cuts, and surgical wounds, says the CDC.

Watch out for "pain that's out of proportion" with the wound, says one doctor. Patients may also notice crackling sensations or noises caused by air beneath the tissue.

At the outset, look for a red or swollen patch of skin surrounding the wound that expands faster than usual, and pain beyond the red patch. Such symptoms will begin within hours and should send you to a doctor right away.

Other possible side-effects include chills, body aches, stomachache, nausea, diarrhea, and feverin other words, flu-like symptoms. Later on, watch for possible black spots, oozing pus, blisters, or ulcers.

If allowed to spread, the bacteria may cause confusion and even delirium. The pain might also subside as necrotizing fasciitis destroys the person's nerves, according to experts at the National Institute of Health.

Anyone can get flesh-eating bacteria, but it's often people with other health issues that diminish their power to stave off infection, like liver disease, cancer, kidney disease, or diabetes. Wounds exposed to seawater are also risky.

Anyone with necrotizing fasciitis should get aggressive treatment immediately. Mortality rates usually hover between 25% and 35%, but sometimes reach 50%.

One boy died from flesh-eating bacteria after falling off his bike . (Read more flesh-eating bacteria stories.)
(Newser)  North Korea sent the US an unexpectedly sharp message Saturday: These talks aren't working, and you're the problem. Speaking at a regional security conference in Singapore, North Korea's top diplomat said his nation is taking steps in the right direction while Washington fails to reciprocate, the New York Times reports. Ri Yong-ho, North Korea's minister of foreign affairs, said in a closed-door meeting that North Korea has taken steps toward denuclearizationlike dismantling a nuclear test site and stopping nuclear testsbut America hasn't reciprocated by curbing sanctions or declaring the Korean War officially over. "The United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," he said in part.

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Ri was friendlier while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remained at the conference, shaking his hand and exchanging pleasantries for a photo op, the Washington Post reports. "There are many productive conversations to be had," Ri told him. Ri was also given a letter from Trump that followed up on a missive last week from Kim Jong Un (the contents remain private, but Trump recently tweeted thanks to Kim for "your nice letter" and added, "I look forward to seeing you soon!"). Another tidbit: Before flying to Indonesia, Pompeo told Russia not to help North Korea get around UN sanctions that Moscow had approved. Meanwhile, the UN warned Friday that North Korea is skirting UN sanctions with illegal transfers of oil products and has hired a Syrian middleman to sell weapons to Libya and Yemen, AFP reports. (Pyongyang has accused Washington of being "gangster-like.")
(Newser)  "This was an assassination attempt, they tried to assassinate me," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said in blaming a drone attack Saturday on a far-right plot. As Reuters reports, an explosives-laden drone detonated at a military event in Caracas as Maduro was speaking, leaving the leftist leader unharmed but injuring seven members of Venezuela's National Guard.

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The event was to celebrate the 81st anniversary of the National Guard. Maduro said he saw a "flying device" that he thought might be part of a fireworks display in his honor; the AP describes him as "visibly shaken" after two explosions were heard. Maduro is blaming rightist detractors he says are linked to Colombia and Florida; he says some "material authors" of the attack are in custody. (Read more Nicolas Maduro stories.)
(Newser)  American Airlines booted a music student off a plane Thursday, saying her cello was too bigeven though she had just taken it on another AA flight and bought seats for it both ways, NBC Chicago reports. "When I flew from Chicago to Miami, I didn't have any trouble with that," says Jingjing Hu, a student at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago. Hu followed federal regulations, obtaining a round-trip seat for the $30,000 instrument and strapping it in with a seatbelt extender, per CBS Chicago. Hu says she even called American Airlines ahead of time to make sure her cello would make it to the Miami music festival where she was performing.

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But as the return flight boarded Thursday, a flight attendant came up and said the 737 was too small for her strapped-in cello. Hu deplaned and asked to see the relevant regulations, which said "bass violins/fiddles" aren't allowed on 737's; Hu said her instrument is a cello, but no matter, she was forbidden from taking upcoming 737 flights and given an overnight room at a Holiday Inn. She "cried alone in the lobby" and returned home the next day, says Hu. "She is exhausted but physically OK," her husband Jay Tang writes in a widely shared Facebook post. He also called the experience "humiliating." American Airlines apologized in a statement and blamed the matter on a "miscommunication." (At least the flight attendant didn't freak out.)
(Newser)  If President Trump has seemed to step up the rhetoric against Robert Mueller's investigation lately, sources say it's because he's worried the inquiry could hit close to home: Specifically, his son, Don Jr., reports the Washington Post. The president is worried that his son might have exposure in the Russia investigation, sources tell CNN, although he doesn't believe he intentionally broke the law. A Trump Jr. source tells CNN that he's not worried and maintains his innocence. The White House declined to comment, deferring to Rudy Giuliani, who said in a statement: "Just not so. After over a year or more of investigating ... there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on his part or for that matter POTUS. Nothing has changed. We are not worried about Michael Cohen because he has no knowledge of wrongdoing and has recorded it in one version or another so often that he can't be believed or relied on." (Read more President Trump stories.)
(Newser)  All 20 people aboard a Junkers Ju-52 vintage propeller plane were killed when it slammed near vertically into the Swiss Alps on Saturday, reports the AP, spurring an investigation that officials are already expecting to be "relatively complex." The crash occurred near the resort town of Flims, and the plane, operated by Swiss tourism company Ju-Air, issued no distress call. Officials don't think the cause was mid-air collision, foul play, or the plane breaking up, but are hampered by a presumed lack of modern voice and data recorders. Junkers Ju-52 planes were built between 1932 and 1952 and can carry up to 17 passengers and three crew. (Read more prop plane stories.)
(Newser)  A psychiatrist who spent hours talking with mass murderer James Holmes says that what led Holmes to open fire in a crowded Colorado movie theater was a one-of-a-kind vortex of his mental illness, his personality, and his circumstancesand some other, unknown currents that will probably never be uncovered, the AP reports. "A big part of it is, it's hidden in Holmes' mind, and he can't see it either," says William Reid in an interview about his new book, A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass Shootings. Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 when he opened fire during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, a Batman movie, in the Denver suburb of Aurora on July 20, 2012. Holmes was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Reid listed factors that influenced Holmes' actions:

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Holmes' mental illness, and the way it influenced his behavior.

The way Holmes' personality shaped his awkward interactions with other people and influenced his view of the world.

The ups and downs of Holmes' life as he struggled in neuroscience graduate school at the University of Colorado in Denver and broke up with his girlfriend.

"The answerand this really is the answer, but it's not very satisfyinglies in an unimaginably detailed and complex confluence that we can't replicate because we can't see all of it," Reid writes. But he reveals that Holmes said he may kill again if given the chance. Should prison guards be worried about that? "Um, I'd say so, yeah," says Reid.

(Read more mass shootings stories.)
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Kolkata:

The IIT Kharagpur has reported to the West Midnapore district administration, state government and the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development about 'law and order violations' by a local group and to ensure safety of the students, faculty and staff.

An IIT KGP statement on Sunday said a group called the Joint Action Committee had allegedly prevented 850 contractual workers from clean-up and mess services at the student halls and had manhandled some of the workers on Saturday.

Also Read | Book records ways how women responded to English language

The group had also called an indefinite strike on Sunday which was later called off, district officials said and promised full cooperation to IIT KGP authorities in maintaining order.

The premier institute has close to 12,000 students living in more than 20 halls of residence and the Hall Management Centre (HMC) has always engaged outsourcing agencies, the statement said.

The group had been claiming that more outsourced workers be engaged in the mess service and cleaning operations at the student halls as in their view the number of staff is inadequate and they wanted to have a say in the operations.

"Supporters of this group are neither on the institutes pay roll nor on outsourced duty and were found illegally entering the halls of residence and coercing the mess workers to leave their work yesterday. They went to the extent of physical assault and threatening them with dire consequences," the statement said quoting an IIT KGP official.

Refusing to give in to the demand of the group, the statement said, "We stand firm on the policies and decisions about not to give in to their illegal threats. The workers concerned are working today."

Also Read | UGC recommends university status for IIMC

Some of the girl students further complained that fewof these local goons entered one of the girls hostels forcibly on Saturday.

"I saw several of these men in bikes and cyclesforcing their way in our hostel while the institutes security personnel were trying to stop them from entering," a girl student said.

IIT KGP said the matter has also been reported to police.

Also Read | Book explores higher realms of self-discovery, inner peace

The institute authorities will have a close monitoring of the situation for the next three days, up to Tuesday night,"as it may take some time to entirely bring back the normalcy," the statement said.
In the first visit by an Italian foreign minister to Cairo since 2015, Egyptian and Italian foreign ministers agreed on Sunday to continue cooperation in combating illegal immigration and resolving the Libyan issue through a Libyan-Libyan solution.

In a joint press conference following political consultation talks between Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi, the two dignitaries said that the discussions between their countries represented a keenness on recovering the momentum of relations between Egypt and Italy.

Speaking on the Libyan issue, Shoukry said both countries agree on moving forward with the UN envoy to Libyas plan for a Libyan-Libyan resolution that preserves the unity of the country and its institutions and people.

Egypt welcomes cooperating with Italy in reaching a comprehensive format that would accomplish political stability and security in Libya, while re-establishing Libyan state institutions and facilitating parliamentary and presidential elections as soon as possible, said Shoukry.

We need to ensure fruitful results in Libya. The elections in Libya are a turning point, because the Libyan people will have a say, added Milanesi.

According to a statement by Egypts foreign ministry, the ministers also had detailed discussions regarding illegal migration and the influx of refugees to the Mediterranean region, calling it an issue that should be dealt with inclusively, while also mentioning Egypts efforts to block attempts of illegal immigration from its coastline since the sinking of a migrant in September 2016.

Shoukry also spoke of Milanesis treatment of the regional issue from a humanitarian perspective, while also rejecting any solutions related to establishing camps for refugees.

We believe in the importance of our joint efforts in facing this dilemma and we have taken steps in aiding in the development of countries where illegal immigration originates, Milanesi said.

Milanesi also described Egypts experience in dealing with illegal immigration as very good, adding that there were lessons to be learned from it.

He said he and Shoukry discussed combating terrorism, describing it as phenomena that has lasted for years and strongly affects Mediterranean countries.

Investment opportunities in Egypt were also discussed, including recent mammoth oil discoveries in Egypts Zohr Field by Italian energy company Eni.

The existing cooperation between Egypt and Italys Eni has helped in speeding up steps of cooperation between the two countries, said Shoukry.

He added that oil discoveries in Egypt, including through partnerships with Cyprus, Greece, and Italy, benefits all sides in the region.

Italy ranks second in terms of European trade partners with Egypt with a trade exchange of EGP 98 billion ($5.5 billion), and is the fifth largest investor in Egypt with total investments worth EGP 32 billion ($1.8 billion), according to an Egyptian foreign ministry statement.

Shoukry also hailed special cooperation between both countries judicial authorities in the investigation into the death of murdered student Giulio Regeni.

Shoukry said Italy was an important partner for Egypt, describing the relationship as one that once faced a challenge, but said both countries were working on overcoming and boosting relations.

Egypt and Italy have been seeking to improve relations, which experienced tensions in 2016 when Italy recalled its ambassador over transparency concerns in the investigation into the murder of Regeni in Cairo earlier that year.

The Italian ambassador returned to Cairo in September 2017 and the two countries continue to cooperate to determine the circumstances behind Regeni's murder.

Milanesi said that the discussions between the ministers on the Regeni case showed a strong willingness to achieve concrete results in the investigations.

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New Delhi:

Congress president Rahul Gandhi seems to signal a closure with Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Nitish Kumar as a potential ally by joining RJDs protest of GenNext, Tejashwi Yadav, on Saturday. During the protest, Gandhi directly targeted the Bihar CM for the mass rape in a government-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

The Gandhi scion staged a participation in the protest despite several appeals from the JD(U) urging the Congress to distance itself from the RJD's protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

Not just that, Gandhi gave a clear message to the JD-(U) that it won't ditch the tried and tested ally RJD. He even launched a direct attack on Nitish by saying that if the JD-U chief was really ashamed of the incident, he should take expeditious action against the accused.

Also Read | Nitin Gadkaris big confession on Maratha quota stir: There are 'no jobs', reservation will do no good

The protest at Jantar Mantar was orchestrated despite the fact that Kumars deputies have been in contact with Congress over their inconstancy with ally BJP, which would have benefitted Congress to turn the tables of the upcoming 2019 general elections in their favor.

Tejashwi Yadav was the torchbearer of the protest seeking justice for the Muzaffarpur mass rape victims, leading an unrelenting battle against "Chacha" Nitish, which was also joined by Delhi CM and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, among others.

Also Read | Bihar Shelter Home Rape Protest: We are here to stand with women of the country, says Rahul Gandhi

The JD-U) had won the Bihar Assembly elections allying with the RJD and the Congress, but last year quit the alliance to join hands with the BJP. Since then, there has been a bad blood between Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar. The Congress, on the other hand, was willing to gain a strong political support against BJP ahead of the 2019 elections if Kumar switched sides again.

The ultimate sentiment that ran through the Congress was weakening the BJP, rather than agonizing under Nitishs betrayal.

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New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Sunday lashed out at the opposition for playing vote bank politics over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue at the inaugural event of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction railway station, which was earlier known as Mughalsarai.

Shah alleged that Congress President Rahul Gandhi never replied to him over the NRC draft.

Also Read | Assam's final NRC draft released; 2.89 crore people included in the list

"Today the Opposition is trying to dilute the whole country. The central government made the NRC draft after Supreme Court's order. NRC is an initiative to bring out all the Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam. However, Mamata Banerjee says that NRC shouldn't be promoted. Congress party also believes the same. I have been asking Rahul Gandhi whether NRC should be in this country or not? He has never replied to me on the same," Shah said.

The BJP president asked the opposition parties whether they want to keep the Bangladeshi infiltrators or want the intruders to stay in the conutry.

"Today I want to ask SP, BSP and Congress to decide whether they want to keep Bangladeshi intruders here or want to throw them out?" Shah asked.

Also Read | Assam NRC: Government did tardy job, must move swiftly to resolve crisis: Rahul Gandhi

Shah also dared the Congress to clear its stand in the Rajya Sabha on the amended OBC bill, saying the bill will prove whether the Congress was really for the welfare of the backward classes.

"Prime Minister Modi is set to bring two new bills. One of them is to give constitutional rights to all the backward classes as part of the OBC Commission. Prime Minister Modi will get this bill pass in the Lok Sabha. Later it will go to Rajya Sabha for approval. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi to confirm in front of people whether the Congress party will help us in passing this bill or not?" Shah asked.

Also Read | Amit Shah assures passage of OBC bill in Parliament

The BJP president also attacked the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and accused that during their regime there were only corruption, violence and mafia in Uttar Pradesh.

"Whenever I hear bua and bhatija (Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav), I can't see their jealously. The government gave you a chance for 15 years, but during your regime only corruption, violence and mafia were there. Today under Yogi Adityanath's government, mafia has gone out of the Uttar Pradesh border. Congress party, through their support to SP and BSP, gave Rs 3,30,000 crore to Uttar Pradesh. But the BJP government gave Rs 8,08,000 crore to the state. We have given Rs 4,77,000 crore more to this state," Shah alleged.

(With inputs from agencies)

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New Delhi:

Normal life in Kashmir came to a standstill on Sunday on a call for shutdown by separatists, who have been protesting the government's alleged move to tamper with Article 35-A, which prevents non-locals from buying and owning any immovable property in the state.

The large-scale protest came a day before the Supreme Court's crucial hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the validity of Article 35-A, a presidential order mandated back in 1954.

Though Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar woke up to desolate roads with all kinds of transport and business establishment remained closed, no untoward incident has been reported from across the valley so far.

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) called for a two-day strike as the fear that special status of Jammu and Kashmir's will be revoked through a legal route has been mongering across the state.

Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik from the JRL accused the BJP and RSS of attempting to change the demography of the state. A sit-in was also organised by traders in the city-centre against any change in the special status of the state.

Read | Adultery law violates right to equality; treats men, women differently: Supreme Court

A Delhi-based NGO, We the Citizens filed a petition, claiming that the state's special status, granted by Article 35-A and Article 370 of the Constitution, discriminate against neighbouring citizens from across the country.

Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while Article 35A empowers the state legislature to define the states permanent residents and their special rights and privileges.

Meanwhile, the state government has filed an application before the apex court, asking it to defer the hearing in view of the "ongoing preparations for the upcoming Panchayat and urban local body and municipal elections in the state".

Separatists, on the other hand, warned of launching a "mass agitation of hitting and occupying streets" if Article 35-A is 'tinkered' under a legal garb.

Amidst this rising tension across the valley, large numbers of security personnel have been deployed at vulnerable places to maintain the law and order.

Read | Section 377: Supreme Court reserves verdict on gay sex law

Various organisations, including Bar Association, transporters and traders' bodies have extended their support to the shutdown call of the JRL.

Protests have been held across the length and breadth of Kashmir since August 1 with mainstream parties like the National Conference and PDP holding rallies in support of continuing Article 35-A.

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New Delhi:

As many as 200 pilgrims undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in Nepal were stranded due to inclement weather conditions in Simikot, Hilsa, the Indian Embassy in the landlocked country said on Sunday.

"Our headcount on the evening of August 4 revealed that there are 124 pilgrims in Simikot and 50 others in Hilsa or about to come to Hilsa," a statement released by the Embassy read.

However, to a great relief for all those stranded pilgrims, Simikot has basic boarding and lodging facilities for up to 500 yatris while initial medical examination and first aid provisions were also made available to avoid untoward incidents.

The Embassy is in continual touch with the pilgrims and will evacuate all those stranded as soon as the weather becomes favourable for the operation of flights.

"Numbers are not alarming and would take just a day of good weather and normal operations of flights to evacuate all those stranded," the Embassy said.

Read | 3,451 more pilgrims leave for Amarnath Yatra amid tight security

"The Mission's representatives in Simikot/Hilsa/Nepalganj are on alert and continuously monitoring the situation. In case of any emergency, the Mission would ensure safe and timely evacuation of stranded pilgrims," it added.

Moreover, an Emergency Control Room, equipped with eight-member multilingual personnel, has been functioning to cater the need of the pilgrims and their family members.

In July, 1,430 pilgrims were evacuated from Simikot and Hilsa in multiple airlift operations to Nepalgunj and Surkhet located close to the Indian border. As many as 74 commercial flights along with private Mi-16 choppers were operated to make the mission successful.

The pilgrims were stranded for five-six days as heavy downpour in western Nepal damaged roads and hampered transportation.

Every year, thousands of Indian pilgrims take part in the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nepal in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China ahead of the monsoon season.

Read | Amarnath Yatra 2018: 13 pilgrims injured as minibus rams into truck in J&K's Udhampur

The annual pilgrimage is organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) between June to September, in cooperation with the government of the People's Republic of China through two different routes - Lipulekh Pass (Uttarakhand) and Nathu La Pass (Sikkim).

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New Delhi:

Mughalsarai Junction was on Sunday renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway station with BJP president Amit Shah, Union Railway minister Piyush Goel and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath flagging off a passenger train and a goods train with an all-women crew.

BJP president #AmitShah inaugurates new Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway station, which was earlier known as #Mughalsarai. Union Minister Piyush Goyal & UP CM Yogi Adityanath, also present. pic.twitter.com/nrEaylgilP  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 5, 2018

The century-old station on the busy Delhi-Howrah route was given a saffron touch at places while signboards were put up to reflect the new station name.

Also, a smart yard project was also launched on Sunday by the three leaders to upgrade the yard at the station.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi joining RJD's protest a closure to Congress-JD(U) ties!

Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior BJP leaders also attended the inaugural event.

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New Delhi:

In what could be a big blow for all the government-run shelter homes in Bihar, one among the 14 girls, who were rescued from the Muzaffarpur Balika Grih has gone missing from an NGO in Madhubani.

Speaking to ANI, Pragya Bharti, the owner of the NGO said, "In our NGO, we have 10 beds in the special unit. We earlier had 11 children. When those 14 children came, the authorities told me that they would be shifted later and demanded me to keep them. I didn't have the capacity to accommodate 20-25 children, but due to pressure from the government, I kept the children. The children were not shifted after that. I did my best to protect them."

"The condition of those 14 girls were not good. So, we wrote a letter to the district administration demanding security. There were four people who were overseeing the security. We had adequate security but somehow a girl went missing due to security lapse or conspiracy. This case is being given a political colour. This should not be made into a political issue at all," she added.

Following this shocking incident, Bharti immediately registered a complaint with the police and also submitted copies of the CCTV footage for further investigation.

On being asked about the Police or CBI investigation in connection to the case, Bharti replied that there was no questioning done so far. She also rubbished the rumours of her NGO doing malicious activities.

Read | Bihar Shelter Home Rape Protest: We are here to stand with women of the country, says Rahul Gandhi

Talking about the health condition of the 14 minor girls, Bharti further said, "I spoke to them. They were physically weak. After conducting counselling sessions, they started talking. There are some girls who are recovering right now."

Earlier, in July, in the view of a monstrous crime in a Bihar shelter home, as many as 34 minor girls were shifted to two different NGOs in Patna and Madhubani. The police have also blacklisted the NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Meanwhile, BJP MP CP Thakur has demanded the resignation of Bihar Welfare Minister Manju Verma, suspecting her involvement with the case. "I don't know if her (Manju Verma) husband is involved or not. All I am saying is that she should resign till the CBI inquiry is on, once the CBI gives her a clean chit she can resume office," Thakur was quoted as saying by ANI.

On Saturday, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav held a protest at the historic Jantar Mantar against the rape of 34 girls in a government-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Read | Bihar shelter home rape case: Nitish Kumar breaks silence, promises strict action against guilty

The RJD leader, who has been critical of the Nitish Kumar government for its alleged connection with the case, was also joined by Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his sit-in in New Delhi.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also marked attendance in Yadav's attempt to seek justice for minor girls of Muzaffarpur shelter home.

Seven Social welfare department officials were also suspended by Governor Satya Pal Malik for not taking timely cognizance of the social audit report by a leading research university situated in Mumbai, which unravelled the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

For those unversed, in July, as many as 34 girls, aged among seven to 14 years, were drugged, scalded with boiling water, raped and forced to sleep naked in a government-run shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur. One of the minors was mercilessly beaten to death following a disagreement with some of the staff members from the stay home.

Read | Bihar shelter home rape: SC takes suo moto cognizance, seeks reply from Centre, state government

The CBI is currently investigating the case, which relates to the mental, physical and sexual exploitation of the girls residing at the Balika Grih of Bihar's Muzaffarpur. The shelter home was run by Brajesh Thakur, a well-known name in the power corridors of Patna.

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New Delhi:

Senior Congress leader and parliamentarian from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor has opened up on the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar for the first time. Sharing the pang of heartache he has been hiding, Tharoor termed wife Sunandas death a tragedy that struck him hard.

"Sunanda's death was a tragedy that struck me, I saw my 80-year-old mother weeping on television," Tharoor said in an interview with India TV.

Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room of Delhi on January 17, 2014. In the chargesheet filed by Delhi police, Tharoor is the only person arrayed as an accused in the case. The Congress leader, however, reiterated that he had not done anything wrong.

I have a clear conscience. I have not done anything wrong. ..I did not slap my two naughty boys even once, even though they sometimes deserved to..I saw my 80-year-old mother weeping on TV. In my entire life, I had promised myself never to go to any police station or court, but this happened, Tharoor said in the interview.

Also Read | Piyush Goyal criticises Shashi Tharoor's 'foreign accent'; Congress MP hits back

The former Union minister said that it was very difficult time for him to deal with the sudden demise of his wife and motivated allegations but truth remained his strength during the testing times.

It was very difficult. Satya meri shakti hai (Truth has been my power). I decided, why should I allow them to define me. I will be my own self and stay as strong as I can, he said.

Reacting to the polices chargesheet, Tharoor said that it was motivated prosecution and he will fight the case in the court.

It is a motivated prosecution. Let police prove in court if it is a case of suicide. ..Sunanda never said that I did anything against her, never. All these matters are before the court. I am contesting this in court. I want to clear myself before the court, hence I would refrain from speaking here, he added.

Also Read | Shashi Tharoor rakes up another controversy, says safer to be cow than Muslim'

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Tashkent:

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday left for home from Uzbekistan after a positive and productive trip to three Central Asian nations to help boost Indias partnership with the strategic and resource-rich region.



Earlier on Sunday, Swaraj met President Shavkat Mirziyoyev here in the Uzbek capital.



Meeting that lasted 100 minutes! EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on President of #Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent. Substantive discussion on steps to strengthen our strategic partnership across all sectors. India looks forward to visit of President Mirziyoyev later this year, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.



The minister also paid floral tributes at the bust of Indias second prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial in Tashkent. Swaraj later left for home.



ALSO READ | Army likely to take action against Major Leetul Gogoi in Kashmiri woman case

Deepening our historical and cultural bond with Central Asia! EAM @sushmaswaraj departs from Tashkent after a positive & productive 4-day trip to three countries that helped reinvigorate our partnership with this strategic region. Seen off by Uzbek Foreign Minister Kamilov, Kumar said.



Swaraj, who arrived here yesterday on her first visit to Uzbekistan, visited the Shastri memorial this morning.



EAM Sushma Swaraj paying floral tribute to freedom fighter and 2nd Prime Minister of India Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial in Tashkent, Kumar tweeted along with a photograph of the minister.



At the memorial, Swaraj also met with Yakov Shapiro who sculpted the bronze bust of Shastri. Shastri had died in Tashkent in January, 1966 after signing the Tashkent Declaration that formally ended the war between India and Pakistan.



A memorial was built here in his memory. Swaraj also met with Speaker of Uzbekistans Legislative Assembly Nurdinjon Ismoilov and discussed the role of Parliament in fostering closer people-to-people relationship.



EAM Sushma Swaraj met the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan Nurdinjon Ismoilov and representatives of political fractions in their Parliament. Discussed the role of Parliament in fostering closer people-to-people relationship, Kumar said.



Swaraj also addressed the Indian community here and inaugurated a mango festival.



Promoting Indian mangoes in Uzbekistan! EAM Sushma Swaraj inaugurated a Mango Festival organised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh with participation of mango exporters in Tashkent. The exporters will visit fruit markets and meet fruit traders, Kumar tweeted.



Swaraj also interacted with Uzbek Indologists, Hindi teachers and students.



ALSO READ | President Kovind visits Karunanidhi at hospital

EAM Sushma Swaraj: Love and appreciation for Indian culture is visible everywhere in Uzbekistan. Indian dance, music, films, cuisine, costume and now yoga are very popular, Kumar said.



Country with a strong cultural affinity towards India! EAM Sushma Swaraj interacts with Uzbek Indologists, Hindi teachers and students, and ITEC and ICCR alumni in Tashkent. They play an important role in promoting academic exchanges and people to people contacts, he said.



Swaraj had called on Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov and held bilateral discussions yesterday.



India and Uzbekistan are strategic partners with strong historical and cultural linkages. Swaraj was here on the final leg of her three-nation tour after her visit to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

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New Delhi:

With rumours and scare of data breach mongering against Aadhaar in the backdrop of the appearance of an old Aadhaar helpline number in mobile phones, UIDAI in an official press release on Sunday said, "Google has added UIDAIs old contact number 18003001947 by inadvertently and has since been continuing through sync mechanism".

The press release came a day after Google, the technology giant, apologised for installing the outdated UIDAI (Aadhaar) toll-free number and 112 distress helpline number in the Android phones of certain users without their consent.

The American technology company has also assured users of fixing the issue in the upcoming release of Set Up wizard. Users can also manually delete these numbers from their contact lists, Google added.

On Friday, social media had been flooded with public outrage for loading an old UIDAI helpline number in Android phones of several users. Initially, people questioned the Aadhaar body for this, but later UIDAI came out with a clarification and blamed vested interest for trying to create confusion in the public. Read Full Clarification Here

Read | UIDAI to roll out new service for updating Aadhaar card address easily



Sunday's UIDAI press release too urged people to "stay away from such rumours and malicious campaign by vested interests".

"People should also not waste their time and time of their near and dear ones by forwarding or circulating such false and baseless rumours on their WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook," the Aadhaar body said.

"One must know that Aadhaar has caused tremendous benefits to our country and helped saved more Rs 90,000 Crore by preventing leakage and syphoning of benefits and subsidies meant for poor," UIDAI went on to claim further.

Read | Aadhaar biometrics cannot be used for crime investigation: UIDAI

"It has empowered 121 Crore people of India with a credible and secure identity which can be freely used anywhere, anytime and online. People are able to get their rightful entitlement directly into their bank accounts without any middlemen. It has also helped curb tax evasion, money launderers, benami accounts and shell companies," it concluded.

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New Delhi:

The more the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal fights the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the better for the saffron bandwagon. This is so as elections in three crucial states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are only a few months away where the AAP may try its luck to settle scores with the BJP. And this may well go on until the nationwide general elections in 2019.

The reason for taking on the BJP alone in states other than Delhi must be best known to the AAP leaders in general and Kejriwal and his minister and cohort Gopal Rai in particular. Yet, the fact is that the AAP strategists opt to join the electoral battle only in states where the Congress alone is better placed to challenge the BJP. A candidate from a third party in these states could only suit the BJP because this could turn the contest triangular and possibly split the anti-BJP votes.

This happened earlier in the Gujarat and the Karnataka Assembly elections where the Congress was the main contender against the BJP and yet the AAP fielded candidates on select seats.

Also Read Opinion | Justice Joseph's elevation to SC: Policy of checks and balance needed

Although the Kejriwals party drew a blank in the two states and the BJP emerged as the single largest party in both, the AAP has hardly learnt any lessons from its debacle. And in the last years Punjab polls, the same formula of shouting against the BJP but targeting the Congress in the process also could not help the AAP much.

Yet, the party this time has decided to contest all the seats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh though its chances of making a mark in any of these states are too thin to take note of except the fact that its candidates would join the raga of fighting corruption alongside that of the BJP to target the Congress in their own way. This is more so since both the AAP and the BJP are children born out of the faultlines of Anna Hazares Indian against Corruption (IAC) movement that had taken Delhi over half-a-decade ago from now with an overwhelming feeling against the Congress.

In fact, while sharing the spoils in the aftermath of the IAC movement, the AAP ended up in capturing power in Delhi though it had national ambitions. Unlike this, the NDA or the BJP generally and Prime Minister Narendra Modi mainly seized the power at the Centre despite the fact that earlier he has simply been a state or Gujarats leader for long. Hence, ever since the AAP has been trying to reverse the roles which began though unsuccessfully for Kejriwal with the electoral battle for Varanasi fought directly between him and Modi in 2014.

This was amid promises from both the contestants to root out corruption by appointing an ombudsman or Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta at the state-level in keeping with the spirit of the Anna movement. It never happened. And new cases of corruption like Vyapam, or recruitment, scandal in Madhya Pradesh and rice scam in Chhattisgarh surfaced. These are bound to dog the ruling party and their BJP chief ministers in the two states.

Yet, the actual question that the AAP tries to invariably rake up by throwing its hat in state elections vowing to defeat the BJP is that who is the genuine successor of the Congress? And since this question is redundant in states where Congress is not in the reckoning and regional forces hold the ground, the AAP never ventures to join the fray when elections come at such places. This has been the case in polls in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and Bihar in 2015. On both these occasions for Assembly polls in the two States the AAP never moved and preferred to keep its role confined to Delhi.

And as once again polls are nearing in states where the Congress stands a good chance to take on the BJP on its own, the AAP is again on the prowl.

Read More Opinion | Is NRC a political tool?

Gopal Rai has stated that his party will contest all the 200 seats in Rajasthan, 230 in Madhya Pradesh and 90 in Chhattisgarh. For Madhya Pradesh, Kejriwal has also declared the name of AAPs candidate for the chief minister post. Kejriwal has held a public meeting at Indore where AAPs bet for the top job of the state Alok Agarwal also appeared at the stage with Kejriwal.

These moves by the AAP make it virtually the first party to start its campaign for the upcoming polls in the three states. And names of a few candidates have also been declared by the party for each of the three states with the rider that the rest of the candidates names will follow. This is obviously meant to cut down the Congress vote percentage and possibly project the AAP as a replacement of the Congress. This is in sharp contrast to other parties like Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which has shown keenness for alliance with the Congress in all the three election-bound states.

Hence, the AAP higher ups may well take their bid to emerge as an alternative to the Congress until the next midsummers general elections and while doing so wittingly or unwittingly help the BJP in its mission of the Congress Mukta Bharat, or India without the Congress. This is what makes the AAP a virtual frenemy of the BJP. And it is all the more glaring now when most of the non-BJP parties, if not all of them, are trying to come together to challenge the might of the BJP in the next general elections.

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Egypt is delivering more than half a tonne of medicine to Sudan, according to statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.

Egyptian officials in Northern Sudans Wadi Halfa, close to Egypts Aswan, received an Egyptian medical convoy delivering drugs needed by Sudanese patients, the statement read.

The convoy will spend a week delivering the medicine to the Northern Sudanese city and other northern states.

The ministry said the medical convoy was the result of instructions from the political leadership of both countries to boost bilateral relations and cooperation in different fields.

Egyptian medical convoys to Sudan are not uncommon.

Throughout the past years, Egypt has often dispatched medical convoys to Sudan to treat Sudanese patients seeking treatment.

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New Delhi:

After simmering for six months with the Centre rejecting and sending for re-consideration, the recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium to elevate Justice KM Joseph, Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court to the SC bench, the controversy has finally ended for now with his elevation.

Thereby, the curtains are down on the bone of contention between the judiciary and the executive which soured ties between them with the inevitable climbdown by the Narendra Modi government. With the SC having reiterated its recommendation, legal experts averred that the government had no option but to cave in. This was also vital for the health of democracy.

The government could have kept the recommendation in cold storage indefinitely, neither accepting nor rejecting it, since there is no time limit for a decision on implementation, but relations between the pillars of democracy would only have worsened.

It is prudent, therefore, that Justice Joseph has been elevated and a further confrontation averted. But the government made the judiciary acquiesce in the elevation of Madras HC Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa HC Chief Justice Vineet Saran as Supreme Court judges with higher seniority than Justice Joseph. In the process, the government saved its face.

Justice Josephs name was recommended for appointment as a Supreme Court judge by the collegium headed by Justice Dipak Misra on January 10 last which was followed two days later by an unprecedented rebellion within the top judiciary.

Suggested Read: Is NRC a political tool?

On January 12, the four senior-most members of the Collegium after the chief justice  Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph ---addressed a media conference to criticize the CJIs working. This was unprecedented and brought the judiciary a bad name. When the SC resolved to re-send the recommendation to the executive, it was sounded out that it must recommend some other names too which it did.

While the current controversy has been put to rest, the central issue is the process of appointment of SC judges which could again escalate when another flashpoint comes. When the court had struck down the bill on judicial appointments which provided for a government representative on the appointments panel, the bench that struck it down had resolved to address the issue subsequently, which it never did.

The governments objection to Justice Josephs elevation ostensibly stemmed from his lack of seniority. He was identified as 42nd in the all-India seniority list of judges---and also on grounds that there was not a single Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe judge of the Supreme Court. The need for representation to all regions was cited as another factor. Since Justice Kurian Joseph was from Kerala it was said that another judge from the same state would give disproportionate representation to Kerala.

Also Read | New Congress stables: How Rahul Gandhi knocked out old hands with new ones

The Opposition and other judges who opposed the governments view felt that Justice Joseph was being denied the elevation because he had struck down the imposition of Presidents rule in Uttarakhand and restored the Congress chief minister in the state which was a slap in the Modi governments face. This reasoning was denied for the record by the Union Law Minister.

There should be no question of victory or defeat in matters related to relations between the judiciary and the executive but it is pertinent that the pillars of democracy must function on the principle of checks and balances. In that context, untrammeled power to either of the two would be against the spirit of democracy.

The two pillars and the third---legislature---must work in harmony though it is not necessary that they hold the same views.

While it is important that the appointments process for judges be streamlined, primacy must lie with the judiciary and not the executive on this. Having a government voice on the panel would better serve the principles of democratic functioning with proper checks and balances.

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New Delhi:

Nokia is all geared up for the launch of its new Nokia 6.1 Plus in India. Earlier, Nokia had debuted its Nokia 6.1 Plus Android One smartphone in Hong Kong.



According to reports by HMD Global, an official licensee of Nokia-branded phones, the specifications of Nokia 6.1 Plus are identical to the Nokia X6 that was launched in China in May this year.



The dual-SIM smartphone runs Android 8.1 Oreo and features a 5.8-inch full-HD+ (1080x2280 pixels) display with a 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 and a 19:9 aspect ratio.



ALSO READ | Lenovo to launch worlds first 5G smartphone; know all about it

It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC and comes with 4GB and 6GB of RAM configurations.



In terms of storage, the smartphone comes with 32GB and 64GB of internal storage.



On the camera front, Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a dual rear camera setup with a 16-megapixel primary sensor and a 5-megapixel secondary sensor.



The smartphone also supports Face Unlock technology.



ALSO READ | Next-gen fabric idea among innovations selected for Nexus incubation

In terms of connectivity, there is 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, a 3.5mm headphone jack.



The smartphone comes with a 3060mAh battery.
New Delhi:

Drone like devices carrying explosives detonated near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during his speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas city on Saturday.

Seven people were injured in the attack, which came as Maduro celebrated the National Guards 81st anniversary. The Venezuelan President, however, escaped unhurt, according to the government.

Soon after the attack, the Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said that Maduros speech was abruptly cut short and the soldiers broke their ranks and scattered in different directions.

Also Read | Homeless man jailed for breaking into Buckingham Palace

At exactly 5:41 pm in the afternoon several explosions were heard. The investigation clearly reveals they came from drone-like devices that carried explosives, Rodriguez claims.

However, the claims of the government were dismissed by the firefighters at the spot. They said that the blast occurred due to a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near the site of Maduros speech.

This was not the first time the Venezuelan government has claimed an attack on President Maduro. The ruling government in Venezuela had in the past accused the opposition activists of plotting an attack on Maduro, who was recently elected to a new term.

Also Read | Finnish brothers killed by lightning as they heated sauna

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New Delhi:

At least people were killed and dozens injured after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesias popular tourist island of Lombok on Sunday, according to officials.

The US Geological Survey said the tremor, off the north coast of Lombak, struck 10km (6.21 miles) underground.

The quake was followed by two light to moderate secondary quakes and nearly two dozen aftershocks.

Also Read | Magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocks Indonesias Lombok Island; Tsunami alert issued

This was the second earthquake on Lombok in a week. A 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook the island on July 29, killing 16 people.

The latest data we have 19 people are dead at Tanjung Hospital (North Lombok), Agus Hendra Sanjaya, Mataram search and rescue spokesman, told AFP.

Mataram added that at least 52 people were injured.

A tsunami warning was issued after the quake but it was lifted several hours later.

Also Read | Indonesia earthquake: 10 dead, dozens injured after magnitude 6.4 quake hits Lombok island

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) area of intense seismic and volcanic activity where most of the worlds earthquakes occur.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake of 9.1 magnitude off Sumatra triggered a tsunami, killing 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Lahore:

The convict in a high-profile rape and murder case of a minor girl in Pakistans Kasur city was given 12 more death sentences by a special anti-terrorism court in another three cases of child sexual abuse, according to a media report.



Imran Ali, who was already awarded four counts of the death penalty, one life term, 7-year jail term and Rs 4.1 million in fines back in February for raping and murdering the seven-year-old girl, had confessed sexually abusing at least another eight girls, Dawn newspaper reported.



The anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday awarded Ali, currently incarcerated and on death-row for the rape and murder of the minor girl, the death penalty on 12 more counts for the rape and murder of three other girls, the report said.



ALSO READ | Imran may take oath as Pakistan's Prime Minister on August 14

Ali was also fined Rs 6 million out of which Rs 3 million were directed to be handed to the families of the victims as blood money.



Earlier this year, the rape and murder of the minor girl in Kasur had sparked outrage and protests across the country.



Ali was nabbed by authorities on January 23 following a DNA-match.



ALSO READ | Asian countries denounce real threat of global trade war

He was found to be a serial killer and had confessed to his crimes on the day of his indictment that came through the Lahore High Court (LHC).



On February 17, he was given a death sentence for abduction, rape and murder in the Kasur girl case.

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Berlin:

A small plane crashed on Sunday into a forest in central Switzerland, killing a local family of four who had just taken off for France, police said.

In a separate incident, another plane crashed in the country's southeast, but there was no immediate information on casualties.

Police in the central canton (state) of Nidwalden said an aircraft went down on Sunday morning near the town of Hergiswil, which is on Lake Lucerne at the foot of Mount Pilatus. Authorities had to send up a helicopter to extinguish the resulting fire before rescue workers could get to the scene, they said.

There was no immediate word on the possible cause of the crash, which was under investigation by Swiss authorities.

Also Read | Drone attack on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, he escapes unhurt

Police said later on Sunday the victims were a couple and their two children from the region aboard the plane, which had taken off less than 20 minutes earlier from an airfield in Kaegiswil and was headed for France.

In a separate incident on Sunday, police in the southeastern Swiss canton of Graubuenden said a several-seater plane crashed on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Alpine resort of Flims.

They didn't immediately give information on casualties but said the crash site was 2,540 meters (8,330 feet) above sea level. The cause of that crash was also under investigation.

Ju-Air, a Swiss company that offers flights with veteran Junkers Ju-52 planes, said on its website that one of its aircraft had been involved in an accident on Sunday but no further information was immediately available.

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Mogadishu:

A Somali police officer says a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle killing four people near the gate of a military base in Afgoye town, 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.

Col. Ahmed Ali said that two of the dead were soldiers and fatalities could increase from the 10 injured in the blast today, which was close to the former national water agencys offices.

Also Read | Suicide attack kills three NATO soldiers in Afghanistan: official

Residents report hearing a powerful explosion, followed by gunfire from the base. Addow Isse, a resident in the town, said he saw at least three bodies lying in a pool of blood.

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Indonesia has expressed its complete support towards measures adopted by the Kingdom to thwart threats from terrorists.

This came as Indonesias Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Abdurrahman Fachir, received the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for International Affairs, Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.

The Deputy Minister welcomed Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and his accompanying delegation, and expressed his happiness with the development of relations witnessed between the two countries, praising the Kingdoms initiative to strengthen cooperation in various fields.

Abdurrahman Fachir expressed his great satisfaction with the positive and promising results of the First Meeting of Political Consultation between the two countries, which will significantly serve common interests, in addition to deepening cultural cooperation and dialogue of civilizations and religions.

The deputy minister of foreign affairs also commended the decision of His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sport, and Honorary Chairman of the Bahrain Mixed Martial Arts Federation, to have chosen Jakarta to host the 12th edition of Brave in May of this year, praising his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who had the greatest impact on boosting bilateral relations.
Bahrain elected International Federation of Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO) chair for second time

Bahrain elected International Federation of Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO) chair for second time

Bahrains Dr Ebrahim Al Dossary was elected Board of Directors Chairman of the International Federation of Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO), on the sidelines of IFTDOs general assembly.

Mr Al Dossary was the first Arab national to chair the international organisations board, the official representative of IFTDO to UN agencies and organisations. He first chaired IFTDO board in 2005-2006, and succeeded in re-structuring it, which ensured his winning the post among three candidates.

Bahrain successfully hosted the IFTDO International Conference and Exhibition in 2002 and 2016, and the participants lauded the good organisation.

Founded in Geneva in 1972, IFTDO aims to develop and maintain a worldwide network committed to the identification, development and transfer of knowledge, skills and technology to enhance personal growth, human performance, productivity and sustainable development.
Divorce cases on the rise with 890 cases last year alone; maximum divorces occurring in the first year of marriage

Divorce cases on the rise with 890 cases last year alone; maximum divorces occurring in the first year of marriage

Divorce rates have seen an increase in the Kingdom with 1,890 cases registered last year alone, according to statistics obtained from Islamic courts. More than 80 per cent of the couples involved in divorce cases were Bahrainis (1,572 cases), the statistics says.

While men divorcing women accounted for 51.9pc of all cases, women divorcing men stood at 29pc during the last year. In 2016, 1,749 cases were reported. Maximum divorces occurred in the first year of marriages, which applied for couples belonging to various age groups.

Speaking to Tribune, relationship expert Khalil Al Attawi said the divorce rates in the Kingdom are much higher than reported and it can even go up to eight cases a day. The high rate of divorce in the first year of marriage is due to lack of emotional communication among the couples. Emotional compatibility is must to sustain relationships.

Mr Al Attawi explained that there are many stages in a relationship beginning with acquaintance. During the initial stages of their relationships, both men and women should try to understand positive and negative factors in them.

These understandings would destroy their egos in turn leading to a long-term relationship. Mr Al Attawi said mutual trust is also an important variable when it comes to sustaining the relationship.
Egyptian police killed 11 terrorists in a shootout in North Sinais Arish, an informed source told MENA news agency.

Police forces had received information that a group of terrorist elements were using a deserted building as a hideout, MENA reported the source as saying, and were planning and carrying out hostile operations.

The hideout was located in the El-Salaima" area, which is adjacent to the Arish police station road.

The raid was carried out based on intelligence obtained by the National Security Agency, which indicated that the suspects began shooting at police forces.

Three automatic rifles, a sniper rifle, a cartridge gun, ammunition and improvised explosive devices were found at the site.

The Supreme State Security Prosecution is conducting an investigation into the incident, the source said.

The armed forces on Sunday issued their 26th communique on recent developments in Operation Sinai 2018, a comprehensive military and police counter-terrorism operation which began in February, announcing that in recent days they had killed 52 militants and arrested 49 others.

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Support poured in from various quarters for a potential candidate to municipal council elections, who was mocked on social media for his call to implement a green drive in Isa Town. Mohammed Al Hiddi, the candidate from Isa Town, was mocked by many after he unveiled his agenda supporting an active green drive in and across Isa Town.

Nabeel Al Hamer, Media Adviser to His Majesty the King, said everyone should contribute towards making the Kingdom greener. Bahrain was once full of trees. In the past there was not even a single house here without date trees or plants in its compound. Community partnership is important in taking the green drive forward, Mr Al Hamer said.

I was closely following the cruel comments on social media after the candidate promised to make Isa Town a green city. To me the electoral programme, is all about encouraging new ideas, hopes and ambitions. Why cant Bahrain have green cities? What are the obstacles? Positive ideas should be welcomed. Then only they could be transformed into beautiful realities, Mr Al Hamer pointed out.

He also paid tribute to the efforts of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty the King, to support green drives across the Kingdom.
Jerusalem : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran that it would join military action to stop it blocking a key seaway after Yemens Iranian-aligned Huthi rebels attacked two Saudi oil tankers. Speaking at a navy ceremony late Wednesday, Netanyahu warned against any attempt to block the Bab al-Mandab strait, one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes and the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

On July 26, Saudi Arabia said it had temporarily halted all oil shipments through the waterway after the Huthi rebels attacked two of its tankers. On Wednesday, the Huthis announced a two-week pause in Red Sea operations.

At the start of the week we witnessed a sharp clash with Iranian proxies who tried to obstruct international navigation in the straits at the entrance to the Red Sea, Netanyahu said. If Iran tries to block the Bab al-Mandab, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this. This coalition would also include the state of Israel and all its arms.

Iran is Israels main enemy and Netanyahu has repeatedly warned over what he sees as its expanding military presence in the region. Israel has spoken of quietly improving ties with Arab states who share its concerns about Iran. Only two Arab states -- Egypt and Jordan -- have signed peace treaties with Israel. The Huthis are fighting a Saudi-led military coalition that intervened in support of Yemens beleaguered government in March 2015.
As a person whose primary career as a seaman was all about facing Nature in its different moods and learning to face the challenge, I am always ready for the unvarnished truth. I believe that it is only if we have the information and knowledge about our circumstances that we shall have the power to shape a solution. This is why I say that it is difficult to plan for the future when we insist on sugar-coating facts. A look at our immediate neighbourhood gives us an idea that we are going through challenging times. Homes are being advertised for sale in the Emirates at Dhs. 300,000, an unheard-of figure for even a studio flat just three years ago. One businessman with property in a neighbouring GCC country shared with me that he had seen rentals drop by as much as 40 per cent. In Bahrain too, rentals have dropped, home purchase has slowed and even property development is on a slowdown. But are we hearing anything about these facts? Every quarter, we hear the false assurance that rents have gone up, that commercial property is going up in demand. Nobody seems to have taken the time to probe and find out what the truth is. When I look around, I see so many rental signs for commercial as well as residential spaces. That in itself is not bad. However, I also see several closing down sale signs and together, these signs speak of low energy in the market. The market is cyclical and I have no doubt that this dip will be complemented by a rise. Our focus should be on acknowledging this truth and making room for change and meeting this challenge. There are so many professional organisations in Bahrain  we need them to take a more pro-active role in upskilling their members, in conducting clear-eyed surveys to ensure that the government and decision-makers know the lay of the land and how to build for the future. In particular, I come to the role of the BCCI in making available information about the state of the private sector and empowering businesses by being more assertive about governmental interaction. For instance, we all know that expatriates are welcome to do business in Bahrain and that the business-friendly image of Bahrain has attracted many foreign companies and entrepreneurs. Till date, I have not heard of one survey to assess the contribution of foreign businesses to Bahrain. Such a survey would make it easier for Bahrain to work with the world, tweak rules to make it even easier for companies to be more productive and gain more from this interface with businessmen and women from other countries. The BCCI is the right organisation to supervise the conducting of such a survey by a professional agency. we need in the first place. The lack of data can be a barrier holding us back. We also need to stimulate think-tanks that will carry out studies on a variety of socio-economic-political topics without fear. Does anybody recall the Bahrain Centre for Studies & Research (BCSR) that presented some fascinating findings on topics ranging from date palm cultivation to obesity? In fact, the BCSR rang alarm bells about the Kingdoms obesity levels long before international organisations like the WHO. More importantly, such think tanks cultivate the habit in us of indigenous data collection, research and scientific query. As we prepare for a greater role in the Knowledge Revolution, we must hone our knowledge processing skills and be ready.
Holidaymakers have flocked to a maze created with sunflowers in Yamagata Prefecture, northern Japan.

Residents in the Hoshinuno district of Tendo City plant about 50,000 sunflowers at an about 5,000-square-meter field every year.

The maze was crowded with families on Saturday at the start of the first weekend of August.

Children were cheerfully running through the flowers taller than themselves under the scorching sun.

A first-grade boy from nearby Yamagata City said that it was fun because he felt like as if the sunflowers were looking down at him.

A woman from Tokyo said she thought it interesting how the plants felt like they bumped into her, and that she wants to come back again.

Visitors can enjoy the labyrinth of sunflowers through around August 10th for free of charge.
One of the largest summer festivals in northeastern Japan has started in Akita City, featuring bamboo poles decorated with dozens of lanterns.

The annual Kanto festival is held to pray for rich harvests, with bamboo poles and lanterns representing ears of rice.

Pole bearers took to the streets in the city center on Friday evening.

279 lantern-decorated poles lit up the night sky to the sounds of traditional festive music.

The largest pole is 12 meters long. It is hung with 46 lanterns.

Performers showed off balancing acts, holding the poles on their foreheads and lower backs.

A woman attending a university in Tokyo said it was fun to see the pole carriers' skills, and she found Akita very attractive.

About 1.3 million people are expected to attend the festival through Monday.
Senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio met vacationing President Muhammadu Buhari in London today, four days before he crosses over to ...

Senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio met vacationing President Muhammadu Buhari in London today, four days before he crosses over to the All Progressives Congress.Issues discussed were not diclosed.Akpabio had met Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Thursday and also national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Lagos.Akpabios decision to leave the PDP has dampened PDP celebration over the defection of a dozen senators, three governors and some 30 members of the House of Representatives, who hitherto were members of the All Progressives Congress.He is scheduled to switch to the APC in Ikot Ekpene on 9 August.Akpabio was governor of oil-rich Akwa Ibom state from 2007-2015. He was elected a Senator in 2015 and was chosen as the minority leader for the Peoples Democratic Party senators.APC Newspaper on its Twitter handle announced Saturday night the news that Akpabio was switching allegiance : We can confirm that, HE, Sen (Dr) Godswill Akpabio is a card carrying member of @OfficialAPCNg effective August 4, 2018. @OfficialPDPNig has lost him. Official Reception in days.And APC United Kingdom in another tweet set the date for the defection: Acting President, @ProfOsinbajo accompanied by Senator (Dr ) Ita Enang, and leaders of the APC in Akwa Ibom to formally receive Senator (Dr.) Godswill Akpabio into APC at Ikot Ekpene Stadium on Thursday 9 August, 2018. All lovers of Democracy are cordially invited.Senator Ita Enang, Buharis liaison officer with the National Assembly confirmed the unfolding political drama, on his official twitter handle.
His former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo said Atiku should never count on him to support his latest bid to actualise his life-long ambition of b...

His former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo said Atiku should never count on him to support his latest bid to actualise his life-long ambition of being elected the president of Nigeria.In a recent interview with newsmen, Obasanjo swore he will never support Atiku and the doctor of theology also invoked God to buttress his position:How can I be on the same side with Atiku? Mr Obasanjo asked. To do what?If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support, he added.Obasanjos pronouncement comes barely two weeks after Mr Abubakar declared his intention to run for president and weeks after a photo-op between him and Obasanjo at an event on China Africa relations, organised by Gusau Institute in Abuja.I do not have personal grudges with anyone, Mr Obasanjo said. If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us.It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual, he said. If you are working for the good of Nigeria, I am working with you. If you are not working for the good of Nigeria it does not matter who you are I am not working with you.Most of you do not understand the way I operate, Mr Obasanjo said. And I thought your own paper will understand better.I know Atiku very well. And I have mentioned my position with Atiku. My position has not changed, he said.On a personal note, he added, If my children are getting married, he has sent representatives. If his children are getting married, I have sent representatives. That is social. That is not political.But on political ground, my position has not changed. If I support Atiku for a political office other than the one I supported him in the past when I did not know him, maybe, but not now that I know him, God will not forgive me.
Egypt's Ministry of Environment is trying to locate a shark that killed a Czech tourist off the coast of Marsa Alam resort city, a local official has said.

A 41-year-old Czech man was found dead on Friday after being attacked by a shark, The City Board Chairman Atef Wagdy told Ahram Online.

"A delegation from the environment ministry and another delegation from the natural reserve of the Red Sea are currently investigating the incident and trying to locate the shark in the Red Sea, he said.

The Czech man was reportedly holidaying with his family at the resort town, which is located around 700km south-east of Cairo.

Wagdy said that the beach has not been evacuated and that beach guards are closely monitoring the sea.

However, the marina, which extends beyond the beach and into the sea's coral reefs, has been closed off.

According to Wagdy, the shark is believed to have attacked the tourist in the sea past the coral reefs.

A similar incident took place in Marsa Alam last year, when a 20-year-old Austrian tourist was bitten by a shark. The woman was flown home to receive treatment for a leg injury.

Thirty-four shark attacks took place in Egypt's seas between 1827 and 2016, according to the Shark Research Institute, a US-based research organisation.

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Egypts Coptic Orthodox Church said on Sunday it has defrocked a monk at Abu Maqar Monastery in Wadi El-Natroun where a bishop was killed last week.

In an official statement, the Coptic Orthodox Church said it has decided to defrock Isaiah El-Maqary following an investigation by the monastic affairs committee of the Holy Synod, after accusations that he had committed actions unbecoming of a monk.

The decisions were ratified by Pope Tawadros II.

The defrocked monk was ordered to be released from the monastery and to return to his former, non-monastic name Wael Saad Tawadros.

The head of the monastery, Bishop Epiphanius, was found dead at the monastery on 29 July under what the church has described as suspicious circumstances.

Prosecutors are currently investigating the murder.

It is unclear if the defrocked monk is being investigated in relation to the case.

The church urged the former monk to ask for repentance for salvation and eternal life and called on all Copts to preserve the purity of monasticism and not to violate it.

Sundays decision comes a few days after the Holy Synod, the highest decision-making body in the church, issued new decrees prohibiting monks use of social media, media appearances by monks, and the construction of unlicensed worship sites.

The decrees also included a one-year suspension on the process of initiating new monks, and a three-year suspension of the ordination of monks as priests and archpriests.

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Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday asserted that Egypt is keen on fostering cooperation with Italy in the different fields, especially the economic, trade and investment ones.



Also, he hailed fruitful and constructive cooperation with Italian companies, in particular those working in the petroleum and natural gas sectors.



President El-Sisi went on to say that Cairo looks forward to boosting cooperation with the Italian oil companies, with the aim of helping the country turn into a regional power hub.



El-Sisi's remarks came during a meeting with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi, in the presence of Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, General Intelligence Service Chief Abbas Kamel and the Italian ambassador in Cairo.



During the meeting, President El-Sisi praised strong relations binding the two countries, stressing that Cairo and Rome are interested in bolstering bilateral cooperation during the coming period, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said in a statement.



For his part, Milanesi expressed happiness about his visit to Egypt, underlining that the Italian government is willing to push forward ties with the Egyptian government, in addition to strengthening bilateral coordination on a number of regional issues of mutual concern, the spokesman added.



The meeting reviewed a host of files related to bilateral relations, as President El-Sisi affirmed that Egypt is eager to uncover the circumstances surrounding the death of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, the spokesman noted.



The Italian minister commended positive cooperation between the Egyptian and Italian authorities in this case, expressing his hope that such joint efforts will lead to the truth, the spokesman said.



The two sides touched on a number of regional issues, notably the Libyan crisis, where they asserted the importance of supporting efforts aimed at reaching a political settlement and breaking the ongoing deadlock, as well as backing the UN envoy's endeavors in this regard.



In this respect, Italy's top diplomat lauded strenuous efforts exerted by Cairo to unite the Libyan military, saying that such a move could help strengthen the capabilities of state institutions and restore security and stability in the North African country, the spokesman noted.



President El-Sisi stressed Egypt's firm stance on the Libyan crisis, which is based on adherence to the territorial integrity of Libya and respecting the will of the Libyan people that will be reflected in the upcoming elections, in addition to backing Libya's national army.



The meeting tackled the issue of illegal migration, with El-Sisi pointing out to effective measures taken by the state at the legislative and economic levels to fight human trafficking and illegal migration and police Egypt's borders and coasts, which in turn contributed to stemming the flow of illegal migrants across the Egyptian coasts since September 2016.



In a related context, the pair called for adopting an overall strategy to handle the illegal migration issue, as well as settling ongoing regional crises and pressing ahead with regional development efforts.

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President Abdel Fattah El Sisi received in Cairo on Sunday a Russian delegation headed by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Georgy Kalamanov and including top representatives of CJSC Transmashholding; the largest manufacturer of locomotives and rail equipment in Russia.

The Egyptian President hailed the Egyptian-Russian growing relations, expressing Egypt's keenness to further strengthen and develop relations with Moscow at all levels, especially in commercial and industrial fields.

The meeting was attended by Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Transport Minister Hesham Arafat, Chairman of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority Kamel El-Waziry and Head of the Egyptian National Railways (ENR) Ashraf Raslan.

President El-Sisii hailed cooperation with Russia in the railways field, expressing Egypt's keenness to obtain the best financial and contractual offers for supplying new railway vehicles, including the localization of industry and the transfer of expertise as required by Egypt in all its contracts in accordance with the best international standards.

Egypt's Presidential spokesman Bassam Rad quoted Kalamanov as saying that Russia appreciates its deep-rooted relations with Egypt and its aspiration to push forward cooperation in various fields, especially in the industrial field.

The Russian official also expressed readiness to provide all capabilities in support of the Egyptian plan to develop its railways.



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Saudi Arabia has agreed to admit an Iranian diplomat to head an office representing Iranian interests in the kingdom, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, in a rare move after the two rivals broke relations in 2016.

"An informed diplomatic source said Sunday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to grant a visa to the head ... of Iran's interests section," IRNA reported. "Observers saw this... as a positive diplomatic step in the Tehran-Riyadh relations."

The office is expected to be set up within the Swiss diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia, based on an agreement signed in 2017.

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Government will soon introduce a new fiscal regime for the mining sector to ensure Ghana derives maximum benefit from the extraction of her mineral resources, the Vice President of the Republic has revealed.



The paradigm shift in the thinking behind the utilisation of Ghanas mineral resources would seek to ensure value addition to the minerals mined in Ghana instead of the current system of raw exports, and would also seek to leverage on such minerals to secure holistic national development.



Such thinking has already began to reflect in the Nana Akufo-Addo governments approach to development with the recent passage by Parliament of a Master Project Facility Agreement that seeks to leverage a fraction of our bauxite deposits in a barter arrangement for infrastructure development worth $2 billion after the Vice Presidents business visit to the Peoples Republic of China in June last year.



Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia gave an insight into the Akufo-Addo governments approach to national development when he addressed the chiefs and people of the Essikado Traditional Area in the Western region at the climax of this years Kuntum Festival on Saturday 4th August, 2018.



We have not really benefited from the extraction of our natural resources, and it is for this reason that we need especially in the area of our minerals, to bring a new paradigm, a new thinking into how as a country we can benefit more from our mineral resources, the Vice President noted.



There are many mines that are operating and for years, they tell us they have not made any profit so they cannot pay any dividend to government. But they keep mining and mining. How can you as a business continue to be in existence for so long and claim you are not making profit and so you cannot pay. There are some mines that are paying, but many are not paying sufficiently, relative to how much they are taking out of our country.



Vice President Bawumia indicated that a new fiscal regime similar to the one prevailing in the oil sector would soon be introduced in the mining sector.



We have a regime that we are implementing for the oil sector, and we want to implement the same regime for the mining sector. So when you take your gold out of the soil, if you take a 1000 tonnes, you will have to pay us our share out of that. We will not wait for you to go and say you have not made any profit out of the 1000 so you will not pay us anything. You will have to pay us something commensurate to what you have taken out.



The Vice President assured the investor community that while Government welcomes foreign direct investment, such investment would have to be a partnership that was beneficial to all parties.



We want foreign investment, there is no doubt about that. Our lawyers will say we have given them an invitation to treat. But that invitation to treat must not be an invitation to cheat. We want partnerships, and that is why we want a new regime in the mining sector, so that everyone will pay their share.



This new thinking, the Vice President emphasised, was the guiding principle behind the decision to leverage a fraction of Ghanas vast bauxite deposits to build an integrated bauxite and aluminium industry.



We have decided that we are not going to allow what has happened to gold and manganese to happen with bauxite. Parliament just passed the Ghana Integrated Bauxite Authority Bill. We are forming this corporation, and will be forming partnerships with anybody who comes, a joint venture, to build an integrated bauxite and aluminium industry.



We dont want the raw bauxite being taken out of Ghana anymore. We will build a refinery here to refine the bauxite to alumina, take it to VALCO, and get aluminium and you will see the massive increase in value. This is going to be transformational, the Vice President stated.



Vice President Bawumia commended the Omanhene of Essikado Traditional Area, Nana Kwabena Nketsiah V for his continuous drive and contribution towards a better Ghanaian society for all.



Nana is indeed a true chip off the old block Dr Bawumia declared, and called for the sustenance of the peace and unity enjoyed by the people of Essikado and the nation as a whole.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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China will continue to support Ghana's economic development initiatives, such as "One District One Factory, One village One Dam and Planting for Food and Jobs, Mr. Shi Ting Wang, Ambassador of China to Ghana has said.



Speaking at a welcome reception at the weekend in Accra, the Chinese Ambassador noted that China would also support Ghana to build an economic system beyond aid.



Mr. Shi Ting Wang said the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, had shown great commitment to building stronger Ghana-China relations, characterised by a number of high level visits and exchanges of mutual gains between the two countries.



The Ghana-China relations went as far back as when President Kwame Nkrumah forged a "profound" friendship with the then leaders of China, including Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai.



"Forty six years ago, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, who was then a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, voted to support the restoration of China's legitimate seat to the UN," he recalled.



He observed that: "China will never forget that since the establishment of the diplomatic ties between the two countries 58 years ago, the traditional friendship has grown from strength to strength."



He noted that currently, China remained Ghana's largest trading partner and main source of foreign investment.



The Chinese Ambassador explained that in 2017, the bilateral volume of trade between the two countries reached 6,675 billion US Dollars, registering a year on year growth of 11.69 percent, and ranking Ghana seventh among all African countries.



He said Ghana's exports to China also increased by 41.3 percent last year, and China's non financial direct investment to Ghana reached 3.213 billion US Dollars by the end of 2017.



Other areas he mentioned included the health, aviation and road sectors, as well as infrastructural development.



"Let us join hands and write a new chapter of the common development of China and Ghana," the Chinese Ambassador said,



Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, said the people of Ghana had resolved to walk hand in hand with China, "with the shared vision of creating prosperity for our peoples".



She noted that the government and people of Ghana were highly appreciative of the tremendous financial and material support extended by the government of China in support of Ghana's socio-economic development.



She also said Ghana was committed towards enhancing political, economic and socio-cultural ties between the two countries.



"It is my hope that Ghana will continue to enjoy the support of China in its developmental efforts, and I look forward to working closely with you towards the achievement of this all important objective, for the mutual benefit of our two peoples."

Source: GNA









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The Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) has held its 12th congregation with a call on government and corporate bodies to assist in the completion of its new site and furnish it with a modern library facility.



The congregation, which was the first of its kind at the Institutes new site, saw 870 fresh communications professionals graduating from the Institute of which 602 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Communications and 268 graduated with Diploma in Communications.



Professor Kwesi Ansu-Kyeremeh, the Chairman of the Institutes Governing Council, who made the call noted that although GIJ attained a University status two years ago, no institution can call itself a University if it did not have a well-equipped library.



He asked the government and corporate bodies to as a matter of urgency, assist in securing a modern well-furnished library and an administration block to complement the uncompleted structure at the Institutes new site.



He said, It may interest you to know that, our dear nation stands at a risky point in time to lose a huge chunk of history and heritage because there is no reliable comprehensive newspaper collection point.



He said the Institutes research indicated that that there was no such facility in the country, not even in any of the news organisations who produce newspapers, that has a collection of newspaper overtime adding that we are actually ready with the design of the comprehensive national newspaper collection project for implementation.



He called on the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was guest speaker at the occasion, to assist the Institute to expedite action towards the completion of the facility at the new site.



The President Akufo-Addo in a response said the government had allocated GHC 5 million in the 2018 budget to assist the Institute towards infrastructural development at the new site adding that he was going to put in more effort to ensure that the funds were made available for the project.



While speaking on the theme: Strengthening Media Literacy and Communication Excellence in Ghana, the President urged the fresh communication professionals to adhere to the ethics of the profession to ensure the countrys development.



He congratulated the graduates for going through the courses saying, You deserve full credit for your perseverance and success, urging them to guard against the risk of the journalism profession thus deliberate misinformation campaign and the risk of inadvertent misinformation.



The President urged the media fraternity to take a critical look at the power they wielded and the responsibility they owed society to ensure that they did not sacrifice integrity and the future of society for selfish gains.



Dr Modestus Fosu, the Acting Rector of the Institute urged the graduates to be the light of the world as mentioned in Matthew 5:14-16 of the scripture saying, go out there, shine and be a worthy ambassador of GIJ.



He said in the era of fake news, it was important to access relevant, objective, constructive and trustworthy news for the good of society adding that, this type of information should come from professionals.



The Acting Rector noted that GIJ and other analogues institutions had the herculean task of equipping prospective journalists and communicators with requisite knowledge and skills of information gathering, production and dissemination.



He added that the above was why corporate bodies and government must team up with the Institute to provide infrastructure and faculty to facilitate the training of excellent professionals to address the existing challenges in the communication landscape.

Source: GNA









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The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reaffirmed the commitment of his government to bring progress and prosperity to all parts of the country, in a balanced and inclusive manner.



Speaking at Ada, at the Asafotufiami Festival, on Saturday, 4th August, 2018, on the theme, Mobilising Local Resources Towards Development and Growth of the Traditional Area, President reiterated his belief that a prosperous, confident nation can be built through the effective exploitation of the countrys human and natural resources.



In furtherance of this, the President stated that, over the last nineteen (19) months, his government has worked hard to ensure a stable macroeconomy, and have, as a result, put in place measures that are formalizing the economy, reducing the cost of business, and improving the business environment.



I know we are not out of the woods yet, but I can assure you, Nenemei and Naamei, that our nation is on the right path, he said.



Mobilising the nations resources, he said, has meant the commencement of the rolling out of flagship policy initiatives such as the One-District, One Factory project, and the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs.



The implementation of the One District, One Factory policy, President Akufo-Addo noted, has meant that thirty-six (36) factories are at various stages of being operationalized, which will create tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.



The Lan Tianyi Soymilk factory, located at Asutuare, in Shai Osudoku, has been inaugurated, and is fully functional. I would urge the Ada East and West District Assemblies, as well as the Ada Traditional Council, to develop a strategic plan towards exploiting the vast potentials of the area to ensure residents benefit from their local resources, he said.



President Akufo-Addo assured the Chiefs and people of Ada that Government is in the process of securing the necessary investment for the development of a modern salt industry, stressing that the Songhor Lagoon has the potential to produce salt in large-scale and commercial quantities, from its current status.



On the implementation of the Free SHS policy, the President stated that it provided 90,000 more children, in 2017, with the opportunity to gain access to senior high school education in 2017.



With 180,000 more children, representing a 31% increase, expected to be admitted into the countrys Senior High Schools, and with Government determined to make sure that no qualified Ghanaian child is left behind, President Akufo-Addo stated that Government is employing the Double-Intake System to address the deficit.



We are, first of all, going to recruit over eight thousand (8,000) more teachers in 2018 than we did in 2017. Secondly, we are going to employ a double track school calendar system for the new SHS entrants. Let me make it clear that this double-track system is not going to be applied to all Senior High Schools, but only to those whose current capacity will be exceeded by the numbers of admitted students.



He assured the Chiefs and people of Ada that Double-Intake system will not destroy the countrys education, as some people would want the Ghanaian people to believe.



On the contrary, this system will reduce class sizes, it will increase the contact hours between teachers and students, as well as increase the number of holidays. Every bold, new initiative that is rolled-out will, perforce, experience hitches and challenges, he said.



With the Asafotufiami festival held to mark the period of harvest, the President encouraged as many farmers as possible in Ada to join the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs, which is expected to cover one million farmers by 2020.



On addressing the countrys infrastructural deficit, President Akufo-Addo stated that his government has embarked on an ggressive public private partnership programme to attract investment in the development of both road and railway infrastructure.



We are hopeful that, with solid private sector participation, we can develop a modern railway network with strong production centre linkages and with the potential to connect us to our neighbours to the north, i.e. Burkina Faso, to the west, i.e. Cote dIvoire, and to the east, i.e. Togo, he said.



Nonetheless, he assured the Chiefs and people that roads in Ada are receiving the undivided attention of Government, and work on all abandoned projects will commence very soon.



President Akufo-Addo appealed for unity amongst the people of Ada, and urged them to act in unity as one people collectively to lift up the fortunes of Ada.



The primary task is yours, and I assure you that government will stand in full support with you so we deliver progress and prosperity to all our people, the President 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.

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South Sudanese arch-foes signed a final power-sharing deal on Sunday, aimed at ending a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions in the world's youngest country.

President Salva Kiir and his bitter rival Riek Machar were in neighbouring Sudan to sign the deal, under which the rebel leader is set to return to a unity government as the first of five vice presidents, an AFP correspondent there reported.

The deal, which paves the way to a final peace accord, was signed in the presence of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his counterparts from Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, along with foreign diplomats.

Once a final peace deal is signed, the foes will have three months to form a transitional government under the new format, which will then hold power for a further 36 months.

"President Uhuru Kenyatta has decided that further negotiations will continue in Khartoum and not in Nairobi," Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dierdiry Ahmed said in English at Sunday's signing ceremony.

The talks come as part of a regional push aimed at achieving peace in the country, which plunged into a devastating conflict just two years after its independence from Sudan.

South Sudan's nearly five-year conflict began after Kiir accused his then-vice president Machar of plotting a coup against him in 2013.

The rival groups have already agreed on a permanent ceasefire and withdrawing of their forces from civilian areas, in talks mediated by Khartoum in series of dialogues hosted by Bashir.

The power-sharing deal stipulates that there will be 35 ministers in the bloated transitional government, including 20 Kiir allies and nine backers of Machar along with representatives of other rebel factions.

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Steady traffic sits at Highland Avenue and Pinetown Road in Fort Washington on a recent weekday afternoon. A proposal by the township to create access from a nearby office park to the streets surrounding it has drawn some debate among residents. Read more

Philip Seltzer has been dead for a decade. But the real estate developer has become an unlikely component in an ongoing debate over traffic congestion in a Montgomery County township.

An agreement Seltzer signed in 1954 with Henry Lee Willet, then president of Upper Dublin Township's board of commissioners, has become the backdrop for concerns raised by some residents about plans for a new library in the Fort Washington Office Park, the modern equivalent of the visionary industrial park Seltzer built at the zenith of his career.

Homeowners on Highland Avenue and Camp Hill Road, streets surrounding the library's future home, are wielding the agreement against aspects of the proposal that suggest building a driveway from the library onto Highland, or potentially allowing turns onto Camp Hill from a road within the park.

Both concepts, it would seem, are prohibited by the nearly 70-year-old document, which promises to keep traffic from the park off of township streets. And with a few exceptions, the agreement has been upheld ever since. Camp Hill has been especially protected, with a 1999 ordinance prohibiting turns onto the street that piggybacks on the Seltzer agreement.

But township officials are unsure how binding a document whose authors are long gone is. They say the impact on congestion in the area will be minimal, and posit that the library will be a major addition for the township. And at a board of commissioners meeting scheduled for Aug. 14, they plan to propose solutions that are sensitive to both sides of the divide.

"The people on Highland Avenue already feel burdened by too much traffic, but there is a lot of traffic on a lot of roads in the township," said Paul Leonard, the township manager. "We don't think that they're uniquely burdened, and we want to integrate this building into the community."

Leonard pointed out that the township library, which opens at 9:30 a.m. at its current location on Loch Alsh Avenue, won't add any cars to the morning rush hour.

"Is it more traffic? Yes. Is it an amount that's unbearable? By no means," Leonard said. "I'm not minimizing their complaints or concerns, and we will try to address them. But at the same time, the challenge is to make this available for the entire community."

The township bought the new library building, located inside the office park at 520 Virginia Ave., in November for just over $5 million. Leonard affectionately calls it "the house that Rorer built," referring to the French pharmaceutical giant that initially occupied it.

During a recent walk-through of the 65,400-square-foot building, Leonard described his colleagues' plan for their purchase. Where workers once sat sequestered in cubicles, Leonard envisions an open library space, with room for multimedia materials. A corporate presentation room, complete with plush seating, can be re-purposed for live performances or special events organized by the library's board. And leftover space can be easily converted into rental property or township offices, he said.

But objections from nearby residents don't involve upgrading the library's space.

"Building a library isn't that bad, but we can't ensure that that will always be the use," said Steve Stoughton, a resident of Camp Hill Road. "Basically, it comes down to whether the board of commissioners is willing to break this agreement."

Stoughton has long been a crusader against allowing access from the office park to the surrounding community. He filed suit against Parec Associates in 2010 when they sold a building in the office park to the Mar Thoma Church Philadelphia and requested to build a driveway onto Camp Hill. He later relented, settling the legal challenge out of court. Stoughton now considers the church "a good neighbor," and said its presence on the street has caused little disruption.

But it's the exception, not the rule, he argues.

"The precedents are set, and the precedents have been agreed to," he said. "The township played by the rules, Seltzer played by the rules, and now we have commissioners considering not playing by the rules."

Seltzer's fabled agreement allows for "adequate access" for the industrial park to and from nearby Township Line Road. It further stipulates that no other access to the park "from any other Township street or highway shall be constructed or opened."

And although residents cling to that language, as well as a closing paragraph that promises the agreement shall be carried out by the signers' heirs and successors, township solicitor Gilbert High doubts that the agreement can forever control development in the township.

Ira Tackel, the president of the township's board of commissioners, agrees. And he pointed out that the current proposal is not to divert industrial or office traffic into the neighborhoods, but rather to direct township residents into the park.

"I'm pretty sure if this board or a future board said with good reason that this has been enforced for 60 years," he said, "and that it's outlived its usefulness, simply because things have changed a lot in that time, I think the board would be in good footing."

Township traffic engineer Jack Smyth has estimated that the library will generate an additional 250 trips in the area during the afternoon rush hour, 125 entering and exiting the library. To help ease access, he's provided a series of suggestions.

Arguably the one that presents the fewest logistical hurdles is to put in a new driveway on Highland on land the township owns. Alternatives include pursuing an easement onto a property next door, or going through the state to install a traffic light on Camp Hill Road. The latter suggestion is now the subject of a traffic study by the township, Smyth said.

When Terri Mellor bought her house on Camp Hill in the 1980s, the realtor showed her the Seltzer agreement. It was "a major selling point" for her, helping to finalize the decision. And two years ago, when the township temporarily diverted office park traffic onto Camp Hill and Highland, she understood why local leaders pushed for it so many decades ago: A deluge of traffic keeping a steady flow in front of her driveway during the afternoon rush hour.

"Rorer had 500 employees who didn't have any issues coming out of the driveway and going right or left onto commercial streets," Mellor said.

"If I was a commissioner, I would advocate for obeying the agreement we entered into," she added, "knowing that for the last 60 years, all of the buildings in the park had no issue with it."
Philadelphia has hired the same vendor Chicago is using to distribute municipal ID cards to residents. This rendering shows an example of Chicago's card. Read more

A stage-3 breast cancer patient couldn't get treatment and support services at her hospital, because she didn't have identification.

Another woman couldn't go to her child's parent-teacher conference, because the school wouldn't let her in without a government-issued ID.

A man recently released from prison needed an ID quickly to get into transitional housing, and another needed one for a job interview.

Situations such as these spurred Chicago to launch Chicago CityKey, a municipal photo-identification card for residents, three months ago. The city became one of a couple dozen cities and counties across the country with similar ID programs, including New York City; Newark, N.J.; San Francisco, and Detroit.

Philadelphia will soon join them, planning to roll out its version in January.

Throughout New Jersey, the cities of Plainfield, New Brunswick, Elizabeth, and Perth Amboy are among municipalities that offer identification cards to residents without government-issued IDs.

Because of immigration status, financial limitations, youth, or other reasons, some people cannot obtain valid ID cards from the state or federal governments, or else run into obstacles when they try to do so. A municipal ID card is an alternative. In Philadelphia, it would help residents access basic services, such as groceries from food pantries, treatment for drug addiction, and entry to City Hall and the Municipal Services Building. In Chicago, the cards also offer discounts on medical prescriptions and museum admissions and double as library and public transit cards.

Municipal IDs have been controversial. Immigration advocates say they are concerned about how cities will use the required personal information; opponents say the cards give undocumented immigrants access to services to which they should not be entitled.

But local-government officials say the cards are necessities.

"There's been a need for quite some time," said Joanna Otero-Cruz, Philadelphia's deputy managing director of community services, who also oversees the city's Office of Immigrant Affairs. "We're a poor city. And so we need to be able to address what are the barriers to get people their basic needs."

When Mayor Kenney took office in 2016, he listed the IDs as a priority. Proponents say the photo IDs can help domestic violence survivors and victims of fire who had to leave behind vital documents, elderly people without driver's licenses, and the homeless. Residents can use the cards to open bank accounts or verify their identities to police officers.

To get municipal ID cards, residents generally need to prove who they are through documents such as birth certificates, passports, or foreign national identity cards, and their city residency through utility bills, deeds, leases, or letters from homeless shelters. The city is still considering which documents to accept and how to address privacy concerns.

These issues slowed the progress of the city's ID program last year.

Golnaz Fakhimi, an immigrants' rights attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said she supports municipal ID programs generally, but, "how these programs are rolled out, and what the fine print of these programs is, matters."

Philadelphia does not plan to keep applicants' documents, but in order for banks to accept the cards, the city may have to retain at least descriptions of documents. "That may be as problematic as retaining copies," she said.

The city also needs to tell immigrants and other cardholders where to use them and where they should not, she said. She pointed to recent examples in New York, such as a pizza delivery man and others who tried to get onto military bases using municipal ID cards, which ended in calls to U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Philadelphia officials have been watching and learning from other cities and the challenges they have faced. For example, Philadelphia officials are figuring out how to deal with gender-identification issues among applicants.

The ID would be available to residents 13 and up. Philadelphia plans to market them to everyone, as Chicago has done, to remove the stigma of carrying such municipal cards.

"It's something we can give as an added benefit of being a proud resident of Chicago," said Anna Valencia, Chicago's city clerk. "We believe it is a key that can unlock communities and opportunities for all Chicagoans."

More than 13,500 people in Chicago have gotten the cards since the program started on April 26. As in Chicago, officials in Philadelphia want to include added benefits such as museum discounts and library access and maybe even discounts to sporting events. Those capabilities will most likely be gradually phased in after the initial rollout.

Philadelphia has hired the same vendor that helped Chicago implement its program. Otero-Cruz estimates that the first year of the program  including software, hardware, and employees' salaries  will cost about $580,000. The city has not yet finalized how much it will charge for the cards.

Just last week, two constituents came to the office of Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez for help when they lost their driver's licenses  one for failure to pay tickets, and the other for failure to pay child support  and said they couldn't get money out of their bank accounts without those IDs.

Quinones-Sanchez cosponsored a bill in 2013 with Kenney to start a municipal ID program and also sponsored similar legislation in 2016.

"While this took longer than we had hoped," she said, the delay gave the city time to learn from other cities' experiences. Chicago, which took lessons from New York and Detroit, is working on a tool kit for cities that want to offer municipal IDs.

"Philadelphia will be in a very good place," Quinones-Sanchez said, "to roll this out well."
State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery) has proposed legislation to "reform" the state's grand jury process by addressing its secrecy, the role of judge and the rights of witnesses and subjects under investigation. Read more

HARRISBURG  In the spring of 2017, a lawyer representing two Catholic dioceses targeted in a statewide investigation of clergy sex abuse leveled a legal challenge to the grand jury process in Pennsylvania.

The lawyer, Matt Haverstick, questioned a grand jury procedure that prevented attorneys for witnesses from discussing testimony with one another and coordinating strategy. The judge supervising the grand jury in the case rejected the request, noting the rule was designed to preserve evidence and prevent witness tampering.

Weeks later, the state Supreme Court empaneled a new task force to review the scope and powers of Pennsylvania grand juries. The panel members and court officials won't discuss details of its meetings or progress, but two of its areas of focus  examining gag orders and swearing attorneys to secrecy  paralleled Haverstick's arguments.

And in October, a veteran state senator from Montgomery County began pushing for legislation to address "the secrecy of grand juries, the role of the supervising judge, the rights of witnesses, and the rights of the person being investigated."

Supreme Court officials, legislative aides, and others say there is no connection among the three efforts. But together they reflect a growing, if not unprecedented, challenge to a system that Pennsylvania prosecutors have used to build some of their biggest cases  including sweeping corruption investigations and child sexual abuse cover-ups like the one that now looms over six dioceses.

"There is an attack on the grand jury, and it's not just this Catholic grand jury," said Northampton District Attorney John Morganelli. "Grand juries historically have done good things. Yeah, it is true they have criticized people, but it was fair criticism."

Others, such as Peter Vaira, a onetime U.S. attorney in Philadelphia turned defense lawyer, contend these efforts are long overdue. Vaira said state law falls short when it comes to ensuring that people who are not criminally charged have ample opportunity to protect their reputations.

"This is purely a legal issue  a pure civil liberties issue," said Vaira, who has met with the Supreme Court task force on the topic.

The use of grand juries to secretly gather evidence and build criminal cases isn't an uncommon practice nationwide. And questions over issues such as swearing attorneys to secrecy or shielding the details of investigations from public view have bubbled before  including in the probe of a police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., and in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case, in which Vaira represented one Pennylvania State University administrator.

But it's unclear how many states have laws like Pennsylvania's, which allow grand juries to issue reports to identify, criticize, and implicate people who have not been charged with crimes. Alaska grappled with similar issues three decades ago, and ultimately set up a process that allows people to challenge their inclusion in grand jury reports.

In Pennsylvania, which enacted its current law in 1980, prosecutors often have used grand juries to spotlight public corruption and organized crime, at times presenting recommendations for policy changes when crimes fall outside the statute of limitations for bringing charges.

Over the course of an investigation, a group of 23 grand jurors meets in private  usually for 18 to 24 months  to hear testimony and weigh potential evidence on complicated crimes or issues of public importance. At the end, and often with heavy input from prosecutors, the panel may issue a report documenting its findings, recommendations for charges  or steps for improving public policy.

People who are criticized in reports often have a chance to submit a written response for public release but usually don't get access to all the evidence and can't cross-examine witnesses.

Defense attorneys argue that the process hampers their ability to properly serve their clients, while prosecutors say it is essential for building complex cases. In investigations of crimes that occurred outside the statute of limitations, the grand jury room might offer "the only time the victims have a voice," said Greg Rowe, legislative liaison for the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association.

Lynne Abrahams 2005 report

Lynne Abraham, when she served as Philadelphia district attorney, became the first prosecutor in Pennsylvania to use the system to expose decades-old clergy sex abuse. She released a 424-page report in 2005 that identified dozens of abusers and called out Archdiocese of Philadelphia leaders for ignoring, concealing, or enabling the attacks by simply reassigning problem priests. Because of what the grand jury described as weaknesses in the law, only one priest was charged.

"Our report names names," Abraham said in an interview. "We published our report and the judge allowed it, and nobody objected."

But critics say defense lawyers who routinely practice before grand juries have privately complained for years that prosecutors  particularly state prosecutors  have deployed increasingly aggressive tactics that trample on defendants' rights, as they claim is occurring in the clergy abuse investigation.

Abraham's report became a blueprint for other clergy sex-abuse investigations. It also set the stage for the state Attorney General Office's high-profile inquiry into the dioceses in Pittsburgh, Allentown, Harrisburg, Erie, Scranton, and Greensburg.

A version of its 800-page grand jury report could be released as soon as Wednesday, if lawyers on both sides agree to temporary redactions pertaining to clergy members who have challenged their inclusion in the report.

Many of the issues raised in their cases seem to mirror those bubbling up before the Supreme Court's task force and the legislature.

As Attorney General Josh Shapiro prepared this spring to publicly release the report he has promised will expose widespread abuse by clergy and "a systemic cover-up" by church leaders, lawyers for the unnamed clergy members sought to limit it.

They complained to the judge supervising the grand jury, Norman Krumenacker III, that the report would unfairly disgrace their clients. They also said the grand jury process denies the identified but uncharged clergy due process or the right to their reputations.

As he did with Haverstick's challenges last year  both on the gag order and on a separate argument that the case more properly belonged in the hands of county district attorneys  Krumenacker disagreed. He said the report could be released.

That's when the petitioners appealed to the high court.

The justices agreed to hear arguments on the matter in September. But their ruling to order  at least for now  a redacted version of the report was seen by some victims as a blow to its potency.

The decision also signaled the justices' frustration with some of Krumenacker's rulings in the case. All the justices except Max Baer, who said he preferred to defer his opinion until after arguments, agreed that the clergy members' due process rights did not appear to have been met when Krumenacker approved the report's public release.

However, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor wrote on behalf of the court, the "justices are not of one mind, at this juncture, concerning what process-related measures can be taken now  or if any such measures would be sufficient now to comport with due process norms  to justify the release of the specific criticisms" pertaining to those clergy members.

How the case is resolved will likely be watched closely by the court's grand jury task force, which was assembled to "perform a comprehensive review of investigating grand juries" and produce a public report suggesting "proposals for possible improvement."

The state Supreme Court announced the task force in July 2017  a few weeks after Haverstick asked the justices to intervene in his unsuccessful challenge to the procedure limiting attorneys' discussions, though court officials say the panel was in the works before then. Haverstick declined to comment.

No deadline

The seven-member task force has since convened seven times in Harrisburg and additional times by phone, and has no deadline for completing its work, officials say. Members' expenses are covered, but they receive no pay for their work. A court spokesperson declined to outline how the panel members were chosen, and each either declined to comment or did not respond to interview requests from The Inquirer and Daily News and Post-Gazette.

One member of the task force, Duquesne University professor Wesley Oliver, said members were asked to keep the details of their work confidential.

The task force also includes Thomas Farrell, a lawyer whose firm represents one of the clergy members now challenging the release of the full report, as well as Ronald Eisenberg, a former prosecutor in Philadelphia who since his appointment has moved to the Attorney General's Office.

"That persons with such expertise are likely to be involved at some point in grand-jury-related litigation before the court does not affect either the functioning of the task force or the conduct of the litigation," said Stacey Witalec, a spokesperson for the high court. She said that the court "naturally sought individuals with relevant expertise in grand jury matters," but that members have no special access to the justices.

Joe Grace, a spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office, said the office is "fully participating" in the task force but declined to discuss its work while it is ongoing. In a statement, he said: "The grand jury process is an important tool for law enforcement and the public, and we look forward to its continued use in the future in a fair and balanced manner to unearth criminal wrongdoing and to obtain justice for victims of crime across the commonwealth."

The statement didn't address what has been a similar but parallel reform proposed in the legislature.

In April, while the clergy sex abuse investigation was entering its final stretch, State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery) introduced a bill that, among other things, seeks to sharply scale back a grand jury's ability to issue reports and recommend changes in the law.

Greenleaf, known for his work on criminal justice issues, chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. That panel in the last session gutted a bill that would have enabled a flood of new lawsuits by past victims against their abusers or the institutions that supervised them  a measure opposed by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and other church leaders. (Greenleaf recused himself from a vote on the issue because his law firm at one point was paid by the archdiocese.)

The senator said his pending grand jury legislation had "nothing to do" with the latest clergy sex abuse investigation. "This has been developing over years," he said in an interview last month.

Greenleaf said recent grand juries have trampled on people's rights to their reputations, to counsel, and against self-incrimination, although he didn't cite specific cases. Grand juries, he said, should not be implicating people who have not been indicted but should instead focus narrowly on recommending criminal charges.

Critics see the legislation as one prong in a concerted attack that includes the task force and court case.

"To me, it's all coordinated," said State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a clergy abuse survivor and one of the legislature's strongest advocates for extending the civil statute of limitations for victims. "Maybe they aren't directly working together, but they all got each other's back."

Marci Hamilton, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and a prominent advocate for abuse victims, said she fears that Greenleaf's bill, combined with prior attempts to kill statute of limitations reform, is evidence that legislators have been "carrying the water for the bishops."

Greenleaf said he hopes to move his bill out of committee and to the full Senate in the fall, if it can get enough votes. If it doesn't pass in the next four months, it will die and would have to be reintroduced.

The Senate returns Sept. 24. Two days later, the state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in Philadelphia over the challenges to the clergy abuse grand jury report. Lawyers and victims will be watching closely.

Said Abraham, the former Philadelphia district attorney: "This is going to be a very big deal."

Inquirer staff writer Craig R. McCoy contributed to this article.
A 45-year-old man was killed early Sunday morning after his motorcycle collided head-on with one of two vehicles that had been reportedly racing in Southwest Philadelphia, police said.

At about 1 a.m., a 2003 Mitsubishi was traveling south on the 7600 block of Brewster Avenue, racing a red Subaru, when it crashed into the motorcycle, which was northbound on Brewster, police said.

A medic pronounced the man operating the motorcycle dead at 1:01 a.m. Police did not disclose his identity.

The Subaru fled the scene before police arrived.

No other information was available, including whether charges are pending against the Mitsubishi driver. Alcohol was not involved, police said.
A 42-year-old nurse at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was stabbed in the left leg Saturday evening by a woman who was attempting to attack her sick father during a fight, Philadelphia police said.

The nurse is in stable condition, as is the 55-year-old father, who received a gash in the head from a soda can, said police, who did not elaborate on how that injury had occurred.

His daughter, whose age was not given, was arrested, and the weapon recovered.

Police did not identify any of the individuals involved in the incident.
PITTSBURGH  The bishop of Pittsburgh's Roman Catholic diocese said Saturday that he will release the names of any of his clergy members accused of sexual misconduct with a minor, once a state grand jury report on clergy sex abuse is released.

Bishop David Zubik made the announcement in a letter to be read at all Sunday Masses.

The state Supreme Court disclosed recently that the grand jury had identified more than 300 "predator priests" in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including Pittsburgh. Those dioceses minister to more than 1.7 million Catholics. The 900-page report could be made public within days.

In the letter, Zubik told parishioners that the diocese has acted "over the past 30 years" to respond to allegations of abuse by clergy members and to prevent abuse.
GULU The low level of awareness on albinism in societies across Uganda may cause many more families having albino children to break down.

Christine Ateng 26, a mother of an albino child and resident of Aboke Township in Kole district was bewildered when her relationship ended abruptly after her husband realised that she had given birth to albino baby boy.

I delivered this child in 2010, the father rejected him, left me and refused to support me even when I call him to tell him that baby is sick Ateng painfully reflects. She says her husband believes it is a result of witchcraft.

Ateng says she is singlehandedly taking care of the boy, now 8 years old, including paying his school fees.

Ateng recalls that even after she explained to her spouse that her maternal family linage have albinism, and her son Okullu is the fourth albino, he could not listen claiming that it is a misfortune in his life.

Patrick Ogwang, a father of two albinos, a resident of Bukwoyo village, Lakwana Sub County Omoro district, is stranded with four children after his wife left him four years ago after she gave birth to their second albino child. Their third and fourth born are albinos. He says his wife accused him of having weak blood.

I saw albino kids from my neighbor, and when my wife gave birth to one, I remained strong-hearted to look after him because it is normal but my wife was heartbroken. And when we were taken for ritual cleansing in Lira district after she delivered the second albino baby boy, she told me that she is too tired of my weak Acholi blood and she no longer wanted a relationship with me Ogwang recalls.

Ogwang who is now married to another woman, says they are facing challenges of taking care of these childrens health because their skin is delicate and sunscreen lotion and eye glasses are expensive.

Some men believe albinism is a result of their wives involving themselves in extra marital affairs with white men.

Basil Ojera, from Owak Village, Anaka town council in Nwoya district, the father of an albino boy,said men abandon th children with albinism due to lack of knowledge and sensitisation.

Ojera and his wife have 12 children, but he says immediately his wife delivered the only albino boy in the family he developed mixed emotional feelings and thought of divorcing her but he got counseling from medical expert and he learnt that albinism is normal.

Ojera says the challenge in raising albino children, is the superstition that that albinos should not eat certain foods (for example food prepared with soda ash) and that they should never be given injections like it is done for the other children.

Barbara Anyinge, an albino and a local councilor representing Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Inomo sub county Kwania district says she has been facing stigma and segregation at work places due to her condition.

The community thinks we are produced by ghosts and we are ghosts and the traditional leaders do not take action to protect children with albinism because we are mostly neglected by our parents Anyinge says

She says many albino children could not go to school because of stigma from fellow pupils. Anyinge appeals to both cultural and political leaders to sensitise communities about albinism.

Ben Makeme, 18, an albino student at Restore Leadership Academy says albino students suffer in classes because of vision challenges, something he believes some teachers do not know about. He says back home in Mbale district, the community look at him with dismay, but his courage has overridden such stigma through hard work and investing in vegetables like onions, cabbages to raise money for school fees, if only to prove to the community that he is not any different from them.

Even if [people in the] community call us names like ghost, dismay and kids with no hope; I consider those small challenges because I personally, have proved them wrong, Makeme says.

Makeme expressed fear of moving freely among various communities since in some countries, albinos are targeted for rituals.

Makeme now in Senior Three wants to be a lawyer and serve the marginalized population.

What do the expert says?

Dr. Harry Mpewo, a Dermatologist at Hoima Hospital defines albinism as a genetic inheritance due to lack of melanin in body cells. He said it has 12 different types categorized in two namely; albino of the skin and of the eyes.

He says if two people with the albino genes have a child, there is a 25% chance that the child they get will be an albino. And 50% of chances may produce carriers. If only one of the parents has albino genes, there is no chance of getting albino children.

Melanin is the pigment that gives human skin, hair, and eyes their color. The absence of melanin in the skin causes the skin to be weak and susceptible to developing ulcers which the doctor says if not protected against, can develop into chronic skin cancer which commonly kills albino persons.

Dr. Mpewo noted that the absence of melanin in the eyes make them visually impaired because they cant see light normally.

He says Uganda still grapples with medical services for albinos as the Ministry of Health has no special package for persons with albinism coupled with a few experts in the country, We have few Dermatologists in Uganda, and it is a challenge to provide services to albino persons because the government doesnt provide special services like sunscreen lotion in their health facilities.

While speaking to persons with albino at a Health Camp organized by Lion Club International in conjunction with Lion Club of Gulu Metropolitan at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital on Saturday July 28th, Dr. Mpewo advised them to guard against direct sunlight by wearing clothes that cover their skin

fully and round brim hats. He also told them to apply sunscreen to avoid sunburns that may result into cancer.

Research:

Mr Aliro Omara an Independent Consultant on Human Rights hired by Office of Human Rights Commission in Kampala, is carrying out a research titled; Situation of Persons with Albinism in Uganda following the rights abuses of person with albinism in the country as noted by the United Nations.

He noted that in the recent past there has been lot of abuses of human rights of persons with albinism in Uganda and Africa at large, giving an example of Tanzania and Malawi where body parts of person with albinism became a commodity and medicine to some people through rituals.

Mr Omara says United Nations has taken interest to protect persons with albinism through its member states by tasking each country to take steps and protect the rights of persons with albinism.

The same resolution, the researcher says was adopted by African Union which is tasking each member state to take action of documenting and analyzing the situation of persons with albinism.

I am collecting data to establish how many they are, the challenges they face in the community, health, education and survival within the communities they live in Mr Omara says

Greater emphasis is directed towards the rights of children with albinism and what the community thinks about the condition, he said.

He says his findings will lead to recommendations that shall be used by the government and other stakeholders to improve the lives of persons with albinism.

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KOLOLO  The dictum of no permanent enemy, no permanent friend, but permanent interests once again permeated through the country on Saturday when President Museveni and his longtime friend-turned political foe Amama Mbabazi met at the giveaway of the latters daughter, Bridget Birungi, to Andile Ramaphosa, the son of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

It was difficult to distinguish the function, which took place at Mbabazis residence in the plush Kololo suburb, from a state event given the number of politicians, government officials and businessmen present.

Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, business mogul Sudhir Ruparelia, US Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac, former FDC president Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, NRM vice chairman Al-Hajji Moses Kigongo, UCC chief Godfrey Mutabazi, former Ethics minister Miria Matembe and businessman Mayur Madhvani, were among top dignitaries present at the function.

Security was tight with a combined force of presidential guards, police and army officers scrutinizing every person who came to the function, from the chefs, cooks to ministers.

When President Museveni arrived at around midday, everyone kept glancing how his host, Mr Mbabazi, would receive him and whether they would share jokes.

However, the President and his wife Janet were in a visibly jovial mood as they shook hands with Mbabazi and wife Jacqueline.

They were then led to their tent where they sat alongside Mbabazi and Jacqueline. Janet was seated next to Mbabazi and they kept sharing a few words.

The Ramaphosa family arrived at around 1 pm. Mr Mbabazi walked to Mr Musevenis tent and requested the President to welcome the South African President and his entourage. The duo then walked alongside Mr Mbabazi to welcome the South African group.

Andiles entry was a joyous one as he took minutes to exchange courtesies with friends and family. He was dressed in a white African shirt, black coat and trousers. The South Africa entourage made a musical entry with songs and rhythmic dances that brought all activity to a standstill.

The sound of drums was recurrently sounded by Crane Performers whose traditional dance choreography marvelled many.

The introduction then started, with Birungi being coming out of the house to appear before the Ramaphosa family and guests. She was clad in traditional wear of Ekishato (skirt and top), Akaku (a sash with beaded embellishments, Emiringa (Traditional anklets) and Obutamasindo (forehead band) in cream and gold colours.

The Ramaphosa family gave Emihingiro (gifts) to the Mbabazi family which included Enkagara (suitcase), Engunda Ibiri (calabashes), Ekitebe kyenkiga (traditional stool) and more.

When the time for speeches came, President Ramaphosa thanked Mr Museveni for gracing the ceremony. Musibye Mutya Bassebo ne banyabo (how are you, ladies and gentlemen). Twashemelerwa (we are happy). Thank you, as Ugandans, for welcoming us here today. We are very much aware that we are in a country you have dubbed as the most beautiful country. We now realise that we have competition. By taking the most beautiful person in Uganda, we have it for both countries, he said.

Mr Mbabazi thanked President Museveni for accepting our invitation to attend the ceremony.

We may disagree politicallyyou may champion a completely different political line, said Mbabazi, who was sacked as prime minister before starting Go Forward and contesting for president in 2016.

But for me, the associations that I have had; like long associations I have had, will not be broken by politics, he stated, attracting a standing ovation from the audience.

The former premier cracked ribs when he said he would get time and ask President Museveni if he voted for me

In his speech, President Museveni congratulated Andile and Birungi for finding each other. I am very happy for Andile and Bridget for my wife and family and country but above all the Great Lakes and Africa. I want to congratulate right honourable Amama Mbabazi and his wife Jacqueline for bringing up Bridget. You heard that Bridget is an orphan. His father died at the age of 30 because of our struggle, the President said.

He also recalled meeting Mr Mbabazi in the early 1970s.

We were engaged in our wars. In 1974, we had a big set back after we launched a badly planned attack on Idi Amin and many people were killed. Our internal network was disorganized. Eriya Kategaya and Ruhakana Rugunda fled to exile. We had to look for a new layer of a network to replace the one which was compromised. Eventually, I got in touch with Mbabazi and Kahinda Otafiire who were student activists, he added.

Mr Museveni said Mbabazi was able to rebuild the network among intellectuals as FRONASA kept other unexposed networks.

Museveni repeatedly referred to Mbabazi as my young brother and Jacqueline as my in-law.

I thank my young brother and Jacqueline for inviting me and Janet on the Kuhingira of this child of our freedom fighter whom I didnt know, said Museveni.

You dont go to a wedding swinging arms to contribute to the number of eaters. You must be carrying something on your head. Now that Bridget is going away, I am giving the bride gifts to escort her. Ive brought a few cows in an envelope to escort the bride, he said before handing an envelope to Birungi.

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A suicide bomber killed three NATO service members on a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, and Taliban militants claimed responsibility.

A NATO Resolute Support mission service member, an American, and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, the mission said in a statement.

"Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history and further strengthen our resolve," said US Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support and US Forces-Afghanistan, in the statement.

Local officials said the blast happened in the Khalazai area of Charikar, capital of Parwan province.

Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the Parwan provincial governor, said the suicide bomber targeted foreign forces who were on a routine foot patrol.

Eastern Afghanistan, where US Special Forces units have regularly been deployed against militants, continues to be one of the deadliest areas for the US military since its main combat operation against the Taliban ended in 2014.

The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, claimed responsibility.

"We have killed eight US invaders in a tactic bombing," Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in statement.

"The invaders had to bring three helicopter ambulances to protect their forces," he said.

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The 2018 annual meeting of the African Governors Caucus kicked off Sunday morning in Sharm El-Sheikh under the auspices of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and attended by senior representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in addition to the representatives of 40 African countries.

The meeting is organised by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Finance, and in cooperation with the Central Bank of Egypt.

Egypt holds this years presidency of the group.

In the first day of the meeting, Sahar Nasr, the minister of investment and international cooperation, said that Egypt's hosting of this meeting falls under the framework of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's directive to support the African continents issues in relation to international financial institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank.

Nasr said that the meeting's aim is to articulate a unified vision of strengthening the collaboration between African countries and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in a memorandum that the African Governors Caucus will present to both institutions in October 2018.

"Egypt will exert a massive effort to promote the interests and the priorities of African development during its term as president of the African Caucus," added Nasr during the meeting.

Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait emphasised the importance of this meeting, stating that this year's caucus will be focused on discussing issues related to increasing the role of the private sector, particularly in coordination with the public sector, across the continent.

The caucus was established in 1963 with the objective of strengthening the voice of African countries in the Bretton Woods Institutions, the IMF and the World Bank. Membership is open to all African countries who are members of the IMF and the World Bank.

The countries are represented by ministers of investment and finance, along with governors of central banks.

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The iconic British brand acquired by Unilever in 2009 from American major Sara Lee, is attempting to get a new image with actors Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan.







Advertisements for male grooming products have traditionally revolved around great imagery, slick styles and attracting the ladies with a dash of machismo.

But that was in the days of yore, before present day sensibilities and changing gender equations forced brands to rethink their tone and pitch.

Veering off the beaten track has been just as effective in getting consumer attention from the target group and that has encouraged many male grooming brands to change their approach and attitude.





Brylcreem, the iconic British brand acquired by Unilever in 2009 from American major Sara Lee, is attempting to do just that with actors Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. New digital ads featuring the stars, who are Brylcreems latest brand endorsers, speak of the need to respect one and another with the use of good language and behaviour.



The campaign Soch badla style badla (Change the way you think, change your style) is part of a larger effort by Hindustan Unilever to market its new hair and beard range under Brylcreem, which has been launched in partnership with Amazon.





This is the first time that HUL and Amazon have teamed up and a new line of male grooming products will be available exclusively on the e-tailers platform. A brave new approach to marketing and communication is warranted, experts tracking the company said, since the online male grooming market is increasingly getting crowded.



Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director, HUL, said, We experiment with our products on a regular basis. We have been trying to resurrect the Brylcreem brand for a few years now with a number of innovations. In the latest instance, we have tied up with Amazon to launch a range of male grooming products. It is a collaboration. And for now, it will only be on e-commerce, precisely, Amazon.



Flowing with the tide





The online male grooming market in India is slowly but steadily coming into its own as men increasingly shop online, want to look good and find it convenient to check out trends and styles on digital platforms, much like women do with beauty and cosmetic products.





The emergence of start-ups such as Bombay Shaving Company, Ustraa, Lets Shave, The Man Company and Beardo among others has only helped fuel this trend, say experts, with consumer goods companies such as Marico, Emami and HUL jumping on to the bandwagon in their quest for growth.



Last month, for instance, saw Marico launch a premium male grooming brand Studio X exclusively on Amazon in a bid to catch the young, digital-savvy consumer. The latest initiative followed the companys acquisition of 45 per cent stake in Zed Lifestyle, which owns Beardo, in 2017.

Last year also saw Emami pick up a 30 per cent stake in Helios Lifestyle, which owns The Man Company. The firm claims the move was intended to fill a yawning gap in its portfolio.



Even Wipro Consumer Care, the unlisted consumer goods arm of Wipro Enterprises, made a recent undisclosed investment in Happily Unmarried, which owns the Ustraa brand of online male grooming products, as partaking of category growth is becoming critical for conventional personal care majors.



Small is big





Constituting around 5 to 7 per cent of the roughly Rs 50 billion overall male grooming market in India, online male grooming is small in terms of size. In absolute terms, the market, say experts, is not more than Rs 3.5 billion currently, but growing at a blistering pace.



Abneesh Roy, senior vice-president, research, institutional equities, Edelweiss, estimates that the market is growing at around 20-25 per cent per annum and could double in size in the next three years, making it an exciting prospect for mainstream players.





Industry sources say that Emami, Marico and HUL are the early adopters of what could be a more pronounced trend in the future. One likely entry could be that of ITC, which has been looking at all emerging categories within consumer goods in the last few years including male grooming.



While ITCs Engage has emerged as a key player in deodorants (after Fogg and Wild Stone), it could be extended into a larger male grooming portfolio, say experts, or a new line altogether could be launched in the future. Some of Engages other deodorant competitors, including Vini Cosmetics, which makes Fogg and McNROE, which makes Wild Stone, are also contemplating entry into the larger male grooming market, experts said.





Shantanu Deshpande, chief executive officer, Bombay Shaving Company, had said in an earlier conversation that he wasnt surprised with the competitive intensity. The online male grooming market is just getting created (in India). I see more start-ups and larger players coming in and there is need for it so that consumers become aware of the category. This will gradually expand the market, he said.

Globally, Unilever had indicated in the past that it was keen to take Dollar Shave Club, a US-based online male grooming brand acquired in 2016, into new markets such as India. That could well kick off a new chapter in the fight for consumers in this growing segment.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Sudnay dared the Congress to clear its stand on the amended OBC bill when it is taken up in the Rajya Sabha, saying it will expose whether the party was really for the backward communities.

IMAGE: BJP chief Amit Shah addresses during an event held to rename the Mughalsarai railway station to RSS ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay. Photograph: PTI Photo

He also charged the opposition with playing vote bank politics on the National Register of Citizens issue.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, commonly known as OBC bill, was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 2 and will now go to the Rajya Sabha for passage.

The proposed legislation seeks to grant the National Commission for Backward Classes constitutional status on a par with National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

"The Modi government has got the OBC bill passed in the Lok Sabha. This will go to the Rajya Sabha. Will (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi clear his stand before the country that whether his party will help in the passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha or not. This will make it clear whether the Congress was really for the welfare of the backward," Shah said.

He was in Mughalsarai to attend a function on renaming of Mughalsarai junction after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stalwart Pt Deendayal Upadhyay.

On the NRC issue, the BJP chief said, "We have to push out each and every Bangladeshi infiltrator from the country."

"Mamata Banerjee and the Congress say that the NRC should not be done. I ask Rahul baba whether the NRC should be conducted in the country or not. But, he does not answer. You all should tell that whether the Bangladeshi infiltrators should be pushed out (from India) or not."

"Today I would like to ask the SP, the BSP and the Congress whether they want the infiltrators to stay in the country or they should be driven out. I know the answer of the people of UP. The answer is that not even a single infiltrator should be allowed to stay in India," he said.

IMAGE: Left to right, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Shah during the renaming ceremony of the Mughalsarai railway station. Photograph: PTI Photo

Shah attacked the opposition parties on their efforts to forge unity and said, "Today the entire opposition is hell bent upon spreading the rumour about impact on the poll equation in UP if the SP and the BSP come together."

"Even if Bua (BSP chief Mayawati), bhatija (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) and Rahul join hands, our tally of seats (in Lok Sabha from UP) will be 74 instead of 73 now and will not be 72," he said.

He exuded confidence that the BJP and its allies will perform better than in 2014 when the saffron party bagged 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state and two went to ally Apna Dal, taking the NDA tally to 73.

"I throw a challenge to them that in the planes of Ganga-Yamuna, apart from the BJP's victory, nothing else will happen," he said.

The BJP chief said that today is an important day for the party workers, as in the place where Pandit Upadhyay was found dead under mysterious circumstances, the same Mughalsarai station has now been associated with Upadhyay's name.

IMAGE: A view of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay station, previously known as Mughalsarai railway station. Photograph: PTI Photo

Shah, on the occasion also said, "Until development takes place in Uttar Pradesh, development of India will remain incomplete. Until and unless the Poorvanchal (eastern) region of the state develops, the country will not develop. Today, I am happy to inform you that the Modi government has spent more on Poorvanchal than that done by previous governments in the past 70 years.

"As the BJP party chief I want to assure you that when we come back to you after five years to seek votes, UP would had become the number one state in the country," he said.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal said, "Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay learnt different principles in his early life. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a tea seller started his life at a railway station and trains."

Minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha said: "In the last four years, a number of works have been done in UP. Earlier the big projects of the Centre were able to reach only Amethi and Rae Bareli. The work done by the Railways in the last four years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not done in last 40 years."

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said Deendayal Upadhyay is the source of inspiration for all the public-welfare works being done by the UP government.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, who is also the MP from Chandauli, also addressed the gathering.
Peaceful protests were held on Sunday across Kashmir against the legal challenge to the validity of Article 35-A of the Constitution in the Supreme Court.

Photograph: Umar Ganie/ Rediff.com IMAGE: A view of deserted Srinagar during complete shutdown called by separatists.

The protesters wowed to defend the constitutional provision, that bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir acquire any immovable property in the state.

Traders organisations took out a protest march and held a sit-in at Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) in Lal Chowk in support of continuation of Article 35-A.

Similar rallies were held at Zadibal, Karfali Mohalla, Rainawari, Anchaar, Dalgate, Rambagh, Khanyar and Parimpora in the city, officials said.

Peaceful rallies were taken out at several places in other districts and towns of the valley, they said.

However, there were minor stone pelting incidents reported from some parts of the valley as well, the officials said, adding the miscreants were chased away by the security forces personnel deployed for maintaining law and order.

Photograph: Umar Ganie/ Rediff.com IMAGE: Security personnel patrol a deserted street.

There were no reports of anyone getting hurt in the brief clashes, they said.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear pleas challenging the validity of the Article 35-A on Monday.

The state government has filed an application before the Registrar of the Supreme Court, informing that it is going to seek adjournment of the hearing of the petition in view of the "ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat and urban local body and municipal elections in the state".

Photograph: Umar Ganie/ Rediff.com IMAGE: A deserted look of Srinagar during the shutdown.

Various organisations included Bar Association, transporters and traders' bodies have extended support to the shutdown call of the JRL, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik.

Meanwhile, Amarnath yatra was suspended from Jammu in the view of protest.

A few hundred pilgrims camping in Jammu to join the yatra to the 3,880 metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas were not allowed from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp this morning, the officials said.

Photograph: Umar Ganie/ Rediff.com IMAGE: Groups of people stage peaceful rallies at several places.

Train services were also suspended in the valley, a senior railway official said.

The official said there were apprehensions of law and order problem in the valley, hence train service will remain suspended for two days on August 5 and 6.
Gowda said that the Congress will play a crucial role in forging opposition unity in the bid by the alliance to dislodge the BJP from power.

Pitching for a "formidable front" against the Bharatiya Janata Party, former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular supremo H D Deve Gowda has said he is not averse to projecting Trinamoll Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the Opposition's prime ministerial face for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The remark by Gowda, 85, comes against the backdrop of reports that the Congress and other opposition parties favour leaving the issue of a prime ministerial candidate for the post-election phase as they feel that opposition unity could be hurt if the subject is taken up ahead of the polls.

The remark also comes days after top Congress sources indicated that the party will not mind a nominee for the top post from any Opposition alliance which does not have the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Gowda, whose party has formed a coalition government in Karnataka with the support of the Congress, said the Congress will play a crucial role in forging opposition unity in the bid by the alliance to dislodge the BJP from power.

In an interview, the former prime minister noted while the formation of a third front is still in the "early stage", Banerjee is "trying her best" to bring all the non-BJP parties together. Gowda headed the Janata Dal-led United Front coalition government in 1996 but his tenure did not last more than a year.

Banerjee is pursuing the task of the formation of a federal front seriously after the draft National Register of Citizens in Assam that excluded 40 lakh people from the list in the eastern state, he said.

Banerjee is a bitter critic of the NRC and has pilloried the BJP over the citizenship issue. She is also seeking the support of other opposition parties to take on the ruling party.

The BJP has stoutly defended the Supreme Court-mandated exercise, saying it concerned national security and safety of the country's citizens.

Asked if he would support the TMC chief as the prime ministerial face of the opposition, Gowda said: "Most welcome if Mamata is projected as PM. Indira Gandhi ruled as prime minister for 17 years. Why should we (men) alone become PM? Why not Mamata or Mayawati?"

Indicating he is not opposed to a woman prime minister, Gowda said he had piloted the women's reservation bill in Parliament way back in 1996.

Noting that the JD-S has not made any effort to unify regional parties so far, he however said the regional party is prepared to cooperate with other parties to fight the BJP.

"It is because there is a sense of fear in the country. There is a suffocating atmosphere for minorities in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat. A formidable front is necessary to take on the BJP in 2019," he noted.

Observing that the clamour for a political alternative to BJP will gradually gain momentum, Gowda stressed that the Congress as a national party will also play a crucial role.

"I want to see how things will shape up in the next 2-3 months," he added.

Gowda also mentioned that the Congress and his party will fight together in Karnataka during 2019 general polls. However, the issue of seat sharing has not been discussed yet, he said. Karnataka accounts for 28 Lok Sabha seats.
CIFF's 40th edition will take place from 20 to 29 November, with Billie August heading the international competition jury

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) announced award winning Danish director Bille August as jury president for its International competition in the upcoming 40th edition, which opens 20 November.

August is a recipient of numerous awards including an Oscar, Golden Globe, and twice a Palme dOr, making him one of the few directors to win all three top international awards.

August said he was excited and honoured to be the festivals jury president, according to a press release from CIFF.

August added: "What a great film can do is to give soul and heart to moments, to characters, and to give us the possibility to identify with other people  and because we are able to portray the individual human being in a film, it also gives us a possibility, in short moments, to understand something about the world in the greater picture."

Born in 1948 in Denmark, August studied cinema at The National Film School of Denmark. His first feature film, Honning mane (In my Life, 1978), earned him the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film.

August's major international success was with the film Pelle Erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror, 1987), which scooped all three major accolades in cinema: the Palme d'Or, and the Oscar, and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

His second Palme dor was for Den Goda Viljan (The Best Intentions, 1992).

August went on to direct international and Hollywood films with the industrys superstars, including The House of the Spirits (1993) starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons, Les Miserables (1998) starring Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush and Uma Thurman, and more recently the film 55 Steps (2017) starring Hilary Swank and Helena Bonham Carter.

Some of his other notable films include A Song for Martin, Goodbye Bafana, and Silent Heart.

For his work, August has been honoured by the Danish and the Swedish Royal Order of Chivalry as well as the French Order Chivalry for Art and Writing.

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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Thalidomide babies or Thalidomide disaster. Do these terms sound familiar?

Well, they are disabled children born in late 1950s and early 1960s to mothers who had been prescribed the drug Thalidomide during early pregnancy.

Under the brand name Contergan, Thalidomide was launched in Germany in 1957 as an over-the- counter medication to treat insomnia, and nausea associated with pregnancy. It was introduced in Britain in 1958 by Distillers Bio-chemical Ltd. under the brand name Distaval. By 1960, the drug was available in 46 countries, including Canada. But it was not introduced in the U.S. then as it failed to pass muster, courtesy of FDA inspector Frances Kelsey.

By 1959, reports of peripheral neuritis, a numbness that can lead to severe pain and even partial paralysis associated with Thalidomide were doing the rounds. But the worst came in 1961, with several cases of malformed children being born to women who took Thalidomide early in pregnancy.

According to reports, 100,000 babies died in the womb and 10,000 were born with serious disabilities like absence of limbs, deformed hands, facial disfigurement, absence of ears and eyes, and brain defects, to name a few.

The drug was withdrawn from the market in late 1961.

Understanding the mechanism of Thalidomide-induced birth defects has always been of interest to the scientific community.

Now, scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have finally found an answer.

According to the researchers, Thalidomide degrades a lot of *transcription factors, including SALL4, eventually resulting in complete removal of SALL4 from cells. Sall4 plays a diverse role during early embryonic development, and its degradation is said to interfere with limb development and other aspects of fetal growth. (*transcription factors are cell proteins that help switch genes on or off).

The Thalidomide-induced birth defects are similar to the characteristics and associated anomalies in Duane Radial Ray Syndrome.

Duane-radial ray syndrome (DRRS), an inherited disorder that affects the eyes and causes abnormalities of bones in the arms and hands, is also caused by mutations in the SALL4 gene.

Commenting on the finding, the new study's senior author, Eric Fischer, said, "The similarities between the birth defects associated with Thalidomide and those in people with a mutated SALL4 gene are striking. They make the case even more strongly that disruption of SALL4 is at the root of the devastation produced by Thalidomide in the 1950s."

From Trouble To Triumph...

Though Thalidomide was banned in late 1961, researchers never lost interest in the drug. In 1975, the U.S. Public Health Service set up a compassionate use program to distribute Thalidomide to leprosy patients. Following reports of Thalidomide's efficacy, Celgene and other companies began investigating the various potential uses of the drug.

In July 1998, Celgene won the FDA approval to market Thalidomide for leprosy under the brand name Thalomid. The company was required to establish a System for Thalidomide Education and Prescribing Safety (S.T.E.P.S) oversight program to ensure that fetal exposure to the drug does not occur as it has been associated with birth defects. The S.T.E.P.S program, renamed REMS, helps to control access to the drug, educate prescribers, pharmacists and patients about the risks of Thalidomide, and monitor compliance.

In its first full year of commercial sales, Thalomid generated revenues of $24.1 million. The drug proved to be effective in treating multiple myeloma also in clinical trials.

Celgene filed its supplemental New Drug Application seeking approval to market Thalomid for the treatment of multiple myeloma in 2004. Finally in May 2006, the FDA granted accelerated approval for Thalomid in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients.

Thalidomide, which was withdrawn from the European market in late 1961, was re-introduced in April 2008 for treating newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

The drug generated global sales of $132 million in 2017 and $59 million in the first half of 2018. This compares with global sales of $152 million and $70 million in the respective periods.

How important is understanding Thalidomide's birth-defect-causing mechanism? Here's Fisher's explanation...

"Knowing the mechanism by which Thalidomide produces birth defects will be critical as drug developers devise and test new drugs that use the same structural "scaffold" as Thalidomide. As new derivatives are tested, we'll be able to explore whether they have the same potentially damaging effects as Thalidomide. We know that the therapeutic effect of these drugs is based on their ability to degrade specific proteins. Our findings will help drug developers distinguish between proteins whose degradation is likely to be beneficial and whose may be harmful".

The study is published in the journal Elife.

(Teratogenic is a drug capable of interfering with the overall growth of a fetus, causing birth defect).

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
The powerful All Assam Students Union (AASU) on Sunday warned political parties not to politicise and communalize the National Register of Citizens (NRC)which was published in Assam on July 31.

The North East Students Organisation (NESO), an apex students' body of all the indigenous communities in the region, demanded to update the registry of citizens in other northeastern states to segregate genuine and non-genuine citizens.



"There is a propaganda going on by some political leaders of India that the NRC was anti-Bengali or anti-Muslim. The NRC update was anti-illegal Bangladeshis and not against any Indian," AASU Chief Adviser Sammujal Bhattacharya told journalists here in Meghalaya.





Warning political parties from "politicizing and communalizing" the NRC in Assam, the AASU leader said: "I want to tell such leaders that India is for Indians and Assam and Northeast is also for Indians but not for illegal Bangladeshis.



"The Trinamool Congress (TMC) must learn a lesson from the problem in the northeast and save West Bengal from being swamped by illegal Bangladeshi immigrants," Bhattacharya said.



"Bangladeshis are also entering West Bengal. Concentrate more on securing your borders," he said, referring to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.



Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have been extremely critical of the draft NRC in Assam that left out more than 40 lakh people from the list and termed it as a BJP political strategy to drive out "real Indians" from the country.



But the powerful AASU leader maintained that the NRC was a document to protect the identity of the indigenous people of the northeast.



Bhattacharya also hit out at political parties for not raising the influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Parliament. "This is a grave situation and what's happening in the northeast should be discussed in Parliament."



"We demand the updation of NRC in other states of the northeast also so that we can know the quantum of problem the region is facing," NESO chairman Samuel B. Jyrwa said.
The plays Snow White and Drama El-Shalateen scooped the most awards

Egypts National Theatre Festival closed on 3 August after a two-week run with an award ceremony at the Cairo Opera House to honour the best entries.

The first prize, worth EGP 35,000, was won by a play called Snow White, which scored a clutch of awards, including best director and best actress.

The play Drama El-Shahateen also did well, scooping second best play and best rising director.

Through theatre we can shape humanity and its cultural and artistic conscience, and all of the organisations that took part in the festival are working to achieve that, said festival director Ismail Mokhtar during the ceremony.

Hassan Attia, the festivals president, noted how the festival has grown.

The festival was not limited to the official competition, but this year we had more parallel events, including for the first time the Childrens Theatre Symposium, as well as the competition for the poster, and audience surveys that helps us understand them better, he said, describing the events as two successful weeks.

The head of the festivals jury, Samira Abdelaziz, said that the increase in the number of local plays is testament that Egypts theatre is thriving, and our youth are creating good works, be they university students or amateurs who are pursuing their passion.

Awards:

First prize for best play: Snow White

Second prize for best play: Drama El-Shahateen

Special jury award and best ensemble performance: Khaled Galal, director, for Salem Nafsak

Best director: Mohsen Rizk for Snow White

Best rising director: Mohamed El-Rakh for Drama El-Shahateen

Best actor in starring role: Alaa Qouqa for Mesafer El-Leil

Best actress in starring role: Marwa Abdelmoneim for Snow White

Best actor in supporting role: Amgad El-Haggar for Salem Nafsak

Best actress in supporting role: Samia Atef for El-Saa El-Akhira

Best rising male star: Mohamed Nasef for Drama El-Shahateen

Best rising female star: Rana Khattab for Drama El-Shahateen

Best music: Walid El-Shahawy for Illiad

Best set design: Amr Abdallah for Qalaet El-Mot

Best costume design: Naema Agamy for Snow White

Best Light design: Amr Abdallah for Qalaet El-Mot

Best choreography: Sally Ahmed and Monadel Antar for Qalaet El-Mot

Best drama written for theatre: Mahmoud Gamal El-Hadeiny for Segn Ekhteyary

Best scriptwriting: Hamdy Zidan for Lesa Basaal

Best rising scriptwriter: Alaa Kashef for Studio

Appreciation award for best poetry written for theatre: Khaled El-Shibany for Snow White

Appreciation award for Arabic language proficiency: Mesafer El-Leil

Appreciation award for best visual effects: Reda Salah for Iliad

Hazem Azmy award for best critical writing: Two winners Bassem Adel Abdel Tawab and Ahmed Mohamed El-Sherif

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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Dear Editor,

With my utmost deepest regret; I write regarding the letter titled About the tax debate between Government and the Church signed by Mr. Bill Hamilton recently published herein this medium.

How insulting! How insulting!

For as much as I do not like what the CCCS church minister resistance against the taxing of their lucrative pay-packets from the poor of the poorest parishioners in the world; and is lead by this Vavatau guy; and then this palagi thinks he has the decency to let his dirty mouth off as if Samoa is the land of fools?

Dont you dare Mr. Bill Hamilton!. Dont you dare.

Load your stuff onto your dirty bike and pedal haste back where ever you had come from.

Dont you dare come to my dear country and insult my people the way you had thought you would get away with your garbage.

You as a visitor to my dear lovely country, I would only suggest to just shut your mouth.

This is a fight between us the people of Samoa. I would not dare allow any outsider who happens to be a visitor to get his troll self involved. Samoa is sacrilege, it is not like New Zealand, the US or Australia.

Samoa is a country of only indigenous people that no invaders can just walk in and let his mouth loose. Our democracy is in our Samoa way.

Hence, any Samoa word has no s; nor n at the end; its just Samoa; its just matai; its just faifeau. No palagi can come and dominate or change our lives unless we want to do it our own selves; ok Mister palagi man?

One positive aspect though for you Bill; you had signed your name (I hope its your real name) the reason I respond to your trolls from where ever you had come from.

I just do not give a hoot for how ever long you had come and go back from where ever da heck you had come from whether its two hundred three hundred or five hundred years ago or into the future; I-do-not-give-a-hoot!!!!

Do I give a shoot if you are disappointed with the debate going on between my people about the Governments tightening of the tax laws with respect to faifeau and alofa as you had suggested?

Bill, I want you to understand and know, the word faifeau has no s at the end whether its singular or plural.

OK! That tells me you are an idiot!!!! Yes! In exclamation marks!!! You are an idiot to my eyes. I dont give a shoot whether you are a palagi but reading from your grammar you are one of those stupid palagi.

And who do ya think you are to question Samoa Observer a bet each way? Huh! Who do you think you are?

Just get out the maafala and take your garbage to where you had come from. Dont you dare take advantage of our internal matter.

Do I give a shoot who had run the school and who were at training and what they were trained for; the skills and whether they were women men or faafafige?

Do I give a shoot whether they can fish the shallow or the tide rising in millimetres, centimetres, metres or in kilometres?

Oh youll be drowned William; youll be certainly drowned. And for whatever they are being taught for the aspiring wives of the pastors today you as a palagi would have never had a slightest idea! That, I would have a laugh for sure.

So you had said: What the Pastors have since found a much more effective way of keeping their wives supplied with food (and plenty of it) - the pernicious practice of publicly announcing how much each family has donated in alofa; that so is none of your bloodied business about.

So what Bill! So What!!! And, you had said Bill: Over the years my wife and I have divided our time between Apia and a village. Apia now abounds with stories of the lifestyles of pastors, and of the consequences for villagers of trying to escape this competitive giving process.

But I say Bill: Does it matter? And do I give a hoot?

That is nothing to do with your palagi mouth. Just leave our fight to us that is nothing to do with any visitor to my country.

So if the locals had done some work for you and your wife, do I give a shoot? I can only just hope, that they surely got paid for what they had deserved.

So you had said: Occasionally village residents have done work for us, and they plead for loans to keep up with what their neighbours are donating.

One of my family living away, when asking a relative living in a village why he doesnt just refuse to compete, received the answer: Its alright for you, you dont have to live here.

Indeed! Its so so so so easy for a palagi to let his mouth off because all he knows is the palagi way of life he has no idea to understand the Samoa way of life.

You see Bill: Us Samoans do not bank our money in banks. We bank our money in our aiga. And when we die or get married, the whole family die or get married together. And you? Poor Bill! You die alone.

So you had thought: Many villagers are forced into a state of perpetual indebtedness, while their money is used by their spiritual leader for personal aggrandizement.

So what if so Bill? So what if so? That is none of your business.

Then you said: Yet supporters of the system continue to argue the donations are an act of free will. And so be it; and so be it if that is an act of free will.

Bill! You do not understand our Samoa way of life unless you were born a Samoa, raised a Samoa, and live life a true Samoa.

Then you thought: It looks as though the Government has decided enough is enough and this severe inequality has to be addressed as a social issue.

Bill I say: That is none of your business Bill. That is none of your business.

But you had said: In your issue of 7July, Nanai Molonuu Lealalauloto Nofoaiga rambled over one and a half pages of the paper, without being able to make it clear to me just how the current tax tightening is in breach of the Constitution.

Then I say: It appears to me Bill you had wanted to have made your self a Constitutional lawyer; yeah? You know what Bill? No doubt you to me is just a tiny very, very. very tiny insect in my eyes.

Perhaps though in your palagi country you may or could be something. But when you come to Mr. Hollywoods territory, you are nothing. Just mere nothing Bill.

Dont you dare come a let your mouth loose in Samoa while Im alive you idiot.

In the same issue, Reverend Vavatau Taufao quoted Jesus words about sheep and wolves, and about establishing his church on Peter as the rock, without providing any link between these quotes and the taxation dispute.

Mr. William Hamilton, just a kind word of advise for you; shut up! You have no right to say a word. Samoa is different from where ever in the world you had come from.

When I address issues in Samoa, I am a paramount chief. You are not. When I address issues in New Zealand, I have every right as Aotearoa is the land being invaded by people from the northern hemisphere. Same when I address issues in the Aboriginal lands; it is located in the Pacific in the Southern Hemisphere where I belong; are you from the northern hemisphere?

Get out of the Pacific. You dont belong here. I do; you dont.

If E.F.K.S. is expecting to be arguing its position in Court, it should consider doing so without input from its General Secretary, because irrelevant biblical quotes wont cut much ice with a judge.

And who are you to judge Bill?

The statement: Samoa, a nation founded on God, has had a good run during the debate, but if this bunch ends up prevailing in its current dispute with the Government, the statement will have to be adjusted to: Samoa, the nation which foundered on God.

How insulting!!! How insulting!!!

Bill! We do believe in God Lord Almighty the Maker of Heaven and Earth! We do not make fun of our Lord God Almighty. With my utmost respect.

Tofaeono Misatauveve Iosefo Joseph Hollywood

Palisi
Dear Editor,

Re: Man who skipped the country

How can this keep happening with immigration?

It seems like someone working there is letting these cowards out.

There has to be a top executive involved and a thorough investigation needs to be carried out.

Remember the escaped prisoner that fled to Australia and then there was another lawyer who despite a stop order was able to slip out of the country.

Criminals continue to defy the odds and theres is definitely inside help involved. Find these people and lock them up.

L.U.
The Samoan Seafarers Union (S.S.U.) has taken up the concerns on its members contracts and working conditions with the Prime Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

The Prime Minister confirmed this in an interview with the Samoa Observer, saying there are issues that need to be addressed.

Yes the matter reached my office. However, the issued is being handled by board and I had to refer this matter back to them. The seafarers came directly to me, yet there are issues on the ground level that needs to be addressed in order to assist them, said the Prime Minister.

Sailors who had raised their concerns with the union as well as S.S.U. president Fred Amoa declined to comment when contacted by this newspaper. Some sailors feared that speaking with the media will only jeopardize their efforts to get the authorities to address their grievances.

A posting on the official Facebook page of the Samoan Seafarers and Maritime Union showed that the sailors threatened to go on strike when they met last week to discuss the issue.

The statement said the S.S.U. members met with Samoa Shipping Corporation (S.S.C.) Minister Papalii Niko Lee Hang, the S.S.C. Board, the C.E.O. and the management.

The S.S.U. in response through the president, vice-president and legal counsel stressed that strike by S.S.U. members is the very last option and it is not encouraged for obvious reasons. The S.S.U. is a new entity and it has its constitution to adhere to, with emphasis to find employment opportunities for its members and it is working alongside S.S.S. (Samoa Shipping Services) for those reasons. However, S.S.U. is mandated also to assist its members embroiled in industrial grievances, the statement posted on the Facebook page stated.

The S.S.U. also sought clarification from the S.S.C. on whether their current salary scale was in line with the Remuneration Tribunal's scale.

The S.S.U. also stressed the effective implementation of Maritime Labour Convention that Samoa ratified in 2013 plus the LERA law. The M.L.C. in particular is for seafarers worldwide and Samoa must implement in order to meet its international obligations and it is an opportunity for Samoa  through S.S.C.  to show best accepted practice on international labour standards by adopting and adapting the same.

The statement also stated that it was agreed that both the S.S.C. and the S.S.U. meet to review a draft action plan to address key issues and report back to the S.S.C. Board and Cabinet.

Repeated efforts to get comments from Minister Papalii and the S.S.C. Chief Executive Officer Papalii Willie Nansen were unsuccessful.
A locally made liquid organic fertiliser that is being produced through the process of a digester could revolutionise our farming industry in Samoa.

For the past three years, Brenton Ellis of Bdehl Samoa has been developing this organic fertiliser that turns invasive plant species and produce waste into liquid fertiliser with the added advantage of also producing compost and bio gas.

The multiple benefits of the digestive process may hold the key to solving many of the problems faced by growers here on the island.

The digester is not a new invention but Mr. Ellis, who is an electrical engineer by trade from Australia, has adapted a design that suits the conditions of Samoa. Their test system is located in Matautu Lefaga and does not require any machinery parts.

Im an electrical engineer by trade in Australia, it had to be something thats not too technical here otherwise it will not last which I had seen happen to a few projects out here so we needed something that was simple, its concrete, we can make it ourselves here and theres no maintenance except just feeding it so it was a simple process that fits into the farming lifestyle.

The process of producing the liquid fertiliser requires feeding the plant every day with plant waste.

The resources are there, he said. We are currently using what people class as your invasive species which is your grass and your vines. Were using that as our mix to get our fertiliser.

Invasive plant species are fast growing species because it sucks all the nutrients out of the soil which causes our plants to struggling and people are putting chemicals into their plants and getting it to grow but the grass and weeds and vines are taking all these nutrients.

So all we are doing is taking all these invasive weeds and chucking them into a system that is taking out all the nutrients back out of it and putting it back into the soil through the fertiliser.

During the early development stages, Mr. Ellis sent samples of the fertiliser to S.R.O.S. and a testing lab overseas and found that his product was of a very high quality, which led to the revelation that the secret to such a rich fertiliser is attributed to Samoas own home grown soil.

Our product is a lot better than the results they are getting from the same type of system overseas so I queried about that and it came back to us that its the Samoan soil, Samoan soil is very rich here.

Bedhl Samoa performed their own trials of the organic liquid fertiliser over 12 months in 2017 where they gave out the product to 60 different growers and farmers to test on small plots.

Mr. Ellis said the response after the trial was overwhelmingly positive and an extra advantage of using their fertiliser was the possibility of speeding up the process of organic farm certification.

We received an excellent response, it was amazing, he said. They turned away from their chemical fertilisers, which could speed up the process of a farm in Samoa being certified organic instead of waiting years. If they start using it straight away, it could come down to six months because thats how much time it takes to see a long term effect.

During the trials, they discovered that with consistent use of the organic liquid fertiliser, the higher the chances of getting rid of plant diseases.

It can get rid of diseases, like the taro disease, it got rid of that, he said. All we are doing is putting the nutrients back into the soil, which means for the taro farmer, instead of them going to look for another to place to plant after hes harvested in one particular area of the plantation.

By using this fertiliser, he can replant in the same place once he has harvested, applies the fertiliser which puts back in the nutrients that the last taro plants took out. Also with the pesticide use, we noticed a lot of reports coming back that the weeds were being prohibited around the plants, they werent growing as fast anymore.

Currently Bdehl Samoa are going through a process of certification and testing through S.R.O.S. before launching the final product and implementing plans to increase their production by outsourcing to villages around Samoa.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries have taken interest in the many benefits of the digester and are lending their support to Mr. Elliss production hoping that it can benefit all villages with its ability to produce an affordable high quality organic fertiliser, generate a source of income as well as utilise the bio gas for their household needs.
In May this year the Cabinet appointed a Commission of Inquiry to consider the proposed organizational structure of the merger between the Ministry of Health and the National Health Services.

Former Attorney General, Taulapapa Brenda Heather-Latu, chaired the Inquiry. Commission Members include Professor Fui Asofou Soo and Faamausili Dr. Matagialofi Luaiufi. The lawyers assisting the Commission were Sefo Junior Ainuu, the Assistant Attorney General and Chief Public Solicitor, and Shalon Time, a State Solicitor.

The Commissions terms of reference were:

 To review the structure that has been proposed for the merger of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Service;

 To consider the concerns raised by nurses;

 Consider and recommend options regarding the proposed organizational structure.

 Consult the representative for nurses, as well as representatives of the relevant

 government agencies presently engaged to bring the merger into effect;

A copy of the Commission of Inquiry report has been obtained by the Samoa Observer. We will endeavour to publish the report in its entirety in the coming days. This is the first part:

PART ONE - FACTUAL BACKGROUND

It is important to place the events of March 2018 in a factual context in order to fully understand the events which led to certain decisions and actions.

1. In 2006 the Health Sector was separated into two organizations: the National Health Services (NHS) responsible for delivering all health services through the two hospitals: the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital, TTM Motootua, Apia, and Malietoa Tanumafili II Hospital MTII Tuasivi, Fogapoa, Savaii as well as numerous District Health Centers in Savaii and Upolu, and the Ministry of Health (MOH), responsible for health policy, monitoring the quality and standards of health services provided by NHS as well as other public and private providers (such as National Kidney Foundation and GPS) and responsible for public health initiatives.

2. In FK (13) 16 on 15 May 2013, Cabinet approved recommendations by the Remuneration Tribunal in respect of the Doctors Salary Scale which resulted in increases in their salary scale. There was an expectation within NHS that NHS would subsequently undertake a salary review of all other NHS staff.

3. On 1 May 2014 the NHS Act 2014 was assented to by the Head of State

4. On 21 June 2014, the NHS Board of Directors submitted a report, analysis and proposed new salary scales for all NHS workers to the Minister of Health, which were prepared after the approval of the Doctors earlier salary increases in May 2013, and which was part of the process to implement the new NHS structure based upon a corporate model which could be determined the sole authority of the newly legislated NHS Board of Directors.

5. On 1 August 2014 the new NHS Act 2014 came into force.

6. On 13 November 2014 the Minister of Health tabled the detailed financial proposal for the proposed new salary scales from NHS with Cabinet, requiring a response by Ministry of Finance in January 2015. The paper proposed new salary scales for all other workers employed by NHS, based upon the five (5) criteria had been applied in determining the Doctors new salary scale in 2013. The NHS salary scale proposal was the result of the work of a multidisciplinary committee from NHS and was part and parcel of the work undertaken to implement the revised new organizational structure under the new NHS Act and was intended to herald the start of a new organization. There was no input from MOH.

7. On 28 October 2015 the new NHS structure was approved by the NHS Board of Directors, and confirmed on 26 June 2016. The NHS Corporate Plan document approved by the Minister attached the new structure and heralded the plans to implement such.

8. On 20 January 2016, the Director General of the Ministry of Health formally requested the opportunity to comment on the recently completed Structural Review undertaken by NHS.

9. On 15 February 2016, the Samoa Nurses Association (who clearly were privy to the structural review) wrote to NHS objecting to the new Organizational Structure of the NHS on the basis there has been inadequate consultation with stakeholders.

10. In a letter dated 16 June 2016, the Director General of the MOH wrote a further request to the NHS Board for the opportunity to comment on the new NHS Structure.

11. A further letter from MOH to NHS on 22 July 2016 made the same request.

12. On 4 August 2016, a letter from NHS Board of Directors Chairman apologized for the delay in sharing the NHS operational structure and advised:

1. The NHS Board had endorsed the attached Organizational Structure on 2 August 2016;

2. The NHS Organizational Structure was final;

3. Implementation of the new structure had begun in January 2016; and attached a one page diagram of the new structure but no background papers or further explanation.

13. On 7 September 2016, (the paper tabled on 13 November 2014 for NHS salary increases based on new Organizational Structure) was returned to NHS by the Minister of Healths Office with the request from the Cabinet Office, that it be updated before being resubmitted.

14. On 12 September 2016 the MOH requested from NHS:

1. Full Proposal Report for the amendment of the NHS Organizational Structure;

2. Cost Analysis Report;

3. NHS Operational Manual and notes the Organizational Structure has been

passed and implemented without the Ministrys input.

15. Also in September 2016, the Ministry of Finance indicated that it did not support the increases (and that they should be phased out) and required NHS to advertise all its existing vacant positions before it could proceed with its new structure. All positions were the advertised in the Public Service Circular and elsewhere and NHS was adhering to MOFs instructions when it came to the attention of the Minister.

16. On 9 November 2016, Cabinet in [FK (16)42] approved the issue of a Ministerial Directive by the Minister of Health stopping all NHS appointments until a review was undertaken of all new positions.

17. The Minister then issued a Directive (dated 5 December 2016) freezing all NHS appointments to any new or existing positions, which resulted in stopping the further implementation of the new NHS structure.

18. In April 2017 the Minister of Health submitted a paper to Cabinet recommending the merger of NHS and MOH as one Ministry for the reasons set out in the paper.

19. On 9 May 2017 Ministerial approval was given to partially lift the ban in respect of certain essential and critical clinical positions of which 11 of the 20 critical positions were Medical positions, 2 were nursing with the remaining 7 for allied workers in the Laboratory and X-Ray departments. All other vacant and funded positions were to remain subject to the ban of December 2016, and no other occupational group employed at NHS has received a salary review or increase.

20. The high level Taskforce then commenced its work on 3 July 2017 initially meeting monthly and then more regularly as it received reports from its three sub committees.

21. On 16 August 2017 Cabinet approved the recommendations in the paper in FK (17)13 for the remerge of NHS and MOH, and confirmed the High Level Taskforce be responsible for implementing the Merge.

22. On 27 September 2017 Cabinet in FK (17)35 decided to:

1. Terminate the chair of the National Health Services Board;

2. Appoint an Interim Chair;

3. Appoint additional Board members recommended by the Attorney General.

23. On 22 November 2017 Cabinet issued a policy in FK (17) Faapitoa 13 that any change in the Structure of any Government body or the establishment of a new organization must follow the requirements of this policy.

24. On 9 March 2018 the Taskforce tabled its report to Cabinet and attached a proposed organizational structure for the new organization.

25. On 22 March 2018 a petition was submitted to Cabinet by Nurses of Samoa which stated: ..we ask that our leadership function and role be maintained by retaining the Division of Nursing and Midwifery lead by a nurse appointed at the Deputy Director General level in the proposed structure of new health care entity that the current Ministry of Health and National Health Services are being merged into and threatened strike action if their requests were not answered.

26. On 28 March 2018 Cabinet appointed the Commission of Inquiry to examine the proposed structure for the merge and the Nurses submission.

The events of 2014-2017

27. NHS in its submissions, explained the actions which it undertook in 2014-2016 were due to the passage of the new National Health Services Act 2014 which had repealed the NHS Act 2006. The new Act was proposed by the NHS Board of Management with the aim of aligning the organization within the requirements of the Public Bodies (Accountability and Responsibility) Act 2006 as a corporate entity and brought the new organization within the statutory oversight by the Ministry of Public Enterprises MPE as a Public Beneficial Body.

28. The former Chair of NHS (until October 2017), gave a detailed and structured response to the Commissions queries about the background to the 2014 NHS Act and the consultations which were undertaken in respect of the resulting new NHS structure, which was included in NHSs corporate plan 2017-2020 which had been approved by the Minister, as well as the detailed salary structure submission which had first been submitted to Cabinet in November 2014. The former Chairman was of the view that NHS needed to be run as a business and the change to NHS legislation was to allow this to occur.

29. The Chair, Board and CEO of NHS were (presumably) of the view that given the considerable budget allocated to NHS and its statutory mandate, that the use of a corporate structure would best allow its resources to be better managed and distributed with benefits arising from the improved quality of services available to the public.

30. One might assume that this justification also met with the approval of the Finance Ministry and MPE in 2013 when the draft Bill was submitted to Cabinet by the Minister and successfully wound its way through the Executive process as well as the Legislative process and the policy decisions which underpinned NHS decision to propose a new Bill to change its structure was well explained and understood. In doing so however the Act would fundamentally and effectively alter the balance between service provider and regulator, which was a core feature of the separation of the two functions by health providers in 2006 which was at the time wholly consistent with prevailing Government policy and which had been successfully applied in the post and telecommunications sector; public works; construction and road works, as well as for public utilities such as electricity and water.

31. From its own standpoint, the Commission is incredulous as to how such a fundamental change in the arrangements for health administration could have successfully passed all the usual administrative and legislative checks and balances seemingly without any individual or agency saying Is this right ?. The new Bill would completely change the existing health system and make the separation of functions and MOHs role redundant, yet the MOH Act 2006 was left in place. The core agencies relied upon to impose fiscal/legal and human resources oversight appear not to have raised any objection to the passage of the NHS Bill in 2013-2014 and seem not to have acknowledged any obligation:

- To articulate the shift in the Government reform agenda with rationale and objectives;

- To ensure that the Bill was consistent with existing legislation;

- To provide an evidence based cost benefit analysis over the 10 years of

separation;

- To identify the service delivery aspects which NHS had not been able to

deliver effectively;

- To determine whether the new Structure was within the existing health

appropriation and the impact on MOH budget and whether any alteration

was justified.

32. The Commission also considers that whilst the financial disciplines imposed by Public Bodies legislation may contribute to good financial stewardship and tight fiscal management for any corporate entity (but particularly those owned by Government), there is a difference with public bodies which are responsible for providing essential social services (such as the responsibility of NHS/MOH is to provide the people of Samoa with quality health services under health legislation), which in the health sector is subject to clinical standards and social needs which may not always be consistent with corporate goals and outcomes, and was the philosophy behind the distinction between public trading bodies and public beneficial bodies in the public bodies regime. The Commission members also recall that the SOE Regime for state owned companies was intended to eventually fall away as they became subject to the general companies Act regime and were simply interim measures to prepare government entities for the normal corporate duties, obligations, and accountabilities  not all of which applied to the provision of essential public services.

To be continued tomorrow
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran acquired five new commercial aircraft on Sunday, a day before the U.S. begins restoring sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

The arrival of the ATR72-600 airplanes at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport represented perhaps the last benefits Iran will see under the nuclear deal after President Donald Trump withdrew from it in May. Economic woes are sparking sporadic, leaderless protests across the country.

The rhetoric between the U.S. and Iran remains heated, despite Trump tweeting last week that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard on Sunday acknowledged conducting recent naval exercises near the crucial Strait of Hormuz after renewing threats to cut off the waterway to oil traders.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported the arrival of the five ATR72-600 airplanes, which are twin-engine turboprops used for short-distance regional flights. Their arrival means state carrier Iran Air has received 13 of the 20 it ordered from the French-Italian manufacturer in April 2017. The deal had a list value of $536 million, though buyers and manufacturers typically negotiate lower prices.

ATR, jointly owned by European consortium Airbus and Italy's Leonardo, has been pushing U.S. officials to allow it to finish its delivery of aircraft to Iran. The U.S. Treasury must approve the sale of airplanes whose components are at least 10 percent American-made, like the AT72-600.

The Toulouse, France-based firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The nuclear deal lifted international sanctions in return for Iran limiting its nuclear program and allowing regular inspections. U.N. inspectors said Iran was complying with the deal, but Trump felt the agreement did not go far enough. He has called for a new accord that would include a radical transformation of Iran's policies, including its military support for the Syrian government and regional militant groups, two issues not covered by the 2015 deal.

Iran "has treated its people very poorly, and that's led to terror. They're the world's largest state sponsor of terror. That's what America is trying to get Iran to stop doing. That's the behavioral change that we're looking for from the Iranian regime," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Metro TV in Jakarta.

"The president has always said he is prepared to talk, but it's important that Iran has to be committed to changing its ways in order for those discussions to prove of any value," he added.

Trump himself was more blunt in a tweet he posted Saturday, writing: "Iran, and it's economy, is going very bad, and fast! I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter - it is up to them!"

Iran had hoped the lifting of sanctions would allow it to replace its aging commercial airline fleet, but the U.S. withdrawal has halted billion-dollar deals struck with Airbus and Boeing. European countries, along with Russia and China, remain committed to the nuclear deal, but European companies are unlikely to risk U.S. sanctions to do business with Iran.

Iran's economy has rapidly deteriorated in recent months due in part to uncertainty over the atomic accord, fueling protests. The Iranian rial has fallen to 99,000 to the U.S. dollar despite a government-imposed rate of 44,000.

In recent days, protests have broken out in several cities, with at least one person shot and killed. Some protesters have shouted "Mullahs get lost!" and "Death to the dictator!" the semi-official Fars news agency has reported.

U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian trade in automobiles, gold and other key metals will be re-imposed on Monday, while sanctions targeting the country's energy and banking sector will resume Nov. 4. The sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry could cut off a crucial source of hard currency.

The U.S. has been pushing its allies to halt their import of Iranian oil ahead of the November deadline. Among the top importers of Iranian oil are China, India, Turkey and South Korea.

Rouhani has suggested Iran might block the Strait of Hormuz in response to a shutdown of its oil exports. The strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf is crucial to global energy supplies as about a third of all oil traded at sea passes through it.

Iran's navy and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard routinely conduct seaborne exercises in the Gulf and the strait. U.S. officials last week said Iran carried out a similar exercise, though Tehran did not immediately acknowledge it.

On Sunday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Guard spokesman Gen. Ramezan Sharif confirming that its forces held a military drill in the Persian Gulf and the strait. He said the exercise, which he described as an annual drill, was aimed at maintaining the security of the international waterway. He did not elaborate.
CITY COUNCILS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad City Council met in special session Tuesday to discuss the draft McClellan-Palomar Airport environmental impact report. The council approved a letter to the County of San Diego on parts of the report, amended to update the citys findings in two areas, including 10 acres of protected habitat on the airport site.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

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CARDIFF

The Cardiff School District met in special closed session Thursday to discuss litigation.

ENCINITAS

The Encinitas Union School District board met in special closed session Wednesday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the board approved a revised job description for coordinator of innovation and Farm Lab development, including changes from a classified to a certificated management position.

OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside Unified School District board met Monday for a governance workshop.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
The Al-Abbasi Mosque with its tall minaret and dome waits for worshippers and visitors in Mohamed Ali Street in the Al-Arab district of the Canal City of Port Said. It is scheduled to be reopened this Friday by Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and Minister of Endowments Mokhtat Gomaa, after almost two years of restoration that has seen it hidden under scaffolding as workmen strengthen and restore its walls.

The mosque had been suffering from damage caused by environmental pollution, a high level of humidity, and leakage from the madiaa (a water fountain used for ritual ablution).

Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the restoration work had been carried out according to the latest scientific methods. Every effort was made to ensure that all the original architectural features were retained, he said.

The restoration of the mosque had helped to ensure that important individual monuments were preserved for future generations and neighbourhoods were revivified and upgraded, he added.

Gamal Mustafa, head of the Islamic and Coptic Antiquities Department at the ministry, said the mosque was the second oldest mosque in Port Said after the Al-Tawfiki Mosque. It was built by the khedive Abbas Helmi II in 1904 among 102 mosques in different governorates built in the same period and was inaugurated in 1905.

The mosque played an important political role during the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt in 1956, as it was used by the Popular Resistance Movement in the city. It was also used by late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser for prayer when he visited Port Said.

The mosque lost some of its authentic elements during development work carried out before its listing in 2006, said Gharib Sonbol, head of the Central Administration for Restoration. He said that according to original drawings and photographs, the mosques original wooden painted ceiling was removed and replaced by a concrete one. The original lamps were replaced by modern ones.

The neighbourhood of the mosque was also badly damaged during the 1967 War with Israel, when the mosque again sheltered the areas inhabitants.

Despite the damage the building has suffered, it still retains the majority of its authentic elements as every corner has engravings in Kufic writing decorated with foliage ornamentation and arabesques.

During the restoration work carried out on the windows and doors of the mosque, restorers stumbled upon a relief written in Kufic writing showing several verses of the poem Al-Burda written by the Imam Al-Busiri in praise of the Prophet Mohamed. The doors of the mosque are also decorated with 16 verses from Al-Busiris work.
Oceanside school officials have shelved a sex education program for the districts youngest students after parents complained the material was too graphic, undermined their religious values and promoted premature sexual interest, experimentation, and engagement.

The district suspended the program for elementary school students earlier this summer, and plans to replace it with new curriculum designed by teachers and school officials, in collaboration with parents.

The sex ed curriculum, titled Rights, Respect and Responsibility, was adopted by the Oceanside Unified School District board last year to comply with the California Healthy Youth Act, which took effect in 2016.

The state law requires schools to educate middle and high school students on how to prevent HIV, sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies, and to support healthy attitudes about adolescent growth and development, body image, gender, sexual orientation, relationships, marriage, and family. It permits districts to introduce that material in early grades, but doesnt mandate elementary school sex education.

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Amid #metoo allegations, sexual identity politics and ubiquitous social media, educators feel an urgency to address sexual health early on. But they acknowledge the complexity of discussing it in a manner suitable for younger kids.

Our expectation is, and the law requires, that reproductive health education is going to be provided to students in an age-appropriate way, said Joe Kocurek, a spokesman for Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), who sponsored the new law. Ultimately, the goal for the bill is to empower students to make the best and healthiest decisions for themselves.

Oceanside hadnt updated its sex-ed material since 1992, district spokeswoman Lisa Contreras said. A committee of teachers, administrators and board members evaluated eight different programs, and selected one produced by the Washington, D.C.-based group Advocates for Youth. The organization is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and provides materials for sex education, prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, and material on birth control and abortion.

A separate Oceanside curriculum committee reviewed the choice before the board approved it in March 2017, Contreras said. However, parents werent involved in those decisions. And when they took a look at the lessons, some grew alarmed.

A kindergarten lesson taught students to protect their personal safety and privacy, but also asked them to name body parts, including reproductive organs. After parents objected, the district removed references to body parts including urethra, vagina and anus, said Oceanside Unified School District Board President Ann Corwin.

Based on the feedback that we got, we took that specific stuff out, she said.

Some parents wondered why the district was introducing sex education in primary grades, as the state doesnt require it.

Elementary was definitely our primary concern, especially since it was optional, said Meghan Fontana, mother of a kindergarten student in the district. Our question was, why are you forcing this?

Although Oceanside is unusual in offering sexual education for early grades, other districts have faced opposition to sex ed programs for older students. San Diego Unified School District, which also used curriculums from Advocates for Youth for its middle and high school students, saw push back from parents and community activists when it introduced the material last year.

Attorney Dean Broyles of the Escondido-based National Center for Law & Policy argued at school board meetings in 2017 that the new law is fair and balanced, but that the curriculum used in San Diego schools goes too far.

Broyles, best known for representing parents who sued the Encinitas Union School District for teaching yoga, said the curriculum doesnt teach abstinence and leaves children vulnerable to discovering pornography on the Internet.

Confronted with parent complaints, Oceanside officials ultimately decided not to present the curriculum for grades kindergarten through second grade during the last school year, Contreras said, but kept the lessons for third through sixth grade for the remainder of 2017-18. Critics objected that the material still wasnt age-appropriate, and complained that it undermined the role of their families religious values.

For instance, they said a sixth-grade lesson entitled Being a Sex Ed Sleuth, offers tips on evaluating the credibility of online advice on sexual health. Offering an example of a student looking for information on the effectiveness of condoms, it cautions about relying on religious organizations for information.

Does it talk only about abstinence and body parts, or does it include other information about sexual health as well? a power point on the lesson asks. Look for bias  Regardless of your own religion, a faith-based organization may have biases based on their own beliefs and teachings that may limit the extent of the sexuality-related information.

Corwin acknowledged that passage didnt sit well with her either, and said the district plans to revise it.

As somebody who attends church on a regular basis, I dont necessarily agree with that statement, she said. Well make sure its worded in a way that leaves everyone open to their faith and their teachings as much as possible.

The petition against the program cited material that critics said was originally included in a seventh-grade lesson, which identified sexual activities such as bathing together and mutual masturbation as safe options to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. Those references arent included in the current lessons posted by the district.

The number of parents (objecting) grew and grew and grew, Fontana said. After some initial expression of age-inappropriate curriculum, they had taken some of it out. They pared it down a little bit.

She also questioned elementary school lessons discussing the spectrum of sexual identity and orientation, arguing that those distinctions arent necessary for kids that age. For instance, a fifth-grade lesson on sexual orientation explains the terms gay, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual as part of a lesson on the attraction young people may have for friends of the same or different gender.

I understand that were moving into a day and age that we accept different genders, but it explored too much of that too early, Fontana said.

An eighth-grade lesson on sexual orientation described hypothetical dating scenarios of teenagers. It gave an example of a ninth grade guy who has been attracted to and made out only with girls, but who fell in love with another guy and is in a relationship with him. The couple also date other people, but are both dating only guys.

How does he identify? the lesson asks. His identity: whatever he decides it is.

Corwin said eighth grade is not too early to introduce those concepts. Some students in the district are already facing stress and isolation as they grapple with sexual identify, and the sex ed curriculum must address that, she said, adding that the district has not received complaints about its middle school curriculum.

I dont feel that that is too much, because some of these kids are already going through these issues, she said. I want that to address feeling supported, and feeling included.

But opponents argue that presenting sex ed in early grades could leave kids more vulnerable to reckless behavior and even sexual exploitation.

It grooms them for premature sexual interest, experimentation, and engagement, leading to the sexual objectification of our children, local critics said of the program on the website Speak Up Oceanside.

The district will convene a group of educators and parents to work together on a replacement curriculum that will reflect state requirements, students needs and family concerns, Corwin said.

Some residents, however, say they want to end elementary school sex education entirely, arguing that introducing the topic that early is robbing our children of their innocence by including what they consider sexually explicit material.

However, some experts say that children begin learning about sex at a young age from their peers, adults and cultural references. Its important to place those early observations in context through discussions about consensual, responsible relationships, said Mary Robertson, a Cal State San Marcos sociology professor specializing in sexualities and gender.

This idea that you start talking to students when theyre 18 and get to college about consent, thats not really helpful if this conversation hasnt started at a really young age, she said, pointing to recent news of campus sexual assaults.

Moreover, she said, children who are sexually abused are even more vulnerable if they cant explain their experience.

Young kids are experiencing sexual abuse, she said. Theyre encountering sexuality against their will. So if they cant identify that, and theres so much silence about it, its really dangerous.

Corwin said that the primary lessons are part of a broader family wellness agenda that spans all grade levels, and helps students build the awareness they will need as they enter adolescence. She said shes confident the district can work with parents to strike the right balance.

Were going to develop our own curriculum, she said. I really trust the teachers and the parents to make sure that theyre going to get this right. I think theyre going to draw together and come up with something that will be very good for our kids in Oceanside.

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
It appears that the circulation of a backcountry growth initiative this year aimed at limiting large housing developments in the unincorporated parts of the county has resulted in the opposite happening.

As suggested recently by county Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kristin Gaspar, the unintended consequences of the petitions may have caused some developers to rush their projects through the county planning process in order to win approval before the restrictive ballot measure could go into effect.

It also appears to have prompted the county to process more requests than it normally would in a given year, perhaps with some encouragement from developers.

In the coming months, as many as 10,000 new homes to be built in the unincorporated parts of the county will likely be approved by the supervisors, who have made it clear that more housing is desperately needed throughout the region.

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Seven projects, all requiring amendments to the General Plan, have been or will be heard by the board even though state law allows only four amendments to be processed each year.

The county has gotten around that restriction by batching or bundling the projects together. For instance, three housing developments (one in Otay Mesa, the other two in the Harmony Grove area) were approved on July 25 with one overarching vote that technically counted as one amendment. Two more hearings are scheduled later this year.

During the July 25 hearing, when almost 4,000 homes were approved, Gaspar said she didnt like the bundled hearing process, but assured people each project was being closely evaluated.

Batching isnt new, she said, but something that is new is the unintended consequences of the circulation of the backcountry growth initiative because what that did do was entice private property owners to actually move forward, maybe even more aggressively than they would have before, with their projects and it created a number of projects coming before the board in a very short period of time.

The Safeguard Our San Diego Countryside initiative would require most General Plan amendment requests that are approved by the supervisors to then be subject to a countywide vote starting in 2019.

Ironically, the signatures to place the initiative on the ballot were more difficult to gather than backers had thought. It was just a few weeks ago that 107,000 were turned into the Registrar of Voters office, far too late for them to be verified in time to place the measure on this Novembers ballot. Instead, if the signatures are verified, the measure wont appear on any ballot until the next presidential primary election in 2020.

Backers of the initiative said that had the initiative not been proposed this year, it is unlikely so many projects would have come before the board.

But they say placing the blame on developers and the initiative process is wrong.

Mark Jackson, one of those most involved in the Safeguard signature drive, said it was the countys decision to bundle the projects, which they did not have to do. Jackson suggested the county succumbed to developers wishes.

I think thats a convenient excuse to allow (Supervisors) Bill Horn and Ron Roberts to approve these projects, Jackson said.

Dan Silver, chief executive officer of the Endangered Habitats League, which was a major financial backer of the Safeguard initiative, agreed.

Clearly, the circulation precipitated this batching and bundling and all of the problems that creates, Silver said.

All of the projects being considered this year would have come before the board sometime in the next couple years either way, he added.

The developers are asking the county to rush these things forward before the public has a chance to speak, he said. The county could have said they would keep with their usual schedule and take its time.

Instead of doing their job and serving the public interest, they listened to their developer clients.

Representatives of three of the big North County developments still to go before the supervisors later this year  Newland Sierra, Lilac Hills Ranch and Warner Ranch, which together total 4,661 units  all say their projects have been years in the making and none of them was rushed through the process.

We have actually been done with the environmental review for months now and have been waiting for the county to process us, so we are not rushing through anything, said Lilac Hills Ranch project manager Jon Rilling, whose Valley Center development calling for 1,746 residential units will likely go before the board on Oct. 31.

Also tentatively scheduled to be heard that day will be the 780-unit Warner Ranch project, which would be built in Pala just north of state Route 76.

Project manager Ali Shapouri said Warner Ranch has been going through the planning process for 13 years and was not rushed before the board by the threat of the initiative.

However, he said he doesnt think Gaspar was wrong.

My company got calls from property owners saying we want to do a general plan amendment before this happens, he said. Shapouri told people he couldnt help them because his small company was already overwhelmed with work.

But, yeah, a number of people called me saying they wanted to proceed with a GPA because of the initiative.

Rita Brandin of the Newland Sierra project, the largest of the North County proposed developments at 2,135 units, which would be built just west of Interstate 15 and north of Deer Springs Road, said the Sept. 26 hearing before the supervisors has been a long time in the making.

As has been widely reported, Newland Sierra has been in process with the county for several years now  Anyone suggesting our proposed community is somehow being rushed through after four years of processing with the county simply hasnt been reading the newspapers.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
In the aftermath of an independent investigation that found no evidence National City Councilman Jerry Cano used his position to avoid fines for building code violations, a key question lingered.

Why did it take five years for the city to resolve the violations?

According to a report by Attorney William Curley of the Lozano Smith Law Firm, the Building Department has been understaffed and lacks proper policies and protocols for following up on cases, forcing staff to use their discretion to prioritize certain work.

The citys state of affairs can be traced back to the 2008 financial crisis, which took a toll on the city as revenues dropped. Amid the financial troubles, retirements and routine resignations came at a time when the city could not afford to hire more staff, according to Curleys report.

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The retirements and resignations removed both manpower and institutional memory, Curley said in the report.

With less staff, the city was forced to reorganize and consolidate departments and positions. As a result, staff with little or no substantive expertise or training was now delivering the services, according to the report.

Basic management skills, rather than subject matter expertise, were used to ensure a basic level of city services was preserved, Curley said.

The impact came in the form of corollary lack of experience, no guiding policies and no new resources to assist them, he said.

Curley described the situation as a perfect storm that allowed Canos case to stay on the back burner of departmental priorities.

The attorney said the Building Department, given the circumstances, prioritizes matters that pose a threat to life and safety or encourage economic development. It also gives special attention to directions from the City Council.

Canos case did not fall into those categories.

According to the report, Building Official Luis Sainz and his boss, Frank Parra, had discussions, sometimes heated, as to the enforcement efforts to be directed towards Councilmember Canos property.

Parra, emergency services director, believed the Building Department should focus its resources on higher priority, more beneficial projects.

The department heads exercise of discretion, and allocation of his staff resources, was done in good faith in an effort to address the most critical and timely projects, Curley said.

Still, the attorney said, the department heads strategy, while rational, did not work and should be abandoned.

He said he found a need to formalize policies, set clear and transparent priorities, and to rely less upon discretion and more upon rules and procedures.

In addition to suggesting the city develop standardized policies, Curley recommended the city use modern technology to calendar and track records of inspections and other enforcement activities.

He noted the city already has plans to implement a new permitting and inspections software by Meritage Systems. The software, called Community Core Solutions, is designed to streamline and automate the Building Departments work, helping to insure compliance, increase efficiency and improve customer satisfaction, according to a Meritage Systems flier.

Canos violations, which stemmed from outdoor renovations made to his home without the proper permits, were issued by the city in 2013. He did not correct the violations until May 2018, after news reports led to public outcry over the violations.

Records show the city did not fine Cano and instead issued a recordation in 2015 that limited his ability to sell or refinance his house on Mary Lane.

In light of the revelations in the news reports, Councilwoman Mona Rios called for an investigation into Canos case. At the same council meeting during which Rios made the request, Cano accused her of inappropriately touching him.

When the investigation by Curley got underway, Cano, who was elected in 2012, refused to be interviewed and withdrew the allegation against Rios.

Now that the investigation is complete, Curley suggested the city turn over the findings of his investigation to the District Attorneys Office or the state Fair Political Practices Commission if the City Council wants a further review. Without having spoken with Cano, Curley said he was not able to determine with certainty whether Cano violated state laws.

He noted other agencies with investigation powers to command cooperation may find Cano violated fiduciary duties that apply to council members. He also noted Canos case required staffs time, and hence public monies  a possible violation of Penal Code 424, which addresses the misuse or improper use of public funds.

Curley noted the citys municipal code requires council members to undergo state-mandated ethical conduct training. He said he confirmed council members are offered regular and rigorous training.

No member of the citys governance structure can assert that they were unaware of the requirement to act ethically, and to strive to perform beyond the minimum legal and ethical requirements, Curley said. As leaders, all should go beyond the minimum floor of ethical conduct so as to set an example of what is expected conduct in National City.

In light of the outcome of the investigation, Curley said, the City Council can consider reprimands against Cano, including censure, a formal rebuke.

Curleys report does not clear up some matters. It does not address why the city issued a recordation instead of fines or why the first violation notice was written out and delivered to Cano in person rather than on city letterhead and via certified mail.

Sainz, the building official, told The San Diego Union-Tribune in April he wrote the notice on paper and hand-delivered it to Cano at the request of his boss. Parra denied that assertion.

Curley did not respond to questions about the findings of his investigation.

Parra said he would not comment on the findings until the City Council discusses the report and its next steps on Sept. 4. Sainz said City Attorney Angil Morris-Jones asked that questions about the matter be directed to her office.

The findings of a separate investigation by Curley that focused on city staffs handling of Canos case will be withheld by the city because it involves personnel matters, City Manager Leslie Deese said. She said last week the report was complete and she was reviewing it.

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
August 5, 1920 Evening Tribune

The San Diego Union-Tribune will mark its 150th anniversary in 2018 by presenting a significant front page from the archives each day throughout the year.

Thursday, August 5, 1920

In the summer of 1920 rival tuna fishermen fought a war off the coast of San Diego that resulted in the loss of three large fishing boats and the deaths of at least five men.

The hostilities reportedly started when Austrian-manned purse seine boats from Puget Sound came south to reap some of the large profits expected when packing companies announced that $200 a ton would be paid for albacore delivered at the cannery wharves.

The northern craft clashed with local Japanese and Italian-crewed boats, who dominated the Southern California tuna fishing industry.

Here are the first few paragraphs of the story:

FISHING BOATS IN NEW BATTLE

STATE FIGHT IN CHANNEL AT MOUTH OF HARBOR

Conditions along that portion of the waterfront that that houses the fishing businesses, was unusually quiet last night, according to police officers who were detailed to patrol the beach last night.

However, it was learned that a miniature battle took place off Point Loma early yesterday morning and that several shots were exchanged between members of an Austrian crew and a crew said to be composed of Japanese. This report was brought to the police station by American fishermen who stated they saw the battle.

Austrians Open Fire

According to the report, the Austrian crew preceded the other crews, believed to be Japanese, into the harbor, the Austrian boat is alleged to have cut across the bow of the Japanese fishing smack and at the same time opened fire on the Japanese boat. This is said to have taken place just off Ballast point. The Austrian crew, it is said, also cut considerable of the Japanese fishing nets and destroyed them.

The body of the Japanese found floating in the bay July 29 has been positively identified as that of S. Tani, member of the crew of the ill-fated Yamato-A515, fishing smack, which is is declared was sunk in a miniature battle between Japanese, Italian and Austrian fishing boats, off Del Mar, about three weeks ago, according to word brought to San Diego this morning by Detective H.M. Berrie of the local police department.

Detective Berrie has been investigating in San Diego and Los Angeles for more than a week, and upon his return this morning stated that positive identification of Tani had been established and that partial identity of the second body found off the local shores has been established. The body of the second Japanese is believed to be that of T. Asha, Berrie stated.

The bodies of Gohei Highschicka, captain, and Taro Fukuda, other members of the crew of the Yamato believed to have perished at the same time that Tani and Asha lost their lives, have never been recovered.

Search For Piece of Keel

Detectives Berrie and J.V. Doran, who have been working on the case since the discovery of the bodies, were today attempting to locate a piece of keel, believed to be that of the Yamato, reported to have been found along the waterfront. The detectives believe that if they locate this piece of driftwood, that positive identification of the Yamato can be established.

Upon his return, Detective Berrie stated to Chief Patrick that Japanese fishermen operating out of San Pedro have promised to assist the local police in the apprehension of the crews who are alleged to have destroyed the Yamato and killed the Japanese crew.

Detective Berrie was accompanied to Los Angeles and San Pedro by Coroner S.C. Kelly, who has aided materially in the investigations made following the findings of the three bodies in the bay and ocean. Kelly aided Berrie in all the Los Angeles and San Pedro work and as a result of the active efforts of the two bodies of two of the three men have been identified.

Nothing has yet been learned of the Prone Rose, said to be an Austrian fishing smack operating out of this port, reported missing for three weeks. It is believed by police that the boat was engaged in one of the miniature battles and was sunk. No bodies, save those of the Japanese, have washed ashore. Wreckage from any of the ill-fated ships has not been found by any beach combers, it was reported this morning.

View anniversary front pages online at sandiegouniontribune.com/150-years. For more from the Union-Tribune digital archives, go to newslibrary.com/sites/sdub. Searching is free, with registration. A fee is required to view full stories.
The arsenal seized earlier this year in Tijuanas Colonia Independencia was a sizable one: nine firearms, including six rifles of various calibers, two pistols and a .357 Magnum revolver; 169 rounds of ammunition; six bulletproof vests and radio-communications equipment.

Police and soldiers took 12 people into custody  11 adults and a juvenile  on that Friday in late April. But before the weekend was over, all but two of the suspects had been released. The judge had not found sufficient reason to keep them behind bars on federal firearms charges  much to the dismay of Tijuanas mayor, police chief and the leader of the citys largest business umbrella organization.

As drug rivalries drive homicides in Tijuana to unprecedented levels  authorities tallied 251 killings last month, bringing the total for the year through July 31 to 1,455  the issue of releasing suspects who face weapons charges has been an increasingly sensitive one.

Just over two years ago, before Mexico fully implemented its new criminal justice system of open adversarial trials, this would not have been a question: Suspects facing federal weapons charges automatically remained in custody as they awaited trial, a process that could take months or even years.

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But since July 2016, that is no longer the case. Mexicos new judicial system, aimed at reducing corruption and protecting the rights of the accused, is designed to avoid pre-trial detentions. Suspects are often simply required to check in periodically as they await their day in court.

While those charged with homicide, rape, and a series of other crimes must remain in custody under the new system, those accused of weapons possession are only held if a prosecutor successfully makes the case for pre-trial detention. With the unprecedented levels of violence in Tijuana and other parts of Mexico, critics want to see that change.

A call to adjust the new system

Among those at the center of the storm are members Tijuanas 2,040-officer police department, whose responsibility is maintaining public order. Since Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum came into office in December 2016, the departments officers have confiscated more than 1,440 firearms and detained over 1,050 individuals on weapons-related charges.

But all too often, officers see the suspects they risked their lives to arrest promptly back on the street, said Marco Antonio Sotomayor, Tijuanas public safety secretary. He is among those calling for an adjustment to the new systema legal reform to require pretrial detention of suspects in weapons cases.

The policy has to be zero tolerance, Sotomayor said. Theyre making a mockery of justice, the reason they have weapons is to kill someone. Until we can resolve this issue, its going to be difficult to solve the homicide issue.

At the Baja California Attorney Generals Office, prosecutor Jorge Alvarez conceded that keeping weapons suspects behind bars would reduce the violence. But he prefers the alternative: Weve got to learn to work the new system... to defend the rights of the accused, but at the same time defend the rights of society, said Alvarez, who heads the agencys Tijuana office. Youve got to make the argument to the judge, persuade him that this individual is dangerous.

Criminals use smuggled U.S. weapons

While Mexico has some of the worlds most restrictive firearms laws, and the country has no arms manufacturing facilities, authorities say criminals have easy access to weapons, the great majority smuggled across the border from the United States. These illegal firearms, in the hands of rival criminal groups, over the past two years have helped drive an unprecedented rise in homicides in Tijuana.

In 2016, the year that Mexico fully converted to the new criminal justice system, was also the year that homicides hit a new record in the city as a new criminal group began its bid to take over the Tijuana plaza: the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, based in Jalisco state, forged an alliance with remnants of the once-powerful Arellano Felix Organization in a bid to challenge the Sinaloa cartels control.

It is a constant struggle with no clear winner, said DEA Special Agent Bo Morris. Fueling the fight across the citys working class neighborhoods is a battle for control over the street trade, with most of the victims low-level operatives.

Juan Manuel Hernandez, a Tijuana businessman who heads the statewide Citizens Public Safety Council, said addressing the problem will require efforts on numerous fronts. This is a 1,000-piece puzzle, he said.

Reducing the homicides involves a series of challenges, Hernandez added: getting an accurate assessment of the citys addiction rates; improving coordination among municipal, state and federal law enforcement agencies; increasing police training; giving prosecutors more resources and ensuring they can get rapid access to criminal records of detainees. Homicides are the combination of all this, how to fix it, you tell me, he said.

The easy access to weapons is part of the spinal cord of the problem, said Hernandez, who supports mandating detention of suspects found with weapons given the situation in the country.

Homicides soar

Across Mexico, homicides nationally soared 31,174 in 2017 according to figures released last week Mexicos national statistics institute, INEGI, the highest since it began a national tally in 1990. More than two-thirds of the killings, 68 percent, were committed by firearms, INEGI reported.

It has been in this landscape of rising violence that prosecutors, police, public defenders and judges across Mexico have been making the transition to the new system, and it has not always been easy. The governors of Guanajuato and Michoacan have made statements to re-institute mandatory detentions, as has the former mayor of Mexico City.

But their demands have won little sympathy from champions of the new criminal justice system.

Mexicos governors need to stop complaining about the system and start doing something to get prosecutors up to speed, said David Shirk a professor at the University of San Diego and director of the schools Justice in Mexico project. If anything, the problem is not the new criminal justice system, its the fact that theyre not prosecuting people more effectively, said Shirk.

Jaime Arredondo, a postdoctoral research at the University of California San Diego and former official in the public safety secretariat of Yutacan state, said education is the key.

I dont think its really about the law, its about the weaknesses in the institutions, that have not done enough to prepare their people, Arredondo said. Its just easier to say the law is flawed rather than solving the weakness of institutions that should have been solved a long time ago.

Fernando Benitez, a Tijuana criminal defense attorney, agreed that education of police officers is a critical step, starting with instruction on how to conduct a legal search. Another important measure would be increased collaboration between prosecutors and police, he said.

The new criminal justice system is just fine, provided youre willing to navigate it, and use it in the way its designed to work, he said. You bring your old-system tactics into the new system, and youre going to have a hard time.

For weeks after the April detentions in Colonia Independencia, the Citizens Crime Commission continued to demand answers as to why the federal judge ordered that the nine suspects be released, said Hernandez: Was it a badly written report by police? Was it an illegal arrest? Was it a bad job from the prosecutors?

He finally got his answer from the federal prosecutor, who told him the police officers had not correctly filed the initial report.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble
At Scripps Pier in San Diego, the surface water reached the highest temperature in 102 years of records, 78.8 degrees.

Palm Springs had its warmest July on record, with an average of 97.4 degrees. Death Valley experienced its hottest month on record, with the average temperature hitting 108.1. Park rangers said the heat was too much for some typically hardy birds that died in the broiling conditions.

Across California, the nighttime brought little relief, recording the highest minimum temperature statewide of any month since 1895, rising to 64.9.

California has been getting hotter for some time, but July was in a league of its own. The intense heat fueled fires across the state, from San Diego County to Redding, that have burned more than 1,000 homes and killed eight. It brought heat waves that overwhelmed electrical systems, leaving swaths of Los Angeles without power for days.

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Moreover, the extreme conditions  capping years of trends heading in this direction  have caused scientists and policymakers to speak more openly and emphatically about what is causing this dramatic shift.

A decade ago, some scientists would warn against making broad conclusions linking an extraordinary heat wave to global warming. But the pace of heat records being broken in California in recent years is leading more scientists here to assertively link climate change to unrelenting heat that is only expected to worsen as humans continue putting greenhouse gases in the air.

In the past, it would just be kind of once in a while  the odd year where you be really warm, state climatologist Michael Anderson said.

Record warm water temperatures on coast July 30. (National Weather Service)

But the last five years have been among the hottest in 124 years of record keeping, Anderson said.

Thats definitely an indication that the world is warming, and things are starting to change, said Anderson, who manages the California Department of Water Resources state climate program. Were starting to see things where its different. Its setting the narrative of climate change.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who has made climate change a central part of his agenda, was more blunt last week when discussing the devastation in Redding. People are doing everything they can, but nature is very powerful and were not on the side of nature, he said. Were fighting nature with the amount of material were putting in the environment, and that material traps heat.

Californias average summertime minimum temperature has been on the rise. (Los Angeles Times)

Signs of the trend are everywhere. California endured its warmest summer on record last year. All-time temperature records have been topped in recent months  San Francisco notched 106 degrees in September; downtown L.A. recorded its hottest Thanksgiving Day on record at 92 degrees.

On July 6, all-time temperature records were set at UCLA (111), Burbank and Santa Ana (114), and Van Nuys (117). Chino hit 120 degrees, the highest ever recorded at an automated surface observing system in the Ontario, Riverside or Chino areas.

It was the warmest July on record in Fresno; for 26 consecutive days that month, temperatures reached or exceeded 100 degrees  the longest continuous stretch on record, said Brian Ochs, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford. (Maximum temperatures have continued to top 100 through the first several days of August.)

In terms of average temperature, it was the warmest July on record in San Luis Obispo (69.5), Oxnard (73.1), Camarillo (74.6), Long Beach (77.9), Van Nuys (83.6), Lancaster (87.2) and Palmdale (87.8). Anaheim saw its second-warmest July (81.3); Newport Beach, its fourth warmest (71.8); and San Diego, its fifth (75.2), said weather service meteorologist Samantha Connolly.

Of particular concern is how overnight temperatures continue to climb. The years with the top six warmest summertime minimum temperatures in California  defined as June through August  in descending order, are 2017, 2015, 2014, 2006, 2016 and 2013.

Its no coincidence that theyre all in recent years, experts say.

We are seeing the impacts of climate change now, said Nina Oakley, regional climatologist for the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno. This is certainly it. Its happening.

The effects are felt far beyond the record books. When the mercury hit 113, Redding tied its temperature record for July 26  the day the Carr fire raced out of control and began killing people.

It was one day among months of above-average temperatures that had dried out the brush to such a degree that it helped fuel the blazes ferocious spread.

And the lack of lower temperatures overnight has made fires harder to fight.

You have greenhouse gases acting like a blanket and not letting things cool down as much  keeping things warmer, Oakley said.

Take a look at a map of the worlds temperatures years ago, and an old heat wave would be obvious to spot  just one spot on Earth thats anomalously warm, said Neil Lareau, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno. Now, in pretty much the vast majority of the globe, its hotter than normal, he said.

(Los Angeles Times)

Julys exceptional heat puts the state on track to be in the running for the warmest summer on record, exceeding the record broken just last year, said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.

This is not some fluke. This is part of a sustained trend, Swain said.

The excessive heat is already causing problems for wildlife.

In Death Valley, where daytime highs reached at least 120 degrees on 18 of the last 19 days of the month, about a dozen birds  including a raven, an owl and a brown-headed cowbird  have turned up dead in the last two weeks, the National Park Service said. The birds lacked signs of trauma, leading officials to believe they died from the intense heat. Birds lack the ability to produce sweat and instead cool themselves by puffing up their feathers and panting.

Park rangers have found groups of songbirds and ravens huddled around small puddles and in the shade of a maintenance building, spokeswoman Abby Wines said.

This isnt normal for us, she said.

Before this July, last years was the hottest on record at Death Valley, when the average temperature hit 107.4. That one broke a 100-year-old record.

Off the Southern California coast, scientists say more record temperature readings could be broken in August, when maximum surface temperatures tend to be reached.

Warming water temperatures can alter the marine food chain in various ways  bringing about toxic algae that make crabs, for example, dangerous to eat. Researchers are also seeing more warm water animals off the coast like jellyfish and sting rays.

Researchers had wondered whether the last few years of unusually warm Southern California waters would drop back to normal. They blamed an unusually warm mass of water called the blob that parked itself in the Pacific Ocean from 2014 through about 2016.

Some experts thought water temperatures would return to more normal lower levels after El Nino faded, said Clarissa Anderson, executive director of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System.

But that hasnt happened. Though temperatures have been decreasing near the equator since 2016, temperatures have kept rising off Southern California, with near-shore surface temperatures a couple of degrees Celsius higher than average, Anderson said.

Reddest areas show where vegetation is driest compared to the historical record of 1979-2015 for its location. Many parts of the north are at or near record levels of dryness for their locations; Southern California is less relatively abnormally drier compared to its record. (Priya Krishnakumar / Los Angeles Times)

And the warm air temperatures are a foreboding sign for the rest of the fire season.

Projections show the next few months are likely to have well above-average activity in most of Californias fire zones, particularly in northern and central California, where the worst fires are burning now, Swain said.

The fuels up there are just explosively dry, Swain said, due to a combination of low precipitation last winter, extremely high temperatures this summer and also, still, the legacy of the long-term drought.

Were having peak fire season conditions in the off-peak time of year, and theres no real indication that things are going to get better before the peak of the season in the fall, Swain said.

Barring an unseasonable period of rain, conditions will remain ripe for severe fires, he said.

Time will tell, but it does look like this severe fire season is going to continue to be severe, Swain said.

Lin reported from San Francisco, Panzar from Los Angeles.

ron.lin@latimes.com | Twitter: @ronlin

javier.panzar@latimes.com | Twitter: @jpanzar
Five people were killed when their twin-engine Cessna airplane crashed near South Coast Plaza in Santa Ana on Sunday afternoon, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.

The plane crashed in the parking lot of a Staples office supply store in the 3800 block of Bristol Street, fire authority spokesman Stephen Concialdi said.



For the record: A previous version of this story misspelled Stephen Concialdis name as Stephen Consiglio.

OCFA Capt. Tony Bommarito said the plane struck an unoccupied parked vehicle.

Fortunately, that person was inside the store shopping at the time of the impact, Bommarito told reporters during a news conference. I dont know anything about what this pilot did or what he was thinking, but it could have been much more tragic.

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This is a Sunday afternoon and we had people shopping so the fact that there were no injuries on the ground is a miracle in itself, he added.

RELATED: Victims of fatal Santa Ana plane crash identified as Bay Area residents, Los Angeles man 

L.A. Times Graphics

The pilot of the Cessna 414 declared an emergency before the plane crashed into the parking lot of a shopping center, about a mile from John Wayne Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials have not released the identities of the five who were killed.

Witnesses said they saw the plane turn before it suddenly began to dive into the shopping center. Video footage taken by those on the ground and posted on social media shows a crumbled airplane with two broken sections and at least one body outside the aircraft.

A dashcam on a vehicle captured the moment before the plane dove near Sunflower Avenue and Bristol Street.

Ella Pham, 20, of Santa Ana, said she and her boyfriend were leaving the parking lot to go to South Coast Plaza when they noticed the aircraft.

We looked up to see the plane falling nose first, she told the Los Angeles Times. We really didnt think it was a plane at first due to no crashing noise, but as soon as we saw people running from across the street we went to go check it out.

It was so heartbreaking just seeing the plane crumbled into pieces.

Pham said there was no explosion, a detail that fire officials also noted during the news conference.

A lot of people tried to help until they saw that it was hard to get inside the aircraft but by the time people stepped away, firefighters and police were there, she said.

FAA records show the fixed-wing airplane was owned by Category III Aviation Corp., a real estate consulting firm in San Francisco, and was bound for John Wayne Airport.

We do not have confirmation on a departure airport at this time, said Arlene Salac, an FAA spokeswoman.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The FAA will investigate and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine the cause of the accident.

The crash came about a year after a twin-engine airplane burst into flames as it crash-landed on the 405 Freeway just a few miles away after taking off from John Wayne Airport. Video showed the aircraft bursting into flames and a tall plume of black smoke rising into the air. A husband and wife, who survived, were pulled from the aircraft by an off-duty firefighter from Avalon.

ruben.vives@latimes.com

For more Southern California news, follow @latvives on Twitter.

UPDATES:

8 p.m.: This article was updated with information from witnesses and additional comments from the OCFA.

3:20 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the airplane and additional comments from OCFA.

2:07 p.m.: This article was updated with the FAA saying the pilot declared an emergency before the crash.

This article was originally published at 1:10 p.m.
Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man whose body was found Friday night in a car on a residential street in West Covina, according to law enforcement officials.

Deputies from the departments Walnut station responded to a call for a fire rescue on the 300 block of South Frankfurt Avenue around 8:04 p.m., according to a sheriffs news release.

They found an unresponsive man who had experienced an unknown medical emergency. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives later learned the man  identified Saturday by the L.A. County coroners office as Timothy Cortinas, 51  was intellectually disabled and may have been accidentally left inside the vehicle for an unknown length of time, according to the Sheriffs Department.

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The driver of the vehicle, according to law enforcement, has cooperated with detectives and is being detained pending interviews.

The investigation is ongoing.

javier.panzar@latimes.com

Twitter: @jpanzar

UPDATES:

4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with the identity of the victim.

This article originally published at 2:55 p.m.
As she rushed to City Hall, Anne Barron sensed there was trouble ahead.

She and others seeking a stronger police review board had worked five years for their moment and it was happening without them. Then it went downhill from there.

The San Diego City Council last week held a hearing to consider action that would clear the way for a November ballot measure overhauling the citys existing police oversight, creating a new panel with more independence and teeth.

When the council took up the matter at the start of the meeting, some members were dumbfounded that there were no speakers to address what has long been a volatile issue in the city.

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Barron belongs to Women Occupy San Diego, the group sponsoring the ballot measure, and she was supposed to be there.

We were told over and over again that we were at the end of the agenda, Barron said later, adding her group also was warned by City Council President Myrtle Coles office that the meeting could go hours before her item came up.

She only found out about the scheduling change from a phone call as the hearing commenced, so she stepped on it to get to City Hall. Well into the council discussion she arrived and, belatedly, was allowed to speak.

Coles office as of Friday had not responded to an inquiry about what it told Women Occupy San Diego about the timing of the hearing.

It turns out that wasnt the only peculiar thing, nor the most important one, that blindsided the group. The bottom line is it appears the clock has run out for getting the issue on the ballot this year.

Councilmember David Alvarez, who wanted a public vote this fall, didnt think the delay of the ballot measure was a matter of unfortunate coincidence. The proposal was first brought to City Hall in February and he said there should have been plenty of time.

Something happened along the way  that there was an intent to delay this so it would not go to voters in the fall of this year, he said during the meeting, without saying who he thought was responsible.

The current board  the Community Review Board on Police Practices  reviews internal affairs investigations by the San Diego Police Department. Critics say given that set up, the board has little independence from the department and doesnt often disagree with its conclusions. Women Occupy San Diego generally wants what has been proposed on and off for decades: an independent board that has subpoena power, its own legal counsel and the ability to conduct its own investigations.

Under the proposal, the board would be confined to making recommendations on discipline and procedures to SDPD. The panel would not have the power to enact them.

Lets unwind what happened, which requires venturing into the bureaucratic weeds a bit. The issue before the council was not the merits of the proposal or even putting it on the ballot. It was whether to initiate the meet-and-confer process for the city to discuss the measure with the San Diego Police Officers Association and the San Diego Municipal Employees Association. The City Attorneys Office said that was required before putting the measure on the ballot so the unions could identify impacts on employees that would be subject to bargaining.

The council deadlocked 4-4, with Chris Cate absent, which defeated the motion to start the union discussions. Cole voted in favor of the talks. Councilmember Chris Ward voted against moving ahead, reversing his committee vote. Wards office issued a statement saying his earlier vote was merely to get the matter before the whole council. He and others casting no votes said there wouldnt be time to complete that negotiating process before the early August deadline to put measures on the ballot.

Women Occupy San Diego had at least two issues with that. First, they didnt know about the meet-and-confer requirement until a council Rules Committee meeting on July 11, according to Barron.

We were stunned, Barron said.

Even though the proposal was put forth in February, its first hearing before the Rules Committee was in April. Another session was required, which the group wanted in May, but council President Cole, who also chairs the committee, said it would have to wait until June, according to Barron. Shortly before that meeting, it was pushed back to July.

Second, Women Occupy San Diego didnt think meet-and-confer was necessary to put the measure on the ballot. Barron said meet-and-confer is needed when terms of employment can be affected, and she says the ballot measure, by itself, doesnt do that. She reiterated that the board it would create, while independent, could only make recommendations  it would be up to the police department to accept, reject or modify them.

If the measure was passed by voters, the council would have to approve an ordinance that includes the details of setting up the board and how it would be run. Barron said the union negotiations should take place before that action.

Is it any surprise she feels like they got the runaround?

We did everything right, Barron said at the meeting. After it was over, she said she suspected foot-dragging. I think it was done deliberately. Why werent we told earlier?

Jack Shaeffer, head of the police officers union, said the timing was a council matter. But it was clear to him the unions had to be consulted before the measure was put on the ballot because, recommendation or not, the new panel would have input on officer discipline.

He backed the existing panel and process and said hed rather have discussions on ways to improve that. Further, in 2016 voters passed some modest changes to the panel under Measure G, which have yet to be fully implemented.

He said that should happen first before getting into other oversight changes.

Concerns about racial profiling, disputed officer-involved shootings and some questionable police encounters with residents have diminished public trust in police in some quarters  particularly among minority communities. Thats what fueled this latest push for a different review board.

Shaeffer said he has met with community groups about those concerns.

I get their point, at times, he said. But he added he wasnt sure a new board was the way to get at the matter of trust.

Regardless of where you stand, San Diegans should have the opportunity to debate this proposal and vote on it in the fall. They wont and thats a shame.

Its really disappointing that this went through this process  these games that were played to do this, Councilmember Alvarez said. I think people deserve to be treated fairly. . . It does not make us look good.

No, it doesnt.

Tweet of the Week

Goes to comedian Patrick Schroeder (@Schrotime)

A sex robot is gonna shoot someone with a 3D gun in my lifetime
Starting about midnight Saturday, at least 41 people were shot citywide, five fatally, in a period of less than seven hours as gunmen targeted groups at a block party, after a funeral, on a front porch and in other gatherings, according to authorities.

The bloody toll comes as tens of thousands of concertgoers converged downtown for Lollapalooza, which drew heightened security and a large police presence following the countrys deadliest mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival last year.

In contrast to the joyous scene downtown, the brunt of the violence early Sunday was felt on the West Side, where 26 people were shot in separate attacks between midnight and 6:50 a.m., according to police figures.

The largest shooting, which injured eight people, happened in the South Sides Gresham neighborhood as a group, including a 14-year-old girl, was standing in a courtyard just before 12:40 a.m.

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The crowd had gathered after attending a funeral repass, said Fred Waller, Chicago police chief of patrol.

During a Sunday news conference, Waller voiced frustration at gang members whom he blamed for taking advantage of large summer crowds to use as cover to take revenge.

The gang members do not fear repercussions from the law, Waller said.

They take advantage of that opportunity and they shoot into a crowd, no matter who they hit, Waller said.

Even a block party was not safe from the violence.

READ MORE: 17-year-old boy killed on bike among 6 shot since Sunday afternoon 

At 16th Street and Avers Avenue, people in lime green T-shirts from an annual block party in the West Sides Lawndale neighborhood gathered on sidewalks and in streets after a shooting there around midnight. Crime scene tape crossed 16th Street east of Springfield Avenue and stretched far down the block past Penn Elementary School on the south side of 16th.

There, a 13-year-old boy was shot twice in the right arm. A car drove up to the gathering and two people got out and opened fire into the crowd, hitting two more teenagers and a 25-year-old man.

If they shoot you, they dont even run, said one man watching police work the scene. They just walk away, they aint trying to run.

The youngest person hurt was an 11-year-old boy shot in the left leg on the West Side  also in the Lawndale neighborhood. He was on the sidewalk with five other people, including a 14-year-old boy, when two men came up to them and started shooting, police said.

Although investigations were just getting underway, Waller said many of the shootings appeared to be targeted attacks.

Police also noted that many of the shootings were in four police districts, including the West Sides Harrison, Ogden and Austin police districts, that have struggled with violent crime this year.

Waller said police were sticking with their strategy that targets illegal guns, and prior to this weekends surge, they credited it with declines in homicides and shootings from last year.

More than 5,500 illegal guns have been confiscated on the street this year. Police are planning coordinated enforcement that will target gangs and individuals they believe are driving violence, while police also seek to thwart retaliatory attacks.

I promise this city, we wont be defeated, Waller said. We wont be overrun by that small element thats committing these reckless acts.

The level of violence on Sunday made it difficult for police and hospitals to keep track.

Resources at local hospitals were taxed as the wounded and their families poured in. Access to Stroger Hospital was tightened. At one point, more than 200 people had converged on the hospital. Mount Sinai Hospital had to stop accepting new emergency cases for a while.

Earlier Sunday, police said there were 47 people shot, five killed between 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday. Later in the day, however, police counted 34 shooting victims and five homicides in the same 24-hour period

About 15 of those shot were in their teens.

In the attack in Gresham, seven of those shot were 21 or younger.

During one 2-hour early morning period, 25 people were shot in five multiple-injury shootings, police said.

One of the dead was 17-year-old Jahnae Patterson, who was shot in the face.

Sunday evening more than two dozen relatives of Patterson, a Manley Career Academy High School senior, sobbed outside her familys brown brick two-flat in the citys West Garfield Park neighborhood.

Friends and family members hung five poster boards on a fence outside the home with photos of the young woman.

Pattersons family said she and a friend had gone to a block party and were walking to use a bathroom when they encountered two young men who engaged in a shootout.

My baby just left the house. Twenty minutes later, I get a call saying my baby got shot, Pattersons mother, Tanika Humphries, said.

The fifth of nine children and the first girl in the family, Patterson had her entire life ahead of her, her mother said.

My baby did not deserve this, she said. My baby wasnt the type to hang out. She was in school. She worked. She did everything she was supposed to do as a teenager. And then coward (expletive) took it all away from us.

1 / 7 Alice, 43, center, cries while looking at photos of her niece, Jahnae Patterson, 17, who was shot in the face and killed earlier in the morning on Aug. 5, 2018, in the 4200 block of West Wilcox Street in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) 2 / 7 Tanika Humphries, center, attends a vigil for her daughter, Jahnae Patterson, 17, who was shot in the face and killed earlier in the morning on Aug. 5, 2018, in the 4200 block of West Wilcox Street in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) 3 / 7 Family and friends attend a vigil for Jahnae Patterson, 17, who was shot in the face and killed earlier in the morning on Aug. 5, 2018, in the 4200 block of West Wilcox Street in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) 4 / 7 Family and friends attend a vigil for Jahnae Patterson, 17, who was shot in the face and killed earlier in the morning on Aug. 5, 2018, in the 4200 block of West Wilcox Street in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) 5 / 7 Family and friends attend a vigil for Jahnae Patterson, 17, who was shot in the face and killed earlier in the morning on Aug. 5, 2018, in the 4200 block of West Wilcox Street in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) 6 / 7 Tanika Humphries, center, talks with members of the press during a vigil for her daughter, Jahnae Patterson, 17, who was shot in the face and killed earlier in the morning on Aug. 5, 2018, in the 4200 block of West Wilcox Street in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) 7 / 7 Alice, 43, kisses a picture of her niece, Jahnae Patterson, 17, who was shot in the face and killed earlier in the morning on Aug. 5, 2018, in the 4200 block of West Wilcox Street in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Humphries said her daughter was born with health problems, but survived to be a beautiful and vital young woman, beloved by her young nieces and nephews, as well as her friends.

Im trying to be strong, but I cant, Humphries said as she broke down and was surrounded by relatives. I cant.

Earlier Sunday, people congregated at Mount Sinai Hospital, leaning against cars and embracing on the sidewalk. Yellow crime scene tape encircled two cars outside the emergency room, a white sedan and a black one that had its front crumpled and windshield cracked.

Dozens of others gathered outside Stroger Hospital, clustered in small groups in the parking lot.

Only immediate family members of victims were allowed inside, according to police. Families walked up to the entrance, guarded by police.

Octavia White said she went to Stroger to see her daughter, who she said was among those shot in the 4700 block of West Gladys Avenue in West Garfield Park.

I thank God it wasnt her time, White said as she walked to the bus stop. Ill be back here when she wakes up.

As the sun beat down during daytime Sunday, groups of family and friends remained stationed outside the hospital.

Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, stopped by to speak with the families. Burnett said the shootings affect whole families and entire communities, as evidenced by the crowd outside Stroger.

You have young kids crying, older people crying, its just so heartbreaking, Burnett said. So we try to give them some comfort, pray for them, and also at the same time try to encourage the young adult men not to try to get revenge.

DATA: The Tribune crime team tracks shooting victims in Chicago 

Burnett said its up to the neighborhoods to stop the violence. He talked about growing up in the former Cabrini-Green housing project.

It was the mothers, it was the preachers, it was people in the neighborhood who stopped the wars in Cabrini-Green, he said. It wasnt the police.

Asked what Chicago police can expect as far as outside governmental help, Waller said: Im not a politician. All I know is the boots on the ground are trying as hard as they can to be accountable for whats going on. Were moving people to different places in these different (police) districts. Some of the areas that we had covered werent, we hadnt had violence  now we have violence.

But as far as anybody coming to help us, this is something were going to have to do on our own, he said.

Activist Eric Russell, an organizer of the anti-violence protest Thursday that shut down Lake Shore Drive, also spoke outside of the hospital.

This is the reason why we march, he said.

Russell went on to harshly criticize Mayor Rahm Emanuel for not doing enough to address gun violence.

Our people are hurting over there, Russell said. Our people are left to languish in a vicious cycle of gun violence.

Among the shootings since 11 a.m. Saturday through about 7 a.m. Sunday, police have released the following information:

Sunday

In the most recent shooting, three men and two women were hit about 6:50 a.m. when a gunman came out of an alley and opened fire on the group in the first block of North LeClaire Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood.

A 32-year-old with four gunshot wounds, including two to the left side of his neck, was taken to Stroger, where he was pronounced dead, according to a police spokeswoman.

A 30-year-old man shot in the back of the head was taken to Stroger in critical condition.

A 27-year-old woman was taken to Stroger for gunshot wounds to her left arm and wrist, while a 21-year-old woman was treated and released from West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park for a graze wound.

A 34-year-old man showed up to Stroger with a gunshot wound in his lower left leg. He was in good condition.

No arrests had been made in the case, police said.

Just before 5:50 a.m. in West Pullman, a 33-year-old man was shot once in each of his legs in the 12100 block of South Bishop Street by someone last seen northbound on Bishop in a small silver Ford car, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in fair condition.

Around 4:15 a.m. in North Austin, four more people were shot in the 1600 block of North LeClaire Avenue, one fatally. A 19-year-old man, shot in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

A 21-year-old man shot in the upper right thigh and a 37-year-old man hit in the right calf were taken to West Suburban and stabilized. An unknown male also shot went to Stroger Hospital, police said.

Shortly before 3:40 a.m. in the West Sides Lawndale neighborhood, a 29-year-old man was shot in the neck. Police officers found the man, later identified as Kenyate L. Sparks, in the 1100 block of South Springfield Avenue. He was transported to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:52 a.m.

Around 2:50 a.m. in West Garfield Park, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the left leg in the 200 block of South Pulaski Road. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.

Around 2:35 a.m. Sunday in Lawndale, two shooters approached a group standing on the sidewalk in the 1300 block of South Millard Avenue and opened fire, hitting six people. A 17-year-old girl shot in the face was pronounced dead on scene. A 14-year-old boy shot in his left leg was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and stabilized, as was an 11-year-old boy also shot in the left leg. A 21-year-old woman shot in the right arm and back was also taken to Sinai, where she was in critical condition. A 17-year-old boy shot in the right leg was taken to Rush University Medical Center and was stabilized. A 17-year-old girl shot in the right arm was taken to Stroger and stabilized.

About 10 minutes earlier in West Garfield Park, three women standing on a front porch were wounded when two groups of males started shooting at each other about 2:25 a.m. in the 4700 block of West Gladys Avenue, police said. A 29-year-old woman shot in the back and a 28-year-old woman shot in the left arm were taken to Stroger and stabilized. A 41-year-old woman shot in the right thigh was stabilized at Loretto Hospital.

Around 1:30 a.m. in Little Village, a 26-year-old man standing on the sidewalk in the 3200 block of South Keeler Avenue was hit in the right leg when someone in a white sedan fires shots, police said. He got himself to University of Illinois Chicago Medical Center and was stable.

Shortly before 1:05 a.m. in Back of the Yards, a 26-year-old man was killed in a shooting in the 4800 block of South Winchester Avenue. The man, identified by the medical examiners office as Kendall Brown, was walking on the sidewalk with another person when someone in a white Jeep shot him in the abdomen and right ankle, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai and later pronounced dead . The Jeep was found unoccupied and having been set on fire in the 4300 block of Paulina, police said.

Around 12:50 a.m. in West Humboldt Park, four people were injured in a drive-by shootout the 900 block of North Karlov Avenue. Two people fired shots from inside a black Cadillac, and three of the people hit shot back, causing the car to crash. The two in the car ran from the scene. A 43-year-old man walking down the street was shot in the thigh during the crossfire, police said. The other three people shot were a 30-year-old man hit in the right ankle and left calf; a 43-year-old man shot in the thigh; and a 29-year-old man grazed in the chest. All were taken to Stroger in good condition.

Just after midnight in Lawndale, four people were shot at a block party in the 1600 block of South Avers. Two people got out of a white Chevrolet Impala, fired into the crowd and left, police said. A 17-year-old girl grazed in the arm and knee, a 13-year-old boy shot twice in the right arm and a 16-year-old boy shot in the buttocks were stabilized at Mount Sinai. A 25-year-old man shot in the left leg was stabilized at Stroger.

Just before 12:40 a.m. in the Gresham neighborhood, eight people were shot in the 1300 block of West 76th Street. They were among a group standing in the courtyard of an apartment building when several others walked up and shot into the group, police said.

A 17-year-old girl shot in the knee was stabilized at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park. Another 17-year-old girl shot in the left leg was stabilized at Christ. An 18-year-old man shot in the buttocks was stabilized at University of Chicago Medical Center. A 19-year-old woman shot in the left hand was stabilized at Holy Cross Hospital. A 14-year-old girl shot in the left hand was also stabilized. A 21-year-old woman shot in the left leg was stabilized at University of Chicago. A 35-year-old man grazed in the head was stable at Holy Cross. A 19-year-old man shot in the left leg was taken to St. Bernard Hospital and stabilized.

Shortly after 12:20 a.m. in Lawndale, an 18-year-old man was shot multiple times in the 4100 block of West Cullerton Avenue. Witnesses were not cooperative, and the man was taken to Stroger under guard, police said.

Around 12:05 a.m. in Logan Square, a 20-year-old woman was shot in the abdomen while driving north in the 3700 block of West Altgeld Street. Someone in a red SUV shot her, police said. She was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in serious condition.

Saturday

Shortly before 5:30 p.m. in the Burnside neighborhood, a 22-year-old man was shot in the left side of his forehead while on his bicycle in the 500 block of East 92nd Street. A dark sedan drove up alongside him and two people fired shots, then left the area, police said. The man was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.

At 3:26 p.m., a 26-year-old man was shot in the left foot in the East Garfield Park neighborhood in the 3900 block of Madison Street. He was taken in good condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

About 1:35 p.m., a 25-year-old was shot in the left forearm and left thigh in the 600 block of East 76th Street in the Chatham neighborhood. He was taken the University of Chicago Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Shortly before noon, two workers, one in his 50s and another in his 40s, were in the 6800 block of Wood Street when two people began shooting at each other from across the street. Both men were hit in the crossfire, police said.

The older man was shot in the abdomen and taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The younger man went to the same hospital, but there was no information about the severity of his wounds.

Police did not specify what kind of work the men were doing at the time of the shooting.

About an hour earlier, a 38-year-old man was shot in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, Chicago police said.

That attack happened around 11 a.m. in the 5900 block of South Maplewood Avenue. The man was wounded in his lower body, police said.

He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, but no information was available about his condition or the circumstance leading up to the shooting.

Check back for updates.

Chicago Tribunes Deanese Williams-Harris contributed.

hleone@chicagotribune.com

mgreene@chicagotribune.com

wlee@chicagotribune.com

echerney@chicagotribune.com
There was no hint of bygone tragedy when Julie Porter walked up to the stage to invigorate the 400-plus people who turned out Saturday to participate in a two-mile walk to raise awareness about homelessness in San Diego.

No signs Porters life was shattered in 2009, the year she lost her father, marriage and home in La Mesa.

She ended up living in the streets of downtown San Diego for five years.

But her life changed last September, when she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Imperial Beach, thanks to a grant she received with the help of Father Joes Villages.

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It really can happen  to get off the streets and be self-sufficient, Porter, 61, told the crowd gathered at Spanish Landing Park for the second annual A Short Walk Home, a fundraiser for Father Joes Villages.

In temperatures that had not yet scaled past 80 degrees, participants  which included children and dogs  strolled along the promenade at the park across from the San Diego International Airport. Many held heart-shaped balloons during the walk.

The event raised about $70,000 for Father Joes Villages, which provides housing programs and other services to San Diegos homeless population.

The nonprofits CEO, Decan Jim Vargas, said the resources are crucial in the efforts to address the regions homelessness crisis.

This is a very real problem we have out there, Vargas said, noting there are about 9,000 people who are homeless in San Diego County. Frankly, its at epidemic proportions.

The walk drew residents from across the county and beyond.

The homelessness issue is the thing that pulls at my heart so much, said El Centro resident Victoria Morales, who has a brother who is homeless in Riverside County.

1 / 8 More than 400 people walk during the A Short Walk Home homeless walk, a fundraiser for Father Joes Villages and to raise awareness of homelessness. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 8 Barbara and Harry Melkerson high five Matt Bezroch while they go through a door that symbolizes the creation of affordable housing as they and more than 400 people finish A Short Walk Home homeless walk, a fundraiser for Father Joes Villages and to raise awareness of homelessness. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 8 Father Joe poses for a photo with people before the start of the A Short Walk Home homeless walk. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 8 More than 400 people begin walking during the A Short Walk Home homeless walk. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 8 People participating in A Short Walk Home homeless walk, a fundraiser for Father Joes Villages and to raise awareness of homelessness, walk past a man and a woman sleeping under a blanket at Spanish Landing Park. The couple said they were not homeless. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 8 More than 400 people participate in a two mile A Short Walk Home homeless walk, a fundraiser for Father Joes Villages and to raise awareness of homelessness. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 8 Bill Bolstead, from Carlsbad, carries his son Connor, 4, on his shoulders as they and more than 400 people participate in a two mile A Short Walk Home homeless walk, a fundraiser for Father Joes Villages and to raise awareness of homelessness. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 8 More than 400 people participate in A Short Walk Home homeless walk, a fundraiser for Father Joes Villages and to raise awareness of homelessness. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

For most volunteers and participants, the goal was to create awareness about the issue and to show some compassion.

These are people with hearts and souls, the Rev. John Dolan, auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of San Diego, said of the homeless.

Dolan said he participated in the walk to let them know they have value.

We want them to know they are loved, he added.

For a second year in a row, Dolan formed a team to participate in the walk and raise funds. His team, which included members from 25 parishes, was the top fundraiser, raising about $13,000. In second place, team St. Joseph raised more than $10,000.

Its no secret a key solution to homelessness is to create and provide housing for people living on the streets. Its one of the main services Father Joes Villages provides, with plans to expand its efforts.

Last spring, the nonprofit announced its ambitious Turning The Key initiative, a $531 million, five-year plan to produce 2,000 permanent housing units, including units at rehabilitated hotels and motels.

You have to be creative, Vargas said. You have to really think outside the box.

Lets try anything and everything in order to get people off the streets, he said.

As part of its massive plan, Father Joes Villages plans to break ground next year on a 14-story, 407-unit affordable housing complex at Commercial and 14th streets in San Diegos East Village neighborhood, Vargas said.

The walk ended as participants walked through a makeshift wooden-framed door, a symbol of Father Joes Villages commitment to creating and providing the homeless with a place to live.

Like Porter, 39-year-old John Foulger knows what its like to live on the streets. Foulger, who became homeless after he lost his house and job, said Father Joes Villages helped him work on a resume, go back to school and get a new job. He moved into an apartment last month.

Its a new beginning, he said.

Porter, who recalls life on the streets as precarious and dangerous, said her story is a reminder it is possible to break out of the cycle of homelessness.

It can be done, she said.

Breaking News

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blamed the leader of neighboring Colombia for a drone bomb attack on a military ceremony in which Maduro escaped unharmed but which left seven soldiers injured.

In a speech broadcast on national TV Saturday evening, the socialist Maduro also blamed the Venezuelan ultra-right in alliance with the Colombian ultra-right and charged that President Juan Manuel Santos was behind the attack.

I must inform you that some of the actors [responsible for the attempt] on my life have been captured and are being charged, Maduro told the TV audience. Some of the evidence has been taken, and I wont say more except that the investigation is much advanced.

The attack unfolded as Maduro, wearing a presidential sash, addressed an afternoon ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the Venezuelan national guard. The event was held on a downtown Caracas thoroughfare decorated in the national colors of yellow, red and blue, and hundreds of troops stood in formation as Maduro spoke, flanked by officials and military officers.

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Video of the event showed Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and others on the podium looking curiously skyward. Then all flinch at some sound. The camera cut away to an overhead shot that showed soldiers breaking ranks and scattering to take cover.

#BREAKING Speech by Venezuela President #Maduro cut off during a military parade, soldiers seen running pic.twitter.com/1mPcrSiDYV  Guy Elster (@guyelster) August 4, 2018

In his televised address, Maduro said he thought at first that the explosions were fireworks. Then a microsecond later there was a second explosion behind the stage and you saw people running, he said. He was immediately whisked away from the stage.

At 5:41 p.m. explosions were heard that corresponded to drones carrying explosive charges that went off near the presidential stage, said Communications and Information minister Jorge Rodriguez in a statement broadcast on state TV.

Rodriguez also described the bombs, which exploded at the end of the ceremony, as an attempt on Maduros life. It was unclear how many bombs were deployed.

Venezuelan Atty. Gen. Tarek William Saab said in an interview with CNN that several suspects are in custody and are confessing, but refused to specify evidence implicating Colombian President Santos.

The seven national guardsmen were being treated at hospitals, but their condition was not disclosed.

In a comment over social media, a source in Santos administration denied the allegations: The president is concentrating on the baptism of his granddaughter Celeste and not on overthrowing foreign governments.

A spokeswoman for Santos said Saturday night that Colombian armed forces have not been put on special alert in the aftermath of Maduros charges.

Security personnel surround Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro after bomb-carrying drones descended on a military ceremony in Caracas on Saturday. (New China News Agency)

Santos, whose second term ends Aug. 7, has said in recent interviews that he believes Maduros government is in its final days.

Although Maduros predecessor, Hugo Chavez, was helpful in bringing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to peace negotiations that culminated in a 2016 peace accord, relations between Santos and Maduro have deteriorated partly because of an influx of Venezuelan refugees into Colombia in the last two years.

The Venezuelan exodus in which an estimated 2 million have abandoned the country looking for better lives has been prompted by a collapsing economy, hyperinflation and Maduros autocratic governing style.

Prior to the attack, Maduro denounced a permanent conspiracy to sabotage the nations electrical system, a reference to the frequent power outages hitting Venezuelan cities over the last several days. Critics say the outages are a result of insufficient investment and government neglect.

The people should know that there is an electricity war but count on the national guard to pursue and capture those responsible, Maduro said in his speech during the military ceremony.

Special correspondents Mogollon and Kraul reported from Caracas and Bogota, Colombia, respectively.

UPDATES:

8:10 p.m.: This article was updated to report that President Nicolas Maduro blamed Colombia for the drone attack.

5:55 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Jorge Rodriguez.

4:30 p.m.: This article was updated with quotes.

This article was originally published at 4:10 p.m.
A cyclist who turned into the path of a car in Casa de Oro was struck and fatally injured Saturday morning, the California Highway Patrol said.

The man was pedaling south of Avocado Boulevard in the bike lane when he suddenly swervedto the left and into a traffic lane, CHP Officer Travis Garrow said.

A Toyota Camry driven by 63-year-old woman hit the man, knocking him off his Masi Gran Corsa road bike, Garrow said.

The Camry driver also was southbound on Avocado, north of Nabal Drive. The collision was reported about 8 a.m.

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Garrow said the bicyclist, who was not immediately identified by authorities, suffered major injuries. He was taken by paramedics to a trauma center, where he died.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepard
A man who reported a stabbing victim in Balboa Park Saturday morning was arrested after the other man died, San Diego police said.

Investigators did not release the names of the two men but said they were close acquaintances, meaning it wasnt a random attack.

Police got the call about the stabbing around 9:50 a.m. Officers and medics found a wounded 38-year-old man in the park off Balboa Drive and Redwood Circle, among the trees and grass near the San Diego Lawn Bowling Club west of state Route 163.

The man was taken to a hospital, where he died, homicide Lt. Anthony Dupree said.

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Dupree said the 47-year-old man who reported the stabbing was near the victim when police arrived. He later was arrested as a suspect. The men were homeless, police said.

No information was given about a possible motive for the attack.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepard
A 33-year-old woman was killed and four others were injured in a chain-reaction crash involving suspected drunken drivers on state Route 78 in Vista early Sunday, a California Highway Patrol officer said.

The Oceanside woman was headed west in a Toyota Corolla about 2:15 a.m. when, for unknown reasons, she drove onto the dirt shoulder near Mar Vista Drive.

She then veered back onto the freeway and across all lanes and crashed into the center divider wall. Her disabled car was straddling the fast lane and the center divider when a 54-year-old San Marcos man in a Scion XB smashed into it.

The Toyota was propelled into the No. 3 and 4 lanes and the woman driver was ejected. She died before she could be taken to a hospital.

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The Scion XB was blocking the fast lane and the No. 2 lane when it was struck by a 38-year-old San Marcos man in a Scion XC.

The 54-year-old driver in the first Scion suffered major injuries and was taken to a hospital. The driver of the second Scion and two of his passengers suffered minor injuries.

Both surviving drivers were expected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The freeway was closed into the afternoon while officers investigated the crash and cleared the wreckage.

Twitter: @LAWinkley

(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com
Multiple people were arrested in Berkeley, Calif., on Sunday as two rallies  a right-wing No to Marxism rally and a Stop the Hate counterprotest  clashed.

Kristin Koster, 50, was arrested for possession of a dangerous weapon and Kate Brenner, 69, and Jason Wallach, 49, were arrested for possession of banned weapons before the rallies even started as officers began confiscating weapons, including a hammer, rocks, pepper spray and metal rods.

Seventeen people had been arrested by Sunday afternoon local time, according to police, on charges including possession of banned weapons, battery, conspiracy to commit a crime and vandalism.

Kristin Foster, Jason Wallach and Kate Brenner were among those arrested for weapon possession Sunday. (Berkeley Police)

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Police also reported demonstrators were throwing fireworks and other dangerous objects, at which point officers responded by deploying handheld smoke canisters and firing rubber bullets into the crowd, a police spokesman told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Protesters allegedly started three Dumpster fires, vandalized 20 cars and set one on fire.

Police attempted to curb the violence by closing streets to vehicle traffic and setting up barriers around the area.

Weve seen what the patterns are, and one of the patterns is using nonviolent protests as a cover for violence, and what we encourage people to do is to separate themselves from violence, Berkeley city spokesman Matthai Chakko told KTVU.

The clashing protests come just a day after police used stun grenades on demonstrators protesting a right-wing rally in Portland, Ore.
A pig farmer with a history of stalking arrests was questioned a second time about the disappearance of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts.

Tibbetts, 20, was last seen July 18 in the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa, and investigators have made little progress in their search.

Wayne Cheney, who lives a few miles outside of Brooklyn, told Fox News that he was visited a second time by FBI agents. Cheney said he would allow investigators to search his property and inspect his phone.

He said the FBI is going to return to his home on Sunday. He told Fox News that he had no idea who Tibbetts is, and believes some guy has her.

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Cheney, who pleaded guilty in stalking cases in 2009 and 2014, according to WHO, also declined to take a polygraph test, he told Fox News.

A reward fund in connection with Mollies disappearance increased to $260,000 on Sunday. Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa said Tibbetts relatives believe shes still alive but may have been abducted.

The organization said it has shared more than 200 anonymous tips with law enforcement over the past week.

Tibbetts mother Laura Calderwood on Thursday said If someone has abducted her, we are pleading with you to please release her. It is our greatest hope that if someone has her, that they would just release her and claim that money we have raised for her freedom.

Tibbetts had gone for a jog in her hometown of Brooklyn, a town of about 1,400 people in central Iowa, on the evening she disappeared, officials said. She didnt show up for work the next morning at a daycare in a nearby town and was reported missing.

Investigators have purposely been holding back certain details about the case in an effort to solve it, including whether Tibbetts returned home from the jog that night.

They did find a red shirt that may belong to Tibbetts on a nearby hog farm on Thursday, according to Inside Edition. Someone mowing the lawn in the area found the shirt, and authorities are making a thorough search of the area.

Authorities asked anyone with information on Tibbetts whereabouts to contact the Poweshiek Sheriffs Office at (641) 623-5679.

With News Wire Services
Two jockeys were hospitalized and one horse died Saturday in a horrific accident in the final race at Del Mar.

Jockeys Corey Nakatani and Geovanni Franco were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, where they are being held for observation.

Nakatanis mount, Irish Spring, died of injuries suffered in the fall. Francos mount, Bitter Ring Home, went down but regained his feet and ran down the track where it was corralled by track outriders and led off the turf course.

The incident marred what had been a memorable day for 23-year-old jockey Drayden Van Dyke, who won both of Saturdays stakes races and scoring an unprecedented third straight win in the Grade II Yellow Ribbon Handicap.

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The accident in the 10th race happened after the field had just entered the stretch on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in front of the grandstands.

Aussie Fox, ridden by apprentice Assael Espinoza, moved from the second lane to the rail directly in front of Irish Spring, who clipped the hind heels of Aussie Fox. As Irish Spring went down, Bitter Ring Home went over the top of the fallen horse and also went down. Both Nakatani and Franco were thrown to the grass.

Nakatani crawled toward the inside rail. Franco momentarily regained his feet before he went back down. Both jockeys were placed in neck braces and on backboards and taken to the hospital.

My dad seems in pretty good shape given what we saw, said Matt Nakatani, the agent for the senior Nakatani. He was coherent and talking. There was no paralysis. They are going to hold him for observation and run some tests.

Francos agent, James Giannone, said the jockey was coherent at the hospital, suffering from an ankle injury.

Track veterinarians said Irish Spring was not euthanized but apparently died of injuries suffered in the fall. A necropsy will be conducted.

Aussie Fox and Espinoza were disqualified due to the incident and placed last. Giannone said Espinoza came to the hospital to check on the status of both riders.

This was the second thoroughbred death of the summer meeting. Bobby Abu Dhabi suffered fatal cardiac arrest while working out the morning of July 22, resulting in Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza suffering a fracture to the C-3 vertebrae in his neck.

Meanwhile, in order of importance, Van Dyke scored a triple, double, double, triple Saturday:

Van Dyke became the first rider to win the Grade II Yellow Ribbon Handicap three straight times.

He won the 66th edition of the $200,000, 11/16 mile turf race for older fillies and mares a second straight year on Cambodia ($5.40), a 6-year-old daughter of War Front.

Van Dyke also won the $100,000 Graduation Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds on Tap the Wire ($8).

And he also won the seventh race on 2-year-old first-time starter Sigalert ($7.60), giving Van Dyke three wins on the 10-race card.

Its all clicking for me right now, the 23-year-old Van Dyke said after Cambodia  the 8-to-5 favorite after the other speed horse in the race, Fahan Mura, was scratched  pulled away down the stretch to win by 2 lengths over Madame Stripes.

Im feeling good and riding good, Van Dyke continued. I want to keep it going.

On the eve of the Yellow Ribbon, Van Dyke discussed the importance of becoming the first jockey to win three straight Yellow Ribbons and go two straight with Cambodia (he won on Shes Not Here in 2016).

There are a lot of great riders who have won this race, said Van Dyke. To be able to say I was the first to win it three straight times is special.

Cambodia put me up there in this race, Van Dyke continued.

Shes got that natural speed and she wants to be in the race. I was just biding my time. I had a couple to beat, but I had good aim. She likes this turf course, no doubt.

Van Dykes win in the Graduation Stakes also was special. Tap the Wire is a survivor of last Decembers devastating fire at San Luis Rey Downs.

He was turned loose and I found him the next day in the field of a different ranch, said trainer Daniel Dunham. There were no major burns or anything; he was lucky. He came to Del Mar and trained here, so he knows this place.

Center is a freelance writer.
Press Release

August 3, 2018 Speech of Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III

IBP-Misamis Oriental Chapter Testimonial Dinner

Palladium, Mallberry Hotel, Limketkai Center, Cagayan De Oro City

August 3, 2018 Atty. Eddie Cuaresma, President of the IBP Misamis Oriental Chapter and the other officers of the IBP, newly appointed justice and judges, prosecutors, clerks of court, fellow workers in government, fellow lawyers, ladies and gentlemen, my kababayans, maayong gabii kaninyong tanan. Thank you for inviting me to be a guest at your testimonial dinner to honor the newly appointed and elected lawyers to positions in government as well as the new members of the bar. We can say that tonight's dinner is a send-off party as we wish our friends bon voyage on the new journey they are about to undertake in their lives. GOVERNMENT SERVICE Some of our fellow lawyers whom we honor tonight are about to embark on a career in government service either as judges, prosecutors, clerks of court or lawyers in government and public office. We are at once reminded of the oft repeated statement that a public office is a public trust. Also at the top of our minds are the noble aspirations of public servants which have been enshrined in our Constitution: "Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives." This is an entirely different path from your previous experiences in private practice. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. I am of the opinion that those of us in public service should take the opportunity that has been given to us to reverse the image of "corruption in government"; where favors and decisions could be bought and officials could be bribed. Only the best and the brightest should be in the government service! If this is followed, then I am sure we will be able not only to lessen this image but to eradicate it all together as well. I am sure that in your own private practice you have encountered the evil face of corruption in some form or another. A group of lawyers who talk about their experiences over drinks would inevitably lead to some talk about this and that official being corrupt. Now that you are to embark on a life of public service, you should take care that you do not end up as the topic of one of those conversations. The ills of our justice system can, in one way or the other, be traced to three root causes: corruption, delay, and incompetence. By addressing these root causes, we improve our justice system and make our beloved country a better place to live in. Corruption in the justice system is like a spider's web. Take care that you do not get caught in this web because you will get stuck and never be able to escape. Another common complaint about our justice system is delay. Delay is often used as an excuse by unscrupulous persons to ask for bribes or padulas. Nothing of the sort should be countenanced by us. While a part of the problem is the huge amount of cases filed every day and the lack of courts to handle them, lawyers should also take part of the blame for being willing accomplices to the problem. A popular joke of lawyers who appear in court is that they are ready - ready to reset! This mindset of lawyers to procrastinate, to postpone, to ask for an extension snowballs into the huge problem of delay in our court system. The "day in court" requirement of due process has been joked to now really mean, a decade in court. As lawyers in the public service, we should have a reasonable sense of urgency - to strive for a speedy disposition of justice without sacrificing due process of law. To achieve a healthy balance of these two concepts is the hallmark of a "mature" justice system, which is a justice system appreciated, trusted, and relied upon by the people. As lawyers who are public servants, we have to serve the people competently and with integrity. We are not just government lawyers! We are the best and the brightest who got appointed to government service. We are being paid with the taxpayer's hard-earned money. We should give to the taxpayer every centavo of his money back by way of excellent service. When we report for work, on time, we should be prepared for the work to be done. As lawyers in public service we should have a hunger for further knowledge and information. Aside from keeping ourselves abreast of the latest rules and jurisprudence, we should also keep ourselves abreast of current affairs as we do not exist in a vacuum. Finally, we should aspire to perform our duties with integrity. Many believe that integrity and character cannot be taught; that they are set at an early age and cannot be changed later in life. I do not believe this. I firmly believe that character and integrity can be taught and can be changed. People can be taught not only to act better but to be better. I also believe in second chances. A person may have committed a mistake in the past, but for as long as there is good faith sincere commitment not to do it again, then we should be willing to give this person not only the benefit of doubt but another chance to prove his worth. There is this popular definition of a judge or justice of the court that he should be "like Caesar's wife", someone who is above all suspicion. This should not be true only for judges or justices but for all public servants. Our conduct as public officers should be such that not even a whiff of suspicion of any impropriety has been entertained by anyone about us. These are not lofty aspirations. These are the norms of conduct which we must live by. NEW LAWYERS And don't think I have forgotten about our new lawyers. These norms that guide the conduct of our new public servants also apply to you. This is because as lawyers, you are officers of the court and are the partners in our justice system of our judges, prosecutors, public attorneys and government lawyers. As young practitioners, you share equally in our burden to improve our justice system. As young lawyers, always strive to win your case on the merits. Infect our jaded brethren in the profession with your love for the law so that they may somehow rediscover a passion for justice and excellence. LEGAL PROFESSION For all of you who are here tonight, remember always that the practice of law is a noble profession and not a business. More so for those of us in the public service, we should not measure the success of our law practice by the wealth of material things we have accumulated. Rather it should be measured by the good name and reputation for fairness and integrity we have earned for ourselves in the service of our countrymen. CAUSE OF JUSTICE According to Alexander Hamilton "the first duty of society is justice." I fully concur with him! Daghang problema sa atong nasud. I am of the belief that most of the ills that plague our country today have their roots in our "challenged" justice system. I also believe that if we focus first on what ails our justice system, and solve these, then we also solve in the process a lot of our nation's problems. Not all, but a lot of them. Our country needs justice! Justice is the runway from which our nation can take off to greater heights of prosperity, harmony, and happiness. Let us focus on it, let us pursue it, let us be overly protective of it. Let us all be obsessed with justice. Our noble profession is the one which protects and promotes justice. Let us therefore all work together to safeguard and enhance our profession by acting nobly, honorably, honestly, and professionally. Now that we are friends, I am offering the services and resources of my senate office to be the partner of the IBP Misamis Oriental Chapter in programs and projects which pursue the cause of justice. Just tell me what you have in mind on how to improve the Philippine Justice System. Let us be imaginative. Let us be bold and radical. Let us start thinking outside of the box! VISION Finally, let us be the productive citizens and the positive force for change that will lead us to achieving our vision of a Philippine society which is just and fair, which saves and shares, which is scientific and objective, safe and peaceful, educated and healthy, democratic, and which is, most of all, happy and free, with overflowing love of God and country! Daghang salamat kaninyong tanan ug mabuhi ang Pilipinas! Mabuhi ang IBP-Misamis Oriental Chapter!
Press Release

August 4, 2018 De Lima recalls father, 3 Filipino Presidents' contribution in her career Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has acknowledged the influence in her professional life of former Filipino Presidents Corazon "Cory" C. Aquino and President Benigno "Noynoy" S. Aquino III who continue to serve as her inspirations in public office. De Lima, who served as justice secretary under Noynoy Aquino's administration, said she is "most honored" to have worked with him and likewise hopes to emulate the example that has been set by Cory Aquino. "God truly works in mysterious ways - that I ended up serving five of my most fulfilling years in public service under a President [Noynoy Aquino] I did not even know personally before my appointment as his Secretary of Justice," she said in her message read at the awarding ceremony of the 2018 Liberal International's "Prize for Freedom" last July 28. "I find inspiration in the grace, strength, wisdom and courage [Cory] had displayed in the face of various adversities, including personal tragedies. She was, and always will be, the epitome of a world-renowned advocate of democracy, peace, and the empowerment of women," she added. De Lima is the second Filipino who received the prestigious "Prize for Freedom" Award from the Liberal International (LI) in recognition for her remarkable efforts in defense of freedom and human rights, after Cory Aquino in 1987. The Senator from Bicol proudly said that the first woman president of the Philippines who served from 1986 to 1992 has left a legacy that all Filipinos are honored to continue and protect. "She did not just fight and defeat a dictator, she was instrumental in the creation of a Constitution that was intended to ensure that one will never rise and wrest power away from the people ever again," she said. The late president Cory Aquino is the most prominent figure of the 1986 People Power Revolution as she led the country's eventful transition from dictatorship to democracy by putting an end to the 21-year authoritarian rule of then President Ferdinand Marcos. On Noynoy Aquino, De Lima said she is grateful for his faith in her even until now that she is facing trumped-up drug charges based on manufactured evidence. "Our faith in the Rule of Law, in holding public officials accountable, in the importance of truth and selfless public service, and in defending human rights were so aligned that it didn't matter that we've known each other for such a relatively short time," she said. De Lima likewise acknowledged the role that former President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo played in installing her in the human rights community. "Everything that I have done since then - in championing Human Rights, fighting for the Rule of Law and defending against corruption, abuse and impunity - has its roots in that fateful appointment," said De Lima, who was appointed by Arroyo as Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights in 2008. "You might not have expected to hear me acknowledge her, but it is true. At the time, I was called the 'surprise choice'. And I was. No one was more surprised by it than me.," she added. Whatever she is doing right now especially as a sitting Senator of the Republic, De Lima said it is to honor her father, former Commission on Elections Commissioner Vicente de Lima, who always cautioned her to do only what is right and justifiable. "Though he is decidedly part of a generation that has passed, I am determined to continue honoring him by doing nothing that would bring shame to him, to our family or to the public service that he himself was once a part of," she said. De Lima commemorated the 6th death anniversary of her father in a Mass attended by families, friends and associates last July 29. Her father died in July 30, 2012 from colon cancer.
Press Release

August 5, 2018 60 foreign liberals renew call for De Lima's freedom Some 60 lawmakers and human rights defenders from Liberal International (LI) have renewed their call for the Philippine government to release Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima from continued unjust detention and drop all fictitious charges against her. In a signed manifesto of support read by LI President Dr. Juli Minoves in a press conference last July 28, the foreign liberals expressed their full support to the Senator, who is this year's recipient of the federation's prestigious "Prize for Freedom" Award. "[W]e, the undersigned political leaders and human rights defenders from around the world, commemorate the awarding of the [LI] Prize for Freedom to our liberal colleague and extend our support to a prisoner of conscience," LI said in the letter. "We urge the government of Rodrigo Duterte to release Senator De Lima and drop the fictitious allegations made against her," it added. Minoves, who was accompanied by LI Deputy President Dr. Hakima el Haite, former Hong Kong Legislative Council Member Emily Lau, and Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) Secretary General Kiat Sittheeamorn, read the statement in a press conference held at Novotel Manila, Araneta Center, Quezon City last July 28. The press conference took place hours before De Lima--who failed to grace the event due to her current situation--was formally conferred with the "highest human rights honor" by LI in the same venue. Among the other signatories of the manifesto were Chairman of LI's Human Rights Committee Markus Loning, Chair of CALD Women Caucus Jayanthi Balaguru, Liberal Democrats President Baroness Sai Brinton, Arab Liberal Foundation President Dr. Abyaba Hassan, European Parliament member Patricia Lalonde MEP, and Free Democratic Party leader Christian Lindner MP. In an interview, Minoves confirmed that they are planning to formally send LI's statement of support/letter to Mr. Duterte this coming September. Meanwhile, to reaffirm their support for De Lima despite their absence in the event, Loning and Ireland politician John Thomas Alderdice took to social media to call for the release of the Senator. "This weekend we awarded @SenLeiladeLima our Prize for Freedom. She has been fighting for #HumanRights for many years. She should be released from jail. #FreeLeilaNow," Loning wrote. "@SenLeiladeLima is a courageous politician, a leading global thinker and an inspiration for freedom-loving people across the world. I joined my liberal friends in signing this letter as part of a campaign for her freedom and as part of our global fight for freedom and democracy," Alderdice noted. Margaret de Vos van Steenwijk, president of the International Network of Liberal Women, reaffirmed their support to LI's conferment of the award to De Lima whom she described as a "courageous senator who is wrongfully kept imprisoned for politically-motivated prosecution." LI, the world federation of liberal and progressive democratic parties, has previously denounced De Lima's arrest as politically motivated. Last year, it urged the Duterte administration to immediately release her from continued unjust detention and allow her to fulfill her mandate as a sitting Senator of the Republic. De Lima is the second Filipino who received the Freedom Prize, after then President Corazon Aquino in 1987. The latter was recognized "for her world-renowned advocacy of democracy, peace, and the empowerment of women."
PGG Wrightson has agreed to sell its seed and grain business to Danish cooperative DLF Seeds for $421 million in cash and $18 of debt repayment, and signalled it may return up to $292 million to its shareholders.

The Christchurch-based rural services company said the sale of its PGG Wrightson Seeds business follows several expressions of interest received from international parties as part of a strategic review of its business underway with Credit Suisse (Australia) and First NZ Capital.

For PGG Wrightson, the sale frees up cash for debt reduction, distribution to shareholders and strategic growth opportunities while retaining access to the seeds business through a long-term distribution agreement as well as ongoing royalty payments from a larger business. Meanwhile, for DLF Seeds, the acquisition gives the Northern Hemisphere-based business access to the leading temperate forage seed operation in the Southern Hemisphere to create a strong global offering for customers.

"The agreement represents a transaction that would deliver significant value to PGW while also enabling the PGW Seeds business to benefit immensely from being part of an impressive global seeds operation," PGG Wrightson deputy chair Trevor Burt said in a statement. "The DLF Seeds offer was particularly compelling in terms of the value it would deliver to PGW shareholders."

The $421 million sale proceeds exceed the book value of PGW Seeds net assets which were estimated at $285 million as at June 30 2018. PGG Wrightson expects to have a net cash balance of about $270 million following the sale and could distribute as much as $292 million to shareholders, the company said.

The deal is subject to several conditions, including approvals from shareholders, New Zealand's Overseas Investment Office, antitrust regulators in New Zealand, Australia and South America, consent from PGW Seeds' joint venture partners and PGG Wrightson's banking syndicate.

The PGG Wrightson board unanimously supported the conditional agreement, which chair Trevor Burt said was "very attractive".

The board has engaged KordaMentha to prepare an independent appraisal report on the merits of the transaction for the company's shareholders, ahead of a meeting and vote expected in October.

PGG Wrightson shares last traded at 64 cents, having increased 6.7 percent over the past year.

(BusinessDesk)

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The New Zealand dollar was largely unchanged after getting whipped around by China's response to stiffer US tariffs and after American jobs growth was weaker than expected.

The kiwi traded at 67.39 US cents as at 8am in Wellington from 67.41 cents on Friday in New York and 67.32 cents in Asia last week. The trade-weighted index was almost unchanged at 72.69 from 72.67 last week.

The local currency climbed almost half a US cent on Friday night after US non-farm payrolls showed 157,000 jobs were added in July, fewer than the 193,000 economists expected, although earlier months were revised higher and hourly wage growth remained unchanged. Those gains were short-lived after China's State Council announced US$60 billion of US goods that will face tariffs as the tit-for-tat trade war with US President Donald Trump continues. China is New Zealand's biggest trading partner and the heightened trade tensions have weighed on the kiwi dollar.

"US-China trade tensions are at the heart of the poor NZD performance," Bank of New Zealand senior markets strategist Jason Wong said in a note. "Imposition of Trumps tariff plan in early September would see the NZD reaching fresh lows, while a back-off would likely see a relief rally."

Local data today include the ANZ commodity price index. Central bank meetings in Australia tomorrow and domestically on Thursday are on the radar.

The kiwi declined to 4.6033 Chinese yuan from 4.6054 yuan after the People's Bank of China reintroduced a 20 percent reserve requirement for foreign exchange forwards. That makes it more expensive for traders to take a short position on the yuan, predicting the currency will depreciate and can be bought back at a cheaper price.

The kiwi increased to 91.07 Australian cents from 90.92 cents last week and traded at 74.94 yen from 75 yen. It was almost unchanged at 58.23 euro cents from 58.24 cents and traded at 51.80 British pence from 51.81 pence.

(BusinessDesk)

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Are tech titans teetering atop the market?



New York, Aug 5 (AFP) Aug 05, 2018



Silicon Valley giants have become a gargantuan force on Wall Street, as demonstrated by Apple recently topping $1 trillion in stock-market valuation.

But should we fear that a new tech bubble is ready to burst?

Here are some questions and answers about the sector:

- What does the tech sector represent on Wall Street? -



Apple ended the formal trading week worth a history-making $1 trillion.

Meanwhile, four other tech firms rounded out a list of the five most valuable companies based on share prices.

Amazon was worth $889 billion; Google-parent Alphabet was valued at $856 billion; Microsoft weighed in at $828 billion, and Facebook was valued at $513 billion.

Together, these companies account for about 20 percent of US GDP, and more than Germany's GDP.

Combined, the tech stocks account for more than 25 percent of the value of the Standard & Poor's 500, the index that includes the 500 largest companies listed in the United States.



- Is this market domination troubling? -



At the end of 1999, a few months before the infamous dot.com internet bubble burst, the five biggest companies on the stock market (Microsoft, General Electric, Cisco, Walmart and Intel) accounted for 15.5 percent of US GDP, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould recalled in a note.

"Anyone who owned those stocks at the market top suffered some serious portfolio pain," Mould said.

"They lost money on those five names for the next decade."

He made it clear he was not predicting market woes for "FAANG" stocks -- those of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.

"However, it does warn against the dangers of blindly assuming that what is working now will work forever and that paying any price for a stock will be rewarded," Mould said.

Nate Thooft of Manulife Asset Management told AFP that there was "no shortage of arguments" on why shares in those companies would continue to do well, but he saw wisdom in reducing "exposure a bit" to reduce risk.



- What is different from the bubble 20 years ago? -



Investors at that time hurled money at just about any startup with a website, even if it wasn't clear exactly how a given company was going to make money.

"Most of those companies had no earnings, a lot of them had no sales; they were still selling at huge valuation levels," said Tower Bridge Advisors portfolio manager Maris Ogg.

"Everyone was anticipating what the internet and the tech would do. They were about 20 years too early."

Since the dot.com crash, venture capitalists have shied away from startups that don't have convincing plans to become profitable.

The crash also gave rise to "a lot of healthy skepticism" about big tech companies, according to Ogg.

There is also a renewed focus on the ratio between share price and company profit, a key investing consideration that was neglected in the early 2000s.

Amazon appears to be an exception, but it has a winning record of taking on new markets, and spending heavily up front to "disrupt" the status quo in the long run.



- What are the main risks threatening the sector? -



Tech titans such as Google and Facebook have become such formidable forces that they are prime targets for regulation or fines, which could slow growth or hurt profits.

Maris said investors should be mindful to routinely rebalance their portfolios to avoid them becoming too heavy with fast-growing tech firm shares. After all, any internet firm can be eclipsed by a young startup.

"Every technology company remains vulnerable to being disrupted by a slightly more clever version of itself," BlackRock Global Allocation Team portfolio manager Russ Koesterich said in a blog post.

For example, he noted, at the time of the financial crisis Nokia had a 45 percent share of the smartphone market, the iPhone was just a year old and Facebook was a baby.

"The overall sector continues to be extraordinarily profitable, and, despite rumors to the contrary, reasonably valued," Koesterich said.
Russia used lessons from Georgia war in Ukraine conflict



Moscow, Aug 5 (AFP) Aug 05, 2018



In the summer of 2008, Russia's army intervened militarily in an independent state for the first time since the Soviet Union's disastrous campaign in Afghanistan.

Ten years later, Moscow has still not softened its position towards its neighbours and its rift with the West has only deepened.

Russia launched armed action against Georgia to come to the rescue of South Ossetia, a small pro-Russian separatist region where Tbilisi had begun a military operation.

The Russian army rapidly outnumbered the Georgian forces and threatened to take the country's capital.

A peace treaty was finally hammered out by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy that led to the withdrawal of Russian forces. But Moscow recognised as independent the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where it has stationed a large military presence ever since.

Russia demonstrated its military might over the five days and showed its readiness to defend -- by force, if necessary -- its interests in the region it considers its sphere of influence.

Six years later in another ex-Soviet country, Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in response to pro-Western politicians taking power in Kiev in the winter of 2014.

Moscow then gave military backing to a pro-Russian separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine which grew into a military conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.

While the Russian army has not openly invaded, Kiev and Western countries accuse Moscow of giving military and financial assistance to the rebels who set up two separatist republics in the east. Moscow has consistently denied this.

Europe and the United States, which had reacted cautiously to the Russia-Georgia war, this time round vehemently condemned Moscow's actions and went on to impose harsh economic sanctions on Russia.



- 'First attempt' -



Both in Georgia and Ukraine, Moscow's aim was to stop its neighbours shifting towards NATO by any means. This is an unthinkable prospect for Russia, which since the fall of the Soviet Union has increasingly condemned NATO's willingness to expand its borders.

"In South Ossetia, Russia taught the ex-Soviet countries a lesson. It showed them that there was no way they could adopt a different model of development," said analyst Konstantin Kalachev.

Moscow needed "to make clear that its means of action are expanding and that the reaction of Westerners to those actions is not critical."

The expert said the Georgia war was a "first attempt" that shaped the Kremlin's future policy.

"If it was not for the operation in South Ossetia, the annexation of Crimea could not have happened," he added.

In 2008, however, Russia opted not to annex the two Georgian separatist regions, but only to recognise their independence, although they found themselves under Moscow's de facto patronage after the war.

This scenario has not always gone exactly according to the Kremlin's plan.

Even its closest allies Belarus and Kazakhstan have refused to recognise the independence of the two Georgian regions.

This taught Moscow a lesson and in Ukraine it has never recognised the independence of the separatist regions, said Andrei Suzdaltsev, deputy head of the faculty of world economy and international affairs at Moscow's Higher School of Economics.

On the other hand, Russia was able to take advantage of divisions in the West, with the only countries virulently opposed to Russia at the time being the newest European Union states, led by Poland and Lithuania.

- Losing the media war -



Beyond diplomacy and military matters, Russia also drew the conclusion after the conflict with Georgia that it had lost the "media war," despite its successes on the ground.

Since 2008, the Kremlin has made a great effort to boost its "soft power," particularly by launching the RT television network (formerly Russia Today), intended to defend its views abroad in numerous foreign languages, as well as a similar news agency called Sputnik.

These have actively covered the conflict in Ukraine and sought to discredit the Western position on the Syria conflict.

While Moscow intended through the wars with Ukraine and Georgia to gain recognition for its interests and sphere of influence, the wars have chiefly contributed to a deep rift with Western countries, experts said.

"Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia annoyed Western countries but there was a feeling this was a situation that would not be repeated and Russia was forgiven. But that was the last time when Russia was forgiven," said political analyst Alexei Malashenko.

"Relations between Russia and the West cannot be changed any more. That ship has sailed," he said.
European losers in new Iranian sanctions game



Paris, Aug 5 (AFP) Aug 05, 2018



US President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran and reimpose a raft of sanctions will hit European businesses working in Iran.

Here is an overview of how firms stand to be affected when the sanctions kick in Monday:



- Auto -

French automakers Renault and PSA have taken different approaches publicly.

PSA, behind the Peugeot, Citroen and Opel brands, said in June it was preparing to suspend activities in the Islamic republic, its chief foreign market by volume, noting those units account for "less than one percent of sales".

The group, which is Europe's second biggest carmaker, last year sold more than 445,000 vehicles in Iran, making the country one of its biggest markets outside France.

Renault says it intends to keep up activities in Iran albeit scaling them back. On July 16, the automaker announced a 10.3 percent drop in sales in Iran to 61,354 units.

Germany's Daimler was teaming up with two Iranian firms to assemble Mercedes-Benz trucks.

Volkswagen also said last year it would seek to resume sales in Iran for the first time in 17 years, yet the scale of its US activities could force the jettisoning of those plans.

German firms' business with Iran was a modest $2.6 billion of 2016 exports rising to 3.0 billion last year.

Italy is Iran's main European trading partner -- but Germany is still the bloc's biggest exporter to Tehran.



- Aviation -

Aviation saw beefy contracts drawn up following the nuclear accord as Iran targets modernisation of an ageing fleet.

Airbus booked deals for 100 jets although to date only three have been delivered after having US licences bestowed upon them -- a necessity given some parts are US-made.

The potential loss of business in Iran would not weigh overly heavily on Airbus as overall orders on its books at the end of June stood at 7,168 planes.

Franco-Italian planemaker ATR was fretting on the fate of 20 planes earmarked for Iranian delivery -- though Iran Air said Saturday five ATR-72600 aircraft would arrive Sunday, creeping under the deadline to add to eight already delivered.



- Oil -

French energy giant Total has moved away from a contract to develop an offshore gas field at South Pars in what would have been the first project of its kind since the 2015 nuclear deal.

Because Total's investment in the field had barely just begun, the company is avoiding incurring significant losses on a $5 billion project which Iran says Chinese group CNPC will now take up.

After a 30 percent jump in 2016 in exports of Italian-made goods to Iran, Italian exports grew 12.5 percent last year to 1.7 billion euros, according to official data.

But energy giant Eni has held back on returning to Iran, preferring to wait on the impact of the latest sanctions.

Britain's BP, which started life as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, has no presence in Iran. Although Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell signed a deal in 2016 to explore possible investments it does not currently have any operations on the ground.



- Railways and shipbuilding -

Italy stands to lose out in these sectors with national railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato Italiano having signed a deal to build a high-speed line linking Qom to Arak in northern Iran.

Shipmaker Fincantieri, engineering firm Maire Tecnimont and gas boiler maker Immergas has also signed a string of deals with Iran which now are also threatened.



- Tourism -

British Airways and German carrier Lufthansa face having to stop only recently resumed direct flights to Tehran or face losing Transatlantic business.

The dilemma applies to French hotel chain AccorHotels, which opened an establishment in Iran in 2015, as well as to Emirati group Rotana Hotels, which has designs on its own Iranian operation.

Spain's Melia Hotels International chain, which signed a 2016 deal to run a five star hotel in Iran, the Gran Melia Ghoo, says the establishment is under construction and that discussion of its future is "premature."



- Industry -

Siemens returned to Iran in 2016 seeking to sell gas turbines and generators for electricity stations and has won a contract to sell compressors for a natural gas processor.

"The mega contracts hoped for when sanctions were lifted were never realised," KPMG advisor Kaveh Taghizadeh was recently quoted as saying in Stern magazine.

"Siemens will continue to ensure it remains in strict compliance with relevant international export control restrictions and all other applicable laws and regulations, including US secondary sanctions," Siemens spokesman Yashar Azad told AFP.

He added Siemens "will take appropriate actions to align its business with the changing multilateral framework regarding Iran."

French industrial gas group Air Liquide says it will "cease all commercial activity" in the country although a spokesperson says the firm has "no investments" there.



- Pharmaceuticals -

Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, in Iran for over a decade, remains operating "in full compliance with international regulations", a spokesman said, while adding "it is still too early to comment on the potential impact" of sanctions.



- Banks -

Germany's big banks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, stayed clear of Iran after the US fined them hugely in 2015 for violating previous sanctions. Regional banks Helaba and DZ Bank pulled out of Iran after the US announced it was reimposing sanctions.
Venezuela 'attack' brings denials from US, Colombia; support from allies



Paris, Aug 5 (AFP) Aug 05, 2018



Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has pointed the finger at Colombia following the alleged assassination attempt on him during a military parade in Caracas at the weekend.

Early investigations, according to Maduro, also point to financial backers who live in the United States, in the state of Florida.

Meanwhile the Colombian government has put the blame at the door of "the ultra-right wing" -- its term for the opposition.

Here is some of the reaction from countries around the world to Saturday's incident, which the Venezuelan government said left seven soldiers injured.

- United States -

The United States on Sunday denied any involvement in the alleged "assassination" attempt.

US national security advisor John Bolton insisted there was "no US government involvement" and even suggested that the incident may have been "a pretext set up by the regime itself."

While denying any US role, he said that if Venezuela had "hard information" of a potential violation of US law, "we will take a serious look at it."

US President Donald Trump has been harshly critical of Maduro's leftist regime, saying it has "destroyed a prosperous nation by imposing a failed ideology."

Last August, Trump alarmed Caracas by saying publicly that he could not rule out a "military option" to quell the chaos there.

- Colombia -

Colombia also rejected Maduro's "absurd" accusation of involvement.

"It is absurd and unfounded to say that the Colombian President ( Juan Manuel Santos) is responsible for the supposed assassination attempt on the Venezuelan president," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"As usual, the Venezuelan president accuses Colombia for everything that happens. We demand respect for President Juan Manuel Santos, for the Government and for the Colombian people."

The alleged assassination attempt came days after the Colombian president told AFP that Maduro's days are numbered and "that regime has to fall".

- Russia -

Russia's foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the "assassination attempt" on its ally Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, calling it an "attack" that used "terrorist methods."

"We consider using terrorist methods as a tool for political struggles to be categorically unacceptable," the statement said, adding "it is obvious that such actions are aimed at destabilising the situation in the country following the congress of the Socialist Party of Venezuela, which outlined priority steps to restore the economy."

"We are convinced that settling political differences must be carried out exclusively in a peaceful and democratic way," the foreign ministry said.

Moscow sided with Maduro's regime after his government faced international isolation when close to 130 people were killed in anti-regime protests last year.

- Cuba -

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his predecessor Raul Castro "strongly condemn the attempted attack against President Nicolas Maduro", the Cuban foreign ministry said on its Twitter account.

Both Cuban leaders expressed their "full solidarity and unconditional support for President Maduro," it said.

- Iran -

Iran's foreign ministry decried "a step towards causing instability and insecurity in Venezuela".

This can only benefit "the enemies of the people and of the government of that country." said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

- Syria -

Syria called for "respect of the country's sovereignty and no interference in its internal affairs."

The foreign ministry in Damascus condemned "in the strongest possible terms the assassination attempt.. which aimed at undermining the security and stability of the country."

- Europe -

Spain's foreign ministry on Sunday condemned "all kinds of violence used for political ends" and called for a peaceful, democratic resolution to the "serious crisis" in Venezuela.

Germany said merely that it was "closely following developments on the ground", while Portugal opined that the crisis in Venezuela could be overcome by "dialogue and national consensus" in line with "democratic principles".

Last year the European Union hit the Venezuelan vice-president and 10 other officials with sanctions over rights abuses and irregularities in the re-election of President Maduro, which the bloc condemned as "neither free nor fair"

burs/pvh/boc
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Boumerdes (Algeria), August 5, 2018 (SPS) - President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Brahim Ghali on Saturday in Boumerdes (50 km east of Algiers) called for the end of the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara," affirming "his full readiness to cooperate" with the UN Secretary-General and his personal envoy in a view to completing Western Sahara decolonization process.



In his opening address at the 9th Polisario Front-SADR Officers' Summer University, the Sahrawi President advocated the immediate implementation of the International Security Council's Resolution 2414 calling for the resumption of direct negotiations between the two parties (Polisario Front - Morocco),- without preconditions and in good faith-, in order to put an end to Western Sahara conflict in accordance with the principles and the UN Charter and the African Union (AU).



Ghali also voiced his satisfaction with the "successive, direct and clear rulings of the CJEU, which have reinforced a series of decisions and recommendations issued by the UN and the AU that confirm that SADR and Morocco are two separate countries and that no agreement with Morocco can include Western Sahara territory and its territorial waters."



"The ECJ rulings clearly confirm that such practice constitutes a blatant violation of the exercise of the right to self-determination," stressed the Sharawi President, denouncing "the attempts of certain parties within the European Union (EU) to circumvent these decisions," which represents, according to Ghali, infringement of the European law, international law and international human rights law (IHL)."



The Sahrawi people, under the leadership of their only legitimate representative, the Polisario Front, "will employ all the legal means to counter these illegal practices used by the Moroccan occupation in the occupied territories, which promote the expansionist policies, aggression, violation of human rights and looting of natural resources, pointed out Ghali. (SPS)



062/SPS/APS
Boumerdes (Algeria), August 5, 2018 (SPS) - President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Secretary General of the Polisario Front Brahim Ghali said Saturday; in Boumerdes (50-km east of Algiers), his satisfaction with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which confirm that Western Sahara and Morocco are two different countries and that no agreement with Morocco can include the territory of Western Sahara and the adjoining waters.



In an address at the opening of the ninth Summer Conference of the executives and members of the Polisario Front and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) opened Saturday in Boumerdes, Algeria under the slogan "the 45th Anniversary of the Polisario Front, Oath and Continuity for Independence and self-determination," President Ghali expressed satisfaction with the successive franc and clear decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).



The European Court's rulings "uphold a series of similar decisions and recommendations by the United Nations and the African Union, confirming that Western Sahara and Morocco are two different and separate countries."



"No agreement with Morocco can include the territory of Western Sahara and the adjoining waters," said the Saharawi leader citing CJEU's ruling.



"The rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union show clearly that such practices are a direct violation of the right to self-determination," Ghali said, criticizing "the attempts made by certain parties within the European Union (EU) to carry on regardless of those rulings."



"It is a violation of the European law, the international law and the humanitarian law," the Saharawi president stressed. (SPS)



062/SPS/APS
English04/08/2018

PEACEFUL IN NORTHERN KOSSOVO

PRISTINA, August 4 /SRNA/ - The security situation in northern Kossovo is stable and peaceful, the spokesman for the Kossovo Police Service for northern Kossovo, Besim Hoti, has told SRNA.



Hoti has said that all police stations of the Kossovo Police Service, including the one in Kosovska Mitrovica, were notified to be on high alert, by which citizens are guaranteed security.



We are ready to react to even the smallest provocation and prevent incidents, Hoti has said.



KFOR helicopters were noticed during the night and early in the morning in northern Kossovo, and KFOR patrols are deployed near the Gazivode Lake and the Valac dam in Zubin Potok.



The KFOR command has announced that movements of units and transfer of troops and military equipment to northern Kossovo are in keeping with an operational plan by which a tactical-technical exercise is scheduled for precisely this period. /end/sg
While global defense spending has been basically static since 2011, stuck between $1.7 trillion and $1.8 trillion a year. Spending has been changing dramatically because what is being spent by nations in some regions. You can see this by the fact that arms exports rose sharply going from nearly $70 billion a year in 2010 to about $100 billion a year now. There have also been changes in who is exporting what.

For the last five years (2013-17) the top exporters were the United States (34 percent of total arms exports), Russia (22 percent), France (6.7 percent), Germany (5.8 percent), China (5.7 percent), Britain (4.8 percent), Spain (2.9 percent), Israel (2.9 percent), Italy, (2.5 percent) and Netherlands (2.1 percent). Not surprisingly a small number of nations dominate the arms trade. The U.S. and Russia account for 56 percent of exports, the same share as the previous period (2008-12). One difference in that in the most current five years the U.S. share rose from 30 to 34 percent and Russia declined from 26 to 20 percent. The U.S. has long been dominant in arms exports because American stuff was considered the best (most effective and reliable), usually combat proven and backed by decades of excellent maintenance, upgrade and training support. The main competitor for the Americans was not Russia but other Western nations.

Consider that taken together West European nations accounted for 27 percent of exports. Western gear is the most expensive and if you are facing a formidable opponent it is worth it. Russian and Chinese gear is often adequate for potential opponents many nations face, as well as those countries that mainly face internal opposition. Defense exports are best expressed as five-year averages because while national defense budgets dont vary a lot from year to year, export sales do. For example, French arms exports fell by 50 percent from 2016 to 2017. Annual increases are often of the same magnitude. These sharp ups and downs have much to do with the size of orders for aircraft and ships or, these days, smart bombs. The five-year averages smooth that out and give a better idea of who is doing what.

What it comes down to is the United States, Russia and Western Europe account for nearly 84 percent of all arms exports. While China is increasing its share of arms exports (from 4.6 percent in 2008-12 to 5.7 percent in 2013-17) that growth tends to be at the expense of Russia for nations that do not, or cannot afford best or are outlaw buyers who are under arms import embargoes or are not nations at all (black marker dealers). China and Russia are also not bothered by the need for bribes and other shady terms of sale.

Another factor to consider is that most of the arms exports go to Persian Gulf oil states, India and other Western nations with large defense budgets. Much of these sales are aircraft and associated equipment (weapons, like smart bombs and missiles as well as electron accessories and upgrades) and anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems. West Europe is the main exporter of non-nuclear submarines, small to medium size warships and patrol boats as well as a lot of warplanes (fighters, helicopters and transports). Western nations sell a disproportionate amount of military services (training, maintenance, upgrades) even to nations using Russian and Chinese weapons.

Outside of the U.S., Europe and China, the only new major supplier is South Korea (which went from .8 percent to 1.2 percent of exports in the last decade). Japan could be a major player (as they are planning to do) once they change their post-World War II constitution to allow for arms exports. Japan is already a major producer of modern weapons, but only for its own use.

The growing arms exports are driven by increased defense spending in some regions. Until the last few years there continued to be cuts in the West (especially the Americas and Europe). That began to change after 2014 as Russia and China became more aggressive. Actually, if you exclude the United States, defense spending went up every year since 2011. Thats because theres an arms race going on in the Persian Gulf and East Asia even as the Americans scaled back their spending for a few years. One side effect of this is the emergence of Saudi Arabia as the third highest spender (after the U.S. and Chia) in 2016, displacing Russia. Ironically both Russia and Saudi Arabia depend heavily on oil exports to maintain defense spending. Despite the sharp (more than 50 percent at one point) drop in oil prices since 2013, the Saudis were better able to continue their high spending while Russia was forced to cut back. The Saudis are feeling the fiscal pressure from lower oil prices and will soon have to make cuts. Russia has other problems, like international sanctions because of threats to neighbors. This has crippled the Russian economy, which was already in trouble because of corruption and foreigners reluctant to do business with them.

A lot of that spending in the wealthier developing nations like Saudi Arabia is for modern weapons they cannot produce themselves. Since 2008 deliveries of such weapons to these nations have averaged about $48 billion a year and most of this has gone to the oil-rich Arab states buying the latest and most expensive military tech in an effort to deal with increasing aggressiveness by Iran. While the United States and China produce nearly all their own weapons Saudi Arabia imports nearly all of its weapons, mostly from the U.S. and Europe. Thus Saudi Arabia accounts for about two-thirds of the annual foreign weapons imports for developing nations.

In the last decade, the United States had cut spending about four percent (to the $595 billion) before reversing that recently Chinas spending more than doubled (to the current $220 billion). Russian spending nearly doubled (to $66 billion) after dropping sharply in the 1990s and rebounding slowly and then declining again after 2014 (because of sanctions and low oil prices). In the meantime, Saudi Arabia moved past Russia and is now spending $87 billion a year. India is spending more each year and at its current $54 billion has passed France ($51 billion) and is about to surpass Britain ($55 billion.) After more than a decade of cuts, European spending went up over one percent in 2015, mainly because East European nations are spending a lot more to deal with a growing threat from Russia. Even Germany is now increasing spending to deal with the Russian threat.

A major factor in the relatively static global spending was that by 2010 a decade of heavy defense spending, to replace a lot of the elderly Cold War era equipment was largely completed. Also ending, especially for the United States, was an expensive war on terror operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. military, especially the army and marines, used the demand for new weapons and equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan as an opportunity to replace a lot of aging Cold War gear. The air force and navy did not do as well and now, with American defense spending largely static, there will be fewer American warplanes and warships because the money and popular support for replacing a lot of the Cold War era warships and aircraft is not there. That trend may be reversed because of the growing Chinese threat.

Most Western nations deliberately shrank their armed forces after the Cold War ended in 1991. This included China and Russia, although both of these nations are still buying a lot of modern gear. Russia does it now because it was too broke in the 1990s to buy much and the Chinese because they didnt have a modern force at the end of the Cold War and are determined to take the lead in this area. Since 2014 a growing number of European have started increasing defense spending to deal with the Russian threats while Russia maintained defense spending for a few years to complete the program to replace the aging Cold War era weapons and equipment. This is all about basic economics. The Russian economy is in decline while China continues to grow.

Since September 11, 2001, global defense spending increased nearly 50 percent and is now about 2.5 percent of global GDP. After the Cold War ended in 1991, defense spending declined for a few years to under a trillion dollars a year. But by the end of the 1990s, it was on the rise again. The region with the greatest growth has been the Middle East, where spending has increased over 60 percent in the last decade. The region with the lowest growth (six percent) was Western Europe. Five years of worldwide recession and the decline in spending by most Western nations has helped stall global defense spending at $1.7-1.8 trillion a year. Western defense firms are feeling this the most, as their sales have been flat from 2011 to 2014 but are now picking up.
The changes will see the Sunday market on Waterside moved to Bridge Street.

Drastic anti-terrorism measures are to be put in place in Stratford this autumn, in a move which will have big implications for the Sunday Market and traders in the town.

The changes are designed to protect people from the kind of hostile vehicle attacks, which have led to large casualties in recent years.

New bollards will be installed on the paved area at Waterside in September, while a one-way traffic system on Sheep Street and Chapel Lane will be put in place.

However, the bollards will seriously impact on the Waterside Sunday Market, and despite consultations with the operator LSD Promotions, no solution has been found.

As a result the district council are planning to move the Sunday Market to Bridge Street for a three-month trial period.

Linda McGillicuddy, director at market operator, LSD Promotions, said: LSD Promotions has been proud to deliver the highly successful Upmarket along Waterside, which is thronged with visitors every Sunday, and whilst we were very happy to continue in this effective location, we are ever mindful that an international town like Stratford-upon-Avon, is a go to destination for millions of visitors each year and must take every precaution to guard against terrorism, installing whatever measures are necessary to keep one of the UKs most popular and vibrant towns as safe as humanly possible.

The measures that are being put in place along Waterside mean that it can no longer accommodate the Upmarket and after discussions with the District Council, we all agreed that in keeping with the contract, the only alternative location would be to move the market to Bridge Street, which we will be doing for a trial period, starting in October.

As Bridge Street is already a highly popular market location and very central to the main shops and businesses, we are delighted and looking forward to the trial move which should be a very positive, successful, and safe outcome for all concerned.

The decision to relocate the market has drawn a mixed reaction from businesses, with the town seemingly divided over the impact it will have.

There are currently no details about whether the taxi ranks will be relocated from Bridge Street on a Sunday during the market.

On Bridge Street, Levie Joson-Carter, manager at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, said: I think this will definitely be negative for us, a lot of our customers are elderly and need to be dropped off or picked up outside, how will they be able to do that now? When this road is closed for other events it totally kills us. I appreciate that we need to keep the town safe, but moving the market here is definitely not good for us.

Aaron Thomas, manager at LOccitane, said: Generally I think it will be a positive thing having the market here, we have a good trade during the Christmas Market events, its only the Mop that affects our business really.

Taxi driver Mark Gough said: Its hard enough as it is for us, especially with Uber creeping around, were not consulted on these plans, theyre just enforced on us it used to be a bit of carrot and stick, but now it seems we just get the stick, we just dont receive any respect and this is our livelihoods.

When Bridge Street is closed for events like the motor show, the traffic around the town is just mayhem, events like that should be on the Rec. Putting the market here on a Sunday morning will have a knock-on effect on Guild Street and Birmingham Road.

Elaine McDermott, manager of Holland and Barratt, added: I think having the market here will put people off coming through the door, it happens when the Christmas Market is on. Im not thrilled about this idea and having stalls on Bridge Street with the noise and the fumes coming it isnt something Im looking forward to. Im not against the market, but I just dont think it should be moved here.

Over on Bridge Street there also seems to be mixed views on the market leaving.

David Evans, of The Old Barn, said: I think its a shame that well lose the passing trade from the market, I think there are too many changes taking place in Stratford.

Howard Clegg, owner of the Stratford Gallery on Sheep Street, said: I understand why the bollards are being put up, the RSC is a huge draw so I can see why it would pose a target to terrorists. However when you change the traffic flow it adds an extra level of complication which is just liable to put people off coming to Sheep Street. Im happy that the market is moving, it doesnt bring any benefits to us, they dont pay the high rates and rents we do and it doesnt bring in the right people.

Rachael Barber, owner of the Four Teas on Sheep Street, said: Well its going to mean Ive got a much longer route in to drop off things, but Im glad the market is moving, it just kills our trade because people go there to eat the cheaper food instead of coming here.

Although the council says the vehicle mitigation experiment will only go on for a limited period as part of a consultation exercise, there are suspicions that once in place, they will be here for good.

Stratford has already seen some security measures put in place with temporary barriers installed at special events such as the Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations and the Christmas Lights Switch On.

Security concerns also prompted the council to ban vehicles from using Henley Street at all times of the day, a measure scheduled to last 16 months, though it remains to be seen if they are likely to stay for good.

Jo Baconnet, director of Stratforward BID, said: This is all about public safety, the threat level has been at severe for some time, even though there is no specific threat. We are looking to speak to businesses as soon as possible about these changes. These measures will be brought in for a trial period because we need to see how they will work in practice and what implications they will have. As part of this we have been pushing very hard for a section at least of two-way traffic on Sheep Street, because if it was completely one-way it would make it not usable.

Overall when we have markets on Bridge Street I think businesses are mainly fine with them and its potentially beneficial because it brings the market more into the centre of the towns retail area.

Cllr Tony Jefferson, leader of Stratford District Council added: This is all about security measures to keep the RSC safe and it all has a knock-on impact. It is a three month trial and Stratforward will be consulting with businesses during that time to get their views. In reality the security threat is not going away and something needs to happen.
The lightning Russia-Georgia war



Paris, Aug 5 (AFP) Aug 05, 2018



Ten years ago, in August 2008, Russia and Georgia went to war over South Ossetia, a small separatist Georgian region which Moscow would later controversially recognise as independent, in the face of international criticism.

Here is a recap of the five-day war in South Ossetia, a territory of 50,000 people which remains one of several sticking points in Russia's ties with the West.



- Build up to war -



In April 2008 Russia angers Georgia by announcing it is bolstering ties with its rebel provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are on the Russian border.

Tensions rise as Georgia accuses Russia of seeking to annex the provinces, which account for around one-fifth of its territory.

Moscow is meanwhile annoyed by Tbilisi's ambitions to join NATO and the European Union.

There are clashes in South Ossetia on an almost daily basis; Tbilisi and South Ossetian separatist forces are blamed but both deny responsibility.



- Russian troops enter Georgia -



Overnight on August 7-8 the Georgian army launches an offensive to retake control of South Ossetia, bombarding the regional capital, Tskhinvali.

Russia immediately riposts.

On the morning of August 8, Russian tanks, light armoured vehicles and personnel carriers sweep into South Ossetia en masse.

The aim is, according to Russia, to "defend its citizens", the great majority of Ossetians holding a Russian passport.

The Russians bombard Georgian positions around Tskhinvali and also the town of Gori in Georgia.

By August 10 Tskhinvali is under Russian army control. Georgia announces a withdrawal of its forces from South Ossetia and a ceasefire.

A day later, Russia bombards Gori, the Black Sea port of Poti and the suburbs of Tbilisi. Georgia says most of its territory is "occupied".

Images of triumphant Russian troops in the gun-turrets of their tanks or waving flags on Georgian soil are beamed around the world.

The lightning conflict claimed 800 lives, according to official tolls from the various sides, with more than 120,000 fleeing their homes.

Human Rights Watch says in 2009 that South Ossetian forces "deliberately and systematically destroyed ethnic Georgian villages".

A 2009 report by an EU fact-finding mission alleges ethnic cleansing against Georgians.



- Europeans weigh in -



European nations, unanimous in wanting to extinguish the flames in the Caucasus region, condemn the Russian intervention while keeping their distance from Tbilisi's own offensive.

On August 12 the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, negotiates a ceasefire on behalf of the European Union.

It involves the return of Georgian troops to their barracks and Russian troops to positions they held before the conflict.

The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, signs on August 15 and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev a day later.



- Disputed recognition -



On August 26 Russia recognises the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the first among only a handful of countries to do so.

Saakashvili slams the "first attempt since World War II to change the borders of Europe by force".

The United States and other Western countries also condemn Russia.

On August 29 Tbilisi severs its diplomatic ties with Moscow.

In October Russian troops wind up their pullout from Georgia but remain in the separatist regions, maintaining thousands of soldiers and lending financial support.

The EU sends a civilian ceasefire monitoring mission.



- War crimes probe -



In mid-2015 NATO opens a training centre outside the Georgian capital, at Krtsanisi, a move Russia slams as "provocative".

And in early 2016 the International Criminal Court (ICC) opens an ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by all sides during the conflict.
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The Nine-Fairfax Media deal, billed as the biggest shakeup in the Australian media landscape for decades, was widely anticipated once the Turnbull government repealed the main anti-concentration laws in 2017. It may well result in the loss of a highly respected independent quality media voice. It has certainly fired the starting gun on a new phase of media concentration.

Its the latest and arguably the most dramatic episode in the media concentration saga in Australia. This is already among the most concentrated media markets in the world, behind countries like China and Egypt. These developments signal that media diversity policies need a major overhaul to take account of the impact of the media-tech platform giants on traditional news media businesses.

In many ways this by now widely telegraphed process of media convergence has been the strategy of two of Australias largest legacy media companies to survive a bit longer against the onslaught of the Silicon Valley FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) behemoths. If approved it will create Australias largest media company  and presumably the loudest private media voice with the most political clout in the country.

Former prime minister Paul Keating notes that this could have been predicted from the first implementation of cross-media rules back in the late 1980s. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield says hes ownership agnostic  if we can just park the fact that it was the governments horse-trading efforts directed towards crossbench senators that led to precisely this outcome. And the Coalition and its supporters would welcome regulatory approval of the deal by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Many believe that subsuming Fairfax Media will assist in muzzling the edgier, more critical journalism in the groups mastheads and generally advance an editorial position that is favourable to the government. After all, former Coalition treasurer Peter Costello chairs the Nine board. In the lead-up to a federal election in 2019, the timing could not be better for the conservatives.

Clocks ticking for local news

The deal, if it goes forward, has also fired the starting gun on a process of further dismantling media in the bush. As print media audiences are reaching their expiry dates, we can expect to see the loss of important local newspapers such as the Newcastle Herald and the Launceston Examiner.

Newspapers like these play a key civic journalism role in those communities. They have, for example, pressured governments to set up royal commissions such as the inquiry into institutional responses to sexual abuse.

So local, regional and suburban journalism will be among the losers in this convergence of media platforms. Even major metro titles like The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are under a cloud as Fairfaxs more profitable digital media assets, such as the Domain real estate site and streaming service Stan, have become the focus of the business.

While some sector-specific ownership and control rules remain in place, these are limited in number and scope. They apply only to legacy media of commercial television, commercial radio and associated (print) newspapers. The rules would not affect the combined reach of Nine News and Fairfaxs well-recognised online news brand.

Whos left to defend diversity?

So will the ACCCs inquiry come up with any public interest regulatory antidotes? Its digital platforms inquiry does extend to investigating certain aspects of pluralism or media diversity. This was one of several outcomes of the legislative and policy changes of 2017, which included the repeal of cross-media ownership laws.

However, such a decision by the ACCC would be surprising. Thats because effective media pluralism policy that is capable of addressing these kind of integrated cross-platform deals requires bipartisan support at the highest political levels. Thats not something that tends to happen much in Australian media policy.

Yet the ACCC review and the possibility of regulatory intervention using competition law is the only alternative policy lever available to regulate the adverse consequences of cross-media concentration.

The ACCC inquiry is focusing mainly on market power in relation to advertising on digital platforms. But it is also examining the role of search engines, aggregators and social media platforms and their implications for the production, delivery and consumption of sustainable quality news online.

An issues paper noted that the inquiry would consider the impact of algorithmic selection on the plurality of news and journalistic content presented to Australian consumers. Recommendations about the implications of automated news delivery will be critical.

But this new baked-in logic of an automated public sphere is very different to the voice concentration that has arisen out of the calculated deregulation of cross-media laws. As US legal scholar Frank Pasquale argues:

New methods of monitoring and regulation should be as technologically sophisticated and comprehensive as the automated public sphere they target.

Although it is still early days, the regulator is unlikely to stand in the way of media businesses whose rhetoric is all about scale and survival. In other words, media voice concentration is recast as a second-order issue compared to the survival of these traditional Australian media corporations.

Perhaps that survival duration should be measured in election cycles? Even better, why not look at laws and policies to ensure that the instruments of media policymaking maintain media ownership, pluralism and diversity objectives?

Tim Dwyer, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney

This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Former girl group member Shoo of S.E.S. is under investigation for failing to pay back hundreds of millions of won in debt which she used to gamble.

The criminal division of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office said Friday they are looking into allegations that Shoo, whose real name is Yoo Soo-young, borrowed money from two people at a casino at Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul in June.

The two people who lent her 350 million won and 250 million won, respectively, sued her for not paying back.

As they claimed that Shoo borrowed the money to gamble, prosecutors are considering gambling charges against her.

Read also: Black Pink becomes highest-charting K-pop girl group on Billboards Hot 100

Gambling is against the law for Korean citizens in most places. A handful casinos operating in Korea are open only to non-Korean citizens.

It is believed that Walkerhill allowed her in because she had permanent residency overseas.

Shoo, a Korean citizen with a US green card, apologized to her fans through an online media interview on Friday saying that she didnt even know green card holders could enter the casino until she got there, after initially denying that the 37-year-old former idol star with a foreign passport in media reports was her.
Film studio Paramount Players is set to produce a remake of Indecent Proposal and has tapped The Girl on the Train writer Erin Cressida Wilson to create the script.

Based on Jack Engelhards novel, the steamy drama follows a financially strapped married couple that succumbs to accepting a US$1 million offer from a wealthy admirer in exchange for the chance to sleep with the wife. Conflict arises when the young husband grows jealous and cannot handle the results of the bargain, putting his marriage at risk.

Indecent Proposal starred Robert Redford as the billionaire, and Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson as the wedded couple.

Read also: Steven Spielberg to remake 'West Side Story'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie was a box-office hit, grossing over $266 million on a budget as little as $37 million. However, it received mixed reviews from critics, as well as seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations, including for Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Actor and Worst Actress, with Harrelson winning the Worst Supporting Actor Award.

The new take on the 1993 film has not been unveiled, but Wilson has proven herself more than capable of crafting relationship and sexual politics-related plots, with notable credits including Secretary, Chloe and The Girl on the Train. (saz/kes)
After the earthquake that devastated Juchitan in southern Mexico in September last year, Jorge Jimenez and his dance troupe sprang into action.

The 8.2-magnitude quake -- the most powerful ever recorded in the country -- killed at least 96 people in the area.

Entire families were buried, and the town hall was split in two. Streets were left strewn with debris, and residents had no water or electricity.

"We helped to find survivors and distributed food," recalls Jimenez, the director of Juchitan de Zaragoza, a traditional dance troupe.

"Then after a while, we decided to dance because the population needed some distraction to overcome the shock."

But the many festivities that are a usual part of life in the community were all cancelled in the wake of the earthquake.

"We are still in mourning," says the 33-year-old Jimenez.

The dancers nevertheless decided to go to Oaxaca, the capital of the state of the same name, to take part in Guelaguetza, the biggest traditional Mexican festival.

"We want to thank the country for its support" and proclaim "to the world that 'Juchitan lives, and long live Juchitan!'" Jimenez says.

Read also: Gay dance company reinvents Mexico's 'folk ballet'

- 'Deep cultural traditions' -

The large Guelaguetza gathering, which means "offering" in the native Zapotec language, was itself founded after an earthquake that devastated Oaxaca in 1931.

Following the quake, locals decided to create a celebration bringing together the many local cultures "to pray to the Virgin and express solidarity," said Alfonso Martinez, the spokesman for Oaxaca state.

Much more than just a festival, Guelaguetza has been a must on the region's social calendar for 86 years, and showcases the variety and richness of what Martinez calls the country's "deep cultural traditions."

Every year, 30 troupes present their unique culture in a parade and performance before 12,000 spectators, dancing in colorful costumes -- some with a pineapple or even a vase in hand, others wearing demon masks and cracking a whip.

The event, broadcast on local television, has achieved great success, attracting more than 110,000 visitors to Oaxaca for the annual festivities.

For the capital of the second-poorest Mexican state, the economic benefits are significant, estimated at over $16 million, according to local authorities.

The Guelaguetza festival is also a link between the numerous communities, which are sometimes isolated in a mountainous state where agrarian conflicts sometimes lead to violence.

On July 16, 13 people were killed in a clash between groups of farmers in the south of the state.

Read also: The complete guide to Mexico's street delights

- Traditional culture still alive -

Participating in Guelaguetza is a time-honored for the many communities of this region of four million inhabitants.

The selection committee is made up of 10 former dancers whose average age is 75 -- but whose judgment is sharp.

"We traveled 29,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) last year," says Margarita, the 82-year-old chair of the selection committee, which is also known as the "authenticity committee."

The committee members roam remote villages and select the very best troupes.

"We evaluate the quality of the dance, the clothing, the hairstyle, the chemistry between the couples," she says.

The stakes are high -- if a certain community is not selected, its members sometimes go so far as to protest in the capital or complain to the media.

"Participating is a great pride for us," says Nivardo, 34, the director of another troupe.

The state of Oaxaca is home to "the most indigenous communities; 16 languages are listed," says Martinez.

There is no question of wearing a redesigned dress, or introducing a dance inspired by Beyonce.

Here, each costume tells a story.

A pattern on a dress "symbolizes the mountains that overlook the village," while embroidery can represent a river that crosses the hamlet, or even the underworld, says Nivardo.

From an early age, children are immersed in their local culture.

Some young people listen to hip-hop, but they never get away from their cultural roots, says Graciela, 31, a dancer from Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec.

"We learn music before we even know how to write," she says. "These cheerful rhythms define us -- it's our culture."
German researchers found that turning off a robot became harder when it begged human subjects not to.

With the fast rise of artificial intelligence and its increasing adoption into everyday products, it somehow makes sense to ask just how interactive technology will be in the future, and how humans will behave in the face of a highly interactive robot.

Researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen put this to the test and observed how a human would react if a robot begged not to be turned off. Their study has been published online on open access journal PLOS One.

The researchers disguised their study by telling 89 volunteers that they were simply to perform several tasks with Nao, a small humanoid robot. Once the tasks were done, participants were asked to switch off Nao.

Results showed roughly half of the participants had misgivings in turning off Nao when it started to plead for its life. Nao would say phrases like No! Please do not switch me off! and expressed a fear of being powered down. While the participants eventually did switch Nao off, 30 of the volunteers struggled morally if they should flip the Off switch.

When asked later as to why they struggled, the most common response was that the robot asked them not to. Other reasons included surprise at the sudden pleas and fear that they were doing something wrong with the experiment.

Read also: New 'emotional' robots aim to read human feelings

The researchers attributed the volunteers response to the theory called the media equation. The theory suggested that humans tend to treat non-human media (gadgets, robots, computers) as if they were human. The concept called the rule of reciprocity also came into play. Because Nao started to sound human when it begged for its life, the volunteers started to treat it like a person. This led to their hesitation in turning Nao off.

A similar study was conducted in 2007, which included video footage of the interaction between human and robot. In the footage, the researcher warned the robot that it was being turned off because it made a mistake. The robot proceeded to beg not to be turned off and even promised to behave.

How do the findings apply to modern society? Aike Horstmann, a PhD student at the University of Duisburg-Essen and who also led the study, told The Verge that it is something humans will need to get used to eventually.

The media equation theory suggests we react to [robots] socially because for hundreds of thousands of years, we were the only social beings on the planet. Now were not, and we have to adapt to it. Its an unconscious reaction, but it can change, said Hortsmann.

So if Siri, Cortana or the Google assistant suddenly begs not to turn a device off, humans need to understand whos actually in charge and just press that power button.
Fast food giant McDonalds has issued an apology after a pregnant customer was served cleaning solution instead of a latte at its Alberta branch, Canada.

As reported by Time, Sarah Douglas ordered a latte through the restaurants drive-through and took one sip before realizing something was wrong.

After issuing a complaint, a staff member informed her that two cleaning lines were hooked up to the latte machine.

A spokesperson on behalf of Dan Brown, the restaurants franchisee, released a statement regarding the incident.

Read also: Japan train departs 25 seconds early, company apologizes for 'truly inexcusable' mistake

What happened is that the machine was being cleaned - as it is every morning. Unfortunately, the milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guests drink was made, he said.

We have taken immediate action to review the proper cleaning procedures with the team and have put additional signage up as an added reminder, Brown added.

Following the incident, health inspectors visited the outlet.

Douglas expressed concern and urged McDonalds to make sure such an incident never occurred again.

As a mother, I want to make sure I have a voice and that Im being heard in terms of the safety of consumers, and how [alleged] negligence can affect people in such a drastic way, she says. (anm/kes)
NASA recently uploaded open-source plans for building a do-it-yourself rover similar to the one in Mars.

Since the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, budding engineers have been asking NASA for plans that could allow them to build their own Mars rover. However, building a rover is a complicated affair, so the people at NASA worked to simplify the Curiosity design and came up with their JPL Open Source Rover (OSR), according to a statement.

The OSR was closely based on the ROV-E, a scaled down version of Curiosity, which NASA used as an educational tool. It was small enough to be brought into classrooms but still too expensive to make by independent engineers.

On the other hand, the OSR had been designed with limited resources in mind. Engineers could download the OSR plans from GitHub and build it using off-the-shelf parts with a budget of $2,500. The price may still be a bit challenging, but its a far cry from the thousands of dollars spent to build the ROV-E and the millions put into the Curiosity.

Read also: NASA's Mars rover drills up most complex organic matter yet

As an open-source project, NASA gave the OSR a lot of headroom for customization. Builders could customize the base models power source and computational power, or add extra components based on whats needed. NASA also hoped the release of the OSR plans would lead to collaboration among schools, and the creation of designs Jet Propulsion Labs staff hadnt thought about.

It was an extremely rewarding experience getting to work with the high school teams testing the build process. They had a ton of great ideas and were so enthusiastic about getting involved in robotics and STEM in general. It was exactly what we were hoping to inspire with this project, said JPL OSR designer and engineer Eric Junkins.

NASA also launched an interactive website to explain what builders could do with the OSR.
Nurul Shamsul has shot to fame as the first hijab-wearing woman to be listed as a finalist of Miss Universe New Zealand.

Shamsul did not consider her hijab as a barrier to entering the beauty pageant. Not once have I felt that my hijab is a disadvantage in any situation or opportunity, Shamsul, whose father and mother are Malaysian and Indonesian, respectively, told The Jakarta Post in an e-mail.

Pursuing her undergraduate studies at the University of Waikato, Shamsul is often asked about the swimsuit section, which is part of the pageant. Shamsul said the contest was more than just about physical beauty.

Six years ago the organizers took the live bikini round out of the competition and instead they do a calendar shoot. However, for this calendar shoot, we were able to wear swimwear or active wear. This year, theyve given me something modest to wear, she said, acknowledging that her fellow contestants have been supportive and treat her equally.

During her time in Malaysia and Indonesia in mid-July for photo-shoots and interviews, Shamsul realized how the competition has changed her life. She has also received many comments and messages from people, especially from women. Theyd message me to say theyre happy that Im in the pageant because now theres someone they can relate to, she said.

Read also: Woman with Malaysian roots wearing hijab is Miss Universe New Zealand finalist

In the beginning, the psychology student, who also writes poetry and has a lifestyle blog, kept quiet about her decision to apply for the competition until she received an e-mail saying that she was a semi-finalist. I was optimistic. I just wondered what would happen if I entered it, she said, also noting that it was not difficult to persuade her parents to support her.

Having lived in New Zealand since she was 5-years-old, Shamsul finds it easy to keep her Malaysian-Indonesian legacy. Her teachers and parents encouraged to keep talking in Malay or Indonesian, her mother and grandmother always cook both countries delicacies and the family gathers with the Malaysian and Indonesian communities.

For the upcoming Grand Final, Shamsul has made many preparations, including learning to love herself, so that she will feel confident in answering the judges questions.

For the past two weeks Ive been waking up to the same question: Do I want this? But the thing is, I need to do it, she said. If I win Miss Universe New Zealand, I wont be just representing the country, Ill be representing Malaysians, Indonesians, Islam, women wearing the hijab and minorities. If I win I could also be the first hijabi to make it to the international stage of Miss Universe.

Furthermore, she also believes her taking part will open many opportunities for women all around the world. It has always been about breaking boundaries and stereotypes as well as going beyond beauty, she said.

The Grand Final of the 2018 Miss Universe will be held on Aug. 4 at Skycity Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand, and it will be streamed live worldwide. Voting will be online. (mut)
Silicon Valley giants have become a gargantuan force on Wall Street, as demonstrated by Apple recently topping $1 trillion in stock-market valuation.

But should we fear that a new tech bubble is ready to burst?

Here are some questions and answers about the sector:

- What does the tech sector represent on Wall Street? -

Apple ended the formal trading week worth a history-making $1 trillion.

Meanwhile, four other tech firms rounded out a list of the five most valuable companies based on share prices.

Amazon was worth $889 billion; Google-parent Alphabet was valued at $856 billion; Microsoft weighed in at $828 billion, and Facebook was valued at $513 billion.

Together, these companies account for about 20 percent of US GDP, and more than Germany's GDP.

Combined, the tech stocks account for more than 25 percent of the value of the Standard & Poor's 500, the index that includes the 500 largest companies listed in the United States.

Read also: Apple becomes first US company to hit $1 trillion value

- Is this market domination troubling? -

At the end of 1999, a few months before the infamous dot.com internet bubble burst, the five biggest companies on the stock market (Microsoft, General Electric, Cisco, Walmart and Intel) accounted for 15.5 percent of US GDP, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould recalled in a note.

"Anyone who owned those stocks at the market top suffered some serious portfolio pain," Mould said.

"They lost money on those five names for the next decade."

He made it clear he was not predicting market woes for "FAANG" stocks -- those of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.

"However, it does warn against the dangers of blindly assuming that what is working now will work forever and that paying any price for a stock will be rewarded," Mould said.

Nate Thooft of Manulife Asset Management told AFP that there was "no shortage of arguments" on why shares in those companies would continue to do well, but he saw wisdom in reducing "exposure a bit" to reduce risk.

- What is different from the bubble 20 years ago? -

Investors at that time hurled money at just about any startup with a website, even if it wasn't clear exactly how a given company was going to make money.

"Most of those companies had no earnings, a lot of them had no sales; they were still selling at huge valuation levels," said Tower Bridge Advisors portfolio manager Maris Ogg.

"Everyone was anticipating what the internet and the tech would do. They were about 20 years too early."

Since the dot.com crash, venture capitalists have shied away from startups that don't have convincing plans to become profitable.

The crash also gave rise to "a lot of healthy skepticism" about big tech companies, according to Ogg.

There is also a renewed focus on the ratio between share price and company profit, a key investing consideration that was neglected in the early 2000s.

Amazon appears to be an exception, but it has a winning record of taking on new markets, and spending heavily up front to "disrupt" the status quo in the long run.

Read also: French luxury giants dive into Silicon Valley

- What are the main risks threatening the sector? -

Tech titans such as Google and Facebook have become such formidable forces that they are prime targets for regulation or fines, which could slow growth or hurt profits.

Maris said investors should be mindful to routinely rebalance their portfolios to avoid them becoming too heavy with fast-growing tech firm shares. After all, any internet firm can be eclipsed by a young startup.

"Every technology company remains vulnerable to being disrupted by a slightly more clever version of itself," BlackRock Global Allocation Team portfolio manager Russ Koesterich said in a blog post.

For example, he noted, at the time of the financial crisis Nokia had a 45 percent share of the smartphone market, the iPhone was just a year old and Facebook was a baby.

"The overall sector continues to be extraordinarily profitable, and, despite rumors to the contrary, reasonably valued," Koesterich said.
Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan, living in exile in Germany as she risks a life sentence on terror charges at home, thinks the writing is on the wall: her country is sliding into fascism.

The award-winning author, still traumatised by the four months she spent in an Istanbul prison, warns that Turkey's institutions are "in a state of total collapse".

In President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- no relation -- she sees a man tightening control over everyday Turkish life, emboldened by an outright victory in June elections, sweeping new powers and a crackdown on opponents.

"The extent of things in Turkey is like Nazi Germany," the flame-haired 51-year-old told AFP in an interview in Frankfurt, her temporary home as she awaits the outcome of her court case in absentia.

"I think it is a fascist regime. It is not yet 1940s Germany, but 1930s," said Asli.

"A crucial factor is the lack of a judicial system," she added, describing a country of overcrowded prisons and pro-Erdogan judges in their twenties rushed in to replace ousted peers.

Asli herself was among the more than 70,000 people caught up in a wave of arrests under a state of emergency imposed after a failed 2016 coup against Erdogan.

She was held for 136 days over her links to a pro-Kurdish newspaper before being unexpectedly freed on bail.

The detention of the author of such novels as The City in Crimson Cloak and The Stone Building and Other Places, famed for their unflinching explorations of loss and trauma, drew international condemnation.

Turkey's Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk has called her "an exceptionally perceptive and sensitive writer".

- 'Pathetically funny' -

Turkey's post-coup purge targeted not just alleged backers of preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the attempted putsch, but also opposition media and people accused of ties to Kurdish militants.

Turkish authorities reject accusations of widescale rights violations after the coup, and the state of emergency was lifted last month, after Erdogan was re-elected under a new executive-style presidency giving him direct control of ministries and public institutions.

"Erdogan is almost omnipotent," Asli said.

"He decides on the price of medicine, on the future of classical ballet, his family members are in charge of the economy... Opera, which he hates, is also directly tied to him," she added, chuckling.

"That's the nice thing about fascism, it's also pathetically funny sometimes."

Turkish lawmakers have also approved new legislation giving authorities greater powers in detaining suspects and imposing public order, which officials say is necessary to combat multiple terror risks.

"It's an emergency state made permanent," said Asli.

Read also: Recent winners of the Nobel Literature Prize

- 'Not bluffing' -

As for herself, Asli has given up hope of being acquitted and returning to Turkey anytime soon.

"They are not bluffing," she said she realized after several journalists were sentenced to life terms.

She faces charges of spreading "terror propaganda" for her work as a literary advisor to the newspaper Ozgur Gundem.

The paper itself was shut down, accused by Turkish authorities of being a mouthpiece for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

The next hearings in Asli's case are scheduled for October and March.

The diminutive former physicist said the wait for the verdict was "almost unbearable".

"One of the biggest tortures you can do to a human being is to keep his fate unknown."

Read also: Turkey's ancient temple site gets UNESCO heritage status

- 'You write with blood' -

Released from prison in late December 2016, it took Asli until last September to get her passport back from Turkish authorities.

She immediately left for Germany, following other Turkish artists and intellectuals into exile.

She now lives in Frankfurt, the recipient of a flat and a monthly stipend as part of the international Cities of Refuge project.

The scheme aims to provide persecuted writers with a safe haven from where they can continue working.

But Asli, who has written eight books translated into 20 languages, hasn't been able to pick up a pen yet.

Struggling with insomnia, depression and health problems, it has been easier to "play the professional writer" in past months, travelling abroad for literary events and talks.

But slowly her nightmares about prison are becoming less frequent, she said, while a painful neck hernia has done her the unexpected favor of forcing her to slow down.

Asli said she was getting "more in the mood" to write, but her immediate focus remained on raising the plight of those still locked up in Turkey.

"I have been pushed into a political role, which I try to carry with grace."

But when she is ready, she will put her own experiences of prison to paper, in what Asli predicts will be "a very heavy confrontation".

"In literature, you have to be more than 200 percent honest," she said. "You write with blood."
American musician John Legend and his wife, presenter/model Chrissy Teigen, along with children Luna and Miles, have been vacationing in Bali and shared some of their memorable moments on social media.

Legend took a photo in front of a cafe called The Legend Cafe, while Teigen shared an encounter with a bug, being enrolled in a cooking class and learning the Indonesian way of fashioning a baby sling.

Their most recent adventure on Saturday night took them to Jaya Fried Chicken (JFC), a local fast food joint, after a seemingly fancy dinner. Along with posting a view of the line to the cashiers to Instagram Stories, Teigen posted a video of her enthusiastically chanting "JFC" on the way to the restaurant, pictures of JFCs menu and herself posing in front of a birthday decor.

In one video, Legend crooned an impromptu song to Teigen: Isnt it romantic, going to JFC, together? So romantic.

On Sunday, the family visited a toy store and bought an inflatable duck float.

Read also: John Legend, Chrissy Teigen share Bali vacation photos

Their photos and videos have been shared on social media by Indonesians, with several netizens calling them honest and refreshing.

Twitter user @Raesaka wrote, Witnessing how humble John Legend and his family [are] in Bali, going to a modest fast food restaurant and buying their daughter toys in an inexpensive toy store. While hes in Indonesia, it seems fitting if he was appointed as a vice-presidential candidate.

Melihat kesederhanaan john legend dan keluarganya di bali dengan dateng ke restaurant cepat saji yang entah apa dan beliin mainan anaknya di toko mainan murah.



Mumpung dia di indonesia, sepertinya cocok kalau dia jadi kandidat cawapres. pic.twitter.com/WjSe7mUk7G  Raesaka (@Raesaka) August 5, 2018

Another user by the name of @NicoNovito wrote that Chrissy Teigen and John spending their Saturday night at JFC is definitely the highlight of their Bali adventure.

.@chrissyteigen and John Legend spending their Saturday night at JFC is definitely the highlight of their Bali adventure.  pic.twitter.com/sRGD8LYR7Y  Nico Novito (@NicoNovito) August 4, 2018

Legend and Teigen also visited Bali in July last year, sharing photos of them donning traditional Balinese costumes as well as practicing acroyoga. (wng)
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Linkedin Kurniawan Hari (The Jakarta Post) Miami  Sat, August 4 2018

Amid growing demand for telecommunication services in the country, state-owned telecommunications firm Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) is preparing for the launch of its most advanced satellite, Satelit Merah Putih.

Telkom vice president for corporate communication Arif Prabowo said the demand for satellite services in Indonesia was huge.

Telkom, along with domestic satellite operators Pacific Satellite Nusantara, Media Citra Indostar (MCI), Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Indosat Ooredoo, provides less than half of the nations satellite services, according to the Communications and Information Ministry.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 5, 2018 16:53 1179 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df515ae56 1 National Australia-Indonesia,surabaya,Consulate-General,Australian-Embassy,Julie-Bishop Free

The Australian government has opened a consulate general in Surabaya, East Java, it was announced over the weekend.

This marks Australias fourth post in Indonesia, besides Jakarta, Bali and Makassar in South Sulawesi.



"This new post is part of the Australian government's commitment to expand our diplomatic network," Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said in a statement on Sunday.

She said the new facility was the countrys single-largest overseas expansion in more than 40 years.



The consulate general will concentrate on enhancing trade and building economic partnership opportunities in East Java, including in financial services, education, health, manufacturing and infrastructure, Bishop explained.

It will also support cultural and community links with Central and East Java, as well as provide consular and other services to Australian nationals.



"Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, was an increasingly important destination for Australian trade and investment," she said, adding that East Java accounted for roughly 15 percent of Indonesias gross domestic product (GDP).



Surabaya, located on the northern coast of the province, is a crucial port especially for eastern Indonesia.



Chris Barnes, the first Australian consul general to Surabaya, was appointed to his post in August last year. (stu)
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani and Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar/Mataram  Sun, August 5, 2018 22:36 1179 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5166eb1 1 National Lombok-airport,bali,earthquake,Lombok-earthquake,#LombokEarthquake,natural-disaster,tsunami-warning,Ngurah-Rai-International-Airport,Lombok-international-airport Free

The resort island of Bali was affected by a magnitude 7 earthquake that struck neighboring province West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) on Sunday evening, leading to a tsunami warning.

The tremor reportedly damaged buildings, including two shopping malls in Denpasar and Kuta, and the Cathedral in Denpasar. Ceiling tiles at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport also fell during the earthquake.

Arie Ahsanurrohim, the communications and legal section head of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, said the airport only suffered minor damage, emphasizing that the main facilities and infrastructure, including runway, taxiway and apron, remained intact.

We will immediately repair damage within 24 hours, he said on Sunday evening.

He also said that airport operations would resume as normal.

We have checked flight facilities and ensured that everything is safe for flight operations to resume, he said.

Separately, Lombok International Airport authorities said the airport operations had resumed as normal, despite pictures appearing to show passengers stranded on the airport's apron circulating on social media.

At this moment, airport operations at Lombok International Airport remain normal. We encouraged passengers not to panic during the aftershocks and immediately to move to safer places via emergency exits, Lombok International Airport general manager I Gusti Ngurah Ardita said in a statement.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, who was in Lombok to attend a scheduled Sub Regional Meeting on Counter Terrorism, gave an assurance that all delegates were safe and sound.

Due to the earthquake, we decided to postpone the meeting and encourage delegates to return to their respective home countries immediately, he said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.

The delegates were enjoying dinner when the earthquake hit.

Wiranto met with Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton earlier today. He also had bilateral meetings with delegates from Myanmar, Singapore and New Zealand.

For updates on Lombok International Airport call Airport Customer Service (0370) 6157000 ext. 806 or hotline 172. (swd)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 5, 2018 12:18 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df515473d 4 City kali-item,Sentiong-River,Central-Jakarta,waste-water-treatment-plant,orange-troops Free

The talk about Kali Item, or the Black River, in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, is not yet over, with a fresh debate arising over the weekend surrounding a series of viral photos that show clear, light green water in the river.

The pictures, uploaded by Rifqi Fathullah, are dated to March 26 last year, during the term of former governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama. Rifqi said he took the picture last year when he was in the neighborhood and saw children swimming in the river, which actual name is Sentiong River.

Read also: What makes Jakarta's rivers ugly and smelly

Residents living nearby, however, said they had never seen such clear, light green water in the river. Siti Rodiyah, who has lived on Jl. Sunter Jaya 1 since 1994, told tempo.co that she had never seen such clear water in the Sentiong River.

All my life, I have never seen Kali Item that clear, said Siti, 49, when she saw the viral pictures on Saturday.

Inal, another resident, challenged the owner of the photos to show other proof that the river was that clear. Upload a video, he said as quoted by tempo.co. He said when the water flow increased in the Sentiong River, the water would change from black to murky brown. I give four thumbs up to the person who edited the pictures, Inal said.

This picture of children swimming in a "clean" Sentiong River near the athletes village in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, was uploaded to the Facebook account of Rifqi Fathullah on March 26, 2017. Rifqi said he had brightened and enhanced the color of the picture. (Via tempo.co/Facebook)

Rifqi uploaded the pictures last year but they went viral after they were uploaded by an Instagram user who has 20,000 followers. The Jakarta administration is trying to improve the appearance and smell of the river ahead of the Asian Games.

Rifqi said last year when he took the pictures he was surprised to see that the river was free of solid waste and was flowing. He said the water was not black either. However, he told tempo.co on Saturday that he had brightened and enhanced the color, although he insisted he had done so so the pictures would match what he saw in reality.

Under the Ahok administration, Jakarta began a large-scale campaign to clean solid waste from rivers, which made the rivers look much cleaner than before.

Jakarta, however, has yet to realize its plan to build wastewater treatment plants to clean the citys rivers from pollution emitted by millions of households, home industries and commercial buildings. Jakarta has only one wastewater treatment plant in Setiabudi, Central Jakarta, which treats only 2 percent of the estimated 2.5 million cubic meters of liquid pollution that enters 13 rivers every day. (evi)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon  Sun, August 5, 2018 18:13 1179 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df515f0f1 2 World Syria,research,war,chemical-weapon Free

The head of a Syrian research facility that Western countries say was part of a chemical weapons programme was killed when his car was blown up, the pro-Syrian government newspaper al-Watan said on Sunday.

Aziz Asber was the director of the Syrian Scientific Research Centre in Masyaf, near the city of Hama, which Western governments say was a covert Syrian government installation.

"(Asber) died after an explosion targeted his car in the Hama countryside," al-Watan said in an online report.

The attack on Asber was claimed by a Syrian rebel group affiliated to Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group. It includes the group formerly known as the Nusra Front, which served as al Qaeda's Syrian branch.

The Abu Amara Brigades released a statement on their Telegram online channel that said they "planted explosive devices" which detonated and killed Asber.

The explosion occurred on Saturday night, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitoring group said.

The Masyaf facility has previously been hit by what the Syrian government said were Israeli strikes in July and last year in September .

In April, missile strikes by the United States, Britain and France destroyed a Syrian Scientific Research Centre facility in Damascus, in response to a suspected poison gas attack .

The Syrian government, backed by Russia, has denied using - or possessing - chemical weapons.

An Israeli government official declined to comment on reports of Asber's death when asked by Reuters.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Caracas  Sun, August 5, 2018 11:56 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5153276 2 World Nicolas-Maduro,venezuela,drone,drone-attack Free

A mysterious rebel group made up of Venezuelan civilians and military on Saturday claimed responsibility for an "assassination" attempt on President Nicolas Maduro, according to a statement posted on social media.

The explosion, which the government said injured seven soldiers, took place during a televised Caracas military parade. It was later claimed by a group calling itself the "National Movement of Soldiers in Shirts."

"It is contrary to military honor to keep in government those who not only have forgotten the Constitution, but who have also made public office an obscene way to get rich," the group said in a statement, which was passed to US-based opposition journalist Patricia Poleo, who read it on her YouTube channel.

"If the purpose of a government is to achieve the greatest amount of happiness possible, we cannot tolerate that the population is suffering from hunger, that the sick do not have medicine, that the currency has no value, or that the education system neither educates or teaches, only indoctrinating communism," added the statement.

"People of Venezuela, to successfully complete this emancipatory struggle, we have to take to the streets, without going back."

Maduro accused neighboring Colombia and unidentified "financiers" in the United States of being behind the blast, while some of his officials blamed Venezuela's opposition. Colombia denied any involvement.

Maduro said some of those involved were arrested and an investigation was under way.

Earlier on Twitter, the group said it was made up of "patriotic military personnel and civilians loyal to the Venezuelan people who seek to rescue the democracy of a nation under dictatorship."
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Sun, August 5, 2018 21:25 1179 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5165538 2 World venezuela,USA,assassination,Nicholas-Maduro Free

US national security advisor John Bolton said Sunday that there was "no US government involvement" in the reported attack Saturday during a Caracas military parade attended by the Venezuelan president.

Bolton, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said the incident could be "a pretext set up by the regime itself" of President Nicolas Maduro "or something else."

While denying any US role, he said that if Venezuela had "hard information" of a potential violation of US law, "we will take a serious look at it."

Maduro on Saturday described the incident -- in which explosives allegedly carried on a drone detonated as he was giving a speech -- as an "assassination" attempt.

The president and his wife escaped unharmed, though the government said seven soldiers were wounded. Maduro blamed Colombia, though a mysterious rebel group later claimed responsibility.

Bolton said he had spoken to the US charge d'affaires in Caracas and was told the embassy was secure and American staff "accounted for."

In addition to Colombia, Maduro's government cast blame on "the ultra-right wing" in Venezuela, which Bolton said "means the vast opposition to his authoritarian role."

In addition, Bolton said that Maduro "has blamed the United States," adding, "These are things he has said before and you have to take them for what they are worth."

US President Donald Trump has been harshly critical of Maduro's leftist regime, saying it has "destroyed a prosperous nation by imposing a failed ideology."

Last August, Trump alarmed Caracas by saying publicly that he could not rule out a "military option" to quell the chaos there.
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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 5, 2018 15:41 1179 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df515a544 1 World Mike-Pompeo,Jokowi,Palestine,Korea,denuclearization,Retno-Marsudi,Indonesia-US-relations Free

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi welcomed United States' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jakarta on Saturday evening, during which they talked about several issues, from Indonesia-US relations, the Korea Peninsula peace process, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Retno said that Indonesia and the US had established a strategic partnership in 2015 and, hence, both countries had been pushing to improve the fruitful relationship.

"Through the strategic partnership, we are attempting to develop a relationship that respects and brings benefits not only to both countries but also to our regions and the world," Retno said in a press statement after the tete-a-tete. Pompeo left the meeting venue, the Pancasila building in Central Jakarta, without giving a press statement.

In regard to trade and economic cooperation, Retno raised the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which allows for the easing of product import duties, and the positive results that followed Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita's meeting with private sector actors in Washington DC last month.

Furthermore, both ministers also talked about the Korea Peninsula peace process, which Retno said was "a topic that often came up" during the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting during the week in Singapore, which Pompeo also attended.

"Once again, our end goal is denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. That was the sentiment at the ASEAN meetings and we repeated it again during [Saturdays] meeting," Retno said.

In addition, Retno and Pompeo also discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the latter emphasizing that a two state solution was the only way to end the dispute.

"He did not reject [our thoughts about] a two-state solution. He said that we needed more time to conclude a peace plan on Palestine," Retno said. "However, I emphasized that the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict was a concern not only for the Indonesian government but also the people." (evi)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 5, 2018 15:00 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df51592d9 1 National Guinness-World-Record,Indonesia,Poco-poco-dance,Jokowi,kalla,puan-maharani,#AsianGames2018,Asian-Games,Asian-Games-2018,sport Free

Some 65,000 people, including President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, danced the poco-poco (pronounced pocho-pocho) to welcome the 18th Asian Games on Sunday in Central Jakarta.

The dance was also an attempt to break the official Guinness World Record for Largest Line Dance (multiple venues).

The participants filled the streets from the National Monument (Monas) to Hotel Indonesia Traffic Circle, which is about 3 kilometers.

Jokowi, Kalla and other top officials including Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani led the dance at the main event in Monas square in the morning.

Preparations for the dance began as early as 1 a.m. for some dance groups.

We gathered at the dance studio at about 1a.m., said one of the participants, Ecxha. It was actually announced earlier in June and weve been practicing the dance these past two months.

She said breaking the World Record was a matter of national pride. We want to break the record to show-off to Malaysia, they think they own this dance, but in fact it came from North Sulawesi.

Among the participants, there were a large number of schools involved in the execution of the successful record-breaking attempt.

Three 16-year-old schoolmates Ziana Naz Zahra, Khoirunnisaa Salsabila and Putri Amalia Kunaefi from state high school SMA 58 were among the thousands of students participating in the event.

Each participating school was allowed to send a maximum of 100 people. Ziana said. We sent 98 students and two instructors.

The last official record of the Largest Line Dance (multiple venues), was recorded in Beijing in 2016, with a recorded participation of about 50,085 people. (acr/evi)
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Linkedin (Reuters) Moscow  Sun, August 5, 2018 11:47 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5153076 2 World Russia,Hollywood,Steven-Seagal,US-Russia Free

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had made US actor Steven Seagal its special representative for Russian-US humanitarian ties, a role it said was meant to deepen cultural, art and youth ties between the two countries.

President Vladimir Putin presented a Russian passport to US actor Steven Seagal in 2016, saying he hoped it would serve as a symbol of how fractious ties between Moscow and Washington were starting to improve.

Since then, US-Russia relations have only got worse however with US intelligence agencies accusing Moscow of interfering in Donald Trump's White House run, an allegation Russia denies. The two countries are also at odds over Syria and Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry likened Seagal's new role to that of a UN goodwill ambassador and said that the actor, who is known for his martial arts prowess, would receive no salary.

"It's a case of people's diplomacy intersecting with traditional diplomacy," the ministry said.

Seagal, who sometimes appears on Russian state TV to talk about his views and career, was cited by Kremlin-backed TV station RT as welcoming the appointment.

"I've always had a very strong desire to do all I can to help improve Russian-American relations," RT cited Seagal as saying. "I have worked tirelessly in this direction for many years unofficially and I am now very grateful for the opportunity to do the same thing officially."

For more than a decade Seagal, who according to his own website is 66, has been a regular visitor to Russia. His movies, including such titles as "Under Siege" and "Sniper: Special Ops," are popular with Russian audiences.

President Putin is also a fan of the kind of martial arts that Seagal often practised in his Hollywood action movies.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Cairo, Egypt  Sun, August 5, 2018 20:36 1179 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df516491a 2 World shark-attack,Egypt,Tourist,Czech Free

A Czech tourist was killed by a shark while swimming in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, authorities said Sunday.

The man died 20 kilometres north of Marsa Alam city as "a result of an attack by a shark", city council chairman General Atef Wagdy told AFP.

The health ministry is coordinating handing over the body to the Czech embassy, Wagdy said.

Local media reported on Friday that human remains were found on a beach in Marsa Alam.

The environment ministry has set up a committee to investigate the death and will issue a report, Wagdy added.

Marsa Alam attracts divers who explore coral and other marine life, including fish and sharks.

"There is no problem in diving" around Marsa Alam, but people who swim on the surface in deep waters beyond the coral can be vulnerable to attack, Wagdy said.

In 2015, a shark killed a German tourist off Egypt's Red Sea coast, marking the first death in five years.

There were six recorded shark attacks in Egyptian waters in 2010, including a spate of five in five days unusually close to the shore that killed another German and injured four other foreign tourists in December that year.

The 2010 attacks forced the government to close off a stretch of beach in the Sharm el-Sheikh resort for a week.

In 2017, Egypt received 8.3 million visitors, a surge of 54 percent from 5.4 million in 2016.

The country's tourism industry had been dealt a devastating blow in 2015 when jihadists bombed a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 on board.

Before that, the industry had begun to recover from the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

Travel agencies, hotel managers and diving centres told AFP earlier this year that reservations have risen, especially in Red Sea destinations including Marsa Alam and Hurghada.
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Sun, August 5, 2018 11:35 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df515290d 1 National Asian-Games,Asian-Games-2018,West-Java,West-Java-Police,terrorism Free

The West Java Police have arrested at least 37 suspected terrorists ahead of the 2018 Asian Games, in which several events will be held in the province.

West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Agung Budi Maryoto said the arrests were part of counterterror measures being taken by the police. Most of the suspected terrorists were believed to be part of the banned terror network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).

We carried out proactive measures against the JAD, which has the potential to commit acts of terror, he said on Friday after leading a ceremony for Asian Games security in Bandung, West Java.

In addition to Palembang, South Sumatra, Jakarta and Banten, West Java will host five events for the continental multisport event that will run from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2.

The police made the arrests from May to August in several locations across West Java, including in Tasikmalaya, Bandung, Subang, Cirebon, Indramayu and Bogor.

There will be 10,200 security personnel on duty throughout the Asian Games in the province, comprising 7,500 personnel from the West Java Police and 1,400 personnel from the Indonesian Military and other civil offices.

Agung urged the public to be alert and inform officials if they found something suspicious.

The Police have also anticipated a rise in street crime such as pickpocketing, jambret (a thief who snatches valuables) and motorcycle robbery by identifying repeat offenders of such crimes.

From the thousands we have arrested, we have taken their photos and fingerprints hoping that they will not repeat any criminal acts, he added. (hol/rin)
Have you ever wanted to work abroad?

Making your CV stand out can seem like a daunting task. With more and more students coming into the job market every year, a stand-out resume is a key weapon in your arsenal, and being able to add that extra skill or interest could really give you the edge. In a world that is getting smaller by the day, language skills are no longer just useful for your holidays - they can also help increase your employability.

So whether youre aiming for a job in the city, or fancy something a bit more off-piste, the experts at language learning app Babbel explain exactly how learning a new language can help you land your dream job.

1) It can help you stand out from the crowd

When the job market is flooded with graduates who all have similar track records of achievement, you have to stand out in other ways. Having language skills on your CV can be a huge benefit in the professional world - speaking, reading, or being able to write in another language is an ability that not everyone has. Mentioning your existing language skills, or even that you are learning a new language, can be a great way to make yourself stand out in an interview.

2) It opens up a whole new market

Getting a new job doesn't mean that you have to stay here in the UK - in fact, the whole world is your oyster when it comes to your career! Having language skills on your CV means that you can apply to jobs across the world more easily, and even end up in your dream location. So, whether it is France, Germany or even more far-flung locations, dont limit yourself to job-searching in the UK. Go on an adventure and aim for your perfect destination - youve got the skills to do it, so take the plunge!

3) It might earn you a better salary

In 2014, the Freakonomics podcast asked whether learning a foreign language is really worth it in terms of your earning potential, specifically trying to calculate the return on investment (ROI) from learning a second language. According to the Freakonomics team, learning another language will only increase your salary by 2%. This may not seem like much, but the Freakonomics conclusion falls apart under more rigorous analysis. An article in The Economist discussed the Freakonomics assertion and found that for the average American in 2014, when the 2% real return on investment was added to just a 1% real salary increase per year, the language bonus would look more like $67,000 over 40 years. Not a bad return on your investment, even in 2018!

4) Youll understand cultural nuances

Learning a language will prepare you for cultures in which the professional environment may be slightly different. Where being very direct and to the point may be considered rude in the UK, for example, in the Netherlands it is seen as a virtue. Nuggets of information like this will help you to earn peoples trust, since it becomes obvious that you are making an effort to communicate in their language and fit in with the local way of doing things.

5) It can help you get the work-life balance you want

Learning a language can also benefit you when you step away from your desk. Keeping a diary in another language, for example, can allow you to look at life in a more objective way. In 2012, research from the University of Chicago found that people are more honest in their second language, and make more rational decisions. This may prove beneficial for you both in your personal life and in the workplace.
Enrico Bonadio, City, University of London and Marc Mimler , Bournemouth University

As Brexit day creeps closer, one issue that remains unresolved is the way that food names will be protected in Britain and the EU. From parmesan and feta to Cornish pasties and Bavarian beer, the EU is fiercely protective over protected designations of origin (PDOs) or protected geographical indications (PGIs).

continuous

US interference

keep

monopolised

Sticking point

names,

favourable
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 11C. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A clear sky. Low 3C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Two gas and electricity suppliers have just gone bust, putting a spotlight on how customers fare when energy providers hit trouble.

Iresa is the latest household provider to fold, just a day after business supplier National Gas and Power had its licence revoked. Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday warned that a number of small suppliers were on the brink.

Now the chief executive of the supplier taking over from Iresa is warning that cheaply run energy firms still pose a risk to customers. Here, we explain what customers need to know - and do - in the wake of Iresa's demise.

Two gas and electricity suppliers have just gone bust, putting a spotlight on how customers fare when energy providers hit trouble

What has happened?

Back in March energy regulator Ofgem banned Iresa from recruiting new customers until it got its 'house in order' and resolved its disastrous customer service issues. In February customers who paid regular sums by direct debit had one-off charges taken from their bank accounts 'to recover debt'.

One contacted Citizens Advice after receiving a 1,000 demand for payment. Many others have overpaid and are now owed money by Iresa.

Complaints went unanswered and when The Mail on Sunday tried to call the supplier it found itself 110th in the queue.

Ofgem's ban was originally meant to last for up to three months. But it had to be extended as Iresa still could not handle the workload from existing customers. Now Iresa has ceased trading altogether.

Balance: Thomas Rogers insists good customer service is key

What happens next?

Octopus Energy will take on Iresa's customers. When a supplier goes bust Ofgem appoints a rival to rescue abandoned accounts, known as a 'supplier of last resort'.

Hudson Energy will take on customers of National Gas and Power. Octopus Energy will continue contacting Iresa's customers this week. No one's supply will be interrupted under Ofgem's 'safety net' rules.

'Stop new suppliers taking cash upfront' Energy regulator Ofgem has appointed a supplier of last resort three times already this year. The first was Green Star Energy, which took on customers of now defunct Future Energy in January. Before this, the process was only used twice in a decade  for GB Energy in 2016 and Electricity4 Business in 2008. The recent failures of Iresa and National Gas and Power come after Ofgem announced it would review the process for allowing new suppliers into the market. In June it said that it aimed to ensure appropriate protections against poor customer service and financial instability. Experts are crying out for tighter regulation of licences granted to fledgling suppliers. Doug Stewart, chief executive of supplier Green Energy, calls Iresas failure a consequence of Ofgem allowing anyone with 50 and a credit card to start an energy company. Watchful: Gillian Guy wants tighter control of energy start-ups He says the regulator must make it a requirement for firms to bill in arrears  meaning they are prevented from taking customers cash upfront before taking over a supply contract. Gillian Guy, head of Citizens Advice, also argues for a tougher regime. She says: The regulators upcoming review of licensing rules must make it easier to stop unprepared suppliers entering the market. It should also ensure poorly performing companies are taken out of the market faster. Though the failure of a provider does not interrupt household gas or electricity supplies, customers can still suffer. For example, a cash-strapped supplier may have raised direct debit levels or demanded payments customers had not budgeted for. Then there is the frustration of being unable to communicate with staff. When suppliers fail, costs rise for the remaining providers and, ultimately, customers. It also puts consumers off switching to cheaper deals.

The boss of Octopus has begged for patience over the next fortnight as it is 'working with poor quality information' from Iresa.

Chief executive Greg Jackson told The Mail on Sunday: 'This is the scariest thing we have done since starting the business because we have a reputation to uphold and this is a case of whether or not we can turn around such a big mess.'

Jackson says his business receives 12 complaints a year on average from the Energy Ombudsman. By contrast Iresa received about 9,000 a year. Jackson adds: 'It is now our aim to show tens of thousands of customers who have been through the wringer just how much better an energy company can be.'

Who is affected?

The 90,000 customers of Iresa and 80 firms served by National Gas and Power are directly affected. But the news also serves as a reminder to all consumers to pick a provider based on more than just price when switching to save money. Choose one that is both cost effective and robust.

Colin Nicholson, 49, a sub-editor at The Mail on Sunday is an Iresa customer. He says: 'I always thought it did not matter if my supplier went bust as I would probably owe it money. But after Iresa took a one-off payment in March I am now in credit.'

Jackson warns there are still suppliers offering 'break-even or below cost energy' to new customers. These deals come with a 'sting in the tail', because it will either lead to a price rise or the firm going bust.

Should iresa customers switch?

No. Take a meter reading and wait until you have a new account with Octopus.

The transfer should be complete around August 21. Once the new accounts are in place, customers can switch again, without penalty. If a switch was under way before Iresa ceased trading, this will still go ahead with any credit repaid.

Those with a smart meter may find it returns to 'traditional' mode, which means taking manual readings. Octopus uses a Secure brand smart meter and customers with those can use them as normal.

Will Iresa customers end up paying more?

Ofgem says customers will not lose any credit built from overpayments. But customers of a failed supplier face paying more as they are shunted on to a 'deemed contract'. The higher costs reflect the extra risk the new supplier is taking on.

Iresa marketed itself as a cheap supplier and undercut rivals significantly, so any new contract is likely to be more expensive.

Customers will be moved to the 'Flexible Octopus' tariff, which the supplier says is cheaper than those offered by the Big Six suppliers. A typical customer will pay 955 a year.

I'm not with Iresa. Should I do anything?

It always pays to consider switching. Compare tariffs  from your own supplier as well as rivals. Check if you will have to pay an exit penalty. Good price comparison websites will take this into account when showing savings.

Millions of households pay over the odds. Others are with companies offering poor service. One of the Big Six suppliers, British Gas, recently revealed it lost 270,000 customers in the first six months of this year. But Thomas Rogers, co-founder of transfer service Switchd, warns against picking on price alone.

Red notice: Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday warned that a number of small suppliers were on the brink

He says: 'The choice is simple. Do you want cheap energy with good customer service or expensive energy with poor service?' He recommends looking at review websites, but adds: 'Companies rarely go bust and if they do your energy will not be interrupted.'

Where switcher can find help

Comparison websites accredited by Ofgem for upholding certain standards  including how they find and present deals  include TheEnergyShop, uSwitch and the energyhelpline, which you can also call on 0800 0740745.

Companies that will move you to a cheaper deal with you only having to sign up once include Switchd, Labrador and Flipper.

Review websites include Trust- pilot, while consumer groups MoneySavingExpert and Which? publish tables on customer satisfaction. For more help on switching generally, visit citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy or call their helpline on 03454 040506.
In early April 2010, BP shares were 623p. That was before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in history.

The catastrophe claimed 11 lives, affected livelihoods and sent BP shares tumbling to 319p.

The company continues to pay compensation claims for Deep- water, but today, eight years on, there is renewed confidence within the business. The shares are 553p and should continue to rise.

In early April 2010, BP shares were 623p. That was before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in history

Chief executive Bob Dudley raised the dividend last week, which is calculated in cents as oil prices are quoted in dollars.

Last weeks rise was the first in the US currency since 2014 but UK shareholders have enjoyed a steady increase in payments, due to the exchange rate.

BP has profited from the more than doubling of the oil price over the past two and a half years  from $29 to $72 a barrel. But the group is also reaping the benefits of a raft of internal changes.

Management is different, as is the culture, and more than $50 billion (40 billion) of assets have been sold, with a focus on rigorous financial and operational discipline since Deepwater.

BP has profited from the more than doubling of the oil price over the past two and a half years  from $29 to $72 a barrel. But the group is also reaping the benefits of a raft of internal changes

Some analysts are worried that Dudleys strategy is changing, as he announced a $10 billion deal just ten days ago, buying a massive portfolio of US shale oil and gas fields.

The acquisition is BPs largest since 1999, but the company insists this is not the precursor to a string of expensive deals and says that the transaction will swiftly boost sales and earnings.

Results for the three months to June 30, released on Tuesday, beat expectations.

Profit quadrupled to $2.8 billion, production rose and new projects came on stream, with more planned for the near future.

Analysts expect a full-year dividend of 30.7p, putting the stock on a yield of 5.5 per cent.

Midas verdict: Bullish investors point to the rising dividend, BPs financial strength and its investment in future projects, including renewable energy ventures. Bears worry about the outlook for oil, and BPs near 20 per cent stake in Russian energy giant Rosneft. For long-term investors in search of income, the bulls case is more compelling. At 560p these shares should rise and deliver increasing dividends.

Traded on: Main market Ticker: BP Contact: bp.com or 020 7496 4000
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is walking a very tricky tightrope in his Budget. He needs to keep a lid on borrowing and

spending without squashing the

nascent recovery. So far, money markets have been sanguine about the fact our national debt has grown to more than 2trillion and counting. Government IOUs remain highly rated and are much in demand among international investors. This happy state of affairs, however, will only last as long as our credibility. Once lost, this is not easily regained.
A top City investor which got its hands on Royal Mail shares in a preferential deal during the controversial privatisation is now cashing in on the postal service's woes, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

BlackRock has taken a short position in the FTSE 100 firm  and so it stands to gain from the recent share price slump caused by a fall in the number of letters it delivers.

The revelation is likely to anger critics of the Government's Royal Mail sale who claimed City firms cashed in while the taxpayer was short-changed.

A top City investor which got its hands on Royal Mail shares in a preferential deal during the controversial privatisation is now cashing in on the postal service's woes

Bets against Royal Mail have hit an all-time high and are worth 230 million. Most of these have been taken out by hedge funds.

BlackRock's bet  worth more than 30 million today  stands out because the US investment giant was one of 16 firms given priority investor status when Royal Mail was floated in 2013.

The sale was heavily oversubscribed by private investors, many of whom did not get all the shares they wanted because most were reserved for institutional investors such as BlackRock.

These priority investors were sold shares due to their supposed willingness to hold them long term.

But the National Audit Office has found most of them sold some or all their holdings within a few weeks, making a 'substantial' profit. For a supposedly loyal long-term investor such as BlackRock to short the shares takes matters a step further.

Former Chancellor George Osborne, who was in Number 11 at the time of the float, is now a part-time adviser at BlackRock.

Short-selling is a trading tactic used to bet a share price will fall. Investors borrow shares, sell them and then hope to buy them back at a lower price for a profit before returning them to the lender.

Royal Mail's shares jumped on their stock market debut, leading to claims the taxpayer had been short-changed by at least 1 billion.

They have fallen nearly 30 per cent since May and by 8 per cent since June 12 when BlackRock began its short-selling. Other major short-sellers are US hedge fund Eminence Capital and London-based hedge fund Man GLG.

More than 5 per cent of Royal Mail shares are now out on loan to short-sellers, according to Financial Conduct Authority data, compared with 1.8 per cent in April.

Royal Mail has been hit by new data privacy laws which have led to a fall in the number of letters it delivers for businesses.

It is a tough start for new boss Rico Back, who is getting a 6 million 'golden hello' and plans to run the firm from Switzerland.

Last month Royal Mail faced a huge revolt when more than 70 per cent of investors voted against its pay report at its annual meeting. BlackRock declined to comment.
Pfizer,best known as the maker of Viagra, is considering stockpiling medicines as Britain hurtles towards Brexit without a deal

Pfizer, the world's biggest drugs company, best known as the maker of Viagra, is considering stockpiling medicines as Britain hurtles towards Brexit without a deal.

The US firm, which made 40 billion of sales last year, said it had 'undertaken work to ensure we can continue to supply in the EU and the UK covering all Brexit scenarios'.

Pharmaceutical firms fear a no-deal Brexit will disrupt supplies to and from the European Union.

Johnson & Johnson, another of the world's biggest drugs companies, said it is also preparing for the worst, explaining: 'We are exploring all options to ensure that patients continue to have access to the medicines they need.'

It follows revelations last week that France's Sanofi and Switzerland's Novartis are increasing stocks in case supplies from the EU are disrupted.

The new Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said last week that the NHS is also preparing to stockpile medicines in case Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

UK drugs giant AstraZeneca has said it is increasing its stocks by about a fifth.

Pfizer said: 'We have carried out detailed assessments of the supply of all our medicines with the focus on ensuring we will continue to have them available for our patients.'

The key ingredient for Viagra is made in Ireland, but the pills are manufactured in France.

Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are both urging the UK and EU to strike a 'mutual recognition agreement' for the regulation and supply of medicines.
Personal touch: 4imprint chairman Paul Moody

T-shirts, mugs, pens, even earphones and disposable rainwear  nothing, it seems, cannot be improved with a neatly crafted logo.

That, at least, is the view of 4imprint customers  a range of businesses, Government departments, schools and other organisations that placed more than a million orders last year and are now on schedule to buy even more items bearing their logos in 2018.

The persistent appeal of branded goods has sent 4imprint shares up from 217p, when Midas first recommended them in 2011, to 1980p, a ninefold increase.

And prospects look good, as chairman Paul Moody unveiled strong interim figures last week and expressed confidence about the future.

First half profits were steady at $15.9 million (12.3 million) after Moody chose to spend money on a marketing campaign  a move that has exceeded expectations, with 138,000 new clients coming in just six months.

Turnover was up 17 per cent at $348 million, the interim dividend is 15 per cent higher at 15.85p and analysts expect strong annual results this year and next.

The results are in dollars because, although the firm is based in Manchester, the bulk of its business is conducted in the US.

Midas verdict: 4imprint has delivered impressive growth over the past seven years and there is every sign that it will continue to do so. Investors looking for holiday cash may choose to sell a few shares and bank some profits. But they should keep most of their stock as the business is well run and customers love it.

Traded on: Main market Ticker: FOUR Contact: investors.4imprint.com or 020 3709 9680
Margaret Thatcher failed to unleash an entrepreneurial culture, a new account of business history has concluded.

The book rejects our most feted entrepreneurs of recent times as pale imitations of those of the past.

The Rise And Fall Of The British Nation argues the list of great entrepreneurs whose animal spirits were unleashed in the new dispensation of the late 1980s and 1990s is rather thin.

Dismissed: New book brushes aside the achievements of inventor Sir James Dyson

Its author, David Edgerton, is professor of modern British history at Kings College London.

He says research and development spending has fallen since the 1970s and that Britain has a culture that unleashed no serious entrepreneurs at all.

His book is likely to be politically controversial.

Conservatives believe the Thatcher revolution  privatising state-backed firms, reducing the power of trade unions and reforming the City in the Big Bang  freed business to generate wealth.

The Rise And Fall Of The British Nation by David Edgerton

In the book Edgerton takes a swipe at some famous businessmen.

Sir James Dyson invented a new vacuum cleaner and a public lavatory hand-drying system. This is not the sort of transformational success that, say, Lord Nuffield had with motor cars in the interwar years, the book says.

Lord Nuffield founded the Morris car company and has been described as the most famous industrialist of his age.

Sir Richard Branson, Edgerton says, was nothing like as pioneering as an airline boss as Sir Freddie Laker of the 1960s and 1970s. Laker was one of the first airline entrepreneurs to operate a no-frills service.

Edgerton describes Lord Sugar as no Bill Gates in a disparaging comparison with the Microsoft founder.
MBABANE  A thorn in the flesh! It appears tax evasion could be the only obstacle which might catch up with some of the people canvassing for votes to win seats in the House of Assembly.



Others are vying for political positions outside Parliament such as Bucopho (constituency councillors) and Indvuna Yenkhundla (Constituency headman).

The Times SUNDAYs investigations have revealed that more than 100 candidates nominated for the positions of MP, constituency headmen and councillors owed tax, something, which could disqualify them from the general elections.



It is a constitutional prerequisite for the nominees to submit tax compliance certificates or undertaking to pay the tax and copy of fingerprints, among other things, to the returning officer.



MAKE ARRANGEMENTS

satisfactorily



This is based on Section 96 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland), which stipulates that a person qualifies to be appointed, elected or nominated, as the case may be, as a senator or member of the House if he or she was paid all taxes or made arrangements satisfactorily to the commissioner of taxes.



In terms of the supreme law, Bucopho, the executive committee of inkhundla, consists of persons elected from the chiefdoms or polling divisions and shall have same qualifications as a Member of Parliament.



Other requirements for election are that the candidate should have attained the age of 18 years and is a registered voter in the Inkhundla where he has been nominated (in the case of elected members). The nominee must be a citizen of Eswatini, according to the Constitution.

The issue of tax compliance is so delicate that any person can be disqualified from being a parliamentarian, whether appointed by the King or elected by the people if he or she is found to be in tax arrears.



Sources said about 100 per cent of the 6 486 candidates complied with the requirements of age, nationality and voter registration but the challenge emerged when it was time to submit the tax compliance certificates.



One of the candidates nominated for the position of Indvuna yenkhundla (constituency headman) said she registered a hairdressing salon with the Registrar of Companies in 2009, but it did not take off. She said she was shocked when the Eswatini Revenue Authority (ERA) told her she owed tax dating back to the year she registered her business.



She explained that she was told she would not get the tax compliance certificate if she did not settle the outstanding debt or rather make an undertaking that she would pay the taxman on an agreed period of time.



When she agreed to make the undertaking, she said she was advised to pay a 33 per cent deposit as a commitment fee. Asked how much she owed, she said the SRA was yet to make estimates for tax she could have paid if her business was operational.



She said she just left the offices of the SRA dejected and in a dilemma over whether to continue standing for the election or quit the exercise altogether. Her name cannot be disclosed because she has not yet made a decision about the issue.



Richard Phungwayo, the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Head of Secretariat, said the figure of people with tax issues could be more than 100. However, he said the EBC was in continuous engagement with the ERA over the issue as tax compliance was a general requirement recognised in law, not necessarily something that has to specifically do with the elections.



He said it would be prudent for the ERA not to deprive the candidates of their constitutional right to be voted to the Inkhundla executive committee or parliament.



Elected or not elected, Phungwayo said people were generally expected to pay tax. He said the taxman should be happy that the election process capacitated them to prepare data for people who owed tax.

He said they did not want the nation to think that the EBC conducted elections solely to trick them into paying tax. People should pay tax even when there is no election, he said.



The head of secretariat mentioned that they would request the ERA to accept the undertakings the candidates were making.

Dumisani Erasmus Masilela, the Commissioner-General of the ERA, said he did not have figures as the request for tax compliance certificates was an ongoing process. However, he said quite a number of people had issues with tax.

Masilela confirmed that they required anyone making an undertaking to honour tax obligations to show commitment by paying a certain amount as deposit. Asked to explain why they demanded payment of tax from people whose businesses never operated, the commissioner general said a company was a legal person in terms of the law. He said a persons obligation was to pay tax.



You are creating a person if you establish a company. The company must pay tax just like people, he said. He pointed out that a director or directors of a dysfunctional company should submit financial returns even if the business recorded a zero income.



SIGN FOR FINANCIAL

RETURNS

You have to sign for the financial returns reflecting that your business did not accrue any income, he said.

He said the SRA would not predict that certain companies were not operating. Its the duty of the director to let us know, he said.

Masilela then clarified that the undertaking to pay tax was a privilege for everyone, not specifically for people contesting the general election.

Chief Gija, the Chairman of the EBC, said the mad rush for tax clearance certificates taught the commission and nation at large a very good lesson. The chairman said the mad rush reminded him of the Biblical 10 virgins - five were wise and five were not. He referred to the Bible that all the virgins waited for the arrival of the bridegroom. Chief Gija mentioned that the 10 virgins took their lamps with them, with the wise virgins taking oil in their vessels together with their lamps while the other five virgins did not realise that they had to also take oil in their vessels.

Realising that their lamps had gone out, the five virgins with no oil asked the wise ones to give them some oil, but they refused.

While the unwise virgins were away trying to get more oil, the EBC chairman narrated that the bridegroom arrived. He said the wise virgins then accompanied him to the celebration.

The others arrived too late and were excluded, he said.



RUNNING UP AND DOWN

Thats exactly whats happening now; we are running up and down trying to get tax compliance certificates, something we should have done a long time ago. He said he was informed that the SRA urged people who wanted to make an undertaking to pay to consider putting upfront a deposit. He advised that the authority should, at least, say it would deduct the money from the candidates salaries or any of their income.

He insisted that they would not be experiencing this problem if people were accustomed to paying tax.

We cant include candidates in the ballot papers if they do not submit the tax clearance, he said.

After a successful nomination last week, primary elections will be held on August 25, 2018. Those who win the primaries will contest in the final lap of the general elections  the secondary elections.

Secondary election winners are guaranteed seats in parliament. Bucopho nominees will not progress to the secondary elections as their race ends in the primaries.

There are three ways of becoming a parliamentarian in the country. Firstly, the King appoints 10 members of the House and 20 senators. The House of Assembly appoints 10 senators to make a total membership of 30.

The rest of the lawmakers are elected by the electorate at the tinkhundla centres across the country.

There are 59 tinkhundla centres. Therefore, the House of Assembly, for the first time, will have 59 elected members. His Majesty the King approved the addition of new centres  Phondo, Siphocosini, Nkomiyahlaba, Gilgal and Mashayekhatsi.

Hlane and Dvokodvweni merged to form one Inkhundla.

In the UK, everyone standing for election pays 500 (E8 600). It must be said that 1 579 women against 4 907 men have been nominated for different political positions.




Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the information that Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov had submitted a letter to Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, regarding the situation in Syria in July, TASS reported.

Earlier several news outlets reported that Gerasimov had informed the US top command authorities in a letter about Moscows proposal to cooperate on Syrian restoration.

"Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, replied to Joseph Dunfords request following the Helsinki meeting on June 8 this year informing his colleague about measures being assumed by the Russian Federation together with the Syrian government to stabilize the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic," the ministry said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, it expressed disappointment that the American side has failed to "observe agreements on making the contacts content public only upon consultation of both sides."

"The existing communication channel between the Russian Armed Forces General Staff and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff makes it possible to prevent incidents between our armed forces and find mutually acceptable solutions taking into account the interests of both states. We expect the American side to assume necessary measures to prevent violations of mutual agreements in the future," the ministry noted.

The letter focused on Russias readiness to negotiate the issue of safely returning refugees from the Rukban camp located in the US-controlled Al-Tanf zone to their homes, with the Syrian authorities. According to the Defense Ministry, Moscow also proposed to negotiate the issues of humanitarian demining in Syria, including in Raqqa, dealing with other top-priority humanitarian problems for returning to peaceful life across Syria as soon as possible and neutralizing attempts by terrorists to recruit refugees.
The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and the Malaysia Trade Centre recently discussed ways of developing economic relations and expanding trade between Sharjah and Malaysia, a media report said.



The meeting was held between Mohamed Ahmed Amin, acting director-general of SCCI and Omar Mohammed Salleh, trade commissioner of the Malaysia Trade Centre at the SCCI headquarters, reported Emirates news agency Wam.



The two sides agreed to increase joint efforts to promote economic cooperation and the available investment opportunities in both countries, in addition to encouraging businesspeople in both Sharjah and Malaysia to build fruitful and long-lasting partnerships.



Amin stressed the keenness of the chamber to increase mutual cooperation between Sharjah and Malaysia. He also said that the chamber welcomes Malaysian investments from various economic sectors, as well as the exchange of expertise and the establishment of joint projects between both countries.



Amin highlighted the various investment opportunities in Sharjah, which characterise the emirates status as a leading economic centre worldwide for establishing businesses that can act as an entry point into the regions markets. He also presented an overview of the most prominent economic exhibitions and conferences that Expo Centre Sharjah organises throughout the year, which attract the worlds largest companies and brands under its roof.



He called upon the trade commissioner to encourage Malaysian companies and investors to take advantage of the facilities and incentives that the chamber offers to foreign investors, as well as the services that it has for the business community in the emirate.



Salleh also praised the development that is being witnessed in the emirate. He highlighted that the centre is keen to enhance cooperation with the chamber in order to develop economic relations between Malaysia and Sharjah, and to boost trade exchanges and mutual investments between both sides.



The two sides also examined ways to participate in the exhibitions and conferences that are held in both Sharjah and Malaysia, in addition to exchanging official delegation visits between the two groups in the future. The UAE is considered the countrys largest trade partner in West Asia where it accounts for 32.8 per cent of its total trade volume in the region and the regions second largest exporter to Malaysia.
Potential EMBI (Emerging Market Bond Index) inclusion could lead to an estimated $30 billion of inflows into GCC, leading to tighter spreads and making primary market access easier, said the Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) in a new report.



Potential EMBI inclusion is a swing factor for GCC credit (ex-Oman), BofAML added in its latest Global Emerging Markets Weekly report.



Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain sovereign bonds will make up a sizeable portion of the index; we estimate 10 - 11 per cent of the EMBI diversified. In theory, flows could reach $40 billion which should be supportive for credit performance in the coming months. Sovereigns will also now be able to issue debt to a new audience of EM credit-focused investors, which should increase primary demand, said Jean-Michel Saliba, Mena economist at BofAML.



However, we think the ultimate flow number will be lower since many EMBI funds appear to already hold off-benchmark GCC sovereigns in their portfolios. Using a sample of funds suggests an average allocation of nearly 3 per cent already (source: EPFR), so flows could be closer to $30 billion.



These new sovereigns will be introduced gradually over an expected 6m period from 2019, although funds may well pre-empt the move in the coming months, particularly after a final decision is made by JP Morgan, he added.



Kuwait and Bahrain should benefit from the EMBI diversified weighting approach which reduces the weight of the largest issuers relative to their amount outstanding. Flows could reach around 50 per cent of Kuwait's outstanding external bonds, with Bahrain also benefiting. Flows into large issuers such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar will be smaller in percentage of debt outstanding terms (we estimate 25 - 33 per cent). Again, given existing holdings, the ultimate figures are likely to be smaller.



Qatar and Saudi Arabia both stand-out as wide to same-rated peers, trading more in line with triple-B names like Panama, Hungary, Romania, and Colombia. Indeed, moving from Russia into Saudi Arabia 5y bonds loses only around 13bp for a 4 - 5 notch rating improvement for example, said Saliba.



We see no fundamental reason for these countries to trade at such an implied rating given low debt, strong reserves, and current supportive oil prices.



Wider spreads currently can be explained by high issuance (Saudi has issued $11 - 22 billion a year since 2016) and regional political tensions (in the case of Qatar) in particular. However, with a supportive oil price backdrop, we think EMBI inclusion can finally push spreads tighter. Qatar and KSA are unlikely to trade flat to Abu Dhabi given its stronger credit profile (rated Aa2/AA/AA), but could tighten another 20bp (5y bonds) based on current relative valuations, he added.



Bahrain - a clear beneficiary from inclusion



Bahrain emerges as the biggest beneficiary out of EMBI inclusion. This will provide not only large flows as a per cent of debt outstanding, but is also likely to be crucial for future external financing needs, the research report said.



One of the clear benefits of being a member of a major benchmark is that investors generally have at least some exposure to each country (particularly if it is reasonably large like Bahrain) to avoid deviating too much from the benchmark.



As we recently highlighted, GCC support for Bahrain is likely to focus on restoring market access for the country, particularly with FX reserve pressure and a $750 million sukuk maturity in November. The country's credit outlook remains unclear at this stage and we await clarity on fiscal reforms and the form of support. Nonetheless, EMBI inclusion should make market access easier and this benchmark governance review has come at a very helpful time for the country, Saliba said.



We also expect the differential between BHRAIN Eurobonds and sukuk to narrow in time helped by index inclusion. However, in the short-term, we expect sukuk to remain tighter until there is more clarity on the support package for the country and on fiscal reforms, he added. - TradeArabia News Service
Shell Oman has launched its annual Summer Internship Program providing on-the-job training and development opportunities for32 Omani students from various local and international educational entities.



The institutions include Sultan Qaboos University, GUtech, Middle East College, Higher College of Technology, Scientific College of Design, Gulf College, and Caledonian College of Engineering as well as other international tertiary education institutes.



In addition to learning in a professional environment, the interns will gain exposure to the companys culture, develop skills needed to excel in their career, and learn from mentors with long years of industry experience.



The interns have been placed in different departments within the Company, such as - Retail, Lubricants, Marine, Bitumen, Aviation, Legal, Commercial Fuel, Trade & Supply and Corporate Affairs.



Essam Al Busaidi, Human Resources & Administration manager, said: Shell Oman is dedicated to helping young Omani talents thrive as they progress to become contributors to the Sultanates future workforce. Internships, both in quantity and quality, have become important hiring criteria for students entering various industries.



Through our Summer Internship Program, we look forward to training and developing the nations next generation of industry leaders and supporting students across the nation in their endeavour to explore and establish their interests and careers in the sector.  TradeArabia News Service
Bedaya Center for Entrepreneurship and Professional Development, a joint initiative by Qatar Development Bank and Silatech, recently hosted an induction meeting for a team of entrepreneurs visiting Chinas factories in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.



The visit, in co-operation with Aspect Entrepreneurship and Trade, kicked off today (August 5) and will conclude on August 12.



The trip is designed for entrepreneurs wishing to explore opportunities to build up and develop their business, gain knowledge about machinery and technological progress in two of Chinas most famous commercial cities, said a statement from Bedaya.



During the introductory meet-up, the Bedaya team offered a glimpse into the schedule of the trip and the important things such as costs, transportation, housing and translation, as well as the sectors covered such as packaging, perfumes and clothing, it said.



Reem Al Suwaidi, general manager, Bedaya Center for Entrepreneurship and Professional Development, said: Today we are preparing for Chinas first-of-its-kind journey in line with the strategy and objectives of the centre to support entrepreneurs and open their horizons in various sectors and industries.



This visit is also intended to link them to the most important factories in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the two most industrialised cities, which have become the focus of eyes of all traders and entrepreneurs around the world, because of the techniques that are based on factories in various fields and sectors, she said.



Al Suwaidi continued: We always strive to provide the best opportunities for entrepreneurs in Qatar to help them be on the right track and select their career path, which contributes to the growth of their companies and the development of their business across all sectors.



Entrepreneurship is vital to economic development and a key driver of private sector activity and diversification. It is playing a key role in shaping and developing a more diversified economic base in line with the growing role of the SME sector in Qatar, which is in tune with the Qatar National Vision 2030, she added.  TradeArabia News Service
Top officials from Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and Toyota distributors from the GCC recently convened in Bahrain to attend the 2018 Toyota Middle East Customer Service Conference.



The conference, which took place over two days, brought together top executives from Japan and the GCC to discuss TMCs ambitious plans for the region with a focus on customer service excellence, said a statement from the company.



Bahrain was chosen as the host country because of its excellent geographic location with accessibility to all necessary services as well as being one of the benchmarks for Toyota excellence in the region, it said.



The first day focused on Toyotas philosophy of Kaizen, one of the companys core values. The Japanese term, which means 'continuous improvement', is a philosophy that helps ensure maximum quality, the elimination of waste, and improvements in efficiency, both in terms of equipment and work procedures. Kaizen improvements help deliver the best quality service and highest value for money to the customers, it added.



During the second day, the delegates visited the new EKK Training Center in Toyota Plaza and had a practical session on the latest diagnosis and resolution methods, said a statement.



Earlier, Ebrahim K Kanoo, the exclusive distributor for Toyota Vehicles in Bahrain had welcomed the delegates at a dinner hosted by the board of directors and senior management at the Gulf Hotel, in Manama.  TradeArabia News Service
Thailand-based hospitality company Dusit International has appointed two new general managers to its senior leadership teams in Vietnam and Bahrain.



Patrice Landrein has been appointed at the recently opened Dusit Princess Moonrise Beach Resort, Phu Quoc, Vietnam and Maher Abou-Tacca joins the upcoming dusitD2 City Centre, Bahrain.



With more than 25 years of international hospitality experience, Landrein, a French national, has worked in pre-opening and operational roles for hotel chains such as Amari, Concorde, and Plaza Athenee.



He opened and managed two hotels for BCCA Asia in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, including the highly rated Hotel LOdeon, from 2013 to 2015. Prior to joining Dusit, he was general manager of Amari Vogue Krabi, Thailand from January.



He now takes the reins of the upper midscale Dusit Princess Moonrise Beach Resort on Vietnams largest island, Phu Quoc. Comprising 108 well-appointed contemporary guest rooms, the new property commands an impressive location overlooking the sweeping Bai Truong beach. Phu Quoc International Airport and Duong To town centre are only a short drive away.



Abou-Tacca, an Australian national, meanwhile, brings with him more than 22 years of senior management experience working for luxury and upscale hotel chains such as Radisson, Shangri-La and Movenpick across Australia, Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE.



Prior to joining Dusit, he was general manager of Dubai-based Metro Global Hospitality Group, where he oversaw a team of more than 750 staff providing full housekeeping solutions to more than 26 Hotels in the UAE.



Besides working in hotels, he spent two years as Professor of Hospitality Management at Al-Kafaat University, Beirut, Lebanon.



As general manager of dusitD2 City Centre, Bahrain, he is responsible for the successful opening of the 195-key property in the countrys modern capital, Manama, in early 2019.



As we expand our operations in new destinations worldwide, it is vitally important we have experienced leaders to establish our new properties and realise their full potential, said Lim Boon Kwee, chief operating officer, Dusit International. Landrein and Abou-Tacca both possess impressive track records for leading hotels to success, and we are delighted to welcome them to the senior leadership team.



Dusit International is now in a significant growth phase which will see its current tally of 28 hotels and resorts more than double within the next three years. - TradeArabia News Service
Best Western Hotels & Resorts has celebrated the opening of a new hotel in the heart of Jakartas vibrant downtown district.



Best Western Senayan Hotel is a modern midscale hotel located on Jalan Asia Afrika, a main thoroughfare in Central Jakarta. This cosmopolitan area is home to multinational companies including Google Indonesia and Citibank, plus luxury lifestyle malls such as Plaza Senayan, which houses top brands like Dior, Gucci and Louis Vuitton.



The hotel is also just moments from the Jakarta Convention Center, which hosts major international events and concerts, and the 76,000-pax capacity Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, which will be the main sporting arena for the 2018 Asian Games.



A new-build hotel and developed by the leading Indonesian company, PT Mandiri Karya Indah Sejahtera, guests are sure to enjoy all that the Best Western Senayan Hotel has to offer. Supported by Best Westerns legendary service standards, the hotel features 137 contemporary rooms, all equipped with comfortable beds, power showers and complimentary wi-fi. There is also a selection of triple rooms which are perfect for families.



The hotels restaurant serves a daily buffet breakfast, followed by a choice of local, pan-Asian and international cuisine throughout the day. For corporate travellers, there is a business corner and six modern meeting rooms.



The opening of Best Western Senayan Hotel marks another major milestone in the development of our Indonesian portfolio. With its perfect location and international amenities, this excellent hotel becomes an exciting new midscale option in downtown Jakarta. I would like to thank and congratulate PT Mandiri Karya Indah Sejahtera for creating such an impressive project, said Olivier Berrivin, Best Western Hotels & Resorts managing director of International Operations - Asia.



Indonesia is a key market for Best Western. Following the opening of our fifth property in Bali late last year, and now this exciting new development in Jakarta, we operate a diverse collection of 17 hotels and resorts in the country. We will continue to seek new opportunities bring our industry-leading brands to destinations all across Indonesian archipelago in future, Berrivin added.



Best Western Senayan Hotel becomes the companys fourth hotel in Jakarta, joining Best Western Mangga Dua Hotel & Residence, Best Western Plus Kemayoran and Best Western Premier The Hive. This means that visitors to Jakarta can now choose from three distinct brands when they travel to the Indonesian capital: classic midscale Best Western, upper-midscale Best Western Plus and upscale Best Western Premier.



The new property also joins a collection of 17 Best Western hotels and resorts across Indonesia, located in key destinations such as Bali, Surabaya, Solo, Bandung, Batam, Makassar, Medan, Manado and Palu. - TradeArabia News Service


Updates from the Brazilian division of the Trans Advocate:

The Brazilian Supreme Court approved a policy that would give trans people the ability to correct our legal identification, without having to have surgery. While this policy was decided last March, it wasnt until June 28th that the National Justice Council approved procedures for updating state identification.

This development cant come soon enough as Brazil is routinely documented as being one of the most dangerous places for trans and intersex people to live. Since last January, our community has lost 63 trans people to murder while another 15 have survived attempted murder. For us, having corrected identification will not only help us navigate the practical issues of daily life, it will help ensure our physical safety.
Transportation Research Board > Blurbs > Evaluation of Major Street Speeds for Minnesota Intersection Collision Warning Systems





Evaluation of Major Street Speeds for Minnesota Intersection Collision Warning Systems





E-Newsletter Type: E-Newsletter Type: State Research News



This Summary Last Modified On: 8/3/2018 The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that examines driver behaviors in the presence of intersection collision warning systems (ICWS). This report seeks to determine whether the ICWS provide any measurable impact on speed when drivers on the major street were presented with a message from the system (activated) versus when drivers were not presented with a message (not activated). Text Size:
New Delhi, Aug 4 (UNI) In an effort to foster a spirit of friendship and take defence ties to a new level, Armies of India and Thailand to start joint exercise Maitree 2018 from August 6 in Chachoengsao Province of Thailand.

A total of 45 personnel from Indian Army Contingent have moved for Joint military exercise with Royal Thai Army. Both the armies will undertake joint training in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism in Urban and Rural environment under United Nations Mandate, Indian Army spokesperson Col Aman Anand said.

The joint exercise will conclude on August 19.

The training and readiness of the Indian contingent was reviewed by the General Officer Commanding before induction.

Exercise Maitree is an annual reciprocal training event. Last exercise was held in Himachal Pradeshs Bakloh in 2017.

UNI ASH SHK2028
All major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu Valley on Sunday have given the topmost priority to cover the new political scenario created after the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee rejected Acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee for the vacant position of Chief Justice on Friday. Joshees decision to take a 15-day leave, his appeal for an independent probe against charges lebelled against him, and the main opposition party Nepali Congress decision about the issue have been featured on the front pages of major newspapers. Likewise, the papers have also published commentaries and analyses about what should be solutions for the stalemate.

Few other political, sociocultural and economic issues have also been featured on the front pages of major broadsheets today.

Important

Mishra to take charge of Supreme Court as Joshee demands probe

Acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee on Saturday held a meeting with President Bidya Devi Bhandari and informed her that he will stay on leave for next 15 days handing over the responsibility to lead the Supreme Court to seniormost Justice Om Prakash Mishra, according to newspaper reports.

Rajdhani says Joshee wants to stay on leave till the Constitutional Council recommends a new name for the position of Chief Justice.

Naya Patrika informs the Council is awaiting a formal letter from the Committee to move ahead with the next nomination. The letter will be sent to the Council on Sunday, adds the report.

Meanwhile, Joshee issued a press statement decrying the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committees decision to reject his name for the position of Chief Justice, and demanded that his academic credentials be examined by a competent authority to check if they are genuine or fake. Earlier, the Committee had noted that his certificates were suspicious.

The ruling Nepal Communist Party, on the other hand, has warned of filing an impeachment motion against Joshee if he does not resign, Annapurna Post reports in its lead story.

Nepali Congress protests PHSC decision

The main opposition party Nepali Congress has interpreted the Committees decision to reject Joshee as an attempt to control the judiciary and has decided to internationalise issue, according to Annapurna Post.

An emergency meeting of the partys Central Working Committee held at the President Sher Bahadur Deubas residence in Baluwatar made the decision.

Quoting the partys leader Argun Narsingha KC, a highlighted story in Rajdhani says the party will raise questions on the moral basis against the Committees decision as Joshees name was recommended unanimously by the Constitutional Council headed by Prime Minister Oli and lawmakers of Olis party rejected him.

Ignored

Federal Police Act will cost Nepal billions

Karobar reports in its lead story reports that the government is planning to formulate and implement new Federal Police Act; and if it gets endorsed as it is, it will cost the country millions.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has finalised the draft and forwarded it to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

Farmers affected by Koshi Barrage still awaiting compensation

It has been more than 50 years since Nepal and India jointly constructed the Koshi Barrage in eastern Nepal. However, people living nearby the structure, who land was acquired by the government for the project, are still waiting for the compensation for their land, reports Nagarik in its lead story.

The number of such farmers families living in Saptari, Sunsari and Udayapur districts is thousands, according to the report.

112 parties to face Election Commissions penalty

A four-column story in Gorkhapata reports that as many as 112 political parties that have been registered with the Election Commission are about to fake a penalty of Rs 5,000 for their failure to submit property details of their officials and members.

The Commission recognises total 125 parties, but only 13 of them have submitted property details on time, according to the Commission.

Nepal seeks more aid from donors

Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada left the country for the United States on Friday so as to lobby with Nepals donor agencies including the World Bank to increase the aid, according to The Kathmandu Post.

Khatiwada is visiting Washington to discuss the World Banks 2019-2023 Country Partnership Framework for Nepal, but he is also scheduled to meet senior officials of the International Monetary Fund, the USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Interesting

Bank-hospital partnership for clients health

A brief story in Abhiyan reports that banks and financial institutions have begun establishing partnerships with hospitals in a bid to provide easy health services to their clients. In past one month, eight banks have established partnerships with eight hospitals of Kathmandu Valley, according to the report.
By Kiran Bhowmik

Udaipur, Aug 5(UNI) The state Tripura is full of natural resources but it has to be used for the development of the state Tripura, said Prof. Arunoday Saha, Former Vice-Chancellor of Tripura University.

According to Economic Review of Tripura, 2016-17 the most important fiscal constraint in Tripura is the state's dependence on Central government for revenues. The Centre provided about 85 per cent of the state's Receipts. The fiscal condition of the state is determined to a large extent by the level of Central transfers. The State is centralized by geographical isolation, poor infrastructural facilities, communication bottlenecks, inadequate exploitation of natural resources like natural gas, rubber, forest etc., higher incidence of poverty, low capital formation, backward in centralized ion and high level of unemployment. Natural gas deposits are among the most important feature of Tripuras natural resource base.

The state Tripura is full of natural resources but the state depends on central government because the state income is not sufficient to run the state. The state can able to increase its income by the utilization of natural resources, said a section of resources persons of Tripura.

Tripura is the third smallest state of the country in the North Eastern Region with total area in 10,491 s.q. and the state is surrounded by the neighboring country Bangladesh on its South, West and North and the East side neighboring state Assam and Mizoram but the state Tripura is full of natural resources like medicinal plant and other energies besides that the state has put its continuous effort to improve the health management system applying more advance strategies in the state, stated Economic Review of Tripura.

The Department Official has informed it that the Natural gas deposits are among the most important feature of Tripuras natural resource base. Tripura has significant natural gas reserve. However, these natural gas reserves are yet to be commercially developed due to low industrial demand in the state. Optimized use of natural gas reserve should be highly emphasized. Endeavor should be given to set up natural gas based industries and projects.

In order to optimally utilize the gas available in Tripura, ONGC develops a 726.6 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) thermal power project close to its gas field in Tripura and supply power to the deficit areas of North Eastern states of India. The ONGC-Tripura Power Company Ltd (OTPC) was set-up in September 2008 for subscribing the equity by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) and Government of Tripura (GoT) for implementation of 726.6 MW thermal power project at Palatana in Gomati District for the North Eastern States.

The current Economic Review of Tripura shows that the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices with a recent new 2011-12 base at current prices increased from Rs.19,208.41 crore in 2011-12 to Rs.21,663.20 crore in 2012-13 and to Rs.25,592.83 crore in 2013-14, to Rs.27,422.39 crore in 2014-15 and to Rs.34,368.32 in 2015  16. The un-employment situation in the State has assumed alarming position. Total job seekers in the Employment Exchanges of the State were 6,62,756 in March 2015, which further increased to 6,93,516 in March 2016 and to 7,16,550 in March 2017.

The problem of unemployment and dependence on central government can able to reduce if the state take proper initiative for using the natural resources in order to increase the state income. If it is possible to increase the GSDP of Tripura, the state can able to develop, believes a section of economists of Tripura.

UNI XC-AND
By Nirendra Dev

New Delhi, Aug 5 (UNI) There has been significant drop in the number of Indian workers in Kuwait between 2017 and 2015 but there is no such scale down in other Gulf countries, official sources said here.

According to sources in the Ministry of External Affairs, in Kuwait the number of Indian workers from 70,765 as in 2015 came down to 38,871 in 2017.

There is no scale down in the number of Indian workers in other Gulf countries since 2015.

The Government has signed Labour and manpower cooperation related Memoranda of Undertaking (MoUs) or Agreements with countries that are destination for a large number of Indian migrant workers. These include all the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries namely, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The agreements and MoUs seek to ensure that the respective host country has to take 'measures' for the protection and welfare of workers.

Moreover, the recruitment and terms of employment should be be in conformity with the laws of respective countries.

With regards IT professionals issues in Singapore, sources said the Government of India as part of its engagement with Singapore side consistently takes up economic and commercial issues and maintains regular engagement on all matters with authorities in Singapore.

These developments assume significance in the context of Singapore government lately tightening norms for hiring expatriates in that country.

Singapore has in fact slapped several 'tough conditions' making it difficult for companies to hire resources from India.

According to market analysts, after H-1B visas in the US, developments in Singapore has added new woes for the companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

In this context, the government sources have, however, said that with matters related to Employment Passports and other concerns of IT firms and professionals, New Delhi has "conveyed at various levels on multiple occasions" that Singapores policies should be consistent with provisions of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).

The Indian government wants that all Indian companies should be able to conduct their business in the region without difficulty.

In fact, in this context, Minister of State for External Affairs Gen V K Singh informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply during the ongoing Monsoon session that as a result of efforts by Indian government, a number of major IT companies have conveyed "improvement in situation".

K C Ramamurthy, Congress MP wanted the government to clarify whether "one after the other country" is rejecting Indian IT professionals.

He also wanted to know how Singapores contention is 'justified' since it is in violation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Gen Singh, however, denied the claim of the lawmaker from Karnataka. "The government of India continues to monitor the situation and takes up relevant issues in mechanisms such as joint Working Groups (JWGs) and bilateral meetings," the Minister said.

A comparative statement of number of Indian workers in Gulf, officials say that the number of Indian workers increased in Bahrain from 2,10,081 to 2,27,239 and from 6,50,000 to 6,91,539 in Qatar.

Similarly, number of Indian workers from Oman 6,69,882 in 2015 increased to 6,88,226 in circa 2017.

The sources also said that Indian workers going for overseas employment to the Gulf countries are

employed on contractual basis and have to return to India on completion of their contract period

which is generally 2-3 years.

Therefore, the number of workers returning to India after completion of contract - from Gulf nations - is not a definitive indicator of any trend that there is a shortfall of Indian workers in those countries.

UNI DEVN RSA 1205
"Food Paradise" in Da Nang is full of delicious dishes, from the entremets to their main courses. There are countless choices for visitors to satisfy their culinary dreams. Moreover, because the city is bordered by the sea, its cuisine is diversified; with novel methods for processing and using raw materials.

Quang noodles

Visitors cant talk about Da Nang, without Quang noodles. Thick and large rice noodles create the soul for the dish. Quang noodles do not have "fixed" ingredients, and vary to taste, such as the combination of noodles and pork chop, or the combination of noodles and frog. However, the most popular is noodles with chicken, eggs, and meat. Especially, roasted peanuts and crispy rice paper with sesame are indispensable ingredients.

Da Nangs Thit Heo Cuon Banh Trang

With a simple processing that can suit everyones tastes, Da Nangs Thit Heo Cuon Banh Trang (belly pork and vegetables wrapped in soft rice paper) is famous for its carefully selected ingredients that create a perfect flavour harmony. Pork butt or shoulder are steamed to keep their sweet taste. Vegetables served with Thit Heo Cuon Banh Trang must be fresh, such as lettuce, basil, houttuynias, small spring onions, mints, Polygonum aviculares, bean sprouts, julienned banana flowers, cucumbers, and green bananas. Especially, Mam Nem (a type of fish sauce with a strong smell made from small fish) - an irreplaceable sauce of Thit Heo Cuon Banh Trang giving it an unforgettable flavour.

Da Nangs pancakes

Da Nangs pancakes are not too small nor too big, just a medium size. The pancake is made from rice flour, egg yolks and turmeric powder and molded on a hot pan. Fillings are carefully selected, made only from live shrimp, bacon half fat and half lean, and fresh bean sprouts. Clean vegetables including lettuce, basil, green banana, and young mustard. Crispy and fleshy pieces of cake mingled with sweetness of shrimp and pork, fresh vegetables and young bananas will give the visitors an unforgettable experience.

Round scad fish

Round scad fish have less bones and more flesh which is sweet and fat. Aiming to keep enough fresh taste and sweet of scad, the fish is usually steamed, served with Banh trang (rice paper), and water spinach.

Bo cuon la lot

Visitors to Da Nang should also try Bo cuon la lot (Grilled beef wrapped in betel leaf) and nem lui (minced pork grilled on lemongrass sticks) that are listed in the "top" list of culinary delights. The dishes can be eaten separately or wrapped in banh trang (rice paper) and vegetables.

Beef hot pot

It can be said that Da Nang beef hot pot is a favourite of the people living in the city. Beef hot pot includes meat, ox tail, mushrooms, and eggs. It is served with vegetables and egg noodles.

Seafood dishes

In addition to regional specialties, visitors to Da Nang should not overlook its rich variety of seafood dishes.

Da Nang dried Netuma thalassina fish

After marinating the spices for 30 minutes, Da Nang dried Netuma thalassina fish has a salty smell of fish sauce mixed with the sweetness of sugar and spicy pepper.

Bo kho

The breakfast of most people in Danang, bo kho (Vietnamese beef stew), is carefully processed with a variety of ingredients, creating a strong flavor for the dish. Beef is sliced, cooked with carrots, and the egg's rich aroma. The dish is eaten with bread.

Peanut candy

Peanut candy is still a specialty that visitors always choose to buy as gifts. Although it is simple it mixes the sweetness of sugar cane and the aromatic smell of peanuts.
World renowned: The Complex of Hue Monuments is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the city of Hue. VNA/VNS Photos Van Chau

As a southerner from Binh Duong Province, I was intrigued to visit the city for the first time recently.

Upon arrival, I was impressed by its quiet and deliberate lifestyle as well as the kindness of local residents.

Whenever I asked anyone where I should go first, the answer was always the Citadel.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is justly famous. Hue Citadel was founded as Vietnams capital city by King Gia Long - the first king of the Nguyen Dynasty in 1802.

The dynasty, which had 13 Nguyen kings, reigned until 1945.

The massive complex features hundreds of monuments and ruins, including the residence of the royal family, which was badly damaged by time and wars.

Tran Thanh Toan, a 48-year-old visitor from Hanoi, said that he was also visiting Hue for the first time.

I want to discover the city, which is an important part of our countrys history. Ive seen many old buildings and houses, some of them dating back a few hundred years, he said.

Living and working in Hanoi is stressful with air and noise pollution. But here, I can feel relaxed and recharged to return to work.

The citadel area contains the imperial residence, Hoang Thanh (Imperial City), Tu Cam Thanh (Forbidden Purple City) and other royal palaces.

Theres so much to see: royal tombs, a flag tower, pagodas, temples, a library and a museum.

Kings lived and conducted their business in the citadel. The Forbidden Purple City was reserved for the most important people in Vietnam.

Delicious: Bun bo Hue is a famous dish made with lemongrass and Hue-style shrimp paste.

The citadel today is a shadow of what it once was.

The temples, pavilions, walls and gates were damaged first during skirmishes with the French in 1947, and then most of what was left was destroyed in 1968 during the Tet Mau Than Offensive (a major military campaign during the anti-American war).

Today, only a handful of buildings still stand within the citadel, which once had more than 250 buildings.

Still, the citadel area is well worth a visit, though the restoration process has been slow.

Visitors can see imposing city gates and walls, beautifully restored halls, and the ancient moat fed by the Huong (Perfume) River.

Visitor Dinh Trong, 29, from the central coastal city of Nha Trang, said that, as a history lover, he wanted to learn about the feudal era in Vietnam.

Ive read many books and searched for information on the internet. After arriving, it was easy for me to imagine the life of the kings, he said.

The Hue Monuments Complex was designed to be in harmony with the natural setting of the site and was aligned cosmologically with the five cardinal points (centre, west, east, north, and south), the five elements (earth, metal, wood, water, and fire), and the five colours (yellow, white, blue, black, and red), according to the tour guide.

The central structure is the citadel area, which was the administrative and military centre of southern Vietnam during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Further upstream of the Perfume are the tombs of the dynastys kings, which are popular sites for tourists.

Traditional: Hues food specialties include spring rolls with grilled pork, banh bot loc and banh nam (steamed cakes wrapped in banana leaf), banh Khoai (Vietnamese pancake) and many kinds of sweet soup.

Ngu Binh Mountain and the Perfume River that runs through the city, give the feudal capital great natural beauty and help define its symbolic importance.

The complex site was chosen for its natural features that include hills that act as a protective screen in front of the monuments and prevents the entry of malevolent spirits.

Within this landscape, the main features of the city are laid out.

It is a remarkable example of the planning and construction of a completely defended capital within a relatively short period in the early 19th century, according to experts. The integrity of the town layout and building design make it an exceptional specimen of late feudal urban planning in East Asia.

However, the complex site has been affected by wars as well as modern urbanisation. Nevertheless, it remains fairly well preserved, with its overall integrity maintained.

Surrounding the central area of the complex are other monuments of importance that include ritual sites related to the spiritual life of the dynasty, such as Van Mieu (Temple of Literature), Dan Nam Giao (Esplanade of Sacrifice to the Heaven and Earth), Ho Quyen (Royal Area), and Dien Voi Re (Shrine of the Roaring Elephant).

And outside the complex of monuments in another part of Hue is the oldest pagoda in the city, Thien Mu Pagoda (Pagoda of the Celestial Lady), built in 1601, and associated with many legends.

Handmade: One of Hues many traditional craft village makes incense.

Handicrafts, food specialities

During the Nguyen Dynasty, Hue was home to many traditional craft villages with artisans who came from other localities to serve royalties and mandarins.

Many of the villages still exist and are making old and new products, some by hand and some by machine.

To support their development, local authorities have compiled a list of 16 traditional craft villages and another 10 craft communities. The villages will be given funds and technology so they can survive for many more years, according to Tran Dinh Dung, a tour guide at Huong Giang Travel.

Besides its handicrafts, Hue is also famous for its cuisine, with the simple dish bun bo Hue (Hue-style beef noodles) the most well known.

Dung said: Restaurants in Hue are renowned for the high quality of authentic regional dishes, many of which were served exclusively to royal families.

In the old days, it was said that finely skilled chefs were selected from different parts of the country to serve royalties. This movement of chefs added many new, different regional flavours to Hue royal cuisine.

Compared to pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup), bun bo Hue delivers a different flavour with pungent lemongrass and Hue-style shrimp paste.

The soup is served with aromatic herbs, bean sprouts, shredded banana flower, shredded cabbage, lettuce and other vegetables. Unlike pho with flat rice noodles, bun bo Hue comes with round thick noodles. It sells for an affordable price of VND20,000-25,000 (around US$1) in Hue.

Simple: Com hen, or steamed rice with tiny mussels, once a commoners dish, is now a specialty of the area.

Another popular dish is com hen, or steamed rice with tiny mussels. In the past, it was a dish for low-income earners and was mostly served by street vendors. Today, it is a specialty of Hue served in better restaurants as well.

The most difficult step of cooking the rice is sifting and winnowing the boiled mussels to split off the shell and the sand. The mussels are stir-fried with garlic, onion, fish sauce and pepper, and the steamed rice is added, along with shrimp paste, chili sauce and roasted peanuts served on top.

Other specialties include spring rolls with grilled pork, banh bot loc and banh nam (steamed cakes wrapped in banana leaf), banh khoai (Vietnamese pancake), and many kinds of sweet soup.

For tourists, the centre of Hue has many one- to three-star hotels with prices ranging from VND300,000 to VND1 million a night (US$13-US$45). One of the more well-known five-star hotels is the historic La Residence Hue, which overlooks the Perfume River and the Hue Citadel.

Located about 1,200km away from HCM City and 700km from Hanoi, Hue can be reached by air for VND2 million to VND4 million ($140 - $190) or by train for VND500,000 to VND1 million ($20 45).

By train, it will take about a day to travel from HCM City and 14 hours from Hanoi.

Visitors can rent a motorbike from their hotels for about VND150,000 ($7) a day or take a taxi for a city tour.
SJC is a national gold brand, accounting for 90 per cent of gold bullion market share in the domestic market. - Photo vov.vn

Together with SJC, seven public utility companies are also set to be equitised next year.

The municipal committee assigned the citys board for State-owned enterprise (SOE) management reform to perfect the plan for SOE re-organisation and reform in the 2018-20 period.

SJC, formed in 1988, is a State-owned enterprise under the HCM City Peoples Committee operating under the parent-subsidiary company model with production and trading gold and jewelry as its main business. It accounts for 90 per cent of the gold bullion market share in the domestic market.

In May 2011, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) appointed SJC as the sole entity authorised to produce gold bars in Vietnam.

In 2017, SJC recorded VND22.95 trillion (US$998 million) in revenue and VND85.4 billion in pre-tax profit.

Apart from JSC, other businesses subject to equitisation next year are the public service companies of districts of 7, 8, 9, Binh Thanh, Go Vap and Nha Be, along with the Liksin Industry  Printing  Packaging Corporation.

Meanwhile, the city asked the Government to exclude HCM City Irrigation Management Company from equitisation.

At the proposal of the board for SOE management reform, the municipal Peoples Committee also agreed to keep 100 per cent of State capital at the Sai Gon Water Corporation.

The southern city is accelerating procedures and approval of plans on equitisation and divestment of State capital from 39 businesses.

It added that the businesses had completed asset assessment pending approval of equitisation plans, and on receiving approval, they expected to complete equitisation within 2018 and 2019.
At least 28 BMW cars have caught fire this year in South Korea, according to media reports. (Photo: AFP/Saul Loeb)

At least 28 BMW cars have caught fire this year in South Korea, according to media reports, forcing the German automaker to issue a recall last week to fix a faulty component that was aimed at reducing emissions from diesel engines.

But angry customers have launched a class-action lawsuit against the company alleging that it was slow to respond to the fires, prompting the authorities to probe the matter.

"We will investigate the fires of BMW vehicles thoroughly and transparently", Transportation Minister Kim Hyun-mee said, adding that the probe would examine whether the company had reacted properly to the accidents.

"If any problems are found, we will take stern measures", Kim said in a statement.

The minister also urged BMW owners to respond to the recall immediately and refrain from driving their vehicles until further notice.

There was no immediate response from BMW Korea.

The German titan has been sued by 17 customers filing for damages worth US$4,500 each, Ha Jong-seon, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said, adding that dozens of other owners were expected to join the legal action.

Meanwhile thousands of other BMW drivers have joined an internet community to explore the possibility of taking legal action against the carmaker, Yonhap news agency reported, paving the way for more lawsuits to be filed in the near future.

If the government probe finds that the recall was delayed, BMW could be forced to pay a fine of up to 70 billion won (US$62 million) under South Korean law.

The recall applies to 42 models, all with diesel engines.

In South Korea, six out of 10 imported cars are from Germany.

BMW sold nearly 39,000 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce cars in the first six months to June this year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.
The Oval Room of the White House, 20 March 2018: when he receives the Crown

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Donald Trump displays a diagram of the forecast

US arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon is preparing for a summit to be held on

12 and 13 October to create a Middle East Strategic Alliance, also known by

the acronym MESA) [1]. Essentially this would be an alliance of the Gulf Monarchies around Saudi Arabia, plus Egypt and Jordan.

The article presents this initiative as the US wanting to create a regional

military alliance on which it would unburden the task of applying military

pressure on Iran.

However this plan is coming up against several obstacles:

 the first is that Qatar is excluded  on account of its conflict

(stirred up by the US) with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The

same goes for Oman, which plays the role of the regions mediator. At the

same time that the United States is trying to drive forward the creation of

MESA, the Pentagon is trying to expand its military base in Qatar.

 It will be difficult for the countries designated to form part of MESA to

succeed in working together on an equal footing given that Saudi Arabia

never accepted its small fry neighbours as its equals.

 All the states invited to form part of this military alliance are

probably willing to participate if Washington guarantees the military

training and the necessary military equipment. However, they will surely be

less enthusiastic when a conflict arises. This is well evidenced in the

case of Yemen.

The fact is that the region has changed dramatically since the times of the

Cold War and the Bagdad Agreement, when that anti-Soviet military

organization was under the orders of the United Kingdom and supported the

Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlevi in Iran.

The establishment of a new military alliance would favour the US continuing

with the sales of arms in the region without needing to trigger new wars.

In the long term, this alliance could serve as the means of putting

pressure not only on the Islamic Republic of Iran but also on Turkey.
According to the Iranian Agency Fars, the United Arab Emirates is going to

reopen its embassy in Damascus, the capital of Syria, following a meeting

between General Mahamat Al-Chamsi and General Ali Mamlouk, the heads of the

Emirates Intelligence and the Syrian Arab Republics Intelligence

respectively.

The United Arab Emirates has already resumed commercial flights to Syria.

It appears, Sheikh Mohamed ben Zayed Al-Nahyane (see photo), son of the

President of the United Arab Emirates and the strong man of the country,

has decided to be like a herdsman, shepherding the West into

re-establishing relations with the Syrian Arab Republic.

Right from the beginning of the conflict in Syria, almost all diplomatic

missions closed their doors, folding to pressure applied by the United

Kingdom and France.
The Blue Helmets of UNDOF  the UN force tasked with observing the

separation of the forces of Israel and Syria on the line marking off the

Golan  carried out their first patrol in 4 years along this boundary

line.

The redeployment of the Blue Helmets coincided with the date commemorating

the establishment of the Syrian Arab Army (1 August 1945).

The UN Soldiers had been expelled from their position along the Golan

boundary line on 28 August 2014 and were replaced by al Qaeda terrorists

with the help of the Israeli army.

At that time the UN also had to pay a ransom to secure the liberation of 45

Blue Helmets from the Fiji Islands. They had been kidnapped by al-Qaeda.

That payment had been effected by a bank transfer but the UN never revealed

the identity of the account holder to whom it had sent the money meant for

al Qaeda.

The Blue Helmets now return to their positions along the boundary line of

the Golan under the protection of the Russian military police which has

established another 8 positions to provide an early warning of any

provocation. So confirmed from Moscow General Sergey Rudskoi, Head of the

Department of Operations of the Russian Federation Chief of Staff.
When CBS announced its Murphy Brown revival last January, the move was celebrated by fans who wanted Candice Bergens liberal, unapologetic and outspoken journalist now more than ever. But that was before the New Yorker published its expose about CBS CEO and chairman Les Moonves, among other allegations against the network and its high-powered producers. Diane English, who created Murphy Brown and is the executive producing the revival, wasted no time assuring journalists at the Television Critics Association press tour on Sunday that Murphy will be all over #MeToo stories.

On behalf of everybody on our show, we take the allegation of sexual misconduct extremely seriously  so seriously that we actually developed an episode about the #MeToo movement many months ago and that will be our fourth episode, English said, adding that those involved with the show fully support the Moonves investigation. (English said she has never experienced sexual misconduct or misogyny at CBS.) The fourth episode will also be promoted with the perhaps-telling hashtag #MurphyToo.

Here are seven other takeaways from the Murphy Brown panel:

They first toyed with a reboot when Sarah Palin ran for vice-president in 2008

English says they didnt seriously consider a reboot back then, but eight years later, Donald Trumps shocking presidential victory changed their minds. The new show will begin with a montage set on November 8, 2016  the day of the presidential election  and English wants the show to advocate for journalists. Weve always been a political show with something to say, she said. But Im focusing the show on the press. The First Amendment and the free press is under attack like Ive never seen before and like I dont think anyone has ever seen before.

Murphys son is a liberal journalist working at a Fox News-esque network

Jake McDorman plays the grown-up Avery, who is now employed as the liberal voice of Wolf Network  a cable news outlet that Bergen made sure to say is the shows version of Fox News. McDorman said that his character will be shaped by a life spent growing up around journalists  Faith Fords Corky, Joe Regalbutos Frank, and Grant Shauds Miles taught him about reporting and ethics  and by being the child of a celebrity. Hes at an age where hes gotten the opportunity to put all those lessons into practice, albeit at this other network, when theyre under attack, McDorman said.

Of course, Murphy being Murphy, shell definitely take the business rivalry with her son seriously. She is a fierce mom, but she is a competitive mom, Bergen said. Avery has his work cut out for him.

Charles Kimbroughs old school newsman Jim Dial will be back, but not as a series regular

English says that Kimbrough will guest star in three episodes, playing the retired journalist who finds a compelling reason to return. Because the show films in New York, she explained, it was too much of a commitment for Kimbrough to move from Los Angeles for a bigger role.

The show will pay tribute to Robert Pastorelli

Pastorelli, who played the fan-favorite handyman Eldin, passed away in 2004. But Bergen says his presence will still be felt and the character is mentioned in the first episode. We havent yet replaced him with anyone, she said.

Corky and Miles are kaput

Ford says Corky and Miles are not a couple anymore, since that storyline happened after English had left the original series.

The premiere has an enormously famous cameo

We always try to meld the worlds between fiction and reality. We were so successful in the first version of the show that the vice- president thought Murphy was a real person, English said. We plan to do the same thing again and weve approached a number of people. We havent closed the deals yet, but we do have an enormously famous person in our first episode. Thats top secret, though, so I cant tell you.

Will Scott Bakula return as Murphys love interest?

He works all the time, Bergen teased, referencing Bakulas current gig on fellow CBS show, NCIS: New Orleans.
UPDATE: Police have identified the suspect as Kenneth Lamarte Adams and he is now in police custody. Police have issued two felony warrants.

UPDATE: People in the houses around the apartment have been evacuated.

Huntsville Police Officials tell WAAY 31 a man has barricaded himself in a woman's apartment.

Police have closed off the intersection where the apartment is located between Drake and Newson Road.

Officials tell us the male suspect broke into a woman's apartment, she escaped and is safe, but the man is still inside.

The suspect is said to be armed with a handgun.

WAAY 31 has a crew on scene and will bring you more information as soon as we receive it as this is a developing story.
Police found two dead men and an injured woman after being dispatched to a domestic altercation in Loretto, Tennessee.

The Tennessee Sheriff's Department in Lawrence County determined James Netherton shot and killed his step-father, 66-year-old Albert Dotson, and then shot his mother, Lauren Dotson. Netherton then took his own life with the same gun.

The mother was flown from the scene and her condition is unknown at this time.
Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 03, 2018 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 03, 2018 | 01:43 AM | PADUCAH

Baptist Health Foundation Paducah and Premier Fire and Security recently partnered with the Reidland-Farley Fire Department to install fire alarms in underserved areas.



The Foundation and Premier Fire provided funding for this first-time project. The fire department has installed 120 alarms in 60 homes since June, according to Rick Farlee, public education director for Reidland-Farley Fire Department.



We answer several calls a year in the mobile home parks and noticed on calls that many homes had no alarms or ones that did not work, Farlee said. We always have alarms on our trucks and would offer to install individually while on calls, but that was just covering the (basic) need. This is the first time Reidland Farley Fire has done a full out campaign like this. Many of the residents are elderly or disabled and early detection of fire will save many lives. If over the course of time, we can prevent just one injury or death then we have been successful in our mission.



Farlee said 60 volunteers worked on the installation. The department continues to get calls weekly inquiring about the alarms, thanks to door hangers supplied by the American Red Cross that provides information about the program at homes where no one is available.



Premier Fire and Security president Jason Hickey said Premier is dedicated to protecting the lives and property of people in the community.



This is definitely a great cause because early warning from the detection of smoke saves lives, Hickey said. We are proud to be a part of this program.
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By Tim Brockwell Aug. 04, 2018 | 10:14 PM | FANCY FARM

Governor Matt Bevin was a no-show at this year's Fancy Farm Picnic on Saturday, but his Democratic challenger in 2019 and long time rival Andy Beshear made it to the podium to address the typically exuberant crowd the event has become widely known for.Beshear criticized Bevin for not attending the picnic this year."If youre not willing to come down here where my family's roots are to western Kentucky to see all of our families, I think its time you move back to New Hampshire." He said.Beshear also criticized past remarks made by Bevin, including his statement that students were exposed to possible sexual abuse while teachers left their students to protest pension reforms in Frankfort."Last year Governor Bevin called teachers ignorant. This year he accused them of harming children. Last year Governor Bevin tried to kick people off Healthcare. This year he tried to kick them out of the Capitol. Governor, that's not Kentucky." Beshear said.Beshear added that if elected education will be a top priority for his administration, and that he will try to bring people together."As your governor and lieutenant governor, we will prioritize public education, truly fund our public schools, and we will respect our teachers," He said. "We'll restore honesty, decency and transparency to the governor's office. No more name calling, no more bullying, no more no more my way or the highway type of politics. Because at the end of the day a governor should bring us together, and not divide us."Click the link below to listen to Beshear's speech, as well as all of the other speakers at Fancy Farm this year.

On the Net:
By Tim Brockwell Aug. 04, 2018 | 11:07 PM | FANCY FARM

Both candidates running for Kentucky's Second District House seat spoke at the Fancy Farm Picnic Saturday afternoon.Incumbent Republican State Representative Richard Heath said it's important for Kentuckians to elect conservatives like him who will work to reign in stifling regulation and face tough issues instead of put them off."We cannot turn our backs on the Commonwealth's progress by putting big government liberals back into office," Heath said. "These are the same people whose reign led to the mountains of red tape, the failures of our teacher's retirement system, and kicking the can down the road on the pressing issues facing the people of Kentucky."Heath added that he and other members of his party have been working hard in Frankfort to fix what he calls the "mess" Democrats have created in the Commonwealth."I'm so grateful for the opportunity to bring some western Kentucky values to Frankfort, where conservatives have been very busy cleaning up the mess of the nearly 100 years of the other party's rule." Heath said.Heath's Democratic opponent Charlotte Goddard, a teacher, said education and helping the poor and middle class will be her top priority if elected."I will stand for struggling families. I will stand for teachers. I will stand for public schools. I will stand up for all of our children." She said.Goddard criticized state Republicans for "attacking" education, and for showing little interest in reaching out to educators."When politicians attack education, they are attacking our children. KEA hosted a town hall meeting to address the pension concerns, and my legislators didn't even show up." She said.Click the link below to hear both candidates' speeches at Fancy Farm.

On the Net:
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Foster care in Iowa Dear Editor: Now more than ever, Iowa youth in the foster care system need the stability of a caring home and a family to love and protect them. The need...

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BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) - A Florida man is jailed after authorities say he led police on a 36-mile (58-kilometer) chase in upstate New York, barreling his car toward a blockade and drawing fire from a trooper before crashing into an embankment.

State police arrested 49-year-old Andrew Adeb Said and passenger Tara Hackrott on Friday near Interstate 90 in Batavia, halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, as they attempted to flee on foot.

Said, of Port Richey, Florida, was arraigned on charges including aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon. Hackrott, of Williamsville, had an outstanding warrant in Cheektowaga, near Buffalo.

Information on their lawyers wasn't immediately available.

Authorities say Said and Hackrott sped off from police tailing them after a mall theft in Henrietta. Police say the license plates had been switched.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
NEW YORK MILLS, NY  The annual Polish-American festival wrapped up Saturday at Sacred Heart and St. Marys Catholic Church in New York Mills.

Thousands of people enjoyed plenty of traditional Polish food, music, and dancing.

There were also childrens games, basket raffles, and a flea market.

Joe Salmon has been volunteering at the festival for over 20 years.

For the parishioners of this parish, its like a family reunion. We all get together at one time and help out and have a good time.

The money raised from the festival will go towards the day to day operations of the parish.




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Extra fire crews attend Horseshoe Pass as wildfires reignite  keep away

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Aug 5th, 2018

Extra firecrews are back at Llantysilio mountain near Llangollen as the mountain fires have reignited.

Update: The Fire Service have just said: 4 crews dealing with hotspots & fire around Berwyn quarry area. Horseshoe Pass Road CLOSED Llantysilio Village to Ponderosa cafe both directions. KEEP AWAY from Mountain. Crews working in difficult circumstances.

Road closed at the Horseshoe Pass when on the way back from Llangollen due to a massive fire.. I am in awe of the selfless way @NorthWalesFire Fire Fighters are battling these types of fire this summer pic.twitter.com/1EQLBCqINP  SCO Mark Owen (@NWPSpecialCO) August 5, 2018

Original information below:

This afternoon more firecrews have attended the area to support those who were dampening down areas of concern.

The flames are close to the Horseshoe Pass road, and although it has remained open for most of the day, there have been periods of closures.

The last official update from North Wales Fire and Rescue service this morning read: Crews carried out inspections overnight checking for hotspots. Horseshoe Pass road reopened overnight. Smoke blowing NW.

Advice remains to avoid mountain for safety. Crews remaining throughout the day.

Below is a video from this afternoon:

Thanks to Aled for the top image from earlier today.
Kristin Davis, the woman famously known as the "Manhattan Madam," met with special counsel Robert Mueller's team for a voluntary interview on Wednesday, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

Investigators appear to be interested in her ties to longtime Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, whom she has known for a decade. Sources said investigators expressed interest in having Davis testify before a grand jury -- the latest indication that prosecutors are still aiming to build a case against Stone.

A lawyer for Davis declined to comment. A spokesperson for the special counsel also declined to comment.

Prior to publication of this story, Stone and his lawyer declined to comment. After publication, Stone told CNN in a statement, "Kristin Davis is a long time friend and associate of mine. I am the Godfather to her 2 year-old son. She knows nothing about Russian Collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration or any other impropriety related to the 2016 election which I thought was the subject of this probe. I understand she appeared voluntarily. I am highly confident she will testify truthfully if called upon to do so."

Davis worked with Stone on and off over the years and the two have a close personal relationship.

Davis once ran a high-end prostitution ring and went to jail as part of the scandal surrounding then-Democratic New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Davis was not involved in the specific prostitution service Spitzer used that led to his resignation in 2008.

Stone acted as Davis' campaign strategist in 2010 when she ran for New York governor on a platform that included legalizing marijuana and prostitution. Andrew Miller, another former Stone associate who has been subpoenaed to appear before the Mueller grand jury, served as Davis' campaign manager in her unsuccessful bid.

In late 2016, Davis joined Stone's payroll to assist in email blasts, media bookings and other clerical matters, according to a source familiar with the situation.

It's not clear what the focus of Davis' voluntary interview was or how she may fit into the broader Mueller investigation about Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion between Trump associates and Russians.

Mueller's team has been looking into possible contact between Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign, as well as Stone's finances.

Prosecutors appear to be delving into Stone's personal life as well. At least two witnesses were asked whether Stone was the father of Davis' son, according to people familiar with the questioning.

The questions appear to have irked Stone, at least on Instagram.

He posted a photo earlier this week of Davis and her child with the caption, "Why do FBI agents dispatched by Robert Mueller keep asking a number of my current and former associates if I am this baby's father ? What does this have to do with Russian Collusion and the 2016 election #witchhunt #thugtactic#mueller #gestapo #partisan."
EDGAR COUNTY, Ill. (WTHI) - May the cure be with you, fight like a Jedi!

That was the theme at the Edgar County Relay For Life on Saturday.

Hundreds of people gathered at Twin Lakes Park in Paris, Illinois.

The event raised money for the American Cancer Society. It happens every year.

People were at the park since 10 a.m.

Organizers hoped to show others they're in the fight together.

"And our goal is so no one has to go through that," said Co-Captain Tammy Terry, "No one as a parent has to watch their little boy or little girl go through that. So that's why everyone fights."

The relay wrapped up around 10 p.m. Central with a candelight ceremony.
Fire crews from Australia and New Zealand are heading to California to aid in the massive battle against wildfires, according to Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott.

Pimlott told reporters in Anderson that 40,000 people have been displaced due to the state's wildfires. A total of 450,000 acres have burned, most of them being consumed by the Carr Fire and the Ranch and River Fires in Northern California.

Accidents, disasters and safety Australia California California wildfires Continents and regions Fires Natural disasters North America Oceania Southwestern United States The Americas United States Wildfires

There are 14,000 firefighters from California and other states fighting the blazes.

The international fire teams from Australia and New Zealand will arrive in Redding on Monday, Pimlott said.

Fire and Rescue New South Wales tweeted Thursday that 13 of its firefighters and specialists would deploy from Australia to the United States.

"The FRNSW contingent are among the 100 personnel from across Australia deployed to the region," the tweet said.
Here is a look at the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Facts:

Nineteen men hijacked four fuel-loaded US commercial airplanes bound for west coast destinations. A total of 2,977 people were killed in New York City, Washington, DC and outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Accidents Aircraft accidents Building and structure collapses Buildings and structures Crime, law enforcement and corrections Criminal offenses Health and medical Health care Health care professionals Hijacking National security New York (State) New York City North America Northeastern United States One World Trade Center Physicians and surgeons September 11 Terrorism Terrorist attacks United States Unrest, conflicts and war US Department of Homeland Security Accidents, disasters and safety Business and industry sectors Government and public administration Government bodies and offices International relations and national security Skyscrapers Terrorism and counter-terrorism US federal departments and agencies US federal government Fast Facts Air transportation Airlines Business, economy and trade Coroners offices Law and legal system Law courts and tribunals Public health Transportation and warehousing Companies Continents and regions Government organizations - US Points of interest The Americas United Airlines United Continental Holdings Misc criminal offenses

The attack was orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The Victims:

At the World Trade Center (WTC) site in Lower Manhattan, 2,753 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the north and south towers, or as a result of the crashes.

Of those who perished during the initial attacks and the subsequent collapses of the towers, 343 were New York City firefighters, 23 were New York City police officers and 37 were officers at the Port Authority.

The victims ranged in age from two to 85 years. Approximately 75-80% of the victims were men.

At the Pentagon in Washington, 184 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building.

Near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 40 passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when the plane crashed into a field. It is believed that the hijackers crashed the plane in that location, rather than their unknown target, after the passengers and crew attempted to retake control of the flight deck.

As of July 2018, 1,642 (or 60%) of 2,753 WTC victims' remains have been positively identified, according to the medical examiner's office.

Timeline:

September 11, 2001

- 8:46 a.m. ET - American Airlines Flight 11 (traveling from Boston to Los Angeles) strikes the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

- 9:03 a.m. ET - United Airlines Flight 175 (traveling from Boston to Los Angeles) strikes the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

- 9:37 a.m. ET - American Airlines Flight 77 (traveling from Dulles, Virginia, to Los Angeles) strikes the Pentagon Building in Washington.

- 9:59 a.m. ET - South tower of WTC collapses in approximately 10 seconds.

- 10:03 a.m. ET - United Airlines Flight 93 (traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco) crashes in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

- 10:28 a.m. ET - North tower of WTC collapses. The time between the first attack and the collapse of both World Trade Center towers is 102 minutes.

December 13, 2001 - The US government releases a tape in which Osama bin Laden takes responsibility for the attacks.

December 18, 2001 - Congress approves a measure to allow the president to designate September 11 as "Patriot Day" on each anniversary of the attacks.

December 2001-June 15, 2004 - The original Victims Compensation Fund processes death and injury claims from families and relatives of September 11 victims. Families of those killed had until December 22, 2003, to apply for compensation. The fund reopens in 2011.

May 24, 2007 - The Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, rules that the death of Felicia Dunn-Jones in 2002, from dust exposure, is directly linked to the 9/11 attack and therefore a homicide.

July 19, 2007 - The New York Medical Examiner's Office announces that the remains of three more people are positively identified. 1,133 victims, 41% of the total, remain unidentified.

January 2009 - The medical examiner's office rules that Leon Heyward, who died the previous year of lymphoma and lung disease, is a homicide victim because he was caught in the toxic dust cloud just after the towers collapsed.

January 2, 2011 - President Barack Obama signs James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, reopening and expanding the scope of the Victim Compensation Fund.

June 17, 2011 - The New York medical examiner rules that Jerry Borg's death on December 15, 2010, is a result of inhaling toxic substances from the dust cloud generated by the collapsing twin towers.

May 10, 2014 - The unidentified remains of those killed in the attacks are returned to the World Trade Center site where they will be kept in a repository under the jurisdiction of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York.

August 7, 2017 - The New York City medical examiner's office announces that the remains of a man killed at the World Trade Center are positively identified due to more sophisticated DNA testing being available.

September 11th Victim Compensation Fund:

The original fund operated from December 2001 to June 2004.

The initial Victim Compensation Fund received 7,408 applications for both death claims and personal injury claims.

The fund made awards in 5,560 of those cases.

The reopened and expanded fund has operated since January 2, 2011. Information on total awards is updated regularly and posted here.

Families who agreed to get compensation from the federal fund agreed not to sue the airlines.

Economic Impact:

$500,000 - Estimated amount of money it cost to plan and execute the 9/11 attacks.

$123 billion - Estimated economic loss during the first 2-4 weeks after the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York City, as well as decline in airline travel over the next few years.

$60 billion - Estimated cost of the WTC site damage, including damage to surrounding buildings, infrastructure and subway facilities.

$40 billion - Value of the emergency anti-terrorism package approved by the US Congress on September 14, 2001.

$15 billion - Aid package passed by Congress to bail out the airlines.

$9.3 billion - Insurance claims arising from the 9/11 attacks.

Cleanup at Ground Zero:

May 30, 2002 - Cleanup at Ground Zero officially ends.

It took 3.1 million hours of labor to clean up 1.8 million tons of debris.

The total cost of cleanup was $750 million.

Homeland Security:

The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to September 11.

It merged 22 governmental agencies into one, including the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the US Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Through the Container Security Initiative, over 80% of imported maritime containerized cargo is prescreened before entering the US.

March 12, 2002 - The Homeland Security Advisory System is introduced.

April 26, 2011 - The National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) replaces the color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 02:24:41|Editor: yan

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BUJUMBURA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Four people including a gunman were killed on Friday night in western Burundi, an official said on Saturday.

Four gunmen believed to be bandits ambushed people who were coming from a marketplace during heavy rain at Ruzibazi village, Mukike district in the province of Bujumbura, administrator of Mukike district Renovat Nimubona told Xinhua on phone.

The gunmen took their money and killed a man doing cattle business at a cattle market in Rzibazi vilage, said Nimubona, adding that they then attacked a bar in the village, killing two persons including the bar owner and a client.

A soldier in the bar shot at the gunmen and killed one of the attackers, he said.

He added that the gunmen took money from the bar owner and customers who were in the bar before escaping.

Nimubona said one gunman were arrested on Saturday and was identified as a former inmate who had been released recently from prison.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 03:49:56|Editor: yan

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NAIROBI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is on course to meet the United Nations (UN) deadline for establishing a maritime single window system by April 2019, officials said on Saturday.

Amos Wangora, the CEO of the Kenya Trade Network Agency, told Xinhua in Nairobi that Kenya is keen to comply with the International Maritime Organization obligation in order to facilitate maritime trade.

"A project team is already in place and is in the process of identifying vendor for the portal that will permit the electronic interchange of information for ships docking on Kenyan ports," Wangora said.

"We anticipate that once the marine single window system is in place, there will be a 40 percent reduction in the time spent by shipping crew in submitting documents to public authorizes," he said.

He said the Kenya Maritime Authority is also receiving support from the World Bank to help Kenya establish the Maritime Single Window System.

Wangora noted that currently ships arriving at Kenyan ports submit documents on cargo and passengers details manually.

"This hinders the smooth flow of international trade due to the time spent on submission of manual forms," he said.

He revealed that Kenya is in the process of automating many government services in order to improve the ease of doing business in the country.

The CEO said the maritime single window system will be connected to the National Electronic Single window system which was launched in 2014.

He added that the National Electronic Single window system was put in place to ensure electronic submission of documents for import and export trade.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 03:54:56|Editor: zh

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Sudan's Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed speaks at a press conference in Khartoum, Sudan, on Aug. 4, 2018. South Sudan's conflicting parties will sign a final deal Sunday on power-sharing and governance in Khartoum, Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed announced Saturday. (Xinhua/Mohamed Khidir)

KHARTOUM, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's conflicting parties will sign a final deal Sunday on power-sharing and governance in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, Sudan's Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed announced Saturday.

The minister told a press conference that the parties would not sign a comprehensive peace deal, as some of the South Sudanese opposition factions still have some reservations over the deal.

The dialogue would continue with the factions in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, he added.

Heads of states and governments of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development in Africa would attend the signing ceremony, Ahmed said.

On July 25, the South Sudanese conflicting parties signed an initial deal of power-sharing and governance prior to signing the final document of the deal on Sunday.

The initial agreement stipulated that South Sudan President Salva Kiir will continue his post 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.

Under the agreement, the transitional cabinet would be composed of 35 ministers, 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.

South Sudan has been witnessing a civil war since December 2013, which has left about 10,000 dead and millions of others displaced.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 03:59:57|Editor: yan

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CAPE TOWN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Parliament on Saturday completed its provincial public hearings on land reform as part of its efforts to accelerate land expropriation without compensation.

Parliament's Joint Constitutional Review Committee held a total 34 hearings in all nine provinces in the country, listening carefully to the diverse views expressed by citizens throughout the country, Committee Co-Chairperson Vincent Smith said.

The committee was instructed by both Houses of Parliament - the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces -- to ascertain whether a review of section 25 of the Constitution and other clauses is necessary to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation, and propose the necessary constitutional amendments where necessary.

The committee has succeeded in its task of listening to the people, Smith said.

"I am confident that this was a democratic process. Everyone who wanted an opportunity to speak, was allowed to speak," he said.

Following the hearings, the committee will assess the hundreds of thousands of written submissions it received after which it will invite those submitters, who indicated that they wanted to make oral presentations, to hearings in Parliament, according to Smith.

Once the process had been concluded, the multi-party committee will deliberate extensively on this matter before it reports to both Houses of Parliament.

On July 31, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) would change the South African Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation.

His remarks prompted AfriForum, an association of South African white farmers, to call on the international community to get Ramaphosa to stop proposed plans to amend the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation.

"We know that disrespect for property rights will have a negative effect on any country," AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said, citing Venezuela and Zimbabwe as examples.

AfriForum argues that land expropriation without compensation will drive away white farmers, kill jobs and threaten food security.

But the ANC-led government has assured that land expropriation without compensation should be pursued without destabilizing the agricultural sector, endangering food security in the country, or undermining economic growth and job creation.

Since taking power in 1994, the ANC has made land redistribution from whites to blacks without compensation one of its main policies.

But land remains predominantly in white hands more than two decades after the end of apartheid, sparking growing discontent among South African blacks.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 07:15:26|Editor: ZD

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BOGOTA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's military demanded on Saturday the release of four military personnel and two civilians who were kidnapped by the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the country's Choco sector.

"Colombia demands that the life and integrity of those kidnaped be respected along with their immediate release," the Colombian military wrote on its Twitter page.

The military personnel kidnapped were identified as quartermaster Wilber Renteria, deputy quartermaster Luis Carlos Torres Montoya, patrolman Yemison Leandro Gomez Correa, and soldier Jesus Alberto Ramirez Silva.

The rebels sent a news release confirming their role in the kidnappings.

The Colombian military said they are waiting for instructions from central command and "will do everything possible to safeguard the release of these men."

The issue of kidnappings was discussed during the last round of peace talks that took place in Havana, but a bilateral ceasefire agreement could not be reached.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (3rd L) poses for a group photo during the foreign ministers' meeting of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) held in Singapore, Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

SINGAPORE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday called for the building of East Asia economic community and an open world economy.

Wang made the call here at the foreign ministers' meeting of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3).

Currently, with twists and turns in economic globalization and surge of unilateralism and protectionism, the international order and multilateral trade system have been adversely affected, Wang said.

He called on the 10+3 countries to demonstrate strong will to promote free trade and firm resolution to uphold multilateralism, firmly push forward regional economic integration and build an East Asia economic community as well as an open world economy.

Such efforts will provide more stability and certainty to the world economy, the top Chinese diplomat stressed.

Wang also called for substantive progress to be made in the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by the year-end and an East Asian pattern of development to be forged, which is free, balanced, inclusive and beneficial to all.

The 10+3 countries should also deepen financial cooperation, continue to improve regional financial security network, make good use of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Asian Development Bank so as to lend more cost-effective financial support to countries in the region, he said.

The 10+3 countries should expand sectors of cooperation, including boosting cooperation on innovation and pressing for new cooperation in the fields of digital economy, smart city, artificial intelligence and e-commerce among others, Wang said.

Noting that the 10+3 should also build new platforms for people-to-people exchanges, Wang said China proposes to set up a "10+3 cultural cities network," enhance the capability building of the think-tanks network in East Asia, and promote cultural ties and people's friendship among East Asian countries.

Foreign ministers from Japan, South Korea and ASEAN member states all spoke highly of the fruitful achievements of cooperation scored within the framework of the"10+3" and affirmed the positive role the "10+3" has played in promoting regional peace, stability and prosperity.

They all shared the view that faced with the shock and threat to the multilateral trade system brought by unilateral protectionism, it is more important than ever to enhance the cooperation of the "10+3".

They agreed that the "10+3" should consolidate unity, firmly support free trade, oppose protectionism, speed up the negotiations on RCEP and push forward the building of East Asia economic community and maintain peace and prosperity in East Asia.
People look at Chinese rockets models at the Space Exploration Gallery in Penang, Malaysia, Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei)

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian people in the northern state of Penang were able to have a close look at the models of the rockets and spacecraft used in China's space missions such as the Yutu moon rover with the opening of the Space Exploration Gallery on Saturday.

The six models, including four in the Long March rocket family, the Chang'e 3 lunar lander and Yutu lunar rover, were donated by the China Science and Technology Museum with an estimated value of half a million ringgit (123,000 U.S. dollars).

Chang'e 3 lunar lander, which landed on the Moon and deployed the Yutu rover in 2013, made China the third country to have soft-landed on the Moon, following the United States and the former Soviet Union.

The Long March rockets are the most widely-used rockets in Chinese space missions.

Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, who personally pushed for the donation when he was the chief minister of Penang two years ago, thanked the Chinese side in his speech on Saturday.

He said the Malaysian government values its relations with China and will continue to support China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Chinese Consul-General in Penang Lu Shiwei said the six models symbolize the good relations between the two countries and will further strengthen the bond.

While rapidly developing its space aerospace industry, China is willing to share related experience with other countries in the region, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 11:10:50|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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FUZHOU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- An undersea pipeline started delivering fresh water from Chinese mainland's coastal province of Fujian to Kinmen, a small island of Taiwan, on Sunday morning.

The source of the water-diversion project is located at the Longhu Lake in Jinjiang city, the second largest lake of Fujian.

The 28-km pipeline is able to provide 34,000 cubic meters of water daily to meed demands of Kinmen residents. The capacity can be expanded to 55,000 cubic meters in future.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 11:10:51|Editor: mmm

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Security members protect Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after his speech was interrupted in Caracas, Venezuela, on Aug. 4, 2018. A speech by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Bolivian National Guard was unexpectedly cut short after he was interrupted on Saturday. (Xinhua)

CARACAS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan Minister of Communication Jorge Rodriguez confirmed on Saturday night President Nicolas Maduro was unhurt in an attempted attack against him.

Drones loaded with explosives exploded close to where Maduro was giving a speech. Rodriguez said Maduro was not hurt but seven National Guard soldiers were injured.

The attack happened when Maduro was giving a speech here to more than 17,000 soldiers to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the country's National Guard.

The president called the attack an assassination attempt in a later address to the nation broadcast via local TV channels.

He blamed the attack on the far-right wing factions in Venezuela, Colombia and conspirators in the United States, saying they were responsible, according to his address.

Some of those involved in the attack have been arrested and the investigation is underway, said the president.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Portland city police in the western U.S. state of Oregon Saturday were dispersing chaotic demonstrators of a right-wing group and counter-protesters after scuffles and projectiles-throwing took place in a downtown park.

"Failure to comply with order may subject you to arrest or citation, and may subject you to the use of riot control agents or impact weapons," Portland police announced on Twitter and on a loudspeaker at the scene.

The rally was organized by Patriot Prayer, a far-right group founded by Joey Gibson, who is running for U.S. Senate in Washington.

The demonstration drew hundreds of Patriot Prayer supporters calling for "free speech" at a waterfront park around mid-day in downtown Portland. They marched along the Willamette River.

Many of the right-wing demonstrators wore helmets and homemade riot gears while another group of counter-protesters from a coalition of labor unions, advocates for immigrant rights and other groups faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs.

The demonstrations, which appeared peaceful at the beginning, turned chaotic in the afternoon when some protesters clashed with the police.

The police said some protesters were throwing rocks, bottles and other projectiles at police officers. They ordered the demonstrators to disperse and leave the downtown area.

There was a heavy police presence, including bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints, at the scene of the rally. The police said they had seized multiple items that can be used as weapons such as homemade shields, flag poles, and sharp objects.

Saturday's event was the third rally staged by the Patriot Prayer this summer in Portland to advocate "freedom of speech."

Two previous rallies had led to bloody fistfights and riots. Four people were arrested in early June when a similar demonstration was held in downtown after fireworks, rocks and bottles were hurled at each other between supporters of Patriot Prayer and their opposing protesters.
SYDNEY, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Police in Australia's Tasmania island said they will blow up a stash of chemicals seized from a residential property south of state capital Hobart during the weekend, amid concerns that the confiscated items could be used to make bombs.

"Nearby residents have been temporarily relocated until the scene is cleared as a precaution," Detective Acting Inspector Darren Latham from the state police said in a statement.

The public has been advised to avoid the area and a 28-year-old man is assisting police with their inquiries.

"Bomb-making instructions" were found with the chemicals, which were "in a quantity that caused some concern for us," local media quoted the inspector as saying.

Police acted on a tip-off and first went to the site late on Friday, where they have been watching the 28-year-old man for weeks, the ABC news channel reported.

The man does not have any known affiliations with any political or religious groups that would normally concern authorities, reported the news channel.
SYDNEY, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Australian farmers hit by a record drought will receive 12,000 Australian dollars (8,880 U.S. dollars) each as part of the latest relief package for the agricultural sector, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday.

The cash payments help form a drought relief package of 190 million Australian dollars (140.6 million U.S. dollars) for the dry spell that has cut across large parts of the country's east and south including New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

"We are, as we have all said, the land of droughts and flooding rains, but we haven't had a drought this bad for a very, very long time, since the Bureau of Meteorology says 1965," The Australian newspaper quoted Turnbull as saying during a visit to the central western region of New South Wales.

The latest aid will also provide more support for mental health services in the affected areas.

Ninety-nine percent of New South Wales alone is in drought as it faces one of its driest winters, with the state government rolling out a major emergency aid package late last month for its farmers.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 12:41:01|Editor: mym

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People visit the 14th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sept. 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

by Xinhua writers Chen Jian, Yi Ling, Wang Lili

SINGAPORE, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Banya, a durian planter in Thailand, has been growing the tropical fruit for 30 years. His income has increased three-fold over the past decade after he met Chinese traders.

"We are cooperating well with Chinese businessmen. They have created job opportunities for locals and increased our income," he said.

TRADE PUSH

The fruit trade is just one example of what have been achieved when China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are celebrating the 15th anniversary of their strategic partnership.

Benefiting from preferential trade policies and ever-closer trade collaboration, Thailand's durian exports to China have surged over the past decade. China is now Thailand's largest durian importer.

Banya now sells 4 million Thai baht (about 120,413 U.S. dollars) worth of durians to China every year.

Businesses in Thailand are also learning from e-commerce practitioners in China to help farmers sell more products.

In April, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, surprised Thais by selling 80,000 "golden pillow" (Mon Thong) durians, Thailand's most well-known exported variety, on his online platform T-Mall within just one minute.

"China is on its way to be the world's largest consumer, driven by rising income and a growing middle class of 300 million. There is no better time than now for trade-oriented countries to seize this opportunity to export to China as the country continues to open its doors wider for global trade," Ma said during his visit to Thailand.

Thanks to the on-line sales, the volume of Thailand's durians exported to China rose 700 percent year-on-year in April, according to the Thai Commerce Ministry.

The surging overseas sales of Thailand's durians came as leaders of the ASEAN countries have agreed to work toward an early conclusion this year of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade agreement (FTA) scheme of the 10 ASEAN member states and its FTA partners, namely China, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

When attending the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

"We will share opportunities and face challenges together so as to build a closer community with shared future," he said.

STEP FORWARD

China always puts ASEAN high on its diplomatic agenda. The two sides elevated their relations to the strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in 2003.

At a China-ASEAN summit held in Manila in November 2017, China proposed the formulation of a vision for strategic partnership between China and the 10-member regional bloc toward the year 2030.

ASEAN, established in 1967, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The vision will upgrade the China-ASEAN cooperation framework from 2+7 to 3+X.

The "2+7" refers to a cooperation framework proposed by China in 2013, which emphasizes a two-point political consensus, namely enhancing strategic trust and promoting economic cooperation, and seven cooperation fields including trade facilitation, interconnectivity and security exchanges, among others.

The 3+X, using the alphabet "X" in mathematical-formulas to represent the unknown, means China-ASEAN will touch many fields while focusing on three pillars -- political security, economy and trade, and people-to-people exchange.

The importance of cooperation between China and ASEAN has gone beyond the bilateral scope and has increasingly become the engine for maintaining regional peace and stability as well as promoting regional common prosperity.

The concept is well-proved by both sides working together on one of the most-watched regional issues -- the South China Sea issue.

The situation in the South China Sea has been stabilizing and seen a positive momentum for development because of the joint efforts from China and the ASEAN nations.

The two sides decided to start consultations on the text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea in Manila last year, showing the confidence, wisdom and capacity of the regional countries to properly settle the South China Sea issue in order to make it a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.

The latest achievements were seen on Thursday when the two sides have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea in Singapore at the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting.

Facts will prove that China and ASEAN member states are capable of maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and reaching regional rules adhered to by all through negotiations, Wang said after the meeting.

Echoing Wang's remarks, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said, "The fact we have arrived at the single text of COC means an important step forward."

HELPING HAND

The Angkor temple complex in Siem Reap, one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia, is a major tourist destination for both local and foreign visitors.

"The eight-year project of restoration is nearing completion in August," said Jin Zhaoyu, who has worked at the Ta Keo Temple-Mountain Conservation and Restoration Project as a member of the Chinese team committed to preserving Angkor.

"I highly value and thank the Chinese government for supporting Cambodia in preserving our national heritage," Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona said.

The minister said in the near future, the renovation of the Phimeanakas temple, located inside the walled enclosure of Angkor Thom within the vast Angkor complex, would be commenced with the financial aid of China.

At the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting, Wang called on China and ASEAN to step up cooperation in such fields as disaster prevention, relief, and humanitarian assistance.

When a dam-collapse triggered a massive flash-flood, hitting 13 villages in southern Laos in late July, China was among the first to extend a helping hand.

"Our contingent has 32 members and some of us work here in the district hospital to treat hospitalized patients," said Chen Zhang, a member of the medical contingent from the Chinese People's Liberation Army dispatched to the flooded Sanamxay district in southern Lao province of Attapeu.

Liu Zhenxiong, a doctor from gastroenterology division, China's Second Hospital of Fourth Military Medical University, was one of the members that went to flooded villages in the Sanamxay district.

"We went to a village called Ban Boc and we treated some 100 villagers in a single day," he said.

(Xinhua reporters Yang Zhou, Chen Jiabao in Bangkok, Zhang Jianhua in Vientiane, Mao Pengfei in Phnom Penh, Li Xiaoyu in Singapore also contributed to the report.)

(Video editor: Zhao Yuchao)
TALUQAN, Afghanistan, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least eight Taliban militants were killed during an ongoing operation in Takhar province, northern Afghanistan, on Saturday night, an army source said Sunday.

Ghulam Hazrat Karimi, an army spokesman in the region, told Xinhua that the National Security and Defense Forces launched recently a ground operation supported by Afghan air force against militants in Baharak district, Takhar province.

The militants engaged the government forces on Saturday night. As a result, eight militants were killed and three others injured, he said.

Among those killed was a Taliban divisional commander Qari Mohammad Alam, the source added.

No security force member was hurt during the operation, he said.

The Takhar province, as well as neighboring Kunduz and Baghlan provinces, has been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

Taliban militants have yet to make comment on the report.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 15:01:19|Editor: mmm

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Officials in Pakistan's northern areas said on Sunday that the law enforcement agencies have killed a suspected terrorist after militants attacked nearly 12 schools in the region.

The attackers ransacked and torched schools, most of which were girls' schools, in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan late Thursday.

No one was injured as schools were closed at the time of what the authorities view as coordinated attacks.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have been widely been condemned in Pakistan and abroad.

Police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan Sanaullah Abbasi said that the police and other law enforcement agencies have killed a suspect after a major search operation was launched on Saturday to apprehend the culprits.

Abbasi told reporters in the region that a suspect was killed during the search operation in Diamer district. A police man also lost life in firing exchange with the miscreants, he said.

The police chief said that 17 suspects have been arrested since the operation had been started on Saturday. He said the suspect had "received training in Afghanistan."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has condemned the incident in a statement.

"UNICEF firmly believes that education is a fundamental right of every girl and boy, everywhere. Attacks on schools rob children of their basic right to education and have a devastating impact on their lives," the UNICEF office in Pakistan said late on Saturday.

Caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan Nasir-ul-Mulk has also strongly condemned the attacks and has instructed the authorities to investigate what he called "cowardly act by the enemies of education."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 15:06:20|Editor: mmm

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Afghan security force members take part in a military operation in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Aug. 4, 2018. Scores of Taliban fighters have been killed over the past 24 hours as government forces have kept on pressure on militants elsewhere in the insurgency-plagued country, officials said Sunday. (Xinhua/Emran Waak)

KABUL, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Scores of Taliban fighters have been killed over the past 24 hours as government forces have kept on pressure on militants elsewhere in the insurgency-plagued country, officials said Sunday.

In the latest waves of crackdowns against militants, the government forces stormed Taliban hideouts in Baharak district of the northern Takhar province late Saturday night, killing at least eight militants and injuring three others.

The government forces backed by aircrafts, according to Ghulam Hazrat Karimi, an army spokesman in the northern region, raided Taliban trenches in Baharak district late Saturday night, killing eight armed insurgents on the spot and injuring three others, besides destroying their arms and ammunition caches.

Similarly, the security forces, in crackdown against militants in Dihrawud district of southern Uruzgan province have killed 14 armed militants over the past 24 hours, an army official in the province, Major Yahya Alawi claimed.

The government forces have also killed 28 insurgents during series of crackdowns against militants in Khogiani district of the eastern Ghazni province since late Friday night, according to provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Mashal.

Moreover, according to an army official in the eastern Kunar province, Afghan forces Mir Wais Safi have inflicted casualties to the Taliban militants and reopened an essential road that links Ghazi Abad to the neighboring Asmar district.

However, Zabihullah Majahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit, has confirmed the clash with government forces in parts of the country but in counter-claim insisted the militant group had inflicted huge casualties to government forces over the past 24 hours.

In Afghanistan, since the warring sides exaggerate their gains, it is difficult to verify with independent sources the claims made by warring factions.
Photo taken on July 5, 2018 shows Engy Tarek works in a dog shelter in Giza, Egypt. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- "We take care of sick and wounded stray dogs, for they cannot ask for help like humans. We welcome them to their new home and we never return them to the streets after recovery," said Engy Tarek, co-founder and deputy chief of Cairo Animal Rescue Team (CART), a vast dog shelter in Giza province near the Egyptian capital Cairo.

With "the Voice of the Voiceless" as its slogan, CART sends its volunteers to reported cases of stray dogs in distress, like mangy dogs or those paralyzed, shot in the legs, hit by cars, beaten, burnt or strangled by people.

"We started with 30 dogs five years ago, and now the shelter is home to about 800 dogs," the young lady told Xinhua at the shelter while taking care of a dog wounded by a collar embedded in the neck.

The main shelter is located in Awsim district of Giza on an area of less than one feddan (some 4,000 square meters) in addition to a nearby apartment and a villa, all rent by CART to host the animals.

Once the main gate opens, hundreds of local street dogs, known in Egypt as baladi dogs, are seen in the spacious main yard with wooden partitions and large bowls of water and food in the middle. They continue barking so loudly when strangers come in.

On the left side of the shelter, there are a clinic and a couple of rooms for confined dogs under treatment as well as a couple of rooms for the staff members who have to stay in the shelter and go home only on holidays or vacations.

Photo taken on July 5, 2018 shows a dog shelter in Giza, Egypt. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

Tarek first met with Abdo Joe, now CART CEO, when they were both individual animal rescuers and they decided to open a licensed dog shelter together. Sharing the same interests, they have become a couple too.

Donations cover 20 to 40 percent of the shelter expenses that amount to about 4,000 U.S. dollars per month, and the rest is mostly paid from their own pockets.

"Sometimes the donations are insufficient because many Egyptians lack the culture of animal rescue and they'd rather donate for humans," Tarek told Xinhua, urging for promoting the culture of donation for saving animals that cannot ask for help.

"Actually, the dogs scream for help and beg for mercy, but most humans don't understand or listen," she lamented.

The shelter hosts all kinds of dogs without discrimination, whether they are baladi or breeds such as golden retrievers, huskies, labrador retrievers, German shepherds, pit-bulls, boxers and many others.

"Most of the breeds have either been forsaken by their owners or got lost and couldn't adapt with the surroundings to survive. So, we try to provide them with an atmosphere similar to that at home," she explained.

The shelter is distinguished with the treatment of most difficult injuries or illnesses and its reception of any case at any time 24/7.

CART has a well-known Facebook with tens of thousands of followers where people can report any case nationwide, post the case with a picture and give the address so that the shelter volunteers can go for the dog's rescue.

The shelter founders call on the government for support of such rescuing efforts and the parliament for a bill that preserves the lives of such helpless animals.

CART has six regular workers excluding the vet. All the workers have gone through a training course on ABC medication, like how to insert a cannula, how to give a shot, what to do when the dog's temperature is too high or too low, etc., but stitching is only done by the vet or his assistant.

Sayyid Abdel-Naby, a man in his 30s who has been working for CART since its establishment, said that the shelter managers treat him very well that he doesn't consider himself a worker but an owner of the shelter, which makes him love the place and spare no effort to help the animals.

"I initially love animals, particularly dogs, for they are so loyal and they never betray their friends," Abdel-Naby told Xinhua, adding that "while working on some injuries I feel they are in my own body, but when the dog completely recovers I feel I am the happiest person on earth."

The veteran rescuer stressed that the decreasing capacity and the limited source of finance are the biggest challenges facing CART due to the growing number of dogs coming to the shelter.

Some of the recovered dogs get chances for adoption outside Egypt, such as the United States, Canada, Germany and other Western states. The shelter used to send from 10 to 15 dogs together abroad for adoption, but now the authorities restricted the number to two.

Capito, a little recovered baladi dog, is scheduled to travel soon to Germany to be adopted by a family there. Once approved by the authorities and before it travels abroad, the shelter will provide the dog with a certificate including details about its health condition, vaccination and everything, as well as a microchip if available.

Although the shelter is meant for dogs, it does not decline any other animal that needs rescue. The shelter also has two donkeys and more than 80 cats that are receiving treatment and rehabilitation.

Karima Samir, a female history student in Cairo's Ain Shams University, said it's easy to deal with dogs for their loyalty and kindness, unlike what many people may think, noting that she constantly educates herself about rescuing dogs by reading, surfing the Internet and watching relevant videos.

"I feel their pains and needs and I can tell whether they are sick, hungry or thirsty just by a look into their eyes," the young woman told Xinhua, noting that a paralyzed dog and another shot in the legs are the most difficult cases she's currently working on at the shelter.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 15:56:26|Editor: mmm

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CHARIKAR, Afghanistan, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Seven persons sustained injuries as a suicide car bomb went off near a military convoy in Khalazai area on the outskirts of eastern Parwan provincial capital Charikar on Sunday, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Salim Nuri said.

"It was a suicide car bomb exploded near a military convoy of foreign forces in Khalazai area today morning injuring seven people," Nuri told Xinhua.

However, he failed to disclose the casualties on foreign forces.

The NATO-led Resolute Support mission has yet to make comment on the report.

Meanwhile, Taliban outfit has claimed responsibility and the outfit's spokesman Zabihullah Majahid told media that the attack inflicted casualties on foreign forces.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 16:41:36|Editor: mmm

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) executed the first hostage of the people who were abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida during a recent attack, a monitor group reported on Sunday.

Muhannad Abu Ammar, 19 years old, was among the 30 people abducted by IS during their sudden attack on towns in the eastern countryside of Sweida province on July 25.

In a video footage posted online by IS, Ammar was shown ahead of his execution.

The execution took place on Thursday, according to the video.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the reason for his slaughter was the failure of the negotiations between IS and the Syrian forces.

The negotiations sought the release of the hostages in exchange for the government forces' acceptance to allow tens of IS militants to leave the western countryside of Daraa province toward the Syrian desert.

The Britain-based watchdog group said fear has risen for the lives of the other hostages taken by IS during the attack in Sweida, which killed over 255 people.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 17:31:43|Editor: mym

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KITUI, Kenya, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nine school children were killed and 31 others injured in a road accident in Kitui county of eastern Kenya on Saturday night, police confirmed on Sunday.

The students from the St. Gabriel Primary School in Mwingi town were traveling from the coastal city of Mombasa where they had gone for a trip when their bus was involved in a head-on collision at a bridge on the Thika-Garissa Road at around midnight.

Mwingi divisional police commander John Nyamu told reporters at the scene that eight students were killed on the spot while another one succumbed to injuries as she was being rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital.

The nine students were among 50 passengers, including their teachers.

Nyamu said the driver was overspeeding and overtaking before the bus hit a truck head-on. After the collision, the bus lost control and plunged into the Kanginga river bed.

"This driver was overtaking and by the time he realized there was a lorry, it was too late," said the police commander.

He said they have arrested the driver of the truck and is set to be arraigned in court of Monday, adding that they could be a possible DNA test carried to ascertain the bodies which are badly mutilated.

Meanwhile, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has sent a message of condolence to the families of the nine students.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 17:46:46|Editor: mym

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Aziz Asber, the head of the Scientific Research Center in Syria's central province of Hama, was assassinated late on Saturday, according to activists and pro-government reports.

Asber was killed when an explosion targeted his vehicle in Masyaf in the western countryside of Hama late on Saturday, killing him and his driver, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the man had close ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran.

The Scientific Research Center in Masyaf has been targeted by the Israelis several times and most recently was in last month, giving rise to reported suspect that Israel is behind the assassination of Asber, according to the watchdog.

Some Israeli reports said the Syrian scientist was involved in Iranian missile program.

Asber was also on the sanction list of the United States for developing long-range missiles.

There have been no official comments from the Syrian government, with pro-government activists posting photos online of a charred car said to be the scientist's.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 18:16:51|Editor: mmm

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FUZHOU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A water pipeline connecting Chinese mainland coastal province of Fujian to Kinmen went into operation on Sunday, delivering water from Fujian's Jinjiang River to alleviate water shortages in Kinmen.

The source of the water-diversion project is Longhu Lake in Jinjiang City, the second largest lake in Fujian.

The 28-km pipeline will provide 34,000 cubic meters of water daily to Kinmen, a small island attached to Taiwan but very near the mainland.

The investment totals 388 million yuan (about 57 million U.S. dollars) and the water price has been set at 9.86 new Taiwan dollars (around 0.33 U.S. dollars) per cubic meter.

The smooth operation of the water supplying project concerning Kinmen people's welfare is a great event in the history of Kinmen's development as well as the cross-Strait relations, Liu Jieyi, head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said at a ceremony held in Jinjiang.

Tang Dengjie, governor of Fujian, said the project carried the hope of people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait for peaceful reunification, and common aspiration for a better life.

Tang said the Fujian government would strengthen management to ensure a safe and quality water supply to Kinmen residents.

In 1995, Kinmen authorities put forward the proposal to divert water from Fujian. The mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation in June 2013 publicized a consensus on solving the water problem.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 18:21:52|Editor: mmm

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GARDEZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least eight police were killed and four others wounded as Taliban militants intensified offensives in eastern Afghan province of Paktia, officials said Sunday.

The clash happened in remote Laji Mangal district of the province, where Gen. Raz Mohammad Mandozai, the provincial police chief, told Xinhua that the anti-government militants have intensified offensives on government military posts recently, killing eight security personnel and injuring some others late on Saturday.

According to the source, insurgents have also suffered heavy casualties and the district center was still under the government forces' control.

Sporadic clash was continuing in the district as of Sunday morning.

The Taliban have not commented on the report yet.

Earlier on Sunday, the Islamic State (IS) extremist group claimed a deadly suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque in provincial capital Gardez city which killed 39 people and injured more than 80 other worshippers on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 18:31:54|Editor: mmm

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KABUL, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior provincial official was shot and killed in Afghanistan's western province of Farah on Sunday, the latest in a string of targeted attacks in the country, reported local media Ariana News TV.

Sefatullah, director of provincial department of Afghanistan Statistics Organization, was shot and killed when he was on his way to office in Qala-e-Zaman Khan neighborhood of provincial capital Farah city, according to the report.

More than 1,690 civilians were killed and over 3,430 others injured in conflict-related incidents in the first half of the year in the war-torn country, according to figures released by the United Nations mission in the country.

The targeted and deliberate killings by the militants was the third cause of civilians casualties after improvised explosive devices (IEDs) blasts and ground engagements, according to the mission.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 18:41:56|Editor: mmm

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LONDON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Imperial War Museums in Britain started Sunday a major literary project to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War.

The project, called 100 Days, invites one hundred volunteer writers to each create a short story inspired by and based on the life of a real individual who experienced the First World War. Each story runs to exactly 100 words with the opening and closing three words repeated.

The war museums share one story a day from Sunday until 12 November to coincide with the anniversary of the One Hundred Days Offensive.

From Mahatma Ghandi and Elsie Inglis, founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, to Karl Kraus, a Jewish satirist and Jeanne De-Neve, a Belgian refugee needle worker, the diverse stories of these individuals reflect experiences of this conflict from all over the world.

The broad range of volunteer writers has been brought together by 26 Characters Ltd, a not-for-profit organization representing people who share a love of words. Writers include a bestselling author, a screenwriter, a communications consultant and several journalists, as well as performance poets, creative writers and copywriters.

Lisa Andrews, one of the writers, said, "There is a power in the constraint of short-form writing. One hundred words is not very much. But, actually, you can say so much in 100 words. All of our writers have done that. Some of them will absolutely break your heart."

The stories will be published in a crowd-funded book, with the profits going to charity.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 19:27:08|Editor: Chengcheng

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CHANGSHA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- In the hottest period of the year, Huang Qingxiu, a 53-year-old sanitation worker, was pleasantly surprised to find a freezer with free drinks and several types of fruit at her community public service center.

Although Huang wears a straw hat and loose clothes, her clothes are always soaked in sweat. She used to take a big tea cup with her and refill it at least four times a day.

On Wednesday afternoon, despite fierce heat, Huang, who usually takes a break at the community center, walked out to start clearing streets.

At the door, when Huang was told that the cold drinks in a freezer were provided free of charge by surrounding businesses, she "first felt surprise then very warm in her heart."

She took a swig of cool water from the free drinks, which are shared specially for outdoor laborers, including sanitation workers, delivery staff and traffic police, in Changsha county in central China's Hunan Province.

"My work street cleaning has always served these merchants, and now I am enjoying their service," Huang said.

For takeaway delivery man Liu Jianhui, his busiest working time is around lunch. This is also the hottest time of a day, so two or three 1.5 liter bottles of water are needed a day.

When he found the free drinks in the community, he not only took a bottle of water himself, but quickly shot a small video with his phone and shared it in a chat group for delivery men.

"It's much more convenient. And the freezer is placed at the door of the community public service center, so it is not embarrassing for me to get water here," he said.

Next to a restaurant a few blocks away stands the first sharing freezer in this small county. After it went viral on local social media platforms, more freezers with free drinks appeared on local streets, and more residents came to send cold drinks.

"The free drinks were sent in cases but were taken in bottles, so the supply of cold drinks is even more than those taken," said restaurant owner Xiang Juan.

For the remaining "cool supplies," she intends to take to the streets and give them to outdoor workers.

Sanfu, also called China's "dog days of summer," refers to three 10-day periods that are predicted to be the hottest days of the year.

As many Chinese people are battling scorching heat this Sanfu, more and more freezers sharing free drinks have been seen on streets across the country.

After netizens shared pictures of the freezers on the Internet and social media, more touching stories were heard from across China.

In Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, a little boy put a letter in a sharing freezer. The letter said: "When thinking of my father who delivers packages on such a hot day, I feel distressed. Thank you, uncles and aunts who gave water to my father, you made this summer more heart-warming."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:02:16|Editor: mmm

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ABUJA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian army on Sunday confirmed that one of the most wanted commanders of the Boko Haram terror group has been nabbed.

The suspect, identified as Maje Lawan, is believed to be number 96 on the list of wanted terrorists earlier published by the army.

Army spokesman Texas Chukwu said the suspect was nabbed by troops in Banki neighborhood of the northeastern state of Borno.

He was apprehended after he infiltrated an internally displaced persons' camp in Banki, according to Chukwu.

"The suspect is currently undergoing preliminary investigation and will be handed over to the appropriate authority for further action," he said.

Nigeria has made considerable gains against the terror group, dislodging its fighters from the Sambisa Forest.

Boko Haram has been blamed for the death of more than 20,000 people and displacement of 2.3 million others in Nigeria since 2009.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:07:17|Editor: mmm

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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- More than 250 U.S. and Chinese practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) met in Seattle Saturday to share their knowledge and experience as the fourth American TCM Congress kicked off.

The two-day annual event is focusing on gynecology, germatology and cosmetology, according to the event's general affairs chief Ma Lei.

Ma said a lecture given by a Chinese professor on women's healthcare and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal disorder, interested many people.

"A lot of American women here are suffering from PCOS and TCM prtactitioners here wanted to more know about the insights of Chinese TCM grandmasters on the treatment of the disease by using TCM," she said.

Dan Bensky, a veteran TCM practitioner in the United States and co-founder of the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine, was a special guest.

The event, hosted by the American TCM Association and the TCM American Alumni Association, is supported by several Chinese healthcare product manufacturers.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:22:21|Editor: mmm

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GAZA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least four Palestinians were wounded on Sunday by Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip, official security sources said.

"An Israeli scouting warplane fired two missiles on gatherings of two groups of young men who were attempting to fly kites and helium balloons, laden with incendiary material to the Israeli side," the sources told Xinhua.

The wounded have been transferred to the Indonesian Hospital north of besieged enclave, he added.

Some 157 Palestinians were killed and more than 17,000 were injured by Israeli forces as they took part in the "Great March of Return" protests in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The protests demand the return of Palestinians refugees, who were forced to leave their cities during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, as well as lifting the blockade Israel has been imposing on Gaza since 2007.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:22:21|Editor: Chengcheng

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KUNMING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Two groups of endangered Corybas taliensis plants have been found on Gaoligong Mountain in southwest China's Yunnan Province, according to Yunnan Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve.

A research team found the plants, covering a total area of over 10,000 square meters, at elevations between 2,400 and 2,700 meters. It is the first time researchers have confirmed the existence of the species in the area.

"Corybas taliensis is distributed scatteredly and highly susceptible to human disturbance. They urgently need to be protected," said Dao Zhiling, an associate researcher at the Kunming Institute of Botany.

The plant is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as an endangered species.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:32:22|Editor: mmm

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JERUSALEM, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli organization "Disabled Become Panthers" announced Sunday that it will shut down Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday as part of the disabled struggle to increase their monthly governmental allowances.

The disabled demonstration, supposed to take place during the peak period at Ben Gurion Airport, in which tens of thousands pass through in summer vacation, may cause delays and cancellations of flights.

The organization does not accept the government's decision to raise the allowance from currently 3,272 new shekels (about 886 U.S. dollars) to 3,700 new shekels gradually.

It demands that the total pension be compared to Israel's minimum wage of 5,300 new shekels.

The organization called upon its members and other disability organizations to attend the demonstration in the arrivals hall at the airport, and said the demonstration will disrupt and even paralyze the airport for an unlimited period.

As part of their struggle, activists of the Israeli disabled organizations recently blocked railroads and roads, disrupting rail traffic and causing traffic jams.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:37:24|Editor: mmm

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TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR delivered five more turboprops to Iran on Sunday, official IRNA news agency reported.

The ATR 72-600 passenger planes landed at Tehran's international Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning, a day before the return of first round of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Flight licenses have been issued for the ATR passenger planes to join Iran Air's fleet, the Iran Air announcement said.

In April 2017, Iran Air signed a contract with ATR to purchase 20 short-haul passenger jets worth 576 million U.S. dollars. Iran had already received eight ATR 72-600 aircraft and deployed them in domestic flights.

After U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May, Washington is trying to bring sanctions back on Iran with the aim of blocking Iran's international financial transaction and reducing its oil exports to zero.

Under the JCPOA, Iran put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Tehran.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:37:25|Editor: mmm

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by Nathan Morley

NICOSIA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The dumping of 10 derelict army tanks in the sea off Lebanon last month is helping the region gain popularity among divers across the Mediterranean.

The tanks join a French submarine and a Macedonian freighter on a growing list of hotspots for underwater explorers in Lebanese waters. Supporters of the project are confident that as well boosting tourism, the wrecks will create habitats for marine life.

Officials in neighboring Cyprus share that view. They say few experiences can match the thrill of diving, which is a firm part of the sea tourism. In 2013, the Nemesis III, a nondescript old fishing trawler wrote itself into the local history books becoming the first artificial reef to be sunk off the island.

Soon after, three more vessels were sent to a watery grave, all of them are now abundant with marine life. The initiative was welcomed by diving schools as a much needed addition to their products.

"In the last 10-years diving has become much more popular in Cyprus," Andreas Panayotou, of Zenobia Divers told Xinhua. He says increasing numbers of people -- of all abilities -- take diving trips during their vacations. "It is a safe sport. And we have great visibility, marine life and wrecks. We are world-class, as a diving destination."

On the other side of the Mediterranean, Malta has also recently increased the number of artificial reefs and purpose sunk wrecks.

"This has enhanced diving," Alan Whitehead, a diving instructor with TechWise in Malta, said in an interview with Xinhua.

"Also, the growth in technical diving and the multitude of wrecks from World War I and World War II around Malta has boosted the image and profile of Malta with many media articles, awards and archaeological expeditions and studies increasing every year," he added.

Whitehead said that social media allows people to see the beauty of the underwater world with high quality images and reckons diving is no longer seen as an extreme sport. "But still has its risk when not conducted properly," he warned.

"The major training agencies have moved towards the recreational aspect and an inclusive approach rather than exclusive or elitism. So scuba is that all want to try, medically fit - both physically and psychologically ready - and meet some basic prerequisites such as age."

He said advancements in diving, such as rebreathers, photographic equipment, and training programs have increased the awareness of wreck diving in destinations such as Malta.

Back in Cyprus, its most famous wreck is enjoying record summer visits. The huge Zenobia ferry capsized in 1980, taking with it over 100 trucks and trailers to the sea bed. Panayotou says its labyrinth of passages and rich cargo makes it a firm favorite with visitors from all over Europe.

"It is the 'king of the wrecks,' or as we call her the 'Titanic of the Mediterranean,' about 25,000 people dive there every year. She is an amazing wreck," he said.

For Alan Whitehead, one of the major draws in Malta is the Polynesein, a large converted liner from World War I. "But there are new wrecks being released every month and recently my favorite has become an airplane wreck, Juncker 88, just outside our dive centre," he said.

The Um el Faroud is also considered by many to be the best dive wreck in the Mediterranean. The 10,000-ton Libyan tanker was scuttled off the south coast of Malta in 1995. The boat has become a massive nursery ground by providing space for reproduction, growth, feeding and refuge for marine organisms.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 20:37:26|Editor: mmm

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MOGADISHU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and several others were injured in a suicide car bomb in Afgoye town, about 30 kilometers west of the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Sunday.

A police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua that the car bomb hit a checkpoint manned by the security forces in Afgoye.

"I can confirm to you that a suicide bomber exploded a car bomb killing four people and injuring several others," the officer said.

Residents said the blast was huge and caused scare among the civilians. "The blast occurred at a checkpoint in our town, we knew that several people died in the attack," a resident, Amina Nur, told Xinhua.

The terror group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed 15 government soldiers, a claim denied by the officials.

Independent sources in Afgoye town said the bomber intended to hit a speeding military vehicle but missed the target, killing civilian bystanders. Two soldiers were also wounded, sources say.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 21:02:31|Editor: mmm

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MOGADISHU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Somali National Army (SNA) on Sunday killed two al-Shabab militants and injured another at Sei piano location in the capital Mogadishu, officials said.

Security official who requested not to be named told Xinhua that the militants were going to carry out assassinations in the town, but the forces thwarted their plans.

"The forces recovered two AK47 rifles and there is an ongoing operation at the moment," he said.

Al-Shabab militants claimed that their fighters killed five government soldiers and injured three others in the attack in the same area.

An eyewitness told Xinhua that the militants opened fire on an SNA vehicle while on the way in a drive by shooting incident, prompting an exchange of fire.

"I saw two bodies of al-Shabab militants in a small car while others escaped with injuries, two government soldiers were wounded and a civilian who was injured in the area succumbed to his injuries at Madina hospital later," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 21:22:36|Editor: mmm

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KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Anwar Ibrahim, a former Malaysian deputy prime minister, has won the top post of the People's Justice Party, reported online news portal the Star on Sunday.

The party currently holds the largest number of parliamentary seats. Anwar worked together with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to win the general election in May.

After the nomination window for party polls closed on Sunday, Anwar became the only candidate to file nomination papers for the presidency of the party, popularly known as the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

He will take the job from his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, now Malaysian deputy prime minister and who had founded and led the party while Anwar was in jail.

Mahathir had promised that he would run the country for around two years and leave the premiership to Anwar, who was pardoned by the Malaysian king and was released from prison after the election.

It is reported that Anwar will return to the parliament through by-election.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 21:22:36|Editor: mmm

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The summit between the leaders of the United States and Russia in Finland's Helsinki last month has started to pay off in Syria on several levels, as a consensus between major players is deemed necessary to end the Syrian war, analysts said.

At the summit which took place on July 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump agreed on the need to resolve the situation in southern Syria.

Putin stressed the need to return the situation in southern Syrian near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the way it was ahead of the war that has lasted for more than seven years in Syria.

Putin highlighted the need to defeat terrorists in southwestern Syria while keeping the forces of Syria and Israel separated.

He referred specifically to the agreement signed in 1974, which officially ended the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and designated the lines of separation between Israel and Syria.

On July 19, just a day after the summit, the state media outlets in Syria said the rebels in Quneitra province in southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights accepted to evacuate and surrender their heavy weapons to the Syrian army.

Those who want to reconcile with the government remained in their areas to embark on a reconciliation process.

The evacuation process is ongoing and the Syrian army has restored large swathes of territories in Quneitra, including the crossing with the Golan Heights.

On Aug. 2, a war monitor group said the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) returned to its positions on the line of separation between Syria and the Israeli-occupied territories in the Golan Heights after leaving it in 2014.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian military police and the Syrian forces have been deployed in Quneitra and in the disengagement zone after the entire province of Quneitra returned under the government's control.

The UNDOF halted its operations in southern Syria in 2014 after the ultra-radical groups abducted UN peacekeepers in that area.

The UNDOF forces were first deployed between Syria and the Golan Heights in 1974 to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the 1967 war.

In Syria, analysts have always highlighted the need for a consensus between superpowers to help bring an end to the long-standing conflict in the war-torn country.

Additionally, the progress of the Syrian army since starting the "battle of the south" on June 19 has also been conducive in pushing the United States and Israel to accept the fact that the Syrian army is gaining the upper hand and that they need to act accordingly.

Osama Danura, a Syrian political expert, told Xinhua that regarding the Syrian crisis, Putin came to the summit from a stance of power after victories of the Syrian army, adding that those victories have been crowned with Russian diplomatic success in containing the regional and international players in the Syrian war.

The analyst said the Russian-U.S. summit marked a new stage of the understanding between both powers regarding the Syrian crisis in terms of finding a political solution now that the Syrian government is more stable and in control.

The positive development has stopped on the situation in southern Syria, but also in northeastern Syria.

Days after the summit, a delegation of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) was invited to the Syrian capital Damascus for talks about the situation in predominantly-Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria.

Later on, the SDC, the political wing of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), declared that an agreement has been reached with Damascus "to draw a roadmap that would lead to a democratic, decentralized Syria."

The meeting marked the recent will of Kurdish-led groups, who control roughly one quarter of Syria, to open channels with the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to reach a political formula for the situation in northern Syria and possibly to preserve their autonomy amid reports that the SDF could hand over some of its positions to the Syrian army.

Ilham Ahmed, executive head of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said in a recent interview that further discussions will be held with the government, noting that first round of talks touched upon generalities.

Mahmoud Meri, another expert, told Xinhua that there seems to be an understanding between Moscow and Washington that the Assad administration should regain control over all of Syria.

He said the example in southern Syria is one of the signs, noting that rebel-held areas in northern Syria will follow their lead.

Maher Ihsan, a Syrian journalist and a political expert, said the Russians have succeeded since entering the actual course of the Syrian crisis in 2015 to prove themselves as reliable negotiators and guarantors.

All of the deals that have been reached with the rebels were spearheaded by the Russians, and their presence in Syria is achieving a sort of balance and a bridge between the Syrian government and the powers that were antagonists to the Assad government, he said.

"The Russian-backed Syrian army has succeeded in restoring large swathes of territories across the country and that has shattered any foreign betting on the rebel groups, which have been falling one by one," Ihsan said.

"When the West sensed that the rebels they were backing have largely failed, they come to realize the need to secure interests through negotiating with Russia, but this time Russia is negotiating from a stronger stance due to the victories on the ground," he added.

This is why the recent Trump-Putin summit was positive in terms of the actual results on the ground and in light of the U.S. desire to withdraw forces from Syria while maintaining its interests in the Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria, which explains the Kurdish growing desire to talk and agree with Damascus, he noted.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 21:47:43|Editor: Chengcheng

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FUZHOU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A water pipeline connecting the Chinese mainland coastal province of Fujian to the island of Kinmen went into operation Sunday, delivering water from Fujian's Jinjiang River to alleviate water shortages.

The source of the water-diversion project is Longhu Lake in Jinjiang City, the second largest lake in Fujian.

The 28-km pipeline will provide 34,000 cubic meters of water daily to Kinmen, a small island attached to Taiwan but close to the mainland.

Nearly 3,000 Kinmen residents came to pose for photos at the reservoir where the water from Fujian is stored, with colorful balloons rising into the air to celebrate the historic moment.

"It is a big issue concerning people's daily life here in Kinmen," said 83-year-old local resident Huang Chin-tu, adding that he was pleased to witness the moment.

The investment totals 388 million yuan (about 57 million U.S. dollars) and the water price has been set at 9.86 new Taiwan dollars (around 0.33 U.S. dollars) per cubic meter.

"The smooth operation of the water supplying project concerning Kinmen people's welfare is a great event in the history of Kinmen's development as well as the cross-Strait relations," Liu Jieyi, head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said at a ceremony held in Jinjiang.

Liu, also head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, spoke of the mainland's 31 preferential policies for Taiwan, saying that they were aimed at expanding development opportunities in line with demand from Taiwan companies and people.

Liu said the mainland was ready to share its development opportunities with Taiwan compatriots and welcome them to board the "fast train of national rejuvenation."

Fellow Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should unite as one, uphold the 1992 Consensus that embodies the one-China principle, and resolutely oppose and deter separatist elements advocating "Taiwanese independence," Liu said.

They should jointly work for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and advance the process toward the peaceful reunification of China, he said.

Tang Dengjie, governor of Fujian, said the project carried the hope of people from both sides of the Taiwan Straits for peaceful reunification, and common aspiration for a better life.

Tang said the Fujian provincial government would strengthen management to the water supplied to Kinmen residents was safe and clean.

In 1995, Kinmen authorities proposed diverting water from Fujian. The mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation in June 2013 publicized a consensus on solving the water problem.

Kinmen has seen an outflow of people and industry due to the long-term water shortage. Only about 60,000 of the 130,000-plus registered population are permanent residents.

"The water supplying project not only brings fresh water to tens of thousands of households in Kinmen, but also injects fresh impetus into economic growth," said Wu Chunjiang, chairman of the Kinmen Ludao Hotel.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 22:27:50|Editor: Lu Hui

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TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 people were killed and seven others injured in a car crash in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan on Sunday, official IRNA news agency reported.

The accident happened as a truck hit a pickup which had diverted to the left side on its way at Khash-Iranshar road, the traffic police in Sistan and Baluchestan told IRNA.

The pickup was carrying a group of foreign nationals, added the report.

Sistan and Baluchestan is located in southeastern Iran bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. The area is a locus for smuggling illicit drugs and human trafficking to Iran.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 22:42:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian army announced on Sunday that it has killed 52 "highly dangerous terrorists" over the past few days in North Sinai province northeast of the capital Cairo as part of the ongoing "Sinai 2018" anti-terror campaign.

The terrorists had eight machine guns, three explosive devices and amounts of ammunition in their possession.

"Joint raids by the armed forces and the police resulted in the arrest of another 49 highly dangerous extremists in North and Central Sinai," military spokesman Tamer al-Refaie said in the statement.

He added that the raids also destroyed 26 hideouts and storehouses belonging to the terrorists and defused 64 explosive devices planted to target the forces.

Meanwhile, the air forces destroyed 15 vehicles loaded with weapons and ammunition as they were attempting to infiltrate into Egypt via its western borders with eastern Libya, according to the statement.

"Another 17 vehicles have also been destroyed within the Southern Military Region," the military spokesman added.

Since its launch in February, the "Sinai 2018" anti-terror operation has killed about 400 militants while more than 30 soldiers died during the confrontations.

Egypt has been fighting a wave of terrorism that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, since the military removed former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

A Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for most of the terrorist attacks in Egypt over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the security forces killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by re-elected President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 22:58:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinian journalists took part in a protest Sunday at the gate of Israeli Ofer prison faculty, located west of the West Bank city Ramallah, to demand the release of 21 journalists imprisoned by Israel.

The protesting journalists held slogans calling for the immediate release of their colleagues and photos of them.

The protest was initiated by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. Omar Nazzal, member of the Syndicate Secretariat, said "we stand here before several crimes by the occupation that takes more than one form."

Nazzal said that the Israeli measures against media outlets "have intensified last week as six journalists were arrested as part of the Israel's mouth muzzling policy and efforts to stop Palestinians from reporting the truth about killings, settlements and Judaization."

He pledged to go on with the mission of journalism and the "arrests and injuries will not thwart them."

He urged the international community to shoulder its responsibilities in this regard and provide protection for the Palestinian journalists.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative Party, said "Israel is carrying out the worst type of oppression through its arrest of Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and killing of them in Gaza Strip during their coverage of the weekly Return Rallies (Great March of Return) on the borders."

According to the Palestinian Information Ministry, Israel currently imprisons 21 Palestinian journalists, including Alaa Rimawi, 40 years old, who announced an open hunger strike in protest of his arrest last week.

The ministry accused Israel of violating international law in its treatment of Palestinian journalists, explaining that violations include "administrative arrest renewals, high sentences in military courts, expulsion, home imprisonment and imposing fines."

The ministry urged the UN to "implement the UN resolution 2222, related to the rights of journalists and guaranteeing that the Israeli violations do not go unpunished in order to halt the legislation of bills that limit the work of Palestinian journalists."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 23:08:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAPE TOWN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday accused "regime-change agents and imperialist forces" of attempting to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"It is clear that regime-change agents and imperialist forces do not want to accept or respect the independence of the people of Venezuela and their democratically elected government," the ANC said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.

Maduro escaped unharmed from an attempted attack of explosive-laden drones on Saturday. At least two explosions in aerial devices reportedly occurred in front of the president's podium as Maduro was delivering a keynote address on the 81st anniversary of the National Bolivarian Guard.

Maduro blamed the attack on far-right factions in Venezuela and conspirators in the United States, saying they were responsible.

"We are concerned that these were not the first attacks in Venezuela," ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe said.

Mabe said imperialist agents seek to reverse the recently announced measures for economic recovery that are intended to bring stability, tranquility and prosperity to the people of Venezuela.

The ANC condemns the attack in the strongest possible terms, he said, adding that these barbaric acts have no place in the democratic and peace-loving world.

The ANC urges the government of Venezuela to get to the bottom of these attacks and to do everything to arrest this scourge, Mabe said.

"We pledge solidarity with the government and people of Venezuela and urge them to continue defending and consolidating the gains of democracy and peace in their land," Mabe said.

South Africa has maintained good relations with Venezuela which has come under sanctions imposed by the United States.
MANILA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines congratulated Cambodia on Sunday on its recent general elections and expressed its readiness to work closely with the newly-elected government.

"On behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte and the Filipino people, I wish to congratulate the Cambodian government and its people on the peaceful and orderly conduct of its recent national elections," Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement.

Cayetano said the Philippines "remains committed to working with Cambodia in further enhancing friendly ties and in deepening cooperation at the bilateral, regional, and international levels."

According to the preliminary results from Cambodian National Election Committee, the ruling Cambodian People's Party of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen won a majority vote in the general elections.

Philippine Ambassador Christopher Montero reported to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs the election was conducted "in a smooth, orderly and peaceful manner, with no reported incidents of violence."

The provisional results of the general elections will be released on Aug. 11, and the official ones will be publicized on Aug. 15, according to the timetable of Cambodian National Election Committee.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 23:13:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Crew members of Iran Air pose for group photo beside an ATR 72-600 at Mehrabad airport in Tehran, Iran, on Aug. 5, 2018. The French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR delivered five more turboprops to Iran on Sunday, official IRNA news agency reported. The ATR 72-600 passenger planes landed at Tehran's international Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning, a day before the United States reimposed the first round of sanctions on Iran. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)

TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Delivery of five ATR 72-600 passenger aircraft to Iran is a positive step by the European Union to fulfil its obligations subject to the bilateral deals signed in the aftermath of the 2015 international nuclear accord, an Iranian minister said on Sunday.

The French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR delivered five more turboprops to Iran on Sunday, official IRNA news agency reported.

The ATR 72-600 passenger planes landed at Tehran's international Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning, a day before the United States reimposed the first round of sanctions on Iran.

Abbas Akhoundi, Iranian minister of road and urban development, expressed hope that Iran's cooperation with European countries, as well as with China, Russia, India, Turkey and neighboring states, will help Iran tackle the existing difficult situation due to the U.S. sanction threats.

The world is facing challenges that U.S. President Donald Trump has brought about, but it is important to know how to act under such conditions to remain unaffected, said Akhoundi at the receiving ceremony of the ATR planes.

Besides, Farzaneh Sharafbafi, head of Iran Air airline, said the procedure is underway to receive remaining ATR planes.

Despite the U.S. deadline for European and its own companies to cut their relations with Iran, "we managed to secure the delivery of (part of) the remaining ATRs through negotiations with French and Italian officials," Sharafbafi said.

The EU can resist U.S. pressures if it wants to, Sharafbafi added.

Also, Iran Air announced that flight licenses have been issued for the ATR passenger planes to join Iran's air fleet.

In April 2017, Iran Air signed a contract with ATR to purchase 20 short-haul passenger jets worth 576 million U.S. dollars. Iran had already received eight ATR 72-600 aircraft and deployed them in domestic flights.

After Trump's withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May, Washington has been trying to bring sanctions back on Iran with the aim of blocking Iran's international financial transaction and reducing its oil exports to zero.

Under the JCPOA, Iran agrees to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Tehran.

U.S. sanctions on Iran will snap back in August and November.

The first part of the sanctions will be reimposed on Aug. 6, including sanctions on Iran's automotive sector, trade in gold, and other key metals.

The remaining sanctions will return on Nov. 4, which will include those targeting Iran's energy sector and petroleum-related transactions, and transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

Since Trump pulled Washington out of the nuclear deal, European countries have been scrambling to ensure that Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal.

Last week, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he was "hopeful" that ATR would get permission from the United States to deliver eight regional planes to Iran before Aug. 6.

"I am hopeful that the United States will give us permission to deliver these ATRs," Le Maire said.

"There were eight to be delivered before Aug. 6," he added, highlighting the "significant share" of the order for ATR's turnover.

According to Press TV, Iran has also signed agreements with global aviation giants Airbus and Boeing for the purchase of scores of planes in 2016.

Airbus has already delivered three planes to Iran but Boeing made no deliveries as speculations emerged over the past few months that U.S. sanctions would obstruct the deals with Iran.

The remaining parties to the JCPOA have vowed to stay in the accord, a multilateral agreement jointly negotiated and signed between Iran and six powers, Russia, the United States, Britain, China, France and Germany.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 23:18:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned the assassination attempt of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The failed bid was aimed at spreading insecurity and instability in the South American country, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.

"We regard this measure as a move in line with causing instability and insecurity in this country and in the interests of enemies of the Venezuelan government and people, and strongly condemn it," Qasemi said according to Press TV.

Drones armed with explosives were detonated near Maduro in an apparent assassination attempt that took place while he was delivering a speech to hundreds of soldiers. Maduro was unhurt.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 23:33:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- All 20 people aboard a vintage plane that crashed in the Swiss Alps on Saturday were killed, local police said Sunday.

Also on Saturday, Cantonal police in Nidwalden in the center of the country said that a light aircraft went down near the town of Hergiswil, bursting into flames on impact and killing a family of four onboard, shortly before 10 a.m.

The vintage plane went down on the western side of the Piz Segnas Mountain at an altitude of 2,540 meters with 17 passengers, two pilots, and a flight attendant onboard.

In the crash, "there is no longer any hope of finding anyone alive," Andreas Tobler, the cantonal police chief of the canton of Graubuenden, told journalists in Flims, the Swiss News Agency SDA-ATS, reported.

All of the passengers were Swiss, except for a couple from Austria also on board with their son, Swissinfo, the website of the national broadcaster reported.

The Swiss News Agency said the Junker Ju-52, which was constructed in 1939, was owned and operated by local airline JU-AIR, which specializes in sightseeing flights.

The cause of the crash is not known, said Daniel Knecht of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board.

He said, "The aircraft crashed almost vertically and at a relatively high speed."

The fatal flight was fully booked for the journey from the canton of Ticino near Italy in southern Switzerland over the Alps to Duebendorf in the canton of Zurich.

Salvage operations included the deployment of five helicopters and continued on Sunday morning with the airspace around the accident site closed.

Knecht said the vintage aircraft may not have had crash-resistant cockpit voice and data recorders that more modern aircraft have.

But he said that the age of the aircraft might not have had a bearing on the crash.

"Even older aircraft, if they are well maintained, can be safely operated," said Knecht, noting the plane that crashed had been serviced every 35 hours, most recently in July.

He said officials have ruled out a collision with another aircraft or hitting an obstacle such as a wire.

The two crashes Saturday come just a week after a light aircraft accident in canton Valais that claimed the lives of four people, Swissinfo reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-06 01:08:37|Editor: xuxin

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LONDON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- International Trade Secretary Liam Fox put the chances Sunday of Britain leaving the European Union with no deal at 60-40, blaming the intransigence of Brussels.

Fox, a key member of Prime Minister Theresa May's top ministerial team, revealed his fears of Britain crashing out of the EU in an interview with the London-based Sunday Times (ST) newspaper.

The ST quoted an unnamed source at 10 Downing Street saying both Britain and the EU remained confident of achieving a good deal.

Fox, who has just completed a trade mission to Japan, told the ST he had previously not thought the prospects of a no-deal Brexit were more than 50-50, but the risk of no trade deal with Brussels had now increased.

Fox accused Eurocrats of harboring a theological obsession with EU rules rather than economic wellbeing, which would lead to only one outcome, the report added.

The ST said Fox's intervention comes amid growing fears about the potential collapse in talks over a post-Brexit trade deal.

Downing Street has so far refused to say what May achieved when she met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the south of France on Friday to discuss her soft-Brexit blueprint for a future relationship with the EU.

Fox commented if the European Commission doesn't like the deal Britain has put on the table it's down to them to come up with one that they suggest would be acceptable to Britain

"It's up to the EU 27 (the member states of the EU) to determine whether they want the EU Commission's ideological purity to be maintained at the expense of their real economies," said Fox.

Fox's comments come just days after Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned the dangers of a no deal exit were uncomfortably high.

Referring to efforts by a number of politicians, including some from May's Conservative party, Fox added: "There are people trying to undermine, to block and to thwart Brexit and having fought so long and hard to get to this point, I don't want anything done to jeopardize our exit from the EU.

"The most important thing is that we actually leave the EU in March of next year. And my job is making sure that Britain is match fit for whatever Brexit outcome we have."

Meanwhile, prominent Brexiteer, former government minister Priti Patel, urged May in an article in the Sunday Telegraph to have the backbone and confidence to back Britain in negotiations with the EU.

Patel said Britain was in a strong position when it came to a future trade deal, writing: "We are dynamic, competitive and growing, while the EU desperately needs our money.

"We need to get past Remain versus Leave, past the endless refighting of the referendum, and the latest version of Project Fear and show genuine political courage and leadership," She added.

Commenting on May's proposed Brexit blueprint, Patel said it would surrender Britain's strength's adding: "It means the EU will continue to take advantage of Britain."

"The EU has signed up to free trade agreements recently with Canada and Japan they can do so with their largest trading partner," said Patel.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new round of attacks against the country's media on Sunday, accusing them of being able to "cause war."

In a flurry of tweets Sunday morning, the president continued to cast the media as the "enemy of the people," saying "They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause war!"

That came amid heightened tensions between the Trump administration and U.S. media, some which have been labeled by him as "the Fake News," a move heavily criticized by journalists.

Trump's daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump, however, doesn't share the president's stance, saying last week that she does not think the media is the "enemy of the people."

Trump also fired another shot at the ongoing Russia probe, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, who's looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Mueller is reportedly examining the president's elder son, Donald Trump Jr., for his role in arranging a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in New York between a Russian attorney offering damaging information on Hillary Clinton and Trump campaign officials, including himself.

"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics -- and it went nowhere," Trump defended his son in relation to the highly-scrutinized meeting.

The president also dismissed a Washington Post report that he's concerned about the meeting and his son, while trying to distance himself from the incident.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-06 04:04:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DUBAI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) top diplomat on Sunday criticized the EU for being "unjust" in describing the situation in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

The joint statement on Saturday by Federica Mogherini, EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, and Christos Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, "has failed to condemn the Houthi militias" on Hodeidah's airstrikes, said UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash on his Twitter account.

"It has failed to condemn the Houthi militias for their violations of the humanitarian situation, especially following the crime of targeting the hospital and fish market," he explained.

The European position is "weaker in dealing with the Houthi violations," Gargash added.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led military coalition that has been fighting the Shiite Houthi rebels since March 2015, in order to defend the internationally recognized Yemeni government under President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The contested Red Sea port city of Hodeidah is the gateway of Yemen's northwestern region which remains mostly occupied by the Houthis.

In mid-June, Hadi returned to Yemen's port city of Aden after another one-year exile in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-06 04:09:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOGADISHU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and seven others injured in a suicide bombing in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Sunday evening, the police said.

The suicide bomber, who hurled explosives from inside a vehicle near the Bar Itaia Restaurant along Mogadishu's Makkah Al Mukaramah Road, also died.

"Four were killed and seven others, mostly patrols at the nearby restaurant, were injured in an explosion which followed by gunfire," said a officer who declined to be named.

Witnesses said the car was parked in front of the restaurant, which is mainly frequented by foreigners.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest blast which came hours after four people were killed and several others injured at a checkpoint in Afgoye town, about 30 km west of Mogadishu.

Al-Qaida allied militant group al-Shabab has carried out similar attacks before, targeting Somali and African Union troops.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-06 05:24:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ALGIERS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Algerian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that three militants surrendered to the army in the southernmost province of Tamanrasset bordering Mali and Niger.

The three militants are identified as Aissa Nouari, Mourad Zaatout and Samir Belidi, all of whom joined terrorist groups in 2012, the ministry said in a statement.

Three Kalashnikov machine guns and a quantity of ammunition possessed by the militants were seized, it added.

Meanwhile, the ministry hailed the "positive and decisive" results as a reflection of "the determination of the forces to eliminate the scourge of terrorism" in Algeria.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-06 05:24:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2018 shows the rubble at a parking lot after an earthquake in Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia. (Xinhua/Muhammad Fauzi Chaniago)

JAKARTA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least 82 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded as Sunday's 7.0 magnitude quake destroyed thousands of houses and buildings mostly in Lombok Island of central Indonesia, a government official said Monday.

The jolt forced thousands of people to flee homes and evacuation of the quake-affected people was underway, spokesman for national disaster management agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said.

"The injured are being treated outside hospitals or health clinics as the buildings of health facilities damaged or are in unsafe condition," the spokesman told Xinhua in a text message.

The tremblor hit the hardest Lombok Utara district, Lombok Timur district and Mataram, the provincial capital of West Nusa Tenggara, all situated in Indonesia's tourist destination of Lombok Island, said Sutopo.

"Most of the victims were hit by debris and falling blocks of concrete," he said.

The quake triggered panic in the island and nearby Bali island as well as East Java province and people rushed out of homes and buildings, said Sutopo.

Evacuation and rescue for the victims were underway in the dark, but the efforts were hampered by poor communication access which was disturbed after the quake, he added.

By far, a total of 47 aftershocks followed the 7.0-magnitude shock which struck at 18:46 p.m. Jakarta time (1146 GMT) with the epicenter at 18 km northwest Lombok Timur district and shallow of 15 km under-earth, official of the meteorology and geophysics agency, Yusuf Khaidar Ali, told Xinhua over phone.

The tremblor was also felt strongly in nearby Bali Island and East Java province, and some damages were found in the island, including a mall shopping center and buildings, according to Sutopo.

The meteorology agency issued a tsunami warning, and the tsunami only occurred with height of below 13 cm in three spots in Lombok Island, Biana Rahayu, official at the agency, told Xinhua.

A week ago, on July 29, Lombok Island was struck by a 6.4 magnitude quake, leaving 17 people dead, 365 of others injured and 8,871 people displaced as the jolts destroyed 14,940 houses, according to the disaster agency.

The quake also cut off escape routes in a mountain, a favorite tourist destination, trapping over 1,000 foreign and domestic tourists, fortunately all of them were rescued, it said.

Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone -- "the Pacific Ring of Fire."
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Sunday that there was no U.S. government involvement in the recent assassination plot against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Bolton told "Fox News Sunday" that "I can say unequivocally there was no U.S. government involvement in this at all."

Bolton said he had spoken to the U.S. charge d'affaires in Caracas and was told that "Americans are accounted for."

Maduro escaped unharmed from an attempted attack of explosive drones on Saturday night during his speech to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the country's National Guard.

Later, Maduro called the attack as an assassination attempt, and blamed it on the far-right factions in Venezuela, the Colombian government and conspirators in the United States.

In an apparent response, Bolton said "if the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, we'll take a serious look at it."

After Maduro's re-election, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning U.S. individuals or entities within the United States from purchasing any debt owed to the Venezuelan government.

The U.S. State Department on May 23 announced expulsion of two senior Venezuelan diplomats in the United States in retaliation of Caracas' earlier expulsion of two U.S. diplomats.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-06 05:39:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TRIPOLI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Libya's eastern-based parliament on Sunday urged the United Nations to support Libya's economy and security beyond its political affairs.

The remarks were made by Fawzi Nuwairi, First Deputy of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, during his meeting with Stephanie Williams, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Political Affairs, in the capital Tripoli.

Nuwairi asked the UN to give "greater attention to the security and economic aspects," according to a parliament statement.

He also highlighted the need for an integrated action plan to resolve the Libyan crisis on the political, security and economic levels in order to achieve stability in the country.

Oil-rich Libya has been plagued by insecurity, political division, and economic instability since the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

Despite a UN-sponsored political agreement signed in December 2015, Libya remains politically divided between rival authorities in the east and west of the country, both competing for legitimacy.
Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest were presented the 2008 Philadelphia Award at a ceremony at the Art Museum May 13, 2009. Read more

I first met Gerry Lenfest in 2015, not long after he purchased sole ownership of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com. Gerry told me at the time, "I just figured out how to become a millionaire in the newspaper business. It's easy. You start out as a billionaire, and you buy a bunch of newspapers."

I met Gerry, who died on Sunday, after a long career at the Wall Street Journal. After leaving the Journal, my team and I had a business that advised major American newspaper owners on the digital transformation of their businesses. The question we always heard from a Chicago Tribune, a Los Angeles Times, or a Baltimore Sun was fundamentally the same: "How do I save my newspaper?"

The question from Gerry Lenfest was much more expansive and profound: "How do we sustain great journalism writ large?" Gerry was especially focused on the business challenges. He asked me, "How can digital technology be used to enable and ennoble news, rather than to destroy it?" He sounded liked an 85-year-old millennial.

But Gerry's most keen observation  and this was in 2015  was that we were entering an era when questions of credibility would challenge the news industry. He warned that as the news business got tougher, some in power would take advantage of its weakness. As Gerry put it, "On the internet you don't know what's real and what's not. Before long, we won't know what to believe."

This was more than three years ago. After a blizzard of phony news, opinion masquerading as fact, and direct attacks on the free press, Gerry turned out  once again in his brilliant career  to be quite prescient.

>> READ MORE: H.F. 'Gerry' Lenfest, Philadelphia philanthropist, dies at 88

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism was founded on the belief that a strong local press is fundamental to the health of civic life in the Philadelphia region and to our democracy writ large. Gerry saw a critical role for the Institute in helping fund and protect journalism in Philadelphia. He also saw Philadelphia at the epicenter of a national effort to protect and transform local news in the digital age and to protect the democracy we serve.

So now in mid-2018, what is happening here in Philadelphia is one of the most closely watched experiments in American journalism. After a decade of revolving-door ownership and financial instability, the Philadelphia Inquirer, now owned by the nonprofit Lenfest Institute for Journalism, is undergoing a renaissance inspired by Gerry's vision and funded by his generosity.

Perhaps most gratifying to Gerry, dozens of other Philadelphians have supported the Lenfest Institute with donations of both money and expertise. These include leading venture capitalists and digital media entrepreneurs, prominent money managers, local lawyers, real estate investors, the local community foundation, the deans of journalism schools, and former editors and reporters.

The fruits of these investments are evident nearly every day. In just the last few months, the Inquirer has published unparalleled investigative work documenting the local opioid epidemic, a lead poisoning crisis threatening young Philadelphians, failed safeguards surrounding a devastating nursing home fire, and the plight of area immigrants. These stories, expressed powerfully in both print and digital form, have had tremendous impact on our community.

Significant technology investments have been made to modernize the Inquirer newsroom at 801 Market St. And recently, a fellowship program for emerging journalists was established in Gerry's name to diversify the makeup of the Inquirer newsroom.

Some time back I visited Gerry at his apartment on Rittenhouse Square, where he informed me of his most recent gift to support local journalism, a $40 million matching fund that remains in place to encourage other Philadelphians to support important local journalism. I sent him an email to follow up:

"Dear Gerry: It was a pleasure to see you today, as always. I remain both stunned and deeply grateful for your astounding matching gift.

"It is all of our dreams and aspirations in life to accomplish something that is much bigger than ourselves. You have made such enormous contributions to the arts, to education, to historic preservation, to cable television, and now to local journalism. The Institute team and I can only look after one of them, but I am writing to tell you that we intend to do so with all our hearts, our passion and our capabilities. This is an important and lasting legacy for you, for me, for all of our board and team, for the City of Philadelphia, and for American journalism and democracy.

"With greatest thanks and deep admiration. Jim"

Ten minutes later, he responded in true Gerry fashion:

"Dear Jim: Your email touched me deeply. Now get back to work! Gerry"

Indeed we shall, Gerry. Indeed we shall.

Jim Friedlich is executive director of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 14:07:21|Editor: Li Xia

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by Juan Limachi and Carlos Acat

LIMA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Peru is working to strengthen the Pacific Alliance by setting up an infrastructure fund and developing a strong capital market, Peruvian Minister of Economy and Finance Carlos Oliva said Friday.

The South American country assumed the rotating presidency of the Latin American trade bloc, which also includes Mexico, Chile and Colombia, during the group's summit in the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta in July.

"The world is moving at a certain speed and we have to catch up with that speed," Oliva told Xinhua.

In the field of finance, the alliance aims to promote an Integrated Latin American Market (MILA) that comprises the stock exchanges of all four members.

"It has to do with the development of the capital market. We have made some progress with the MILA and the funds passport, but we are aware that we need to keep moving forward," said Oliva.

The funds passport would make it easier for market managed funds to cross borders as part of the push to consolidate the capital market of the Pacific Alliance, which accounts for 38 percent of the regional gross domestic product (GDP).

The bloc is also working to set up a common fund to finance infrastructure projects.

"Between the four countries of the alliance, we have a portfolio of approximately 86 billion U.S. dollars in projects," he said.

The bloc's council of economic and financial chiefs is determined to ensure financial resources to develop projects through public-private partnerships.

"That is already making headway. The Inter-American Development Bank, right now, is helping us to decide who the manager of the fund will be," said Oliva.

There is a third goal of special interest for private enterprises in the four member countries -- to enhance competitiveness, especially in the financial sector, he said.

"We have to bring in legislation, which isn't going to be identical in each country, but will provide certain guidelines in common, to help us integrate and make the most of these tools," said Oliva.

FREE TRADE

Carlos Gonzalez, of Peru's Association of Exporters, said the alliance should bolster free trade among its members.

Exporters, Gonzalez said, would like to see alliance members standardize laws that regulate trade flow in certain areas, such as processed foods.

"It requires some type of legal modification that governments have to carry out" to ensure that there is one common regulation for all four countries, he said.

Gonzalez said that the transition of power in Colombia and Mexico, where new presidents are set to take office, will in no way alter the alliance's development plans. Peru and Chile, meanwhile, are committed to the goal of strengthening the bloc.

Maria Osterloh, an international trade consultant, spotlighted the plan of alliance members at the last summit to strengthen the bloc's ties with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).

Together, the two blocs account for 81 percent of Latin America's total population and 86 percent of regional GDP.

Osterloh, a researcher at the Institute of Andean Political Studies, agrees with Oliva that the alliance needs to consolidate the capital market between its members, as well as to promote the fluid movement of people, goods and services across their borders.

"The idea is to establish value chains between them, where some countries produce parts and components that are assembled in other countries," said Osterloh.

Private-sector players within the alliance support multilateralism and open trade, and "value negotiating at the World Trade Organization to avoid trade wars and protectionism," said Osterloh.

The Pacific Alliance, which represents a market of some 223 million consumers, has also attracted associate members and observer states, some of which have applied for full membership.
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History has always been an interest for Wells 2018 Kernel Days Grand Marshal, Betsy Hermanson, so its only right that she become a part of Wells history as one of its Grand Marshals.

Hermanson has been a member of the Wells community for over 40 years.

She jokingly says though she was not born here, she feels becoming the Grand Marshal has solidified her place in the community.

When I was first working at the Wells Mirror, I was not considered local because I was from the Mankato area, says Hermanson with a smile. She was actually born in Montevideo and grew up here and there as a pastors daughter. Now that I am Grand Marshal, I think its safe to say that I am local.

She and her husband,?Ross Hermanson, moved to the small community in 1974 when Ross received a position at the local police department where he served as an officer for 25 years.

While her husband was keeping the community safe, Betsy was busy raising their five children, Maren, Carl, Erik, Pete and Luther. It wasnt until 10 years after baby number five that Hermanson started working at the Wells Mirror newspaper.

There, she worked for one year before she then became editor of the paper.

I then began learning about a lot of the local stories, local families, and big news stories from the past, she says.

One of those stories included the story of Leonard Japp, a boy who picked coal off the side of the railroad tracks back in the 1920s. He then wound up moving to Chicago and served food in speakeasies during the prohibition days. He was asked for something called potato chips which he had never heard of, and shortly thereafter began creating his own chips. In 1927, Japp started his own company called Mrs. Japps Potato Chips. In 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the name of the potato chips was changed due to the anti-Japanese sentiment and became Jays Chips, a company that manufactured pretzels, potato chips and popcorn.

Its hard to imagine how that little boys story started right here in Wells and he grew up to be a millionaire with potato chips, Hermanson laughs.

It is this type of fascination in history that had keyed her interest for many years. An Abe Lincoln afficionado as well as an avid reader and writer of non-fiction, the former Wells Mirror editor says she is fascinated by history because it is around us every single day.

You cant work at the local newspaper and not be involved in the stories surrounding the community, smiles Hermanson. And then you get involved in the community and there is just no stopping you at that point.

Hermanson added being involved in the Wells Area Chamber, and president of that Chamber in the 1990s, as well as helping at United South?Central activities including post-prom festivities, as well as the library board, and a volunteer for Meals on Wheels to her growing list of community involvement in the Wells area.

She also chose to go back to college to get her bachelor of arts degree in creative writing, with a minor in history, once her children were in college. I had an AA degree and I just decided it was the time to do it when the kids were older, so I did it, says Hermanson. And it was really, really fun.

After working at the Wells Mirror for 11 years, she helped at Hinkley Auto for a few years, and later assisted Sue Nasinek at Bruss-Heitner Funeral Home part-time before she retired just a few years ago.

Some time in 2005, there was talk of the Wells Depot being torn down. It was then that Hermanson, along with many other members of the community, rallied to save the Wells Depot and turn it into the museum it now is.

When we had heard they were tearing down the depot, there was instantly a group of people who refused to let that be the determined future of a piece of Wells history, she says. After figuring out how we could save the depot, we received a huge grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which is no longer available, so we are very happy we took action when we did. We bought the depot for a dollar in 2005, received the grant in 2006, and had to allow the process to work for us for three years before we could really get moving on anything.

Hermanson says she and a number of Wells area volunteers put countless hours into restoring the depot beginning in 2009 to have it be opened and restored to its original capacity by Kernel Days of 2010.

I cant believe its already been eight years, she says. A lot of dedicated people volunteer, put on fundraisers, and help with different events and history projects to keep up our efforts. And since we have opened, donations to the citys local history have not stopped.

Hermanson hopes the Wells Historical Society will continue to be intrigued by the past and work on obtaining more historical structures for the future.

She is now beginning to prepare for Wells 150th celebration coming up and encourages anyone with a passion for history, or connecting historical dots, to join the sesquicentennial committee.

I remember I was working at the Mirror when Wells celebrated 125, though I was not here for the centennial, says the history enthusiast. We would love to have as many community members as we can to be a representative of their church group or organization.

She says being involved in the community is a key component to becoming a future Grand Marshal of Kernel Days.

I remember many Grand Marshals from the past and I looked up to some of those folks, says Hermanson. When I heard I was chosen as Grand Marshal, I was in shock at first. I thought this couldnt be right but it truly is an honor to be right along side so many honorees I looked up to.

Though Hermanson is technically retired in the job sense, she says she is hardly retired because she stays busy. She is still an active member of the Wells Active Living Coalition (WALC), as well as continuing her enthusiasm for local history with the local historical society. She also reads, writes, attends the Washington Avenue Writers Club in Albert Lea, belongs to two Bible study groups, and enjoys getting together with her family and babysitting her grandchildren.

Be sure to catch the Grand Marshal, herself, as she becomes a part of Wells history in the Wells Kernel Days parade on Saturday, Aug. 18.
Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs

07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0)

Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na...
BENGALURU: Amid reports that Aero India may not be held in Bengaluru this year, politicians from Karnataka have been lashing out at the government over the move.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara called the proposed step 'unfortunate' and alleged that the Centre wants to end the dominance of Bengaluru in the defence sector. "Plan to snatch Aero India Show away from Bengaluru in favour of Lucknow is very unfortunate. We have been conducting it successfully since 1996. This comes after HAL was snubbed for Rafael deal. Centre seems to be keen on ending Bengaluru's dominance in the defence sector," he tweeted along with a report which suggested the change of venue for the event.

Congress spokesperson and MP Rajeev Gowda also hit out at the Narendra Modi government claiming that his steps are 'seriously harming India and Karnataka'. "PM Modi took away Rafale from HAL, now Aero India from Bengaluru, hub of India's aerospace industry. Air Force officials say new venue has 'inadequate infrastructure'. Modi's love for spectacle seriously harms India & Karnataka #ModiAgainstKarnataka," he tweeted.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, has said that no decision has been taken yet regarding the venue of Aero India 2019. "There is no announcement made yet on it by the Ministry of Defence. There are cities which are being considered. We will soon decide on the venue and the dates," Sitharaman said.

While Sitharaman stated that the venue has been finalised, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in the joint press conference requested her to continue to let the event be organised in Bengaluru.

Since the inception of the event, the Aero India show has been held at the Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru. However, there have been reports that unlike every year, the event will not be held in Bengaluru this year and may instead take place in Lucknow.

As per a report in The New Indian Express, the event may be held at Bakshi Ka Talab Air Force Station in Lucknow instead of Bengaluru. Reports also suggest that Goa may also be considered as one of the destinations for the show.
New Delhi: Delhi University on Saturday released its seventh cut-off list for admission to undergraduate (UG) courses with many off-campus colleges declaring the availability of seats in science and commerce streams.

Students in the general category can apply for BA(Hons) Economics in Kamla Nehru College, Aryabhatta College, Daulat Ram College and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce. Seats are also available for general category candidates in BA(Hons) English at Aryabhatta College along with other courses like BA programme, BA(Hons) Political Science.

Similarly, the general aspirants can apply for BA(Hons) in Sanskrit and Sociology in Bharati College. Delhi College of Arts and Commerce has seats available for BA(Hons) English, BA(Hons) History and BA(Hons) Journalism.

Science students in the general category can apply for Bsc (Hons)?in Computer Science at Dyal Singh College while Daulat Ram College has seats available under its Bsc(Hons) Mathematics course.

Acharya Narendra Dev College has seats available for general category candidates under BA(Hons) Botany and Chemistry.

The new academic session had started last month. The varsity threw open its admission portal for aspirants of various undergraduate courses on May 15. The registration for these courses ended on June 7.

The first cut-offs were announced on June 19.

The total number of male applicants are 1,44,248, women 1,34,297 and other applicants 29.

According to an official from the university, 2,78,544 aspirants have made payments.

Last year, around 2.20 lakh candidates had made payments.
New Delhi: A 35-year-old man was arrested on Saturday for allegedly killing his live-in partner for insisting upon him to marry her after divorcing his wife, the police said. The decomposed body of the 25-year-old woman was found in an almirah in northeast Delhi's Gokalpuri on August 2.

The man had earlier informed the police that a foul smell was emanating from the house. After searching the house, the police discovered the woman's body from an almirah in it and suspected the man's role in the murder.

Later on interrogation, he confessed to killing her on the intervening night of July 31 and August 1, the police added.

The accused was a married man, having four children and the victim was pressurising him to leave his wife and get married to her, the police said.

The accused was also jealous of her friendship with other men and often scolded her. He also had an eye on the victim's house in which she was staying, they added.

The victim's autopsy is yet to be conducted even though it is suspected that she was strangulated, the police said.

The accused has been remanded in two days' police custody.
VISAKHAPATNAM: Officers from Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Sunday seized 1,125 endangered India Star Tortoise from the Vizag Railway Station. The DRI arrested three people who later disclosed that the Tortoises were smuggled from Andhra Pradesh to be delivered to Bangladesh.

A total of 1125 Indian Star Tortoises of different sizes were found from the possession of the accused.

According to a press release by DRI, the three accused were travelling from Vijayawada to Howrah and used five bags to transport the endangered tortoise.

The accused revealed that the tortoises were collected by someone near Madanapalli, Andhra Pradesh and were given to them at a place called Chelur near Balegowdanahalli village in Karnataka. They were asked to take the same to Howrah and hand it over to some person who would further export them to Bangladesh.

To ascertain the exact nature of the tortoises, the services of the officials of the forest department was sought. Vizag's Divisional Forest Officer came along with his staff for inspection and confirmed the species to be 'Geochelone elegans'.

DRI officials have handed over the tortoise to Vizag's Forest Range Officer and further investigation is underway.

The Indian Star Tortoises are protected under CITES - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. They are declared vulnerable by IUCN  International Union for Conservation of Nature and are listed in Schedule IV to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The endangered species is prohibited for export under Foreign Trade Policy and the same are liable for confiscation under Customs Act,1962, the press release said.

Earlier on July 19, DRI seized six pieces of ivory weighing over 9 kg near a bus stand in Siliguri, West Bengal.
Lucknow: On a day when Mughalsarai Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh is being named Pandit Day Dayal Upadhyay, reports suggest that airports in Kanpur, Agra and Bareilly may also be renamed. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has already sent his request to the Centre, seeking permission to rename the airports.

Mughalsarai Junction is all set to be renamed formally after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Uphadyay. BJP president Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be present at the event on Sunday.

The three leaders will flag off a passenger train and goods train with an all-woman crew, and also launch a 'smart yard' project at the century-old station on the busy Delhi-Howrah route.

The building is being touched up with saffron paint at places and signboards with the new name being put up. On being asked about introducing saffron colour, authorities said that they have been instructed to do so.

Sunil Sajan of Samajwadi Party has accused the state government of trying to attention from real issues. "Will renaming stations ensure faster trains, better tracks," he asked.

Upadhyay was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the Mughalsarai station in February 1968. Mughalsarai is also the birthplace of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The leaders will launch a project to upgrade the yard at the station, officials said.

Ekatmata Express, now set to follow a new route from Lucknow to Mughalsarai, will get the green signal. Railway officials said it will be the first time in the country that an all-woman crew runs a goods train.

Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior BJP leaders will also be present. On paper, Mughalsarai station got a new name after Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik gave his assent to the proposal in June.

(With inputs from PTI)
New Delhi: It took a number of days for Nitish Kumar to break his silence on the alleged sexual assault of 34 women in a Muzzafarpur shelter home that has enraged the entire country. When he did speak - on Friday, the Bihar CM said he is ashamed of the incident. It is this admission that rival parties have clung to with Congress president Rahul Gandhi saying that if Nitish meant what he said, he must act immediately.

Rahul on Saturday was at a Rashtriya Janata Dal-led sit-in protest where he said the state CM should take stern action against those guilty. "We have gathered here for the women of our country and we stand with them. If Nitish ji is really feeling ashamed then he should take immediate action," he demanded. Beside him was RJD's Tejashwi Yadav who has already accused Nitish of trying to shield Brajesh Thakur, the owner of the shelter home who is believed to be politically influential. Thakur is the prime accused in Muzaffarpur shelter home case. At least 34 girls were allegedly sexually assaulted at the shelter home. He has also been named in a case pertaining to another shelter home run by him. Eleven women have reportedly gone missing from the shelter home.

Rival parties have been targetting the JDU-BJP combine in Bihar for being lenient on crime and of not taking action in the particular case of Muzzafarpur sex scandal.

Saturday's protest was attended by - among others - Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, LJD's Sharad Yadav and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: In a shocking incident, jewellery and mobile phone of a woman was snatched by two thieves in Delhi's Mansarovar Park area. The incident took place last Sunday, on July 29 at around 8.20 pm.

News agency ANI posted a video of the shocking act which was captured in a CCTV camera installed nearby.

In the video, a man is seen following a woman for a few seconds in a deserted lane and then suddenly grabbed her from behind. The woman who is seen trying hard to escape eventually falls to the ground and gives up.

Soon the man is seen snatching her belongings and making a quick move towards his accomplice who was already waiting for him on a bike.

While the incident took place, a man passes by them riding a bike but turns out to be the accomplice of the attacker.

At the end of the one minute five seconds-video, the helpless woman is finally seen managing to get up and look for anyone who could help her.
Uttar Pradesh minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has yet again made a remark causing embarrassment to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state. He took a dig at the government over renaming Mughalsarai railway station to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay junction.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Rajbhar said that changing of name wont bring development to Uttar Pradesh, adding that the need was to ensure that trains reached their destinations without delay.

By changing Mughalsarai station's name to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, trains won't start coming on time, they should rectify the mismanagement in railways. Changing of names won't lead to development, said Om Prakash Rajbhar.

This came just hours after the name of Mughalsarai railway station was officially renamed after Deen Dayal Upadhyay. The event was attended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP national president Amit Shah.

The main building of the station has been given a saffron touch while new signboards were put up to reflect the change. Indian Railways also said that it would update its information channels to show the new name.

The station is the fourth-busiest in India and is 20 kilometers from Varanasi. It also has the largest railway marshalling yard in Asia. It is also home to Indian Railways' largest wagon repair workshop.

Notably, there are also demands in Uttar Pradesh to rename Allahabad as Prayag. BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh had last month written a letter to UP Governor Ram Naik, seeking the change in name of the holy city.

Singh had said, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik (then MP from Maharashtra) had helped 'Bombay' to be renamed as 'Mumbai'. I have written to him to consider renaming Allahabad as 'Prayag'.

Allahabad is considered the oldest living city in the country after Varanasi. As per the 2011 census, Allahabad was the seventh most populous city in Uttar Pradesh.

The name Prayag comes from the popular Sangam, confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers. The city holds religious significance for members of Hindu community as it hosts the grand Mahakumbh.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Sunday attacked opposition parties  Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)  over drat National Register of Citizens, released by Assam government last week.

At a public event in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP president asked the Congress, the SP and the BSP to clarify on whether they want illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to stay in India or want them to be evicted.

Asserting that the move of the Assam government was in compliance with the Supreme Court order, Shah said, Complying with Supreme Court orders we brought NRC. The NRC is a way to evict illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam.

I would like to ask SP, BSP and Congress to clear their stand on whether they want illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to stay here or evict them, said the BJP president.

This comes a day after the Congress Working Committee blamed the government for using Assam NRC for gaining political mileage. While the CWC conceded that the concept of NRC was introduced by the Congress party, it said that it should be done in accordance with the Assam Accord, signed during the tenure of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has said that no coercive action must be initiated by authorities against those not included in the list. Pointing that it is a draft NRC, the top court said that it does not form basis of any action by the authorities.

The apex court has said that authorities will have to follow the legal process on the issue and give due opportunity to the residents whose names are left out of the NRC.

It further asked the central government to lay down the standard operating procedure on NRC and submit the same before the court for approval. The state coordinator of the NRC told the court that 37.59 lakh names have been rejected while 2.48 lakh names have been put on hold.
NEW DELHI: India on Sunday formally handed over the request for fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi to the Antiguan authorities. Choksi, a prime accused in the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, had earlier claimed that he had taken the citizenship of Antigua last year to expand his business. The passport of the Caribbean nation provides him visa-free travel to 132 countries.

India had earlier requested authorities in Antigua and Barbuda to detain the PNB scam fugitive after it received information about his presence in the Caribbean island. Authorities in India have been in touch with the island nation following reports of Choksi's presence there and had requested them to restrict his movements by land, sea and air.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police on Saturday said that they gave a "clear report" to Choksi last year as no criminal antecedents were found against him. Police also said they have ordered an inquiry "into the matter of issuance of police verification report (PVR)" to Choksi when he obtained the passport in Mumbai in 2015.

Choksi had obtained his passport under the 'Tatkal' category after the Regional Passport Office (RPO) granted him "No Police Verification Required" status in 2015, a Mumbai Police release said. Because of this status, no PVR was generated from the Mumbai Police.

Choksi left the country on January 1 this year, and an offence was registered against him by the CBI on January 31 (in the PNB scam). The city police is also examining their "internal processes involved in the criminal antecedents verification process to improve the existing system".

A newspaper report from Antigua had said that Indian authorities did not give any adverse report to stall Choksi's citizenship application in that country last year. Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper the Daily Observer reported.

As the news report created a furore, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs had said on Friday that PCC was issued by the passport office of Mumbai for Antigua and Barbuda on the basis of a clear PVR available on his passport. "As the PVR of Mehul Choksi was clear in the system at the time of issuance of PCC, the process followed by Passport Office, Mumbai, was as per extant instructions," he said.
India plans to invoke a 32-year-old Commonwealth pact to seek details from Pakistan about the 2018 Sunjawan Army camp terror attack mastermind Mufti Waqas, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist who was killed by security forces in March this year, according to officials.

The move is also expected to help India in making a fresh appeal to the United Nations to get the JeM and its chief Maulana Masood Azhar banned under the Security Council resolution 1267. China has blocked previous moves by India seeking a ban on the JeM and Azhar.

According to officials in the Union Home and External Affairs ministries, the relevant papers were being readied to send a request to Pakistan under the Commonwealth pact for international cooperation in criminal matters, under which commonwealth nations are bound to provide Mutual Legal Assistance on such issues, they said.

The agreement was originally adopted by Commonwealth law ministers at their meeting at Harare in Zimbabwe in 1986.

Citing this pact, India will seek details from Pakistan about Mufti Waqas, who was killed in an encounter in March this year with security forces at Awantipura in South Kashmir, the officials said.

The details include phone numbers dialled by Waqas before and after the terror attack on the Sunjawan Army camp on February 10 in which six soldiers, one civilian and three terrorists were killed.

Citing the amendments made to the Harare agreement during the meeting of law ministers in 2011 at Sydney in Australia, India will, if necessary, also seek details of the recording of statements of possible witnesses through video calls, they said.

In 2011, Commonwealth law ministers adopted amendments to the Harare pact envisaging cooperation in some new provisions that related to the interception of telecommunications and postal items, covert electronic surveillance, use of live video links in the course of investigations and judicial procedures and asset recovery.

Waqas, a Pakistani national who had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley in 2017, was the operational commander of the JeM. Besides being the mastermind of the Sunjawan Army camp attack, Waqas was also behind the suicide attack on a CRPF camp in South Kashmir's Lethpora on the intervening night of December 30 and December 31 last year.

According to officials, he was functioning as the operational commander of the terror outfit and had even despatched fidayeens or suicide bombers from Tral in South Kashmir to Jammu. It was then that the fidayeens had carried out their strike on the Army camp in Sunjawan.

Waqas is also suspected to be responsible for radicalising local boys Fardeen Khandey and Manzoor Baba. The two boys had carried out the suicide attack on the Lethpora CRPF camp in December last year.
New Delhi: One of the busiest railway stations on the Delhi-Howrah network was known for decades as Mughalsarai Junction. On Sunday, the name of the station was officially changed to Pandit Deen Dayal Uphadyay Junction. Even the paint scheme of the main building here has been changed to saffron.

Opposition asks why. BJP says why not.

There has been much debate around decisions to rename cities, roads, stations and airports in the country. Several political parties have indulged in bringing about these superficial changes but are now crying foul.

(Also read: Kanpur, Agra airports could now be renamed)

When the decision to rename Mughalsarai station was brought about, opposition parties accused BJP of trying to alter history. Some, like Samajwadi Party, said the state government is trying to deflect attention from its failures. "Why are they changing names unnecessarily when they should be bringing about changes which really affect people? Will renaming the station ensure faster trains, better tracks," asked Sunil Sajan, a party spokesperson.

Sajan's party though has also been 'guilty' of sending messages through similar actions. Here is taking a look at what political parties have done to indirectly promote themselves when in power:

Samajwadi Party: Akhilesh Yadav had highlighted bags and laptops given to hundreds of students when he was CM of UP as fulfilling promises made in SP's manifesto. He would be slammed for putting his own photo as wallpapers on the laptop and even on the bags. SP had also brought about red and green as the central colour theme at many places - still visible in the cycle tracks in Noida.

Bahujan Samaj Party: The first time Mayawati became the CM of UP, she made blue and white as the two favourite colours of the state. Even government-issued notebooks and diaries were only in those colours. That she would eventually have her own statues put up in Ambedkar Park near Noida was also massively frowned upon.

Trinamool Congress: When Mamata Banerjee first came to power, she ensured that the red of CPI(M) was erased completely. Government offices, flyovers, streetlights and road dividers were given blue and white streaks.

These are just some of the parties to have used the symbolism of colours and names to send out a strong message to both rivals as well as people at large. Little wonder then that BJP sees nothing wrong in doing the same. In fact, the party argues that colours cannot be owned by anyone and that there is nothing wrong in using one or another colour.
Patna: In a major instance of a security breach, one among the 14 girls, who were rescued from a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, has gone missing. The girl has gone missing from the NGO in Madhubani, where they were shifted following the rescue.

Despite the adequate security, a girl somehow went missing due to security lapse or conspiracy, said Pragya Bharti, who runs the NGO. "This should not be made into a political issue," she added.

Had adequate security but somehow a girl went missing due to security lapse or conspiracy.This should not be made into political issue:Pragya Bharti,who runs NGO in Madhubani from where a girl is missing. 14 girls from #Muzaffarpur were earlier shifted here after the case #Bihar pic.twitter.com/aKWBrsTvkF  ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2018

More than 40 girls had been lodged at the shelter home and medical reports suggest that over half of them may have had sexual intercourse at some point of time.

Following a request by the Bihar government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took up the matter. The case has been registered against the officers and employees of Balika Grih in Muzaffarpur under section 120(B), 376, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4, 6, 8,10,12 of POCSO.

The abuse at the shelter home came to light after a girl alleged that her fellow inmate had been beaten to death and buried on the premises. After the complaint was lodged, a police team dug up the ground but did not found anybody there. Muzaffarpur SSP Harpreet Kaur had said that the area of excavation might be enlarged after further examination of the girl who had levelled the allegation.



The NGO running the shelter home has been blacklisted and all the girls have been moved to shelter homes in other districts while the premises has been sealed.
New Delhi: At a time when India is all set to procure Predator-B drones from the United States, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked Indian startups too to develop unmanned drones capable of carrying and firing missiles.

Speaking at the launch of Defence India Startup Challenge in Bengaluru on Saturday, Sitharaman said that drones are fast becoming a massive asset for armed forces around the world and that Indian armed forces should not be left wanting. "Today unmanned drones with missiles on them are the envy of many countries. I already get the feeling that those are not beyond us to produce," she was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. "You won`t lose your skilled manpower if you can remote control operations to finish your targets."

With 'Make in India' in mind, Sitharaman urged for Indian startups to rise to the challenge of developing such drones for the safety and security of the country. She also said that her ministry is open to ideas in all forms. "We are not going to disqualify startups in anything you want to approach us with. Whether it is a bid, tender or suo motu proposal. All three avenues are open for startups."

India is looking to equip its armed forces with a number of high-tech unmanned drones and an American offer its armed version of Guardian drones came as a shot in the arm earlier in the year. If things do fall into place, India could be the first country outside NATO alliance to be sold an armed drone by Washington. Talks for the Predator drone - used primarily for maritime surveillence - has also been on for some time.
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday alleged that BJP President Amit Shah lied on the deportation of foreigners and demanded his apology, claiming that the UPA government had deported 82,728 Bangladeshi foreigners during 2005-2013, while the count was only 1,822 in the last four years of the Narendra Modi government and also noted that NRC was a Congress` baby.

On deportation, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala recalled three replies given by the Home Ministry in Rajya Sabha on three different occasions in 2008, 2016 and 2018.

These replies state that 88,792 Bangladeshi nationals were deported between 2005 and 2013 (during UPA rule). The replies also said that from 2014 to 2017, 1,822 Bangladeshi nationals were deported during the NDA rule.

The first reply was in October 2008 by the then Minister of State for Home Affairs V. Radhika Selvi (from DMK, UPA-I). She had said the number of deported Bangladeshis in 2005 was 14,916. In 2006, it was 13,692 and in 2007, the number was 12,135.

The second reply was given by Minister of State Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on March 9, 2016 in the Rajya Sabha (from 2008 to 2014) and the third reply was given again by Rijiju on March 14, 2018 for the period 2013 to 2017.

Surjewala also accused Amit Shah and Modi government of duplicity, deception and double-speak and said that "NRC is the baby of the Congress party".

"Amit Shah should now apologise to the nation for manufacturing lies and misleading the country purely for political vote garnering in a sinister fashion," said Surjewala.

Daring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, Surjewala said: "On one side, they are shedding crocodile tears on NRC and claiming deportation of foreigners, and on the other, Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC."

"Instead of fooling the people, Modi, Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal must answer whether they support the NRC process or whether they support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 as both are directly in conflict with each other.

"NRC process will fail once citizenship is given to everyone as per the Citizenship Amendment Bill," he added.
Srinagar: Ahead of hearing of the PIL challenging the validity of Article 35-A, life in Kashmir has come to a standstill due to a complete shutdown on Sunday.

Separatist conglomerate Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has called for a two-day strike starting Sunday against the legal challenge in the Supreme Court on the validity of Article 35-A.

Article 35-A bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir from acquiring any immovable property in the state.

The bandh is supported by all mainstream parties excluding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Protests have been held across the length and breadth of Kashmir over the past few days with mainstream parties like the National Conference and PDP also holding rallies in support of continuing Article 35-A.

Shops and business establishments have been closed across the Valley while all kinds of transport remained off the roads due to the strike called. Train services have also been suspended in the state.

The ongoing Amarnath Yatra from Jammu to the cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley has also been shut for two days due to the shutdown.

Security forces have been deployed in strength at vulnerable places in the city and elsewhere in Kashmir to maintain law and order.

Various organisations included Bar Association, transporters and traders' bodies have extended support to the shutdown call of the JRL, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik.
NEW DELHI: Hearing of the public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the validity of the Article 35-A in Jammu and Kashmir scheduled for Monday may be deferred to a later date. Governor NN Vohra has written to the apex court through the standing council of the state to defer the hearing.

The state government has filed an application before the Registrar of the Supreme Court, informing that it is going to seek an adjournment of the hearing of the petition in view of the "ongoing preparations for the upcoming Panchayat and urban local body and municipal elections in the state".

As per Article 35-A, people from outside Jammu and Kashmir cannot acquire any immovable property in the state.

Ahead of the scheduled hearing, separatist conglomerate Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has called for a two-day complete shutdown on Sunday and Monday. Shops and business establishments have been closed across the Valley while all kinds of transport remained off the roads due to the strike called.

The ongoing Amarnath Yatra from Jammu to the cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley has also been shut for two days due to the shutdown.

Security forces have been deployed in strength at vulnerable places in the city and elsewhere in Kashmir to maintain law and order.

Various organisations included Bar Association, transporters and traders' bodies have extended support to the shutdown call of the JRL, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik.

Protests have been held across the length and breadth of Kashmir over the past few days with mainstream parties like the National Conference and PDP also holding rallies in support of continuing Article 35-A.
Berlin: Veteran actor Anil Kapoor has said audiences will not like to watch a biopic on him as his life has been free of controversies.

The 61-year-old actor said a tell-all film on his life will make a boring watch. "Nobody will want to see my biopic. It will be boring. I have never been involved in a controversy or anything like that," Kapoor said.

The actor was speaking at the concluding session of Natcon 2018, the annual conference of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) here yesterday. The apex body of real estate developers hosted the three-day 18th edition of Natcon in the German capital from August 2

During the event, the 'Fanney Khan' actor revealed that initially in his career he did films for money. "I did some films because I needed the money. But I regretted later. One doesn't repeat such mistakes."

Kapoor also recounted how he was dismayed when he could not secure admission to the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

"I was shocked when I failed the FTII written exam. I thought what's the connection between a written exam and acting. I met the Institute in charge Girish Karnad. He said rules are rules. "I failed the exam, but I am here. Now look at the list of who all passed out from there," he said.

The actor said that a film may not do well, but audiences remember his performance, "Similarly, a developer may not make money in a project, but people must say, what a building has been made." Kapoor believes developers and real estate industry in India should follow the German automobile icon Mercedes when it comes to giving a quality product to consumers.

"Quality matters. Like Mercedes. They keep on reinventing. They keep changing the packaging but maintain quality," he said, speaking at an event in the German capital. Mercedes-Benz is a division of the German company Daimler AG, headquartered in Stuttgart.
Mumbai: Actress Sonam Kapoor has thanked music artiste Leo Kalyan for liking her latest film "Veere Di Wedding". She said that the film's team wanted to make a movie which was real and inclusive.

The British-Pakistani musician, who is gay, had tweeted: "Okay, so I thought `Veere Di Wedding` was the most progressive, well-rounded and three-dimensional representation of both women and queer people that I have ever seen in mainstream Bollywood. Plus, it was classic feel-good vibes."

To which, Sonam replied on Sunday: "I am so happy you feel that way Leo! We wanted to make a movie that was inclusive and real, thank you for your words."

Directed by Shashanka Ghosh, 'Veere Di Wedding', a female buddy film, also stars Swara Bhasker, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shikha Talsania.

'Veere Di Wedding' centres around the wedding of a girl named Kalindi and her friends Avni, Sakshi and Meera.
Mumbai: Actor Riteish Deshmukh described his wife and actress Genelia Deshmukh as his best friend, lifeline and strength on her 31st birthday on Sunday.

"Serendipity: Friendship Day meets birthday. Wishing my bestest friend, my strength, my lifeline, my 'Baiko' a very happy birthday. Loads of surprises in store before the day ends. Love you Genelia! And yes, every birthday you don't need to remind me that you are way younger than me!" Riteish, 39, tweeted on Sunday.

Genelia began her acting career with "Tujhe Meri Kasam", also starring Riteish, in 2003. She later established herself in Telugu cinema by acting in several films from 2003 to 2005.

In 2004, the actress appeared in her second Bollywood movie, "Masti", which she co-starred with Riteish.

Her breakthrough performance in 2008 was through the portrayal of the role of Aditi Mahant in the blockbuster movie "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na".

The couple tied the knot in 2012 and welcomed their first child, a son named Riaan, in November 2014. Their second son Rahyl Deshmukh was born in June 2016.

Other celebrities also used Twitter to wish Genelia. Here's what they tweeted:

Preity Zinta: Happy birthday to the sweetest, nicest and cutest girl Genelia! Loads of love always!

Jackky Bhagnani: Wishing Genelia 'vahini' (sister-in-law), a very happy birthday! May happiness, peace, love and joy follow you wherever you go. Have a great day.

Milap Zaveri: Happy birthday Genelia. May you have a wonderful day and year! Big hug.
The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) has said that the agencys old contact number was added on smartphones by Google inadvertently along with police and fire number 112. Google has clarified about the same, saying the number was added in 2014 and has since been continuing through sync mechanism.

The UIDAI has said that "vested interests tried to misuse Google's inadvertent act for fear-mongering against Aadhaar", adding that a helpline number cannot steal data.

According to UIDAI, the search engine giant has expressed regret over the same and has assured that the inadvertent error will be fixed in their next release. It further said that the users, on their discretion, can delete the number.

This comes after concerns were raised by several Android smartphone users over UIDAIs toll free helpline number getting added to phonebook memory. "This is no joke as it is on my phone too. I didn't save this number. Check your phone asap, feeling worried," One of the users had said on microblogging site Twitter with a screenshot.

Google had, however, clarified that there was no unauthorised access into the phones.

"Our internal review has revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the SetUp wizard of the Android release given to OEMs for use in India and has remained there since," a Google India tweet had said.

"Since the numbers get listed on a user's contact list, these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device. We are sorry for any concern that this might have caused, and would like to assure everyone that this is not a situation of any unauthorised access of their Android devices. Users can manually delete the number from their devices."

The UIDAI had also clarified that it had not asked any phone manufacturer to add its helpline numbers in phone directory. This came shortly after Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chief RS Sharma had posted an Aadhaar challenge on Twitter, responding to which hackers had revealed his personal information on the microblogging site with the help of his Aadhaar number.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kiki challenge which has off late become viral on social media, drove two Telangana farmers to take up the dance dare.

Ever since the Canadian rapper Drake's latest music track with catchline 'Kiki do you love me' has been gaining popularity, people all across the world have been taking up the challenge and posting their videos on social media.

Interestingly, the challenge is no longer limited to humans. Videos of animals including dogs and camels have also gone viral from another Telangana village.

In the latest instance, two farmers from Lambadipalli village did the challenge and this time two bullocks have replaced the car. Dancing next to a pair of bullocks in a field, Geela Anil Kumar (24) and Pilli Thirupathi (28) have gained much popularity after the clip was widely shared on Instagram.

A post shared by My Village Show (@myvillageshow) on Jul 31, 2018 at 11:48pm PDT

The video, shot on August 1, was uploaded by filmmaker Sriram Srikanth on his local YouTube channel 'My Village Show'.

The Kiki song has been prompting people to take up a perilous social media dance challenge which requires the performer to jump out of a moving car, make moves while the car is moving and then jump back into the car.

The craze of the Kiki song reportedly started on June 30 after comedian Shiggy shared a video on Instagram, dancing on a busy road. Following this, many Bollywood celebrities too joined the squad and took up the challenge.

Needless to say, the act also called as '#InMyFeelings challenge' has led to several serious accidents.
Celebrations are rather muted for Asad Umar despite an imminent rise in political stature in Pakistan. The incoming finance minister of the country has said that Pakistan would need $12 billion in loans - at the very least - just to keep itself afloat.

Umar will have his task cut out.

Inheriting an economy in absolute shambles would be a massive challenge for Imran Khan and his cabinet ministers and all eyes would primarily be on what Umar does. The former head of Pakistan's Engro Corporation said a recent interview to Bloomberg that the loan amount urgently needed would be in the range of $10 billion and $12 billion. He went on to say that the country would need something extra from thereon to move away from the edge. "The decision needs to be taken in the next six weeks, the further you go forward the more difficult, the more expensive the options become," he is quoted as saying.

Pakistan's economy is indeed crumbling.

Rising imports and the volatile oil markets have greatly hurt the country, especially because its exports - mainly textiles - have only seen a trickle of a rise. Relations with the United States are sour and there are accusations of China following an opaque policy towards OBOR in Pakistan.

It is most likely that once Imran Khan and his ministers take oath on August 11, Pakistan would rush to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package that could be to the tune of $12 billion. The last time the country turned towards IMF was in 2013 when it got a $6.6 billion loan for a crisis of lesser proportions than the one existing now. This time, the US could act as a roadblock as well, further complicating the matter.

That China and Saudi Arabia could help is being predicted but loans from either or both could come with riders. But Umar in his interview negated any fears when it comes to Beijing, stating that 'Pakistan has no Chinese debt problem.'

How his PM goes about his plans of establishing a welfare state - as per his pre-poll promise - remains a mystery as the current economic situation is far from conducive for such herocis.
The militants have been opening fire five times at JFO positions near Novozvanivka, Troitske, Mariinka, and Vodyane during the day

For the last 24 hours, the illegal armed formations were opening fire 36 times at the positions of Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbas on August 3. The press office of JFO reports on their page on Facebook.

According to the headquarters, the fire was opened at the Ukrainian positions in the area of Krymske, Makariv, Novoluhanske, Luhanske, Pivdenne, Zalizne, Mariinka, Krasnohorivka, Hnutove, Lebedynske, Pavlopil, Vodyane, and Shyrokyne.

Related: 24 hours in Donbas: Militants use mortar, no casualties reported

Along with this, the enemy shelled our positions near Krymske from 82mm mortar. Also, the defenders of Talakivka got under fire from 82mm mortar. The enemy was shelling our positions near Pavlopil from a tank, 120mm and 80mm mortars, reads the message.

For the last day, the militants were opening fire five times at the Joint Forces positions near Novozvanivka, Troitske, Mariinka, and Vodyane.

According to the reconnaissance, one representative of the bandit units died and one injured.

Related: 24 hours in Donbas: Four Ukrainian soldiers wounded in combat

Related: 24 hours in Donbas: Militants violate ceasefire four times

Ukraine news on 112.international
Belarus is substituting for the Russian oil in this way.

Representatives of Iran and Belarus have concluded an agreement on a barter exchange of oil for machinery. Irans ambassador to Belarus Mostafa Oveysi said this, Mehr reports.

"Teheran and Minsk have agreed to exchange oil for industrial equipment", - Oveysi said during the meeting between the Iranian ambassadors with the management of the islamic revolution fund, Mostazafan.

Belarus is actively attempting to substitute oil shipments from Russia. Due to miscommunication in gas price setting in 2016, Belarus refused to pay for the oil, causing Russia to cut its supplies to Belarus. Oil refinery volumes in Belarus fell by 18% because of this.

In reaction to that, the President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko announced the country was prepared to seek new sources of oil elsewhere.

"We are traveling to Venezuela to mine oil, then we will go to Canada, we are also in talks with Iran", - he said then.

On 8 May, US President Donald Trump announced the country was pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and re-introducing sanctions against Iran. The sanctions will be resumed gradually, the process is expected to take between three and six months.

Later it was revealed that the United States had introduced additional sanctions against Iran, as well as threatened to impose similar sanctions against European companies that trade with Iran.

In response, Iran is threatening to block oil shipments via the Strait of Ormuz to the Persian Gulf.
Social media

The responsibility for the attempt on the President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro was taken by the previously unknown group Flannel Soldiers. The corresponding statement of the group was published on Twitter.



"The operational drones with explosives should've flown over the presidential rostrum. Sniper of the guard of honor shot down the drones before the goal was achieved. We show that they are vulnerable, today the goal has not been achieved, but this is a matter of time," the statement said.

Earlier we reported that as a result of the attempt on the President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro, seven people were injured. Maduro was not hurt.



On the air of the Venezuelan radio station Union Radio, the country's communications minister Jorge Rodriguez said that the attack on the head of state was committed in Caracas with the help of drone with explosives.



They were put into action when Maduro spoke at a ceremony in honor of the 81st anniversary of the creation of the National Bolivarian Guard. According to Jorge Rodriguez, drones were rendered harmless.



He also said that Maduro will soon address the people and added that the president has already returned to work.

The Venezuelan president accused Colombia of organizing the assassination attempt, but they called such accusations "absurd."

Related: Court orders Lviv-based defense manufacturer to pay $183,000 back to defense ministry
Sung Kim, US Ambassador in the Philippines handed a letter to the North Korean Minister during the Forum of the member countries of the Association of South-East Asian organization (ASEAN), which is taking place the following days in Singapore

The delegation of the US handed a letter from Donald Trump to the leader of DPRK Kim Jong-un. The written reply of the Americal President was conveyed to Ri Yong-ho, the Head of DPRK MIA. US Secretary Mike Pompeo claimed this on Twitter.

We had a quick, polite exchange. Pompeo claimed.

I had the chance to speak with my #DPRK counterpart FM Ri Yong Ho @asean today. We had a quick, polite exchange. Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver @Potus reply to Chairman Kims letter. pic.twitter.com/1DiR6UDj4Q  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 4, 2018

According to Reuters, US Ambassador Sung Kim in the Philippines handed a letter to the North Korean Minister during the Forum of the member countries of the Association of South-East Asian organization (ASEAN), which is taking place the following days in Singapore.

Reportedly, American President Donald Trump received another letter from the Leader of DPRK Kim Jong-un on August 1. Sarah Sanders, the White House Press Secretary hasn't revealed the contents correspondence between the leaders, although she noted that the letter is aimed at the continuation of the discussion on the issue of denuclearization of North Korea.

Related: There is no longer nuclear threat from North Korea, - Trump
Iryna Herashchenko claimed that after having rest he headed to Kyiv

Ukrainian political prisoner Oleksandr Kostenko who was released on August 3 arrived with consuls to Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow. Iryna Herashchenko, Member of Parliament claimed this on Facebook.

It is Stated that the consuls and the Ukranian arrived at the Embassy around five o'clock in the morning on Saturday, August 4.

Related: Priest visits Oleg Sentsov in Labytnangi

According to Andriy Zayats, State Secretary of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kostenko along with our consuls arrived at our Embassy in Moscow towards morning at 5 a.m. After a short rest they are flying to Kyiv, Herashchenko said.

Kostenko is to arrive yet in on Monday or Tuesday without any problems at the customs, she noted.

Reportedly, Oleksandr Kostenko, the Ukrainian political prisoner, walks free, as he left Russian penal colony No.5 in Kirovo-Chepetsk, Kirov Oblast. He was accused of that he allegedly injuring the officer of Berkut Special Forces Unit. Also, the activist was accused of the storage of weapons.

Related: Pavlo Grybs father: I dont know about actual health condition of my son
The US reacted to the offer with skepticism

Valery Gerasimov, Head of the General Staff of Russia sent a letter to the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Major-General Joseph Dunford with offerings on the rebuild of Syria. Reads the memo of the US, as Reuters report.

It is noted that the letter was sent on July 19.

Related: More than 7 thousand children killed or injured in Syrian conflict, - UN

Russia has used a closely guarded communications channel with Americas top general to propose the two former Cold War foes cooperate to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees to the war-torn country, according to a U.S. government memo.

In particular, the Russian side claims that the Syrian Government doesn't have enough equipment, fuel and other attributes needed for the restoration of the country and hosting refugees, who will back home.

Related: U.S. State Secretary accuses Russia violating agreements on Syria

According to the information of the agency, Washington reacted to the Russian plan with skepticism. However, the US plans to support relevant incentives in case the Syrian conflict be resolved politically and elections will be held in the country under the supervision of the UN.

The proposal illustrates how Russia, having helped turn the tide of the war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad, is now pressing Washington and others to aid the reconstruction of areas under his control. Such an effort would likely further cement Assads hold on power.

Earlier, the Government Forces supported by Iran and Russia have almost regained control of the southwest of Syria.

Related: Trump and Putin discuss crisis in Syria and refugee return
Open source

The meeting of American and Iranian presidents depend on the Iranian side. Donald Trump claimed this on Twitter.

Iran, and its economy, is going very bad, and fast! I will meet, or not meet, it doesnt matter - it is up to them! he claimed.

Related: NATO will not aid Israel if Iran attacks, - Stoltenberg

Reportedly, on July 30, Donald Trump stated on the readiness to hold a meeting with the President of Iran Hassan Rouhani without preconditions. Later, US Secretary Make Pompeo claimed that would endorse the idea of the Head of the White House if Tehran fulfills a number of preconditions.

None of the Presidents of the USA haven't met with the Iranian leader, as the US terminated all diplomatic relations with Tehran a year later after the revolution in 1979. However, President Barak Obama broke the rule for the first time in 30 years by having a conversation with Rouhani in 2013.

Trump said that he has no preconditions for a meeting with Iranians having added that If they want to meet, so do I.

Related: Man takes three hostages in Paris, demands to let him contact Iranian embassy
Euronews

The decision to create a single local church in Ukraine will be adopted by the Holy Synod at the end of the summer or in September. This was stated by Patriarch Filaret, reports Channel 5.



According to him, after that all the bishops of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and the Moscow Patriarchate, who addressed the Ecumenical Patriarch with a request for autocephaly, should gather for the Unification Council.



They will elect the head of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church.



"We hope that at the end of August or at the beginning of September this meeting of the Holy Synod will decide on the provision of Tomos, so we must hold the Unification Council. Who are we? Those bishops who appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch. This episcopate at the Council of Bishops should elect a single leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Filaret believes.



Let us note that on July 28 the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew confirmed the intention to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

On April 19 Verkhovna Rada with 268 votes of people's deputies supported the appeal of the President of Ukraine to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to provide Tomos about the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Later it became known that the Ecumenical Patriarchate was beginning consultations with sister churches on the issue of granting autocephaly to the UOC.



Note that since the early 90's in Ukraine there are several jurisdictions that call themselves Orthodox local and autocephalous churches.



The canonical status is held by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Bessarabian Metropolitanate of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate is canonically unrecognized.



In addition, Ukraine also has an unrecognized Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC).

Related: Ukrainian Air Forces state on future replenishment of aircraft fleet
The holiday is established by the decree of the President Viktor Yushchenko in 2007

Open source

The day is marked in correspondence with the decree of the President from June 27, 2007, in the first Saturday in August.

Ukraine marks Air Force Day of the Armed Forces. The relevant decree was signed by Viktor Yushchenko in 2007 by taking into account the importance of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ensuring the defense capability of the state.

Related: Ukraine marks Day of Special Operations Forces

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak have already congratulated the Air Force servicemen of Armed Forces of Ukraine with the professional holiday.

Congratulate the defenders of Ukrainian borders with the professional holiday. Wish our soldiers a clear sky above the head. Let the angels protect you! Poroshenko said.

Happy holiday the brave warriors who protect the Ukrainian sky! Groysman said.

Related: Ukraine to mark 1030th anniversary of Kievan Rus Christianization

In his turn, Stepan Poltorak, Minister of Defense stressed that the Ukranian skilled pilots and veterans are the best example for the young generation of defenders of the Ukrainian airspace.

Todays the professional day of all who linked his life with the Air Forces of Armed Forces of Ukraine! I am grateful to the servicemen of the Air Forces for courage and determination demonstrated during military missions, for tremendous stress and risks they have been through. No one but you can fulfill this important for the State Security mission, the Minister said.

Related: Ukraine's air forces ready to threat from the sea, - JFO HQ
Open source

Today, Ukraine pays tribute to the victims of the Great Purge. The Institute of National Remembrance reports that the memorial events will take place in Kyiv.

In particular, a commemorative liturgy started in the morning at 9:00 a.m. in Pokrovskyy Church on Podil, from 11:00 a.m. through 12:00 a.m. panikhida and memorial events will take place near the Cross for the repressed in 1930-50 yy.

From 1:00 p.m. through 3 p.m. memorial events will take place in the National Historical and Cultural Reserve Bykovnyanskie graves.

The Great Purge is a largescale campaign of the massive repression of the citizens, which was initiated in USSR in 1937-1938.

As a result of the Purge, the political, artistic and scientific elite were destroyed, deformation of public relations took place.

Related: Ukraine commemorates WWII victims

According to the commission for the circumstances establishment of the massive repressions against the members and candidate-members in Communist Orgburo, chosen at the 17th party congress under the chairmanship of Pyotr Pospelov in 1937-38 yy. 1.5 million people were arrested for anti-Soviet activity, half of them were sentenced to death.

According to the assessments of historians almost 200 thousand people, two-third part of who were children condemned to death.
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>> AnnArborObserver.com >> City Guide >> Government >> Elections

City Guide

Elections







Ann Arbor holds city and school board elections concurrently with federal, state, county and school board elections on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November in even-numbered years. Township and village elections are every 4 years to coincide with national presidential elections. For all elections, polls are open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. A valid photo ID is required for voting.

You can register to vote at your city or township clerk's office or at a Secretary of State branch office, (for locations, see the Secretary of State City Guide listing). To be eligible to register, you must be 18 years old by election day, a U.S. citizen, a resident in your city or township for at least 30 days before election day, and not incarcerated. Register to vote by mail at least 15 days prior to an election, or register in-person at your local clerk's office as late as Election Day.

Those interested in working as election inspectors may fill out an application, available at a2gov.org /elections . Inspectors are paid $13+/hour and must be registered to vote in Michigan.

To select candidates, each major party has a primary on the day after the first Mon. in Aug. For more information, contact the county headquarters of the Democratic Party (734-330-5225 or the Republican Party (734) 996-9467.

Political parties and other groups active in local government are listed online at AnnArborObserver.com: Advocacy and Politics.

Related Topics:
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged students Sunday to go home as police fired tear gas at teenage protesters during an eighth day of unprecedented demonstrations over road safety which have paralysed parts of Dhaka. Students in their tens of thousands have brought parts of the capital to a standstill since two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. The unrest quickly spread beyond the capital and authorities have shut down mobile internet services across swathes of the country, officials and local media said. On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighbourhood, with more than 100 people injured as police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators. A car carrying US ambassador Marcia Bernicat was also attacked by "armed men" but she escaped unscathed, the embassy said. The violence continued Sunday with police firing tear gas into a large crowd marching toward an office of the ruling Awami League party, an AFP correspondent said. Dozens of protesters were attacked by people alleged to be ruling party activists, some armed with machetes, in Dhaka's Dhanmondi neighbourhood. Twelve were treated at Dhaka Medical Colleague Hospital, police inspector Bacchu Mia told AFP. A photographer for an international news organisation was among those beaten. The United Nations said it was worried for the safety of the children and young people caught up in the protests. "We are deeply concerned about the reports of violence and call on all for calm," the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo said. "The concerns expressed by youth about road safety are legitimate and a solution is needed for a mega city like Dhaka," she said in a statement. Hasina warned Sunday that a "third party" could sabotage the protests and put the safety of demonstrators at risk. "That's why I request all guardians and parents to keep their children at home. Whatever they have done is enough," the prime minister said from her office. Hasina's warning came as protesters marched towards the scene of Saturday's clashes chanting "We want justice!" Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters Saturday. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, and injuries were consistent with rubber bullet wounds. The Awami League has denied that its officials beat up students. On Saturday, US ambassador Bernicat's vehicle was set upon by a mob. "As she was leaving about 11pm and getting into her car, a group attacked her car," said rights activist Badiul Alam Majumder, who was hosting the ambassador for dinner. The US embassy confirmed an official vehicle "was attacked by a group of armed adult men" but the envoy and her team departed unharmed. - Internet shutdown - The country's biggest-circulation newspaper Prothom Alo said 3G and 4G internet services have been shut down for 24 hours since late Saturday, shortly after the violence broke out. Social media has been filled with comments from Bangladeshis unable to access the internet via their phones, although wireless and wired networks appear to be unhindered. The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said it would comment later Sunday. A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: "The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government." The move may be an attempt to limit the ability of students to mobilise or express growing online anger at how the government has handled the protests, hours after police and unidentified men wielding sticks and stones clashed with students. Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by ruling party activists have flooded social media, prompting renewed anger. Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous. As news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government. Hasina's government has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by separate mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid fears the unprecedented teen anger could spark widespread anti-government protests before a general election due later this year. But their pleas have had little effect. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, fuelled the flames last week. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the minister's resignation despite his subsequent apology. High schools were shut on Thursday as officials promised students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered. The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka, which already suffers from daily gridlock, and elsewhere in the country. Students in their tens of thousands have brought parts of the capital to a standstill since two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus Hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, and injuries were consistent with rubber bullet wounds Several ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid fears the unprecedented teen anger could spark widespread anti-government protests
Standing in a meadow in the sweltering heat and amid the chirping of grasshoppers, 84-year-old Dato Vanishvili looks through a barbed wire fence and sighs: "It's like living in a prison, here." Around five years ago, the farmer woke up one morning to strange sounds outside his house. When he looked out, he saw Russian soldiers erecting a barbed wire fence across his property, as the breakaway region of South Ossetia was physically separated from the rest of Georgia. Vanishvili was trapped on the side of his village, Khurvaleti, that fell under the control of separatist South Ossetian authorities. And ever since that morning in 2013, he has been unable to cross into Georgia. Five years prior to that, in August 2008, Russia and Georgia had fought a five-day war over South Ossetia, a tiny enclave where Russia maintained a military base. Georgia had launched a large-scale military operation against separatist forces who had been shelling Georgian villages in the region. And over the five days that followed, Russia defeated Georgia's small military, sweeping into the Black Sea nation of four million people, bombing targets and occupying large swathes of territory. Russia then officially recognised South Ossetia, alongside another secessionist Georgian region, Abkhazia, where Moscow similarly had a military base. - 'Ethnic cleansing' - Following the Russian invasion, Human Rights Watch accused Moscow of overseeing the "wide-scale pillaging and burning of Georgian homes and the killing, beating, rape and threatening of civilians" by South Ossetian forces. Vanishvili is one of the few Georgians to remain in South Ossetia after the bloody conflict, as most of his family and relations were forced to flee in what the EU has described as "ethnic cleansing". "Eighty Georgian families lived here before the war, only me and my grandson stayed," he said. "Ossetians told my grandson that if he tried to cross the border, they will catch him, take him to Russia and throw him in jail." It's a threat that appears to be very real. Authorities in Tbilisi believe 126 ethnic Georgians were detained by separatist forces last year alone. In February, one of the detainees, a 35-year-old vegetable seller Archil Tatunashvili, was tortured to death in a South Ossetian prison. His mutilated body was only returned to his family after weeks of diplomatic negotiations by Western countries. - Turning up the heat - Prosecutors from the International Criminal Court -- which in 2016 opened an investigation into war crimes committed during the conflict -- estimate that up to 18,500 ethnic Georgians were forcibly displaced from South Ossetia. Despite fierce opposition from Moscow, the UN General Assembly has adopted 10 resolutions calling for their "safe and dignified return to their homes." But a decade after the war, they still live in settlements built for them across Georgia. And they blame Russia for their plight. "Russia invaded Georgia to prevent us from becoming a member of the European Union and NATO, to keep the Caucasus in its claws," said 54-year-old refugee Gennady Zaridze. He now lives in Tserovani, a windswept settlement built in eastern Georgia for 2,000 families displaced from South Ossetia's Akhalgori district. Speaking to AFP, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said he was constantly urging Tbilisi's Western allies to step up pressure on the Kremlin to "end the occupation of Georgian soil." But countless rounds of internationally-mediated talks launched in October 2008 in Switzerland to resolve the conflict have so far brought little, if any, progress. Margvelashvili stressed that Georgians "must not lose hope". That is "exactly" what Russia wants them to do, he said. "They tell us: 'Whatever you do, your fate will be decided in Moscow.' My answer is: this is not the case." Dato Vanishvili, standing near a barbed wire fence erected by Russian soldiers across his property, says "it's like living in a prison" A refugee settlement in the village of Khurvaleti, which fell under the control of separatist South Ossetian authorities Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili says he is constantly urging Tbilisi's Western allies to step up pressure on the Kremlin to "end the occupation of Georgian soil"
A dad and his three young daughters have been located after being reported as missing while camping in poor weather outside of Perth on Saturday.

Mr Bolton and his children have been located safe and well, a spokesman for WA Police said.

It appears he experienced vehicle problems and mobile phone communication in the area is limited, the spokesman said.

WA Police were concerned about the welfare of 32-year-old father Jonathon David Bolton and his three young daughters, Olivia, 5, Layla, 3, and Zara, aged 1, after they went camping in inclement weather on Saturday.

WA Police have located 32-year-old father Jonathon David Bolton and his three young daughters. Photo: WA Police

Mr Bolton and his children,Olivia, 5, Layla, 3, and Zara, aged 1, were last seen leaving their home address in Gosnells. Photo: WA Police

Mr Bolton and his children were last seen leaving their home address in Gosnells, a south eastern suburb of Perth, at about 1.00pm on Saturday August 4.

The last contact from the group, was at 3.00pm on Saturday, when Mr Bolton texted his wife a photograph of the children sitting around a camp fire making damper bread, a WA Police spokesman told Yahoo7.

The announcement came as WA was lashed by wild weather, with strong wind gusts and torrential rain.

Brookton Highway runs through multiple WA state forests and parks, including Midgegooroo National Park, Helena National Park and the Jarrahdale State Forest.
Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan, living in exile in Germany as she risks a life sentence on terror charges at home, thinks the writing is on the wall: her country is sliding into fascism. The award-winning author, still traumatised by the four months she spent in an Istanbul prison, warns that Turkey's institutions are "in a state of total collapse". In President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- no relation -- she sees a man tightening control over everyday Turkish life, emboldened by an outright victory in June elections, sweeping new powers and a crackdown on opponents. "The extent of things in Turkey is like Nazi Germany," the flame-haired 51-year-old told AFP in an interview in Frankfurt, her temporary home as she awaits the outcome of her court case in absentia. "I think it is a fascist regime. It is not yet 1940s Germany, but 1930s," said Asli. "A crucial factor is the lack of a judicial system," she added, describing a country of overcrowded prisons and pro-Erdogan judges in their twenties rushed in to replace ousted peers. Asli herself was among the more than 70,000 people caught up in a wave of arrests under a state of emergency imposed after a failed 2016 coup against Erdogan. She was held for 136 days over her links to a pro-Kurdish newspaper before being unexpectedly freed on bail. The detention of the author of such novels as "The City in Crimson Cloak" and "The Stone Building and Other Places", famed for their unflinching explorations of loss and trauma, drew international condemnation. Turkey's Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk has called her "an exceptionally perceptive and sensitive writer." - 'Pathetically funny' - Turkey's post-coup purge targeted not just alleged backers of preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the attempted putsch, but also opposition media and people accused of ties to Kurdish militants. Turkish authorities reject accusations of widescale rights violations after the coup, and the state of emergency was lifted last month, after Erdogan was re-elected under a new executive-style presidency giving him direct control of ministries and public institutions. "Erdogan is almost omnipotent," Asli said. "He decides on the price of medicine, on the future of classical ballet, his family members are in charge of the economy... Opera, which he hates, is also directly tied to him," she added, chuckling. "That's the nice thing about fascism, it's also pathetically funny sometimes." Turkish lawmakers have also approved new legislation giving authorities greater powers in detaining suspects and imposing public order, which officials say is necessary to combat multiple terror risks. "It's an emergency state made permanent," said Asli. - 'Not bluffing' - As for herself, Asli has given up hope of being acquitted and returning to Turkey anytime soon. "They are not bluffing," she said she realised after several journalists were sentenced to life terms. She faces charges of spreading "terror propaganda" for her work as a literary advisor to the newspaper Ozgur Gundem. The paper itself was shut down, accused by Turkish authorities of being a mouthpiece for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies. The next hearings in Asli's case are scheduled for October and March. The diminutive former physicist said the wait for the verdict was "almost unbearable". "One of the biggest tortures you can do to a human being is to keep his fate unknown." - 'You write with blood' - Released from prison in late December 2016, it took Asli until last September to get her passport back from Turkish authorities. She immediately left for Germany, following other Turkish artists and intellectuals into exile. She now lives in Frankfurt, the recipient of a flat and a monthly stipend as part of the international Cities of Refuge project. The scheme aims to provide persecuted writers with a safe haven from where they can continue working. But Asli, who has written eight books translated into 20 languages, hasn't been able to pick up a pen yet. Struggling with insomnia, depression and health problems, it has been easier to "play the professional writer" in past months, travelling abroad for literary events and talks. But slowly her nightmares about prison are becoming less frequent, she said, while a painful neck hernia has done her the unexpected favour of forcing her to slow down. Asli said she was getting "more in the mood" to write, but her immediate focus remained on raising the plight of those still locked up in Turkey. "I have been pushed into a political role, which I try to carry with grace." But when she is ready, she will put her own experiences of prison to paper, in what Asli predicts will be "a very heavy confrontation". "In literature, you have to be more than 200 percent honest," she said. "You write with blood." Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan is living in exile in Germany as she risks a life sentence on terror charges at home
Italian Fabio Fognini captured his first career hardcourt title on Saturday, surprising Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-2, in the final of the ATP Los Cabos Open. It is the 31-year-old Fognini's eighth ATP Tour victory but his first on hardcourts after previously winning only on clay. The win helps validate a career best season for Fognini as this is his third title of 2018 to go with wins in Sao Paulo and Bastad. He is projected to rise one spot in the new world rankings on Monday to No. 14. Del Potro had won their only previous meeting in 2015 in Sydney, Australia and was going for his second title in Mexico this year. He also won a tournament in Acapulco. After dropping the first three games, Fognini fought back and used his forehand to push Argentina's Del Potro behind the baseline. Del Potro started to come unglued and Fognini was returning everything into play as he went on to win 12 of the final 15 games of the match. The win at the ATP Los Cabos Open helps validate a career best season for Fabio Fognini as this is his third title of 2018 to go with wins in Sao Paulo and Bastad
Iceland tourism has exploded in recent years thanks to the global financial crisis, a volcanic eruption, and a new airline. But now some experts  including locals  believe that the country is going through a tourism bubble.

Theyre concerned about that, Yahoo Finance Editor-In-Chief Andy Serwer, who visited Iceland for the New Year, said on the Final Round recently. There are so many hotels. And [locals] said, What is it about our economy where were kind of prone to bubbles?

I mean, they blew up during the financial crisis worse than we did. And they had a lot of hot Russian money there, and that was a problem. And so they recovered from that. And now I think a lot of people there think theyre heading into the next bubble.

Over the past nine years, the number of tourists visiting the volcanic island of about 350,000 inhabitants has increased exponentially  440%  from around 500,000 in 2008 to 2.2 million in 2017.

Chart: IMF

American tourists, in particular, like Iceland. According to data from the Icelandic Tourist Board, more people came from the U.S. than any other country in 2015 and 2016. And between January and May this year, 24.4% of the tourists were American.

Up close and personal to the forces of nature

The two big precursors to the tourism boom were the financial crisis and the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull.

In 2008 Icelands currency crashed, people were left unemployed, and its three primary banks went bust. People took to the streets in what was known as the kitchenware revolution. Many bankers  and even the prime minister  were put on trial for their role in the collapse.

A demonstrator carries a cone during a protest in Reykjavik January 25, 2009. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins (ICELAND)

People had also become aware of Iceland through it being the first casualty of the 2008 credit crunch, said Huijbens. The ensuing kitchenware revolution and the constitutional reform  which was initiated but not fully completed  also brought sudden exposure to the country.

In 2010 Eyjafjallajokull erupted, leading to over 100,000 flights being canceled and costing the air industry $200 million, according to data from IATA.

Story continues

But the volcanic eruption most certainly put Iceland on the global tourist map, Edward Huijbens at the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre told Yahoo Finance. It underlined to those wanting to come up close and personal to the forces of nature, why they should come.

The Northern Lights are seen above the ash plume of Icelands Eyjafjallajokull volcano in the evening April 22, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

A handful of airlines flew to Iceland

Right after the eruption, Icelands tourism board began working on a marketing campaign to boost its international image. It partnered with advertising and branding agencies and launched a push on social media.

Soon after, the aviation industry began offering more flights to the country. Huijbens pointed out that in 2010, only a handful of airlines flew to Iceland, but now, around 30 airlines fly to and from Iceland this summer alone.

Prior to the countrys low-cost carrier WOW airs launch in 2012, Icelandair was the main operator that flew to Iceland. But since its launch, seat capacity has greatly increased  with Icelandair and WOW air together offering 9.5 million seats out of the 12.1 million in total.

Chart: CAPA

The cost of travel has also dropped tremendously. This fall, a one-way flight from the U.S. to Reykjavik, the countrys capital city, would cost you $99 with Icelands low-cost airline WOW air.

This should not go bust

Nowadays, the country has fully recovered thanks to the massive boom in its tourism industry. The total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in 2017 was 34.6% and forecasted to rise further, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

And while growth is slowing, Huijbens believes that the country is not facing a bubble and expects the good times to continue.

Visitors enjoy a drink in the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Grindavik, Iceland, May 25, 2016. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche

Inbound tourism is still growing compared to last year, and by the end of 2018, we are most likely looking at 5% more tourists than 2017, added Huijbens. That is still healthy growth.

Hjalti Baldursson, founder of Bokun which is a software and sales platform for the Icelandic tourism industry, echoes the sentiment. The country has earned its spot as one of the worlds bucket list destinations thanks to our beautiful landscape and the many unique experiences we offer, Baldursson told Yahoo Finance. These include things such as hot springs, glacier-hiking, northern lights viewings, caving, snorkeling between tectonic plates, snowmobiling, and much more.

But fears of a slowdown has set people panicking and many of those that should be consolidating their investments in tourism and building towards the future are pulling out, Huijbens said. That is the gold rush mentality problem.

ICELAND  2017/06/30: Tourist photographing traditional turf houses at the Skogar folk museum in southern Iceland. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Nevertheless, Huijbens argued that this is a bubble I would say that can and will most likely stay.

He explained: When it boomed all rushed in to make a quick buck, now some of those are leaving as they have no real ambitions or vision for tourism in the country. So now we will see if the industry consolidates and builds its services, offerings, and infrastructure. If this happens there is nothing to say Iceland cannot cater to the number of visitors arriving at current and even more. 

The growth boomed for a while and if the industry plays their cards right this should not go bust.

Follow Aarthi on Twitter.

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Kenya and Tanzania on Tuesday mark 20 years since the devastating US embassy bombings that thrust Al-Qaeda onto the global stage and went on to shape how a generation thinks about personal security. It was mid-morning on August 7, 1998, when the first massive blast hit the US embassy in downtown Nairobi, followed minutes later by an explosion in Dar es Salaam, killing a total of 224 people and injuring around 5,000 -- almost all of them Africans. With two monster bombs loaded onto the back of trucks and a trail of carnage in east Africa, the world was introduced to Osama bin Laden three years before the September 11 attacks in New York would make him a household name. "It wasn't the first time Al-Qaeda had carried out an attack, but in terms of the spectacular, catastrophic nature of the incident, they really announced their entry onto the world stage," said Martin Kimani, head of Kenya's National Counter Terrorism Centre. "When 9/11 happened it was shocking and surprising, but a precedent had been set here in east Africa." According to "The Looming Tower", a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the rise of Al-Qaeda, bin Laden gave various reasons for targeting the embassies, such as the deployment of American troops to Somalia and a US plan to partition Sudan, where he had lived for five years until being expelled in 1996. However, author Lawrence Wright concluded that the main goal was to "lure the United States into Afghanistan". - Boosting Al-Qaeda's image - This aim was achieved, in the aftermath of the attacks, with the US launching strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan that were "largely seen as ineffective", said Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert at the Brookings Institution. The strikes led the Taliban in Afghanistan to "embrace the group more closely", he said, and also boosted the image of a group seen as standing up to the United States in the Muslim world. Byman said the attack was the first to show that Al-Qaeda "had tremendous reach and it can do sophisticated operations". "It showed Al-Qaeda that international terrorism could generate tremendous attention, and not just attention from its adversaries... it was a form of advertising in a way." The years since 9/11 have been shaped by the so-called "war on terror" and the proliferation of American military operations -- notably in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. At the same time, Al-Qaeda went on to inspire affiliates around the globe, carrying out attacks across the Middle East as well as from Bali to Madrid, London and Paris. Islamist insurgencies have wreaked havoc in the Sahel, Nigeria and Somalia, and -- on several bloody occasions since the 1998 bombings -- Kenya. "Kenya itself was not primarily the target but of course we ended up with the majority of fatalities and consequences of that attack," said Kimani. "We continue to be on the frontlines of this struggle." - 'Dealing with terrorism' - Two years after Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab -- which had been carrying out attacks on its soil -- the group killed 67 people in an attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in 2013. Then in 2015, a Shabaab attack on the Garissa University in eastern Kenya left 148 dead. However, Kimani said counterterrorism efforts by Kenya had proved successful, confining Shabaab attacks to remote areas in recent years as a result of new anti-terror legislation and improved co-ordination between different security forces. He said efforts to build trust with communities where jihadists hide out, and understanding how recruitment happens to nip it in the bud has also been key. "The threat is still there, believe me, but 20 years later we have become much better at dealing with terrorism than we used to be," he said. "Globally terrorism has left a deep, deep social imprint. It has changed the way people think about security. Here in Kenya there are guards at malls and hotels and that is replicated in many parts of the world." Kimani said governments need to focus on improving livelihoods and providing basic services to erase the "pockets of desperation" that prove so fruitful for recruitment. In recent years, attention has swung away from Al-Qaeda to its rival Islamic State (IS) group which formed in 2013, captured swathes of territory and inspired numerous so-called "lone wolf" attacks from afar. However, experts warn that while IS has since lost its territory and reach, Al-Qaeda has been quietly rebuilding. "Their ideological ability to be grafted onto local grievances continues to make them a threat," said Kimani. The 1998 bombings introduced the world to Osama bin Laden, three years before the 9/11 attacks would make him a household name 20th anniversary of the attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998. Most of the victims of the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam bombings were Africans
Ten years ago, in August 2008, Russia and Georgia went to war over South Ossetia, a small separatist Georgian region which Moscow would later controversially recognise as independent, in the face of international criticism. Here is a recap of the five-day war in South Ossetia, a territory of 50,000 people which remains one of several sticking points in Russia's ties with the West. - Build up to war - In April 2008 Russia angers Georgia by announcing it is bolstering ties with its rebel provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are on the Russian border. Tensions rise as Georgia accuses Russia of seeking to annex the provinces, which account for around one-fifth of its territory. Moscow is meanwhile annoyed by Tbilisi's ambitions to join NATO and the European Union. There are clashes in South Ossetia on an almost daily basis; Tbilisi and South Ossetian separatist forces are blamed but both deny responsibility. - Russian troops enter Georgia - Overnight on August 7-8 the Georgian army launches an offensive to retake control of South Ossetia, bombarding the regional capital, Tskhinvali. Russia immediately riposts. On the morning of August 8, Russian tanks, light armoured vehicles and personnel carriers sweep into South Ossetia en masse. The aim is, according to Russia, to "defend its citizens", the great majority of Ossetians holding a Russian passport. The Russians bombard Georgian positions around Tskhinvali and also the town of Gori in Georgia. By August 10 Tskhinvali is under Russian army control. Georgia announces a withdrawal of its forces from South Ossetia and a ceasefire. A day later, Russia bombards Gori, the Black Sea port of Poti and the suburbs of Tbilisi. Georgia says most of its territory is "occupied". Images of triumphant Russian troops in the gun-turrets of their tanks or waving flags on Georgian soil are beamed around the world. The lightning conflict claimed 800 lives, according to official tolls from the various sides, with more than 120,000 fleeing their homes. Human Rights Watch says in 2009 that South Ossetian forces "deliberately and systematically destroyed ethnic Georgian villages". A 2009 report by an EU fact-finding mission alleges ethnic cleansing against Georgians. - Europeans weigh in - European nations, unanimous in wanting to extinguish the flames in the Caucasus region, condemn the Russian intervention while keeping their distance from Tbilisi's own offensive. On August 12 the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, negotiates a ceasefire on behalf of the European Union. It involves the return of Georgian troops to their barracks and Russian troops to positions they held before the conflict. The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, signs on August 15 and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev a day later. - Disputed recognition - On August 26 Russia recognises the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the first among only a handful of countries to do so. Saakashvili slams the "first attempt since World War II to change the borders of Europe by force". The United States and other Western countries also condemn Russia. On August 29 Tbilisi severs its diplomatic ties with Moscow. In October Russian troops wind up their pullout from Georgia but remain in the separatist regions, maintaining thousands of soldiers and lending financial support. The EU sends a civilian ceasefire monitoring mission. - War crimes probe - In mid-2015 NATO opens a training centre outside the Georgian capital, at Krtsanisi, a move Russia slams as "provocative". And in early 2016 the International Criminal Court (ICC) opens an ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by all sides during the conflict. Russian troops enter the South Ossetian village of Zemo Nikozi on August 11, 2008 during their lightning war with Georgia A man leads a cow in front of an Abkhazian tank in the remote Kodori Gorge region on August 14, 2008 South Ossetians celebrate on August 25, 2008 in their regional capital, Tskhinvali, after Russia's recognition of South Ossetia's and Abkhazia's independence
Carolina Marin claimed a slice of history as the Spaniard became the first woman to win three badminton world titles with an emphatic victory over P.V. Sindhu of India on Sunday. The aggressive Marin is now the reigning world and Olympic champion thanks to an imperious 21-19, 21-10 win in Nanjing. The all-action 25-year-old adds the 2018 crown to her titles in 2014 and 2015, and the Olympic gold she won from the unlucky Sindhu at Rio 2016. It was more disappointment for Sindhu, who has suffered a string of near-misses in recent times. There was nothing between the pair coming into the final in Nanjing -- in their 12 previous encounters they had won six each. And so it was in the first game too, as the rivals went toe-to-toe, the more attacking Marin, the seventh seed, bellowing after each winning point. Third seed Sindhu, 23, well known for her never-say-die spirit, initially edged ahead before Marin dragged her back to 16-16. It was too close to call and the chair umpire had a job on his hands as the two foes repeatedly tried to throw one another off on Marin's serve -- the Spaniard wanting to get on with the game quickly but Sindhu refusing to let her in an attempt to kill the momentum. Sindhu hit into the net to allow Marin to capture the first game in 27 minutes and she took that momentum into the second to make history. As well as disappointment at Rio 2016, Sindhu was beaten in last year's World Championships final by Japan's Nozomi Okuhara and had to settle for silver at this year's Commonwealth Games too. Spain's Carolina Marin is the first woman to win three badminton world titles
Once upon a time recently, mere allegations of sexual misconduct spelled instant career death. Powerful men fell like dominos. But radio silence has met harassment accusations against the CEO of CBS. The US television corporation lost $2 billion in market value after six women accused Leslie Moonves in The New Yorker. The board appointed lawyers to investigate, but the 68-year-old has been neither sacked nor suspended. His second wife, CBS host Julie Chen, has stood by his side and several female CBS executives have publicly championed his good character and leadership. Stephen Colbert, the CBS late-night comic who has been scathing toward similar scandals, has also been circumspect. "Everybody believes in accountability until it's their guy. And, make no mistake, Les Moonves is my guy," Colbert told his show. "I like working for him, but accountability is meaningless unless it's for everybody." CBS News fired anchor Charlie Rose one day after misconduct accusations went public. New York's state attorney general Eric Schneiderman resigned within hours of a New Yorker report accusing him of physically assaulting women. "It is highly surprising that the board, given the level of detail and the level of corroboration, didn't at least suspend Moonves temporarily," Rich Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG told online TV program Cheddar. "I think there were times when we saw a hanging party formed too quickly but this is not one of these times," Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, told AFP. He blamed the inertia on the corporation's large and elderly board -- average age 74 -- rather than a cultural shift suggesting that #MeToo revolutionary fervor may be ceding ground to a more measured, due process. It comes with the Redstone family, which controls CBS, and the Moonves-chaired board locked in a legal battle for control over a proposed merger with Viacom that the CEO opposes and Shari Redstone supports. "They think that they're showing courage by circling the wagons but in fact they're revealing cowardice -- if not a cult-like support for a person over the interests of the shareholders," said Sonnenfeld. - 'This is different' - Questions have also been asked about why CBS only appointed outside lawyers -- five days after the article came out -- when Pulitzer-winning reporter Ronan Farrow said the corporation knew for months that it was coming. Prominent defense lawyer Lisa Bloom said she suspected a "wrist slap outcome" given the two high-powered New York law firms hired to investigate. "These are the types of firms we fight on behalf of harassment victims every day," she tweeted. "They attack victims and defend perps and corporate inaction." Moonves last week expressed "regret" for unwanted advances "decades ago" but denied that he had ever "misused his position" to sabotage anyone's career. He blazed through the company's second quarter earnings on a conference call, as investors kowtowed to a company directive that questions be limited only to the results and the elephant in the room was ignored. "No one expected Les to get into sexual harassment allegations and what did or didn't happen X number of years ago. But I do think that investors were owed questions like: 'what is the succession plan?'" said Greenfield. Since joining CBS in 1995, Moonves has transformed the corporation into the most watched television network in the country and one of the media industry's best-performing businesses. Advertisers, at least for now, remain on board. One suggestion is that, however lauded Moonves may be, he is not a household name and so the allegations get less oxygen than those against the likes of Kevin Spacey. "Most of the #MeToo/Time's Up cases have revolved around figures that are more in the public eye," said Matt Ragas, associate professor of public relations and advertising at DePaul University in Chicago. "This is different," he said. "One example or case doesn't make a trend, and this one is still playing out. So I don't know that this represents a turning point," Ragas added. But on one point Sonnenfeld was firm: "His current situation is unsustainable," he told AFP. CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, seen here in a file picture from 2010, has been accused of sexual misconduct but remains on the job pending an investigation
Romanian police on Saturday announced a probe into anti-semitic graffiti found on the walls of the house where Nobel Peace prize winner Elie Wiesel was born. "An enquiry is underway to identify those responsible," police spokeswoman Florina Metes said, adding that officers were studying footage from surveillance cameras in the northern town of Sighetu Marmatiei, hometown of Holocaust survivor Wiesel who died in New York in 2016. The graffiti, which appeared overnight Friday, was quickly removed by local authorities. "This grotesque act represents an attack not only on the memory of Elie Wiesel but on all the victims of the Holocaust," said the national institute for Holocaust studies, which is named after Wiesel. The Israeli ambassy in Romania condemned an "unprecedented anti-semitic act," and expressed the hope that those responsible would be swiftly brought to justice. Wiesel, born in northern Romania in 1928, survived Auschwitz and devoted his life to keeping memories of the Nazi genocide of World War II from fading away. He settled in the United States after the war and helped challenge the widely held assumption in Romania, following decades of communist rule, that the Germans alone were responsible for the Holocaust. In 2003 he headed a panel of experts that found that between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews, as well as 11,000 Roma, perished on Romanian soil under dictator and Nazi ally Ion Antonescu. He received the received the Nobel prize in 2001. Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel addressing the United Nations General Assembly in 2005


With just 24 hours to live, mum-of-two Renae Williamson was saved by a routine visit to her GP.

This visit would set off a chain of events that would lead the 40-year-old Perth woman to give up her home to afford the combination of medical treatments and drugs required to keep her alive.

Ms Williamson had suffered a strong headache for four days, believing it was a migraine. On the advice of her twin sister Nicole, Ms Williamson went to her GP who sent her for an MRI.

Little did we know, our lives were about to be changed forever, Ms Williamson posted on her GoFundMe page.

A few days later, the MRI revealed that Ms Williamson had two nodules in her brain. She immediately went to the emergency department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth with her husband Jared and received a shocking diagnosis.

40-year-old Perth woman, Renae Williamson, had suffered a strong headache for four days, believing that it was a migraine. Source: GoFundMe/Renae Cleary

We arrived at the emergency department and we were prioritised quickly, she said.

I was shown one tumor in my brain that measured 2.2cm,

It had caused so much swelling of the brain that if I had left it another 24hrs, I would likely be dead, Ms Williamson said.

She was sent to the hospitals high dependency ward for five days, in preparation for brain surgery to remove one of the two tumours at St John of God hospital in Subiaco.

On July 21, 2017, her neurosurgeon successfully removed the whole tumour. The dramatic procedure left 19 metal staples in the back of her head and Ms Williamson recovered in hospital for another 15 days.

When she finally came home from hospital, she rested for only five days before events took a turn for the worse. Ms Williamson began leaking cerebrospinal fluid from her wound and returned to hospital for another nine days for a procedure.

After surgery to remove a brain tumour, Ms Williamson was left 19 metal staples in the back of her head. Source: GoFundMe/Renae Cleary

I cried so much. I felt completely helpless. For the first time, I was scared and nervous about what was happening to me, she said.

At this time, Ms Williamson was also diagnosed with melanoma, in addition to her existing brain tumours.

It was also the time we found out that I had been diagonsed with melanoma, with no known primary (source). I was told I had the Braf gene, Ms Williamson said.

Story continues

Ms Williamson was put on an expensive combination of medical treatments and drugs, to manage both her brain tumour and melanoma.

I have had to give up my studies in nursing. Weve had to sell our apartment to afford the cost associated with fighting or rather living with melanoma, she said.

We cannot afford to go out. Even just for simple meals. If we didnt receive vouchers for the movies for birthdays and Christmas we wouldnt be going out at all, she said.

Ms Williamson started a GoFundMe page in April, to raise money for medicines, associated MRI and PET scans and for some help with costs of living.

Presently, she has exceeded her fundraising target of $7,000 and hopes to continue to raise awareness about melanoma.
A wave of US sanctions kicks in against Iran on Tuesday, cementing Washington's hard line against Tehran after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear pact. Already facing broad economic fallout as their currency implodes, Iranians are wondering how the next phase of the crisis in US relations will play out -- and what, exactly, America's long-term strategy is toward their country. At least for now, the US is fixated on bringing as much diplomatic and economic pressure to Iran as possible -- though it is not clear where things are headed, or if there is an increased risk of conflict. The US walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and is bringing back "maximum pressure" sanctions for most sectors on August 6, and the energy sector on November 4. As of 0401 GMT Tuesday, the Iran government can no longer buy US banknotes and broad sanctions will be slapped on Iranian industries, including its rug exports. Asked Sunday if Tehran would be able to evade the measures, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed the United States would "enforce the sanctions," saying heaping pressure on Tehran was meant to "push back against Iranian malign activity." "This is just about Iranians' dissatisfaction with their own government, and the President is pretty clear, we want the Iranian people to have a strong voice in who their leadership will be," he told reporters. - Room for dialogue? - After months of fierce rhetoric, Trump surprised observers last week when he offered to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani "any time" -- and without preconditions. The dramatic about-face, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly tamped down, came just days after the enigmatic US president and Rouhani traded barbs. Trump at one point unleashed a Twitter tirade in which he blasted, using all caps, Rouhani's "DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE." He was responding to a July 22 warning from Rouhani that the US should not "play with the lion's tail" and warned that any conflict with Iran would be the "mother of all wars." Trump's offer for dialogue came after Pompeo seemed to suggest support for a change in Iran leadership, telling an audience of Iranian expats in California that the regime had been a "nightmare". And John Bolton, the president's national security advisor, is a well-known Iran hawk who has advocated for regime change. "For Bolton and others, pressure is an end in and of itself," Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, told AFP. For the administration, "if it leads to a wholesale capitulation fine, if it leads to regime change, even better," she added. - Under pressure - Trump's pressure campaign appears to have had some results. For instance, US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf. But this year, to the surprise of some military officials, there have been no such incidents. If Iran senses "American steel they back down, if they perceive American mush they push forward -- and right now they perceive steel," said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank that lobbied for a renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal. Dubowitz, who noted that Iran has tested fewer missiles of late, said Trump's rhetoric and position on Iran actually lowers the risk of escalation toward conflict. "He's assuming that if he talks tough, that will bolster the credibility of American military power," Dubowitz told AFP. Both Trump and Rouhani are due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month. It's not inconceivable a meeting on the sidelines could occur then -- Tehran will be looking anxiously to a November deadline for oil buyers to stop purchasing Iranian crude. Over the weekend Trump once again floated the idea of meeting, tweeting "I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter -- it is up to them!" "Iran, and its economy, is going very bad, and fast!" he said in the same missive. - 'Malign influence' - US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on July 27 there was no policy that had been put in place with the goal of collapsing or changing the Iranian regime. "We need them to change their behavior on a number of threats they can pose with their military, with their secret services, with their surrogates and with their proxies," Mattis told Pentagon reporters. Experts see a number of possible outcomes for the current US policy toward Iran. Sanctions and diplomatic pressure could pile enough pressure on the regime that it comes to the negotiating table -- something Trump has advocated for. The financial crisis in Iran could worsen to the point that mass protests make it impossible for the regime to hold on to power -- though economic pressures risk galvanizing growing anti-American sentiment and support for hardliners. Or the regime could start to address what America calls its "malign influence" in the region, including its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and threats to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies. "I think (the Trump administration) would be pleased with any one of those end states," Dubowitz said. A man holds a newspaper in Tehran US President Donald Trump signs a document reinstating sanctions against Iran after announcing the US withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear deal
Debutant batsman Reeza Hendricks made 102 to help South Africa post 363 for seven against Sri Lanka in the third one-day international in Pallekele on Sunday. Hendricks, whose 89-ball 102 gave the visitors strength after being put into bat first, became only the third South African to register a hundred in his first ODI. Colin Ingram and Temba Bavuma are the other two. Jean-Paul Duminy's 92 off 70 balls added to South Africa's hopes of clinching the five-match series, which they lead 2-0.
South Sudanese arch-foes signed a final power-sharing deal Sunday as President Salva Kiir called for unity in a country torn by a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people. Kiir and his bitter rival Riek Machar were in neighbouring Sudan to sign the deal, under which the rebel leader is set to return to a unity government as the first of five vice presidents, an AFP correspondent at the signing ceremony said. The deal, which paves the way to a final peace accord aimed at ending the war in the world's youngest country, was signed in the presence of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his counterparts from Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, along with foreign diplomats. Once a final peace deal is signed, the foes will have three months to form a transitional government which will then hold power for three years. The talks come as part of a regional push aimed at achieving peace in South Sudan, which plunged into a devastating conflict just two years after its independence from Sudan. "The agreement we have just signed today must map the end of conflict and war in our country," Kiir said in a speech in English after signing the deal. "We should ... rededicate ourselves to unite our people and work for peaceful transfer of power through the ballot boxes rather than through bullets." Machar urged the regional east African bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is pushing the latest peace talks, to ensure that the deal is implemented. "I would urge ... IGAD to focus after this on the implementation of the agreement," Machar said in his address. "Somebody said that the devil sometimes is embedded in the implementation." - Challenges ahead - South Sudan's nearly five-year conflict began after Kiir accused his then-vice president Machar of plotting a coup against him in 2013. Kiir and Machar's factions have already agreed on a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of their forces from urban areas, in the latest talks hosted by Bashir. The power-sharing deal lays out a plan for a 35-minister transitional government including 20 Kiir allies and nine backers of Machar, along with representatives of other rebel factions. The parliament will be comprised of 550 lawmakers, including 332 from Kiir's group and 128 from Machar's faction. Kiir warned that the bloated size of the government would pose a challenge. "See the size of the parliament, see the size of the cabinet. How do you pay them?" he said, adding that he was concerned about how to provide accomodations, offices and vehicles to new officials. But Sudan's Bashir said the mediators were committed to ensure that the agreement was implemented. He said his personal aim was to ensure that South Sudan could restart production of oil from oil-rich Unity State by September 1. Nearly five years of war have seen South Sudan's oil production plummet to about 120,000 barrels a day from a peak of 350,000, according to the World Bank. - US support - Washington has been sceptical about the success of the latest peace initiative, given the fiery enmity between Kiir and Machar. Last month the White House warned that "a narrow agreement between elites" would not solve the problems plaguing South Sudan. "In fact, such an agreement may sow the seeds of another cycle of conflict," it said. But on Sunday the top US envoy to Khartoum said the United States backed the process. "We are supporting any initiative to bring peace to South Sudan and we hope this process will continue comprehensively," US Charge d'Affaires in Khartoum, Steven Koutsis, told reporters after Sunday's deal was signed. The United Nations said the power-sharing deal was a "significant step". "By signing this agreement the guns must keep silent," said Nicholas Haysom, special UN envoy to Sudan and South Sudan. A similar peace deal was signed in 2015 but fell apart a year later in a deadly battle that saw Machar flee into exile. South Sudan's war dashed the optimism that accompanied independence from Sudan in 2011. The new country plunged into civil war, including fighting within the national army, fuelled by the deep enmity between the two leaders. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced some four million people and left the oil-rich country's economy in ruins. With the country's agricultural sector severely disrupted, seven million South Sudanese -- more than half of the population -- will need food aid in 2018, the United Nations says. South Sudan's President Salva Kiir signs a power-sharing deal with his bitter rival Riek Machar in neighbouring Sudan's capital Khartoum on August 5, 2018 South Sudan's President Salva Kiir signs a final power-sharing deal between South Sudanese arch-foes, on August 5, 2018, in Khartoum South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar signs a final power-sharing deal between South Sudanese arch-foes, on August 5, 2018, in Khartoum Map of South Sudan
A mans before and after pictures of his drought-stricken land have revealed the devastating reality facing thousands of farmers across Queensland and NSW.

James Schulhin, owner of Watsons Creeks Roseneath farm in NSWs northeast, took to Facebook on Sunday to reveal the lasting damage months without rain has caused.

He shared an image from 2016 in which he labelled the good old days with lush grass and dozens of cows grazing in a field.

Just two years later and following one of Australias worst droughts of the last century, the same spot is unrecognisable.

Mr Schulhins farm consisted of acres of green land for his cattle to graze on. Source: James and Mel Schulhin

Just two years on, his farm is unrecognisable. Source: James and Mel Schulhin

Gone are the acres of thick green grass and in its place sits a dusty, dry field with no sign of cattle.

The drought has hit us on so many levels  financial, emotional and health, Mr Schulhin told Yahoo7 News.

I lay awake most nights thinking how we are going to pay for everything.

And there appears to be no respite for struggling farmers such as Mr Schulhin with no sign of rain in the near future.

It could be a dry spring and tough summer, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said as he announced the federal governments $190 million relief package on Sunday at a farm in central NSW.

We hope the forecasts are proved wrong but the prospects are not great at the moment.

One of Australias worst droughts in the last century

Autumn in 2018 was the fourth-warmest autumn on record, with rainfall totals below average for most of Australia.

Last month was also the driest July nationally since 2002.

In NSW, drought is affecting roughly 99 per cent of the state, with the Western, North West, Northern Tablelands, Hunter, Central West, Central Tablelands, Riverina and South East regions the hardest hit.

About 58 per cent of Queensland is in drought, with producer group AgForce saying parts of the states west and south have been drought-affected for more than six years.

Sheep on a farming property 40km outside Coonabarabran in NSW as the drought continues to grip the state. Source: Brook Mitchell/ Getty

Along with parts of NSW and Queensland, rainfall deficiencies deepened in July in northern Victoria, eastern pastoral and southern agricultural regions of SA and southern WA and its Gascoyne coast.

Story continues

On top of the dry conditions, there is a 50 per cent chance of an El Nino weather event developing in spring, which is linked to below average rainfall in Australias southeast.

Governments financial backing

Mr Turnbull described some farmers situations as diabolical and tragic as they battle bone-dry conditions.

However he reminded farmers that theyre not alone and the nation would do what it could to support them through this difficult time.

You put the food on our tables, the fibre that goes on our backs and we have your back, Mr Turnbull told reporters in Trangie.

Malcolm Turnbull has announced a $190 million relief package on Sunday to help farmers. Source: AAP

Farmers will be able to access up to $12,000 in cash payments under the new relief package which also includes a boost for mental health services.

The government is also changing the assets test to allow an estimated 8000 more farmers to access support.

Queensland cabinet minister Kate Jones said Mr Turnbulls announcement was a crucial one for those affected communities.

Im sure that these payments announced today will be welcomed by families, Ms Jones told reporters.

This is an example of the Malcolm Turnbull government finally listening to the needs of Australia.

However some farmers have expressed concerns for the long-term futures of their farms, with the funding simply a short-term fix to put food on their familys table.

With AAP
A suicide bomber killed three foreign soldiers in an attack on a patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, NATO's mission in the country said. "Three Resolute Support service members were killed by a suicide bomber during a combined, dismounted patrol with Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan," it said in a statement. A US member of the patrol and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, it said, without giving the nationality of those killed. The attack by a lone bomber on foot happened at 6am in the city of Charikar in Parwan province some 60 kilometres north of Kabul, said provincial governor's spokesman Wahida Shahkar. The Taliban in a statement claimed responsibility. The US-led NATO force ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 and pulled out the bulk of its troops. A 16,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations. Last month a US soldier was killed and two others wounded in an "apparent insider attack" in southern Afghanistan, NATO said. A suicide bomber killed three foreign soldiers in an attack on a patrol in eastern Afghanistan, NATO's mission in the country said
Thousands marched Saturday against President Daniel Ortega's government and his crackdown against doctors who treated injured protestors Managua calls terrorists. The demonstrators chanted "No more abuses," "Long live doctors" and "Doctors are not Terrorists," in solidarity with doctors the government has punished for being opposition members or caring for them. About 100 doctors nationwide were fired from public hospitals for tending to people hurt in the anti-Ortega unrest. According to rights groups, 317 people have been killed and 2,000 wounded in more than three months of unrest against the Ortega administration. The United States, the Organization of American States and the Vatican all support demands from protesters that Ortega -- in power since 2007 -- resign, or at least agree to hold early elections. But Ortega claims the country would plunge into "anarchy" if he left power before the end of his mandate in early 2022. He called a counter-rally outside the Central American University on Saturday demanding "justice for victims of terrorism." Marchers who rallied in support of the doctors wore masks and scarves over fears, they said, of being targeted for taking part. Meanwhile, a new economic analysis released on Saturday by consultants COPADES warned that Nicaragua's economy will be seriously undercut by the crisis to the tune of more than $1 billion in losses, and shed about 200,000 jobs. About 100 doctors across Nicaragua were fired from public hospitals for tending to people hurt in the anti-Ortega unrest
The Rome public prosecutor's anti-terrorism section is to probe the appearance of hundreds of Twitter accounts which demanding the resignation of President Sergio Mattarella in the midst of an Italian government crisis in May, media reports said on Saturday. The Twitter accounts popped up as Italy was mired in political chaos on the evening of May 27 after a days-long standoff over the composition of Italy's government cabinet. President Mattarella vetoed the nomination of fierce eurosceptic Paolo Savona as economy minister, enraging the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and far-right League and prompting their prime minister-elect to step aside. That night, nearly 400 Twitter accounts calling for the president to resign were created in a few minutes before being deleted within hours, according to a police inquiry, the reports said, adding that the probe, which will open next week, would be led by the anti-terrorist section of the Rome public prosecutors' office. Ministers in the new government, however, said they were unconcerned by the allegations. "I was not aware of it and it does not worry me in the least," Interior Minister and League head Matteo Salvini said in an interview published Saturday in the daily Il Foglio. "It's been months since I read that the Russians are influencing Brexit, the US, French and Italian elections. For me it is total nonsense," added the minister, an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hundreds of Twitter accounts demanding the resignation of Italian President Sergio Mattarella (pictured June 2018) during a government crisis in May were deleted hours after being created, prompting a probe by Italian police


Doctors are warning its not just teens who should be protecting themselves against the potentially deadly meningococcal disease.

She may be clear of meningoccocal now, but Lily OConnell is still a regular at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney.

Three times a week for five hours at a time to do dialysis because the infection killed my kidneys, she said.

Christmas celebrations were cut short when a rash developed on the 23-year-olds face and body, sending Ms OConnell into intensive care.

There were doctors and nurses all around me and suddenly I started feeling like, OK this might be it for you mate, she said.

Lily OConnell was admitted to intensive care with the W strain of meningococcal. Source: 7 News

Ms OConnell had caught the deadly W strain of the meningococcal disease, which wasnt covered by the jab she got in high school.

Lils friends all thought they were immune. I thought she was immune. I didnt know about the other strains, her mother Steph OConnell said.

The vaccine now protects against all major strains and a free immunisation program for years 10 to 12 is being extended in NSW.

Those most vulnerable are teenagers, so if we immunise them when theyre teenagers theyre less likely to get it when theyre susceptible, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

A free meningococcal immunisation program is being rolled out in NSW. Source: 7 News

The start of spring is when meningococcal cases tend to rise and 30 per cent of patients will die, or be left with a significant disability.

People aged between 20 and 24 are at increased risk of meningococcal disease, but theyve previously had the C vaccine, which is not protecting them against the current problem, Professor Robert Booy from the National Centre for Immunisation Research said.

As for Ms OConnell, shes about to get a life-saving gift from big sister Grace.

Ill be donating a kidney on the 20th of August, her sister said.

And theyre telling friends to get the jab.
It is not uncommon for a patient to present with a stiff, painful shoulder and be diagnosed with a frozen shoulder." And for many this is in 
PORT BYRON  The 13th annual Port Byron Fire Department Car Show hosted 101 cars Saturday, with everything from battery-powered toys to classic hot rods on display.

Second Assistant Chief David Ware is one of the co-founders of the show, and said it helps to raise funds for the department every year.

Beside department members, the show is also put on with the help of its Auxiliary Corps, which he called "the best around."

Held on the field next to the Mentz Town Hall, the show featured a wide variety of cars, but was dominated by classic American muscle cars like Chevrolet Chevelles and Impalas, Ford Mustangs, 1930s hot rods and more.

One of the more unique vehicles on display was a 2008 Ford Mustang GT Convertible. Nicknamed "Eddie," the car got its name when owner Bill Whitney was admiring it in his garage shortly after purchasing it.

"I was like, 'this thing is a beast,'" Whitney said. "Then Iron Maiden came on Sirius XM and I'm like 'that's it, it's Eddie."

Eddie is the name of the zombie-like mascot that appears in various forms on the cover art of every album of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Flanked by the art from the album "The Trooper," an action figure of Eddie stood atop the engine of Whitney's mustang during the show.

Another highlight, a 1962 Chevrolet Impala in red, belongs to Gary and Sherry Diaz, of Waterloo. Gary has been a car guy nearly his whole life, he said, after watching his father work on them as a mechanic in California.

"My father would fix the cars, sell them the next day and break my heart every time," he said.

Gary likes the classic look of his Impala, which reminds him of the low-riders popular during his youth. But it's not just the cars that attract the Diaz' to car shows, they said, it's the people.

Whenever they display at a show, the other exhibitors and visitors are all able to bond over their shared passion, Sherry said.

Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin

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Should Beaufort County's commissioners be resolved to ask the federal government to defend our Southern Border by ending the Biden /Harris Open Border policy in regards to that one border that is intentionally made OPEN?

Yes, Illegal Migrants are a huge expense to local governments.

No, the cost of Undocumented Immigrants is insignificant in providing a pathway for the "Browning of America".
The Institute for Race Relations (IRR) has warned the ruling party that changing the constitution to enable land expropriation without compensation could erode property rights in South Africa.

PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed!

This comes after Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the government will push ahead with amending section 25 of the constitution which protects property rights of South African citizens.

Briefly.co.za learned that Section 25 states that land may not be expropriated without compensation and changing this could undermine property rights in general throughout South Africa according to the IRR.

READ ALSO: Sjava gives Emtee some love, says he's proud of him

The IRR also warns that failing to protect property rights could result in South Africa suffering a similar fate to that of Zimbabwe where land reform played a part in destroying the countries economy and throwing civil society into chaos according to thesouthafrican.com.

READ ALSO: Self-confessed blesser's interview on live TV raises eyebrows

Thye insititute wrote a letter to the ANC warning that land expropriation is not the answer and that a Zimbabwe situation can be avoided if the ruling party would truly commit to land reform without resorting to expropriation without compensation.

For more amazing, funny and informative videos, please visit Briefly South Africa's YouTube Channel.

Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook page and we could feature your story.

To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play or iTunes today.

Source: Briefly.co.za
News / National

by Staff reporter

HUMAN rights activist Farai Maguwu has said the country will remain in election mode as citizens seek a solution to a crisis of governance.This comes after President Emmerson Mnangagwa narrowly beat MDC -Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa in Monday's disputed harmonised polls.Zanu-PF also clinched two thirds majority despite its failure to steer the economy, which has been on a tailspin characterised by a serious liquidity crunch, high unemployment and closure of companies.Maguwu, who is Centre for Natural Resource and Governance director, said Mnangagwa's government wasted millions of dollars just to gain legitimacy after getting into power on November 24, through a military intervention, which toppled former president Robert Mugabe ."What a waste of resources to gain legitimacy. Zimbabwe wasn't ready for an election and it's only that Mnangagwa wanted to legitimise his rule after what happened last November," he said."The national gloom and shock that followed the first official announcement of results by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission shows that people have no confidence in the electoral process. Zimbabwe will continue in its election mode as citizens seek a solution to the governance crisis facing the country. People will continue to suffer and I don't know how the issue of cash shortages will be resolved.''
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's ruling Zanu-PF party has won a commanding majority in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections on Monday, sweeping aside opposition parties and securing a powerful mandate that will enable it to amend the Constitution.The result, based on official figures, redraws Zimbabwe's political landscape, humiliating the main opposition party MDC that alternated in power for decades until Zanu-PF's latest super majority - where its parliamentary tally has become greater than the threshold of 140 seats majority.Zanu-PF has won 145 parliamentary seats, while the opposition MDC Alliance got 63, in a development that analysts have said will bolster the ruling party's hold on power, with fears that it might change the country's Constitution.The other two seats of the 210 constituencies were won by Masango Matambanadzo from the National People's Party, who secured the Kwekwe South Constituency, while Temba Mliswa won as an independent in Norton.This means minorities in Parliament cannot influence the decisions given that the super majority now represents a one-party opinion - Zanu-PF.Zanu-PF has literally been awarded unchallenged plenary lawmaking authority regardless of the quality of their electoral majority.It means there will be no constraints whatsoever against the limitless power of the parliamentary majority enjoyed by Zanu-PF.There are fears that Zanu-PF will abuse its super majority power to literally enact a new constitution of the country, change cardinal acts, hold sway over appointment of government officials, leaders of independent State organs.The scale of victory gives Zanu-PF, which is obsessed with a power retention agenda, a strong platform from which to make good on campaign promises by amending the new Constitution, a negotiated document with the MDC.Having inherited a Constitution negotiated between the colonial and liberation forces at the dawn of independence - the Lancaster House Constitution - in 1979 and having amended that Constitution 19 times, Zimbabwe completely overhauled its Constitution in 2013 in a process led by a Parliamentary Committee (Copac), as part of the agreed package of reforms in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that culminated in a referendum in 2013.Zimbabweans approved the new Constitution that curbs presidential powers, sets a maximum of two five-year terms for the president, strengthens Parliament and also devolves power to provincial councils.Presidential decrees under this charter require majority backing in the Cabinet, and declaring emergency rule or dissolving Parliament need the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers.Zanu-PF is said to be planning to roll back all these clauses, which were demanded by the MDC.Advocate Fadzayi Mahere said in a social media post: "Zanu-PF now has a two-thirds majority and can now lawfully amend the Constitution. It's a bit of a sad day for checks and balances. Praying for the best. God bless Zimbabwe."A political analyst, who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity citing the volatile political environment, said there were high chances that Zanu-PF might change the Constitution."There is a real chance that Zanu-PF may push for constitutional changes hence the necessity to secure more Parliament seats so that they can control the Constitution.Zanu-PF's domination in this election poses a real threat that the Constitution will be shredded," he said.However, political analyst Maxwell Saungweme said the win by Zanu-PF poses a serious danger to the opposition in Zimbabwe more than to the Constitution."The main repercussions of this (the win) is that Zanu-PF will bolster its hold on power, and the traditional opposition will likely collapse. Chamisa had done a good job reviving hope in the opposition," Saungweme said.He said unless the Zanu-PF government accommodates MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa and others into Cabinet and government, the MDC Alliance project will die, adding that some of the opposition members will likely cross the floor.Saungweme said Zanu-PF might not change the country's Constitution."The current Constitution created by Zanu-PF and MDC is bad enough and as undemocratic enough as a product of a political-parties driven process. I don't see the need for Zanu-PF to want to change it. It is so hazy that it accounts for the turmoil around these elections as it is not explicit on important things that make an election free and fair."I think Zanu-PF focus for the next five years will be on the economy, trying to attract private capital as opposed to getting financing from Bretton Woods Institutions. So they will be focusing on this more than the Constitution. They still want to portray themselves as a new dawn and I don't see constitutional amendments to be their priority," he said.He, however, said they will make little progress on legal reform and alignment of the laws with the Constitution, further predicting a shift in the political matrix."We are also going to see an emergence of a new and strong opposition political formation based on issues, values and principles that will give headache to Mnangagwa's administration. This will be a party led partly by those that were in current opposition and entirely new faces of talented Zimbabweans leading business and other vocations elsewhere," he said.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Former vice president Phelekezela Mphoko has lost his staggering $50 million lawsuit against the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) - the publishers of the Daily News, Daily News on Sunday and the Weekend Post.Mphoko had filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, challenging a High Court order, which dismissed his exorbitant claim.ANZ lawyer Alec Muchadehama said Mphoko's appeal had been dismissed for lack of prosecution."Mphoko's appeal was dismissed for lack of prosecution and this has been communicated to him through a letter from the registrar," Muchadehama said.In his notice of appeal, Mphoko had argued the High Court erred in dismissing his claim."The honourable court a quo erred at law in determining that the appellant (Mphoko) was in default at the pre-trial conference and therefore dismissing the claim when he was duly represented by his legal practitioner and another representative who was well-versed with the case."The honourable court a quo had been informed that the appellant had gone to attend to national duties."The appellant will pray that this appeal will be allowed with costs and the judgment of the court a quo set aside, and replaced with an order to the following effect: that the matter be referred to trial," he argued.Mphoko was challenging High Court judge Lavender Makoni's ruling, in which he was slapped with costs, after the court ruled that he used the wrong procedure in seeking to rescind a previously passed ruling.After Mphoko failed to attend a pre-trial conference, arguing he was attending to national duty, Muchadehama successfully shredded the claim, saying the former VP had exhibited "a bad attitude" towards his case by failing to attend the proceedings in person.Mphoko instead chose to send an official from his office, Themba Ndlovu, to represent him."The pre-trial conference is not a formality. It is an essential part of the proceedings and the judge will have put aside other work and study the pleadings in order to prepare for the conference. It is therefore in the extreme to wait until the time scheduled to advise the court that parties are unable to attend," Makoni ruled then.Mphoko's lawsuit followed a June 5, 2015 article that the former VP took exception to, which was based on an interview with firebrand former war veteran's leader Jabulani Sibanda.In the story, Sibanda claimed that Mphoko had sold out during the liberation struggle when he allegedly diverted weapons meant for the late Joshua Nkomo's Zapu to Zanu - a move that Sibanda further claimed could have led to the needless deaths of thousands of people.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe could be headed for a power-sharing deal after President Emmerson Mnangagwa's contested narrow win, which perpetuated Zanu-PF's 38-year rule, political analysts have said.Mnangagwa won with 50,8 percent of the votes, defeating MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, who got 44,9 percent of the votes. However, Chamisa insists he won the elections by a huge margin, arguing that the election results were twisted in favour of Mnangagwa.Political analysts believe for Zimbabwe to move forward there is need for the leaders to work together, due to the contested election results and the fact that Zimbabwe is a heavily volatile state.Political analyst Eldred Masunungure, however, told the Daily News the elections outcome showed that Zimbabwe is heavily polarized and needs national healing and reconciliation, which can only be achieved if the political parties work together."What can be done is that we need to retrace events of the recent past and create something like a Government of National Unity (GNU)."A GNU, however, is not a panacea to the economic problems in the country, it's just a transitional mechanism."It is a bridging gap between us and them'. There is a big gap between us and them'. There is a lot of nostalgia among Zimbabweans. If the political leaders could swallow their pride to work for the good of the country."I would suggest a GNU in the interim for two to three years or even five years. Zimbabwe needs national healing and that cannot be done outside the coalition. The spirit of working together needs to be actualised, and that is one of the key interventions," Masunungure said.Another political analyst Brian Kagoro said there was need for the opposition political leaders to exercise maturity in light of the outcome. #AfricanLivesMatter Given the declared dispute regarding the announced results, the entire leadership of the opposition must quickly convene - tell each other off if necessary - smoke the peace pipe, find issues of common concern & act as a united front. Show leadership & maturity!" he wrote on his Twitter page.His sentiments resonated with those of Maxwell Saungweme, who said there is need for the opposition to introspect on the outcome of the elections."When things stabilise in the near future, let's engage objectively on, political parties-constitution making process vs people-driven process, Mugabe's kiss of death, support for coup, and lack of internal democracy & tolerance in opposition and how they have led to this outcome!" he said on Twitter.Clergyman and businessperson Shingi Munyeza, on the other hand, said Mnangagwa must try to unite the people."?Mr President-elect: 49,2 percent of the voters do not like you - unite us, our skill is in urban whilst our resources are in rural - bring equity, make us trust you - show transparency & accountability, you are of an older generation - empower the youths," he wrote on his Twitter account.Zimbabwe has once been under a GNU between 2009 and 2013, when the ruling Zanu-PF government was under former president Robert Mugabe, while MDC was being led by its late founding president Morgan Tsvangirai.The unity government was set up following a disputed election in 2008.In 2008 Mugabe got 43 percent, while the MDC front man garnered 47 percent. Tsvangirai failed to garner enough votes to enable him to form the next government, which resulted in an election run-off.He pulled out of the run-off following violent attacks on his supporters.Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai were not on this year's ballot paper for the first time in nearly two decades.Mugabe resigned from power last November following an army intervention which catapulted Emmerson Mnangagwa to the presidency, while Tsvangirai died in February from colon cancer.The violent activities witnessed in 2008 have not been addressed to ensure a full reconciliatory process and they still haunt the country up to this day, something that has made it difficult for Zimbabweans to work together as a united force.
Opinion / Columnist

Most of what are called African problems today are problems that Europe and America have caused or at least promoted in the continent.Most African problems, including civil wars and genocides, have almost always been found to be linked to some European and American powers and their economic and political interests.In that way, what is frequently called Western diplomatic missions in Africa are actually sophisticated networks and structures of Western coloniality and intrusion into the political and economic affairs of the continent.On the economic front, the West has multinational corporations in Africa that are more powerful than African governments, and in the name of foreign investment, these giant corporations dictate what Africans must do politically, and some of them have even successfully sponsored civil wars and coups in the continent.Young Africans should know that conquest and eventual colonisation of the Global South were fronted by companies such as the British South Africa Company of Cecil John Rhodes and the East India Company.When it comes, conquest may appear as business, investment and economic boom for the natives before its true face as invasion and domination emerges. When the true face of the monster appears it usually is too late as a lot of economic and political damage would have been done.Empire MindsetThe way Europe and America have from being one province of the world turned themselves into a centre of the world is a weighty matter and one that is important in the re-imagination of African futures. Prominently, it is the German sociologist Max Weber who popularised the idea of the "uniqueness of western civilisation," an idea that he used to explain the political and economic prosperity of the West in the world.As lately as 1996, an advisor to the government of the United States of America and a political scientist, Samuel Huntington wrote to declare that "the West is Unique, not Universal."In that essay, Huntington advised the West led by North America to fortify themselves, preserve their unity and uniqueness in the world or "hang." Both Weber and Huntington as prophets of Eurocentricism and Americanism are deafeningly silent on how the West enslaved, colonised and exploited the rest in the world in order to achieve political and economic prosperity.The Empire Mindset is also effectively a deceptive Mindset that has perfected the art of concealing historical and political truths.Huntington and Weber's views on Europe and America as unique and special have a unique importance currently as Donald Trump is effectively feeding fat from their work and the work of other Eurocentric thinkers. In imagining African political and economic futures, African thinkers and leaders should explore the Empire mindset, the philosophy of Empire and the strategies of the Empire builders.The constituent ingredients of the Empire that is ruling the world must be probed and understood if the excesses and crimes of the Empire are to be confronted and resisted if those parts of the world that Empire enslaved, colonised and exploited are to liberate themselves.Decolonial thinking has the political and cultural burden to provide reading practices and critical tools that unmask Empire and its workings. African liberation movements, if they are to live up to their name, have a task to de-Westernise Africa so that it can effectively be decolonialised.To de-westernise is, by the way, not to get out of civilisation and return to some innocent pre-colonial past, but it is to reject the myth that as Africans we have nothing to teach the West and that all wisdom comes from the West.A lot of what the West has taught us, in politics and economics is not only questionable but some of it is totally disastrous. Questioning and confronting the West in the areas of knowledge, political ideas and practices, and economics are a key part of de-Westernisation.If Sani Abacha had questioned the advice and political pressure of an oil giant that used their name as international investors to get his government to brutalise the Ogoni people and clear the land for oil mining he would not have gone down in history as one of the principal traitors of the African continent, and Nigeria would have been saved much political violence.When Empire LeavesWhen Western scholars write of the way the West has westernised the world they enjoy a generous privilege of blindness and deafness. What they witness and narrate is the glorious departure of Empire from the West and its grand spreading across the planet through such processes as globalisation, processes that conceal rather than reveal that the Western world globalised itself through violence, genocides and epistemicides of conquest, enslavement and colonisation.Samuel Huntington, for instance suggests that the effort of universalism has been carried out by the West through two processes, relatively peaceful processes, that is cocacolonisation of the world and modernisation.In cocacolonisation, Western popular culture, food, music, dress and the Coca-Cola drink itself have been turned into global culture. In modernisation, Western institutions, including the nation state, knowledge, industrialisation, urbanisation, political systems that include liberal and neoliberal democracy, and other furnitures of modernity have been spread out and naturalised throughout the globe.Western thinkers and Western leaders have something to be proud of in the internationalisation of their civilisation. What they have a clear view of is the back of a triumphal civilisation that has gone to overcome the whole planet and re-imagined it after its own image and interests.In the Third World, to use a term of Empire or in the Global South to use a more decolonial term, thinkers and leaders have over centuries witnessed the crushing arrival of a violent Empire that has enslaved, colonised and conquered. The Westernisation of the world was not achieved through dialogue or negotiation. It was a cataclysmic imposition of power, culture and even spirituality.It involved dispossession and displacement. It was one of the most unhygienic and evil political processes since biblical times.Eric Williams and Frantz Fanon are but two of the many thinkers of the Global South who emphatically made the point that the political and economic prosperity of the West was directly connected to the exploitation of the labour and natural resources of the rest, Western advancement is therefore a proceed of crimes against humanity, whether Western philosophers and leaders admit it or not.Thanks to the West and its civilisation, the entire planet is one big crime scene. Most African civil wars and genocides, Africans fighting and killing each other, have some western or even eastern investor in the dark background, dangling money and asking the politicians to clear the ground and discipline their people for development to take place.In the Euro-American historical and philosophical propaganda the West has given to the rest the gifts of classical legacies in art, thought and knowledge.The gift of Christianity and God, fine languages of the world, representative systems and institutions such as democracy and parliaments, individualism, civil society, the rule of law and separation of the sacred from the secular are but some of the gifts the West has showered the rest with.Boastfully, Huntington can state that America has given the world "Magna Cater" not just "Magna Mac" referring to liberties beyond McDonalds. In their historical and existential experiences, however, the peoples of the Global South do not know the West as a generous giver but a cruel exploiter who has invented donations and aid as rhetoric to cover the theft and pillage that is still going on. The saying "beware of the Greeks even if they carry gifts" must be important to us as Africans.Myths of ModernityThat modernity is an invention of the West is a myth of the centuries. In actuality, as Enrique Dussel has prominently stated, modernity is the property of humanity that Euro-America has like all other things monopolised.At one point or another all societies of the planet have been traditional and basically in a "state of nature." What is in the world in truth are modernities, the dominance and hegemony of the Western modernity is explicable in terms of Western imperialism, conquest, colonialism, and lately expansionism disguised as cosmopolitan globalisation.About itself, its culture and power the West has created and circulated a great enchantment in the world where as Homi Bhabha says "signs have been taken for wonders" and the ordinary elevated to the miraculous. The pain of enslavement, colonisation and exploitation suffered in the Global South, the Hellen Zilles and Bruce Gilleys of this world will argue, was the natural pain that comes before the gain of modernity and civilisation.What in South Africa they popularly call as the problem of white monopoly capital is actually a world systemic and structural problem where Western and Eastern Europeans and Americans, where ever they are in the world, have monopolised the goods and services of modernity. White South Africans presently are crying out and loud about the state capture and junk statuses of the economy and the country, yet the people of Thembisa, Alexandra, Khayelitsha and many other poor locations and rural areas of Africa have always lived junk lives in a junk colonial world.Black people have been, over centuries reduced to junk people that live under captured states and nations.De-Westernise in order to DecolonialisePerhaps the limit of decolonisation that was carried out by liberation movements in the Global South is that they tried to decolonise without de-Westernising. Decoloniality as the thinking that benefits from observing the failures and limits of decolonisation is able to propose decolonialisation as an enhanced pursuit of liberation from Western domination and exploitation of the Global South.Africa, in order to Decolonialise has a task to de-Westernise, explode Western myths of modernity and reject those furnitures of modernity that perpetuate Euro-American sensibility. Decolonialisation, in that way, is not simple decolonisation.Even Huntington himself admits that societies of the world can and have to be modern without being Western. China has done it, India too and most Islamic nations have embraced modernity without ever aspiring to be Western.Africa, politically, culturally, spiritually and economically has a duty to consciously cultivate and naturalise popular disenchantment with the West.The young people of Africa should grow up with the knowledge that it is by force and fraud that the West became the centre of the world.The centrality of the West in the world is not a natural given but a condition that can be undone. The uniqueness of America that Donald Trump seeks to claim, and his insistence that America must mind its own business cannot forever conceal where and how America stole her power and prosperity, politically and philosophically in Africa and the entire Global South, this is the time to de-westernise in order to Decolonialise, time to provincialise the West.Cetshwayo Zindabazezwe Mabhena is a founding member of Africa Decolonial Research Network (ADERN). He writes from Pretoria, South Africa: decoloniality2016@gmail.com.
Opinion / Columnist

MLO would like to put it categorically clear that the newly elected Zimbabwe's President, Emmerson Mnangagwa's rule will stretch as far as Mashonaland boundaries. And that this side of the Jameson Line (border between Matabeleland and Zimbabwe), we do not take him as our president as he views us as cockroaches and publicly refused to withdraw this statement or apologise for Matabeleland genocide.We only recognise him as the president of one of our neighbouring countries (Zimbabwe who shot to presidency through the barrel of the gun and later rigged elections to fraudulently achieve political legitimacy.According to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission official report Matabeleland registered the lowest number of voters in 2018 elections. In Matabeleland South, only 239 367 registered, Bulawayo, the capital city of Matabeleland, only 243 146 registered and in Matabeleland North, 319 549 voters were registered. That means less than 900 000 people registered in Matabeleland at large. This apathy shows without any aota of doubt that people of Matabeleland boycotted Zimbabwe elections in their large numbers. The majority of the people who voted are the shona deployees of the 1979 Grand Plan that were strategically settled in Matabeleland from Mashonaland by the shona supremacist government of Zimbabwe.The small number of votes that were cast by a few Matebeles constitute a protest vote that went to the opposition. Evidently, Zanupf managed to get a few votes from its resettlements like UMguza and a few other areas. Otherwise 99% of its votes came from Mashonaland.A lot of lies were said about the low voter registration in Matabeleland except the truth. The truth being that; Matabele masses have given up on the Zimbabwe untrustworthy electoral system, tribalistic and oppressive shona supremacist system. Through this massive election boycott the people of Matabeleland have sent a strong message to the government of Zimbabwe and the world that they no longer want to be part of Zimbabwe. They have rejected shona supremacism rule, they have rejected marginalisation, tribalism, domination, genocide, rape, economic mismanagement, corruption, military coups, vote rigging and all other political and social ills that Zimbabwe is associated with.Under the direction and authority of Matebeleland Liberation Organisation Supreme Council, The President of M.L.O. Paul Siwela served the British government under the leadership of David Cameron and Zimbabwe government under the leadership of Robert Gabriel Mugabe with Notices of Demand for The Restoration of Matebeleland State on 5 December 2015 and 7 December 2015 respectively. Both addressees acknowledged receipt of The Notices by signing for them. Surprisingly, the government of Zimbabwe deeps its head in the sand regarding this important issue.World leaders, investors and the public in general is warned to take extreme caution against cutting deals with the government of Zimbabwe when they want to invest in Matabeleland territory. Anyone who ignores this warning either through ignorance or being deceived by the government of Zimbabwe risks losing their valuable investments.Given the above we believe as MLO we have done our level best to let Britain and its proxy Zimbabwe know of our intentions to restore the statehood of Matabeleland. This we have done in most polite, diplomatic and peaceful manner. But it seems our good manners are mistaken for cowardice. Please take note that no one should blame us for whatever will happen in future , for we shall arrive unannounced and make the most frightening breaking news of all time. Watch this space!Izenzo Kungemazwi!Ayihlomihlasele!Israel DubeMLO Secretary for Information and Public Affairs.
Opinion / Columnist

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party, has been declared the winner of Zimbabwe's presidential election.But his margin of victory - he garnered 50,8 percent of the votes - has led the main challenger, Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change (who secured 44 percent of the votes), to describe the result as rigged.Now questions are being asked about what the poll outcome means for Zimbabwe's future, and the political debate is already rapidly shifting.Last November, when the military coup led to Robert Mugabe being replaced as president by Mnangagwa, many in the west were unwilling to condemn it.They saw Mugabe as the key impediment to economic and political reform and looked to the staging of a free, fair and credible poll in 2018 as an important step towards re-engagement with the country.Western election observers are still to release their final reports, but their preliminary statements suggest they are unlikely to strongly endorse the poll.For instance, the European Union Election Observation Mission said that the election was characterised by an "improved political climate, inclusive participation rights and a peaceful vote, but un-level playing field, intimidation of voters and lack of trust in the process".The Commonwealth mission condemned the shooting and beating of unarmed protesters this week.African observers were less critical. The final reports of the African Union and Southern African Development Community (Sadc) will likely endorse the election result, creating international division over the legitimacy of Mnangagwa's presidency.Most of the African observers hail from countries that are hardly models of electoral democracy.For example, Manuel Domingos Augusto, Angola's minister of External Relations, led Sadc's mission to Zimbabwe - yet Angola is the most oppressive state in southern Africa and repeatedly holds elections devoid of credibility.In addition, some Sadc observers I interviewed during the election period had no appetite for a censorious verdict because of fatigue with recurrent political crises in Zimbabwe since the early 2000s."Mugabe is finally gone. Zimbabweans just need to continue moving on, fixing their country. We don't need another bad election," one Sadc observer remarked.Whatever they conclude, however, the atmosphere inside Zimbabwe has changed.Last November's coup united much of the country with the military. The army were seen as "liberators", people took selfies with soldiers and danced on top of armoured vehicles.But the military's ruthless crushing of opposition protests on Wednesday, in which seven people were killed, broke that bond. Zimbabweans were reminded of its tremendously repressive nature, and the military is now seen, as it was during Mugabe's era, as the coercive guarantor of Zanu-PF rule.Neither do the public trust the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, with numerous opposition politicians and their supporters doubting the authenticity of the result.In many quarters, Mnangagwa's presidency has no legitimacy. At the same time, however, Zanu-PF supporters insist they won the election fairly.Yet despite also winning a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary vote held on the same day, Zanu-PF emerges from this election an internally divided party.Though many of its followers were happy to elect its parliamentary candidates, they were less inclined to vote for Mnangagwa in the presidential race.Clearly, Zanu-PF will need to field a more popular presidential candidate in the next election in 2023; but this will reopen the party's long-running presidential succession struggles.As for the opposition MDC, that has its own internal divisions to resolve.Chamisa has announced that he will challenge the result, but the party has other fundamental issues to address.In 2013, it lost several parliamentary seats because it fielded multiple candidates in single constituencies.The party repeated that mistake this year, resulting in some unnecessary losses in parts of Matabeleland Province.So the MDC will need to ask itself: how can an under-resourced party better unite, and why are we failing to connect with so many rural voters?Zimbabwe's election has divided its people, and this is not conducive to democracy.Zanu-PF's two-thirds majority renders Parliament - a cornerstone of any functional democracy - weak in relation to a president with disputed legitimacy.And Zimbabwe's deep state - the military - will linger on, influentially, in the political background.Despite all the joy and the hope following Mugabe's overthrow, in the aftermath of this election, Zimbabweans' democratic dreams appear as distant as ever.Tendi is an associate professor of African Politics at Oxford University
Opinion / Columnist

MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa has rejected President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election victory, saying the results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) early Friday morning were "fake" and unverified by his party.Zec declared Mnangagwa winner of the July 30 presidential election with 50,8 percent of the vote. Chamisa came second, with 44,3 percent.Hours before the presidential results were announced, Chamisa had told reporters he was reluctant to challenge the contested outcome in court, alleging the judiciary lacks independence from the ruling party.In terms of Zimbabwe's Constitution, a court challenge against a presidential election must be lodged at the Constitutional Court within seven days after the declaration of the results.This means the opposition leader has up to August 10 to file his court application.The Constitutional Court must hear and determine the petition or application within 14 days after the petition or application was lodged.The Constitutional Court's decision is final.In determining a petition or application, the Constitutional Court may declare a winner or invalidate the election, in which case a fresh election must be held within sixty days after the determination; or make any other order it considers just and appropriate.If the Constitutional Court upholds the election result, the declared winner must be sworn in within 48 hours of the court's decision.What happens if Chamisa does not go to court?The Constitution says a person elected as president should take the oath of office on the ninth day after being declared winner.This means, unless there is a court challenge, Mnangagwa will be inaugurated on August 12, 2018.
Opinion / National

Last week, Comrade Agrippah Gava (born 1956) narrated how ZIPRA gunned down Rhodesian Viscounts in 1978 and 1979 and went on to give details about ZIPRA's plan after this attack.In this interview with our Deputy Editor Munyaradzi Huni, Conary speaks about how Rhodesian forces massacred over 100 defenceless refugees at Chikumbi Camp in Zambia and how he saw a fellow comrade whose stomach had been ripped open by a bomb kept on calling for help, but was ignored by the medics. It sends shivers down the spine. Read on MH: Comrade, you indicated earlier on that you saw horrific scenes at Chikumbi Camp when it was attacked by Rhodesian forces. Can you tell us more about what you saw and what exactly happened?Conary: What happened was that it was early morning. From nowhere Rhodesian planes suddenly appeared and they started bombing this camp. The commander of this Rhodesian operation was called Greenleader. From the helicopter, he was actually giving command to the Zambian Airforce to stay put on the ground and never to attempt to fight them back by coming into the airspace. I vividly remember him with his hoarse voice saying "eeehhh, this is Greenleader, we are not after you the Zambians! We are after the Rhodesian renegades stationed 10 km North of Lusaka! And therefore we are warning you, don't come into the airspace!" This was even reported on the news at 8pm that day through their Rhodesian war communique. So they bombed that camp.There was no protection for anyone. This was a refugee camp. There was no training taking place at this camp. This was just 10 km from Lusaka. It was just a transit camp. So defenceless people were massacred. Some ran away and escaped but many were killed. You could see body parts scattered all over the place. It was terrible and horrific.MH: When this bombardment was taking place, where were you?Conary: I was there inside the camp. I also had to run for dear life. All I know is that in that maze of confusion, bombardment and death, we managed to get out of the camp. The first bombs are the ones that killed many people. The Rhodesians were also dropping napalm drums, people being roasted like meat. There was nothing we could do to help. We could not even fight back. Like I told you very few people had guns and there were all light machines guns.After this bombardment, there came a time to ferry the injured to hospital and bury the dead. It was just too horrific. Ambulances came and the injured were taken to Lusaka, at the University Teaching Hospital. But as the injured were being picked up from the scene, I saw this comrade would stomach had been ripped open. You could see all his intestines and all hanging outside. But he was not dead. He was calling for assistance. The medics had realized that this comrade was going to die and taking him into an ambulance was going to be a waste of space. They left him there calling for help.It was not only him, many were left calling for help but their condition showed that it was a matter of time before they died. I tell you such images never get out of your mind. They live forever. The medics reasoned that it was better to assist someone with high chances of survival. It was terrible I tell you. The lungs had been cut out, the liver in pieces but the comrade was able to call for help. What do you do?This happened even at the war front. We got reports were some comrades would ask their fellow comrades to finish them off after being injured in a battle.MH: How does this horror affect the mind?Conary: Anyone who has gone through this needs rehabilitation. This horror affects you the whole of your life. Up to now we have comrades troubled by hallucinations from the war. Those pictures never get out of their minds. Zimbabwean freedom fighters need a lot of rehabilitation. They saw a lot which was not supposed to be seen by a human being. Unfortunately, there was nothing like rehabilitation. You look today and think war veterans are normal. They are not. They can't be. It's not all war veterans who are normal. They have not been treated. The psychological effects of the war are still fresh and haunting them.MH: We will come to that issue towards the end of the interview. So those comrades who died during this battle, how were they buried?Conary: The Zambians provided us with caterpillars and we buried them in mass graves. We picked up human parts that were scattered all over the place. I don't even know the exact number of comrades we lost during this bombardment, but I should think the number was over 100.MH: Comrade, when you see such horror, do you cry?Conary: We were no longer crying.MH: Why?Conary: That is what death can do. You lose the heart of crying. Even the training prepared us for this. We were trained not to cry. Sometimes the war turned you into someone who didn't even smile.MH: In ZIPRA as you buried these comrades, would you conduct any rituals?Conary: There were no rituals. Things like ancestral spirits and so on, no we didn't do all that.MH: As ZIPRA what did you believe in as you fought the liberation struggle?Conary: We believed that if someone is dead, he is dead that's all. We didn't believe that there is life after death. Even when I came back from the liberation struggle I was like that. I believed that life is something you describe through historical materialism. Death is just a change of form. We believed that we had to fight the war ourselves. There was no ancestor to help us.MH: Let's turn to another issue. Do you have a close comrade you lost during the liberation struggle?Conary: No, I don't have.MH: Why?Conary: I think it had to do with a lot of hardening. I was never attached to someone to an extent that if they die I would drop down no.MH: But what does the word comrade mean?Conary: Yes, it means comrade in arms but as you know at war people die. Did you watch the Second World War? Do you know that as we fought during the liberation struggle, there were sell-outs? Selous Scouts? People who were sent to infiltrate us so that we could be killed by the Rhodesian forces. When you identify these people, what do you do? That is your answer.MH: Now that you have spoken about sell-outs. Tell us how you would deal with sell-outs?Conary: Some would be handed over to the Zambians who would deal with them. I don't know what happened at other camps (laughs).MH: Tell us a bit more about the ZIPRA tactics regarding fighting the war.Conary: The fighting concept of a guerilla is hit and run. You don't have to waste manpower which has been trained and guns that had come as gifts from other countries. This is why the guerilla had to be thoroughly trained. As guerillas, the main strategy was to ambush the enemy, hit and run. The weigh down the enemy. A guerilla is not a force that takes over territory. There was now the grand strategy of a regular force being prepared at the rear. This regular force was supposed to be the occupying force, the conquering force. This force liberates territories.MH: How would you deal with cases of indiscipline during the liberation struggle?Conary: I can't really say in our case there was a lot of indiscipline. Most of the indiscipline was at the war front. There are some comrades who when they were given guns, they would not take orders from their commanders. They became dissidents. We had people who when they came to the front, started robbing buses, shops and so on. The command at the rear would really be worried. To solve this problem, we had some commanders who would go to the war front and put things in order.MH: As ZIPRA which countries supplied you with most of the ammunition?Conary: It was the USSR, West Germany and Czechoslovakia.MH: You were one of the deputy commanders in charge of artillery until when?Conary: Until sometime before the Lancaster House talks. After that operation to hit Mana Pools was conducted, the chief of artillery was imprisoned by the Zambians.MH: Why?Conary: Because that operation had created some problems on the Kariba and the Zambians were not happy about it. So they arrested him after confronting the ZIPRA High Command. The ZIPRA High Command handed over the Chief of Artillery, Andrew Ndlovu and he was put in jail. He was only released when Lancaster House was over.MH: As one of the deputies, how did that make you feel?Conary: It really was a drawback but we continued to operate.MH: So after his arrest did you take over?Conary: No. I didn't take over but on everything that was being done in relation to artillery, the Chief of Staff was now consulting me.MH: How was the relationship between ZIPRA and the Zambian government?Conary: It was a very close relationship because at each and every ZIPRA camp, there was maybe a platoon of Zambians. We also had our battalions being trained by the Zambians at Mulungushi. On the political front, the relationship was also very mutual.MH: There is talk that the Zambian government at that time supported ZIPRA and not ZANLA. Was this true?Conary: I don't really know much about that but as I said earlier on, can you go and read about the liberation movements in Southern Africa. You will hear about what were called "Authentic and non-Authentic Liberation Movements."MH: No, comrade tell us more yourself?Conary: No, go and read for yourself. All I can tell you is that in Angola there was MPLA and Unita; in South Africa there was ANC and there was PAC. If you go and read you will discover a lot about these liberation movements. Each and every country had what were called authentic and non-authentic political parties. The authentic parties were preferred by the groups of countries that supported the liberation struggle.MH: ZANLA and ZANU were riddled by divisions during the war. What was the situation like in ZAPU and ZIPRA?Conary: There were no major divisions, but like any organization there was tribalism. You can call it tribalism, you can call it ethnicity. People sometimes would group according to their ethnic background. For example when Rex Nhongo left ZIPRA and went to ZANLA. You are aware that Rex Nhongo was ZIPRA trained? Why did he and others leave ZIPRA? Of course some left when FROLIZ was formed, but why did James Chikerema leave ZAPU? You need to research more on these things. Chikerema comes from Kutama. Why did he leave ZAPU to form FROLIZ together with Nathan Shamuyarira?MH: Was ethnicity an issue in ZIPRA?Conary? It was not a pronounced issue but it would occur. That is why people like Rex Nhongo left. When Rex left, he went on to conduct popular battles under ZANLA.MH: But you didn't think of leaving despite the fact that other Shonas were leaving?Conary: No, no, no. It never crossed my mind because when I saw Joshua Nkomo coming with members of his Central Committee, the majority were Shona speaking people. There were people like Willie Musarurwa, Msika, Msipa and so on. That is why Nkomo was called "Chibwe Chitedza."That was not a Ndebele nickname. Even the ZIPRA High Command was full of Shona people. There was Ambrose Mutinhiri, with high rank among the commanders. You had Masengo who later become Zimbabwe's ambassador in Botswana after independence. He was the chief of training in ZIPRA. There was Eric Nyawera from Nyanga, there was Emmanuel Siziba, this was his Chimurenga name but he was not Ndebele speaking at all. At the end of the day you also had me. A Shona from Zvimba here.I never thought of crossing from ZIPRA to ZANLA because I was never a politician. I was never a politician. I was a school child who joined ZIPRA, the fighting force and not ZAPU, the politicians.MH: Did you play any role during the Lancaster House talks?Conary: I didn't play any role at Lancaster. This was for commanders like Lookout Masuku Most of the comrades who went to Lancaster were not soldiers. They were party people.MH: Can you clarify what you mean they were party people and not soldiers?Conary: ZAPU was the political party. ZIPRA was the armed wing, this was the army.MH: So there were some comrades who were ZIPRA but not ZAPU?Conary: Yes, quite a number of them. The young school boys coming from Manama Mission in 1978. Are they ZAPU? You have the Minister of Foreign Affairs now, SB Moyo. He came from Manama in 1978 as a young school boy. Could you call him ZAPU? He was a mere school child who joined the liberation struggle to fight the liberation struggle. He didn't join ZAPU. He joined ZIPRA because he came to fight. You have the former Minister Chiratidzo Mabuwa. She also came from Manama. Would you call her a politician?MH: Am happy you have mentioned former Minister Mabuwa. Where there female comrades in ZIPRA?Conary: We had female comrades. They received training but they had not gone to the front when the war ended. We actually had a camp for the female trained comrades. Their commander was Gertrude Moyo. Former Minister Mabuwa was also there together with Mhandu, she is a Colonel in the army now. These female commanders after receiving training continued to train other female comrades. In ZIPRA we would not allow female comrades to mix with male comrades. Female comrades stayed in their own camp away from their male counterparts. The leadership was afraid that if the two mixed, they would start producing children instead of focusing on the war.I remember Joshua Nkomo who always said "what are we going to tell the parents of these girls when they go home with kids?" It was a big offense to be found in a camp for female comrades in ZIPRA.Next week we will publish the last part of this interview were Conary speaks passionately about how war veterans from the liberation struggle should have been treated soon after the war. It's a touching narration. Don't miss it!
By Mike Oboh ASABA, Nigeria (Reuters) - South Africa's Commonwealth Games champion Akani Simbine won the men's 100 metres with Marie Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast the women's winner at the African Championships on Thursday. Kenyan world and Commonwealth Games champion Hellen Obiri also claimed African gold, winning the women's 5,000m. Simbine won his race into a headwind in 10.25 seconds. For me, it is marvelous," he said. I know for now I am going to represent Africa in the Continental Cup so this made me want to work harder and train more. It is a great feat." Winners at the championships earn berths on the African team in the Continental Cup which matches teams from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, the Americas, South America and the United States on Sept. 8-9 in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Arthur Cisse of Ivory Coast took 100m silver in 10.33 while South Africa's Simon Magakwe got the bronze in 10.35. Ta Lou, the year's fastest woman at 10.85 seconds, prevailed in her race in 11.15. "I would have done 10 seconds but the wind was not favourable to me," she said of the 2.3 metres per second headwind. Second place went to Ghana's Janet Amponsah (11.54) with Joy Udo-Gabriel of Nigeria third (11.58). EASY WINNER Africa's top 200m woman, Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare, pulled out of that competition, according to media reports. Obiri, the year's fastest, was an easy winner in the 5,000, finishing more than seven seconds ahead of the field in 15:47.18. Ethiopians Senbere Teferi (15:54.48) and Meskerem Mamo (15:57.38) trailed. Ruswahl Samaai surprised world champion Luvo Manyonga in a showdown of South African long jumpers with Samaai winning with a leap of 8.45m on his fourth attempt. Manyonga, the reigning African champion, was two cm behind. Oluwatobiloba Amusan of Nigeria won the women's 100m hurdles gold medal with a time of 12.86 seconds. Rikennete Steenkamp of South Africa (13.18) and Rosvitha Okou of Ivory Coast (13.39) took the silver and bronze. I am not surprised, because I have prepared hard for this all year," Amusan said.My target at the Continental Cup is to do the best I can." Other winners included Nigeria's Enekwechi Chukwuebuka (shot put, 21.08m) and Morocco's Zakour Soukaina (womens Hammer throw, 68.28m). Transportation problems that left several hundred athletes stranded at Lagos airport, some for nearly three days, forced a major revision of the competition timetable on Wednesday with officials apologising on Thursday for the shortcomings. (Reporting by Mike Oboh in Asaba, editing by Gene Cherry and Ken Ferris)
The long weekend is here and here are the modified hours of operations for various amenities and city services.

City services

City of Windsor offices will be closed on Monday, Aug. 6 for Civic Holiday.

The Planning, Heritage and Economic Development Standing Committee will be meeting Tuesday, Aug. 7 at 4:30 p.m.

The city council meeting set for Aug. 7 has been cancelled. The next one will be held on Aug. 13 at 6 p.m. in joint session with the Planning, Heritage and Economic Development Standing Committee in council chambers.

311 is closed on Aug. 6. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, Aug. 7, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

211 is open 24 hours on Sunday and Monday.

Waste collection

There is no collection on Monday, Aug. 6. All residential garbage, yard waste and recycling collection will be delayed by one day.

There is no delay for night commercial, front-end loader and weekly recycling.

You can call 311 for more information or visit the City of Windsor's website.

The waste disposal depot at Central Avenue and E.C. Row Expressway is closed on Aug. 6.

Parks and recreation

All community centres and customer care centres are closed on Aug. 6, with the exception of scheduled rentals.

All indoor pools and arenas are closed Aug. 6. There will be no indoor and outdoor swimming lessons on Monday.

However, Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre is open on Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for adult fit lanes and open adult swim.

All outdoor pools are open 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, weather and water quality permitting. Sandpoint Beach is also open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Adventure Bay Family Water Park is open on Civic Holiday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

All locations of the Windsor Public Library are closed on Monday, Aug. 6. Regular hours resume on Tuesday.

Museum Windsor locations at Chimczuk Museum and Francois Baby House are closed on Monday, Aug. 2.

Parking tickets

There is no parking enforcement on Monday, Aug. 6. Ticket payment offices will be closed, but you can still make payments online.

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Public Transit

City buses will run on a Sunday/holiday schedule on Monday, Aug. 6. You can visit Transit Windsor's website to see schedules and route maps. The Tunnel Bus will operate on a regular weekday schedule.

Customer service at 300 Chatham St. W. is open with regular hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday. The sales office at 3700 North Service Rd. E. is closed.

You can get more information through calling 311.

Alcohol and shopping

Beer Store

Select stores open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Aug. 6. You can get a full list on the Beer Store website.

LCBO

All stores open Saturday and Sunday with regular hours.

Select stores across the province will be open. You can get specific store hours on the LCBO website.

Devonshire Mall

Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 6.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with people during a stop in Duncan, B.C., on Aug. 4, 2018. Photo from The Canadian Press.

Justin Trudeau mingled with hundreds of friendly people at two family-focused events on Vancouver Island, but the prime minister was also reminded of the strong opposition his government faces over its decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline.

At an outdoor news conference Saturday at the Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan, B.C., Trudeau acknowledged there are people opposed to the government's decision to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan, however, he said it won't stop the project or Liberal plans to fight climate change.

"There are people out there who think there is still a choice to be made between what's good for the environment and what's good for the economy. I don't," he said. "I know the only way to build a strong economy, moving forward, is by protecting the environment, and ensuring we are protecting the environment for future generations is a deep priority of mine. Always has been."

In May, Trudeau's Liberals announced its decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast and related infrastructure for $4.5 billion. The government could also spend billions more to build the controversial expansion.

"We know we have to put in place a strong plan to fight climate change," said Trudeau. "There are people on the other side of the political spectrum who don't like that."

The prime minister shook a lot of hands and posed for countless selfies, but some placard carrying protesters at the gates of the forestry centre let him know the pipeline issue will continue to dog him, with one even calling him an "oil pimp."

Trudeau also made comments about North Korea, reacting to reports from the United Nations that the country has made few moves to halt its nuclear weapons program.

"We must see a denuclearized North Korea," he told reporters. "North Korea continues to be a concern, not just for regional security but global stability. We need to continue to put pressure on the North Korean regime."

Earlier in the day, Trudeau made a surprise visit to the Duncan Farmers' Market, which quickly attracted a crowd of people around him, with many posing for selfies.

The local band playing at the market stopped its regular set and played "O Canada," with Trudeau later singing with the crowd.
Illegal, underground and said to be brimming with health benefits  the practice of microdosing psychedelic drugs is growing increasingly popular, yet it remains relatively unstudied and its reported benefits unproven.

A group of Canadian researchers is hoping to change that with new data that begins to shed light on how and why people microdose, and what they say are its effects and drawbacks.

Microdosing is the practice of taking minute doses of hallucinogens like LSD or psilocybin (the active compound in so-called magic mushrooms) for therapeutic purposes. The amounts are too small to produce a high but large enough to quell anxiety or improve mood, according to users.

Researchers at the University of Toronto, York University and Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health collaborated on the study, which they say is the first of its kind.

Reports of improved mood, increased focus

The team targeted microdosing communities on Reddit and other social media channels with an anonymous online survey last year. They received 909 completed responses from current and former microdosers as well as others who had no experience with the practice.

The survey yielded information about how much and how often people microdosed: typically 10 to 20 micrograms of LSD (about one- or two-tenths of a tab) or 0.2 to 0.5 grams of dried magic mushrooms, about once every three days or once per week.

Those who microdosed reported a number of benefits, including improved mood, increased focus and productivity, and better connection with others.

The team also conducted a series of tests to compare users with non-users.

For example, to gauge creativity, participants were asked to find as many uses as they could for everyday objects. Researchers tested for wisdom by asking survey participants how much they related to a series of statements like "At this point in my life, I find it easy to laugh at my mistakes."

They found that microdosers scored higher on both creativity and wisdom, and lower on negative emotionality and dysfunctional attitude  tied to depression and anxiety.

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Study co-author Thomas Anderson, a PhD candidate and cognitive neuroscientist with the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics Lab at U of T, called the results "really promising."

'A far cry' from calling it medicine

But both lead authors caution against drawing a causal connection.

"Our results certainly justify further research, but it's important to take them with a grain of salt," said co-author Rotem Petranker, a graduate student in social psychology at York. 

"What this truly means is that we need to study it further in a lab setting  so we really get an idea of how much of these reports truly are caused by the substance."

Anderson also noted that a small group of microdosing respondents listed effects contradictory to the reports of others, such as decreased focus and increased anxiety. Some also reported physiological discomforts, such as feeling too hot or too cold.

The most common complaint from respondents, however, was about the difficulties of the practice given its illegality and related stigma. Having to obtain the substances underground also makes it hard to ensure a safe, reliable supply and consistent dosage.

The researchers made clear they do not endorse microdosing as a treatment.

"We are still a far cry from saying this is medicine and we should prescribe it to people. I think we should do a lot more research before we can say that," Petranker said.

Barriers to research 'formidable'

Canada was once a world leader in the exploration of psychedelic drugs for medicinal use, according to Kenneth Tupper, adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia and a director at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.

Saskatchewan's Weyburn Mental Hospital was considered a hub for cutting-edge research in the field in the 1950s, when psychiatrists Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond experimented with administering LSD to volunteers, co-workers, friends, family members and themselves. They eventually used the drug to treat patients with alcohol addiction, often successfully, and their work was recognized internationally.

However, the work there and elsewhere was derailed due to concerns over recreational use and the social climate of the time, Tupper said.

"The throwing-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water reaction happened [because of] the non-medical use on the street. That really did put us back many decades in terms of potential promising clinical utility."

That's changing, he said, but there is still a way to go.

"More and better research is only going to happen with a shift in regulatory authorities' and medical communities' willingness to look at these things, which is starting to happen  but, really, the research funding [is not available]."

The illicit nature of the substances also poses a legal hurdle to research, according to Mark Haden, public health researcher at UBC and executive director of Canada's Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

"If you actually want to start giving psychedelics to people [for research], the barriers are formidable," he said, adding that reclassifying psychedelic drugs would help clear the path.

In Canada, hallucinogens such as LSD and psilocybin, are classified as Schedule III controlled substances, which means possession requires a licence/prescription, or carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. While Canadians will soon be able to purchase cannabis legally, the federal government earlier this week confirmed it has no plans to decriminalize other drugs.

Hope for first lab-based microdosing trial

Haden says continued research is important given the host of illnesses and disorders that we do not yet have effective treatments for.

"For instance, depression," he said. "Maybe what will come out of this is that some people will be helped with really large doses used in therapeutic contexts and other people will be helped more by tiny amounts of psychedelics as they go about their day."

Despite the challenges, Canadians are conducting more research in this area: clinical trials are being conducted on the potential therapeutic benefits of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and on psilocybin-assisted treatment of substance use disorders.

Anderson and Petranker's team will be publishing the findings from their survey in three upcoming research papers.

They also hope to conduct lab-based trials where psychedelics can be administered in controlled environments.

"No one has done randomized, placebo-controlled trials for microdosing," Anderson said.

"We are hoping to be the first."
Its not compulsory, you know, said a friend. As young students, we were discussing whether or not you had to travel overseas, as many young Kiwis did, in order to become a fully rounded person.

As a committed Christian I was very conscious of stewardship. All my income wasnt really mine to spend  it belonged to God. (I had been really struck by the example of an older leader at a camp who had loaned some equipment for use there. He had put a label on it which read, Belonging to God, and held in trust by John M.) As everything I had belonged to God, I didnt want to use lots of dollars to travel overseas thoughtlessly, simply for my own benefit.

Previously another friend and I had booked a cruise to go to the islands. Id felt increasingly uncomfortable about that, and so I eventually pulled out, and went to a Christian conference instead  which turned out to be far more significant. (Ive since realised that being cooped up on a boat was not for me anyway.)

I never went overseas till I was in my 50s. Yes, I was open to overseas travel, and open to mission service, if thats where God was calling. But in Gods purposes, other things intervened, which turned out to be the Gods unique direction for me during those years.

Study leave

Then the right time did come. My husband, who hadnt travelled overseas either, had study leave granted, and as a result we ended up going overseas for three months. It was an amazing experience, as we experienced serendipities along the way. They were clearly gifts from God and were incidences of events being exactly timed for good, to use Jim Elliotts eloquent phrase.

Undergirding our travel was the realisation that this trip was of God. (Even the travel agent had said, this trip has to be, when the convolutions of where we planned to go managed to fit into an around-the-world air ticket.)

The trip included time in England in a theological college, and time visiting mission partners in Africa. Staying with them in their contexts gave us insights which we could use in future ministry.

As we flew out from Johannesburg on our way back to New Zealand, I felt very much the responsibility of knowledge (as the writer Os Guinness had put it), that because of what I had learned and gained, then I had a responsibility to use that knowledge. It wasnt long after that, when I was called into a job with a mission agency, supporting people in overseas mission work.

After that?

After that, there have been other trips, some with remarkable encounters, some with simply R & R added in. All have been gifts from God. After having been so blessed, I cant bear the thought of simply using travel for my own purposes. Travel is not something I am entitled to, neither can I take it for granted.

Travel  if, and when, the time is right

Im sure a trip when I was young would have probably been wasted on the immature, naive and very impressionable young woman I was back then. NO  overseas travel is no rite of passage, at any age, for a Christian. I am so glad I discovered that at an early age, and waited till the time was right  and if it was right. Going with my husband too, means we have shared memories and photos of what have been very special times together.

If the Lord is sovereign of all our lives, then that includes our travel times too.

Liz Hay is about to leave her mountain village for two months, as she and Ron respond (at last!) to the invitation of a friend to visit him in Alaska, and then to help out with child care in Canada, where their son and his family live.
After the fire that destroyed the West Quebec SPCA building in Gatineau, and it being prime kitten season, the cat population at the Ottawa Humane Society has exploded, and is now at a critical level, and they are desperately looking for homes for almost 200 cats and kittens ready for adoption. We recently adopted Bast, and she acted as an inspiration for the selections we'll be listening to today.

Everybody Wants To Be A Cat

The Aristocats - The Disney Collection - Volume 1 - Disney All The Cats Join In

George Gee And The Jump Jivin' Wailers - If Dreams Come True Hepcat's Love Song

Cab Calloway - Hepcats and Cool Jive Alley Cat

Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra - Big Band Memories (1945 - 1969) Wholly Cats

Benny Goodman & His Sextet - The Ultimate Jazz Archive 21 One O'clock Jump

Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman Tiger Rag

Benny Goodman - Small Combos Oh, Lady Be Good

Benny Goodman - Small Combos Runnin' Wild

Benny Goodman - Small Combos Good Enough To Keep

Benny Goodman & His Sextet - The Ultimate Jazz Archive 21 Pussy Willow

Duke Ellington - Masterpieces 1926 - 1949: Take the A Train Bearcat Shuffle

Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy - Walkin' and Swingin' Tabby the Cat

The Pied Pipers and Paul Weston and his Orchestra - Tabby The Cat At the Swing Cat's Ball

Louis Jordan - At the Swing Cat's Ball Public Jitterbug no. 1

The Cat's in the Fiddle - We Cats Will Swing For Ya We Cats Will Swing For Ya

The Cat's in the Fiddle - We Cats Will Swing For Ya We The Cats Shall Help Ya

Cab Calloway - Hepcats and Cool Jive Stray Cat Strut

The Stray Cats - Stray Cats Cool Cat In Town

Tape Five - Tape Five Out of Nowhere

Boilermaker Jazz Band - Give Me Your Telephone Number So Far, So Good

Boilermaker Jazz Band - Jump For Joy Jump For Joy

Boilermaker Jazz Band - Jump For Joy You're Driving Me Crazy

Boilermaker Jazz Band - Jump For Joy Get Happy

Boilermaker Jazz Band - Nice Work If You Can Get It I Want To Be Evil

Eartha Kitt - Best Hits Purr-fect Midnight In A Madhouse

George Gee Swing Orchestra - Swing Makes You Happy Let's Misbehave

Boilermaker Jazz Band - You Do Something To Me J't'aime comme une fou

The Lost Fingers - Rendez-vous rose - Rendez-vous rose Ca fait rire les oiseaux

The Lost FIngers - Rendez-vous rose - Rendez-vous rose Mal o' Mains

Sanseverino - Le Tango des Gens The Pink Panther Theme

The Swingfield Big Band - Musical Reflections
Iran Human Rights (Aug 3, 2018): A prisoner was executed at Zahedan Central Prison on murder charges.





According to a close source, on the morning of Thursday, August 2, a prisoner was hanged at Zahedan Central Prison.





The prisoner, sentenced to death on murder charges, was identified as Miran Baluchi, son of Mohtaj, from Nik-Shahr.





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.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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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
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday handed Imran Ali - who is currently incarcerated and on death-row for the rape and murder of 6-year-old Zainab Amin - the death penalty on 12 more counts for the rape and murder of 3 other girls.





Ali, a resident of Kasur, was involved in at least 9 incidents of rape-cum-murder of minors, including Zainab, which he had confessed to during her murder investigation.





The verdicts for the cases of all the 3 minor girls were announced today by special administrative judge Sheikh Sajjad Ahmed of the ATC after listening to the final arguments presented by the counsels.





In all 3 cases, Ali was found guilty under sections 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of 14), 376 (3) (rape of minor), 302-B (punishment for qatl-i-amd) of the Pakistan Penal Code and section 7(a) (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997.





According to the judgements, Ali has been sentenced to death on a total of 12 counts (4 counts for each victim), fined Rs6 million (Rs2m per victim) and ordered to pay Rs3m (Rs1m per victim) as compensation to the victims' families. In case of failure to pay the fine or compensation, he will have to undergo another 6 months imprisonment.





The 1st information reports of all 3 cases were registered in different months of 2017. The ages of the 3 victims were 5, 7 and 8.





Zainab's rape and murder earlier this year had sparked outrage and protests across the country after the 6-year-old, who went missing on January 4, was found dead in a trash heap in Kasur on January 9.





Her case was the 12th such incident to occur within a 10 kilometre radius in the city over a 12-month period.





The heinous nature of the crime had seen immediate riots break out in Kasur - in which 2 people were killed - while #JusticeforZainab became a rallying cry for an end to violence against children.





The Punjab government had declared the arrest of Ali, the prime suspect, on January 23.





On June 12, the Supreme Court rejected Ali's appeal against the death sentence handed to him for the rape and murder of Zainab, noting that the petitioner had admitted committing similar offences with 8 other minor victims and "in that backdrop, he did not deserve any sympathy in the matter of his sentences".





Imran had filed the appeal challenging the death sentence handed to him in February, claiming his trial was not fair. He still has the right to seek clemency from President Mamnoon Hussain.

Kasur rape and murder convict gets 12 more death sentences in Pakistan

The convict in a high-profile rape and murder case of a minor girl in Pakistan's Kasur city was given 12 more death sentences by a special anti-terrorism court in another 3 cases of child sexual abuse, according to a media report.





Imran Ali, who was already awarded four counts of the death penalty, 1 life term, 7-year jail term and Rs 4.1 million in fines back in February for raping and murdering the seven-year-old girl, had confessed sexually abusing at least another eight girls, Dawn newspaper reported.





The anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday awarded Ali, currently incarcerated and on death-row for the rape and murder of the minor girl, the death penalty on 12 more counts for the rape and murder of three other girls, the report said.





Ali was also fined Rs 6 million out of which Rs 3 million were directed to be handed to the families of the victims as 'blood money'.





Earlier this year, the rape and murder of the minor girl in Kasur had sparked outrage and protests across the country.





Ali was nabbed by authorities on January 23 following a DNA-match.





He was found to be a serial killer and had confessed to his crimes on the day of his indictment that came through the Lahore High Court (LHC).





On February 17, he was given a death sentence for abduction, rape and murder in the Kasur girl case.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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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

: dawn.com, August 5, 2018newsnation.in, August 5, 2018
Three jurors have admitted their anti-LGBTI bias during sentencing





Charles Rhines, a gay man from South Dakota, was convicted in the 1992 stabbing death of a donut shop worker. But instead of facing a long prison sentence, the jury gave him the death penalty.





Their reason? Since hes gay, he would enjoy prison too much.





In June, Rhines attempted to appeal this sentence.





Despite three of the jurors admitting their homophobic biases, the court refused to hear his appeal.





Enter Civil Rights groups





Now, six civil rights groups, including the ACLU and Lambda Legal, are urging the 8th Court Circuit to accept his appeal.





According to the court filing, new evidence suggests that at least some members of the jury accepted the notion that life in prison without parole would be fun for a gay person  so much so that they felt it was necessary to impose the death penalty instead. In other words, significant evidence suggests that the jury may have sentenced Mr. Rhines to death based not on the facts of his case, but because he is gay.





Mr. Rhiness case represents one of the most extreme forms anti-LGBT bias can take. Evidence suggests that he has been on death row for the past 25 years because he is a gay man. The constitutional right to a fair trial must include the right to establish whether a verdict or sentence was imposed due to jury bias, said Lambda Legal Fair Courts Project Attorney Ethan Rice.





Lambda Legal is proud to work with the ACLU, the ACLU of South Dakota, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the National LGBT Bar Association to provide important information to the Eighth Circuit on the history of bias against LGBT people and how that bias impacts LGBT rights in the criminal legal system.





Why it matters





The brief of these documents refer to Americas long and troubling history of anti-LGBTI discrimination.





Well into the twentieth century, gay people were prohibited from most government employment, barred from military service, excluded under immigration laws, targeted by police, and burdened in their rights to associate, the 5th page of the Amici Brief reads.





In the 2017 case of Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, the United States Supreme Court held that states must consider evidence that jurors relied on racial stereotypes or animus to convict a defendant in a non-capital case.





Attorneys for Rhines argue the principles underlying the Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado case also apply to anti-gay bias.





The Eighth Circuit should allow Mr. Rhines the opportunity to present evidence that anti-gay bias was a factor in some jurors decisions to sentence him to death, his lawyers say. The need for review is especially compelling because the anti-gay bias in Mr. Rhiness case may have made the difference between life and death.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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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
Hyderabad: After 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda from Karnataka may emerge as strong contenders for the Prime Ministers post from South if the BJP and the Congress fail to get good number of seats. All this time, Congress party has said that the AICC president Rahul Gandhi was its prime ministerial candidate. But in the latest political situation, the Congress has decided to sacrifice claiming the PM post to defeat the BJP at the Centre. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is playing a key role in the formation of the Federal Front with all regional parties in an aim to defeat the BJP, also said that she is not interested in the PMs post.

Sources in the TD and the TRS said that after the ensuing Assembly elections, both Mr Naidu and Mr Rao  under pressure from their parties  want to make their sons as Chief Ministers of the respective states. According to grapevine in political circles, both BJP and Congress may not get majority seats and regional parties will play key roles in all the states. In TS, there are 17 Lok Sabha seats and in AP, there are 25 Lok Sabha seats. In the previous elections TRS won 11 seats and TD won 16 seats (15 in AP and 1 in TS).

In the previous elections TRS won 11 seats and TD won 16 seats (15 in AP and 1 in TS). Both parties are hoping that they can retain the same number and perhaps also get more. In the past the CM, Mr Naidu did not show interest in the PMs post as it would be difficult to continue for five years as PM, specially if one had to depend on other parties support. He also expressed the opinion that if he took the PMs post but lost his position after one year, he would be known as former PM and then he would not be able to hold the CMs post again thereby marking the end to his political career.

But now the situation was different and this time if the situation allows, Mr Naidu may not refuse to take the PM post, said a senior TD leader. In the southern States, regional parties are dominating national parties like BJP and Congress. At present there are speculations that Mr Rao is soft towards BJP, but after 2019 elections he may change his stance, depending on the outcome of Lok Sabha results. If the PM post is offered to the south, the Telangana CM Mr. KCR will also become a strong contender, said a senior TRS leader.
An infrastructure upgrade in surrounding areas should happen alongside expansion of Vietnams largest airport, the transport minister says.

Minister Nguyen Van The stressed at a Friday meeting with Ho Chi Minh City authorities that the latter pay attention to improving transportation infrastructure outside the nations busiest airport as they expand it.

When Tan Son Nhat Airport is expanded, the number of passengers will increase, causing heavy pressure on traffic in the surrounding areas, he said.

For this reason, construction of new roads needs to happen in sync with the building of a third terminal so that both projects are completed at the same time, The noted.

The current roads connecting HCMC with surrounding provinces are heavily congested, and if there are no new roads built, traffic congestion will be heavy for years to come, he said. Traffic is a matter of life and death with Ho Chi Minh City.

HCMC has already begun implementing plans to improve the citys infrastructure, but its leaders admit that there are challenges.

The city had plans to construct 172 kilometers of new roads, but by June only 30 percent of them have been completed, said municipal Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said at the meeting.

Bui Xuan Cuong, Head of HCMC Transport Department, said several infrastructure projects were ongoing, but at a sluggish pace because of a lack of investment and challenges in land clearance.

Minister The noted at the meeting that the Tan Son Nhat International Airport is to be expanded 210 hectares to the north for cargo and plane maintenance facilities and 70-80 hectares to the south for a third terminal. A meeting on the plan will be held next week and work will start soon after if there are no objections, he said.

The airport currently handles 36 million passengers a year, way above its designed capacity of 25 million. Some foreign airlines have already cut flights to and from the airport for this reason.

A new international airport is to be built in neighboring Dong Nai Province to deal with the overflow.

Leaders in Hanoi are also urging transport authorities to complete an expansion plan for the Noi Bai International Airport in the capital city. They also want a third terminal and runway.

Reflecting the aviation sector boom in the country is the Van Don International Airport in northeast Vietnam, near the famous Ha Long Bay, which will open to traffic in December this year.

Local authorities have proposed the building of a new airport in the northern highlands province of Lao Cai near Sa Pa Town, which is another hot travel spot.

Vietnam welcomed 7.9 million foreign visitors in the first six months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and a delegation from the Presidents Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa announced over 1 billion dollars in private-sector deals during their recent mission to four sub-Saharan African nations.

The Advisory Council members expect to quickly conclude more than 2 billion dollars in additional deals in the coming days.

The four-nation visit, which included stops in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Cote DIvoire, concluded in Ghana where Secretary Ross signed a memorandum of understanding with the Minister of Finance to deepen the commercial partnership between the two nations. On previous stops, Under Secretary of Commerce Gilbert Kaplan signed cooperative agreements with the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments.

In Ghana, Secretary Ross led the U.S. delegation in meetings with President Nana Akufo-Addo, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, Minister of Trade Alan Kyerematan, Minister of Energy Boakye Agyarko, and Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta.

Under Secretary Kaplan led the delegation in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Cote DIvoire, meeting with heads of state and senior government officials including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, President Alassane Ouattara and Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly of Cote dIvoire and Ethiopian Minister of Finance Abraham Tekeste.

The delegation also met extensively with business leaders and U.S. companies already doing business in those markets.

The delegation also met with officials at the African Development Bank to better understand how and where the bank is providing financing throughout the continent. This financing is a key tool for U.S. companies as they seek procurement contracts.

Cooperation agreements signed during the trip with Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana identify priority projects in key sectors to help achieve long-term growth and development. The cooperation agreements also establish a forum for the governments to address and resolve business climate challenges that limit participation by U.S. companies seeking to invest or do business in the three countries.

The United States is making real progress in Africa, and we remain a strong, long-term, and stable partner in the continents economic development, said Secretary Ross.

We are finding solutions to transition aid-based economies to trade-based economies by creating new pathways for mutually beneficial long-term partnerships.
One of the founders of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, Abdolfattah Soltani has been granted furlough to attend her young daughters funeral, Saturday, August 4.

Soltanis 27-year old daughter, Homa, died of heart failure on Friday evening.

Earlier, Soltani had repeatedly been denied furlough, despite his fragile health. It is not yet clear how long the 64-year will be able to stay out of prison, but his attorney, Saeid Dehqan, told state-run Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) that the Islamic Republic authorities might extend his clients furlough.

The news concerning the unexpected and sudden death of Homa Soltani has been widely circulated in social media.

According to well-informed sources, President Hassan Rouhanis Ministry of Intelligence is directly responsible for keeping the prominent human rights activist behind bars.

Nevertheless, President Rouhanis Special Aide on Citizen Rights Affairs, Shahindokht Molaverdi joined thousands of other people and officially relayed a message of condolences to the bereaved father.

Meanwhile, the US State Department has also expressed its sorrow for Soltanis loss in a tweet.

Abdolfattah Soltani, who represented a number of prominent dissidents and political prisoners prior to his arrest on September 10, 2011, is serving a thirteen-year prison sentence for being awarded the [2009] Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, giving interviews to the media about his clients cases, and co-founding the Defenders of Human Rights Center with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.

The renowned lawyer has repeatedly gone on hunger strike to protest unbearable prison condition and maltreatment of the inmates across Iran. He suspended his last strike on March 26 at the request of thousands of attorneys and civil society activists who believed the move threatened his life.

Soltani announced he would suspend his hunger strike until April 10 to allow parliament and lawyers unions time to research his case and reinstate his rights in a tension-free atmosphere.

Earlier, in a March 25 letter addressed to the Islamic Republics judiciary, several members of parliament, and the chairmen of Iranian Bar Association and lawyers unions, 3,600 lawyers and civil rights activists had called for using all means for Soltanis release. In the same letter the signatories asked Soltani to suspend his hunger strike until April 10.

Soltani began his hunger strike to protest what he says is the Intelligence Ministrys interference in judicial proceedings against political prisoners.

While thieves enjoy their basic human rights behind bars, political prisoners are controlled and persecuted by the Intelligence Ministrys agents, Soltani argued.

Earlier, Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, who is in contact with Soltani, said the person investigating Soltanis case is an Intelligence Ministry official known as Mahmoudi.

According to Ms. Ebadi, Mahmoudi was in charge of her own interrogation while she was in jail, as well as that of another prominent human rights defender, Ms. Nargess Mohammadi.

The NGO Soltani co-founded was declared defunct by the Islamic Republics authorities and its founders were arrested.

However, Ebadi, 71, scared for her life, managed to leave Tehran and currently lives in exile in the UK since June 2009.

Ebadis Vice President in DHRC, Nargess Mohammadi was found guilty of "acting against the national security, membership of the DHRC and propaganda against the regime", in July 2011. In March 2012, the sentence was upheld by an appeals court. Ms. Mohammadi was arrested on April, to begin her sentence and she is behind bars since then.

In an interview with New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), Soltanis other daughter, Maedeh, says her father should have been freed long ago.

According to Ms. Soltani, President Hassan Rouhani and his Ministry of Intelligence are directly responsible for keeping her father behind bars.

Mr. Rouhani has uttered some slogans in defense of citizens rights, but that has made no difference in the Intelligence Ministrys decisions or else my father, who happens to be a defender of citizens rights and freedoms, would not be sitting in prison, she said. I believe the Intelligence Ministry is still being run by the same gang who took away my fathers freedom.
Irans President Hassan Rouhani is under pressure by conflicting demands of the people and hardliners including those on top of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Rouhanis relations with the IRGC have undergone many ups and downs during his presidency. While his positions on foreign policy have moved closer to those of IRGC, it appears that the Guards still expect more from him.

IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari praised Rouhanis tough talk against the US when the president traded threats and counter-threats with U.S. officials in July.

In a late July note addressed to Rouhani, Jafari praised the shift. Nevertheless, Jafari at the same time Jafari called on Rouhani to take revolutionary measures in controlling prices and preventing further skyrocketing rise in the price of gold and rate of exchange of foreign currencies while Iran is experiencing an economic war with enemies.

Jafari urged Rouhani to use the inherent might and anger we know you are disposed with, asking Why you do not use that might and anger against mismanagement in your cabinets economic affairs?

It appears that Jafari was alluding to Planning and Budget Organization Chief Mohammad Baqer Nobakht and others in the circle of top Rouhani economic aides. These are the same individuals who have been harshly criticized by the media and many people for their role in bringing the Iranian economy to the verge of collapse.

The IRGC has a dual objective by intervening in the governments executive affairs. On the one hand it shows sympathy and support for the publics call on Rouhani to change his economy officials; and on the other hand, this is an attempt to strip the Rouhani administration of executives who are sympathetic to the reform movement.

Unconfirmed reports say that hardliners wish to replace some of Rouhanis ministers with conservative figures.

Jafari says clearly that the IRGCs support for the Rouhani administration depends on the cabinets further coordination with the political forces close to Khamenei. This is an indication that the core of the regime is becoming less tolerant of the way Rouhani is running the affairs of the state.

An almost similar trend is visible in the Iranian society among the people as Rouhanis popularity declines. The poor performance of Rouhanis ministers in controlling prices and the overall corruption in the economy have eroded the peoples trust in Rouhani and his administration to the lowest level.

Even the Majles has been exerting pressure on Rouhani recently to introduce extensive changes in his cabinet. This is partly because the members of parliament are under pressure from their constituencies to demand change.

Meanwhile, political figures in the reform camp have also been calling for changes in the administrations economic team.

These pressures, as well as discords among Rouhanis aides, and the pressures coming from outside the country, such as sanctions and threats, have made him more vulnerable.

So far, Rouhanis only reaction to demands for change in his cabinet has been replacing the governor of the Central Bank.

On the other hand, there is no guarantee that Rouhanis shift to stances similar to those of hardliners close to IRGC and Khamenei would protect him against social pressures. What the regime demands from him are different from the peoples demands for transparency, equality and democracy.

In the meantime, the society, and particularly those who support social and political changes in Iran are enraged by Rouhanis shift toward conservatives.

All this leaves Rouhani in a difficult situation as he is unable to create a balance between conflicting demands.

Under the circumstances, it is unlikely that Rouhani can protect his close aides in the executive body. His only chance for survival is that the people who have taken to the streets under the pressure of poverty, unemployment, economic hardships, corruption and discrimination would define their main issue as opposition to IRGC, Khamenei and other hardliner clerics.

The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Radio Farda.
(AFP) - A wave of US sanctions kicks in against Iran on Tuesday, cementing Washington's hard line against Tehran after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear pact.

Already facing broad economic fallout as their currency implodes, Iranians are wondering how the next phase of the crisis in US relations will play out -- and what, exactly, America's long-term strategy is toward their country.

At least for now, the US is fixated on bringing as much diplomatic and economic pressure to Iran as possible -- though it is not clear where things are headed, or if there is an increased risk of conflict.

The US walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and is bringing back "maximum pressure" sanctions for most sectors on August 6, and the energy sector on November 4.

As of 0401 GMT Tuesday, the Iran government can no longer buy US banknotes and broad sanctions will be slapped on Iranian industries, including its rug exports.

After months of fierce rhetoric, Trump surprised observers last week when he offered to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani "any time" -- and without preconditions.The dramatic about-face, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly tamped down, came just days after the enigmatic US president and Rouhani traded barbs.

Trump at one point unleashed a Twitter tirade in which he blasted, using all caps, Rouhani's "DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE". He was responding to a July 22 warning from Rouhani that the US should not "play with the lion's tail" and warned that any conflict with Iran would be the "mother of all wars."

Trump's offer for dialogue came after Pompeo seemed to suggest support for a change in Iran leadership, telling an audience of Iranian expats in California that the regime had been a "nightmare". And John Bolton, the president's national security advisor, is a well-known Iran hawk who has advocated for regime change.

"For Bolton and others, pressure is an end in and of itself," Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, told AFP. For the administration, "if it leads to a wholesale capitulation fine, if it leads to regime change, even better," she added.

Under pressure

Trump's pressure campaign appears to have had some results. For instance, US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf. But this year, to the surprise of some military officials, there have been no such incidents.

If Iran senses "American steel they back down, if they perceive American mush they push forward -- and right now they perceive steel," said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank that lobbied for a renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal.

Dubowitz, who noted that Iran has tested fewer missiles of late, said Trump's rhetoric and position on Iran actually lowers the risk of escalation toward conflict.

"He's assuming that if he talks tough, that will bolster the credibility of American military power," Dubowitz told AFP.

Both Trump and Rouhani are due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month. It's not inconceivable a meeting on the sidelines could occur then -- Tehran will be looking anxiously to a November deadline for oil buyers to stop purchasing Iranian crude.

Over the weekend Trump once again floated the idea of meeting, tweeting "I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter -- it is up to them!"

"Iran, and its economy, is going very bad, and fast!" he said in the same missive.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on July 27 there was no policy that had been put in place with the goal of collapsing or changing the Iranian regime.

"We need them to change their behavior on a number of threats they can pose with their military, with their secret services, with their surrogates and with their proxies," Mattis told Pentagon reporters.

Experts see a number of possible outcomes for the current US policy toward Iran. Sanctions and diplomatic pressure could pile enough pressure on the regime that it comes to the negotiating table -- something Trump has advocated for.

The financial crisis in Iran could worsen to the point that mass protests make it impossible for the regime to hold on to power -- though economic pressures risk galvanizing growing anti-American sentiment and support for hardliners.

Or the regime could start to address what America calls its "malign influence" in the region, including its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and threats to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies.

"I think (the Trump administration) would be pleased with any one of those end states," Dubowitz said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

Trend:

Most of all international visits to Georgia over the past seven months of 2018 have been made from Azerbaijan, Sputnik Georgia cited Head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration Giorgi Chogovadze as saying.

Over the past seven months of 2018, more than 4.6 million international travellers have visited Georgia, which is 12.9 percent more compared to the same period of 2017. The number of visits was more than 2.4 million, which is 433,600 more than in the same period of 2017.

After Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey were also the leading countries in terms of international trips. In January-June 2018, 755,603 tourists from Azerbaijan visited Georgia.

Over the seven months, 265,100 representatives of the Georgian diaspora visited the country, which is six percent more than in the same period of 2017.

Most foreigners arrive in Georgia by vehicles and planes.

The income from foreign tourism for seven months of 2018 amounted to $1.7 billion (28.9-percent-growth), which is 305 million more compared to the same period of last year.

The tourism sector in Georgia has been actively developing for many years. New hotels are built annually.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

Trend:

Azerbaijans Ministry of Agriculture held an event dedicated to the establishment of the Council of Farmers, the ministry said in a message.

Speaking at the event with the participation of the country's leading farmers, Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov said that agrarian reforms are underway in Azerbaijan and the institutional projects are being implemented in the agrarian sphere.

The minister informed the farmers about the recent decree signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Having mentioned about the establishment of the State Agrarian Development Centers, Karimov stressed that the new structure will allow applying the single window system and fully ensuring its transparency.

Stressing about the establishment of farmers and coordination councils under the State Agrarian Development Centers, the minister said that the structure that has been recently established is the Council of Farmers under the Ministry of Agriculture.

"The ultimate goal of the Ministry of Agriculture is to enable farmers to use the land even more efficiently, produce even more products and earn even more," he said. The Center for Agrarian Research was established to reveal the problems of farmers and help them.

"State Agrarian Trade Company" LLC was established to help farmers in the sale of their products.

The quality of seeds and fertilizers, irrigation problems, actions on the development of livestock were discussed at the meeting. At the end of the meeting, a board of the Council of Farmers consisting of 14 people was established.
Tehran, Iran, August 5

By A. Shirazi- Trend:

Directors of consular department from the foreign ministries of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran held a meeting in Tehran during which both sides stressed the importance of the full implementation of all agreements so far signed between the two nations.

The first round of meetings on consular affairs between Azerbaijan and Iran was held in the Iranian capital on Saturday, Mehr news agency reported on August 5.

During the session, the two officials discussed ways to faciliate visa requirements for the two countries travelers, judicial interaction, extradition of convicts, and the joint war against narcotics and the organized crimes.

They hailed all the efforts made by the two sides so far in the above-mentioned areas and urged the need for the full implementation of the bilateral agreements already inked by the officials.

Azerbaijan and Iran have ramped up efforts in the past years to forge closer ties in various fields.

The two countries have signed dozens of memorandums of understanding and agreements to promote mutual cooperation in the political and economic spheres.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The grace period for residents of industrial parks in Azerbaijan may be extended and relevant proposals have been sent to the government, a government source told Trend.

Currently, residents of industrial parks in the country receive various benefits for a period of 7 years. The new proposals provide for an extension of this period to 10 years.

They are exempt from taxes on real estate, profit, land tax and value added tax on imported equipment. The government, represented by "Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park" CJSC, also provides residents with the necessary infrastructure.

The source noted the reasons for the extension of the grace period, then added, that under the law residents can enjoy benefits from the moment of registration in the industrial park, but in fact some benefits, such as exemption from income tax, become available only after the completion of the construction of resident plants - after 2 or 3 years.

"In other words, it turns out that residents enjoy all the benefits not for 7 years, but only for 4 or 5 years. Therefore, it was proposed to extend the grace period to 10 years," he said.

All industrial parks in Azerbaijan operate under the "Sumgayit Chemical-Industrial Park" CJSC. The country has 5 industrial parks - Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, Balakhani Industrial Park, Garadagh Industrial Park, Mingachevir Industrial Park and Pirallahi industrial Park.

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Follow author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli
Tehran, Iran, August 5

By A. Shirazi- Trend:

Iran exported over 37,000 tons of non-oil goods to Europe in the first four months of the current Iranian fiscal year, customs figures show.

Around 37,401 tons of non-oil goods worth $15.5 billion were exported to European countries in the first four months of current Iranian year, according to the latest reports released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, IRNA news agency reported.

The exported goods registered a 0.76 percent and 14.69 percent rise in terms of weight and value, respectively, compared to the same corresponding period last year.

Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland, France, England, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Germany were among major exporting destinations of Iranian goods.

The exported goods mainly included mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation, bituminous substances and mineral waxes.

The report also said that Italy, Germany and Spain were the main importers of Iranian goods in the first four months of this year.
Baku, Azerbaijan, August 5

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

In May 2018, prices in the real estate market in Baku increased by 0.53 percent (compared to April), Nusret Ibrahimov, director general of the MBA Group consulting company, real estate expert, told Trend.

Despite this, according to the expert, prices in the main market segments have decreased.

"Thus, prices in the secondary housing market over the month decreased by 0.3 percent (from 1,635 manats to 1,630 manats per square meter), in the primary housing market - by 1.91 percent (from 1,244 manats to 1,221 manats per square meter), in the market of commercial facilities - by 0.58 percent (from 2,637 manats to 2,631 manats per square meter), in the rental market - by 6.58 percent (from 8.79 manats to 8.21 manats per square meter), and in the market of individual and summer cottages - by 1.45 percent (from 1,404 manats to 1,384 manats per square meter)," Ibrahimov said.

Ibrahimov said that the prices increased only on the land market (an increase of 1.98 percent) and the rental market for commercial facilities (an increase of 1.68 percent).

The expert noted that compared to the indicator of early 2018, the real estate prices fell by 3.02 percent.

According to him, the decline is mainly linked with the reduction in prices on the rental market.

"Thus, compared to the indicator in early 2018, prices in the secondary housing market decreased by 2.24 percent, in the primary housing market - by 1.64 percent, and in the rental market - by 3.78 percent. At the same time, growth was observed in the land market (5.81 percent), in the market of commercial facilities ( 0.55 percent), in the rental market for commercial facilities (3.29 percent) and in the market of individual and summer cottages (2. 25 percent)," Ibrahimov said.

The market demonstrates a trend towards stabilization and a six-percent growth is expected on the market by the end of the year, the expert concluded.

(1.7 manats = 1 USD on June 11)

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Indian business circles are interested in managing Kazakhstans big airports, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a message.

According to the message, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov met with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who arrived in Kazakhstan on an official visit.

"Following the recent Kazakh-Indian summit meeting in Qingdao, the Kazakh president gave a number of specific instructions for the government to intensify bilateral cooperation in the field of investments, energy, logistics, IT, space, pharmaceutics, tourism and film production, Abdrakhmanov said.

Indian business circles showed interest in managing Kazakhstans big airports, as well as in cooperation with the Astana International Financial Center, the International Center for Green Technology and Investment and Astana Hub  International Hub for IT Startups.

"One of the important projects of multilateral cooperation is also the beginning of negotiations on concluding an agreement on a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and India," the message said.

In 2017, the level of Kazakh-Indian trade turnover reached $1 billion.

"The parties agreed to continue active cooperation to increase this figure, the message said. In particular, the work is underway to expand cooperation in transport and logistics, including the use of the potential of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway with an access to the Indian Ocean."

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 5

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

An exhibition of export goods of the Republic of Turkey is planned to be held in the building of the Turkmen Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ashgabat on December 15-17, Altyn Asyr national TV channel reported.

The main goal of the event is to expand mutually beneficial Turkmen-Turkish trade and economic cooperation, as well as demonstrate the export potential and industrial capacities of companies from various regions of Turkey.

During the recent meeting of the government, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed that the organization of such exhibitions must be aimed at the expansion of business ties, exchange of experience and launch of new investment projects in Turkmenistan that promote the competitiveness of the national economy and its production capabilities.

The companies specializing in mechanical engineering, chemical industry, production of industrial, agricultural and water management equipment, trade, education, construction are expected to participate in the exhibition.

Turkish businessmen will have an opportunity to discuss specific proposals with Turkmen partners - representatives of various ministries, as well as members of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan.

About 600 Turkish companies, which were entrusted with such major projects as the construction of the Turkmenbashi International Sea Port, the international airport of the capital of Turkmenistan, autobahns, transport interchanges and flyovers, work in Turkmenistan.

Moreover, Turkish partners take an active part in the construction of chemical facilities in Turkmenistan.

Productive interaction is carried out in the field of electric power industry, where the Turkish companies implement the project on modernization of Ashgabats energy systems and build big power plants in the regions.
A pickup with illegal migrants inside crashed into a truck in southeastern Iran, claiming the lives of at least 11 people.

'The collision occurred at 16:10 pm local time Sunday, on Khash-Iranshahr road,' Road Traffic Police Chief in northern Sistan-Baluchestan Province Colonel Kashvad Behrouzizadeh told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

The pickup driver is blamed for the fatal crash, that also left 7 people injured, the officer said.

The southeastern province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan has always been a destination for gangs, smuggling people, illegal drugs and fuel.

Numerous similar tragic incidents have taken place on Sistan-Baluchestan roads, particularly in Saravan, Iranshahr, Khash and Zahedan, with the drivers carrying illegal migrants or smuggled fuel blamed.
Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a Shiite Muslim mosque in eastern Afghanistan that killed 39 people and wounded at least 80 others, Reuters reported.

In a statement carried by its Amaq news agency, the group said around 150 Shiites and security forces members were killed or wounded in Fridays attack in the city of Gardez in Paktia province, but gave few details on how the attack was carried out.

The Paktia police chief said that two burka-clad militants carried out the attack on the mosque, where more than 100 people had gathered to pray.

Islamic State militants view Shiite Muslims as heretics.

The group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Shiite mosques, security installations and civilians in Afghanistan in recent weeks as pressure builds for peace talks between the Western-backed government and the Taliban.

The attack underlines the dire security situation after four decades of war and 17 years of U.S. intervention.

No reliable census information exists on the size of the Shiite community in Afghanistan, but estimates range around 10-15 percent, including most members of the Persian-speaking Hazara ethnic group and some Tajiks.
A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Lombok Sunday, sending people running from their homes and triggering a tsunami alert, just a week after a quake killed 17 people on the holiday island, AFP reported.

The latest tremor had a magnitude of seven and struck just 10 km underground according to the US Geological Survey.

It was followed by two light to moderate secondary quakes and nearly two dozen aftershocks.

Despite reports of damage in Lombok and neighbouring islands, no information on casualties was available hours after the quake hit.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, said many buildings were thought to have been affected in Lombok's main city of Mataram.

"They are mostly buildings with weak construction material," Nugroho said.

Residents in Mataram described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling out of buildings.

"Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking," Iman, who like many Indonesians has one name, told AFP.

The electricity was knocked out in several parts of the city and patients were evacuated from the main hospital, witnesses and officials said.

Pictures showed patients lying on their beds outside the clinic while doctors in blue scrubs attended to them.

Singapores Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was in Lombok for a security conference when the earthquake struck, described on Facebook how his hotel room on the 10th floor shook violently.

"Walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up," he said.

- Airport operations normal -

Officials issued a tsunami warning, which was later cancelled.
Nigerian authorities on Sunday confirmed that nine youths drowned during a riverside picnic in the northeastern state of Taraba, Xinhua reported.

Responders have recovered only seven bodies since the incident on Saturday, said the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

All the victims were members of the NYSC, an organization set up by the Nigerian government.

Florence Yaakugh, a state coordinator of the NYSC, told reporters that 22 corps members were on a picnic at the River Mayo-Selbe in Gashaka area of Taraba when the incident occurred. The victims were on compulsory national service by young graduates.

Rescue operation is still ongoing to recover the remaining two bodies, Yaakugh said, describing the incident as "sad and most unfortunate."

The police said a preliminary investigation has shown that while the youths were swimming, there was a sudden upsurge in the volume of water in the river, which carried the victims away.
Saudi Arabia has expelled the Canadian Ambassador and recalled its Ambassador after the Canadian government issued a statement of concern over the detainment of civil society and womens rights activists, Express.Co.Uk reported.

The statement, published by Canada's Foreign Office, stated: Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and womens rights activists in Saudi Arabia, including Samar Badawi.

We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful human rights activists.

The Middle Eastern nation has also frozen all new trade and investment sanctions with Canada, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The Canadian Ambassador was also declared persona non grata, and issued 24 hours to leave the country.

The leading womens rights activist Samar Badawi, sister of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, was detained by Saudi police last week, according to Amnesty International.

Canadas Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland commented on Ms Badawis arrest, stating: Very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawis sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.

Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.

Mr Badawi was arrested in 2012 for criticism of the regime, and was subjected to 50 lashings in 2015.

His wife, Ensaf Haidar, and three children were granted Canadian citizenship earlier this summer, and live in Quebec's Eastern Townships.
An aircraft carrying the bodies of three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) landed in Moscow at midnight on Sunday, the source in the Sheremetyevo International Airport told Sputnik.

The Air France plane, after a slight delay, landed in Moscow at around 00:12 local time (GMT 21:12 on Saturday).

The bodies of the journalists were transported on the Air France flight 1144. They were met by the investigators on the sport. The bodies will be taken to a forensic medical examination, " the source said.

Journalists Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev, and Kirill Radchenko were killed near the CAR city of Sibut on July 30. The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation into the case.

An investigative media of Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky confirmed that it had sent the journalists to the CAR to work on a documentary about mercenary forces allegedly active in the country.

The CAR has been recently suffering from numerous internal conflicts. In 2012-2014, the country faced a civil war, involving the government, Seleka rebel groups' alliance, composed mostly of Muslims, and Anti-balaka militias, whose members were largely Christians. The violence did not stop even after Seleka was dissolved in 2013.
By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Aug 5, 2018 - 16:29 | World, All

While North Korea has already this year held summit talks with its neighbors South Korea and China as well as the United States, its leader Kim Jong Un has shown no signs of meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe anytime soon.

Instead of merely having no interest in starting dialogue with Japan, Pyongyang has steadfastly lambasted its longtime adversary with the intention of fanning nationalistic sentiments domestically and strengthening ties with Seoul.

As Japan-North Korea relations are expected to deteriorate more than ever, Tokyo "should not hope that an Abe-Kim summit will take place in the near future," a source familiar with Pyongyang's thinking said.

On Friday night, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono chatted with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related gatherings in Singapore.

It was the first ministerial contact between the two countries since Abe began to explore the possibility of a meeting with Kim following the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit in June in the city-state.

Although Kono told reporters that he informed Ri of Japan's views and basic stances, he declined to disclose further details, suggesting their conversation may not have been held in an amicable atmosphere.

As Abe wants to talk with Kim bilaterally on the occasion of international conferences in September, Kono was "urged" by the prime minister's office to make contact with Ri in Singapore, a Japanese Foreign Ministry source said.

Kono, however, was "not able to obtain any results, or might have even worsened the situation," the source added.

While improving relations with other countries like South Korea and the United States, North Korea has recently stepped up criticism of Abe's government, asking Japan to atone for its past military occupation and colonial rule on the Korean Peninsula.

"Acerbic comments on Japan are a cohesive to bring North Koreans together and to demonstrate Chairman Kim's nationalist credentials," said Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of politics at International Christian University in Tokyo.

"Japan represents a historical experience that helped shape the emergence of a North Korea, the division of the peninsula and today's nuclear standoff," said Nagy, also a fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

"These are all part of the North Korean identity now as they have been engrained and exaggerated in several generations of North Koreans. It will be difficult to change this view of Japan as it is so divorced from Japan today," he added.

Tong Zhao, a fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said North Korea is unlikely to try to get along with Japan soon, given that Abe continues to take a hardline stance on Pyongyang.

Even after the historic summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, Abe's government has repeatedly argued that international sanctions against North Korea should be maintained until Pyongyang achieves complete denuclearization as promised.

"As South Korea, Russia, and China have all taken a more flexible approach to engage with North Korea, Japan naturally becomes the next 'nut' for North Korea to crack," Zhao said.

Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said Japan-North Korea relations "may not improve as long as Japan keeps its full range of sanctions on North Korea."

Tokyo and Pyongyang have also been divided over the issue of past abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents, with Abe having said that tackling the matter is his "life's work."

Japan claims that 17 of its citizens were abducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, five of whom were repatriated in 2002, and suspects North Korea was involved in many more disappearances.

But Pyongyang has said eight of the 17 -- including Megumi Yokota, who disappeared while heading home from school when she was 13 -- have died and four never entered the country.

"What (is) sought by Japan in persisting in talking about the worn-out 'abduction issue' is to use the issue as an excuse for evading the liquidation of the past and a political slogan for the hostile policy toward" North Korea, the Rodong Sinmun of the ruling Workers' Party said last month.

Japan has insisted it will make efforts to resolve several matters such as the abduction issue before normalizing ties with North Korea based on the "Pyongyang Declaration," a key diplomatic document signed by the two nations in 2002.

"I'm wondering why Japan hasn't tried to solve the abduction issue after normalizing relations with North Korea," a diplomat at an embassy in Beijing of a European country said.

"Unless the Japanese government changes its policy, it cannot break down the status quo," the diplomat said.

Abe has been looking to hold a face-to-face meeting with Kim possibly in September on the fringes of the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok or the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
The India Meteorological Department has issued an orange alert in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, and Idukki for October 29.
By Eric M. Johnson

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is racing to pull his private space company out of start-up mode and move into production amid signals that his firm's heavy rocket set for lift-off in 2020 may slip behind schedule, according to people familiar with the project.

Blue Origin has added hundreds of engineers over the past three years and continues to ramp up in an expansion that one employee described as "hyperbolic." The Kent, Washington-based company is looking to double its current workforce to around 3,000 employees over the next two to three years, a top customer told Reuters.

The urgency centres on a rocket dubbed New Glenn. The heavy-launch vehicle, which Bezos promises will be able to haul satellites and, eventually, people into orbit, is central to the company's hopes of winning lucrative military and commercial contracts.

New Glenn's first-stage booster will be reusable, a key piece of Bezos' strategy to lower costs and increase the frequency of launches. Blue Origin executives have stated publicly that test flights will begin within two years.

But whether Blue Origin can hit that mark remains to be seen.

With the clock ticking on 2020, company engineers are still finalising details on New Glenn's design and just beginning to build model components that must be put through extreme testing, people familiar with the project said. They requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.

Blue Origin has privately acknowledged in conversations with French satellite firm Eutelsat SA - its first New Glenn customer - that its 2020 time frame is "very aggressive," a person with direct knowledge of talks between the companies said.

Story continues

The firms have padded their contract, which covers the launch of a geostationary satellite in the period 2021-2022, so that Blue Origin will incur no penalties if it is late, the person added.

Yohann Leroy, Eutelsat's Deputy Chief Executive Officer, declined to discuss details of his company's contract with Blue Origin, but said he was optimistic New Glenn will be ready to carry his firm's satellite by the end of 2022.

"Of course, I cannot guarantee that they will respect their initial timeline, but we are confident that they will not be very far from it," Leroy said.

A Blue Origin spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment about the company's hiring practices, strategy or competitive challenges. The private firm has been tight-lipped on New Glenn's production status and plans for bringing it to market.

Mounting a successful test in 2020 would give Blue Origin its best shot at fending off competing rockets and new ones expected to enter the market in the next few years, analysts said.

Rivals include aerospace stalwarts United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin; and France's ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran. Japan and China are likewise designing reusable rockets.

But 18 years after its founding, Blue Origin has found itself lagging a competitor closer to home: SpaceX.

Founded by Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk, the Hawthorne, California-based company has upended the space industry with its relatively low-cost reusable Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX has completed more than 50 successful Falcon launches and snagged billions of dollars' worth of contracts, including deals with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

SpaceX in February transfixed a global audience with the successful test launch of its newest rocket, the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful operational rocket in the world.

Musk had predicted "game over" for other makers of heavy rockets if his launch succeeded.

The good news for Blue Origin is that demand for satellite launch services is projected to soar.

Around 800 small satellites are expected to launch annually beginning around 2020, more than double the annual average over the past decade, according to Marco Caceres, senior space analyst with Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal Group.

"If New Glenn can be ready in the next two years (Blue Origin) may be able to seize that window of opportunity," he said.

ROCKET SCIENCE

Like Musk, Bezos is passionate about the prospect of humans living and working in space.

Now the world's richest man, thanks to the success of online retailer Amazon, Bezos has been liquidating $1 billion (0.76 billion) of its stock annually to fund his interplanetary dreams.

He set up Blue Origin in a warehouse some 20 miles (32 km) south of Seattle. The company's Latin motto means "step by step ferociously," a reference to Bezos' belief that success comes through steady, incremental progress.

But after nearly two decades, and with the private space race heating up, Bezos is intent on moving closer to commercialization, three Blue Origin employees told Reuters.

Part of those efforts include selling sightseeing trips to the edge of space aboard another Blue Origin rocket dubbed the New Shepard, with ticket prices in the $200,000-$300,000 range.

Blue Origin also is vying to supply its BE-4 engine to United Launch Alliance to power its forthcoming Vulcan rocket, ULA said.

The recent hiring binge has focused mainly on throwing talent at the New Glenn, and has included more than 60 engineers who worked previously for SpaceX.

Blue Origin's workforce of more than 1,500 has more than doubled from its early 2016 levels, three employees said. Its ranks are expected to double again by the time New Glenn is flying, Eutelsat's Leroy said. By comparison, SpaceX has more than 6,000 employees.

Bezos' company has also invested more than $200 million in a rocket-making facility near NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Still, Leroy said he expects to see a New Glenn prototype no sooner than mid-2019.

In the meantime, NASA, the U.S. Air Force and satellite companies are directing business to SpaceX.

Matt Desch, Chief Executive Officer of McLean, Virginia-based Iridium Communications Inc, SpaceX's largest commercial customer, told Reuters that Blue Origin "has been a little less clear" about its strategy.

"Nobody disputes that with the investment they're making they won't eventually be successful, but how and when they become reliable is still uncertain," Desch said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Greg Mitchell and Marla Dickerson)
The mother of the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has said in her first interview with Western media that her infamous son was "brainwashed" into a life of extremism.

Alia Ghanem said in the interview published by The Guardian newspaper on August 3 that "the people at university changed him. He became a different man," referring to the time when bin Laden was in his early 20s and an economics student in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

She appeared to blame Abdullah Azzam, a Muslim Brotherhood member who became bin Laden's spiritual adviser at the university.

Ghanem, speaking from the family home in Jeddah, said prior to that time, the future terror leader had been a shy and academically capable student.



"He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s," Ghanem said.

"You can call it a cult. They got money for their cause," she said. "I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing, because he loved me so much."

The United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 because the Taliban-led government had protected Al-Qaeda and bin Laden, who organized the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The Taliban was driven from power, and bin Laden, hiding in the northern Pakistani city of Abbotabad, was killed in a U.S. raid in 2011.

Based on reporting by The Guardian, dpa, and the BBC
Did former President Barack Obama say he supports the seizure of white farmer's land in South Africa? No, that's a fake quote, made up by a website that plagiarises articles from other websites about real news events and then adds some invented claims in the headline and first paragraphs to attract more clicks and make more advertising money. The quotes attributed to Obama in the title of the article and first paragraphs are not real.

The story originated from an article published by YourNewsWire on August 4, 2018 titled "Obama: "I Fully Support Seizure Of White Farmers' Land In South Africa"" (archived here) which opened:

Barack Obama has praised the South African government's recent decision to legalize the seizure of land from white farmers. In a speech delivered at the 2018 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg, Obama heaped praise on the South African president for amending the constitution and allowing people to steal land from white farmers without compensation. During the speech Obama also called for a guaranteed income.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail, which contains no actual real facts:

Obama: "I Fully Support Seizure Of White Farmers' Land In South Africa" Barack Obama has praised the South African government's recent decision to legalize the seizure of land from white farmers.

Obama did go to South Africa and he did deliver a speech there, which you can read in full here:

Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture 2018: Obama's full speech - Nelson Mandela Foundation Former US President Barack Obama delivered the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg on Tuesday 17 July 2018. Here's the full transcript of his speech, based on the theme "Renewing the Mandela Legacy and Promoting Active Citizenship in a Changing World".

Nowhere in the speech do the words "white farmers", "seizure" or "seize" even appear. These quotes are completely made up by YourNewsWire.

Most of the rest of the article is copied from Gateway Pundit:

STUNNING: Obama Praises South African Leader Despite Race Killings and New Law that Seizes White Farmers' Land without Compensation Barack Obama traveled to South Africa in July and delivered a speech at the 2018 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg. During the speech Obama called for guaranteed income. Obama also lectured rich people for buying big homes despite purchasing a $8.1 million home in the DC area.

That story is slightly more accurate. Obama did indeed praise President Ramaphosa in passing during the introduction of his speech, in which he also mentioned several other people present for the lecture:

Thank you. To Mama Graca Machel, members of the Mandela family, the Machel family, to President Ramaphosa who you can see is inspiring new hope in this great country, professor, doctor, distinguished guests, to Mama Sisulu and the Sisulu family, to the people of South Africa, it is a singular honour for me to be here with all of you as we gather to celebrate the birth and life of one of history's true giants.

You can certainly call a passing mention during the introduction of a speech about someone inspiring new hope "praise" and you can get worked up about that if you don't like the policies that person is involved with.

But then invending new quotes out of whole cloth? That's fake news!

YourNewsWire has published several hoaxes and fake news articles in the past so anything they write or publish should be taken with a large grain of salt. Their Facebook page "The People's Voice" recently lost its verification checkmark according to a report from MMFA.

The Terms of Use of the site also make it clear they don't really stand behind the accuracy of any of their reporting:

THE PEOPLE'S VOICE, INC. AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE.

The site was profiled in the Hollywood reporter where it was described as:

Your News Wire, a 3-year-old website of murky facts and slippery spin, is published by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway -- a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016 -- out of an apartment in L.A.'s historic El Royale.

RationalWiki described it as:

YourNewsWire (styled as YourNewsWire.com[1]) is an Los Angeles-based clickbait fake news website known for disseminating conspiracy theories and misleading information, contrary to its claimed motto ("News. Truth. Unfiltered").[1]

A while ago we also reported that YourNewsWire had rebranded itself as NewsPunch by changing its domain name in an apparent effort to evade filtering/blocking. It appears the site has changed back to it's old name in the mean time but you can still see the NewsPunch name in the contact email address in the footer.

We wrote about yournewswire.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
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
We get it, you know a lot of QCs! And QCs count for more than you and me. This is what Miller is saying. She knows this is what she is saying, we know it is what she is saying, so can we cut to the chase here? Ms Miller is really asking, in the tone of a 17th-century monarch, or 19th-century boss, Do you think you know more than?. And we should be glad she is, because this Twitter freakout, this rage of a businesswomen who puked over our vote, this listing of people who are better and cleverer than the rest of us, captures the essence of elitist Remoanerism  which is the belief that some peoples political views are worth more than other peoples, and therefore should carry more weight. Autocracy, as some of us might call it. Whatever it is, it isnt democracy, which is a system in which everyones views, regardless of our racial, gender or educational background, are meant to impact equally on the fate of the nation.Millers unguarded snobbery, her probably accidental exposure of her belief that lesser citizens should stop criticising people with letters after their names, confirms what lies behind Remoaners deification of expertise. It is a belief, as old as politics itself, that the well-educated and well brought-up are better placed to make political judgements than the rest of us. Right from Platos Philosopher Kings to the complaint that was made about women demanding the vote in the late 19th century  as one misogynist politician put it, women lack the expertise which is necessary for informed political activity  there has always been this idea that some people,, are better at thinking and deciding and doing politics than other people:. You know them: the kind of folks who vote for Brexit or who outrageously clog up Ms Millers Twitterfeed with  brace yourselves  negative comments.This is the tyranny of expertise. This is the thing Michael Gove was dead right about  and you could tell he was dead right because his comments sent the chattering classes into a political tailspin  when he said people have had enough of experts. This public bristling against the elevation of expertise in political and social matters isnt philistinism, as the elitists claim it is, and nor is it a folk-wisdom that prefers the diagnosis of a witch doctor over the insights of Western science. Rather, it is part of a great and democratic growing discomfort with the way in which the beatification of experts grates against the ideal of one person, one vote by suggesting, or outright arguing, that some people and some groups should have more say thanThe populist revolt against experts is a wonderful and positive moment in British politics. This is people saying, Our views count as much as yours. When it comes to, our say is absolutely equal to your say, even if we might be poorer than you and have fewer PhDs. This is in keeping with virtually every stab for the expansion of democracy in history, all of which have relied upon a scepticism about elevated expertise and a conviction that ordinary working people have just as much to contribute to political debate as lords and ladies and business owners do.In fact, Id go further: in answer to the question Miller is really asking  which is, Do you lot think you know better than?  we should say Yes. Yes, by dint of the fact that ordinary people really live in society in a way that bureaucrats and businesspeople often dont, and therefore are very often more sensitive and alert and thoughtful about the difficulties facing that society, they know more than you. They are better than you at making long-term political decisions that will benefit everyone. They are more politically trustworthy than those who have vested interests, narrow experiences, and a sometimes jaundiced view of society and its inhabitants. But dont worry, we are democrats, which means we wont let the fact that ordinary people are better placed than the elites to make sensible political decisions get in the way of your rights. So youll still have a vote. Thats all, though. One vote. Like the rest of us.is editor of. Find him on Instagram: @burntoakboy
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said: Six months on, the Iranian authorities still havent provided a shred of evidence to justify locking up these environmentalists. The authorities should be praising these activists for addressing Irans dire environmental problems, but the countrys hard-line security institutions rarely miss an opportunity to punish independent civic initiative.

Those detained are: Houman Jokar, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi, Taher Ghadirian, Abolreza Kouhpayeh, and Morad Tahbaz.

These comments come in the wake of an open letter written by the families of the detained, published on July 31, which stressed that their loved ones were being held without access to a lawyer and asked that authorities met with the environmentalists.

Since January 2018, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has arrested at least 50 environmental activists across the country.

On January 24 and 25, the IRGC arrested several members of the environmental group, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, and accused them of spying on Iran for the West. One of those arrested was famed environmentalist Professor Kavous Seyed Emami, who later died in prison, probably as a result of torture. Since his death, the IRGC have raided his house several times, harassed his family, and banned his wife, Maryam Mombeini, from leaving the country.

Whitson said: The country is facing serious economic and environmental challenges, but authorities are throwing the very people who could be part of the solution in jail.

On July 31, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer for two of the detained told Human Rights Watch that the prosecutor has not allowed him to represent his clients or read their cases. The day before, a source who wished to remain anonymous told Human Rights Watch that the families had been unable to get any information about the charges against the detained environmentalists, but that during a visit in June, the families noticed signs of abuse on the detainees.

Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament from Tehran, tweeted on May 9 that the intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, had explicitly said that there is no evidence supporting the espionage claims. This was backed up by Issa Kalantari, the head of Irans Environmental Institution, on May 22.
It began with an e-mail. A student from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia e-mailed me, informing me that her class was reading Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera as well as one of my critical articles about Anzaldua and her writings. She had more questions and decided to e-mail me to see if I would reply. After my initial surprise (my amazement about how far publications reach various areas of the world) I also became quite curious about this small college town, north of Belgrade, in Serbia. What prompted their interest? What relevance did Anzaldua's writings bring to their own discussions, to their research? The end of Yugoslavia created psychological and physical borders-- borders around communities and peoples who once were borderless. In the 1990s, and at the beginning of this decade, borders have been drawn, erased, re-drawn, disputed, and some areas currently remain in tender/tense conditions.









Four years later, the student who sent me the e-mail is now a doctoral candidate in our English Department. She is writing a comparative literature dissertation which investigates the cross-cultural, aesthetic, historical, transnational aspects of Chicanx/Latinx literatures with authors from "the Former Yugoslavia" who have published memoirs and fiction.





Her decision to e-mail me, and then later to become a graduate student in our program, has viscerally and forever changed me. I have just completed a Fulbright year teaching and living in the same college town where she initially sent me the e-mail: The University of Novi Sad, Serbia.













While in Serbia (and Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro), I learned from the people of the former Yugoslavia who have experienced the violent forcing of unnatural borders: the borders of discrimination, suppression, segregation, "ethnic cleansing." In the span of a decade, new leaders in power (1980s) were able to turn families, neighbors, communities, regions against each other by reviving old historical grudges, by gas lighting, by spreading the lie that one group is superior to another.









Anzaldua deftly illustrates what such borders looked like "on the ground" in South Texas when she was growing up. And below, Jasmina Dervisevic-Cesic, in her memoir, The River Runs Salt, Run Sweet, also takes us on a journey-- but in Bosnia-- to experience life before the wars, during, and after. There are many other memoirs, novels, and books of poetry recently published in the last decade by writers who experienced the Yugoslavian wars. However, I'm taking the time today to point to Dervisevic-Cesic's work because of how it crosses similar artistic structures that Anzaldua achieves. Although Dervisevic-Cesic's book is not theoretical, it gives the reader a visceral "on the ground" view of life in the former Yugoslavia and how it was so quickly disrupted and destroyed.





Dervisevic-Cesic is also the first, the very first refugee who fled the former Yugoslavia and was welcomed to the United States. She has been living in the U.S. since 1993. Later this month I will be meeting and interviewing her (stay tuned), asking her (of course!) her thoughts about immigration and refugees now seeking asylum and safety in the U.S.





In the meantime, I gently encourage you to read her book in light of the current historical moment that we are all experiencing. I had a most amazing year in Serbia which also led me to many other regions in the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia), and hope that such transnational connections will benefit all of us. Abrazos Contigo!








Civita-di-Bagnoregio is an ancient Italian village about 120 kilometers north of Rome. It was built on a flat area of volcanic rock, high above the Tiber river valley.

Civita is known as a dying city, with a year-round population of just seven. For many years, people there had long believed that the world economy had passed them by. They had become used to seeing their young people leave for jobs in other places.

But a wave of tourists  mostly from China  is helping the towns economy. This year, Civita expects 800,000 visitors.

Europes growing tourism from China

From small villages to famous capital cities, Europe has seen a sharp increase in Chinese tourists. The China Tourism Academy and the Chinese online travel agency Ctrip say more than 6 million Chinese citizens visited European countries in 2017. European officials estimate the number to be close to 10 million.

The most popular countries to visit among Chinese tourists are Britain, Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

Eurostat, the European Unions statistics agency, says Chinese tourism in Europe has increased by 200 percent in the past 10 years.

Those numbers are expected to increase this year, which has been named China-EU Tourism Year. The marketing effort was jointly launched by the European Union and China.

Europeans are both pleased with and concerned about the growing number of visitors. The increase has stressed some European airports and is adding to development issues in some areas.

Consequences of Chinese tourism boom

Some observers have different concerns.

Stratfor, an American research company, has called Chinese tourism an unexpected tool that China can use to exert its influence.

The group added that the huge rise in the number of outbound Chinese travelers means their combined economic weight can have sharp consequences.

Stratfor also said the Chinese governments ability to give countries Approved Destination Status is a way to control where Chinese tourists can and will go.

That is how the government greatly reduced the number of Chinese people traveling to South Korea last year, Stratfor noted. Experts saw the move as an effort to punish South Korea for deploying an American-made missile defense system that the Chinese government opposed.

The European Union, however, sees the rise in Chinese visitors as important to the economy. The EU Commission said, Tourism has the potential to contribute towards employment and economic growth, as well as to development in ruralareas.

Forty-five-year-old Roberta Mencarelli oversees a bed-and-breakfast hotel and restaurant in Bagnoregio, a few kilometers west of Citvia-di-Bagnoregio. She said that most of the visitors to the area are Chinese. They have brought money into the town and the tourism has increased the energy here, she said.

It has also increased the number of businesses. There used to be only two restaurants in town, she said. Now there are 10.

Mencarelli said she has even begun learning some Mandarin Chinese to help her communicate with visitors.

Rising tensions?

The increase of visitors has brought much more money to the small number of people who live in Civita.

Not everyone is happy about it. An old woman who gave her name as Giovanna described the inflow as an invasion.

Too many people she said.

Her complaint is similar to those heard in some of Europes most famous cities like Venice, Barcelona and Paris. Critics say they are already overcrowded during the tourist season. They say the additional waves of visitors from China and other Asian countries have hurt the quality of life of local people and strained infrastructure.

Wolfgang Arlt is director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI). He wrote in a recent blog entry that there is a growing number of  sometimes violent  protests by local people in some places popular with travelers.

Only seven percent of Chinese citizens have passports, compared to 40 percent of Americans. That means, industry experts say, that the possibility for even more growth in Chinese tourism is huge.

Arlts research group says the number of trips taken by Chinese travelers will increase from 145 million in 2017 to 400 million by 2030. If those numbers are correct, then Chinese would make up one-fourth of world tourism by that year.

Im Mario Ritter.

Jamie Dettmer reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

tourist n. someone who travels for pleasure rather than business

exert v. to use strength, to cause something to happen

consequences n. the results of an action

potential n. the chance that something will happen or exist in the future

contribute v. to give, to cause something to happen

strain  v. to cause problems or stress from too much use

infrastructure n. the structures and equipment that nations or areas need to operate such as roads, airports, railways and power centers

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The president of the European Commission appealed for cooperation between the European Union and the United States.

Here is what Jean-Paul Juncker said to U.S. President Donald Trump during their talks in Washington, DC:

We are close partners  allies, not enemies. We have to work together.

But two new studies show cooperation does not always go the way people might expect.

When cooperation turns selfish

Erol Akcay is an assistant professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania. He and other researchers have been trying to understand what makes members of a social group cooperative. He noted in an email to VOA that people, animals, plants, and even bacteria help each other.

Akcay and his research teams first finding deals with the kinds of relationships or ties organisms formed. Were these connections with random strangers? Or were they with those related or already known to them, such as with family members or friends of their parents?

Not surprisingly, Akcay learned that groups with many related connections became cooperative. However, as cooperation became more common, he noticed something new: Cooperating individuals also began to help people they were not related to. They helped everyone.

But a few individuals did not give back. As a result, the cooperative nature of the group changed. Everyone began to act selfishly.

Selfish societies were not a goal of Akcays study. So he tried to find what could bring cooperation back. He looked again at the link between individuals.

Akcay observed that when making a connection seemed costly individuals were more likely to limit their efforts. For example, primates spend more time grooming family members than others in the group. Or, as noted in Science Daily, you and I may go to the trouble of sending a holiday gift to a distant relative, but not to someone we just met on a bus.

As individuals spent time working on their connections with family members and friends, the cooperative nature of the group returned.

And what about those who did not cooperate at all? Akcay wrote in an email that the defectors pay no cost and provide no benefit.

But they missed something, he noted. If everyone cooperated, they all would have received more in return.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

When good guys finish last

Another study examines how we react to extremely cooperative or generous people. In brief: We dont like those who make us look bad.

The study was a project of researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada. Their findings were reported in the publication Psychological Science.

Pat Barclay, a psychology professor, was the lead researcher. He found that people across cultures enjoy punishing an individual they see as too good. They especially dislike very cooperative people at work or in other competitive situations.

Barclay says that, when faced with a high-performer, others can answer in two ways: One is to step up your own game. The other is to bring the other person down.

And often, Barclay says, people make the second choice. They claim the high-performer is a hypocrite or question his or her real reasons for being helpful. The goal, he says, is to reduce the social benefit such people earn for their generous acts. It is also to avoid having to do better themselves.

Barclay suggests that one reason may be found in early human history. If one person was an excellent hunter, the others feared he would take control and become their leader, Barclay said. The group wanted to defend their equal status more than reward a really good hunter.

Barclay says he sees a similar situation with activists who urge others to take action to improve the environment or society. Instead of joining the cause, others may choose to continue in their behavior and attack the activist.

Im Kelly Jean Kelly.

Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for VOA Learning English from Washington, D.C. based on reports from Science Daily. George Grow edited the story.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

random - adj. chosen without a particular plan or pattern

defector - n. a good or helpful result or effect

benefit - v. one who causes a weakness or failure

generous - adj. showing kindness and concern for others

step up - v. to do better, make a greater effort, or improve your performance

hypocrite - n. a person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs

status - n. the position or rank of someone or something when compared to others in a society
Georgia has become the first former member of the Soviet Union to legalize use of marijuana. Yet Georgians are still barred from growing, storing or selling the drug.

Georgias constitutional court ruled on marijuana late last month. The court said in a statement that marijuana use is an act "guaranteed by the right of free self-development.

The statement added that there are still some situations in which using the drug would be illegal. These are situations where marijuana presents a threat to third persons, the court said. This would include use in schools, some public spaces and public transportation, as well as when children are present.

The ruling resulted from a case brought by activists of Georgias Girchi party. One of those activists is Zurab Japaridze, a former lawmaker. Georgians remember seeing images of him planting marijuana seeds in a televised broadcast of a New Years Eve event in 2016.

The Girchi party had long campaigned for the legalization of marijuana. Japaridze called the courts ruling a big victory that was years in the making. This wasn't a fight for cannabis. This was a fight for freedom, he told reporters.

In November 2017, the Constitutional Court decriminalized the use of marijuana and other forms of cannabis-based drugs. But it kept in place a non-jail punishment for marijuana use, a $200 fine.

Rights activists say the Georgian government has used drug enforcement policies to justify extreme policing methods at popular nightspots. In May, thousands of people demonstrated for several days in the capital, Tbilisi, to protest such police activities.

Leaders of Georgia's Orthodox Church strongly condemned the courts marijuana ruling as a traitorous decision.

The four judges are making disastrous decisions, ignoring the will of 4 million people," said Archbishop Andria. The church official called for the removal of the judges who decided the case.

But other Georgians who would like an easing of drug policies felt the ruling went too far. The head of a health care committee in parliament told reporters he thinks the use of marijuana should only be legalized for medical purposes.

"Our aim was not to make marijuana accessible for everyone, but to reduce the number of drug addicts.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. His story was based on reports from VOAs Georgian Service, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty and Agence France-Presse. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

cannabis  n. a plant used to produce hemp as a drug or for other products

decriminalize  v. change the law to make something no longer illegal

traitorous  adj. not loyal to your own country, social group or beliefs

nightspot  n. a business that serves food and alcoholic drinks, and provides music and a place for dancing

accessible  adj. easy to find or reach

addict  n. person who cannot stop taking drugs, alcohol or other substances
The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season started two months ago, but many Texas families are still struggling to recover from the damage caused by a major storm last year.

The storm, named Hurricane Harvey, hit Houston and areas around the city. Harvey caused flooding in many neighborhoods.

Samantha and Justin Scott and their three children live in the Bear Creek Village neighborhood just west of Houston.

For Samantha Scott, trying to get their life back to normal has been a frightening experience.

I think when my kids think back to the past year of our life, especially our oldest, I think hes just going to remember that I cried a lot, she said.

The Scotts are still rebuilding their home after the floods caused by Hurricane Harvey. It was one of the wettest storm systems in the history of the United States.

Like a slap in the face

When Harvey hit Texas, it was a Category 4 hurricane. This was the first such storm to strike the U.S. mainland since 2005.

For the past year, Samantha and the children temporarily moved away from their home, while Justin stayed behind to work on the house.

Their youngest child was only a few months old when their home was flooded last August.

I pretty much missed out on the better half of the first year of his life, Scott said of his youngest child, Kyle. "Missing things like watching him walk for the first time. Watching him do a lot of the stuff that kids do for the first time, I missed.

The Scotts are not alone. Storm damage can be seen in nearby homes.

It just hits you. Its like a slap in the face every single time. Its like it doesn't end, like the hurricane is just continuing, Samantha said.

Throughout the Bear Creek neighborhood, many homes have "for sale" signs, and building materials along the side of the street. On one street, a neighbor said only three families decided to stay and the others wanted to sell their homes.

For the families who stayed, rebuilding has been slow. Many people do not have flood insurance.

The Scotts' neighbor, Joe Franz, moved to Bear Creek in 1994. Five years ago, he canceled his flood insurance policy to save money. Hurricane Harvey was the first time floodwaters entered his home.

Franz said he had to take everything out of the house and leave it by the street like the rest of the neighborhood.

A difficult position

Bear Creek flooded because it is next to a man-made lake, which supplies water to homes and businesses. Other homes in the Houston area flooded because they sit in low lying areas.

Floodplains are like little valleys, and they can hold just about anything nature can throw at us, including Harvey," noted John Jacob of Texas A&M University.

Jacobs said preventing major flooding will take time.

Fifty years from now, we need to be able to reclaim all these floodplains. So, part of this can be through buyout with federal money. But the other part is just going to be awareness, he said.

Jacobs said there will be other storms and floods in Houston, so when people are buying a home, they should study maps of land height and look for houses built on high ground. Another solution is to raise houses, Jacob said. He lives in a house that has a one-meter high space underneath the home.

For now, many people like the Scotts are stuck in their existing home.

This has kind of put us in a situation where we cant really afford just to pick up and leave, Justin said.

But the Scott family is thankful for even a little progress. On the day they spoke with VOA, their new bedroom furniture arrived. It was the first night the family was together in their home since the floods hit.

Im Phil Dierking.

Elizabeth Lee reported this story for VOANews.com. Phil Dierking adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Have you had to survive a natural disaster? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

afford - v. to be able to pay for (something)

awareness - n. knowledge and awareness of your own personality or character

furniture - n. chairs, tables, beds, etc., that are used to make a room ready for use

hurricane - n. an extremely large, powerful, and destructive storm with very strong winds that occurs especially in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean

insurance - n. an agreement in which a person makes regular payments to a company and the company promises to pay money if the person is injured or dies, or to pay money equal to the value of something (such as a house or car) if it is damaged, lost, or stolen

slap - v. to hit (someone or something) with the front or back of your open hand

floodplain - n. an area of low, flat land along a stream or river that may flood

Category 4 - n. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed

kid - n. a son or daughter


Britains withdrawal from the European Union (EU) is coming soon and so is the end of the world, if you believe the British newspapers.

Those reports tell of possible food shortages, grounded flights and troops sent to guard British streets if no agreement is reached.

Positions of both sides appeared to harden. British officials have said they are preparing for no deal on their countrys withdrawal, also known as Brexit. They warned that it could affect European trade.

Prime Minister Theresa May said only that the government was preparing for every possibility.

All the warnings show the difficulty of finding a way to end trade ties that have developed since Britain became an EU member in 1973, explained Ben Fletcher. He is the director of the manufacturer's association EEF.

"We are attempting to reverse 40 years of integration in a four- to six-week negotiation," Fletcher said. "This is a degree of complexity like splitting the atomWe have to understand how hard that is."

Little time left for deal

More than two years after Britain voted to leave the EU, time is growing short. Britain is set to leave the EU on March 29, 2019. In order for EU countries to have time to approve any deal, both sides say they need to come to an agreement by October.

Without a deal, 40 years of free trade between Britain and Europe will end. This would lead to tariffs and border inspections that could delay shipments of everything from food and fuel to clothing and cars. In addition, Britain would no longer be a part of Europe-wide agreements that govern air traffic and prescription drugs.

Recent comments by Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Health Secretary Matt Hancock shocked people in Britain. The two men were speaking about the government's preparations for the withdrawal. Their comments led newspapers to write about trucks lined up for at international borders and travelers waiting for hours at passport control.

May said that while she expects to negotiate a deal that will let trade continue, the government is doing the right thing in preparing for "every eventuality."

It is about making sure that we'll be able to continue to do the things that are necessary once we've left the European Union, if we leave without a deal," she said.

On Tuesday, British officials in Dover, released a report explaining how a no-deal Brexit would affect Europe's busiest port.

The report said there will be a line of trucks waiting to cross the English Channel, creating a gridlock as far as 65 kilometers inland. About 10,000 trade trucks pass through Dover on a busy day. That is one-sixth of Britain's trade in goods, with a value of $156 billion a year. Some 99 percent of those products moved through the port from other EU countries.

Companies prepare for problems

The drug company Sanofi has begun to keep more medicines and vaccines in Britain than usual as part of its planning for possible transportation delays after Brexit.

Ireland-based Ryanair, Europe's busiest airline, plans to add warnings on its tickets. The warning will say the company will not accept the ticket if Brexit causes flight problems after March 29.

Stories like this are too much for Brexit supporters like Marcus Fysh, a member of Britains parliament from the governing Conservative Party. Fysh accused the government of trying to frighten people so they will accept a weaker agreement with the EU.

"That is irresponsible, and it should stop right now," he said. "And they should get behind Brexit, which people voted for."

Last month, Britains government released its offer to the EU. The proposal would end free movement of labor and the rule of the European Court of Justice. It would, however, accept a customs union for trade in goods and agricultural products. The offer was quickly rejected by EU negotiator Michel Barnier. He said Britain cannot enjoy free trade with the European markets if it does not accept the EUs other policies.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged France and Germany to use their power with the European Commission to prevent a bad agreement.

"There is a real chance of no deal by accident," he told the Evening Standard. "Everyone is assuming, no, no, no, this will never happen. Well, actually, it could."

Im Susan Shand.

Danica Kirke reported this story for the Associated Press. Susan Shand adapted her report for VOA Learning English. The editor was George Grow.

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The United States constitution guarantees a number of rights to U.S. citizens. One of the most famous is the right to free speech.

But what if people say or do horrible things?

The Supreme Court struggled with this idea in 1989. The case related to a man named Gregory Lee Johnson. A few years earlier, he strongly objected to the policies of then-President Ronald Reagan. So, at a political meeting in Texas, Johnson burned the American flag.

Police arrested him.

Johnson appealed, saying that burning the flag was his way of expressing his political beliefs  exactly the kind of speech the writers of the U.S. Constitution aimed to protect.

Opponents disagreed. They pointed out that the American flag was special, and they did not think burning it was speech. They warned that such an act could move people to violence.

But a majority of the Court's justices agreed with Johnson. They said even if the public strongly dislikes an idea, people still have a right to express it.

One final note: Supreme Court cases have not protected all speech. Other cases have limited peoples right to communicate ideas that are knowingly false, morally offensive, stolen or threatening. But for now  unless the public approves Constitutional amendment  burning the American flag is legal.

Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Quiz

Quiz - Texas v. Johnson, 1989 Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

appeal - v. to make a formal request for a higher court or for someone in authority to review and change a decision

obscene - adj. relating to sex in an indecent or offensive way
Every summer, thousands of South Koreans, Chinese and Japanese visitors travel to Jeju Island to enjoy its natural beauty and coastline.

Some activists are trying to get visitors to see other areas that explore the island's history, and remember the victims of anti-communist killings, which began before the Korean War.

Jeju Island is known as the 'Hawaii of Korea.' It has numerous waterfalls and natural wonders. Many visitors remember seeing fields of yellow canola flowers and the bright blue of ocean water.

But 70 years ago, Jeju was the place where communist supporters launched violent protests against South Koreas new government. The protest movement grew into a separatist rebellion.

Pro-communist demonstrators held protests to oppose a vote set for May 10, 1948. The election results would confirm the division of the Korean peninsula between communist forces in the North and the non-communist South.

Communist rebellion



On April 3, 1948, rebels attacked police stations on Jeju, killing some officers. The rebels also burned voting centers for the May 10 vote.

The government in Seoul declared military rule to stop the unrest. Thousands of police officers and pro-government militias from the mainland took part in a violent suppression of the protests. The operation lasted until the unofficial end of the Korean War in 1953.

Fifty years later, a South Korean government report found that government forces were responsible for widespread atrocities. It blamed government forces for burning down 70 percent of all villages on Jeju Island

The report found 30,000 people were killed in the violence. That number represented 10 percent of the islands population.

"People were killed without reason, said Hong Chun-ho, an 81-year old survivor. Anyone could lose their life. Whether or not, it was a baby, disabled, pregnant, or elderly, there was no exception. They killed anyone that came into sight," he said.

A dark past

Today a citizens group operates a business in Jeju called Dark Tours to help visitors better understand the island's sad history. The group wants to call attention to the South Korean governments involvement in the killing of thousands of people.

We must deliver the message that we will no longer keep silent against the state violence and that we won't let this happen again," said Baek Ga-yoon, a representative of Jeju Dark Tours.

The tour group takes visitors to see where executions reportedly took place and the grounds where many bodies are buried. It also shows them caves where villagers would hide from police and military forces.

Critics of the South Korean government's involvement in the Jeju conflict also hold the United States responsible for what happened 70 years ago. They note that the new South Korean government was a U.S. ally. They accuse the Americans of either directly supporting or permitting the attacks on pro-communist activists.

The U.S. military has denied any involvement in the crimes committed on the island.

Some South Koreans suspect that the tour group is not about understanding the past, but about criticizing U.S. involvement in the country.

Kim Kwang-dong works as a security expert at the Nara Policy Institution in Seoul. He says the education and tours dealing with the April 3rd incident could be aimed at providing negative information about the U.S. military and work against the alliance. He fears this could lead to the withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces, which would be very mistaken."

So neither the Jeju tour nor the areas marking the tragic history of the island, have become popular tourist stops. The Jeju Provincial Tourism Association reports that in 2017, only 2.3 percent of Koreans visited the island for cultural or historical education purposes.

Banned subjects

The violence that took place on Jeju Island is a divisive issue in South Korea. Some conservatives argue the killing of innocent civilians was justified to prevent the spread of communism during a time of war.

Others note the atrocities were committed by government forces. They say the people of Jeju were freedom fighters who opposed the division of the Korean peninsula.

For many years, the South Korean government suppressed and restricted information about Jeju's history. People who wrote about the killings were imprisoned. Some children and grandchildren of Koreans involved in the unrest report they had difficulty finding jobs.

In 2003, the Korean government apologized for its part in the violence. The families of the victims have demanded payment for damages. This year, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in expressed support for reconciliation through discussions and education.

The spring of Jeju will blossom like a full bloom," the President said at a memorial ceremony earlier this year.

Im Susan Shand.

VOAs Lee Yoon-jee reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. The editor was George Grow.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

peninsula  n. a piece of land surrounded by water on most sides and connected to a larger piece of land

atrocity  n. a very cruel or terrible act or action usually involving death

deliver  v. to take something to a person or place; to do what you say

elderly  n. older adults

negative  adj. showing refusal or denial

commit  v. to carry out; to promise

reconciliation  n. the act of causing two people or groups to become friendly again after an argument or disagreement

blossom  n. the flower of a plant
For many people, the college admissions process can seem mysterious.

But what college admissions officials want is not a secret. Schools present what they want in the form of big data. That information is available to anyone online.

Students can use big data when seeking admission to colleges or universities where they will be strong candidates. This increases their chances for admission and financial aid.

Here is what college applicants should look for.

Using data to find the best fit

Colleges provide admissions and financial aid statistics, called the Common Data Set, to satisfy the demands of education publishers, notes Lynn OShaughnessy, a college consultant. The information can be found by searching for the colleges name and the term common data set or at websites for comparing colleges.

The statistics for each school include:

The cost to attend

How much student loan debt the average person builds up while in college.

What percentage of applicants are accepted.

And...

Average class grades and test results of incoming first-year students.

As an example, lets consider Stanford University in California. At Stanford, 75 percent of incoming students for the 2016-2017 school year had 700 or above on the mathematics part of the SAT.

The SAT, once called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, is widely used for college admissions in the United States. It measures the math, reading and writing levels of high school students.

Also at Stanford, 94 percent of incoming students had grade point averages above 3.75, 4.0 is considered perfect but higher grade point averages are possible. In addition, 95 percent of the new arrivals were in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Yet having fine grades and test results do not guarantee admission to a top college. Stanford accepts just five percent of people who apply. But knowing about the students who were accepted can help applicants. They can stop thinking about unlikely choices for higher education and focus instead on schools where they are more likely to gain admission.



Target schools who want you

Experts say having grades and test results that are above the schools average can help with both an applicants chances of being accepted and getting financial aid.

In the United States, the best financial aid deals do not always come highly competitive schools or large public universities. Sometimes they come from smaller colleges that are trying harder to interest good applicants, says Vita Cohen, another college consultant.

Information about how a school examines applicants can be found in the data sets admissions factors. They show how each school rates 19 measures of admission, everything from class rank to after school activities.

Many schools, for example, think the difficulty of an applicants high school classes and their grade point average are very important. Some schools consider standardized tests, like the SAT, as important, while others do not.

Level of applicants interest is another issue. Colleges care about the percentage of applicants who accept an offer of admission. Some schools want to see true evidence of interest from applicants. This includes their visits to the school and answering emails from the admissions office.

Avoid schools that do not give much money

Most U.S. colleges do not fully meet the financial needs of their students, even when federal student loans are considered. Families are expected to find the extra money themselves, often through parental or private student loans.

The size of a students need depends on how willing each school is to give them money.

For example, the cost of attending New York University (NYU) and the University of Southern California (USC) is about the same: about $72,000 a year. USC, however, fully met the financial need of 80.4 percent of first-year students who received aid. NYU fully met the financial need of only 9.1 percent of its first-year aid recipients.

Families who do not need student loans for school can still get the cost of a school reduced though something known as merit aid. Merit aid is less common at public and highly competitive schools that have many applicants. UCLA, for example, offered merit aid, which averaged $4,847, to only 2.6 percent of its first-year students.

Cost is important, say most experts. They warn that while it is important to have a college education, you do not want to finish school with a large debt.

Im Phil Dierking.

Liz Weston reported this story for the Associated Press. Phil Dierking adapted her story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Have you had to survive a natural disaster? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Quiz

Quiz - What Do Colleges Want? Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

applicant - n. someone who formally asks for something (such as a job or admission to a college) 

big data - n. extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.

consultant - n. a person who gives professional advice or services to companies for a fee

focus - v. to direct your attention or effort at something specific

grade - n. a number or letter that indicates how a student performed in a class or on a test

online - adj. done over the Internet

rank - n. a position in a society, organization, group, etc.

standardized - adj. when something is conformed to a standard.

statistic - n. a number that represents a piece of information (such as information about how often something is done, how common something is, etc.)
August 5, 2018 13:23

Individuals with DSL access tend to sleep 25 minutes less than their counterparts without DSL Internet. They are significantly less likely to sleep between 7 and 9 hours, the amount recommended by the scientific community, and are less likely to be satisfied with their sleep, researchers find. The effect is largely driven by individuals that face time constraints in the morning and by the use of electronic devices in the evening (not by their use throughout the day)

About 200,000 working days are lost in Germany every year due to insufficient sleep, with an economic loss of $60bln, or about 1.6% of its GDP, according to a 2016 Report of the RAND Corporation. Francesco Billari and Luca Stella (Bocconi University), with Osea Giuntella (University of Pittsburgh), in a study just published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, find that access to broadband Internet is one of the causes of such sleep deprivation.

Exploiting the fact that the deployment of broadband in Germany over the years was dependent on technical and historical reasons, they link data on broadband to surveys where individuals report their sleep duration. The researchers conclude that access to high-speed Internet reduces sleep duration and sleep satisfaction in individuals that face time constraints in the morning for work or family reasons.

"Individuals with DSL access tend to sleep 25 minutes less than their counterparts without DSL Internet. They are significantly less likely to sleep between 7 and 9 hours, the amount recommended by the scientific community, and are less likely to be satisfied with their sleep," Francesco Billari, a Full Professor of Demography at Bocconi University, Milan, and the Principal Investigator of the project DisCont, funded by the European Research Council, within which this research was conducted.

The effect that the authors find is largely driven by individuals that face time constraints in the morning and by the use of electronic devices in the evening (not by their use throughout the day). "Digital temptations may lead to a delay in bedtime, which ultimately decreases sleep duration for individuals who are not able to compensate for later bedtime by waking up later in the morning," Prof. Billari says.

The temptations individuals are prone to vary according to age, the scholars find. Among teenagers and young adults (aged 13-30), there is a significant association between insufficient sleep and time spent on computer games or watching TV or videos in the evening, while for older adults (31-59) the correlation is with the use of PCs and smartphones.

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Cattle intended for poor farmers was sent to Jacob Zuma, according to a report by the Sunday Times.

The cows were purchased with public money and meant to benefit emerging Eastern Cape farmers, added the report.

However, these cows were reportedly diverted to Zuma, ANC politicians, and Eastern Cape royalty.

The report stated that former OR Tambo district municipality mayor Zoleka Capa revealed the diversions when she admitted to giving cattle to Zuma.

The cattle were purchased in 2008 as part of an upliftment plan by the OR Tambo municipality. This included spending R62 million on seven farms near Kokstad, and R30 million on 1,800 cows and equipment.

It was estimated that the herd would increase to 10,000 within 10 years. Instead, the cattle were distributed to councillors and politicians, stated the report.

Sources told the publication that 50 cows were sent to Nkandla, while more cows were sent to Willowvale for Zuma to hand out to kings.

The Sunday Times reported in April 2018 that Zuma was also given cattle worth R1.5 million by former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo in 2016. These cows were also paid for with public money.

Corruption charges

Zuma has faced an array of charges and accusations during his time as president, including using public money for massive security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.

It was recently reported that Zuma may have his Nkandla home taken away as part of a corruption case he faces.

Earlier in 2018, it was also reported that Zuma received a cash bribe of R1 million from an abalone dealer to keep a minister in his job.

The report stated that Zuma was being investigated by the Hawks at the time over this allegation.

Zumas relationship with the Gupta family was another point of contention during his presidency, with the Guptas accused of state capture and using state enterprises to enrich themselves.

Now read: The number of days Home Affairs is offline every month will shock you
Afristay is an online platform for booking accommodation in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Kenya.

The company recently partnered with MyBroadband to provide accommodation during South Africas largest-ever mobile network testing project.

We travelled 10,000km over three months, covering Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Cape, North West, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal. We needed a top-class partner for the project and Afristay delivered.

The Afristay website makes it easy to locate and book accommodation  whether you are looking for a place to stay in a specific neighbourhood, or cover a whole province.

1. Sign up

Step one is to sign up with your full name, email address, and cellphone number.

This is to ensure you are notified immediately when there is new information about your booking enquiries.

Once you have created a profile, you can upload a picture and make changes to your SMS notification options  setting them to receive messages only between 07:00 and 20:00, or not at all.

2. Finding the perfect place

The Afristay website lists specials on its home page, along with links to popular travel regions.

You may also search by region and view available places on a map.

From there you may refine your search by specifying your check-in and check-out dates, the number of guests, and your price range.

You can filter the search further by selecting specific accommodation types  self catering, hotels, backpackers, camps  and features you deem essential, such as being pet friendly.

3. Make an enquiry

When a venue is marked as instant confirmation, its pricing and availability is up to date and you can book without needing further approval.

For other places, you simply submit a booking request and get confirmation from the host. You are notified at every step in the process.

Upon making your booking request, the following will happen:

You will receive confirmation that the request has been submitted.

The host will approve or decline the request, or respond with an updated quote if their prices have changed.

Once the booking is approved, your room is reserved provisionally and you have 48 hours to make payment.

4. Pay

You can pay using a credit, debit, or cheque card, or through an electronic fund transfer.

Instant booking confirmations are only available if you pay by credit card. Afristay states on its website that it may take up to two business days to secure your booking if you pay by EFT.

As soon as the payment reflects on Afristays system, it will send you a final reservation confirmation.

Get rewarded

As a final sweetener, when you complete your stay Afristay will reward you with a voucher for a discount on your next booking.

The value of the voucher is linked to the cost of your booking.
Famous Brands has closed 96 stores in South Africa in the past year, its CEO Darren Hele told Business Times.

The report stated that 76 of the closures affected the companys main brands  including Wimpy.

Famous Brands operates many well-known restaurants, including Debonairs Pizza, Steers, Tashas, Mugg and Bean, and Vovo Telo.

The remaining 20 closures affected its niche brands, including Vovo Telo and Bread Basket, stated the report.

Famous Brands also closed 24 stores in its Africa and Middle East operations.

The report stated that Wimpy now stands at 478 stores in South Africa, and that the closures were partly a result of the brand being 50 years old.

There are always going to be some elements of closure, especially in South Africa, where the demographics change, Hele told Business Times.

Certain sites have been there for 40 years, so if you went to downtown Johannesburg, thats not Wimpys heartland any more, he said.

Now read: Amazon home robot tease by Bezos
While summer vacation had just started for most, our team of 10 students from Napa County schools was about to embark on our service-oriented adventure to the Dominican Republic.

Napa to DR worked with Outreach360, an easy-to-use platform for organizing service trips to Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, where we raised $10,000 to make our journey from June 9-16.

We spent our mornings and afternoons teaching the local children of Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic lessons in English through various lesson plans that we crafted ourselves. Classes at the local public school generally consisted of 15 to 20 kids. We taught at Outreach 360s learning center as well.

Our lesson plans consisted of basic English lessons to teach kids who know very little English in order for them to be bilingual in the long run, opening more job opportunities to them, breaking them and their families out of the cycle of poverty.

This is our third time working with Outreach360, and we highly recommend them to anyone looking for a way to make a positive impact in the world. Although we are back in Napa Valley, our passion for service doesnt stop anywhere.
The Army under the Dao Division has successfully nabbed two over-ground workers of the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) on the Moran-Tinsukia road.

The operation has delivered a huge blow to the ULFA-I activities in Upper Assam.

Based on specific intelligence inputs received from intelligence agencies and further corroborated from own sources regarding movement of over-ground workers of the militant outfit on the Moran-Tinsukia highway, an operation was launched by the 9th Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles in midnight hours.

During the operation, two over-ground workers of the ULFA-I, identified as Gyandeep Boragohain and Mridul Sarma were apprehended.

The duo was nabbed along with with one .22 mm pistol and one magazine with three live rounds on August 3, 2018 at 11:30 pm while they were moving on the Moran-Tinsukia road on a hired Omni van with (No-AS-04P-7139), informed sources.

They were later handed over to police.

Both the over-ground ULFA-I workers were actively involved in several extortion and anti-national activities. This apprehension is like to help the security forces in carrying out further operations against the ULFA-I in near future.

Recently, the 9th Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles conducted several successful operations to mitigate the impact of ULFA-I in Upper Assam. This operation is also a major part of the ongoing crackdown by security forces on the outfit active in Upper Assam.
Armenia health minister on Covid situation: 1,088 in severe, 307 in critical conditions, 152 hooked up to ventilators

PM on worsening coronavirus situation in Armenia: We should not resort to lockdowns

2,307 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia President in UAE, meets with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi

Russia peacekeepers help to provide drinking water to more than 300 families in remote village of Artsakh

Armenia government holding Cabinet meeting

US, Turkey discuss South Caucasus

Armenia ombudsman releases video on Azerbaijan army units unlawful deployment in Gegharkunik Province (VIDEO)

Armenia legislature continues regular sittings

Newspaper: Every day Azerbaijanis set new order on section of Armenias Goris-Kapan motorway

Newspaper: Coronavirus vaccinations to be paid for in Armenia?

Deputy PM: Unblocking of communications does not mean expansion of Turkish capital to Armenia

Armenia's Pashinyan admits that he personally gave the order to pull out troops from Syunik Province

Satanovsky: Moscow was setting forth much more favorable ideas for Armenia than what had to be accepted

Armenia PM: Talks with logic of 'corridor' are escalating tension in the region

Armenia PM: 72% of Karabakh's territories occupied by Baku were subject for bargain during former administration

Ararat Mirzoyan: Team representing Armenia's interests submitted a serious claim to International Court of Justice

Satanovsky on 'Zangezur corridor', new war in region and use of Bayraktar in Donbas

Pashinyan not ruling out determination of Armenia-Azerbaijan borders based on maps that Putin indicated

US Ambassador: American companies in Armenia see that students lack knowledge and skills

Armenia Parliament Speaker on demonstration held against him in Cyprus

Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia's borders remain unchanged

Armenia Deputy PM reports results of negotiations over unblocking of roads in the region

Armenia PM invites two opposition parliamentary factions to hold a meeting

Armenian FM: No meeting of leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan scheduled yet

Azerbaijani army general sentenced to ten years in jail

Armenia opposition MP to MOD: Why aren't names of soldiers killed in 44-day war and buried made public?

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Armenia PM: No positional changes on Mount Pela

Premier pays tribute to victims of October 27, 1999 tragedy in Armenia legislature

St. Giragos Armenian church in Turkeys Diyarbakir expected to reopen next Easter

Two US Senators urge Biden to waive sanctions against India for purchase of S-400s

Armenia National Assembly elects Central Bank board new member

We hope Iran will act smart in relations with Azerbaijan, says Erdogan

US, Indonesia call for new forum to combat future pandemics

Erdogan announces what Aliyev said about Israel

Lavrov: Russia is checking news about Ukraine using Turkish Bayraktar in Donbas

Armenia society knows answers left open to questions on 27 October 1999 parliament tragedy, says speaker

Armenia justice minister receives invitation from his Lithuanian counterpart to visit Lithuania for cooperation

Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra: Vatican Apostolic Nunciature office opening in Armenia will be symbol of regional peace

FM: Vatican has always stood with Armenia

Aliyev, Erdogan want to unite Turkic world via Armenia

Provincial governor of Armenias Aragatsotn submits resignation

Situation at Armenia legislature gets tense

Azerbaijanis steal 32 cows, 13 calves of Artsakh town resident, investigation underway

Armenia FM meets with visiting Holy See official

Vatican Apostolic Nunciature office to open in Armenia

Art of Armenian writing is put on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list (PHOTOS)

Azerbaijan to allocate $4.5 billion for defense spending in 2022

Armenia legislature forms committee to investigate how Hayastan All Armenian Fund donations were used

Forced deportee from Artsakh occupied territory: We prepared humanitarian asylum requesting letter to France President

2,074 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia President in Saudi Arabia, speaks with Crown Prince

Armenia parliament ratifies CIS agreement on collaboration in fight against IT crimes

Brazil Senate panel votes in favor of bringing criminal charges against President Bolsonaro

Armenia legislature starts Wednesdays session by honoring 27 October 1999 parliament tragedy victims

Only December 31, January 1 and 6 to be non-working days for New Year, Christmas holidays in Armenia

Armenia parliament continues regular sessions

Sikh men use their turbans to rescue hikers in Canada

Newspaper: What do we have on Armenia parliament fatal shooting case 3 years after change of power?

Newspaper: All accused to remain in custody in Armenia ex-defense minister criminal case

Newspaper: Armenian ambassador is spreader of US Influence?

Istanbul changes name of street named after famous Armenian engineer again

US supports Taiwan's participation in the United Nations' system

Armenia's economic activity indicator continues to decline

Armenia President Armen Sarkissian pays historic visit to Saudi Arabia

Turkey's Erdogan: If Armenia "solves problems with Baku", there will be no other obstacle for normalization of relations

Honorary Citizen of Yerevan title bestowed upon cultural figures on occasion of city's 2,803rd birthday

Yerevan Council of Elders decides to place memorial plaques for four famous people

Mayor: There are three times more vaccinated citizens in Yerevan than in the whole country

Yerevan mayor: There is no alternative to conservation of trash chutes in apartment buildings

Latvia President recovers from COVID-19

Armenia Health Ministry: Foreigners and stateless persons can receive AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines

Tert.am: Resident of Armenia's Goris: Azerbaijanis stopped my car, hit it and used swear words

Australian MP talks about Azerbaijan's aggression, calls for maintenance of ceasefire

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Armenia Deputy PM presents Government's Action Plan to ambassadors and representatives of international organizations

Trade turnover between Eurasian Economic Union countries grows by 31.3% in eight months of 2021

armtimes.com: Armenia ruling party's candidate in Vedi is ex-governor of Ararat Province Garik Sargsyan

MP says only 7% of Armenia's population is vaccinated

Turkish FM threatens to resign due to scandal over ambassadors

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Armenia removed from list of countries whose citizens are permitted to enter Italy

Armenia emergency situations minister receives Poland Ambassador

New generation business is founded in Armenia

Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees

Armenian legislature speaker meets with Cyprus-Armenia parliamentary cooperation committee chair

Aliyev, Erdogan attend groundbreaking of Zangezur corridor in occupied territories of Artsakh

Driver of Armenia MOD truck runs over female pedestrian in Yerevan who dies at hospital

China FM calls on US to lift sanctions against Afghanistan

Armenia legislature concludes closed discussion of situation on line of contact with Azerbaijan

Armenia former deputy PM, now MP Gevorgyan not ruling out petitioning to international courts to protect his rights

Armenia Police: Criminal case is launched in regard to police beating citizen in front of his children's eyes

Dollar stable in Armenia

How 2 sisters died in Armenias Aragatsotn Province?

Armenia opposition MP candidate not elected vice-chairman of parliamentary committee for ninth time

Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan, ex-deputy PM and now MP Gevorgyan criminal case judge denies self-recusal motion

Substitute for General Affairs of Holy See to visit Armenia

Armenia PM sending deputy environment minister to Great Britain for 16 days

Armenia Gegharkunik Province governor has new deputy
MONTREAL and RAMAT GAN, Israel, Aug. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blockchain Mining Ltd. (the Company) (TASE: BLLCF.TA) (OTCQX: BLLCF), through its ownership of Backbone Hosting Solutions Inc. (operating as Bitfarms), one of the largest blockchain technology companies in the world, will be announcing its consolidated financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2018 on Thursday, August 30, 2018 prior to market open.



Operational Highlights and Updates



In June 2018, the Company completed the infrastructure buildout of a new computing facility (Magog) in the city of Magog, Quebec that is now fully ready to install up to 10 MW of cryptocurrency mining computers. Given the anticipated near-term release of a new generation of mining hardware, management is currently evaluating the best technology options available to commence operation of the new facility.



In July 2018, the Company appointed John Rim to Chief Financial Officer:

For the past 7 years, John served as a senior finance executive at private equity portfolio companies owned by Brookfield Asset Management and Centerbridge Partners LLP where he worked closely on management teams to successfully finance, acquire and integrate multiple large-scale, global operations. With a proven track record of identifying opportunities and unlocking value, John has significant experience scaling and growing businesses through disciplined execution of strategic operational initiatives.



John Rim, as Chief Financial Officer, has overall responsibility for the Companys financial governance, reporting and planning. As a CPA, CA with over 20 years of business experience, John began his career in public accounting at KPMG and PwC and subsequently held roles of increasing responsibility and leadership within the accounting and tax functions at Fortune 500 multinational companies.



In July 2018, the Company received approval to trade ordinary shares of the Company directly on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol BLLCF. Management believes this platform will lead to increased U.S. ownership, improved long-term liquidity and enhanced shareholder value.



In August 2018, Bitfarms completed the purchase of 12 megawatts of electrical distribution hardware which is intended for use in phase 1 of the Sherbrooke computing center (Sherbrooke).

The Company is also pleased to announce that its Sherbrooke project has received final approval for participation in the Quebec Large Investment Tax Holiday program. Given the magnitude of this project, and subject to certain conditions, Bitfarms may be eligible for a tax holiday on future income related to its Sherbrooke investment.

At the shareholder EGM later this month, the Company has proposed a name change from Blockchain Mining Ltd. to Bitfarms Ltd., part of a rebranding effort which is intended to reflect the acquisition of the operating subsidiary Bitfarms and to unify the operations of the two companies under one brand.

We look forward to the continued expansion of our core operating business, as well as the ongoing vertical integration of Bitfarms, said Wes Fulford, Chief Executive Officer. "Longer-term, our goal is to offer a wide range of services evolving around blockchain technology and decentralized financial economies, the best-known application of which is bitcoin."

I am very excited to be part of such a dynamic team operating in such a nascent and transformative industry, said John Rim, Chief Financial Officer. The Companys secured low-cost energy, deep operational expertise and speed of mining infrastructure set-up makes it well-positioned to achieve its near-term strategic objectives.

The Company wishes to remind shareholders that the English trading symbol of the Company's shares has been changed, as per the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchanges announcement on August 2, 2018 from BLCM to BLLCF, to create greater alignment with the Company's OTCQX symbol.

About Blockchain Mining Ltd.

Blockchain Mining Ltd., through its transaction with Backbone Hosting Solutions Inc. (Bitfarms), owns and operates blockchain farms that power the global decentralized financial economy. Bitfarms provides computing power to cryptocurrency networks such as bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin and dash, earning fees from each network for securing and processing transactions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Since 2013, predecessors to Bitfarms have constructed 4 farms in Quebec, Canada, which have 27.5 MW of installed capacity and over 200 Ph/s of installed hash-power. Bitfarms construction pipeline includes an additional 5 farms with a total of 162.5 MW of power capacity, including current operations.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Wes Fulford

Chief Executive Officer

Email: wfulford@bitfarms.io

Website: www.bitfarms.io

Cautionary Statement

Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws that are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. The information in this release about future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking information. Other forward-looking information includes but is not limited to information concerning: the intentions, plans and future actions of the Company, the listing of the Common Shares on stock exchanges, as well as Bitfarms ability to successfully mine digital currency, revenue increasing as currently anticipated, the ability to profitably liquidate current and future digital currency inventory, volatility in digital currency prices and the resulting significant negative impact on the Companys operations, the construction and operation of expanded blockchain infrastructure as currently planned, and the regulatory environment of cryptocurrency in the Provinces of Canada.

Any statements that involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information.

This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, risks relating to the global economic climate; dilution; the Companys limited operating history; future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing; the competitive nature of the industry; currency exchange risks; the need for the Company to manage its planned growth and expansion; the effects of product development and need for continued technology change; protection of proprietary rights; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; network security risks; the ability of the Company to maintain properly working systems; reliance on key personnel; global economic and financial market deterioration impeding access to capital or increasing the cost of capital; and volatile securities markets impacting security pricing unrelated to operating performance. In addition, particular factors which could impact future results of the business of Bitfarms include but are not limited to: the construction and operation of blockchain infrastructure may not occur as currently planned, or at all; expansion may not materialize as currently anticipated, or at all; the digital currency market; the ability to successfully mine digital currency; revenue may not increase as currently anticipated, or at all; it may not be possible to profitably liquidate the current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; the anticipated growth and sustainability of hydroelectricity for the purposes of cryptocurrency mining in the Province of Quebec, the ability to complete current and future financings, any regulations or laws that will prevent Bitfarms from operating its business; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability to mine digital currencies that will be consistent with historical prices; and there will be no regulation or law that will prevent Bitfarms from operating its business. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Bitfarms normal course of business. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, 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 information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by law.




Lifestyle

Billie Eilish and Rainn Wilson call for urgent action amid climate crisis

"We must stand together and speak up to save our planet. Not just for us, but for our future generations. We need urgent, urgent action now, and to work together as one, Billie Elish said.
From start to the closing arguments, it was clear government was determined to lean on the five Constitutional court justices to uphold the lifting of the presidential age limits and strike down any other lesser provision deemed unconstitutional from the Raphael Magyezi promoted Constitutional Amendment Act No 1 of 2018.

In his closing prayer in Mbale, deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana dropped his strongest signal when he beseeched the justices thus; In the unlikely event that court finds that some parts of the process contravene the constitution it should apply the principle of severance and save the lawful bits and nullify the unconstitutional provisions.

That veiled prayer brought into public view glaring divisions between the ruling party MPs and the government side. From the word go, MPs had been warned on the floor of parliament that a term extension was unconstitutional.

And days after the ruling, senior NRM officials one-by-one have begun to put some distance between government and ruling party MPs who they claim have themselves to blame after the Constitutional court on Thursday, July 26, declared the extension of their tenure of parliament and local councils unconstitutional.

MPs debate the age limit bill back in December 2017

In December 2017, the MPs unilaterally voted to stretch the House term from five to seven years. The term extension, many MPs believed, was a tradeoff for lifting the presidential age limits, the only remaining hurdle that stood in the way of President Musevenis re-election in 2021 after clocking the mandatory 75 year upper cap for a presidential candidate.

The bills passage was a divisive process marred by blatant bribery, arm-twisting, blackmail and regrettable violence. The term extension was made against the counsel of President Museveni, government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said over the weekend.

The executive director of the government media centre observed that smuggling the proposal into the bill to scrap age limits despite Musevenis advice clears him of any subsequent failing.

The findings of court have absolved the president. What was processed from the word go in the private members bill to cabinet; to the caucus of NRM in parliament, was the original Magyezi bill which was attempting to address the directive of the Supreme Court in the Amama Mbabazi election petition and then Raphael Magyezis own intuition of lifting the age limit for elective leadership in the country, Opondo said.

For those MPs now feeling exposed by the court ruling, Opondo reminded them that during debate, extending tenure of elective office was never part of the conversation.

The president actually advised the people who were mooting the extension of parliament to drop the proposal in the caucus. However, when they went beyond the caucus, where the president doesnt sit, on the final day of the consideration; the second and third reading of the bill, they smuggled it back, Opondo said.

On Thursday, July 26, Deputy Chief Justice Alphonse Chigamoi Owiny-Dollo, president of the Constitutional Court, led a four-to-one majority decision in the petition challenging Constitutional Amendment Act No 1 of 2018.

The law enacted in December last year had amended Article 102(b) of the Constitution under which the 35-75 year presidential age limits had been provided. With the ruling, Museveni who will be 76 at the next election can now run for office for life.

Other judges on the panel were Remmy Kasule, Kenneth Kakuru, Elizabeth Musoke and Cheborion Barishaki. Kakuru was the only dissenting judge, determining that the entire law was null and void given the illegalities fraught in its enactment.

His colleagues, however, only agreed with him in striking down the term extension for MPs and local governments. They also threw out the clause which had reintroduced the two presidential term limits originally struck out of the Constitution in 2005, ostensibly to allow Museveni run for a third term.

The 2005 term limit amendment occurred in an environment just as chaotic and was also widely unpopular. But this did not stop MPs from the ruling National Resistance Movement party from receiving Shs 5 million in exchange for their vote.

Seven year extension

When the private members bill tabled by Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi was read for the first time in September last year, it only included bits relating to the qualifications of a presidential candidate.

Other proposals related to change in days in which the Electoral Commission could organise fresh presidential elections following a successful petition challenging a result and period for filing and deciding in the Supreme Court.

As the government washes its hands of the matter, memories return of how West Budama North MP, Jacob Oboth Oboths Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee smuggled term extension and term limits into their controversial recommendations.

The committees majority membership comprising NRM supporters issued an ultimatum; they would not pass amendment of Article 102(b) unless their interests were incorporated. They recongnised then that going against the wishes of the people in lifting age limits would see them punished in 2021, hence the extension was insurance.

Museveni had warned that the proposal was unconstitutional. But even his own deputy Prime Minister Moses Ali reportedly brushed him off in one meeting, saying that Ugandans had elected Museveni on the understanding that this was his last term.

But it would now seem that his reluctant acceptance was doubled-edged. In the euphoria which followed what some saw as a reluctant acceptance by Museveni, the MPs got carried away and passed the sections on term extension and term limits in flagrant disregard to procedures laid out in the constitution and other laws. This was pointed out by the Constitutional court in striking them down.

Also, speaking to CBS radio on Monday last week, Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, Maj. Gen. (rtd) Kahinda Otafiire has said that extending the tenure was never agreed upon in cabinet where he sits. He said MPs introduced it and the government had no way of stopping them.

Enter Kadaga

There were other warning signs. When Oboth Oboth presented his committee report speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga cautioned against introducing extraneous matters foreign to the so-called Magyezi Bill.

She wanted to know how such proposals which were not part of the original Bill got to be considered by the committee. After she went on the record, she still allowed debate and adoption of the proposals.

However, in the certificate of compliance accompanying the bill she sent to the president for assent, Kadaga made no mention of all the provisions that were foreign to the original Magyezi bill. This omission became one of the key grounds on which the court stood in scrapping tenure extension and term limits reinstatement.

Was Kadaga acting knowingly? Was she under instructions of someone? These questions might never be answered considering that the court declined to summon her for cross examination.

So, why did the president not point out these omissions, or those elements he was unhappy about like he always does before assenting to the bill?

Opondo provides part of the answer and probably confirms that Museveni possibly noticed the Kadaga omissions.

Looking at the controversy and acrimony that had surrounded the introduction and processing of that bill, and also the popularity of the term extension among MPs, the president chose not to take it back to parliament because that would be an effort in futility, he said.

Thank God that somebody went to court and a judgement against it was made, Opondo said.

However, in the ensuing grumbling by regime MPs following last months verdict, Museveni released statement on Monday, July 30.

With the five years, a lot of time is spent on electioneering and less time on development; the first two years settling in, the third year some work in the constituency and then by the fourth year electioneering again, Museveni wrote in a message in which he criticized the judges for concentrating on form rather than substance.

What the judges said

All the five judges held that parliament acted with greed. In great length, they described the reasons given in parliament [the same Museveni is giving] for the two year extension, such as the need to afford MPs time to acclimatise.

They also, however, pointed out that the law sets a high academic qualification for one to be MP, suggesting that house members are expected to find their feet quickly and effortlessly.

It is quite apparent therefrom that peace and development of Uganda, or any of the other permissible justifications for amending the Constitution, did not feature at all in Parliaments consideration of the motion for the amendment of the provision regarding the tenure of parliament. The purported reasons given for the extension were evidently personal to parliament; which was most unfortunately selfserving, Owinyi-Dollos 201 page judgement reads.

Kakuru put it even more bluntly when he observed that parliament has no power to amend, alter or in any way abridge or remove some provisions of the constitution, as doing so would amount to its abrogation.

The people made it clear that; parliament must not be permitted to usurp the sovereignty of the people by extending its term of office. It was also unanimously expressed that parliament should have a term of five years, with many saying it should not be possible to extend the term under any circumstances. To hold otherwise, would create an absurdity, Kakuru ruled.

If left with power to amend any provision of the constitution, Kakuru observed, parliament would every five years or seven, extend its term without having to go for elections!

Even worse, it could abolish elections and declare its current members to be members for life. Parliament could even abolish the Judiciary and vest judicial powers in itself. Once the principle is set that parliament has a right to amend any Article of the Constitution, simply by voting yes there would be no limit to their demands, Kakuru said.

Like Owiny-Dollo, Kakuru observed that the people did not elect MPs for them to go and learn parliamentary rules and procedures for two years like Mbarara municipality MP Michael Tusiime said while introducing the tenure-stretching amendment.

The law provides for minimum qualification for Members of Parliament. Mr Tusiime appeared to suggest that Members of Parliament are either unknowledgeable or unqualified, Kakuru added.

Judge Musoke said when MPs gave themselves two additional years without declaring their interests, they grossly violated the National Leadership Code of Conduct enshrined in Chapter 14 of the Constitution and Part III of the Leadership Code Act.

The above provisions prohibit leaders from having personal or conflict of interest in the execution of their official duties.

It is clear from the available evidence that public interest was curtailed when a group of Members of Parliament by their conduct made it impossible for the debate process of the Bill to proceed peacefully, Musoke said.

Barishaki concluded that the impugned amendment sought to change the term of office of MPs and other leaders, an action too critical to be decided without the involvement of the very people.

Age limit

The crux of the consolidated petition was to challenge the validity of the lifting of presidential age limits. All other grounds were mainly geared towards finding the entire constitutional amendment bill unconstitutional and therefore null and void.

At a total 814 pages, the July 26 ruling is easily one of longest in Ugandas history. However, despite its considerable length, not more than 28 pages were dedicated to the central issue of presidential age limits.

Writing in an Op-Ed piece published by The Observer on August 1, Makerere University law professor, Joe Oloka-Onyango, witheringly described it as being rich in length but hollow in substance.

On the critical issue of the lifting of the age limit, the majority of the bench failed to appreciate two central features of the preamble to the Constitution and the democratic principles enshrined in the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. These are the history of political and constitutional instability which the Constitution is at pains to ensure is not repeated, and the democratic principles that are supposed to guide the State and its agencies, Oloka-Onyango wrote.

The issue of the age limit cannot be divorced from that of term limits which were a central feature of the 1995 Constitution when initially enacted. With term limits enshrined in the Constitution, it did not matter at what age one became president, or indeed when they left the Presidency, as there was a finite period within which one could hold the office.

This explains why the provision was not entrenched. With term limits removed, the only safe-guard becomes a limitation on the age at which one can cease to be president, short of which we are left with a president-for-life. It is strange that the court could declare itself alive to the dangers of life parliamentarians and at the same time be silent about the very real danger of life presidency.

Some of the petitioners like Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemuujju Nganda, Hassan Male Mabirizi Kiwanuka, Francis Gimara of the Uganda Law Society and others have already expressed their dissatisfaction with the ruling.

They seem inclined to appeal the matter in the Supreme court.

bakerbatte@observer.ug
mte

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every time i see this gif, i hear gear squeak sounds in my head

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Did someone go back in time to like 1985 to change some trivial thing like what they wore to senior prom and now we've all been Butterfly Effected because wtf is this world

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It's all that would make sense.

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Srsly. Very Sound of Thunder-ish

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mte, someone must have done something

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Read ray Bradburys short story The Sound of Thunder.

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I feel the CERN experiment where they were trying to recreate the Big Bang worked and it ripped something in the time continuum because its the only thing that makes sense.

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Aren't they turning it on again soon?

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Its the only explanation.

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That's what it feels like

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I dunno why but this comment is killing me.

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It's not like the world ever made very much sense, but there was a time when you could at least see some logical patterns in things that happened. I miss that time.

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What a joke, just like this country.

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I woke up early, before my alarm, after only a few hours of sleep today. Confused and feeling like it was an ominous sign. Worried about my life because this literally never happens to me, I open ONTD to escape my fear and confusion and this is what I see?



I don't understand what is happening. What the fuck is going on today?

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i don't want to live on this stupid planet

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James Woods is green with envy

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Where is this from?? What an amazing gif

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I never in my life fathomed that I would see Lezginka on ONTD. wtf??

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I admire the woman still performing; slay queen.

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Somehow i'm not surprised. This dude is so fucking sketchy. I can't wait till he dies and kelly labrock drops the book she's worked on for years, the one that she has said she knew would be a legal battle to publish. She hints heavily that she was severely abused by him.



but this motherfucker has had ties to the mob and claimed to be a cia agent for years and more or less posed his way into a life. it just took 40 years to do it all. And anyone who watched that A&E show knows how much it underlined corrupt cops since idk how a good lawyer couldn't have gotten so much thrown out of court. it stopped production thanks to excessive force so...

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Portia de Rossi and Julianna Marguilles have similar to stories Yeah I remember Jenny McCarthy mentioned a few years ago how he harassed her.Portia de Rossi and Julianna Marguilles have similar to stories https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/851581001

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It's like we live in a fucking episode of The Simpsons. I have been having an existential crisis for two full years now.

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at this point Russia can do anything and get away with it, they know the US government will do shit about it

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but crooked hillary!

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When your options are Guatemala and Guatepeor, you can't hesitate.

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lol

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lmao this gif could be used in so many situations

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And this is the least surprising thing this week.

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Every day lately I wake up with the feeling that were living in an actual Onion article.



Edited at 2018-08-05 01:54 pm (UTC)

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With a team like Trump & Segal how can our country not be saved?

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Not trying to defend Jessica Chastain but did she know about his past, he could've easily hid it. Not like there isn't a Google search that could find it but idk it seems so odd to me that she chose to work with him considering she's been very vocal about the me too movement.

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Not trying to defend Jessica Chastain but did she know about his past, he could've easily hid it.

if it's easily googable (which it is) then there's no excuse for her not to know about it.

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Yeah but do celebs use google as much as us plebs? I don't even google everything, as I should. I'm not trying to play devils advocate haha I just really want to know why she would do this, it's bothering me. Maybe these people really just don't give a fuck.

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Do you not google the people youre talking to before a job interview?

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I was actually googling this guy and I found out that he cast Jess Weixler in his last film which had a mostly female crew. Weixler is Chastain's best friend so I'm sure it was a case of her going to Chastain and introducing him.



I'm honestly not sure if this makes it better or worse. Didn't his abuse allegations resurface during promo of his last movie when Indiewire wrote a whole expose on him? Is it possible Weixler didn't know?



IDK I just feel like there's not enough blowback on this at all.

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While I think the idea of celeb worship or the idea they should be these perfect people who know all and are woke on everything is redic, I think we also need to acknowledge that some people, like Jessica, are using feminism as a marketing tool. She's screwed up enough times and been told enough times to shut up and listen to people, and she still acts like the ultimate authority on feminism.



that she would do this, after the crap she got called out on for not googling and seeing that one of her costars was abusive when she did that whole back patting of "Well I've never worked with an abuser, it's not that hard to make good choices." right after the metoo stuff really took off last november, and then does this? Oh fuck her. She is so oscar hungry she doesn't give a shit about anything beyond her own little life.

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jessica is a proven market-feminist, there's ur answer. don't put your faith in white women who require a luncheon to discuss sexual assault! xo

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I truly believe Chastain's heart is in the right place but that whole MLK/no violence y'all~ shit she pulled basically proved she's clueless.

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that's so fucked up. Jessica, you need to do better. Especially as we know you already like to lecture victims of harvey weinstien on how they should feel about TimesUp.

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This wanker. Nah fuck that that he gets to have a career in America.

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Brooke Satchwell has gone through so much (Rachael too), like the Newtons basically destroyed her career over here.

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Bert and Patti are complicit too.

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I loathe the both of them.

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Omg what?! What did they do? :O

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i am showing my age but Brooke was my fave on Neighbours and she deserved a much bigger career. fuck the Newtons to hell.

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Fuck the Newtons tbh.

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I'm glad this is getting attention. this is either really mean or giving her way too much credit lol but Jessica Chastain to me seems... naive enough to not google him if someone she likes and/or respects introduced him, hopefully she didn't know and ditches him

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idg this "she is a naive" celebrity/"maybe she didn't google" angle, as if she isn't a highly-successful actress that built up a very lucrative career for herself and isn't assisted by countless other people including P.R.; agents; lawyers, etc. etc.

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well when I say naive I mean dumb. but yeah you're right. I just don't get what she gets out of this, this guy isn't even well known in America so why throw her last bit of credibility out the window for him?

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mte they just don't want to see it for what it is. they bring up the same 2 feel good stories w her and i'm like *nods* yea she sure sounds like an innocent baby girl who doesn't know the Internet! Sure Fooled Me!

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mte. they're investing millions of dollars into this dude's movie and you're telling me that nobody bothered to do a basic google search (much less a more extensive background check)? i'm not buying it.

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Yeah. She has a whole highly paid team that looks out for her and figures out how her choices affect her or add onto her image.

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I'm glad this is getting attention.



It's sadly not though. No major publication has written about it they all just happyily reported the press release and that was that.

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Ugh. Mathew Newton.

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Did he ever admit it/apologise? Otherwise am side-eyeing Chastain.

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it looks like he evaded multiple arrests and charges



he (allegedly) gouged his then girlfriend brooke satchwell eyes out, punched her multiple times, stalked and intimidated her



then two years later bashed his then girlfriend rachael taylor on the wall and floors on two separate occasions which shes publicly confirmed as a domestic violence survivor



look up his wikipedia. hes also assaulted a man in sydney, a hotel receptionist in miami, trashed a hotel room in rome, more



chastain needs to drop him asap



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there's no way her or someone on her team didn't know. I find it hard to believe nobody bothered to google. and it's not like it's hard to find out the vile shit he did once you search.

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Woah what. I think I vaguely something about Rachael Taylor but I don't really remember this at all.



Yikes yikes yikes.

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he violently assaulted rachael several times and he also beat his actress girlfriend before her



hes also been protected by his showbiz family here in aus



scum bag

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this just enrages me. this guy has a violent history stretching back over a decade, that he has NEVER faced consequences for. for a hot minute i pitied him, because i bought into the media's spin about his mental illness. which, sure, could be a factor. yet he's clearly functional enough to maintain a career? but just not functional enough to stop beating up his girlfriends?



re-making himself as a feminist director, fucking spare me Matthew. call me back when you're not the guy who once beat a woman's head against a hotel lobby floor.

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I never bought it because his mental illness seemed to only ever make him beat up women and old men. He never had a crack at some strapping young guy who could beat the shit out him, oddly enough.



I am infuriated that this fuck still has any kind of career. And fuck Bert and Patty for doing their damndest to make him sympathetic and smear Brooke Satchwell.

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She's got a saintly brand to protect so I'm sure her name being attached to articles like this will prompt her to say she didn't know and drop out



Edited at 2018-08-05 02:30 pm (UTC)

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Its really weird to me how some folks will bend over backwards trying to excuse Jessica but other actresses who arent well established would get raked over for doing something like this. Jessica doesnt need the money and she doesnt need the clout either. Her doing this film is inexcusable



Also the media not saying anything about this proves they like to pick and choose when their pitchforks should come out. I can list a name of women who would be getting dragged by the media if they were involved in this film but since its Jessica Im a feminist Chastain there are crickets.

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Mte to everything

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So maybe she didn't know before picking him, but she has to fucking know now, right, with the amount of mentions she's gotten through Twitter? And she hasn't said anything?

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I've disliked JC intensely ever since she refused to listen to POC activists on twitter and kept reiterating how they have to peacefully protest. They point blank told her, Jessica, these people don't want to listen to us, they want to kill us, and she just refused to hear and believe it and talked down to them. She ain't shit. This guy sounds like a psycho who should be in prison.

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Despite a persistent decline in crude oil production, Venezuela has seen its exports of crude to its biggest market, the United States, climb since February this year. In fact, between February and June, Venezuelan oil exports to the Gulf Coast refineries increased by an impressive 43 percent, according to U.S. customs data cited by S&P Platts. What is happening?

It seems that market logic is overriding other factors. The recovery in Venezuelan exports is confined to Gulf Coast refineries, analysts note. These are equipped to process heavier grades, and their choice of supplier is limited. Mexicos oil production is stagnating at the moment, despite ambitious plans of the new administration to raise it from the current 1.9 million bpd to 2.5 million bpd. Canadas heavy crude production is growing, but pipeline capacity is not, so its difficult and costly to get more heavy crude to Gulf refineries. Venezuelan heavy is a convenient alternative.

It seems it is a convenient alternative despite earlier reports that Gulf Coast refiners have started turning back cargoes because the quality of the crude had fallen short of standard requirements. Or Venezuela has gotten around to improving this quality. It has a good reason to do so: the U.S. currently accounts for more than 45 percent of the troubled countrys oil production. It makes sense to take care of such a major market.

"The US is currently the ATM cash machine for Venezuela," one analyst from Hedgeye Risk management told S&P Platts. This is ironic, of course, given the stifling U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, but it nevertheless remains a fact. Despite the sanctions and the mutual hostility, the United States is Venezuelas biggest oil market, bigger even than China, which is a staunch ally of Caracas.

Some analysts believe that as production continues to fall, so will exports. But, then again, they may not fall whatever happens to production. Even the analysts expecting exports to fall as production continues down recognize that There is certainly an appetite for that crude in the U.S. and that's not going to go away, as John Auers from Turner, Mason & Company told S&P Platts.

Related: The Winners And Losers This Earnings Season

However, there is also appetite for Venezuelan crude in China and Russia: the countrys biggest financial supporters. Some analysts identify this as a factor that could dent U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude, alongside the degrading quality of its crude. Venezuela is in deep debt to both China and Russia, and it is repaying this debt with crude oil.

But, say analysts, Washington may decide to go ahead with the blanket sanctions for Venezuelas oil industry that the administration has been waving around as a threat for about a year now. The chance of this happening is still slimthere is concern about aggravating an already serious humanitarian crisisbut the option is on the table. If these sanctions are imposed, Venezuelan oil exports to United States will immediately drop to zero.

Since Venezuelas clients are only refineries on the Gulf Coastand the biggest buyer is PDVSAs own subsidiary Citgothe blow to U.S. refining will be limited. Even so, the fact that these sanctions have not been implemented yet suggests it is not a blow that Washington is willing to deal to Gulf Coast refiners, so PDVSA will continue to have a market for around half of its falling production for the time being.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The shale industry is set to enjoy its best year, arguably in its history, but some drillers are not benefitting as much as expected because they locked themselves into hedges at lower prices.

Shale drilling has historically been a loss-making proposition. The precipitous decline in output from shale wells meant that companies had to use the revenue from one well to drill the next well. Cash was continuously recycled back into new wells, and shareholders rarely saw any profits flow back to them.

That is set to change this year. Higher prices and operational improvements are putting the US shale sector on track to achieve positive free cash flow in 2018 for the first time ever, the International Energy Agency (IEA) wrote in a recent report on energy investment.

But not everyone is raking in as much money as they might have wanted. A handful of shale companies posted lower-than-expected profits in recent days, owing to the fact that they secured hedges for their second quarter production at prices that were lower than the prevailing market price.

Among the companies that undershot expectations were Devon Energy, Anadarko Petroleum and Chesapeake Energy. As Reuters notes, many shale companies hedged at around $55 per barrel in the second quarter while WTI was much higher.

Related: A Price Spike Looms For Natural Gas

Those hedges were likely secured last year, when oil traded at lower levels. The shale companies locked in those positions as a risk management strategy, guarding against the possibility of a meltdown in prices. If the economy had crashed or OPEC decided to flood the market once again for some reason, and oil prices fell back below $50 per barrel this year, those companies would have been protected.

As it happened, however, prices surged in the first half of this year. WTI surpassed $70 per barrel in the second quarter, rising to its highest point in more than three years. Some shale drillers were stuck selling their oil for prices in the mid-$50s. Anadarko said that it missed out on nearly $300 million in pre-tax revenue because it was locked into hedges.

Devon Energy also missed expectations for its quarterly earnings, noting that it earned 20 percent less in oil sales than would have been the case absent the hedges. When asked if the company would revise its hedging plans, Devons CEO David Hager said it would stick with the strategy. We think it's important to underpin the cash flows of the company to make sure that we have a certain level of consistency in cash flows to be able to fund the capital program, Hager said on an earnings call. And so we are doing this through a systematic program largely, where we're reaching out 18 months and hedging production at any given time.

He also cited the fact that hedging actually worked out when Devon bet on differentials. Oil prices in Midland, Texas have consistently traded at hefty discount relative to WTI in Houston, a reflection of the pipeline constraints in the Permian.

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Pioneer Natural Resources sold its oil for an average price of $52.62 per barrel, or $4.23 per barrel less than analysts had assumed.

Were pretty bullish on oil and we dont think (companies) should be giving up the upside and dont think they should run the market that way. Take the price, Paul Sankey, an oil industry analyst for Mizuho Securities USA, told Reuters. Sankey was the analyst that questioned Devon Energys CEO on whether or not hed reconsider the hedging strategy.

Related: Russias High Risk Global Oil Strategy

Interestingly, Tony Vaughn, the COO of Devon Energy tried to highlight the one area in which hedges have worked in the companys favor. Unprompted, he pointed to the companys heavy oil operations in Alberta. The last area I will touch on is our attractive WCS hedges in Canada. In 2018, we have roughly half our production hedged at $15 off of WTI, he told analysts and shareholders on an earnings call. Western Canada Select has traded at a steep discount, dropping as low as $30 below WTI at some points this year.

Looking forward at 2019, there is still a ton of uncertainty. Sankey of Mizuho might want shale companies to rid themselves of hedges to enjoy the upside of oil prices, but there is no guarantee that prices continue to rise.

In fact, a Wall Street Journal survey of nine investment banks shows that pricing forecasts are all over the map. At the high end, BNP Paribas has WTI rising to $81 per barrel in the second quarter of 2019. But Commerzbank puts WTI as low as $58 per barrel for the same time period. There is no shortage of forecasts that fall in between.

The uncertainty is exactly why drillers secure hedges. Its just that sometimes the hedges dont pay off.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have agreed on a so-called single working text to continue negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) in the disputed South China Sea.

I am pleased to announce yet another milestone in the COC process, said Vivian Balakrishnan on Thursday, Singapores foreign minister, who is hosting the meeting of regional leaders.

They have also agreed on the "key modalities" for future rounds of negotiations, he said in opening remarks at the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting, one of several related meetings held alongside the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Singapore this week.

Balakrishnan said that the single draft negotiating text will be the basis for future COC negotiations and a living document, which means it will be continually edited and updated as needed. He added that ASEAN and China settled on the negotiating text in June when both sides held talks in Changsha in China's Hunan province

Both sides hailed the development and said that COC negotiations will accelerate.

Premature celebration

However, any celebrations that this is a major breakthrough should be carefully examined. ASEAN members have been trying to persuade China for several years to agree to a COC, which merely sets force non-enforceable rules on how each party should conduct itself in the South China Sea.

Related: Russias High Risk Global Oil Strategy

As far back as July 2012, China said it was open to launching negotiators over the COC. However, the same year China seized and took possession of Scarborough Shoal, which clearly lies within the Philippines (an ASEAN member) UN-mandated 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Since 2012, China has mostly waffled at agreeing to a COC, as it continued to develop installations on reefs and islets in the South China Sea, including putting in place military assets, in an obvious attempt to militarize and control the area. The South China Sea includes shipping lanes that send vital crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other goods to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

The fact that China, the master at delaying tactics, has agreed to a working text on a COC after several years of artificial island building is disingenuous at best. Moreover, a formal and completed COC is still likely many years away, allowing China even more time to continue its building in the area.

Chinas South China Sea actions has also set Beijing and Washington on a potential collision course as the US navy continues to send what it calls freedom of navigation voyages near Chinas disputed claims. Angst over Chinas moves have also caused the US, Japan, India and Australia to work together to find ways to challenge Beijings South China Sea assertions. However, at the end of the day, occasional naval voyages pale in comparison to actual infrastructure and military assets already in place.

Going forward, it appears that China will remain unchecked in its claim to 90 percent of the South China Sea, referred to as its nine-dash line, at the dismay of rival claimants in the body of water: Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.

Pushing back

Despite diplomatic efforts by ASEAN over Beijings South China Sea buildup, several ASEAN members seem to be taking a different approach by strengthening their coastguards as a way to maintain a presence in the region without risking direct military engagement.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said in a report published on Wednesday that in an effort to stop maritime encounters, with China or each other, escalating into military conflicts, countries with claims to the disputed waterway have been transferring security forces from their navies to their coastguards. The coastguards have become important strategic cushions between navies in ASEAN, it said.

The primary reason for nations increasing their coastal forces has been Chinas aggressive maritime strategy, including the construction of military outposts and distant fishing activities in other countries exclusive economic zones, the report said.

Related: A Price Spike Looms For Natural Gas

The use of civilian and coast guard maritime vessels however is already used to great effect by China. Often instead of sending its regular navy, officially called the Peoples Liberation Army Navy, China sends its maritime defense vessels or coast guard to do its bidding.

Of the 45 major incidents reported in the South China Sea between 2010 and 2016, 32 involved at least one China Coast Guard or other Chinese maritime law enforcement vessel, the ASPI report added.

Concurrently, China is continually building up its so-called Blue Ocean navy. Peter Jennings, the ASPI director, and a former head of strategy for the Australian Defense Department, said in mid_July that Chinas navy could challenge the supremacy of the U.S. Navy in the region within a year.

Oil and gas lurks in background

Oil and gas reserves set the backdrop for this ongoing and potentially explosive geopolitical quagmire. One Chinese estimate places potential oil resources in the South China Sea as high as 213 billion barrels, though many Western analysts have repeatedly claimed that this estimate seems extremely high. A conservative 1993/1994 US Geological Survey (USGS) report estimated the sum total of discovered reserves and undiscovered resources in the offshore basins of the South China Sea at 28 billion barrels  yet, this estimate, for its part, seems particularly low.

Moreover, the 1993/1994 USGS estimate states that natural gas is actually more abundant in the area than oil. According to the USGS, about 60 percent-70 percent of the areas hydrocarbon resources are gas while the sum total of discovered reserves and undiscovered resources in the offshore basins of the South China Sea is estimated at 266 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

State-owned oil major China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), responsible for most of Chinas offshore oil and gas production, claims that the area holds around 125 billion barrels of oil and 500 tcf of gas in undiscovered areas, although the figures have not been confirmed by independent studies.

By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com

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Canadian craft brewers, whose wares are seen at a liquor store on August 2, 2018 in Ottawa, are facing a shortage of cans linked to the recent imposition of tariffs on aluminum by Canada and the United States

Canadian craft brewers are facing a sudden aluminum can shortage and are blaming the supply disruptions on aluminum tariffs, making these small businesses among the first casualties of the Canada-US trade spat.

"It's a terrible time for brewers," Luke Harford, president of industry association Beer Canada, told AFP, noting that Canadian tax hikes on beer and new competition from the soon-to-be-legal recreational-use cannabis in October will compound brewers' tariff woes.

Canada is the world's third largest aluminum producer, but still imports more than 2 billion cans annually, mostly from the United States, according to the government statistical agency.

When Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on US aluminum imports on July 1, brewers say they began receiving notices of price hikes and warnings of supply disruptions.

This comes as demand for beer cans is rising in North America to meet changing consumer tastes. In Canada, beer can sales rose 4.3 percent while bottle sales fell 10.7 percent in 2017, according to official data.

Harford explained that when Canada announced a month in advance that it would impose the tariffs, soda pop companies that use significantly more cans than beer makers began stocking up, leading to the current supply shortage.

The closure in January of a Massachusetts plant owned by Crown Holdings, a major can supplier to microbrewers, had also tightened supplies prior to the tariffs war.

Can manufacturers are now racing to boost production but many craft brewers "working hand to mouth will suffer in the interim," Harford said.

Running out of cans

Paul Meek, owner of Kichesippi Beer Company in Ottawa said it has only enough cans to last until the end of the month, after his American supplier advised it would not be able to deliver its August shipment of 160,000 cans.

"We were told the shipment wouldn't arrive and they don't know when we'll get it," he said.

"If we run out of cans, which are now more than 50 percent of our sales, it's going to be a bad, bad year."

Alberta province's GP Brewing Company suspended production for two weeks in July citing a shortage of cans.

Canada's largest organic beer producer, Beau's Brewery in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, is also struggling to get can orders in on time, its chief financial officer Tania Beimers said.

The company added cans to its offerings of bottled beers and kegs last year, and they now account for 30 percent of its sales.

"The shortage and delivery delays have created a lot of extra work for us to ensure that we have the supply of cans needed to keep producing," Beimers said.

There are 817 brewing facilities in Canada. Per capita beer consumption was 75.5 litres last year.

Several companies contacted by AFP said they were grudgingly looking at other suppliers but Beimers said "there aren't a ton of suppliers for printed cans so the options are limited."

Brewers facing a can crunch have been urged to simply switch to bottles, "but it's not that easy," Meek said, explaining that most small brewers have either a canning or a bottling line. Setting up a new line costs upwards of Can$300,000 and can't be set up overnight.

Harford predicts the 10 percent tariff imposed by both Canada and the United States on aluminum will cost the domestic brewing industry an additional Can$10.5 million this year.

He said the sector has lobbied Ottawa to exempt beer cans from its tariffs but has failed to convince policymakers.

What's more, he said, Canada has increased taxes on beer twice in the past year (for a total of Can$25 million) and is planning another Can$30 million hike in April 2019.

Explore further With some tweaks, cans make comeback in craft beer

 2018 AFP
Bangladeshi students are protesting poor road safety after two teens were killed by a speeding bus

Bangladesh authorities have shut down mobile internet across swathes of the country, officials and local media said Sunday, as the authorities try to quell massive student protests that have spiralled into violence.

For the last week students have brought parts of the capital Dhaka to a standstill with a protest against poor road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighborhood with more than 100 people injured.

Witnesses said police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and that alleged pro-government activists attacked youngsters, including some of those rushing to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The country's highest circulated newspaper Prothom Alo said 3G and 4G internet services have been shut down for 24 hours since late Saturday, shortly after the violence broke out.

Social media has been filled with comments from Bangladeshis unable to access the internet via their phones, although wireless and wired networks appear to be unhindered.

Jahirul Haq, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), told AFP they received a "decision" from the government. But he did not clarify what was the government order was. He said he would comment further on the situation later Sunday.

A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: "The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government."

The move may be an attempt to try and limit the ability of students to mobilise or spread growing online outrage over how the government has handled the protests, hours after police and unidentified men wielding sticks and stones clashed with students.

Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by the ruling party activists have flooded the social media, prompting renewed outrage.

Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, sporting injuries consistent with rubber bullets.

The ruling Awami League party has also denied allegations its cadres beat students up.

Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment.

Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year.

But their pleas have had little effect.

Explore further Bangladesh shuts down messaging services to quell violence

 2018 AFP
Tesla has sold more cars per capita in Norway than any other country in the world

"I've had the car for eight months and it ran fine for four days," says Yngve Solberg, who like many Norwegians is fed up with the slew of problems his Tesla X has given him.

Tesla has sold more cars per capita in Norway than any other country in the world thanks to the government's generous measures in favour of electric cars including tax exemptions, free city tolls and public parking.

More than 26,000 Tesla S and X models are registered in Norway, according to the website teslastats.no.

But Tesla has struggled to provide after-sales support that matches the soaring demand for its high-end electric cars.

As a result, Tesla owners in Norway face long waits for repairs, a shortage of spare parts, difficulty reaching customer services, leadingunsurprisinglyto oodles of complaints.

In the first half of the year, Tesla became the company with the fourth-highest number of complaints registered with the Norwegian Consumer Council. In 2017, it held the 24th spot.

A car enthusiast, Solberg has had a long series of woes with his new Tesla X.

Among the problems he has faced were malfunctioning rear doors and a faulty suspension system. And each time he has faced trouble, it has taken him several months to get an appointment for repairs.

"Because of the doors, I couldn't park next to other cars for three months, neither at my work garage nor in my parking spot outside my home. All this with a car that costs 1.1 million kroner (115,000 euros, $133,000)," he bristled.

'Norwegians are right to be upset with Tesla,' admits Tesla CEO Elon Musk

On an online forum for the Norwegian Association of Electric Cars, another Tesla owner said he was so frustrated he ended up taking his car to Danish capital Copenhagen to replace a faulty suspension arm. He has also been waiting for new seats for 13 months.

Musk says Norwegians are right

These are not isolated cases. A survey conducted by the Tesla Owners Club Norway indicates that 38 percent are dissatisfied with the company's after-sales support, compared with 57 percent who are satisfied.

"Norwegians are right to be upset with Tesla," admitted Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.

"We are having trouble expanding our service facilities in Oslo especially," he tweeted on July 5.

He said the problems could be resolved "quickly" if Norway would give the green light for mobile service vans able to provide repairs at clients' homes.

Tesla is in talks with authorities with a view to adapting this service to national regulations, which strictly define car repair shops.

The problems are particularly troublesome for Tesla, as Norway is a seen as a global testing ground for electric cars.

The Scandinavian country, whose electricity is almost exclusively from hydro, aims to stop selling cars running on fossil fuels in seven yearsby 2025.

Norway is a seen as a global testing ground for electric cars

Tesla is therefore doubling its efforts to meet Norway's needs.

The company's spokesman in the Nordic region, Even Sandvold Roland, said after-sales support staff has already been augmented by 30 percent this year, additional shifts have been set up in some places, and a new repair centre is due to open shortly in Oslo.

'Growing pains'

"Things are improving," said Satheesh Varadharajan, the head of the Association of Tesla Owners. "It's positive, though we're still a little concerned about whether it's going quickly enough."

Recruiting and training new employees is time-consuming.

Keen to participate in the technological breakthrough the Californian company is offering, many motor enthusiasts are affording Tesla a patience they would not normally grant a conventional carmaker.

"Early adopters show a lot of understanding and accept that things take a little time, that there are growing pains. No other group has grown as much as quickly," stressed Varadharajan.

Despite the many frustrations, Yngve Solberg still has faith in Tesla and has reserved a Model 3, the company's first car targeting the mass market.

But Solberg said his faith had limits.

Tesla has had trouble ramping up production of the Model 3, and "if it's the same chaos that I've experienced these past eight months, then, no."

Explore further Tesla faces fresh Norway lawsuit over false advertising

 2018 AFP
Little "robot waiters" deliver food to patrons in this Shanghai restaurant

The little robotic waiter wheels up to the table, raises its glass lid to reveal a steaming plate of local Shanghai-style crayfish and announces in low, mechanical tones, "Enjoy your meal."

The futuristic restaurant concept is the latest initiative in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's push to modernise service and retail in a country where robotics and artificial intelligence are increasingly being integrated into commerce.

Raising efficiency and lowering labour costs are the objectives at Alibaba's "Robot.He" diners, where waiters have been replaced by robots about the size of microwave ovens, which roll around the dining room on table-high runways.

"In Shanghai, a waiter costs up to 10,000 yuan ($1,500) per month. That's hundreds of thousands in cost every year. And two shifts of people are needed," said Cao Haitao, the Alibaba product manager who developed the concept.

"But we don't need two shifts for robots and they are on duty every day."

The diners are attached to Alibaba's new Hema chain of semi-automated supermarkets, where grocery shoppers fill their "carts" on a mobile app and have the merchandise brought to them at checkout via conveyor tracks on the ceiling, or delivered straight to their homes.

Alibaba now has 57 Hema markets in 13 Chinese cities, all of which will eventually feature the robotic restaurants.

Industry experts say they serve more as showcases of Alibaba's tech prowess than a serious business model in a country where labour costs are relatively low.

But the restaurants also typify the rapid adoption of new technologies in a country where the government is increasingly using facial-recognition technology to police streets and identify law-breakers.

Automation nation

With digital payments via mobile phone already now rivalling cash for many purchases, growing numbers of pharmacies, bookstores and other retailers have dispensed with cashiers, allowing customers to order and pay for their desired merchandise, which is often handed over by a robot.

Alibaba's e-commerce rival JD.com has announced plans to open 1,000 restaurants by 2020 in which food will be prepared and served by robots.

JD.com and others are also working to incorporate airborne drones into their delivery networks.

The futuristic restaurant is the latest push by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba into robotics

The movement could help companies reduce costs as growth rates in China's e-commerce boom begin to plateau.

"Before, everyone was all going for rapid expansion. Now the growth is gone and everyone has to focus on improving their operations," said Jason Ding, a China retail expert with Bain & Company.

"Operation is all about cutting costs and providing better service. So these automated machine technologies, in the right place, can play a role there."

At Robot.He, customers book tables and order entrees via apps, and the diner's novelty often draws long queues.

Ma Yiwen, 33, brought nearly a dozen colleagues with her.

"We are all foodies and we use our lunch time to try good food near our office. The idea of a robot delivering food to our table is very innovative so we wanted to see it ourselves," she said.

The restaurant says automation helps keep costs down, an additional lure for 20-year-old customer Ma Shenpeng, who comes once a week.

"Normally for two to three people, a meal costs about 300-400 yuan, but here, all this table of food is just over 100 yuan," he said.

Chinese AI advocates predict robots will someday perform a range of mundane duties as living standards rise, from delivery to sweeping floors and providing companionship, particularly as China's labour force has shrunk due to the recently relaxed one-child population control policy.

But it's a delicate issue for Chinese policy-makers due to the potential for human job losses, and the government is in the midst of a long-term push to develop the country's services industry partly as a job creator, as manufacturing increasingly becomes mechanized.

Wang Hesheng, a robotics professor at Shanghai's Jiaotong University, said the cost of robots remains too high for widespread consumer use and that many companies were merely jumping on the government's high-tech bandwagon.

But robotics could spread if China labour costs continue to grow, he said.

"Maybe when labour costs rise higher and higher, robots will balance out with humans," he said.

Explore further Starbucks and Alibaba join forces as China coffee war brews

 2018 AFP
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U.S. Congress is hell-bent on making sure that foreign companies do not in any way infiltrate government software programs. And now tech companies could soon be forced to divulge if they have allowed foreign government agencies in countries like Russia or China to examine their software.

Congress has just passed a bill that will force software companies to disclose any foreign software probes as part of the Pentagons spending bill. The bill was published after Reuters discovered last year that some software makers had allowed a Russian defense agency to search for vulnerabilities in software used by U.S. government agencies, including the Pentagon and other intelligence services.

Lawmakers contend that such a practice could help Moscow or Beijing to discover vulnerabilities that they can use to exploit or attack the U.S. government.

The final version of the bill was approved overwhelmingly by the Senate in an 87-10 vote after the House gave its nod last week. President Trump is expected to soon sign it into law.

Selling Software to Foreign Companies

Software companies such as McAfee, SAP and Hewlett Packard have in the past allowed foreign government agencies to scour software source code as part of due diligence prior to purchasing. In most cases, the probes happened without any U.S. government agencies being informed.

But these companies have defended themselves by claiming that any source code reviews in the past have been conducted in company-controlled facilities with zero chance of the reviewers copying or altering any part of the code. HP says that none of its new generation of products has undergone such checks.

The disclosure mandate is the first of its kind that will see the Department of Defense create a searchable database that other government agencies can check and see which foreign states have examined what software. The database will also be available for public records requests, a pretty unusual step considering that we are talking about third parties gaining access to proprietary company secrets. Related: Tesla Short Sellers Just Took A $1.7 Billion Hit

Indeed, there are fears that the legislation might make software companies reconsider selling any software to U.S. government agencies. Tommy Ross, senior director at The Software Alliance, said software companies are likely to choose selling their products to foreign markets to evade strict controls back home.

Necessary Evil

Ross has highlighted the latest move by U.S. lawmakers as part of a worrying global trend where companies are closing down to the outside world in a bid to mitigate cybersecurity risks.

He might be spot on with his views, but the governments clampdown could be a necessary evil.

The U.S. government has increasingly been cracking down on any potential cyber risks from Russia, going as far as banning all federal agencies from using any software used by Russias Kaspersky Labs. Its alleged that Kaspersky officials collaborated with Russian intelligence agencies under government laws that allow agencies to request or even compel software companies to intercept communications transiting Russian networks. There was a risk that Kaspersky products could be used by the Russian government to compromise federal information systems that directly implicate U.S. national security.

Russia has been directly implicated in a number of highly aggressive cyberattacks, including a massive hacking attack that crippled Ukraines power grid in 2015 as well as the infamous Petya hacks that swept across large swathes of Europe.

The countrys role in U.S. 2017 elections is also still under investigation with social media companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google due to face Congress for another round of questioning come Sept. 5.

By Alex Kimani for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com
Hanagatami, the latest work from director Obayashi Nobuhiko, is a fever dream of youth during wartime. Solidly surreal and sweating with sexual tension, the auteur cast his story of teenagers with actors in their twenties, thirties and forties.

At Japan Cuts, star Kubozuka Shunsuke spoke with LMD about bringing the maestros passion play to the screen.

The Lady Miz Diva: We were all shocked to hear about Director Obayashis illness last year. What was it like to be part of what was an impassioned dream come true for him in making this film?

Kubozuka Shunsuke: Director Obayashi is someone who, over the past ten years, he grew me as an actor; so, for me, being part of this was extremely important. It was also a dream come true for me, as well.

LMD: What was your reaction when director said you would be playing a 17-year-old boy?

SK: Yeah, I was surprised. {Laughs} I asked twice. {Laughs} That wasnt a really a problem for the director, how old the actor, how old the character. For him, he just wanted them to be themselves.

LMD: What was it like not only to play a teenager, but one who is growing up in a very innocent era, and so is even less mature than todays teens? There has to be a whole different physicality from a 17-year-old from the 1930s, versus a 17-year-old from our current time. What kind of research or studying did you do?

SK: As opposed to focusing on how my character moves, or each part of the acting, I focused on studying. Eighty percent of my research was the historical and cultural background of that context: What kind of writers were trending? What kind of music they listened to during wartime? Thats the kind of research I was doing.

LMD: As far as the feeling of those people at that time right before World War II, what did your research find?

SK: For them, too, it was the first time to experience a war. So, as opposed to thinking, What would they have thought? I experienced the war for the first time, as well, as I researched. So, I was just honest and true to myself, after, with the foundation of that knowledge, what I would do?

LMD: But in your physical portrayal of Toshihiko, you can clearly see he is meant to be a very young person; he doesnt have the grace or self-possession of an adult. I dont think you can learn that from books?

SK: I didnt think each part about the details of the movement, but the one direction that Director gave me was, You are the storyteller. You are the scribe. I am the only one who survives in the story, so I wanted to emphasise the difference; the uniqueness of my character among the rest. So, once I was thinking about that overarching concept, thats just how the movements came to be.

LMD: How did you first read Toshihiko? What did you make of him?

SK: There is the part in the foreword when it is mentioned that the character of Toshihiko has a brightness that saves everyone -- an innate brightness. It is a very strange wording, so every time I was confused about the character and the script, I would go back to the foreword and those words, and try to understand the meaning of them.

LMD: I wonder why he was so stuck on the two friends, Kira and Ukai? They were terribly glum and depressing. Especially Kira, who is a dog murderer. What need did they fulfil in Toshihikos life?

SK: I think this is a description of Toshihikos character, but I think he has a cloudless, pure character. At first, he might seem kind of aloof, but its actually a purity. He has a spongelike character of emotional sensitivity, so, I think thats something that people around him find attractive, and I feel like thats how they come to him.

LMD: Toshihiko seems like the only true innocent in that close group. Was that to do with his living in Amsterdam before coming to live amongst these people in Japan?

SK: I think probably his going to Amsterdam is part of his highly-educated background, the book emphasises that, but his purity might be a result of the anxiety and excitement that comes from coming back and wanting to get along well with everyone. That kind of engenders his purity and his innocence, maybe, Im not so sure.

LMD: We never see Toshihikos father, and I wonder if that was part of his attraction to Kira and Ukai? Hes always talking about how manly the two are.

SK: First of all, its impossible for him to have paralleled his father figure onto anyone, because at the time, it was kind of common for children to feel like their father was very distant; a cold figure. But especially for Toshihikos case, it is totally on a different level, its out of the question.

LMD: Is it possible the attraction was sexual between Toshihiko and Ukai and Kira? We see the naked horseback riding with him and Ukai, and the frequent extreme physical closeness with Kira. Toshihiko doesnt really seem to be sexually attracted to any of the lovely girls around him.

Later on, we do see one same-sex romance develop, so I felt it couldve been a possibility. Did Director speak about that for Toshihiko?

SK: There was not explicit direction from the director about this, but its very clear and obvious from the script. And I feel for Toshihiko, there is no boundary in sex; he is interested in people as like this fluid thing. It doesnt really matter what their gender is. There is also his relationship with Mina; he does like her, too. He doesnt like her because she is a woman, or not, it doesnt have to do with her gender, as such.

LMD: This is not your first collaboration with Director Obayashi, Youve worked with him steadily since SONG OF GOODBYE (2006), which was quite early in your career. Then, you went on to make five films together, including HANAGATAMI. How has your collaboration grown?

SK: Director Obayashi really accepted me as like part of the family. I first met him when I was 22, in 1996, so its twelve or thirteen years, and Ive grown. Each time, its a very different collaboration, so I feel very close to him, like a father.

LMD: Did working on HANAGATAMI feel different than your other collaborations? Did Director do anything that surprised you?

SK: So I think from 2011, director Obayashis style has changed very sharply. As a result, all of us actors have also received that influence, and have also changed in that way.

LMD: This film is quite avant-garde. Often, I felt like I was watching surrealist theatre. Frequently, you seem to be acting against green screen, or flat backgrounds. Was that variety of settings and environments challenging?

SK: At first, yes, I was a little bit troubled by this, but after asked the director, How should I feel about this? He said, I dont even know, either. Nobody knows! {Laughs} There was this overarching feeling of relief to be part of this, so we just dont trust in his eye, and his sense.

LMD: What was working with this director Obayashi taught you that you will keep in your professional life?

SK: To live freely and honestly.

LMD: As you may know, director was here at Japan Society in 2015 for a retrospective of his work. What does it feel like to represent director Obayashis work to the New York audience that loves him?

SK: I feel pure happiness. This is the third day Ive been here New York, but I just feel like this is the peak, and its the end of the festival. Im probably the most excited at the festival, right now. {Laughs}

LMD: What is next for you?

SK: Im going to continue being an actor in Japan, working on movies and dramas. I just came back from working on director Obayashis newest film, which was being shot in Hiroshima. So, I want everybody to be excited about that. Its called Theatre by the Shore.

LMD: What message would you like for audiences to take away from HANAGATAMI?

SK: There are so many outlets for where to think, but basically, its supposed to be entertainment, so I just want everyone to enjoy it.
Ministry of Manpower (MOM) statistics in Singapore show that pregnant women are still unfairly dismissed from their jobs. Does Singapore law guard a pregnant woman from unfair job dismissal? Firing an employee on a pregnancy ground is against the law.

The law stipulates that it is wrong to add trouble or stress during a pregnancy. Therefore, it protects you during this period. As the law provides, your employer should treat you with fairness. Your job assessment should be based only on job requirements and merits.

Any dismissal must be relevant and based on objective performance ground. There is a maternity protection provision if you have been at your job for at least three months. It is laid out in part IX of the Employment Act. It covers maternity protection, child care leave, and benefits. As per MOM official website, here are the ways the act covers you as a citizen or a foreigner.

1. Paid Maternity Leave

You have a right as a working mother to sixteen or twelve weeks paid maternity leave. The duration entitlement depends on whether your child is a Singapore citizen or other criteria. You can freely know your maternity leave entitlement and eligibility by checking the statements that apply to you here.

The paid leave entitlement is also applicable for the self-employed. If you are entitled to sixteen weeks, you should take the first four weeks before delivery. The other twelve weeks are after the delivery. You can arrange with your employer to spread the last eight weeks flexibly within the year.

You should claim all the sixteen weeks wages from your employer. Your employer can request for reimbursement from the government as appropriate. For your first and second birth, the employer can claim wages for the last eight weeks. For the third and subsequent births, he or she can claim wages for the whole sixteen weeks.

Where you are agreeable with your employer to resume work early, seek compensation for giving up the maternity leave. You should receive total leave salary plus additional salary for the period given up. Your employer should never call you to work either in the office or from home during the first four weeks after delivery.

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While you can arrange for the last eight weeks leave flexibly, you must take the first eight weeks continuously. You may agree to convert the last eight weeks into regular annual leave or work for some few days per week.

Offer yourself protection by having these agreements made in writing with all agreements about anticipated situations. Enter a consensus of how your employer may assess your work performance.

Are you Still Eligible for the Maternity Leave Where Your Child is not a Singapore Citizen?

If your newborn is not a Singapore citizen or you are not yet legally married to the father, your entitlement is twelve weeks leave. The last four weeks are a no-pay leave. Consequently, your employer is bound to pay for the first eight weeks where you have one child at the time of delivery. This is only applicable if the Employment Act covers you.

It is critical to give your employer at least one week notice before going on maternity leave. Giving shorter notice entitles you to half maternity leave payment. You must present a good reason for not providing adequate notice to qualify for a full leave payment.

2. Maternity Leave for Special Situations

A Foreigner Working in Singapore

You are entitled to twelve weeks of maternity leave if the Employment Act covers you and have worked for at least three months. You may be eligible for sixteen weeks government-paid maternity leave if your child is a Singapore citizen.

A Single Mother

You have the right to the sixteen weeks paid maternity leave as long as you meet the eligibility criteria.

Part-time, Contract and Temporary Employees

You are entitled to the maternity leave if you meet the eligibility criteria. Your payment should be the gross rate per normal working day required by your contract.

Birth of Twins or Triplets

The Employment Act treats delivery of twins or more as a single delivery. You will not receive an extra maternity benefit.

Premature or Stillbirth

For both situations, you qualify for the full maternity leave if you meet eligibility criteria. A stillbirth cant be a determinant for your maternity leave eligibility for the next delivery.

Abortion or Miscarriage

You cannot qualify for a maternity leave benefit in case of a miscarriage or an abortion. You can only take a usual paid sick leave if applicable.

Falling Sick While on Maternity Leave

You do not qualify for a paid sick leave if you fall ill during maternity leave.

Employee on Probation

You are qualified for maternity leave if you have served your employer for at least three months and you meet the eligibility criteria.

3. If Youre Not Covered Under The Employment Act, You Could Still Be Covered Under The Child Development Co-Savings Act (CDCA)

The Employment Act does not cover Managers and Executives, Civil Servants, Seafarers and Domestic Workers. But, the Child Development Co-savings Act (CDCA) may protect you. CDCA provides a maternity leave for you if:

You are a Singapore citizen.

Legally married to the childs father.

You have been in the employment for at least ninety days before delivery.

If you fulfill the above, you qualify for sixteen weeks paid maternity leave.

The Singapore Employment Act prohibits your employer to dismiss you because you are expecting delivery. Neither should you be fired after delivery, as the Act stipulates here.

Your employer cannot dismiss you while on your maternity leave.

If your employer dismisses you within the six months from the estimated-delivery-date, you should receive maternity benefits for which you were eligible.

You should receive maternity benefits if you are retrenched within three months from the estimated-delivery-date.

Dont succumb to unfair job dismissal because of your pregnancy. You have the mandate to hold your employer accountable. File a claim to have your case heard at labor court at an affordable fee. You can also submit your claim at MOM website. Ensure you submit your written appeal to the Minister of Manpower within the two months of your childs birth.

(By Racheal Muriithi)

Related Articles

- The Waiting Game & Maternity Insurance

- What You Need To Know About Maternity Insurance Plans When You Are Pregnant In Singapore 2018

- Should you buy maternity insurance in Singapore?
Algerian international winger Rachid Ghezzal signed for Premier League Leicester City on Sunday from Monaco, linking up again with coach Claude Puel who helped guide his junior career. The 26-year-old becomes Leicester's fifth summer signing after the arrivals of Jonny Evans, James Maddison, Ricardo Pereira and Danny Ward. Puel was in charge of Lyon in Ligue 1 in France when Ghezzal came through the club's academy. "I'm very excited and very happy to be here. I know the coach from Lyon and this is where I want to be. It's a good club and an ambitious one too. Leicester City has many great players and I hope we will have a great season," Ghezzal told lcfc.com. Ghezzal has made 13 appearances for Algeria and made his international debut in March 2015, playing in each of the Desert Foxes' group stage games at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. Ghezzal spent just one season with Monaco where he played 35 times, including four appearances in the Champions League. He will now link up with the Leicester squad ahead of Friday's Premier League curtain raiser against Manchester United.
AFP News

President Joe Biden escapes bruising political turmoil at home for the more convivial world of diplomacy at twin summits in Europe this week -- but the experience could be just as frustrating.
Reuters

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's full-year sales and profit expectations have been upended by the global chip shortage and spike in commodity prices, India's biggest carmaker said on Wednesday, as it missed second-quarter profit forecasts. "At the beginning of the year we did not expect to lose so much production in the second quarter because of chips and maybe lose production in the third quarter," Chairman R.C. Bhargava said after Maruti posted a 65.3% plunge in quarterly net profit.
Heres a quiz. How often in these past weeks have you read about the duplicitous Chinese tricking other governments with false investment promises? Quite a lot, probably, given the volume of reportage on the supposed pullback of Chinese cash in the Philippines. These reports argue that Chinas US$24 billion commitment to the Philippines, comprising US$15 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) and US$9 billion in aid, has barely materialised since an agreement in October 2016 in which the funds were committed.

These reports also allude to the Philippines decision to give up its South China Sea claims in exchange for investments, suggesting it was then left high and dry as China turned off the tap. To be sure, the Duterte administration did abandon the Philippines previous position on The Hague tribunal verdict that rejected Chinese claims based on its nine-dash line.

The Chinese have since been heavily militarising some of the islands, Filipino fisherfolk have faced harassment and China has gradually increased its presence in the area. But linking these political manoeuvrings to delays and cancellations of Chinese FDI and aid projects as part of Beijings plan to elicit geopolitical concessions overlook the real factors that impact investment.

Investment cancellation and delays occur mostly due to factors in the host state. For example, a hydropower project by Power China Guizhou and Philippines Greenergy Development Corp encountered trouble acquiring funds from shareholders because of the uncertainty regarding the recently signed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that allows a high level of autonomy, including some aspects of sharia law, to the Muslim areas of the southern Philippines. All major investment projects in Mindanao province have been delayed as a result of the new arrangement, as investors are still figuring out the implications for them.

A US$780 million proposal to raise four islands in Davao was found unviable after a year-long feasibility study that revealed the projects enormous social, environmental and economic cost. In this particular case, the local government decided to cancel the deal.

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A deal between Global Ferronickel, the third-largest nickel ore producer in the Philippines, with Baiyin Nonferrous Group, a Chinese copper supplier, was put on hold due to a moratorium on new mining operations that would make any extractive investment fruitless. This six-year ban on new large-scale mining projects has hindered new mining investments from all companies and countries.

Delays or cancellations do also occur on the side of the investor but unless one can furnish proof China has deliberately withheld funding, treating these delays as Chinese betrayal is simply spiteful speculation without empirical proof.

Similarly, a careful study of many of the aid projects that did not materialise shows a similar pattern of procedural factors rather than wilful withholding. The total number of aid projects were cut down to three priority projects in January 2017. Some projects in the US$9 billion pledge were cancelled, some were delayed, and others were placed in a queue. Philippine government data shows Chinese aid projects are making some progress, with two signed, four approved, and 14 in the pipeline.

The media reportage of stalled Chinese projects ignore that FDI and aid memorandum of understandings (MOUs) are often likely to be cancelled, modified, or delayed after the initial signing process  and this is not unique to China. The Duterte administration signed a US$6 billion MOU for FDI from Japan, a US$1.2 billion MOU with India, and a US$650 million MOU with Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Data from the Philippines central bank, BSP, shows a huge discrepancy between the committed and actual amount. Signed in January 2018, the MOU with India has resulted in just US$600,000 so far. The MOUs with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which pledged US$465 and US$175 million in April 2017, have resulted in just US$3.5 million in total. And Japans October 2017 commitment has translated into only US$48.3 million.

While it is difficult to tell whether these actual investments comprise deals negotiated in the MOUs, these low numbers typify the low commitment-actualisation ratio when it comes to FDI, Chinese or otherwise.

There is also a fundamental accounting error when it comes to supposed Chinese commitments in the Philippines. The US$24 billion pledge of investment is misidentified as FDI solely from the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Much of the Chinese FDI coming to the Philippines is actually from Hong Kong. Many Chinese state-oriented enterprises relocate to or create subsidiaries in Hong Kong to take advantage of the liberal currency environment, so when they invest abroad, their investments are recorded under Hong Kong rather than PRC.

Between June 2016 and April 2018, deals between China and the Philippines resulted in US$1.02 billion of FDI in the Philippines, reaching nearly 85 per cent of the total amount registered during the previous Philippine administration. This indicates that even if most of the deals in the US$15 billion of promised FDI were delayed or cancelled, Chinese SOEs and private companies continue to invest heavily in the Philippines.

In sum, its wrong to fault China and the Duterte government for investment delays and cancellations. Rather, they should be criticised for falsely equating investment commitments and actualisation, and then marketing the deal to generate political capital. In states struggling to develop capacity, such as the Philippines, delays or cancellations of foreign investment or aid deals are common. Indeed, the more complicated and technical the foreign investment and aid projects, the more likely are delays and cancellations. 

This article What happened to the billions China pledged the Philippines? Not what you think first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.

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Hundreds of Philippine mums in show of support for breast-feeding

Hundreds of Philippine mothers simultaneously nursed their babies in public on Sunday, some of them two at a time, in a government-backed mass breastfeeding event aimed at combating child deaths.

About 1,500 women, some of them wearing tiaras and superhero T-shirts, sat on the vast floor of a Manila stadium and let their babies suckle to the beat of dance music.

"Breastfeeding is love. It is difficult, but we do it for love," said Abegirl Limjap, a pregnant 38-year-old property manager in a "Super Mom" superhero costume as she nursed her two boys, one aged five and the other 11 months.

The annual event aims to draw public support for a government campaign to get more mothers to switch to breast milk from infant formula, organiser Rose Padua told AFP.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund recommend that children be given breast milk within the first hour of birth and be exclusively breastfed for their first six months.

Globally however, three in five babies are not breastfed early, putting them at higher risk of death and disease, the two UN agencies said in a report earlier this year.

Twenty-seven children out of every thousand died before the age of five in the Philippines in 2016, according to WHO data.

WHO and UNICEF estimate about half of Filipino babies were initiated into early breastfeeding in 2013, barely changed from 46 percent in 2003.

"It's an empowering moment," said first-time mother Joyce Balido, 29, as she cradled her four-month-old girl at the mass breastfeeding event.

"It was very difficult to establish a milk supply at first. I am sleep-starved but I committed myself to have my daughter exclusively breast-fed," added Balido, an engineer.

Sixty-one other mass breastfeeding events were held in other Philippine cities over the weekend, said Padua, the event organiser.

She said the country was on course to beat last year's attendance of 4,775 nursing mothers in 25 events.
Kenya and Tanzania on Tuesday mark 20 years since the devastating US embassy bombings that thrust Al-Qaeda onto the global stage and went on to shape how a generation thinks about personal security. It was mid-morning on August 7, 1998, when the first massive blast hit the US embassy in downtown Nairobi, followed minutes later by an explosion in Dar es Salaam, killing a total of 224 people and injuring around 5,000 -- almost all of them Africans. With two monster bombs loaded onto the back of trucks and a trail of carnage in east Africa, the world was introduced to Osama bin Laden three years before the September 11 attacks in New York would make him a household name. "It wasn't the first time Al-Qaeda had carried out an attack, but in terms of the spectacular, catastrophic nature of the incident, they really announced their entry onto the world stage," said Martin Kimani, head of Kenya's National Counter Terrorism Centre. "When 9/11 happened it was shocking and surprising, but a precedent had been set here in east Africa." According to "The Looming Tower", a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the rise of Al-Qaeda, bin Laden gave various reasons for targeting the embassies, such as the deployment of American troops to Somalia and a US plan to partition Sudan, where he had lived for five years until being expelled in 1996. However, author Lawrence Wright concluded that the main goal was to "lure the United States into Afghanistan". - Boosting Al-Qaeda's image - This aim was achieved, in the aftermath of the attacks, with the US launching strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan that were "largely seen as ineffective", said Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert at the Brookings Institution. The strikes led the Taliban in Afghanistan to "embrace the group more closely", he said, and also boosted the image of a group seen as standing up to the United States in the Muslim world. Byman said the attack was the first to show that Al-Qaeda "had tremendous reach and it can do sophisticated operations". "It showed Al-Qaeda that international terrorism could generate tremendous attention, and not just attention from its adversaries... it was a form of advertising in a way." The years since 9/11 have been shaped by the so-called "war on terror" and the proliferation of American military operations -- notably in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. At the same time, Al-Qaeda went on to inspire affiliates around the globe, carrying out attacks across the Middle East as well as from Bali to Madrid, London and Paris. Islamist insurgencies have wreaked havoc in the Sahel, Nigeria and Somalia, and -- on several bloody occasions since the 1998 bombings -- Kenya. "Kenya itself was not primarily the target but of course we ended up with the majority of fatalities and consequences of that attack," said Kimani. "We continue to be on the frontlines of this struggle." - 'Dealing with terrorism' - Two years after Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab -- which had been carrying out attacks on its soil -- the group killed 67 people in an attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in 2013. Then in 2015, a Shabaab attack on the Garissa University in eastern Kenya left 148 dead. However, Kimani said counterterrorism efforts by Kenya had proved successful, confining Shabaab attacks to remote areas in recent years as a result of new anti-terror legislation and improved co-ordination between different security forces. He said efforts to build trust with communities where jihadists hide out, and understanding how recruitment happens to nip it in the bud has also been key. "The threat is still there, believe me, but 20 years later we have become much better at dealing with terrorism than we used to be," he said. "Globally terrorism has left a deep, deep social imprint. It has changed the way people think about security. Here in Kenya there are guards at malls and hotels and that is replicated in many parts of the world." Kimani said governments need to focus on improving livelihoods and providing basic services to erase the "pockets of desperation" that prove so fruitful for recruitment. In recent years, attention has swung away from Al-Qaeda to its rival Islamic State (IS) group which formed in 2013, captured swathes of territory and inspired numerous so-called "lone wolf" attacks from afar. However, experts warn that while IS has since lost its territory and reach, Al-Qaeda has been quietly rebuilding. "Their ideological ability to be grafted onto local grievances continues to make them a threat," said Kimani.
The Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH) said Sunday it is closing its offices following "alarming" threats to its staff over its high-profile reporting on the violent repression of anti-government protests. The group said it had received "alarming information" of plans to persecute its workers by charging them with fabricated crimes. It said it had received a stream of death threats by telephone and that its Managua offices had effectively been under siege by armed groups. AFP was unable to confirm media reports that ANPDH head Alvaro Leiva had been forced to flee the country following death threats. But Inter-American Commission on Human Rights executive secretary Paulo Abrao reported on Twitter he had, by chance, met Leiva and his team at a Honduras airport "in transit to Costa Rica." "I confess I never imagined witnessing a self-exile in its exact moment. Crying, they said despite the cost, it was worth defending human rights in Nicaragua," he wrote. ANPDH has actively reported on what it said were starkly repressive measures by the Daniel Ortega government against protesters, regularly updating a toll of those killed, wounded or missing. An ANPDH statement said it was closing its offices temporarily "in order to guarantee the safety and physical integrity" of its staff. The group will continue to collect complaints filed electronically. By the association's latest count, the violence surrounding the protests has left 448 people dead, most of them protesters. That number is far greater than the 317 deaths estimated last week by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. But the IACHR has said the Nicaraguan state is guilty of "repression and criminalization of demonstrators" resulting in "gross human rights violations." Together with the Catholic Church in Nicaragua -- which has tried to mediate between the government and protesters -- the ANPDH helped arrange the release of hundreds of dissidents who had been detained illegally. It estimates some 600 people have disappeared since protests began in mid-April. Ortega has accused his political opponents and human rights groups of being part of a "coup-minded" conspiracy financed by the United States. The US in turn has warned Nicaragua to halt the violence, which began amid protests over social-security cutbacks but quickly drew energy from widespread anger over what protesters say is the corrupt and dictatorial Ortega leadership.
Writer, Nobel Laureate and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel speaks to the media outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S. on May 4, 2010 REUTERS/Jason Reed/Files

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian police were investigating vandalism at the childhood home of Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, which was painted with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Wiesel, an activist and writer, was born in the northwestern Romanian town of Sighetu Marmatiei. His family was deported to Auschwitz, where his mother and one of his sisters died. Wiesel and his father were later taken to Buchenwald, where his father died.

Wiesel survived to become an academic, a writer and political activist. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

His house in Sighetu Marmatiei, a protected building, was vandalised with anti-Semitic graffiti written in red paint on Friday night.

"At present, a police investigation is ongoing to identify the authors and press criminal charges," the county council said in a statement. "There are surveillance cameras in the area and the images will be analysed by the police, who already have a ring of suspects."

The Israeli embassy thanked local authorities for promptly removing the messages and said it hoped those responsible would be punished as soon as possible.

According to a 2004 report by a commission headed by Wiesel, between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews and thousands of Roma were killed by civilian and military authorities in Romania and areas they controlled during the war.

Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany until August 1944, when it changed sides. Much of the Jewish property seized during the war was later nationalised by the communist dictatorship that followed.

Romania has only in recent years begun to come to terms with its role in the extermination of Jews, admitting for the first time in 2003 that it took part. Sensitivity towards the Holocaust and knowledge of it remain patchy.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie, editing by Larry King)
A wave of US sanctions kicks in against Iran on Tuesday, cementing Washington's hard line against Tehran after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear pact. Already facing broad economic fallout as their currency implodes, Iranians are wondering how the next phase of the crisis in US relations will play out -- and what, exactly, America's long-term strategy is toward their country. At least for now, the US is fixated on bringing as much diplomatic and economic pressure to Iran as possible -- though it is not clear where things are headed, or if there is an increased risk of conflict. The US walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and is bringing back "maximum pressure" sanctions for most sectors on August 6, and the energy sector on November 4. As of 0401 GMT Tuesday, the Iran government can no longer buy US banknotes and broad sanctions will be slapped on Iranian industries, including its rug exports. Asked Sunday if Tehran would be able to evade the measures, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed the United States would "enforce the sanctions," saying heaping pressure on Tehran was meant to "push back against Iranian malign activity." "This is just about Iranians' dissatisfaction with their own government, and the President is pretty clear, we want the Iranian people to have a strong voice in who their leadership will be," he told reporters. - Room for dialogue? - After months of fierce rhetoric, Trump surprised observers last week when he offered to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani "any time" -- and without preconditions. The dramatic about-face, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly tamped down, came just days after the enigmatic US president and Rouhani traded barbs. Trump at one point unleashed a Twitter tirade in which he blasted, using all caps, Rouhani's "DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE." He was responding to a July 22 warning from Rouhani that the US should not "play with the lion's tail" and warned that any conflict with Iran would be the "mother of all wars." Trump's offer for dialogue came after Pompeo seemed to suggest support for a change in Iran leadership, telling an audience of Iranian expats in California that the regime had been a "nightmare". And John Bolton, the president's national security advisor, is a well-known Iran hawk who has advocated for regime change. "For Bolton and others, pressure is an end in and of itself," Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, told AFP. For the administration, "if it leads to a wholesale capitulation fine, if it leads to regime change, even better," she added. - Under pressure - Trump's pressure campaign appears to have had some results. For instance, US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf. But this year, to the surprise of some military officials, there have been no such incidents. If Iran senses "American steel they back down, if they perceive American mush they push forward -- and right now they perceive steel," said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank that lobbied for a renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal. Dubowitz, who noted that Iran has tested fewer missiles of late, said Trump's rhetoric and position on Iran actually lowers the risk of escalation toward conflict. "He's assuming that if he talks tough, that will bolster the credibility of American military power," Dubowitz told AFP. Both Trump and Rouhani are due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month. It's not inconceivable a meeting on the sidelines could occur then -- Tehran will be looking anxiously to a November deadline for oil buyers to stop purchasing Iranian crude. Over the weekend Trump once again floated the idea of meeting, tweeting "I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter -- it is up to them!" "Iran, and its economy, is going very bad, and fast!" he said in the same missive. - 'Malign influence' - US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on July 27 there was no policy that had been put in place with the goal of collapsing or changing the Iranian regime. "We need them to change their behavior on a number of threats they can pose with their military, with their secret services, with their surrogates and with their proxies," Mattis told Pentagon reporters. Experts see a number of possible outcomes for the current US policy toward Iran. Sanctions and diplomatic pressure could pile enough pressure on the regime that it comes to the negotiating table -- something Trump has advocated for. The financial crisis in Iran could worsen to the point that mass protests make it impossible for the regime to hold on to power -- though economic pressures risk galvanizing growing anti-American sentiment and support for hardliners. Or the regime could start to address what America calls its "malign influence" in the region, including its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and threats to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies. "I think (the Trump administration) would be pleased with any one of those end states," Dubowitz said.
The Philippines said Sunday it would send a men's basketball team to the Asian Games in Indonesia, just days after abruptly pulling out in the wake of an on-court brawl with Australia at a World Cup qualifier. The Gilas announced their withdrawal from the Asiad basketball tournament on July 27 after basketball's governing body FIBA suspended 10 of their players and two coaches over the July 2 Manila melee, which saw players and fans exchanging punches and flying kicks. However a special aide to President Rodrigo Duterte announced Sunday that the national federation and the country's professional basketball league had since agreed to field a team, a decision confirmed to AFP by the Gilas team manager. "We are not obligated to win. We are obligated to keep trying and do the best we can do everyday," the aide, Christopher Go, said in a statement announcing the team's participation. "This is Filipino Pride. And nothing unites Filipinos of every social class more than what happens on the basketball court," Go added. Gilas team manager Butch Antonio confirmed the announcement to AFP. The federation had earlier said it was withdrawing from the Asian Games in order to "regroup" after the FIBA suspensions, a decision which shocked many in a country where basketball is the most popular sport. Indonesia will host athletes from 45 Asian countries from August 18 to September 2 in the world's biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympics. The July 2 brawl left the Australian team fearing for their safety and prompted them to seek embassy help to fast-track their departure from the Philippines. As well as player suspensions, Switzerland-based FIBA hit the Philippines with a fine of 250,000 Swiss Francs ($250,000) and imposed another 10,000 Francs fine on head coach Vincent Reyes, who was accused of urging his players to fight. Three Australian players were suspended and their federation was also fined. The Philippine basketball federation plans to appeal the sanctions.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has agreed to admit an Iranian diplomat to head an office representing Iranian interests in the kingdom, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, in a rare move after the rivals broke off relations in 2016.

"An informed diplomatic source said Sunday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to grant a visa to the head ... of Iran's interests section," IRNA reported. "Observers saw this ... as a positive diplomatic step in Tehran-Riyadh relations."

The office is expected to be set up within the Swiss diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia, based on an agreement signed in 2017.

There was no immediate official Saudi reaction to the Iranian report.

The kingdom, the regional rival of mostly Shi'ite Iran, presents itself as the guardian of Islamic orthodoxy and custodian of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina.

Riyadh severed diplomatic relations after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia in January 2016.

Both countries agreed to Switzerlands offer of its traditional policy of good offices and to act as a diplomatic channel between the two countries.

Saudi Arabia welcomed President Donald Trumps decision in May to withdraw the United States from an international nuclear agreement with Iran and to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran.

In an interview published on the Iranian Foreign Ministry's website, the ministry spokesman said there had been a "breakthrough" in relations between the two regional rivals.

"Up until two weeks ago, no visa had been issued for the names that we had submitted a long time ago," spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.

"But within the last week or two, there has been a breakthrough and I think there are indications that the office for the protection of interests will be opened," he added.

Tension between the two countries have surged in recent years, with Saudi Arabia and Iran supporting opposite sides in wars in Syria and Yemen and rival political parties in Iraq and Lebanon.

(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Janet Lawrence)
When the yuan hit a six-month low against the US dollar earlier this summer, Australian businesses had more reason than most to sit up and take notice.

China buys almost one-third of Australias exports, with a particular appetite for commodities such as iron ore and coal. Chinese visitors, mostly tourists and international students, spend more than A$8 billion (US$5.9 billion) in the country each year, almost five times as much as Americans. In Australias red-hot property market, where the average cost of a house in Sydney exceeds A$1.1 million, Chinese are by far the top-spending foreign investors, last year splashing out more than A$15 billion.

All things being equal, the weaker the yuan, the less Chinese consumers have to spend on Australian goods and services.

Since April, the yuan has slid almost 8 per cent against the US dollar amid rumblings of a trade war between Washington and Beijing. Until now, the impact of the depreciation on the Australian economy has been mitigated by falls in the Australian dollar and the pricing of many commodity exports in US dollars. But the factors driving the depreciation, analysts say, point to storm clouds on the horizon.

The Chinese kind of deny this, but the yuan is pretty tightly managed these days and I doubt that the yuan would be depreciating in the way it has done in the last few weeks if they didnt want it to, Saul Eslake, an independent economist based in Tasmania, said.

Although Chinas GDP officially grew 6.9 per cent last year, beating Beijings target, there is scepticism about the reliability of the governments figures.

A lot of the other indicators  particularly for commodity-intensive sectors like real estate and fixed investment  do suggest a much more marked slowing than the GDP figures would imply, said Eslake.

In my view, its not surprising that there are now clear signs the economy is slowing, if you look beyond the GDP numbers, and it may well be, therefore, that the Chinese authorities are allowing the yuan to depreciate as one way to cushion or ameliorate that slowdown.

Story continues

Justin Fabo, senior economist at Macquarie Securities, said there were clear signs of a slowdown in Chinese growth as authorities moved to rein in risky lending.

The way we think about it usually is, if global growth is improving, Australias growth is improving, and if global growth is weakening, our growth is weakening because were a small, open economy, said Fabo, while stressing that it was too early to tell how significantly the Australian economy would be impacted.

Notably, Australia is less well positioned to take advantage of the potential advantages of a depreciating yuan than before. When the yuan suffered major declines in 2015, Chinese investors poured money into Australian real estate to protect the value of their assets. Since then, Beijing has tightened controls on capital outflows, while Australian authorities have raised stamp duties on foreign buyers.

A lot of that capital that was easily taken out of the country and put into foreign property markets is now stalled, cant get out, said David Llewellyn-Smith, the founder of financial analysis website MacroBusiness.

Many observers also view the yuans slide as a response to US President Donald Trumps burgeoning trade war with Beijing. Having unveiled tariffs this year, Trump this week flagged his intention to impose even higher levies of 25 per cent on US$200 billion of Chinese goods. While imposing its own levies on American imports in response, Beijing has denied manipulating its currency to offset the effect of Trumps tariffs.

Its harder for China to retaliate by raising tariffs because theres simply less at stake, said Eslake. But depreciating the currency could be another way of retaliating. Now if that in turn means that the trade war is going to become much more serious, then that could certainly have significant consequences for the Australian economy.

For Australia, the fear is a vicious circle of escalation between the worlds two largest economies.

It could well make tariffs worse, in which case you are into a bit of a feedback loop, where the more tariffs you get, the more the yuan falls and the whole thing does get pretty ugly, said Llewellyn-Smith.

More than most, analysts agree, Australia has reason to fear a full-blown global trade war.

Australia has always been a champion of free trade, were a small open economy. We rely on free trade and we benefit from it, said Fabo. If theres a sense that its being wound back globally, thats not good for us. Simple as that. 

This article Why a falling yuan raises economic jitters in Australia first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.

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2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #31

Posted on 5 August 2018 by John Hartz

Stories of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Graphic of the Week... SkS in the News... Photo of the Week... SkS Spotlights... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week...

Stories of the Week...

Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes

People trying to cool down in the Trocadero Fountain in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Credit: Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images

In Northern Europe, this summer feels like a modern-day version of the biblical plagues. Cows are dying of thirst in Switzerland, fires are gobbling up timber in Sweden, the majestic Dachstein glacier is melting in Austria.

In London, stores are running out of fans and air-conditioners. In Greenland, an iceberg may break off a piece so large that it could trigger a tsunami that destroys settlements on shore. Last week, Swedens highest peak, Kebnekaise mountain, no longer was in first place after its glacier tip melted.

Southern Europe is even hotter. Temperatures in Spain and Portugal are expected to reach 105-110 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend. On Saturday, several places in Portugal experienced record highs, and over the past week, two people have died in Spain from the high temperatures, and a third in Portugal.

But in the northernmost latitudes, where the climate is warming faster than the global average, temperatures have been the most extreme, according to a study by researchers at Oxford University and the World Weather Attribution network.

Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes by Alissa J. Rubin, World, New York Times, Aug 4. 2018

California vows to fight Trump EPA's move to freeze fuel economy rules

Vowing to defend California's authority to set its own greenhouse gas emissions rules, Gov. Jerry Brown said the state would fight the new EPA plan in every conceivable way possible. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The Trump administration Thursday pushed ahead with plans to unravel the federal governments most effective action to fight climate change  aggressive fuel economy standards aimed at getting the nations cars and trucks to average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025.

After months of discussion and drafts, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration formally unveiled their plan to rewrite those rules and replace them with ones so lax that even automakers are wary.

The administrations plan would freeze mileage targets in 2020 for six years. It would also move to end Californias power to set its own, tougher greenhouse gas emissions standards and nullify the state mandate that automakers sell a specified number of electric vehicles.

EPA officials sought to portray the proposal as the administrations opening bid in a negotiation with California. State officials, however, loudly denounced the plan as too extreme and threatened to fight it in court. California and the 13 other states that follow its more stringent rules argue the Clean Air Act empowers them to keep the Obama-era standards in place in their markets.

California vows to fight Trump EPA's move to freeze fuel economy rules by Elvan Halper, Tony Barbosa & David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, Aug 2, 2018

Toon of the Week...

Hat tip to Moms Clean Air Force Facebook page.

Quote of the Week...

In the past, we had this kind of heat wave once every 10 years, and now we have them every two years or something like that, said Francois-Marie Breon, a climatologist and deputy director of the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Science, a research institute affiliated with Frances National Center for Scientific Research. Thats really the sign of climate change: We have heat waves that arent necessarily more intense but that are more and more frequent.

Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes by Alissa J. Rubin, World, New York Times, Aug 4. 2018

Graphic of the Week...

California vows to fight Trump EPA's move to freeze fuel economy rules by Elvan Halper, Tony Barbosa & David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, Aug 2, 2018

SkS in the News...

John Cook is extensively quoted by Shannon Osaka in her Grist article,A climate denial video has 6 million views. Facebook doesnt care. posted on July 31, 2018. The lead quote:

John Cook, who focuses on climate misinformation as a professor of cognitive science at George Mason University, says he hasnt heard of the social media giant flagging any climate denial content. Facebooks fact-checking algorithms are a bit of a black box, he tells Grist via email. (The social media site did not respond to a request for comment.)

Photos of the Week...

Changes observed in vegetation, permafrost, and coastal erosion at the Yukon's Qikiqtaruk-Herschel Island Territorial Park between 1987 (top) and 2017 (bottom).

Credit: Isla Myers-Smith/University of Edinburgh

Arctic carbon cycle is speeding up by Esprit Smith, Vital Signs of the Planet, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Aug 3, 2018

SkS Spotlights...

The purpose of CoalSwarm is to create shared information for the worldwide citizens movement seeking to address the impacts of fossil fuels and move to cleaner sources of energy. The Global Coal Plant Tracker has information on 13,000 existing and proposed coal plants worldwide. The CoalWire newsletter is a global weekly news digest. The CoalSwarm portal on SourceWatch contains over 9,000 wiki articles providing a constantly expanding reference. FrackSwarm provides a reference on oil and gas, including hundreds of major pipelines and LNG (liquified natural gas) terminals. CoalSwarms reports can be found here.

Coming Soon on SkS...

The GOP and Big Oil can't escape blame for climate change (Dana)

(Dana) Pollution is slowing the melting of Arctic sea ice, for now (John Abraham)

(John Abraham) Climate change science comeback strategies (Karin Kirk)

(Karin Kirk) State of the climate: 2018 set to be fourth warmest year despite cooler start (Zeke Hausfather)

(Zeke Hausfather) New research this week (Ari)

(Ari) 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #32 (John Hartz)

(John Hartz) 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #3 2 (John Hartz)

Climate Feedback Reviews...

Washington Post story puts recent weather extremes in accurate climate change context

Climate Feedback asked a team of scientists to review the article, Climate change is supercharging a hot and dangerous summer by Angela Fritz & Joel Achenbach, Health & Science, Washington Post, July 26, 2018

Three scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be 'very high'.

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Accurate.

Review Summary

This story in The Washington Post lists a variety of extreme weather events seen around the Northern Hemisphere recently. The article explains that some of these types of weather are known to be connected to human-caused climate trends.

Scientists who reviewed the article found that this scientific context was accurately provided. Heatwaves and intense rainstorms, for example, are increasing in severity and frequency. Some weather patternslike slow-moving meanders in the jet streamare indeed less clear and consequently subjects of active research.

Washington Post story puts recent weather extremes in accurate climate change context, Edited by Scott Johnson, Climate Feedback, July 31, 2018

SkS Week in Review...

Poster of the Week...
LATEST!

For Other Evening News See Second, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Pages.

BOTH DEAD.

Fiendish Murder in Fall River.

A. J. Borden and Wife Butchered.

Daughter Swoons at the Fearful Sight.

One of the Citys Wealthiest Families.

For Days Have Dreaded Poisoning.

Servant Saw Borden Just Before Murder.

Both Skulls Crushed and Heads Hacked to Pieces.

Portuguese is Suspected of Bloody Deed.

Seen Hanging About House at Early Hour This Morning.

FALL RIVER, Aug. 4A most brutal and shocking murder stirred this city as it has seldom been stirred this morning, and no crime has ever been committed here which could compare with it in fiendishness.

Andrew J. Borden, a highly respected business man, 68 years of age, and his wife, a most estimable lady of advanced years, were literally hacked to pieces in their quiet home at 92 2d st.

The house is a two and one-half story structure, surrounded by a well-kept yard and barn, and is located in a thickly settled neighborhood.

The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Borden, an unmarried daughter, Lizzie, and a servant named Bridget Sullivan. Another unmarried daughter is away on a visit to relatives.

For some days past, Mr. and Mrs. Borden and Miss Lizzie had been feeling poorly, and yesterday, or the day before, they suspected that their food was being tampered with, and that they were suffering from poisoning.

They had determined upon an analysis, according to the servant, but in as far as can be ascertained, were not in possession of any definitive information which would confirm their suspicions.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. Borden was so unwell that he did not attend a meeting of the Massasoit bank directors as was his custom, and his friends inquired concerning his health.

This Morning He Felt Better

and between 10 and 11 oclock went down town and transacted some business in the First National Bank. Thence he walked up North Main st., and at 10.30 was seen on the corner of Anawan st. where he owns a handsome brick block. He gave orders to certain workmen, and then crossed the street and walked directly into his home.

Just what happened afterwards is not known.

At 11.15 Miss Borden awoke and descended the stairs. She passed into the front sitting room on the first floor, and there a sight met her eyes which caused her to cry out in horror.

Lying on a lounge, with his face toward the ceiling, was the body of her father. The head was covered with wounds from half an inch to six inches in length, and the wall of the skull had been crushed in. One gaping cut extended from the forehead diagonally across the face to the shoulder blade, and had evidently been inflicted by a butchers cleaver or broadaxe. The unfortunate mans blood had flowed onto his shirt front and stained the sofa pillow.

Mrs. Churchill, a neighbor, happened to be passing at the time and noticed the agonizing expression on Miss Bordens face. She hastened in, and Bridget Sullivan, the servant, also ran to Miss Bordens assistance when she heard her scream.

Where is your mother, Lizzie, inquired Mrs. Churchill.

Miss Borden, who retained remarkable control of herself, replied that her mother had gone out. She had received a message some little time before asking her to call on a sick friend, and the daughter supposed she had gone on an

Errand of Mercy,

still the door leading out to the back yard was open contrary to custom, and the young lady feared that the conclusions regarding her mother might be incorrect.

In company with Mrs. Churchill she went to her mothers room in the northwest corner on the second floor, where the poor girls worst fears were realized.

Stretched in a sickening pool of blood was the wife and mother. The body lay between the bed and a dressing case, and the skull had been battered in apparently by the same weapon that had been used on Mr. Borden, although the nature of the wounds suggested that the murderer had dealt his blows with the blunt edge.

Miss Borden swooned, and Mrs. Churchill and the servant at once raised an alarm.

Unfortunately, the first notice sent out was to the effect that there had been a stabbing affray on 2d st., and it was said that there had been a row in a yard. A few moments later the most intense excitement prevailed when it became known that Andrew J. Borden had been murdered, though it was fully an hour before the details of the awful tragedy reached the public. Business in the centre of the city was practically suspended, and men in all walks of life flocked to the scene.

City Marshal Hillard sent several officers to the house, and they are working on the case at present, while all quarters of the town are being scoured.

The first rumor that reached the police had it that Mr. Borden had been struck near the barn, and had walked back to the house and thrown himself on to the lounge to die. Investigation proved, however, that that story was not true, as there was no trail of blood leading into the room where the body was found. The carpet was not stained, and there were no

Indications of a Struggle.

Dr. Bowen, who resides near the murdered man, was the first to enter the house after the crime was committed. He learned the following facts: When Mr. Borden returned from the bank, he removed his coat, put on a thinner garment, and sat down on the sofa to read a paper.

The servant, Bridget Sullivan, passed through the room on her way up-stairs to wash the windows, observing Mr. Borden, and remembering that he was not as well as usual she asked him how he was feeling. No better or worse than yesterday, was the reply.

Bridget passed Miss Borden on the stairs. The latter went out through the room in which her father was sitting, and entered the barn to get a piece of iron, with which she intended to mend a flower pot.

She thinks that she was not absent from the house more than five minutes. She, too, noticed that her father was occupied with a newspaper, and merely nodded to him. When she returned the frightful scene which has been described met her gaze.

Dr. Bowen is positive that Mrs. Borden must have entered the room where Mr. Borden sat just as the murderer finished his bloody work, and that the fiend chased her up stairs to her room, where he struck her down, as the blows were inflicted by a person who stood beside her.

As stated the city is paralyzed by the most terrible page in its history made this morning, and all kinds of rumors are afloat as to the perpetrator of the dark deed.

On the most reliable authority, however, it is learned that at about 8 oclock a Portuguese laborer, whose name is not known, called on Mr. Borden.

The man had been employed on the latters farm across the river and

Asked Mr. Borden for His Pay.

He was told that there was no money in the house, but Mr. Borden said he would get it for him later. It is supposed that Mr. Borden went down town on this errand.

It is also surmised that he had some difficulty with the laborer in question, and that the man laid in wait for him.

Another theory which does not obtain much credence is that the deed might have been perpetrated by one of Mr. Bordens tenants. This much is known, that up to 2 oclock this afternoon there is no trace of the murderer, and that the weapon has not been found.

The police have crossed Slades Ferry bridge, and are searching in Somerset, where Mr. Bordens farm is situated. The bodies have not yet been removed, and thousands of sightseers are surging about the house.

Nothing was taken by the murderer, and it is conceded he was not intent upon plunder.

Mr. Borden was a reserved, courteous gentleman, who amassed a fortune when a member of the firm of Borden & Almy, undertakers. He retired from business many years ago, and invested largely in real estate. He was president of the Union Savings Bank, a director in the B.M.C. Durfee Safe Deposit and Trust company, and was interested in several of the manufacturing corporations of the city.

Deceased was of a retiring disposition and never figured prominently in public life. He was twice married, his second wife, who was murdered today, being a daughter of the late Oliver Gray. Two unmarried daughters by his first wife survive him.
Theres a tradition in comedy of presenting a Jenga tower of a parodic frameworkyoure watching an infomercial, sayand then gradually removing blocks from the premise until the whole thing collapses, sometimes in ways that implicate the audience. Theres also a long tradition of critics painstakingly reverse-engineering the blueprints for those towers in ways that allow the audience to feel less implicated, because participating in that exegesis, understanding how the thing works, moves them safely outside the thing itself. Anyway, heres the thing itself, from Terence Nances new HBO show Random Acts of Flyness:

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Theres a lot to talk about here in terms of how this works, what its saying, and what its not saying, but lets be honest: Weve all been doing a bang-up job lately of carefully and intelligently parsing the difference between gallows humor and systemic racismjust look at the Sarah Jeong situation!and were pretty sure that everyone who watches this sketch, reads about it, or sees an excerpt on Fox News a few weeks from now will understand and enjoy what Nance is up to without any caveats or explanations from the peanut gallery. In fact, were so sure about that, were also going to drop a link to the full first episode of Nances show, which HBO has put up on their YouTube page, and then embed the full version of writer/director Shaka Kings short film LaZercism, which not only has a similar premise but is briefly excerpted in Random Acts of Flyness:

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You can do this, America! You dont have to write long comments or emails or tweetstorms or editorials about who the real racist is, based on these comedy sketches. We all believe in you!
The son of Osama Bin Laden has apparently gotten married to the daughter of Mohammed Atta, who was the lead hijacker in the September 11 attacks. Osama Bin Ladens half-brothers confirmed the wedding in an interview with the Guardian in Saudi Arabia. We have heard he has married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, said Ahmad al-Attas. Were not sure where he is, but it could be Afghanistan.

Last year, the State Department added 29-year-old Hamza Bin Laden to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security. Western intelligence agencies have reportedly been focusing on his whereabouts over the past two years, fearing his name and connections could help him gain followers. His marriage to the daughter of Atta, an Egyptian national, appears to confirm that the 9/11 alumni remains a central hub of al-Qaida and that the organization itself continues to be organized around Osama Bin Ladens legacy, writes the Guardians Martin Chulov.

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Hamza bin Laden has married daughter of lead 9/11 hijacker, say family | World news | The Guardian https://t.co/GgO3PjipwM  The Guardian (@guardian) August 5, 2018

When we thought everyone was over this, next thing I knew was Hamza saying I am going to avenge my father, said Hassan al-Attas, one of Bin Ladens half-brothers who talked to the paper. I dont want to go through that again.

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In the first part of the interview, which was published Friday, Osama Bin Ladens mother, Alia Ghanem, claimed her son was radicalized while he was in university by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The people at university changed him, Ghanem said, describing her son as a shy boy who was good in school. He became a different man. Bin Ladens mother also described how her son was brainwashed by extremists: He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult. They got money for their cause. I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing, because he loved me so much.

The interview with Ghanem and the Bin Laden family was possible because the Saudi government allowed it to go forward, notes the Guardian. Osamas legacy is as grave a blight on the kingdom as it is on his family, and senior officials believe that, by allowing the Bin Ladens to tell their story, they can demonstrate that an outcastnot an agentwas responsible for 9/11, writes Chulov. Making that claim stick would also be key in an ongoing lawsuit by some of the families of the 9/11 victims.
In the run-up to the long-anticipated far-right protests in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, everyone seemed to be preparing for the worst. Portland was bracing for violent clashes as hundreds of people descended on the city ostensibly to support Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, a senatorial candidate from Vancouver. They were met by hundreds of counter-protesters. After weeks of heated rhetoric and warnings about weapons that led some to warn it could be Another Charlottesville, there ended up being little violence between the two groups. A total of four people were arrested and they faced a variety of charges, including harassment, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and unlawful use of a weapon, among others.

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A large police presence in downtown Portland kept the two groups separated. Things took a turn toward the violent when police say some protesters started throwing rocks and bottles at the officers.

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Eder Campuzano, a reporter for the Oregonian, was one of the three people injured. That is when officers categorized the protests as a civil disturbance and ordered everyone to disperse. When the protesters didnt immediately leave, officers began firing flash-bang grenade, used pepper spray, and rushed the crowd at points. Campuzano wasnt the only journalist caught in the scuffles, with one officer reportedly pulling KATU News photographer Ric Peavyhouses camera.

Was just standing next to @Oregonian reporter @edercampuzano, he got hit with something and is bleeding. Medics helping him. Things are getting extremely intense, even for those of us standing back from the center of these groups pic.twitter.com/F4ID7Dj2Zp  Tyler Dumont (@TylerDumontNews) August 4, 2018

Unfortunately, today, some people chose to commit illegal acts of violence, which required members of the Police Bureau to take action in order to keep all participants and non-participants safe, Police Chief Danielle Outlaw said in a statement. This was a dangerous situation for all those involved, including officers, and I am disheartened that this kind of illegal behavior occurred in our beautiful city.
President Donald Trump is now openly saying that the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting was to get information on Hillary Clinton. Although comments about the meeting have been shifting since it was first revealed there was often the undertone that at least part of the purpose of the sit-down with a Russian attorney was to discuss adoption policies. Moscow banned American families from adopting Russian children in 2012. Now, however, Trump is openly saying that the main point of the meeting was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.

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This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere, Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday morning. I did not know about it! The president wrote the tweet to deny reports that he is concerned that his son Donald Trump Jr. may have inadvertently gotten himself into legal trouble with the meeting.

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Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018

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Trump seemed to be referring to reports in both CNN and the Washington Post that reported his apparent concern for his son. As one adviser described the presidents thinking, he does not believe his son purposefully broke the law, but is fearful nonetheless that Trump Jr. inadvertently may have wandered into legal jeopardy, the Post reported. CNN, meanwhile hears from a source that Trump has upped the ante on his attacks against special counsel Robert Mueller because of concern that the probe may be closing in on his son.

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On ABCs This Week, George Stephanopoulos pressed Trump attorney Jay Sekulow about the contradictory statements relating to the Trump Tower meeting and the presidents role in crafting a response to reports of the sit-down. When he first talked about this meeting, he denied having anything to do with statements describing the meeting, describing the meeting in a misleading way, as primarily about adoptions, Stephanopoulos said. Now its shifted. Sekulow explained his denial that the president had anything to do with crafting the response about the meeting was due to bad information that caused him to make a mistake in my statement. To defend himself, Sekulow explained that over time, facts develop.

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Pres. Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow on previously denying that the president was involved in putting out a statement on the Trump Tower meeting: "I had bad information at that time and made a mistake in my statement ... over time facts develop" https://t.co/GlcWTIu29g #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/rLLHMmOs2K  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 5, 2018

Trump followed up his tweet dismissing that he is concerned about his son with two more messages criticizing the Mueller investigation, largely rehashing things he has said before. The president says the investigators are made up of 17 angry Democrats who are carrying out the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country. He went on to blast the media because it refuses to report the lies and corruption having to do with the Rigged Witch Hunt.
The National Rifle Association says it is in dire financial straits and knows just who to blame: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In a lawsuit, the NRA alleges that Cuomo and state regulators are seeking to deprive the NRA and its constituents of their First Amendment rights to speak freely about gun-related issues and defend the Second Amendment. At issue is a campaign by the Democratic governor to discourage insurance companies and financial firms from working with the NRA.

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The NRA claims that what it describes as New Yorks blacklisting would imminently deprive it of basic banking and other financial services essential to the NRAs corporate existence and its advocacy mission. In its court filing, the NRA said that Cuomo and state regulators seek to silence one of Americas oldest constitutional-rights advocates, adding that if their abuses are not enjoined, they will soon, substantially, succeed.

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Cuomo scoffed at the NRAs lawsuit on Friday. New York will not be intimidated by the NRAs frivolous lawsuit to advance its dangerous gun-peddling agenda, he said. The state is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit with New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood downplaying the groups concerns. Although Underwood acknowledged that Cuomo and the NRA have a longstanding history of strong disagreement on gun control, she said the lawsuit did not allege that New York directly inhibited the NRA from expressing its opposition to gun regulation. Instead, it presents a speculative and implausible parade of horribles.

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Twitter users, for their part, knew exactly how to respond to the NRAs tale of woe: Thoughts and prayers. Twitter was suddenly filled with well-wishers for the organization who repeated what has become the cliche phrase that gun advocates use whenever there is a mass shooting.

Don't send money......thoughts and prayers should suffice. https://t.co/uYIWvgK8CD  Steve Kerr (@SteveKerr) August 4, 2018

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Thoughts and prayers to the NRA who is saying theyre in a deep financial crisis and may be unable to exist. Maybe they could ask some of the Republicans they donated millions to for a loan:

Richard Burr - $7M

Roy Blunt - $4M

Cory Gardner - $3M

Marco Rubio - $3M  Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) August 3, 2018

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I would to offer the NRA my thoughts and prayers. https://t.co/p0FchInwqK  US Rep Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) August 4, 2018

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Allow me to be the first to offer my thoughts and prayers.https://t.co/rwYjNhdlSe  Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) August 3, 2018

BANG: The NRA Says Its in Deep Financial Trouble, May Be Unable to Exist https://t.co/8DmZvzTsRr  Tim Dickinson (@7im) August 3, 2018

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In yet another bit of confirmation that President Donald Trump was not at all moved by the warning from New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger that his attacks on journalists could be dangerous, the commander in chief upped the ante and accused the media of causing wars. In an angry tweet early Sunday morning, Trump repeated that the press are the enemy of the people, saying that the Fake News hates him using those words because they know its TRUE. The media purposely cause great division & distrust and can also cause War.

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The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know its TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018

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Trumps angry words on Twitter came mere hours after he also launched an attack against the media at a rally in Ohio Saturday evening. And it wasnt only his doing. The pastor giving the invocation at the rally prayed to God to protect Trump from jungle journalism.

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Tonight, I pray that You will protect our President and his family with a shield of faith, Lord, that shield of faith against the fiery darts of the wicked one, Lord, against that jungle journalism [that] extorts the truth and distorts honesty and integrity every single day, gets in his face with lies and mistruths and innuendos, Gary Click, a pastor, said, according to CNN. Lord, protect him.

Trump picked up the baton and attacked the media during his speech too. Oftentimes Im getting ready to do the fake news with CNN and MSNBCMSNBC is so corrupt, its so disgusting, so disgusting. I would say theyre almost worse theyre really a fake news group of people. And heres the good news, the guys that we love, right? Theyre blowing them away in the ratings, Trump said in reference to Fox News before going on to name some of those networks anchors, stopping several times out of concern that he was forgetting to praise some of the networks big names. CNN is down at the bottom of the totem pole, MSNBC isnt even close. Before Trumps speech and once during it, the crowd started chanting CNN sucks, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

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TRUMP: "Often times I'm getting ready to do my fake news with CNN and MSNBC. MSNBC is so corrupt, it's so disgusting. I would say almost they're worse, they are really a fake news group of people."



He then name-drops Fox News hosts, says "*we* are blowing them away."  pic.twitter.com/6pJvD7xhxQ  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 4, 2018

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On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace called on National Security Adviser John Bolton to explain Trumps tweet. What wars have we started? Wallace asked. Bolton largely avoided answering the question directly only saying that the issue of press bias has been around for a long, long time. Wallace agreed with Bolton that press bias exists and should be called out but the presidents words are taking it to a completely different level. Bolton went on to say that its the presidents view based on the attacks that the media have made.

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WALLACE: Trump today accused the media of 'causing war.' What was he talking about?



BOLTON: Look, the issue of press bias has been around a long time. JFK feuded with the media too. This is nothing new. pic.twitter.com/1mo4NknP2a  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2018

Last week, Sulzberger issued a statement detailing how he warned Trump in a White House meeting that the language the president uses against the media is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.
Drones packed with explosives detonated close to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday while he was attending a military ceremony in the capital of Caracas. The president was unharmed by what the government quickly called an attack against the leftist leader. Seven National Guard soldiers were injured.

State television was broadcasting Maduros speech during the celebration of the National Guards 81st anniversary when he abruptly cut the speech short. At one point Maduro is seen looking up as his wife, who is next to him, flinches. Shortly thereafter, hundreds of soldiers suddenly broke rank and scattered.

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#URGENTE #VIDEO Aparente explosion en acto donde estaba el presidente Nicolas Maduro genera confusion pic.twitter.com/NYi21vok7T  NTN24 Venezuela (@NTN24ve) August 4, 2018

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At exactly 5:41 p.m. in the afternoon several explosions were heard, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a live speech minutes after the incident. The investigation clearly reveals they came from drone-like devices that carried explosives. The minister qickly blamed the right-wing opposition for the attack. After losing the vote, they failed again, he said.

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Some firefighters at the scene disputed the official version of events, according to the Associated Press. Three officials claim the explosion was actually a gas tank explosion inside an apartment. Smoke could be seen coming out of a building window at the site of the incident, reports the AP.
Summertime: cool down in a gallery near the Danube

Four new exhibitions are sure to lure Bratislava residents and visitors of the Slovak capital to the unique modern art museum complex on the Danube island.

Perhaps the smallest of the four new offerings in the Danubiana art museum, but equally attractive and important, is the exhibition presenting works of renowned Slovak graphic artist and illustrator, Dusan Kallay, to mark his 70th birthday. (Head of Danubiana and co-founder,Vincent Polakovic, jokingly suggested Kallay was celebrating his 50th birthday).

Kallay is well-known not only among Slovak readers and art lovers but his reputation has crossed borders. He has been awarded several prizes, e.g. the Grand Prix from Biennale of Illustrations Bratislava twice; H.Ch. Andersen Award (1988, Oslo); UNICEF award; Grand Prix at VIPA, Vienna (2009, 2012); and the Grand Prix de lArt Philatelique, Brussels (2011); Grand Prix 150 Years of Alice v Grobier Club, New York (2015), as well as the prize for the Best Postal Stamp of the World.

The Danubiana exhibition (lasting only until August 15) is called The Magical World of Colours and mostly presents his appraised illustrations but also some larger works. At its opening, Kallay quoted from one of the books he illustrated, Alice in Wonderland, and said that the world is not the way it is  and this is only the more true about books and their perspectives which are expressed in illustrations. And it is illustrations that uplift some books to a higher level and make it impossible to read them in electronic form, as one would miss out on a very important aspect of what the books can offer  the imagination.

Read also:

Read also: Re-built Danubiana received prize Read more

I live my life on the border that separates dream and reality, stated Kallay, summing up his artistic work, as quoted in the Danubiana leaflet accompanying his presentation.

Zooming

Another Slovak artist on offer during the summer is Patricia Koysova, whose big-sized paintings were curated in the Danubiana exhibition by Gabriela Garlatyova. Its name, Zoom, suggests that the artist offers other-than-usual sight and focus, while also using extraordinary instruments like a mop or air.

Lines and spots are fixed final shapes left from the impact of splattered, blown away, poured or pressed out paint, the Danubiana leaflet reads, continuing that they are the reason why the painting is created. A similar situation to the unstable focal point paradox, which is changeable, is the situation with the paradox of the spatial illusion of her painting; when close, items seem to be distant and the small seems to be enlarged.

Artistic couple

Not just Slovak visual artists can be seen in the museum of modern art built on an artificial peninsula on the Danube river close to Bratislava - there are also two summer exhibitions of foreign works.

The works of a Danish member of the Cobra artist group, Carl-Henning Pedersen, represent the core of his countrys 20th century art, while its experimental character has ensured its pioneering importance and connection with European avant-garde. The works of his partner Else Alfelt are shown in Danubiana as well, in the Artistic Couple exhibition curated by Lotte Korshj, who personally took part in the opening on June 16. This exhibition, probably the biggest of these four by sheer extent, lasts until September 2 (as does that of Patricia Koysova).

Reaching out to visitors

This Exhibition Has an Utopian Superfluity is the name of the exhibition by Austrian multi-genre artist Markus Huemer, whose works in Danubiana include large as well as smaller works, and a video. His creation combines traditional and modern forms as well as a well-established method in the digital era. In the Bratislava exhibition, four individual parts can be found, with one of them being wooden miniatures on the walls symbolising the digital essence being transformed in painting and then miniaturising. Through a computer, so-called over-painting is born.

The second part shows 28 imaginary phases of the hidden part of the Moon. Scientific digital stylisation is completed with distorted portrayals, in which the fundamental elements of the painting have evoked the fights of the world, according to Lenka Krcmarova, who provided updates on the artist and his exhibition. The last part, Black Boxes, is an answer to the white cubes phenomenon, used frequently in exhibitions. They are meant to provoke viewers and pose questions which may have several different individual answers.

Read also:

Read also: Slovak art dabbles in diversity (Spectacular Slovakia - travel guide) Read more

The four current exhibitions can be seen in Danubiana every day except for Mondays, and at the weekends, visitors can sail to the museum on a boat from Bratislava harbour.

5. Aug 2018 at 5:05 | Zuzana Vilikovska
Abduction: Vietnamese delegation went from four to 12 people

German investigators have reconstructed the whole abduction in detail; Dennik N reports the additional delegation members were Thanh and his kidnappers.

Truinh Xuan Thanh was kidnapped in Berlin on July 23, 2017. The Vietnamese delegation of four members, led by Interior Minister To Lam, arrived to Prague on July 26, 2017. They flew a commercial airline, three of them in business class and one in economy class due to a lack of seats in business class. Their tickets were purchased only one day before, through an IT company owned by a Vietnamese man living in Prague.

Trinh Xuan Thanh Until recently, Thanh was a high-ranking member of the Vietnamese communist party and led the PetroVietnam Construction company until 2013. He stands accused of defrauding 150 million dollars. He fled to Germany in 2016, after he was stripped of all his posts in Vietnam. He forcefully returned to Vietnam last year and received a life sentence. Corruption accusations are often used in Communist regimes to remove political rivals, which may be Thanh's case. Source: Sme

Dennik N daily described their official trip, based on the documents from the German investigators who have backtracked the transfer of Thanh from Berlin to Vietnam via Bratislava. Germans do not doubt the Slovak government plane was used for this purpose.

The way the trip was organised is not customary for official visits and suggests it was a conspiracy that allowed the Vietnamese interior minister to meet his Slovak counterpart, the then-interior minister Robert Kalinak, in Bratislava on the same day.

The course of the visit continued in an out-of-the-ordinary fashion: the number of delegation members changed, as did the number of cars in the official procession.

Read also:

Read also: Abduction: Reactions to the Dennik N report that leaves little doubt about the Slovak involvement Read more

The Slovak government plane brought the delegation of four to Bratislava from Prague, but on departure from Bratislava to Moscow there were 12 people on board. German investigators suspect the kidnappers and the kidnapped were among them. That was also what the Slovak police officers who witnessed the whole transfer said, as reported by Dennik N last week, while the Interior Ministry and former minister, now MP, Kalinak denied it.

Was Fico's advisor the "insider"?

The German investigators have established that the head of the Interior Ministry's protocol, Radovan Culak, and his team were responsible for the visit in Slovakia, with the "support of the advisor to the Slovak prime minister, Quang Le Hong, who cooperated with the Vietnamese Embassy in Bratislava", Dennik N reported. At that time, Robert Fico was prime minister.

Quang was reportedly the one handling the composition of the delegation on the Vietnamese side, not the delegation itself.

The German investigators also worked with the version that suggests the Slovak government may have been involved in the abduction unwittingly and that there was an "insider" on the Slovak side who participated in the manipulation, Dennik N noted.

"There definitely is a reason to take a closer look at the position of the prime minister's advisor Quang Le Hong, who got the post of the head of the Slovak Embassy in Hanoi after the kidnapping," the daily reported from the German files.

Dennik N also noted that President Andrej Kiska admitted that PM Robert Fico personally asked him to appoint Quang Le Hong as ambassador, which was unusual. Kiska refused that. The Foreign Ministry called Quang back from Hanoi to Bratislava following the reports about the abduction, and he now no longer works for Slovak diplomacy, Dennik N reported.

German police vs. Kalinak

In the dispute of whether the Slovak criminal prosecution bodies should be dealing with the abduction case, Kalinak has maintained the opinion that the kidnapping happened in Germany and therefore is an issue for the German police so there is no reason for investigation and criminal prosecution to be led in Slovakia.

Kalinak and the Slovak police, among other things, argued that the German investigators did not report Thanh as a missing person in the Schengen system of sharing information about missing persons.

But the Sme daily reported on August 5 that it has obtained a copy of a police report that shows Thanh was reported in the Schengen information system less than 24 hours after he was kidnapped in Berlin. The official search for him as a missing person started on July 24, 2017 at 8:30 in the morning.

Kalinak responded that his claims are based on information he received from the Interior Ministry.

"When we discussed it at the parliamentary committee three months ago, the Interior Ministry checked it and confirmed that his name was not recorded there," Kalinak told Sme on August 5.

5. Aug 2018 at 20:18 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacation
Nines Fighting for our Farmers Drought Relief Appeal has now raised $1,086,743 since its launch on Thursday morning.

Across the weekend, viewers from around Australia have opened their hearts and their wallets to support our drought-weary farmers, who are experiencing the driest winter on record.

Nine Chief Executive Officer, Hugh Marks, said, Its truly inspiring to see how Australians have rallied together to show their support for the drought-affected farmers and farming communities who are doing it tough. To surpass the magic million in just a few days is an astounding achievement and a true testament to the Aussie spirit. We thank you.

Id also like to thank the dedicated Nine staff, right across the country, who have given their time to man the appeal phones. We want the farmers to know that our support for them, and our relief appeal to raise desperately needed funds, continues.

National Farmers Federation President, Fiona Simson, said, As each day passes without significant rainfall, the situation for our farmers is getting tougher. Fodder is getting more difficult to source, farmers are having to make tough decisions about whether they continue to feed livestock or sell. Farm and household water supplies are drying up. Financial commitments are becoming harder to meet.

The NFF is now focussed on seeing that the money donated gets to our farmers on the ground to provide the help they need most.

Today will broadcast live from Tamworth NSW and Dirranband Qld today.

Donations can be made via todayshow.com.au, 1800 732 165 .
Veteran actor Patrick Stewart has announced his return to the Star Trek franchise, with a new Star Trek series for CBS All Access.

Streaming service CBS All Access already successfully revived Star Trek: Discovery, which airs in Australia on Netflix.

Stewart, 78, played Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994 and four feature films, last seen in 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis.

He made the announcement at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention.

It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him, Stewart said on social media.

During these past years, it has been humbling to hear stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods in their lives or how the example of Jean-Luc inspired so many to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration and leadership.

I feel Im ready to return to him for the same reason  to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times.

I look forward to working with our brilliant creative team as we endeavour to bring a fresh, unexpected and pertinent story to life once more.

Onstage at the Las Vegas event, Stewart told fans his character may not be a captain anymore. He may be someone who has been changed by his experiences.

We have no scripts as yet, he said. Were just talking talking storylines. It will be something very different but it will come to you with the same passion.

Having purchased Network TEN, CBS plans to launch CBS All Access in Australia but a date is yet to be confirmed, along with whether it impacts Tenplay.

Updated: CBS All Access expected Q4 2018.

It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him. Read my full statement in the photo. #StarTrek @cbsallaccess Photo: @shervinfoto pic.twitter.com/8Ynuj3RBNm  Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) August 4, 2018

Source: EOnline
SKY News has responded to an audience backlash after United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell appeared on The Adam Giles Show.

Former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Adam Giles was given his own show in May.

SKY News also repeated his views on social media before deleting its tweets.

But last night social media lit up with reactions, with SKY News trending at #1.

SKY journos including David Speers and Laura Jayes criticised their own network for giving him airtime.

I have just arrived back in the country tonight to be met with the understandable outrage over this. 100% agree with @ljayes. As News Director Greg Byrnes says it was wrong to have this guy on Sky News. https://t.co/QQF4ESRmbJ  David Speers (@David_Speers) August 5, 2018

SKY News Director Greg Byrnes said on social media, It was wrong to have Blair Cottrell on SKY News Australia. His views do not reflect ours. The interview has been removed from repeat timeslots and online platforms.

It follows SKY News suspending a producer for highlighting Senator David Leyonhjelms views on Senator Sarah Hanson-Young during The Outsiders.

In January Seven News was criticised for an interview with Cottrell. In 2016 ABC management delayed a Hack Live panel discussion on which he appeared.
TEN has denied a string of its profile shows are under review following an article in the Sunday Telegraph.

The report claimed Australian Survivor, Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Pointless and either The Bachelor or The Bachelorette were all under review with CBS scrutinising TEN performance.

The article suggested honeymoon with CBS was over amid a declining market share, tipping Im A Celebrity would trim from 6 to 4 weeks and that TEN would greenlight Dancing with the Stars, a local version of UK factual Ambulance and a local version of Saturday Night Take-Away.

But TEN has hit back issuing a statement which rejects nearly all the claims.

Chief Content Officer, Beverley McGarvey, said: The claims made in The Sunday Telegraph today are ill-informed, misleading and completely wrong. We were not asked to comment on these claims before they were published. If we had been, we would have furnished the reporter with the truth.

The facts are clear. Network TENs audience has increased strongly over the past three months, thanks to the success of MasterChef Australia, Have You Been Paying Attention?, Shark Tank, Australian Survivor and other shows. Last week, TEN had the #1 show of the week in total people with MasterChef Australia The Winner Announced and four of the top six programs of the week in our key target market of people 25 to 54.

To claim Australian Survivor, The Bachelor Australia, The Bachelorette Australia, Im A CelebrityGet Me Out Of Here! and Pointless are under review is total nonsense.

We are very pleased with the performance of the new season of Australian Survivor. After two nights, it is up 6% in total people year on year and it ranks #1 in its timeslot in total people and 25 to 54s.

The new season of The Bachelor Australia, with Nick Honey Badger Cummins, starts on 15 August and it is set to be a fantastic season. The new season of The Bachelorette Australia with Ali Oetjen will follow later this year. The claim that we think the shows are too similar and that there is only room for one is naive and false.

Im A CelebrityGet Me Out Of Here! performed very well for TEN in early 2018 in our core target market and it will be back in 2019, while Pointless is generating good growth for us among younger viewers.

Overall, TEN is performing well and we are looking forward to launching the new seasons of all the shows that are allegedly under review. To suggest otherwise is just plain wrong.

CBS also issued a statement: CBS has and continues to support Beverley, the TEN management team and the Networks programming strategy. The second half of 2018 will see the most comprehensive investment in Australian content in the history of the network, and they will soon be announcing a significant investment in summer and first quarter 2019. The story in the Sunday Telegraph is simply not accurate.
The hit horror show American Horror Story will be celebrating its tenth birthday by launching what producers are saying is the most traumatising season since it began. The show may not continue after season 10, however.

The good news is that Jessica Lange will be back after being such an iconic figure during seasons one to four, for which she was nominated for four Emmy awards and took home two. Lange will be reprising her role as Constance. Sarah Paulson will also be starring in American Horror Story season 8, and will also be making her directorial debut on the show.

AHS crossover

American Horror Story: Apocalypse will feature three episodes where there are crossover characters from the Murder House and Coven seasons, which will see Paulsons witches attempting to stop a young antichrist (played by Cody Fern from season 1) from bringing an end to the world.

Jessica Lange will be reprising her original #AHS role of tragic, intrusive neighbor Constance Langdon in #AHSApocalypse https://t.co/LVTNlQIPQL  Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 3, 2018

As reported by the Metro, while it will be great to see Lange returning to the series, the sad news is that Evan Peters is probably leaving the show. After rumours of his departure did the rounds, Peters reportedly told GQ that he isnt doing it anymore, going on to say he made the decision, telling himself he cant do it anymore.

Peters said its just not him and its not who he is.

FX President John Landgraf spoke on Friday at the TCA press tour, saying the horror show has been officially renewed and will air for a special 10th anniversary season. Ryan Murphy, co-creator of American Horror Story, is committed to the show for now, even though he has signed a production pact to create exclusive new content for Netflix.

However, Landgraf admitted that the future of American Horror Story depends on Murphy and whether he can remain inspired about it. He then said the eighth season will be awesome and crazy, saying that he believes fans will really enjoy it. He said it all comes down to whether Murphy and collaborators like Tim Minear can keep coming up with stories they find exciting.

The new 'American Horror Story' will bring back the antichrist child from season 1 pic.twitter.com/elrW2PCp3x  NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 29, 2018

Actors returning for American Horror Story: Apocalypse

As reported by Digital Spy, fans will be pleased to hear that Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Evan Peters, Billie Lourd, Billy Eichner, Cheyenne Jackson, Adina Porter and Leslie Grossman will also be back for season 8. Several newcomers to the series will include Dame Joan Collins and Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman.

American fans will be able to see the eighth season of AHS on FX, starting Sunday 9 September. Those in the UK will have to wait for it to become available. Seasons 1 to 6 is available for streaming on Netflix for those who wish to catch up on the series. Season 7 is now available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video.
Jennifer Aniston has been discussing the idea of a Friends reboot with two her female co-stars, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox. While Aniston fantasises about the reboot, she says one co-star might not be interested, and thats Matt LeBlanc.

Speaking to InStyle Magazine, Aniston said Friends was the greatest job she ever had and while shes not sure what the show would look like today, she says so many other shows have had successful reboots, so basically, why not give it a try?

Bringing Friends back together again

Since the finale episode of Friends aired on NBC in 2004, fans have been asking for the show to be revived.

So far, there has been no luck. As noted by Uproxx.com, other popular shows have been revived, including Seinfeld, Murphy Brown and  briefly  Roseanne. However, the shows creators and cast have never quite got together on the idea and so far it hasnt happened.

Jennifer Aniston 'fantasises' about Friends reboot https://t.co/Q0O33gBzs6  BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) August 2, 2018

Still, Jennifer keeps on dreaming about it and it seems Lisa and Courteney are pretty much onboard for a reboot of the popular sitcom. Aniston played Rachel Green, while Lisa was the dilly Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan and Courteney played the role of Monica Gellar. However, Matt, as Joey Tribbiani, is another story. Aniston said she knows LeBlanc doesnt want to be asked about a Friends reboot anymore, but she said maybe, between them, they could talk him into the idea.

The One With the Possible 'Friends' Reboot https://t.co/2LvaWFVbDw  CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) August 1, 2018

Aniston went on to joke that if they left it for a while, she, Courteney and Lisa could make a reboot of another popular sitcom The Golden Girls, showing them spending their last years together on wicker furniture.

Matt LeBlanc and Friends

Ironically, it was Matt who initially kept the series going in the past and he even starred in a spin-off show from 2004 to 2006 called Joey. However, since then he says he isnt interested in reviving the original sitcom.

The Radio Times quotes LeBlanc as saying he doesnt know what the story would be if they went back to revisit the friends all these years later.

Matt theorised that all the friends would have moved on and it couldnt be the same. While he says he would normally never say never, but when it comes to Friends, he cant see it happening.

No comment from the other 'Friends' co-stars

As noted in that report, there was no mention of comment about the reboot from David Schwimmer or Matthew Perry, but even if there were, its probably best Aniston and her lady friends get out the wicker furniture.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Sunny skies with gusty winds developing later in the day. High 79F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 48F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera made an announcement at a public ceremony in Santiago to say that a new law was being enacted to ban the use of plastic bags by commercial businesses. According to a report by Sky News, Chile is the first Latin American country to enforce the ban.

Pinera said he wanted to share with the public in Chile the joy of knowing that the ban on commercial-use plastic bags was enacted on Friday. The president then went on to hand out cloth bags to people watching the address.

Businesses given time to phase out the use of plastic bags

Large businesses in Chile have six months in order to phase out the commercial use of plastic bags, while smaller businesses have two years to respond to the new law. The only type of plastic bag allowable is primary packaging which is necessary for food hygiene or which would prevent food from being wasted. In the meantime, businesses will be limited to giving customers two plastic bags for each transaction. Pinera said that without doubt, the new law is a huge step towards a cleaner Chile.

Shout out to #Chile for banning #plastic bags for businesses https://t.co/MDscCxuWz1  Terri Hansen | Indigenous   (@TerriHansen) August 4, 2018

Plastic bag bans in the world

In June this year, Mumbai became the largest city in India to ban the use of single-use plastics.

Anyone in Mumbai caught using plastic bottles, cups or bags faces fines of up to 25,000 rupees (250) along with three months in jail. In contrast, Chilean businesses who flout the law could face fines of 370 peso (44p). While this doesnt sound much, the minimum wage in the country is $800 (96p).

As reported by the BBC, Australia, Taiwan, Kenya and Zimbabwe are among other countries enacting a ban against the use of plastic bags.

Kenya launched the ban in August 2017 and anyone in that country producing, using or selling plastic bags would be hit with a four-year jail sentence. Panama introduced legislation in January to curb the use of the bags. In that country, businesses have 24 months to phase out the usage.

Meanwhile, countries like Spain have introduced sturdy, multi-use shopping bags at the tills in supermarkets in the hope of dissuading customers from using single-use plastic bags.

Should a customer still require a plastic bag, they pay anything from 2c to 5c for a strong, reusable bag. Since 2015, England has imposed a compulsory 5p charge per bag.

Chile enacts historic ban on commercial use of plastic bags, first in the Americas



Because a plastic bag takes seconds to make, is used for less than half an hour, and then takes 400 years to biodegradehttps://t.co/xua13ZZ86H #oceans pic.twitter.com/AlWSIOlykQ  Assaad Razzouk (@AssaadRazzouk) August 4, 2018

As noted in the tweet above, plastic bags take seconds to produce, are usually used for less than half-an-hour, but take "400 years to biodegrade." Environmentalists are appalled at the level of plastic rubbish which is affecting our oceans.
FILE PHOTO: A DNA double helix is seen in an undated artist's illustration released by the National Human Genome Research Institute to Reuters on May 15, 2012. REUTERS/National Human Genome Research Institute/Handout/File Photo

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - How much is your DNA worth? As millions of people pay for home tests to check on ancestry or health risks, genetic data is becoming an increasingly valuable resource for drugmakers, triggering a race to create a DNA marketplace.

GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK.L) decision to invest $300 million in 23andMe and forge an exclusive drug development deal with the Silicon Valley consumer genetics company crystallizes the value locked up in genetic code.

The tie-up is the biggest yet involving home DNA testing, a market dominated by 23andMe and Ancestry.com, which charge under $100 for a saliva-based test, but can also gain voluntary consent from customers for their data to be used by third parties.

However a number of new start-ups are beginning to offer people the chance to own their genetic information and sell it to data-hungry drug researchers.

Firms like EncrypGen, Nebula Genomics, LunaDNA and Zenome are using blockchain - the technology behind Bitcoin - to secure sensitive DNA records and create a transaction ledger. The new players all have slightly different models, with most simply provide data platforms, where people are rewarded for providing data, although Nebula also plans to offer testing.

The idea of using genetic factors to hunt for better drugs has been around for more than 20 years - but it is only now becoming possible to gather a large enough sample to spot the rare variants responsible for many diseases.

The number of people who have had their DNA analyzed with the main testing companies has taken off https://tmsnrt.rs/2M6KGyl since 2016 and now stands at around 17 million, according to entrepreneur and co-founder of science website DNAGeeks.com David Mittelman.

By 2021, he thinks the figure could be north of 100 million.

TESTING TIMES

For drugmakers like GSK, which announced its 23andMe deal last week, access to this data offers a way to accelerate drug development, since finding a drug target linked to a human genetic variant doubles the chance of producing a new medicine.

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The interest in home DNA tests, which can reveal genetic variants that may influence the chances of developing diseases including Alzheimer's, is part of a wider drive by drugmakers to tap into a range of anonymized patient data.

Roche (ROG.S), for example, has spent $4.3 billion this year buying out two specialists in cancer data, Foundation Medicine and Flatiron Health.

The trend raises has worries among campaigners about data security and privacy.

In a bid to alleviate concerns, Ancestry.com, 23andMe and other consumer genetic testing companies have now set out a "best practices" framework to ensure express consent, strong security and transparency on data use.

Caitlin Curtis, a research fellow at the University of Queensland, estimates 23andMe has made around $130 million from selling access to about a million genotypes, prior to the GSK deal, implying an average price of around $130.

Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe's CEO, believes her customers simply want to help find new treatments for intractable conditions like Parkinson's disease - the focus of the first drug research project with GSK - and her company has no current plans to give customers rebates if their data is sold on.

"People who have a disease or a family member with a condition are really interested in what they can do to help come up with a solution," she said in an interview.

A spokesman for Ancestry.com said his group did not have any current relationships with for-profit organizations, although it is working with some academic institutions. Ancestry.com did have a 2015 deal with U.S. biotech company Calico, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, but this has now ended.

NEWCOMERS

The ability of genetic testing companies to rake in cash twice rankles with some like geneticist George Church - the Harvard University scientist famous for wanting to resurrect the extinct Woolly mammoth - who is one of the founders of Nebula.

Nebula aims to eliminate the personal genetics companies as middlemen between data owners and data buyers, a notion shared by rivals like David Koepsell, chief executive of EncrypGen.

"We think people are going to get savvy about how their data is being sold and they are going to want a piece of that action," Koepsell said in an interview. "Our whole model is about creating a market. People can upload and set a price for their data, and then we will see what the market will bear."

People selling data on EncrypGen's system will receive DNA tokens, a cryptocurrency. Other players have different plans, with LunaDNA's community-owned database offering shares that will generate dividends as researchers pay to access data.

Peter Pitts, president of non-profit healthcare research group the U.S. Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, agrees handing over DNA deserves financial recompense when the benefits flow to for-profit companies.

"People need to realize that they are actually paying for companies to monetize their most personal information and they are getting nothing for it," he said.

LunaDNA co-founder Dawn Barry, who used to work at leading gene sequencing company Illumina (ILMN.O), said she didn't expect people to make "life-changing money" from selling DNA.

But she added: "People feel good about the transparency and control and respect that they get by being equitable partners in discovery research."

SIZE MATTERS

It won't be plain sailing for the new upstart companies.

One of the main attractions for GSK in doing a deal with 23andMe is the fact that the Google-backed Californian company has over 5 million customers, more than 80 percent of whom have consented to participate in research and share their data.

EncrypGen, by contrast, which launched its first storage product earlier this year, has just 1,000 profiled users, of whom around 100 have uploaded DNA data so far.

When it comes to using DNA to understand the links between genetics and disease, scale matters.

"To do the analyses that are required to understand these complex links between genetics and disease you need massive datasets," said researcher Curtis.

"It's hard to know how well these kinds of start-up platforms will scale up as research projects aim for millions of participants."

(GRAPHIC: Home DNA testing takes off: https://tmsnrt.rs/2Kg4Moi)

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Pravin Char)
Crude oil storage tanks are seen from above at the Cushing oil hub, in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo

By Florence Tan and Josephine Mason

SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Unipec, the trading arm of state oil major Sinopec, has suspended crude oil imports from the United States due to a growing trade spat between Washington and Beijing, three sources familiar with the situation said on Friday.

The sources declined to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

It is not clear how long the temporary halt will last, but one of the sources said Unipec has no new bookings of U.S. crude until at least October.

Unipec and Sinopec , Asia's largest refiner and biggest buyer of U.S. oil, did not respond to requests for comment.

Chinese buyers had already slowed their purchases of U.S. oil to avoid a likely import tariff threatened by Beijing amid the escalating trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

Beijing has put U.S. energy products, including crude oil and refined products, on a list of goods it will hit with a 25 percent import tax in retaliation for similar moves by Washington. It has not said when it will impose the tariffs.

Unipec said earlier this year it expects to trade up to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of U.S. crude oil by the end of the year, about triple its trading volume of U.S. oil last year.

China's crude oil imports from the United States reached an average of 334,880 bpd in the first eight months of this year, according to trade flows data on Thomson Reuters Eikon.

The amount of U.S. crude arriving in September is expect to fall to 197,515 bpd, as only three supertankers are en-route to China, the data showed.

The absence of China, the largest buyer of U.S. crude after Canada, has partly weighed on U.S. spot crude prices, making them more affordable for other buyers in Asia.

Unipec will continue trading U.S. crude, selling the oil to Europe, one of the sources said. Still, it is unlikely to ship any of the oil to the east as it no longer has a backstop for the oil if it cannot find a buyer at the right price during the voyage, said three traders that participate in the market.

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China's prohibitive import tariff, which amounts to close to $18 a barrel when crude is at $70, has also deterred other Chinese buyers such as state-owned companies PetroChina, as well as state-controlled Zhenhua Oil and independent refiners, from importing U.S. crude, they said.

Meanwhile, a narrower price spread between the Brent and Dubai crude benchmarks has made oil from Europe and Africa that is similar in quality to the U.S. crude more affordable for China. (DUB-EFS-1M)

China's oil imports from West Africa are set to rebound in August to 1.6 million bpd, the highest since May, according to data on Eikon.

Unipec has also bought North Sea Forties and Russian Urals last month for September delivery when the arbitrage opened, trade sources said.

(Reporting by Josephine Mason and Meng Meng in BEIJING and Florence Tan in SINGAPORE; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christian Schmollinger)
By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A massive, out-of-control Northern California wildfire that destroyed 68 homes and forced thousands to flee has become the fifth largest in state history, officials said on Sunday, as crews battled high temperatures and strong winds.

The Mendocino Complex Fire, made up of two separate conflagrations that merged near Ukiah, north of Sacramento, exploded by 25 percent overnight and had blackened nearly 400 square miles as of Sunday morning, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

"The Mendocino Complex Fire has charred more than 254,000 acres, making it the fifth largest blaze in California's history," AccuWeather said on its website. "Firefighters will continue to face local gusty winds and building heat this week."

The Mendocino is one of 17 major wildfires burning across California that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday to declare a "major disaster" in the state, ordering federal funding to be made available to help recovery efforts.

"Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property loses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster," the White House said in a written statement.

The PG&E Corporation said on Sunday that a 21-year-old apprentice lineman, Jay Ayeta, had been killed when his vehicle crashed in western Shasta County as he worked with crews in dangerous terrain to battle the nearly two-week-old Carr Fire.

Ayeta was the seventh person to die in that blaze, which has scorched more than 154,000 acres in the scenic Shasta-Trinity region north of Sacramento, including two young children and their great-grandmother whose home was overrun by flames, a resident who authorities said refused to leave his home despite evacuation orders, and two firefighters.

Firefighters had managed to contain 41 percent of the Carr blaze by Sunday, and authorities were letting some evacuees return.

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This year, California wildfires have burned more land earlier in the fire season than usual, Cal Fire director Ken Pimlott said during a news conference on Saturday.

"Fire season is really just beginning. What seems like we should be in the peak of fire season, historically, is really now the kind of conditions we're seeing really at the beginning," he said.

Through last week, California fires had torched about 290,000 acres (117,300 hectares), more than double the five-year average over that same period, according to Cal Fire.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by David Evans and Daniel Wallis)
In this Tuesday, July 31, 2018 photo workers clean up a home where a homeowner shot and killed an intruder and was then killed by police responding to calls of a disturbance in Aurora, Colo. just outside Denver.

Associated Press

A decorated Vietnam veteran shot and killed a naked intruder who was choking his grandson on Tuesday before Aurora, Colorado, police fatally shot him.

Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said he did not hear the uniformed officers identify themselves as police in body camera video.

He also said that the officers told him to drop his gun, but that Black had a "significant hearing impairment" from his military service that may have made it hard for him to hear the orders to drop his gun.

Thirty-three seconds after arriving at a suburban Denver home where a man had broken in and attacked an 11-year-old boy, police officers heard shots fired inside.

An armed man came into view, police said Thursday, refusing five orders to drop his gun. He started to come toward officers and raise a flashlight he held in his other hand.

An officer fired four rounds, killing 73-year-old Richard Black, Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said in the department's first detailed account of the shooting early Monday.

The officers soon found the intruder  26-year-old Dajon Harper  dead in a bathroom from shots Black fired to protect his grandson. Those were the shots officers heard after arriving at the chaotic scene.

Metz said he did not hear the uniformed officers identify themselves as police in body camera video. He acknowledged that Black, a decorated Vietnam veteran, had a "significant hearing impairment" from his military service that may have made it hard for him to hear the orders to drop his gun.

Police will not release bodycam footage yet, citing the wishes of the Black family and prosecutors who will decide whether to charge the unidentified officer who opened fire.

Portions of the audio and video are hard to understand because of background noise, including screaming, but the police chief said a forensic review will try to clear it up.

A family lawyer said Black's wife, Jeanette, gave an emergency dispatcher physical descriptions of Black, her son and the intruder, but Metz said those were not found on any of the 911 recordings.

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Black was white, and Harper was black.

The Black family said in a statement released by police that Jeanette Black's 911 call was difficult to understand and acknowledged the police department's position that the officers did not receive descriptions.

Jeanette Black was heard on bodycam footage saying, "He has a gun," as police arrived, but Metz said he does not know if the officer heard that.

In one of several 911 recordings released Thursday night, a woman who identified herself as Harper's mother told the dispatcher that her son was on drugs but was unarmed.

"He's literally kicked in some people across the street door. ... He's on some type of drug or something," she said frantically. "He's running through the neighborhood busting cars, busting in people's doors while they sleep. I don't know what he's on. He's bleeding."

The woman later said Harper is "hurting this little baby. He kicked in their door."

Harper, who was released from prison in February after serving time for weapons and menacing charges, broke into the home by knocking open the front door. He had left a party across the street, where he became out of control, acting irrationally and damaging cars, Metz said.

Some partygoers followed him into Black's house to try to get Harper to come back, adding to the confusion. Others were standing outside with Black's wife when police arrived.

The police chief said Black acted heroically to protect his family but also defended the actions of his officers, including the one who killed Black, a fellow military veteran who was involved in another fatal police shooting just over a month ago.

The officer returned to duty 14 days after that shooting, which Metz said was much longer than the minimum three days of leave recommended by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

"They were not reckless. These officers responded how I would expect them to respond, given the very limited information they had," he said.

Sighing and looking down at the floor, Metz said the body camera video was heartbreaking.

"I can tell you that when my folks sat around the table and first saw it  and I'm talking about police personnel who have been on the job 25, 30 years who have seen just about everything  there wasn't a dry eye around the table," the chief said.

"It is very horrific to watch, not just from the standpoint of watching a man who saved his family get shot but also knowing what that little boy was subjected to," he said.

In their statement, the Black family urged people not to threaten or harass police because of what happened, noting that Richard Black deeply appreciated law enforcement.

NOW WATCH: Inside McVities Manchester factory where 2 billion Jaffa Cakes are made every year

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A boy walks along a damaged street at the city of Douma in Damascus, Syria, April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

Thomson Reuters

By Arshad Mohammed and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia has used a closely guarded communications channel with America's top general to propose the two former Cold War foes cooperate to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees to the war-torn country, according to a U.S. government memo.

The proposal was sent in a July 19 letter by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian military's General Staff, to U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the memo which was seen by Reuters.

The Russian plan, which has not been previously reported, has received an icy reception in Washington. The memo said the U.S. policy was only to support such efforts if there were a political solution to end Syria's seven-year-old civil war, including steps like U.N.-supervised elections.

The proposal illustrates how Russia, having helped turn the tide of the war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad, is now pressing Washington and others to aid the reconstruction of areas under his control. Such an effort would likely further cement Assad's hold on power.

"The proposal argues that the Syrian regime lacks the equipment, fuel, other material, and funding needed to rebuild the country in order to accept refugee returns," according to the memo, which specified that the proposal related to Syrian government-held areas of the country.

The United States in 2011 adopted a policy that Assad must leave power but then watched as his forces, backed by Iran and then Russia, clawed back territory and secure Assad's position.

The United States has drawn a line on reconstruction assistance, saying it should be tied to a process that includes U.N.-supervised elections and a political transition in Syria. It blames Assad for Syria's devastation.

Dunford's office declined comment on communications with Gerasimov.

"In accordance with past practice, both Generals have agreed to keep the details of their conversations private," said spokeswoman Captain Paula Dunn.

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The Kremlin and Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Syria conflict has killed an estimated half a million people, driven some 5.6 million people out of the country and displaced around 6.6 million within it.

Most of those who have fled are from the Sunni Muslim majority, and it is unclear whether Assad's Alawite-dominated government will allow all to return freely or whether they would want to. Sunnis made up the bulk of the armed opposition to Assad.

"The United States will only support refugee returns when they are safe, voluntary and dignified," said the memo, which is specifically about the Russian plan for Syria.

Rebuilding Syria will also be a massive effort, costing at least $250 billion, according one U.N. estimate.

Some U.S. officials believe Syria's dependence on the international community for reconstruction, along with the presence of U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in part of Syria, gives Washington leverage as diplomats push for a negotiated end to the war.

MILITARY CHANNEL

The exchange offered a rare glimpse into the military communications channel between Moscow and Washington, one that Dunford himself has fiercely sought to keep private.

Dunford, who speaks periodically with Gerasimov, has stressed that the two militaries need to be able to have candid, private communications to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to armed confrontation.

But it was unclear how reconstruction and refugees fit into military-to-military communications. Gerasimov's letter suggests that channel is also being used by Moscow to broach non-military matters.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Syria, and the issue of refugees, at their July 16 summit in Helsinki. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the talks focused on "how we might get the refugees back."

But U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week no policy changes came out of the summit. The U.S. government memo explicitly said the Russian proposal was not "an outcome" of the Trump-Putin talks, but cautioned that Russian officials were trying to present it differently.

"Russian diplomats and other officials have also been engaging in an aggressive campaign to describe the initiative in other capitals and to insinuate that it is an outcome of the U.S.-Russia meeting in Helsinki, which it is not, repeat not," the memo read.

The Russian cover letter for the proposal sent to Dunford recommended the United States, Russia and Jordan repurpose a hub designed to monitor a 2017 ceasefire agreement "to form a joint committee to implement the reconstruction and refugee return plan," the memo said. Jordan is hosting more than 650,000 Syrian refugees.

The Russian letter also suggests that the United States and Russia form a joint group to finance infrastructure renovation in Syria, the U.S. memo says.

(Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow; Editing by Warren Strobel; Mary Milliken and Alistair Bell)

See Also:
In a tweet, Harry Potter author J.K Rowling, compared the president's lack of logic to the silliness in the novel Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll: if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic. While Rowling's tweet sounds like she fell down a rabbit hole as Alice in Wonderland did, her tweet isn't as fanciful as it may seem.

Upside down

Trump routinely makes up-is-down statements when he tries to defend his positions, as in his tweet of July 31: Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter.

Because there was no collusion, except by crooked Hillary and the Democrats. When accused of not heeding his advisers, he said in a speech in Greenville, South Carolina on Feb. 2016, I do listen to people. I hire experts. I hire top people. And I do listen. But then only a month later on MSNBC, he said, I'm speaking with myself, No. 1, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things. My primary consultant is myself.

Life copies art

With Trump talking like Tweedledee, it's clear that life copies art. Oscar Wilde said it first in his The Decay of Lying just 20 years after Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland: Life imitates art far more than art imitates life. Another example is Leon Golub's 1950painting 'Dionysiac,' which unwittingly illustrates Trump's harsh border security measures.

What you see are tense bodies, nerves at full stretch, but in pieces, the way one must feel held at gunpoint or caged. Rain streaks the canvas like tears and you imagine a sign held high in the air with a one-word message: HELP.

Life for those seeking asylum on our southern border copies the art of Golub's picture-making just like Trump apes Tweedledee.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

When you watch the news of the day at the border, you might well imagine you hear shouts like go back where you came from, and may even the click of a gun hammer being cocked. You may not know it, but you're also picturing how Golub painted the oppression of racism, smeared on giant un-stretched canvases  again, an illustration of Wilde's old maxim: life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

Contrariwise, continued Tweedledee, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isnt, it aint. Thats logic.



Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass pic.twitter.com/EedPNjjn7r  J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2018

Dark woods

And Rowling's tweet quoting Tweedledee pops into the mind again: if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't.

That's logic. Trump came up with his zero-tolerance border policy to pressure the Democrats to do his will - not the immigrants. In an interview with Golub about his anti-racist paintings three decades ago, he told me, This is the way things are going. They're contradictory things. And the words of Alice come to mind when she politely said, Which is the best way out of this wood: it's getting so dark. Would you tell me, please?
Sabrina Burkholder of "Breaking Amish" has been through a lot over the years. It turns out that she is now saying that she has been dealing with her demons once again. The reality star shared that she took drugs once again, actually died and was brought back to life. Sabrina says that she is now headed to rehab to get the helps she needs.

Sabrina's death story

According to Sabrina, she decided that she was in a mood and decided to take drugs again. She shared all of the details in a Facebook post. She shared that this happened about two months ago while she was with Jethro and Sean, which are friends of hers.

She shared that Sean got molly and heroine both. Sabrina Burkholder did the molly first and then decided to move on to the heroine. She was given a large amount and wasn't sure if it was too much, but took it anyway. Things got really bad after that according to the reality star.

Sabrina Burkholder shared that she actually died. She remembers what happened to her while she was dead. Sabrina says that Heaven is a real place and she went there. The story was explained by saying, "I saw my biological grandmother and my biological mom. My mom put her arm around me and said: "Why are you here you still have work to do." And I wanted to stay. And she turned around and pointed and said "But his mother died and he has experienced such pain from that.

Do you want him to have to feel the pain of losing you like this yet too?"

They had to use Narcan on her twice. Sabrina shares that this is what saved her life. If they had needed another one, it was not available. They used the two they had and it saved her. She is very lucky to be alive. Somehow, Sabrina was able to keep this out of the news until she was ready to share this story on her own terms.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

Now she is getting help for herself. She feels like God saved her and she is now living her life for him. Hopefully, this was the reality check she needed to start getting her life together once again.

How is she now?

Sabrina shared another new post that says she was headed to rehab today. It sounds like she is getting the help that she needs.

She didn't share any details about where she is going or how long she will be there. She simply said, "Trying not to lose my mind on this road trip... I swear to God the dude that is driving me is lucky af that I don't have a chainsaw or a knife... I am so excited to get to rehab. 3 more hours of this bs and then I'm off the map. Adios."

Hopefully, Sabrina Burkholder will actually keep updating her fans on how she is doing. Don't miss new episodes of "Return to Amish" when the show returns with new episodes on TLC.
Redneck Truck

I knew there had to be a redneck somewhere in Russia. Russia has a bunch of wannabe rednecks, but to be an official redneck, certain items have to be used and driven in

This means that you have to import an official redneck truck from America. Russians trucks are very badass, but redneck they are not 

I had one just like it, except I would never live with the lime green, well unless I had to

Russian Life

Lets look at some images that Svetochka has taken

Americans lost yesterday

I walked Svetochka to the train station. It was early morning and it was the first time for a week since I was able to even do such a walk. I have just been very sick and was collapsed in bed. All good

As I walked home

I spied two black gals and tried to change direction, but they spied me and decided that I was a kindly soul and would help them, yet in reality, my desire to help anyone was at a low point of priorities for me right then

Now understand that these gals stood out like a sore thumb in our area of town (Actually they stand out like two sore thumbs in 99% of Russia!) To boot, they were obviously, (to me,) from America. Not Britain and or Africa direct, but America

They had a piece of paper with words written on it in Russian and they were trying to express what they needed to me as they asked for directions. I kinda studied their faces and they looked at me expectantly for help, but knowing that they have been going in circles and are lost, they had a downtrodden look about them

And they also had that, Deer in the headlights look in their eyes

Here stood in front of me an interesting situation for me. Do I be a Good Bear or do I be a Bad Bear?

So I stayed neutral and just said, What are you two doing here? as I waved my arms around, showing that we were in the middle of a pure white, honky and cracker type group of humans. Hundreds of thousands to be exact and they were lost in the middle of it.but to be honest, they are safer right here than they are back home in, as I found out, Chicago, Illinois, USA

After we picked up their lower jaws off the ground

I said as I pointed at myself, Amerikanski and they said in unison, Huh?

I guess we dont use that word in the USA?

I told them how to find the bus station, for a Russian had sent them to the train station and they had simply asked for the station and everyone knows that the station is that way! 

Want to know something?

I never did find out, What are you two doing here?

I just hope they stay safe, they seemed like nice girls and to be honest with you, more Americans need to get out in the world and see, What the Hell is going on! For that I am proud of them.getting lost in a city of 15,000,000 people and at the outskirts of that city, I worry a bit, but not much. Russia is safe

Oh and treat people how you would hope to be treated if you were having issues, always, even if you are a grouchy bear

Svetochka and I have to now reschedule our trip to the Tiny Russian Village. It was a good thing that Sveta had taken vacation, because I was very sick and needed help. I was that sick and when I literally cannot post, I am more than sick

Therefore as I get stronger and back in the swing of things, I will start post more again

WtR
by Claire Chambers

 If you've read any of my blog posts for 3 Quarks Daily or columns for Dawn's Books & Authors section, you may know me for my criticism of world literature. But as it's the holidays, I want to write about something more frivolous.

I have a confession to make: as well as being a lecturer in global literature, for the last five years I have also moonlighted as a

Zumba instructor.

Zumba, if you're unfamiliar with this high art form, is a dance fitness programme. Like all self-respecting cults, it has its own creation myth. Godhead and co-founder, Colombian Alberto 'Beto' Perez, began his career as an aerobics teacher in Florida. One day, the story goes, he arrived at his class only to realize he had forgotten his aerobics cassettes (yes, it was the 1990s). He improvised a class based on the Latin music tapes he had in the car, and the punters loved it. He then teamed up with two more pragmatic and business-minded Albertos  Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion  and Zumba Fitness was born.

A typical Zumba class is built around four main dance styles. Most people are familiar with Cuba's elegant, sexy Salsa. (Less well-known is its offshoot Salsa Choke, which originates in Beto's native Colombia and intermixes Cuban panache with the rhythms of Zumba's next core dance, Reggaeton.)

Perhaps best described as Latin hip-hop, Reggaeton hails from Puerto Rico. Its edgy, urban lyrics and beats have made their way across South America. Some of Reggaeton's most famous musicians, such as Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, and Pitbull, have an even wider following across the globe.

Merengue is the third style, which most people have heard of but may not be aware that this is a fast march from the Dominican Republic and other parts of the Caribbean. It has an even beat but can become very frenetic, with moves that have names like double hesitations, pretzels, and cradles.

Finally, Beto introduced his national dance, Cumbia, which sprang from the history of slavery. Cumbia was one of the musical styles featured on the soundtrack to the Netflix series Narcos, about Colombian drug dealer Pablo Escobar, and has a hypnotic 'oom-pa' beat. In one move, called the machete, dancers mimic the cutting of sugar-cane in the plantations, while in another known as 'sleepy leg' they emulate slaves with their ankles in chains carrying candlesticks in their hands. Cumbia has probably travelled the most easily of all the Zumba styles, with most Latin countries having adapted it and invented their own versions.

Zumba is not limited to these four dances. Salsa, Reggaeton, Merengue, and Cumbia simply form the core of the class, and many others are thrown in by the instructor, from Flamenco to Samba to Belly Dancing. As a specialist in South Asian literature in my day job, my signature is to include a dance from the Indian subcontinent in every class, whether it is to Bollywood classic 'Sheila ki Jawani', bhangra such as 'Tunak Tunak Tun' or 'Hadippa', 'Jugni Ji' by British-Punjabi music producer Dr Zeus. The inclusive nature of Zumba means that it embodies the kind of happy hybridity famously championed by postcolonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha.

Taking these diverse dance styles, most of which are traditionally performed with a partner, Zumba turns them in to a kind of high-energy line dancing (it's a lot better than it sounds, I promise!). The programme took off in the US in the early 2000s and went big in Europe around seven years ago. Other similar programmes such as Bokwa and FitSteps have tried to challenge Zumba's popularity, but Beto's following shows little sign of diminishment.

Zumba routines are based around songs with different speeds and levels of intensity, as compared with aerobics' more homogeneous four to the floor rhythm patterns. This ever-changing pace means that Zumba is a kind of interval training, a varied form of exercise which can trick the body into burning more calories than steadier rhythms. Additionally, Zumba's music should be uplifting and intricate, so that the time seems to pass very quickly and class members don't feel as though they're exercising. Finally, research suggests that Zumba  and dancing more broadly  is good for mental health. During the class, one has to think about one's feet and arms all the time, so there is no room for thoughts about work or other stresses, in what is a type of mindfulness.

Zumba attracts an international fan-base. At my Christmas Eve class at the University of Leeds, UK, there was a reduced crowd of 13 in attendance. Only one class member and I were white; the others were students from East and South Asia, or were Black or mixed-heritage. As well as hybrid music forms, then, Zumba apparently provides space for spontaneous conviviality. This space, Paul Gilroy explains, positively disrupts binary thought and the leaky barriers of race and absolute ethnicity that dominated imperialist discourse and persist today.

The dance programme is less pluralist in relation to gender. In Britain, it is dominated by women and, to a lesser extent, gay men. Many buttoned-up Britons seem to think it is simply unappealing to straight men. In less inhibited Italy, I hear, Zumba cuts across genders and sexualities in a way that is genuinely inclusive.

Zumba also has a ruthlessly commercial side. Under the slogan 'Zumba Love', the company will sell you anything from neon pants to a bumper sticker emblazoned with the ominous slogan, 'Zumba Changed My Wife'. One of the best articles to pick up on those aspects of the programme most ripe for satire is by a feminist anthropologist based at Princeton:

How am I, an outsider, to follow these wordless instructions, dictated by gestures as subtle and specific as a swift movement of the head, or even merely the eye, in the direction of the foot intended to kick? The instructor offers no answers, merely pelvic thrusts and the shrill cry of an arriba.

Zumba is emphatically uncool. It nonetheless conveys important truths about the world and its music, which can be useful to the postcolonial scholar. With profuse apologies to Frantz Fanon for wresting his words out of context, when dancing I often think of this sentence from The Wretched of the Earth: 'The circle of the dance is a permissive circle: it protects and permits.'

At the end of what has been a very difficult year 2016, I think world literature and Zumba dance can help us keep sane in a milieu that seems to be collectively going mad.

Happy holidays!
SD Supreme Court: Votes on special sessions can be kept secret

South Dakotans don't have a right to know how their lawmakers voted when it comes to considering impeachment of their state's attorney general, according to a South Dakota Supreme Court ruling.
Pink Armenia has released a statement regarding an incident that occurred yesterday evening in the Syunik village of Shurnoukh, describing it as an attack against nine individuals, including several LGBT activists.

According to Pink Armenia, those attacked said that two LGBT activists were confronted on April 21 in the town of Goris. Their attackers recognized one of the activists, who was hit in the nose. The other activist was told to stay away from those with a similar sexual preference.

Pink Armenia writes that the activists reported the incident to Goris police. No developments in the case have been reported since. On August 2, one of the activists invited seven friends to his home in Shurnoukh, near Goris. The activists claim that village residents threw rocks and tires at the house.

The following day, on August 3, two individuals approached the house and, in an aggressive tone of voice, demanded that the activist come outside for a talk.

Those inside the house finally went outside and an argument ensued. By this time, some thirty people were waiting outside.

The crowd then attacked the activists, hitting and kicking them while shouting gays get lost and you are Turks.

The activists called the police and escaped towards the main road, where they tried to flag down passing cars for assistance. The crowd told the drivers not to stop, telling them these are gays.

Police arrived on the scene and stopped a passing bus, telling the driver to take those attacked to Goris.

Six injured individuals were taken to hospital with minor injuries. Two individuals with more serious injuries were given first aid, which they had to pay for.

The office of Armenias Human Rights Defender was informed about the incident and has contacted the police on the matter.

Pink Armenia writes that the injured have been taken to a safe location, adding that two of its staff and one of its board members were among those attacked.

The police today issued a statement that an investigation has been launched and that a number of individuals have been detained for questioning.
Almost three decades ago, a group of medical students at the University of New Mexico came together to honor one of their professors and ensure the diverse needs of the states population were met.

Their efforts have now blossomed into a scholarship program, an annual gala, free services for the community, continuing education for its members and advocacy. The New Mexico Hispanic Medical Association was formed in 1989 to make health care accessible and affordable to all New Mexicans, according to its website.

Executive director Steve Lucero said its important for people to be treated either by doctors from their background or who have experience in their communities. The association has approximately 40 paid members but more than 100 doctors who are involved in some way in the work they do.

Cultural competence is important. When treating a patient, its better if you have the capacity to see what is important to them, what their background is and how that impacts their health and willingness to comply with treatment.

Dr. Pablo Vigil was one of the associations founding members along with nine others. He was born and raised in Espanola, had a private practice for about eight years in the 1980s and is now a doctor at a state psychiatric hospital. He said when he and the other founding members were medical students at the UNM School of Medicine, a medical school doctor, Anthony Martinez, worked to increase the diversity of students. He made a point to mentor students from rural areas.

We thought it would be good to honor his legacy by forming an association, he said. We thought it would be a good way to support each other and socialize with other.

Board member Dr. Anthony Vigil joined association 15 years ago. He practiced family medicine for 41 years and retired earlier this summer. He said over the years the scope of the group has changed.

We expanded and became more community oriented, he said. We now have an endowment, we work with the dean of diversity at UNM.

The group also takes on pressing community health issues. Years ago, Anthony Vigil said, the groups focus was diabetes.

Weve now moved the focus to opioid use and addiction, he said. Its one of the biggest issues we face now.

Members of the association can attend workshops about opioids, getting information about treatment for addiction and appropriate prescription levels.

The group awards scholarships to UNM students who have experience working in diverse communities and who commit to serving New Mexico. Lucero said the scholarship is not limited to Hispanic students as long as they meet the qualifications mentioned.

In the spirit of diversity, we hear the term people of color, he said. But white is a color, too.

Anthony Vigil said the scholarships are usually $1,500 and the group awards four or five each year. The scholarships, he said, not only help the students, but the entire community by increasing the number of available doctors.

Its hard to recruit to New Mexico, he said. We are trying to encourage students to stay in New Mexico.

Each year in April the association holds a Feria de Salud (free health clinic) and Vigil said at least 90 percent of attendees are uninsured New Mexicans. Doctors volunteer at the event and provide free mammograms, screenings for dementia and diabetes and other services. The fair lasts one day and patients are then referred to a clinic or other office that can follow up with them.

Anthony Vigil said the group also monitors health bills during the legislative session.

We decide what to support or not support, he said. We look for things that would improve the health of New Mexicans.

The group will hold its annual gala Aug. 25. Tickets are $75 a person or $750 a table.
Actor Tyler Perry is not giving away money, hes not running a scholarship program and he wont get you an audition.

Perry, an Atlanta-based filmmaker and actor, is the subject of one of those celebrity scams in which thieves try to con people into giving them money by impersonating a famous personality.

Perry recently responded strongly to a couple of scams in his name that were making the rounds on Facebook.

He posted a video telling his followers, Do not give your information to any of these people. I dont know who they are, but every day we have to get 10, 20, 30 of these things shut down on Facebook.

In one of the scam Facebook posts, a bogus Perry offers people half-a-million dollars to like one of his posts.

The actor, known for his Madea films, also pointed out that while he does help put kids through college, its not something you can request or pay me for.

He had these words for the imposter trying to con people in his name: People who do this are some of the lowest in my book. Stop it, devil.

  

On the local front: the Albuquerque Police Department is warning about fraudulent phone calls asking people to donate to a fallen officer fund.

The call, from 505-814-7231, is a pitch for $35, $50 or $100, says APD spokesman Simon Drobik. Those who agree to donate are asked for credit card information.

Drobik says the calls are total BS.

Also, dont fall for it if you get a call from Captain Harris with the New Mexico State Police and she tells you you need to contact Officer Reagan Fox within the next hour and pay him $7,400.

For that matter, hang up immediately on any supposed law enforcement officer who is giving you an ultimatum and demanding money, according to a State Police advisory, issued after several New Mexico residents received these types of calls.

The recipient of the bogus State Police call followed the instructions and called the number given for Officer Fox, who said the person faced bank fraud and drug trafficking charges. The penalty was 10 years in prison and $50,000 n fines, but the matter could be settled out of court for $7,400.

At that point, the recipient clued into the fact that it was a scam and reported it to State Police without losing any money.

While State Police continues to investigate these crimes, the publics best defense against these criminals is being aware and not falling for the scam, spokesman Ray Wilson said in a written statement.

  

Heres a tip from the FBI that might be helpful if you get one of these scary grandparent scam calls in which a relative is supposedly locked up in a foreign jail and needs you to come up with bail money.

Of course, these are best handled with a quick and decisive hang-up on your part.

But if you are unable to check on the whereabouts of your loved one to disprove the jail claim, you can do this instead: tell the caller to put your grandchild on the phone. Most likely they wont comply because its a scam.

You can then instruct the caller to ask your loved one a personal question the scammer cant possible know  the name of a pet, for example or a favorite food.

Once you find out that the perpetrator cant answer, its fair to conclude this is a scam, an FBI spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times.

Imposter scams, a category that includes the bogus grandchild calls, were the second most common type of fraud in New Mexico last year, comprising about 15 percent of the total 12,326 fraud reports collected.

Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at emarks@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-844-255-9210.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  Court records show a man accused of shooting a Colorado police officer in the head in a shootout is an Iraqi immigrant with a recent criminal history in the U.S.

Police say 31-year-old Karrar Noaman Al Khammasi shot at officers in Colorado Springs on Thursday. Officer Cem Duzel remains in critical condition at an area hospital.

Al Khammasi was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports Al Khammasis criminal record includes a felony guilty plea to first-degree trespassing and a probation violation that brought a year-and-a-half-long prison sentence.

Al Khammasi was charged earlier this year for allegedly possessing a stolen handgun. Al Khammasis hospitalization caused him to miss a court appearance on the gun charge Friday.

His attorney couldnt immediately be reached for comment Saturday.

___

Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com
In this makeshift compound in Amalia, Taos County deputies found a man suspected of abducting his 3-year-old son from Georgia Prev 1 of 3 Next

Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

Nearly eight months after a woman in Georgia reported that her 3-year-old son and his father were missing, Taos County Sheriffs deputies on Friday stormed a makeshift compound in a remote northern New Mexico location and took the father into custody. The compound was stockpiled with weapons.

The little boy has not been found.

However, 11 other children, ranging in age from 1 to 15, were removed and taken into protective custody. They are now in the hands of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department.

Three women believed to be the childrens mothers were also detained (Friday) while investigators continue to sort out details of the case, Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe wrote in a news release.

He said the women refused to answer questions but have not been charged with any crimes.

Siraj Wahhaj, 40, the man suspected of abducting his son, is being held in the Taos County Adult Detention Center without bond on a warrant out of Georgia. Another man who was living at the compound, Lucas Morton of Atlanta, is charged with harboring a fugitive and is also behind bars.

A CYFD spokeswoman could not answer any specific questions about the remaining children due to the ongoing investigation, but cabinet secretary Monique Jacobson issued a statement saying the department has been working around the clock on the case.

We will continue to work closely with law enforcement on this investigation, the statement reads. The children are in our custody and our number one priority right now is their health and safety.

Son reported missing

On Dec. 10, 2017, in Clayton County, Ga., a woman reported Wahhaj had taken their young son Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj to the park nine days earlier and she had not seen them since, according to the Clayton County Police Department.

She said the boy had serious medical issues, including seizures and developmental and cognitive delays and had suffered brain damage at birth that left him unable to walk. She said she didnt know if the boy and his father had his medication.

A couple of days after they were reported missing, police say, the boy and his father were in a vehicle that was involved in a crash on an Alabama interstate.

After the crash, police say, they were picked up in a Ford box truck registered to Morton.

At that time the father and son were traveling with two adults and five children and told officers they were going to New Mexico for a camping trip, according to police.

Message from compound

More recently, investigators with the Clayton County Police Department and the FBI began narrowing in on their whereabouts and determined Wahhaj was staying at an improvised compound in Amalia, near the Colorado border.

Taos Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said they believe the group made the compound  huts and trailers surrounded by tires and an earthen berm in the sparsely populated Costilla Meadows subdivision  and had been living there for some time.

The FBI had been surveilling the location, Hogrefe said, but did not believe they had enough probable cause to go onto the property.

But then, someone inside the compound was able to get a note to the outside world.

The message sent to a third party simply said in part, We are starving and need food and water,  Hogrefe wrote in a news release. I absolutely knew that we couldnt wait on another agency to step up and we had to go check this out as soon as possible.

He said they had learned the residents of the compound were most likely heavily armed and considered extremist of the Muslim belief.

And deputies worried that the layout of the structures would give its residents an advantage if they didnt conduct the operation tactically and quickly.

Around 6 a.m. Friday, eight deputies with the Taos Sheriffs Response Team and the State OSI Unit rolled out to the compound.

Sheriff Hogrefe said when the teams arrived, Wahhaj and Morton refused to comply with demands and they could see that Wahhaj was armed with an AR-15 rifle, five loaded 30-round magazines, and four loaded pistols, including one in his pocket when he was taken down. More rounds of ammo were found in a trailer buried in the ground.

We didnt have to go hands-on and no one got hurt, Hogrefe said. He was heavily armed but so were my guys, and my guys train for that stuff.

Hogrefe said the deputies remained on the scene into the afternoon, looking for the missing boy, but they didnt find him. He said none of the adults, even the women who are not being charged, would answer any questions about Abdul-Ghani, but they do believe he was there a few weeks ago.

We did an extensive search for the missing child, our primary target, Hogrefe said. We certainly didnt want to leave that place and leave a child behind and Im confident we did not.

He described the compound itself as the ugliest looking, filthiest living conditions hed ever seen, especially considering 11 children had been living there.

The only food we saw were a few potatoes and a box of rice in the filthy trailer, Hogrefe wrote in the news release. But what was most surprising, and heartbreaking was when the team located a total of five adults and 11 children that looked like third world country refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing.

Deputies gave the children what snacks and water they had and they were taken into protective custody.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services took a victory lap July 26 when it told U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego it had reunited another 1,442 migrant children with their families, thus, it claimed, substantially meeting a deadline set by the judge a month earlier. It previously released many of the infants and children under five who had been in its custody.

But HHS has little to be proud of: It was still holding 711 children as of the 26th, the most recent date for which figures are available. Altogether, the government took 2,342 children from parents under the anti-migrant zero-tolerance policy announced April 26.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, then Homeland Security secretary, first broached the idea of seizing and incarcerating migrant children as a deterrent to illegal border crossings in early 2017. Its no surprise then that Homeland Security seized 1,728 children from their parents as part of a secretive family separations pilot program in the El Paso area that ended only in February. Bumbling in the same way they did months later, Homeland Security and HHS failed to implement effective systems for the eventual reunification of children with parents.

HHS told the judge Aug. 3 that 572 of the children still in its custody arent eligible for reunification. In some cases, it said, the parents are unfit because of a criminal history, even of a vehicular offense, or a communicable disease. Others are ineligible, it said, because the parents have been deported and the government doesnt know their whereabouts. It had the sheer gall to suggest in court Friday the American Civil Liberties Union, whose suit a month ago prompted the judge to set deadlines for returning the children, should have to track down the parents already deported. Its own work, it seemed to say, should be considered done. Is there a problem?

Yes, there is.

Fuzzy Math

President Donald Trump has demonized the migrants as a pretext for stripping them of their rights. On March 16, he told a group of law enforcement officers in California that undocumented residents were animals. He has cast the migrants as thugs and rapists and used false or misleading statistics to buttress his case. The Washington Post debunked some of his most recent claims on July 6, finding that he not just combined figures for legal and undocumented immigrants, but exaggerated the figures and confused arrests with convictions.

Moreover, in exhaustive research published in March, the New York Times, in collaboration with the Marshall Project, a nonprofit that focuses on criminal justice issues, found crime fell more often than it rose in areas with a heavy influx of immigrants. And the libertarian Cato Institute presented research in 2015 that criminal conviction and arrest rates in Texas for undocumented immigrants were lower than those for native-born Americans for murder, sexual assault and larceny. Nonetheless, Gallup says, half of Americans, pummeled with anti-immigrant rhetoric, believe immigrants worsen crime.

Blame Game

As the senior writer at the National Crime Prevention Council, I acquired an intimate knowledge of the principle you never blame the victim. Of many reasons, the most important is it is unjust. A woman is not responsible for her rape because she had too much to drink; the perpetrator is held to account. But in branding migrants as lurking criminals, the president has found it easy to blame them for their plight and claim they are getting what they deserve  even seizure and incarceration of their children.

Throughout history, tyrannical regimes have dehumanized minorities to justify maltreatment or dispatch to terrible fates. Here, we should have seen it coming. In his first TV interview after his election, on 60 Minutes on November 13, 2016, Trump said he would immediately deport two million  it could even be three million  undocumented residents. We are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate, he declared. As president, he urged publicly that due process not be provided to either the undocumented or the migrants at the border.

The president has cultivated this xenophobic petri dish of bias and blame solely to stoke his base. Victory laps are not in order.

Martin W.G. King writes commentaries on social issues, including capital punishment and homelessness.
Canvassers from a coalition of community organizations, including Common Cause New Mexico, have been out all across Albuquerque this summer working to gather 19,480 signatures to put an innovative measure on this Novembers ballot called Democracy Dollars. Thanks to the almost 28,000 of you who signed a petition, we made it! Democracy Dollars is an amendment to our citys charter to modernize Albuquerques public financing program, which fewer and fewer of our citys candidates have been using.

In last years mayoral election, only one candidate took public financing. All other candidates were privately financed, many of them by city contractors, realtors and developers. In previous elections many more candidates, both Republican and Democratic, took advantage of this voluntary system, which was overwhelmingly  69 percent  passed by the voters back in 2005. But by 2017, with the exception of a few council candidates, most contenders decided that limiting their spending to the amount allowed through public financing rendered them noncompetitive. And, in the end, independent PACS got into the act as well, funding negative advertisements and dividing our city.

This decreased participation started after 2011, in the wake of higher court decisions that struck down a key provision of our law that had triggered additional funds be distributed to qualified candidates who were being outspent by outside private money. Since then a city task force of lawyers and constitutional experts have been searching for a solution. That solution has now come straight from the voices of the people who signed our petition and will vote in November. It is called Democracy Dollars.

Heres how Democracy Dollars work. The basics of the public financing program remain the same  candidates who are willing to not accept private donor monies, and who qualify by collecting enough signatures along with small $5 contributions, get a block grant from the citys Open & Ethical Election Fund for their campaign. The original rationale remains the same  public financing frees candidates from the need to focus on raising large private contributions and allows them to focus on YOU, the individual voters whose interests they want to represent! The roles and voices of ordinary citizens will again be elevated and heard.

Each Albuquerque voter will be mailed a $25 coupon, or Democracy Dollar, from the city clerk to contribute to a participating candidate of his or her choice. Candidates receiving the new kind of contributions can then redeem them for their face value for their campaign. The vast majority of citizens who are not able to make a monetary contribution under the present system will now have a new role  as small donors, with a new way to have their voices heard, and a new stake in our democratic system.

Democracy Dollars would require no additional city funding for a number of years. Funding for these coupons, as well as the entire program, will come from existing funds in the citys Open and Ethical Elections Fund. Since candidate participation has dropped because trigger funds were over-ruled by the court, the fund set up by the city charter in 2005 is now quite solvent and continues to receive a regular distribution of a small percentage of the general fund each election cycle.

Please go to our website at www.BurqueBucks.org to learn more. Amending the charter in this way encourages a more diverse group of candidates and voters and restores both competition and public confidence, something that we here in Albuquerque need once again.

Common Cause is a nonpartisan grass-roots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest and accountable government that serves the public interest; promotes equal rights, opportunity and representation for all; and empowers all people to make their voices heard as equals in the political process.
The number of homicides throughout Bernalillo County is on pace to surpass last years record, with 51 so far this year.

For the second year in a row, the Albuquerque area was rated No. 1 in the country in auto theft.

And hideous crimes continue to plague our community  a 7-year old girl allegedly prostituted for drugs, a 1-year-old boy beaten and kicked nearly to death and an incident last week in which 15 cars, trucks and SUVs pulled up to a cul-de-sac near Pat Hurley Park, several people got out and shot up a house where a man had been killed during a party hours earlier.

Crime is clearly still out of control in Albuquerque, even if the statistics show improvement in many categories so far this year. At the same time, the Albuquerque Police Department remains woefully understaffed, with only about 850 officers  roughly 350 short of where many say it should be.

Given the dangerous place Albuquerque finds itself in, this is absolutely the wrong time to throw more roadblocks in front of police and prosecutors who are working hard to get criminals off the streets. But thats exactly whats going to happen if the 2nd Judicial District Court moves forward with its plan to slash the number of grand juries impaneled each month and forces prosecutors to instead use preliminary hearings to bring most felony cases.

Already, District Attorney Raul Torrez, Mayor Tim Keller and Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, are sounding alarm bells about the proposal, and for good reason.

Torrez warns if Albuquerque judges get their way, launching new criminal cases will be more challenging and resource intensive. Keller worries the proposed system may mean officers are spending more time waiting in courtrooms and less time patrolling. Rue cautions that fewer indictments will lead to increased crime, reversing the promising downward trend.

With fewer officers on the streets and fewer felony cases being pursued, fewer criminals will have to answer for their actions in court. That leaves them free to continue preying on Albuquerque and its citizens.

Given the current state of affairs  off-the-chart homicides, an increase in shootings and few police officers  the 2nd Judicial Districts plan to limit the use of grand juries is a recipe for disaster. We urge judges to reconsider, at least until the Albuquerque Police Department is staffed adequately and the crime wave has abated. Or send the proposal to the Legislature, where its costs and benefits can be evaluated and money appropriated where needed.

What the 2nd Judicial District is proposing would be a major departure from the current practice.

Bernalillo County prosecutors currently use grand juries to indict a vast majority of felony cases. The court recently announced in a news release that, beginning Oct. 1, a grand jury panel will be available six days a month, down from five days a week, every week.

In the criminal justice system, prosecutors must show probable cause before they can move forward with a case  a determination theres sufficient evidence to try an individual on the crimes alleged. Our legal system allows prosecutors to get that probable cause determination in one of two ways. They can present evidence to a grand jury or to a judge in a preliminary hearing.

In a grand jury hearing, a panel of citizens decides whether theres probable cause to move forward with a criminal case based, largely, on the testimony of a primary case agent during a secret and relatively short proceeding. The defendant may or may not be present, though a defense attorney isnt allowed to attend.

Preliminary hearings, by comparison, take significantly more time  both in preparing for them and for the hearing itself  because they are the equivalent of minitrials. Many more witnesses are called to testify, and that often includes several law enforcement officers and the crime victim. Preliminary hearings are open to the public and held before a judge. The defendant must be present and represented by an attorney who is allowed to question witnesses and present evidence.

To be clear, there are compelling reasons to use preliminary hearings instead of grand juries. And, yes, there have been studies citing preliminary hearings over grand juries as best practices. Chief Judge Nan Nash says the cost of grand juries is high both for the court and for the jurors and their employers, who are faced with lost wages and lost productivity. She also says preliminary hearings mean a case is vetted at the front end, and a defendant will face only charges that a judge deems appropriate, which creates a more efficient system. And Chief Public Defender Bennet Baur argues preliminary hearings offer a chance for all sides to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a case early on, likely resulting in more plea agreements early in the process.

In a perfect world where Albuquerque police werent grossly understaffed and our city wasnt in the midst of a terrible crime wave, it would be worth going down that road. But this isnt a perfect world.

Further disruptions to the way local prosecutors handle criminal cases is only going to gum up the system and lead to fewer prosecutions. APD estimates the change could cost it an additional $1.2 million in overtime  far more than the $75,000 the court said the grand juries cost it in the last six months of 2017. And it will also result in officers spending more time in courtrooms, which could hamper APDs efforts to engage in community policing and reduce auto theft.

Albuquerque just cant afford this change right now.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
New Mexico needs improved accountability for entities with authority over charter schools to address issues such as hopping from one school to another, seeking different  and sometimes easier  charter terms, the Legislative Education Study Committee concluded.

The committee noted that most conversations surrounding charters have been centered on individual schools but said theres now a shift in focus to the school district or the Public Education Commission that oversee the schools.

The LESC asked the National Association of Charter School Authorizers to evaluate New Mexico charter law and policies and recommend improvements.

By holding charter school authorizers accountable for the performance and operations of charter schools in their portfolios, they should be less likely to  renew poorly performing schools, and less reluctant to close them if performance fails to improve, according to a LESC brief prepared by analyst Kevin Force.

Lisa Grover, senior director of state advocacy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, spoke to the committee at its July meeting. She said New Mexicos charter law was ranked No. 25 out of 45 this year.

While Grover highlighted the strengths of New Mexicos law, such as clear reporting requirements and strong charter contracts and performance frameworks, she also highlighted where the state law could improve.

For instance, she said the law is vague on renewal standards and noted there is no default closure procedure if schools arent meeting minimum requirements.

NMs law is vague on renewal standards: schools must make substantial progress toward academic goals, she pointed out to committee members, adding that a clearer definition is needed.

Required evaluations for those overseeing charters and clear consequences if they dont follow the rules were also suggested. And Grover presented the idea of a state oversight body that monitors them, adding that it should have the authority to penalize those who werent performing well, including suspending their authority to approve new schools.

But the legislative committee also noted that creating such a body would vary among jurisdictions, and may require substantial legislative and regulatory work to achieve.

Joseph Escobedo, Albuquerque Public Schools senior director of innovation and school choice, thought the discussions the committee was having will spur collaboration in the state, but he noted that ironing out the practicality and implementation would take more development.

The most important part (of the discussions) is the consistency of supporting charters and also holding them accountable, he said.

But Grovers presentation wasnt just about things New Mexico could generate. It also addressed existing statute that should be enforced, including an annual report the state Public Education Department should submit.

State Sen. Mimi Stewart, an Albuquerque Democrat and chairwoman of the Legislative Education Study Committee, said at the meeting that report hasnt been submitted since 2013.

That report should show charters academic growth and how well each is implementing its mission, Stewart explained.

Katie Poulos, director of Options for Parents and Families Division at PED, personally took the blame for the failure to submit them.

I have fallen short, she said at the meeting.

PED told the Journal it does plan to complete the report this year and said there were several time-sensitive, high-priority items that consumed the Charter School Divisions  bandwidth over the past year.

Either the school district or the PEC should submit annual reports, too, outlining school performance, which Grover also emphasized must be enforced as well.

Ultimately, Grover felt the policy recommendations would create better accountability and particularly address authorizer shopping  which the committee defines as an attempt to find an oversight body that offers better charter terms, or is more likely to overlook some performance issues.

More than 30 charters in the state have changed chartering authority at least once, according to the committee.

Last year in Albuquerque, four low-performing charter schools sought reauthorization from APS after learning that the PED would likely be recommending non-renewal. And later last year, Architecture Construction and Engineering Leadership High School, Health Leadership High School and Technology Leadership High School received support for charter authorization from the district.

Charter schools with a D or F school grade for two consecutive years should be allowed to change authorizers only if both authorizers agree, Grover said.

Other policy recommendations from Grover to improve New Mexicos law included:

 Have requirements for districts and the PEC to close chronically low-performing charters.

 Statutorily create ways to replicate and expand high-performing schools.

 Require annual training for charter authorities.

 Create statute specifically for full-time virtual schools.

Stewart noted authorization accountability is still in the discussion phase but said the committee is trying to craft a bill with national association and other stakeholder input to address some of the recommendations.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

EL PASO  During a recent daylong hiring seminar that attracted more than 300 job applicants, Lizde Ramirez of Anthony listened intently as recruiters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection talked about opportunities.

Ramirez wants to put on the uniform to better provide for her 8-year-old daughter and 3-year-old twin girls  and stay in New Mexico.

Ive been looking for a new career, and Im really interested in the CBP, said Ramirez, adding that she wants to protect the borders.

But she said it would be hard to separate families, referring to the zero tolerance policy the Trump administration recently abandoned. It was ended when the president issued an executive order on June 20 in response to a public outcry.

I hope they stop (the policy) for good, Ramirez said, adding that she would not look forward to that part of the job. But, she said, she would carry out the required duties if shes hired.

Shes interested in a job as a CBP officer posted at a port of entry or as a Border Patrol agent working in the field.

Im applying for both, Ramirez said.

At a time when CBP is recruiting to fill thousands of job openings, the federal agency found itself at the center of the zero tolerance crackdown that led to the separation of as many as 2,500 children from their parents. The policy called for criminally prosecuting adults who crossed the border illegally, and Border Patrol Agents were tasked with taking crying children from those they arrested who tried to bring them along while crossing the border.

Hundreds of vacancies

Customs and Border Protection is the largest law enforcement agency in the country.

In fiscal year 2017, the agency employed 19,437 Border Patrol agents; 23,079 CBP officers at ports of entry, including international bridges and airports; and 947 Air and Marine agents to interdict smugglers and contraband on the water or from the air.

All are responsible for protecting the country from terrorists.

The Trump administration wants to add 5,000 Border Patrol agents on the Southwest border.

There are hundreds of vacancies for CBP law enforcement officers to fill nationwide, and El Paso and Columbus are among the areas where there are job openings now.

We have really good luck here locally, said CBP officer Adrianna Carranza, a national recruiter based in the El Paso Field office, which includes all of New Mexico. Carranza has been with CBP for six years.

We take people from all walks of life, all job experience, people who have gone to school, been in the military. We dont focus in on one type of person, she said.

Pay could be a factor.

Starting salaries range from $33,394 for CBP officers and $41,187 for Border Patrol agents, with opportunities for agents to earn $51,484 with overtime. The median household income in Las Cruces is about $41,000, and per capita income is about $22,000 according to U.S. Census figures.

Career with benefits

Recruiter conversations with job applicants focused on building a career, duties in the field and health and retirement benefits.

It is challenging to be able to get those recruits, but as you can see, our room is full, said Frank Pino, a Border Patrol Agent and recruiter at the hiring seminar.

When asked about the impact of family separations on recruiting, Pino said it had not been an issue for him at the hiring seminar.

It hasnt come up, said Pino. If they have those questions, they dont address them to us.

Edwin Rivas, 38, an Army helicopter pilot, attended the hiring seminar in uniform and was looking for a second career after he retires from the military in two years.

I believe in the rule of law. Theyre just enforcing our current immigration laws, so it doesnt affect me and my decision on employment at all, said Rivas of family separations.

Hes from Chicago originally but wants to stay on the border where hes raising his own family.

My wife loves it. My three kids love it, Rivas said of life in the Southwest.

Javier Guerrero, 20, is willing to relocate anywhere.

Ive been interested in law enforcement. Since I graduated from high school, its been my dream to do that, he said as he waited in line to talk to a Border Patrol agent about his application.

I dont want to join Border Patrol just to separate kids, Guerrero said. We have feelings, but its part of the job, so Im not going to complain if its paying my bills.

Border Patrol agents had the highest profile role during the six-week zero tolerance period when families were being separated at the border, with photographs and video of them dealing with crying children and fearful parents appearing in the media.

It is stressful for them, said Carlos Favela, executive vice president of the union representing Border Patrol agents in far West Texas and New Mexico. Who wants to see the kids crying and being separated?

A lot of the agents are family members; theyre head of their households. They have to provide for their families, so they have empathy, he said. But at the end of the day, they do the job. The family separations are just one portion of it.

During the public backlash over family separations, Favela said, headquarters sent an email warning: be careful of your surroundings. When you go home dont wear your uniform.

So at the end of the shift, the agents do change out to plain clothes to go home, he said.
You could try to paralyze Mainland military operation, but how? That sounds impossible in Taiwan's situation. What tiny and outdated air force or ballistic missile arsenal does it have to even attempt that? Only with submarines you may have some success, but China does not need to invade.



If there is no US, all China needs to do is neutralize Taiwanese air fields and military installations with the 1,000+ ballistic missiles that are already aimed at Taiwan. These DF missiles are cheaper than the missiles needed to intercept them. You would not use a single Patriot missile but two to intercept a DF at Mach 10. Taiwan will need 2,000+ Patriot missiles, and they each cost 3 times more than a single Chinese DF ballistic missile. Taiwan also cannot produce these and could only buy them from the US. Really, as a Taiwanese commander you would have zero options than to beg Tsai Ing-wen to commit ethnotreason or beg the US to come in on time and crush China, but then you won't be able to face your ancestors when you go to the other side.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Libertarian Blair Dunn is taking the unusual step of highlighting his own family court dispute as part of his campaign for attorney general.

Dunn, an Albuquerque lawyer, says the case involving his ex-wife and daughter is evidence of the need for dramatic changes in New Mexicos judicial system.

In an opinion column he submitted to news organizations last week, including the Journal, Dunn says he was ordered to pay $7,500 in legal fees to his ex-wife  unfairly, he says.

The order came as part of a seven-year legal battle between Dunn and his ex-wife, Lela, centering on their divorce and custody of their daughter. The recent flare-up involved a health care decision for the child.

Dunn, the son of New Mexico Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn, isnt avoiding the topic. In fact, hes making it part of his campaign  an example, he said, of the way the judiciary unfairly treats some mothers and fathers in family legal disputes.

What did I get for the trouble of trying to be a good, involved parent? Dunn asks in the column. I had my fundamental liberty to participate in medical decisions for my child stripped away with no due process and a $7,500 fine, payable to my ex-wife, who was/is actively working to exclude me from my daughters life.

The judiciary didnt see it that way.

Last week, the state Court of Appeals issued a three-page opinion that took note of Dunns frequent filing of motions and his conduct in general and upheld the order awarding legal fees to his ex-wife.

Its rare territory for a political campaign, but Dunn said the case illustrates an important part of why hes running for office.

You have this court system designed to pick winners and losers, Dunn said in an interview. And I was one of them who, for no reason, was picked as a loser, and I was treated as second-class parent. Thats really offensive.

Dunn, 36, faces incumbent Attorney General Hector Balderas, a Democrat, and Republican Michael Hendricks, an immigration lawyer, in the Nov. 6 general election.

Balderas, who previously served as state auditor and as a state senator, has an enormous financial advantage, with about $900,000 in his campaign account, according to a finance report filed July 5. Hendricks had about $84,000 in cash on hand, and Dunn had about $5,700.

Hendricks said he had no comment on Dunns personal story becoming part of the campaign.

Balderas said that under state law, the Office of the Attorney General serves the public interest, and should never be used to manipulate private family matters.

Dunn, for his part, said hes running to win, of course, but that shining a light on New Mexicos family court system is his primary motivation. Given the number of marriages that end in divorce, he said, its especially important to ensure the fair treatment of both parents.

The votes are less important to me than getting this message out  by a bunch, he said.  This is an issue hurting our state and our kids, and we need to do something about it.

As attorney general, Dunn said, he could issue legal opinions that would carry weight with the Legislature, motivating lawmakers to fix what he sees as a broken court system.

He said he has shared the story of his family dispute on a national radio program and with members of a group that advocates for equal parenting and fathers rights.

He said he hopes local news operations will publish his letter. (The letter can be found at the end of this story. It will not be published on the Journals opinion pages because the newspaper rarely publishes letters that make allegations involving a specific court case about private individuals, especially one in family court.)

Dunn acknowledged that he worries about the publicity hurting his daughter and family.

But when your backs against the wall, Dunn said, you have to stand up and do whats right.

Dunn has other experience fighting the court system. He challenged new bail rules in New Mexico on behalf of the Bail Bond Association of New Mexico and others, seeking damages from the state Supreme Court.

A federal judge later imposed sanctions on Dunn for filing frivolous claims in that case, and he was ordered to pay about $15,000, which Dunn has appealed.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

In November 2014, police who were called to a small house north of Central on 57th street found a 15-year-old boy, lying on a mattress on the floor, pale, not breathing, with bullet wounds to his right biceps and chest. He was unconscious.

Melquisedec Melqui Rodriguez was taken to the hospital, where he died.

Police reports detail how the responding officers combed through the house for evidence, locating one bullet casing on the floor next to the bed and an open box of bullets on top of the television.

Four other teenagers and someones mother were in the house at the time, and police took them Downtown to the main police headquarters to be interviewed. The shooting was determined to be accidental.

The gun used, a .40-caliber Springfield semi-automatic handgun was finally found underneath a piece of plywood in the back yard, according to the police report. And although police said they were told it had been stolen from a vehicle, the crime lab doesnt have any record of where the gun had been stolen from or who its original owner was.

This is a common refrain when it comes to teenagers and guns.

Although anyone under 19 is barred from possessing or transporting a handgun in New Mexico, its clear many young people are ignoring the law.

This year alone, six teenagers, ages 15 to 17, in Bernalillo County have been charged with murder in five deadly shootings  two involving juvenile victims.

And there have been at least 165 cases of teenagers arrested for gun-related offenses since 2015, with charges ranging from weapon-law violations to murder, according to data provided by APD.

Whats unclear, however, is exactly how guns are getting into the hands of these  and other  juveniles.

Of the five teens charged with murder in Albuquerque this year, officers recovered the suspected murder weapon in all but one of the cases. After a deadly shooting at a Southwest Albuquerque park last March, a 16-year-old told investigators he had seen the firearm lying around at a party a couple of weeks earlier and pocketed it. And in another case, after a homeless man was shot to death, hit nearly a dozen times, police were able to trace the casings left at the scene to a non-fatal drive by shooting. The teens had been reportedly sharing the weapon with a friend.

A police spokesman confirmed that the two guns had been stolen, but he said there are no records showing where they were stolen from or who stole them.

In a South Valley case in which a 16-year-old was charged in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old during a road rage incident, the sheriffs department homicide sergeant said he could not comment on the gun used because the case hasnt been adjudicated yet.

Miranda Viscoli, the co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, said she believes drug use among teenagers is tied to many of these shootings. Throughout the city, drug use, poverty and crime has been increasing over the past several years.

I think a lot of our youth are sadly getting involved in that, and when youre involved in dealing drugs, usually youre carrying a gun, she said. That would be my guess  again there are no records, there is no research.

Mobbing and drugs

Melquis older brother, Carlos Rodriguez, now 23, said he knew Melqui was getting into trouble, stealing and using drugs, but he said the boy had been trying to help their single mother care for her six children.

Melqui was an interesting kid, actually, Rodriguez said. He was very smart. He only wanted to help my mom; that was it. Growing up, we had been struggling with money and all that stuff  he would do anything to get money for the rent.

Carlos said he knew at the time that what his brother was doing was dangerous and he remembers their mothers being worried. He said his mother had lots of talks with Melqui and his other brothers about mobbing  a term coined to describe groups breaking into vehicles and homes. But, Carlos said, in the end, she didnt feel like there was much she could do.

When I knew that they were mobbing, doing drugs, I definitely felt like eventually theyre going to get hurt, Carlos said. But when I got the news  I thought he was probably injured. When I got to the hospital, thats when we got the news that he passed away.

Carlos said Melqui and his friends had stolen the gun that ultimately killed him from a car earlier in the week.

Since Melquis death in 2014, at least 13 children and teenagers have been victims of deadly gun violence in Albuquerque, a figure that does not include suicides or accidental shootings. Police have said that around a third were at the hands of other teenagers.

Mizel Garcia, the commander of the Special Investigations Division, said through the course of their investigations, detectives have found that teenagers can buy guns on the street, sometimes throwing down as little as $50 for one. He said in other cases, the teenagers themselves are breaking into homes and cars and stealing guns.

Its hard to gauge that because you never know, Garcia said. Because theyre underage, (burglaries are) one of the only ways theyre going to be able to come into possession of a handgun, other than buying it from somebody who is selling it to them illegally.

But of the more than 160 cases of teenagers being arrested for gun-related offenses since 2015, only 10 cases involved a gun that had been reported stolen.

Thats in large part because its difficult to track whether a gun is stolen.

Often, police say thats because a gun owner doesnt know the weapons serial number to report it to law enforcement.

In April, APD released stats reporting that more than 1,035 guns were stolen from vehicles or were left in vehicles that were stolen since July 2016. However, an APD spokesman said there is no easy way to track how many of those were recovered.

Very hard to trace

For their part, Viscoli and New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence have been working to pass more comprehensive laws addressing access to firearms. And two high school students, Julia Mazal and Sophia Lussiez, both 16, have been working with the organization to lobby for Child Access Prevention Legislation that would charge a parent or guardian with a felony if their child got a hold of their gun and used it.

National research shows that this could prove to be helpful in terms of preventing youth suicides and accidental shootings. However, local law enforcement say they rarely find that juveniles involved with gangs or criminal activity get guns from their parents.

It happens, I know it does, parents are careless sometimes, Commander Garcia said. But it doesnt seem to be as prevalent as burglaries or buying them on the street.

Overall, Viscoli said, a lack of research and data has hampered efforts to prevent gun violence in the state and across the country, because there is simply so much lawmakers, advocates and law enforcement dont know.

Its very hard to trace the story of a gun, Viscoli said. Where it went from when it was brand new out of the box to how it got into the hands of 16-year-old doing a drug deal. Were not taking care of our kids here at all.

A handful of states require all gun owners to register their firearms at the point of sale or get licensed. Those states have lower rates of gun violence, according to Ari Freilich, staff attorney with Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

New Mexico is not one of those states, and, in 2016, it had the 8th highest number of gun deaths per capita. It received an F on the centers annual gun-law scorecard.

More recently, with both a new mayor and a new district attorney, officials say more resources will go toward addressing gun violence.

The DAs office created the Gun Crimes Unit this year to prioritize prosecuting cases involving firearms.

And the city recently applied for an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to create a Crime Gun Intelligence Center and expand its ability to investigate gun-related crimes.

Commander Garcia, who took over the Special Investigations Division in February, said the new police chief has stressed using the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), a program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that links casings found at crime scenes to the guns that fired them.

Garcia said field officers have been directed to collect all casings they find so they can run them through NIBIN and link them to other scenes. He said he hopes this technology will make it easier for detectives to trace guns back to the people who stole them.

In one recent case last spring, Garcia said, police arrested a juvenile in possession of a weapon that was used in more than a dozen other shootings.

I dont know if the gun was stolen, but I know that the weapon was used in at least 13 other shootings, Garcia said. I dont know if he was the one who did it, but Im sure we can find out. That weapon had been used either by him or other people during this time.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

The Office of the State Engineer has dismissed an application to pump billions of gallons of water annually from an aquifer in the Plains of San Agustin.

Augustin Plains Ranch LLC sought to pump 54,000 acre feet of water a year from groundwater and transport it to the middle Rio Grande Valley. An acre foot is the amount of water it takes to cover one acre of land in a foot of water, equal to around 326,000 gallons.

After carefully considering all aspects of the application, the State Engineer determined that the applicant failed to identify specific quantities of water for specific identified beneficial uses which are requirements under state law for a water right to be developed, Melissa Dosher-Smith, a spokeswoman for the State Engineer, wrote in an email.

The application was first submitted in 2007 and ultimately denied in 2012. The most recent application was submitted in 2014.

Michel Jichlinski, the project manager, said his team is reviewing the decision before deciding on its next steps.

The proposal has faced opposition from environmental groups, ranchers, farmers and communities in Catron and Socorro counties, many of whom are represented by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. The center made a motion for summary judgment regarding the application that was granted on Wednesday.

New Mexico law provides that in order to appropriate water or the right to use water, a party has to have a current beneficial use for it, said Douglas Meiklejohn, executive director of the center. A party cannot appropriate the right to use water simply for the use of speculating and putting its use on the open market or up for open bidding.

But Jichlinski called the decision shortsighted in an email sent Friday.

Much is made of the issue of speculation. But anybody who cares to study the recently published New Mexico water plan, presumably the most important document guiding the future of water resources in the State, will note that no entity, except for (Augustin Plains Ranch), has any intention to put this resource to use, Jichlinski wrote. How can we tie up a resource that nobody cares about?

Datil resident Anita Hands cattle ranch borders the Augustin Plains Ranch, and she said she and her family have fought against the proposal for years.

Without water, our livelihood is gone, she said. We dont have anything to fall back on.

Hand said that three to five of their livestock wells would have been impacted by the project.

Hand said the victory was bittersweet, since her father, John Hand, died earlier this year.

He worked his whole life for what we have today, she said. He had fought it just as much as everybody else did.
More than a dozen local businesses and industries have signed on with Aiken Works to ensure students are ready for the workforce of the future.

Aiken Works, an initiative of Aiken County Public Schools, teams up with local companies to prepare students for the workforce through authentic, hands-on, paid experiences, including apprenticeships and internships.

The goal is to help students develop employable skills to meet the community's specific needs with an emphasis on career opportunities in health, energy, cyber technology and industrial manufacturing.

"Our driving force with Aiken Works is to connect Aiken County students to paid learning opportunities throughout Aiken County that also meet the needs of local businesses, Aiken Works Coordinator LaFayette Stewart said. We are helping students, parents and community members identify the jobs and skills most needed in our area, so our young people can learn and earn right here in our own community.

Through our movie and billboard advertisements, exposure on social media and a growing apprenticeship program, we have quickly established Aiken Works as the area's premier economic and workforce development connection."

Business partners and related positions that have welcomed Aiken County Public School District students as paid apprentices and interns are as follows:

 AECOM  facilities support, administrative assistant

 Aiken County Public Schools  accounting, network tech, general construction

 Allstate Insurance  administrative assistant

 Augusta GreenJackets  food and beverage, groundskeeper

 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions  laboratory technician

 MTU  industrial mechanic

 Dunkin' Donuts  store manager

 Peach State Federal Credit Union  teller

 Bridgestone  store manager

 Bridgestone  machine technician

 Security Federal Bank  teller

 Security Federal  maintenance technician

 Graniteville Specialty Fabrics  laboratory technician

 Gregory Electrics  facilities support

 Beech Island Timber  small engine mechanic

For more back to school coverage, see below.

ICYMI: Aiken County Back to School coverage roundup Take a look at the Aiken Standard's Back to School articles, featuring everything you need to know about the 2018-2019 school year in Aiken Co
South Carolina public school districts are required by South Carolina law to clearly outline policy regarding cellphone possession and use while on school ground.

The Aiken County School District operates under a "possession-only" policy, meaning that students may bring a phone with them to school as long as it is not activated, according to the Aiken County Board of Education policy manual.

The policy manual also outlines a three-strike system:

On first offense, the student's phone will be confiscated for the remainder of the day and a warning issued. The student additionally must sign a "Condition for Return" acknowledgement and agreement before being allowed to bring the phone back to school. On second offense, the student will lose there "possession-only" privileges for 10 days. On third offense, the student will lose phone privileges of the remainder of the school year, and will be suspended for one day.

Additionally, more serious disciplinary actions may be taken if student's are using phones to cheat, for example.

Exceptions may be made to the "possession-only" policy in the case of certain coursework, but it remains the general rule.

The Aiken County School District also has policies that relate to the use of cell phones and other electronic media revolving around the subject of bullying.

The Aiken County Board of Education policy manual mentions the district's ability to take disciplinary action regarding conduct off-campus, including the use of the Internet or other web-based resources, specifically if "conduct poses a threat or substantially interferes with or disrupts the environment, work and/or discipline of the schools."

Did you know?

Students who feel they are subject to bullying or harassment can submit formal complaints to their principal or designee, with these complaints remaining confidential between investigators and complainant. Reports can also be submitted anonymously, but the district can not take formal disciplinary action based on an anonymous report.

According to acpsd.net, "For purposes of this policy, harassment, intimidation or bullying is defined as a gesture, electronic communication or a written, verbal, physical or sexual act reasonably perceived to have the effect of either of the following:

 harming a student physically or emotionally or damaging a student's property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of personal harm or property damage

 insulting or demeaning a student or group of students in such a manner as to cause substantial disruption in, or substantial interference with, the orderly operation of the school"

For more back to school coverage, see below.

ICYMI: Aiken County Back to School coverage roundup Take a look at the Aiken Standard's Back to School articles, featuring everything you need to know about the 2018-2019 school year in Aiken Co
Iraqi Minister of Transport Kazem Finjan al-Hamami revealed July 25 that Iran has agreed to participate with Iraq in the construction of a dam on the Shatt al-Arab River  formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers  to confront the ongoing water crisis. Both countries hope to achieve bilateral benefits from the project to be established in Abu Flous Port in Abu al-Khaseeb district.

The agreement comes at the heels of the popular protests organized in Basra on July 8 about the lack of drinking water and services. On July 5, Basras tribes asked the Iranian government to stop the flow of water into Iraqi territory, which increases the salinity in the Shatt al-Arab River.

Interest in the water salinity crisis seems to have grown following the protests. On July 11, the Iranian Khuzestan governor reacted to the water problem by supporting the establishment of a dam on the Shatt al-Arab to solve the water shortage crisis in Basra and in Abadan and Khorramshahr in Khuzestan.

This long-standing problem, raised by popular protests in southern cities, was addressed by the Iraqi government in 2016 when it was forced to build an 80-kilometer (50-mile) dirt cover at the port of the Shalamjah border with Iran to prevent the highly salty Iranian water from reaching the Shatt al-Arab.

The salinity of water in the Shatt al-Arab has become a real threat to the people of Basra, said Sadiq Attia, a member of the committee of experts at the World Meteorological Organization.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Attia proposed the solution of giving the city its full share of the Tigris water, over which the governorates of Maysan and Wasit alternate. In addition, a dam on the Shatt al-Arab should be built to prevent the salt waves from reaching deep into the Shatt al-Arab.

Meanwhile, Abdul Waheed Barakat, an adviser to the governor of Basra, told Al-Monitor, On July 28, in response to the protests, the federal government approved a project to build desalination plants as a solution to this crisis.

He noted that the strategic solution would be to build a dam on the Shatt al-Arab to reduce the increasing salinity rates caused by the Karun River, stemming from Iran, and which was turned into a dumping site for industrial water and sewage.

Barakat said, Technicians from the Marine Science Center at the University of Basrah and consulting firms have started to study the feasibility of this project on the ground.

The dam will contain tubes that will allow it to serve as a submersible dam made of reinforced plastic, Barakat noted, adding, A consulting firm will be hired to find the right spot and shape to go with the Iraqi marine environment.

On July 6, Iraq's former Minister of Communications Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi proposed the construction of dams, 100 kilometers (62 miles) apart, on the 200-kilometer-long (124-mile) Shatt al-Arab to provide drinking water and irrigation water for agricultural land.

Aoun Dhiab, a senior expert and consultant at the Ministry of Water Resources, told Al-Monitor, It is difficult to equip the Shatt al-Arab with fresh water from the Tigris and the Iranian Karun River, because farmers have taken over all locations along the river's waterways, exceeding the water quota of the Shatt al-Arab.

He added, It is particularly important to establish a dam on the Shatt al-Arab to prevent the penetration of seawater into it, as happened in 2018.

Dhiab continued, It would be difficult to build a dam in the area of Abu Flous, where the banks of the Shatt al-Arab are inside Iraqi territory, given the fact that sewage from Basra, Abu al-Khaseeb, Shatt al-Arab and all other cities will pour into that area. If this issue is not addressed, the water the dam will store will surely be polluted and unsuitable for use.

Dhiab does, however, support the option of building a joint dam with Iran on the Shatt al-Arab where it meets in the Gulf region, in the Ras al-Bisha area. It would be jointly managed, and corridors suitable for the passage of ships would be secured.

The dam sites that Dhiab mentioned were the subject of an old dispute between the local government in the province of Basra and the Ministry of Water Resources, which decided to choose a site other than the one specified by the provincial council in the area of Abu Flous in Abu al-Khaseeb.

This dispute grew on Sept. 10, 2016, when the Ministry of Water Resources said it had no budget to deal with the water problems in Basra.

Today, objections to the dam are seemingly a thing of the past, given the pressure the popular protests in Basra have exerted. This was seen July 25 when the general secretariat of the Council of Ministers supported the position of Basras local government for the construction of the dam with the purpose of calming the situation in the southern province.

The Ministry of Water Resources thus called for carefully considering building the dam on the Shatt al-Arab to make the most of the available water revenues and to prevent the entry of salt water from Iran. This is how the construction of the dam on the Shatt al-Arab became a reality due to the popular demands of the local government to provide drinking water. Not only will this project be a great achievement when it comes to the water crisis, but it is also crucial to calm the anger of the masses who took to the streets carrying bottles filled with polluted water in Basra and other Shiite southern cities.
The United States is set on Aug. 6 to reimpose a first batch of Iran sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal following President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the accord.

The upcoming sanctions target Irans automotive, precious metal, steel and aluminum sectors as well as rial transactions and civilian aircraft sales. While relatively minor compared with the sweeping oil sanctions due to resume in November, they could still put another dent in Irans strained economy and create new urgency on Tehran to solidify business ties with other countries.

It really boils down to: Is Iran able to sustain enough commerce to stay out of a recession? said Jarrett Blanc, who coordinated oversight of the nuclear deal for President Barack Obamas State Department.

Prior to the nuclear deal, US and international sanctions had helped drive Iran into a depression. While the economy has improved since then, Tehran has been rattled by months of protests, fueled in large part by sundry economic grievances. Manufacturing sanctions in particular will only add to the pain.

The automotive sector is one of Irans larger manufacturing sectors, and they had ambitions to become a significant export sector for the Iranian economy, said Richard Nephew, a sanctions expert who helped negotiate the 2015 deal for the Obama administration. It is also the source of a lot of jobs, which is part of the reason why the Iranians have prioritized it.

The Aug. 6 sanctions also target civil aviation sales to Iran, effectively canceling any pending deals from US and European firms such as Boeing and Airbus. The nuclear deal explicitly allowed such sales so that Iran could replace and upgrade its aging airline fleet, which has been severely depleted from decades of US sanctions.

In addition to Irans trade in gold and other precious metals, the purchase and sale of Iranian rials and the purchase of Iranian sovereign debt are also in the crosshairs.

The looming sanctions deadline has pitted the United States and Iran in a global battle for influence.

After Trump withdrew from the deal in May, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif embarked on a tour of the accords remaining participants  Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China  in a bid to salvage the deal. Zarif has since visited multiple other countries seeking to shore up investment in Iran, while President Hassan Rouhani has also pressured Europe to keep the deal alive during his travels to Switzerland and Austria in July.

In an effort to maintain some business with Iran, the European Union is working on a so-called blocking regulation that would punish firms for complying with US sanctions. Major firms, however, have already made clear that they cant afford to get shut out of US financial markets and have begun pulling out of Iran. These include Peugeot, General Electric, Boeing, Maersk, Siemens, Total Oil and Gas, and Indias Reliance refining complex. One Kazakh and two Russian steel companies have also ceased business ties with Iran.

The EUs attempt to do this may physically exist and may be enshrined in law, but it was always going to falter on whether or not the EU member states were prepared to use the retaliatory authorities that were embedded in it, Nephew told Al-Monitor. Its a paper law and I think thats what were going to see in practice here.

Iran is also challenging the sanctions at the UNs International Court of Justice under a decades-old treaty with the United States that predates the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Trump administration calls the lawsuit, which observers agree is a long shot at best, as baseless.

Meanwhile, the nuclear deals US detractors have starkly warned Europe against resisting Trump and the Republican-led Congress. In July, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, led nine other Republican senators in a letter to the British, French and German ambassadors in Washington to urge them to comply with all American sanctions, but also to emphasize we would consider it particularly troubling if you sought to evade or undermine American statutes.

Last week, Rouhani argued that it fell squarely on Europe to save the deal. However, Blanc noted that Europe has successfully winnowed down Tehrans expectations.

Rather than pressing for large business deals, conversations now revolve around a much smaller set of questions about how much oil is Iran able to sell and what kind of financial relationships are they able to sustain with the outside world, he said. And theyre questions that have much more to do with Irans non-European trading partners  India, China and the rest, than they do with the Europeans.

In particular, many analysts expect China to either maintain or increase its current oil imports from Iran even as Europe, Japan and South Korea cut theirs. The Trump administration has also recently indicated that it is open to granting sanctions exemptions for some countries to continue importing Iranian oil as long as they make some reductions.

Nephew estimates that Iran will be exporting somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.3-1.5 million barrels per day when oil sanctions go back into effect in November, down from 2.3 million when Trump withdrew from the deal in May.

The reality is that Europe and the United States have a much closer economic integration for lots of good historical and business reasons, Nephew told Al-Monitor. You dont see that as much in Russia, India, China and other places. And so their companies are going to have more flexibility and their banks are going to have more flexibility in parsing themselves out and deciding whether or not they want to do more business in Iran rather than the United States.
An investigation is underway after a man was fatally stabbed in downtown Birmingham midday Saturday.

Birmingham police South Precinct officers were dispatched at noon to Birmingham Wholesale Furniture at 2200 Second Ave. South on a report of a stabbing, said Sgt. Johnny Williams. Birmingham Fire and Rescue transported the man to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Williams said the suspect fled the scene before officers arrived. The victim's name is being withheld pending notification of relatives.He did not say whether the stabbing happened inside or outside of the store.

The fatal stabbing is Birmingham's 68th homicide victim this year. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore the Birmingham Police Department does not include those in their year-end tally. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 100 homicides, including the 68 in Birmingham.

Birmingham ended 2017 with 111 homicides including those ruled justifiable, and there were 172 last year countywide.

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
Authorities have released the names of a couple found slain in their east Birmingham neighborhood after their granddaughter was found wandering outside in blood-stained clothes.

Birmingham police on Saturday identified the victims as Mary Holt, 67, and Joe "Steve" Holt, 68. Their bodies were discovered Thursday afternoon inside their house on Ninth Court Circle South.

Jefferson County Coroner's officials said their bodies were found at 3:50 p.m. Aug. 2 when East Precinct officers responded to the 8700 block of Ninth Court Circle South after they were notified about a child wandering the street alone.

Sgt. Johnny Williams said the child's clothing was stained with blood, but the child was not injured, police said. The child led officers to two unresponsive adults inside the home. Both adults were pronounced dead on the scene at 4:41 p.m.

A neighbor said her front door was open Thursday afternoon when the little girl came to their house. She was bloody and crying out for her grandparents but didn't say anything else. Someone from inside the neighbor's home called 911 and that's when the brutal crime scene was discovered.

She said she knew Mary Holt often kept her granddaughter while the mother was at work, but said she usually kept her at the child's home.

Another neighbor said several people had been seen the child in the neighborhood that day but, for some reason, didn't notify authorities. Another neighbor said she knew Mary Holt often kept her granddaughter while the mother was at work, but said she usually kept her at the child's home.

The couple has lived in the home since the late 1970s or early 1980s, court records show. Neighbors said the couple kept to themselves and they only saw them once or twice a week. Mary Holt had sold Mary Kay cosmetics so some of the women on the street got to know her through that. "She was the sweetest thing ever,'' said one neighbor who didn't want her name used.

That neighbor said they were told there was no forced entry into the home and residents are baffled by the shocking crime. "This neighborhood is not only peaceful and quiet,'' she said, "but we've got eyes and ears everywhere. The whole thing is strange and crazy."

Birmingham police have been tight-lipped about the investigation. A team of detectives was back out at the home Friday afternoon, as well as at least one of the couple's sons. The family members on the scene declined to comment.

Homicide detectives were canvassing the neighborhood in search of home surveillance cameras and any possible witnesses or evidence.

The Holts are the city's 65th and 66th homicides of 2018. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore the Birmingham Police Department does not include those in their year-end tally. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 98 homicides, including the 66 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information pertaining to this case should call the Birmingham police Homicide Unit at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
A woman died Saturday night from a gunshot wound to the head in Birmingham.

The shooting happened about 10:45 p.m. in the city's Southtown public housing community. Police said they responded to an apartment in the 900 block of 23rd Street South on a report of a shooting.

Once they arrived, they found a 36-year-old black female shot and Birmingham Fire and Rescue pronounced her dead on the scene. She has been identified as Sikeisha Mitchell.

Investigators are trying to determine how the shooting happened. Initially it wasn't immediately clear whether it was intentional or accidental,but police later determined it was a homicide. An adult male was in the apartment at the time of the shooting. Police are questioning the man.

Authorities said he is the woman's boyfriend and a domestic argument was possibly taking place when the shooting happened.

Multiple family members of the woman responded to the scene, visibly emotional. One woman was yelling repeatedly, "My baby, my baby."

No formal charges have been announced. Mitchell is Birmingham's 69th homicide victim this year, and the fifth in three days. Of those 69, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore the Birmingham Police Department does not count them in their year-end tally. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 101, including the Birmingham slayings.
About 45 people strolled into the Kennedy-Douglass Center of the Arts in Florence on Saturday night to discuss what they called the unbalanced retelling of the town's pre-Civil War history and how a monument next to a Confederate statue could add to the narrative.

The event was part of a campaign called "Whose Monument?" that was started last year by local nonprofit Project Say Something. The mission of the campaign is two-fold: to educate the town's population about the 115-year-old statue honoring Confederate deaths outside the Lauderdale County Courthouse, and to push for a monument representing social justice that they would like to be erected next to the confederate statue.

Four different designs of what the social justice monument could look like were unveiled during Saturday's showing for public comments. Despite protests and counter protests in recent years around the handling of Confederate monuments in other states, there was no opposition present at the unveiling and no one spoke against erecting a social justice monument alongside the Confederate monument.

Laura Lopez was drawn to a design called "Breaking the Chains," which features an enslaved Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, pulling the chains of bondage. The couple lost their lawsuit for their freedom in 1857 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that they couldn't sue their masters because blacks, enslaved or freed, were not considered U.S. citizens.

Lopez, who has been following the campaign since the beginning, said one of the concerns surrounding the social justice monument was that it could be too confrontational for white viewers.

"But why should it be comfortable for whites?" Lopez said. "Black people aren't comforted. The Confederate statue is right in front of the courthouse. To have this (social justice) monument, you have to have something that speaks to the African American experience."

David Alan Clark, the Wyoming-based artist behind the "Breaking the Chains," created two versions of the work. While the first features the Scotts standing alone, a second option includes Taylor Blow, whose family paid the Scotts' legal fees as they took their cases to court and eventually emancipated the couple after their lost. Clark said the design illustrates unity -- a white man helping a black friend who wasn't considered a citizen at the time.

But Lopez thinks Dred and Harriet Scott should stand alone.

"I can see the purpose of unity, and white people should use their power and privilege to break down barriers that all people of color face," Lopez said. "But the other proposals water down the message to make it more acceptable to white people."

Project Say Something collected public comments during the event. Founder Camille Bennett said they will take the public's thoughts into consideration as the organization selects one of the four proposals within the next two weeks. The final design will then be presented to the Lauderdale County Commission. If approved, the organization will then start fundraising the $150,000 - $200,000 needed to build the monument.

Even before Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation that prevents the removal of historical monuments in Alabama that are 40 years old or older, Bennett said, the point in Florence was never to remove the statue but to add more context to the town's history.

Kayla Sloan agrees. Growing up in Florence, Sloan admits she didn't think much about the Confederate statue. As a child, she saw it as just another 16-foot-tall monument. But after Sloan, who is white, learned about the statue's Confederate history, she started to think about how other minorities feel about the placement of the monument and the state's historical preservation law.

"I think the law seems unfair if it's something that the community wants. Instead, it's being mandated across the entire state that it has stay but there are different communities throughout the state," Sloan said. "It's in front of the courthouse that all people of color use. I think it needs some context added to it."

Jason McCall, a black University of North Alabama English professor from Montgomery, is used to seeing the remains of the Confederacy. A big Confederate flag waves in the air when he drives along Interstate 65. A statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate state of America, is stationed in front of the State Capitol building in downtown Montgomery. After moving to Florence last year, he noticed the town's Confederate statue as he updated his documents at the courthouse.

"It shows how it's normalized -- how it's treated like a piece of art in the community," McCall said.

But seeing the monument leaves McCall feeling divided. Alabama is home, he said, but it is also a place where blacks were once seen as property and not people.

"On one level, this monument shows the work that we have done and that I can freely walk into the courthouse and be treated as equal," McCall said. "That's progress, but on another level, why should I walk past a Confederate monument that represents the people who actively tried to separate the U.S? Whose version of history is this meant to serve?"

Like Lopez, McCall was pulled to the "Breaking the Chains" monument. He didn't know that Dred Scott, who carries the namesake of one of the Supreme Court's landmark decisions, stayed in Florence for a decade of his life. McCall says the design gives a local touch to a national story and also shows how the court system wasn't fair for everyone.

McCall says the town now has a chance to include everyone with the monument for social justice.

"I think history is everybody's story. Another monument for justice would be a monument for everyone," he said. "Justice is inclusive. A story of justice should be a story for everyone. If you don't want justice what do you want?"
This is an opinion column.

Alabama politicians' ethics disclosures can be maddening things. They give just enough information to tell something's there, but not enough to show you what that something is.

So it was with Oliver Robinson.

In 2016, I set out to write about this problem with our ethics laws: The forms the law requires public officials to fill out didn't require those officials to disclose who they do business with.

In particular, "consultants" -- and there are many of those in the Legislature -- must disclose how many contracts they have, what sorts of industries they are consulting, and roughly how much money they get from those contracts.

But they don't have to tell the most important thing -- who's paying them.

When I wrote about this then, I used Robinson as one of my two most egregious examples.

If you looked at Robinson's form, you could tell he had a consulting contract with a bank that paid him between $100,000 and $150,000 a year.

But Robinson's form didn't show which bank he was working for. (We now know it was Regions, no thanks to Alabama ethics laws.)

Robinson also reported another contract under the category "miscellaneous." (We now know this was a bribe from a Drummond Co. vice president and a lawyer at Balch & Bingham -- again, no thanks to the law.)

In Alabama, this is what passes for transparency.

But really, these forms give public officials a shield to use when nosey folks like me start asking questions -- just like state Sen. Jabo Waggoner did when I asked him back then about the 11 contracts on his ethics forms.

Waggoner wouldn't tell me who any of the businesses paying him were. Instead, he insisted he was doing everything he was required to do.

"The Ethics Commission comes up with that form, and we comply with that form," Waggoner told me then" "I feel like I'm complying just like everybody else is."

(Actually, the form is dictated by law, not the Ethics Commission. Waggoner should know that. He's been in the Legislature since 1966 and would have been there when the law was passed.)

But that's the dodge the law gives these folks.

I'm complying just like everybody else.

At least, Waggoner answered his phone then. Every time I called Robinson, nobody answered, and he didn't return my messages.

Now I know why.

Robinson was under investigation by federal authorities who were interested in his consulting contracts, too.

But the cool thing about being a G-man is you have subpoena power, and if someone lies to you, it's a crime. You don't have to rely on those crumby ethics forms to get to the truth.

A guilty plea and a corruption trial later, we now know the truth about Robinson's business dealings.

Drummond Co. and the law firm Balch & Bingham paid Robinson to convince people in some of the city's most vulnerable neighborhoods to not let the EPA test their soil for toxins. They also paid him to use the mantle of his elected office to push back against the EPA.

Or as the jury called it -- a bribe.

That certainly wasn't on Robinson's ethics form because, for one thing, those forms didn't require him to disclose any of that.

Just miscellaneous.

What's more, Robinson had signed a contract with Balch that prohibited him from telling anyone he was working with Balch.

Non disclosure agreements used to protect trade secrets -- like Apple's next iPhone design or Colonel Sanders' 11 herbs and spices -- but now they're the weapon of choice for all sorts of bad actors. Everyone from Robert Bentley to Harvey Weinstein has used NDAs to enforce a code of silence.

Robinson's NDA prohibited him from even telling people he had an NDA.

In the end, though, none of this was enough to protect Robinson or his co-conspirators from those pesky G-men. Robinson pleaded guilty quickly. The men who bribed him with that contract -- Balch lawyer Joel Gilbert and Drummond vice president David Roberson -- went down fighting.

All three will be sentenced to prison later this year.

Alabama lawmakers should take note. There is a better way to protect themselves than to hide behind a bunch of bogus ethics laws and shady NDAs. If they want to end this parade of public officials through the criminal justice system, the answer isn't to hide behind the law.

The answer is to quit hiding anything at all.

Real transparency doesn't put people in prison. It keeps them from ever having to go. Because if you and I could see what our officials were doing -- if they had to make real disclosures -- they'd think twice.

Transparency protects public officials from themselves.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

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Halloween might be more than 80 days away, but the ghouls and goblins are already out on the campaign trail and the candidates are hoping to exploit the scares through Election Day.

For the Republicans, they are banking on frights from mentioning the names of Democratic California Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters and former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Democrats want to strike fear by linking their opponents to former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice and Senate candidate Roy Moore.

The strategy is simple, and was in play during the primary season: Connect these out-of-state politicians with an in-state rival and create a perception of extremism while stoking fear among voters.

"This tactic seems to be bread and butter politics these days," said Timothy Melley, an English professor at Miami University in Ohio and an expert on conspiracy theories and American culture. "Associating one's opponent with an unpopular figure is pretty normative."

Said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and an expert on Southern politics: "I think it's increasingly a strategy. As the national parties polarize, it makes more sense to think of them as cohesive battle groups positioned against each other."

'Distract voters'

Indeed, linking unpopular national politicians with local candidates and exploiting those relationships - no matter how insignificant they may be - is becoming a tried and true political strategy not only in Alabama, but elsewhere.

In Florida, two-term Republican Gov. Rick Scott has linked Pelosi to Democratic Senator Bill Nelson in an attempt to undercut his moderate approach to issues.

Examples exist in other states, such as in Ohio. More than 20 Democratic House hopefuls, most of whom are running in Republican districts, are campaigning on a pledge not to support Pelosi for Speaker if the party wins back the chamber in November.

In Alabama, Republicans are eager to attach the Pelosi or Clinton names to their Democratic rivals.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, recently suggested his Democratic opponent, Peter Joffrion, should ask Pelosi, Sanders or Waters to debate so "they can argue about who is the most left wing, wants the highest taxes, most open borders and weakest national defense."

Joffrion's campaign, which is seeking a debate with Brooks, responded: "Mo Brooks is a career politician who uses this empty rhetoric to avoid honest discussion and debate about the issues that matter most of the people of North Alabama - jobs, healthcare and education."

In Alabama's governor's race, Democrat Walt Maddox is also calling on his Republican opponent, Gov. Kay Ivey, to debate. Ivey, like Brooks, remains uncommitted.

Ivey's campaign, on Monday, said the Tuscaloosa mayor is "more aligned with Hillary Clinton than the people of Alabama" based on the recent endorsement he got from the group, Moms Demand Action.

The Ivey campaign is linking Maddox's policies on "important issues" like immigration, abortion and gun control with Clinton and Pelosi, more so "than the people of Alabama."

Chip Hill, spokesman with the Maddox campaign, said "Moms Demand Action and Walt both support the Second Amendment. Walt was very proud to receive their gun-sense candidate designation."

Hill said Ivey is doing "anything she can to distract voters" by talking about "Washington issues."

"If people focus on the fact that Alabama is ranked near the bottom in nearly every vital category, they will realize we need a new governor," Hill said.

'Stop and think'

Campaign strategists said the use of the out-of-state political boogeymen in advertisement is smart communications.

Jonathan Gray, a Republican campaign strategist based out of Mobile, said campaigns are looking to find the greatest comparative differences with their opponents, and to exploit them.

He said that a hypothetical comparison of Maddox with another Alabama Democrat like former Gov. Don Siegelman may not have as much of an impact as a comparison of Maddox to a party firebrand like Pelosi.

Gray recalled during the GOP primary runoff for attorney general that current office holder Steve Marshall linked his Republican opponent, Troy King, to Pelosi.

The media ads, he said, made people "stop and think."

Said Gray, "It's so ridiculous, why would they say that? It makes you want to read the next statement. It's the whole point of communications."

Angi Stalnaker, also a GOP strategist, said the strategy of linking a politician with a national figure is "one of the tools in the toolbox" but won't be a comprehensive strategy for a candidate.

It was a strategy utilized by Rep. Martha Roby to knock off her GOP opponent, Bobby Bright, during the July 17 runoff for Alabama's 2nd congressional district. Roby linked Bright, a former Democrat, to a vote for Pelosi as House Speaker in 2008.

Stalnaker, though, said that Roby's win was more the result of an endorsement she got from Trump during the waning days of the campaign.

"That Bright voted for Nancy Pelosi was an extra cherry on top of the sundae," said Stalnaker.

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University, said Bright's past as a Democrat and allegiances with Pelosi "sunk him."

'Effective strategy'

In Deep South politics, the political boogeyman strategy is a smart play for Republicans who dominate statewide offices and legislatures.

Polling suggests it's an easy strategy. Pelosi, for instance, is so unpopular among Republicans that she recently scored lower in favorability than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in a recent Ipsos poll.

Jillson, the Southern political expert at SMU, said a political boogeyman can be "scary to a large group of people."

He said in the Deep South, in the second half of the 20th century, it was part of the GOP's strategy to begin linking Southern Democrats - who tend to be more culturally conservative than coastal Democrats - with the more liberal national party.

"I think as the Democratic Party weakened in the South, it was always an effective strategy to link a Democrat trying to appear moderate to a more liberal national figure," said Jillson.

He recalled the November 1963 visit of President John F. Kennedy to Dallas, Texas, right before the president was assassinated. Kennedy was greeted by a full-page advertisement in the Dallas Morning News accusing the president of being a Communist sympathizer. Texas politician Lyndon B. Johnson, in the deeply conservative Dallas at the time, was ridiculed for his ties to Kennedy, Jillson said.

"It's been the Achilles heel of Democratic candidates in the South for a half century to be linked to the Nancy Pelosi of that day," said Jillson.

Southern Democrats have realized the Republicans ability to exploit the links, and are often keen to avoid making a public splash with more liberal members of the party from other parts of the country.

U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, before he won the special Senate election last year, limited his public appearances with national Democratic figures before the Dec. 12 election. Former Vice President Joe Biden made a campaign appearance for Jones months before the election. New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and Georgia Rep. John Lewis also stumped for Jones.

Alabama Democrats, more recently, were left off a list of endorsements by former President Barack Obama. The ex-president endorsed 81 candidates, including four Democrats in Georgia and two in Texas.

National Democratic presidential hopefuls, though, could be eyeing the other regions of the South as they begin campaigns for the 2020 presidential election.

Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris have traveled to Georgia to support Stacey Abrams, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

New Orleans, this weekend, is playing host to the annual "Netroots Nation" conference, that draws thousands of progressive activists and Democratic supporters. Among those attending will be Booker, Harris, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and New York congressional hopeful and left-wing activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

"The modern-day Democratic Party in the South is substantially a minority party for blacks and increasingly for Hispanics and progressive whites," said Jillson. "To be competitive, that Democratic coalition has to ask itself, 'Can I win by taking a national Democratic profile that is strong on universal health care, free college tuition, affirmative action and a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally?' Or, 'do I have to trim some of these positions?'"

Democratic strategy

But it's not just the Republicans who have boogeymen to toss out at voters this campaign season. Democrats have someone they can link to their GOP opposition.

Maddox, for instance, has already mentioned Ivey's endorsement last year of Roy Moore ahead of the Senate election.

Ivey said she would support Moore's candidacy, despite admitting to believing the accusers who alleged the former Chief Justice of Alabama behaved inappropriately with them decades ago when they were teenagers and he was an attorney in Gadsden.

"It's not a one-way street," said Gray, the GOP strategist. "It's not just an Alabama issue. What you are going to see is Democrats around the country saying, '(My opponent) is as crazy as Donald Trump or Roy Moore' and 'How can you stand with Roy Moore who was almost elected to the U.S. Senate?'"

Trump, Jillson said, is unlikely to be utilized in campaign ads by Democrats to scare off voters. In the Deep South, especially Alabama, the president remains popular among Republican voters.

Gray said the strategy will continue to be utilized throughout the campaign season, and remains effective because it utilizes fear and can erode a candidate's favorability with voters.

He said the erosion of local media, and fewer journalist's fact-checking claims by candidates, has fueled the need for candidates to blister one another with boogeymen attacks.

"Strategically, candidates have to go after each other now ... to give a comparison and to be over-the-top with it," said Gray.
This is an opinion column.

Damn, Alabama. Wake the hell up.

Franklin Haney - Bible salesman turned billionaire -- is not in the charity biz. He's a businessman, a win-at-all-costs, buy-anybody-he's-gotta buy Music Man who learned long ago that a hefty campaign gift can offer a better return than Apple stock.

He buys politicians like the latest iPhones, and it doesn't matter their make or model. He slathered money on Barack Obama and Donald Trump, funded Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley's inaugural and the dark money group that paid his sweetheart.

Haney's tried to buy every politician who ever had influence over anything he wanted. He gave $130,000 to have his way with the Birmingham City Council, which is a LOT of money in a council race.

Asked about it, he said the most Franklin Haney thing ever:

"It's not a lot of money to me."

Now the Music Man is being hailed as a conquering hero in North Alabama because he slipped in, bought the old Bellefonte Nuclear Reactor at auction for a song, and promised to bring jobs with his own grit and money and persistence.

Aw, man. There's trouble. Right here in River City. That starts with T and that rhymes with C and that stands for ...

Con. Job.

If, by some twist of fate, Haney manages to grease the regulatory skids for approval, get all the loans he needs to make it happen, and secure all the infrastructure to get energy to all the customers he claims he will have, this won't be a Franklin Haney project.

It will be a deal brought to you by ... you. And me.

We're gonna pay. Oh, we're gonna pay.

Because Haney has courted and supported every politician who could help him get exactly what he wanted, which is access to public money. He envisioned a monster project with a big potential payoff and no risk because the big cash would be paid by taxpayers.

Think about this.

The Tennessee Valley Authority dumped billions -- up to $19 billion in today's dollars by some estimates -- into building the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant before the bosses threw up their hands and shut the whole deal down in 1988.

They couldn't make it work. The demand wasn't there. The economics didn't add up. They shuttered the whole thing, stripped it of parts and left it like an old car on blocks beside the Tennessee River.

There were weak attempts to get it going again. But safety was a concern, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan didn't help matters.

So they put the antiquated, mothballed, failed old nuclear reactor on the auction block.

And sold it to the Bible salesman for $111 million, a fraction of a percent of the money already poured into it.

But Haney wasn't going to flip this thing with his own cash. Never. He sought $5 billion in federal loans from the department of energy, and the whole thing hinged on another $2-plus billion federal tax credits.

Everybody's in. Four Alabama congressmen--plus former Gov. Bentley--have gone to bat for Haney. North Alabama politicians are salivating about the potential jobs the plant could bring, and concern about federal debt and spending are as far away as Chernobyl.

And this week the Wall Street Journal reported that Haney agreed to pay Michael Cohen - the president's former attorney -- $10 million to help him secure the federal loans to make it all happen.

That's Haney.

We got trouble. Right there in River City. With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for ...

Pu-leeze!

Wake up Alabama. If Franklin Haney builds this reactor, you'll pay for it.

Maybe it's not a lot of money to Haney, but it's a lot of money to me.

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.
A rendering depicts the new facility that Continental Motors plans to build in the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley. The road running from lower left to upper right is Michigan Avenue. At left it meets Broad Street. Perimeter Road branches off to the lower right. (Continental Motors Group)
Beachgoers playing volleyball on a small island at the mouth of Mobile Bay perpetrated a horrific crime in recent weeks, likely killing hundreds of tiny least terns.

The volleyballers even stacked dozens of eggs stolen from nests in a pile to bake in the sun.

Birmingham Audubon, which discovered the tragedy, hopes to use it as a teaching moment and further the group's effort to help Alabama's coastal birds rebound from the BP oil spill.

Least terns are the smallest of the terns, weighing 1.4 ounces as adults. They are about half the size of a cardinal, with snowy white feathers and a rakish black cap atop their heads. Their nesting style - laying eggs in shallow depressions on bare sand beaches - leaves them vulnerable to all manner of threats, from storm driven waves washing their nests away to predation by larger birds, or other animals, such as foxes.

Part of their evolutionary strategy to survive those threats is to nest in dense colonies of dozens or even hundreds of pairs of birds. The nests are close together, usually a foot or two apart. The speckled eggs laid in them are about the size of a grape.

That nesting behavior appears to have set the stage for the massacre, which was discovered by Andrew Haffenden, with Birmingham Audubon's Coastal Bird Survey. Haffenden, who was a wildlife researcher in his native Australia, was conducting a bird survey on a spit of land that juts off the south side of Dauphin Island.

Ironically, that spit of land was once Pelican Island, one of the best nesting sites in the northern Gulf for least terns and other beach nesters. But that was before the entire island migrated north and connected to Dauphin Island about 12 years ago. When the two islands merged into one, the birds quit using it for nesting because they were suddenly vulnerable to predators, such as foxes and feral cats that live in the forests of the larger island, and they were constantly interrupted by people walking along the beach.

During his survey of what used to be Pelican Island, Haffenden noticed several tents set up on a small island known as Sand Island about a mile offshore.

"I'd seen swirls of birds out there from the end of Pelican, and then on Fourth of July weekend, I counted 17 boats out there on that island, so I was pretty disturbed. I had been wanting to get out there, and looking through my scope, I could see the volleyball net and the tents. When we got out there in a boat, we discovered a colony of least terns and black skimmers that were nesting," Haffenden said. "Then we found the piles of eggs. The people had collected all the egg from the nests to clear out an area to play volleyball. The people had actually made a little dome of sand and placed the eggs around it to decorate it."

For beach nesting birds, especially in Alabama, the parents sit on their eggs not to keep them warm, but rather to keep them cool. Mobile Bay shares the same latitude as Cairo and the Sahara Desert, meaning the sun is brutal. Both chicks and unhatched eggs will perish in minutes left unprotected from the sun.

"The thing about the eggs, people think, 'oh, they're eggs,' but they are also almost fully formed chicks inside. They can walk almost as soon as they hatch," Haffenden said. "In that pile of eggs, there were a number that were about to hatch. In fact, if you look at the pictures of the pile you can see an egg that showed pipping (cracks where a chick is pecking its way out of the shell). What the people did was take those eggs away from the protection of the parents from the sun. So we had dozens of functional chicks die by being baked. It's pretty nasty."

"But it's not just the eggs in the pile; the amount of disturbance to the colony while playing volleyball, standing or sitting and watching the players would have at least a couple of hundreds females off the nest, which certainly caused the death of their hatchlings, and about to hatch and developing eggs," Haffenden said. "There were 17 boats on that tiny island."

Katie Barnes is the chief biologist for Birmigham Audubon's Coastal Program, which is funded through a grant tied to the BP oil spill. She is a lifelong bird lover. She wears a necklace that features dozens of birds in flight, and lives with the parrot she begged her parents for when she was a kid. (Parrots can live to be more than 100 years old, so she may have an avian roommate for a long time to come.)

"Immediately, we informed the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, because these are federally protected migratory birds. And we told the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which added the area to their patrol route," Barnes said. "The day after Andrew saw the net, we got out there and set up our symbolic fencing. (Symbolic fencing consists of a rope strung between posts, designed to discourage people rather than physically block them.) We got it all fenced off, posted with signs educating the public about the birds, and respecting the birds, and now they have a safe area to nest."

Audubon conducted a thorough survey of the tiny island, which features an elevation of about two feet above sea level. There were 520 active least tern nests and 13 black skimmer nests.

"What we've heard from the state is that may be the largest least tern colony on record for the state of Alabama," Barnes said. "Even with all the eggs that were lost, this site has still been a huge success for the birds. Ever since we put the fencing up, everyone has been very respectful. We have not seen a human footprint in the area. Boaters have not pulled up to that area. They are seeing the signage."

Sadly, high winds the third week of July appear to have taken a toll on the birds nesting on the island. It was clear from studying the wrack line of debris on the island that much of nesting area had been underwater for some period of time.

"A lot of nests were lost to overwash, but the last time we were out there after the storm, we had 65 fledgings. We've just added another 15 today," Barnes said. "It is a sand spit. There will be those natural occurences that kill birds. And there will be predation from laughing gulls and things like that. But, all in all, it was a success because these birds were able to raise their offspring. And we still have black skimmers actively nesting too."

Speaking of black skimmers, a word must be said about their outstanding parenting.

Black skimmers are big birds, as large as the biggest seagulls you see on the Gulf Coast. They have tremendous beaks, with underslung jaws that give them a sort of thuggish appearance. But as parents, they are quite attentive. I watched a pair of skimmers take turns sheltering their young chick from the sun. One skimmer would squat over the sand, breast down on the ground, and then use its legs to scoop out a depression. Once the scooping stopped, the tiny check would dash into the depression and nestle between the parent's legs. The parent would then settle down on top of its baby. After a few minutes, the baby would pop out and run over to the other parent, who would repeat the process.

Scenes like that make the devotion often shown by hardcore birders a little easier to understand. They are endlessly fascinating creatures. Both birds, and the birders.

Birmingham Audubon is looking for volunteers who'd like to help with their beach monitoring.

"They don't have to know a million birds or anything. If they can recognize a few key species, that's what we are looking for. We want people who can help survey, and people willing to man a table next to a nesting area," Barnes said. "Part of what we do is educate people. We want them to know the birds are out there, and what they are doing. That's how you make people care about the birds and do their best to help them along."

For information about volunteering, contact Katie Barnes at katiebarnes@birminghamaudubon.org.

Ben Raines specializes in investigations and natural wonders. You can follow him via Facebook, Twitter at BenHRaines, and on Instagram. You can reach him via email at braines@al.com.

You can watch Ben's most recent documentary, The Underwater Forest, here on Youtube.
Robert "Todd" Harrell, former bassist for million-selling rock band 3 Doors Down, may face extended prison time thanks to a new charge of having drugs sent to him in jail.

Harrell was a founding member of the mainstream rock group, formed in coastal Mississippi, and toured the world with the band in its million-selling heyday. He hasn't been a member since 2013: In 2012 he was charged with DUI following a wreck in D'Iberville and in 2013 was charged with vehicular homicide after a fatal wreck near Nashville.

Harrell was admittedly under the influence of alcohol, an opioid painkiller and anti-anxiety drug at the time. In 2015 he was sentenced to two years in prison to be followed by six years of probation.

Since June 15 Harrell has been in the Jackson County Adult Detention Center. According to information released by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, deputies responded that day to an alarm at Harrell's home in the St. Martin community on the east side of D'Iberville.

According to the sheriff's department, "Harrell's wife told deputies she and Harrell got into an argument that turned physical. When deputies saw guns and drugs, they called the narcotics unit officers, who got a search warrant for the residence." Consequently Harrell was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, a felony; misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance; and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence/simple assault.

On Friday the Jackson County Sheriff's Department announced that screening procedures at the detention center found narcotics in mail sent to Harrell. As a result, Harrell faces an additional charge of Introduction of Narcotics into a Correctional Facility, which could carry a sentence of up to 7 years.

Harrell is not the only former band member to face ongoing drug issues. Guitarist Matt Roberts died of an overdose in 2016 after retiring from the group in 2012. Federal prosecutors in Mobile charged a Baldwin County doctor with responsibility in the case, but earlier this year a jury found the doctor not guilty on all charges.
Originally Posted by Judy Originally Posted by

They have protections as people. They do not have protections as citizens, because they aren't citizens. They do not have protections as immigrants because they aren't immigrants. They do not have nonimmigrant protections such as visa holders, because they are not visa holders who agree to forfeit their right to firearms among other things in exchange for access to work in our country. Do they have rights as people in the United States? Certainly, why wouldn't they? According to federal law, being in the country illegally is a misdemeanor. According to federal law and courts, they can't be detained after so many days without a bond. According to federal law and courts, they can't be deported without a judicial hearing. According to federal policy, their children born here are US citizens. According to the US Supreme Court, they are entitled to public education. According to the federal government, they have the right to protest in our streets, public buildings, and other public areas. According to the federal law, illegal aliens are required to register with Selective Service for military conscription which generally involves bearing a firearm. According to federal government policy, illegal aliens are serving in the US military and usually bearing a firearm.



How can you make the children of illegal aliens born in the US without the right to keep and bear a firearm to protect them or yourself?



How can you make illegal aliens register for a potential draft or allow them to join the US military without the right to bear a firearm to fight a war?



What the federal government has done all these years is violate the US Constitution. It picks and chooses what rights it wants to hand out to whom, and that is wrong, that is unconstitutional.



What too many Americans have found acceptable is creating a second class group of persons living and operating in the country illegally with the rights you don't mind them having versus the ones you do. Well, as long as you allow them to be here, they have all the Constitutional protections of any person in the United States. If you don't want that, you better get on board with mass deportations and the toughest border security this world has ever seen. Otherwise, you're doomed.
From synagogues with Muslim caretakers to a Chinese temple with an Indian twist, this Kolkata area is a rich hub.

Kolkata, India  In Kolkata, the old capital of colonial India, one area is home to many abodes of God, with churches, synagogues and mosques side by side with temples of all faiths.

Up a flight of stairs in a yellow building in old Kolkata, at the back of a room decorated with gold and fine wood, is a small, hand-carved idol: Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy and a beloved deity in Chinese folk religion.

A garland of fresh white flowers hangs around her neck, a typically Indian way of paying respect.

What you get in India is not what you get in China, says Michael Ho, a member of Kolkatas Chinese community. The way we celebrate religion here is more like it was in the old days, and with some added Indian traditions.

There is a cultural hub at the bottom floor of the Chinese temple; Michael Ho is a daily visitor. He chats with friends and reads Kolkatas still-in-print Mandarin newspaper, once handwritten in calligraphy.

Born to a father who arrived by boat to work as a chef, he is one of the thousands of other Chinese in Indias second-largest city.

Kolkatas Chinatown had grown to become one of Asias largest.

The Chinese were among many foreigners who settled in the area, which was known as the grey city during British colonial rule; an in-between space connecting the European-only white city with the surrounding black city where Indians were allowed to live.

The neighbourhoods surrounding Bowbazar were a place to trade and developed as a multi-religious hub.

People call it the parliament of religions for that reason, says Deepanjan Ghosh, a journalist and writer on heritage.

Kolkata was always a truly multicultural place, which manifested itself in many ways, through shared neighbourhoods and schools, intimate friendships across communities, shared meals at each other's homes. Jael Silliman, author and academic

Within walking distance of each other are Jain and small Hindu temples, mosques and Sufi shrines, three Jewish synagogues, two Buddhist temples and a Zoroastrian fire temple, one Portuguese and one Armenian church, a Shia gathering place and many Taoist temples of old Chinatown.

Off one particular street, Brabourne Road, one could visit a synagogue, church, mosque and cathedral in an afternoon.

Kolkata also has a Sikh gurdwara, the first Hare Krishna temple in India and a Greek church, nowadays catering to converted Indians since no Greeks remain in the city, says Jael Silliman, an author and academic who is also the youngest member of Kolkatas once-thriving Jewish community.

Kolkata was always a truly multicultural place, which manifested itself in many ways, through shared neighbourhoods and schools, intimate friendships across communities, shared meals at each others homes. All of this made Kolkata richer in every way.

The Chinese Sea Ip temple in the heart of Old Chinatown. These temples are still called churches, a hangover from British colonial times [Jenny Gustafsson/Al Jazeera]

Judaism was one of the very first foreign faiths to find its way to India, as early as the 500s BCE.

It came to Kolkata far later, when the Aleppan Jew Shalom Aharon Obaidah Cohen, a trader in indigo and Arabian horses, moved to the city in 1798.

He became a court jeweller to the Nawab of Lucknow and is said to have been asked to value the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Soon, Jews from Iraq and Syria followed in his footsteps.

The Jews of Kolkata knew how to interact and adjust, and they were always moving. They would go to Shanghai and Karachi, to a bar mitzvah in Rangoon or a wedding in Bombay, says Silliman.

Five synagogues were built in Kolkata, three of which remain today. Maghen David is the largest: it has stained glass windows and ornate floral pillars, once brought from Paris.

All three synagogues, by tradition, have Muslim caretakers.

We are the third generation here. Our father only retired this winter, after having worked in the synagogue all his life, says Siraj Khan, who looks after the smaller Beth El synagogue with his brother. They sleep in rooms at the back, and go home occasionally to their families in the neighbouring state of Orissa.

Khan puts a white kippa on his head as he enters the synagogue, and offers each male visitor to do the same.

Inside the Beth El synagogue. The synagogues are artefacts now rather than active places of worship; the Jewish community in Kolkata is only 20 people strong [Jenny Gustafsson/Al Jazeera]

Jews and Muslims have always had good relations here, says Navras J. Aafreedi, a scholar on Indias Jewry.

There are no political issues like in the Middle East. And remember, the number of Muslims in South Asia is much larger than in the Arab world.

Nakhoda Masjid, an impressive mosque, is a short walk away from the modest synagogue.

It can fit 10,000 worshippers and spans an entire block; the streets outside are busy from morning to midnight, with vendors selling perfume, prayer mats and some of the citys best late-night snacks.

It was constructed as a replica of the Mughal emperor Akbars tomb near Taj Mahal, with a bright red facade and intricate details adorning the interior walls.

Harilal, Gandhis eldest son, at one point chaired joint Hindu-Muslim peace meetings inside.

These places provide not only a space to worship, but a moment of respite.

On late mornings, people nap on Nakhodas marble floors. The monk at the Myanmar Buddhist temple, housed in an old apartment building, invites visitors to meditate. Chinatowns Gee Hing temple is crowded with people playing the old tile game, mahjong.

You may cheat once, thats ok, says one of the players. The question is how to cheat in the best way.

The Nakhoda mosque was built by the Menons from Kutch in western India. They were seafarers and went from Kolkata to Alexandria. Nakhoda means mariner [Jenny Gustafsson/Al Jazeera]

Along with European colonial attempts, varieties of Christianity were brought to Kolkata. But the citys oldest church was built by Armenians from Persia.

On Sunday mornings, when traffic is calm, you can hear the Armenian College choir singing from outside the church.

The youngest choirboy is eight years old; his fingers barely stick out from his heavy red robe as he listens patiently to father Movses Sargsyan preaching in Armenian.

Any Armenian child in the world can come to the school and study, free of charge. We have students here from Armenia, Iran and Iraq, and this year also three sisters from Russia, says Armen Makarian, a former student and now coordinator of the school, which dates back to the early 1800s.

Many return home after graduating. But there are some who stay, just like me. This school and Kolkata are now my home.

Children at the Armenian College swim in the schools pool. Armenian children from all over the world can study free of charge at the school [Jenny Gustafsson/Al Jazeera]

There are little more than 150 Armenians in Kolkata today, including the schools 90 students.

And while there were once about 5,000 Jews in the city, there are now only 20 or so.

There are a few hundred Zoroastrian Parsis, who came to Kolkata in the 1700s.

The Chinese community is much larger, up to around 4,000 people, but still lower from previous population figures.

Most left because of financial reasons. Kolkata has few job opportunities, and people of all backgrounds have been forced to leave the city.

In the last census, it was among Indias 100 largest cities to decline in numbers.

Silliman has done both: first left, then returned to settle again.

I lived abroad and have an American passport, which is good for travelling. But my home is here. I love India, she says.
Trumps former strategist Steve Bannon has vowed to help start a far-right revolution in Europe. Who will oppose him?

There is something that ties together nationalist leaders the world over: from US President Donald Trump to the new Italian interior minister, Matteo Salvini, from Indias PM Narendra Modi to Hungarys PM Viktor Orban. Yes, they all share a penchant for authoritarian government and a general contempt of liberal democracy. And yes, they are on the whole xenophobes who scapegoat minorities to justify political failure. But there is something far more disturbing than that: What if they were the only visionaries around?

Lets take a step back. Few expressions have more effectively captured the hubris of a historical epoch than Francis Fukuyamas famous 1989 essay on the end of history. For three decades that expression seemed to hold true.

The world was on a slow course to convergence, a contradictory, bumpy path, but one whose direction appeared clear. However long it would take for Chinese peasants to transform into a middle class and demand democratic reform and however long it would take to reshape the Middle East, the endgame was just one: neoliberal capitalism and liberal democracy for all.

That conviction cracked under the weight of its own pretences. Extreme levels of inequality exposed the neoliberal promise of prosperity for all as a sham.

The liberated financial system added instability to injustice, triggering accelerated crises around the world and a near-miss global implosion in 2008. Western foreign policy, under the pretence of exporting democracy, was exporting war and extremism. And the developing countries that actually developed  China, above all  did so in total disregard of the neoliberal recipes of the IMF.

That world is now dead in the water. But for too long, mainstream politicians formerly known as the establishment  have been trying to keep it alive and well past its due date.

Take former US President Barack Obama. A few days after his first election in 2008, the magazine Newsweek wrote candidly that his task would be to lead the conceptual counterrevolution against an idea that has dominated the globe since the end of the cold war, but is now in the final stages of flaming out: free-market absolutism.

Obama came to power shortly after the financial bubble burst, on the back of an extraordinary wave of public participation. Many expected he would seize the opportunity and break with a system in crisis.

But he chose the old path. He appointed Tim Geithner and Larry Summers to the Department of the Treasury, the same individuals who, during the Clinton administration, had enthusiastically removed the last obstacles holding back the financial sector. This was no moral drama of penitence and redemption, but the reproduction of the same financial privileges that had brought the world to the edge of the abyss in the first place.

And so while centre-left and centre-right parties alike kept on demanding adherence to neoliberal precepts, despite growing economic misery; while their hollow voices kept on ringing an increasingly unconvincing cry of there is no alternative, despite widespread protest, some begged to differ.

These included many of todays populist leaders who offer a mix of authoritarian rule and exclusionary politics repackaged as a vision for a brave new world: walls in place of globalisation, muscular diplomacy in place of multilateralism, my country first in place of free trade and protectionist or even social-nationalist measures to tame neoliberalism.

And so, after years in which voting seemed to have become an impotent choice between identical products, for many it was finally right-wing populism that restored weight to the electoral ballot.

Let there be no mistake: Their revolutionary rhetoric is a sham, too. Right-wing populism is out to shovel up popular discontent to make it subservient to the interests of economic elites. It is no coincidence that Trumps tax regime disproportionately benefits the rich, that Recep Tayyip Erdogans Turkey or Orbans Hungary are turning into oligarchic kleptocracies, or that Austrias xenophobic government is on a quest against social welfare.

But the enthusiasm and conviction are palpable  and contagious. The narrative is often heroic. As Beppe Grillo, comedian and founder of Italys governing Five Star Movement, has put it : We are the true heroes! .. it is those who try, with obstinacy, the barbarians, who will bring the world forward. And we are the barbarians!

Two years after Grillo pledged to take the world forward, Italys puppet prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, flew to Washington to meet Donald Trump and expressed his solidarity with the following, telling words: We are very close: we are both governments of change. Trump, the president who nearly destroyed the G7, a kernel of neoliberal globalisation, with nothing more than a tweet, nodded approvingly.

And while European progressives are in shambles, and often flirting with left-wing nationalism as they renounce any conviction in their power of changing the European Union, the far-right has an ambitious spin. Asked whether he would leave the EU, Matteo Salvini, who has pledged to bring a revolution to the heart of Europe, answered defiantly: No. I will change Europe from within.

It is hardly coincidental that Steve Bannon, Trumps former chief strategist, has decided to set up a new foundation, ambitiously called The Movement, to support far-right parties in advance of the May 2019 European Parliament elections.

This will be a litmus test for the state of democracy worldwide, touching nearly 500 million people in 27 democracies. The plan is simple. Turn the European elections into a confrontation between enthusiastic supporters of a new world order and tired defenders of the bygone world of yesterday: the strategy that worked so well in the race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

There is only one way to respond. And that is to finally formulate an all-encompassing vision for a new world beyond the demise of neoliberalism. We need a visionary blueprint of change touching some of the most pressing global issues of our time with the sort of disruptive ideas that would have been deemed unthinkable in the old system: policies like universal income, job guarantee, technological sovereignty, closure of tax heavens, a common international asylum system, ecological transformation and redistribution within and between countries.

Who should break the spell? During the peak of the first phase of globalisation, at the turn of the millennium, a great movement for global justice organised and fought from Puerto Alegre to Mumbai.

Today, against the nationalist international of the dystopians, we need a new humanist international of the utopians  one stretching from the democratic socialist movement in the United States to progressives in Mexico City and London, from European movements like DiEM25 to climate defenders, migration and tax justice activists the world over. We need a movement of ideas able to shape public debate, inspire artistic creation, and run for office.

Why not begin already in November, when the G20 will be having its yearly inconclusive leaders summit in Buenos Aires? And why not jump on the occasion offered by the transnational European elections to present a common programme of change across 27 European countries?

Sounds far-fetched? Thats just as well. There is an old adage that Angela Merkel is allegedly very fond of: Whoever has visions, should see a psychiatrist. This disposition might explain why the German chancellor has unimaginatively presided over a lost decade of European crises.

We can no longer afford such complacency today. As far-right dystopians are winning the world over, we cannot allow them to remain the last visionaries in town.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Three Czech service members killed in suicide bomb attack on NATO patrol in Parwan province.

A suicide bomber killed three NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan in an attack that also wounded a US service member and two Afghan troops.

The NATO Resolute Support mission troops killed in the attack, which took place at about 6am local time (01:30 GMT) on Sunday near the town of Charikar, in Parwan province, were all Czech service members.

My thoughts and prayers, along with those of all of the 41 Resolute Support nations, are with the families and friends of our fallen and wounded service members, and our injured Afghan brothers and their families, US military general John Nicholson, commander of the NATO mission, said.

The Czech Republic Ministry of Defence has confirmed three of its soldiers were killed in Afghanistan today. The Czech Defence Secretary & Chief of Staff for the Army have expressed their deepest sympathy to the family & loved ones of those lost. https://t.co/yZjQyPWt8g  Resolute Support (@ResoluteSupport) August 5, 2018

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al Jazeeras Charlotte Bellis, reporting from the Afghan capital, Kabul, said the suicide bomber targeted troops conducting a foot patrol within 10km of Bagram Airfield, the US largest base in Afghanistan, shortly after sunrise.

NATO mission

Sundays attack took place 13 months after three US soldiers were shot dead by a Taliban gunman in Nangarhar province, about 300km southeast of Parwan, last June.

NATO formally concluded its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but has kept around 16,000 troops  including some 14,000 US service members  in the country to help train local Afghan forces.

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The Czech Republic recently approved a plan to deploy 390 soldiers in Afghanistan through 2020, up from the current 230, as part of the ongoing operation.

Last year, US President Donald Trump vowed the United States would continue fighting in Afghanistan in a bid to avoid the predictable and unacceptable results of a premature withdrawal from the country, where the US has been at war since 2001.

A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al-Qaeda, would instantly fill, Trump said.

The Taliban, which was removed from power following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, is the countrys largest rebel group.
Health ministry says up to 43 people may have contracted the Ebola virus since latest outbreak declared last week.

Ebola is suspected to have caused as many as 33 deaths during the latest outbreak of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the health ministry said.

Thirteen cases of the virus were confirmed across northeastern North Kivu province and neighbouring Ituri province, DRCs health minister said in a statement on Saturday, with another 30 probable cases registered.

Three people were confirmed killed by the virus and 30 suspected Ebola deaths are being investigated since the outbreak was declared on Wednesday.

Laboratory examinations aimed at determining whether the probable cases tested positive for Ebola, which has no proven cure, were ongoing.

Active conflict zone

Almost 900 contacts  meaning people who may have come into contact with an infected person  have been registered by the health ministry.

Vaccinations were being deployed to the city of Beni, in North Kivu province, the statement said.

However, an active conflict in the area could prove to be a major barrier to health workers safely accessing the affected population, Peter Salama, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official, warned last week.

WHO released $2m from its contingency fund for emergencies to help fund DRCs response to the newest outbreak.

Today our Deputy Director-General for Emergencies @PeteSalama briefed the media on the ongoing #Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo #DRC. : @UNGeneva pic.twitter.com/hfGf6zsfSj  World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 3, 2018

North Kivu, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, is a resource-rich province in which more than 100 armed groups operate, according to Human Rights Watch. More than one million people are displaced there.

The security situation in the province made any response planning complex, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

Even though we have access to the towns of Mangina and Beni, we dont know to what extent were going to have to rely on armed escorts for broader contact tracing outside those small towns, Jasarevic said.

Thats going to be a critical determining factor in our ability to respond.

Unsecured burial

Authorities were alerted to the DRCs most recent Ebola outbreak  its tenth since 1976  by the death of a 65-year-old woman in Mangina, a town about 30km west of Beni, last month.

After her unsecured burial, relatives of the woman also displayed symptoms of the virus, seven of whom died.

Ebola is a virus-caused hemorrhagic fever that in extreme cases causes fatal bleeding from internal organs, the mouth, eyes or ears. The average fatality rate among those infected is about 50 percent, according to WHO.

The latest outbreak comes after DRC officials declared an Ebola crisis in northwestern Equateur province over on July 24. That outbreak in May killed 33 people with 54 confirmed cases.

Health officials said a quick international response and the vaccination of more than 3,300 people were decisive factors in containing the virus.

The worst Ebola epidemic occurred between 2013 and 2016 when it killed about 11,300 people in West Africa as it surged through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

Ebola is passed from human-to-human by contact through the mouth, nose, or broken skin with blood or other bodily fluids by those infected.

Humans contract the virus  which takes its name from the DRCs Ebola River  from infected animals, typically fruit bats, chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys.
The announcement comes as the government continues to battle armed groups in the desert region.

Egypts military says it has killed 52 fighters in the Sinai Peninsula over the past few days as part of its ongoing efforts to eliminate armed groups in the sparsely populated desert region.

The army announced in a statement on Sunday that security forces had additionally destroyed 15 vehicles laden with weapons and ammunition while trying to infiltrate its western border and 17 more in the southern military region.

Over the last few days, the operations have led to  the elimination of 52 extremely dangerous  individuals, the military said in a statement.

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During these operations in North Sinai and the centre of the peninsula, 49 fighters were also arrested in joint raids conducted by the armed forces and the police, the statement added.

The deaths bring to more than 300 the number of fighters killed in the operation that the Egyptian army, backed by police and other security forces, launched in February as part of a campaign to eradicate armed groups responsible for a surge in violence in the desert region.

Armed groups began proliferating after the 2013 military overthrow of the countrys first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

Defeating armed groups and restoring security has been a promise of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was re-elected in March in a landslide victory against no real opposition.

Sisis critics say his presidency has brought a harsh crackdown on dissent, but supporters say such measures are needed to stabilise Egypt, which was rocked by years of unrest after protests toppled veteran leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Explainer: How important is Syrias Idlib?

What are the humanitarian and regional consequences of launching a military offensive in the last remaining rebel stronghold?
Germany opens refugee anchor centres amid criticism

Critics say move to hold asylum seekers in centres until their right to stay is determined further isolates the refugees.
Idlib offensive: Russia and Turkey stall fighting

Syrian governments ally Russia appears to be giving Turkey a chance to stabilise opposition-controlled northwestern province, home to almost three million people, by fulfilling agreed-upon commitments in the so-called Astana process.
Arrest of Ahmad Araghchi, who was a vice-governor at the bank in charge of forex, comes as currency woes continue.

The Iranian central banks top foreign exchange official has been arrested, according to a judiciary spokesperson, as tensions rise in advance of the imminent return of sanctions by the United States.

Ahmad Araghchi, who was a vice-governor at the bank in charge of forex, was arrested along with several other unnamed individuals, including a government clerk and four currency brokers, state broadcaster IRIB cited spokesperson Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeie as saying on Sunday.

The arrests come as Iranians brace for the reimposition of US sanctions on Tuesday, following Washingtons withdrawal from a multinational nuclear deal with Iran.





Meanwhile, news of protests continues to filter in from around the country, driven by concerns over water shortages, the economy and wider anger at the political system.

Journalists reported a heavy build-up of riot police on Sunday night, including at least one armoured personnel carrier, in the town of Karaj, just west of Tehran.

The town has seen days of unrest.

State media said protesters attacked and tried to burn down a seminary in the area on Friday night, and that at least one person was killed, allegedly by demonstrators.

There have been days of sporadic protests, including in key cities such as Isfahan, Mashhad and Shiraz  but severe reporting restrictions have made it impossible to verify social media footage and official accounts.

Easing forex rules

The government of President Hassan Rouhani has also faced heavy criticism from conservative opponents, who have demanded action on corruption and renewed efforts to rescue the economy.

On Sunday, his cabinet announced it was easing foreign exchange rules, undoing a disastrous attempt to fix the value of the rial in April.

The April decision  combined with fears over US sanctions  fuelled a run on the currency that saw it lose more than half its value.





On Saturday, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani, one of the countrys top religious figures, said economic corruptors must face justice.

People are upset when they hear that someone has embezzled billions while other people are living in tough conditions, he said in a speech, according to the conservative Tasnim news agency.

Araghchi, a nephew of Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, was reportedly fired by the new governor of the central bank on Saturday, apparently over his handling of the currency crisis.

Rouhani sacked the governor of the central bank, Valiollah Seif, last week and replaced him with Abdolnasser Hemati, the former head of Central Insurance of Iran.

Hemati is due to unveil more details of the new foreign exchange policy on Monday.

It will allow the reopening of high street currency exchange bureaus that were shut down in April, although they will face stricter monitoring.

Essential items will still be available at the official government exchange rate of around 42,000 rials to the US dollar, while other importers will negotiate rates with exporters.

The unofficial rate for the rial fell to a record 119,000 last week, before rallying in response to the governments efforts to address the crisis, and stood at 98,500 on Sunday night.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is expected to appear before the countrys parliament to discuss with members the future of the Iran deal and the US sanctions, said Al Jazeeras Zein Basravi, reporting from Tehran.

This government, no doubt, wants to be seen to be doing something about the allegations, the perception of corruption, among top officials, especially in light of the [currency] rial is falling so drastically.
Many European temperatures exceed the normal range, especially at night. And theres more to come.

Despite the recent soaring temperatures, the record for the hottest day in Europe has not yet been broken  it still stands officially as 48C, recorded in Greeces capital, Athens.

According to Weather Underground, a reading of 48.5C was observed at Catenanuova, Italy, on August 10, 1999. Maximiliano Herrera, a weather records expert, suggests that this reading is more consistent with nearby observations than the Athens reading, and thus more likely to be the highest reliably measured temperature in European history.

Either way, the absolute record has not been reached, let alone exceeded. However, many more local records have indeed fallen this hot weekend.

In Portugal, the capital Lisbon made a new mark on Saturday with a temperature in the city of 44C, beating the standing record by over a degree Celsius. This is still over three degrees below the national record.

Maybe more uncomfortable was the high level of heat retained overnight, making sleeping difficult without air-conditioning, and was just as hard on farm animals and wildlife.

The night minimum made new warm records in Portugal, as well, with Lisbon recording 29.1C and, inland from the capital, in Portalegre at 32.2C. In Spain, the capital Madrid recorded the warmest ever August night at 26C.

Perpignan, on the Mediterranean coast of France, just beyond the Pyrenees, created a new warm night record on Friday night, not dropping below 30.3C.

Throughout the Rhone Valley, Saturday brought a warm night; Lyon, at 25.7C, stayed warmer than the existing record, set in 1983, by 0.8C.

Barcelona Airport started Sunday morning at 27.3C, a new record, from an archive that goes back to 1924.

For Iberia, the heat will now likely decline a little as the mass of warm air travels over France and Germany. The forecast maximum temperature for Berlin, on Tuesday, is 39C. That would be a new record.
In advance of runoff, opposition leader files complaints of ballot box stuffing and other violations, says spokesman.

Opposition candidate Soumaila Cisse is mounting a legal challenge in Malis constitutional court alleging ballot box-stuffing after he came in a distant second to incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in the first round of the countrys presidential election.

Keita won 41.42 percent of votes in the July 29 presidential poll, easily ahead of Cisse with 17.8 percent.

They will face off in a second-round runoff on Sunday, August 12.

Soumaila Cisse filed last night (Saturday) around 20 submissions to the constitutional court for ballot box-stuffing, violations of the electoral law and other irregularities, a spokesman for the candidate told the AFP news agency on Sunday.

The ballot box-stuffing explains IBKs tallies in the north and centre of the country, the spokesman added, using Keitas initials.

He said a motion had also been filed seeking the recusal of six of the courts judges on suspicion of bias, including its president, Manassa Danioko.

After the vote, Cisse  a former finance minister  has called for a broad democratic front against Keita, and his party said the new collective challenge was backed by 17 of the 22 eliminated first-round candidates.

Third-placed Aliou Boubacar Diallo, who won 7.95 percent of the July 29 vote, also filed a complaint to the constitutional court concerning the results and the vote tallying, his spokesman Cheick Diallo told AFP.

The nine-judge constitutional court must officially announce the results of the first round by Wednesday to kick off campaigning for the runoff vote  which Keita is heavily favoured to win.





When questioned by AFP, the courts secretary-general Mamadou Magassouba said he could not confirm receipt of Cisses submission because such requests come in confidentiality.

He also declined to comment on allegations of bias in the court.

Cisse, 68, whom Keita defeated in a 2013 runoff vote, has called the latest vote results neither sincere nor credible and a fraud.

Violence disrupted the first-round election in several areas beset by ethnic unrest and armed group attacks despite the deployment of 30,000 security personnel.

The international community, including the UN mission in the country, MINUSMA, and French forces present in the country, have put high hopes in the poll which could revive a peace agreement signed in 2015 between the government, government-allied groups and former rebels.

Mali is one of the worlds poorest countries.
Police say at least four people arrested as far-right rally outnumbered by counter-demonstrators.

Police clashed with anti-fascists and other counter-protesters in Portland, Oregon, while far-right groups held a march in the northwestern US city.

As the far-right Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys groups marched in the streets for an event dubbed Freedom March, hundreds of police in riot gear rushed the counter-protesters, firing flash bangs and projectiles with pepper spray.

More than 1,000 counter-protesters took to the streets, outnumbering an estimated 400 far-right rally participants, according to local media reports.

Officers have continued to seize items that can be used as weapons throughout todays protests. pic.twitter.com/s5QsyxuKrI  Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 4, 2018

The chaotic clashes that took place during recent far-right rallies in the city by placing the heavily armoured officers between the opposing sides. At least four people were arrested during the fracas, the Portland Police Bureau wrote on Twitter.

The police declared a civil disturbance and claimed they spotted weapons among the counter-protesters, a charge the latter rejected, the local Oregonian news outlet reported.

Numerous times today cops claimed to be trying to disperse the anti-fascist crowd because we saw some weapons but the whole time they knew the other side actually had weapons and even cut a deal with them so they wouldnt be searched (as promised).https://t.co/2jN0OHuuON  Portland DSA (@PortlandDSA) August 4, 2018

Left-wing and anti-fascist groups decried the police response as heavy-handed, accusing the officers of almost exclusively targeting the counter-demonstrators.

At least one woman was hospitalised after sustaining injuries from a flash bang fired by officers, the local Willamette Weekly reported.

Among the groups rallying against the far-right event were the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, Popular Mobilization (Pop Mob) and a slew of anti-fascist organisations.

https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/1026000675417677825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Joey Gibson, leader of Patriot Prayer and a candidate for US Senate in neighbouring Washington state, organised the Freedom March, which brought a variety of far-right demonstrators and groups from out of state.

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The far-right participants showed up in helmets and body armour. One demonstrator, a member of Patriot Prayer, wore a T-shirt declaring Pinochet did nothing wrong, a reference to the Chilean dictator who killed thousands of political opponents.

Recent violence

The mayhem in Portland comes on the heels of several far-right rallies that descended into violence in recent months.

On June 30, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, a self-described western chauvinist mens club, attacked counter-demonstrators in the streets, punching them and using flagpoles as weapons.

On June 4, Patriot Prayer and other groups clashed with anti-fascists in the city.

The spate of violence prompted watchdogs and activists to worry that Saturdays rally could be another Charlottesville, referring to the August 12, 2017, white supremacist protest.

Police block a road during a rally by the Patriot Prayer group in Portland [Bob Strong/Reuters]

During that rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which was called Unite the Right, far-right groups clashed with anti-fascists, anti-racist activists and community members. The day ended with a demonstrator crashing his car into a crowd and killing 32-year-old anti-racist activist Heather Heyer.

Leading up to Saturdays event, Gibson spoke widely about bringing firearms.

In a Facebook video posted on June 30, he said: Weve always had guns at the rally  Everyone should be carrying around guns at all times.

Speaking to Alex Jones, host of the conspiracy theory website Infowars, Gibson reiterated his claim earlier this week: Weve always had guns at every single rally that we have; we just dont pull them out.

Media reports suggest that police did not carry out weapons searches on the far-right protesters.

In the past, white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis have participated in Patriot Prayers events.

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On August 12, the one-year anniversary of the deadly Charlottesville protest, far-right groups plan to hold Unite the Right 2 in Washington, DC.

Hundreds of people  among them Black Lives Matter activists, anti-fascists, anarchists and leftists  are expected to hold a counter-demonstration.
A suicide car bomb explodes near the gate of a military base in Afgoye before of presidents visit to the town.

At least three soldiers have been killed near Somalias capital, Mogadishu, in a suicide car bomb attack at a military base claimed by the al-Shabab armed group.

Sundays explosion took place near the gate of the base in Afgoye town, 30km south-west of Mogadishu, according to security officials and al-Shabab.

Police and military fired at a speeding suicide car bomb today and it exploded in Afgoye district. So far, we know three soldiers died, Captain Nur Ali, a police officer, told the Reuters news agency.

Al-Shabab claimed a higher death toll.

A suicide car bomb targeted Somali forces who were deployed ahead of President [Mohamed Abdullahi] Farmaajos visit in Afgoye. We killed 11 soldiers, Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shababs military operation spokesman, told Reuters.

Residents reported hearing a powerful explosion, followed by gunfire from the base.

Addow Isse, a resident in the town, said he saw at least three bodies lying in a pool of blood, according to The Associated Press news agency.

Colonel Ahmed Ali told AP that fatalities could increase from the 10 injured in the blast.

Three killed in Mogadishu

In a separate incident on Sunday, police said a car bomb parked in front of a restaurant at the busy street of Maka al-Mukaram in Mogadishu had exploded.

A car bomb exploded at a parking in front [of] a restaurant, Major Abdullahi Hussein, a police officer, told the Reuters news agency.

Abdikar Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulance services said: So far, we have taken two dead people and seven others are injured.

A Reuters witness said he saw three dead and the wreckage of three cars and an autorickshaw.

Earlier, Somali forces killed two fighters after a gun battle erupted briefly at a checkpoint in the capital, according to police.

Somalias military killed two armed militants at Benadir checkpoint. Two soldiers were slightly injured in the exchange of fire, Major Mohamed Abdullahi, a police officer, told Reuters.

Al-Shabab, which is fighting to overthrow Somalias government, routinely stages attacks.

The group was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 by Somali troops backed by African Union soldiers.
Once the final deal is signed, the foes will have three months to form a transitional government.

South Sudans warring parties have reached a power-sharing deal to end a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions in the worlds youngest country.

President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar were in neighbouring Sudan on Sunday to sign the deal, under which the rebel leader is set to return to a unity government as the first of five vice presidents.

The deal, which paves the way to a final peace accord, was signed in the presence of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his counterparts from Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, along with foreign dignitaries.

Once a final peace deal is signed, the foes will have three months to form a transitional government under the new format, which will then take effect for a further 36 months. A similar arrangement fell apart in July 2016 when fighting erupted in the capital, Juba, and Machar fled the country.

The agreement we have signed today must map the road to end the conflict and war in our country, Kiir said.

We have to concentrate on the implementation of the agreement and we have to work on uniting our people.

Machar urged the regional east African bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is pushing the latest peace talks, to ensure that the deal is implemented.

I want IGAD to focus on the implementation of the deal because devil lies always in the implementation, he said in his address.

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The talks come as part of a regional push aimed at achieving peace in the country, which plunged into a devastating conflict just two years after its independence from Sudan.

[Kenyan] President Uhuru Kenyatta has decided that further negotiations will continue in Khartoum and not in Nairobi, Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dierdiry Ahmed said at Sundays signing ceremony.

South Sudans nearly five-year conflict began after Kiir accused his then-vice president Machar of plotting a coup against him in 2013.

Several ceasefire agreements were signed and breached over the course of 2014, with millions of civilians being displaced as a result of the ensuing violence.

The two sides first agreed to share power in mid-2015. Peace reigned for a year before renewed fighting led Machar to flee the capital and declare the deal dead.

#SouthSudan|ess are on the streets in Juba celebrating the signed peace agreement in Sudan. The pictures show women, children and youth jubilating and singing songs of peace and joy. Signing of the agreement is one thing and implementation is another thing. Photo by Makat Deng. pic.twitter.com/eYiL1Yu9IN  Adhieu  W.A.P = Women Against Patriarchy (@modernemeid) August 5, 2018

Earlier in July, the two leaders preliminarily agreed to the power-sharing arrangement they signed on Sunday but 12 hours later, fighting resumed. Sundays deal is the 12th ceasefire and second power-sharing agreement.

The rival groups have already agreed on a permanent ceasefire and withdrawing of their forces from civilian areas, in talks mediated by Khartoum in series of dialogues hosted by al-Bashir.

The power-sharing deal stipulates that there will be 35 ministers in the bloated transitional government, including 20 Kiir allies and nine backers of Machar along with representatives of other rebel factions.
Director of Syrian research facility Aziz Asber died after his car was blown up in Masyaf near Hama.

The head of a Syrian research centre that the West accuses of being part of a chemical weapons programme was killed after his car exploded, reports said.

Aziz Asber, director of the Syrian Scientific Research Centre in Masyaf, a town close to the city of Hama, died in the blast, the pro-Syrian government newspaper al-Watan reported on Sunday.

[Asber] died after an explosion targeted his car in the Hama countryside, it said.

A UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also confirmed his death, which it said occurred on Saturday night.

Esber played a role in Syrias missile development programme and had close links with the government and its Iranian allies, the Syrian Observatory added.

His car was completely destroyed and his bodyguards were killed, an unidentified source told dpa news agency.

It is unknown who was behind the attack.





The Masyaf facility was previously hit by what the Syrian government said were Israeli raids in July, and in September last year, killing two people.

In April, coordinated missile strikes by the United States, Britain and France destroyed a Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre facility in Damascus, in response to a suspected gas attack that killed at least 70 civilians in Douma  a town in the former rebel-held city of Eastern Ghouta.

The triple assaults targeted three presumed chemical facilities.

The Syrian government, backed by Russia, has denied using or possessing chemical weapons.

An Israeli official declined to comment on reports of Asbers death when asked by the Reuters news agency.

In the past, Israel carried out several attacks inside Syria, targeting what it says are Iranian targets, mostly near the occupied Golan Heights.
Controversial leader says a drone with explosives was coming for me during televised speech in Caracas.

A drone loaded with explosives detonated near a military event where Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was giving a speech, but he escaped unharmed in what the embattled leader called an assassination attempt.

Seven people were wounded on Saturday in the apparent attack, which came as Maduro celebrated the National Guards 81st anniversary in the capital, Caracas.

Maduro later said everything points to a right-wing plot that an initial investigation suggested was linked to Colombia and the US state of Florida, where many Venezuelan exiles live. Several perpetrators were caught, he said, without elaborating.

This was an assassination attempt, they tried to assassinate me, Maduro said in a televised address. That drone was coming for me but there was a shield of love. I am sure I will live for many more years.

Later on Sunday, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said that six people had been detained over the incident.

One of the six suspects detained had a pending arrest warrant for a 2017 attack on a military base, and a second had been arrested in 2014 for participating in anti-government street protests, he said.

Earlier, a little-known group called the National Movement of Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility for the attack. In a series of posts on social media, the group said it planned to fly two drones but snipers shot them down.

We demonstrated that they are vulnerable. We didnt have success today, but its just a question of time, said the group.

It said it was founded in 2014 to bring together all of Venezuelas groups of resistance.

Attorney-General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Maduro, but rather the militarys entire high command on stage with the president.

Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Saab, adding he would give more details Monday.

We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela, Saab said.

Eyes to the sky

State television was broadcasting Maduros speech at the National Guard anniversary live when the incident took place.

We are going to bet for the good of our country, Maduro declared triumphantly moments before the sound of an explosion pierced the air. The hour of the economic recovery has come.





Seconds later Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up to the sky and winced.

The cameras then turned to a wide shot of uniformed military officers standing at attention in neat lines as they broke rank and began running. The transmission then cut off. Images shared on social media showed officers surrounding Maduro with what appeared to be black bullet-proof shields as they escorted him from the site.

Smoke could be seen coming out a building window.

Firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the governments version of events, The Associated Press reported.

The news agency cited three local officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying the incident was actually a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near the site of Maduros speech.

The president didnt comment on the firefighters accounts.

Colombia denial

Maduro named Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as being behind the attack, but gave no evidence to back that up.

The name of Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack  the initial investigations point to Bogota, Maduro said.

A Colombian government source told Reuters news agency that Maduros allegation was absurd, and that Santos was celebrating his granddaughters baptism on Saturday.

At least seven soldiers were injured in Saturdays incident [Xinhua via AP]

Political analyst Sonia Schott said it was not the first time Maduro has accused Colombia of intervening in Venezuela.

She told Al Jazeera, however, she believes Saturdays incident was probably started among Venezuelans  among this military group.

Schott pointed to an incident last year in which rogue police officer Oscar Perez hijacked a helicopter and fired at government buildings in what he said was an action against a dictator. Perez was later killed by Venezuelan forces. That incident took place in the face of near-daily protests in the country.

Economic catastrophe

Venezuelas government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of countries.

Maduro, a former bus driver who replaced former president Hugo Chavez after his death in 2013, has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic catastrophe.

The country is suffering under the fifth year of a severe economic crisis that has sparked malnutrition, hyperinflation and mass emigration.

The president says he is battling an imperialist plot to destroy socialism and take over Venezuelas oil. Opponents accuse him of authoritarianism, saying he has destroyed a once-wealthy economy and ruthlessly crushed dissent.
European Union condemns attacks on civilians after dozens killed and calls on combatants to commit to negotiations.

Yemen has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, the European Union said, demanding the protection of civilians who continue to die in the three-year-old conflict.

An EU statement on Saturday highlighted the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which recently witnessed a bloody assault that killed at least 55 people and was blamed on air strikes by the Saudi-Emirati coalition fighting there. An alliance spokesman denied responsibility for the carnage.

The consecutive air strikes in the city of Hodeidah have once again claimed dozens of lives with many people injured, the EU statement said.

This is a tragic reminder that in Yemen the international humanitarian law  in place to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in times of war  continues to be broken on a daily basis.

Yemeni government forces  backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates  launched a major operation to retake Hodeidah and its strategic seaport from Houthi rebels in June.

Hodeidah has been under the control of the Houthis since 2014, and was responsible for delivering 70 percent of Yemens imports  mostly humanitarian aid, food and fuel.





The Saudi-UAE alliance accuses the Houthis of smuggling weapons through Hodeidahs port.

22 million in need

More than 121,000 people have fled the city since the start of the offensive, according to a United Nations report.

The EU condemned the bombing of densely populated areas and the destruction of schools, medical facilities, residential areas, markets, water systems, ports and airports.

Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014 when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

With logistical support from the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have carried out attacks inside Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstate the internationally recognised government of President Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has repeatedly accused regional rival Iran of arming the rebels, allegations the Houthis and Iran deny.

At least 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting and more than 22 million are in dire need of assistance.

Genuinely commit

The UN had been trying to broker a deal in a bid to avert an all-out assault on the city, which it fears would further hinder Yemenis access to food, fuel and medicine, worsening the crisis.

On Thursday, the UNs special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said he plans to invite the countrys warring factions to hold talks in the Swiss city of Geneva on September 6.

Griffiths said he hopes the meeting will allow the government and Houthi rebels to discuss the framework for negotiations, to agree on relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward.

The EU urged the combatants to genuinely commit to the current UN diplomatic agreement.

The only solution that can put an end to the extreme suffering of the Yemeni people is a negotiated political solution, it said.
Zimbabwe election row: Opposition supporters denied bail

Bail has been refused for more than 20 supporters of Zimbabwes opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, charged with inciting violence in Harare on Wednesday.
A major socialist shop in the UK capital says it has been targeted by a group of mask-wearing fascists, in an attack condemned by politicians, authors and activists.

Bookmarks, which describes itself as Britains largest socialist bookshop, said the incident took place on Saturday evening just before closing.

Twelve men invaded the shop  destroying displays, wrecking books and chanting Alt-right slogans. One was wearing a [US President] Donald Trump mask, the central London store said in a Facebook post.

They attempted to intimidate staff and customers and to destroy books and materials. Fortunately, no one was hurt. We will not let this happen! Never Again!

Earlier that day a far-right protest had taken place in central London against the censorship of conspiracy theory website Infowars. Protesters were reportedly seen carrying placards also held by those who attacked the store.

Books on Islamophobia were ridiculed and thrown around. They chanted about Muslims and paedophilia, and called us traitors. While not mentioning Tommy Robinson the links are there to see, said a Bookmarks staff member, according to a press release by the Stand Up to Racism campaign group.

Tommy Robinson is a founder of the far-right English Defence League, which has organised protests against Muslim immigrants.





The far-right activists also shouted about Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party and about anti-semitism. They took Abram Leons The Jewish Question off the shelf holding it aloft as proof of the anti-semitism of the left, the press release read.

The attackers also made threats to return to show what they can do.

Luckily no one was hurt this time, but this is a sinister development that indicates the growing confidence of the far right who feel they can attack a bookshop in central London in broad daylight. Attacking a bookshop also exposes their claims to be defenders of free speech as hollow, Michael Bradley, a member of Stand Up to Racism said.

Member of parliaments with the Labour opposition party, as well as many authors, were among those expressing their solidarity with Bookmarks on Sunday.

Free speech and independent bookshops  under threat in an age where intolerance and Amazon flourish  should be cherished. Utterly despicable Huq wrote.

Free speech and independent bookshops  under threat in an age where intolerance and Amazon flourish  should be cherished. Utterly despicable https://t.co/93Qoh8G1cH  Rupa Huq MP (@RupaHuq) August 5, 2018

The normalisation of far-right politics is already leading to chaos and vandalism on our streets. Fascist thugs attacking bookshops is the logical conclusion to a political movement which rejects facts and experts, said David Lammy, also a Labour MP.

We need to be vigilant.

The normalisation of far right politics is already leading to chaos and vandalism on our streets. Fascist thugs attacking book shops is the logical conclusion to a political movement which rejects facts and experts. We need to be vigilant.https://t.co/5bhoWPWTZm  David Lammy (@DavidLammy) August 5, 2018

One neednt wonder what coverage Muslims attacking a bookshop would get, wrote Miqdaad Versi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Islamophobes attacked a bookshop. A staff member said: "Books on Islamophobia were ridiculed and thrown around. They chanted about Muslims and paedophilia, and called us traitors." One needn't wonder what coverage Muslims attacking a bookshop would get. https://t.co/XgQHqlrVYx  Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) August 5, 2018

What happened @Bookmarks_books this evening is the perfect illustration that the far-right's demands for freedom of speech will only end with them burning books and ending freedom of speech for everyone.  TonyCross (@Lokster71) August 4, 2018

Horrifying to hear this. An attack on a bookshop is an attack on all that is civilised. #NoPasaran  Anna Sayburn Lane (@BloomsburyBlue) August 4, 2018

Bookmarks said it will hold a solidarity event on August 11, inviting authors to read and speak at the bookshop.

Drop in and stand against those who would destroy books, reads their post on Twitter.
The portion of the meeting that was televised set off a political storm. The black pastors that were seen sitting around the table with President Trump were viciously verbally attacked by other liberal black clergy, liberal journalists and their own congregants. These black pastors experienced such a backlash until they were forced to defend meeting with the President of the United States.

President Trump invited a group of black pastors to the White House for a meeting on prison reform. According to one of the pastors, this was the second meeting to discuss this issue. Pastor Darrell Scott, the CEO Urban Revitalization Coalition for the Trump Administration, had a leadership role in scheduling the meetings.

Sitting next to President Trump, Pastor John Gray, the head of Relentless Church in Greenville, was asked by the President to pray before the meeting. The criticism that he received from his own congregants was so fierce that he issued a long statement on his meeting with Trump on social media:

Optics. Its never about what it is. Its about what it looks like. My wife told me If you go, no one will hear what you say. They wont understand why youre there. And any good that could come out of it will get lost in translation. Wise words from a loving, discerning wife. I had not one thing to gain by being there. Not. One. But I asked the Lord when I was asked to be present in this initial meeting about potential prison reform-that could greatly end up benefitting many people who look just like me-Lord, Do you want me in that room? My first mind was no. The pain of so many is too real. The hurt. The isolation. The sense of disenfranchisement. The real hate that has bubbled to the surface of the national discourse. I myself have been vocal about my personal disagreements with key policy decisions of this administration. I have everything to lose. Credibility. Reputation. Every natural inclination says stay home. Dont get played. But I did the one thing I cant shake: I prayed again and asked God. Do you want me in that room? My attendance gives the answer. My heart was pure as was my motive and intention. But the pain of those who have been hurt is real. And I would be a dishonorable man not to acknowledge that. But I will honor what I believe was the mandate on my life to be there and available to God should He choose to give me voice. This post is in no way attempting to invalidate the visceral reaction of those who cant imagine why I would be in the room. The question becomes who did Jesus turn away from? This said, I went to this meeting to listen. And I do pray for comprehensive prison reform so people can have the second chance they need. And I also understand the pain and questions. May my heart translate beyond the optics. (OH YEAH, the pastor who said the current president was the most pro-Black president ever WAS NOT ME-so get that STRAIGHT) love yall.

Referencing his statement, I have a few questions for Pastor Gray. Why would meeting and being seen sitting next to the President of the United States be bad optics? Why would your congregants not understand why you were there when it was clearly stated that it was a meeting on Prison Reform?

What exactly are the Trump administrations policies that has caused pain, hurt, isolation and disenfranchisement to your congregants?

And finally, why would you lose your honor, reputation and credibility by meeting and being seen with the President of the United States?

It appears that Pastor Gray himself has played a role in how his congregants view President Trump. Are we to believe that he is not somewhat responsible for the lies and distortion about the president? He claims that he prayed and God told him to meet with the president. If God did indeed tell him to meet with President Trump, why would he feel the needed to justify it to anyone else, including going on CNN and defending the meeting to Don Lemon?

I believe all of my questions can be answered with just the knowledge that Pastor Gray has a reality show on Oprah Winfreys OWN network. Yes, this supposedly Christian pastor is in contract with Oprah Winfrey, a woman who has mocked Jesus, contradicts the Bible and claims there are many paths to God.

Alabama Pastor Van Moody had to defend meeting with President Trump as well. He did not tell his congregation about the meeting at the White House in advance because the invitation came on short notice. After being seen sitting at the table with President Trump and making a statement, he too received harsh criticism. He claims his words were taken out of context. He was attacked on social media for saying all people

In reading a prepared statement, he said, "Much has been made about my comments to President Trump yesterday about 'caring for all people,' as some individuals have incorrectly interpreted that statement to mean a blanket endorsement of everything he has done. That was not the intent of my statement." Moody said he would have worked with the Obama administration on the same issues if he had been invited. I was never invited to the White House in the Obama administration," Moody said. "This is also something I've wrestled with. I wish I could have gone, but I was never invited." Pastor Moody said that he did not know that President Trump would be attending the meeting (only the pastors were at the previous meeting) and was surprised when he walked in. He had the following to say about President Trump after meeting with him: Trump seemed to be genuinely concerned about the issue of prison reform, Moody said. "He came in and talked about his desire for prison reform," Moody said. "It wasn't pompous, it wasn't arrogant, it wasn't egotistical." He wanted to have some input to make sure the plan was fair to minorities, he said.

Both Pastors Gray and Moody say they are Democrats and have not supported Republicans. Both claim to have publicly disagreed with President Trumps immigration policy of separating kids from their parents at the border, the same policy that President Obama enforced that has been on the books since 1997.

My question is why are black pastors even concerned about illegal immigration? Is it because thats what their Democrat bosses told them and their congregations to support? The Democratic Party and the black church are no longer hiding the fact that they do not care for black Americans and are only concerned with remaining in power. The black pastors have abandoned their congregants while brainwashing them at the same time. They have successfully convinced black people that the illegal immigrants struggle is equal to theirs and therefore President Trump is racist for not allowing open borders. Al Sharpton went as far as claiming that the illegal immigrants are our brothers and sister. I am beyond dismayed at the inability of most black people to think for themselves.

Contact the author at patdickson@earthlink.net. Follow me on twitter @Patrici15767099 & https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8fKk4GVLHTR13VkrMQH1Tw
In a departure from reporting the news, this past week the Gray Lady became the news, stepping in a big steaming pile of controversy over their hiring of Sarah Jeong for their editorial board.

The Gray Lady, also known as the New York Times, is the paper of record for the smart set in America. News rooms from CNN to MSNBC follow the lead of the Times in preparing their daily news reports.

She is a technology writer who few ever heard of until hired by the Times. Not as a mere writer but as one of eleven on the editorial board whose, Primary responsibility is to write The Timess editorials, which represent the voice of the board, its editor and the publisher.

Photo credit: Janne Rakkolainen va Flickr

Just as the print New York Times is archived for the ages, in digital or microfilm format, so are the musings and tweets of Ms. Jeong. Within hours of her being hired, her tweet history came to light, dozens of racist anti-white tweets. Heres a sampling.

Oh man its kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men, she wrote in one. White people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on fire hydrants, she wrote in another. #CancelWhitePeople, another said.

How will her white hatred go over at her first editorial board meeting? Take a look at the current NY Times editorial board. Of eleven members, eight are white, and five could be characterized as old white men to whom Ms. Jeong enjoys being cruel.

What fun it would be to be a fly on the wall in her first board meeting. Will she be the one to apologize? Or will the eight white board members apologize for being white, embarrassed over their white privilege?

Such apologies are the rage among the enlightened left. In Australia, nurses and midwives are now required to acknowledge their white privilege before treating patients. Will the white editorialists at the NY Times now issue a white privilege disclaimer at the beginning of their editorials?

How ironic that Roseanne Barr lost her job after one racist tweet. Or a writer hired by the NY Times, Quinn Norton, who was fired just hours after being hired based on old tweets and retweets slurring blacks and gays.

Good thing Ms. Jeong didnt disparage black, gays, Muslims, or any other protected group in any of her tweets, otherwise she would already be out of a job. Instead she attacked whites and men, two groups, that the left can demean and belittle with impunity and without consequence.

In fact, its virtuous to express racism toward whites or sexism toward men, worthy of praise and defense. The NY Times stands by their newest hire, racist tweets and all.

So be it. As a corporation, they can hire whoever they want. Even a vile racist. What a fun first-time meeting she will have with the editorial board. But since they are the ones that hired Ms. Jeong, she will likely be welcomed with open arms, a kindred spirit in the war against white privilege.

If the board really believes that, then all the white board members should resign, to be replaced by other Ms. Jeongs, racists of color like April Ryan or else Michelle Wolf. The NY Times should live by their ethical standards. Fat chance of that ever happening.

Brian C. Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Experts predict: Men, women, heterosexuals will sweep midterm elections

The New York Times loves to write about identity groups, but only certain ones. So if you're heterosexual; a man who is certain he's a man; or, increasingly, a woman who's certain she's a woman, you're not going to find a lot of articles about your identity group in the Times  unless, of course, your identity group has been "oppressing" other identity groups. That's why it takes inferences from a breathless article talking about the "LGBTQ" community to figure out the good news. According to the Times, 400 gays, lesbians, women disguised as men, and men disguised as women are running for office. The article states that there are already 500 elected officials who either prefer sodomy or like to cross-dress, but these 500 make up about 0.1% of elected officials. That means, therefore, that, even if this crop of 400 all win their races, 99.8% of elected officials will still be heterosexuals, men who call themselves men, and women who call themselves women.

But expect the Times to focus on the tiny percentage who win. The article focused on Christine Hallquist, who is looking to make history as the first man dressed as a woman to become governor of Vermont. The Times stressed that by electing gays, lesbians, and disguised men and women, we help bring their unique sexual perspective to legislating, as if there is a gay point of view for trade policy, a lesbian point of view of foreign policy, and a transvestite perspective on the national debt. Liberals think there are distinct points of view based on one's sexuality, or whom one has sex with, or skin color, or whatever. If normal people held the same view, they'd be labeled racist, sexist, trans-Islamophobic, or whatever. And that's why every "achievement" by a victim class, however tiny, is trumpeted, and every achievement by a non-favored identity group is ignored. That's how we get to an article proclaiming victory for "LGBTQ" when they are running a relatively small number of candidates, rather than an article talking about overwhelming dominance of heterosexual and undisguised men and women. Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.
No other details have been released, but expect the series to promote a hard-left agenda. The current Star Trek series on the air, Star Trek: Discovery, practices a new level of identity politics featuring a black female lead, a homosexual romance between the chief engineer and the doctor, and the only white heterosexual male killed from the show in the first season. We can only expect a revival of Star Trek: The Next Generation to push the left-wing agenda even harder.

Seventy-eight-year-old Patrick Stewart, who played the wildly popular Captain Picard on the 1980s series Star Trek: The Next Generation, is returning to the role in a new Star Trek series.

Here are some possibilities:

1. Millions of Klingons migrate to Earth, fleeing criminal gangs of Pakleds and Ferengi. When they arrive, they tax the resources of Earth, each demanding their own government-paid starship, transporter, and shuttle craft, and that Klingon be the primary language in schools, businesses, and communicator voice menus, prompting a nativist surge that Captain Picard has to counter.

2. Data, the android, decides that being male is too limiting, so instead, he decides to be both sexes: male in front and female in back. His head can swivel from front to back depending on which persona he wishes to emulate at any given moment, responding to the name "Data" in the front and "Lal" in the rear. Later, Riker is nearly court-martialed when he misgenders Data, calling Data "he" and "him" instead of "they" and "them."

3. Picard visits a planet that uses replicator technology to replicate an unlimited amount of money to make all its citizens wealthy. It's an entire planet where everyone is exactly equal. Everyone is happy  until the citizenry forms mobs that start to riot when they realize that one of the citizens has a swimming pool and the rest don't.

4. Captain Picard, who learns that the warp drive is polluting the environment, starts a campaign to dismantle all starships. When he is successful, he learns that it was all a sham and the evidence supporting this theory originated with the Romulans.

5. Picard's old first officer, Riker, goes to a planet with no biological sex and falls in love with one of the genderless people. He lobbies the Federation, with Picard's help, to pay to have his sex beamed out of his body so he can be in wedded bliss. Picard himself performs the risky transporter procedure.

6. An alien humanoid with a putty forehead seizes the Enterprise and proceeds to photon-torpedo the richest ZIP codes on his planet, all in an effort to reduce inequality of income in his planet's population. Picard retakes the ship and lectures him on the merits of steeply progressive taxation before releasing him.

7. Dr. Beverly Crusher and her son Wesley Crusher emerge from a static warp bubble and suddenly realize that she is really her son and he is really her mother, and they get corrective surgery.

8. Picard persuades Starfleet to stop patrolling the Federation's borders and to allow undocumented aliens to cross at will. Later, when the Earth has been transformed into a Borg supercomputer network, Picard mulls the morality of his actions over a cup of Earl Grey while staring at his goldfish in his ready room.

9. Picard encounters a crystalline entity that survives by eating people. Picard, obeying the Endangered Species directive, provides the crystalline entity with a database listing Federation colonies, helpfully putting asterisks by the ones with the most overweight populations.

10. Holographic computer programs demand the right to vote. Picard lobbies the Federation to make it happen, and when it does, the holograms make 10 billion copies of themselves, vote themselves into power, and change the name of the Federation to Simulation.

11. Picard investigates to find out why Starfleet has so many more black people than Chinese people. He finds out that Chinese people have higher test scores generally but score lower on so-called "personality tests." Satisfied, he ends his investigation there.

12. Two alien races, one with putty on their foreheads and one without, are in conflict with each other. They are identical in every way except for the putty. Picard mediates and determines that the species with the putty is more virtuous and must be obeyed.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.

Image: Abbyarcane via Wikimedia Commons.
As with the two previous demonstrations, the group was confronted by a coalition of far left groups, including many masked members of Antifa, who don't think the citizens of Portland should be exposed to alternate viewpoints. There were a few fist fights and some rock throwing at police by both sides, but few arrests and no widespread damage.

For the third time this summer, Patriot Prayer's Joey Gibson brought his group to Portland to exercise their freedom of speech in a city that doesn't believe in that basic right.

New York Post:

Among the things police confiscated were long sticks and homemade shields. Just before 2 p.m., police in riot gear ordered people to leave an area downtown, saying demonstrators had thrown rocks and bottles at officers. Get out of the street, police announced via loudspeaker. Gibsons insistence on bringing his supporters repeatedly to this liberal city has crystallized a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in many other cities around the U.S. West, including Berkeley, California, that have drawn violent reactions. But the Portland events have taken on outsized significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathizer was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defense of two young black women  one in a hijab  whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017. A coalition of community organizations and a group representing more than 50 tribes warned of the potential for even greater violence than previous rallies if participants carry guns. It called on officials to denounce what it called the racist and sexist violence of Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys and protect the city. Gibson, who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, said in a live video on Facebook earlier this week that he wont stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can express their right-wing views without interference. Self-described anti-fascists  or antifa  have been organizing anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys in the streets. Organizers say that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs. Patriot Prayer is continuing to commit violence in our city, and their events are becoming more and more violent, said Effie Baum of Pop Mob, a coalition of community groups organizing the counter-demonstration. Leaving them a small group to attack in the streets is only going to allow them to perpetuate their violence.

Patriot Prayer is a fringe right group, but expressly anti-violence and does not espouse white nationalist views. But the "alt right" continues to show up at Patriot Prayer rallies, which makes the group a ridiculously easy target for the far left.

Gibson's heart is exactly in the right place but his naivete (or disinterest) in not disassociating his group from the violent far right groups that show up at his rallies severely damages his cause. His point is very simple; citizens should be able to express their views, even in the most liberal cities of America, without fear of having their heads bashed in. But giving the Antifa thugs an excuse to commit acts of violence against them by not eliminating the crazies from his demonstrations only makes it easier to lump the issue of free speech in with the toxic white nationalist agenda.

Portland, Berkeley, Seattle - all of these cities and more need more diversity of thought. And if the only way to accomplish that goal is to risk life and limb then more power to the protesters. But as a practical political matter, Patriot Prayer will not accomplish much as long as they leave themselves wide open to attacks from left wing thugs who are desperate to silence alternative viewpoints at all costs.
Pocahontas and Krazy Kamala shamelessly pander for Nutroots support

The "Netroots," derisively  and accurately  called the "Nutroots" by some, is a group of hard-left activists who provide the ready foot soldiers when the left goes to electoral war. So would-be 2020 Democratic presidential candidates appeared before them, each trying to appear more insanely left-wing than the others, in an attempt to curry favor with the certifiably politically insane. Most prominent among them was Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Caucasian-American pretending to be an Indian-American, and Senator Kamala Harris, an Indian-American who prefers to emphasize being African-American. Senator Cory Booker was also there, almost as an afterthought, probably for comic relief. (He posed for a photo with an anti-Israeli sign and then claimed he forgot to read it.)

Warren warmed up the crowd, saying she is for "economic justice." The crowd went wild because they know that "economic justice" is a code word for redistribution of income. Then Warren tossed another buzz phrase: "reproductive rights." None of the women in the audience has ever been prevented from reproducing, unfortunately. Warren said she was worried about a "mom" getting shot during a traffic stop. Police bad! The crowd went wild. Warren said the rich are getting richer while people are holding down four jobs "just to pay the rent." I would have liked to see a show of hands from her audience of holders of four jobs. Warren complained that "corporate giants" are controlling "more and more and more." The entity that controls the most, the federal government, escaped Warren's notice. Big companies don't have the power to tax. They don't have the power to regulate. They don't have the power to force people to buy things, like health insurance. Only government does. Government has gotten bigger and bigger, but more government is not the problem, Warren assures us  it's the solution. Harris tried to one-up Warren by specifically taking ownership of identity politics. Harris gave an example of it. She claimed that black women are the key force who helped Doug Jones win a Senate race in Alabama. Why black women were more important to Doug Jones than black men, or white women, or even white men, is not explained. I can only assume that black women were the most important in Jones's victory because Harris considers herself a black woman and at the very apex of the virtue totem pole. But in taking ownership of identity politics, Harris was not merely talking about giving victim groups undue credit for achievements. She was taking credit for the whole movement of sowing discord among races. Identity politics means pitting black people against white people, women against men, and citizens against illegal aliens, and Harris knows it full well. She gave a disingenuous example, but by embracing the term, Harris told the audience that she was embracing full class and race warfare. Cory Booker managed to find his way to the stage, read his prepared speech, and find his way off without incident. His staff hailed that as a strategic victory for the senator, proving that you can set the bar low enough so there are no losers, only winners. Like Sauron and Saruman competing for the allegiance of the Orcs, each will get a share of supporters to help fight for the 2020 nomination. The old white guys, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, not having the advantage of race or sex, knew better than to even show up. Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com. Image: Stefan Schubert via Flickr.
North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, violating UN sanctions, a report commissioned by the UN Security Council says.

The U.N. issued a report that says North Korea is still developing its nuclear program. The BBC reports it simply:

It also says Pyongyang has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products and has been trying to sell weapons abroad. The confidential report by a panel of independent experts was submitted to the UN Security Council on Friday. North Korea has so far not commented on the document's findings. Last week, US officials said Pyongyang appeared to be building new ballistic missiles despite recent warming ties with US President Donald Trump's administration and pledges to denuclearise.

The first deal signed by Trump and Kim states: "The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations." In other words, despite Trump's often over-the-top rhetoric  which we should all be used to by now, for he will never be another Silent Cal  he was also pragmatic and realistic. The negotiations will have to continue. Any final deal, however it ends up looking, will take time. Everyone knew this.

Yet it was still a positive development when Kim and Moon walked arm in arm across the border. Positive? No, unprecedented. Trump was allowed to celebrate it. The president's justified enthusia sm when he got Kim to sign the deal  the first step  was appropriate. It is reminiscent of Nixon meeting with the closed in, awful Chinese regime. How long did it take for the Chinese to open up and allow some measure of free (or freer) markets? A long, long time.

The report at the BBC further says the international community has agreed to keep the sanctions going. All the way back in December 2017, the South Korea navy seized a ship suspected of transporting oil to the evil and oppressive regime. That's a sign that the international community will have to be vigilant even today, and the recent report confirms it. When this community of questionable governments can agree on sanctions, then unity is a positive.

If the North Koreans gradually move toward a more open society but keep their nuclear program, then we will have to help them see that freer societies, relatively speaking, don't attack free societies.

There is no shame in being optimistic about the three-way dialogue among the U.S., North Korea, and South Korea. There is no need to sneer: "Toldya!" in light of the recent U.N. report.

As noted elsewhere, millions and millions of South Korean Christians over the decades have been praying for their northern cousins. It is going to take time to see their prayers answered.

This proclamation, echoing Reagan in Berlin to Gorbachev, is still valid: "Mr. Kim, tear down this wall!"

James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Another Fatal Flaw in 'Death Roe' and Protestant Work Ethic, Capitalism, and America's Founding.
So it's not all that clear whether the 'incident' that went down in Venezuela on Saturday afternoon, seen in this video here , was really an 'assassination attempt' on President Nicolas Maduro, from two drones carrying the moldable explosive known as C-4 , as the Venezuelan government claimed, or else the noise from a gas canister explosion from a nearby apartment building, as local firemen have alleged. (CBS had the best coverage overall, along with a Getty photo, here .)

What's also not known is who did it. Was it an internal coup, or something Colombia did, as Maduro has just a little too quickly claimed, or was it the sheer shambles of socialism as the country falls apart across the board, that led to the unscripted (or who knows, maybe scripted) explosion? Was it a combination of the two? Or, as Venezuelan Twitter dissidents have alleged, was it something the embattled Maduro set off himself, in a bid to win sympathy for himself along with an excuse to arrest dissidents?

With icy cold detachment, Pedro Burelli tweets the extent of the confusion:

But based on the pictures seen, here's one thing that isn't in question at all:

The military ran. It broke up like a mob of scared rabbits. They were the picture of chaos and disorder and it was all caught on camera. The whole grand parade Maduro was making a speech at the head of absolutely fell apart as the soldiers broke and fled in panic. It kind of looked like the Winter Palace scenes from the 1917 Russian Revolution, except in tropical Technicolor. Here is a CNN screengrab from a VTV report (VTV is a coopted private Venezuelan network that has long been tamed by the regime), which can be viewed in full on Youtube.

Among the troops, there didn't seem to be anyone injured or down in those parade areas as the trigger for the panic, although one man with three stars on his shoulders, probably a general near the stands, was later seen with a bloody face. That could support the gas explosion theory as setting off a panic. The single bloody face could also support the self-attack theory, since if there was a real attack, there would be a lot of bloody faces. However, based on what's seen in the film, the troops in formation did break apart in chaos in two very distinct sections of the parade line-up, which might support the two drones claim. So it's hard to say what happened, particularly with as dishonest a government as Maduro's making the claims.

Whoa. The dystopian future we should be worried about happening real timekiller drone strike against Venezuelan Pres Maduro. pic.twitter.com/P4f2TlEKxy  ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 4, 2018

The sorry specter of Venezuela's army falling into rapid disorder is one takeaway that we know the Maduroites didn't want to get out.

The other thing Maduro wouldn't have much interest in getting out is the expressions of panic on his own and the first lady's faces from the pictures. Never helpful for a strongman to look so very weak. Here is a screengrab from CNN and you can see the whole report on Youtube here.

A third problem for Maduro is that his security men looked like buffoons. Look at the chaos and the odd visages of his supposed security detail - look at that protective ... umbrella. Look at the mixed expressions signalling that not everyone was on the same page. The full RT video can be viewed here.

The fact that the state cameras cut off the footage and ran a dreamy film sequence of a white horse running (this was a Hugo Chavez favorite trope) was classic state censorship, proof they didn't want these sorts of pictures to get out. But they didn't censor all of it, and the sorry spectacle of a weak Venezuelan military of very little discipline pretty well signals that Maduro isn't all that well-protected.

Maduro's detested regime, which is in there by full-blown electoral fraud, (not a single nation of consequence supports the result of last May's vote) has already been subject to assorted quasi coup attempts. There was one last year when a disgruntled military man attacked the supreme court. Now there is this. And with valuable intelligence out there for all to see about the shambling state of Venezuela's military, you can bet there will be new efforts coming up to leverage that.

With word now out that Venezuela's military is panicky and easily startled, Maduro's enemies can only conclude that making a move on him means that the odds of success will likely be better than supposed, while the risk will be less and less obvious. From this, the one thing that can be concluded is that such acts will get increasingly bolder, more frequent, and more violent.
When will the Democrats throw out that old broken record?

Jobs numbers last week didn't meet expectations but were still positive, even before factoring in the reality that we are running out of employees to fill all the available jobs. In their official response, the Democratic leadership pulled out the same old broken record. DEMOCRATS RESPOND TO JULY JOBS REPORT: "Donald Trump's reckless policies continue to hurt millions of hardworking families. Despite the promises Donald Trump made to the American people, Trump's economy isn't helping most Americans," DNC chairman Tom Perez said in a statement. Nancy Pelosi also criticized Trump's policies, claiming that the report shows that only the wealthy and big corporations are benefiting from the Republican tax cuts.

BROKEN RECORD CIRCA JUNE JOBS REPORT: In response to the June jobs report, which at the time showed 213,000 new jobs and has since been revised up to 248,000 (!) jobs added to the economy, Perez insisted, "Donald Trump's reckless policies are hurting millions of hardworking families." Pelosi said, "[T]he American people deserve so much better than the raw deal they are getting from the cynical Republican special interest agenda." I thought Trump's special interest group was people wanting jobs. BROKEN RECORD CIRCA MAY JOBS REPORT: Pelosi hammered the May jobs report at the time, which showed 244,000 additional jobs, recently revised to 268,000 (!!) and 3.8% unemployment, referring to Trump's policies as reckless in her official statement: "May's jobs report shows that strong employment numbers mean little to the families hit with soaring new costs under the Republicans' watch[.] ... At the same time, the President's reckless policies are exploding gas prices, wiping out the few meager gains that some families should have received from the GOP tax scam, as wages remain stagnant." REALITY CHECK: Despite Pelosi's claims, a former Obama economic adviser argued that wages at the bottom of the pay scale seeing more significant growth. Jason Furman, who chaired President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, told CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, "You are actually seeing faster wage growth at the bottom than at the top." Then let's talk about 4.1% GDP, real wages rising at record pace, 3.9% unemployment, record low unemployment among blacks and Hispanics, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera... The Democratic Party leadership talking points are a broken record. To Tom, Nancy, and the rest of the Democrat establishment, I say, maybe what we need is more recklessness.
Democratic politicians running for this years mid-term elections taking place in November have been warned against using Android smartphones from Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, with the deterrent being issued by the Democratic National Committee based on spying concerns. CNN reports that the DNC opted for the move after learning that one Democratic organization in the country is considering the possibility of purchasing ZTE handsets for its staff, citing a source close to the party.

In a memo sent to all U.S. Democrats, DNC Chief Security Officer Bob Lord warned against the usage of ZTE and Huaweis devices for both work and personal purposes, stating that party members should refrain from obtaining such smartphones regardless of their low costs and even if theyre being offered for free, as per the same report. The email is understood to have been sent under the recommendation of FBI Director Christopher Wray who argued that all firms beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values should be prevented from acquiring any role in the telecommunications networks across the United States. In response to the statement, Huawei once again dismissed the allegation of posing a national security threat, arguing that its a privately owned company that isnt controlled by Beijing.

Huaweis long history of issues in the U.S. hence received yet another episode, whereas the warning against ZTE comes shortly after the firm in question barely escaped bankruptcy by having its Commerce Department-issued denial order over U.S. trade sanction settlement violations lifted last month. Both firms have effectively been stopped from conducting large-scale business in the country, with both still arguing Washington treated them unfairly, largely based on unfounded allegations. Last month, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted twelve Russian individuals for hacking the DNC in 2016 with the goal of influencing the outcome of the last stateside presidential election. Earlier this year, Mr. Mueller filed for similar indictments against thirteen other people and three companies from the same country.
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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
For those who want more aural pleasure from the Wrangler , our friends at Flowmaster are much obliged to source aftermarket solutions for the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6. For the time being, the company offers cat-back and axle-back exhaust systems. Depending on the model, options include a single exit, dual exit, as well as a high clearance kit.Now available through the Flowmaster website in the United States, the cheapest exhaust system is the cat-back model for the four-door Wrangler with the V6. At $425.97 out of the box, its not expensive considering that its made of 409S stainless steel and features a 2.5-inch muffler outlet.At the other end of the spectrum, $719.97 gets you the axle-back American Thunder with two exits for the two- and four-door Wrangler with the V6. The bolt-on package adds a visceral note to the exhaust sound of the Pentastar, though the Outlaw is the louder of the two options.In addition to exhaust systems and the high clearance kit that doesnt have a price yet, Flowmaster is much obliged to spruce things up with not one, but two performance air intake systems. These are priced at $359.97 and $389.97, respectively. Bear in mind, however, that neither can be sold in California and neither can be installed on vehicles with a body lift.Flowmaster categorizes their Wrangler exhaust systems in three brackets: Force II stands for mild, American Thunder is moderate, and Outlaw is described as the most aggressive of the three. Whichever one you choose, expect unsurpassed efficiency, durability, and the deep, rugged sound that will set your Jeep apart from the pack.At the time of writing, theres no word on aftermarket goodies for the 2.0-liter Hurricane four-cylinder turbo with mild-hybrid assistance. But knowing Flowmaster, its a matter of time until they roll out some newities.
In May, we reported that China's tech giants are sharing their secret sauce with mom-and-pop shops around the country, helping them join the digital revolution with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and e-commerce technologies.

What's next: The Chinese are taking their digitalization-in-a-box concept abroad  with the potential to fuel a grassroots retail revolution beyond China.

In a brewing war, China's retail giants are vying for the Southeast Asian market, with its super-high population density and lack of local retail competition.

On one front, JD.com, China's wildly popular online retailer, is opening an unmanned, high-tech shop in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

Customers walk in, grab what they need, and walk out. AI and facial recognition technology handles the checkout process automatically.

This is JD's first such store outside China, and the company wants to open more  as well as sell its retrofit kit to local Jakarta storekeepers who also want to digitize.

Why it matters: Amazon has developed and deployed unmanned retail technology in its Go store in Seattle. The difference is that JD and Alibaba are marketing their high-tech solutions to anyone who wants them.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's leadership crisis reached new heights when a drone strike targeted the president during a live broadcast of his speech to soldiers.

Why it matters: Maduro left the scene unwounded but, politically, the event will significantly damage his ability to rule. A viral video of the first lady and the military top brass looking scared, and images of soldiers running for cover, is just the latest illustration of how exposed the government is to crisis.

Maduro, former leader Hugo Chavez's designated successor to the presidency in 2013, has survived longer than expected:

This event constitutes the third time he has suffered a major public embarrassment on live television: A rogue actor attacked the podium when Maduro gave his first state of the union address in 2013; a working class assembly egged and jeered him last year; and now, he has suffered an apparent near-direct hit on a government event.

What's next:

The pressure against Maduro is coming from within his movement as much as from the opposition.

is coming from within his movement as much as from the opposition. Ruling party rival Diosdado Cabello may now see a new opportunity to capitalize on Maduro's weaknesses.

may now see a new opportunity to capitalize on Maduro's weaknesses. The event seems likely to re-catalyze opposition in the streets.

seems likely to re-catalyze opposition in the streets. The Trump administration may sense a new opportunity to exploit divisions through a new round of sanctions.

Michael McCarthy is a research fellow at American Universitys CLALS, an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Elliot School for International Affairs and the founder and CEO of Caracas Wire.
Imagine the United States entering simultaneous trade wars with China, India, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Ukraine, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Hong Kong, Brazil and Turkey.

The big picture: Judging by his tweets this morning, that might sound pretty good to President Trump. And if his economic adviser Peter Navarro had gotten his way last September, it could have happened. Axios has obtained a copy of a draft executive order Navarro put together last fall that would have imposed tariffs on every product imported from every country doing significant business with North Korea.

The tariffs would have been massive, and they would have gradually increased as high as 45%.

Between the lines: To my knowledge, this is the most expansive tariff proposal ever floated in the Trump administration. Its death is thanks to  well, just about everyone. Officials at Commerce, State, Treasury, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative all considered the proposal totally unworkable.

I have no evidence Trump ever saw this proposal, though he probably would have liked it.

Navarro's proposal came at a time when Trump was in an escalating fight with Kim Jong-un and was looking to ramp up his maximum pressure campaign against Pyongyang.

In response to an email sharing this reporting, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters replied: "We don't comment or give credence to allegedly leaked draft documents especially those that are purported to be almost a year old."

Why this matters: While many of Trump's top economic advisors view tariffs as taxes on the American people, Navarro is totally uncowed by the near-consensus. As long as hes in the administration, there will be a persistent, noisy, enthusiastic voice for the kind of tariffs that would make Sherrod Brown blush.

Read the full proposal:
South Sudanese president Salva Kiir has signed a peace deal and power-sharing agreement with rebel leader Riek Machar to bring an end to the country's bloody civil war, reports AFP.

Why it matters: The South Sudanese Civil War has killed thousands and displaced millions since fighting first broke out in 2013. Under the new agreement, the leaders of the two main warring factions will seek to form a unity government with Machar serving as the first of five vice presidents.
Few have successfully challenged Starbucks anywhere in the world. But now there is Luckin Coffee, a brazenly cool, VC-funded startup in China that, in an astonishing nine months, has swollen to more than 650 locations, a $1 billion valuation, and lots of buzz.

The quick take: We are talking a breakneck coffee war. Chic is Starbucks' greatest asset everywhere, but it is facing a determined rival in the homegrown Luckin, which wants to transform the uppity $5 latte into a more chill, mass-market product.

Why it matters: In both the U.S. and China, Starbucks is losing its mojo. Store traffic in the U.S. was down 2% in the last quarter, and Chinese sales dropped by the same percentage. In the U.S., the answer has been to raise prices. But in China, its drinks are already priced sky-high, and it will have to beat the plucky Luckin in product and service alone.

The latest: Determined to survive and hold onto its clear lead in the world's premier growth market, Starbucks last week announced a high-profile alliance with China's greatest e-commerce behemoth  Alibaba.

The alliance is meant to attack Luckin at its strength  fast delivery.

Luckin often delivers coffee to offices in 18 minutes, or even faster.

Starbucks says Alibaba's Ele.me food delivery affiliate will deliver within 30 minutes.

It's not clear that brute force will be sufficient in a market where once-stout brands can vanish when homegrown rivals prove they know China better. Think eBay and Uber, both of which were eclipsed by local Chinese brands. But Starbucks is going to try  and it starts out with serious advantages.

Since launching in China in 1999, Starbucks has grown to around 3,400 locations and captured some 80% of the market, per market research firm Euromonitor International, meaning that almost everyone in big cities knows about it.

"For me and my friends, we dont go to Luckin Coffee as often as we go to Starbucks," a 16-year-old Chinese girl told Axios by email, not wishing to identify her city. "I think that Luckin Coffee is more for people who are working and they want their coffee to be prepared fast."

She added, "True, Luckin Coffee is non-expensive compared with Starbucks but thats not critically affecting the fact that many people dont know Luckin Coffee if they dont drink coffee. My parents never liked coffee but they know Starbucks."

The big thing: Starbucks was where many Chinese consumers were introduced to coffee in the first place, and "it's still the brand people look for and crave," says Humphrey Ho of Hylink Group, China's largest digital advertising agency.

Still, the Chinese coffee market is embryonic: Chinese consumers drink about three cups of coffee per person per year, Euromonitor says. Compare that to 363 for Americans and 250 for Britons. That leaves plenty of room for upstarts.

Coffee sales grew 400% in 2016  and experts think the trend will continue, Euromonitor's Michael Schaefer tells Axios.

And Starbucks cannot necessarily count on its image. Yi Hao, a 21-year-old Chinese college student from Beijing, tells Axios, "I dont find Starbucks to be really cool. In terms of whether it is fashionable, the designs on their coffee mugs are pretty, but thats really it."

"To me, its just an ordinary coffee shop. There are many other brands of coffee like Costa," a U.K. brand.

What to watch: After rumors spread of the Starbucks-Alibaba alliance, Luckin announced that it had accelerated plans to deliver light snacks  at cut-rate prices compared with those of an unnamed competitor.
President Trump tweeted on Sunday evening about the ongoing California wildfires, stating that "bad environmental laws" have "magnified" the disaster and "made [it] so much worse."

"California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which arent allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!"

Our thought bubble, via Axios science editor Andrew Freedman: President Trump appears to be referring to endangered species protections, which mandate availability of water for some species. However, firefighters havent complained about lack of water for firefighting, but rather, the extreme nature of these fires.

The factors contributing to these fires include decades of national forest mismanagement and climate change, which is making summers hotter and drier than they otherwise would be.

The Trump administration is working on broad changes to the Endangered Species Act  as well as opening federal forests to logging, oil and gas drilling. This tweet appears to tie the fires to both policy goals  without any evidence that they are key factors in the states devastating fire season.

What they're saying:

Ryan Maue, a meteorologist who works with the Cato Institute: "Blue check marks: please take a deep breath and read up on California's forest management issues that are decades in the making. Governor Brown blames climate change for wildfires and avoids any meaningful conversation on policy solutions."

a meteorologist who works with the Cato Institute: "Blue check marks: please take a deep breath and read up on California's forest management issues that are decades in the making. Governor Brown blames climate change for wildfires and avoids any meaningful conversation on policy solutions." Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA: "Lost in recent conversation over # wildfire risk is the following point by @thirstygecko: Warming # climate & drying forests/vegetation across American West is clearly not the only relevant factor behind emerging era of megafires. But it is large & growing contributor. # CAfire # CAwx"

Go deeper: In vast stretches of the warming, drying American West, there is no well-defined wildfire season anymore.
Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order regarding measures to construct Yenikend-Kobar-Garaagajli road in Samukh region.

Under the presidential Order, the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency is allocated 4 million manats for the construction of the road connecting three residential areas with a total population of 4,000 people.
By Trend:

Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR will begin delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Pakistan in the coming months, Pakistan LNG Limited, an LNG terminal operator, told Trend.

SOCAR has become one of the winners of a tender to supply the company with LNG.

The LNG will be delivered in two cargoes, 140,000 cubic meters each. The first cargo will be shipped on October 10-11; the second on October 20-21.

Other winners of the tender, held on July 26, along with SOCAR, are Gunvor International, BB Energy and Trafigura Pte Ltd.

Pakistan's energy needs are 79.58 million tons of oil equivalent. Some 38 percent of these needs are met with natural gas, 34 percent with oil, and 6 percent with LNG and other resources.

Pakistan is increasing LNG intake amid increasing demand for gas and decline in production.
Saudi Arabia resumed oil exports via Bab al-Mandab Strait, which were briefly halted after an attack on a Saudi tanker, the country's minister of energy, Khalid Falih, said on Saturday, Sputnik reported.

"The decision to resume oil shipment through the strait of Bab-El-Mandab was made after the leadership of the Coalition has taken necessary measures to protect the Coalition States' ships," the minister said, as quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

According to the minister, the decision came into effect earlier on Saturday.
By Trend:

A delegation from the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC) has traveled to Iran to explore ways for the further expansion of ties with Tehran as new US sanctions loom.

The ITC mission is in the Iranian capital to hold various meetings with senior Iranian officials and representatives from key firms only two days before the first round of new US sanctions kicks in.

On Saturday, members of the multilateral agency sat down with Iran's Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Head Mojtaba Khosrotaj and exchanged views about ways to boost trade and support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The delegation will leave Tehran on Sunday, IRIB news agency reported on August 4.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, and Washington now plans to re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

The first round of US sanctions on Iran goes into effect on August 6, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports on November 4.

The International Trade Centre (ITC) is a multilateral agency which has a joint mandate with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Police have issued a fresh appeal for information following a fatal road traffic collision in Banbridge.

Gary Hamilton, who was 27, died when his Yamaha motorcycle was involved in a collision at around 9.45am on Sunday July 8.

He was travelling in the direction of Banbridge on the Castlewellan Road.

Inspector Graham said: I would appeal to anyone who has not yet spoken to police and has information that could be useful to our investigation  to get in touch with us as soon as possible.

Any witnesses to the collision, or anyone who has dashcam or helmet footage and was travelling on the Castlewellan Road between 9.30am and 10am and observed the motorcycle prior to or at the time of the collision, should contact officers in the Collision Investigation Unit on 101 quoting reference 639 of 08/07/18.

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He added: We are particularly interested in hearing from people who were on the stretch of road between the school at Ballydown, near the Lisnaree Road and the T-junction where the Aughnacloy Road meets the Castlevennon and Katesbridge roads.

"This is a well-known junction, where there is a filling station and shop, as well as a farm equipment supplier.

I would also like to speak with the drivers of a number of vehicles which were in the area at the time as we believe they may have information that could help with our enquiries.

"They are a red Ford Focus, a black Ford Kuga, a red Vauxhall Zafira and a silver Mercedes.
Police have issued a warning to parents across Northern Ireland after this picture was taken.

The picture, posted by the PSNI on its Craigavon Facebook page, shows three children on top of the roof of a building in Lurgan.

An officer, posting on Facebook, said: "Hey parents! Recognise your little cherubs? Harmless fun, right?

"Now imagine having to have a closed casket funeral because their body is that badly disfigured after a 2 story fall.

"Or how about if one trips on an uneven roof surface, piping or the like, ending up with a broken leg or ankle? Who gets them down? That's right, you've now taken at least one, possibly 2 NIFRS crews off the road to rescue him, not to mention the NIAS crew then taking him to hospital.

"Parents, if you recognise your kids here, have a word. Sort it out. This is dangerous, irresponsible, and incredibly selfish. Harmless fun is anything but that when something goes wrong.

"Kids, if you think this is good craic, think about how badly wrong it can go.

"This isn't just bravado or us trying to be dramatic. We see this. When you hear news headlines about 'a child has been taken to hospital after an incident...' this is the sort of thing that happens. Don't become a victim of your own stupidity."
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald (centre) with MP for Foyle, Elisha McCallion (centre left) during the 37th National Hunger Strike Commemoration in Castlewellan, County Down, Niall Carson/PA Wire

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has doubled down on her Irish reunification U-turn and said an Irish unity referendum is now at the centre of political discussion.

The comments come a week after Ms McDonald said a poll on Irish unity should not be held while uncertainty around Brexit remains.

The Sinn Fein president was speaking at a hunger strike commemoration in Castlewellan in Co Down on Sunday.

It marks the anniversary of the deaths of 10 republican hunger strikers, including Bobby Sands and Raymond McCreesh in 1981.

She said: "A referendum on a United Ireland is provided for in the Good Friday Agreement. The need for a referendum to end partition is writ large. The time for a Unity Referendum is drawing near. It is not a question of if a unity referendum will happen but a question of when."

Mrs McDonald said British Identity "can and must be accommodated" in a united Ireland.

"As Britain turns away from Europe, the appeal of being part of a new and outward-looking Ireland will, I believe, prove ever more attractive to some within the unionist community," she said.

British identity can and must be accommodated in a united Ireland and I believe nationalist Ireland is open to constitutional and political safeguards to ensure this."

The Sinn Fein leader said her party was committed to re-establishing the Executive, which collapsed last January.

The Irish and British governments have said there will be a new round of talks in autumn.

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Mrs McDonald said: "That is welcome. However basic rights, respect and equality cannot be disregarded, they are not bargaining chips. They are for all in society.

Marriage equality, the right to inquests and language rights are for everyone.

Fifty years on from the civil rights movement, sections of political unionism still resist equality and rights, but they will not succeed.

It is not sufficient for the two governments to only call a talks process. They must bring something to the table. They need to make clear that agreements must be implemented in full.

The way to unlock the political process is to make clear that rights enjoyed in the rest of Ireland and across Britain will be implemented in the north.

Of course, we are dealing with a British government that is dependent on DUP votes and sees Ireland and as collateral damage in their desire to remain in office.

That is why we need a strong Irish government leading on these issues."
The sign in Co Wicklow (PA)

A Garda Air Support Unit crew have discovered an EIRE sign dating from the Second World War in Co Wicklow.

The sign in Bray Head is made entirely of stone, and was made visible due to a large gorse fire that took place on the headland two weeks ago.

The signs were originally curated around the country to warn air crews of their location in neutral Irish territory during the war.

The Defence Forces Air Corps were helping emergency services extinguish the fire when they noticed the sign from above.

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A spokesperson said The signs themselves are quite common on the west coast but unusual on the east.

The Air Corps helped put the fire out and then the Garda helicopter, which we fly, noticed the sign emerging from the past.

Up to 150 tonnes of stone were used in some of the 83 signs dotted around the coast of Ireland.

At the request of the United States air force the number of the nearby lookout post was added, turning the signs into air navigation aids.

This assisted American bomber pilots in navigating across the Atlantic.
Leo Varadkar said he intends to tell Pope Francis that Ireland accepts gay parents (PA)

Leo Varadkar has said he will express his concerns to the Pope about the Catholic Churchs involvement with sexual and physical abuse when he visits later this month.

The Taoiseach also said he intends to tell Pope Francis that Ireland accepts gay parents.

Francis will visit Dublin and Knock on the weekend of August 25 and 26 on the invitation of the World Meeting of Families 2018.

As part of his visit, the Pope will go to the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless in Dublin and the Knock Shrine. However, it is not yet clear whether he will meet victims of clerical abuse.

If the opportunity arises, I will certainly want to express to him the real concerns that Irish people have on the legacy of the pastLeo Varadkar

Mr Varadkar said that while his meeting with the Pope at Dublin Castle could be short, he will express his concerns about issues such as the churchs involvement in Magdalene Laundries.

Im really glad the Pope is visiting Ireland, the visit is very welcome, Mr Varadkar said.

He is the religious leader of a billion people and head of state and Im pleased he is saying mass in Phoenix Park and at Knock. You can see the huge interest from the general public.

Im not sure of the exact details my interaction with him is going to be.

It may be very short but first of all I will want to welcome him to Ireland on behalf of the Irish people.

If the opportunity arises, I will certainly want to express to him the real concerns that Irish people have on the legacy of the past, in relation to issues such as the churchs involvement in Magdalene Laundries, in mother and baby homes, and sexual and physical abuse, and relay that to him.

And also our views in society and the governments view that families come in all sorts of different forms and that includes families led by same-sex parents, and one-parent families as well.

Pope Francis announced on Wednesday he will travel to Dublin, Ireland in August to attend the World Meeting of Families.https://t.co/5g4WFC0Jxd  Vatican News (@VaticanNews) March 21, 2018

Mr Varadkar also said that he does not like burqas, but has no plans to ban them like other EU countries including Denmark, France and Spain.

I dont like it but I think people are entitled to wear what they want to wear, he said.

In June, culture minister Josepha Madigan criticised the Catholic Church, saying that women should be allowed to be ordained.

Her comments came after Ms Madigan stepped in to lead prayers at a church in Dublin after a priest failed to show up.

Mr Varadkar added his support to the ordination of women as Catholic priests but said that the Government has no proposals to enforce this.

He added: When I say that my view is that women in the Catholic Church should be allowed to become priests, of course that applies in the synagogues and mosques, but I also believe in the freedom of religion and the fact that we should have separation of religion and State and the religious bodies make their own laws.

Theres a big difference between saying what you think and actually deciding on whether you are going to use the power of the law to enforce on it and we have no proposals to force these things on any religion.

I dont think theres any positions in society or jobs that women should be banned from.
Luxury beauty group Estee Lauder says efforts to tap into Britains ethnic consumer market has lifted domestic sales around cultural events like Ramadan and Golden Week.

Lesley Crowther, who serves as vice president of consumer engagement and retail at the Estee Lauder Companies (ELC,) said momentum has been building since the launch of a dedicated cultural relevance department in the UK five years ago.

The reality has been that weve been a Caucasian-heavy society, but I think as a business we realised that because of the pace of change that was happening in the diversity of our countrywe needed to put a greater spotlight on understanding the different beauty goals and needs of consumers, she told the Press Association.

ELC, which owns brands like Jo Malone, Bobbi Brown, DKNY, MAC and Tom Ford, has described the UK consumer base is one of the most diverse in the world, with ethnic consumers currently making up 14% of the population but driving 80% of population growth.

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Catering to a wider demographic has meant recruiting customer-facing beauty advisers who speak a total of 70 different languages between them, and introducing private consultation areas that can make makeup application easier for women donning religious head wear.

We do an enormous amount of work behind the sceneson understanding different cultures, in the way they like to be serviced, on the respect that you need to have around certain holidays, and that is hugely important to our business, she said.

ELC has now been tapping into demand for beauty products around key cultural holidays including Ramadan and Chinas Golden Week.

In the two weeks leading up to Ramadan, during which many Middle Eastern consumers shop in the UK before returning home for the holy month, retail sales of ELCs UK brands surged 74% in Harrods alone.

That was followed by a 25% upturn in Moisture Surge products sales across the business, with a campaign focused on customers concerned about dryer skin during periods of fasting.

During Golden Week, a product like La Mer saw sales rise 44%.

Around Chinese Golden Week, a brand like La Mer would have specific wrapping, to help celebrate that year in Chinese terms, and we do a lot around new product innovation, Ms Crowther said.

Meanwhile, attending to the beauty needs of the domestic South Asian community, which ELC highlighted as the largest minority group in the UK, growing at 33% per year, could mean addressing concerns about dark under eye circles and pigmentation and extending it shade ranges for foundations and concealers.

Considerations have also been made for the Black British customer, which is growing 40 times that of the Caucasian British consumer base, through products like its beauty boxes, with ELC enlisting the help of Vogues contributing beauty editor Funmi Fetto.

Funmi handpicked a number of different products across our business that she knew would resonate anything from a curl enhancer, because obviously taming curls is a big concern for this consumer, as well as under eye brightness and a moisturiser all about balancing skin, Ms Crowther said.

There is also interest in catering to the tourist population, including Chinese, Indian and South East Asian communities, while ELC keeps an eye on the return of Russian, Brazilian and Nigerian tourists to the UK.

ELC prepares for inbound tourists with monthly flight reports, that helps staff understand who is coming from where and at what time.

It ensures that whenever anybody is coming to our counters that we are appropriately able to service them and understand a lot more about what theyre looking for.
Tom Watson has gone further than his leader Jeremy Corbyn (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Labour faces being lost in a vortex of eternal shame unless it addressed the concerns of the Jewish community over anti-Semitism, deputy leader Tom Watson warned.

In a stark message, Mr Watson said Labour had to take a long, hard look at ourselves and demanded immediate action to end tensions.

Mr Watson demanded Jeremy Corbyn bring an end to disciplinary action against two of the leaders most prominent critics.

And he said the party should fully adopt an internationally-recognised definition of anti-Semitism.

This is one of those moments when we have to take a long, hard look at ourselves, stand up for what is right and present the party as fit to lead the nation  or disappear into a vortex of eternal shame and embarrassmentDeputy Labour leader Tom Watson

His intervention follows an attempt by Mr Corbyn to build bridges with the Jewish community which was met with a hostile response from the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the Jewish Labour Movement.

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In a strongly-worded intervention, Mr Watson told the Observer: This is one of those moments when we have to take a long, hard look at ourselves, stand up for what is right and present the party as fit to lead the nation  or disappear into a vortex of eternal shame and embarrassment.

He called for disciplinary action against MPs Ian Austin and Dame Margaret Hodge  who confronted Mr Corbyn in Parliament over his response to the row  to be dropped.

I think it is very important that we all work to de-escalate this disagreement, and I think it starts with dropping the investigations into Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin, he said.

I have frequently had very difficult conversations with both Margaret and Ian but what I understand is that your critics are not your enemies. On an issue that is so dear to them, I think people are very, very concerned that these investigations should be dropped quickly.

And he said Labour should fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct.

Mr Corbyn has stopped short of that, insisting that Labour had fully adopted the wording of the definition and had captured the essence of its illustrative examples, with seven of the 11 incorporated entirely.

He acknowledged that the Jewish community should have been consulted more extensively in drawing up the code, and its development had been re-opened to allow the input of Jewish organisations.

He insisted the differences were very small and amount to half of one example out of 11 in relation to criticism of Israel.

But Mr Watson told the Observer: We should deal with this swiftly and move on. We cant have this dragging on throughout the summer.

I have made no secret of the fact that  we should adopt the full IHRA definition and should do it without delay.

Meanwhile, shadow chancellor John McDonnell was forced to distance himself from the anti-Semitism row over his links with the Labour Representation Committee campaign group.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that the group, of which Mr McDonnell is president, said it was factually true to describe Jewish critics as Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all, highlighting comments made by former Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush in support of the US President.

A Labour spokesman said: John has no day to day involvement in the operation of the LRC and is not responsible for its website or for posts on social media by its supporters.

Meanwhile, Mr McDonnell used a Sunday Express interview to say Labour must lead the fight against far-right extremism.

We must not underestimate the scale of the recent growth of the far right and its consequences for our society, he said.

The onus is now on Labour to take the lead against these reactionary forces by calling them out and placing a transformative programme before the electorate  that offers hope to people on job creation, tackling low pay, providing affordable housing and driving up living standards.

In a Guardian article, Mr Corbyn insisted he will root out anti-Semites from Labour and acknowledged mistakes in the way the party had handled the crisis.

But the Jewish Labour Movement said trust had broken down with the party leadership, while the Campaign Against Antisemitism lashed out at Mr Corbyns failure to apologise for his own conduct.

Mr Corbyn said: No one can, or should, try to dismiss or belittle the concerns expressed by so many Jewish people and organisations about what has been happening in the party I am proud to lead.

But after three leading Jewish newspapers jointly published a scathing leader column about Mr Corbyns party, the Labour leader rejected their overheated rhetoric.

However, he acknowledged there was a real problem that Labour is working to overcome and stressed that if he became prime minister he would take whatever measures necessary to guarantee the security of the Jewish community.

Campaign Against Antisemitism chairman Gideon Falter said: There is no acknowledgement of his own role in this crisis. There is no apology for his anti-Semitic activity in the past, but he has hypocritically condemned as anti-Semitic behaviour that he himself has been guilty of.

He has again preached to Jews that he is right to have rewritten the international definition of anti-Semitism.

"Today, other than another article bemoaning a situation of the Partys own making, nothing has changed. There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words" pic.twitter.com/jmNDX9Xvqa  Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) August 3, 2018

The Jewish Labour Movement also rejected Mr Corbyns article.

A spokesman said: There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words.

Political opponents seized upon similarities between Mr Corbyns article and an earlier response to allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour which was published in April.

This is literally a cut a paste job, it makes no firm commitments, says that Jewish concerns about Labour are overblown, criticises Israel (because Corbyn cant write about Jews without having a go at Israel?), accepts no culpability.



Yes its exceptional, but not in a good way. https://t.co/A0GBsIjqOx  James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) August 3, 2018

Tory deputy chairman James Cleverly said it was a cut and paste job.
Police said the plane crashed on a mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims (Gaetan Bally/Keystone via AP)

All 20 people on board a vintage plane were killed when the aircraft crashed into a mountainside in south-east Switzerland, police said.

The Junkers Ju-52 plane went down on Saturday on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountains western flank about 2,540 metres (8,330 feet) above sea level.

The mountainous area in south-eastern Switzerland is popular with hikers and skiers and includes a glacier.

Police said they have now determined that all 20 people on board the plane, including its three crew members, died.

Expand Close Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, addresses the media (Melanie Duchene/Keystone via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, addresses the media (Melanie Duchene/Keystone via AP)

Eleven men and nine women were killed. Most of the victims were Swiss but they also included a couple and their son from Austria. The victims were aged between 42 and 84.

The plane was operated by Ju-Air, a Swiss company that offers tours with vintage former Swiss military aircraft.

Swiss officials said they are not aware of any distress call from the plane. They also expect the investigation into the cause of the crash to be relatively complex.

Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, said the plane appears to have hit the ground near-vertically and at high speed in the crash.

Mr Knecht said the vintage plane presumably did not have the crash-resistant cockpit voice and data recorders that more modern aircraft have.

He said officials have essentially ruled out a collision with another aircraft or hitting an obstacle such as a wire.

He also said there is no indication of foul play or that the aircraft lost parts or broke up before the crash.

The plane was flying the passengers back from a two-day trip to Locarno in southern Switzerland to its base at Duebendorf, near Zurich.

Nearly 5,000 Ju-52 planes, a product of Germanys Junkers, were manufactured between 1932 and 1952.

Ju-Airs Ju-52 planes are former Swiss military aircraft, built in 1939, that were retired by the air force in 1981.

The company, which operates two other Ju-52s, suspended flights until further notice after the crash.
Counter-protesters prepare to clash with Patriot Prayer protesters during a rally in Portland (AP Photo/John Rudoff)

Small scuffles broke out on Saturday as police in Portland, Oregon, deployed flash bang devices and other means to disperse hundreds of right-wing and self-described anti-fascist protesters.

There were four arrests and officers seized multiple weapons throughout the day, the Portland Police Bureau said.

Demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, had gathered at about noon in a riverfront park.

Hundreds of demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with opposition messages such as: Alt right scum not welcome in Portland.

Expand Close Police push protesters back with tear gas and flash-bang grenades (AP Photo/John Rudoff) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Some chanted Nazis go home as officers stood in the middle of the four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated.

The counter-protesters were made up of a coalition of labour unions, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists and other groups. They included people dressed as clowns and a brass band blaring music.

The rally organised by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to hospital with a skull fracture.

This time, Mr Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside US District Court to a waterfront park so that some of his Oregon supporters could carry concealed weapons as they demonstrated.

Mr Gibson disputed the groups classification by some as a hate group.

Expand Close Portland police keep Patriot Prayer affiliates separate from antifa protesters (AP Photo/John Rudoff) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Were here to promote freedom and God. Thats it, he told Portland TV station KGW while walking with demonstrators. Our country is getting soft.

Protesters saw a significant police presence that included bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints.

In a statement, police said weapons would be seized if there was a violation of law and added that it was illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person had a valid Oregon concealed handgun licence.

Among the things police confiscated were long sticks and homemade shields.

Just before 2pm, police in riot gear ordered people to leave an area downtown, saying demonstrators had thrown rocks and bottles at officers.

Expand Close Rally organiser Joey Gibson (Mark Graves /The Oregonian via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Get out of the street, police announced via loudspeaker.

The Portland events have taken on out-sized significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathiser was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defence of two young black women  one in a hijab  whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017.

A coalition of community organisations and a group representing more than 50 tribes warned of the potential for even greater violence than previous rallies if participants carried guns. It called on officials to denounce what it called the racist and sexist violence of Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys and protect the city.

Self-described anti-fascists  or antifa  have been organising anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys in the streets.

Organisers say that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs.
Students run back during clashes with unidentified groups while protesting over recent traffic accidents that killed a boy and a girl, in Dhaka, Aug. 4, 2018.

Updated at 4:32 p.m. ET on 2018-08-05

Bangladeshi police clashed with students for a second day in a row on Sunday, leaving dozens of people injured, witnesses and local media said, as the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka confirmed that a group of armed men attacked an official car carrying Washingtons envoy as it drove through a Dhaka neighborhood.



The latest burst of violence took place hours after authorities shut down mobile internet service in the nation, in what critics described as the governments bid to control the protests that began last weekend after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.



The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka said "a group of armed adult men," including some on motorcycles, attacked while Amb. Marcia Bernicats convoy drove through the citys Mohammadpur residential block before midnight Saturday.



The ambassador and her security team departed the area unharmed, said the statement, which was published on the embassys website Sunday. However, two security vehicles sustained some damage.



Badiul Alam Majumder, a prominent local activist and government critic, told BenarNews that the attack happened around 11 p.m. as Bernicat and her convoy left a dinner party at his home.



As the ambassador was leaving my house, some youths on motorcycles attempted to attack her, Majumder said. They threw bricks at her vehicle. But the car carrying the diplomat quickly left the area, he said.



Local media reported that at least 50 people were injured in clashes Sunday. Witnesses said police fired tear gas and also arrested dozens of demonstrators.

After violence subsided on Sunday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan warned that the government would not tolerate what he described as anarchy in the pretext of protest.

We have shown patience. Our law-enforcing agencies have been showing patience, he told BenarNews. But this does not mean anarchy would be tolerated. We will be forced to take action if the limit exceeds.

Violent confrontation first broke out on Saturday after police and men allegedly linked with the ruling party swooped in and chased the demonstrators with long sticks, injuring more than 100, according to the news agency AFP, which quoted hospital officials and witnesses.

The ruling Awami League party rejected allegations its cadres were involved in the violence.

On Sunday, tens of thousands demonstrators defied Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas warning that a third party could sabotage the massive protest.

Her statement came as pro-government activists belonging to a political youth league attacked several journalists, according to the Associated Press.

Up to 26 journalists suffered injuries while covering two days of violence, according to a BenarNews tally. Among them was AP news photographer AM Ahad, seen in a Dhaka Tribune photograph while at a Dhaka hospitals emergency room, where he was briefly treated for a head injury.

Social media videos of Ahads attack showed about a dozen men striking him with long sticks and batons as he stumbled and retreated in one corner.

Hasina, who has ruled the nation since January 2009, has reached out to the protesters by promising to improve road safety. But she said that a "third party" could sabotage the spontaneous protests, which came as her government started gearing up for a general election scheduled in December.

That's why I request all guardians and parents to keep their children at home. Whatever they have done is enough, Hasina, 70, told reporters, without elaborating.

The eighth day of what appeared to be an unorganized protest kept the nations capital grounded to a halt as thousands of students, many of them younger than 18 and wearing school uniforms, prevented transit through much of Dhaka, essentially cutting off the city from the rest of the country.

Bangladeshi students shout slogans and block a road during a protest in Dhaka, Aug. 4, 2018. (AP)

Exposing nations road safety weaknesses

Thousands of students began pouring into the streets eight days ago as they chanted slogans and demanded improvements in road safety in Bangladesh, a South Asian nation of 163 million people with one of the worlds highest death rates from road crashes that safety analysts blame on speeding buses.

In 2016, at least 6,055 people were killed in road accidents around the country, the Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association said. During the previous year, more than 8,600 people lost their lives on the nations roads, it said.

The students exposed the nations transportation weaknesses during their protests, as they stopped vehicles, including a cabinet members car and police officers on motorcycles, asking them to present their drivers licenses.

Social media videos and photographs showed the students striking some buses with rocks and setting at least one on fire after it allegedly struck a motorcyclist. Local newspapers said bus drivers refused to work as they expressed fears over the huge crowds of angry students who blocked major roadways.

In an effort to quell the protests, the government suspended classes in high schools on Thursday and shut down 3G and 4G internet services two days later, starting after the first bout of violence on Saturday, local newspapers and news agencies said.

The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government, a senior official told Agence France-Presse, referring to the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

The news agency also quoted BTRC chairman Jahirul Haq as saying that the government has issued a decision, but he declined to clarify.

Meanwhile, as violence took place in Dhaka, about 35 men forcibly abducted award-winning photographer Shahidul Alam from his home in the city's Dhanmondi residential area hours after he posted pictures about the protests on his Facebook page, according to local reports and a statement issued by his multimedia company.

Alam "was screaming as he was pushed into a waiting car" by the men who said they were from the detective branch of the Dhaka police, according to a statement emailed by Amina Neyamat, communications officer at Drik and Pathshala Media Institute, which was founded by the famed photographer.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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ALONSA- One person is dead and several others were left without homes after a tornado ripped through Margaret Bruce Beach near Alonsa on Friday evening.

Seventy-seven-year-old Jack Furrie was killed, and his house was reduced to nothing but a foundation by Saturday morning.

The ones who made it through the night were grateful to be alive.

Jill Catagas who lives in Brandon had just arrived at the beach to enjoy the August long weekend when the destruction started.

"I pulled in actually and a neighbour came running and said look behind your van, theres a tornado behind you," Catagas said.

Catagas said she was lucky she could escape to the home of a local resident who was camping on the beach but lived nearby.

"There was at least 40 of us in their basement," she said. MELISSA VERGE/THE BRANDON SUN Alonsa-area resident Shawn Burke takes a photo of his boat that was badly damaged after a tornado hit Margaret Bruce Beach on Friday.

"We had about a dozen children so we threw them all under mattresses in the basement."

From there they watched through a window as the tornado ran its unpredictable course.

"It was within probably 40 ft. from the house from hitting it," she said.

As a result of the storm the owner of the house they were staying in lost all of his bales of hay.

Not only that, but "theres cows missing," she said.

Although Catagas trailer survived, the back window of her van was smashed by the storm. Her sons trailer was not as lucky. It was reduced to a pile of rubble in front of her parked vehicle.

"We had everyone checking campers making sure everyone was accounted for, Catagas said.

The buildings surrounding the beach toilets were also destroyed. They were completely gone, leaving just toilets, which sat out in the middle of the sand on Saturday afternoon and offered no privacy. Someone had placed the mens sign on one toilet and the womens on the other- they had survived the tornado. MELISSA VERGE/THE BRANDON SUN A house just off Bluff Creek Road near Margaret Bruce Beach has been completely destroyed after a tornado on Friday.

Trailers had been destroyed, houses had been flattened, but some of the strangest things were still in one piece. Glass bottles of liquor stood upwards in the sand seemingly untouched from Friday nights tragedy.

Still, the overall damage was incredible.

One resident of Alonsa said he was shocked that more people werent killed. Shawn Gurke cursed often as he drove around in his pickup and looked at the damage Saturday afternoon.

As of Saturday at approximately 1 p.m. Bluff Creek Road that led to the beach was closed off to the public, and Gurke, a volunteer fire fighter with the community invited The Sun to come along for the ride.

During the drive up the beach, Gurke found a tractor that was upside down, cabins that were reduced to nothing, and a truck floating along in the water. He also found his boat that had been badly damaged by the tornado.

Gurke usually camped at the Margaret Bruce Beach, but for the August long weekend this year he took his family to Clear Lake instead.

Although his family was okay, the $60,000 boat he had left behind that he said he built with his dad was badly damaged.

"It must weigh 3,500 pounds easy. Its a big commercial aluminum boat but the tornado must have flown my boat way over here," Gurke said. MELISSA VERGE/THE BRANDON SUN The buildings surrounding the toilets at Margaret Bruce Beach near Alonsa were completely destroyed by a tornado Friday night. Only the toilets themselves remained.

It was washed up on the sand, the metal bent at awkward angles and hay and water floating in the place where there used to be seats.

Unfortunately for Gurke, he had no insurance on it.

"Ill never have another boat like it," he said.

As he drove around he found the prop for the boat amongst the wreckage.
Patrick Flynn

A man has been airlifted to hospital after being injured in a climbing accident in Co Clare this afternoon.

The incident happened at around 5pm at Murroogh near Blackhead in the North of the county. The area is popular with climbers and hikers.

It is understood that the man had been climbing with friends when he suffered a fall. Its believed he sustained injuries including a broken leg.

The Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard was alerted and requested to respond to the incident while the Shannon based Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 115, was also tasked to the scene.

The helicopter was returning from a training exercise on the Aran Islands when the crew was diverted to the incident. The helicopter reached the scene within minutes and was able to land close to the scene.

After being treated initially at the accident site, the man was airlifted to University Hospital Limerick where he is said to be in a stable condition with injuries that are not believed to be serious.

The rescue effort was coordinated by staff at the Irish Coast Guards marine rescue sub-centre on Valentia Island in Kerry.
Well-known, Cork-based poet Matthew Sweeney has died aged 66.

Sweeney, originally from Donegal, passed away this morning. The poet spoke about his battle with motor neuron disease earlier this year.

He is survived by his children and his partner Mary Noonan.

Back in April, Sweeney launched his latest collection of poetry at the Cork World Book Fest.

'My Life As A Painter' was published by Bloodaxe Books just four months ago.

In an Irish Examiner interview, the poet said he would not allow his diagnosis to 'stunt his creativity.'

"Like most people, I prefer not to dwell on my inevitable demise. Where the poems take me is another matter," he said.

Sweeney said his poetry gave him the most joy in life.

Poetry has been central to my life, and despite the lack of money it brings, I would do it all over again. How many people really value my poems? I wouldnt say theyd fill a very small theatre, but there are some, he said.

Sweeney also hoped his work would inspire other young writers.

Certainly one thing thats pleased me in recent years was a suggestion in a review of my last book that I may be responsible for some younger poets venturing into the weird, more surreal zone. That would be something.

His friend Pat Cotter, poet and artistic director of Munster Literature Centre and others have been tweeting about his passing.

Mr Sweeney's sister died of motor neurone disease in 2009.

- Digital Desk
Gardai are investigating an incident in Dundalk in which two men were injured.

The men - who are in their 20s - got into a row in a house on Nicolas Street earlier this evening.
All 20 people on board a vintage plane were killed when the aircraft crashed into a mountainside in south-east Switzerland, police said.

The Junkers Ju-52 plane went down on Saturday on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountains western flank about 2,540 metres (8,330 feet) above sea level.

The mountainous area in south-eastern Switzerland is popular with hikers and skiers and includes a glacier.

Police said they have now determined that all 20 people on board the plane, including its three crew members, died.

Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, addresses the media (Melanie Duchene/Keystone via AP)

The plane was operated by Ju-Air, a Swiss company that offers tours with vintage former Swiss military aircraft.

Swiss officials said they are not aware of any distress call from the plane. They also expect the investigation into the cause of the crash to be relatively complex.

Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, said the plane appears to have hit the ground near-vertically and at high speed in the crash.

The plane was operated by Ju-Air, a Swiss company that offers tours with vintage former Swiss military aircraft.

Mr Knecht said the vintage plane presumably did not have the crash-resistant cockpit voice and data recorders that more modern aircraft have.

He said officials have essentially ruled out a collision with another aircraft or hitting an obstacle such as a wire.

He also said there is no indication of foul play or that the aircraft lost parts or broke up before the crash.

The plane was flying the passengers back from a two-day trip to Locarno in southern Switzerland to its base at Duebendorf, near Zurich.

Nearly 5,000 Ju-52 planes, a product of Germanys Junkers, were manufactured between 1932 and 1952.

Ju-Airs Ju-52 planes are former Swiss military aircraft, built in 1939, that were retired by the air force in 1981.

The company, which operates two other Ju-52s, suspended flights until further notice after the crash.

- Press Association
Investors are bracing for a softer profit result from the Commonwealth Bank, capping off a tumultuous year in which it has been dogged by compliance scandals, board upheaval and a slump in the mortgage market.

The country's biggest bank is forecast to deliver a profit of about $9.6 billion when it delivers its full-year profit on Wednesday, which would be slightly less than last year, following a series of hefty expenses and blows to its reputation.

CBA chief executive Matt Comyn will present his first profit result as CEO this week. Credit:Peter Braig

Another financial institution that has suffered a dramatic fall from grace in the past year, AMP, is also set to deliver its results on the same day, after it last month flagged its bottom line would be hit by more than $400 million in extra compensation costs.

The high-profile results come as the royal commission puts the $2.6 trillion superannuation sector under the microscope this week, with grillings that are expected to scrutinise potential conflicts of interest across the industry.
Digital readership grew three times faster than print in the year to May, with almost three-quarters of Australians consuming news on smartphones, tablets and laptops, data released on Monday shows.

The latest Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA) shows a 1 per cent increase in print readership year-on-year and a 3 per cent climb for total digital readership. Across all platforms, 89 per cent of Australians are consumers of news media.

Digital news readership is growing three times as fast as print. Credit:David Paul Morris

Of those about 72 per cent consume news digitally, while 67 per cent read newspapers. Metropolitan newspapers are read by 55 per cent of consumers, while 34 per cent read regional and community titles.

EMMA data is from NewsMediaWorks, whose stakeholders include Fairfax Media (owner of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age), News Corp and Seven West Media.
OPERA

Stuart Skelton

with Richard Peirson

Friday August 3

Melbourne Recital Centre





No matter how big an opera star might be, Melbourne audiences crave a performance with personality. Crack a joke between high notes and youll have them in the palm of your hand. And so Stuart Skelton did.

Stuart Skelton Credit:Sim Canetty-Clarke

Chuckles rippled through the hall as Skelton  arguably the worlds greatest living heldentenor  addressed the audience, relaxed and sincere. German for heroic, the "helden" part of the heldentenor is characterised by rich, dark and dramatic tones. Skeltons unique sound is all of these things and much more.

Alongside British pianist Richard Peirson, the duo presented a vast program of Grainger, Liszt, Wagner, Korngold, Turina and a selection of Icelandic songs in their MRC debut.
The federal government's My Health Record system is capable of storing genomic information, such as a person's genetic risk of developing cancer, which could turbocharge medical research but has intensified privacy and security fears.

Fairfax Media can reveal Sydney-based whole genome sequencing company Genome.One developed necessary infrastructure in order to upload highly sensitive genomic information onto My Health Records.

Your genome is the complete set of genetic instructions encoded in the two metres of DNA in most of your cells. Credit:Alamy

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), which for weeks has been deflecting privacy and data security concerns, handed the for-profit company $40,000 in September last year to support the development of the software.

Genome.One, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, can sequence an individual's entire genetic information and identify genetic variations which may increase the chances of developing a particular disease.
A dying Perth dad's bucket-list overseas trip has ended in disaster, as he remains seriously ill and stuck in Bali after a fall.

Last year Duncan Turner, 46, suffered a serious head injury from a first fall, causing a blood clot on the brain followed by multiple strokes and seizures. He was left paralysed and spent months learning to walk and talk again.

The family fulfills the little girl's dream in Singapore.

Mr Turner also has liver disease and doctors told him and partner Michelle Edgar he was not recovering as they had hoped, with his blood levels not stabilising as expected. The couple do not know how long he has to live.

They decided to fulfill their young daughter Amelie's wish to make special memories swimming with dolphins. But they soon realised they would have to fly to Singapore to have the experience. Australian operators refused to allow the five-year-old to swim with dolphins as she was not big enough  Amelie was born weighing just 606 grams at 27 weeks and is the size of an average two-year-old.
ACTION Buses increased the weight limit for drivers to make it the same as the safe working limit for the driver's seats installed in many public buses, removing a buffer zone despite a warning that overloading the seats could be fatal.

On the back of concerns raised by two drivers that going to work was "like playing Russian roulette", Fairfax Media can reveal that ACTION increased the weight limit for drivers by 10 kilograms in 2014.

An ACTION bus, which concerned drivers say is not guaranteed to be safe because there is no requirement for drivers to be weighed. Credit:Jeffrey Chan

One driver injured by a damaged seat in 2016 said removing the safety buffer was perplexing, and ACTION needed to start weighing drivers and enforcing its own weight limit policies.

Application forms for drivers from that year show that ACTION required drivers to weigh less than 120 kilograms, but recruitment information brochures distributed in 2015 and ever since say drivers must maintain a weight below 130 kilograms at all times.
ACT firefighters had to free two men from cars after separate crashes on Monday.

About 12pm, a car and a truck collided at the intersection of The Valley Avenue and Gungahlin Drive, in Gungahlin.

Firefighters extricated a man from the car and intensive care paramedics treated him at the scene before transporting him to Canberra Hospital.

Police were at the scene managing traffic after the crash.

Earlier, at 12.29am, emergency services were called to a single-vehicle crash on Mt Ainslie.
Labor's chief tactician Tony Burke says he knew "some time ago" about high staff turnover in Emma Husar's office, as the Turnbull government ramps up pressure on Bill Shorten to explain how he did not know about the bullying allegations that have rocked the Labor Party.

Mr Burke suggested a report by NSW barrister John Whelan on Ms Husar's conduct was imminent and described the staff who have made the allegations and Ms Husar as "good people" who "have dedicated their professional lives to the Labor Party".

"Exactly how these different allegations turn out, some of them have been vigorously and categorically denied," the manager of opposition business said.

"Others will be tested, I suspect it's not too long before we have a report."

Mr Burke said he knew that there was an investigation happening "when it was published."
The United States top envoy has said Australia is the poster child for burden-sharing in a sign Canberra will avoid the kind of berating other key US allies have received at the hands of Donald Trump.

James Carouso, the acting US Ambassador, has also acknowledged it is hard for the US to reassure other countries that it will continue to play as great a role in Asia as it has in the past when the region is changing so rapidly amid Chinas rise.

Acting US ambassador James Carouso says US military figures recognise Australia's commitment to "burden sharing". Credit:Jonathan Carroll

Fears among some allies and partners of the US that the superpower will not have the capacity to continue playing the active role in Asia that it has for more than half a century have been exacerbated by the US President Mr Trumps fiery America first language and his undiplomatic treatment of old allies in Europe as he attacked them for relying on US protection while letting their own militaries run down.

Australia, unlike some NATO countries, has increased its defence spending to the benchmark 2 per cent of GDP. Mr Carouso said this and other demonstrations of Australian commitment to alliance were being recognised by US military figures.
Lily O'Connell was so close to death on Christmas night that doctors told her she arrived at the hospital with less than hour to spare.

Just a day earlier, the 23-year-old had a slightly sore throat and thought she was getting the flu.

Lily and Grace O'Connell. Credit:Jessica Hromas

By Christmas Day evening she was vomiting, her neck was sore and a rash appeared on her face.

Ms O'Connell had caught the deadly Meningococcal W disease. She was in intensive care in St Vincent's Hospital before the day ended and remained there for several days.
For five years, Talie Star moved around Sydney trying to find a bed each night.

She became homeless after fleeing domestic violence and could not afford the expensive city rents on her part-time wage. It was the hardest five years of her life.

Talie Star was homeless for five years after fleeing domestic violence. Credit:Louise Kennerley

"People say that life is better once you leave a violent relationship but really your life just gets 10 times harder," Ms Star said.

"Being homeless is unbearable, it is unsettling, you are unstable and you never know where you will be sleeping next."
They say it took a while to happen but the Queensland government has welcomed a federal drought assistance package for farmers.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the $190 million relief package to help farmers and their communities fight one of the worst droughts of the past century.

Dairy farmer Brendan Hayden on his drought-stricken property in Pilton, Queensland (near Toowoomba). Credit:Peter Rickards

Farmers will be able to access up to $12,000 in cash payments under the package which also includes a boost for mental health services.

The government is also changing the assets test to allow an estimated 8000 more farmers to access support.
Latest News ANZ posts 72% rise in profits $6bn in NPAT for major lender on back of 179,000 new home loans written

Sydney property is pitting investors v first home buyers - and the FHBs are winning Wealthy investors are being pushed out in key areas as supply problems lead to local bidders crowding listings

A new report has shown more Australians are being forced to dip into their savings to cover the rising cost of living expenses.

According to ME Banks latest Household Financial Comfort Report (HFCR) Australians are feeling strapped for cash with subdued and stagnant incomes.

Consulting economist for ME, Jeff Oughton, said more households are overspending to cover necessary living expenses and are drawing down on savings, with mortgage and rental stress remaining high.

For those with home loans, 45% of households reported to be contributing more than 30% of their disposable income towards mortgages during the past six months, a common indicator of financial stress.

Oughton said, The good news for renters is that financial stress has lessened somewhat during the past six months, thanks to the housing market cooling and rents falling.

While 72% of renters were previously contributing more than 30% of their disposable income towards rent, this number dropped significantly to 67% in the most recent survey.

Comfort with short-term cash savings was the most notable component of the Household Financial Comfort Index to decline, seeing a 3% decrease to 4.93 out of 10 during the first half of 2018, its lowest level in a couple of years.

The report showed that confidence and ability to raise money for an emergency had dropped three points below the average since the survey began, and fewer households reported they are saving.

The estimated amount that Australians are saving each month decreased by just over 10% during the first half of 2018.

Households who typically spend all of their income and more increased three points to 11% during the six months to June.

Oughton said, Clearly, this is a potential tipping point. At the moment, Australians generally can dip into their savings to get by. However, some households may get to a point where there are no more savings to draw from. Currently, around a quarter of Australian households have less than $1,000 in cash savings.

If we see big negative shocks in the coming year, whether they are higher loan rates or an international trade war, then a lot more families will suffer increased financial stress.

The latest report found that the cost of necessities continues to be the major financial concern for households, with more than half of households reporting it as their biggest financial worry, up seven points to 53% in June 2018.

Similarly, when asked why their financial situation worsened during 201718, 44% of households said it was due to the cost of everyday items, an increase of four points since the previous report.

Consistent with ABS wage data, the latest HFCR data found nearly half of households (42%) still had the same income as a year ago, while a quarter (24%) reported income cuts and 34% received a raise. Comfort with income declined in the past year by 2% to 5.61.

Oughton said, Similar to strengthening in the ABS jobs data, the report revealed increased confidence in peoples ability to find a job; however, high levels of job insecurity and underemployment remain. Around 23% of casual and part-time workers said they would prefer to undertake full-time work if they could.

Of households with debt, there was an increase in the number expecting they will not be able to meet their required minimum payments on their debt and can just manage to make minimum payments on their debt in the next six to 12 months, 43% combined compared to 38% in December 2017.

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Latest News ANZ posts 72% rise in profits $6bn in NPAT for major lender on back of 179,000 new home loans written

Sydney property is pitting investors v first home buyers - and the FHBs are winning Wealthy investors are being pushed out in key areas as supply problems lead to local bidders crowding listings

The mortgage industry has reacted to the Productivity Commissions final report into competition in the Australian financial system, reopening the debate on broker commission, clawbacks and customer outcomes.

Released on 3 August, the 686-page document dedicates an entire chapter to mortgage brokers and their ability to enhance market competition; the first page of which reads, Trail commissions should be abolished.

Further, the report states commission clawbacks should not be allowed beyond two years and passing clawbacks on to the borrower should be banned.

In explanation, it continued, Trail commissions and commission clawbacks create a range of incentives for brokers, some of which are clearly inconsistent with acting in a customers best interest. Brokers reliance on ongoing client relationships may create a counterweight, but remuneration arrangements can still result in poor consumer outcomes.

Responding via statement over the weekend, MFAA CEO Mike Felton, said, Trail is an important control mechanism. It discourages excessive churn, incentivises quality, aligns the interests of all stakeholders in the value chain with those of the customer, and also allows the broker to continue to provide service over the life of the loan."

He continued, If trail were to be abolished, upfront commissions would need to increase substantially so brokers net earnings are not impacted over the life of the loan. This would equate to the Canadian model that for example pays an average upfront of 1.1%.

Speaking to Australian Broker, head of Trail Homes Nick Young, said, Im disappointed although not surprised. This is in distinct contrast to ASIC and the Treasurys findings and those findings were made  particularly in regard to ASIC  after very extensive research.

By effectively cutting trail commissions very significantly in the remuneration of brokers, the whole industry will be under immense pressure. As a consequence we will see a very significant decline in competition and that is not in the interests of anybody, he continued.

The other issue is that they are suggesting perhaps increasing upfront commissions to potentially cover this, which again is not in the consumers interests. The final thing is there will also be no incentive to provide ongoing service to clients. As I say Im disappointed  I thought the conversation had moved beyond this and its a shame to see this sort of thing being rehashed, Young added.

Best interest obligation

Further promoting better customer outcomes, the report also suggest the government impose a best interest obligation on credit licensees that provide credit or credit services (both individuals and corporate entities) in relation to home loans. This should be implemented through the existing credit licensing legislation.

The report itself detailed the mixed response this received, with FBAA, Money Quest and Choice quoted as supporting the suggestion. On the other hand, a submission from AFG highlighted how current NCCP legislation already covered such obligations, while REA Group questioned the practicalities of implementation.

Felton added, With regard to a best interests duty, we agree that more can be done with regards to having a positive duty to act in the customers interests. However, we dont agree that a best interests test, like that now used in financial advice, would be appropriate.

Meanwhile the Australian Banking Association released a statement on 3rd August, briefly underlining the positive impact of mortgage broking.

It concluded, The Australian Banking Association and its members look forward to considering the Productivity Commissions report and findings in full.

While the Productivity Commission report acknowledges that brokers originated approximately 54% of all new home loans to December 2017, it claims the procompetitive effects of brokers have declined since the 1990s. Specifically referring to the large proportion of lender-owned aggregators, it states, The revolution has become part of the establishment.

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Latest News ANZ posts 72% rise in profits $6bn in NPAT for major lender on back of 179,000 new home loans written

Sydney property is pitting investors v first home buyers - and the FHBs are winning Wealthy investors are being pushed out in key areas as supply problems lead to local bidders crowding listings

A major bank has outlined how it plans to enhance debt support for its farm finance borrowers, following high-profile comments from a government minister.

The move comes after agriculture minister David Littleproud accused Commonwealth Bank of falling short on its support for rural and farm finance customers. He made headlines last week when he instructed farmers to tell their banks to take a running jump.

According to Littleproud, Rural Bank and NAB are both allowing farmers to use offsets to reduce loan interest, while CBA  along with Westpac and Rabobank  have yet to follow suit.

In a statement released on Friday, CBA stated it will make a credit adjustment for customers with eligible FMDs and business loans.

The amount of the adjustment will be calculated based on the relative balances of the FMD and the business loan for FY18 with the credit made pending customer acceptance of this offer.

The bank will be writing to customers with eligible FMDs to inform them of changes that will be made in light of new governments rules regarding FMD offset arrangements.

The statement continued, We believe this will benefit those farmers with eligible FMDs, especially those who are in need because of the worsening drought.

Grant Cairns, executive GM of regional and agribusiness banking, said: Our priority is helping farmers who are doing it tough because of the drought. We are pleased to extend our package of drought assistance measures to include this new offer for farmers with eligible FMDs and business loans, which we believe will give them additional peace of mind.

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CITY OF DEVILS The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai Paul French Picador 299 pages; $28 Shanghai in the 1930s. Anyone familiar with detective novels or noir cinema knows exactly what that phrase means: Smoke-filled nightclubs, back-alley gambling houses and dark, seedy opium dens, all frequented by a motley assortment of Chinese mobsters, White Russian emigres, fugitive criminals of all nations and at least one gorgeous femme fatale with a past. Designated an international treaty port after the 19th-century Opium Wars, Shanghai eventually ...
The on Saturday initiated an inquiry pertaining to the issuance of the Police Verification Report (PVR) to fugitive diamantaire and Punjab Bank (PNB) scam accused

It also said that the Mumbai Regional Passport Office (RPO) had issued a passport to Choksi after granting him a no PVR status.

"Mr was issued an Indian Passport no. 23396732 on 10/09/2015 valid till 09/09/2025. The above passport was issued under the Tatkal category. As no Police Verification required status was granted by RPO, Murtha,. no PVR was generated from Mumbai," the said in a statement.

"An enquiry has been ordered in the matter of issuance of the Police Verification Report. The is also examining its internal processes involved in the criminal antecedent's verification process to improve the existing system," the statement added.

On the issue of the Police Clearance Certificate (PCC), the Mumbai Police said that Malabar Hill Police station submitted a clear report against Choksi after checking the Criminal Antecedents and Information System (CAIS).

Choksi's departure from the country continues to keep the law enforcement authorities clutching at straws, as on Friday, the (MEA) released a statement saying that Mumbai Regional Passport Office gave the Police Clearance Certificate to him.

Choksi, who is allegedly involved in over $2 billion scam in the has reportedly taken refuge in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda after moving there in July. His valid passport was revoked in February after this scam was unearthed.
Foreign payment firms could keep copies of customer data in India while retaining offshore storage operations, the government said, as a way to resolve a row with MasterCard, Visa and American Express over the localisation of such information. A decision by India's central bank in April that all payments data should, within six months, be stored only in the country for "unfettered supervisory access" has led to furious lobbying by global firms that worry it would cost them millions of dollars. India's Economic Affairs Secretary S.C. Garg said that keeping data ...
The Centre should have consulted all parties to work out a "unanimous mechanism" before going ahead with the Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam, Loktantrik leader has said.

Taking a dig at the Modi government, the former Union minister said it has been unable to ensure the safety of women and girls in the country but talks of cow protection.

The NRC, a list of citizens, was published on July 30 with the names of over 40 lakh residents of the state not being included in it.

"The government should have called an all-party meeting to find out an amicable solution to the problem in But if you do it just like that, you won't be able to do it by just declaring a cut-off date... you will get tired," Yadav told PTI in an interview.

The former (United) chief said he agrees that the issue of has "reflections on democracy", but asserted they should have found a "justifiable solution of the problem and a unanimous mechanism" for it.

Criticised the BJP, Yadav said, "This party is not giving ticket to any Muslim. Therefore, we are not ready to believe that it will do justice with them."



"People have come here from Bangladeshis had come and gone to When was created, a large number of people went there and were called 'Mohajirs', and Sikhs too had come here from there," he said.

This movement of population took place maximum in India, he claimed.

"No proper debates are taking place in Parliament. Many agitations are going on in the country. If you find on which date a person had come to this country, then it (country) will get destroyed," he said.

On the bill tabled in Parliament to overturn the verdict putting safeguards on arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Yadav claimed the government has done so "under pressure" in view of the bandh call given by all opposition parties.

"Dalits came to my place and strategies for both (bandh) 2nd (April 2) and on ninth (August 9) were formulated. Everyone, including Ambedkarites and others like Sharad Pawar, and other parties supported it," he added.

The bill was brought under pressure, otherwise the government could have fallen on the issue, he said.

"The government should have brought it at the time when the had given that judgement of diluting the SC/ST Act," he said.

The had in an order on March 20 diluted certain provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

It had laid down new guidelines for police officers on how to ensure that innocent people, especially public officials, are protected from false complaints under the Act.

Dalit groups had organised protests across the country on April 2 against the "dilution" of the Act.

Asked if he would support the candidature of president for the prime minister's post in the next elections, Yadav said the party had itself clarified its position on the issue. Therefore, there is no need for him to make a statement on it.

The said its first objective is to stop the BJP from coming to power in 2019, he noted, adding that saving the Constitution and democracy is a major issue.

"The time is to save the democracy, like in 1977. That was a declared Emergency but this time it is undeclared, in which one cannot predict where things will go wrong," he said.

Further criticising the central government, Yadav alleged that it is unable to protect women and girls and "talks about cow first".

"They have become a champion of cows," he quipped.
With the US imposing additional 25 per cent duty on imports worth $34 billion from China, certain Indian products may become more competitive, CII said on Sunday.

An analysis by the industry chamber revealed that should focus on the US market for items in the categories of machinery, electrical equipment, vehicles and transport parts, chemicals, and rubber products.

can focus on numerous goods for expanding its exports to the US and China markets following the hike in duties by both countries on imports from each other, CII said.

Top exports from to the US which are covered in the list of items for which tariffs have been hiked include pumps, parts of military aircraft, parts for electrodiagnostic apparatus, passenger vehicles of 1500-3000 cc, valve bodies and parts of taps, said the chamber.

Exports of these items stood at over $50 million in 2017, according to CII, and can be increased with concerted efforts.

Countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and have increased their exports of these products to the US in recent years, the chamber noted.

ALSO READ: Trade war: US' methods of blackmail will not bear fruit, says China

Based on India's current exports to the US in these categories, products such as intermediate parts for the defence and aerospace sector, vehicles and auto parts, engineering goods, etc. have a higher potential for export, it said.

"Sectors like apparel and textiles, footwear, toys and games and cell phone manufacturing are becoming competitive industries in India and need to be encouraged," CII said.

The chamber suggested that the trade dialogue with the US should be strategised taking into account India's competitive advantage in these products.

Moreover, foreign direct investments from the US should be encouraged by boosting confidence of US firms in India's business climate, said CII, adding that this might necessitate addressing their concerns regarding non-tariff barriers in India for better long-term outcomes.

In the domestic industry, it stated that it is important for India to enhance productivity while adding technology to its domestic production in the identified products.

CII examined 818 product lines where the US has raised tariffs for imports from China. Between 2012 and 2017, China's exports to the US have moved up the value chain with accelerated growth in high-technology items such as telecommunications equipment, automotive, cell phones, etc.
The Sri Lankan government is reworking on the draft of a memorandum of understanding to hand over the management of Mattala Rajapaksha International Airport at Hambantota to Indian airport operator, according to a media report on Sunday.

Dubbed as the "world's emptiest airport" due to lack of flights, the MRIA was build with high interest commercial loans from China by the Mahinda Rajapaksha government. It was officially opened in March 2013 and the only international flight operating from there was halted in May.

The government had announced that it will go ahead with the deal with India to jointly operate the $210 million Mattala Rajapaksha International Airport (MRIA) at Hambantota, about 241km south-east of Colombo, through a joint venture with the (AAI).

Last month, the government had last month asked the Indian airport operator to submit its business plan for operating the loss-making airport.

A draft MoU on handing over of the MRIA to the (AAI) was recently presented before the Sri Lankan Cabinet and is now being reworked at the Indian government's request, the Sunday Times reported.

The talks for management control of the MRIA are continuing between India and Sri Lanka, at no point during the negotiations with India was the proposal withdrawn or denied despite what the media reported, it said, quoting an unnamed official.

"The Sri Lankan government's terms only allow for management control of the commercial activities of the airport while ownership and statutory functions including air traffic control and air traffic rights will be under the control of Sri Lankan authorities," said another official



The AAI is to enter a deal with Civil Aviation Authority to run the MRIA, named after Rajapaksa in his home district. The AAI is to have a 70 per cent stake while Sri Lanka's CAA will invest 30 per cent, parliament was told.

The private-public-partnership will allow AAI to enter into a 40-year lease agreement to take up the management control of the airport.
Markets regulator Sebi never gave any clean chit report on fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to Antigua's citizenship-for-investment authority, a senior official said on Sunday.

The regulator is continuing with its probe into alleged violation of capital market regulations by Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi duo and their associates including some brokers in connection with two listed firms -- PNB and Gitanjali Gems, the official added.

The regulator will now also consider sending the notices for Choksi to Antigua as the absconding businessman and promoter has been granted a citizenship there, the official said.

Last week, an Antiguan media report quoted the Caribbean country's Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) as saying that Choksi was granted citizenship there last year after a background check on him got 'no adverse report' from Indian authorities, including police, passport office and Sebi.

According to the report, the CIU received documentation of two instances in which the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), in 2014 and 2017, opened investigations on a corporate entity owned by Choksi.

It further said the CIU requested updates on the status of the investigations and received documentary confirmation, issued by the Sebi, stating that in one case, the matter had been satisfactorily closed, and indicating in the other that there was not sufficient evidence to pursue the case further.

Reacting to this, Sebi issued a statement on Friday denying the claims.

"Sebi has neither received any request from the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) of Antigua for updates on any investigation nor provided any such information to CIU," the regulator said.

ALSO READ: India submits request to Antigua for extradition of fugitive Mehul Choksi

Explaining further, the regulatory official today said Sebi is in an advanced stage of probe against fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Choksi for suspected trading and disclosure related issues in the matter of over Rs 140-billion fraud at state-run PNB and it may soon issue the orders.

The regulator is probing alleged fraudulent trading, corporate governance-related violations, insider trading and disclosure related issues in the case of Bank and

The markets watchdog, in May, issued a warning letter to PNB as well for delaying disclosures to about the fraudulent transactions allegedly carried out by absconding Modi and Gitanjali Group of companies.

PNB was defrauded allegedly by the diamond trader and his associates by fraudulent use of letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (LoC) in connivance with certain bank officials.

The regulator has analysed the stock market trade details of all entities associated with Modi and Choksi, who has already been under scanner for various cases including a brokerage default incident.

Incidentally, in July 2013, the Stock Exchange (NSE) in consultation with Sebi had debarred chief and main promoter Choksi, among others, from trading, for securities market violations relating to trading in his company.

Further, they are also being investigated by the (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

According to the Sebi's warning letter, there were delays of 1-6 days by PNB in making disclosures to the pertaining to the filing of complaints with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and CBI. This delay in informing the is a violation of the listing regulations.

Under these norms, companies need to inform stock exchanges about any price sensitive information in a timely manner.

Sebi's communication refers to various disclosures made by PNB to stock exchanges during February and March this year regarding certain fraudulent transactions with respect to Modi group, Gitanjali group and others, and referring of the same to law enforcement agencies.
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With the 2019 Lok Sabha election less than a year away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah bet on Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the party repeating its 2014 performance and returning to power at the Centre.

Addressing a public meeting at Chandauli district in eastern UP, on Sunday, Shah recalled that in run up to the 2014 poll, he had said the path to victory in Lok Sabha poll would traverse through UP. I am repeating the same today for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll that UP would play a key role in forming the next government at the Centre and re-electing the Narendra Modi ...
The corporate affairs ministry has proposed setting up special courts under the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to deal with insolvency cases. Ministry officials say eight courts are proposed to be set up for this purpose. These courts will be set up in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, a senior ministry official said.

While three courts are proposed to be set up in Mumbai, two may come up in Delhi and one each in Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. After these are set up, Mumbai will have seven courts, Delhi six, and Chennai, ...
Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor) is almost as old as India itself. Seven decades ago, five years before he was born, his family decided to stay in India at the time of Partition. Growing up in Varanasi, Murad, an advocate, has built a small support system for himself, comprising his family and friends who practice different faiths.

He invites his Hindu friends for parties, stops at their shops and drinks chai, shares jokes with them and laughs. But that changes when his nephew, Shahid (Prateik Babbar), an accused in a bomb blast, is shot by the police. Shahid was indeed a terrorist ...
China's state media said on Saturday the government's retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of US goods showed rational restraint and they accused the United States of blackmail. Late on Friday, China's finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States, with the extra levies ranging from five to 25 per cent on a total value of goods less than half of that proposed by US President Donald Trump's administration. The response follows the Trump administration's proposal of a 25-per cent tariff on $200 billion ...
A new study has concluded that bacteria can sense amino acids and regulate their metabolism in response to the available nutrients.

Researchers at the University of Leicester said that gathering knowledge about such bacteria could help in the development of drugs and antibiotics to combat a range of diseases, including tuberculosis.

They have identified functions of a specific protein (Kinase G) that allow groups of bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis to detect amino acids in their surroundings, allowing the bacteria.

This protein is found in a large and important group of bacteria that includes the causative agent of tuberculosis in humans, as well as bacteria important for food and antibiotic production. The research identified the types of nutrients that can be sensed (aspartate and glutamate) as well as the sensor protein that recognises the nutrients.

This understanding of how bacteria detect and respond to amino acids in their local environment provides useful information to scientists in terms of understanding how bacteria function and how drugs could target specific proteins.

"Serine threonine protein kinases are found in all organisms, from humans to bacteria, but they are less well understood in bacteria. The findings represent one of the first instances in bacteria where it has been possible to identify the stimuli that trigger signaling," said a lead researcher Helen O'Hare.

"A bacterial pathogen can 'taste' the same amino acids that humans can. The sensor has a similar structure to human glutamate receptors but the way the information is transmitted into the bacterial cell is different and involves a different set of proteins, unlike signaling systems that have been studied previously," she added.

The team was able to work out which proteins helped bacteria sense nutrients by deleting specific genes for signaling proteins from a bacterial genome. With the genes removed, they found that this disrupted the ability of the bacteria to sense nutrients, confirming the function of the genes.

"Our findings have broader significance for other Actinobacterial pathogens, such as non-tuberculous Mycobacteria, as well as Actinobacteria used to produce billions of dollars of amino acids and antibiotics every year," O'Hare added.

Financial support for the research was provided by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and the Medical Research Council.

The study appears in the mBio journal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Acting CJ defends his degree

Acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee, who was rejected by the Parliamentary Hearing Committee for the chief justice post on Friday, has ruled out controversy over his school leaving certificate.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking credit for the developmental work done by the Samajwadi party government.

Yadav further rubbished Prime Minister's claim that Rs 60,000 crore has been invested in the state within a period of one year.

"I want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi, what all new projects BJP has introduced in Uttar Pradesh after coming to power. Even after organizing the UP Investor Summit, they failed to do roll-out any new projects for easing the lives of people. All these projects on which the BJP is working were started by my government," he said.

Continuing his tirade against the BJP government, Yadav said that the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetization, only benefitted a handful of people in the country.

"The BJP promised the poor that with the implementation of the GST and demonetization they will be benefited. But if one looks closely, very few people have been benefitted from the new tax regime," he said.

The former chief minister also accused the government of spreading hatred in the country.

"PM Modi is spreading hatred amongst people on social media platforms by stating that Yadav will dominate the country if given the reservation. But I want to ask, what about Vishva Karma community, what about Patel community in Gujarat. Why they were not given reservation till now despite being in minority," he said.

"If you want your party to defeat BJP in the next elections, I request you all to be away from the BJP's moves. Falling prey to their tactics will only create obstructions for SP to gain power in the next elections," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India on Sunday formally handed over an extradition request to authorities in Antigua and Barbuda for fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi.

This comes a day after the Mumbai Police issued a statement saying it had initiated an inquiry pertaining to the issuance of a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) by the Mumbai Regional Passport Office (RPO).

They further stated that they were examining the internal processes involved in the verification process to improve the existing system.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had earlier confirmed that PCC was issued on the basis of a clear Police Verification Report (PVR) available on his passport.

This came after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had brushed off reports that it had given a positive report to Choksi, based on which he got an Antiguan citizenship.

According to sources, the MEA had on Friday received the extradition request from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

On a related note, Antigua and Barbuda's Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) had earlier clarified that it took all steps to ensure Choksi was a 'fit and proper candidate' for the grant of citizenship as allowed under the country's Citizenship by Investment Act.

In a press release, the CIU stated that Choksi's application was received by them in May 2017 with necessary documents, including a police clearance certificate as required by the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Act 2013.

Choksi, who is allegedly involved in the over USD 2 billion Punjab Bank scam, has reportedly taken refuge in the Caribbean nation after moving there in July. His valid passport was revoked in February after this scam was unearthed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three members of Resolute Support service were killed in a suicide bombing during Parwan Patrol in Kabul on Sunday.

According to Tolo News, Resolute Support, in a statement, said that a US soldier and two Afghan National Army troops also suffered injuries in the attack. The nationalities of the soldiers, killed in the bombing are not confirmed yet.

Taliban outfit has taken responsibility for the incident and claimed that a Taliban fighter launched a suicide car bombing, causing casualties on NATO coalition forces, reported Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Resolute Support and US Forces-Afghanistan commander US Army General John Nicholson offered condolences to the grieving family and said, "My thoughts and prayers, along with those of all of the 41-contributing Resolute Support nations, are with the families and friends of our fallen and wounded service members, and our injured Afghan brothers and their families," reported Tolo News.

The attack comes a week after two gunmen stormed into the building of department of migrants and refugees in Jalalabad's PD3 area in Afghanistan, killing at least 15 people.

Earlier on July 1, a suicide bombing killed at least 19 people, mostly Sikhs in Afghanistan's Jalalabad.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Despite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowing to give up developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, a confidential report by the United Nations revealed that the country is reportedly continuing to pursue its nuclear weapons programme.

CNN quoted a confidential UN report stating that North Korea has flouted all the sanctions put on the country and is pursuing the selling of conventional weapons to fuel violence.

The report underlined that Pyongyang continued to breach financial sanctions and arms embargo as well.

Last week, a US official also stated that North Korea is reportedly constructing new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and its missile programme is doing "business as usual."

On a related note, US Secretary to State Mike Pompeo who is currently attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore said that he believed in pressurising Pyongyang as the country had still not made any strong efforts for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Another US official was quoted by Fox News as saying that there was "no evidence" that Pyongyang stopped its work of building missiles, despite dismantling a nuclear test site recently.

Last week Pompeo told a Senate panel that Pyongyang was continuing to produce fissile material required for building nuclear warheads.

The Washington Post first reported that Pyongyang was likely building two ICBMs at the same facility, where the country had made its first long-range missiles, including the Hwasong-15, having the capacity of striking the US East Coast, satellite images showed.

Pompeo, who visited North Korea for denuclearisation talks last month, had invited furore from Pyongyang, which later expressed its disappointment over the attitude of US officials on denuclearisation, calling it "regrettable and really disappointing."

In a statement by an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman, carried by North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang criticised Washington D.C. for "seeking unilateral and forced and "gangster-like demand for denuclearisation", Yonhap News Agency reported.

"The US just came out with such unilateral, robber-like denuclearisation demands as CVID (complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement), declaration and verification that go against the spirit of the North Korean-US summit meeting," the spokesperson said.

It is to be noted that North Korea has become a virtual pariah in the international community since the UN imposed tough sanctions on the country, after conducting nuclear tests and launching three ICBMs last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Embassy in Nepal on Sunday informed that nearly 200 Kailash Mansarovar Yatra pilgrims were stranded due to inclement weather conditions.

In a statement, the Indian embassy said, "Our headcount on the evening of August 4 revealed that there are 124 pilgrims in Simikot and 50 others in Hilsa or about to come to Hilsa."

The embassy noted that Simikot had basic boarding and lodging facilities to hold up to 500 pilgrims, adding that there were also facilities of initial medical examination and first aid.

It said that the numbers were not alarming and would take just one day of good weather and normal conditions suitable for flights to evacuate all those stranded.

The embassy further said, "The Mission's representatives in Simikot/Hilsa/Nepalganj are on alert and continuously monitoring the situation.

In case of any emergency, the Mission would ensure safe and timely evacuation of stranded pilgrims."

An emergency control room, with contact numbers of embassy officials, has also been functioning 24X7 since July 2 to cater the need of the stranded pilgrims and their family members' queries. It has been equipped with eight-member multilingual personnel (Hindi/English/Tamil/Telugu/Kannada/Malayalam language speakers) to avoid language barriers.

A number of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra pilgrims have been stranded in parts of Nepal following a recent heavy downpour.

Thousands of Indian pilgrims take part in the yatra every year via Nepal in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China ahead of the monsoon season.

The tour is organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) each year between June and September, in cooperation with the government of the People's Republic of China through two different routes - Lipulekh Pass (Uttarakhand) and Nathu La Pass (Sikkim).

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Twitterverse, especially women exploded with excitement after Netflix released the trailer of 'Nappily Ever After'.

The film, starring 'The Best Man' actress Sanaa Lathan, is about a black woman who finds her identity after chopping her hair off. In the trailer, Violet Jones (Sanaa Lathan) shaved off her locks after his longtime boyfriend refuses to propose her for marriage.

Appreciating the plot of the flick, which will debut on Netflix in September, women took to Twitter to express how relatable the issue is.

A user tweeted, "well this took me down memory lane. sheesh. this my childhood. that hot comb y'all don't know pressure until you gotta hold your ear down so your moms can catch those edges."

Another user tweeted, "The amount of strength, pride, and identity that black women hold in their hair is both mentally/physically exhausting and completely liberating."

"This acc looks good ,,,,,,,, i hope it's done well bc hair is sUCH an empowering, important part of being black" read another.

Another tweeted, "Yes, girl! I've been #NappilyEverAfter for decades. No diss those who perm, fry, or weave, to fit the majority's beauty standards that we've been conditioned to accept. All hair is "good hair," no matter the texture. I have Netflix. I'll be watching."

A user wrote," I'm cryinggggg, because I literally did this with my hair. Shaving it off is such a life changing experiencing and I'll never change what I went through."

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the Bihar government is facing Opposition's ire over the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said that the culprits involved in the incident will not be spared.

Addressing the media, Kumar said, "The culprits will not be spared at any cost. There will not be a lenient attitude in investigating the matter. If you still want to abuse me, feel free to do it like those people who are up against me. Kindly, look at the positive side of it. I am assuring you, both the culprits and the accomplices will be put behind the bars."

Kumar's statement comes a day after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav held a sit-in protest and candle march in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar to protest against the shelter home rape case. Many political leaders including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Bihar's former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, former MP Sharad Yadav had joined the protest and demanded Kumar's resignation.

Earlier on Friday, Kumar had said that the incident has ashamed him and assured that no leniency will be shown towards the culprits.

Addressing a gathering at "Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana" programme on August 3, Kumar said, "This incident has ashamed us. I would like to assure everyone that no leniency will be shown towards anyone. All those found guilty will be severely punished."

The shelter home case was uncovered around two months ago after a report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences revealed that the inmates were sexually abused.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Ram Nath Kovind arrived in Chennai to meet former chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M Karunanidhi here on Sunday.

Upon arrival, President Kovind proceeded straight to Kauvery Hospital, where the DMK Chief is currently undergoing treatment.

Executive Director of the Kauvery Hospital, Aravindaran Selvaraj, in an official statement on July 31 said that an extended period of hospitalisation would be necessary due to age-related overall decline in the DMK Chief's general health, altered liver functions, and hematological parameters.

A number of top politicians and members of the Tamil film fraternity have visited Karunanidhi at the hospital.

Earlier this week, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth paid a visit to Kauvery Hospital to inquire about the health of the DMK Chief.

"I came to inquire about the country's most senior leader. He was sleeping. I inquired about his health from his family members. I pray to the almighty for his speedy recovery," Rajinikanth told media here.

On July 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi enquired about the ill health of Karunanidhi and prayed for his quick recovery. He also spoke to Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi regarding the same.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi too met the DMK chief at the Chennai hospital.

"I wanted to come and see M Karunanidhi Ji. He is a tough person, I met him and he is stable. Sonia Ji has sent her best wishes and regards to the family," Gandhi told the media.

Karunanidhi was admitted to the hospital following a drop in his blood pressure last week. The DMK chief, who is on intravenous antibiotics, was earlier undergoing treatment at his Gopalapuram residence in Chennai.

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday visited ailing Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) supremo M. Karunanidhi at the hospital in Chennai and inquired about his health.

"Visited Thiru M Karunanidhi in Chennai, met Kalaignar's family members and doctors and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery," the official Twitter handle of Rashtrapati Bhavan tweeted.

The President briefly interacted with Karunanidhi's son and DMK working president MK Stalin and his daughter and DMK Member of Parliament (MP) Kanimozhi.

Many politicians and prominent leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have visited Karunanidhi from time to time in the Kauvery hospital in Chennai, where he has been admitted since last week following a drop in his blood pressure.

Earlier on Thursday, the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan also visited Karunanidhi at the hospital and inquired about his health.

The DMK chief, who is on intravenous antibiotics, was earlier undergoing treatment at his Gopalapuram residence in Chennai.

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A Pune-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has begun an anti-beggar drive at the Mumbai Central railway station.

The NGO, Suraksha Social Organisation, started its campaign from Pune and has also held demonstrations in Mumbai's Dadar and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway stations.

Chairman of the NGO, Vishal Owal told ANI, that through their campaigning they are trying to help beggars in rebuilding their lives.

The NGO also aims to create awareness about child trafficking in the business of begging.

"With the police's help, action is being taken and we're taking them to rehabilitation centres where they're being counselled. We are also asking people not to give alms to them as it only encourages them to continue this business," Owal said.

"We can only admit them in government-recognised NGO's at present. We are trying to appeal to other NGO's to tie up with us for the rehabilitation of the beggars," he added.

A volunteer cited a statistic from the Crime Bureau, according to which a child is kidnapped every eight minutes, saying that most of them are sent to beg on the streets as they invoke pity and consequently more money from the public.

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Cane farmers to receive subsidy of Rs60 per quintal

Sugarcane farmers will now receive a subsidy of Rs60 per quintal, according to the provision put forth by the Cabinet which met last Friday. The move is expected to provide some respite to sugarcane producers who are facing late payments from sugar mills yet again.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president on Sunday launched a scathing attack at and said that the Congress President never replied to him over his stand on the Assam Register of Citizens (NRC) draft.

"Today the Opposition is trying to dilute the whole country. The central government made the after Supreme Court's order. NRC is an initiative to bring out all the Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam. However, Mamata Banerjee says that NRC shouldn't be promoted. Congress party also believes the same. I have been asking whether NRC should be in this country or not? He has never replied to me on the same," said at the inauguration ceremony of the new Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction railway station, which was earlier known as Mughalsarai.

Hitting out at the united opposition Shah added: "Today I want to ask SP, BSP and Congress to decide whether they want to keep Bangladeshi intruders here or want to throw them out?"

Shah later went on to ask whether his party will support BJP in passage of the upcoming OBC bill in the Parliament.

He said: "Prime Minister Modi is set to bring two new bills. One of them is to give constitutional rights to all the backward classes as part of the OBC Commission. Prime Minister Modi will get this bill pass in the Lok Sabha. Later it will go to Rajya Sabha for approval. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi to confirm in front of people whether the Congress party will help us in passing this bill or not?"

He added, "Congress party talks about poverty. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi that we have given gas cylinders to 4.5 crore poor women, we built toilet in the houses of 7.5 crore people, we gave houses to 2 crore people, gave electricity to more than 2 crore people, gave loans under Mudra bank to more than 12 crore young people, so what have you done in 55 years?"

Shah didn't shy away from taking a pot shot at Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati.

"Whenever I hear bua and bhatija (Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav), I can't see their jealously. The government gave you a chance for 15 years, but during your regime only corruption, violence and mafia were there. Today under Yogi Adityanath's government, mafia has gone out of the Uttar Pradesh border. Congress party, through their support to SP and BSP, gave Rs 3,30,000 crore to Uttar Pradesh. But the BJP government gave Rs 8,08,000 crore to the state. We have given Rs 4,77,000 crore more to this state."

Shah concluded his speech saying, "I want to confirm you all that after completing five years when we will come back here to ask for vote (for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections), at that time this state will be named as the top state of the country."

Ever since the Assam NRC final draft was released, various Opposition parties have been consistently disapproving it, accusing the BJP of vendetta ahead of 2019 general elections.

The draft, which was released on July 30, left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants.
Union electronics and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said that rural digital entrepreneurs are providing livelihood opportunities to nearly 12 lakh rural people.

"Three lakh common service centres have created rural digital entrepreneurs, who are not only providing digital services to poor people but also creating livelihood opportunity for nearly 12 lakh rural people," he said.

He further emphasised on the need to "strike a balance among data availability, data utility, data innovation, data enterprise and data privacy."

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India innitiative, Prasad added that Digital governance is 'good' and 'honest' governance.

"Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has not only ensured transparent and honest delivery of entitlements to poor people, but has also led to saving of Rs. 90,000 Crore," he said, at the inaugaration of STPI Electronics and IT Enclave and Data Centre of Directorate of Hydrocarbons here, along with Union Minister for Oil and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

Speaking on the same, Pradhan said that the new infrastructure will promote entrepreneurship and innovation and will help the IT sector in Odisha reach new heights.

"I am happy and confident that new Infrastructure will promote entrepreneurship and innovation and will help the IT sector in Odisha reach new heights creating more and more employment avenues and contribute to the upliftment of the State," he said

The Union Minister further said that the secondary data centre of Data Repository will provide an e-platform for investors to access, visualise and purchase exploration and production (E&P) data.

"It will facilitate students, academia and companies to visualise and carry out research work on the huge volume of hydrocarbon E&P data of the country," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bharatiya Janata Party leader CP Thakur on Sunday said that Bihar's social welfare department minister Manju Verma should resign till the investigation into the Muzaffarpur shelter home case is not over.

Verma's husband Chandrasekhar Verma has been accused of frequently visiting the Muzaffarpur shelter home, where more than 40 girls were subjected to sexual exploitation.

Speaking to ANI, Thakur said, "I don't know if her (Manju Verma) husband is involved or not. All I am saying is that she should resign till the CBI inquiry is on, once the CBI gives her a clean chit she can resume office."

The Member of Parliament (MP) further said Verma should take the responsibility of things went wrong in her department.

"I am not saying that they are guilty. But, if everything is going wrong in her department I think she should take responsibility for the department. There were complaints from several other places as well," added Thakur.

Speaking on the actions taken by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in connection with the case, Thakur said, "Nitish Kumar has done the work required by the administration."

The shelter home case was uncovered around two months ago after a report by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences revealed that the inmates were sexually abused.

Earlier Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik suspended seven social welfare department officials for not taking timely cognisance of the social audit report of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hit out at state Congress chief Kamal Nath for calling him a 'madaari'.

While addressing 'Jan Kalyan Yojana' here, Chouhan said he is only focused on the development of Madhya Pradesh and making it world's best state.

"A Congress leader called me a 'madaari'. Yes, I am a 'madaari', who when plays his drum, the electricity bill comes down to zero. I am a 'madaari' who builds houses for poor, pays children's fee, who has vowed to change Madhya Pradesh and make it the number one state in the world," Shivraj said.

Further underlining the initiatives taken by his government, the Chief Minister said that he was handed over a 'BIMARU' state and he changed it to a developed one.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After months of economic tensions, United States President on Saturday said the trade tariff imposed on is working 'far better than ever anticipated.'

in a series of Tweet said the Chinese market dropped 27 per cent and still both the countries are talking.

"Tariffs are working far better than anyone ever anticipated. market has dropped 27% in the last 4 months, and they are talking to us. Our market is stronger than ever, and will go up dramatically when these horrible Trade Deals are successfully renegotiated," he tweeted.

The US President, further highlighting the effectiveness of 'America First Tariffs', said that move had a positive impact on the Steel Industry. He added that several steel plants are opening all over the United States and "big Dollars are flowing into the Treasury."

"Other countries use Tariffs against, but when we use them, foolish people scream!" Tweeted.

"Tariffs will make our country much richer than it is today. Only fools would disagree. We are using them to negotiate fair trade deals and, if countries are still unwilling to negotiate, they will pay us vast sums of money in the form of Tariffs," he added.

Trump even claimed that is "trying to convince and scare the US politicians" to fight against him.

The two global superpowers have been engaged in a since April 2017, when United States President had asked the US Commerce Department to investigate whether steel and aluminium imports from China and other countries was a matter of national security.

This prompted an imposition of taxes on Chinese steel and aluminium imports.

Also, tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods were levied last month.
Days after Google owned up to the default inclusion of old Aadhaar helpline number in mobile phones, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Sunday condemned the vested interests for misusing Google's "inadvertent" act as an opportunity to spread rumours against Aadhaar.

Earlier, Google had clarified that UIDAI's old contact number 18003001947 was added by it "inadvertently" along with police/fire number 112 in 2014 and has since been continuing through sync mechanism. The search engine also expressed regret for the same and assured that it will fix this inadvertent error in their next release.

UIDAI further expressed hope that Google, a large digital platform provider, will look into this issue and will exercise due care so that such things are not repeated in future.

"UIDAI condemns the vested interests who tried to misuse Google's "inadvertent" act as an opportunity to spread rumours and go around fear-mongering against Aadhaar. Rumours are being floated in some social media such as Twitter and WhatsApp that this number has "mysteriously popped up on mobile devices and will be harmful, Aadhaar data has been breached, etc., and therefore, the helpline number should be deleted immediately". This is totally false propaganda and is nothing but scare-mongering against Aadhaar by vested interests trying to exploit Google's act to spread misinformation about Aadhaar by scaring people," the Aadhaar-governing body said in a statement.

The Aadhaar body further stated that by merely having a outdated helpline number on a mobile, no harm can be caused. "Just by a helpline number in a mobile's contact list the data stored on the mobile phone cannot be stolen. Therefore, there should be no panic to delete the number as no harm will be caused. Rather people may, if they so wish, update it with UIDAI's new helpline number 1947," UIDAI noted.

Assuring that Aadhaar data remains fully safe and secure, UIDAI clarified that rumours about Aadhaar database being breached are completely false and baseless.

"People should stay away from such rumours and malicious campaign by vested interests. They should also not waste their time and time of their near and dear ones by forwarding or circulating such false and baseless rumours on their WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook , etc," the statement added.

For the past few days, several people on social media have accused the UIDAI of breaching the privacy of several citizens, and have uploaded images on Twitter and other platforms of the pre-loaded helpline number.

The Aadhaar body had earlier emphasised that it had not asked any agency whatsoever to include its helpline number in the mobile phones. It also clarified that its valid toll-free number is 1947, which is functional for more than two years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India Meteorological Department on Sunday issued warning of heavy rainfall for the next 48 hours for several areas of Uttarakhand.

Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri, Tehri, Chamoli, and Nainital are likely to experience heavy downpour. In the wake of the heavy rainfall, all schools from class 1 to 12 in Dehradun will remain shut on August 6.

Earlier today, the streets of Dehradun were severely water-logged after heavy rainfall led to traffic jam.

Water-logged streets in Dehradun

DehradunAug5.jpg

Due to continuous rainfall, the water level of Gori Ganga river, flowing along the Pithoragarh district of the state has also increased, endangering the villages on the bank of the river.

Kedarnath Highway in Chandrapuri has also been shut temporarily due to incessant rain on Saturday. The 'Chaar Dhaam Yatra' has also been stopped at some places owing to rains and landslides.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Sunday paid tribute to former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial in Tashkent.

Swaraj laid floral wreath on Shastri's bust. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted, "EAM @SushmaSwaraj paying floral tribute to freedom fighter and 2nd Prime Minister of India Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial in Tashkent."

Earlier, Swaraj inaugurated a mango festival organised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh with the participation of mango exporters in Tashkent.

Kumar wrote on the micro-blogging site, "Promoting Indian mangoes in Uzbekistan! EAM @SushmaSwaraj inaugurated a Mango Festival organised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh with participation of mango exporters in Tashkent. The exporters will visit fruit markets and meet fruit traders."

While interacting with Uzbek Indologists, Hindi teachers and alumni of ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) and ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme), Swaraj said that love and respect for Indian culture is visible everywhere in Uzbekistan.

She underlined that although both India and Uzbekistan had established diplomatic ties 25 years ago, the relations between the two nations were built on the foundation of centuries-old historical and cultural ties.

Stressing on people-to-people relations, Swaraj continued, "The love for our language Hindi and classical dances like Kathak and Bharatnatyam in Russia, Uzbekistan, and other neighbouring countries is very much visible."

She said that Bollywood films had made a huge contribution for facilitating closer people-to-people ties between India and Russia and other Central Asian nations.

Underscoring the popularity of late superstar Raj Kapoor in the region, Swaraj noted, "In Russia and Uzbekistan, even if the people knew or did not know the names of government leaders, they always knew Raj Kapoor, which is a household name in both countries."

Currently, Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. This is her first visit to the Central Asian countries as the External Affairs Minister.

In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the EAM held talks with the leadership of both countries, attended cultural programmes and interacted with the Indian communities residing in two nations.

After completing her engagements in Uzbekistan, Swaraj is expected to leave for India later in the day.

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused Colombia's far-right groups and outgoing president Juan Manuel Santos for what he called as an "attempt to assassinate him."

Hours after an explosive drone rocked a military ceremony, Maduro appeared on Venezuela's national television saying, "I'm alive and victorious," CNN reported.

The 55-year-old leader pinned the blame on American financers and planners for the 'drone attack.'

Furthermore, Maduro urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to tackle terrorist groups that plotted attacks in South America.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that many of those responsible for the attack, the financiers, and planners, live in the United States in the state of Florida. I hope the Trump administration is willing to fight terrorist groups that commit attacks in peaceful countries in our continent, in this case, Venezuela."

Venezuela has long pointed fingers at Colombia for plotting overthrows and far-right elements in Miami and Bogota for hatching a conspiracy to overthrow Maduro, as per the report.

Calling it a "big explosion," Maduro underlined that when he heard the first blast, he initially thought it was fireworks. But after a few seconds, there was a second blast.

Maduro further said that the investigation was in an advanced stage, adding that enough evidence was obtained by authorities.

The Venezuelan President was speaking at the celebration of the National Guard's 81st anniversary when the 'attack' occurred. Maduro and other government officials were evacuated immediately.

Meanwhile, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, took to Twitter called the incident a "terrorist attack against the president and the high military command blaming the opposition for the violence.

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The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 1125 Indian Star tortoises from Vizag railway station and arrested three people who were illegally transporting the tortoises.

The DRI officials handed over the seized tortoises which were meant to be smuggled out of the country, to the Forest Range Officer, Vizag for safe custody.

On Saturday, the DRI received special intelligence that the endangered species were being illegally smuggled, following which they held the three accused who were transporting the tortoises from Vijayawada to Howrah.

The three arrested passengers admitted that the tortoises, found in their possession were collected by someone near Madanapalli, Andhra Pradesh and, who asked them to take it to Howrah and then hand it over to someone to export them to Bangladesh.

The Indian Star Tortoises are protected under 'CITES' - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and are prohibited for export under Foreign Trade Policy and the same are liable for confiscation under Customs Act,1962.

842 kgs of cannabis seized by the DRI

Ganja.jpg

In another incident, the DRI seized 842 kilograms of cannabis (Ganja) in Vijayawada and arrested two people in connection with the same.

The cannabis worth Rs 1, 26, 40,800 were recovered in Enikepadu area of Vijayawada. The drug was loaded into the vehicle at Narsipatnam and was destined to Ahmednagar of Maharashtra.

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English zones in Nepali schools

Such zones demoralise students, dangerously suppressing their creative enthusiasm in inventing ideas in language
A woman was severely injured after being shot by an unidentified man on late Saturday night in Delhi's Ashok Vihar area.

As per eyewitness Advocate Karmesh Sharma, the man shot the woman and immediately ran away from the spot.

"While working, we heard a fire-cracker like sound in the area. On checking the CCTV of my office, we noticed a man running away. We immediately came out and saw dogs barking incessantly, after which we heard a woman wailing in pain. On reaching the house, we saw a magazine, blood on the floor and an old lady," said Sharma.

"We even tried to chase the man but couldn't nab him. He had been waiting outside the house for about 10 minutes," he added.

The injured woman was taken to a nearby hospital immediately.

Further details are awaited.

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Nearly 180 Indians on way back home from Mansarovar pilgrimage are stranded in Humla district in Nepal due to bad weather, official sources said on Sunday.

However, the numbers are not alarming and it will take just a day of good weather and normal operation of flights to evacuate all the stranded persons, the Indian Embassy here said.

It confirmed that these persons were stranded in Simikot, the district headquarters of Humla, and Hilsa on the Nepal-China border.

A headcount on Saturday evening in both places revealed that 124 pilgrims were stuck in Simikot and 50 in Hilsa or on way to Hilsa, the embassy said.

Due to bad weather, it was impossible to airlift these Indians from Hilsa to Simikot and Simikot to Nepalgunj, a border city which is only a four-hour drive from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.

In July, over 2,000 Indian pilgrims were stranded but were airlifted to safety. Nepal is a popular destination for Indian pilgrims to visit Mansarovar due to the distance and comfort factors involved.

Simikot has basic board and lodging facilities for 500 pilgrims, the embassy said, along with medical and first-aid facilities.

The pilgrims stranded in Humla since Saturday have not complained about board and lodging and medical services, it added.

Embassy's representatives in Simikot, Hilsa, Nepalganj are on alert and monitoring the situation. The embassy will ensure timely evacuation of stranded pilgrims in case of emergency, the statement said.

--IANS

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Eight Taliban militants were killed and three injured during a military operation in Afghanistan's Takhar province, an army spokesman said on Sunday.

"Among those killed was a Taliban divisional commander," Xinhua news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

The National Security and Defence Forces launched the ground operation supported by the Air Force against militants in Baharak district on Saturday.

--IANS

mag/ksk/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The powerful All Assam Students Union (AASU) on Sunday warned political parties not to politicise and communalize the National Register of Citizens (NRC)which was published in Assam on July 31.

The North East Students Organisation (NESO), an apex students' body of all the indigenous communities in the region, demanded to update the registry of citizens in other northeastern states to segregate genuine and non-genuine citizens.

"There is a propaganda going on by some political leaders of India that the NRC was anti-Bengali or anti-Muslim. The NRC update was anti-illegal Bangladeshis and not against any Indian," AASU Chief Adviser Sammujal Bhattacharya told journalists here in Meghalaya.

Warning political parties from "politicizing and communalizing" the NRC in Assam, the AASU leader said: "I want to tell such leaders that India is for Indians and Assam and Northeast is also for Indians but not for illegal Bangladeshis.

"The Trinamool Congress (TMC) must learn a lesson from the problem in the northeast and save West Bengal from being swamped by illegal Bangladeshi immigrants," Bhattacharya said.

"Bangladeshis are also entering West Bengal. Concentrate more on securing your borders," he said, referring to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have been extremely critical of the draft NRC in Assam that left out more than 40 lakh people from the list and termed it as a BJP political strategy to drive out "real Indians" from the country.

But the powerful AASU leader maintained that the NRC was a document to protect the identity of the indigenous people of the northeast.

Bhattacharya also hit out at political parties for not raising the influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Parliament. "This is a grave situation and what's happening in the northeast should be discussed in Parliament."

"We demand the updation of NRC in other states of the northeast also so that we can know the quantum of problem the region is facing," NESO chairman Samuel B. Jyrwa said.

--IANS

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Police in Romania are investigating anti-semitic graffiti found on the walls of the house where Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel was born, a media report said.

Comments painted in pink included the remark that Wiesel, who died in 2016, was "in hell with Hitler". They were quickly removed, the BBC reported.

Police spokeswoman Florina Metes said on Saturday that officers were probing CCTV footage from the house in the northern town of Sighetu Marmatiei, where Wiesel was born in 1928.

"This grotesque act represents an attack not only on the memory of Elie Wiesel but on all the victims of the Holocaust," said a statement by Romania's National Institute for Holocaust studies.

In 1944 Wiesel's family was deported to Auschwitz, where his mother and one of his sisters were killed in the death camps. His father died at Buchenwald.

Wiesel's use of the term "Holocaust" helped cement the word's association with Nazi atrocities against the Jews.

In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his role in speaking out against violence, repression and racism.

--IANS

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Student-led protests against the lack of respect for traffic regulations and increasing road accidents have heated up in Bangladesh, with violent outbreaks across the country.

The students poured onto the streets here for the seventh straight day on Saturday, occupying its main intersections and paralysing traffic, Efe news reported.

"The situation is very bad in the area. Several teams of security forces have been sent to restore the order," Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Police Abdullah Hel Kafi said.

No details about the number of people injured in the clash have been given.

The demonstrations began after two youths were run over and killed while several others were injured by a bus on July 29.

"We want justice after the accident. Unless a fair judgment is reached and there is more safety on the highways, we're staying on the streets," Redwanul Islam, a 17-year-old student said.

It is common in Bangladesh for people without licenses to drive and the traffic is massive, which leads to several road accidents.

According to the National Committee for the Protection of Ships, Highways and Railroads, 4,289 people died in 2017 including 539 children, in 3,472 traffic accidents in Bangladesh, while 9,112 people were injured.

--IANS

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Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister C.P. Thakur on Sunday demanded the resignation of Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verna in connection with the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district.

"Manju Verma should resign taking moral responsibility for what happened in the shelter home being run under her department and resign," Thakur said.

Thakur is first BJP leader to demand the resignation of Manju Verma since the Muzaffarpur horror surfaced last month.

Thakur wondered how it was possible that such a crime happened and there was no information about it to the social welfare department.

"The Muzaffarpur incident is the result of lapses of the social welfare department," he said.

Thakur said when he was informed about the incident, he wanted to visit the shelter home. But the shocking case hit the headlines in the media.

Till now, only the RJD, Congress, HAM and Left parties have demanded the resignation of Manju Verma and the arrest of her husband for his alleged involvement in the case.

The CBI is investigating the multiple rapes in the shelter home.

The Muzaffarpur crime came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday attacked the BJP and the RSS, accusing them of "spreading misinformation" on the Supreme Court's directive in publishing the National Register of Citizens in Assam.

Reiterating that the names of many Indians were "deliberately" left out of the draft NRC in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Assam, Banerjee said every step taken by these outfits are influenced by "political vendetta".

"It is unfortunate that the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are making and spreading misleading statements against the Supreme Court which never asked for deletion of names of Indian citizens from the list," Banerjee wrote on Twitter.

"The list of Indian citizens left out comprise Bengalis, Assamese, Rajasthanis, Marwaris, Biharis, Gurkhas, UPites, Punjabis and natives from four southern states," she claimed.

Referring to kin of former Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed who were left out of the draft NRC, Banerjee said that such families are being put in panic because of serious anomalies.

She also raised questions over the deployment of 200 companies of central forces in Assam following the publication of the draft NRC on July 30 and alleged that the core values of India, such as democracy and secularism, are being destroyed by the BJP and RSS.

"Where is democracy? Where is secularism? Why are the core values of our country being destroyed? Why have 200 companies of central forces being sent to Assam. Every single action of the BJP and RSS is one of deliberate destructiveness and political vendetta," she added.

--IANS

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Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is currently shooting for "Brahmastra" in Bulgaria, says the upcoming film is a universe by itself, for itself and of itself.

Amitabh on Saturday night took to his blog, where he shared a few photographs from outside the film's set.

"The night still works. The rain doth excuse itself, the winds they express presence .. the slush envelopes the mandatory 'dry day' and the work for the nights nears its end well almost.... This is 'Brahmastra' after all. It is a universe by itself, for itself, of itself with a mere minor change. It is eventually for us all this be its finality."

"If the massive giant equipments be any proof on the making of the film in its largeness be assured and convinced," he added.

"Brahmastra" is a fantasy adventure trilogy. Its first part is slated to hit the screens on Independence Day, 2019.

The film also stars Ranbir Kapoor, Nagarjuna and Alia Bhatt. This will be the first time Amitabh will be seen working with Alia and Ranbir.

It is directed by Ayan Mukerji, who is known for films like "Wake Up Sid" and "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani".

--IANS

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Have you ever felt annoyed with yourself, maybe for forgetting to do an important task, or for leaving the house keys behind? If so, acting out things you are supposed to remember or pretending that you are actually doing it, can help you recall, suggests a research.

The findings showed that alternative enactment techniques, such as acting, can improve patients' prospective memory -- where you have not remembered to take the action you had planned.

This involves recreating an action one would like to remember, and pretending that you are actually doing it, in as much vivid detail as possible, the researchers said.

A failing prospective memory can be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease, according to lead author Antonina Periera, psychologist at the University of Chichester in the UK.

"The study suggests that enactment techniques are effective in improving prospective memory," she added.

In the research, published in the journal Neuropsychology, the team examined the prospective memory performance in nearly 100 participants, which included patients with mild cognitive impairment aged 64-87 years, healthy older adults aged 62-84 years and younger adults aged 2-18 years.

Participants of all age groups reported improvement in prospective memory, especially the older subjects with mild cognitive impairment in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, after the enhancement technique.

The researchers confirmed that prospective memory erodes as we get older and that enactment techniques might support those with a poor prospective memory.

Encouraging people in this category to adopt enhancement as a means to enhance prospective memory could result in them leading independent, autonomous lives for longer.

The enactment techniques "can have very long lasting effects and work even for people with cognitive impairment. Acting is the key," Periera noted.

--IANS

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Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
The Congress on Sunday said the Modi government delayed the preparation and publication of Assam's draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) by claiming in the Supreme Court that the process can spread fear of violence among the people and pose law and order problem.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress leader Pawan Khera said: "The 'Shah' of lies and the 'Shahenshah of jumlas' tried their best to stall the NRC. The Attorney General used the fear of violence to delay the NRC."

He said that the Supreme Court had come down heavily on the government for its excuses to delay the publication of the NRC in Assam.

"The Supreme Court ordered on November 30, 2017, that it is 'sheer inaction' on part of the executive in dragging the matter for over three years and the absence of any justifiable cause to hold back even a partial publication, which led the court to direct the publication of the draft NRC on or before December 31, 2017," the Congress leader said.

He said that the Attorney General had submitted that part publication of the draft NRC could result in law and order problem in as much as a large segment of the people would understand that their names have been excluded from the draft.

"This makes it clear on how the Modi government made all attempts to stall the process," he said.

Demanding an apology from the government to the people of Assam for attempting to stall the NRC, he also sought to know its stand on the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

"On the one hand, the government seeks to give citizenship rights through the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (2016) to all those who migrated to India before December 31, 2014, and on the other it is playing on NRC," he said.

Khera also demanded the resignation of Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal, saying that he has no right to continue as his party "shamelessly" cheated the people on the NRC issue.

--IANS

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A 27-year-old cook was arrested on the charge of stealing ornaments, including diamonds, from the house of a 60-year-old woman who was his former employer in south Delhi, police said on Sunday.

Police said jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh was recovered from him.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said the woman, a resident of New Friends Colony, had complained to police in July about the theft of diamonds, polki and kundan necklaces, earrings, and other jewellery while she was away.

Police said Roop Narain of Datuali Chander village in Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, who had left his job as a cook at the elderly woman's house two months before the crime, was arrested on August 3.

He told police that he had started an eatery at Aali village in Sarita Vihar after leaving his job but the business was not good, forcing him to commit theft.

--IANS

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The demand to bring back paper ballots in the next Lok Sabha elections in place of Electronic Voting Machines being pressed by major opposition parties has not found favour with two former Chief Election Commissioners, who, however, share their opposition to a proposal for simultaneous elections, saying it cannot be "coerced".

The former CECs say that though both the issues are theoretically in the realm of possibility, but, in practical terms, they are neither feasible nor desirable.

They were reacting to a planned move by 17 parties, including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, to approach the Election Commission to press for restoring the paper ballot system in view of their apprehensions over the integrity of the EVMS and the possibility of their manipulation and the failure of the VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) slips in recent elections.

V.S. Sampath, who demitted office in January 2015 after nearly three years at the helm of the Election Commission, said going back to paper ballots "makes no sense".

"Nobody will accept it," Sampath told IANS.

He said with the introduction of VVPAT slips, which the Election Commission has said would be deployed throughout the country in all elections hereafter, there is already a paper ballot system that is going to be in place.

"VVPAT is a credible system by which the voter knows whom he has voted for and his ballot slip has gone into a box which can be retrieved at any time in case of a dispute for verfication. It does the job of paper balloting that leaves an audit trail," he said.

To incorporate safeguards and to remove doubts in the minds of political parties, Sampath said the Commission could think of increasing the proportion of counting slips in consultation with parties. The quantity of sampling of slips can be increased.

Another former CEC, who declined to be named, said the EVMs have been subjected to criticism from the very beginning on one ground or another.

"While people are talking of returning to the ballot papers, let's revisit how and why we switched to the machines in the first place. There were many serious issues with the ballot papers. Firstly, it is not an environment-friendly method. So many ballot papers would need cutting of innumerable trees. On the other hand, EVMs, once made, can be used over and over again.

"Secondly, there was the issue of a large number of invalid votes. If a voter failed to put the stamp correctly, if the stamp touched the margins, the vote would be deemed invalid. This invariably resulted in disputes at the time of counting. Also, the counting of votes took a very long time, he said.

The former EC boss said there were also cases of booth capturing and ballot papers being forged. This led to frequent countermanding of polls.

It was in this background that it was decided to hold the elections with machines. The EVMs are tamper-proof -- unless you get hold of one and change the motherboard. But you will need to steal a very large number of machines and then restore them back to the EC strong room that has multi-layered security, without anyone knowing about it, in order to actually influence an election, he said.

Asked about opposition's suspicions that chips can be installed in EVMs that can make them behave in a particular way for a specific time and then return to normal, he said: "I don't think that is possible."

"What happens is that when a party has huge expectations of winning the polls but fails, it resorts to blaming the EVMs. They can't blame the voters because then the voters may teach them a more bitter lesson in the next elections," he said.

Sampath said that, after the 2009 general elections too there were grave misgivings over the machines. Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu made a presentation at an all-party meeting convened by the Election Commission in 2010 in which 42 recognised parties participated.

"Barring three or four parties, all of them expressed misgivings. The Shiv Sena said go back to paper ballots. We said there is no question of going back to paper ballots. The first step for the VVPAT was sown in that meeting," he recalled.

He said a subsequent CEC announced that whenever elections are held, VVPATs would be introduced to provide for an audit trail.

The other CEC said: "You see, in 2004, it was a different party that questioned the EVMs. In 2009, it was the (currently-ruling) BJP that vigorously advocated discarding the EVMs. But the fact is that after around 120 state and national elections with EVMs, nobody has been able to prove that the EVM used by the Commission can be tampered with. The EC has repeatedly thrown challenges. The demonstration in the Delhi assembly was done using a toy machine, not the actual EVM."

He acknowledged that "large scale" failure of VVPATs in recent bypolls -- for technical reasons or whatever -- has created another controversy.

"Having said that, if the entire system, that is all political parties agree, the EC can return to the ballot paper. The EC functions as per the law. The current law is for holding elections through machines, so that is being done. If they make a law to hold the elections through ballot papers, the EC would do that," he said.

On the issue of simultaneous elections on which the Law Commission is holding consultations, Sampath said: "Elections are held as per law of the land and they cannot be coerced."

"Even if simultaneous elections are held to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, there is no guarantee that the respective Houses would last their terms. And then you can't wait for Parliament's term to end to hold elections to Assemblies or vice versa, given the coalition era and the political instability the country has gone through since the 1990s."

Sampath said simutaneous elections should come in the "natural course and cannot be coerced".

He acknowledged that frequent elections in India put pressure on governance because of the Model Code of Conduct that restrains governments from taking decisions and sometimes this covered the Central government too. It also puts pressure on parties because it becomes some kind of a frequent referendum.

To overcome frequent elections, Sampath suggested that elections, especially to Assemblies, can be clubbed as far as possible together in a year.

"Elections becoming due in some states in different periods can be clubbed together for which the Election Commission should also be given some flexibility beyond the six-month period to have the authority to hold polls. A party that is in power with a huge majority at a given time cannot be sure that it will always be the case," he said.

Sampath said simultaneous elections can theoretically be good but "we should be able to achieve the right thing for right reasons and not wrong reasons".

He also suggested that the requirement of a by-election within six months of a constituency falling vacant can be done away with, giving the Commission more leeway in clubbing vacancies together.

The other former CEC said "simultaneous polls are not that easy to do".

"At least I don't see them happening in 2019. You need Constitutional amendments and a legal framework for that. But again, if there is a consensus among the political parties on this, even simultaneous elections can be done. But that is easier said than done," he said.

(Mohd. Asim Khan can be contacted at asim.k@ians.in)

--IANS

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Iran plans to open an interests office in Saudi Arabia to undertake diplomatic affairs, Tasnim news agency reported Saturday.

Bahram Qasemi, spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, pointed to the existing problems between Iran and Saudi Arabia, while voicing Iran's readiness for negotiations with its main Gulf rival.

Tehran welcomes mediations by the third countries to settle problems with Riyadh, despite Saudi Arabia's apparent reluctance to mend ties with Iran, Qasemi noted.

"We believe that the problems originate mostly from Saudi Arabia," he said.

On the future of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh, the Iranian spokesman said Switzerland has been

representing Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia under an agreement reached with Bern eight months ago.

"There have been advances made in the past two weeks, and I believe there are signs that (Iran's own) interests office would open and become operational in Saudi Arabia", he was quoted as saying.

Saudi Arabia severed its diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016, following the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad were stormed by angry Iranian protesters, who set the diplomatic missions ablaze for the execution of top Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia.

Besides, Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015, to support the government of internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced into exile in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia.

--IANS

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Computer science is now obligatory at Swiss upper secondary schools as the Alpine nation seeks to boost its citizens' IT skills, the Ministry announced.

Schools tailored for pupils who typically go on to university have until the school year 2022-23 to introduce the compulsory lessons under a regulation change that came in on August 1, the Swiss national day, reports Xinhua news agency.

Previously, IT had the status of a non-obligatory supplementary subject, Swiss public television RTS reported.

Pupils will learn programming basics as well as about computer networks and digital communication security issues.

They should also develop a "well-versed understanding of developments in the information society", according to an Ministry statement.

The change was made due to the "rising importance in society" of information and communication technologies (ICT), said the Ministry.

There is currently a strong demand for IT specialists, but those in the field say there are not enough skilled workers to fill these positions, reported Swissinfo, the website of the national broadcaster.

"We don't have any problem finding people for the helpdesk, which is quite easy in IT terms, but it's much more complicated to find developers," Lionel Rieder, co-founder of website developer Raccoon in Neuchatel, told RTS.

According to statistics shown in the RTS report, some 90,000 people were employed in Swiss IT professions in 1991.

This had risen to 210,800 by 2015. By 2024, there is expected to be a shortfall of almost 25,000 IT specialists.

--IANS

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Actor Kurt Russell, who starred in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", has lent support to its director James Gunn, who got fired by Disney Studios after the filmmaker's controversial tweets on paedophilia and rape resurfaced.

"It's sad. But it's a part of our fabric now and I get it. But I do think we're getting a little too sensitive on maybe some of the wrong people," Russell told Variety on Saturday.

Last month, Disney severed its business relationship with Gunn after tweets like "I like when little boys touch me in my silly place" and "The best thing about being raped is when you're done being raped and it's like 'whew this feels great, not being raped!'" were unearthed.

Not only Russell, other cast members of the film including Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana have defended Gunn and signed an open letter asking the studio to re-hire the director.

--IANS

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West Bengal's Left Front leaders on Sunday demanded that no Indian citizen should be left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and accused the BJP and Trinamool Congress of trying to communally polarise people on the issue.

"We want all the Indians to be registered in the NRC list. Not a single person should be left out. All the Indian citizens among the 40 lakh persons left out of the draft NRC in Assam should be immediately registered," West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Bose said.

Accusing Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of opposing the NRC to gain political mileage and promote communal polarisation, Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Surjya Kanta Misra said that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Banerjee's Trinamool Congress were on the same page on the citizens' list in the past.

"Banerjee brought forth this idea of NRC to Bengal. We all know her mindset regarding the Bangladesh refugees since 2005. Now she is opposing it (NRC) to promote communal polarisation so that people think that the Trinamool and the BJP are fighting. But actually, their stand on this issue is the same," Misra alleged.

He said that the BJP and its allies would not have been able to get a foothold in Bengal without Banerjee's support.

"The BJP has been trying to do this for a long time. I can recall that they were attempting this even 40 years ago. But they will not get any foothold in West Bengal without the support of this Chief Minister," he added.

--IANS

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After several misdiagnosis and other dilemmas, 10 years ago I was diagnosed with a very rare disease, hardly known in India, called VHL or Von Hippel Lindau, during my landmark liver transplant.

I can still recall the quizzical faces of the radiologists checking my tumour-studded liver with their probes and looking at my file with a weird name in it, "VHL". The liver transplant was a life and death situation but we had no money to get it done, with the cost being a whopping Rs 30 lakhs. We reached out to the world through the media and the transplant took place just automagically.

Even now, 10 years hence, VHL remains the least understood disease in India. It is a genetic condition that results in abnormal capillary growth in the visceral organs of the body. Normally, our capillaries branch out gracefully like trees. In VHL patients, little knots of extra capillaries form tumors and, in certain cases, cancer. VHL can affect up to 10 parts of the body, including the brain, spine, ears, eyes, lung, liver, pancreas and kidneys.

Even before the liver transplant, I had multiple surgeries but doctors were always in a dilemma about the diagnosis. It was during my brain tumor surgery that the neurosurgeon suggested I was suffering from VHL. But back then, there was hardly any chronicled cases of VHL in India and my parents apparently don't have VHL, thus he found it difficult to reach a conclusive diagnosis.

My father died within a few months of my liver transplant, leaving me penniless and without a roof above my head. It was then that my real tough times began.

The transplanted liver needs the immune system to be suppressed so that it isn't rejected like bacteria and viruses. Immuno-suppressants are expensive life-saving medicines. VHL disease and an organ transplant requires constant attention and a strict radiological and lab testing schedule to identify new tumors or those that have re-grown or check if the transplanted organ is working perfectly. VHL requires surgeries or treatment for symptomatic relief of tumors, benign or malignant.

To control the plethora of illness that organ transplants and VHL affliction brings, it requires doctor's visits and regular monitoring. We were at a loss: How would we get along? Each day brought with it hope that if we try and don't cry we will live. I, with my mother, began wondering how we could get my treatment done when it was uncertain whether we would get the next day's meal. We didn't cry and reached out to the world with full faith in ourselves that we would live, that we were meant to live. Help came from unexpected quarters and we became survivors. We still need help and funds are difficult to come by, but we never lose hope, it is hope that propels us.

I'm also a MDR-TB survivor which I got under immuno-compromised conditions. I am also a kidney cancer survivor, which is but another manifestation of VHL. I have had so many major surgeries just at the nick of time that I have stopped counting. I wrote poetry and made sketches to express the way we are combating the world and the dire situations.

I wrote my first long poem "Warrior Princess" which sowed the seeds of my later autobiography "The Warrior Princess". After several radiation therapies and treatments for a very rare kind of brain tumor, when my brain fog lifted -- despite the fact that a brain tumor claimed most of my vision in the right eye -- I penned down my story, my experiences with a bizarre disease; and how I fought on.

Ten years ago I never thought I'd live to see this day. Life is granted once and I have an intense will to survive; after the aforementioned war I waged through life, I want to celebrate this day as "Survival Day".

(Payel Bhattacharya was born and raised in Kolkata and has been residing in Delhi for the past 10 years. She has also authored her autobiography, "The Warrior Princess", and has penned this article on the 10th anniversary of being diagnosed with VHL, a rare genetic defect. She can be contacted at payel.bh@gmail.com.)

--IANS

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A male body without head and hands was found dumped in north Delhi early on Sunday, police said.

Police said that it received a call at 8 a.m. that an unclaimed bag was lying near a bus stop located some distance from Delhi University's Khalsa College.

"The bag contained a body without a head and hands. The unidentified victim seemed to be aged around 30," a police officer said.

Police is scanning CCTV footage to crack the case.

--IANS

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A resident of northwest Delhi has accused his neighbour's minor son of stabbing him in the neck during a scuffle over car parking in their locality, police said on Sunday.

Ruling out the 12-year-old's involvement, police said that cross-FIRs were registered and a probe was on.

"Raja Raheja, 30, had gone to his neighbour Harmeet Singh's house late Saturday over parking space in Bharat Nagar locality in Ashok Vihar.

"Even though Raheja accused Harmeet's son of stabbing him, it was a drunk Harmeet who had stabbed Raheja with a knife," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Aslam Khan said.

--IANS

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Govt to gather data on tuin crossings

Nearly three years after the governments announcement to replace all the tuins by trail bridges, the KP Sharma Oli-led administration has geared up once again to remove the traditional wire river crossings.
The Nicaragua Police has cracked down on anti-government marches being held in several cities across the country and barred foreign journalists from covering the protests.

"You cannot go here, go to the park and shoot there," said a police officer, while stopping journalists from entering a street that was part of a common transit, Efe news reported.

Several reporters have been captured and assaulted during the protests, in which, until now, 317-448 people have lost their lives.

The protests against President Daniel Ortega, who has been accused of corruption and abuse of power, started on April 18 over a set of social security reforms and had led to repeated calls for him to step down.

--IANS

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Police in a US city dispersed chaotic demonstrators of a right-wing group and counter-protesters after scuffles and projectile-throwing took place in a park.

"Failure to comply with order may subject you to arrest or citation, and may subject you to the use of riot control agents or impact weapons," Portland Police announced on Twitter and on a loudspeaker at the scene on Saturday.

The rally was organised by Patriot Prayer, a far-right group founded by Joey Gibson, who is running for US Senate in Washington, reports Xinhua news agency.

The demonstration drew hundreds of Patriot Prayer supporters calling for "free speech" at a waterfront park around mid-day in downtown Portland.

Many of the right-wing demonstrators wore helmets and homemade riot gears while another group of counter-protesters from a coalition of labour unions, advocates for immigrant rights and other groups faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs.

The demonstrations, which appeared peaceful at the beginning, turned chaotic when some protesters clashed with the police.

The police said some protesters were throwing rocks, bottles and other projectiles at officers.

They ordered the demonstrators to disperse and leave the downtown area.

There was a heavy police presence, including bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints, at the scene of the rally.

Saturday's event was the third rally staged by the Patriot Prayer this year in Portland to advocate "freedom of speech".

Two previous rallies had led to violent fights and riots.

--IANS

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday visited DMK President M. Karunanidhi at the Kauvery Hospital here and wished him speedy recovery.

"Visited Thiru Karunanidhi, met Kalaignar's family members and doctors, and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery," Kovind tweeted.

Kovind was accompanied by Governor Banwarilal Purohit. He met Karunanidhi's son M.K. Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi at the hospital and enquired about their father's health.

A five-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi was admitted to Kauvery Hospital on July 28 after a dip in his blood pressure and has since been under treatment. His condition is said to be stable now.

Earlier, Kovind was received at the airport by Purohit, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.

--IANS

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Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Sunday could not conduct the aerial survey to assess the flood and landslides-hit areas in Nagaland where 10 people have been killed and lakhs affected due to inclement weather.

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and central and state government officials boarded an Mi17 Indian Air Force helicopter from Dimapur airport to assess the damages in Kiphire district bordering Myanmar and Nagaland state capital Kohima.

They were also to inspect the Doyang hydro-electric project in Wokha developed by North Eastern Electric Power Corp Ltd to see the rise of water level which has been affecting downstream including Assam's Golaghat district.

However, a few minutes after taking off, the entourage returned to Dimapur airport as it could not land in Kohima due to bad weather condition.

"The aerial survey was called off as the helicopter could not land in Kohima due to bad weather but the Chief Minister along with the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority has briefed the Union Minister of the disaster," Chief Secretary Temjem Toy told IANS.

Toy said the Union Minister was shown visual and photographic presentation of the massive damages across Nagaland caused due to erratic nature of rainfall and the situational report of the most severely hit districts.

Promising Chief Minister Rio all possible help from the Home and Defence Ministries, Rijiju said that an Internal Ministerial team would be sent to Nagaland within a week to prepare a correct projection of the financial requirement.

"Very soon we will send the team to Nagaland and once they submit the report, relief would be released immediately," Rijiju said.

Expressing concern that basic commodities must reach the far flung areas, Rijiju said that Indian Air Force would be kept on standby to aid the state.

He was visibly surprised to learn about the magnitude of devastation in Nagaland's capital Kohima.

"This is one of the worst natural disasters Nagaland has witnessed. Ten people have died and lakhs have been affected. My government is making all efforts to reach out to every affected family," Rio told IANS over phone.

He said that he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate help to tackle the crisis.

"We have briefed Rijiju and showed him photographs of the landslides and affected people. We are hopeful that the central government will extend all its help to the state," the Chief Minister said.

Rio also requested the Minister of State to grant ex-gratia to the 10 who died. He said the ruling People's Democratic Alliance members have decided to contribute one month's salary and all party workers will give voluntary donations to manage the immediate requirements.

The Chief Minister also sought voluntary contributions from all government servants.

--IANS

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Russian Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the attempted attack against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, stressing that using terrorism in political struggle is "unacceptable".

"We consider categorically unacceptable the use of terrorist methods as tools of political struggle. Obviously, such actions are aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country," the ministry said in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Maduro escaped unharmed from an attempted attack of explosive drones on Saturday night during his speech to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the country's National Guard.

The foreign ministry noted that the attack came at a time when the congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela held just a few days ago outlined the priorities for restoring the country's economy.

"We are convinced that the settlement of political differences must be carried out exclusively in a peaceful and democratic way," the ministry said.

--IANS

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MPs should never come near the Chairs podium with the intention of disrupting the House as such conduct reflects poorly on the image of Parliament, noted lawyer and former Rajya Sabha member Fali S. Nariman on Sunday told the new members of the upper House.

Speaking on 'Ethics in Politics: Dos and Don'ts' on the concluding day of the two-day orientation programme for the new MPs, Nariman said that MPs should always be conscious of the fact that being a Member of Parliament is one of the most important privileges to serve the people.

Outlining the importance of work ethics, he stressed that members should not get angry or lose temper when they are in the House.

Citing examples of ethics as parliamentarians like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and former Lok Sabha Spekar Somnath Chatterjee, Nariman exhorted the members to maintain high standards of public conduct.

When a member asked if the government is insensitive to the issues raised by the opposition members, what is the alternative left to the them, Nariman said under no circumstances disruption can be justified. Members have to be persuasive in their approach, he added.

The orientation programme was organised by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for the newly-elected/nominated members of Rajya Sabha.

In the session on law-making process, senior MP and noted lawyer Majeed Memon shared some practical tips with the new members regarding law-making. Explaining the qualifications of a good law, Memon said that 'a good law is that which is intelligible to all'.

"Members of Parliament have a major role to play in the law-making process. We should ensure that the people, especially the poor and deprived sections, remain the focus of law and they should benefit from it," Memon said.

MP Bhupender Yadav spoke on the procedural devices for raising matters of public importance.

He briefed the members on the effective use of various devices available under the rules and procedures such as zero-hour submissions, special mentions, calling attention and short duration discussions to hold the government accountable.

--IANS

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Aziz Asber, the head of the Scientific Research Centre in Syria's central province of Hama, has been assassinated, according to activists and pro-government reports.

Asber was killed when an explosion targeted his vehicle in Masyaf in the western countryside of Hama late on Saturday, killing him and his driver, Xinhua news agency quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the man had close ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran.

The Scientific Research Centre in Masyaf has been targeted by the Israelis several times and most recently was in last month, giving rise to reported suspect that Israel is behind the assassination of Asber, according to the watchdog.

Some Israeli reports said the Syrian scientist was involved in Iranian missile programme.

Asber was also on the sanction list of the US for developing long-range missiles.

There have been no official comments from the Syrian government, with pro-government activists posting photos online of a charred car said to be the scientist's.

--IANS

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The prime suspect behind the torching of 14 girls' schools in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region was killed during a search operation on Sunday, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman told Dawn news that Shafiq, who has no known association with any organised militant or terrorist outfits, was the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting girls' schools in the Chilas, Darel and Tanger tehsils of Diamer district between 2.30 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Friday.

The police began conducted raids in various parts of Diamer on Saturday night to track down those responsible for the arson attacks.

So far, 18 suspects have been arrested.

Among the schools targeted, eight were government-run while the other four were run by non-profits in the remote and mountainous region that borders Afghanistan, China and Jammu and Kashmir.

There were between 200 and 300 girls enrolled in each school on an average, taking the total enrolment to around 3,500 in the area.

In 2004, half a dozen girls' schools had been torched in one go. Girls' schools were also targeted by extremists in 2011 and 2015.

Destruction of schools and attacks on teachers and students, especially girls, by Islamic insurgents are common in Pakistan, where around 23 million children are out of school.

Nobel Prize winner and activist Malala Yousafzai was shot and injured by the Taliban in 2012 for advocating the of girls in Swat valley.

--IANS

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West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Sunday observed a 'Black Day' in the city and its suburbs to protest against the detention of their party leaders and MPs at the Silchar airport in Assam.

A Trinamool delegation comprising six MPs, an MLA and a state minister went to Assam on Thursday to study the situation after the draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released but was detained and allegedly manhandled by the police.

Condemning the incident, several Trinamool Congress activists marched on the streets in Kolkata and Howrah wearing black badges and carrying black flags.

Roads were blocked in parts of Howrah and Rajarhat for nearly a hour on Sunday morning.

The agitators also created a rail blockade in South 24 Parganas district's Garia railway station for nearly one and a half hours.

The Trinamool Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have been extremely critical of the draft NRC in Assam that left out more than 40 people from the list and termed it as a BJP political strategy to drive out "real Indians" from the country.

An eight-member delegation of the party reached Assam on Thursday morning, reportedly to talk to those left out of the draft NRC.

Some members of the delegation including women alleged that they were beaten up and confined in a separate room by the police.

The Trinamool leaders were arrested later that day and released on Friday.

--IANS

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has survived what he called an "attempt against his life" involving explosive drones, blaming far-right elements and Colombia's outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos for carrying out the foiled assassination bid.

Maduro was evacuated from a stage on Saturday during a speech at an event event to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard here after what authorities concluded was an attempted "terrorist attack against the President", reports CNN.

Two drones loaded with explosives went off near the podium from where the President was speaking, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez confirmed to the media.

Just few hours after the incident, Maduro appeared on national television saying that as he was mid-speech in the event when a device exploded right in front of him.

"A flying object exploded near me, a big explosion. Seconds later there was a second explosion," he said, adding that he initially thought it was fireworks as part of the parade.

Maduro said the investigation into the incident started immediately and that some of those involved in the attack had been captured and charged, although he did not specify the charges against them.

The President also said that authorities were able to obtain evidence of the attack and said the investigation was in an advanced stage.

It was "an attempt to kill me, they have tried to assassinate me today", he added.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that many of those responsible for the attack, the financiers and planners, live in the US in the state of Florida," Maduro said.

"I hope the (President Donald) Trump administration is willing to fight terrorist groups that commit attacks in peaceful countries in our continent, in this case Venezuela."

Venezuela's attorney general, Tarek William Saab, told CNN he ordered an investigation into the incident.

The Venezuelan government has long blamed Colombia for plotting overthrows and, and far-right elements in Bogota and Miami for attempting to undercut Maduro.

Ivan Duque takes over as the Colombian President next week.

The Colombian government however, has denied any involvement, saying there is "no basis" to Maduro's allegations.

--IANS

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House panels move against separation of powers, says Nepali Congress

The Nepali Congress has termed the parliamentary committees rejection of the chief justice nominee as violation of the principle of separation of powers.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro survived what he called an "attempt against his life" involving explosive drones, blaming Colombia's outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos and far-right elements for the foiled assassination bid.

Maduro was evacuated from a stage on Saturday evening during a speech at an event to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard here after what authorities concluded was a "failed" and attempted "terrorist attack against the President", reports CNN.

While he was in the middle of a pledge to lead the country toward an economic recovery, two drones loaded with explosives went off near the podium from where the President was speaking, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez confirmed to the media.

Photos of the incident showed bodyguards jumping in front of Maduro with shields and one uniformed officer clutching a bleeding wound on his head. Videos also showed First Lady Cilia Flores appearing frightened.

Later in an address to the nation on state TV on Saturday night, Maduro said: "To all of our friends in the world, I am fine, I am alive...

"A flying object exploded near me, a big explosion. Seconds later there was a second explosion."

He initially thought the explosions were fireworks which were part of the parade.

Maduro said the investigation into the incident started immediately and that some of those involved in the attack had been captured and charged, although he did not specify the charges against them.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that many of those responsible for the attack, the financiers and planners, live in the US in the state of Florida," Maduro said.

"I hope the (President Donald) Trump administration is willing to fight terrorist groups that commit attacks in peaceful countries in our continent, in this case Venezuela."

On blaming Colombia for the attack, Maduro said: "All the investigations point to Bogota... They have tried to kill me today."

The Venezuelan government has long blamed Colombia for plotting overthrows.

In response, the Colombian government said there was "no basis" to Maduro's allegations.

"This is baseless. The President (Santos) is engaged in the baptism of his granddaughter, Celeste, and not overthrowing foreign governments," a source from the Colombian President's office told the media in Bogota.

Meanwhile, an unknown group, "Soldados de Franela" emerged on Twitter, claiming responsibility for the attack, which it termed as "Operation Phoenix", according to Efe news.

The group claimed to be a group of military and civilian patriots "loyal to the people of Venezuela".

--IANS

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Amid signs of increasing opposition unity ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls, the BJP hopes to consolidate its support base with a mix of plank and the agenda on the back of its all-out support to bills linked to backward communities and a campaign against

A number of party leaders, including its office-bearers, told the PTI the raging row over in Assam has the potential to pitchfork the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants into the national prominence and make it a vote-grabbing cause for the BJP, especially in the eastern states and in parts of the Hindi heartland as well.

BJP president has been constantly raising the issue to corner the opposition by projecting his party as the one batting for national security while the rivals concerned with their vote-banks.

The saffron party is also working overtime to ensure that the support it had received from sections of Dalits and Other Backward Classes in the 2014 elections remains by and large intact in 2019, despite the reverses it suffered during several bypolls in states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Party managers said the introduction in the Lok Sabha of a bill, that seeks to overturn a Supreme Court order that had "diluted" a law on atrocities against Dalits, will boost their efforts to win over sections of the community.

The community's support is crucial to the BJP's fortunes in UP where arch-rivals SP and BSP have joined hands to take it on.

The BJP had won 71 and its ally Apna Dal two of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and a united opposition, many believe, has made the prospect of a repeat of such a feat rather difficult.

The BJP is hopeful that the bill will be passed by Parliament in the ongoing Monsoon Session which ends on August 10.

It is banking on another legislation to strengthen its support among OBCs.

The Lok Sabha last week passed a bill that seeks to confer constitutional status on an OBC commission, giving it powers at par with commissions for Dalits and tribals.

ALSO READ: A conciliatory Mamata calls for collective leadership to fight BJP in 2019

The BJP has been projecting the bill as a proof of its commitment to the community.

A party leader said all these issues will find a mention in its national executive meeting scheduled to be held on August 18-19 here.
The on Saturday alleged that President lied on the deportation of foreigners and demanded his apology, claiming that the UPA government had deported 82,728 Bangladeshi foreigners during 2005-2013, while the count was only 1,822 in the last four years of the government and also noted that NRC was a Congress' baby.

On deportation, spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala recalled three replies given by the Home Ministry in Rajya Sabha on three different occasions in 2008, 2016 and 2018.

These replies state that 88,792 Bangladeshi nationals were deported between 2005 and 2013 (during UPA rule). The replies also said that from 2014 to 2017, 1,822 Bangladeshi nationals were deported during the NDA rule.

The first reply was in October 2008 by then Minister of State for Home Affairs V. Radhika Selvi (from DMK, UPA-I). She had said the number of deported Bangladeshis in 2005 was 14,916. In 2006, it was 13,692 and in 2007, the number was 12,135.

The second reply was given by Minister of State Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on March 9, 2016 in the Rajya Sabha (from 2008 to 2014) and the third reply was given again by Rijiju on March 14, 2018 for the period 2013 to 2017.

Surjewala also accused and Modi government of duplicity, deception and double-speak and said that "NRC is the baby of the party".

" should now apologise to the nation for manufacturing lies and misleading the country purely for political vote garnering in a sinister fashion," said Surjewala.

Daring Prime Minister and Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, Surjewala said: "On one side, they are shedding crocodile tears on NRC and claiming deportation of foreigners, and on the other, Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC."

"Instead of fooling the people, Modi, Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal must answer whether they support the NRC process or whether they support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 as both are directly in conflict with each other.

"NRC process will fail once citizenship is given to everyone as per the Citizenship Amendment Bill," he added.
president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday asked Chief Minister to take stern action in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case if he is feeling ashamed of it.

Rahul's statement comes a day after Kumar said that he was feeling ashamed because of the shelter home incident.

The chief, who took part in Rashtriya Janata Dal-led sit-in protest and candle march against the shelter home case earlier today, said, "We have gathered here for the women of our country and we stand with them. If Nitish ji is really feeling ashamed then he should take immediate action."

Besides Rahul, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, MPs including Tejashwi's sister Misa Bharti and D Raja, Bihar's former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, former MP Sharad Yadav and others also took part in the protest at the Jantar Mantar here.

The shelter home case came under the spotlight following a report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, which detected large-scale complaints of sexual exploitation of the girl inmates.

Last month, 11 employees of the shelter home were arrested and 44 girls were rescued.
More than 1,100 endangered Indian star tortoises, meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh, have been seized from three passengers of a train at Visakhapatnam railway station in Andhra Pradesh by DRI officials, the agency said today.

The three travelling by the Yashvantpur-Howrah Express from Vijayawada to Howrah were apprehended after the tortoises were found in their baggages yesterday, a release from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence's Zonal unit here said.

DRI officers from Visakhapatnam Regional Unit carried out the search following a specific intelligence that the star tortoises meant to be smuggled were being illegally transported.

As many as 1,125star tortoises, kept concealed in the cloth bags, were seized and later handed over to forest officials, the release said.

The three passengers told the officials that they were given the tortoises by someone hailing from a place near Madanapalli in Andhra Pradesh for being handed over to his accomplice in Howrah for being smuggled to Bangladesh.

The Indian Star Tortoises, protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and declared vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, are prohibited for export under the Foreign Trade Policy, the release added.

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The adoption scene in the country is somewhat like this: 1,991 children, including 1,322 girls, available for about 20,000 prospective parents.

The highest number of children available for adoption is from Maharashtra at 376 followed by Odisha at 299, according to an RTI reply.

On a query on the number of children available for adoption in 2017-18, it was informed that the figure is 1,991 including 1,322 girls.

Rakesh Srivastava, secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), said the main reason for the availability of less number of children is because many of them are with childcare institutions which have not been registered with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), the apex adoption body in the country.

According to the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), there is just one child available for every nine adoptive parents in India.

The maximum number of children available for adoption are from the age group of 0-2 years at 417 that included 246 girls, data showed.

In the age group of 2-4 years, 220 children, including 126 girls, are available for adoption. In the age group of 4-6 years, 224 children, including 127 girls are available for adoption.

One hundred and fifty eight children, including 82 girls, in the age group of 6-8 years and 187 kids, including 105 girls, in the age group of 8-10 years are available for adoption.

In the age group of 10-12 years, 260 children, including 169 girls were available for adoption. In the age group of 12-14 years, 302 children, including 206 girls were available for adoption while in the age group of 14-18 years, 397 children, including 261 girls were available for adoption, the data showed.

"At any given point of time, the number of prospective parents are ten times the number of children available for adoption," said Srivastava, underlining that currently there are 20,000 prospective parents.

"And that is the reason there is a two-year waiting period for prospective parents," he added.

The Women and Child Development Ministry has asked the childcare institutions to link up with CARA to bring the children staying in unregistered homes up for adoption within the next one month.

Registration of about 4,000 childcare institutions are still pending, according to a senior WCD official.

The mandatory registration of childcare institutions and linking to CARA have been provided in Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 which came into force more than two years ago. However, some orphanages had challenged the validity of this clause.

The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions and upheld the validity in December. Since then, approximately 2,300 childcare institutions have been linked to CARA.

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At least 10 persons were injured in a clash between two communities over construction of a disputed road passing through a place of worship at Maganpur village in Ramgarh district today, a police official said.

Superintendent of Police A Vijayalakshmi said that the clash broke out at Maganpur village along NH-23, nearly 30 kilometres rom the district headquarters, in which at least 10 persons belonging to both the communities were injured.

The seriously injured persons were referred to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.

Senior district officials, including the deputy commissioner, rushed to the area to take control of the situation, the SP said.

Additional security forces have been deployed in the village, where the situation is tense but under control, he said.

"The administration is fully prepared to tackle any situation in the village," the SP said.

Sub-divisional officer, Ramgarh, Anant Kumar, said that a contractor of the district council had started construction of the disputed road passing through a place of worship that triggered a dispute followed by the clash.

The construction of the road has been stopped by the administration following the clash, he said.

Sub-Divisional Police Officer Radha Prem Kishore said that no arrests have been made so far.

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Indo-Pacific Command Deputy Commander Fenton pays courtesy call on CoAS Chhetri

Deputy Commander of the Indo-Pacific Lieutenant General Bryan Fenton paid a courtesy call on Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Rajendra Chhetri at Army Headquarters in the Capital on Sunday.
At least 18 cows died of suffocation over the past few days at a shelter home managed by a village panchayat in Chhattisgarh's Balodabazar district, a senior official said today.

Carcasses of 18 cows were recovered from Rohasi village on August 3, Balodabazar Collector Janak Prasad Pathak told PTI.

The incident came to light after local officials received information that carcasses of cows were being transported to be buried in the village, located around 70 km from the state capital, he said.

"Preliminary investigation revealed that the cows were locked in a room for the past few days and they died of suffocation," he said.

Some villagers were earlier worried about stray cattle damaging crops in their fields.

After discussing the issue among themselves, locals captured the stray cattle, including cows and buffaloes. They locked some of the animals in a room at a 'kanji house' (cow shelter) in the village and tied other cattle in an open area on the premises, Pathak said.

When no person came to claim ownership of the animals, the villagers, who were finding it difficult to provide water and fodder, released the cattle tied in the open area of the shelter home, he said.

However, they allegedly did not notice the cattle locked in the room at the shelter home, managed by the village panchayat, he said.

When they noticed a foul smell emanating from the place on August 3, they checked the room and found the animals dead inside it, Pathak said.

While the villagers were transporting the carcasses on tractors for disposal, someone informed the local officials who reached the spot, he said.

After the autopsy, all the carcasses were disposed of in a deep pit dug in the village. Adequate measures have been taken to avoid the spread of any epidemic in the village due to the incident, the collector said.

"The cattle remained closed for four days in a room that was not large enough to accommodate 18 animals. Therefore, they died of suffocation," he said.

An inquiry has been ordered into the incident and further action will be taken accordingly, he said.

A team of veterinary doctors was sent to the spot to look after the other animals, Pathak added.

In August last year, the Raman Singh government in Chhattisgarh had came under attack from the opposition Congress over the death of a large number of cows in three state-aided shelters.

According to the state officials, over 200 cows had died in three shelters between August 16 and 18 last year allegedly due to starvation and lack of care.

One of the cow sheds, named 'Shagun Gaushala', was run by a local BJP leader in Durg district, while the other two shelters in Bemetara were operated by his relatives.

The state government had then constituted a judicial commission to probe the incident.

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Two car bombs hit Somalia today, killing six people.

Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels claimed responsibility for the first suicide car bomb blast that that killed four people when it exploded near the gate of a military base in Afgoye town, 30 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab has claimed the responsibility for the attack, according to the group's radio arm, Andalus.

Two of the dead were soldiers and fatalities could increase from the 10 injured in the blast which was close to the former national water agency's offices, said Somali police officer Col. Ahmed Ali.

Residents report hearing a powerful explosion, followed by gunfire from the base. Addow Isse, a resident in the town, said he saw at least three bodies lying in a pool of blood.

Later Sunday, another car bomb killed two people and injured four others at a restaurant near a security checkpoint and immigration headquarters in Mogadishu.

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Two persons were arrested in connection with the sensational daylight robbery and murder case here, police said today.

Vineet Tiwari, in his 30s, was arrested late last night from Bholakhera village in the Lalganj police station area in Rae Bareli district from his sister's home. His brother-in-law Kavindra Pandey was also arrested for providing him shelter. Tiwari's sister too has been taken into custody, Inspector General (Lucknow range) Sujeet Pandey said.

On July 30, the gunner of the cash van was shot dead and a bag containing around Rs 7 lakh was snatched away by an unidentified miscreant only a couple of kilometres away from the Raj Bhavan in the high-security VVIP zone.

In the joint operation conducted by the Lucknow and Rae Bareli police, Rs 4.73 lakh cash was also recovered, he said.

"Later, the number plate of the vehicle (used in the crime), the looted bag, a country-made pistol and cartridges were also recovered," Pandey said.

Pandey said Tiwari had fired at the gunner and others sitting in the cash van and fled with the bag. For almost 40 minutes, he roamed across different localities of Lucknow and then reached Krishna Nagar locality in the city.

Later, he hid himself in the house of his brother-in-law Kavindra Pandey in Rae Bareily.

The robbery took place at a distance of about a couple of kilometres from the official residence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the state Assembly, a day after the successful conclusion of a mega business event, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present.

The police had said the incident took place at around 3.30 pm on the service lane adjacent to the Raj Bhavan colony on Mahatma Gandhi Marg and opposite Axis Bank.

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Two Lord Shiva devotees, known as 'kanwariyas', were electrocuted after they came into contact with live electricity wire on their way to Haridwar to fetch water from the holy river Ganges, police said today.

Another 'kanwariya' was killed by a fellow pilgrim with a beer bottle following an altercation in the neighbouring Shamli district.

According to the police, the first incident took place in the Bhora Kalan police station area of Muzaffarnagar district last night. Two others also suffered injuries.

The four were part of a group of about 50 pilgrims travelling in a canter truck to Haridwar.

Bhora Kalan police station SHO Anant Dev Mishra said the injured have been hospitalised.

In the second incident, 30-year-old Premjit was killed by his fellow pilgrim Satendra using a beer bottle following an altercation last night.

According to the police, the duo hailed from Jhajjar district of Haryana.

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The bodies of two boys, missing since yesterday, were recovered from a water body in Dadri area here today, police said.

The boys, both 11, had left home at Ghodi Bacheda village to graze their cattle in a nearby forest last afternoon, the police said.

"When the boys did not return home till late in the evening, their family members and other villagers went looking for them," Dadri Circle Officer Nishank Sharma said.

"This morning, they found the bodies of the children from an abandoned pool near the village," he said.

Sharma said soon the villagers alerted the police, which reached the spot and took up investigation.

The pool is located on a land under the Greater Noida Authority.

An official said that the land was earlier being developed by a private builder which wanted to develop a boating pool there but later backed out of the project and abandoned it.

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem and a probe is underway, the police said.

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been meeting people in the rural areas of the state as part of the 'Grama Darshini' programme to gather feedback on his government's development activities and address public grievances in the run-up to the 2019 assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

He has also been meeting party functionaries to devise strategies for the elections.

"As part of the Grama Darshini programme, Naidu will address at least 75 public meetings in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh before the 2019 elections to highlight the development and welfare work carried out in the state," a TDP leader said.

The chief minister is also expected to interact with students of all universities in the state over the next nine months, he said.

Naidu said, "In the next five months, everyone, starting with principal secretaries, will be at people's doorsteps. I will also spend three days a week among people."



The chief minister has also kicked off "Dharma Poratam Sabhas" (fight for justice - public meetings).

"Dharma Poratam is aimed at exposing the BJP's of betrayal and conspiracy. It did not grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh and also failed to fulfil other promises. These meetings will be organised once a month covering all the 13 districts in the state," the TDP leader said.

"As far as welfare is concerned, we have rolled out schemes catering to all sections of society. We are giving pensions to the needy. We have set up Kapu Corporation, Brahmin Corporation, SC/ST Commissions, etc. to uplift the poor of these communities...started several schemes for the development of minorities. We recently launched Anna canteens offering a meal for just Rs 5," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three persons have been booked for allegedly thrashing two Dalits for refusing to work for them at Tuglakpur village here, 14 days after the incident.

According to Monu, he and his uncle were thrashed by Mahak Singh and two others for refusing to work for them on July 20.

However, police registered a case against the accused yesterday, the victim said.

Circle Officer Rizwan Ahmad said the case was registered yesterday against the accused under relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and a probe has been initiated into the matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four minor boys drowned in the Yamuna river today in outer Delhi's Alipur, police said.

The children were aged between 12 and 14.

Seven boys, from Haryana, had come to Palla village for swimming in the river.

Police said three of them informed that they could not find their other friends soon after jumping into the river.

By the time the rescue teams arrived, bodies of two boys had been found. The other two are still missing, they said.

The deceased were identified as Ankit and Lalit, both 13 years old.

The boys, whose bodies are yet to be recovered, were identified as Aditya (14) and Nitin (12). Ankit and Aditya are brothers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
If the Maharashtra government failed to act swiftly, the Maratha quota stir might turn into a "naxalite movement" in no time, NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosale said here today.

He expressed apprehension that the situation might spiral out of control if the BJP-led government continued to drag its feet on the issue, as the youth are in no mood to listen.

The Maratha royal said the government, bureaucracy and judiciary could sit together and come out with a solution to resolve the issue.

"Today, the (Maratha) youth is fighting for justice and if they failed to get it, they will take the law in their hands...so do not let this agitation go the way of a Naxalite movement, because if the decision is not taken immediately, it will not take much time for this agitation to go the way of a Naxalite movement," Bhosale said while appealing to the government.

He also appealed to the community members to desist from resorting to violence or committing suicide for the quota cause.

Bhosale, who represents Satara Lok Sabha seat, was speaking at the Maratha Arakshan convention held today to chalk out a strategy for the August 9 protests for the quota demand.

The Maratha community has been demanding 16 per cent quota in government jobs and education under the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category.

Maratha groups had last month observed bandhs in Mumbai and rest of the state for the demand and held violent agitations.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM), an umbrella organisation of various Maratha bodies, had last week warned the state government of fresh wave of protests from August 9, if it fails to grant the quota by August 7.

"Today's meeting was conveyed to discuss the further course of action and an appeal was made to the youth not to resort to the violence and not to take law into their hands and not to take any drastic steps such as suicide," the MP said.

Bhosale said a memorandum for expediting the process of granting reservation to the Marathas would be forwarded to the state government soon.

He said the sentiments of the Maratha community are running high for the quota.

Meanwhile, the Maratha Yuva Kranti (MYK) today announced lending of its support to the August 9 stir.

MYK leader Nitin Deshmukh said in Mumbai that a large section of the society as well as various political parties have collectively decided to back the upcoming agitation.

"We held a meeting at suburban Ghatkopar today and took a collective decision to lend our all-out support to the statewide agitation and to implement the decision taken by the central Maratha morcha leadership effectively," Deshmukh said.

He said the protesters will ensure that the August 9 agitation passes off peacefully.

"We have submitted our proposal to senior leaders (of Maratha morcha) that this government should be forced to take the decision by the winter session of the legislature, or else we will not let the House function. We will protest at the Manrtalaya," Deshmukh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Additional 180 days could be provided for resolution of 34 stressed power projects with a view to avoiding potential value erosion of operating plants, according to a government report.

As per the current RBI norms, banks need to restructure stressed assets within 180 days or six months.

If recommendations of the report which was in compliance of the order of Allahabad High Court are accepted, banks would get about a year for restructuring their power sector loans of about Rs 1740 billion.

The High Court on May 31 stayed the February 12 RBI circular on companies other than willful defaulters and directed the Finance Ministry to hold a meeting of all stakeholders on resolutions.

Acting on the direction, a meeting chaired by Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar with all stakeholders was convened on June 22. On the basis of the meeting, a report was prepared and sent to the Power Ministry for further action as per the Court order.

According to sources, the report pointed out that the commissioned power plants with capacity of about 40,000 MW needs to be considered differently to avoid potential value erosion and unreasonable haircut for banks that may happen otherwise.

"For these commissioned assets, additional time of 180 days beyond the period permitted by February 12, 2018, circular before the case is referred to NCLT could be provided a window for optimising operations," it said.

During this additional period of 180 days, it said, banks should undertake more intensive monitoring of the said assets and its cash flow to save it from turning non-performing.

Similar recommendations were made by Standing Committee on Energy earlier in March. The Parliamentary Committee recommended that an additional 180 days beyond the timelines prescribed under RBI's February 12 circular may be allowed to commissioned power projects which have been commissioned before February 12 or have not been referred to NCLT.

Besides, the report suggested setting up of a High Level Empowered Committee (HLEC). In line with report the report, the government last week constituted a high-level empowered panel under Cabinet Secretary to resolve and revive 34 stressed power projects.

The HLEC will have representatives from the ministries of railways, finance, power, coal and the lenders having major exposure to the power sector.

(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.)
Kanchanpur rape case: Victim strangled after rape

The thirteen-year-old rape victim who was found dead at Bhimdutta Municipality in Kanchanpur was strangled to death, according to the police.
Former union minister and Congress leader Jitin Prasada today alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh was indulging in mere rhetoric over floods in the district.

"UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited Khiri as a tourist and left. What has he done for the flood affected people?" Prasada, who was here to attend a party meeting asked.

He said the district Congress unit will launch a 'Pol Khol' campaign from Tuesday to expose this and visit flood and erosion hit villages and the victims.

Asked about his party's strategy for alliances ahead of the 2019 general elections, the former Union minister said, "Congress is willing to work with all like-minded parties."



He, however, refrained from elaborating on seat sharing.

On the National Register of Citizens, Prasada said, "NRC was a programme initiated by the Rajiv Gandhi government and implemented under Manmohan Singh government when over 80,000 illegal migrants were deported, whereas, in the BJP regime only 18,000 (illegal migrants) were deported."



Prasada said the BJP had been exposed in the eyes of the people and soon the Congress would win public support, first in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and later in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Social activist today accused the Sangh Parivar of propagating communal hatred and urged the people to come together and fight the 'menace'.

Addressing a seminar with the theme "Standing up to hatred; Violence and intolerance in contemporary India" here, he said people should be told not to fall victim to the "narrow Hindutva propagated by the Sangh Parivar".

Agnivesh, who was attacked allegedly by a group of BJP affiliated youth wing workers in Jarkhand last month, said this was the time to take up the challenge to fight communal forces.

"Today we need to come together, close our ranks, fight the menace of communalism in the great spirit of saving democracy, Indian constitution and saving the greatest Hindu civilisation," he said.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the social activist claimed that he along with BJP chief Amit Shah had captured the party and the RSS.

"In a way everything, he (Modi) is like a dictator like Adolf Hitler... Hitler also came to power through democracy and not by a army coup," Agnivesh said.

Recalling the attack on him in Pakur in Jarkhand, he said "I survived just with the grace of God. The mob would have killed me. I thought I am finished', the 79-year-old said.

Agnivesh said he was still having pain in the stomach due to the thrashing he received from the mob.

Known for his movement against bonded labour and untouchability, the activist was attacked by the mob before he was to attend a protest by tribals against alleged violation of their rights and land acquisition at Littipada.

His attackers had charged him with speaking against Hindus.

Addressing the seminar, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor came down heavily on the BJP led government at the Centre and claimed communal violence, killing in the name of cow vigilantism had increased in the last four years.

Tharoor alleged that as per Home Ministry statistics 2,920 incidents of communal violence had occurred in the country in the last four years, leaving 389 people dead and scores injured.

He said such incidents had increased as Modi had not come out openly and condemned the killings.

The seminar was organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, run by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav today announced a cash award of Rs 11 lakh to whoever gave the names of those who damaged the bungalow here at 4, Vikramaditya Marg, which was allotted to him when he was chief minister.

His announcement comes days after the Uttar Pradesh government warned that action would be taken against the SP leader as he had done "some damage" while vacating the bungalow in June.

The Rs 11 lakh will be raised through contributions of Rs 2,000 each from the party's members, Yadav said at a programme here to mark the birth anniversary of socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra also known as Chhote Lohia.

"The way police announces cash rewards..., I would tell my friends from the media that on the said night, some people from channels had gone there. You tell us the names of those who damaged the building, we Samajwadi people will pool in with Rs 2,000 and give a cash reward of Rs 11 lakh," he said.

SP patriarch and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was also present at the event held at Janeshwar Mishra Park.

Akhilesh Yadav had vacated the bungalow following an order by the Supreme Court. The apex court had observed that former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office.

Earlier, senior Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had alleged that the SP chief had indulged in "todphod" (damage) before vacating the bungalow.

"...One thing is clear, that he undertook some construction for which he did not take permission from the Estates Department. A law is there for this (unauthorised construction) and the law will take its course," Singh had told reporters.

After Akhilesh Yadav vacated the bungalow, video clips and photos had shown damage to a cycle track, on walls and to a floor of what appeared to be a badminton court.

The SP leader had then said it was an attempt by the ruling BJP to defame him.

In June, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik instructed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order a probe against the SP chief for leaving the government property damaged.

Following the visuals of the damage inside the bungalow, a high level inquiry was also ordered.

The Public Works Department chief engineer has submitted a 266-page inquiry report to the state estates officer.

When Akhilesh Yadav became Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2012, he was allotted the bungalow, which he retained after his party lost the assembly election last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister on Sunday said that all constitutional obligations in connection with the granting of reservations to the Maratha community in the state would be completed by November this year.

Fadnavis, making a 15-minute address on state television and radio, said that the State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) would inform the Bombay Hight Court on August 7 about when it will submit its report regarding the Maratha quota.

He said that once the report of the MSBCC was submitted, a special session of the state Legislature would be convened within a month to pass a "law or resolution" regarding granting reservations to the community.

The CM said MSBCC was a statutory body and cannot be "pressurised" (to submit the report quickly).

The commission was in the process of collecting "quantifiable" data. "About 1.86 lakh evidences and data have been collected," he informed.

Fadnavis appealed to the community to shun violence as a "handful of people" were giving a bad name to the silent marches (mook morchas) (taken out for reservation earlier) that were seen as a model form of protest.

The Maratha reservation stir took a violent turn following the death of a youth on July 23 and since then it has seen arson and stone-pelting in several districts of the state.

The chief minister said that the agitation was justified only if the government was apathetic and claimed that "sincere and genuine" efforts were being made to address the community's grievances which had prevailed for years.

"Our government is addressing them sincerely. I appeal to community leaders to monitor schemes implemented in the districts and bring loopholes, if any, to the notice of the government," he said.

Fadnavis also took on his critics who have been demanding an ordinance to grant reservations to the Maratha community.

"Some are saying promulgate an ordinance and what was the need for the Backwad Class Commission. An ordinance can be promulgated and you will get satisfaction that a decision was taken. However, it won't stand legal scrutiny," he said.

The chief minister said that legal experts, during detailed discussions, had opined that Maratha reservations would not stand in a court of law if legal and constitutional obligations were not completed.

Referring to a mega recruitment drive to fill government posts in the state, Fadnavis said that no injustice would be done to Marathas.

"The drive is yet to start. The process of how to ensure justice for Marathas while not impacting reservations for members of the SC/ST communities was being worked out," Fadnavis said.

Calling on the Maratha community to "trust" his government, he said that the government was taking effective steps to implement provisions under the Annabhau Sathe Finance Corporation and Rajashri Shahu Maharaj Scholarship schemes for the community.

He said that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) had been entrusted with the task of surveying and submitting a report in connection with reservations for the Dhangar community in the state.

The TISS report would be submitted by the end of this month, he said.

Appealing people to be calm and shun violence, Fadnavis said that "disturbances of this sort would affect the sizable investment that was attracting."



He also appealed to the youth to not commit suicide (several instances of which have occurred during the that started afresh in the last week of July) as it pained him "to the core".

"I appeal to the youth to not commit suicide. Please come forward and discuss (your issues) with the government. If there is a lacuna, then share it with the government and all efforts will be made to rectify it," he said.

Asking parties to set aside politicking, he requested them to unite in order to "fulfil the aspirations of the youth".

Fadanvis, during his address, said that Maharashtra was the most favourable destination for investment in the country.

"About 42 to 47 per cent investment in the country is coming to Maharashtra and this is generating employment on a large scale. The EPFO (Employees Provident Fund Organisation) report for last year stated that Maharashtra was the biggest generator of jobs, at 8 lakh, in a single year," he said.

Citing the violence in Chakan industrial belt near Pune last week, the Maharashtra CM asked whether investors would turn up if such incidents continued.

He informed that industrial corridors were being planned in places like Jalna and Aurangabad and violence in the name of caste and religion among others would ruin the image of a progressive state like Maharashtra.

He also asked people to stop the "misuse of social media" to "mislead society".
People from various walks of life held a candle light vigil today at Parliament Street in memory of flight attendant Anissia Batra, who allegedly committed suicide last month.

Anissia had jumped to death from the terrace of her house in south Delhi's Panchsheel Park.

Her husband, Mayank Singhvi, was later arrested on charges of harassing her for dowry and abetting her to commit suicide. The case was recently transferred to Crime Branch from the district police.

Over 500 people, including Anissia's family and friends, were part of the vigil organised to demand justice for her.

Anissia's family, which has been demanding a fair probe into the alleged suicide, rued that the case was handed to the Crime Branch after a delay of 21 days.

The extent of damage, which has already been caused, has scarred them for life, said the family members, adding they still hope for a fair probe.

Anissia's family said they were planning to approach the Crime Branch tomorrow to seek a speedy probe into the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 10,000 new jobs will be created with the implementation of the Centre's ambitious Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), which aims to provide a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually to 10 crore poor families, according to a government official.

Around one lakh Ayushman Mitras will be deployed at both private and government hospitals under the scheme to assist patients coming to health facilities to avail packages under the mission.

The Health Ministry has signed a pact with the Skill Development Ministry for the recruitment of 1 lakh 'Ayushman Mitras'.

"Each empanelled hospital will have an 'Ayushman Mitra' to assist patients and will coordinate with beneficiaries and the hospital. They will run a help desk, check documents to verify eligibility and enrolment to the scheme.

"Around one lakh Ayushman Mitra's will be deployed at both private and government hospitals under the scheme," the official said.

Also, the Union Health Ministry has launched a formal process to empanel public and private hospitals to achieve universal health coverage under the programme and as many as 20,000 private and government hospitals have been linked under the scheme, the official said.

The Centre is simultaneously carrying out beneficiary identification and under the process 80 per cent of beneficiaries, based on the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) data in the rural and more than 60 per cent in urban areas, have been identified.

Announced in the 2018 Budget, the AB-NHPM was touted as the 'world's largest government funded health care scheme'.

Also, all beneficiaries will be given letters having QR codes which will be scanned and a demographic authentication conducted for identification and to verify his or her eligibility to avail benefits under the scheme.

Further, the government recently clarified that NABH is not mandatory for hospitals to get empanelled under the scheme.

Also, the basic empanelment criteria allows empanelment of a hospital with a minimum of 10 beds, with the flexibility provided to the states to further relax this if required.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Life in Kashmir today came to a standstill due to a complete shutdown called by separatist against the legal challenge in the Supreme Court on the validity of Article 35-A, which bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir from acquiring any immovable property in the state.

The situation across the valley is peaceful with no untoward incident reported from anywhere so far, officials said.

Shops and business establishments were closed across the Valley while all kinds of transport remained off the roads due to the strike called.

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has called for a two-day strike -- today and tomorrow -- as Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a PIL challenging the validity of the Article 35-A tomorrow.

The state government has filed an application before the Registrar of the Supreme Court, informing that it is going to seek adjournment of the hearing of the petition in view of the "ongoing preparations for the upcoming Panchayat and urban local body and municipal elections in the state".

The officials said security forces have been deployed in strength at vulnerable places in the city and elsewhere in Kashmir for maintaining law and order.

Various organisations included Bar Association, transporters and traders' bodies have extended support to the shutdown call of the JRL, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik.

Protests have been held across the length and breadth of Kashmir over the past few days with mainstream parties like the National Conference and PDP also holding rallies in support of continuing Article 35-A.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Peaceful protests were held today across Kashmir against the legal challenge to the validity of Article 35-A of the Constitution in the Supreme Court.

The protesters wowed to defend the constitutional provision, that bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir acquire any immovable property in the state.

Traders organisations took out a protest march and held a sit-in at Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) in Lal Chowk in support of continuation of Article 35-A.

Similar rallies were held at Zadibal, Karfali Mohalla, Rainawari, Anchaar, Dalgate, Rambagh, Khanyar and Parimpora in the city, officials said.

Peaceful rallies were taken out at several places in other districts and towns of the valley, they said.

However, there were minor stone pelting incidents reported from some parts of the valley as well, the officials said, adding the miscreants were chased away by the security forces personnel deployed for maintaining law and order.

There were no reports of anyone getting hurt in the brief clashes, they said.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear pleas challenging the validity of the Article 35-A tomorrow.

The state government has filed an application before the Registrar of the Supreme Court, informing that it is going to seek adjournment of the hearing of the petition in view of the "ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat and urban local body and municipal elections in the state".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Connectivity with ASEAN countries is the key to the development of North East and the Assam government, as well as the Centre, have taken several initiatives in this direction to make sure that the region emerges as a major trade hub for South East Asia, Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi said.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always emphasised that the country as a whole cannot progress unless North East India develops and to make that happen, development of trade through the region with the ASEAN countries is the need of the hour," the governor told PTI in an interview.

He said the earlier governments had realised about 20 years back the importance of developing the North East but they committed a blunder by trying to develop it only through the chicken's neck, connecting the region with the rest of the country. However, the present government has extended the initiative to go "beyond the natural boundaries with the rest of the world", he said.

The Centre has invested heavily on infrastructure development of the region with the aim to develop connectivity through air, rail, road, water and digitisation which will lead to increased trade with the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), he said.

"We want to develop Guwahati as the Kunming of India, where all ASEAN countries will have their consulate and offices and there will be no need for their representatives to go to Delhi for trade needs," the governor said.

Kunming in South West China houses offices of ASEAN countries and trade is conducted through these offices without the need for one to go to Beijing for all transactions.

"Initiatives have been taken to develop Guwahati with infrastructural connectivity and I have had discussions in this connection with some leaders of these (ASEAN) countries who have expressed their keenness to set up consular offices here," Mukhi said.

Bhutan and Bangladesh already have consulate offices in Guwahati and other countries may also set up their offices soon, he added.

"I had recently had a meeting with Bhutan Consul General and he informed me that they plan to start a flight to Singapore via Guwahati from Thimphu and they already have a flight through here to Bangkok," he added.

Mukhi pointed out that he also held discussions with the Bangladesh President during his visit here and he has assured that they have plans to start a flight from Dhaka to Guwahati soon.

"I have also asked the Centre to include flights from Guwahati to ASEAN countries under its UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme as this will open up immensely the trade possibilities with these countries," he added.

Guwahati presently handles 80 flights daily although it has the capacity for 100, but with the ongoing upgradation of the airport, it will be able to operate 300 flights. The work of the new terminal has been undertaken at an estimated cost of Rs 1,300 crore, he added.

Under the UDAN scheme, 92 new flights have been sanctioned for the North East, of which about 10 have already started functioning. All the capitals of the Northeastern states will be directly connected with Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati, he said.

Plans are also afoot to develop Guwahati as an international hub for digital connectivity and a discussion on the issue has already been held with Bangladesh following which the neighbouring country has agreed to connect its Cox's Bazar with Guwahati.

"North East is suffering due to lack of fast internet connection. Currently, Chennai is the international hub but once Guwahati is developed as one, we will have strong digital connectivity and this will be financially cheaper for us," Mukhi said.

Referring to road connectivity, Mukhi said special emphasis is being laid on ASEAN countries and it has been already initiated with Myanmar.

The Indian side of the road was ready much earlier and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) began constructions inside Myanmar in 2004 and handed it over to Myanmar after completing it in 2009.

"Myanmar was expected to complete the bridges connecting the roads but they were unable to do so and now the Indian government has taken up the project and is expected to be completed by December 2019. Once it is completed, going to Myanmar and Thailand through this road will be opened, thereby increasing trade opportunities with North East and particularly Assam," he added.

Water connectivity through Brahmaputra was another area which the government was working on but certain parts of the river bed require dredging in both Indian and Bangladeshi side.

"We now have very good relations with Bangladesh and we have entered into an agreement with them regarding water connectivity for the two countries. Dredging on the Indian side is going on very fast while Bangladesh has also taken the matter very seriously and invited tenders for the purpose.

"In less than a year after the dredging is completed, ships from different parts of the country can go straight to Chittagong Port, which will help improve trade in the region," he added.

To develop rail connectivity, the Centre has introduced nine new trains and during the last four years, 30 trains have been added, hundreds of kilometres of tracks have been doubled, electrified and more than 200 kms of new lines are being created with every NE states to be connected with rail links by 2020, Mukhi said.

North East India had a very high per capita income at the time of partition but the division of the country led to the snapping of ties with the ASEAN countries on whom the region depended on trade and consequently, the states began to lag behind which led to unemployment and ultimately to insurgency, he said.

"Every successive government at the Centre viewed the region only from security angle and tried to solve the problems by giving a financial package and sending the armed forces but this failed to ensure development of the region. The present governments at the Centre and state have realised the possibilities of developing the region through trade ties with the ASEAN countries," Mukhi added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For the first time, ex-servicemen will join hands with Dalit organisations and the All India Kisan Sabha on August 9 to protest against the NDA government at the Centre, seeking redressal of their grievances.

The Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM), which has in the past fought for 'one-rank one-pension', rues that the government ignored many of their demands.

Whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised us on One rank One pension' has not been delivered. He lied to us. Earlier, we fought separately. Now, we will fight unitedly with farmers' organisations and Dalits, Priyadarshi Chowdhury, coordinator for IESM, told PTI.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the farmers' organisation of the CPI(M), has given a call for jail bharo' across the country on August 9, demanding action on the agrarian crisis.

This is the first time ex-servicemen will join a protest called by a Left organisation. We have come together to put forward our demands, AIKS General Secretary Hannan Mollah said.

Though AIKS, Dalit organisations and the ex-servicemen have separate sets of demands, the three organisations will band together to protest the growing incidents of hate crime and lynching.

They are also expected to demand the passage of the Women Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha and scrapping of Aadhaar, which they feel has "wreaked havoc" on welfare schemes.

The AIKS has been pressing for fixing the minimum support price for all crops at 1.5 times the input cost, guaranteed procurement, one-time waiver of all loans of farmers and land to landless farmers.

Chowdhary said that their demands are - "complete OROP as per approved definition of Parliament, pay parity and cancellation of the Cantonment Roads order".

Dalit organisations have demanded restoration of the SC/ST (prevention) Atrocities Act 1989 to its original form and establishment of Indian Judicial Service under Article 312 of the Constitution.

They have also demanded that the government withdraw cases against those detained under the stringent National Security Act on April 2, when a 'Bharat bandh' was observed by Dalit groups.

While AIKS supporters in 400 districts across the country will hold a jail bharo' agitation on August 9, the Dalit organisations will observe a Bharat bandh' on that day.

We have ex-servicemen all over the country. After their retirement, most have gone back to farming and other jobs. So, we also support the farmers' demands. We all share the demands made by the Dalit organisations, Chowdhury said.

Reacting to BJP president Amit Shah meeting former Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag as part of the party's outreach programme, Chowdhury said such initiatives cannot influence the ex-servicemen who were deceived by the prime minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Keyboard warriors

Social media should be used for holding constructive debates and not belittling others
As many as 21 public sector banks and three major private sector lenders collected a whopping Rs 5,000 crore from customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance in their accounts in 2017-18, according to banking data.

India's largest lender State Bank of India, which suffered a staggering net loss of Rs 6,547 crore during 2017-18, led the pack in penalising its customers for not maintaining minimum account balance.

The government-owned SBI, which re-introduced the penalty on deposits going below monthly average balance basis from April 2017, collected nearly half the amount raised by the 24 banks put together (Rs 4,989.55 crore).

But for the additional income of Rs 2,433.87 crore under this head, SBI's losses would have soared further.

After SBI, the largest amount of charges for not maintaining minimum balance during 2017-18 was collected by HDFC Bank. It charged its customers Rs 590.84 crore, which is lower than Rs 619.39 crore in 2016-17, the data revealed.

Axis Bank collected Rs 530.12 crore in the last fiscal while ICICI Bank charged Rs 317.6 crore.

SBI was charging the penalty on failure to maintain monthly average balance requirement till 2012 and again re-introduced it from April 1, 2017.

Following the criticism, SBI reduced charges with effect from October 1, 2017.

According to the RBI norms, banks are permitted to levy sevice/miscellaneous charges.

Customers opening accounts under Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) scheme as well as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna are not required to maintain any minimum balance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior BJP leader C P Thakur today said Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma should resign owning moral responsibility for the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Talking to a regional channel here, the former Union minister said Verma of the JD(U) should take a call on the demand for her resignation by opposition parties, keeping in view the "lapses on part of the social welfare department" on which the scandal has been blamed.

"The scandal points at huge lapses on part of the state social welfare department. How could the department be unaware of such a huge racket taking place right under its nose?" Thakur asked.

"There are also complaints of similar irregularities having taken place at other organisations controlled by the department," Thakur said.

Asked about the demand by opposition parties for the resignation of Verma, whose husband has been accused of being a regular visitor to the Muzaffarpur shelter home by the wife of one of the arrested accused, Thakur said, "She should take a decision on the same based on her conscience. I think she should take moral responsibility for the scandal."



The BJP is a partner in the ruling coalition in Bihar.

Asked about Thakur's statement, the JD(U), which is headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, came up with a guarded response.

"C P Thakur has expressed his personal opinion. It is not that the BJP has come up with an official stand. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, himself a senior BJP leader, has been articulating the government's position on the issue," JD(U) spokesman and MLC Neeraj Kumar said.

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Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray today lashed out at the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra, saying they were "fooling people".

Addressing members of MNS' civic unions, he said the governments were announcing schemes worth several "crores and crores of rupees" on a daily basis despite having no money to fill the existing vacancies in various government departments.

Citing media reports which said 24 lakh government posts were lying vacant at the Union and state levels, Thackeray said, "On one hand, there is a vacancy of 24 lakh posts, and on the other, projects and schemes worth crores and crores of rupees are being announced".

"If the government is running short of money and is, therefore, not filling these vacancies, how come it is launching such projects worth crores?" he questioned.

Thackeray said the 24 lakh vacancies reported by sections of the media included 10 lakh posts of teachers and 5.40 lakh posts in various police departments.

"Can anyone tell me what students must be doing in schools and colleges (where teachers' posts are vacant) and why crime won't rise (due to shortage of police personnel)?" he asked in a sarcastic comment.

The MNS leader also alleged that land was being given for development purposes to non-Maharashtrian builders, which he claimed was not a "good sign" for the state and its people.

Speaking about Bangladeshi migrants coming into the city, Thackeray alleged that the community was scattered in different parts of the city and was getting houses under



state-run schemes fraudulently.

"Bangladeshis are scattered throughout the city. They are being invited to settle on plots in the city and then end up getting flats when the plot is redeveloped under the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) scheme. They, however, sell it and live on some other plot and get a flat under SRA there as well," the MNS leader claimed.

Thackeray alleged that the state government had charged 7,500 youths, who had taken part in various agitations, with attempt to murder, and this had blocked their chances of getting government jobs in future.

Demonetisation has shut industries on a large scale and rendered over 3.5 crore people jobless, the MNS chief said, adding Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, was doing 'Yoga' instead of addressing these issues.

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Anjuman Minhaj-E Rasool, an Islamic organisation working for peace and communal harmony, today charged the BJP, Trinamool Congress and AIUDF of doing politics over the NRC issue.

"BJP and AIUDF are trying to do politics over the NRC issue. Mamata Banerjee and her party has own agenda. We do not support that and condemn them. Assamese people have rejected them by remaining peaceful in this time," Anjuman Minhaj-E Rasool president, Maulana Syed Athar Dehlavi said here.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is being updated under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court and the document is purely secular in nature.

"NRC is linked to national security. It is related with citizen's rights. Nobody should do politics with it. If someone does it, then action should be taken," Dehlavi said.

He alleged that BJP president Amit Shah was trying to politicise the matter by commenting that those not finding their names in the complete draft of NRC are "ghusbaithiya" (infiltrators) and they will be deported from India.

"When the Supreme Court and NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela is saying that nobody can term the excluded people as infiltrators, then why did he say so? Now they are talking about doing NRC in every state. I suggest, they do it in Tripura first as the demography of that state has distorted most," Dehlavi said.

He said all the illegal foreigners living in India should be deported after proper verification process irrespective of their religious identities, while no genuine Indians should be left out of the final NRC.

Dehlavi appealed to the NRC authority to correct the errors or mistakes detected in the complete draft of NRC while publishing the final document.

Altogether, 2,89,83,677 persons were found to be eligible for inclusion in the complete draft of the NRC, which was published on July 30, out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants, thereby excluding the names of 40,07,707 people.

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To gear up for the 2019 polls the BJP plans to focus the villages across Odisha to tell the people about alleged "failure" of the Biju Janata Dal government in the state, a senior party leader said today.

"It has been decided to move to the villages and sensitise people in rural areas about failure of BJD regime on all fronts and achievements of the BJP-led NDA Government," said senior BJP leader Pratap Sarangi.

He said strategies for the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections due next year were discussed threadbare at a meeting of top leaders of the state today.

The progress of organisational works assigned by party president Amit Shah was reviewed.

BJP workers will tell people about state governments "anti-poor" policy, Sarangi said accusing the BJD regime of hijacking of central schemes by giving them different names. He cited pucca housing scheme as an example.

The BJP leader also hit out at the Naveen Patnaik government for opposing the Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission.

During his visit to Odisha recently, Amit Shah had assigned different tasks to various party office bearers as part of the partys mission to win more than 120 seats in the 147-member state assembly in 2019 polls.

Panchayat heads and core committee members were asked to form 4,000 to 5,000 booth-level committees.

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Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb today claimed that BJP would win both the two Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 election.

Deb said he would request all the 44 MLAs of the BJP-Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) coalition to work hard so that in every assembly constituency BJP candidates would get lead of over 10,000 votes and win by an unprecedented margin in the Lok Sabha election.

Deb was addressing the party workers and leaders at a programme to felicitate the BJP state in-charge, Sunil Deodhar, who was recently appointed as one of the national secretaries of the party and co-in-charge of Andhra Pradesh.

Deodhar was appointed the BJP in-charge of Tripura in 2014.

Deb said he came to Tripura for organisational works after 20 years stay in Delhi and started building organisation under the leadership of Deodhar and finally wrested the power from communists this year.

Deodhar said "BJP party president Amit Shaha after appointing me as the state in-charge of Tripura had told me to make the state communist free."



Today Tripura is free from communists, he said,.

Deodhar said he was appointed by the party president as co-in-charge of party in Andhra Pradesh and would work hard to change the government there.

"Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh would be held after nine months. It takes exactly nine months for a new baby to born. A new baby would be born in the state. Lotus would bloom there," Deodhar said.

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The bodies of three Russian journalists killed while on a reporting trip in the Central African Republic were brought to Moscow on Sunday, Russia's Investigative Committee said.

Journalists Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were killed in the strife-town African country on Monday.

They were reporting on the so-called Wagner Group, a company that sends Russian mercenaries to hotspots such as Syria and Ukraine and has been described as Moscow's shadow army.

"Today the bodies of the three victims were brought to Russia," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

It added that the bodies will undergo forensic medical examinations to "establish the cause of death of the Russian citizens".

"Work is continuing to clarify the circumstances of the crime. Friends and other persons that may have any information in connection with the investigation of this crime are being interviewed," the statement said.

The agency Interfax reported the bodies were brought on an Air France plane to Moscow Sheremyetevo Airport in the early hours of Sunday.

On Friday Russia said the journalists were attacked as they resisted robbers.

They were "attacked by unidentified people with the aim of robbery and were killed while attempting to resist", the foreign ministry said in a statement, citing spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Moscow also said this week that no sign of torture was found on the bodies.

Authorities in the Central African Republic said the Russians were shot dead at a roadblock by a nine-man group who did not speak French or Sango, two languages that are nationally used in the CAR.

Those details come from their driver, who was found wounded but survive, the government said.

The three journalists were working for a media project founded by self-exiled Kremlin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in Britain after spending a decade in prison in Russia.

Russian officials and state media have sought to downplay the journalists' assignment. There has been no official acknowledgement of Wagner's role in conflicts or casualties among its fighters.

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The body of a man shot dead by the security guards posted at the residence of former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah was laid to rest here today amid massive protests.

Hundreds of protesters, carrying the body of Syeed Murfad Shah (25), blocked the Jammu-Bantalab road near his Chinore residence for several hours today.

They demanded that an FIR be registered against the security personnel and the case handed over to the Crime Branch of state police for a thorough probe. The protesters also called for releasing the CCTV footage of the incident.

The government has already ordered a magisterial probe.

According to police, the man rammed his car into the front gate of the residence of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah at Bhatindi in the outskirts of Jammu yesterday, and vandalised the house before being shot dead by the CRPF personnel guarding the premises.

Sub-divisional Magistrate, Jammu North, Mohammad Alyas Khan was appointed as the inquiry officer. Speaking to protesters, Khan said he would ensure a 'fair and transparent' probe was conducted.

"We want justice for the man who was killed in mysterious circumstances. They are claiming that he crashed his vehicle with the gate before entering the highly guarded residence... Neither the gate nor the vehicle had suffered any damage," one of the mourners said.

Later, 'Nimaz-e-Jinazah' (prayer before the burial) was offered and the deceased was laid to rest at a local graveyard.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party patron and Executive Chairman of State Legal Aid Committee Bhim Singh urged Governor N N Vohra to institute a high power judicial inquiry by a sitting judge of the high court.

"The state Legal Aid Committee has collected evidence and felt that Shah was killed without any cause or reason," Singh said in a statement here.

"This is also admitted that the deceased had no weapon or anything in his hand or in the car. The facts lead to the conclusion that it was a pre-planned murder," he added.

Singh said the committee would move the Supreme Court if the governor failed to hold an independent inquiry into the incident.

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A bus skidded off the road and rolled down about 100 metres from the road at Dhagoh in Chamba district this morning, leaving one person dead and six others injured, the police said today.

Chamba Superintendent of Police Dr. Monica Bhutunguru told PTI that a police team reached the spot immediately after getting information of the accident at around 6.20 in the morning.

The bus was on its way to Patiala in Punjab from Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh.

The police rushed the injured to a nearby hospital where their condition is reported to be stable, she added.

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Canada's foreign minister has said the country is ready to resume North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations "anywhere, anytime," according to media reports.

Chrystia Freeland's statement was the first from the Canadian government in several weeks, and came as American and Mexican officials last week said they aimed to conclude talks on remaking NAFTA as soon as next month.

"We're ready to go as quickly and intensively as possible," Freeland told reporters in a telephone conference from Hong Kong.

"Canada is ready and willing to negotiate anywhere, anytime," the minister said, adding she was "very keen" to wrap up the talks.

Canada did not participate in last week's discussions between the US and Mexico, as they focused on bilateral issues - but Freeland said she remained in contact with them.

Mexico and Canada have both said they want to maintain a trilateral pact, while US President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out and negotiate separate bilateral agreements.

Talks to bring NAFTA up to date began in August 2017, at the request of Trump, who has branded it a "terrible deal."



Negotiations have stumbled due to Trump's favour for a so-called sunset clause in US trade agreements, requiring parties to renew them every five years. After seven sessions, they paused mid-June ahead of the Mexican presidential election on July 1.

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More than 50 percent of tunnel works completed

The Behri Babai Multipurpose Project has completed digging more than 50 percent of the 12-km long tunnel as well as safely passing the weak zone of the tunnel located at around the mid-way of the tunnel.
A cattle trader was killed and another injured when Army personnel allegedly opened fire on them in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir today, the police said.

Mohammad Rafiq Gujjar (28) and Shakeel Ahmad (30), both residents of Gool, were allegedly fired upon by soldiers of the 58 Rashtriya Rifles when they were leaving Kohli village around 4 am, a police official said.

He said while Gujjar died on the spot, Ahmad was injured in the firing and was shifted to hospital.

Both of them were cattle traders and had come to the village in connection with their business, the official said quoting preliminary investigation.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Ramban, Mohan Lal confirmed the death of a civilian and injuries to another in the firing and said an FIR is being registered in this connection.

Investigation is on and a case is being lodged against Army personnel, he told PTI.

An Army officer, when contacted, said the soldiers opened fire after observing suspicious movement of some persons.

We are on the job and getting details of the incident, the officer said.

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A 28-year-old cattle trader was killed and another injured allegedly in firing by Army personnel in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir today, police said.

Police registered an FIR against the Army personnel involved in the incident. The Army, however, said the soldiers opened fire when they came under attack after challenging the people moving suspiciously in the area.

Mohammad Rafiq Gujjar (28) and Shakeel Ahmad (30), both residents of Gool, were allegedly fired upon by soldiers of the 58 Rashtriya Rifles when they were leaving Kohli village around 4 am, a police official said.

He said Gujjar died on the spot while Ahmad was injured and admitted to a hospital.

Both of them were cattle traders and had come to the village in connection with their business, the official said citing preliminary investigation.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Ramban, Mohan Lal confirmed the death of a civilian and injuries to another in the firing.

"An FIR under section 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) Ranbir Penal Code and various sections of arms act was registered against the Army (personnel)," the SSP said.

A defence spokesman said the soldiers fired when they came under attack after they challenged the suspected individuals.

"An operation was launched by the Army based on specific intelligence inputs in Kohli area of Gool tehsil. At 3.45 am, the Army patrol saw some suspicious activities. The suspected individuals were challenged by the Army as per the standing operating procedure.

"On being challenged, the suspected individuals opened fire on the Army patrol. On this, the Army patrol retaliated effectively," the spokesman said.

However, the police officer said no weapon was found at the scene or in the possession of the deceased.

Meanwhile, Tribal Research and Cultural foundation - an organisation representing Gujjars and Bakerwal communities - condemned the incident and demanded a judicial inquiry.

"The killing of a cattle rarer and injuries to another is highly condemnable which needs to be investigated thoroughly," the foundation said in a statement.

It said an email has been sent to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, demanding punishment to the culprits as per law.

"The community also demanded that a strong directive must be issued to security forces so that more such incidents do not occur in tribal areas any more," the foundation said, and demanded compensation for both the families.

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Tyre major plans to invest around Rs 20 bn over the next 3-5 years on setting up a new manufacturing facility in

The first phase of the plant is expected to start production in 2019. The Enterprise flagship firm has already acquired a 163-acre land parcel for the project.

"The company is setting up a greenfield plant with an estimated investment of approximately Rs 20 bn to be spent over three to five years," said in its annual report for 2017-18.

Civil work for the first phase of the project has begun and the plant is expected to begin production in the next 12 months, it added.

will start with passenger car radial tyres at the plant with an initial capacity of around 250 tonnes per day. It also plans to utilise the facility for exports.

The company currently ships tyres to more than 100 countries.





Ceat has manufacturing facilities at Bhandup, Mumbai, Nashik, Halol and Nagpur. Besides, it also has an off-highway tyre manufacturing plant at Ambernath, Maharashtra, which commenced commercial production in last fiscal.

Ceat meets its production through in-house plants and secures the rest from various outsourcing partners on conversion-cost basis and bought-out basis.

It also operates in Sri Lanka through a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) named CEAT Kelani Holdings Company (Private).

In the domestic market, the company has a distribution network of more than 4,500 dealers and over 30,000 sub-dealers.
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala today lashed out at both the Union and the Haryana governments of the BJP, asserting that they have failed on all fronts and no section of the society was happy with their performance.

"The BJP governments have failed the people of Haryana and the country. The people are so annoyed and angry with the BJP that they are desperately waiting for the elections to oust them from the power," Surjewala said addressing a workers meeting at Pundri in this district today.

Surjewala dubbed the ML Khattar government in Haryana as an "inept and U-turn government" whose Cabinet, he claimed, "reverses its decision every other day as it is unaware of its policy decisions and their implications."



The Congress leader also hit out at the principal opposition party INLD in the state, describing it as the B team of the ruling BJP.

"Everyone knows the INLD is the BJP's 'B' team..," he charged.

Surjewala, who is a legislator from Kaithal, claimed the people of Haryana have made up their minds "to bless the Congress in the next parliamentary and state assembly elections".

Advocating for farm loan waiver to Haryana farmers and the landless poor, Surjewala also alleged that government was not providing the MSP and due rates to the farmers for their produce.

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India and China will attempt to resolve differences in setting up of a hotline soon between the armies of the two countries, during Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe's upcoming visit here, official sources said.

After the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, both sides revived the long-pending proposal to set up the hotline so as to avoid flare-ups between the two militaries along their disputed border.

But, the initiative hit a roadblock over differences between the two sides on issues relating to protocol and technical aspect of the hotline.

China's State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe is scheduled to visit India later this month.

While the Indian Army has been maintaining that the hotline should be between its Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and his equivalent official in Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), Beijing proposed that deputy commander of its Chengdu-based Western Theatre Command would engage with the Indian DGMO, the sources said.

It is learnt that Chinese PLA has also conveyed to Indian Army that they do not have any DGMO in its headquarters and that it was favouring engaging the Western Theatre Command which looks after the Sino-India border.

However, the Indian side feels the protocol must be maintained and equating the Indian Army headquarters to PLA's Western Theatre Command in Chengdu was not proper.

Three commands of the Indian Army -- the Kolkata-based eastern command, the central command headquartered at Lucknow and the northern command, headquartered at Udhampur -- have been tasked to keep an eye on the nearly 3,500-km-long border with China.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam in Sikkim sector last year which was the most serious military confrontation between the two sides in decades.

At the two-day Wuhan summit in April, Modi and Xi decided to issue "strategic guidance" to their militaries to strengthen communications and build trust. The move was seen as aimed at avoiding a Doklam-like standoff between the two militaries.

An eight-member Chinese military delegation led by Lt Gen Liu Xiaowu, Deputy Commander of Western Theatre Command, visited India in June as a follow-up to the Wuhan summit between Modi and Xi.

On the proposed hotline, the official sources said there were certain issues relating to engaging translators for Mandarin and English by the two sides. Both sides will also have to sort out issues relating to technical aspect of the hotline as well.

Currently, India and Pakistan have a hotline between their DGMOs.

The hotline between India and China was first mooted by the two countries in 2013.

The sources said a host of other issues like ways to improve coordination between the two militaries along the border will figured in talks Fenghe will have with his counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman and others.

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Bank fraud fugitive Mehul Choksi looted the country under the very nose of the Narendra Modi government and fled to Antigua, National Secretary of CPI D Raja said today, demanding that the Centre respond to the Caribbean nation's assertion that Indian authorities did not give any adverse report to stall granting of citizenship to him.

India has handed over a request to Antigua for extradition of bank fraud fugitive Choksi who has obtained citizenship of the Caribbean nation.

"All this was happening under the very nose of the Modi government. Why was no action taken against Choksi? He has looted the country and the people's money and fled away. He has taken the citizenship of another country. All these things were known to the government agencies. Government must answer," said Raja.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi.

He is wanted in India by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate probing the fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country.

As per reports, Antiguan authorities cleared his citizenship in November 2017 after India did not give any adverse report to stall his application.

Choksi had fled India on January 4 this year and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15.

The CBI had sent its request to the Ministry of External Affairs for extradition of Choksi.

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Disney's "Christopher Robin" has been denied a release in China by film authorities.

No reason has been given for the film's denial, but according to the Hollywood Reporter, it is because of China's censorship of Winnie the Pooh images that started last year.

In China, the authorities have been blocking images of the character on social media because of memes comparing Chinese leader Xi Jinping's appearance to Pooh's.

In June, the country started censoring mentions of HBO comedian John Oliver and HBO's website after his show, "Last Week Tonight", ran a segment criticising China and Xi, specifically, for the increasingly authoritarian policies of the Chinese Communist Party, which he leads.

The segment also mentioned the Winnie the Pooh jokes and Xi's sensitivity to them.

Disney has not reacted to the snub of the live-action/CGI film, which stars Ewan McGregor as a middle-aged British businessman and carries a PG rating.

Winnie the Pooh, the character created by British author A A Milne as a companion for an eight-year-old Christopher Robin, comes to life in the film to help his now-adult friend regain his imagination.

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A senior Maharashtra Minister has expressed the hope that the ongoing agitation by the Marathas for reservation will be withdrawn in the next few days as the BJP government is working towards resolving the issue and the



community has reposed trust in it.

The comments by Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar came in the wake of Maratha outfits announcing a fresh round of agitation from August 9.

He said the BJP's resounding victory in the elections to the Sangli and Jalgaon municipal corporations will give the party an upper-hand in dealing with the quota issue.

Speaking to select mediapersons here over the weekend, Mungantiwar said the two cities have a large population of Marathas and the BJP's victory shows the community has faith in the party-led government in the state.

The BJP leader said the Devendra Fadnavis government is very clear in its intention to provide reservation to the Marathas and accused "some people" of "instigating" the community which is agitating over the quota demand.

The saffron outfit swept the polls for the two civic bodies on Friday. The BJP defeated the Congress-NCP combine in Sangli, while it trounced the Shiv Sena, its ally at the state and national level, in Jalgaon, North Maharashtra.

Mungantiwar said the long-pending quota issue could have been resolved when the Congress-NCP alliance was in power for 15 years (1999-2014).

"The recent victories in the civic polls will give an upper-hand to the BJP on the issue of Maratha reservation, because in Sangli (where the BJP posted victory for the first time), the majority of the local population are Marathas. This shows their trust in us," he said.

"We expect the discussions (between the government and Maratha community representatives) to get over soon and hope the agitation will be called off before August 9.

Maratha groups have planned a fresh round of agitation in support of their demand for reservation in government jobs and education.

Their stir took a violent turn last month and about half a dozen community members have committed suicide in support of the quota demand.

Attacking the Congress and the NCP, Mungantiwar said two main opposition parties tried to use the agitation against the BJP government for their own political end.

"They knew that despite being in power for 15 years, they had nothing to show to voters in the 2019 polls. So they were left with just two options - break the BJP-Sena alliance and divide votes or instigate such protests," he said.

Mungantiwar claimed that during the all-party meeting called last week to arrive at a consensus on the issue of Maratha reservation, NCP leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and Ajit Pawar took a divergent stand.

"Ajit Pawar was in favour of calling a special session of the legislature to discuss and resolve the issue. On the other hand, he (Bhujbal) was of the opinion that if a special session is called now, all other communities will also demand reservation," the minister said.

Bhujbal's "open revolt" resulted in Ajit Pawar taking a backseat over the issue, the BJP leader said.

Responding to a query, Mungantiwar said the government has sought a total of Rs 75,000 crore from the Centre for the development of Mumbai, Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.

He said Mumbai contributes most to the all-India GDP and the metropolis requires Rs 10,000 crore every year for the next five years for the development of its infrastructure.

In drought-prone Vidarbha and Marathwada, a sum of Rs 5,000 crore is needed every year for the next five years for providing employment, education and health facilities to the people in these under-developed regions, he added.

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Back in the day, Steve Jobs started out in a garage as did Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. For India's growing tribe of "self starters", that's a corporate legend gone with the winds of time in these days of increasing urbanisation.

With home spaces shrinking, garages and the like are no longer an option for those without conventional office jobs looking for a quiet corner to get a day's work in.

Enter co-working spaces -- workspaces where diverse groups of freelancers, remote workers and other professionals work together in a shared, convivial setting the happy answer to costly commercial real estate and sky-rocketing rents in tier I and tier II cities.

And all this without hassles such as electricity charges, wi-fi, maintenance and furniture costs.

Boasting plush furniture, glass cabins, ornate-themed interiors, phone booths, lush green plants and hip in-house cafeterias serving the best of coffee and the sweetest of muffins these offices are more than a match for any uptown restaurant in terms of ambience.

On offer are common co-working spaces (bullpen or lounges), dedicated co-work spaces (a standalone desk) or a private cabin for you and team on daily, monthly and yearly basis. The plans are flexible and customers can also ask for custom made offices.

According to a recent Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) study, the co-working industry in India is expected to receive $400 million in investments by 2018 and grow to 15 million desks in about five years.

"We have been offering this platform since 1989. It was earlier called 'business centre', then in the early 2000s, the term changed to 'serviced offices' and now we have 'co-working'. So it is a trend evolving since 1989," said Harsh Lambah, country manager, International Workplace Group (IWG), one of the many co-working companies in India.

An established player in the market, IWG has two brands, Spaces and Regus, operating across 16 cities.

Besides IWG and other acclaimed international players like WeWork, Indian companies, too, have dipped their feet in this business model and are making the most out of it.

Smartworks, for instance, has built 15 centres in nine cities across India in just two years.

"Like Uber or Ola, co-working today is more of a requirement...We are basically taking away all the hassle of running the entire office space from you, so you can focus on other important things at hand," said Smartworks founder Neetish Sarda.

Clients are also happy to share their stories.

"Since I am the only person based in India, it is more practical for me to work from a co-working space. Renting a space, internet and telephone connectivity, plus heat and electricity bills and maintenance of a rented space tend to become expensive, said Akshay Anand from World Hotels.

"Moreover, I am able to concentrate on my responsibilities on sales rather than wasting my time on administrative work," he added.

Experts say the average cost of co-working spaces is around Rs 9,000 to 12,000 per employee per month.

"Today, the Indian market is open to the concept of co-working space because we are between 10 to 15 per cent cheaper than the conventional office space," said Harsh Binani, Co-Founder, Smartworks.

MNCs are also making a beeline for the trending co-working phenomenon.

Market players say that MNCs are not just receptive to the idea of flexible office setups, some also flocking to co-working spaces in search of talent.

"A very important aspect of WeWork India's growth story is that 50 per cent of our members are large enterprises as compared to the rest of the world where they constitute about 25 per cent. Clearly, even mid-to-large-sized companies in India are embracing this new way of working, not just start-ups," said WeWork India CEO Karan Virwani.

In India, WeWork enterprise members include brands like GoDaddy, TrueCaller, Discovery India, Jaguar Land Rover, Knowlarity, and Twitter, he added.

Spaces and Smartworks also have an impressive list of enterprises availing their services.

According to Binani, 70 per cent of Smartworks' client base consists of enterprises only.

Most of these places also offer a virtual office.

"Virtual office is aimed at professional or entrepreneurs working out of home who want a professional front or service, but not 24/7. So it starts simply as a mail box service or phone answering service... also they can visit a particular centre for five days a month and have their meetings in professional environment," said Lambha.

Big players are hoping to beat the competition by offering new services to their customers.

While Spaces, for instance, has been organising events like 'Tea Tasting' and 'Office Gol Gappa Champs' to build camaraderie between the employees of different companies, Smartworks recently introduced indigenous human robot 'Mitra' at its Hyderabad facility to streamline the visitor management system.

"We also have weekend programmes by the name 'Smart Weekend', which are designed differently for different companies. The events include fitness classes like Yoga, art therapy, pet therapy and many more," Sarda said.

In a bid to try something new, WeWork recently launched 'The Artist Point of View' campaign, inviting people to re-imagine their workspace by putting their thoughts on canvas.

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Kathmandu-Kerung railway project: Nepal, China to discuss report in 3rd week of Aug

Officials from Nepal and China are set to meet in Xian, the starting point of Silk Road situated in the capital of Shaanxi Province, in the third week of August to discuss the pre-feasibility study of KathmanduKerung railway line.
It is time for Congress workers to take to streets and not to attend camps, as 2019 general elections are drawing close, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said here today.

Chavan's comments came days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting was held in Delhi.

"Parliamentary elections are not far. The Congress workers should take to the streets now instead of attending camps," the former Union minister told reporters.

Chavan accused Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of "cheating" the Maratha and the Dhangar communities by promising them reservation.

The Maratha community is agitating for 16 per cent quota in education and government jobs, while the Dhangar community members are demanding ST (Scheduled Tribe) status.

Chavan said the discussion to replace Fadnavis as the CM started in the BJP of late because the party leaders have realised that he is a "failure" on various fronts.

Chavan said he had had forwarded to the then Central government a proposal demanding a ban on Hindutva groups like Sanatan Sanstha for their alleged role in the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.

"I had forwarded a proposal for banning these organisations to the then (UPA) government at the Centre. However, the proposal was set aside by the NDA government after it came to power (in 2014)," he said.

Referring to the recent controversy over Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Chavan said the government should ask Google to pay fine.

"I am not ready to believe that it was a mistake committed by Google. Why did the UIDAI chief met Google officials? If this episode (pre-storage of Aadhaar helpline number) was the result of a Google mistake, then the government should ask them to pay fine," he demanded.

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The Monsoon session of Delhi Assembly beginning tomorrow is likely to be a stormy affair with the Opposition BJP planning to corner the government on the alleged bus procurement scam and demands of National Register of Citizens-like exercise in the city.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijender Gupta said BJP MLAs would also raise the "falsehood" of government on honouring women, as he accused Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot of "humiliating" a senior woman IAS officer during a meeting.

Meanwhile, the ruling AAP seeks to target the BJP-ruled civic bodies over the dog and monkey bite menace besides installation of CCTV cameras and implementation of an



IIT Delhi report to overcome waterlogging in the city.

AAP spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said party legislators will raise the issues of CCTV camera project and doorstep delivery of ration during the session.

The ruling party is also expected to discuss the alleged "misinformation" given by IAS officers to media and courts, thereby "defaming" the committees of the Assembly.

AAP legislators may also seek to attack the bureaucrats trying to boycott meetings of the Assembly committees.

Private member resolutions on dog and monkey bite menace in the city will be the other issues which will be raised in the session, Bhardwaj said.

The Monsoon session of Delhi Assembly is scheduled from August 6 to August 10.

The 70-member House is dominated by AAP, whereas the opposition benches are occupied by only four BJP MLAs.

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Power distribution companies in Delhi sold 615.5 million units of electricity to customers outside the state during April-June despite the AAP-led government's allegation that the capital was staring at power crisis in peak summer season due to coal shortage at plants.

According to official data, discoms in Delhi sold 296.228 million units (MU) of electricity against 233.578 MU in May, registering an increase of 26.8 per cent.

Among distribution companies, BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL) sold 144.14 units, BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) sold 4.29 MU and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL) sold 106.381 MU in June.

In May, BYPL sold the maximum 130.047 MU, BRPL sold 16.594 MU and TPDDL sold 64.071 MU to outside customers.

When asked to comment, a BSES spokesperson said that due to the nature of the power business in India, power demand is arranged keeping in mind the peak power demand.

"As a result, during off-peak periods like early mornings, there is a need to sell surplus power on the exchange on account of low demand compared to the minimum availability from the stations. This is also essential to maintain the grid discipline and contain underdrawl within limit specified by the regulator. It also helps in keeping consumer tariff low, the spokesperson said.

To meet the power demand of its over 40 lakh consumers and to take care of any unforeseen contingency, we have made adequate power arrangements for summer months, including long long-term PPAs and banking arrangements with various states, it said.

Delhi Power Secretary Varsa Joshi said, "the Distribution Licensees are left with substantial surplus power during off peak hours....This surplus power is being disposed of by way of bilateral sale, banking mechanism....or direct sale through power exchange."



TPPDL Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Banga said during the past three months we had shortages from Aravali Jhajjar on account of coal shortages. The shortage was to the tune of 300 to 400 MW from Aravali Jhajjar which was met through an almost equivalent quantum of banking imports in May, June and July.

Tata power DDL has been entering into banking contracts from past seven to eight years whereby we export during the winter period of October to April to states like Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and also to North Eastern states. We receive the power back from these states during our peak summer months of May to September when our demand is high. This banking import helps us in meeting our summer demand as well as take care of any unforeseen contingencies," he said.

This year also similar banking arrangements to the tune of 300 mw helped us in meeting the contingencies caused due to coal shortages at Aravali Jhajjar, he added.

In June, the AAP government wrote to Power Minister R K Singh that Delhi was staring at a power blackout due to the fast depleting coal stockpiles at power plants in the city and urged him to take up the issue with the Railways which transports coal to the national capital.

In the month of May, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to direct the Railways to provide rakes for transporting coal to power plants in Delhi-NCR, which were facing "alarming level" of coal shortage.

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Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today that new urban spaces needed to be green and resilient and noted the development process in Delhi was now being given a green and sustainable direction by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Housing and Urban Affairs Minister today inaugurated 'Van Mahotsav' celebrated by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) with plantation of around 20,000 trees across the nations.

According to an official statement, the minister, who participated in the tree plantation drive in Dwarka where around 10,000 trees were planted, also appreciated DDA's initiative of taking up "largescale" plantation.

"Creation of new urban spaces needs to be green and resilient," the statement quoted Puri as saying.

The development process in Delhi is now being given a green and sustainable direction by the ministry, the minister said.

It stated that at the event, Puri assured full commitment and support of the Centre for timely completion development projects in Delhi, including Delhi Metro phase-4.

He reiterated the decision to redevelop the seven colonies in south Delhi without cutting of trees.

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A 28-year-old woman, who was set ablaze allegedly by her husband in Warangal district following an argument over her fidelity, died today, police said.

The accused Balu allegedly lit her outside their house in Parwarvathagiri mandal of the district late last night after an argument in an "inebriated" condition and he also suffered burn injuries in the process, they said.

The woman died at a hospital this morning, they added.

She had suffered 95 per cent burn injuries during the incident while her husband sustained over 30 per cent burns and is undergoing treatment.

The deceased woman's mother lodged a complaint with the police alleging that her son-in-law used to harass her daughter frequently in a drunken state.

The complainant also accused the man of having an "illegal" affair with another woman, police added.

A case was registered and probe is on.

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: Air compressor manufacturing major ELGi Equipments is eyeing a 15 per cent growth in consolidated revenues in the current financial year, a top official has said.

The Coimbatore-based company, as part of strengthening its presence in Australia recently acquired 100 per cent shareholding of Sydney-based F R Pulford and Son Pty Ltd for 11.04 million (Australian Dollars) about Rs 56 crore, in an 'all cash deal'.

"On consolidated operation, the expectation is that there will be 14-15 per cent growth (in current financial year) over the previous year (2017-18)", company Managing Director, Jairam Varadaraj told PTI.

For the financial year ending March 31, 2018 consolidated net profits was Rs 95.28 crore as against Rs 74.00 crore registered during the year ago period.

Commenting on the Australian-acquisition,he said "Pulford has been our distributor (for Elgi Equipments) for the last one year and we have discovered each other's strengths to enhance our synergies".

With the acquisition, the company was aiming at doubling its market share in Australia. "..we believe we can double the market share over the next few years. So that is the opportunity we are looking at (on the acquisition)", he said.

He said the acquisition of Pulford was expected to contribute about Rs 60 crore on topline revenue for Elgi Equipments.

Elgi Equipments is currently on a business mission of becoming a leading player in the global air compressor business by 2027.

The strategic acquisition was a significant step the company has made in Australia to expand its footprint in the region, he said.

On whether the company would expand operations in New Zealand, he said "this acquisition will also add value to the distribution business directly it has in New Zealand."



"Our distributor there (in New Zealand) is quite strong", he said.

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Exide Industries Ltd, India's largest automotive battery maker, sees no "major threat" from Japanese automobile giant Suzuki Motor Corp's proposed lithium-ion battery plant in Gujarat.

The facility will make lithium-ion batteries for hybrid car models in domestic and international markets, and will be set up jointly by Suzuki, Toshiba Corporation and Denso at a proposed investment of USD 180 million.

"We don't foresee any major threat. The batteries are meant for engines, which is only a small part of the total battery requirement of a vehicle. Lead acid batteries would continue to be used for others parts like doors and windows," sources at Exide Industries told PTI.

Lithium-ion batteries are also costly compared to lead acid batteries, which will likely limit their use in a price-sensitive market like India, they said.

Exide Industries is a leading player in the OEM automotive battery segment, with about one-third of its revenue coming from OEM and institutional sales, while the rest from the retail sector.

It has an annual capacity to produce about 42 million units of automotive and motorcycle batteries.

The Kolkata-based company is itself working on foraying into the lithium-ion battery market for electric vehicles and other larger applications in collaboration with a Swiss firm.

Exide Industries plans to initially source cells for the lithium-ion batteries, and at a later stage, look at manufacturing, which would require an investment of Rs 800 crore, Managing Director and CEO Gautam Chatterjee had recently said.

He said the company is at the same time working to develop batteries that would consume lesser lead, a key but costly input.

"We are jointly developing bi-polar lead acid batteries with US-based Advanced Battery Concept (ABC). This will be a disruptive technology and consume 30 per cent less lead than current batteries," Chatterjee said.

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A protest was staged at the Jantar Mantar today, demanding a CBI probe into the disappearance of a man from Bengaluru in December last year.

Kumar Ajitabh (30) had listed his car on an online marketplace and had gone out to meet a prospective buyer on December 18. He has been missing since then.

His sister Pragya alleged that Ajitabh was abducted.

The Bangalore Police, a Special Investigation Team and the CID of Karnataka probed the case over the last seven and a half months but failed to trace Ajitabh, his car or the abductor, she said.

"We filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court for a CBI probe. There have been no tangible results so far," she said.

Around 50 people participated in the protest, demanding that the central government order a CBI probe into the matter.

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Hundreds of documents and other items were destroyed in a fire at the Regional Transport Office (RTO) here today, but no one was injured, an official said.

Fire-fighters took nearly three hours to douse the blaze that erupted at the RTO in Tardeo area of south Mumbai early this morning, he said.

The blaze destroyed the electric wiring, licence and other documents, furniture, computers, printers and other items in 15 to 20 cabins on the RTO's ground floor, the fire brigade cell of the city civic body said in a statement.

"No casualties were reported in the mishap. However, several documents pertaining to the licence department were gutted," a fire brigade official said.

The fire brigade control room received the information about the blaze at the RTO at 5.20 am, he said.

Eight fire fighting engines and two water tankers were rushed to the spot. The fire was extinguished around 8.10 am, he said.

An investigation was on to ascertain the cause of the fire, the official said, adding that RTO officials were assessing the loss incurred due to the blaze.

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In a first-of-its kind criminal case aimed to choke cyber banking fraudsters, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched a money laundering probe against a clutch of alleged conmen based in a sleepy Jharkhand town who make fake calls to gullible people and steal monies from their accounts.

The agency has filed as many as three Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs), ED equivalent of a police FIR, against Pradeep Kumar Mondal, Yugal Mondal and Santosh Yadav and their associates whom the agency has charged to have conned numerous people in the last few years by obtaining their vital banking information over phone after posing as bank officials.

These banking crimes perpetrated over phone and using stolen e-database has seen a phenomenal rise in the last few years prompting banks to ask their customers not to share their personal account details with anyone.

"It is alleged that these people and their associates, sitting in a remote town of Jharkhand, siphoned off huge amount of money of bank account holders and have amassed assets worth about Rs 1 crore each. The state police has registered multiple FIRs against them.

"The ED has now taken over the cases under the PMLA in order to choke finances and freeze tainted assets of these conmen," a senior official in the central probe agency said.

The ECIRs are the first of their kind for the ED as they have been registered after taking cognisance of original FIRs and the predicate offence filed under the Information Technology (IT) Act and sections of the IPC.

The agency has sent a special team of its sleuths to Jamtara and its adjoining areas to obtain further leads and prepare a list of properties of the accused so that they can be attached under the anti-money laundering act.

The ED complaint, accessed by PTI, states that these alleged conmen and their associates used to "make random calls to bank account holders" residing in any part of the country and threatened them that their accounts would be suspended if they did not share their confidential banking credentials.

"On getting the customer PIN/OTP after conning the account holder they would siphon off the money to e-wallets connected with some account that they had created with banks using fake KYC details.

"These cyber banking scamsters allegedly used wallets of different banks to purchase various items or withdraw the stolen money," the ED found as part of its investigation before filing its criminal complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The agency found that these people used to operate bank accounts which they had opened using the identities of other people and used to transfer the stolen money into them.

"They were using various SIM cards which they used to dispose of after committing the crime and making calls to victims by introducing themselves as officials belonging to banks and regulatory bodies like the RBI and SEBI among others," the official said.

The ED took over the case after it found that the modus operandi of this criminal act had its root in the remote and far-flung areas of Jharkhand which are traditionally known to be backward.

"Being the epicentre of such crimes, Jamtara, a small town in Jharkhand, has earned the sobriquet of being the 'cyber crime capital of India'. Scamsters based in few of its neighbouring locations like Giridih, Dumka, Deoghar among others are also fast catching up with these e-crimes.

"This brings disrepute to the entire state," he said.

The notorious story of Jamtara and its adjoining areas was recently highlighted by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba when at an event here in May he said that more than half of India's cyber crimes are being committed by fraudsters from an "obscure place" called Jamtara in Jharkhand.

The 1982-batch IAS officer, whose cadre state is Jharkhand, had said that this town in Santhal Pargana region has become the "underbelly" of digital India due to the notoriety it received as the country's cyber crimes hub.

"Jamtara is a sleepy town in the tribal region of Santhal Pargana. It continues to be an obscure town. But in the last few years it got the notoriety as cyber crimes hub," he had said at a conference on homeland security here.

More than half of India's cyber crimes, he had said, mostly committed by fraudsters posing as bank managers, were traced back to this small town.

"These are not highly educated individuals. They are youngsters with little education. They have taken to cyber crime in a big way," he said.

The home secretary had said the region was know for petty criminals and thugs and earlier their modus operandi was drugging train passengers, looting them, stealing coal, other minerals, because the region is mineral rich.

"Now they have shifted their modus operandi and they are using smart phones to make a quick buck. This is just a simple example of a larger trend and larger phenomena. I think the arena of activities have shifted to cyber crime. Increasingly people do their transactions online, whether it is buying groceries or books, social interactions," Gauba had said.

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Palpa Jeep accident: Bodies of two missing persons found

Rescue team on Sunday found the bodies of two persons who went missing after a jeep met with an accident at Thimure Deurali in Ribdikot Rural Municipality-6 in Palpa district.
Over 75 participants, including health and policy-making experts from India and abroad, have gathered in South Goa as part of a national tobacco-control leadership programme that starts tomorrow.

The five-day programme aimed at effective implementation of laws that seek to curb consumption of cigarettes and other forms of tobacco.

India Tobacco Control Leadership Program , helmed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), part of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, will also see participation of senior officials from the Health Ministry, Labour Ministry, besides other stakeholders.

Stephen Tamplin, Associate Scientist, Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the JHSPH said, the programme is part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, and implemented through the Johns Hopkins University of the US.

"We have done global tobacco control leadership programs before in the US, in which India had also participated. But, now, the focus is more on region and country-specific programs that allow for more emphasis on locally relevant tobacco control policy issues, as well as other relevant public health policy issues, he said.

This is the second such leadership programme being held in India, the first one was held a few years ago in Delhi. The program, hosted at a resort in South Goa's Majorda village, about 30 km from here, ends on August 10.

"About 75 people are participating in the programme, including officials from the health ministry and other related domains. A few experts from India and abroad would also be sharing their knowledge with the delegates. Besides, the JHSPH, experts from WHO, and Paris-based International Union against Lung Disease and Tuberculosis (The Union) would also be interacting with them," Tamplin told PTI.

The JHU faculty member said, the delegates arrived today and were registered for the event, adding, formal sessions will begin from tomorrow.

"The regional tobacco control leadership programme aims to develop and enhance leadership in countries experiencing the greatest burden of disease and death from tobacco use by building capacity to develop, implement and enforce effective tobacco control policy interventions, he said.

There are laws in various countries but how effectively they are implemented is the question. And, therefore this program seeks to enhance leadership skills to affect policy development and implementation, and delineate leadership principles and their relevance in addressing country specific tobacco control issues and challenges, Tamplin said.

It also seeks to strengthen skills in policy intervention development and implementation and strategic communication; and engage with and enhance collaboration and networking among a wide range of partners in the tobacco control movement, he added.

Over 11 per cent of 6.4 million deaths worldwide was caused by smoking in 2015 and 52.2 per cent of them took place in China, India, the US, and Russia, according to the estimates in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study published in medical journal The Lancet, last year.

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Around five men, wearing black bands and trying to reach the fleet of BJP president Amit Shah, were detained today, the police said.

District Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said, "The men, wearing black bands were trying to reach the BJP president's fleet, when he was leaving the meeting venue after addressing the rally."



The police officer said the protestors were detained because they were trying to create hindrance during the VIP movement.

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A forensic team today visited the spot in Giridih district where the Block Development Officer of Gande and another person were shot at by unidentified persons yesterday, police said.

Sniffer dogs were also sent to the spot, they said.

DIG (North Chhotanagpur Zone), Pankaj Kamboj told reporters that the investigation was being carried out by a special team, headed by Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Manish Toppo.

Kamboj said several new facts emerged in the course of investigation.

Unidentified assailants had shot at the Gande BDO, Prabhakar Mirda and one other person, injuring both in their legs yesterday.

The injured were rushed to a nursing home, where they were admitted.

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Four members of a farmer's family allegedly committed suicide at their home in nearby Tirupur district, reportedly due to financial burden, police said.

The neighbours, who noticed the house closed for a long time this morning at Dharapuram village, peeped in and found Muthuswamy, his mother and two children hanging from the ceiling, police said.

The farmer's wife had gone to a nearby village to attend a festival, they said.

Police said the farmer first hung his 11-year-old daughter and his four-year-old son before he and his mother ended their lives in a similar manner.

Muthusamy, who had taken four acres of land on contract, was upset as he could not get expected returns from farming.

A preliminary inquiry revealed that financial burden was the reason for the extreme step, police said.

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Homegrown FMCG firm (GCPL) is bullish on the prospects of e-commerce and is expecting 5 per cent of its revenues to come from this channel in the next three to four years, a top company executive said.

The company is also planning to create a separate business unit to drive e-commerce sales.

"We should be at least looking at 5-odd per cent of our business coming from e-commerce in the next three to four years," chief executive officer - India and SAARC - Sunil Kataria, told PTI.

"We have realised that it cannot happen with e-commerce being part of customer channel. It has to be a separate business in itself," he added.

E-commerce is estimated to account for just 1 per cent of the FMCG space at present in the country, but Kataria expects it to pick up in the coming years.

ALSO READ: Godrej Consumer Products eyes Rs 1 bn turnover in hair products segment

The company from September 1 is shifting e-commerce as a separate P&L unit, with it's own innovation team, new product development pipeline and own marketing and digital team, he informed.

"We would like to manage it through a green channel where we focus on not only our core products going through e-commerce in a much more faster way, but also enabling a lot of agile decision making which happens within the e-commerce team," he added.

Meanwhile, the maker of Cinthol, GoodKnight and Hit, among others, is also expecting double-digit growth this financial year led by strong volume growth and new launches.

"We are targeting a strong double-digit growth primarily driven by volume. For the past seven to eight years, roughly one-third of our growth has been coming from new product developments.

"We see that again as being a critical driver of the growth in coming years starting from this year," said Kataria.

The company is planning to roll out around five innovations across categories in the first half of FY19, followed by another three or four in the second half, according to him.

Kataria further said that there has been a revival in consumption post- and implementation, and rural is growing at a faster clip than urban.

The rural market accounts for around 30 per cent of the company's revenue at present, and he said, "By FY22, which is in three to four years, we would like to take it to 35-36 per cent."



Kataria expects premiumisation to pick up across categories in both urban and rural, that had taken a hit due to and
A simple change of body posture can help boost a student's math scores, especially if they are known to fear the subject, a study has found.

Researchers at San Francisco State University in the US tested 125 college students to see how well they could perform simple math - subtracting 7 from 843 sequentially for 15 seconds - while either slumped over or sitting up straight with shoulders back and relaxed.

Fifty-six per cent of the students reported finding it easier to perform the math in the upright position.

"For people who are anxious about math, posture makes a giant difference," said Erik Peper, from San Francisco State University.

"The slumped-over position shuts them down and their brains do not work as well. They cannot think as clearly," said Peper.

Before the study began, students filled out an anonymous questionnaire asking them to rate their anxiety levels while taking exams and performing math; they also described any physical symptoms of stress they experienced during test taking.

Slumping over is a defensive posture that can trigger old negative memories in the body and brain, according to associate professor Richard Harvey.

While the students without math anxiety did not report as great a benefit from better posture, they did find that doing math while slumped over was somewhat more difficult.

The findings about body position can help people prepare for many different types of performance under stress, not just math tests, researchers said.

Athletes, musicians and public speakers can all benefit from better posture prior to and during their performance.

This could be particularly helpful to students facing the challenge called "stereotype threat," said Lauren Mason, a recent SF State graduate.

The study results demonstrate a simple way to improve many aspects of life, especially when stress is involved, researchers said.

"The way we carry ourselves and interact in space influences not only how others perceive us but also how we perceive ourselves," she said.

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The Cabinet will soon consider a proposal for setting up a regulator for vocational training on the lines of the AICTE to improve the quality of skilled manpower, according to government officials.

The regulatory agency will also carry out assessment and certification of around 23 lakh students passing out from industrial training institutes (ITIs), and oversee the functioning of skill councils.

Successful ITI graduates will be awarded certificates at par with the ones given to Indian Certificate of Secondary (ICSE) and Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) pass-outs, thereby enabling them to pursue regular courses in other schools and colleges, said a senior official in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Top sources in the ministry said the Cabinet note is ready after consultation with several departments and will be placed before the Union Cabinet shortly.

Sector skill councils are industry-led bodies by NSDC which create Occupational Standards and Qualification bodies, develop competency framework, conduct train the trainer programmes, conduct skill gap studies and assess and certify trainees on the curriculum aligned to national occupational standards.

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Ten persons were killed today in two separate accidents in Gujarat's Kutch district, over 800 kilometres from here, police said.

In the first incident, four members of a family from Bhachau were killed when the van in which they were travelling hit a police bus near Adesar police check post in Kutch's Rapar taluka, an official said.

Thirty-five others were injured in the incident which took place in the early hours today and the condition of 17 of them was serious, the official from Adesar police station added.

The official said that the family was on its way to Suthar Nesdi village in Banaskantha.

In another incident, six persons were killed and three others injured when the autorickshaw they were travelling in was hit by a speeding truck near Deshalpar village of Nakhtrana taluka, a Mankuwa police station official said.

Three of them died on the spot while three others succumbed to their injuries at the government hospital in Bhuj, the official added.

The deceased were travelling from Mankuwa to Angiya village when the accident happened in the afternoon today, he said.

A case had been registered and efforts were on to nab the truck driver who absconded after the incident, he said.

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The Bombay High Court has granted pre-arrest bail to a civic sub-engineer, accused in a Rs 3 crore 'pay and park scam', observing that prima facie he has been made a "scapegoat" in the case.

Justice Ajey Gadkari last week allowed the anticipatory bail plea filed by Milan Mehta, claiming that he was falsely implicated in the case.

Mehta was entrusted with the work of contracts for payments and parking of vehicles.

According to police, despite the fact that cheques issued by contractors were dishonoured and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) did not get its revenue, Mehta continued to extend their tenders from time to time, thereby causing a loss of up to Rs 3.84 crore to the public exchequer.

The court, however, noted that the basic process of tender was initiated under the signature of Assistant Commissioner of 'A' Ward of the corporation.

"In the hierarchy of officers of the corporation, the applicant (Mehta) is the lowermost officer, being a sub-engineer, and it prima facie appears that with a view to make him a scapegoat, the applicant has been implicated in the crime," the court said.

"The higher officers (of the civic body) cannot be permitted to shrug off their responsibilities and put the entire burden of the said mismanagement/defalcation on the applicant, who is the lowermost officer in rank in the BMC's hierarchy," the court said.

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Recruiting agencies panel meets ministers

Recruiting agencies that supply Nepali workers to foreign countries have started political lobbying to spike the governments proposal to increase new licence fee 20 times more than the current Rs 3 million.
The head of a Syrian government research centre fabricating weapons has been killed in an explosion targeting his car, a Britain-based monitor said today.

The pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper confirmed the killing.

General Aziz Asbar was killed late yesterday along with his driver in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Asbar headed the research centre in Hama's Masyaf, which was targeted in Israeli air strikes last month and in September last year, the Britain-based Observatory said.

According to the United States sarin gas was being developed at the centre, a claim denied by Syrian authorities who say the country does not possess any chemical weapons after a 2013 agreement to hand over its chemical arsenal.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said that experts from regime ally Iran were present at the Masyaf centre, which was developing short-range surface-to-surface missiles.

"The general was close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to Iran," the monitor said.

Al-Watan reported in its online version: "Doctor Aziz Asbar, head of the scientific research centre in Masyaf, has been killed after an explosion targeted his car in the Hama countryside."



An Israeli air strike targeted the centre on July 22, Syrian state media and the Observatory said. At the time an Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on the report.

A strike in September 2017 caused material damage at the centre, according to the Observatory which said a fire broke out at a weapons warehouse where missiles were being stored.

Israel has carried out numerous raids inside Syria since 2017, according to the Observatory, targeting regime forces and their allies from Iran and Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011.

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In a shocking incident, the headless body of a man was found inside a black travel bag today at a bus stand near a Delhi University college in north campus, with the victim's hands and legs too chopped off, the police said.

The bag was found lying near the Shri Guri Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College bus stand in Timarpur police station area, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Delhi) Nupur Prasad.

The police were informed about the suspicious-looking bag lying near the bus stand at about 8 am.

On reaching the spot, the police found the bag having a headless torso of a man aged between 28 and 30 years, the officer added.

The man's legs had been severed off from the torso and were chopped into two parts, said the police adding that the victim's hands too had been hacked off and were missing from the bag, said Prasad.

The body is yet to be identified, the police said adding that it has been kept in the Sabzi Mandi mortuary for autopsy.

The police have lodged a murder case in the incident and are investigating.

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The apex organisation of IAS officers in the country has "condemned" the alleged "misbehaviour" of Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot with Transport Secretary Varsha Joshi at a recent meeting, saying it was "unacceptable".

Joshi, who refused to comment on the issue, however, took to Twitter today, listing the various initiatives taken by the Transport department to ensure efficiency and remove corruption in the department, where she serves as secretary-cum-commissioner.

"This kind of misbehaviour with officials is just not acceptable. Strongly condemned," the IAS (Central) Association tweeted, referring to the incident involving Joshi.

In a series of tweets, Joshi also replied to the allegation that she was protecting touts.

"The idea of a Transport Commissioner - any Transport Commissioner - protecting touts is beyond laughable," she said, while promising to provide the details of the steps taken to check corruption since April 2017, when she took charge of the post.

Gahlot allegedly misbehaved with Joshi during a meeting on Friday to review the replies of the Transport department to questions to be asked in the Monsoon Session of the Assembly.

The development, following a protest movement by IAS officers earlier this year over an alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, has further strained the relations between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the bureaucrats.

The IAS-AGMUT Association has also alleged that threats to the integrity and dignity of the officers continued "unabated".

"We embraced the assurances of our Hon'ble CM but the threats on our dignity and integrity continue unabated," tweeted the association of IAS officers belonging to the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) cadre.

The current controversy is related to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's visit to the Burari Transport Authority office last month, where complaints of alleged corruption were received by him.

Joshi and Gahlot differed on a reply to be given to a listed question in the Assembly.

"Burari is a sprawling campus, hampered by terrible traffic flow all around it. We started last year by demolishing a lot of kiosks of touts flourishing in the lane between the VIU and ARU. Some have got a stay, some are on MCD land; we are following up those ones," Joshi tweeted about the condition prevailing at the Burari Transport Authority office.

Meanwhile, the AAP today said Gahlot had refused to approve the answer to the question prepared by Joshi that "no corruption or irregularities were found" at the Burari Transport Authority during Kejriwal's visit.

In a statement, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said, "Anybody and everybody who has a commercial vehicle like autorickshaw, taxi, tempo, bus knows it well that the Burari Transport Authority is a den of corruption. Every vehicle owner needs to get a fitness certificate every year and it cannot happen without agents and touts.

"If touts are openly roaming around in the transport authority (office) and only they can get the work done after being paid, there is a clear nexus. How can touts get the work done without the connivance of Transport department officers?"



He added that a question was put up in the Assembly on whether any irregularities or corruption were found during Kejriwal's visit to the Burari Transport Authority office.

"To which the Transport Commissioner presented the answer as 'No corruption or irregularities were found'. The minister (Gahlot) refused to approve this answer to be presented at Delhi Assembly," the statement quoted Bhardwaj as saying.

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He might still be a "work in progress" but Hardik Pandya could take a cue from Ben Stokes' bowling during the ongoing series, which could prove to be a "defining one" in the all-rounder's career, feels Ian Chappell.

The former Australian captain also feels that Pandya should be batting at No 6 in the current line-up.

"India's search for a seam-bowling allrounder is still a work in progress but Hardik Pandya displayed determination and discipline to go with his undoubted skills in an important partnership with Kohli," Chappell wrote in his column for ESPN Cricinfo.

"Perhaps a move to No 6 would further bolster his batting confidence and if he can also profit from watching Stokes' efforts with the ball, this could be a defining series for the talented all-rounder," Chappell assessed.

In his column Chappell paid glowing tribute to Indian captain Virat Kohli, comparing his Edgbaston hundred to Stan McCabe's epic double hundred during the 1938 Ashes, which even made Sir Don Bradman give a standing ovation.

"Having survived Anderson's challenging examination Kohli went on to dominate the Indian first innings, scoring 82 of the 91 runs accumulated for the last two wickets.

"It was a similar dominance near the end of Stan McCabe's glorious double-century at Trent Bridge in 1938 that caused captain Don Bradman to summon his players onto the balcony with the words; "You will never see anything like this again." Chappell wrote.

Not one to mince his words, Chappell found the slip catching from both teams shoddy.

"Both England and India were sloppy in the slips, with a combination of poor technique and faulty alignment being to blame for the shoddy work. One reason for both sides dropping catches is that the fielders are standing too close to each other, thereby causing confusion," Chappell, a fantastic slip fielder during his playing days observed.

He praised Sam Curran and Stokes' bowling effort, which enabled England to win the first Test match.

"Part of England's success with the ball can be attributed to the increased variety in their attack. The addition of Sam Curran's vibrant left-arm swing and Stokes' rejuvenation with the ball made a huge difference to an attack that lacked variety in Australia.

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The IIT Kharagpur has reported to the West Midnapore district administration, state government and the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development about 'law and order violations' by a local group and to ensure safety of the students, faculty and staff.

An IIT KGP statement said today, a group called the Joint Action Committee had allegedly prevented 850 contractual workers from clean-up and mess services at the student halls and had manhandled some of the workers yesterday.

The group had also called an indefinite strike today which was later called off, district officials said and promised full cooperation to IIT KGP authorities in maintaining order.

The premier institute has close to 12,000 students living in more than 20 halls of residence and the Hall Management Centre (HMC) has always engaged outsourcing agencies, the statement said.

The group had been claiming that more outsourced workers be engaged in the mess service and cleaning operations at the student halls as in their view the number of staff is inadequate and they wanted to have a say in the operations.

"Supporters of this group are neither on the institutes payroll nor on outsourced duty and were found illegally entering the halls of residence and coercing the mess workers to leave their work yesterday. They went to the extent of physical assault and threatening them with dire consequences," the statement said quoting an IIT KGP official.

Refusing to give in to the demand of the group, the statement said, "We stand firm on the policies and decisions about not to give in to their illegal threats. The workers concerned are working today."



Some of the girl students further complained that few of these local goons entered one of the girls hostels forcibly yesterday.

"I saw several of these men in bikes and cycles forcing their way in our hostel while the institutes security personnel were trying to stop them from entering," a girl student said.

IIT KGP said the matter has also been reported to police.

The institute authorities will have a close monitoring of the situation for the next three days, up to Tuesday night, "as it may take some time to entirely bring back the normalcy," the statement said.

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India has handed over a request to Antigua for the extradition of bank fraud fugitive who has obtained citizenship of the Caribbean nation.

Official sources said a team from India was sent to Antigua few days back to pursue the authorities there to extradite Choksi.

"The team met the Foreign Ministry officials of the island nation yesterday (Saturday) and handed over the request to extradite Choksi to India," an official source said.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi.

He is wanted in India by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate probing the fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country.

As per reports, Antiguan authorities cleared his citizenship in November 2017 after India did not give any adverse report to stall his application.

Choksi had fled India on January 4 this year and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15.

The CBI had sent its request to the for the extradition of Choksi.

ALSO READ: CBI moves extradition request for Mehul Choksi; to be forwarded to Antigua

Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper the Daily Observer reported, citing a statement from the Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda (CIU).

It said the police clearance certificate (PCC) from the Regional Passport Office in Mumbai said that there was no adverse information against Choksi which would render him ineligible for grant of travel facilities including visa for Antigua and Barbuda.

When asked about the PCC to Choksi, a spokesperson for the had said it was given on the basis of a clear police verification report (PVR) available on his passport.

ALSO READ: Choksi got clearance as no criminal antecedents were found: Mumbai Police

Under the Citizenship by Investment Program of Antigua and Barbuda, a person can take their passport on a minimum investment of USD 1,00,000 in the NDF investment fund.

Choksi and his companies allegedly availed of credit from overseas branches of Indian banks using the fraudulent guarantees of given through letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of credit issued by the Brady House branch which were not repaid, bringing liability on the state-run bank, the officials have said.

An LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant short-term credit to the applicant.
India plans to invoke a 32-year-old Commonwealth pact to seek details from Pakistan about the 2018 Sunjawan Army camp terror attack mastermind Mufti Waqas, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant who was killed by security forces in March this year, according to officials.

The move is also expected to help India in making a fresh appeal to the United Nations to get the JeM and its chief Maulana Masood Azhar banned under the Security Council resolution 1267. China has blocked previous moves by India seeking a ban on the JeM and Azhar.

According to officials in the Union Home and External Affairs ministries, the relevant papers were being readied to send a request to Pakistan under the Commonwealth pact for international cooperation in criminal matters, under which commonwealth nations are bound to provide Mutual Legal Assistance on such issues, they said.

The agreement was originally adopted by Commonwealth law ministers at their meeting at Harare in Zimbabwe in 1986.

Citing this pact, India will seek details from Pakistan about Mufti Waqas, who was killed in an encounter in March this year with security forces at Awantipura in South Kashmir, the officials said.

The details include phone numbers dialled by Waqas before and after the terror attack on the Sunjawan Army camp on February 10 in which six soldiers, one civilian and three terrorists were killed.

Citing the amendments made to the Harare agreement during the meeting of law ministers in 2011 at Sydney in Australia, India will, if necessary, also seek details of the recording of statements of possible witnesses through video calls, they said.

In 2011, Commonwealth law ministers adopted amendments to the Harare pact envisaging cooperation in some new provisions that related to the interception of telecommunications and postal items, covert electronic surveillance, use of live video links in the course of investigations and judicial procedures and asset recovery.

Waqas, a Pakistani national who had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley in 2017, was the operational commander of the JeM. Besides being the mastermind of the Sunjawan Army camp attack, Waqas was also behind the suicide attack on a CRPF camp in South Kashmir's Lethpora on the intervening night of December 30 and December 31 last year.

According to officials, he was functioning as the operational commander of the terror outfit and had even despatched fidayeens or suicide bombers from Tral in South Kashmir to Jammu. It was then that the fidayeens had carried out their strike on the Army camp in Sunjawan.

Waqas is also suspected to be responsible for radicalising local boys Fardeen Khandey and Manzoor Baba. The two boys had carried out the suicide attack on the Lethpora CRPF camp in December last year.

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A suspect wanted in India for his alleged involvement in bombings in Punjab in 2010 is organising a pro-Khalistan rally at Trafalgar Square here next week, according to a UK media report.

Paramjeet Singh Pamma, a Birmingham-based refugee, is among the key organisers of the rally dubbed as a "London Declaration" for a "Referendum 2020" campaign seeking a "sovereign state of Khalistan", the Sunday Times reported.

Pamma is wanted in India for twin bomb blasts in Patiala and Ambala in 2010 and is the alleged mastermind in the killing of Rulda Singh, head of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, in 2009.

Pamma, who was granted asylum in Britain in 2000, denies the allegations as "false charges".

He claims that up to 10,000 Sikhs are expected at the Trafalgar Square event next Sunday, many of whom are being bussed to London from other parts of Britain, the newspaper reported.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had issued a statement as of the rally emerged last month and said it had registered a formal protest with the British government.

"We expect that the UK government will not allow any such group, whose intention is to spread hatred and impact our bilateral relations, to use its country," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said at the time.

However, the UK government had indicated it has no plans of banning the rally, saying "people have the right to gather together and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law".

The rally is being funded by a US-based group called Sikhs for Justice and is being billed as the first-ever referendum of the global community of around 30 million Sikhs.

"We are doing this rally with the power of the democratic word," Pamma said, adding that he will "die a refugee if we (Sikhs) don't get our own country".

The rally is intended to raise awareness for a non-binding referendum in 2020, calling for the Sikh-majority state of Punjab to be granted independence. Organisers believe a high turnout will put pressure on the UN to ask India to hold a plebiscite.

"An appropriate and proportionate policing plan is in place," a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said, ahead of the rally.

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An Indian man in the US has been sentenced to over four years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, on his conviction for possessing child pornography.

Abhijeet Das, 28, of Pittsburgh has been sentenced in federal court to 52 months imprisonment for possession of material depicting the exploitation of a minor, US Attorney Scott Brady said.

According to information presented to the court, Das unlawfully possessed computer graphic files containing approximately 1,000 photographs and 380 videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

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The Indian Museum here is constructing a gallery where several objects chronicling human endeavour on this land in the past thousands of years will be exhibited.

The exhibits of the gallery will be taken from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) collections and those consist of scientific evidences of ancient human endeavour including crafting tools used by hunters, food gatherers, grinding and polishing stones, Museum Director Rajesh Purohit told PTI.

It will be called the 'Signature of human endeavour in India', Purohit said adding, "When you see anything or when anybody comes to your country the question arises how old is the culture. We have attempted to answer this question in an ongoing exhibition."



While currently some objects are being shown in an exhibition in the Museum and it will continue till August 19, the items after documenting and chronicling will be housed in the new gallery when it comes up, he said.

Purohit said in the South-East Asian Gallery of the museum, there was a new addition of the inscription of Buddhagupta of the sixth century.

The Indian Museum got the inscriptions and "It is now in our collections," he said.

He said a replica of the inscription had recently been gifted to Singapore premier by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The South-East Asian Gallery also has a 13th century boat with temple motif from Odisha indicating maritime connection with neighbouring countries, he said.

The same gallery also has paintings, drawings, sketches, terracota objects, seals and coins which were found all along the coastal belt of eastern part of the country, he said.

The museum is also working on to communicate the history of the exhibits through audio-visual medium.

"We'll hire a company to provide all these information through headphones. We want to make the youth of the country aware of the rich past of India," Purohit said.

"There will be a story telling manner through which these exhibits will be shown to people so that children and common visitors will not only understand India's cultural and other ties with South-East Asia but get to know about our heritage, our epics and literature," he said.

Purohit said the museum could play a pivotal role in establishing cultural and friendly relations with neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Talking about people to people contact, he said when foreign tourists visited the Indian museum there was an interpretation centre in the form of touch screen.

"Unless the historic significance of the object is not communicated properly, people will not understand," he said.

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Shady business

Despite rampant smuggling of rare species there is no law that protects foreign species in India
The parents of a 14-year-old Indian-origin boy who died of a rare brain tumour in London last year have launched an appeal to raise funds for research into the condition.

Khushil Pandya, who wanted to grow up to become a zoologist, was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) at the end of March 2015 after his parents took him to an eye hospital to be checked out for a squint.

"It was the biggest shock of our life. We could not believe that just a squint in an eye could be so deadly," said Khushil's mother Namrata Pandya.

She and her husband, Bhavesh, set up the Khushil Pandya Fund this week to raise money for the UK's Brain Tumour Charity for research on DIPG and its terms of treatment and medication to fill the gap in the field.

"Life without Khushil is definitely not an easy one, our loss can never be replacedbut it makes us want to do everything we can to raise funds so that parents around the world don't have to go through the same pain and agony," Khushil's parents said in a statement on the online fundraising page.

The only treatment Khushil received was radiotherapy because the tumour could not be operated upon. Generally, the life span for such patients is between six to nine months from diagnosis and the quality of life is very poor. But Khushil went on to live for two years and six months after his initial diagnosis.

His parents describe the teenager, a meritorious student at Claremont High School in Harrow, north London, as a "very positive, funny, loving, caring, honest, and inspiring young boy".

"DIPG might have taken Khushil physically from us but could not take the spirit that Khushil has left behind for us to live with. Khushil has always cheered up everyone in his company and left a legacy of positivity and has inspired everyone around him," said his mother, who has also written a book in memory of her son titled 'Perception: Experiencing wonders of life'.

"If everyone makes an effort, we really can achieve our target, and find a cure for DIPG," she said.

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The Iranian central bank's top foreign exchange official has been arrested, the judiciary said today, a day after he was sacked.

Ahmad Araghchi, who was a vice-governor at the bank in charge of forex, was arrested along with several other unnamed individuals including a government official and four currency speculators, said judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeie in a statement, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

Araghchi, the nephew of deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, was fired by the new governor of the central bank yesterday, apparently over his handling of the currency crisis.

Iran's rial has lost more than half its value since April, in part over fears of renewed sanctions by the United States.

An ill-judged attempt to fix the value of the rial in April triggered widespread black-market speculation and accusations of rampant corruption by those with access to cheaper government currency rates.

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The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida last month, a Syrian website and a monitor said today.

IS killed the 19-year-old male student on Thursday after kidnapping more than 30 people, mostly women and children, from a village in Sweida during a deadly rampage last week, the head of the Sweida24 website Nour Radwan told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, which was seen by AFP, showing a young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a rocky landscape.

His is wearing a black T-shirt and his hands are tied behind his back. The video could not be independently verified.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said it was the first execution since the kidnappings.

On July 25, IS carried out a series of attacks in Sweida's provincial capital and several villages that killed more than 250 people, mostly civilians.

It was the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and the secretive Druze religious minority that populates it.

During the attack the jihadists abducted 36 Druze women and children from a village in Sweida's east, the Observatory said at the time.

Four women had since escaped while two had died, leaving 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, according to the Observatory.

At the time, another 17 men were unaccounted for but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadists over their release.

Sweida had until last week largely remained isolated from Syria's seven-year conflict.

Druze, which made up three percent of Syria's population before 2011, are considered Muslim but IS see them as heretics.

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The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida last week, a journalist in the area and a monitor said today.

The killing prompted an offer from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to exchange captured jihadists for the remaining Druze civilians.

IS went on a rampage in Sweida on July 25, killing more than 250 people -- mostly civilians - in the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and its Druze religious minority.

The jihadists also kidnapped more than 30 people, most of them women and children, from a village in the province, which had previously remained largely isolated from Syria's seven-year civil war.

On Thursday, IS killed a 19-year-old male student who was among the hostages, the head of the Sweida24 website Nour Radwan told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan, who was speaking from Sweida, said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, seen by AFP, showing a bearded young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a landscape of grey rocks.

He is wearing a black T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, and his hands are tied behind his back.

The video could not be independently verified.

IS has not claimed the kidnappings and did not publish the video on its usual channels.

IS jihadists have lost much of the territory they once controlled in Syria after overrunning large swathes of it in 2014, but they retain a presence in the east of the country and in the country's vast Badiya desert.

The regime has been fighting in recent weeks to expel IS fighters from a patch of the neighbouring province of Daraa.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the young man's execution was the first since the kidnappings.

The execution came "after the failure of talks between IS and regime forces over the transfer of IS fighters from the southwest of Daraa province to the Badiya" desert, the Observatory said.

It also follows the execution of 50 IS fighters and civilians in Daraa province earlier in the week at the hands of rebels, according to the monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Stepping in with an offer on Sunday, the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, told AFP that it was "fully prepared" to exchange jihadists for the Sweida civilians.

"We assure our people in the town of Sweida and the families of the hostages that we are fully prepared for any exchange with Daesh," SDF spokesman Redur Khalil told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"This initiative does not replace Russia's mediation," he said.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said Syrian regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadists over the release of those abducted in Sweida.

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Thirty Italian rescue workers were today attempting to extract an injured potholer trapped in a mountain cave on the border with Slovenia, officials said.

Rescuers described it as a "difficult operation" which was expected to last until at least midnight.

The 33-year-old caver from Trieste in northeastern Italy fell 20 metres (65 feet) yesterday as he explored a gallery 200 metres below the summit of Mount Canin.

According to the Italian press, he is conscious but suffering from stomach pain.

A team of specialists were using small quantities of explosives to enlarge a route out of the cave and enable them to get a stretcher through.

A doctor and a nurse reached him late yesterday.

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Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today asked officials to ramp up their efforts to clean and de-weed the popular Dal Lake, after taking serious exception to manner in which the lake authority was functioning, an official spokesman said.

Vohra took an extensive tour of the lake, a major tourist attraction in Srinagar spread over an area of 25.76 sq km, and assessed the progress of the operation to remove lily patches, macrophyte de-weeding and sewage control.

Vohra asked the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority to clean and de-weed the water body in double shift.

"The governor took serious exception to the manner in which the...lake authority has been functioning and called for immediate strengthening and revamping of the wing," the spokesman said.

He asked officials to take measures to check the flow of sewage into the lake. The governor ordered them to ensure that all house-boats have holding tanks or bio-digesters so that untreated sewage is not discharged into the lake.

"It was also decided that LAWDA will prepare a daily bulletin to apprise the Raj Bhavan regarding the progress achieved, manually as well as mechanically, to ensure daily monitoring of cleaning efforts," the spokesman added.

The lake receives water from high-altitude glaciers.

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Parties like Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP will cease to be politically relevant in Bihar if they stay in alliance with the BJP as there is "discontent" among backward classes, Congress leader in-charge of the state Shaktisinh Gohil said today.

Gohil, also a party spokesperson, said "winnability" will be the main criteria for seat sharing among 'grand alliance' parties in Bihar and opposition unity there will show the way for cooperation in other states.

He said that in Bihar, NDA constituents Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) which primarily draw their support from people belonging to backward classes, are likely to quit the alliance before the Lok Sabha polls.

"There is a loud and clear message in Bihar that the central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is against the SCs, STs, backward and most backward classes. All those in alliance with the BJP, be it Nitish Kumar ji, Paswan ji, Kushwaha ji, they all seek support of people belonging to these sections, so how will they stay with the BJP," he told PTI here.

"I don't think these parties will stay with the NDA and if they stay, the BJP will just lose, but they will cease to be politically relevant," he said.

Gohil said that the best law for the SCs and STs was the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act that was brought by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the NDA government committed the "sin" of diluting it.

The judge who gave two judgements against the SCs and STs was given a big post in the National Green Tribunal after retirement by the government, he said, referring to the appointment of AK Goel as NGT chairman.

"Not going by what we are saying or the RJD is saying, for their own sake, they will have to get out of the alliance with the BJP," Gohil said of NDA alliance partners in Bihar.

Asked if opposition's doors are open for Kumar, Paswan and Kushwaha, he said, "I would not like to answer a hypothetical question, I will only react if such a situation arises."



Dalit groups under the banner of the All India Ambedkar Mahasabha (AIAM) have given a call for Bharat bandh on August 9 against the dilution of the Act.

A bill to overturn the Supreme Court order, which had laid down certain safeguards in the SC/ST law to prevent atrocities against people of scheduled castes and tribes, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

This is being seen as a move by the NDA government to reach out to Dalits.

LJP and Kushwaha had made statements expressing their concerns over issues related to SCs and STs and seemed to be on a collision course with the government.

However, the LJP has since softened its stand following the tabling of the bill with LJP leader and MP Chirag Paswan saying that the proposed Bharat bandh should be called off as the Centre has decided to bring an amendment to restore the law.

Gohil said the tabling of the bill was a late move by the BJP as it was under pressure from some of its allies and MPs. He said there was still "discontent" among the backward classes.

Asked if 'mahagathbandhan' coalition partners comprising the RJD, the Congress, the NCP, the Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM (Hindustani Awam Morcha), the Left and Sharad Yadav will be able to arrive at a seat-sharing agreement, he said they will have no difficulty in doing so as the alliance was ideological.

"Congress has always done ideology-based and not indulged in 'power politics' like the BJP. The BJP side steps ideology when it wants to grab power. In J&K they abused the PDP repeatedly and then aligned with them... when the BJP saw it was hurting it nationally, then without informing its ally, it made the government fall," Gohil alleged.

"We will have no difficulty in seat sharing with these parties, and if tomorrow any party of the same ideological commitment wants to be part of the 'mahagathbandhan' (then with them as well). Winnability will be the criteria. We will sit together and do it," he said.

On Nitish Kumar, he said, "He is now with BJP. Ideologically they are east and west... people of Bihar are suffering."



Talking about opposition unity, Gohil said it was also people's demand.

"People are feeling cheated.They want the opposition to be united. They want the jumla government to go. Our unity in Bihar will show the way in other places," he said.

He also accused the BJP of not treating its alliance partners well and making them fight among themselves.

"BJP is always on the lookout to finish allies and become strong at their expense," he claimed.

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The Jammu and Kashmir government today launched the relief disbursement process for the refugees from West Pakistan, directing identification of the eligible beneficiaries.

Jammu Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma issued the directive at a meeting convened here to chart out a road map for according the relief to the West Pakistan refugees living in different parts of Jammu region, an official spokesman said today.

The divisional commissioner also asked the officials to take steps to apprise the refugees of the requirement of various documents for availing the relief.

The meeting was also attended by the refugees' representatives.

Verma also asked the revenue authorities concerned to conduct verification of the refugee families to ensure that the relief reaches the eligible persons and no genuine claimant is missed in the process, the spokesman said.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced Rs 5.5 lakh aid for each of the West Pakistan refugee families at par with those from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Chhamb.

As per the official figures, a total of 5,764 West Pakistan refugee families are living in different districts of Jammu region.

Following a threadbare discussion on various issues, the spokesman said, the divisional commissioner also finalised for approval the draft scheme for disbursement of the relief to the refugees.

The meeting also reviewed the progress in disbursement of relief to the families displaced from the PoK.

The Centre had approved on December 20 last year a Rs 2000 crore-aid for the 36,384 displaced families under the Prime Minister's Development Package.

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In an effort to expand its reach globally, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has dispatched a consignment of Khadi products to a small twin country in the North Atlantic, Trinidad and Tobago.

The consignment, dispatched from here on August 2, will be received by Indian High Commission of Trinidad and Tobago.

The commission said in a statement that in July, Indian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago Bishwadip Dey met KVIC Chariman Vinai Kumar Saxena and told him that there is a considerable population of Indian origin there.

As the Indian High Commission had decided to provide Khadi gift hampers to a few dignitaries on Independence Day this year, the hampers sent out included 200 boxes of Khadi face towels in paper board packing and 150 boxes of Khadi face towels in wooden box packing.

The Indian High Commission had expressed desire to purchase Khadi yoga kit, Khadi yoga mat, diary made of handmade paper with quotes of Mahatma Gandhi and garland made of Sandalwood bark from KVIC.

Saxena said, "I was happy to know that there is a Gandhi village there also and a large number of population celebrate Diwali festival every year for nine days. Keeping in view the large number of population of Indian origin and initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to popularise Khadi globally, we decided to felicitate as many as 110 elderly Indians aged 90 to 110 years all nonagenarians on September 8 by offering them Khadi angvastram."



He also said that as the High Commissioner had also requested the commission to gift 110 pieces of shawls or angvastram along with same number of tricolour Khadi gundi mala of one-hank length, KVIC has dispatched those items to the High Commission as a goodwill gesture.

Saxena said keeping in view the future prospects of Khadi marketing, KVIC has decided to participate in the nine-day Diwali fair in November this year in Trinidad and Tobago. It will create awareness about Khadi and also help in identifying potential buyers.

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The Kerala government today said it would revive schemes and programmes under the 'Kuttanad wetland ecosystem development package', which were stopped some years back due to alleged lapses in implementation.

The Kuttanad package, conceived by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, includes proposals for ecological restoration, flood control, development of agriculture and fisheries, sanitation and drinking water supply.

A consensus to revive the package was arrived at a high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan held to take stock of the flood relief workshere.

However, the main Opposition Congress boycotted it in protest against the Chief Minister not visiting flood affected areas.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, PWD minister G Sudhakaran said the state government would approach the Centre to implement different schemes and programmes under the package.

He flayed the decision of the Congress to boycott the meeting and said it exposed the 'political bankruptcy' of the Opposition.

He also claimed that government was doing everything possible to take up relief work in flood affected areas.

Health Minister K K Shaylaja said the Chief Minister had asked officials to take steps to prevent outbreak of any diseases after flood water recedes in the worst affected upper Kuttanad area.

Several areas in Kuttanad are still submerged though there has been a respite from heavy rains over the last few days.

More than 5,000 people are still staying in relief camps in the area.

Dubbing the meeting as 'a farce,'opposition leader in the assembly, Ramesh Chennithala said it was very unfortunate on the part of Chief Minister to not have visited flood affected areas and heard people's grievances.

The Centre accorded approval to the Kuttanad package in 2008 and schemes and programmes were implemented from 2010.

However, the schemes had to be stopped later following alleged lapses in its implementation.

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Students vandalise Universal Medical College after death of fellow student

Students of Universal Medical College on Sunday vandalised the hospital and staged demonstration after a student studying Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) in the college died during the course of treatment at the hospital in Bhairahawa.
A visiting delegation of Left leaders and social activists today alleged that a "reign of terror" was let loose by the hoodlums and goons "sponsored by the ruling BJP" after it came to power four months ago.

The BJP-Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) government assumed office on March 9, ending 25 years rule of Left Front government in the state.

Addressing a press conference here, the leader of the delegation, KK Rages, also a member of Rajya Sabha (CPI-M), alleged that after the Assembly elections in Tripura the law and order has collapsed in the state and a sense of fear is prevailing here.

A four-member delegation including Rages, Medha Patkar, a social activist and Rajaram Singh, a CPI(ML) politburo member and president of All India Kishan Sabha visited the alleged terror-stricken areas of Tripura for the last three days.

"The scenario of Tripura is terrible. The way people were beaten, murdered and physically attacked and assaulted including women by the goons of BJP-IPFT are inhuman and unimaginable," Singh said.

He alleged that the ruling party workers were destroying the democracy in the state and they would raise the matter in the Parliament.

Singh said, The BJP was using Tripura as "laboratory, where they are experimenting to target opposition, let loose terror, commit murder and dacoity, looting and torture women, minorities, Dalits and poor", Singh said.

Patkar expressed concern about the future of the state.

"The BJP and RSS workers are spoiling the livelihood of common people in the name of They are murdering democracy in the name of forming development committees in different localities. Entire social and democratic fabric is being destroyed, Patkar said.

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The Maharashtra Police are preparing a set of Marathi books to help its personnel tackle radicalisation, extremism and terrorism, in a first such initiative, an official has said.

The exercise involves compiling in Marathi the gist of experts' writings on terrorism in various languages, including English, to train policemen in handling such cases, a senior official of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said.

The initiative, that envisages compilation of three books in Marathi on terrorism-related subjects, has also come in praise from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, he said.

A 350-page book, first in the series, was published last week, the official said, adding that it draws on as many as 30 books on contemporary terrorism in English and other languages, widely read all over the world.

These books cover issues such as psychology of a terrorist, training methods of militant outfits, accounts of some major attacks, and how the youth should be deradicalised.

One of these books is "The Islamist- Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left", written by UK-born Ed Husain.

The memoir, published in 2007, is about Husain's five years as an Islamist activist.

"The other two books in the series will be published soon. These series will contain a gist from at least 100 books on terrorism," state ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni said.

The books ATS is publishing are meant for circulation only within the police department. They will be provided to the anti-terror cell personnel in all districts, he said.

Apart from English, the ATS also pored over books on terrorism in Urdu, Hindi and Marathi to prepare the series.

The set of three books in Marathi will be very helpful for the ATS personnel as well as local anti-terror cells to understand the phenomenon of extremism, radicalisation and terrorism, Kulkarni said.

The ATS is also planning a public awareness campaign on terrorism, he said.

"We will be releasing eight short films on terrorism. They will make people understand the issue and realise their responsibility as citizens," he said.

"We are always ready to deal with any terror-related challenge, but we also need public support (in tackling the menace)," the ATS chief said.

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The Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) Manipal, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Committee of the Red Cross -Geneva on sharing knowledge in niche areas where both partners look forward to multiple areas of collaboration.

The MoU was signed in Manipal on August 2, a release from the Academy said here today.

The ICRC would, for the first time in the sub-continent, share its experience on 'weapon wounded in surgery,' a module designed for post-graduates and faculty in surgery and allied specialties.

Other areas of co-operation proposed were joint conferences and seminars, innovations and humanitarian forensics, the release said.

Those present from MAHE at the MoU signing ceremony included Vice Chancellor Dr H Vinod Bhat, pro-vice chancellors Dr Poornima Baliga, Dr Narayana Sabhahit, registrar and KMC dean Dr Pragna Rao.

The Indian delegation that represented ICRC-Geneva included deputy medical co-ordinator Dr Anjum Soni, finance and administration chief Ashish Arora and innovation programme officer Sushil Mate, the release said.

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The Odisha government today handed over Rs 5 lakh to the family of a Class 10 girl student who committed suicide three days back in Malkangiri district.

Tehsildar of Kalimela, Sanat Nayak, handed over a cheque for Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia to the family members of the minor girl at MPV-29 village, Malkangiri district collector Manish Agarwal said.

Chief Minister Navin Patnaik had announced the ex-gratia following recommendation by the district administration, he said.

The body of the girl was found in a pool of blood in the computer room of a government-run residential school at Sikhapalli on Thursday night. She allegedly committed suicide after being sexually assaulted by the headmaster, police said.

The headmaster of the school was arrested yesterday on the basis of a note found in a notebook of the deceased. Her note accused the headmaster of being involved in sexual assault of minor girls in the school, they said.

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A 21-year-old man allegedly hacked his elder brother to death over a monetary dispute here, police said today.

The accused, Simon Patrao, was apparently angry with his elder brother Wilfred Patrao (36) for having withdrawn Rs 20,000 from the former's bank account without his knowledge, said Assistant Superintendent of Police Atul Kulkarni.

He killed the victim, who worked as a security guard, at their home in Bhayander township yesterday, by allegedly attacking him with a sharp weapon, the official said.

The accused, presently jobless, then called up his another brother staying in Dubai to inform about the incident. After that, he walked into the Navghar police station in Bhayander and confessed to the crime, Kulkarni said.

Based on his information, the police recovered the body, with the head and limbs severed and found packed in plastic bags, from their house, he said.

Some of the body parts were also found stuffed in a plastic bag dumped in the bathroom, the official said.

The accused was subsequently arrested and booked under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), he said, adding that further investigation was on.

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A 24-year-old man has been arrested for posting "abusive" comments against Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on social media platform Instagram, police said here today.

Prashant Poojary (24), of nearby Bantwal, was arrested yesterday by Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths based on a suo motu complaint, they said.

The message containing "derogatory" comments against Kumaraswamy was posted on Instagram in Tulu language, officials said.

Based on a communication sent to the Mangaluru East police station by Deputy Commissioner of Police Uma Prashant, a case was registered in this connection on Thursday.

Police said the post was worded in a way that it could hurt communal sentiments and disturb public order.

Poojary was charged under section 153(A) of the IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), they added.

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From driving an auto-rickshaw for a living years ago to becoming the mayor of the industrial town of Pimpri Chinchwad, Rahul Jadhav has come a long way.

Jadhav was elected as the mayor of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation in Pune district yesterday.

The 128-member civic body is ruled by the BJP.

Belonging to a family of farmers and educated till Class 10, the 36-year-old BJP corporator used to drive a six- seater auto-rickshaw between 1996 and 2003 to make ends meet.

"But after the ban on six-seater auto-rickshaws, I turned to farming, but soon switched to driving again and took up job as a driver in a private firm," Jadhav told PTI.

He entered politics in 2006 and joined the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in 2007. He soon tasted electoral success and became a corporator.

"In 2012, I became a corporatoron the MNS ticket for the first time. In 2017, I joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and became the corporatorfor the second time," he said.

After Nitin Kalje resigned as the mayor, the BJP proposed Jadhav's name for the post.

Since the NCP also fielded its candidate, the election was held yesterday in which Jadhav got 81 out of total 120 votes polled. Eight corporators abstained from voting.

"As an auto-rickshaw driver, I have seen the pain and struggles of people to make their ends meet," Jadhav said.

"As the mayor, my first priority will be to work for the uplift of the common man and complete the development projects in the industrial town," he added.

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The car of BJP MP Heena Gavit was damaged today allegedly by Martaha protesters in Dhule in north Maharashtra, over 300 kms from here, police said.

The incident occurred this afternoon outside the Dhule district collector office, a senior officer said.

As soon as the car of Gavit came out of the district collectorate, at least 16 protesters stopped it and broke its glass shield, according to local police.

Dhule superintendent of police M Ramkumar said Gavit was sitting inside the vehicle when the incident occurred.

She escaped unhurt, he said.

Gavit represents Nandurbar Lok Sabha seat.

Police have detained 16 protesters in connection with the incident, he said.

The Maratha community has been demanding 16 per cent quota in government jobs and education under the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category.

Maratha groups had last month observed bandhs in Mumbai and rest of the state for the demand and held violent agitations.

The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) was entrusted with the task to assess the socio-economic backwardness of the politically influential community.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that the BJP government was committed to grant quota to the Marathas that can stand legal scrutiny.

He had announced convening a special session of the state legislature on receipt of the MSBCC report to discuss the quota demand.

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The Congress today alleged that the Narendra Modi government had itself tried to stall the NRC process by appealing to the Supreme Court that such a move could lead to law and order issues.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Attorney General of India had used the fear of violence to delay the implementation of NRC in the Supreme Court in 2017, for which he was reprimanded by the top court.

"The Shah of lies and the Shahenshah of Jumlas tried their best to stall NRC. I will tell you how they hatched a conspiracy to stop, delay and disrupt the NRC process," said Khera.

This statement from the Congress came a day after the party staked ownership of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise by calling it "a baby of the Congress party," born as a consequence of the Assam Accord signed by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.

Accusing BJP president Amit Shah of speaking lies in Parliament about the government's show of courage to implement NRC, Khera said the date, November 30, 2017, when the SC came down heavily on the Union government will be remembered in history.

"On November 30, 2017, Supreme Court of India came down heavily on the Modi government for its excuses to delay the NRC in Assam. The Attorney General of India gave the excuse of fear of violence," he said.

Khera said the SC had lashed out at the AG and criticised the government's "sheer inaction" and dragging the matter for more than three years on the excuse of impending violence and law and order situation.

The court, Khera said, had additionally criticised the government over the AG's statement that part publication of the draft NRC could result in a law and order situation as a large segment of people would understand that their name have been excluded from the draft NRC.

"We do not see how the aforesaid situation can even remotely arise as we have already indicated in the earlier part of the present order that claims of 47 lakh persons (regarding whom the doubt pertained to parental linkage) and 29 lakh persons (married women who had submitted Gram Panchayat Secretary Certificates) are still pending and would be subject to verification and covered by publication of another draft NRC at a subsequent point of time," Khera said quoting the SC.

He said it was shocking that the Union government's highest legal officer made this submission in the apex court.

"We demand that the Modi government apologise to the people of Assam for attempting to stall NRC in the Supreme Court of India.

"We also demand to know what is the stand of this government, which on the one hand seeks to give citizenship rights through the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (2016) to all those who migrated to India before 31 December, 2014 and on the other hand is playing with NRC," Khera said, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal who, he said, had no right to be the CM of a state that his party "so shamelessly cheated" in the Supreme Court on the issue of NRC.

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Two thieves escaping with loot fall from cliff and die

Two thieves fell off a cliff and died in Lamjung while trying to escape in wee hours on Friday.
Three persons have been detained after police found 10 dead cows in an abattoir in Imlipura area of Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa district, a senior official said today.

The official said that the meat recovered was being sent for testing and further action against the three would be initiated after the test reports come in.

The three were detained after police acted on a tip-off and raided a slaughterhouse in Imlipura in the morning today.

"Ten dead cows and nine live ones were found in the slaughterhouse and adjoining godowns and houses. The meat that was recovered during the raid has been sent for testing," said Superintendent of Police Ruchi Vardhan Mishra.

She said a case under the Madhya Pradesh Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act 2004 would be taken based on further probe into the incident.

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Expressing concern over the two-month impasse at Manipur University, Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar today appealed to the protesting students and teachers to cooperate with the HRD Ministry and the state government in "restoring normalcy" at the institute.

Academic affairs have been under suspension at the central university since May 30 as protesters, under the aegis of Manipur University Students Union and Manipur University Teachers Association, have been seeking the removal of Vice Chancellor A P Pandey over allegations of irregularities.

At a press meet this morning, Joykumar said, "We are very concerned about the future of the students as the impasse has entered its third month. The academic activities must have suffered a huge setback because of the stir."



Pandey was granted a one-month leave earlier this week on the advice of the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. He was replaced by professor W Vishwanath Singh.

The ministry had last month formed an inquiry committee, headed by a retired chief justice of high court, to look into the allegations against Pandey.

The agitators, however, refused to accept the HRD ministry's arrangement and sought his immediate removal. They also alleged that one of the panel members was associated with Pandey and that the probe, under such circumstances, might not be impartial.

Three students' bodies - All Tribal Students Union, All Naga Students Association and Kuki Students Organisation - have threatened to intensify the protest if the crisis was not resolved by August 6.

In an attempt to pacify the students and the teachers, the deputy CM said the objective behind sending the VC on a month's leave was to "expedite the probe" during his absence.

"The state government is taking all possible steps to end the crisis and restore normalcy at the university. The students should not doubt its intentions. All inquiry will be carried out based on facts and figures," he said.

Joykumar also said that he was aware of the apprehensions among a section of agitators over the composition of the HRD ministry-appointed fact-finding committee that is probing into the allegations.

"The constitution of the committee is not within the ambit of the state government, but a retired Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court has been inducted into the panel, as per the wishes of the protesting bodies," he stated.

The deputy CM urged the university community to complete all pending work over the next one month.

"At least all pending work, mostly related to declaration of exam results, should be completed during Pandey's absence or the students may face the possibility of losing an academic year," Joykumar said, adding that the protesters should not lose faith in the administration.

State Minister Th. Radheshyam, who was also a part of the press meet, appealed to the students' bodies to reconsider its decision of intensifying the protests.

Radheshyam was a part of a ministerial team that recently met Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar in connection with the impasse.

"The administration and the probe committee should be given some time to solve the crisis. Intensifying the agitation at this juncture will only add to the problems," he added.

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Six officials of Bihar's social welfare department, which has drawn flak after the sexual abuse of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur



came to light, have been placed under suspension on account of "negligence and dereliction of duty".

Notifications to this effect were issued late last night. The officials put under suspension were posted as assistant directors of Child Protection Units in Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Bhojpur districts.

All the officials, suspended with immediate effect, have been charged with "failure to take adequate legal action" with regard to "assault, indecent behaviour and other undesirable activities" at shelter homes within their respective areas of jurisdiction.

The Muzaffarpur shelter home incident had surfaced in a social audit conducted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

An FIR was lodged by the state social welfare department in June, which led to the arrest of 10 people.

Medical reports have confirmed sexual abuse of more than 30 girls formerly lodged at the shelter home, which has since been sealed. The case has been handed over to the CBI.

The suspension orders also pointed out that TISS had flagged anomalies, which the officials "did not bring to the notice of higher officials in inspection reports".

The six officials were directed at a state-level meeting in May to take necessary action in the light of the audit report's findings, but their failure to do so resulted in lack of timely action against the guilty, which has caused "an embarrassment to the department and the government", the suspension orders added.

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Veteran actor Anil Kapoor has said audiences will not like to watch a biopic on him as his life has been free of controversies.

The 61-year-old actor said, a tell-all film on his life will make a boring watch.

"Nobody will want to see my biopic. It will be boring. I have never been involved in a controversy or anything like that," Kapoor said.

The actor was speaking at the concluding session of Natcon 2018, the annual conference of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) here yesterday.

The apex body of real estate developers hosted the three-day 18th edition of Natcon in the German capital from August 2



During the event the "Fanney Khan" actor revealed that initially in his career he did films for money.

"I did some films because I needed the money. But I regretted later. One doesn't repeat such mistakes."



Kapoor also recounted how he was dismayed when he could not secure admission to the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

"I was shocked when I failed the FTII written exam. I thought what's the connection between a written exam and acting. I met the Institute incharge Girish Karnad. He said rules are rules.

"I failed the exam, but I am here. Now look at the list of who all passed out from there," he said.

The actor said that a film may not do well, but audiences remember his performance, "Similarly, a developer may not make money in a project, but people must say, what a building has been made."



Kapoor believes developers and real estate industry in India should follow the German automobile icon Mercedes when it comes to giving a quality product to consumers.

"Quality matters. Like Mercedes. They keep on reinventing. They keep changing the packaging but maintain quality," he said, speaking at an event in the German capital.

Mercedes-Benz is a division of the German company Daimler AG, headquartered in Stuttgart.

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A mysterious rebel group made up of Venezuelan civilians and military today claimed responsibility for an "assassination" attempt on President Nicolas Maduro, according to a statement posted on social media.

"It is contrary to military honour to keep in government those who not only have forgotten the Constitution, but who have also made public office an obscene way to get rich," the group said.

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Nandita Das says she chose Nawazuddin Siddiqui to portray the title role in "Manto" as he has a lot of similarities with legendary Urdu author-writer.

Nandita said she always had Nawaz in mind while writing "Manto", based on the life of Saadat Hasan Manto, whose work continues to remain relevant to this day.

"He has many traits that are similar to Manto



a deep sensitivity and intensity, anger, and a dry sense of humour. These innate qualities in Nawaz helped him transition into Manto on screen quite effortlessly," Nandita said in a statement.

She said she needed an actor who could portray many contradictory emotions as Manto was a complex character.

"For instance , he was a person with moral courage, but was also scared of going to jail, confident but vulnerable, deeply sensitive yet very angry. You will know Nawaz's range when you see 'Manto'," she added.

Nawazuddin, who has been receiving rave reviews for his performance in "Sacred Games", will be seen next in "Rome Rome Mein" to be directed by Tannishtha Chatterjee, in Debamitra Hassan's "Motichoor Chaknachoor", a fun story on an unlikely couple and "Thackeray", a biopic based on the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

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The opposition Nepali Congress today alleged that the Communist government led by Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has undermined democracy and independence of judiciary by rejecting acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee's nomination for the post of Chief Justice.

The Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has majority in the Parliamentary Hearing Committee (PHC) which rejected Joshee's name by a two-third majority through a voting process boycotted by Nepali Congress (NC) lawmakers on Friday.

The PHC's rejection has undermined democracy and independence of judiciary, the NC said in a statement.

The Constitutional Council headed by Oli had nominated Joshee but his party's lawmakers at the PHC rejected the recommendation which is not appropriate, the NC said.

"Their prime minister recommends a person for the post but some of the party's lawmakers reject him. The NC was not talking about one person. We are talking about the process and the institution," NC's joint general secretary Prakash Sharan Mahat said.

The NC will question the Chief Justice's nomination process by the Constitutional Council in Parliament tomorrow, said NC lawmaker Rajan KC.

"If Joshee was not deemed fit, why did the Constitutional Council nominate him for the Chief Justice's post?" he said, adding that the issue also raises a question on Oli's morality.

Lawmaker Prakash Rasaili Snehi alleged that the Communist government was attacking the judiciary from the party as well as from Parliament.

"They are attacking the separation of powers, which poses a threat to democracy as well," Snehi said.

There is a provision in the Constitution that the Chief Justice nominee should go through the PHC after the Constitutional Council recommends his name.

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An RSS-linked NGO, which has moved the Supreme Court for scrapping Article 35A that gives special rights and privileges to the Jammu and Kashmir natives, today said it would seek hearing of its plea by a Constitution bench.

There is no need to defer the hearing again We are going to tell the Supreme Court through our counsel tomorrow that our petition on Article 35A should be decided by a Constitution bench, Chetan Sharma, convener of the J&K chapter of the civil society 'We the Citizens', told reporters here.

The Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a native woman who marries a person from outside the state.

It also bars people from outside the state from acquiring any immovable property in the state.

The main petition demanding scrapping of the Article 35A was filed before the apex court in 2014 by Delhi-based NGO 'We the Citizens'.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the plea against the validity of the Article 35-A tomorrow.

The state government has filed an application to the Supreme Court's registrar, informing him that it is going to seek adjournment of the hearing of the petition in view of the "ongoing preparations for the upcoming Panchayat and urban local body elections in the state".

We are ready for an argument. Those who want an argument over it should come forward. How long will it be deferred? Delaying the judgement is not the solution, Sharma said.

Without naming anyone, he said the NGO was also approached by "certain persons" to seek deferment of the case.

We want an argument over the issue. We have filed the main petition seeking revocation of the article 35A and eight petitions were filed jointly against our petition in the Apex court, he said.

He dismissed as propaganda that revocation of the Article would cause a massive jolt to the state and said Kashmir-centric parties and "some so-called intellectuals in Jammu" are misleading the people on the issue even as it is sub-judice.

We do not have the right to speak on the issue either as it is pending before the Supreme court. But certain developments over the past couple of days compelled us to negate the propaganda in the state, he said.

Those issuing threats of mass agitation in Kashmir and elsewhere must remain within limits as their poisonous propaganda with malafide intentions to subjugate masses would boomerang, he said, adding that pressurizing the Supreme Court by issuing threats is unlawful and demands legal action.

We appeal to the central government and the state administration for dealing these anti-nationals with iron hand. The Supreme Court decides on the facts and cannot be pressurized by the masses. We have deep faith in the Indian judiciary and the Indian flag will keep fluttering with all its might, he said.

In an apparent reference to the National Conference provincial president Devender Singh Rana over his statement that the revocation of the Article 35A is detrimental to the interests of the people of the state, he said a lawmaker recently said the 'state subject' law was introduced by the Maharaja Hari Singh to safeguard the interests of the people of the state.

"Maharaja was the king and the owner of the princely state before its accession with India. Post accession, there is no need for such a discriminatory provision," he said.

He appealed to Governor N N Vohra to register criminal cases against those who were conspiring to undermine the national integrity by making anti-national statements on the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Green Tribunal has directed an environment activist to approach a Monitoring Committee, constituted by it, on his plea seeking shifting of Millennium Bus Depot as it was located on Yamuna flood plains.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel asked activist Anand Arya to put his grievance before the two-member panel comprising former Chief Secretary Shailaja Chandra and expert member B S Sajwan.

The green panel on July 26 had formed the committee to constantly monitor on a day-to-day basis the cleaning of the Yamuna river.

"It is undisputed that only issue which remains open for consideration is whether DTC Millennium Depot is on the river bed of the Yamuna.

"Since the issue concerning river beds of the Yamuna have already been dealt with by the tribunal in Manoj Mishra vide order dated July 26, 2018, a monitoring committee has been constituted which is seized of the entire issue arising out of orders of this tribunal with regard to the Yamuna river beds, no further order is necessary on this application," the bench said.

The matter was transferred to the green panel by the Supreme Court in April last year on the grounds that there cannot be "parallel proceedings" on the same issue.

The 50-acre depot was built on the river bank initially as a temporary depot during the 2010 Commonwealth Games with a parking space for around 1,000 buses along with various facilities, including five workshop-cum-scanning centres a logistics centre and two CNG-filling stations.

The apex court had earlier said that ordering demolition of the bus depot would not be appropriate and had granted one year to the Delhi government and the DTC to get the 2021 Master Plan amended, failing which it would have to shift the bus shelter from the Yamuna river banks.

The apex court had said an opportunity was given by the Delhi High Court to the Delhi government and the DTC in October 2015 to have the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021 amended, if it was permissible in law, within six months.

The high court had refused to extend the time to the authorities to shift the bus depot, situated next to the Nizamuddin Bridge and behind IP Power Station.

The apex court had noted that a chance was given by the high court keeping in view the submission of the Delhi government and the DTC that the "bus depot was constructed to serve greater public purpose; the area in question was, as a matter of fact, not falling on the river bed; and there was no threat to environment or ecology in having the bus depot at the given site".

The DTC and the Delhi government had challenged the high court's decision dismissing the transporter's plea for grant of six months to approach the DDA to change the land use of the Millennium Bus Depot site.

The DDA had told the court that change in land use was not possible as the NGT had prohibited construction in areas demarcated as zone 'O' (river and water-body area) and the site fell in such a zone.

The high court had on October 20, 2015 shot down the DTC's plea on the issue, saying it was an abuse of the court process to seek extension of time after undertaking to shift it.

The high court had also said that it had in 2012 given six months to either shift the depot or change land use of the site and there was "no justifiable reason" now for further extension.

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Under fire from the opposition over the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, the Janta Dal (United) asserted today that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would not resign and said it was ready for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into it.

Rejecting the demand for Kumar's resignation, senior JD(U) leader K C TYagi slammed opposition leaders including Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attending the RJD-organised protest in Jantar Mantar here yesterday.

It was a "friendship day" of parties seeking "political mileage" from the "unfortunate and shameful" incident in the state, he said.

"How can rape of young girls which has shamed us could be an issue for opposition parties to unite against the NDA government and the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar and demand his resignation. This over hapless victims in Bihar is the most unfortunate thing," Tyagi said in a press conference here.

Tyagi asserted that despite the opposition's demand, Kumar would never step down as the chief minister of Bihar and challenged them to unseat him in the Assembly.

"Nitish is a sensitive person and felt ashamed over the incident which the opposition parties are trying to use to hit at his conscience so that he steps down. But, he will never step down, we will not let him do so," he said.

Tyagi also alleged that the resignation demand was aimed at "helping" sand mining and bootlegging that have been effectively checked by the state government.

Tyagi criticised Rahul Gandhi, saying his joining the RJD protest at Jantar Mantar was "unfortunate".

"I also condemn Sitaram Yechury and D Raja who have forgotten the killings of JNU president Chandra Shekhar and Purnia MLA Ajit Sarkar and joined the protest organised by RJD," he said.

The JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson of the party said that Nitish Kumar had written to the Patna High Court for monitoring the probe into the case and asserted that the party was ready for such a probe by even a Supreme Court-monitored panel.

He asserted that the Bihar government acted against the accused swiftly and, as per the wish of RJD and other opposition parties, sought a CBI probe into the incident.

"Still, they are using this incident to spread lies and conspiracy theories for political purpose and to help sand and liquor mafia who have been effectively controlled by the Nitish government in the state," he said.

He charged that the opposition parties wanted "anarchy" and "jungle raj" back in Bihar by replacing JD(U) and Nitish Kumar.

Tyagi also demanded that all shelter homes for juveniles in the country be probed under a monitoring committee of the apex court.

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Understanding sexual consent

Theres only one way to know for sure if someone has given their consent: if they tell you
The vice president of a builder's group was arrested today here on charges of cheating buyers, police said.

The Crime Branch of the Gautam Buddh Nagar police arrested Amit Satija, vice president, Earth Iconic Infrastructure Private Limited, located in Sector 16 here, this evening, police said.

"Satija, a resident of Vasant Kunj in Delhi, is accused of not giving the property despite taking money from the buyers," the police said in a statement.

The action was taken on a complaint by one of the buyers Harsh Thapar, a resident of Meerut, police said.

The complainant has also alleged that when he asked the firm to return his money, the accused denied and instead threatened him, according to the first information report (FIR) lodged at Sector 20 police station.

Satija has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 50 (criminal intimidation), among others.

"Those duping innocent buyers will not be spared. The builders who have cases against them or are absconding will be held and action taken against them," Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Pal Sharma said.

He has been remanded in judicial custody, the police said.

Some other senior officials of the Earth Iconic Infrastructures Private Limited have been arrested earlier, the police said.

On August 2, the Noida Police had booked a builder's group, accused of selling same property to multiple people, under the stringent Uttar Pradesh Gangsters Control Act.The case was registered at the Surajpur police station in Greater Noida against AVJ Height Builders.

The Noida police and the Noida Authority have stepped up action against builders and illegal constructions in the district following the twin building collapse Shahberi village in Greater Noida in which nine people, including a woman and a child, were killed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The vice president of a real estate group was arrested today here on charges of cheating buyers, police said.

The Crime Branch of the Gautam Buddh Nagar police arrested Amit Satija, vice president, Earth Iconic Infrastructure Private Limited, located in Sector 16 here, this evening, police said.

"Satija, a resident of Vasant Kunj in Delhi, is accused of not giving the property despite taking money from the buyers," the police said in a statement.

The action was taken on a complaint by one of the buyers Harsh Thapar, a resident of Meerut, police said.

The complainant has also alleged that when he asked the firm to return his money, the accused denied and instead threatened him, according to the first information report (FIR) lodged at Sector 20 police station.

Satija has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 50 (criminal intimidation), among others.

"Those duping innocent buyers will not be spared. The builders who have cases against them or are absconding will be held and action taken against them," Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Pal Sharma said.

He has been remanded in judicial custody, the police said.

Some other senior officials of the Earth Iconic Infrastructures Private Limited have been arrested earlier, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pitching for a "formidable front" against the BJP, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo has said he is not averse to projecting chief and West Bengal Chief Minister as the Opposition's prime ministerial face for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The remark by Gowda, 85, comes against the backdrop of reports that the and other parties favour leaving the issue of a prime ministerial candidate for the post-election phase as they feel that unity could be hurt if the subject is taken up ahead of the polls.

The remark also comes days after top sources indicated that the party will not mind a nominee for the top post from any alliance which does not have the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Gowda, whose party has formed a coalition government in with the support of the Congress, said the will play a crucial role in forging opposition unity in the bid by the alliance to dislodge the from power.

In an interview to PTI in Delhi over the weekend, the former prime minister noted while the formation of a third front is still in the "early stage" Banerjee is "trying her best" to bring all the non- parties together. Gowda headed the Janata Dal-led United Front(UF) coalition government in 1996 but his tenure did not last more than a year.

Banerjee is pursuing the task of the formation of a federal front seriously after the draft Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that excluded 40 lakh people from the list in the eastern state, he said.

Banerjee is a bitter critic of the NRC and has pilloried the over the citizenship issue. She is also seeking the support of other opposition parties to take on the ruling party. The BJP has stoutly defended the Supreme Court-mandated exercise, saying it concerned security and safety of the country's citizens.

Asked if he would support the chief as the prime ministerial face of the opposition, Gowda said: "Most welcome if Mamata is projected as PM. Indira Gandhi ruled as prime minister for 17 years. Why should we (men) alone become PM? Why not Mamata or Mayawati?"



Indicating he is not opposed to a woman prime minister, Gowda said he had piloted the women's reservation bill in Parliament way back in 1996.

Noting that the JD(S) has not made any effort to unify regional parties so far, he, however, said the regional party is prepared to cooperate with other parties to fight the BJP.

"It is because there is a sense of fear in the country. There is a suffocating atmosphere for minorities in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat. A formidable front is necessary to take on the BJP in 2019," he noted.

Observing that the clamour for a political alternative to BJP will gradually gain momentum, Gowda stressed that the Congress as a party will also play a crucial role.

"I want to see how things will shape up in the next 2-3 months," he added.

Gowda also mentioned that the Congress and his party will fight together in during 2019 general polls. However, the issue of seat sharing has not been discussed yet, he said. accounts for 28 Lok Sabha seats.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has asked refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to rectify its stock exchange filings to reflect the true promoter after government exit, people with direct knowledge of the development said.

ONGC had in January this year bought the government's entire 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL for Rs 36,915 crore. Post that, HPCL is now a subsidiary of ONGC.

However, HPCL's filing to the stock exchange, the latest being on July 12, still lists 'President of India' as the promoter even with 'zero' per cent shareholding.

ONGC, on the other hand, is listed under 'Public Shareholder'.

Sources said ONGC has written to HPCL management asking it to take steps to rectify the filings to reflect the true promoter of the company.

Since ONGC takeover in January, HPCL has made two stock exchange filings about the shareholding pattern of the company - the first on April 20 and then on July 12. In both, ONGC is shown as the public shareholder and President of India listed as the promoter.

Sources said ONGC feels that HPCL management is bound to take corrective action to reflect the true picture.

According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India's rules, the entity that owns the controlling stake should be listed as promoter even if they were not the original promoters of the company.

When Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had bought government's stake in fuel retailer IBP Co Ltd, it was listed as the latter's promoter in every instance after the deal. The same was the case when IOC acquired a majority stake in Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd (CPCL).

While HPCL officials refused to comment on the issue, sources said the issue at hand may be owing to the desire of HPCL management not to be seen as part of ONGC group.

HPCL Chairman and Managing Director M K Surana has retained the title despite corporate governance structure require a group having just one chairman and subsidiaries being run by managing directors and CEOs.

ONGC's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd is headed by a Managing Director and CEO. Also its refinery subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), which is listed on BSE, too is led by a Managing Director and CEO. ONGC Chairman is the head of boards of both the companies.

Since acquiring a majority stake in HPCL, ONGC has only been able to appoint one director to that firm's board.

ONGC has appointed its Director (Finance) Subhash Kumar to HPCL board. He has replaced Sushma Taishete Rath, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Prior to this, HPCL had two government nominee directors - Rath and Sandeep Poundrik, Joint Secretary (Refineries) of the oil ministry. After the appointment of Kumar, there remains only one government nominee director on HPCL.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Loktantrik Janta Dal leader Sharad Yadav today appealed to opposition parties to resolve their differences and come together to "save democracy and the Constitution", which he claimed was in danger.

He said the opposition parties should "uproot" the BJP from the Centre as well as Rajasthan.

It is the need of the hour as the country's democracy and Constitution are in danger under the present dispensation, Yadav claimed here while addressing party workers.

The former Rajya Sabha MP claimed he regretted having campaigned in the past for Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, saying people were being killed under her dispensation in the name of cows.

Yadav claimed that 102 people were lynched by mobs in different parts of the country in recent years.The Non Performing Assets (NPAs) of banks have risen to an alarming level under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and it has not been able to ensure the extradition oflooters such as Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi from other countries in the last four years, he added.

"There is a difference in BJP's words and deeds...Repeated lies pose danger to democracy," Yadav alleged.

Hitting out at the BJP's leadership in Rajasthan, he said Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's 'Gaurav Yatra' was a "blot". The chief minister had not done any such work in the state in the last four years for which she had to undertake any journey, he said taking a jibe.

Yadav alleged the state government had worked to destroy rivers that restricted water inflow to Ramgarh dam, a lifeline for residents of Jaipur, to sell the land to mafia and builders.

He called upon party workers to resolve to defeat the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid reports of factionalism in the Congress over chief ministerial candidate in Rajasthan, party general secretary and state incharge Avinash Pande has said the Assembly polls will be fought under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and the CM face would be decided post elections.

Pande said his party leaders would make a "collective effort" to win the assembly polls in the state, later this year.

"No chief ministerial face will be presented to the people before the polls are conducted. The election will be fought under the leadership of Congress president Rahul Gandhi with collective efforts of all the leaders," he told PTI.

There had been some reports in recent past suggesting that certain leaders were quietly pushing their names as the party's chief ministerial candidate.

"People of the state have made up their mind to elect a Congress government. So, we will decide our chief minister only after the elections. There is no doubt about that," he said.

A few days ago, former Union minister Lal Chand Kataria had publicly advocated Ashok Gehlot's name as the party's chief ministerial candidate. He had also said that if Sachin Pilot was tasked to head the party's election fight in the state, the Congress will end up losing a battle "already won".

"There has been some reports in a section of the media in recent past. I just want to say this: anybody making statement against the Congress line will neither get a party post nor an election ticket," Pande said.

On any probable alliance with the BSP, he said a decision on this will be taken after the party receives ground report from districts in the next 8-10 days.

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Pakistani police today killed the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting 14 schools, mostly all-girls', in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to a media report.

The schools were burnt down over a period of two days in coordinated attacks in Gilgit-Baltistan's Diamer district, triggering protest by local residents who sought safety for educational institutions.

"The prime suspect believed to be responsible for the torching of 14 girls' schools over a period of two days in Gilgit-Baltistan's was killed during a search operation in the Tanger area today," Diamer Police Spokesperson Muhammad Wakeel was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

Shafiq - who has no known association with any militant or terrorist outfit, but is referred to as a 'militant' and 'militant commander' by police officials - was the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting girls' schools in the Chilas, Darel and Tanger tehsils of Diamer district, it said.

Gilgit-Baltistan government spokesperson Faizullah said that 10 to 12 police parties carried out raids in various parts of Diamer last night to track down those responsible for the arson attacks.

A police constable was killed and another wounded in a gun battle with armed suspects during a late night raid in Tanger yesterday. So far 18 suspects have been arrested for the torching of the schools.

Wakeel said that the militants in Tanger were attempting to flee the area but locals surrounded them.

A civilian was injured and at least three to four others were injured in exchange of fire between police and the militants during the operations, the paper said.

Nobel laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai and Prime Minister in-waiting Imran Khan have strongly condemned the attacks.

"The extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book," Malala, 21, tweeted.

"Shocking & condemnable torching of schools in GB...This is unacceptable and we will ensure security for schools as we are committed to focusing on education, especially girls' which is integral to Naya Pakistan," Khan said.

Girls' schools are often attacked in the northern areas of Pakistan. In December 2011, at least two girls' schools were partially damaged in low-intensity explosions in Chilas.

Earlier that year, unidentified assailants had also blown up two girls' schools.

In 2004, girls' schools in Chilas came under a string of attacks. Nine schools of which eight were girls' schools were attacked and destroyed in five days in the area in February.

Terrorists have also blown up educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

According to a report, about 1,500 schools have been destroyed in the tribal belt during the last 10 years.

In 2017, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report stated that attacks by the Taliban and other militant groups disrupted the of hundreds of thousands of children, particularly girls, in Pakistan.

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A New Delhi-bound flight from Jaipur International Airport was delayed by nearly 40 minutes after a passenger raised a hoax bomb threat after altercation with airline staffers today, an official said.

The accused J P Chaudhary, a resident of Jaipur, allegedly ran into altercation with employees of a private airline during security checking and raised a fake alarm that he had a bomb in his luggage, CISF commandant Y P Singh said.

Singh said Chaudhary's luggage was checked and nothing was found. The flight, which had to take off at 10.40 am, flew at 11.23 am, he said.

The accused was not allowed to board the flight and handed over to Jawahar Circle police station for further investigation, he added.

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Actor Paul Rudd has said that he had "geeked out" after he got the opportunity to meet the Marvel superheroes during the making of "Captain America: Civil War".

The 49-old-actor, who portrays Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, made a brief appearance in the 2016 superhero ensemble alongside Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.

"(The Avengers) are all pretty impressive. I experienced this on 'Civil War'. I kind of turned into an eight year old because I saw all the Avengers in real life and I kind of geeked out," Rudd told Heat Magazine.

"It was that feeling of, 'Wow, there are a lot of people who would like to be standing where I'm standing now. There's Captain America's shield and the Winter Soldier's silver armour. Everybody is very nice and I liked all of them," he added.

The actor also appeared hopeful about his character's appearance in the upcoming "Avengers 4".

''You'll have to ask (MCU boss) Kevin Feige, but I'd say that there's a chance. You know, you'll have to talk to... Maybe some other bugs will show up, I don't know," Rudd said.

The actor most recently played the superhero in "Ant-Man and the Wasp", which also featured Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Douglas.

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The government will soon invite fresh bids for 100 per cent stake sale in by issuing an addendum to the disinvestment document as ONGC is ready to sell its entire stake in the company, an official said.

Helicopter services provider is a joint venture between the government, which holds 51 per cent stake, and state-owned ONGC, which owns the remaining 49 per cent shareholding. has a fleet of 46 choppers.

On April 13, the government had issued the information memorandum for the 51 per cent strategic stake sale in Pawan Hans and had sought Expression of Interest (EoI) from interested bidders by June 18. About half a dozen bidders are believed to have submitted bids.

On July 2, ONGC wrote to the government saying that its board has resolved that it would prefer to exit Pawan Hans simultaneously with the government.

Against this backdrop, the senior government official said an addendum to the existing document would be issued soon, seeking bids for 100 per cent stake in Pawan Hans.

"An addendum would be issued to the EoI (Expression of Interest) document issued on April 13. The addendum would state that ONGC has expressed its interest in selling its 49 per cent holding and fresh bids can be put in for the entire 100 per cent stake," the official told PTI.

According to the official, the existing bids for the government's 51 per cent stake would stay. "We want to give other investors a chance in case they want to bid for entire 100 per cent stake," the official added.

SBI Capital Markets is the transaction advisor for strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans.

The government had first floated an offer to sell its 51 per cent stake in October last year, but in view of subdued response from bidders, the EoI was withdrawn in April this year.

ALSO READ: ONGC gets board's nod to exit Pawan Hans by selling its entire 49% stake



At that time, some investors had suggested that the government and ONGC should sell their stakes together.

"Potential investors had then suggested that ONGC's 49 per cent stake too should be sold along with government's 51 per cent. They feared that ONGC holding 49 per cent could mean government interference in some way," the official said.

Later on April 13, the government came out with a fresh information memorandum for the strategic sale of Pawan Hans wherein bidders need to have a minimum net worth of Rs 5 billion.

Among others, Pawan Hans provides seven choppers to ONGC for its off-shore helicopter requirements for crew change and production tasks, including night ambulance.
Benjamin Jumbe.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has applauded Uganda for its support towards South Africas liberation struggle.

Speaking at the Kuhingira ceremony of his son Andile Rwamaphosa and Amama Mbabazis daughter Bridget Birungi, the president said Uganda supported South Africa in various forms including moral political, military and diplomatic among others.

He said Uganda and South Africa enjoy a good and progressive relationship which is to further be strengthened by the union of the new couple

He also hailed president Museveni for his visionary leadership and promotion of African Unity.

Meanwhile President Yoweri Museveni who was one of the invited guests cautioned the couple against producing many children as had been advised by one of the brides aunties.

The Former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi applauded the Ramaphosa family for being trustworthy and dependable.

Officially handing over his daughter Bridget Birungi to Andile Ramaphosa ,Mbabazi said the family was happy that the groom and his family had fulfilled all the conditions which had been given to them expressing confidence that she was in safe hands
Senior Congress leader Jaipal Reddy today described as very fair TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's stand that a decision on the opposition's prime ministerial candidate should be taken after the outcome of the 2019 polls.

He also asserted that the Congress will cross the bridge when it comes to it.

Reddy's remarks came days after sources said a broad consensus has been reached among various opposition parties to unitedly take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and a decision on the prime ministerial candidate will be taken after the results.

I think Mamata Banerjee has clarified that such questions will be decided upon after the polls. I think that is a very fair position, I won't differ from her, Reddy told PTI here when asked if opposition parties will be able to come to a consensus on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate.

As for the Congress, our leader is Rahul, he asserted.

Banerjee had said there would be a collective leadership of the opposition front to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, indicating that the proposed coalition may not name a prime ministerial candidate ahead of the polls.

Reddy also predicted that in terms of strength of the legislative party, the Congress tally was likely to go up by three to four times.

Asked if this would make Gandhi the top contender for the PM's post, he said, All those factors will be taken into consideration after the election."



"Why should I keep predicting and anticipating...the Congress will take a view on that when the time comes, we'll cross the bridge when we come to it," Reddy said.

Reddy was last week appointed as a spokesperson of the AICC. He had earlier been a spokesperson of the party too.

He had been the Union minister for Information and Broadcasting in the I K Gujral cabinet in 1998 and in 1999 he returned to the Congress party after 21 years.

In 2004 he was re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha and then he served as a Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Union Minister for Urban Development in United Progressive Alliance-1.

In 2009, he was re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha and served as a Union minister for urban development and Union minister for petroleum and natural gas.

He was also the Union minister for the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology from October 2012 to May 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi Police has arrested a former domestic help for theft at his owner's house in New Friends Colony and recovered diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh.

The police has arrested 27-year-old Roop Narain, who worked as a cook for the last seven years and left the job two months ago and opened a dhaba which was not running well.

The stolen jewellery worth Rs 15 lakhs was recovered at the instance of accused from his native place at Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district, they said



According to the complainant, she left for Hyderabad on July 22 and returned on July 25 and found that jewellery items, including diamonds, polki and kundan necklaces, ear rings, pendent, bracelet, were missing from her bedroom's drawer.

All the locks, except back door, were found intact after which she lodged an FIR at New Friends Colony.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Ram Nath Kovind today visited ailing DMK president M Karunanidhi at a hospital here and enquired about his health.

At the hospital, the President briefly interacted with Karunanidhi's son and DMK working president M K Stalin and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

The President, who arrived here from Hyderabad, drove directly from the airport to Kauvery Hospital, where the DMK chief is undergoing treatment.

"Visited Thiru M Karunanidhi in Chennai, met Kalaignar's family members and doctors and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery," the official Twitter account of Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Kovind was accompanied by Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

A picture of the President's interaction with the family members of Karunanidhi was shared on the micro-blogging site.

Before winding up his visit, Kovind walked down a few metres and waved at the media and crowd gathered at the hospital.

Politicians and many prominent leaders have visited Karunanidhi at the hospital.

Last week, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu visited the hospital to enquire about the health of Karunanidhi.

Yesterday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister Suresh Prabhu visited him.

Karunanidhi was admitted to the hospital following a dip in his blood pressure on July 28.

On July 31, the hospital said the leader would require an extended period of hospitalisation due to "decline" in his general health although his vital parameters have normalised.

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Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said today the protest by political parties in Delhi over the alleged sexual abuse of young girls at a shelter-home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur was "dirty politics" as it lacked genuine concern for the victims.

In a show of opposition unity, almost all major political parties, including the Congress, had yesterday joined the protest at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital, organised by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

"What we saw at Jantar Mantar in Delhi yesterday was dirty politics, there was no genuine concern for the (Muzaffarpur) victims," Das said addressing a function of elected representatives from the 'Teli' and 'Sahu' communities here.

Lauding his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi for taking "quick action in the matter" by arresting the accused and handing over the case to the CBI, he also urged them to press for day-to-day hearing in the case so that justice could be dispensed at the earliest.

The BJP leader also took potshots at Tejashwi Yadav, saying the young RJD leader had joined the ranks of "political leaders suffering from the disease of Prime Ministerial ambitions".

The chief minister alleged that Bihar reeled under lawlessness when it was ruled by Yadav's parents, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, and remarked that "their corruption had affected what is now Jharkhand".

"It is in this part of the undivided Bihar that the fodder scam had taken place," he said.

Asserting that the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained undiminished, Das said in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, people of the country will be choosing "between democracy and dynasty politics".

"On the one hand, they have the BJP in which a former tea-seller can rise to the position of prime minister on merit. On the other hand, you have parties run by people who choose their children or relatives as their successors," the Jharkhand chief minister said.

At the event, Sushil Kumar Modi said most steps for the betterment of the OBCs in the country were taken by non-Congress governments of which BJP was a part.

He also lauded the Modi government for getting a bill passed in the Lok Sabha to accord constitutional status to the National Commission for Other Backward Classes.

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Food safety officials carried out checks at railway stations in Punjab early today for sub-standard perishable items, including 'khoya' and 'paneer', being pumped into the state from neighbouring states, a senior official said.

K S Pannu, commissioner, Food Safety, said it was reported that sub-standard perishable items were being flooded into local markets from neighbouring states through early morning in-bound trains.

"Meetings were held with railway authorities and they were sensitised on the issue. Special teams were sent to check prominent railway stations. Samples have been collected and forwarded to the state laboratory at Kharar," Pannu said.

He said railway authorities were requested to inform the department before releasing the items to the concerned so that samples can be taken for quality test. Railway authorities have agreed to share the information, he said.

Pannu said special barriers were also put up to check the entry of milk and milk products by road from neighbouring states.

Besides, inspection was done at large dairies for the second day today and 150 samples have been collected and sent for quality check, he said.

Sub-standard milk and cream, some of them infested with insects, were found during the raids and destroyed, he said.

The inspections will continue, he said.

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today hailed Atal Bihar Vajpayee's contribution to the development of the Uttar Pradesh state capital, saying the former prime minister initiated 'vikaas ki Ganga' in the city.

Singh, who was here on a two-day visit, was speaking after the inauguration and foundation stone-laying ceremony of 438 projects worth Rs 938 crore for Lucknow and neighbourhood.

"No one can deny the fact that the 'vikaas ki Ganga' in Lucknow was initiated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was further taken up by former MP Lalji Tandon. Shaheed Path in Lucknow was started by Atalji when he was the prime minister and I was the Union surface transport minister," he said.

Vajpayee has represented Lucknow in the Lok Sabha five times, the last time being in 2004.

The home minister, who is also the MP from Lucknow, said, "In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, I had said that I do not make promises, but I seek the blessings of the people of Lucknow, so that God may give me the strength to fulfil the developmental aspirations of the people of Lucknow."



Lauding UP Chief Minister Yogi Adiatyanth, he said, "Today is a historic moment for Lucknow. The UP chief minister is committed to developing UP. His commitment for development and hard work makes me feel confident that no one can stop Uttar Pradesh from becoming the number one state in the country."



"The day is not very far, when Lucknow will become a world class city," he added.

On July 28, while addressing a programme here on 'Transforming Urban Landscape', Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, "There is a very close relationship between our mission (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation of Urban Transformation - AMRUT) and Lucknow city. Lucknow has been the 'karmabhoomi' of 'mahapurush' Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayee made Lucknow the laboratory to improve urban life in the country."



Singh also said that the Gomtinagar railway terminus will become a world class facility, which will benefit trans-Gomti areas and reduce congestion at other stations in the city.

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today hailed Atal Bihar Vajpayee's contribution to the development of the Uttar Pradesh capital, saying the former prime minister initiated 'vikaas ki Ganga' in the city.

Singh, who was here on a two-day visit, was speaking after the inauguration and foundation stone-laying ceremony of 438 projects worth Rs 938 crore for Lucknow and neighbourhood.

"No one can deny the fact that the 'vikaas ki Ganga' in Lucknow was initiated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was further taken up by former MP Lalji Tandon. Shaheed Path in Lucknow was started by Atalji when he was the prime minister and I was the Union surface transport minister," he said.

Vajpayee has represented Lucknow in the Lok Sabha five times, the last time being in 2004.

The home minister, who is also the MP from Lucknow, said, "In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, I had said that I do not make promises, but I seek the blessings of the people of Lucknow, so that God may give me the strength to fulfil the developmental aspirations of the people of Lucknow."



Lauding UP Chief Minister Yogi Adiatyanth, he said, "Today is a historic moment for Lucknow. The UP chief minister is committed to developing UP. His commitment for development and hard work makes me feel confident that no one can stop Uttar Pradesh from becoming the number one state in the country."



"The day is not very far when Lucknow will become a world class city," he added.

On July 28, while addressing a programme here on 'Transforming Urban Landscape', Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, "There is a very close relationship between our mission (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation of Urban Transformation - AMRUT) and Lucknow city. Lucknow has been the 'karmabhoomi' of 'mahapurush' Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayee made Lucknow the laboratory to improve urban life in the country."



Singh also said that the Gomtinagar railway terminus will become a world class facility, which will benefit trans-Gomti areas and reduce congestion at other stations in the city.

Rajnath Singh said that with increase in facilities, there has been a hike in passenger traffic at the Lucknow airport.

"Earlier, in 2013-14, the passenger traffic was around 23 lakh, while in 2017-18, it rose to 47 lakh," he said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, "In the last 15 months of the BJP government in UP, there has been an improvement in the law and order situation. The power suppy scenario has also improved. Due to the Smart City Mission and AMRUT, development of Lucknow is going on at a fast pace."



Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the BJP government had connected more villages with roads than the previous state governments.

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The Delhi High Court today asked the AAP government and municipal corporations to re-look charges fixed by them for using space at sites designated for making Ravana effigies by artisans.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the Delhi government and the corporations to place a report before it after re-looking usage charges and listed the matter for further hearing on August 7.

The direction was issued after the artisans told the court that at the present rate of Rs five per square feet, they would end up paying between Rs 22,000 to Rs 30,000 each month and they cannot afford it.

They sought that the usage charges be reduced to Re 1 per square feet which was affordable.

They said if they apply for registration under the current policy, the authorities would assume it as acceptance of the higher usage charges.

The court was hearing a PIL initiated on its own after it came across a report saying that several Ravana effigies, built by artisans who came here from Rajasthan for Dussehra, were destroyed or confiscated by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation for allegedly encroaching on public land.

Last September, it had asked the Delhi government and the corporation to formulate a policy for allocating land to the artisans to do their work.

Thereafter a draft policy was framed by the Delhi government after holding meetings with the corporations and other civic bodies.

The policy laid down the modalities for utilising land identified for use by the artisans.

Under the policy, there is a registration fee of Rs 500 per applicant and usage charges of Rs 5 per square feet per month.

It stated that artisans have to register with the corporations two months before the start of the work and once a site is allotted it would be for only two months.

After expiry of period of allotment the artisans have to vacate the site. If the number of applicants exceeds the land available, then registrations would be granted on first-come-first-serve basis, the document said and added that the artisans have to ensure there is no pollution of any kind at the site allotted to them.

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Two persons, including a retired sub inspector of Chandigarh Police, were shot dead by unknown assailants in Azad Nagar area here today, police said.

The deceased were identified as Kartar Singh (70) and his relative Balbir Singh (65), a former cop.

According to police, the attackers arrived at Kartar Singh's Azad Nagar residence on a motorcycle. Upon entering, they began firing at him and Balbir Singh who was also present inside. The duo died on the spot, while the assailants managed to escape.

The cause of murder was yet to be ascertained, police said, adding that a case was registered.

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Six persons were arrested for allegedly gang-raping a woman in Mehsana town in Gujarat, police said today.

Police said that the woman was going from Ahmedabad to Siddhpur in Patan district to her in-laws place on Friday and had hired an autorickshaw at Radhanpur Circle.

The driver of the autorickshaw raped her after taking her to a hotel, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Manjita Vanzara.

"She was first raped in a hotel, then in the back seat of a rickshaw and inside a shop where she was also beaten up. At the shop, she raised an alarm and some people from a nearby eatery rushed to her help," said Vanzara.

"It took us time to understand what had happened with her since she was not able to explain the sequence of events properly because she was mentally disturbed as her child had recently died," the DySP said.

Vanzara added that the family members of the victim were intimated and a case was registered yesterday in Mehsana B Division police station.

The official said that seven persons, identified as Navsad, Javed, Sohel, Rakesh, Tino, Vijay and Ajay, were booked under relevant sections of the IPC and six of them were arrested.

A hunt was on for the seventh accused, the official added.

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By Julius Ocungi.

The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces have arrested one of their own officers for shooting three people dead and injuring another in Gulu.

The deceased and the injured were reportedly drinking at a local bar in Kabedo opong village, Kasubi parish in Bardege Division Gulu Municipality when the soldier opened fire at them on Saturday night.

The UPDF spokesman Brig Richard Karemire, said in a statement that the Forces 4th Division Commander Brig Emanuel Kanyesigye had caused the immediate arrest of Lance Corporal Odaga Geoffrey  the Soldier who last night misused his weapon in an unlawful shooting.

He added that investigations have commenced by a team of UPDF and Uganda Police Force into the circumstances surrounding this incident.

Police have meanwhile identified the deceased as Sunday Ouma the bar owner, Fred Yasin 25 all residents of Kabedo opong village and another unidentified student of Gulu University.

The injured, Jimmy Ojok 23 who was shot in the right thigh and is receiving treatment at Gulu Regional Referral hospital emergency unit.
A suicide bomber killed three foreign soldiers in an attack on a patrol in eastern Afghanistan today, NATO's mission in the country said.

"Three Resolute Support service members were killed by a suicide bomber during a combined, dismounted patrol with Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan," it said in a statement.

A US member of the patrol and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, it said, without giving the nationality of those killed.

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Supplying rails to Indian Railways is like a "dream come true", Naveen Jindal, the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) which became the first private company to supply rails to the railways, said.

Last week, JSPL bagged 20 per cent of Rs 2,500 crore global tender by Indian Railways to supply long rails.

"It was a very emotional and proud moment. It was like a dream come true. A dream which we had seen some 20 years back. I had always dreamt of supplying rails to our national transporter," Jindal told PTI in an interview.

JSPL had set up a rail mill at its Raigarh plant in 2003 to become the second player after SAIL to produce rails in India.

"Meanwhile, we kept on getting long rail orders from industry and were exporting to countries like Iran, Bangladesh and a few others. In India, we supplied for dedicated freight corridor. But our main aim was to supply to the Indian Railways. Domestic rail segment is something which we were trying for 15 years," he said.

Until now, under a Memorandum of Understanding, SAIL was exclusively supplying rails to the Railways from its Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh.

JSPL operates a 1 million tonne per annum (MTPA) rail mill at its 3.6 MTPA steel plant at Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

When asked if he sees the Railways' order as an end to the SAIL's monopoly in rail segment in India, Jindal said, "SAIL can supply only up to a limit.

"Railways was buying from SAIL all that it could produce. ... suppose, if Railways has a requirement of 15 lakh tonne (LT) and SAIL can make only 10 LT then you can see there is a shortage of 5 LT. To meet this shortage Railways floated a global tender."



While appreciating the government for recognising the potential of a private player for the order, Jindal said it is a kind of responsibility and JSPL is committed to and capable to fulfil the order.

The National Steel Policy (NSP) 2017 aims to raise the domestic steel making capacity to 300 MT while another policy - the Domestically Manufactured Iron and Steel Products (DMI&SP) Policy that makes it mandatory to give preference to locally produced steel in government procurement -- are remarkable steps taken by the Ministry of Steel, Jindal remarked.

The DMI&SP policy fulfils the spirit of 'Make in India', he said adding that they were already producing in India.

When asked as to when the first consignment would be dispatched, he said the company aims to ship the first shipment on August 7, 2018, which is also the birth anniversary of his father Om Prakash Jindal, the founder of O P Jindal Group.

He claimed the order is to supply around 1 lakh tonnes of rails over a period of one year but JSPL can easily complete the entire demand within three months as it can produce 50,000 tonnes rail per month.

Jindal further said that they have no plans to raise the capacity of the rail mill as it was being run at 50 per cent capacity and looking at the demand coming from the Railways, they would first utilise the mill's whole capacity.

After facing supply issues from Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Indian Railways had invited tenders for procuring around 4.87 lakh metric tonnes of rails to meet the growing demand for the product.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today left for home from Uzbekistan after a "positive and productive" trip to three Central Asian nations to help boost India's partnership with the strategic and resource-rich region.

Earlier in the day, Swaraj met President Shavkat Mirziyoyev here in the Uzbek capital.

"Meeting that lasted 100 minutes! EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on President of #Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent. Substantive discussion on steps to strengthen our strategic partnership across all sectors. India looks forward to visit of President Mirziyoyev later this year," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

The minister also paid floral tributes at the bust of India's second prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial in Tashkent.

Swaraj later left for home.

"Deepening our historical and cultural bond with Central Asia! EAM @sushmaswaraj departs from Tashkent after a positive & productive 4-day trip to three countries that helped reinvigorate our partnership with this strategic region. Seen off by Uzbek Foreign Minister Kamilov," Kumar said.

Swaraj, who arrived here yesterday on her first visit to Uzbekistan, visited the Shastri memorial this morning.

"EAM Sushma Swaraj paying floral tribute to freedom fighter and 2nd Prime Minister of India Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial in Tashkent," Kumar tweeted along with a photograph of the minister.

At the memorial, Swaraj also met with Yakov Shapiro who sculpted the bronze bust of Shastri.

Shastri had died in Tashkent in January, 1966 after signing the Tashkent Declaration that formally ended the war between India and Pakistan.

A memorial was built here in his memory.

Swaraj also met with Speaker of Uzbekistan's Legislative Assembly Nurdinjon Ismoilov and discussed the role of Parliament in fostering closer people-to-people relationship.

"EAM Sushma Swaraj met the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan Nurdinjon Ismoilov and representatives of political fractions in their Parliament. Discussed the role of Parliament in fostering closer people-to-people relationship," Kumar said.

Swaraj also addressed the Indian community here and inaugurated a mango festival.

"Promoting Indian mangoes in Uzbekistan! EAM Sushma Swaraj inaugurated a Mango Festival organised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh with participation of mango exporters in Tashkent. The exporters will visit fruit markets and meet fruit traders," Kumar tweeted.

Swaraj also interacted with Uzbek Indologists, Hindi teachers and students.

"EAM Sushma Swaraj: Love and appreciation for Indian culture is visible everywhere in Uzbekistan. Indian dance, music, films, cuisine, costume and now yoga are very popular," Kumar said.

"Country with a strong cultural affinity towards India! EAM Sushma Swaraj interacts with Uzbek Indologists, Hindi teachers and students, and ITEC and ICCR alumni in Tashkent. They play an important role in promoting academic exchanges and people to people contacts," he said.

Swaraj had called on Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov and held bilateral discussions yesterday.

India and Uzbekistan are strategic partners with strong historical and cultural linkages.

Swaraj was here on the final leg of her three-nation tour after her visit to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

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Syrian rebel forces arrested at least 45 people today in northwestern Syria over suspected collusion with Bashar al-Assad's regime, rebels said.

The National Liberation Front carried out the wave of arrests in Hama and Idlib provinces, the latter of which the last governorate in the country to fall almost entirely outside the regime's control.

"The National Liberation Front launched a campaign a week ago... that peaked today with the arrest of 45 reconciliation activists and candidates for municipal elections announced by regime" in the region, Adham Radun told AFP today.

In total, the NLF has arrested 60 people in the ongoing campaign, he added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "nearly 50" people had been arrested in areas straddling Hama and Idlib over "attempts to reconcile with regime forces" and to take part in "meetings with its intelligence services".

After a string of victories in country's south, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on July 26 that Idlib was the government's next priority.

Some 60 per cent of the northwestern province is controlled by the jihadist alliance of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, but other major Islamist rebel groups also maintain a presence.

Those groups include Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki, who merged in February with Turkish backing as the Syrian Liberation Front.

On August 1, the Syrian Liberation Front merged with four other rebel groups to form the National Liberation Front.

According to Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman, Idlib has since "seen an upsurge in security chaos and mutual assassinations between rebel groups".

The war in Syria has killed more than 350,000 people since it began in 2011 with a brutal government crackdown on protesters.

It has grown in complexity over the past seven years, drawing in world powers and jihadists.

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: Tech Mahindra expects to launch about five pilot projects on 5G services by next month and execute big projects on the new generation network from next financial year onwards, said a top executive of the IT giant.

C P Gurnani, CEO and Managing Director of Tech Mahindra also said the company hopes to garner over USD 100 million as revenues from Blockchain Technology during the current fiscal.

"My personal belief is that by September we would launch. Tech Mahindra will be launching its complete service offerings along with its partners.

We expect within this financial year to do about five 5G trials and hopefully in the financial year, starting April 1 2019, we will be executing some big projects," he told PTI during his recent visit to the city.

A senior official of TechM had earlier said they had set up an innovation lab powered by Intel architecture to accelerate 5G roll out in India.

The Centre constituted a high-level committee last year, comprising secretaries of the Telecom Department, IT and Electronics Ministry and Science and Technology Department, to work out the vision, mission and goals for India's 5G ambitions and prepare a road map and action plan for the same.

Telecom industry body COAI has said auction of spectrum for 5G services should happen only around the second half of 2019 as it would offer telcos better visibility into market dynamics and potential revenue streams of the next-generation mobile services.

"My (Tech Mahindra's) appetite is very very large and the opportunity of 5G is very large," Gurnani said.

TechM has been offering services to its clients using Blockchain Technology, the official said, adding that they started focusing on the emerging technology for the past three years and implemented solutions, mainly for Government and banking customers.

"It started happening. By the year end I would think is that it will become significant ( revenues) by my standards. That means I am talking of USD 100 million plus. By somebody else's standards it may not be significant... We are in 90 plus countries.

Tech Mahindra is going to spend a lot of its energy and time on skill development.We don't have a India based platform for Blockchain.

China has Neo. Koreas has their own. Why would not we have our own?," he said when asked about the expected revenues through Blockchain Technology.

He said Tech Mahindra has a Research and Development team of about 150 engineers based out of Hyderabad and Bangalore.

The IT major recently said it would invest CAD 100 million over the next five years on a Centre of Excellence based out of Toronto, which would work on major technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.

It also signed an MoU with the Telangana government for setting up India's first 'Blockchain district' in the State.

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Anil Kapoor says he is looking forward to share screen space with his former leading ladies Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawala.

The 61-year-old actor will star opposite Dixit in "Total Dhamaal" and re-unite with Chawla for his home production "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga".

"Total Dhamaal" will hit the screens on December 7 and "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga" is scheduled for February 1 release.

"It's always a pleasure to re-unite with them. They are one of the best actors in our industry. They bring uniqueness to every film. After so many years they are still loved as much as they were before. I know very well why they became what they are. I understand the reason for their success.

"I have realised how good they are. They are just amazing. Madhuri in 'Total Dhamal' and Juhi in 'Ek Ladki...' are so beautiful and professional. They are still so hard working and young actors should learn from them," Kapoor told PTI.

The actor has delivered hits like "Beta", "Tezaab", "Parinda", "Ram Lakhan" and "Pukar" with Dixit, 51, while he has collaborated with Chawla, 50, on films such as "Deewana Mastana", "Loafer" and "Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate".

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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said he had full faith in the judicial system and that those facing corruption cases would be behind bars.

The chief minister was speaking at the Kapas Kisan Dhanyavad Rally' at Barwala in Hisar district.

"Bhupinder Singh Hooda (former Haryana chief minister) used to say, let the government probe anything during his tenure. Now that four investigations against him have been started, he has started saying that the government is working with a spirit of revenge," Khattar said.

"I have full faith in the judicial system and feel that in cases of corruption, the former chief minister would be behind the bars..," he said.

Khattar said the state government would teach a lesson to the corrupt.

Under the current dispensation, jobs have been given on the basis of merit and it would be its endeavour that at least one government job is given to every household in the state, he said.

"Such families that do not have any member in job would be given five marks in the interview. Five marks would also be given to the widows," the chief minister said.

The chief minister reached the rally venue by driving a tractor. Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu, BJP state president Subhash Barala, BJP district president Surender Punia also accompanied him on the tractor.

" My father was a small farmer with whom I worked in the fields during my childhood days. I used to get up at 4 am and take vegetables to markets on a bicycle," he said, asking Hooda to tell if he or his son ever worked in the fields.

On the increase in MSP of Kharif crops to 1.5 times the cost of production, Khattar said cotton growers would get Rs 5,150 per quintal as compared to their cost of Rs 3,433 per quintal.

Besides, bajra growers stand to gain the most from this decision, he said.

The decision on MSP of kharif crops is the biggest step in the direction of achieving the target of doubling farmers' income by 2022, the chief minister said.

He said various schemes have been initiated by the present government for the welfare of farmers and they would not be left behind in progress.

Khattar said as many as 2 lakh new BPL ration cards would be made in Haryana so that maximum number of people could avail benefits of government schemes.

Work on this project will start next month.

He also announced projects worth Rs. 110 crore for Barwala.

Khattar said the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state were committed for the welfare of poor and backward people. These people should get their rights and dues, he said.

The chief minister said with increase in the income of farmers, shopkeepers, businessmen and industrialists would also stand to gain. This will lead to overall development of the state and the country.

Khattar said as many as 2,300 villages of six districts of the state are being provided round-the-clock electricity.

The remaining villages are being supplied power for and 15, 18 and 22 hours. By making special efforts, the government has achieved reduction in power losses by 13 per cent, he said.

On water issue, he said regardless of water scarcity, sufficient water is being supplied by the government. The state has managed to supply water after a gap of 25 years to the 293 tail-end villages out of 300 in the districts of Bhiwani, Hisar, Dadri, Mahendergarh and Mewat, the CM said.

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The Transit campus of the Central University of Andhra Pradesh (CUAP) was today inaugurated by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking at the inaugural function, the Union Minister of Human Resource Development said the Andhra Pradesh government has earmarked land to the extent of 491.30 acres at Janthaluru village in Anantapur district for establishment of Central University of Andhra Pradesh.

"All the new institutions started in Andhra Pradesh by the Centre will have full funding.

Till now Rs 3,000 crore have been sanctioned for these institutions," he said according to a release by the University of Hyderabad here, which is mentoring the Central University.

"We want Central University of Andhra Pradesh to excel in teaching, research and innovation in the years to come under the mentorship of the University of Hyderabad," Javadekar said.

This University would be developed as an institution of Higher Learning with stress on churning out employable graduates, he added.

Andhra Pradesh Minister for Human Resource Development Ganta Srinivasa Rao were among other dignitaries present at the event, the release added.

The IT Business Incubation Centre at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological (JNT) University in Anantapur has been identified as Transit Campus of the Central University for three years.

The CUAP would be moved to its own building in Jantaluru village upon completion of its construction work, it said.

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Two teenagers were run over by a train today while they were trying to click selfies, police said here.

A group of three friends had gone to the railway bridge near Katana Sahib on Chandigarh-Ludhiana line to click selfies on their phones, they said.

They wanted to take a selfie with a moving train in the background, but being too close to the train two of them were run over, police said.

The deceased were identified as Yuvraj (15) and Gaurav (15), both students of Class VII, they said.

Yuvraj hailed from village Rampura in this district while Gaurav was the son of a migrant labourer, also residing in the same village, they said.

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Two city-based realtors, reported missing since June 27, were killed allegedly by three youths over a suspected financial transaction, the police said today.

Balaji and Prasad Babu, both in their mid 40s went missing on June 27 following which their families had lodged a complaint with the Girinagar police station.

The youths, in their late 20s, have been arrested in this connection, they said.

During investigation, the youth confessed to killing the duo after it sought repayment of Rs 60 lakh lent to them, police said.

The accused killed the businessmen and buried the bodies in a village under Harohalli police station limits of Ramanagar district, they said.

The bodies were exhumed, they added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the Trump administration continues to tighten screws on the H-1B visa programme, United States Consul General in Mumbai, Edgard Kagan, says his country encourages and welcomes "qualified Indians".

US President Donald Trump is "very committed" to relations with India, he told PTI.

"The US continues to be as welcoming as it has always been to qualified Indian travellers," Kagan said, adding a record number of Indians flying to the US last year proves that people in India are aware that his country welcomes them.

"We strongly encourage and welcome Indians to study in the US. We believe that Indians studying in the US and our students studying in India are part of the glue that holds our relationship together," he told PTI.

Indians who are in the US continue to have great opportunities there. The country is aware that Indians there want to be treated well.

"If you look at the facts, you will see that the US continues to be just as welcoming as it has always been," he said.

Responding to another question, he said the US president is "very committed" to relations with India.

"If you look carefully you can see that from the very beginning of his administration, his time in office, the president and his team have emphasised the need to expand and strengthen the already good relations with India," he said.

"I think part of this is making sure we continue to grow trade in a way that is fair and balanced on both sides, part of it is making sure that both the countries continue to support investment," he said.

"We welcome and are thrilled with the amount of Indian investments that are coming to the US," he added.

Kagan said the US wants to get the right policy framework favouring investments in both the countries and make sure that ties between people of the US and India remain strong.

"The president understands all that Indian-Americans have done in the United States. He also is very proud of what the Americans have done in India and I think we want to find ways to highlight that and expand it," he said.

Asked about the US withdrawing from the Paris pact on climate change, Kagan said his country is deeply committed to protecting the environment in the US and in the world.

"We recognise that there always are trade-offs and difficult decisions to be made, but we believe the way in which we go forward is by building popular support for the idea that we all have a shared stake in our world," he said.

The US had last year announced its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries.

On the areas in which the US and India could further strengthen ties, Kagan said, "Having more travel, having more people know each other, expanding study, expanding partnerships in educational institutions, partnerships between businesses."



He underlined the need for getting the right regulatory framework, encouraging investments and capital flow to those who can use it, making sure venture capital is supported, and that entrepreneurs and technology innovators can get access to support for their companies through loans and on a market basis.

"Making sure we continue to expand the collaborations between our educational and academic institutions and also look at ways to expand our business ties because those have been incredibly important in both the countries," Kagan added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The students of Presidency University, who had been holding an indefinite sit-in for the past 51 hours over hostel accommodation, took part in a convention today, vowing not to withdraw the stir till their demands were met.

The group of 70 protesters had been seeking room allotment at a hostel, which is currently undergoing renovation.

They claimed that two of the six blocks at Hindu Hostel is ready for occupancy, even as the university for the students only after the renovation work is complete.

The Presidency agitation comes weeks after another similar protest by the students of Calcutta Medical College and Hospital over hostel accommodation.

The medical students resorted to a hunger strike last month to put pressure on the authorities, which finally gave in to their demands.

At the convention today, Ujan, a spokesman of the agitators and member of Independent Consolidation (IC) students' union, said a former principal of the college had expressed solidarity with the agitating students.

He also claimed that around 150 students, including those from Jadavpur University, attended the meet to render support to the protesters.

"We know that two blocks of the Hindu Hostel have already been renovated and, hence, should be handed over to the outstation boarders immediately," he said.

Besides IC, members of Students' Federation of India and outstation students, not directly affiliated to any union, were also taking part in the agitation, Ujan claimed.

"The students have brought pillows and mattresses to the campus building for the sit-in. They have not left the campus even for bathing or food," he said, adding that the university authorities were "not sensitive" to their situation.

An official at the university said the 70 students had been protesting outside the registrar's office since 2 pm on August 3, but they were not holding back any of the officials on the campus.

In a statement, Vice chancellor Anuradha Lohia had earlier said that it would take another four to five months to make Hindu Hostel "habitable and safe for students".

The hostel adjoining the College Street institution was shut down for repairs on July 29, 2015, and 150 boarders were shifted to a rented accommodation at New Town, which is around 18km from the university.

The agitators claimed that the university authorities had gone back on their promise of renovating the hostel by July 15 and throwing it open to the students on August 1.

They cited distance and conveyance as reasons for missing out on classes.

A spokesman at Presidency said the hostel was in a dilapidated state with plaster peeling off the walls and ceilings.

The VC, however, was not available for comment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Drones armed with explosives detonated near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as he gave a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas, but the socialist leader was unharmed, according to the government.

Seven people were injured in the apparent attack yesterday which came as Maduro celebrated the National Guard's 81st anniversary, said Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez.

Maduro's speech was abruptly cut short and soldiers could be seen breaking ranks and scattering.

"At exactly 5:41 pm in the afternoon several explosions were heard," Rodriguez said in a live address to the nation minutes after the incident. "The investigation clearly reveals they came from drone-like devices that carried explosives."



But firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the government's version of events.

Three local authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the case said the incident was actually a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near the site of Maduro's speech.

Smoke could be seen coming out a building window.

Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.

Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings.

Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the lam.

"The right insists on violence to take public spaces that they can't win with votes," Diosdado Cabello, a high-ranking socialist party leader, wrote on Twitter yesterday after the apparent assault, which he characterized as a "terrorist attack."



State television was broadcasting Maduro's speech at the National Guard anniversary live when the incident took place.

"We are going to bet for the good of our country," Maduro declared triumphantly moments before the sound of an explosion pierced the air. "The hour of the economy recovery has come." Seconds later Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up to the sky and winced.

The cameras then turned to a wide shot of uniformed military officers standing at attention in neat lines as they broke rank and began running. The transmission then cut off.

Images being shared on social media showed officers surrounding Maduro with what appeared to be a black bullet-proof barrier as they escorted him from the site.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Surveillance in the Sardarpur area of Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district has been stepped up following information about the presence of "kharmore" or lesser florican birds in the area, a senior forest department official said today.

The Wildlife Institute of India's (WII) national status survey report for 2017 has found that Sardarpur area is among the "most threatened" habitats of the lesser florican, a member of the bustard family.

The report states that there had been a decline of about 80 per cent in their population since 2000 and conservative estimates now put their numbers at 264 nationwide.

Sardarpur, including the 34,812 hectare Kharmore Sanctuary and adjoining areas, was being patrolled by forest department personnel in special vehicles since information about the presence of these birds emerged, the official said.

"We have received information regarding the presence of some pairs of lesser floricans in Sardarpur area. We are confirming it. Patrolling and surveillance have been increased in Sardarpur area including Kharmore sanctuary," Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) S K Sagar told PTI.

He, however, refused to share details about the number of birds spotted or their location stating that a detailed survey in this connection was underway.

Some other officials from the Forest department claimed that at least two pairs of these birds were present in Sardarpur area.

These birds migrate to the central and western parts of India from other parts of the country during the breeding season.

Efforts to attract them have been made in Sardarpur where about 20 hectares of land has been covered with moong and urad crops, forest officials said.

A type of worm that resides in these crops is among the favourite foods of the lesser floricans and it was being ensured that no pesticide was sprayed on these crops, the officials added.

Ajay Gadiker, an expert in the field, confirmed that the number of lesser floricans had seen a sharp decline in the past decade in Sardarpur area.

"It is great for bird lovers if the information about the presence of the lesser florican in Sardarpur area is true," Gadiker said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condoled the death of veteran journalist Kazi Fazle Elahi, who passed away in Hooghly district today.

He was 70 and is survived by wife.

"I express deep grief over the death of Elahi who died at Konnagar in Hooghly district this afternoon, and convey my condolences to his relatives, colleagues and other well-wishers," Banerjee said in a statement.

Recalling the career of Elahi, the CM said he had worked efficiently in channels like CTVN and Calcutta (CN), and had been in the profession for a long time. "The fraternity of journalists lost a dear friend with his demise."



Elahi, who was also associated with the 'Calcutta Observer' newspaper, died at a nursing home in Konnagar after having recently suffered a cardiac arrest, his family said.

The Press Club Kolkata, of which he was an active member, has mourned his death.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Under attack from opposition on the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal case, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said that some "select" people were focusing on negative things and called for taking note of positive developments in the state.

Inaugurating a scheme on sustainable livelihood, Kumar said that nobody guilty of wrongdoing in shelter home nor those trying to protect them would be spared.

They would be sent behind bars, he said adding that his government was not known to compromise with wrongdoers. However, "if you wish to hurl abuse at me, go ahead. We would continue doing our good work".

He urged the people to also take note of positive things happening around them in the state and pointed out that already over 8 lakh self help groups have been formed in the state and about 96 lakh women have become associated with them.

The Bihar government has said it aims to form 10 lakh such self help groups.

Referring to yesterday's demonstration at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against the Muzaffarpur episode, Kumar sarcastically remarked that it was a "Friendship Day gathering" of disparate opposition groups to derive political mileage.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and several other Opposition parties had staged a protest yesterday in Delhi voicing their anguish over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

In a show of opposition unity, almost all major political parties joined the protest at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital, organised by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A wrestler was arrested for allegedly raping a non-Naga woman at Kevuoliezha on the outskirts of the Nagaland capital, the police said today.

Zasituo Tsukru had raped the woman, a mother of two children, when her husband was away on August two. He was caught by locals and handed him over to the police yesterday, they said.

A women's organisation filed a complaint with the police. Acting on it, the man was arrested from the D Khel Kohima village.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has arrested seven people including a former deputy central bank governor and five foreign exchange dealers for alleged economic crimes, the judiciary said on Sunday as the country prepares to face a return of U.S. sanctions."The foreign exchange deputy of the central bank ..., who recently I heard has been deposed, has been detained," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told state television.Ejei did not name the official but he appeared to be referring to Ahmad Araghchi, who some media reports had said was dismissed as deputy central bank governor after a ...
Sunday, August 5, 2018

A Panel of the Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct has reprimanded an attorney for instituting and maintaining frivolous litigation against his son's school.

His son ( J.S. ) was a five year old kindergartener

The facts are more fully set out in the pleadings and the opinion of the Arkansas Court of Appeals issued June 19, 2013. In Summary, J.S, used the "F-word" at school on three occasions, starting February 29, 2012. On the first occasion he was counseled at school. On the second occasion a note was sent home with J.S. Mr. Swindle signed the note and had it returned to the school. On the third occasion, on March 13, 2013, the school principal contacted the Respondent/father by telephone at 11:15 a.m. to come pick J.S. up, as he was being suspended for the remainder of the school day for another use of the F-word. Mr. Swindle declined to do so, and informed Ms. Turner that if she suspended his son he would file a lawsuit.

Ms. Turner called and left a voice message on a telephone number she believed to be that of Mrs. Davia Swindle, wife of Respondent and also an employee in her husband's law firm, which was located within a three minute drive of the son's school.

Rather than come to school and pick up his son, or have him picked up by an authorized adult, after a brief 1:30 p.m. court appearance before Judge Duncan in Bentonville, a drive of 30-35 minutes at most from his law office, Respondent returned to his office, prepared his complaint against the Rogers Board of Education and Principal Turner in about 15 minutes, returned to Bentonville where he filed it at 2:51 p.m. that same day, and then personally took a copy to Ms. Turner at school in Rogers after the close of the school day. The son was gone from school by the time Respondent arrived with the Complaint.

The complaint sought the son's return to school pending a hearing and a jury trial.

Meanwhile

Because neither parent came to school and picked up J.S., he served about 3.5 hours of in-school suspension on March 13 in Principal Turner's office doing school work until the end of the normal school day at 2:45 pm., at which time he was picked up by someone.

The case was thrown out on summary judgment and was affirmed on appeal.

The school board paid over $7,000 in legal fees.

The committee concluded that he had violated Rules 3.1, 4.4(a) and 8.4(d).

The Panel cautioned the same attorney in an unrelated matter

By a unanimous vote, that the conduct of Ken D. Swindle violated Rule 8.4(d) in that by filing and pursuing a hasty and frivolous lawsuit against Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance over the Dornan and Perez settlement checks through three courts, Swindle caused the unnecessary use of time and resources of multiple courts for no reasonable purpose, conduct by Swindle that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.

And in a third matter, another reprimand for fee sharing with a non-lawyer. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/08/a-panel-of-the-arkansas-professional-conduct-board-has-reprimanded-an-attorney-for-instituting-and-maintaining-frivolous-liti.html
It is relevant to clarify what Family Charter means before we explore aspects of living it.

A Family Charter is a set of agreed principles and protocols for governance of a family business. It evolves through a participative and systematic process of open discussions amongst family members and owners. It enables an integration of the three dimensions of family, business and ownership. The involvement of an experienced and skilled family business advisor facilitates discussion of difficult subjects.

Progressive and far-sighted family firms usually agree on creating the charter. This symbolises their commitment to governance and cohesion. The journey is always intense and sometimes painful. It involves participation of all key family members in difficult conversations, over several meetings.

After having signed this document, most families think the job is done. There is an implicit assumption that the clarity and synergy achieved during the process, will last forever. Far from it, it's just the beginning.

Living the charter can be difficult. The family has to walk the talk.

As everyday life unfolds, some challenge or the other confronts the family and the implementation of the charter gets difficult:

Family's needs and aspirations override the charter.

Pressures of a growing and complex business distracts attention.

Preoccupation of growing family responsibilities takes centre stage.

So, how do we make all this effort worthwhile? How do we live it?

Firm, fair, empathetic and committed family leadership is essential to mobilise implementation. Here are some governance guidelines that support strong leadership. Providing for some of these in the charter is important:

View it as a guideline for action rather than an instrument of control - dynamic rather than static. Design a flexible format - less of rules and more of principles. Embed an amendment process - both tenure and trigger based. Tenure is normally five years. Generational transition, sharp changes in family or business, and unforeseen events are examples of triggers. Put in place an agreed and documented "fair process" that is acceptable to all. Activate an alert mechanism to correct any lack of transparency and asymmetry of information. Make disclosures compulsory. Provide a grievance redressal mechanism. Install a whistle blower process under the oversight of a trusted and credible ombudsperson. Organize regular, facilitated, family offsite retreats - these serve to revitalize relationships, manage differences, increase alignment and build ongoing trust. Agree on a robust process for managing differences - deadlock facilitators, relationship reviews, training in conflict resolution. Mandate direct communication of differences between the concerned individuals - "triangulation" breeds politics and ill will. Compose a "code of conduct", for working and non-working members - this will guide their behaviour with stakeholders. Promote the "one voice principle" where two or more family members are in inter-related business roles. The will and skill for consensus building is fostered by applying this principle. Business families who can afford to own or rent family office services must do so and mandate them to provide assistance in the governance of the charter. Monitor effectiveness of the Family Council, Business Council and Owners Council. Initiate "team projects" for family members to work together and understand each other more deeply.

Underpinning each family charter are values and principles that define the family. Building psychological resilience and maturity in family members, helps live these values. The two big reasons for problems are "entitlement" and "ego". Usually, the more successful the family gets, more hubris sets in. Feelings of comparison and discrimination overtake family harmony. Forgiveness and grace plummets, and the dry haystack is ready to spark conflict.

Increased self-awareness, higher consciousness and building "inner excellence" is paramount. This helps keep the ego in check and fosters humility.

The vitality of the family firm and its trans-generational strength is in living the charter across generations.

Strong values and relationships make for good family governance. This in turn nurtures good corporate governance. Institution building and perpetuity might then be possible.

Prasad Kumar specialises in family business advisory.
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When Lego enthusiast Russell Kirkpatrick watched The Lego Movie for the first time, he recognised a bit of Lord Business in himself. "I felt so bad," Mr Kirkpatrick said. "I watched that movie and then you have the great reveal that Lord Business is the kid's dad and he's glued the Lego together. I didn't glue the Lego, but once the set was made up, you don't break it up. We had piles of bits and pieces of Lego to play with." Thankfully for Mr Kirkpatrick, when he called his now-grown eldest son to apologise, they both had the same view. "My son said 'don't worry about it'. He said if it ends up in one huge box you can never make anything out of it." Fellow Lego lover Bruce Abdilla agreed. "I definitely have my Lego, and then Lego the nieces and nephews can play with," Mr Abdilla admitted. "It tends to be the Lego that's easier to put back together." Mr Abdilla and Mr Kirkpatrick are preparing to exhibit their wares at the Brick Expo in Canberra next weekend, where "well over a million dollars" worth of Lego will be on display. While they love to put smiles on the faces of children who see their incredible constructions, it's more serious than just fun and games for the men. Like the movie explains, Lego is much more than a child's toy. "It's a highly sophisticate interlocking brick system", according Will Ferrell's character Lord Business. The men said there is usually a transition time between when Lego stops being a toy and starts being a hobby. They call it "the dark ages", and not everyone reaches the light at the end of the tunnel. "Virtually every adult fan of Lego goes through what's called the dark ages. Where maybe in the later teens where other things [take priority], they get distracted, which is fair enough," Mr Kirkpatrick said. Only one of Mr Kirkpatrick's sons, now in their 20s, still enjoys looking at his creations. "A proportion of them come back to it when they have children, then they realise they still enjoy it." Mr Kirkpatrick didn't have that experience because growing up in New Zealand in the 1960s, he never had Lego. "It was only when my kids in the 1980s and '90s were growing up that we started to buy it, and I bought far too much. I now collect classic Lego from that period. "[The first set was] a swamp boat for my kids. I didn't think that much of it, but a few months later I discovered I was buying sets, and waiting for the kids to go to bed to make them up." Mr Abdilla said as a child he loved playing with Lego, but he always wanted what he couldn't afford - trains. Now, he has one of the biggest train collections in the Canberra Lego Users Group. After going through "the dark ages", he found the light when he was looking for a Christmas train to go around the tree for his own children. One of the great things about the Brick Expo for Mr Abdilla is that he gets to run his trains along metres and metres of track - something he, and many other train enthusiasts - don't have the space for at home. He hopes children that visit the expo will become the next generation of adult Lego enthusiasts. "I just love that it's something simple you can get a lot of pleasure out of. "You can play on the floor with a block and it can be whatever you want, your imagination is the biggest tool." The Brick Expo not only entertains children, it also helps save lives by raising money for Paediatric Care at the Canberra Hospital (PatCH). Mr Abdilla said setting aside all the fun that's had at the expo, he's proud to raise money for a service that once saved his baby's life. Born with a hole in her heart, his now 19-year-old daughter was cared for by PatCH. "I wouldn't have my youngest daughter without them," he said. The Brick Expo runs from Friday August 10 to Sunday August 12 at the Hellenic Club in Woden. Tickets for the Brick Expo are only available online. Visit this website for details, or buy tickets by clicking here.

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Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart is to reprise the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in a new series for the US streaming platform CBS All Access. The new series would be set approximately two decades after the conclusion of the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation and its spin-off films. Stewart made the announcement himself, in a surprise appearance on stage at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. "It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him," Stewart told the crowd. "When we wrapped that final movie in the spring of 2002 I truly felt my time with Star Trek had run its natural course," he said. "During these past years it has been humbling to hear many stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods [or inspired] so many to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration and leadership," the 78-year-old actor said. "I feel I'm ready to return to him for the same reason, to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times," Stewart added. Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman confirmed the new series was in development. "With overwhelming joy, it's a privilege to welcome Sir Patrick Stewart back to the Star Trek fold," he said in a statement. "Fans have hoped for the return of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and that day is finally here. "We can't wait to forge new ground, surprise people, and honour generations both new and old," Kurtzman said. The series will be released on the CBS All Access streaming platform in the US; in Australia CBS All Access titles are sold on a show-by-show basis, which means the series could end up at the CBS-owned Ten, another network, or the still-in-the-planning stages local version of CBS All Access. Kurtzman already executive produces the series Star Trek: Discovery; part of his brief when he was appointed to oversight of the franchise by CBS Studios was to reestablish it as a dominant brand in popular culture. The new project represents the first time the CBS Studios-owned Star Trek franchise has returned to the Next Generation era of the Star Trek story; at its peak in the 1990s there were three television series set in that era, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Since its inception in the 1960s, Star Trek has produced television series and films set primarily in three time periods, either pre-Original Series (Enterprise, Discovery), post-Original Series (The Animated Series, the original Star Trek movies) or The Next Generation (Deep Space Nine, Voyager). The Original Series refers to the first Star Trek series produced between 1966 and 1969 - the one with Captain Kirk - which was set approximately between 2266 and 2269; the Next Generation-era shows were set between 2364 and 2378. CBS Studios has emphasised that the new series is not a reboot of The Next Generation, but rather "a next chapter". But for fans of the long-running franchise, it does open a window to guest appearances by the cast and characters of the Next Generation-era shows, such as Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Data (Brent Spiner) or Dr Crusher (Gates McFadden). It may also answer some long-standing questions in the Next Generation canon. Did Captain Picard marry Dr Beverly Crusher? And what happened to the B-4 android into which Data copied his core memories before sacrificing himself to save the Enterprise crew in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis? It may also serve as a window into narrative events of that era, such as the aftermath of the Dominion War, which dominated the final seasons of Deep Space Nine. CBS Studios has released almost no actual information about the series - that is, there is, as-yet, no episode count or launch date - other than the fact that Stewart will star in it. The studio has also not revealed whether the series would see Picard still serving as a starship commander, or whether he would be in his post-Starfleet civilian life. No information on the show's full cast has been released either. Indeed, speaking at the convention at the weekend, Stewart confirmed there were as yet no scripts, but that the key stakeholders in the series had been "talking" extensively about the parameters of the series. The new series will be produced by Kurtzman, James Duff, Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer, Heather Kadin and Rod Roddenberry, the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. The still-unnamed Picard series will be the second Star Trek series on the CBS All Access platform, after Star Trek: Discovery. (In Australia, Discovery streams on Netflix.) Discovery returns for a second season in January 2019 which is planning to deeply mine the historical canon of the series, introducing Original Series-era characters such as Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn). CBS Studios has also commissioned four short mini-episodes set in the Discovery universe, titled Short Treks, which will air later this year. There are also rumours of a series whch would be set at Starfleet Academy, and a limited series which would explore the story from the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

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What ever you think of personalised number plates, they are sure to elicit a reaction from passing motorists. Perhaps that is why people opt to pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to get them. However some Canberrans were denied the chance to generate a reaction because of the likelihood they would cause offence with their desired number plates. Access Canberra has released some of the personalised number plates refused by the agency which included DRDEATH, J1HAD, UP4MDR and FATASS. An Access Canberra spokeswoman said the Road Transport Authority must refuse to issue a number plate where the content of the registration number is considered by the authority to be potentially offensive to the community. She said other reasons for refusal were where the combination of characters may be difficult to distinguish from other registration plates and where the content may be in breach of a copyright or trademark. There is also legislation in place that protects names and acronyms of the Australian Defence Force from being used as a number plate. These protections extend to ANZAC, RAAF, RAN, ARMY, ADFA and ADF. The spokeswoman said there were currently 27,829 non-standard number plates registered in the ACT which covers personalised, European-style, Raiders and Brumbies themed plates and more. More than 11,000 were classified as personalised. The authority receives on average between 1000 and 1100 applications for non-standard plates each year and this figure has remained steady for about six years. The ACT government pulls in between $850,000 and $900,000 each year from the registration of personalised plates. Personalised plates start at $466 which have to follow a certain format and can go all the way up to $2828 for completely unique plates. In the ACT this is a one-off fee unlike some other Australian jurisdictions. Wanniassa plasterer Stefan Jeremenko went to a whole new level when he bid $9350 in 2013 to win the first set of Canberra centenary plates C 100. Mr Jeremenko said there were a few reasons why he decided to splurge for the plates. "Well I've always just wanted some good plates," he said. "It's an investment, if you put them on a nice car I think it enhances it and if you hang onto them long enough you could get a bit of money for them. "And it went to charity so it was good to help them out." The money raised by Mr Jeremenko's bid went to Dollars for Dili, a charity that helps people in Timor Leste. Mr Jeremenko has the centenary plates on a Holden Commodore VF GTSR, one of the last Commodores made in Australia. The centenary plates join Mr Jeremenko's personalised plates SJ 068 he's had since his youth growing up in Queanbeyan, they now adorn a panel van. "I've had those plates for 40 years, since I was a young fella," he said. "You know how we all were, it was just a wow thing, all my mates had them and you had to follow." The government has recently added more options for Canberrans to express themselves through their number plates. Motorists can purchase rainbow plates in support of marriage equality which cost $60. The spokeswoman said 185 rainbow plates had been issued to date since December, 2017. The Bush Capital was also added to our collection of number plate slogans last year when it convincingly won an online poll of new slogans. It joined The Nation's Capital as another slogan option while Heart of the Nation, Feel the Power and Canberra - Age Friendly City are being phased out. Information on number plates is available via the Access Canberra website.

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She is an 18-year-old with a heart of gold, a young Canberra woman organising a fundraising ball for farmers in the Canberra region doing it tough. Emily Patterson is the force behind the 2018 Canberra Hay Runners Ball and Auction which will be held on September 1 at the Canberra Southern Cross Club in Phillip. "I've always been a person who has been involved in what I can do and helped out when I can,'' she said. Tickets have been selling fast and the Canberra community has responded in gusto - with even a horse donated for the auction on the night. "I had an offer on Wednesday from a lady who wants offer a horse to auction on the night,'' Emily said. An admin worker with the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society, Emily says it is easy in Canberra to be sheltered from the harsh realities of the drought. But the huge human toll of the drought was being played out just beyond its borders. "I've had family friends in Yass who have had a sheep property for 27 years but had to sell up last month,'' she said. The former St Francis Xavier College and Gungahlin College student said she couldn't ignore the distressing stories being shared on social media and in the general media about the impact of the drought across NSW. She is working with the organisation Aussie Helpers to raise money for hay runs to farmers most in need. "If we don't get more rain soon we will be in a bad way as well so if we can help other farmers this time, they will help us when we need it,'' she said. Turning 19 in October, Emily said people were surprised to learn how old she was - "It's usually the first thing they mention'' - but she was determined to raise more than $30,000 for feed for starving stock. "It started as me wanting to do something small but it's got bigger than Ben Hur,'' she said. The ball will be on Saturday, September 1 at the Southern Cross Club in Phillip from 6pm to midnight. Tickets are available here:https://www.ivvy.com.au/event/787N9W/

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Bombala is known for its extreme temperatures: highs up to 40 degrees in summer and lows well below zero in the depths of winter. Throughout the cooler months, frost blankets the ground and woodsmoke hangs in the air. The mean minimum temperature for June was less than 1 degree. Alison Gimbert has lived in the south-east NSW town of about 1400 people since 1983. Last year, when the mercury dipped below minus 5 degrees six times in July alone, she gave up on hot showers. Ms Gimbert was not worried about her power bill. She was not worried about her water bill, though that came later. Ms Gimbert was worried about her dreadfully itchy skin. I thought it mustve been my soap, my shampoo. I went through everything," she said. I tried creams and everything. Ive made my legs bleed, laying in bed and scratch, scratch, scratch. "All last winter I had what I would call a cold shower trying to stop it, and I used to freeze. I knew it had to be something but I couldnt get any answers." Finally, in February this year, it clicked. It wasn't the temperature of the water. It was the water. And Ms Gimbert wasn't the only Bombala resident having an uncomfortable reaction. Margaret Smith, who has lived in Bombala 11 years, said she was usually itchy after a shower. Dina Dracopoulos's skin was once so unbearably itchy she scratched her arms with the blunt side of a knife until they bled. Seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Brown was prescribed medication to manage her dry, itchy skin, as was hairdresser Nicky Gulliford's 18-year-old daughter, Lahiesha, who visited three GPs before being issued with antibiotics and creams. There are stories of Bombala babies being taken to other towns to bathe, a woman with peeling hands, and children with sudden and severe bouts of eczema and dermatitis. It seems a mysterious phenomenon. But Bombala's water hasn't just made people itchy - at various points, it has been visibly filthy. Jars filled with tap water seen by Fairfax Media were heavy with sediment. Some samples were so dark they appeared more like mud than water. The issue has caused much anguish in the town. Women with washing tie-dyed brown and yellow this year stormed the council's office brandishing their ruined whites. People turned to bottled water for their cooking. Kettles, toilet cisterns and hot water systems were breaking. Even animals refused to drink water from the tap. By March, when a fed-up Ms Gimbert called a public meeting on the situation, Bombala had been battling brown, smelly water on and off for about six months. Longer, according to some. They were sick of being ignored. And although the Snowy Monaro Regional Council is now working to right the town's water woes - after intense lobbying and the fiery public meeting - it has also proposed to more than double what Bombala residents pay for what comes from their taps. Bombala's water is pumped from the Coolumbooka River into a decades-old filtration plant described variously by Snowy Monaro Regional Council Mayor John Rooney as "a museum piece" and "obsolete". According to Cr Rooney, the 60-year-old pipes through which the water flowed were clogged with 60 years of "sludge". Both issues were a hangover from previous councils, he told the March public meeting. Those bodies were amalgamated in 2016. Event attendees were told it was difficult for the filtration plant's old equipment to monitor how much of each chemical was required to filter the raw water. Chemical dosages had "not been optimal" for about 20 years, council water and wastewater manager Mark Rixon said, and a build-up of aluminium flowed freely through the water when there was an imbalance. He said that explained the water's turbidity. "Its not necessarily bad for you, though I wouldnt recommend you drink it, but it is not a significant health impact," Mr Rixon said, later adding: "It looks shitty and it probably is." An investigation of the plant, also held in March, found on-site testing equipment was "not clean". Slides from a PowerPoint given to residents in May said some water testing was not done and daily results were not recorded. The plant's broader equipment was old and unmaintained, the chemical dosing pumps weren't working, there were no records of raw water quality and the plant's human operators had little technical support. Further, there were no chemicals at the plant for removing taste and odour from the water, nor for removing iron and manganese. In April, specialist divers vacuumed almost 70 cubic metres of sludge from the main holding tank at Bombala's water facility. The public meeting was told the council planned to annually replace three kilometres of Bombala's 36-kilometre water pipe network - "provided we get sufficient funding from the state government to do so" - meaning the system would be replaced within 12 years. Later, Cr Rooney said the town would have clean water within 12 months. The water mains have since been cleaned and some upgrades made to the plant. Fairax Media approached several bodies for clarity on what was wrong with the supply, potential health risks and what had been done to address the problems. NSW Health, when asked about the testing of water within the Snowy Monaro Regional Council's boundaries, said the council was responsible for water supply and its quality. It did not know how many NSW towns were without clean drinking water. A Southern NSW Local Health District spokeswoman confirmed the Bombala hospital had used bottled water four times between June 2017 and June 2018. "This is in line with advice from the Snowy Monaro Regional Council that the water did not meet stringent health guidelines due to severe drought and lower than average river and dam levels," she said. A Snowy Mountains Regional Council spokesman did not respond to questions about health risks to residents. The spokesman said the council had "made considerable improvements" to water quality, recently spending more than $100,000 on maintenance work. An inquiry to the office of NSW Deputy Premier and Monaro representative John Barilaro - who pledged $15 million to fix the issue at Ms Gimbert's public meeting in March, and has previously promised funding - also went unanswered. Affected residents said they were still unsure of the water's impact on their health. Things had improved, they agreed. "Personally, I don't itch as much," Ms Gimbert said. Bombala is not the only town within the Snowy Monaro Regional Council's jurisdiction without clean drinking water. The water supply to Delegate, a town of about 350, was declared unsafe for drinking in 2015 after its chlorination regime was deemed inadequate for controlling disease-carrying micro-organisms. Delegate General Store owner Irene Butterworth said she now sold six 15-litre containers of water each week and had "lost count" of her four and 10-litre sales. Delegate Cafe uses rainwater in its coffee machines; elsewhere, filters are employed. Owner Uland Sievert said each filter was replaced three times last year. Nicole Mellon was shocked to learn she couldn't drink water from her tap when she moved to Delegate from Jervis Bay. Her cat fell ill with a kidney infection soon after her family moved to the town. The vet said it was unrelated to the water, but she's not so sure. Ms Mellon's baths run brown and her shower smells like dirt. When she doesn't cook with bottled water her food tastes like chemicals, she said. And, as in Bombala, her white washing often stains brown. "I'm so frustrated - it's a frustrating feeling being charged for water when we're not able to use it, drink it," Ms Mellon said. "I think the council needs to listen to the people of Delegate because Delegate gets left out of everything." Delegate was well-represented at the public meeting organised by Ms Gimbert, as was nearby Nimmitabel. Between 200 and 300 people attended the event. Delegate was told it would have potable water within a year. Bombala was once touted as a possible site for the nation's capital. At least the water now mostly seems clean. But some residents still don't trust the supply, which sometimes runs brown when taps are first turned on. The federal government's Australian Drinking Water Guidelines suggest drinking water should be aesthetically pleasing in appearance, taste and odour. " ... ultimately it is consumers who will be the final judges of water quality," the 1167-page document said. "System operators must maintain a personal sense of responsibility and dedication to providing consumers with safe water, and should never ignore a consumer complaint about water quality." People within the Snowy Monaro Regional Council district have until August 14 to send in a submission on whether Bombala residents should receive a $1.56 per kilolitre rebate due to "water quality issues". Otherwise, their water rates will be upped to more than $3 per kilolitre. Ms Dracopoulos, who has kept "Tap water (brown)" on the menu at her business, Cosmo Cafe, has considered taking the council to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or the Commonwealth Ombudsman. Theyre a corporation who will not accept responsibility for their services," she said. "If I gave you a bad hamburger in the shop, I would have to acknowledge that somewhere along the line there was a fault. Id investigate it, look at it and go yep, weve done something wrong. Id refund it or thered be some sort of compensation. I cant believe the mentality, more than anything. I know this council didnt create the problem but guess what? Theyve adopted it, and theyve adopted us, and theyre stuck with it. "Do something. Fix it."

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D70 board candidate runs decades after sexual assault accusations

Pueblo D70 board candidate Bob Boyd, a retired teacher in the district, is seeking to reenter education decades after facing sexual assault accusations.
Baptist Pastor Urges Christians to Keep Preaching Hell to Loved Ones Who Don't Believe in Jesus Christian Post Contributor | 04 August, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov

A Baptist pastor says Christians must continue taking to their love ones about Hell, especially those who reject Christianity, but then to also back off and give them space.

Aaron Menikoff, an author and senior pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote on The Gospel Coalition website Monday that when one wrestles "with the persistent unbelief of family and friends," there will be times when Satan will ask, "Did God really say there is such a thing as Hell?"

"Don't tolerate this line of thinking. The doctrine of Hell is tempting to abandon yet crucial to embrace," he advised.

"God used the doctrine of Hell to save me. When I first heard the Gospel from a high school friend, I pushed back. She pushed back even harder and said unless I repented of my sins and put my faith in Christ, I'd go to Hell," the pastor recalled.

"I couldn't believe she said this, much less believed it. Thankfully the Holy Spirit used her conviction and boldness to open my eyes. Months later, I trusted in Christ."

Menikoff also said that believers should avoid "leaning into the ethical teaching of Jesus while dismissing His teaching on eternal punishment."

"Christ is not just the Savior; He is the Judge. Please don't abandon good theology because you don't like the implications. We are either a people of the Book or a people of our own inclinations. There is no in-between," he continued.

When it comes to reaching out to nonbelieving loved ones, the pastor suggested that Christians should continue praying and grieving for them, but when they are confident that they have shared the Gospel, they can back off.

"They know where you stand. They know where you think they stand. It's time to be quiet and pray," he wrote.

"Backing off your family member doesn't mean ignoring or cutting them out of your life. Rather, it means spending time with them without constantly discussing their spiritual state."

The pastor suggested four things Christians can do in such cases, namely to pray for loved-ones regularly; to never hide their own faith; to express affection and remember birthdays and anniversaries; and to give them space.

Later on, he said that believers need to trust God with unbelieving family and friends.

"Ultimately, the only way to have peace in the face of loved ones who reject Christ is to marvel at the grace of God who, in Christ, accepts us," he concluded.

"God saved us when we were dead in our sins, and he can surely save our loved ones with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It would be no less a miracle for him to save them than it was to save us."

Read more about Baptist Pastor Urges Christians to Keep Preaching Hell to Loved Ones Who Don't Believe in Jesus on The Christian Post.
Don't Let God's Blessings Crowd Him Out of Your Life Christian Post Contributor | 04 August, 2018 by Jentezen Franklin

Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

- Matthew 13:22

Some of the greatest battles we face come when God has prospered us. When we have been blessed and exalted, there is a danger of life becoming overcrowded and filled with stuff that seems important but doesn't really matter. The drift into materialism is subtle but real. When life is filled with abundant blessing, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches can cause us to think more about our stuff and less about God.

The Bible is filled with examples of people who had to reach through the crowding and the "stuff" to grab hold of Jesus. Here's two examples:

Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus over the crowds. Zacchaeus was a rich tax collector. His life was filled with the pursuit of wealth, to the point of cheating people to enrich his own pockets. When Jesus came to town, the crowds were so huge that Zacchaeus climbed into a tree for a glimpse of Him. After talking with Jesus, he gave away half his riches to the poor and promised to repay anyone he had cheated by fourfold. (See Luke 19:1-9)

The innkeeper in Bethlehem had a business doing so well he had no room for Jesus. When Mary and Joseph knocked on his door, he said, "Sorry, Jesus, but we're full today." His inn was so prosperous that Jesus was crowded out. The innkeeper turned away the Savior of the world. (See Luke 2:4-7)

The devil absolutely loves to entangle us with the cares of life and enthrall us with riches. Of course, prospering isn't evil. Possessions aren't evil. But when those things begin to take over our lives, Jesus becomes something tiny and unimportant. Our houses, cars, businesses, social life, and our important connections fill our thoughts and our time.

If we're not careful, Jesus becomes crowded out.

What are we missing with our overcrowded lives? What power is available to us but left untouched? What miracles are in God's hand ready to be released but we are too busy to seek and receive them? What happens to our peace, our joy, and our influence when we live lives crowded with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth?

We need a good spring cleaning, a spiritual housecleaning to make room for Jesus in our lives, our homes, and our families. He wants to bless us and anoint us, but it can only happen when we come out of the "stuff" of our lives and make room for Him to work.

Remember the story of Israel searching for their first king? God chose Saul to be king, and Samuel called the people together. He was ready to anoint Saul, but Saul was nowhere to be found. When they asked the Lord where Saul was, God answered:

"Behold he hath hid himself among the stuff" (1 Sam. 10:22).

It was time for the anointing, but Saul was hiding in the stuff of life. He had to come out of the stuff to receive his anointing and to step into the plan God had for his life.

What is keeping you from what God wants to give you? Are you so busy you have no time for God? Is your mind consumed with your own plans and rarely concerned with God's plan?

When the things of the world become the most important things in your life, it covers up the seed of promise and purpose, and you find yourself just living in "stuff" instead of living in revelation.

Read more about Don't Let God's Blessings Crowd Him Out of Your Life on The Christian Post.
NY Gov. Cuomo Investigates Clerk for Denying Marriage License to Gay Couple on Religious Grounds Christian Post Contributor | 04 August, 2018 by Samuel Smith

Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he's investigating a town clerk who wouldn't provide a marriage license to a same-sex couple even though she was following her office's procedures.

Cuomo's actions are in response to a social media post by Dylan Toften, a resident of Root, New York, who took to Facebook Monday to complain about town clerk Laurel "Sherrie" Eriksen who recently refused to issue him and his partner, Thomas Hurd, a marriage license because of her religious beliefs.

"The denial of a marriage license to a same-sex couple yesterday in Montgomery County is an unconscionable act of discrimination that goes against our values as New Yorkers," Cuomo posted to his Twitter account on Wednesday. "I am directing an investigation into this incident to ensure that it never happens again."

The town's lawyer Robert Subik has explained that because of Eriksen's religious beliefs, she has a deputy clerk who normally handles marriage licenses involving same-sex couples. However, that deputy was not in the office when the men went to Eriksen for the marriage license.

"Sherrie didn't process the two men's marriage license application because they failed to make an appointment with her, as everyone is required by her office to do," Subik told The Daily Gazette.

Subik also explained that ultimately, Eriksen's decision was also based on her religious objection to same-sex marriage.

"She has a religious objection and has referred the matter to her deputy clerk, who has no such objection and will issue the license when they make an appointment," Subik said. "The clerks are both part time and don't man the office Monday through Friday. Of course, the two men are free to go to another jurisdiction to obtain their license."

Toften and Hurd ended up going to a clerk in Cobleskill to secure their marriage licenses.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in New York since 2011 and was made legal nationwide in 2015 by the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

According to The Daily Gazette, state law permits for a deputy clerk to grant the marriage licenses but also reads that "no application for a marriage license shall be denied on the ground that the parties are of the same, or a different, sex."

Read more about NY Gov. Cuomo Investigates Clerk for Denying Marriage License to Gay Couple on Religious Grounds on The Christian Post.
Pro-Life Activists Sue City After Arrest for Reading Bible Outside Abortion Clinic 04 August, 2018 by Michael Gryboski , |

Pro-life activists have filed a lawsuit against Toledo, Ohio, and its police force, accusing them of violating their free speech and religious freedom rights.

Calvin Zastrow and his daughter, Corrie, filed the civil rights action Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against the city of Toledo, its police chief and two officers.

At issue were multiple incidents in which the Zastrows were forced by police to stop holding religious pro-life demonstrations on a public sidewalk across the street from an abortion clinic.

One of the incidents, which took place on Oct. 3, 2017, involved Calvin being arrested for preaching and reading from a Bible as he stood across the street from the abortion facility.

"At no time prior to his arrest, did Plaintiff Calvin Zastrow enter upon the property of the Capital Care abortion center nor did he impede or block anyone from entering the abortion center. He remained on the public sidewalk. At no time did Plaintiff Calvin Zastrow engage in any violence," read the lawsuit.

"At no time did Plaintiff Calvin Zastrow employ any sound amplification device. He only used his voice and the spoken word. At no time did Plaintiff Calvin Zastrow physically block anyone from using the public sidewalk  the sidewalk is large enough to permit several people to walk on it at one time, as ... photographs ... demonstrate."

Robert Muise, co-founder and senior counsel of the American Freedom Law Center, which is representing the Zastrow family, said in a statement released Wednesday that he believed this was "yet another case of a city and its police officers exercising their muscle to silence peaceful pro-life demonstrators."

"The Constitution protects our clients' pro-life activity. The city and its police officers have no authority to silence our clients' speech simply because they are preaching the Gospel on a public sidewalk next to an abortion center," said Muise.

The Christian Post contacted the city of Toledo for comment on Friday and was told that officials had not yet seen the lawsuit and therefore could not comment.

This is not the first time that the AFLC has represented Calvin Zastrow when he encountered legal trouble for his pro-life activism.

Read more about Calvin Zastrow on The Christian Post.
Ronnie Floyd, Anne Graham Lotz Pray for 'Supernatural Unity' Amid High Tension in Israel Christian Post Contributor | 04 August, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov

Influential Christian leaders Ronnie Floyd and Anne Graham Lotz were among some 800 believers who attended a conference in Jerusalem and offered prayers for "supernatural unity."

"We prayed boldly that peace may reign in Jerusalem and in the most volatile region in the world. And we prayed for supernatural unity that overcomes the most entrenched barriers and divisions," Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas, told The Christian Post on Thursday.

The Epicenter Prayer Summit in Jerusalem was led by The Joshua Fund on July 11 and 12. Joshua Fund founder Joel C. Rosenberg revealed on his blog that participants included those the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian Authority and other nations. The event came in the midst of high tension in the region, with hundreds of rockets being fired at Israel from Gaza.

Floyd, who is also the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Lotz, author and daughter of late evangelist Billy Graham, both spoke at the event, as did pastors and leaders of local Jewish, Israeli Arab and Palestinian Arab ministries.

"The heartbeat of the conference was to come together in unity, seeing walls coming down between all true believers in Jesus through the power of prayer. All of this is so we can be used in a powerful way to communicate the Gospel to all peoples," Floyd explained.

The pastor reflected that everywhere around the world, people "allow language, race, culture, ancestry, nationality and anything that might make us different from someone else to divide us."

"Sadly, this is painfully visible in the region of the world where Jesus was born. Yet that's exactly why Jesus came, to bring down the barriers between people and between us and God. Bringing people together around the Word of God and the person of Jesus Christ is the key to overcoming divisions between people from diverse backgrounds," he stated.

"The testimonies from Jewish and Palestinian believers in Jesus Christ were particularly powerful and encouraging to each of us. The Gospel is more powerful than any barrier we can build."

Tensions on the Gaza border with Israel flared up in May, when dozens of Palestinians were killed during violent protests over the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a decision that has divided many in the region.

Floyd revealed that the differences on the issue "were certainly understood," but explained that the conference "was not meant to address political issues."

Read more about Ronnie Floyd, Anne Graham Lotz Pray for 'Supernatural Unity' Amid High Tension in Israel on The Christian Post.
[Updated Monday, August 6, with Heather Larson email to Willow Creek members.]

Steve Carter, teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, resigned Sunday after new allegations surfaced against founding pastor Bill Hybels.

Carter, one of Hybelss two successors at Willow, had previously apologized for the churchs handling of accusations against Hybels, who resigned earlier this year after allegations of misconduct.

Earlier on Sunday, one of Hybelss former assistants accused the Willow Creek founder of repeatedly groping her. Pat Baranowski told The New York Times that Hybels allegedly touched her breasts repeatedly and rubbed against her, had oral sex with her on one occasion, and once asked her to watch porn with him as a research project.

Baranowski told her therapist about the incidents, according to the Times. She also told another pastor at the church, but asked him to keep silent until now. She is the tenth woman to accuse Hybels of misconduct.

Hybels told the Times that the allegations were not true.

I never had an inappropriate physical or emotional relationship with her before that time, during that time or after that time, he told the Times in an email.

Those accusations were the last straw for Carter.

The new facts and allegations that came to light this morning are horrifying, and my heart goes out to Ms. Baranowski and her family for the pain they have lived with, he wrote on his blog, announcing his resignation. These most recent revelations have also compelled me to make public my decision to leave, as much as it grieves me to go.

In a Monday email to the Willow church family, lead pastor Heather LarsonHybelss co- successor alongside Carterresponded to the Times article. As I read the words, I was heartbroken, and I felt deep sadness for Ms. Baranowski. This was new information, and I cant imagine how difficult this must be for her, she wrote.

Regarding Carters resignation, Larson wrote, We had been processing together with Steve for a few weeks, and our team was hoping and working towards a different outcome. She acknowledged that many members have questions. We will give you a fuller update as soon as we can, and I know it is urgent.

The new allegations and Carters resignation come days before the annual Global Leadership Summit (GLS), which opens this week at Willow Creek and simulcasts worldwide.

Hybelss shadow lingers over the event, since he hosted the GLS for more than two decades. The controversy over his past conduct has led to more than 100 churches and other organizations canceling their plans to host a GLS viewing site.

Tom DeVries, president and CEO of the Willow Creek Association (WCA) which runs the GLS, is expected to make a statement about Hybels at the start of the summit.

Author and activist Danielle Strickland is also scheduled to speak about creating a healthy work environment for men and women.

So far, 111 host sites for the GLS had canceled, in advance of todays developments. Sixty-seven of those were sites that have hosted the summit in the past. The rest were new sites that would have been hosting for the first time.

The summit will also be simulcast into more than 60 prisons, according to the GLS. Churches and other groups can also sign up for private viewsa simulcast of the event for a small group.

All told, there will be 690 host sites for the summit, according to the GLS. Churches or other groups can also sign up for a livestream of the event, meant for a senior pastor or a few staffers. About 50 groups have signed up for the livestream so far.

Some churches have changed from being a premiere hosting siteopen to the publicto private viewings.

That was the case for the Traverse City, Michigan, campus of Kensington Church. The simulcast there wont be open to the public, but will be available to staff and key volunteers, the church told CT in an email.

Other churches have canceled outright, including Vineyard Cincinnati Church, an Ohio megachurch.

After much thought and prayer, we have decided that Vineyard Cincinnati Church will not be a host site of the [GLS] this year, the church said in a message on its website announcing its decision. We are reminded from Scripture that God calls us to defend the vulnerablethe orphan, the widow, the oppressed, and those who suffer under the misuse of power.

Bill Clark, pastor of Redeemer Covenant Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said their church staff decided to take a break from hosting the GLS this year. They were disappointed in how the allegations against Hybels were handledand wondered if being associated with Willow Creek might hurt their congregations reputation.

Too many questions about what happened at Willow Creek remain, said Clark.

On a personal level, Clark said he was saddened by what happened at Willow Creek. And hes lost confidence in the churchs ability to host a leadership conference.

It seemed hypocritical of us to endorse a leadership training model that was incubated in a climate of sexual harassment and sexual impropriety, he said. I know there is a separation between the summit and Willow Creek. But we could not distinguish between the two.

Scot McKnight, author, blogger, and professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, says the GLSs credibility has been undermined by the Hybels controversy. In a blog post from earlier this summer, he said that Willow Creeks response to the accusations against Hybels had done long-term damage.

What I do know is this: Bill Hybels and Willow Creeks leadership have undone 40 years of trust for many, he wrote. [Update: On Monday, he called for current leaders to be replaced.]

McKnight, who attended Willow Creek for a number of years, told CT that Willow leaders and GLS leaders need to confess their failings, and admit that the church allowed Hybelss misconduct to go on for far too long.

Without that, he said, the leadership conference has no moral authority.

The GLS cannot with Christian moral integrity move on with this conference without confessing, apologizing, and then dealing with the womens accusations, he said. To host a conference connected to Bill Hybels without doing that is unacceptable.

When allegations against Hybels first became public, Willow labeled the accusations against their founder as all lies spread by former staff members, who the church said had organized a campaign to damage Hybels.

Since then, Willow Creek has walked back from those claims. In late June, Carter had issued an apology for the way the church handled the accusations.

I wish I had done more to prevent the hurtful statements that were made, and to advocate more forcefully for what I believe would have been a more humble and biblical approach, he wrote on his blog.

Larson also previously issued an apology of her own. Willow Creeks elders also admitted that Hybels was guilty of wrongdoing.

We are grieved that we let Bills statement stand for as long as we did that the women were lying and colluding, the elders said. We now believe Bill entered into areas of sin related to the allegations that have been brought forth.

Willow Creek leaders told their congregation they would consult with outside experts on how to deal with the accusations against Hybels. So far, they have declined requests for an independent, third-party investigation. On Monday, Larson told members that such an investigation would now take place, reported the Chicago Tribune.

Carters decision today was appreciated by one Hybels accuser: Vonda Dyer, a former Willow employee. I deeply respect Steve Carter for taking a stand of integrity in this situation that could have been avoided entirely if Bill Hybels would have admitted his sin and if the church had taken swift action to hold him accountable, she told CT.

For now, plans for the GLSto be held August 9-10are moving forward.

DeVries declined to comment for this story. However, in an email to host sites, he said that hed reached out to the women who have accused Hybels of misconduct. And he made it clear that there are no plans for Hybels to return to the summit in the future.

Were hopeful that through the power of the Holy Spirit, all parties involved in that matter will experience Gods intervention and healing, he wrote. But I want to be clear that there is no roadmap in place for Bill to return to WCA or the Summit. Bill has never suggested or asked for that, either.

One of the nations largest congregations, Life.Church, is standing by the GLS. Pastor Craig Groeschel will speak twice at the summit, filling a slot that had traditionally been filled by Hybels.

Craig is honored to serve as a speaker at the [GLS]. The [WCA] asked if Craig could speak an additional time at the summit this year, and he is happy to do it, said Rachel Feuerborn, a spokesperson for the church, in an email.

Carter said that he and the elders disagree about how Willow Creek can move forward. He said that he had thought about resigning weeks ago, but held off. Until Sundays allegations.

At this point, however, I cannot, in good conscience, appear before you as your Lead Teaching Pastor when my soul is so at odds with the institution, he wrote.

In her Monday email, Larson stated the events of the past few months feel overwhelming and deeply sad, yet God is still God, and I believe he will guide.

I know that God is not done with our church, though, and he promises each of us a hope and a future, she wrote. He is still at work, and we will follow where he leads. Lets pray desperately and fervently.
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Voting is a fundamental constitutional right. Free and fair elections are vital to our republic. Voting is a right and a civic duty. Our Founding Fathers entrusted "We the People" to have a full voice in leading our country into the exciting future.

Every properly registered voter has the right to an undiluted vote. If someone else votes more than once...if a non-citizen votes...that dilutes your precious vote and undermines the integrity of our elections.

For eight years as Ohio's Secretary of State, I protected our elections. I witnessed it firsthand, over and over again; elections are vulnerable to fraud. I could write a catalog of ways people try to "game the system" or overzealous political operatives try to gain an edge and rig an election. Safeguarding our ballot boxes is the most important thing a Secretary of State can do because the assaults through voter intimidation, voter registration fraud and outright interference are legendary. Trust me. I know. Free and fair elections are not on their priority list.

In my home state of Ohio, we require some form of ID for voters, state ID Drivers License, Utility Bill, etc. Republicans are for it. Democrats are against it. Republicans say that voting is not effortless and presenting a photo ID is a very small price to pay for safeguarding our elections. Democrats make the spurious claim that it is tantamount to voter suppression.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are attacking on a separate front. They see a down ballot race as a golden opportunity. They are making an all-out effort to win Secretary of State races across the country and they have made Ohio their #1 target for a very good reason. Capturing this office is vital to the success of their masterplan of electing a Democrat as America's 46th President. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio. Ohio is a critical swing state. Ohio has voted for the winner in presidential races in twenty-eight out of the last thirty elections. As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.

Since the Secretary of State's office controls the machinery of elections, the National Democrats are making a concerted but "under-the-radar" effort to win the Secretary of State's race. The reality is, they are trying to buy this pivotal office with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Senator and presidential wannabe Elizabeth Warren leading the charge. They'll have full access to the Clinton Money Machine and the Obama Operation. So while it may seem strange to witness hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring into a down ballot race here in the heartland, there is a method to the Democrat's madness. Delve blow the surface and you will see that the Democrats have their sights set on 2020, defeating Donald Trump, taking back the presidency and wining the Secretary of State's race is a means to that end. In the wrong hands, Ohio's Secretary of State's office will become a de facto arm of the Ohio Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee. Eric Holder and a laundry list of presidential wannabes know that. Realizing what our rivals are capable of, Republicans are on high alert. They mean business. They've got millions. They don't fight fair. It's that serious.

Their candidate for this high office is Kathleen Clyde. She fits the pattern of coming from the Far Left of the political spectrum and being loud and confrontational in her style. She is advancing the preposterous and obviously-unconstitutional notion that if a presidential candidate does not release his/her taxes, they are immediately and irrevocably kept off the ballot in Ohio. You can see how far-fetched and far left her agenda is. In addition to being against the Constitution, she is also against the Supreme Court. When the nation's highest judicial court voted 7-2 in support of our current Secretary of State Jon Husted's efforts to clean up and cull the voter file, in a fever pitch of anger, Clyde denounced the ruling. It was a naked effort to gin up her liberal base and keep attracting the leftist and labor union dollars that are bankrolling her campaign. Ambitious and aggressive, free and fair elections are the last thing on her mind. Power and control are what Kathleen Clyde and the National Democrats care about.

The day Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton for President was the day the Democrats began their 2020 campaign. The usual suspects are purported to be running: Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden. Elizabeth Warren. Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Jeff Merkley are all considering presidential bids. Whoever the Democrats nominate will target Ohio as the missing piece to the puzzle they need to claim the Oval Office so they can pick up where Barack Obama left off. If they seize control of the Ohio Secretary of State's office and they control the machinery of government in the Buckeye State, they will set to work pressing their advantage. That is why Republicans are taking action because winning the Ohio Secretary of State's race is absolutely vital to the integrity of our elections and the future of our country.

Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio Secretary of State, served on the President Trump's Commission on Election Integrity. He is a member of the Policy Board of the American Civil Rights Union.
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The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454771

08-05-2018 10:29 PM











Post: #1 The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

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They started leaving the U.S., 'Land of the Great Captivity', 50 years ago, and have weathered racism and poverty in Israel, establishing a vibrant community. But the legal status of the 'Black Hebrews' is still unresolved



Kasadyah Baht Israel and her husband, Yehoshua, were riding a public bus in Beer Sheva recently when, out of the blue, a fellow passenger started hurling racist insults at them, while broadcasting the interaction live on Facebook with her cellphone.



For members of the African Hebrew Israelite community, to which Kasadyah and Yeshoshua belong, the incident was a painful reminder of the racism they tried to escape when they began leaving the United States - or the "Land of the Great Captivity," as they refer to it - in 1967.



"We all remember the history in America in the 1960s," Yair Ben Israel, a community member who himself was the victim of what he believes was a racially-motivated attack by a Border Police officer two years ago, wrote in a Facebook post. "But I never imagined that this could happen in Israel in 2017."



Yet as the Beer Sheva bus incident revealed, in appalling fashion, they are still viewed by some Israelis as outsiders to be scorned. They are regularly referred to as kushim - a racial slur for black people - on the street, in the Hebrew press, and even by government representatives who clearly should know better.



In the IDF, my research has shown, they have been harassed by their commanders for requesting the accommodation they are entitled to receive as members of a minority population, such as time off to observe Shabbat and holy days. And they are passed over for spots in intelligence units, sending the message that they are not to be trusted with sensitive information.



Most infuriatingly, the Israeli government has quietly tried its best to prevent them from becoming citizens.



https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium...-1.5461503 The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't CommitThey started leaving the U.S., 'Land of the Great Captivity', 50 years ago, and have weathered racism and poverty in Israel, establishing a vibrant community. But the legal status of the 'Black Hebrews' is still unresolvedKasadyah Baht Israel and her husband, Yehoshua, were riding a public bus in Beer Sheva recently when, out of the blue, a fellow passenger started hurling racist insults at them, while broadcasting the interaction live on Facebook with her cellphone.For members of the African Hebrew Israelite community, to which Kasadyah and Yeshoshua belong, the incident was a painful reminder of the racism they tried to escape when they began leaving the United States - or the "Land of the Great Captivity," as they refer to it - in 1967."We all remember the history in America in the 1960s," Yair Ben Israel, a community member who himself was the victim of what he believes was a racially-motivated attack by a Border Police officer two years ago, wrote in a Facebook post. "But I never imagined that this could happen in Israel in 2017."Yet as the Beer Sheva bus incident revealed, in appalling fashion, they are still viewed by some Israelis as outsiders to be scorned. They are regularly referred to as kushim - a racial slur for black people - on the street, in the Hebrew press, and even by government representatives who clearly should know better.In the IDF, my research has shown, they have been harassed by their commanders for requesting the accommodation they are entitled to receive as members of a minority population, such as time off to observe Shabbat and holy days. And they are passed over for spots in intelligence units, sending the message that they are not to be trusted with sensitive information.Most infuriatingly, the Israeli government has quietly tried its best to prevent them from becoming citizens. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454771

08-05-2018 11:10 PM











Post: #2 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454909

08-05-2018 11:41 PM











Post: #3 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

This is my problm with Israel.



They pretend it's about giving Jews a homeland, yet they exclude the original Jews.



They're using the label of Judaism to mask their real agenda. Many Askanazi Jews have stated this also and object to Israel using the religion of judaism as a cover for their actions. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454898

08-05-2018 11:44 PM











Post: #4 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

Real Jews should know better than to go to Israel unless god calls them back LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454871

08-05-2018 11:47 PM











Post: #5 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

Jews are sh*t skins, I call them brown eyed f**kers. Dancing about in their walled up habitation. Israel was to be known for its unwalled villages, where do you see that. HMM only in the western world. Curious and more curious right?





If it hit you in the face you still wouldn't see it would you! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454871

08-05-2018 11:49 PM











Post: #6 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

But I've become accustomed to talking to a brick wall! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454906

08-05-2018 11:51 PM











Post: #7 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't



Flesh /race / blood descendancy counts for nothing

http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-48772.html They need to repent and believe in the messiah Jesus the son of GodFlesh /race / blood descendancy counts for nothing LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454771

08-06-2018 12:54 AM











Post: #8 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

LoP Guest Wrote: (08-05-2018 11:51 PM) They need to repent and believe in the messiah Jesus the son of God

Flesh /race / blood descendancy counts for nothing

http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-48772.html

Jesus was a prophet not the sun of god. Jesus was a prophet not the sun of god. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454748

08-06-2018 12:56 AM











Post: #9 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

LoP Guest Wrote: (08-05-2018 11:51 PM) They need to repent and believe in the messiah Jesus the son of God

Flesh /race / blood descendancy counts for nothing

http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-48772.html

You obviously haven't read Jeremiah. For example, God promises after he restores Ephraim(German Tribes), to hunt down and eradicate all the nations that hated/waged war against Ephraim. You obviously haven't read Jeremiah. For example, God promises after he restores Ephraim(German Tribes), to hunt down and eradicate all the nations that hated/waged war against Ephraim. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 454898

08-06-2018 12:58 AM











Post: #10 RE: The African Hebrew Israelites Want to Be Part of Israel, but Israel Still Won't

LoP Guest Wrote: (08-06-2018 12:56 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (08-05-2018 11:51 PM) They need to repent and believe in the messiah Jesus the son of God

Flesh /race / blood descendancy counts for nothing

http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-48772.html

You obviously haven't read Jeremiah. For example, God promises after he restores Ephraim(German Tribes), to hunt down and eradicate all the nations that hated/waged war against Ephraim.

Rephaim and Ephraim are one in the same...so israel are the nazis then Rephaim and Ephraim are one in the same...so israel are the nazis then
















Exhausted firefighters battled wildfires that spanned the entire state over the weekend, with the most destructive inferno claiming the ninth victim of the deadly outbreak and managers of Yosemite announcing the indefinite closure of the heart of the park.

Jay Ayeta, 21, an apprentice lineman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., died Saturday while working to restore power near the Carr Fire in Redding, utility spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said Sunday.

His death came as smoke from the Ferguson Fire forced Yosemite National Park to shutter its glorious scenery. Tioga Road from Tioga Pass to White Wolf remains open. but Yosemite Valley is closed at the peak of summer tourist season.

It is just not safe for visitors and employees in the park, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said Sunday.

And as those blazes continue to churn, the Mendocino Complex roaring in Lake and Mendocino counties grew over the weekend into one of the largest blazes in California history.

Ayeta is the seventh person to die in the Carr fire  two firefighters and four other people have been killed in the blaze. And two more firefighters have died battling the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite.

Crews in a remote area with dangerous terrain were performing restoration work when a crew member suffered an accident and a fatal injury in western Shasta County, said J.D. Guidi, also a utility spokesman. PG&E crews arrived shortly after the incident to ensure the area was safe for first responders and supported public agencies accordingly.

Guidi said PG&E is working with law enforcement to investigate the death.

The safety of our customers, employees, contractors and communities we serve is PG&Es top priority, Guidi said. Unfortunately, one member of the PG&E family has died and our thoughts are with those involved in the incident and their families.

The Carr Fire in Shasta County  which had burned 160,049 acres by Sunday evening  has razed 1,080 homes, 24 commercial buildings and 500 other structures, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday. A total of 1,229 structures continue to be threatened. Officials have not yet projected when it could be fully contained.

Elsewhere in Northern California, firefighters have been working to contain multiple other fires as high temperatures, high winds and low humidity persist throughout the region.

As the Ferguson Fire grew to nearly 90,000 acres Sunday with 38 percent containment, Yosemite managers decided to extend the parks closures indefinitely. Major portions of the park have been closed since July 25, and officials had originally hoped to reopen at least parts of the valley by Sunday.

Over the past 48 hours, fire has impacted all of the roads used to access Yosemite Valley, burning dead and downed trees that can become very explosive and fall without warning, Gediman said in a statement. There are also significant terrain hazards for firefighters.

The blaze, which has been burning for 23 days and grew from 81,699 acres Saturday to 89,633 acres Sunday, was 35 percent contained. As unfavorable weather conditions persist, Jim Mackensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said the fire is only expected to keep growing.

Its been a very, very challenging fire, Mackensen said. Ive been doing this over 40 years, and this is the most challenging.

Temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s this week and wont begin easing until Thursday, said Cindy Bean, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

A wildfire burning in Tuolumne County also grew dramatically Sunday and led to more evacuation orders, according to the Sacramento Bee.

In Mendocino and Lake counties, the River Fire and the Ranch Fire, which make up the Mendocino Complex, expanded to 266,982 acres by Sunday, according to Cal Fire. That makes it the fifth-largest wildfire in California history.

Fire crews gained ground on the River Fire, which is now 58 percent contained, but the larger Ranch Fire continued to grow, heading southeast.

It is a very large and dynamic incident, said Cal Fire incident commander Sean Kavanaugh. Were catching our breath a little bit today, which is good. Over on the River fire, were hoping to have that wrapped up in the next few days.

New mandatory evacuations were ordered over the weekend in Lake, Colusa and Glenn counties near the Indian Valley Reservoir and the Spring Valley area. More than 3,500 firefighters are battling the blaze and are expected to focus on protecting communities in the path of the Ranch Fire, Cal Fire officials said.

The Mendocino Complex fires have destroyed 68 homes and 62 other buildings, and 15,300 remain threatened. The cause of the fires is not known.

President Trump weighed in Sunday on the fires, not to offer sympathy but as an opportunity to criticize environmental regulations.

California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which arent allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized, the Tweet read in part.

Michael Cabanatuan and Trisha Thadani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan, @TrishaThadani
The two wildfires scorching Mendocino and Lake counties forced more evacuations as they grew rapidly Saturday, while in Shasta County, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. worker was killed in an accident near the Carr Fire.

The PG&E crew member died Saturday afternoon while doing restoration work near the blaze burning in the Redding area, J.D. Guidi, a utility spokesman, said Sunday. The utility worker is the seventh person to die in the fire  two firefighters and four other people have been killed in the blaze.

Crews in a remote area with dangerous terrain were performing restoration work when a crew member suffered an accident and a fatal injury in western Shasta County, Guidi said. PG&E crews arrived shortly after the incident to ensure the area was safe for first responders and supported public agencies accordingly.

The person has not been identified. Guidi said PG&E is working with law enforcement to investigate the death.

The safety of our customers, employees, contractors and communities we serve is PG&Es top priority, Guidi said. Unfortunately, one member of the PG&E family has died and our thoughts are with those involved in the incident and their families.

In Mendocino and Lake counties, the River Fire and Ranch Fire, which make up the Mendocino Complex, expanded by 75,268 acres since Friday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

By Saturday afternoon, flames were getting dangerously close to crossing into Colusa County, said Will Powers, a spokesman for Cal Fire.

The fire is showing some extreme fire behavior in some of these areas, consuming a lot of fuel and moving at a moderate rate of spread and, in some cases, a dangerous rate of spread, Powers said.

Intense weather conditions Saturday fueled the blazes with high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity, he added.

Collectively, the blazes had burned 229,006 acres as of Saturday night, up from 153,738 acres Friday. The Ranch Fire was just 22 percent contained and the River Fire was 50 percent contained.

New mandatory evacuations were ordered Saturday in Lake, Colusa and Glenn counties near the Indian Valley Reservoir and the Spring Valley area.

With more than 3,000 fire personnel battling the blaze, the low humidity, dry vegetation and gusty winds pushed the fire to grow overnight, Cal Fire said.

Throughout Saturday, fire crews and bulldozer operators worked to cut new containment lines. But limiting the relentless blazes has been difficult.

The northwest part of the Ranch Fire was expected to move farther into the Mendocino National Forest, burning south of Lake Pillsbury and pushing to the east, Cal Fire said. The north side of the River Fire is forecast to burn toward Cow Mountain and Scotts Valley Road.

The flames have destroyed 55 homes and 49 other buildings, and 15,300 remain threatened. The cause of the fires is not known.

Gov. Jerry Brown requested a presidential major disaster declaration Saturday to help with repair of damaged facilities and infrastructure, unemployment assistance, crisis counseling and other aid for Lake, Mendocino, Napa and Shasta counties devastated by wildfires.

Ive asked the president make a major declaration. Hes done it in the past. Im confident he will do it again, Brown said.

A red flag warning was in effect for the areas affected by the Mendocino Complex and the Carr Fire near Redding, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

The expected strong winds, low humidity and warm weather can create critical fire weather, and any fires that develop during the red flag warning could spread rapidly, the Weather Service said.

The Carr Fire grew to 145,015 acres Saturday. The blaze, caused by a spark from a vehicle, was 41 percent contained.

On Saturday, Brown met with local leaders and fire and emergency personnel in Shasta County to discuss the damage inflicted by the Carr Fire.

His meeting prompted the request for the major disaster declaration, which would help both local and tribal governments.

Already the sixth most destructive fire in California history, the Carr Fire has razed 1,073 homes, 14 commercial buildings and 492 other structures, Cal Fire said. A total of 1,358 structures continue to be threatened. Officials have not yet determined when it will be fully contained.

Near Yosemite Valley, firefighters worked through the night to contain spot fires near the Ferguson Fire just outside Wawona, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The Ferguson Fire, which has been burning for 23 days, grew only slightly from 77,207 acres to 81,699 acres Saturday, and was 35 percent contained.

Two firefighters have been killed in the blaze and 11 others injured.

Officials have closed Yosemite Valley, Wawona Road, the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias and Hetch Hetchy to visitors, because smoke created unhealthy conditions and to allow firefighters to continue their operations.

Chronicle staff writer Roland Li contributed to this report.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Houston GLBT Political Caucus members spent Saturday deciding which candidate to throw their weight behind in the upcoming general elections.

In one of the most discussed races at the event at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, caucus members endorsed Democratic candidate Lina Hildalgo for Harris County judge over Republican incumbent Ed Emmett.

"I'm trying to think of who is going to be the person most impactful and more helpful toward all communities rather than just majority communities, " said screening committee Chair Brandon Mack. "And in terms someone having actual discussion and seeing them in the community and actually addressing those issues, I saw more of that with respect from Lina than I did from the county judge."

The discussion surrounding that endorsement included talk of flood control bonds and improvements to the county jail from a handful of enthused and concerned speakers.

Sabrina Lee, who helped screened both candidates, thought Emmett did well during Hurricane Harvey and based much of her opinions as a screening volunteer from that performance.

"For me it boils down to what is his background where our community is concerned ... He stepped up for the trans community in the shelters and that's what it came down to for me," Lee said.

Hidalgo said the endorsement is a positive sign for her campaign.

"They know, as I know, that we can do so much better in Harris County," Hidalgo said.

Two Republicans sought endorsement for the general elections from the caucus this yearsomething Caucus President Mike Webb said is "new," although the group has been non-partisan since its founding in 1975. It is paramount for the caucus to focus on LGBT issues rather than simply furthering the agenda of a political party, he said.

"Our issues are not divided by a party," Webb said. "Anyone fighting for the LGBTQ community can seek our endorsement."

Kandice Webber, organizer of Black Lives Matter and founder of Houston Rising, a coalition purportedly fighting for equitable recovery from Hurricane Harvey, wants people representative of Houston's LGBT community elected to office.

"We have got to balance the scales," Webber said. "If we don't work as a unit, fight together, we'll never get full equality."

Of the caucus' roughly 610 active members, 35 questioned candidates and recommended endorsements. Candidates are scored in the screening process based on viability, professional experience, personal interviews and knowledge of LGBT issues and of the position they are seeking.

The caucus deliberated races where no candidate recommendation was previously made. In these instances, Amy Martin, Latosha Lewis Payne and Christine Weems were endorsed in their races for district judgeship of judicial districts 263, 55 and 281, respectively.

Several candidates who were pulled from the list early in the meeting were endorsed after deliberation and votes. These state representative candidates are Allison Lami Sawyer and Garnet F. Coleman, who seek election in districts 134 and 147, respectively, as well as Linda Marie Dunson and Sedrick T. Walker II, who are seeking election to district judge in the 309th judicial district and judge of county criminal court-at-law no. 11, respectively.

victoria.cheyne@chron.com

twitter.com/victoria_cheyne
Sabine Ntongo dropped off her 1-year-old girl and 8-year-old boy with their father, Jean Pierre Ndossoka, for visitation at his apartment.

Around 3:30 p.m., police said she received a call.

"He called her and told her he killed her kids," HPD Assistant Chief Wendy Baimbridge said.

The two children were stabbed to death inside their father's southwest Houston apartment in the 10900 block of Fondren in southwest Houston on Saturday afternoon, prompting a police search for the 61-year-old man.

Baimbridge the children's bodies were found on a bed during a welfare check of the home.

TRAGIC DISCOVERY: Remains of missing toddler found in Bryan home of mother

The couple had been married for six years and recently separated, police said.

Sabine Bouga's nephew rushed over to the apartment when his mother told him what happened. He thought she was joking.

"It was a crime committed out of anger and bitter, pure hatred," said the 28-year-old.

His sister, Denicia Mouelet, 22, said the slain toddler is named after her.

"It feels like a dream," she said.

Police do not yet know if the suspect has a criminal history.

Ndossoka drives a black 2008 Nissan Titan. Police said the license plate number is JGY0351.

Anyone with information on this vehicle is urged to call 911 and tell authorities which direction it is traveling.

victoria.cheyne@chron.com

dug.begley@chron.com
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

MILFORD  Police said a 23-year-old New York woman, who was driving with her baby, had heroin and other drugs in her car.

Police pulled over Tori Hinman, of Wingdale, N.Y., Wednesday after officers said she made an illegal U-turn on Boston Post Road near Home Acres Avenue.
Five cars honked in less than a minute followed by two more and a long blare down North Loop 336 off Interstate 45 in Conroe Saturday afternoon.

The beeps and cheers from the road continued in response to posters held high on the side of the road near Hobby Lobby asking people to honk for support  to Free the Weed.

There, only about a dozen people stood with signs, T-shirts, along with educational and promotional material as part of the second Cannabis Open Carry Walks event to be held in Conroe, which will continue every other weekend. The movement is pushing for the legalization of marijuana in Texas for recreational and medical use in 2019.

Kory Watkins, state director of operations for Cannabis Open Carry Walks, shared that the group is trying to get as many people together and to educate those who want legalization on how to change the law in Texas.

When somebody honks obviously it is overwhelmingly in support, so just imagine how many people who are supporting it that are not honking that just keep it to themselves, said Watkins who said the group is building relationships with elected officials on the issue but declined to share their names.

The event was held for the first time in March. Saturday marked the 100th event for the movement that has 50 coordinators across the state with 10 events held in 10 cities Saturday, including Amarillo, Abilene, Denton, Ft. Worth, Dallas, San Antonio, Mission, Houston, and Conroe. It is not related to firearms, but instead supports the open carry of information about the movement to change the laws in Texas. Organizers did not recommend illegal use at the event.

The event started in Conroe because of Cindy Nona, 62, of Montgomery.

Nona is a retired book keeper with arthritis in her knees who became involved in February with the movement. She said many people use marijuana not to be stoned or to party, but to help with mobility and medical conditions  which she believes is better than pain pills.

You dont have to stay stoned, Nona said. People look at weed as a party drug and it is not.

She hopes the event will draw more support to wake up Montgomery County and shared she has friends who are paraplegic that asked her to help make the push.

Quit being afraid, Nona said. We have every legal right to be out here on this side walk on public property and to speak our voice. They are afraid. There is that oh my boss might see me or my mother- in-law might see me. Quit being afraid, stand up, there is nothing to be afraid of.

Montgomery County resident John Morgan, 52, shared he suffers from chronic arthritis in his spine and is on disability because he is unable to work. He supports the legalization for medical use that he said would help with pain management.

I always refuse medicine because I have an addictive personality, he said. A lot of people on heroin start out on pain medicine.

A retired and disabled political activist, Mark A. Garza, who protested against red light cameras in Willis, sat on the side of the road with flags and posters in support of the legalization.

Im here to stop government lies pushing pharmaceuticals, Garza said. If prescriptions worked, then why do we need refills? God created it (the cannabis).

Some members of the community stopped by to ask questions and shared support for the movement.

I think they should legalize it, said 22-year-old self-employed Conroe resident Jonavon Patterson. If they would legalize it there would be less crime, less everything bad. Look at Colorado for instance.  I think it is not legalized because Montgomery County wants its money.

According to 2015 crime in Texas arrest data provided by the Department of Public Safety, there were 61,748 arrests for possession of marijuana, including 4,171 juvenile arrests.

Since it is illegal everyone downs it, a lot of people that I talk to say if it was legal they wouldnt have such a problem with it, said Allia Charles, 19, who sat in the car with Patterson.

But in conservative Montgomery County  with Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon who slammed Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg over her stance on marijuana prosecution and legalization last year  there are mixed opinions on the issue.

One senior citizen, who declined to share her name, drove past the event and shared she felt the movement was bologna, that the protesters needed to get a job and that the world is going to the dogs before she walked away frustrated into Hobby Lobby.

Another shopper also shared an opposing opinion with one consideration.

I dont like it, said Willis resident Tricia Powell, who said her Autistic daughter has a sensitivity to the smell. The only thing I support is maybe for medical use but other than that I think it is just something else for people to be stupid and kill people driving, those kind of things, kind of like alcohol is how I feel about it. For medical reasons, I do kind of understand that but I think they should have a prescription.

mellsworth@hcnonline.com
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A man was taken into custody early Sunday after a long chase through two counties, according to police.

The pursuit started sometime after midnight, when the driver of a black Cadillac refused to pull over for a traffic stop in Jacinto City.
Genetic-testing companies that have decoded the DNA of millions are pledging to prioritize consumer privacy and transparency with a set of industry guidelines governing users' data.

But the new best practices introduced by 23andMe Inc., Ancestry and other industry leaders don't address concerns about one of the most common ways that data is shared -- with pharmaceutical giants, academics and others, often for a profit.

Just how lucrative the business of genetic testing is came into light last week when British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline agreed to buy a $300 million stake in 23andMe to gain access to anonymized data with the hope of identifying new targets for drugs. That kind of data -- stripped of identifying details and aggregated -- isn't strictly subject to new rules in the guidelines. That means consumers will still have little way to know when and how their information is combed for research.

"This new policy is a positive step forward in the sense that it's starting a conversation," said James Hazel, a researcher at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who recently surveyed the privacy policies of 90 direct-to-consumer genetic-testing companies. "The glaring gap is that it doesn't apply to de-identified genetic data."

Amid increased public focus on privacy, the largest genetic-testing companies had already taken action -- for instance, by providing annual reports on requests from law enforcement. The new guidelines reflect those efforts.

"It's a really important step forward for the industry, to take a stand as an entire industry to say individual privacy is important to us," said Kate Black, 23andMe's chief privacy officer.

Ancestry and Helix, another DNA-testing company, echoed Black's comments.

"This is really a jumping-off point," said Elissa Levin, Helix's director of clinical affairs and policy, who worked on the guidelines. "We know privacy is a large issue."

Under the guidelines, genetic-testing companies must obtain "express consent" before sharing an individual's data with third parties. They can't hand it over to employers, insurance companies, educational institutions, or government agencies without being legally compelled.

That addressed mounting concerns that a company could share a customer's information with the authorities -- an issue that became front and center in recent months after police combed an open-source genealogy websites to track down a suspect believed to be the Golden State Killer, a serial murder and rapist who terrorized California in decades past.

But most genetic-testing companies, like social networks before them, have also made a business out of DNA data collected from customers. They have partnerships with companies like Glaxo or Pfizer Inc., giving access to their trove of data for research.

Typically, customers must opt in to having their data shared for research by signing separate consent polices. When shared for research purposes, the information is usually anonymized and aggregated. That data is exempt from transparency rules in the new guidelines, as the anonymity is supposed to protects customers.

Without more insight into how consumer data is being anonymized, though, it's difficult to tell how secure it really is, said Marc Beebe, senior director of strategic research, public imperatives, and corporate development at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a trade association.

For consumers, the risk of exposure is in the fine print. "There is a very small chance that someone with access to the research data or results could expose personal information about you,'' 23andMe says in its policy.

Some companies already pledge to provide additional insight. 23andMe, for instance, says it will notify customers should it seek to include their data in research on "sensitive topics'' such as sexual orientation or drug use. The new industry guidelines, however, don't call for specific transparency in how research data is used.

The best practices, developed with the help of Washington-based think tank Future of Privacy Forum, also suggest companies provide clear instructions on how to delete an account. Under federal law, a company that offers health-related DNA analysis can't delete genetic information.

Three federal agencies -- the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- have some oversight over the booming U.S. genetic-testing industry.

The industry effort, said 23andMe's Black, is an attempt to "fill the void of a lack of clear legal standard."

The guidelines could lead to more scrutiny from regulators.

"Generally speaking, if a company fails to keep their promises to consumers -- whether they made those promises in website privacy policies or by signing onto industry best practices -- they could be subject to FTC law enforcement action,'' said Juliana Gruenwald, a spokeswoman for the agency.

While no policy could ever eradicate risks for consumers who agreed to give their DNA, the industry guidelines are attempting to address some of the biggest fears. They forbid marketing based on DNA data or require setting up instructions for what should happen to users' data after they pass.

"What remains to be seen is whether this will be widely adopted in the diverse direct-to-consumer genetic-testing industry," said Hazel, the Vanderbilt University researcher. "The industry leaders involved in producing this document, while certainly occupying a large market share, represent only a small fraction of the many companies offering these services."
Morgan County is seeing an increase in hepatitis C cases, following similar trends as Illinois, which has seen an increase of nearly 3,000 cases since 2006.

While the state has seen a pretty consistent rise in the number of reported cases, Morgan County has shown similar increases, with some small decreases throughout the years.

Jacqueline Barringer with the Morgan County Health Department said the number of hepatitis C cases has followed the state trends.

Outside of the realm of STDs, hepatitis cases are the highest numbers of communicable diseases we report, Barringer said.

Hepatitis is a disease that can affect the liver and each type is transmitted differently through bodily fluids, sexual contact, or water.

Hepatitis C is often transmitted through the blood. Barringer said those who share injection needles, blood contact and those that had blood transfusions or organ transplants before 1992 could be at risk for hepatitis. Those that get unregulated or home-tattoos could also be at risk.

Barringer said Morgan County saw 25 cases in 2013, increasing to 44 in 2014, a small decrease in 2015 and increased again in 2016.

Barringer said the number of cases usually vary depending on the virus.

Itll pick up depending on chronic versus acute hepatitis C, Barringer said. Some people either dont get symptoms or they are mild and they relate them to something else and move on.

Some of the symptoms include fatigue, fever, lack of appetite and other symptoms.

The Illinois Department of Public Health is encouraging people to talk with their health-care providers after reporting an increase 43 percent since 2006.

The IDPH reported 6,887 reports of hepatitis C in 2006, increasing to 9,838 in 2017.

According to a release by the IDPH, the rise in hepatitis C cases is corresponding with increased opioid use.

Cass County has seen a low number of cases, said Andrew English, the public health coordinator for the Cass County Health Department.

In Cass, weve had a relatively low number of reported cases, English said. In the last three years, weve seen no more than 10 cases of hepatitis C, both confirmed and probable.

English said those in the community should have a good relationship with a medical professional where they ask about potential viruses.

English said those that believe they could be at risk should seek testing and treatment.

There are treatments available, he said. This is something that needs to be treated early.

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.
SINGAPORE  Foreign Minister Taro Kono's brief conversation with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Friday in Singapore marked the first contact between the two ministers since the Washington-Pyongyang summit meeting in June.

Attention is focused on whether such interactions will help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe realize direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

When asked by reporters Friday night about what he discussed with Ri, Kono declined to provide details, repeatedly saying, "I have no intention of talking about that."

Following the U.S.-North Korea summit, the Japanese Foreign Ministry contacted Pyongyang through diplomatic channels, including embassies in Beijing, and proposed talks between Kono and Ri, according to a source knowledgeable about Japan-North Korea relations. However, the ministry did not receive a positive response from North Korea.

On Friday during a banquet for delegates to ASEAN-related meetings of foreign ministers, Kono approached and spoke to Ri. They remained standing as they talked briefly.

In approaching Ri, Kono sought to create an environment conducive to holding summit talks between Abe and Kim.

Abe has expressed a willingness to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang, saying: "I won't overlook such a chance."

A Japan-North Korea summit would be the first such meeting since 2004, when Junichiro Koizumi was prime minister.

Some officials in Tokyo suggested talks might be held during the Sept. 11-13 Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, which Kim might attend.

However, it remains to be seen whether progress will be made on the issue of Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese nationals.

U.S.-North Korea talks on denuclearization are thought to have stalled. A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said, "An environment in which Tokyo-Pyongyang [talks] can take place cannot be achieved if Washington-Pyongyang [talks] do not progress."

North Korea has not changed its stance that the abduction issue has been resolved. The near-daily criticism of Japan by North Korean state media is also a matter of concern.

Abe has declared the abduction issue to be the most pressing matter facing his Cabinet. Action on the issue that does not yield results could shake the foundation of his administration.

"There is no need [for Abe] to push himself hard before the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election," said a former minister close to Abe. Voting and ballot counting for the LDP poll are expected to take place on Sept. 20.
Cagayan Economic Zone Authority administrator and chief executive officer Secretary Raul Lambino (second from right), shakes hands with Tomas Ziak, Group Chief Executive Officer of Commerce Slovakia Corp., after signing a memorandum of understanding providing for the development of a major hospital at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport that will boost health care for locators and people in Northern Luzon. With them are Vladimir Pristas (left) of Proxia and Ramon Garcia, CEO of I Wave Inc.

A rapid deployment first-class hospital is expected to rise at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport following an agreement signed by Slovakia-based Commerce Ltd., the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority said Friday. The Cagayan Economic Zone Authority has signed a memorandum of understanding with Commerce providing for the development of the major hospital that will boost health care not just for Freeport but for our people in the region, said Ceza president and chief executive Raul Lambino. The new hospital, Lambino said, would open new employment and income-generating opportunities in the province and the region, including medical tourism and retirement communities.This is the beginning of a new era of health care in our region. With it, we can attract new investors and spark tourism activities, Lambino said. Commerce said in a statement it was confident it could provide health services that would radically improve the quality of service and infrastructure for patients, workers, tourists and all the people in the region in the years to come. Commerce did not give a timetable for the development of the health facility. It assured Ceza that it will be done in record time as opposed to the average of 5-10 years to set up and build a traditional hospital.The company said it already started the process of project development in relation to the services it shall provide immediately and will provide in the future. The hospital will be operated on the highest standards compliant with European and other world-class standards, the company added. Lambino said Ceza was undergoing rapid development with its planned Crypto Valley of Asia in Sta. Ana, Cagayan, a big-ticket project that would be home to a new wave of financial technology companies. The health facility would offer added convenience and confidence to locators inside the economic facility, he added.
A statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, was splattered with pinkish-red paint and the letters "BLM" were painted on its base between late Friday and early Saturday, authorities said.

The vandalism of the Confederate general's statue - one of five Confederate monuments in the state capital - comes about a week ahead of a white-nationalist rally set to take place in Washington.

Joe Macenka, a spokesman for the Capitol Police, said the statue was probably hit with paint overnight with a weed sprayer or fire extinguisher in between police patrols. The incident is being investigated, although no arrests had been made.

The Capitol Police - who are also responsible for patrolling the Virginia statehouse - were alerted to the presence of the paint about 6 a.m. Saturday, when a cleaning crew was called to remove it, Macenka said. The statue was free of paint by about 4 p.m. Saturday.

Macenka said a "lion's share" of the force's 500 security cameras are installed around the Lee statue, although he declined to comment on whether the vandalism had been captured on video.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat who has voiced his personal opposition to the city's Confederate statues, condemned the incident in a statement through his spokesman.

"I don't support the monuments but vandalism is a crime no matter where it takes place and the individual or individuals responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Stoney said in the statement.

Last month, a commission organized by Stoney to review Richmond's row of Confederate statues suggested that a nearby monument of Confederate President Jefferson Davis be taken down. Although the commission resisted calls to remove the other statues - including the one of Lee - it recommended they be put into broader historical context.

Unlike Richmond's other monuments, the figure of Lee is property of the state of Virginia.

Macenka said the "BLM" written on the statue was probably a reference to Black Lives Matter. The movement's chapter in the Washington and Virginia area did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
While the state elections board unveils details about its Cyber Navigator Program to help local election officials secure cyberspace, some county clerks are worried about the security of aging voting machines.

The Illinois State Board of Elections held a public hearing outlining its plan to offer up a central network for local elections officials for improved cybersecurity. The plan includes hiring nine cybernavigators who will go around the state assessing vulnerabilities in the 108 different election jurisdictions.

While acknowledging some smaller jurisdictions can definitely use the help, Logan County Clerk Sally Turner said one of her chief concerns is voting machines.

Its really getting old and if your county doesnt have a lot of money, that makes it difficult to be able to go out and purchase election equipment and thats something were all needing very quickly, Turner said.

Turner said her county has a great information technology staff on hand, but the electronic voting machines they bought in 2002 are becoming outdated.

ISBE Executive Director Steve Sandvoss said county clerks shouldnt expect to see such funds anytime soon.

So unless the legislature comes up with a significant amount of money or the federal government comes up with another grant far larger than this, I dont see money available in the near future for replacing voting machines, Sandvoss said.

ISBE is getting $13.2 million in federal funds for election security.

Turner said shes thankful money will be made available to help with cyber security issues on a local level.

But were curious as to when they freeze that second half, when well be able to utilize some of that money, Turner said.

Half of the federal funds will be for the local election jurisdictions digital security elements.

We have our own cyber security needs that were going to hold back some money to take care of and then whatever is left over I plan to make available to election authorities, Sandvoss said. But we dont have a specific amount.

An ISBE voter database was hacked in 2016, exposing data on more than 70,000 voters.

Sandvoss said there are other groups, such as the disabled community, hoping to get access to some of those funds.

Theres plenty of demand, unfortunately not a whole lot of supply, Sandvoss said.

ISBEs Cyber Navigator program will now go to the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules, where there will be an additional 45-day public comment period. While some of the aspects for cyber security may be in place for Novembers midterm elections, officials dont expect the entirety of the program to be fully up and running until the 2020 elections.
San Francisco

Two wildfires fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather continued to grow Saturday in Northern California, destroying 55 homes and forcing thousands of residents out of their neighborhoods.

California fire officials said the two fires grew to almost 250 square miles.

They cover an area larger than the wildfire that damaged parts of Redding, Calif., last week and continues to grow.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials said that fire was started two weeks ago by sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer's flat tire.

The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flames.

"This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach," the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco.

As a precaution, new evacuations were called Friday for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where the week-old twin fires are threatening about 9,000 homes.

The dual fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27 percent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated.

The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake but "it looks like there's dicey weather on the way," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said.

However, some days-old evacuations were lifted Friday in an area near Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft have been battling an immense blaze about 100 miles south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fire's southeastern flank were reopened to residents.

The so-called Carr Fire was 41 percent contained after killing six people and incinerating 1,067 homes.

Gov. Jerry Brown was scheduled to visit the fire area in Shasta County on Saturday.

The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber.

The blaze burned so furiously on July 26 that it created a "fire whirl." The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph, which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles.
The gubernatorial campaign of Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis is headed Monday to Miami.

DeSantis is attending a noon luncheon hosted by the Women's Republican Club of Miami, Federated to discuss his campaign to succeed Gov. Rick Scott. The luncheon is being held at Mojitos Cuban Cuisine, 8000 SW Eighth St.

Attendance is by invitation only.

DeSantis, of Palm Coast, is ahead of Florida Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam in the polls, with absentee voting already underway. Putnam was in Miami Thursday, visiting the Bay of Pigs museum and attending a forum hosted by the Federated Republican Women of North Dade.
The father accused of fatally stabbing his two young children was charged Sunday with two counts of capital murder, according to court records.

After a day on the run, Jean Pierre Ndossoka shot himself overnight before police found him - still alive - in his car in Pasadena.

He was rushed to Clear Lake Regional Hospital in stable condition with non-life-threatening wounds after authorities located him around 1 a.m., according to the Houston Police Department.

ATASCOCITA CRASH: Store clerk accused of selling minor alcohol before fatal crash

A day earlier, Ndossoka allegedly called his wife around 3:30 p.m. and told her he'd killed their kids, a 1-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy. The woman called 911 and rushed over to Ndossoka's apartment in southwest Houston.

When police showed up for a welfare check, they found both children stabbed to death, lying on the bed.

Ndossoka fled his home in the 10900 block of Fondren, and police put out a vehicle description and mounted a search.

Authorities did not immediately clarify how they located him.

The double slayings came shortly after Sabine Ntongo dropped her kids off at their father's for visitation. The couple had been married for six years and recently separated, police said.

Ndossoka doesn't appear to have any prior criminal history in Harris County. He's due in court Monday morning at 9 p.m., in front of Judge Robert Johnson.

The accused killer doesn't have an assigned attorney yet. If he's found guilty, he could face a death sentence.

Victoria Cheyne contributed to this report.
A man died after a shooting early Sunday outside an Alief apartment complex, according to police.

Some sort of disturbance broke out between two groups of people before 2:30 a.m. at The Victorian apartment homes on Coventry Square near Bissonnet.

SHOOTING: Gunmen kill customer outside Houston restaurant

It's not clear what led to the gunfire, but afterward the wounded man, identified as Aaron Duckworth, 40, drove himself to the corner of Cook and Shannon Hills, where he crashed and collapsed.

First responders rushed him to the hospital, where he later died.

The suspects are unknown at this time.
A man who was shot in the face during an overnight dispute drove himself to a nearby convenience store early Sunday for help, according to authorities.

Houston police rushed to the Busy Bee convenience store just after midnight Sunday in response to a person down call.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said the biggest challenge in his re-election campaign against Democrat Beto ORourke is complacency within GOP circles.

Speaking to more than 200 conservatives at a political conference in Austin, Cruz said hes having to spend a lot of time convincing people that while Democrats havent come close to winning a U.S. Senate seat in decades, this year is very different.

We do have a real race, Cruz said during the Resurgent Gathering, a conference organized by blogger and radio host Erick Erickson. We are taking it deadly serious.

Cruz said people have frequently doubted how much trouble he faces this year. He said several people have said to him that its Texas. How could a Republican possibly lose?

But this is not an ordinary cycle, Cruz said.

He said the political left is energized and angry. Plus, polls show a tight race and ORourke is badly outraising him when it comes to campaign money. He said if Republicans turn out their numbers, hell be fine. But if there is a drop-off, the race gets a lot more concerning for him.

The danger is that they stay home, Cruz said. That they are less energized.

Cruz also used his speech to warn that ORourke, if elected, has said he would vote to impeach President Trump. Cruz has called that radical.

As bad as I thought Obama was, I didnt call for him to be impeached, Cruz said.

Cruzs statements were made at a conference that was organized largely by Republicans who havent been shy in stating their opposition to President Trump. Erickson has called the gathering a chance to find common ground for conservatives who are not supportive of the president.

Cruz highlighted his own disagreements with Trump, specifically pointing out his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month in Helsinki.

That press conference was a mistake, Cruz said to a loud round of applause. I dont think the American president ought to be apologizing for Russian aggression.

But Cruz tempered that criticism by quickly saying the reaction from the left was unhinged and was too extreme.

Cruzs presentation was interrupted at one point by a lone protester who held up a sign that said Cruz was a Russian Bootlicker. The protester yelled Youre a coward, Ted as he was removed from the hotel ballroom in Austin where the Resurgent Gathering was taking place.

After the meeting, Cruz pushed back at reporters when asked if hes been too reserved in his disagreements with Trump on issues like Russia and international trade.

On policy issues where I disagree with him, I have said that directly to the president and Ive said it publicly, Cruz said.

Cruz said one example is trade policies, pointing out he has disagreed with the White House. But Cruz also was quick to point out that there is a lot of disagreement even within the White House on how trade is being handled.

There is a vigorous debate within the Trump Administration right now on trade, Cruz said.

Hours after Cruz spoke, the group heard from U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor. Perry mostly used his 30-minute discussion to praise Trumps approach on energy. He specifically praised Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate agreement and for getting out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Early, Erickson asked Perry about becoming Energy Secretary after initially trying to run for president.

God's got a plan, Perry said. Sometimes its not your plan. I really thought I was supposed to be president of the United States. Well, that's what I thought."

jeremy.wallace@chron.com

Twitter.com/JeremySWallace
Youre entitled to your own opinions, Daniel Patrick Moynihan supposedly said, but not to your own facts. Fair enoughbut are you entitled to the governments facts? The Environmental Protection Agency increasingly thinks so.

In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on April 30, the EPA announced a new standard governing the agencys reliance on scientific studies in formulating regulations for clean water and air. Specifically, the agency proposed to give the public broad access to all pivotal regulatory science materials related to new EPA regulationsincluding studies, models, and analyses that drive the magnitude of the [agencys] cost-benefit calculation, the level of a standard, or point-of-departure from which a reference value is calculated. The agency would henceforth promote the disclosure of scientific studies and other data critical to the calculation of a final regulatory standard or level, or to the quantified costs, benefits, risks, or other impacts on which a final regulation is based.

The EPAs explanation was straightforward: its clean air and water regulations rely heavily on scientific data, models, and projections, and before it announces new regulations that impose significant burdens, the agency should ensure that the public has access to this information. This would allow all parties affected by a new regulation to scrutinize the studies on which the rule is based, to make sure that the numbers add up.

As the EPA noted, such transparency and scrutiny are especially valuable in an era when the scientific community has been shaken by reports that a troubling proportion of peer-reviewed preclinical studies are not reproducible, in the words of a 2014 Science editorial. [C]onfidence in results is of paramount importance, the editorial observed. Science advances on a foundation of trusted discoveries. By the same token, regulatory advances must rely on trusted science if they are to retain democratic and technocratic legitimacy. Too often, though, regulators fall short of that standardas Manhattan Institute senior fellow Oren Cass observed in a 2017 National Affairs essay, Policy-Based Evidence Making.

This isnt the first time that such calls have been heard. In 2009, President Barack Obama demanded greater transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking so that the public could trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions. The EPAs own recent call for greater transparency in its operations would seem to be a concession to its critics, who allege that the agency, under Administrator Scott Pruitt, has been too secretiveor worse. (Facing ethics investigations, Pruitt resigned in July; an interim successor is leading the agency.) Indeed, groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists have previously urged more openness. Scientific integrity requires public access to the science that underlies decisions as well as to information regarding how decisionmakers used that science, the UCS declared in a 2017 report aimed at the incoming Trump administration. Such access, it added, can be granted while maintaining necessary confidentiality and respecting privacy concerns (such as those regarding medical data).

Yet when the EPA announced its intention to make regulatory science more transparent, the same groups erupted with outrage. Even the UCS joined the opposition. The EPA is reportedly on the verge of restricting the science that EPA can use in decision-making, the research director of UCSs Center for Science and Democracy complained, and Im livid. Critics now argue that requiring agencies to rely on transparent scientific information will prevent the agencies from making use of scientific studies based on confidential data setsbecause some laws require confidentiality, or because the researchers had volunteered to keep participants information confidential, or for other reasons.

The EPA believes that its possible to minimize such problems through simple data masking, coding, and de-identification techniques. It cited a National Academies report that concluded: Nothing in the past suggests that increasing access to research data without damage to privacy and confidentiality rights is beyond scientific reach. And the EPAs proposed rule would not categorically mandate disclosure where law or necessity requires otherwise. Rather, it would provide only that the EPA shall clearly identify all studies (or other regulatory science) relied upon when it takes any final agency action. EPA should make all such studies available to the public to the extent practicable. Of course, the new standard should be applied evenhandedly. Some have called on the EPA to exempt proprietary data or confidential business information from any disclosure requirement, but singling out this information for special protection would undermine the proposals credibility.

Other critics have called the proposal an attack on science itself. They have it backward: the new openness would diminish the ability of the EPA and others to invoke science as an excuse for regulatory opacity and unaccountability. Science, after all, depends on transparencyas does good government. As one pro-science group urged in a 2004 report: Full access to scientific information is critical for informed, transparent decision making.

That pro-science group? The Union of Concerned Scientists. Its 2004 report, attacking the Bush administration for being too secretive, was titled Scientific Integrity in Policy Making. Sometimes hypocrisy is transparent, too.

Photo: Skyhobo/iStock
LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Burglary, Clarence Avenue: Police responded at about 11 a.m. July 29 to an apartment. Officers found evidence that the apartment had been broken into and that items were missing.

Grand theft of a vehicle, Ramona Avenue: A man called police at about 4:15 a.m. July 27 to report that his vehicle, which had been parked in the street, was missing and that some of his belongings that had been in the vehicle were in the parking space. Police entered information about the stolen vehicle into a statewide computer network.

Petty theft from car, Ramona Avenue: A second vehicle owner on Ramona reported at about 5 a.m. July 27 that their vehicle had been gone through.

Assault, Madison Avenue: Police took a report at about 7:20 p.m. Aug. 2 about an assault at Madison Park. A juvenile told police that he was assaulted by a 22-year-old man. Officers report that the juvenile had a lump on the right side of his head.

Robbery, West 117th Street: At about 10 a.m. Aug. 2, police responded to Fifth Third Bank in response to multiple bank alarms. Officers learned that a man had handed a teller a note saying he wanted big bills only. He fled on foot with cash in a shopping bag. Officers caught a suspect at the nearby RTA station.

Felony drugs, Elbur Avenue: Police responded at about 12:30 a.m. Aug. 2 to a home on a report of a woman yelling for help and the noise of glass breaking. Officers arrested a woman on a felony drug charge.

Petty theft, Detroit Avenue: Officers responded at about 10 p.m. Aug. 1 to Giant Eagle on a report that a man had left the store northbound on foot with bags of groceries for which he hadn't paid. Police found a suspect on Clifton. He was charged with petty theft.

Disorderly conduct, Detroit Avenue: Police stopped a car at about 12:27 a.m. July 29 for a traffic violation. They ended up arresting a man for disorderly conduct while intoxicated, possessing drug paraphernalia and having an open container of alcohol. His car was towed from the scene.

Criminal damaging, Detroit Avenue: Police responded at about 2:15 a.m. July 29 to National Tire and Battery after receiving a report that someone had broken a window and run down an alley. Police searching the area found two suspects, one of whom had a hand injury. Police arrested one of the men for disorderly conduct while intoxicated and criminal damaging. They charged the second man with disorderly conduct. Both were released to a responsible party on citations.

Impaired driving, Beach Avenue: An officer stopped a car at about 7:40 p.m. July 29 for a traffic violation and arrested the male driver for operating a vehicle while impaired. The car was towed from the scene.

Theft, Edwards Avenue: A resident called police at about 10 a.m. July 28 to report that packages had been stolen from the porch.

Disorderly conduct, Detroit Avenue: Police responded at about 12:30 p.m. July 29 to Giant Eagle regarding an unresponsive man in a restroom. The man was revived with two doses of Narcan before Rocky River paramedics transported him to a hospital. Police are charging the man with disorderly conduct while intoxicated and possessing drug abuse instruments and drug paraphernalia.

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LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Sometimes in life, the best moments are when we actively choose to come out of our comfort zone. That's exactly what Lakewood resident and 2018 St. Joseph Academy graduate Mary Sessions did during a weeklong mission trip in June to the Dominican Republic.

"I was terrified going in," said Sessions, 18. "I had never left the country before, and I don't know any Spanish. I was really scared, because it's a Third World country and it's not necessarily safe."

The incoming John Carroll University freshman said any concerns were allayed fairly early after arriving in the Caribbean nation and seeing all of the smiles.

"Going in, I knew there was going to be a lot of poverty and a lot of pollution," said Sessions, who has been volunteering around Northeast Ohio since seventh grade and last year traveled to New Orleans to work with the poor.

"That was something that was very true, but what I didn't expect was the joy that the people had and the sense of community that they all shared. Just how willing they were to help each other and really make the best of what they had. It was just a great trip all around. I didn't expect what I did, what I saw."

The trip included 13 St. Joseph Academy students who painted 29 houses, led 100 young children at a community vacation Bible school and volunteered at the medical clinic shadowing registered nurses, pharmacists and nurse practitioners while they interacted with more than 300 patients.

The latter was of a particular interest for Sessions, who wants to pursue a career in medicine. While helping out at the free health clinic, she assisted by testing blood-sugar levels and completing urine tests.

"That was cool, just to be really hands on and involved with the patients as they were being seen by the doctors," Sessions said. "It really kind of firmed up that this is what I want to do with my life, which is to help other people."

While in the Dominican Republic, Sessions was joined by St. Joseph Academy theology teacher and service coordinator Kristen Pungitore.

"Even as a freshman, Mary put her heart and soul into everything she did," Pungitore said. "She has always been a joy to be with. Serving in the Dominican Republic, Mary reminded me of the special person that she is.

"Without ever taking Spanish, Mary helped to communicate the essentials about foot care at the health clinic, taught sessions at our vacation Bible school and volunteered at the medicinal clinic checking patients in."

During their trip, Pungitore said she was amazed at how Sessions thrived on new challenges and built relationships.

"Mary is just the best," Pungitore said. "I'm so excited to see how she contributes to our city and our world as she grows up."

Sessions, who is open to going on another mission trip, said the experience was eye opening.

"I'm grateful for what I have," said Sessions, who plans to enter John Carroll University's Arrupe Scholars Program, a mission-based learning opportunity creating leaders for social action.

"It kind of made me look at things differently and think about all of these wants I have, but they're not necessarily needs. And that I have so much already."
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Boaters and birders have been upfront about their opposition to the six-turbine Icebreaker Wind project planned for Lake Erie, but a new, powerful voice of resistance has recently emerged: Big Coal.

In documents and sworn statements filed with the Ohio Power Siting Board on Thursday, the wind farm developers presented evidence that Murray Energy Corp. has been bankrolling anti-Icebreaker consultants, as well as lawyers representing two Bratenahl residents who have testified against the project.

Cody E. Nett, a spokesman for Murray Energy, confirmed the company's involvement by e-mail and said, "Murray Energy is pleased that its outside counsel... can assist the Bratenahl residents to prevent Icebreaker from steam-rolling this project through the Ohio Power Siting Board certification process without the public scrutiny and opposition that it deserves."

Robert Murray, of Moreland Hills, is the founder and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the nation's largest privately-owned coal company.

Robert Murray, who has homes in Moreland Hills and Belmont County, is the founder and CEO of the nation's largest privately-owned coal company, with 16 active mines in five states and Colombia, South America. As coal sales plunge and hundreds of coal-fired power plants are shut down across the country, green energy facilities such as Icebreaker pose a formidable new source of competition for Murray's coal companies.

Even if Murray had wanted to intervene in the state certification process for Icebreaker, he likely would have been denied, said David Karpinski, vice president of operations for the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation. Interveners must first file a request to participate in the decision-making process with the siting board, which is responsible for reviewing applications for the construction of major utility facilities such as power plants and wind farms.

As a potential direct competitor of the $126 million Icebreaker project, Murray Energy probably wouldn't have been allowed to intervene before the siting board, Karpinski said.

Nor could Murray Energy have worked to oppose Icebreaker by putting its substantial resources behind the Campaign for American Affordable and Reliable Energy, a trade group whose stated mission is "to protect, preserve and promote America's affordable and reliable coal-fired electricity generation." The state siting board denied three previous attempts by the group to intervene in wind projects after finding that the group objected to wind farms in general and would not be impacted directly by any of the projects.

Trish Demeter, vice president of energy policy at the Ohio Environmental Council, said Murray's behind-the-scenes activity in the Icebreaker case is an example of "his no-holds-barred approach at stymieing Ohio's energy future."

"At the OEC, we've long suspected Murray Energy was involved in whipping up opposition to wind energy in Ohio, but seeing the hard evidence of that opposition is still shocking," Demeter said.

By opposing the application to place North America's first freshwater offshore wind farm in Ohio, "Murray Energy is grasping at straws to keep its business relevant in an era of unstoppable trends towards clean, renewable energy," Demeter said.

Murray Energy apparently violated no laws or guidelines by financing the lawyers and consultants. Matt Schilling of the siting board said the agency relies on the Ohio Revised Code and administrative codes when deciding motions to intervene. Karpinski, said Murray Energy's actions were deceptive, but not unlawful.

Environmental groups such as the OEC, the National Audubon Society and the Sierra Club have spoken on behalf of Icebreaker, planned for 8-to-10 miles out in the lake, northwest of downtown Cleveland. Government and business supporters predict the wind farm project will create more than 500 jobs, add $168 million to the region's economy and generate cheap green electricity for decades.

Robert Maloney and Susan Dempsey, Bratenahl residents approved as interveners, testified that they did not pay their personal attorney, John Stock of the Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff firm, in return for his representation in the siting board process. Each also testified in a sworn deposition that they were not aware Murray Energy was paying for Stock to represent them before the state board. Maloney said he thought Stock might be working pro bono.

Both said they had not read the siting board's staff report recommending approval of the Icebreaker project, according to their depositions.

In his deposition, Maloney, the owner of a company that buys and sells petroleum products, said he's primarily opposed to wind turbines marring his view of Lake Erie from his 11th floor condo patio located on the lakeshore.

"I didn't want anything in Lake Erie, it's a beautiful, pristine body of water," Maloney said. "I'm just opposed to putting something that's affixed in the lake that's an industrial entity, and I'm just opposed to putting it in freshwater."

Maloney said he had no problem with a coal company executive paying his legal bills.

"No, I'm not opposed to coal," Maloney said. "I assume that [Murray] is against the windmills."

Nett, the company spokesman, commended Maloney and Dempsey for standing up for Lake Erie, "a natural resource that the state holds in trust for the benefit of Ohio residents, not for the benefit of a private, for-profit subsidiary of Norwegian wind energy developer Fred Olsen Renewables.

"That for-profit entity is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for lawyers and other hired minions in its attempt to foist this wrong-headed, disastrous project on the people of Ohio," Nett wrote.

In a September 11, 2017, letter obtained by The Plain Dealer, Richard Brown of Exponent Inc., a consultant hired to analyze the economic viability of a small wind farm such as Icebreaker, said Murray Energy was responsible for paying him $430 an hour, plus expenses. Attorney Stock, working on behalf of Murray Energy, hired Exponent for the consulting project, according to the letter.

Reaction to the revelation of Murray Energy's anti-Icebreaker involvement came swiftly from the project's developer.

"We are disappointed, but not entirely surprised, that big coal is secretly funding an attack on Icebreaker Wind," said LEEDCo's Karpinski.

Murray, a devoted supporter of President Trump, rails against former President Barak Obama in a message on the company's web site:

"Americans must understand that the closure of 411 coal-fired power plants, over 100,000 megawatts, by the Obama Administration jeopardizes the reliability of our electric power grid and the low cost of electricity," Murray's statement reads.

"This destruction of our industry will hurt poor families the worst and make the manufacturing of American products less competitive in the world marketplace. Low cost electricity, a staple of our lives, is threatened."

Other analysts have concluded that coal lost ground mostly because other sources of power became cheaper. A recent report in the American Economic Journal found that lower prices for natural gas and the rise of wind power could account for "68 percent to 100 percent of observed changes" in the use of coal. (NOTE: see page 115 of https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20150321)

According to Lazard's 2017 Levelized Cost of Energy report, which is widely considered to be an industry benchmark, wind power tends to be cheaper than electricity generated with coal.

The levelized cost of electricity is an average lifetime price for power from a generating unit, including both capital and operating costs. Lazard says coal costs $60 to $143 per megawatt hour, compared to $30 to $60 for wind. Offshore wind power generally costs more than turbines built on dry land.

In an interview with The Plain Dealer last year, Murray said he wants to get the government out of the regulation business and has been working closely with the Trump administration to undo Obama's "regulatory rampage" targeting coal-fired power plants.

Murray does not believe industrial society is causing climate change and hopes to convince Trump to classify carbon dioxide as harmless and to get rid of Obama's Clean Power Plan, he told The Plain Dealer.

Murray Energy has sought greater regulation in one area: It asked the Trump Administration to compel electrical utilities to keep buying power from coal-fired plants, even if that would be more expensive for consumers.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry adopted that argument, saying that the reliability of the national electrical grid depended upon preserving plants that could store a 90-day supply of fuel on site. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unanimously rejected his proposal in January, saying the evidence it received did not "point to any past or planned generator retirements that may be a threat to grid resilience." (Note: See https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-rejects-doe-nopr-kicking-resilience-issue-to-grid-operators/514334/, or see page 8 of the attached FERC ruling.)
Lelectricite est devenue, de nos jours, un besoin dune importance majeure, et cela, dans tous les domaines dactivite. Que ce soit dans les maisons ou []
PIKETON, Ohio - Richard Kreager is quick to share his most embarrassing photos: The one where he is handcuffed on the side of the road, surrounded by police officers, or the shot of him lying in a hospital bed, hooked to a ventilator, his kidneys shutting down.

Each, he says, serves as a cautionary tale of his addiction to methamphetamine.

"They say one time is too many, and 10,000 times are never enough,'' said Kreager, 35, of Dublin, who has been in a southern Ohio recovery program since the spring. "It's just as bad as heroin."

In Ohio, the number of people, like Kreager, who are addicted to meth is increasing dramatically, authorities say. The drug's use has surged across the state, leading police to seize record amounts of the mind-altering stimulant. Users go on binges that leave them wired and hallucinating for days, according to court records and interviews with police, counselors and patients in treatment.

Medical treatment specialists said that once taken, meth hits the body quickly, enabling an excessive amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine to flood the brain's reward system, creating a frantic high. The drug also brings on extreme paranoia, as well as violence and mood swings.

When the high is gone, users can feel extreme depression and suicidal thoughts. To avoid that, users take more of the drug. And there is no medication to treat meth addiction, unlike opioid addiction.

A state report, released in late July, says the drug's usage has jumped alongside Ohio's deadly opioid epidemic. The report shows that many people addicted to opioids have begun using meth as well to cushion the deep crash of heroin and similar drugs.

The report, by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, also found that some users, who fear dying from powerful synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil, which are often mixed into heroin, have switched to meth.

Meth, however, can kill. While the number of people who die from a meth-related overdose is a small fraction of Ohio's total number of drug deaths, it has ballooned in recent years.

In 2013, 49 people died from a meth or other psychostimulant overdose. By 2016, the death count rose to 233, according to the most recent year of complete figures from the Ohio Department of Health. Preliminary figures for 2017 show 526 people died from a meth overdose.

In its report, the state mental health agency offers a detailed examination of the re-emergence of the drug, its evolution and how it has become so widely prevalent throughout the state.

The state report provides perhaps the most accurate portrait of the state's illicit drug trends, although Ohio does not require local law enforcement to report the number of cases, seizures, or the purity of captured drugs.

A drug's evolution

The meth that has led users to fill jails and treatment centers is not the toxic concoction that gripped the state 10 years ago. Back then, most meth was a homemade cocktail made by backyard chemists mixing cold medicine, lithium extracted from batteries and solvents in pop bottles.

Additives such as Drano, fiberglass and battery acid also have been found in meth, the state mental health department's report says.

Today, the drug is mass-produced and shipped to Ohio from Mexico and the southwest United States, according to court documents and interviews. The high-gloss substance looks like hard candy but damages a person's brain and organs, one hit at a time.

"It's pharmaceutical grade,'' said Dr. Mark Hurst, the director of the state department of mental health and addiction services. "The purity level is so much greater than in the past.''

While there are still rogue cooks mixing the drug in Ohio, the numbers have dropped off.

In fiscal year 2012, authorities shut down 607 meth labs in Ohio. Five years later, law enforcement departments grabbed 239, according to figures local police agencies voluntarily reported to the Ohio attorney general's office.

"Mexican drug cartels are not only pushing opioids into Ohio, but they also are flooding this state with cheap methamphetamine to get people hooked,'' said Mike DeWine, the state's attorney general, following a June raid.

That's evident along the state's roadways. In 2013, the Ohio State Highway Patrol seized 24 pounds of methamphetamine. This year, through late July, troopers have grabbed 303 pounds.

In recent months, state and federal officials made large-scale seizures, as well. Consider:

In March, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and local police grabbed about 140 pounds of meth in an investigation in Hudson. They arrested three men, two from Mexico. It was thought to be the largest raid in Ohio.

In June, state and local police arrested three men and charged them with racketeering and running a large-scale meth ring in Lancaster, southeast of Columbus. The ring, police said, distributed pounds of the drug in Fairfield and Licking counties. Investigators seized $30,000 in cash, four vehicles and a stolen stump grinder.

In July, federal prosecutors in Dayton charged seven people with a wide-ranging conspiracy to ship meth from Mexico to Southwest Ohio. DEA agents in Dayton and local police found 140 pounds of the drug.

On July 24, U.S. District Judge James Gwin sentenced Jesus Caro Lopez, a Mexican national, to 24 years in prison for his role in shipping 20 pounds of meth to Cleveland. Caro Lopez wanted to set up a drug distribution network and launder profits through restaurants and properties, according to court documents that contained partial transcripts of calls secretly recorded by the FBI.

Authorities said the seizures indicate the increased demand for the drug. But for every major bust they make, police fear other large shipments pull into the state undetected.

The meth comes in hidden compartments in cars and trucks and unused diesel tanks in semi-tractor trailers, according to court records and interviews.

In the Caro Lopez case, a drug courier brought his mother-in-law on a trip, to provide a foil in the event law enforcement officers stopped the car, according to court records.

"The appetite for meth is really increasing,'' said Dennis Lowe, the officer who led the investigation into the Lancaster case. "It is becoming the drug of choice for people here.''

Methamphetamine costs about $30 to $70 a gram in many parts of the state. Heroin costs about $100 to $150 a gram.

'A daily struggle'

Treatment officials in Cuyahoga and Summit counties said they have seen methamphetamine added to several drugs, including fentanyl. Part of the reason is that meth can balance out the lows that result from using opioids.

"I hate the crash. I really do,'' said Kennedy Shriver, a 17-year-old from Plain City in Madison County. "That's why I used [meth]. I took other drugs, and I became really depressed.

"It's an everyday battle, especially for me at my age. But I don't want to be [at a treatment facility] when I'm 40.''

Kreager, the recovering meth user from Dublin, and Shriver are seeking treatment at Freedom Hall Recovery Center in Piketon, a 48-bed, nonprofit, inpatient facility in Pike County, one of the poorest counties in Ohio. It is also a county that drug dealers have targeted as a place to peddle an assortment of drugs, according to state reports and interviews with drug agents.

Angie Pelphrey, the director of Freedom Hall, said the center had one or two people seeking treatment for meth five years ago. Today, there are a dozen.

Ethan Stone is one of them. He began using meth to get off heroin.

Along the way, Stone, 27, from Cynthiana, Kentucky, became so desperate to plunge a syringe filled with meth into his arm that he once used water from a puddle to inject the drug.

"I got so bad [on meth] that I would steal your wallet and help you look for it,'' he said. "If my [family members] didn't bolt everything down in our house, I would take it.''

For Stone and others, meth's stranglehold is difficult to break. Medical experts say its chemicals cause extreme neurological damage that can last a lifetime, even after quitting.

A last chance for many

Many at Freedom Hall are there because a judge, parole officer or family member forced them into the faith-based program.

Kreager is one.

He said he has been hospitalized four times with kidney failure because of his meth use. He said he once tried to break into the Licking County Sheriff's Office while hallucinating.

He has been at Freedom Hall for 21/2 months.

His family brought him there soon after his latest troubles. At 4:30 a.m. March 4, Kreager drove the wrong way on State Route 11, near Youngstown, according to state highway patrol reports.

When a trooper pulled Kreager from his car, he refused to listen to the officer, a report said. The trooper used a Taser to control him. A Trumbull County grand jury indicted him July 17 on charges of failure to comply with a police officer, a third-degree felony.

His lawyer, Sam Amendolara, said he is "hoping the new charges will not affect [Kreager's] recovery, but the case is a long way from being over.''

On the day the grand jury returned its indictment, Kreager was hundreds of miles away. He was upbeat and happy. He hugged fellow patients at Freedom Hall, told strangers that he loved them, and laughed easily at jokes from counselors.

Despite it all, he knew he was, and always will be, just a step away from relapsing. He has the pictures to prove it.
PIKETON, Ohio - Robert Carter returned from four years in the Navy in 2003 to his hometown of Portsmouth a broken man.

He had two to three nightmares each time he slept, many about his time while enlisted and the death of a friend and crew mate on the USS Nassau, Dwayne Williams.

"I watched Dwayne drown right in front of me [in the Atlantic Ocean],'' Carter said. "I was told not to jump in because the Navy had people to do that job. I [see his death] every night and even through the day.''

He struggled to leave his home, and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. In Portsmouth, he found a community ravaged by illegal pill mills and cheap, readily available methamphetamine.

Meth, a stimulant, gives users a powerful high that can keep them awake for days. That was the attraction for Carter.

"I didn't want to go to sleep; I was afraid of the nightmares," Carter said. "So, I self-medicated. And then I became everyone's nightmare.''

At the time, small-time cooks brewed meth in pop bottles using cold tablets and solvents, creating a small, crude amount for themselves and a few users. Carter fell hard for it, as do many with PTSD.

A University of Arkansas study found that people with the disorder were ''significantly more likely'' to use methamphetamine, and use it longer, than those who did not have the disorder but were exposed to trauma. Meth intensifies mental health issues, according to researchers.

Julie Weinandy, the vice president of medical services at A Renewed Mind, a treatment center in Northwest Ohio, said the harsh chemicals in meth can damage the brain, hurting a user's ability to think rationally, and causing severe paranoia in which a person cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy.

For instance, chronic meth users while high often believe something is crawling under their skin. They dig with their fingernails, seeking to uproot the sensation. Users call them "meth mites,'' but they are actually hallucinations.

Medical treatment specialists said that once taken, meth causes an excessive amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine to flood the brain's reward system, creating a frantic high. The drug brings on violence and mood swings.

When the high is gone, users can feel extreme depression and suicidal thoughts. Unlike opioids, there is no medication to treat an addiction to meth.

'A smurf,' then a cook

In about 2010, Carter became what meth cooks call a ''smurf,'' a person who drives to various stores and pharmacies to purchase the drug's ingredients, including cold medication, which they would pull out from the plastic packs.

Carter said he soon began cooking his own stash, something he did for about four years. Along the way, he smoked it, swallowed it and later plunged needles full of it into his arm. He contracted Hepatitis C, a viral infection that can damage the liver. His kidneys shut down, and his body became severely weakened. His mind raced, and he grew paranoid and violent, he said.

On Feb. 12, 2014, he held family members hostage after having used the drug for several days, Carter said. Police were called, and Carter begged the officers to shoot him. They didn't. They did use a Taser on him, and they rushed him to a hospital as his organs were shutting down.

Seven months after he left the hospital, Carter said he injected a gram of meth into his arm. Then, at 4 a.m. Sept. 24, he drove to a Walmart in New Boston, a small village that borders Portsmouth, to buy chemicals to cook more meth.

"I was out of my mind, just gone,'' he said.

Store employees called police, based on his suspicious purchase. He was arrested in the parking lot and charged with the illegal possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs.

He pleaded guilty in Scioto County Common Pleas Court and served about two years in the Pickaway Correctional Institution.

"When I was in prison, I had plenty of chances to use. But I didn't,'' Carter said. "When I got out, I didn't think that I would go back to it.''

But he did.

His addiction overcame him, and he quickly relapsed.

A more intense high

In 2016, after Carter was released from prison, much of the meth in Portsmouth was no longer being cooked in garages and backyards. It had a high degree of purity. It was being manufactured in Mexico and shipped north.

He said he could throw a rock and hit a place in town that sold the new form of meth.

"The [locally produced meth] would keep you up for 24 hours or so,'' he said. "This stuff, from Mexico, will keep you up for days. The high is more intense. And when you try to stop, it is almost impossible. People have done it, but it is really, really hard work.''

Carter didn't have a choice. He had to enter a treatment center or face a return trip to prison.

At 38, Carter checked into Freedom Hall Recovery Center in Piketon, a tiny community in Pike County, where he has been for five months. The residential drug treatment center for 48 patients focuses on group therapy and individual counseling. Freedom Hall is a nonprofit funded by private donations.

There is no medically approved way to treat an addiction to meth, medical experts said. But they are quick to explain that in-patient treatment assists in overcoming the addiction.

Since he arrived, Carter has seen counselors and attended daily meetings. He is surrounded by others who struggle to fight the high meth offers.

For him, the treatment appears to be working. His nightmares have dropped from two or three a night to two or three a week, he said.

"I've never felt better in my life,'' he said.

Last month, at a group therapy session at Freedom Hall, Carter fought to keep still. While others spoke, he tried to listen. The effects of the drug still linger. But he broke into a huge smile when a counselor began dancing at the end of the session.

Recovery is hard, and he knows how easy it would be outside the treatment center to find drugs.

"We can spot our own,'' Carter said. "We can spot their actions. How they walk. How they look over their shoulders because they're so paranoid. How their skin is hanging off their bones. How their teeth and mouths are a mess. They look like they are zombies.''

But he resists. He wants to re-unite with his six children. He wants to take advantage of his computer repair skills.

Most of all, he wants to avoid another relapse that could send him back to prison.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - You wouldn't know from all the national coverage that LeBron James isn't paying for everything at his new I Promise School in Akron.

He's paying for part of it. A good part of it.

But it's also a public school within the Akron school district, which means that taxpayers will pay for the bulk of the costs.

The exact breakdown of expenses for the new I Promise School is unclear, since the district and the LeBron James Family Foundation are still sorting out final details of their contract. But the district will pay more than half the costs - perhaps around 75 percent - once it is fully running.

District officials are walking a fine line this week as they try to explain how the new school, which aims to help at-risk students, will work.

On the one hand, James and his foundation are making a huge gift to the city and its students to complete a vision James says he has been developing for years.

The foundation says it's spending about $2 million for the school's first year, including startup costs. It has also committed to spending $2 million or more a year when the school has grown to capacity. The exact amount is still to be determined.

In addition, James' name is also instrumental in drawing the community support that will let the school help some of the most struggling kids in the city.

"This school would not have happened without the partnership with LeBron James," said district Treasurer Ryan Pendleton.

On the other hand, I Promise is a district school. It's not a private school or even a charter school, a form of public schools that are funded with tax dollars but are privately-run.

Though James will have a huge influence on the school, I Promise will be run by the district.

It's a district-owned building. The district will hire and pay the teachers and administration. Kids will ride district buses to school. And they will all eat the free breakfast and lunch the district gives all students.

I Promise will eventually cost about $8 million a year to run out of the district's regular budget, covered mostly by shifting students, teachers and money from other schools, the district says.

"The coverage made it look like the whole thing is his," said district spokesman Mark Williamson. "He did a lot, but taxpayers should know it's their investment too."

James and his Family Foundation have donated millions over the last several years to the school district and to kids in the city where he grew up. Some have come through the dropout prevention program he started called I Promise, which identifies kids who are falling behind in school and offers support to keep them enrolled, learning and on the path to graduation.

The new I Promise school gives the program a home to concentrate services. It will take in in about 120 students per grade, selected by random lottery from students who are behind their peers in classwork. That's a quarter of Akron's at-risk students at each grade level, the district says, but the I Promise program will continue working with the other students who remain at other schools.

Since the school is new, it opened this week with just the third and fourth grades, but it will add grades each year until it covers first through eighth grade.

The foundation says it has spent about $2 million this year, largely to redesign and refurnish the building at 400 West Market St., a district building which has been used for several schools over the years. Most times, it was a temporary home for students while their main school was being demolished and rebuilt.

About $500,000 of the foundation's contributions this year, and likely more, will continue. Those cover extra teachers to reduce class sizes to 23 students per-teacher at most, staff training and I Promise's after-school program.

That only covers two grades, so those costs will quadruple to $2 million a year as the school grows to all eight grades.

The $2 million would be about a fifth of the schools total costs, but the foundation's share will also increase in other ways.

This year's costs also include hiring two people to manage the "wraparound" social services the school will have for students. The school will follow the same pattern of providing social services to students - like counseling, health checkups, food pantries, clothing and tutoring - used by districts like Cincinnati and Cleveland, along with a few other Akron schools.

The foundation will hire a coordinator for the school, who will work with different service agencies to locate help for students. Sometimes other agencies provide the services for free, though there can be costs at times.

How much these costs increase over time is still not determined.

James and the foundation have also provided each student with a bicycle. James has said that he used to ride his bicycle to escape his neighborhood at times, so he wants students to have them.

And then there is James' offer of free tuition at University of Akron to students in the program who graduate. They're not official costs of the school, which stops at eighth grade and doesn't include high school, but are part of the program's mission.

James announced the scholarships in 2015 for students that were in the I Promise program. The foundation says there are about 1,300 students already eligible for the scholarships between third and 10th grade, with the new I Promise School students to be added.

No scholarships have been given yet. The first eligible students wouldn't graduate high school and start college until 2021.

The university, not the foundation, is guaranteeing those scholarships, though the two are hoping to raise money to cover some costs.

The university and foundation are also working to develop an "I Promise Institute" at the university's InfoCision Stadium to manage and improve the program, study how it is working. In addition, the university will place student teachers at the new school.
John Kasich and Donald Trump. David A. Grogan | CNBC

President Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are both Republicans, but they are often at odds with each other. Yet, at least for the next few days, they share a goal: helping GOP candidate Troy Balderson avoid losing a longtime Republican House seat on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio governor endorsed Balderson for Tuesday's highly contested Ohio 12th District special election, calling him a "partner in turning around Ohio as we passed tax cuts and balanced the budget." Trump swooped in Saturday night to try to give the state senator Balderson a last-second boost, backing him during a raucous rally in Delaware, Ohio. On Monday, Balderson told reporters that the endorsements show his campaign has "unified the Republican Party" as he looks to beat Democrat Danny O'Connor in a close race for a typically safe GOP seat that Trump carried by 11 percentage points in 2016. If O'Connor can win in the red-leaning area that is more wealthy and highly educated than the typical congressional district, observers see a bad sign for the GOP as it tries to defend suburban swing seats and stop Democrats from taking a House majority in November. The president and governor's rare moment of consensus may help the GOP avoid another embarrassing special election loss similar to Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb's triumph in a red piece of southwestern Pennsylvania earlier this year. But the fact that Kasich and Trump's agreement is such a rare event also underscores how much the Republican base, even in Ohio, has evolved in Trump's image. "I think [Kasich is] not a true Republican, not a true conservative. ... I didn't like the way he didn't support President Trump," said Hassan Dakhteh, the owner of Stogies Cigar Lounge in Powell, a city north of Columbus. The Republican said he supports Balderson for Congress, mainly because he thinks the candidate will support Trump's agenda.

O'Connor aims to take advantage of Kasich, Trump differences

The vast majority of Republicans have coalesced around Trump and nearly all of his policies. But frustration with Trump among some Republicans, embodied by Kasich, has given an opening to O'Connor and other Democrats trying to win GOP-leaning districts this year. O'Connor, the 31-year-old Franklin County recorder, is trying to win over middle-of-the-road voters who feel put off by the GOP's turn toward Trump. Kasich's endorsement of Balderson may make those centrist voters more likely to vote Republican. But O'Connor on Tuesday downplayed Kasich's support for his opponent: "Sun rises in the East, sets in the West, Republican endorses Republican," he told CNBC. Still, the Democrat made a point to highlight the policies on which he agrees with the governor. Those include expansion of the federal and state Medicaid insurance program for low-income Americans and "red flag" laws that bar access to guns for people with a history of domestic violence or mental illness. "There are things that we can all agree on that move the country forward, and I'm glad that Kasich and I stand together on some of those," O'Connor said. O'Connor aims to win a district that Republicans have represented since Kasich himself first won the seat in 1982 at age 30. Democrats got an opening when Kasich's successor, GOP Rep. Pat Tiberi, resigned effective earlier this year to lead the Ohio Business Roundtable. O'Connor and Balderson will face off Tuesday for the right to fill the remainder of Tiberi's term into January, then run again in November for the next Congress.

The Kasich-Trump divide

Kasich has tried to cultivate a brand as a centrist fiscal conservative. That has set him at odds with Trump  and many of the Republican Trump voters who live in the area. Some of them consider Kasich too moderate and not supportive enough of the president.

Kasich broadly backs tax reform and free trade. He supports the federal and state Medicaid insurance for low-income Americans and moderate gun-control measures. The Ohio governor ran for president in 2016 and carried only his home state in the GOP primaries as Trump won the party's nomination. The president chided Kasich frequently about his primary record during the race, at one point calling him "1 for 42 John Kasich" in reference to the proportion of primaries he won. Kasich's allies have talked to donors about their interest in backing the governor should he challenge Trump in 2020, although the Ohio Republican has not made a decision on whether to run, CNBC reported earlier this year. Kasich has shredded many of Trump's policies. He has recently focused most of his ire on Trump's tariffs imposed on major trading partners China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union, calling the president's trade actions "terrible." Trump has dubbed his once  and potentially future  campaign rival a "failure" and a "dud" who is too soft on illegal immigration.

Many Republicans, even in Ohio, have echoed the president's criticism of the governor. No GOP voters who talked to CNBC in the 12th District last week said they would prefer Kasich over Trump in a hypothetical presidential primary. "Not unless he repents of his evil ways," Jeff Lutz said with a smile about whether he would vote for Kasich again. The Westerville, Ohio, man who works on personal computers wore a "Make America Great Again" hat and "Trump 2020" shirt Monday to a Newark, Ohio, rally where Vice President Mike Pence endorsed Balderson. Still, other voters who plan to support Balderson on Tuesday spoke positively about certain Kasich policies. A few GOP voters had particular praise for his support of Medicaid expansion.

Tight race down the stretch
Bill Hinton | Getty Images

When the phone rang, James Hunter's legs burned in pain. Ever since an accident when he was 30, he's been paralyzed from the waist down, and the relentless calls from Navient about his student loans triggered his nerves. "Any time my phone would ring, I would get an anxiety attack," Hunter, 44, said. His $60,000 in federal student loans have been canceled due to his severe disability, but Navient, one of the country's largest student loan servicers, is still collecting on his $40,000 in private loans. He sent the company notes from his doctor, and explained to them that he's in a wheelchair and unable to put his film degree to use, but to no avail. The calls continued. "They had my back against the wall with no remedy," Hunter said. "I felt hopeless." Now he's suing the company for damages from the harassment. Navient called Hunter nearly 2,000 times, according to his lawyer Billy Peerce Howard, from The Consumer Protection Firm in Tampa, Florida. Peerce Howard is currently working on around a dozen other cases, in addition to Hunter's, against Navient over its robocall practices. Nikki A. Lavoie, director of corporate communications at Navient, said many borrowers require one-on-one support to fully understand their options. "Direct communication is critical to address, resolve, and avoid delinquent and defaulted loans," Lavoie said.

Many robocalls are about debt

While a lot of the conversation around robocalls centers on scams, many of these calls are actually from companies collecting debt. In fact, 9 out of the top 10 robocallers in June were calling about people's arrears, according to YouMail, a robocall blocking service. Robocalls employ an automatic telephone dialer system, and when you pick up it can be a live person or a prerecorded message. The calls usually come in from different, and sometimes familiar, phone numbers so that you're more likely to pick them up.

As student debt in the country balloons, former students are increasingly the target of these calls. Outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. is now over $1.5 trillion, surpassing auto and credit card debt and only behind housing debt. Around 1 in 5 student loan borrowers in the main, federal direct loan program are currently delinquent, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of SavingForCollege.com. What's more, consumer advocates are worried these calls will increase if the Federal Communications Commission does not impose tighter regulations on these companies, something they worry will not happen under the Trump administration. "We're at war at the FCC," said Margot Saunders, a lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center. "On one side are consumers and people who are being called and harassed, and on the other side are callers, including Navient and other student loan servicers."

Student loan collectors fight to keep calling

In May, the Federal Communications Commission put out a request for comment on how the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which Congress passed in 1991 to prohibit companies from calling a person's cellphone without their permission, should be interpreted in regard to autodialers. Consumer advocates are concerned that the administration will side with the companies that want to keep calling consumers with less restriction. (In response to questions from a reporter, a spokesman for the FCC pointed to its initial public request for comment). Saunders pointed to how the commission has already postponed an Obama-era rule that imposed regulations on debt collectors using autodialers to contact people regarding federal debts, including that they cannot call people more than three times in a month.

Source: Navient

In a recent letter to the Federal Communications Commission, a group of three major student loan servicers, including the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group, argued that those rules were "arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion," and that they "will hinder parties from assisting borrowers and collecting federal debts." "They're saying, 'We can call you 100 times a day until you die and there's nothing you can do about it,'" said Peerce Howard at The Consumer Protection Firm.

Mistakes and other problems with autodialers

Last year, a handful of consumer advocacy groups wrote to the FCC, asking it to penalize Navient for robocalling student loan debtors, "repeatedly and abusively." In the complaint, the groups cite dozens of lawsuits against the company for its call practices. A number of the cases were brought by people who said they were receiving calls for a debt that is not even theirs. That's what happened to the Stein family. Shortly after Leah Stein graduated from law school, she started receiving urgent calls from Navient that she was behind on her debt. She had her own student loans, but had never missed a payment. "It made me nervous," Stein, 30, said. "I hoped I was paying the right thing." But it turned out Navient was looking for a Laurie Stein, not her, Leah Stein.

They're saying, 'We can call you 100 times a day until you die and there's nothing you can do about it.' William Peerce Howard lawyer at The Consumer Protection Firm

But even after she explained that they were calling the wrong person, the calls continued. Navient also repeatedly called her father, her mother and her brother about these delinquent loans that were not hers. Navient said it does not comment on pending litigation. The family is now suing Navient for its "haphazard and unchecked use of its autodialer system." Because the autodialing systems are so cheap to use  in one lawsuit, it's estimated to cost around 1 cent per minute  companies have no incentive to correct false information, said Peerce Howard of The Consumer Protection Firm. "They know they can harass the hell out of people and the vast majority of them will not be able to find a lawyer who can fight for them," he said. Saunders at the National Consumer Law Center said this approach to debt collection is dangerous and a more responsible method is needed. "People don't pay their student loan debt because they're disabled, they lost their jobs, or something bad has happened," she said. "Not because they have tons of money and they're seeing if they can get away with it." More from Personal Finance

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This summer, 13-year-old Jaequan Faulkner started a little business selling $2 hot dogs with $1 sodas and chips from a stand in front of his house in Minnesota.

But his self-made job was in jeopardy after someone sent an e-mail complaint to the Minneapolis Health Department. As it turned out, Faulkner was in fact operating as an unlicensed vendor with his lunchtime endeavor.

"They had told me somebody had complained," the young entrepreneur explained to CNBC's "On The Money" in an interview.

Faulkner unwittingly became the latest case in a stream of young kids trying to make money on the side  but running afoul of suspicious or angry adults. In an incident that went viral, one woman who became infamous as "Permit Patty" called authorities on a young girl selling water.

Dan Huff, environmental health director of the Minneapolis Health Department, told CNBC that "Before responding to the complaint, what we did was put on hold our response until we could figure out how to help him."

Faulkner said that "instead of shutting me down, city members got together to talk and said, 'OK, how can we help this kid, to get him situated?'"

Impressed by the young man's drive, health inspectors had decided to teach the young entrepreneur about proper food handling to assist him in getting his hot dog stand up to code.

The teen's stand passed inspection, and it was the inspectors themselves who paid the $87 fee for his "short term food permit," which he was granted on July 16.

"It just took off. He never gave up and he kept pushing forward. And pushing me along, pulling me along with him, " said Jaequan's uncle, Jerome Faulkner.

The hot dog stand serves a lunch crowd weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Jerome is hands-on too. "It's not easy working for a 13-year-old," his uncle joked to CNBC. He just says "'I need this, I need that,' and I just get it for him while he controls the cash register. He knows the cash register pretty well."

Jerome estimated that together, they've been selling "between 100, 150 hot dogs a day." His nephew plans to use his money for school clothes, but in the fall, he's hoping to remain in the food business  just after class.

"What's next for me is, I'm trying to get a little spot, a restaurant or something," Faulkner told CNBC. "Right when I get out of school I can go there and start working. Somewhere permanent, but it's just small and not big."

When asked what lessons he'll take away from his success this summer, he mentioned a piece of family wisdom.

"My auntie always told me, 'Can't nobody stop you but you.' If you say 'I can't do that,' well, then you just set yourself up for failure."

On the Money airs on CNBC Saturday at 5:30 am ET, or check listings for air times in local markets.


President Donald Trump on Sunday called an infamous 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between his son, Donald Trump Jr., and Russian lawyer "totally legal"  but acknowledged that its real purpose was to obtain damaging information on his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and not to discuss Russian adoptions.

In a stream of Twitter posts, Trump lashed out at the media and Robert Mueller's probe of suspected Russian interference in the general election. The president expressed frustration about how recent reports have suggested he's concerned about how his eldest son might be legally exposed, after having met with a Kremlin-affiliated lawyer at his father's New York City property.

The president branded the latest reporting as "a complete fabrication." Yet in an admission that may become legally problematic, Trump contradicted the original purpose behind why Trump Jr. took the meeting in the first place. Subsequent details have revealed Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer in question, was offering information derogatory to the Clinton campaign.

"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it," Trump tweeted.

Trump Tweet

But back in 2017, Trump's legal team released a statement that said Trump Jr. had "primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children" when they met in June 2016  which The Washington Post reported was directed by the president himself. At the time, Trump himself insisted the meeting was completely above board.

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow effectively admitted the pretext for the meeting was inaccurate. "I had bad information in that statement," Sekulow told the network. At one point, Sekulow denied that Trump had any role in constructing the Trump Tower statement.

ABC tweet
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Four Seasons Arena on July 5, 2018 in Great Falls, Montana.

In a stream of posts on Twitter, the president continued to harangue the press as the "enemy of the people" and said it "can also cause war." It came on the heels of a controversy stoked last week, when Trump revealed that he secretly met with the publisher of the New York Times in an off-the-record discussion.

President Donald Trump upped the ante in his attacks on the media early Sunday, unleashing a new broadside against journalists as "dangerous and sick," and dividing the electorate.

At rallies and on Twitter, the president often delights in blasting "fake news" as a destabilizing force in his presidency, with CNN, The Washington Post and The Times being the most regular targets of his ire. Yet Sunday's remarks come at a time when even a few conservative commentators have urged him to dial back his anti-press rhetoric.

On Saturday, right-leaning NYT columnist Bret Stephens penned an emotional piece entitled "Trump Will Have Blood on His Hands," which took aim at Trump's heated diatribes directed at the media.

Describing several instances when Trump supporters have threatened him, Stephens wrote that "the president is not coyly urging his supporters to murder reporters, like Henry II trying to rid himself of a turbulent priest. But neither is he the child who played with a loaded gun and knew not what he did."

Last week, Trump revealed that he had met secretly with A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times.

Trump called the interaction "very good and interesting," but that description was disputed by Sulzberger. While the president did not state when he met with Sulzberger, he tweeted that the two parties discussed "the vast amounts of fake news, and how that fake news has morphed into phrase, 'enemy of the people.'"

Sulzberger said he expressed concern about Trump's "deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric," and that it was "eroding" the U.S. commitment to free speech and an unrestrained press.
President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

A handshake agreement between the U.S. and the European Union reached in late July may have staved off the imposition of auto tariffs for German, French and Italian carmakers. Still, the White House is reserving the right to impose the tariffs on vehicles made in Canada, a senior administration official told CNBC on Friday. Ford, General Motors, Honda and Fiat Chrysler are among the automakers with operations in Canada. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters last month that getting the White House to back down from auto tariffs was a "major concession." Yet President Donald Trump is still directing the Commerce Department to finish the investigation and prepare a menu of options for the White House, even if Europe is exempt. "Probably sometime in the month of August we'll be willing to render a report. It may not be necessary, or it may be necessary. We will see," Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross told reporters aboard Air Force One on July 26. "But the work is continuing."

The suggestion comes as Canada remains on the sidelines of potential NAFTA negotiations, which the U.S. and Mexico continued in Washington last week. Mexico has maintained it would like a trilateral deal, with representatives maintaining close contact with Canadian counterparts, namely Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. "We speak to her almost every day," Mexico's foreign minister Luis Videgaray told reporters Friday. By contrast, talks between the Trump administration and Canada have been characterized as difficult, the senior U.S. official said, noting that relations had soured since Prime Minister Trudeau's press conference at the G7. The official acknowledged that with Mexico's election in the rear view, Trudeau's 2019 re-election bid may become a complicating factor. "Auto tariffs would not be good for Trudeau," the senior administration official said, without elaborating on at what point in talks the U.S. would potentially consider introducing them. Cameron Ahmad, a spokesman for the Canadian government, said, "We are in regular contact with our counterparts, and we look forward to continuing negotiations this month." A Canadian official suggested such comments be viewed as U.S. posturing amid active trade negotiations. Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. told The Globe and Mail he expected negotiations between the U.S. and Canada to resume "within the next 10 days." The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is leading NAFTA talks, declined to comment.

Continued engagement
Joshua McMullan is a historian, currently researching for a PhD at the University of Leicester. He is also a member of the Conservative Party.

Before I go any further, this is not whataboutery. The rise of antisemitism, and in particular antisemitism from the left, in the UK is a black mark against present-day British society. Decent people on all sides must unite to combat and drive out this most recent scourge and Labour must get to grips with this problem, adopting the IHRA working definition of antisemitism and removing antisemites from positions of power. Since the charity Campaign Against Antisemitism came out to declare Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite, under that IHRA definition, he too must go.

However, doing this will be very difficult while the Conservative Party continues to be tainted by its poor history of race relations  particularly with Black and Asian communities. A lot of this goes way back to the time of Empire and imperialism of the 19th and early 20th century, and I do not want to get into that today  that requires a book, not a small article.

Instead, I want to start on February 3rd, 1960. Harold Macmillan had just given his most historically important speech, often referred to as the Wind of Change speech in the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town. The speech had several objectives, first to set out why the policy of decolonisation was taking place, using the famous line: the wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact, referring to the rise of black African nationalism. Of greater significance, Macmillan set out the belief that decolonisation was a necessity to prevent communism from becoming an attractive option to African liberation movements.

The final objective was to set out to the Apartheid government in South Africa and the white minority government in what was then Southern Rhodesia (later just Rhodesia, and now Zimbabwe) that the policy of suppressing the black majority population could not continue any longer.

Apartheid, a method of organising a society that went against meritocracy and everything the Thatcherite revolution stood for, has rightly been consigned to the dustbin of history along with Nazism. Although many in the Conservative Party at the time supported Macmillans policy there were also many who did not and were stuck in the time warp between Britains imperial past and post-war Britain.

We move forward to 1964. The General Election of that year saw the most racist campaign in the constituency of Smethwick, where Peter Griffiths refused to disown the slogan If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour. Four years later, Enoch Powell gave his infamous Rivers of Blood speech, which further stoked the flames of racial division and mistrust.

These are just two examples, but there was also opposition to decolonisation and black majority rule from the likes of Patrick Wall and Julian Amery, and support for Apartheid from the Conservative Monday Club, which later went on to call for the voluntary or assisted repatriation of immigrants from the UK. The Conservative Party has done things to distance itself from this past, in particular the disassociation of the Conservative Monday Club from the Party in 2001, as well as more recently the Prime Ministers 2018 Race Disparity Audit. Despite this progress, it still has failed to meet and deal with its past head-on.

History is always more nuanced and complicated than just stating that these people were racists, and that we should therefore refuse to consider where they were coming from. Arguably, we should think more about what these people represented and what we can learn from them to better understand the society we live in today. Crucially, these events help to explain why some have had issues believing the accusation of antisemitism in Labour when that Partys history with non-white communities has been significantly better than our own. How can you trust accusations of racism when the Party they come from has failed to deal with its own past?

This is what I am suggesting. We need to begin a conversation with each other to understand what our past means to us, what it has meant for this country and all of its inhabitants. Ultimately the aim of that conversation would be to see what we can do to build up trust and change the hearts and minds of these communities.

The first thing we can do is to admit we have had an identity crisis since the end of empire, that we have not been able to comfortably find our place in the world and what it means to be British. After that, there are multiple options the Party can take: apologising for the Smethwick election campaign could be a good start, along with a host of other moments in our past where the Party has not acted to the standard that we rightly hold it to today.

As I said at the beginning, this article is not whataboutery. The fight against antisemitism must continue and we must hold all public figures to account no matter how influential they are. But if we really want to make our fight effective then we must begin to deal with our own past, acknowledge our own wrongs, learn from them and commit to building a more inclusive and socially coherent Britain where all are welcome to live and work in peace.
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DANBURY  A motorcyclist was injured after crashing into a deer on Backus Avenue Sunday morning.

Lt. Christian Carroccio said the biker tried to swerve out of the deers way when it ran into the road. But the motorcyclist struck the deer, killing the animal.

The biker was knocked to the ground and suffered a shoulder injury, Carroccio said. He was sent to Danbury Hospital.

The motorcyclist had been riding southbound on Backus Avenue near the post office, Carroccio said. Part of the road was closed for a short time.

The crash occurred around 8:40 a.m.
NEW FAIRFIELD  When David Packer worried he would lose his family home on Squantz Pond to rising property taxes, he decided to follow the path his father had in the 1960s and 70s  renting it to guests.

His method, Airbnbs online rental service, was of course different than his fathers had been, Packer said, but the economic benefit proved to be largely the same.

For me, as it has for others who list their property, (Airbnb) has been an economic life preserver allowing us to keep our home, Packer said, adding that hes even earned enough to make overdue improvements to his property. As for the guests, theyre spending money right here in New Fairfield at our stores and restaurants...and theyre paying a 15 percent tax to the state of Connecticut for their stay.

He and other Airbnb hosts, including Sweet Dottis Cottage owner Rob White, contended in a public hearing last week that the website has provided responsible guests to stay in their homes, all while creating an added source of income.

But others in the crowd told horror stories of other Airbnb hosts squeezing large groups into small houses by counting couches, air mattresses and even hammocks as beds.

The arguments echo an ongoing debate around the country as states and municipalities take different approaches to ensuring the online rental system doesnt disturb neighborhoods, the housing market or the hospitality industry.

Some, like New York City, have created a 30-day minimum for rentals, while others limit the times per year owners can rent or require a registry for hosts. In Connecticut, the state legislature has not yet taken action on the rentals, except to become one of the states that partners with Airbnb to collect the 15 percent lodging tax from renters.

The hearing in New Fairfield, the first step in its efforts to regulate the rentals, is the first time the debate has reached the small town. Zoning officials scheduled it after at least a dozen Airbnb properties popped up this year, mostly around the lake.

The lakeside residents seemed to agree that some sort of regulation or enforcement is necessary to protect neighborhoods from absentee owners.

Neighbors said in those cases renters have left behind trash, created parking hazards, strained septic systems, used neighbors docks and at one home, are going to the bathroom outside.

We have had college frat parties, weve had people show up running around naked, its not a good thing, one Candlewood Isle resident said. We need to maintain our homes and our properties for our familiesOur neighborhood is a home private community, not a resort.

But owners like White and Packer, and other supportive residents, claim that the irresponsible hosts shouldnt mean the town should shut down all Airbnbs, which can help homeowners, the towns economy and provide hospitality options.

Weve had now more than 100 rentals in three years and weve had almost no problems at all, White said.

Local laws

One of the first steps for New Fairfield officials will be exploring how other Connecticut towns have dealt with the issue. Because the state hasnt come down on either side of the debate, towns and cities can take different approaches with how to regulate the rentals locally.

At least in New Haven and Stamford, the top two spots in Connecticut for Airbnb according to the companys data, officials have already begun looking at how to regulate the rentals. Both cities started examining their options at different times last year, when, as in New Fairfield, residents complained of homes that began operating with hotel-like turnover.

But for the Danbury area, it seems the issue hasnt come to the forefront in other towns the way it has for New Fairfield.

I know theyre in town, Ive heard of them, but I think theyre relatively low-key, said George Benson, Newtowns director of planning. I havent had any complaints about them in town that I know of...Its something we eventually (will have to address).

Officials in Brookfield and Bridgewater also said there are no specific Airbnb regulations on the books.

But Benson added that for Newtown at least, the town likely wont have to add anything new to its regulations to shut down problematic Airbnbs should the issue pop up. The short-term rental isnt specifically listed in the regulations, but because it isnt on the list of what residents can do, it means its not allowed.

This approach is similar to how Ridgefield handled things when several Airbnbs created problems in town about four years ago. Planning and Zoning Director Richard Baldelli said it wasnt difficult to address the issue because bed and breakfasts, though not specifically Airbnbs, are already regulated in the zoning laws.

To us, Airbnb is just a method of advertising, Baldelli said. If you are going to rent a room in your home to someone on a transient-type basis for compensation, youre a bed and breakfast, whether you do it through Airbnb, through your newspaper, or any other method.

The short-term rentals were creating similar problems for neighbors in Ridgefield as they were in New Fairfield, Baldelli said, though on a smaller scale, likely because Ridgefield isnt a lakeside vacation community. One of the most problematic situations, though, was near one of the towns lakes, where renters were throwing frat-like parties at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, he said.

Officials shut down the Airbnbs, but offered each of the hosts the option of applying for a special permit, as is required for bed and breakfasts to run the rentals legally, Baldelli said. So far, no former Airbnb hosts have gone through with process and to his knowledge there arent any operating in town, he added.

There have been some residents, though, that have recently expressed interest in opening a bed and breakfast due to a Planning and Zoning Commission effort to increase hospitality options.

Looking forward

In New Fairfield, zoning officials said they will need to balance any regulations with the towns tradition of renting lakeside properties.

The commission agreed to begin discussing points brought up at the hearing at next months meeting. So far, ideas brought up by residents include requiring properties to register, creating a contact list for hosts, adding guidelines to zoning rules or passing regulations through a town ordinance.

We have made no decisions for or against, Zoning Chair John Moran said. I would anticipate it will probably take us four or five months, maybe less, to come up with a recommendation, or no recommendation. Thats always possible.

aquinn@newstimes.com
NORTH HAVEN  A Hamden man was killed in a motorcycle crash on Interstate 91 on Saturday.

State Police said 52-year-old Sherrod Robinson was riding near Exit 9 on I-91 southbound when he lost control of his bike and crashed into the center median guide rail.

The crash occurred around 4:30 p.m., and spokesman Kelly Grant announced at 5:45 p.m. that he had died from his injuries. His name was released on Sunday.

Troopers shut down I-91 southbound between exits 8 and 10 for several hours.

The entrance ramp from Dixwell Avenue to Route 40 south and the entrance ramp from Whitney Avenue to Route 40 south in North Haven were also closed. The two entrance ramps were open by 9:30 p.m., state police said.

North Haven Fire Department and emergency medical personnel assisted.

Troop I is continuing to investigate. Anyone with information is asked to contact State Police at 203-393-4200.
A long white folding table in a union hall - a makeshift command center for Maryland Democrats on Saturday - brimmed with clipboards, water bottles, cartons of energy bars and satellite maps of Baltimore neighborhoods.

Ken Maxfield, one of three organizers for the Maryland Democratic Party, handed out the supplies and gave nearly two dozen volunteers their marching orders, along with a how-to guide on encouraging strangers to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot in November.

Before the volunteers set out, several Democratic elected officials, including U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous, tried to fire them up.

"The stakes could not be higher in this election," Sarbanes told them, arguing that Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has not taken a strong enough stance against President Donald Trump's policies. "We don't need a governor wringing their hands on the bleachers. We need them on the field fighting."

Similar scenes played out Saturday in Prince George's, Baltimore, Montgomery, Frederick and Anne Arundel counties as the state Democratic Party launched a coordinated campaign. Volunteers fanned out to knock on 5,000 doors to help Jealous, one of a wave of nationally known progressives who handily won their primaries. The former president of the NAACP faces Hogan, who has remained popular in part by distancing himself from Trump.

Saturday's canvassing marked the state party's first major incursion since the June 26 primary. It is part of a broad-based effort to oust Hogan and elect Democratic candidates for county executive in Baltimore and Montgomery counties and in key legislative races in which Democrats face robust opposition.

"We're not taking for granted that people will get to the polls," said Kathleen Matthews, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, which has a 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans. "We're planning regular canvassing, talking to voters and making sure they know Ben and the other candidates.

"For Democrats, it's turnout, turnout, turnout."

But Democrats are facing a tough battle against Hogan, who defeated then-Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown in 2014 by 66,000 votes amid record low Democratic turnout. Hogan enters the race with one of the highest approval ratings a gubernatorial incumbent has recorded in recent history.

Analysts say Democrats have more to worry about than turnout. The party, they say, must make sure voters are casting ballots for Democrats in an election with at least two competitive county executive races and as many as seven seats up for grabs in the state Senate. Losing too many of those seats could cost Democrats a veto-proof majority in the chamber.

"It's a two-front sort of fight," said Mileah Kromer, a political science professor at Goucher College. "It's not just about turnout, but it's also ensuring that Hogan doesn't break away enough Democrats to put him and others over the edge."

In a sign that Hogan does not plan to cede ground to the Democrats, he opened a campaign office in Baltimore City on Saturday afternoon.

About 200 people joined Hogan and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford for the opening. A DJ played music, the campaign passed out "Hogan for Governor" T-shirts, and local vendors gave out free barbecue, hamburgers and hot dogs.

Scott Sloofman, Hogan's spokesman, said the governor and Rutherford opened the office "because they're working for every single vote, in every single part of the state. The governor's comprehensive record of creating an affordable Maryland that encourages the creation of good jobs and more opportunity resonates in households and communities across our state, and certainly in Baltimore City."

Hogan campaign officials said the office will be headed by an African-American woman who is a Democrat and said the team has 263 volunteers in Baltimore. The campaign signed up 37 more volunteers Saturday. Since March, they have knocked on 14,000 doors in the city, the campaign said.

Kelly Sheehan, 37, an occupational therapist who was leaving her home when she recognized Del. Robbyn Lewis, D-Baltimore, in her Riverside neighborhood in Baltimore knocking on doors, said she was leaning toward Jealous. She crossed party lines and voted for Hogan four years ago.

She said she believes the governor has not made enough of an investment in Baltimore. "I'm an education voter," she said. "I think that is how the city is going to flourish, by investing in education."

In Baltimore County, Democratic canvassers were concentrating on drumming up support for county executive nominee Johnny Olszewski Jr. and legislative candidates. They passed out literature that encouraged voting for Jealous but otherwise made little mention of the governor's race, in a swing county in which Hogan enjoys considerable popularity.

Olszewski has not endorsed Jealous or other candidates, saying he preferred for now to concentrate on his race and Baltimore County. The Jealous campaign is in talks with Olszewski to set up an endorsement event, according to a Jealous campaign aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans were not final.

"We've truly been focused on sharing a vision for what's needed for Baltimore County," Olszewski said. As he went door-to- door in the Anneslie neighborhood near the Baltimore City border, he talked about modernizing schools, protecting green space and adopting public financing of election campaigns.

Asked about Jealous, Olszewski said, "I'm excited by and large that his vision aligns with mine." Of Hogan, he said, "I think there have been some missed opportunities."

Registered Democrats whom Olszewski met in the Anneslie neighborhood were mostly supportive of him. But some said they also liked Hogan or needed to learn more about Jealous before voting for him.

"I would consider voting for Hogan," said Jurick Brassil, 55, an engineering executive, who praised him for being less aggressive than the last Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich. "I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't take the hard edge that Ehrlich took."

Brassil was concerned, though, that Hogan would govern differently in a second term, when he would not have to worry about re-election.

Brassil's wife, Margie Brassil, 59, who is legislative director for Democratic Del. Dana Stein, said she couldn't vote for Hogan because the next governor will play a big role in redistricting and because Hogan has cut staff in state environmental offices and other agencies.

"I think he's hurting the state in a lot of ways," Margie Brassil said.

Going door-to-door in Kensington with running mate Susan W. Turnbull in the afternoon, Jealous told voters on doorsteps that he wanted to "invest more upfront" in schools, health care and the environment. He also said Maryland needed a Democratic governor to appoint judges and to oversee redistricting after the 2020 census.

"When you invest in education, you don't pay so much later in incarceration," Jealous said. "If you invest in renewable energy, you don't pay so much for sea walls."
All of the Republicans running for governor tout pension reform as the top issue of the election. They say its whats needed to get the state out of its $2 billion deficit.

David Stemerman, the candidate who seems to have a three-point plan for every issue facing Connecticut, goes much further. Hes a businessman trying to bring a business mentality to state politics, and his first goal takes aim at the state employee union contracts.

If we dont solve that, we cant do anything else, he told the Hearst Connecticut Media Editorial Board recently.

Stemerman, who closed his $2 billion hedge fund to run for governor, plans to move the pension obligations off the state budget books and privatize them. If the union membership wont agree to give up their benefits to help the state, it will be Stemermans way or the un-tolled highway all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That means to effectively void the contracts and act unilaterally, Stemerman said. To assert the states sovereign authority. What we would have then is a legal dispute based on competing clauses of the U.S. constitution.

You would have unions depending upon the contract clause and the government depending upon the 11th amendment. And I am confident that when Judge Kavanaugh becomes Justice Kavanaugh that our interpretation of the constitution will be supported by the United States Supreme Court.

Of course, he doesnt think the unions will let it get that far  he points out that they took a blow with the Janus decision, which took away the power of unions to fees from non-union members  but if they do, hes already looking for the right team to make his case.

What we need to accomplish in this state for our union negotiations is something thats never been done at the state level, Stemerman said. What I will be looking for is the most experienced, most talented, most capable, most accomplished people to help us in doing that.

From business to politics

Stemerman, who lives in Greenwich with his wife, Jolene, and five children, announced his candidacy five months ago. He made no mention of the Republican party at the time and, to this day, there is no mention of the party on his website. He said he wanted to create a broad appeal to voters outside of the GOP.

But make no mistake, his campaign is decidedly conservative. In addition to undoing union contracts, Stemerman is anti-toll  why tax when you can privatize  and though the NRA gave him an F, he thinks the states existing gun laws have gone far enough, and isnt opposed to arming teachers where appropriate.

Unlike other Republican candidates, Stemerman is not promising to eliminate the state income tax  thats impossible, he said  but he does want to lower taxes across the board and his economic plan relies heavily on public-private partnerships, as does his infrastructure and transportation plan. Never mind those plans rely on specific set of conditions  like a Supreme Court decision in his favor  Stemermans confident he can make it happen.

His public persona has evolved with his campaign, too. Stemerman, who was at first mild-mannered and shaky on stage, stumbled across his words in his first debate appearance, and seemed uncomfortable in a room full of politicians and party insiders.

Now, Stemerman, who has invested more than $12 million into his campaign and amassed a team of political tacticians, many of whom have worked for his fallen competitors, is on the attack.

He was the first candidate to take shots at another Republican candidate  Bob Stefanowski, the other wealthy business executive who petitioned onto the ballot and is self-funding his campaign  and hasnt let up since. Hes now often the first to point an attack at a competitor, even without prompting.

Inspired by the likes of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder  all businessmen turned politicians  Stemerman fondly recalls watching Ronald Reagan, in his fine suits and Windsor knots, take over the presidency from Jimmy Carter, who was frugal and wore a brown sweater.

Its about being an entrepreneur, its about being a problem solver, its about thinking outside the box, Stemerman said.

As for whether the business approach will work in Connecticut, Stemerman firmly believes its the only thing that will.

Youve seen in our race a bunch of different styles about how people approach this, he said. Some are antagonistic and combative and others are collaborative, and my view with this is on the one hand, you need to be very firm and say, These are my beliefs, but you also need to be someone who brings people together.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
For Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, the third time might finally be the charm.

A moderate Republican in a state of more than 446,000 registered Republicans, the ninth-term mayor won the party nomination for governor back in May.

And while other and lesser-known Republican candidates have been attacking each other, Boughton has generally kept to a strategy of running from the strength of his assured top spot on the primary ballot.

But after unsuccessful runs for lieutenant governor in 2010 and governor in 2014, this is likely the last chance for the now-54-year-old mayor to ride Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloys negative approval ratings right to the Governors Residence.

Unlike some of his competitors, Boughton has a long record of public service. It hasnt been without controversy, including a 2006 roundup of 11 immigrant Danbury workers that led to a massive protest at City Hall and a $400,000 legal settlement paid by the city.

At the time, city police were cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

I think that we achieved sort of a balance, if you will, here in Danbury Boughton said in a recent interview. Everybody knows that I cant condone somebody who comes to the country illegally. And I wont do things like become a sanctuary city because I think that is part of condoning an illegal act. But having said all that, my job is to make sure I get 11,000 kids to school every morning and make sure that police officers are keeping the community safe and make sure the potholes get filled.

He estimates that there are about 6,000 to 7,000 undocumented immigrants in the city.

Pension reform

Like his four opponents, Boughton has been paying some amount of attention to the conservative base of the approximately 150,000 GOP voters expected to turn out for the primary. He wants to eliminate the states personal income tax within 10 years.

He gives President Donald Trump high marks, but in a heavily Democratic city of 84,000, Boughton is seen as a more pragmatic local leader who has never missed a meeting of the City Council.

While some of his rivals have threatened to take unions to court to attack the states unfunded pension liabilities, Boughton, a former unionized school teacher, has vowed to work with public employee bargaining units to further revamp retirement and benefit packages.

In 2012, Boughton succeeded in changing retirement programs for most new city hires, transitioning from traditional, but more-expensive defined-benefit plans, to 401(K) accounts.

Rob Forbes, a captain in the local Fire Department who is president of the 106-member Danbury Professional Firefighters Local 808, said that a recent contract extension went very smoothly. While police and fire retained their retirement programs, union members now have to work 30 years, while before, the threshold was 27 years, Forbes said.

We actually have a pretty good relationship with the mayor, said Forbes, a 19-year member of the department.

Staying close to home

Boughton, the son of a former Danbury mayor, graduated from Danbury High School in 1982. He graduated from Central Connecticut State University and then earned a masters degree from Western Connecticut State University.

He served six years in the United States Army Reserve, reaching the rank of sergeant. In 1987 he began teaching at Danbury High School and he has maintained a teachers rapport with students through his active Twitter postings. He tweets about TV watching (NASCAR and The Walking Dead) and, in wintertime, teases kids about snow days.

He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1998. In 2001, during his second two-year term, he was elected mayor.

He has long had higher ambition. In 2010, Boughton came up short in a run for governor, but aligned himself as the running mate of then- Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford. In a twist of state election balloting, Fedele lost the primary, while Boughton won and became the running mate of Greenwich millionaire Tom Foley, who was defeated in the general election by Malloy. In 2014 abandoned a run for governor in June, after not raising enough money to continue.

Health issues

Boughton admits that his brush with a benign brain tumor last year has had a deep effect on him. But it has also made him more determined. Tim Herbst, the former Trumbull first selectman who is also in the August 14 primary, has made some not-so-oblique references to Boughtons possible health issues.

Ive been through a lot of challenges, Boughton admits. People said when I got in the race, Oh he cant raise the money, so that was the first thing. So obviously we completed that task, and then they said Hell never win the convention, so we win the convention. I see us as the little engine that could politically.

Between campaigning and running city government, hes out nearly every night.

I dont think anyone can doubt my stamina and my work ethic, Boughton said. Hes also fielded some criticism from newcomer David Stemerman, who avoided the GOP convention and collected signatures to get on the primary, and has tried to label the mayor as a career politician.

Anybody on the ticket is an insider, at this point, Boughton said.

Without naming names, Boughton dismisses Stemerman, a former hedge-fund executive from Greenwich, and Bob Stefanowski of Madison, a former businessman, both of whom are self-funding their campaigns.

The party has gone down that path a number of times, Boughton said. Lets nominate the rich guy because we dont have to do any work. We dont have to raise any money. But the reality is that politics is hard work, and you have to raise money and youve got to build connections with people and you have to buy into your campaign. And I think this is a unique opportunity this year to win with somebody who didnt show up with a checkbook but who earned it through hard work and determination and doing all the things you have to do to win elections.
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.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Global Payments: ACTIVE Network - Communities and Sports, Active Network (HK) Limited, Active Network IPICO (CA) Inc., Active Network IPICO (US) Inc., Active Network IPICO Holdings (US) LLC, Active Network IPICO Holdings (US) LLC, Active Network IPICO Innovation Inc., Active Networks LLC, AdvancedMD, Athlaction Intermediate LLC, Athlaction Topco LLC, AuctionPay, Comercia Global Payments Entidad de Pago S.L., DEBITEK INC, Digital Dining LLC, Dinerware LLC, DolEx Europe S.L., Educational Computer Systems Inc., Ematters Australia Pty Ltd., Equifax Credit Services LLC, Ezi Holdings Pty. Ltd., Ezi Management Pty Ltd., Ezidebit, Ezidebit (NZ) Limited, Ezidebit HK Ltd., Ezidebit Pty Ltd., GP Finance LLC, GPC Financial Corporation, GPS Holding Limited Partnership, GPUK LLP, Global Payment Holding Company, Global Payment Systems Asia-Pacific (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd., Global Payment Systems LLC, Global Payment Systems of Canada Ltd., Global Payments - Caixa Acquisition Corporation S.a.r.l., Global Payments - Realex Payments Holding Limited, Global Payments - Servicos de Pagamentos S.A., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 1 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 2 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 3 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 2 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 2 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 3 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 3 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 4 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 6 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 7 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 7 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation HK Holding Limited, Global Payments Acquisition PS 1 C.V., Global Payments Acquisition PS 2 C.V., Global Payments Acquisition PS 3 C. V., Global Payments Acquisition PS1-Global Payments Direct S.e.n.c., Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong Holding) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (India) Private Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Shanghai) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Singapore Holding) Ltd., Global Payments Asia-Pacific Lanka (Private) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Macau Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Maldives Private Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Philippines Incorporated, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Processing Company Limited, Global Payments Australia Pty 1 Ltd., Global Payments Australia Pty 2 Ltd., Global Payments Canada GP, Global Payments Canada Inc., Global Payments Card Processing Malaysia Sdn. Bhd, Global Payments Check Recovery Services Inc., Global Payments Check Services Inc., Global Payments Direct Inc., Global Payments Europe d.o.o. Sarajevo, Global Payments Europe s.r.o., Global Payments Gaming Canada Inc., Global Payments Gaming International Inc., Global Payments Gaming Services Inc., Global Payments Integrated, Global Payments Limited, Global Payments Process Centre Inc., Global Payments South America Brasil-Servicos de Pagamentos S.A., Global Payments UK 2 Ltd., Global Payments UK Ltd., Global Payments s.r.o., Greater Giving Inc., Heartland Acquisition LLC, Heartland Payment Solutions Inc., Heartland Payment Systems, Heartland Payment Systems LLC, Heartland Payroll Solutions Inc., IPICO South Africa (Pty) Ltd., JumpForward LLC, Maximum Solutions LLC, Merchant Services U.S.A. Inc., Modular Data Inc., NDC Holdings (UK) Ltd., NDPS Holdings Inc., PCAmerica LLC, Pay and Shop Limited, PayPros LLC, Payment Processing, Payroll 1 Inc., Realex Payments, SICOM Systems, Sabrir Invest S.L., Sentral Education, Spolecnost pro informacni database a.s., Storman Holdings Pty Ltd., Storman Software Inc., Storman Software Limited, Storman Software Ltd., Storman Software Pty Ltd., TeamPages Inc., The Active Network (Asia) Pte. Ltd, The Active Network (Aus-NZ) Pty. Ltd., The Active Network (EU) Ltd., The Active Network Ltd., The Active Network Ltd. (Chengdu), The Active Network Ltd. (Xian), Total System Services, TouchNet Information Systems Inc., UCS Terminal Joint Stock Company, United Card Service Joint Stock Company, VEPF III AIV VI-C Corp., VEPF IV AIV VII-C Corp., VFF I AIV IV-C Corp., Web Active Corporation Pty Ltd., Xenial Inc., Xpient LLC, eWAY, eWay Europe Limited, eWay Payments Asia Pte Ltd., eWay Payments Inc., eWay Payments New Zealand Limited, eWay Payments North America Inc., and eWay Payments Pty Ltd..
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The following companies are subsidiares of American Tower: 10 Presidential Way Associates LLC, 3267351 Nova Scotia Company, 3286208 Nova Scotia Company, 3298099 Nova Scotia Company, 52 Eighty LLC, 52 Eighty Partners LLC, 52 Eighty Tower Partners I LLC, ACC Tower Sub LLC, AT Kenya C.V., AT Netherlands C.V., AT Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT Sao Paulo C.V., AT Sher Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT South America C.V., ATC Africa Holding B.V., ATC Africa Shared Services (Pty) Ltd, ATC Antennas Holding LLC, ATC Antennas LLC, ATC Argentina C.V., ATC Argentina Cooperatief U.A., ATC Argentina Holding LLC, ATC Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ATC Atlantic C.V., ATC Atlantic II B.V., ATC Atlantic III B.V., ATC Backhaul LLC, ATC Brasil  Servicos de Conectividades Ltda., ATC Brazil Holding LLC, ATC Brazil I LLC, ATC Brazil II LLC, ATC Burkina Faso S.A., ATC CSR Foundation India, ATC Chile Holding LLC, ATC Colombia B.V., ATC Colombia Holding I LLC, ATC Colombia Holding LLC, ATC Colombia I LLC, ATC EH GmbH & Co. KG, ATC Ecuador Holding LLC, ATC Edge LLC, ATC Ethiopia Infrastructure Development Private Limited Company, ATC Europe B.V., ATC Europe LLC, ATC European Holdings Inc., ATC Fibra de Colombia S.A.S., ATC France Cooperatief U.A., ATC France Holding II SAS, ATC France Holding SAS, ATC France Reseaux SAS, ATC France SAS, ATC France Services SAS, ATC GP GmbH, ATC Germany Holdings GmbH, ATC Germany Services GmbH, ATC Ghana ServiceCo Limited, ATC Global Employment B.V., ATC Heston B.V., ATC Holding Fibra Mexico S. de R.L. DE C.V., ATC IP LLC, ATC India Infrastructure Private Limited, ATC Indoor DAS Holding LLC, ATC Indoor DAS LLC, ATC International Cooperatief U.A., ATC International Financing B.V., ATC International Financing II B.V., ATC International Financing II Holding LLC, ATC International Holding Corp., ATC Iris I LLC, ATC Kenya Operations Limited, ATC Kenya Services Limited, ATC Latin America S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., ATC MIP III REIT Iron Holdings LLC, ATC Managed Sites Holding LLC, ATC Managed Sites LLC, ATC MexHold LLC, ATC Mexico Holding LLC, ATC Niger Wireless Infrastructure S.A., ATC Nigeria C.V., ATC Nigeria Cooperatief U.A., ATC Nigeria Holding LLC, ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Limited, ATC On Air + LLC, ATC Operations LLC, ATC Outdoor DAS LLC, ATC Paraguay Holding LLC, ATC Paraguay S.R.L., ATC Peru Holding LLC, ATC Polska sp. z o.o., ATC Ponderosa B-I LLC, ATC Ponderosa B-II LLC, ATC Ponderosa K LLC, ATC Ponderosa K-R LLC, ATC Sequoia LLC, ATC Sitios Infraco S.A.S., ATC Sitios de Chile S.A., ATC Sitios de Colombia S.A.S., ATC Sitios del Peru S.R.L., ATC South Africa Investment Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, ATC South Africa Services Pty Ltd, ATC South Africa Wireless Infrastructure (Pty) Ltd, ATC South Africa Wireless Infrastructure II (Pty) Ltd, ATC South America Holding LLC, ATC South LLC, ATC Spain LLC, ATC TRS I LLC, ATC TRS II LLC, ATC TRS III LLC, ATC TRS IV LLC, ATC Tanzania Holding LLC, ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, ATC Tower (Ghana) Limited, ATC Tower Services LLC, ATC Uganda Limited, ATC Uganda ServiceCo (SMC) Limited, ATC Watertown LLC, ATC WiFi LLC, ATS-Needham LLC, ActiveX Telebroadband Services Private Limited, Adquisiciones y Proyectos Inalambricos S. de R. L. de C.V., Agile Airband Ohio LLC, Agile Connect LLC, Agile IWG Holdings LLC, Agile Network Builders LLC, Agile Networks Indiana LLC, Agile Networks Site Development LLC, Agile Towers LLC, Alternative Networking LLC, American Tower Asset Sub II LLC, American Tower Asset Sub LLC, American Tower Charitable Foundation Inc., American Tower Delaware Corporation, American Tower Depositor Sub LLC, American Tower Guarantor Sub LLC, American Tower Holding Sub II LLC, American Tower Holding Sub LLC, American Tower International Holding I LLC, American Tower International Holding II LLC, American Tower International Inc., American Tower Investments LLC, American Tower LLC, American Tower Management LLC, American Tower Mauritius, American Tower Servicios Fibra S. de R.L. de C.V., American Tower Tanzania Operations Limited, American Tower do Brasil - Cessao de Infraestruturas Ltda., American Tower do Brasil  Communicacao Multimidia Ltda., American Towers LLC, BR Towers, Blue Sky Towers Pty Ltd, Blue Transfer Sociedad Anonima, Broadcast Towers LLC, CNC2 Associates LLC, California Tower Inc., Cell Site NewCo II LLC, Cell Tower Lease Acquisition LLC, Central States Tower Holdings LLC, Colo ATL LLC, Colo Atl, Communications Properties Inc., Comunicaciones y Consumos S.A., Connectivity Infrastructure Services Limited, DCS Tower Sub LLC, Eaton, Eaton Towers (Lilongwe) Limited, Eaton Towers Ghana (M) Limited, Eaton Towers Ghana Limited, Eaton Towers Holdings Limited, Eaton Towers Kenya Limited, Eaton Towers Limited, Eaton Towers Niger S.A., Eaton Towers Uganda Limited, Essar Telecom Infrastructure, Eure-et-Loir Reseaux Mobiles SAS, GTP Acquisition Partners I LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners II LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners III LLC, GTP Costa Rica Finance LLC, GTP Infrastructure I LLC, GTP Infrastructure II LLC, GTP Infrastructure III LLC, GTP Investments LLC, GTP LATAM Holdings B.V., GTP LatAm Holdings Cooperatieve U.A., GTP Operations CR S.R.L., GTP South Acquisitions II LLC, GTP Structures I LLC, GTP Structures II LLC, GTP TRS I LLC, GTP Torres CR S.R.L., GTP Towers I LLC, GTP Towers II LLC, GTP Towers III LLC, GTP Towers IV LLC, GTP Towers IX LLC, GTP Towers V LLC, GTP Towers VII LLC, GTP Towers VIII LLC, GTPI HoldCo LLC, Ghana Tower InterCo B.V., Global Tower Assets III LLC, Global Tower Assets LLC, Global Tower Holdings LLC, Global Tower LLC, Global Tower Partners, Global Tower Services LLC, Gondola Tower Holdings LLC, Grain HoldCo LLC, Grain HoldCo Parent LLC, GrainComm I LLC, GrainComm II LLC, GrainComm III LLC, GrainComm LLC, GrainComm Marketing LLC, GrainComm V LLC, Haysville Towers LLC, IW Equipment LLC, IWD Equipment LLC, IWG Holdings LLC, IWG II Holdings LLC, IWG II LLC, IWG Miami LLC, IWG Towers Assets I LLC, IWG Towers Assets II LLC, IWG-TLA Australia Pty Ltd., IWG-TLA Canada Corp., IWG-TLA Encanto 1 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto 2 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto 3 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto LLC, IWG-TLA Holdings LLC, IWG-TLA Media 2 LLC, IWG-TLA Media LLC, IWG-TLA Telecom LLC, IWL-TLA Telecom 2 LLC, Idaho Tower Company LLC, InSite (BCEC) LLC, InSite (MBTA) LLC, InSite Borrower LLC, InSite Co-Issuer Corp., InSite Guarantor LLC, InSite Hawaii LLC, InSite Issuer LLC, InSite Licensing LLC, InSite Towers Development 2 LLC, InSite Towers Development LLC, InSite Towers International 2 LLC, InSite Towers International Development LLC, InSite Towers International LLC, InSite Towers LLC, InSite Towers of Puerto Rico LLC, InSite Wireless Development LLC, InSite Wireless Group, InSite Wireless Group LLC, Insite Wireless LLC, Invisible IWG Holdings LLC, Invisible Towers LLC, JT Communications LLC, LAP Inmobiliaria Limitada, LAP Inmobiliaria S.R.L., LL B Sheet 1 LLC, Lap do Brasil Empreendimentos Imobiliarios Ltda, Lease Advisors-AU PTY LTD, Loxel SAS, MATC Digital S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Infraestructura S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., MC New Macland Properties LLC, MCSU Properties LLC, MHB Tower Rentals of America LLC, MIP III Iron Holdings LLC, MIP III U.S. Iron LLC, Microwave Inc., Municipal Bay LLC, Municipal-Bay Holdings LLC, New Towers LLC, PCS Structures Towers LLC, R-CAL I LLC, RSA Media Inc., Repeater Communications Group I LLC, Repeater Communications Group II LLC, Repeater Communications Group III LLC, Repeater Communications Group IV LLC, Repeater Communications Group LLC, Repeater Communications Group V LLC, Repeater Communications Group VI LLC, Repeater Communications Group of New York LLC, Repeater IWG Holdings LLC, Richland Towers LLC, Signum/IWG Tower Corp., Southeast Network Access Point LLC, SpectraSite Communications, SpectraSite Communications LLC, SpectraSite LLC, T8 Ulysses Site Management LLC, TLA PR-1 LLC, TLA PR-2 LLC, Telecom Lease Advisors Management 2 LLC, Tower Management Inc., Towers of America L.L.L.P., Transcend Infrastructure Holdings Pte. Ltd., Transcend Towers Infrastructure (Philippines) Inc., Turris Sites Development Corp., Turris Sites IWG Corp, Tysons II DAS LLC, UNIsite, Uganda Tower Interco B.V., Ulysses Asset Sub I LLC, Ulysses Asset Sub II LLC, UniSite LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint FL Tower Venture LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint NE Tower Venture LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint PA Tower Venture LLC, Vangard Wireless LLC, Verus Management One LLC, Viom Networks, and Virdi IWG Holdings LLC.
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The following companies are subsidiares of Cummins: Anvl, Apollo FC Holdings Ltd., Atlantis Acquisitionco Canada Corporation, Atlantis Holdco UK Limited, Brammo, CIFC Worldwide Partner C.V., CMI Africa Holdings BV, CMI CGT Holdings LLC, CMI Canada Financing Ltd., CMI Canada LP, CMI Foreign Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings C.V., CMI Global Holdings B.V., CMI Global Partner 2 C.V., CMI Global Partners B.V., CMI Group Holdings B.V., CMI Group Holdings Cooperatief U.A., CMI International Finance Partner 1 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 2 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 3 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 4 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 5 LLC, CMI Mexico LLC, CMI Netherlands Holdings B.V., CMI PGI Holdings LLC, CMI PGI International Holdings LLC, CMI Turkish Holdings B.V., CMI UK Finance LP, CMI UK Financing LP, Cherry Island Renewable Energy LLC, Consolidated Diesel Company, Consolidated Diesel Inc., Consolidated Diesel of North Carolina Inc., Cummins (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Cummins (Xiangyang) Machining Co. Ltd., Cummins Africa Middle East (Pty) Ltd., Cummins Afrique de l'Ouest, Cummins Americas Inc., Cummins Angola Lda., Cummins Argentina-Servicios Mineros S.A., Cummins Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Cummins Aust Technologies Pty. Ltd., Cummins BLR LLC, Cummins Battery Systems North America LLC, Cummins Belgium N.V., Cummins Botswana (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins Brasil Ltda., Cummins Burkina Faso SARL, Cummins CDC Holding Inc., Cummins CV Member LLC, Cummins Canada ULC, Cummins Caribbean LLC, Cummins Center of Excellence Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Centroamerica Holding S.de R.L., Cummins Child Development Center Inc., Cummins Colombia S.A.S., Cummins Comercializadora S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Corporation, Cummins Cote d'Ivoire SARL, Cummins Czech Republic s.r.o., Cummins Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Diesel International Ltd., Cummins Distribution Holdco Inc., Cummins EMEA Holdings Limited, Cummins East Asia Research & Development Co. Ltd., Cummins Eastern Marine Inc., Cummins Electrified Power Europe Ltd., Cummins Electrified Power NA Inc., Cummins Emission Solutions (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Emission Solutions Inc., Cummins Empresas Filantropicas, Cummins Energetica Ltda., Cummins Engine (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Trading & Services Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine Holding Company Inc., Cummins Engine IP Inc., Cummins Engine Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Engine Venture Corporation, Cummins Enterprise LLC, Cummins Filtration (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtration GmbH, Cummins Filtration IP Inc., Cummins Filtration Inc., Cummins Filtration International Corp., Cummins Filtration Ltd., Cummins Filtration SARL, Cummins Filtration Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtros Ltda., Cummins Franchise Holdco LLC, Cummins Fuel Systems (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Americas Inc., Cummins Generator Technologies Germany GmbH, Cummins Generator Technologies India Private Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Italy SRL, Cummins Generator Technologies Limited, Cummins Generator Technologies Romania S.A., Cummins Generator Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd., Cummins Ghana Limited, Cummins Ghana Mining Limited, Cummins Global Financing LP, Cummins Global Technologies LLP, Cummins Grupo Comercial Y. de Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Grupo Industrial S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Holland B.V., Cummins Hong Kong Ltd., Cummins India Ltd., Cummins Intellectual Property Inc., Cummins International Finance LLC, Cummins International Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Cummins International Holdings LLC, Cummins Italia S.P.A., Cummins Japan Ltd., Cummins Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins LLC Member Inc., Cummins Ltd., Cummins Maroc SARL, Cummins Middle East FZE, Cummins Mining Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Mobility Services Inc., Cummins Mongolia Investment LLC, Cummins Mozambique Ltda., Cummins NV, Cummins Namibia Engine Sales and Service PTY LTD, Cummins Natural Gas Engines Inc., Cummins New Zealand Limited, Cummins Nigeria Ltd., Cummins Norte de Colombia S.A.S., Cummins North Africa Regional Office SARL, Cummins Norway AS, Cummins PGI Holdings Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (S) Pte. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (U.K.) Limited, Cummins Power Generation Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Power Generation Inc., Cummins Power Generation Limited, Cummins PowerGen IP Inc., Cummins Research and Technology India Private Ltd., Cummins Romania Srl, Cummins S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Sales and Service Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins Sales and Service Philippines Inc., Cummins Sales and Service Private Limited, Cummins Sales and Service Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Sales and Service Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Sinai ve Otomotiv Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cummins South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins South Pacific Pty. Limited, Cummins Southern Plains LLC, Cummins Spain S.L., Cummins Sweden AB, Cummins Technologies India, Cummins Trade Receivables LLC, Cummins Turbo Technologies Limited, Cummins Turkey Motor Guc Sistemleri Sats Servis Limited Sirketi, Cummins U.K. Holdings Ltd., Cummins U.K. Pension Plan Trustee Ltd., Cummins UK Global Holdings Ltd., Cummins UK Holdings LLC, Cummins Vendas e Servicos de Motores e Geradores Ltda., Cummins Venture Corporation, Cummins West Africa Limited, Cummins West Balkans d.o.o. Nova Pasova, Cummins XBorder Operations (Pty) Ltd, Cummins Zambia Ltd., Cummins Zimbabwe Pvt. Ltd., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Costa Rica S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica El Salvador S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Guatemala Ltda., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Honduras S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins S.A., Distribuidora Cummins Sucursal Paraguay SRL, Distribuidora Cummins de Panama S. de R.L., Dynamo Insurance Company Inc., Efficient Drivetrains, Efficient Drivetrains (Beijing) New Power Technology Co. Ltd., Efficient Drivetrains (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Hilite International, Hydrogenics, Hydrogenics Corporation, Hydrogenics Europe N.V., Hydrogenics GmbH, Hydrogenics Holding GmbH, Hydrogenics USA Inc., Markon Engineering Company Ltd., Nelson Burgess Ltd., Nelson Industries, Newage Engineers GmbH, Newage Ltd. (U.K.), Newage Machine Tools Ltd., OOO Cummins, Petbow Limited, Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) B.V., Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) Ltd., Power Group International Ltd., Quickstart Energy Projects SpA, Shanghai Cummins Trade Co. Ltd., TOO Cummins, Taiwan Cummins Sales & Services Co. Ltd., Worldwide Partner CV Member LLC, Wuxi Cummins Turbo Technologies Co. Ltd., Wuxi New Energy Automotive Technologies Co. Ltd., and ZED Connect Inc..
Wall Street analysts have given Vanguard FTSE Europe 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 Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and creditor and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its field sales force, advice centers, and online, as well as through independent insurance advisors and affinity relationships. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset, cash management, transaction banking, and treasury services to institutional clients; correspondent banking and trade finance services for financial institutions; and short-term funding and liquidity management services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, governments, and central banks. Royal Bank of Canada has a strategic partnership with Royal College Of Physicians & Surgeons Of Canada to support the needs of Canada's medical specialists. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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Tallgrass Energy, LP, through its subsidiaries, provides crude oil transportation services to customers in Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and the surrounding regions of the United States. The company operates through three segments: Natural Gas Transportation; Crude Oil Transportation; and Gathering, Processing & Terminalling. It also provides natural gas transportation and storage services for customers in the Rocky Mountain, Midwest, and Appalachian regions; natural gas and crude oil gathering and processing services for customers in Wyoming; and natural gas liquids (NGLs) transportation services in Northeast Colorado and Wyoming. In addition, the company offers water business services, including freshwater transportation, and produced water gathering and disposal in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and North Dakota; crude oil storage and terminalling services in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas; and marketing services for NGLs and crude oil. The company was formerly known as Tallgrass Energy GP, LP and changed its name to Tallgrass Energy, LP in June 2018. Tallgrass Energy, LP was founded in 2013 and is based in Leawood, Kansas.

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19:48

Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar today said he will take the government's advice before deciding to attend his great cricket rival Imran Khan's swearing-in as the next Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Gavaskar, along with former skipper Kapil Dev, have been invited to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Imran, who led Pakistan to its maiden World Cup title in 1992.

"I would like to take our government's OK, take their view, opinion whether I should travel there even if there is a day when I am able to go," Gavaskar told 'India Today'.

Gavaskar is not certain as to whether he will be able to attend the ceremony as he has his other commitments.

"I just got the invite yesterday, and the invite was from his (Imran's) office, his party. An official invite in a way hasn't been there. I would like to travel but whether I would be able to travel is a different matter.

"And I say this because I have got commitments to do commentary for the second Test starting at Lord's. As of now from what I gathered the date of the swearing-in is not yet certain.

"If it is on the 15th (August) I clearly won't be able to go because it's my mother's 93rd birthday, apart from it being India's Independence day. And the same evening I am going to England to cover the remaining three Test matches."

The former India skipper recalled the days following Pakistan's World Cup triumph in 1992, when he was invited for the team's felicitation ceremony in Lahore.

"Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister of Pakistan then and he invited me for the felicitation ceremony, which was held at a packed Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. It was terrific to be part of celebration because nine years earlier we had that experience in the 1983 World Cup in England.

"I remember we went to Imran's house for dinner quite often. I was there for about three or four days and he had Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan coming over to his place and singing, which was fantastic.

"And I remember when we went out, people would come and take my autograph, he would say 'humne to jeete hain World Cup aur aapke peechhe lage saare humare mulk'. So it was quite a different experience," Gavaskar said.

The Indian great is happy with Imran's success in the elections.

"Yes, I do feel happy. He has got a great responsibility, he has worked hard for it. It is not his first election, he has tasted defeat in the earlier elections and in fact the last elections would have been little bit of a bitter blow because he was really expecting to win in that election." -- PTI
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A Russian media report says the country's air force has deployed fighter jets on a trial basis on one of the 4 Russian-held islands claimed by Japan.

Sakhalin Info reported on Friday that the fighters were sent to Yasniy Airport on Etorofu Island.

Russia's Defense Ministry has yet to formally comment, but the report says this is the first step toward full-scale deployment.

A photo obtained by NHK shows at least 3 parked Su-35s.

Yasniy Airport was opened 4 years ago as a civilian airfield. But the Russian government decided in January this year to allow both military and civilian aircraft to use the facility.

In March, Russian fighters landed there during a training exercise.

The deployment of fighter jets to the airport is seen as part of an attempt by Russia to increase its military capability on the 4 islands.

Russia considers those islands and another nearby island chain to be military strategic points facing the Pacific Ocean.

Russia controls the 4 islands. Japan claims them. The Japanese government maintains the islands are an inherent part of Japan's territory. It says the islands were illegally occupied after World War Two.
At least 10,000 new jobs will be created with the implementation of the Centre's ambitious Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission.

New Delhi: At least 10,000 new jobs will be created with the implementation of the Centre's ambitious Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), which aims to provide a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually to 10 crore poor families, according to a government official.

Around one lakh Ayushman Mitras will be deployed at both private and government hospitals under the scheme to assist patients coming to health facilities to avail packages under the mission.

The Health Ministry has signed a pact with the Skill Development Ministry for the recruitment of 1 lakh 'Ayushman Mitras'.

"Each empanelled hospital will have an 'Ayushman Mitra' to assist patients and will coordinate with beneficiaries and the hospital. They will run a help desk, check documents to verify eligibility and enrolment to the scheme.

"Around one lakh Ayushman Mitra's will be deployed at both private and government hospitals under the scheme," the official said.

Also, the Union Health Ministry has launched a formal process to empanel public and private hospitals to achieve universal health coverage under the programme and as many as 20,000 private and government hospitals have been linked under the scheme, the official said.

The Centre is simultaneously carrying out beneficiary identification and under the process 80 per cent of beneficiaries, based on the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) data in the rural and more than 60 per cent in urban areas, have been identified. Announced in the 2018 Budget, the AB-NHPM was touted as the 'world's largest government funded health care scheme'.

Also, all beneficiaries will be given letters having QR codes which will be scanned and a demographic authentication conducted for identification and to verify his or her eligibility to avail benefits under the scheme.

Further, the government recently clarified that NABH is not mandatory for hospitals to get empanelled under the scheme.

Also, the basic empanelment criteria allows empanelment of a hospital with a minimum of 10 beds, with the flexibility provided to the states to further relax this if required.
Exports of these items stood at over $50 million in 2017, according to CII, and can be increased with concerted efforts.

New Delhi: With the US imposing additional 25 per cent duty on imports worth $34 billion from China, certain Indian products may become more competitive, CII said on Sunday.

An analysis by the industry chamber revealed that India should focus on the US market for items in the categories of machinery, electrical equipment, vehicles and transport parts, chemicals, plastics and rubber products.

India can focus on numerous goods for expanding its exports to the US and China markets following the hike in duties by both countries on imports from each other, CII said.

Top exports from India to the US which are covered in the list of items for which tariffs have been hiked include pumps, parts of military aircraft, parts for electrodiagnostic apparatus, passenger vehicles of 1500-3000 cc, valve bodies and parts of taps, said the chamber. Exports of these items stood at over $50 million in 2017, according to CII, and can be increased with concerted efforts.

Countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have increased their exports of these products to the US in recent years, the chamber noted.

Based on India's current exports to the US in these categories, products such as intermediate parts for the defence and aerospace sector, vehicles and auto parts, engineering goods, etc. have a higher potential for export, it said.

Sectors like apparel and textiles, footwear, toys and games and cell phone manufacturing are becoming competitive industries in India and need to be encouraged, CII said.

The chamber suggested that the trade dialogue with the US should be strategised taking into account Indias competitive advantage in these products.

Moreover, foreign direct investments from the US should be encouraged by boosting confidence of US firms in Indias business climate, said CII, adding that this might necessitate addressing their concerns regarding non-tariff barriers in India for better long term outcomes.
Abhishek Nama, who bankrolled the latest Telugu hit film Goodachari, is one happy man. The film starring Adivi Sesh has been a massive success. Abhishek had full faith in the content of the script and states that he stands vindicated.

Heres how Goodachari happened. A couple of years back, when Sesh Adivi and I were considering a remake of Kshanam in Tamil, Sesh suggested that we do a new Telugu film instead. It was then he told me about the script of a spy thriller. I always believed in concept-based films, which are high on emotional and recall value, he says, adding, The super success of Goodachari is just a testimony that people are always game to welcome concept-based films. It has also strengthened our belief in bankrolling films that are high on content.

A distributor-turned-producer, Abhishek says writing is the key to any film. If the script is backed by an appropriate cast, he feels the movie will be a box-office winner. Getting the script right is half the job done, he says, adding, For Goodachari, Sesh came up with a compact script followed by suitable casting and thats what worked in the films favour, he explains. We are also open to producing star-centric films, provided we get the right script, he adds.

Steering clear of stereotypes, Abhishek is interested in new-age films. Abhishek Pictures is always ready to experiment with scripts because we believe in content and out-of-the-box plotlines like Goodachari, Saakshyam (which has supernatural elements), etc. Over the last few years, we have been backing several films that have novel plotlines. And we will continue to bankroll such content-based films.
Can you tell the story of an entire nation, the history, culture, religion and politics of its people, through a simple recall of your own lived experience? Yes, you can. Only if you have knocked around in life, accumulated a repertoire of rich experience engaging with others with an open heart and mind, are blessed with the art of story-telling.

Meet Pakistans Nadeem Farooq Paracha, cultural critic, historian, columnist and author of Points of Entry. The sub-title of the book, Parachas Encounters at the Origin Sites of Pakistan suggests what its all about. The travelogue in fact is a series of essays on the countrys history, politics and society. For the most part Paracha is only a narrator (sutradhar), the story is told by the people he encounters.

Set aside a weekend, join the author on a leisurely journey through Pakistans past, present and future. Allow him to introduce you to the multi-layered Pakistan that the daily news tells you little about.

Meet an out-of-job 60-year old guide, an unnamed Sindhi Muslim, wasting time on a heap of ancient bricks in the ruins of Mohenjo-daro, one of the oldest settlements in the Indus Valley Civilisation, built around 5,000 years ago and abandoned 2,000 years later, located west of the Indus river in Sindhs present day Larkana district.

The river Indus (Sindhu) gave birth to this place, which gave birth to India and then Pakistan, the guide tells Paracha. What about the Arabs? quips Paracha, in an obvious reference to the Arab warrior Mohammed-bin-Qasim, the first Pakistani to whom, according to Pakistans official folklore, goes the credit of giving birth to Pakistan 1,300 years ago. He was our guest, is the prompt response from the Muslim guide who proudly claims his ancestry to Sindhs Hindu ruler, Raja Daher who was defeated by Qasim.

Sain, he (Daher) was here before them (the Arabs) Dahers ancestors were from here (Mohenjo-daro). And so were the ancestors of you and me. We all are older than the Arabs. Kya samjhe, Sain?

Next travel up north to the land of the Pashtuns, a people often much fairer and have green or blue eyes, very unlike those from the rest of the country. Listen to Noor from Multan in southern Pakistan proudly proclaim that he has Yunani khoon (Greek blood). The man is bent on travelling way up north to the stunningly beautiful Swat valley (home to Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to marry a girl with Yunani khoon. Paracha will tell you various studies have shown that a majority of Pashtuns are the descendents of the marriages between local women and Alexanders soldiers.

A five hour bus ride from Swat will take you to villages sprawling with ancient Buddhist cites. For Tibetan Buddhists, here is where Padmasambhava, believed to be a reincarnation of Gautam Buddha took birth on a lotus leaf which was floating on Lake Dhanakosha. From the first millennium BCE till the 8th century CE this region was dominated by Buddhist dynasties.

Back in Karachi, meet up with members who are among the citys oldest ethnic groups, the dark-skinned men and women, locally known as Siddhi or Shiddhi, now referred to as Afro Pakistanis. Currently numbering around 2.5 lakh people, some of them arrived as part of Mohammed-bin-Qasims army. A much larger number are believed to have been brought there as slaves from north Africa by Portuguese traders and explorers in the 16th century.

Then there are the Goan Christians and other Luso Indians who migrated to Karachi in the early 20th century. To these Christians goes the credit of running many of the citys top schools and colleges. No less important, they are the ones who introduced rock, pop and jazz bands to Pakistan.

You get the picture? As part of undivided India, what is today Pakistan had a rich multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious heritage to be proud of. But thats not how things are in present-day Pakistan. Mohammed Ali Jinnah had claimed at the birth of Pakistan that the nation he helped create in the name of Muslims (a separate nation) will be a secular state. But he died a year later and within months the state resolved to build an Islam-compliant state.

A chapter in the book is titled, My name is Pakistan and Im not an Arab. The idea that Sindh (after its invasion by Qasim) is the first Islamic province in South Asia, first floated by state-funded archaeologists in the early 1950s, was aggressively promoted by the Zia-ul Haq dictatorship (1977-1988) as part of his Islamisation agenda. It sought to explain Pakistan as a notion that had deep roots in the ancient deserts of Arabia though its geographical location was in the congested expanses of South Asia, writes Paracha.

The author cites the example of a Pakistani-American lad who, keen to settle the ancestry issue, got his DNA tested in 2016. The results showed that he was 97 per cent South Asian and had zero per cent Middle Eastern ancestry.

Take a ferry ride with Paracha from Makkad, his ancestral town in Punjab province down the Indus river. Listen to Yaqub, the ferry owner, sing the revered Sufi saint Bulleh Shahs composition, Bullah Ki Janaa Mi Kaun (Bullah, even to me I am unknown), a critical lament against religious orthodoxy.

Many of the Goan Christians who brought soulful music to Pakistan were forced to leave the country, migrating to the US, Canada and elsewhere. Anthony, a college time pal of Paracha, was one such. On hearing from him after long, Paracha mailed Anthony asking him to bring his guitar the next time he visited Pakistan. Pat came the reply, NFP, one doesnt need a guitar anymore in Karachi. One needs a gun. And I have none.

So sad.

Javed Anand is co-editor of Communalism Combat and general secretary, Muslims for Secular Democracy
New Delhi: While we all love rains, there isn't an ounce of doubt that our hair doesn't!

As a result of the increased levels of humidity during monsoon, it becomes extremely difficult to manage those tresses. Problems, such as frizzy hair, dandruff and hair fall become more frequent in the rainy season.

But, don't let the rains get to you, said Agnes Chen, Technical Head, Streax Professional.

"The key to tame your tresses lies in a simple routine that will help you sail through the rains. The monsoons tend to make your hair limp, lusterless, heavy and frizzy, owing to high levels of humidity in the air," Chen told ANI.

Chen gives some handy hacks that will come to your rescue this monsoon.

1. There is no escape to getting wet in the rain, given that we are always on the move. Shampoo your hair regularly to remove any residue or particles from your scalp, left behind by rain water. The essential tip here is to regularly cleanse and purify your hair, depending on its type.

2. Conditioning your hair by applying a masque is mandatory as it neutralises frizziness and smoothens out the hair. Ensure that the conditioner is applied only on the mid lengths and ends. The catch is to not use too much of conditioner, only use a minimum amount.

3. In the rainy season, rain water tends to hibernate in your hair, making it limper. To prevent this, make it a point to apply a few drops of hair potion on the mid-lengths and ends of the hair. Hair potion is the ultimate frizz resistant formula that instantly turns rough, frizzled and damaged strands into soft, silky and smooth hair.

4.If you get wet in the rain, make sure to dry your hair thoroughly as rain water is dirty and acidic and proves to be really bad for your hair. It may also cause fungal or bacterial infections. So, keeping your hair dry is one of the simplest, yet most effective monsoon hair care tip.

5. Tie your hair up to trap in the moisture and prevent frizz. Constant drenching in the monsoon and high levels of humidity spell bad news for your mane. There is quite a possibility that you might fall prey to a number of scalp problems and bad hair days. Therefore, it is best to tie your hair in loose ponytails and buns.

Moreover, people with coloured hair need to be extra cautious to look their jazzy best in the monsoon season. So, if you already have, or are planning to get your tresses coloured, Dr. Shuba Dharmana, dermatologist, Lejeune Medspa, lists some things for you to keep in mind.

1. Go in for a hair spa at your local salon and pamper your tresses. This is not a luxury but a necessity, as a shampoo and conditioner will only help you cleanse from the outside, while regular spa treatments are essential to nourish your hair and roots; especially coloured hair, being chemically treated, need extra care and protection.

2. A special tip for coloured hair is to dampen your locks before going out in the rain and apply conditioner. This sometimes prevents the colour from bleeding. But, do not forget to rinse with cold water immediately after you are back indoors.

3. Nobody said you can't colour your hair in the monsoons. If you do, make sure the shades are bright and cheerful to compensate for the gloomy weather. However, post care is an absolute must.

4. Rains can make the colour in your hair bleed or get washed out; thus it's a good idea to refresh the hair colour after a couple of weeks or months.

5. Use SLS free shampoo and conditioner as they will be gentler on the coloured hair. Don't skimp on the conditioner if you want to avoid the frizziness. This will also make your colour last longer.

6. If you have to heat style your tresses, use a heat protection spray or argan oil or moroccan oil and then go for it. Blow-drying is better than ironing. If you are heat styling coloured hair, your hair again will need a lot of deep conditioning treatments to nourish and reverse the damage.

7. Regular oil massages, dry head massages, deep conditioning treatments, hair spa days and DIY (Do It Yourself) home masks to nourish are all important to help keep your colour vibrant and fresh.

So, follow these tips to keep your hair monsoon ready!
Washington: Imbalance in pH value may be a cause of Alzheimer's disease, a study has found.

A study conducted by Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists have found new evidence in lab-grown mouse brain cells, called astrocytes, that one root of Alzheimer's disease may be a simple imbalance in acid-alkaline-or pH-chemistry inside endosomes, the nutrient and chemical cargo shuttles in cells.

Astrocytes work to clear so-called amyloid beta proteins from the spaces between neurons, but decades of evidence has shown that if the clearing process goes awry, amyloid proteins pile up around neurons, leading to the characteristic amyloid plaques and nerve cell degeneration that are the hallmarks of memory-destroying Alzheimer's disease.

The experiment successfully reversed the pH problem and improved the capacity for amyloid beta clearance.

However, the scientists caution that even before any experiments can happen more research is needed to verify and explain the precise relationship between amyloid proteins and Alzheimer's disease.

The disease that affects 50 million people worldwide has no cure or no drugs, till date.

"By the time Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed, most of the neurological damage is done, and it's likely too late to reverse the disease's progression," said a lead researcher Rajini Rao.

"That's why we need to focus on the earliest pathological symptoms or markers of Alzheimer's disease, and we know that the biology and chemistry of endosomes is an important factor long before cognitive decline sets in," Rao added.

Nearly 20 years ago, scientists discovered that endosomes, circular compartments that ferry cargo within cells, are larger and far more abundant in brain cells of people destined to develop Alzheimer's disease.

It hinted at an underlying problem with endosomes that could lead to an accumulation of amyloid protein in spaces around neurons.

To shuttle their cargo endosomes use chaperones, which are proteins that bind to specific cargo and bring them back and forth from the cell's surface.

Embedded in the endosome membrane are proteins that shuttle charged hydrogen atoms, known as protons, in and out of it. The amount of protons inside the endosome determines its pH.

When fluids in the endosome become too acidic, the cargo is trapped within the endosome deep inside the cell. But when the endosome contents are more alkaline, the cargo lingers at the cell's surface for too long.

To help determine whether such pH imbalances occur in Alzheimer's disease, researchers scoured scientific studies of Alzheimer's disease looking for genes that were dialled down in diseased brains compared with normal ones.

Comparing a dataset of 15 brains of Alzheimer's disease patients with 12 normal ones, he found that 10 of the 100 most frequently down-regulated genes were related to the proton flow in the cell.

In another set of brain tissue samples from 96 people with Alzheimer's disease and 82 without it, gene expression of the proton shuttle in endosomes, known as NHE6, was approximately 50 percent lower in people with Alzheimer's disease compared with those with normal brains.

In cells grown from people with Alzheimer's disease and in mouse astrocytes engineered to carry a human Alzheimer's disease gene variant, the amount of NHE6 was about half the amount found in normal cells.

To measure the pH balance within endosomes without breaking open the astrocyte, researchers used pH-sensitive probes that are absorbed by endosomes and emit light based on pH levels.

They found that mouse cell lines containing the Alzheimer's disease gene variant had more acidic endosomes (average of 5.37 pH) than cell lines without the gene variant (average of 6.21 pH).

"Without properly functioning NHE6, endosomes become too acidic and linger inside astrocytes, avoiding their duties to clear amyloid beta proteins," said Rao.

While it's likely that changes in NHE6 happen over time in people who develop sporadic Alzheimer's disease, people who have inherited mutations in NHE6 develop what's known as Christianson syndrome in infancy and have rapid brain degeneration.

A protein called LRP1 was also found which picks up amyloid beta proteins outside the astrocyte and delivers them to endosomes. It was half as abundant on the surface of lab-grown mouse astrocytes engineered with a human gene variant called APOE4.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
A view of the official bungalow which was allotted to the former chief minister and Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, at Vikramaditya Marg in Lucknow on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday announced a cash award of Rs 11 lakh to whoever gave the names of those who damaged the bungalow here at 4, Vikramaditya Marg, which was allotted to him when he was chief minister.

His announcement comes days after the Uttar Pradesh government warned that action would be taken against the SP leader as he had done "some damage" while vacating the bungalow in June.

The Rs 11 lakh will be raised through contributions of Rs 2,000 each from the party's members, Yadav said at a programme here to mark the birth anniversary of socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra also known as Chhote Lohia.

"The way police announces cash rewards..., I would tell my friends from the media that on the said night, some people from news channels had gone there. You tell us the names of those who damaged the building, we Samajwadi people will pool in with Rs 2,000 and give a cash reward of Rs 11 lakh," he said.

Also Read: Bungalow in shambles after Akhilesh Yadav vacates it

SP patriarch and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was also present at the event held at Janeshwar Mishra Park.

Akhilesh Yadav had vacated the bungalow following an order by the Supreme Court. The apex court had observed that former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office.

Earlier, senior Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had alleged that the SP chief had indulged in "todphod" (damage) before vacating the bungalow.

"One thing is clear, that he undertook some construction for which he did not take permission from the Estates Department. A law is there for this (unauthorised construction) and the law will take its course," Singh had told reporters.

After Akhilesh Yadav vacated the bungalow, video clips and photos had shown damage to a cycle track, on walls and to a floor of what appeared to be a badminton court.

The SP leader had then said it was an attempt by the ruling BJP to defame him.

In June, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik instructed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order a probe against the SP chief for leaving the government property damaged.

Following the visuals of the damage inside the bungalow, a high-level inquiry was also ordered. The Public Works Department chief engineer has submitted a 266-page inquiry report to the state estates officer.

When Akhilesh Yadav became Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2012, he was allotted the bungalow, which he retained after his party lost the assembly election last year.
Chandauli: BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday dared the Congress to clear its stand in the Rajya Sabha on the amended OBC bill, saying it will expose whether the party was really for the backward communities.

At the same time, he charged the opposition with playing vote bank politics on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, commonly known as OBC bill, was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 2 and will now go to the Rajya Sabha for passage.

The proposed legislation seeks to grant the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) constitutional status on a par with National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

"Modi government has got the OBC bill passed in the Lok Sabha. This will go to the Rajya Sabha. Will (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi clear his stand before the country that whether his party will help in the passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha or not. This will make it clear whether the Congress was really for the welfare of the backward," Shah said.

He was here to attend a function on the renaming of Mughalsarai junction after RSS stalwart Pt Deendayal Upadhyay.

On the NRC issue, the BJP chief said, "We have to push out each and every Bangladeshi infiltrator from the country."

"Mamata Banerjee and Congress say that NRC should not be done. I ask Rahul Baba whether NRC should be conducted in the country or not. But, he does not answer. You all should tell that whether the Bangladeshi infiltrators should be pushed out (from India) or not."

"Today I would like to ask the SP, the BSP and the Congress whether they want the infiltrators to stay in the country or they should be driven out. I know the answer of the people of UP. The answer is that not even a single infiltrator should be allowed to stay in India," he said.
'US continues to be as welcoming as it has always been to qualified Indian travellers,' Kagan said, adding a record number of Indians flying to the US last year proves that people in India are aware that his country welcomes them. (Representational Image | AP)

Mumbai: As the Trump administration continues to tighten screws on the H-1B visa programme, United States Consul General in Mumbai, Edgard Kagan, says his country encourages and welcomes "qualified Indians". US President Donald Trump is "very committed" to relations with India, he told news agency PTI.

"The US continues to be as welcoming as it has always been to qualified Indian travellers," Kagan said, adding a record number of Indians flying to the US last year proves that people in India are aware that his country welcomes them.

"We strongly encourage and welcome Indians to study in the US. We believe that Indians studying in the US and our students studying in India are part of the glue that holds our relationship together," he told PTI.

Indians who are in the US continue to have great opportunities there. The country is aware that Indians there want to be treated well. "If you look at the facts, you will see that the US continues to be just as welcoming as it has always been," he said.

Responding to another question, he said the US president is "very committed" to relations with India.

"If you look carefully you can see that from the very beginning of his administration, his time in office, the president and his team have emphasised the need to expand and strengthen the already good relations with India," he said.

"I think part of this is making sure we continue to grow trade in a way that is fair and balanced on both sides, part of it is making sure that both the countries continue to support investment," he said.

"We welcome and are thrilled with the amount of Indian investments that are coming to the US," he added.

Kagan said the US wants to get the right policy framework favouring investments in both the countries and make sure that ties between people of the US and India remain strong.

"The president understands all that Indian-Americans have done in the United States. He also is very proud of what the Americans have done in India and I think we want to find ways to highlight that and expand it," he said.

Asked about the US withdrawing from the Paris pact on climate change, Kagan said his country is deeply committed to protecting the environment in the US and in the world.

"We recognise that there always are trade-offs and difficult decisions to be made, but we believe the way in which we go forward is by building popular support for the idea that we all have a shared stake in our world," he said.

The US had last year announced its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries.

On the areas in which the US and India could further strengthen ties, Kagan said, "Having more travel, having more people know each other, expanding study, expanding partnerships in educational institutions, partnerships between businesses."

He underlined the need for getting the right regulatory framework, encouraging investments and capital flow to those who can use it, making sure venture capital is supported and that entrepreneurs and technology innovators can get access to support for their companies through loans and on a market basis.

"Making sure we continue to expand the collaborations between our educational and academic institutions and also look at ways to expand our business ties because those have been incredibly important in both the countries," Kagan added.
'This is against the spirit of ancient Indian culture which respects different faiths with tolerance,' priests of Kerala church said.

Mumbai: The protests against women panels recommendation to abolish the practice of confessions in churches continue with Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church criticising the move on Sunday.

This (abolishing practice of confession) is against the spirit of ancient Indian culture which respects different faiths with tolerance, the priests of the church said.

The church further requested the government to reject the recommendations.

Earlier, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the proposal to stop confessions in church last month. Archbishop of Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum, Soosai Pakiam, said, "NCW chairperson shouldn't dictate that you abolish this."

Confession, according to the Christian faith, is a Sacrament. It is a way to spiritual progress and salvation. It is a practice inherited from the early Christian communities. The sanctity of the seal of confession was held so high in the history of the Church that there are instances of priests having sacrificed their lives to protect it, a statement by Kerala's top church body said.

Also Read: Women's panel shouldn't 'dictate': Kerala church body writes to PM Modi

The National Commission for Women (NCW) recommended the abolition of the practice in the backdrop of a rape case against four priests of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The priests were accused of sexually exploiting a married woman belonging to their church.

In another incident, a nun also filed a complaint to the Kottayam district police chief in June alleging rape by Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal. She further alleged that the bishop also had unnatural sex with her multiple times at a small town near Kottayam between 2014 and 2016.
An Army officer, when contacted, said the soldiers opened fire after observing suspicious movement of some persons. (Representational Image | ANI)

Banihal: A cattle trader was killed and another injured when Army personnel allegedly opened fire on them in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, the police said.

Mohammad Rafiq Gujjar (28) and Shakeel Ahmad (30), both residents of Gool, were allegedly fired upon by soldiers of the 58 Rashtriya Rifles when they were leaving Kohli village around 4 am, a police official said.

He added while Gujjar died on the spot, Ahmad was injured in the firing and was shifted to hospital. Both of them were cattle traders and had come to the village in connection with their business, the official said quoting preliminary investigation.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Ramban, Mohan Lal confirmed the death of a civilian and injuries to another in the firing and said an FIR is being registered in this connection.

Investigation is on and a case is being lodged against Army personnel, he told news agency PTI.

An Army officer, when contacted, said the soldiers opened fire after observing suspicious movement of some persons.

We are on the job and getting details of the incident, the officer said.
HUBBALLI: The kin of Patson Rodrigues are clueless about when his mortal remains would reach Karwar as the district administration has not received any information about his death two days after he and others were shot dead by terrorists in Kabul. Meanwhile, representatives of Goa unit of Sodexo, where he was employed as a chef, visited their residence in Kadwad near Karwar. They collected documents pertaining to his identity to bring back his body soon. Members of his family and relatives expressed resentment over not receiving details about when the body would be brought home.

The manager of Sodexo working in Kabul has been in constant touch with the family members. The authorities of companys Goa unit have told us that it may require around eight days to send the body to our village. No officials or elected representatives visited their home except some local policemen. Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul declined to comment as he had not received any communication from the external affairs ministry about the death of Rodrigues.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Rupali Naik, Karwar-Ankola MLA, claimed she has brought matters to the notice of union minister Anant Kumar Hedge. Stating that Mr Hegde was in constant touch with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to speed up all processes, she expressed regret about an official communication not arriving at the office of the deputy commissioner. I will visit the family on Monday. We are making all efforts to get the body of the victim at the earliest. The delay may be caused as I am told that Saturday and Sunday are not working days in Afghanistan. Moreover, authorities of that country should complete legal process and other inquiries about assassination of the chef, she added.
Chennai: It is 1:45 pm in the afternoon when four employees are coming out of the Railways Division Office at Park Town and calling out to Rajeev Rajeev! Oru Panai Vellam, oru citrus, rendu honey tea. Besides, there are others who are asking for different varieties of tea after looking at the list of 100 types of tea on the board with the name Diya Snacks. The story of Rajeev and Diya Snacks is born out of the influence from family roots and persuasion of some of his friends.

And also from a tiny tale of collapsed dream leading to a new dawn; for, Rajeev had come to Chennai from native Palakkad in 1997 to join the MBBS course at the Madras Medical College and ended up running a tea shop across the road when his big ambition to become a doctor and serve the poor back home fell through some personal setbacks and he had to give up within a few months of enrolling at the prestigious MMC.

So what if he could not become a doctor, Rajeev had thought, before deciding to turn a healer of a different sort-serving herbal teas that promised remedies for a variety of ailments from common cold to respiratory issues and abdominal corrections. Ancient wisdom bequeathed by his grandmother helped hugely and there was big encouragement from friends in setting up Diya at Park Town.

When I was a kid back home, many people used to visit my grandmother instead of a clinic for their mild ailments like cough and cold. I asked my grandmother once and she explained the importance of herbal cure. From then Ive been helping her in sourcing the herbs from the nearby forest and preparing her medicines. I think it was this education in healing that triggered my passion to become a doctor, Rajeev told Deccan Chronicle.

When he first set up his stall in front of the medical college, he got huge patronage from the students seeking natural remedies for cough and cold. He used to prepare fifty to sixty different types of tea before moving to the current location less than a km away and putting up Diya with its 100 teas in 2012.

Due to the space constraints, the Chennai Corporation had moved my stall to this location. This space is registered and I even pay the rent. I have the big advantage of being close to the Central Station, Government office, General Hospital and food stalls, Rajiv said.

In spite of having reliable and ever growing customers, Rajeev never compromised on his objective of serving to the society in the best possible way and with the best possible knowledge on medical cure. While the most expensive Honey Tea costs `20 a cup, the rest of the 99 come for a mere Rs 10 per cup.

Medico Prithvi is among the dozens of regulars at Diya. I study at Stanley Medical College and I am a frequent customer here. Ive tasted more than 25 types of tea, my favourite being the Caramel tea. I come here often not because of the price but the authentic way of preparing it, right from the storage to serving. Very rarely you come across people like Rajeev anna who wants to give back to society said Prithvi, relishing his Caramel.

The stall on a daily basis uses fifty to sixty litres of milk and a liberal amount of herbs sourced mostly from Gods Own Country. Rajeevs concern for health can be seen in his storage manner as all the herbs are carefully stored in ceramic jars properly closed for hygiene and longevity. I am working on a book on herbal tea recipes. It is almost complete, said Rajeev with a broad smile.
Five fire tenders have been rushed to the spot. (Photo: ANI)

Kolkata: A fire broke out today at the Priya cinema hall in the Deshapriyo Park area here during a late night show, fire brigade officials said.

The audience made a hasty exit after the smoke filled the auditorium at around 10:15 pm, shortly before the show was to end, they said. There is no report of any casualty, the officials said, adding that five fire tenders were pressed into service.

Four members of the cinema hall's owner's family and a staff were trapped on the roof. They were evacuated by fire brigade personnel, sources said. Fire-fighters gave them oxygen masks as they were been brought down by the stairs, they said.

West Bengal Fire Services Minister Sovan Chatterjee and senior fire brigade officials are at the spot. Chatterjee said all those trapped on the roof were evacuated safely.

The sources suspected that the fire was caused by a short circuit. The minister said all angles, including the possibility of the fire originating from a ground floor restaurant, would be investigated. Noted Bengali actor Dev also visited the spot.
Mehul Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: India has handed over a request to Antigua for the extradition of bank fraud fugitive Mehul Choksi who has obtained citizenship of the Caribbean nation.

Official sources said a team from India was sent to Antigua few days back to pursue the authorities there to extradite Choksi. "The team met the Foreign Ministry officials of the island nation yesterday and handed over the request to extradite Choksi to India," an official source said.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. He is wanted in India by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate probing the fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country.

As per reports, Antiguan authorities cleared his citizenship in November 2017 after India did not give any adverse report to stall his application.

Choksi had fled India on January 4 this year and took an oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15. The CBI had sent its request to the Ministry of External Affairs for the extradition of Choksi.

Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper the Daily Observer reported, citing a statement from the Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda (CIU).

It said the police clearance certificate (PCC) from the Regional Passport Office in Mumbai said that there was no adverse information against Choksi which would render him ineligible for grant of travel facilities including visa for Antigua and Barbuda.

When asked about the PCC to Choksi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs had said it was given on the basis of a clear police verification report (PVR) available on his passport.

Also Read: Mehul Choksi got passport without police verification, probe ordered

Under the Citizenship by Investment Program of Antigua and Barbuda, a person can take their passport on a minimum investment of USD 1,00,000 in the NDF investment fund.

Choksi and his companies allegedly availed of credit from overseas branches of Indian banks using the fraudulent guarantees of PNB given through letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of credit issued by the Brady House branch which were not repaid, bringing liability on the state-run bank, the officials have said.

A LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant short-term credit to the applicant.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala police team, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police P. K. Subash, drew a blank on Saturday, unable to gain access to the Vatican embassy in New Delhi to record the statement of the apostolic nuncio in connection with the probe into allegations of rape against Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal.

The police had gone to the nuncios quarters at the embassy without prior appointment and were stopped at the entrance and sent back. They planned to go back to the embassy early next week after questioning the Bishop Mulakkal. The team would leave for Ujjain on Sunday.

The police meanwhile has found that a complaint filed by the relative of the Missionaries of Jesus mother superior, allegedly raped by the bishop 13 times, lacked substance as it had been under

coercion.

The bishop and the diocese had taken the stand that the relatives complaint, questioning the nuns character, was the provocation. They had also said the nuns complaint was in retaliation for the disciplinary action taken by the bishop. This version had the backing of the congregation.

The police had earlier found that the bishops complaint of threat and intimidation against the nuns relatives was not credible. Mr Subash said the driver, who had purportedly confessed to hearing the brother of the nun threatening the bishop, had been flown to Jalandhar to get his sign on the complaint.
Jatt escaped from police custody on February 6 while he was being taken to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital for a medical examination. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Srinagar: Wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Naveed Jatt, who fled from police custody early this year, on Saturday made an appearance at the funeral of a militant killed in a gun battle with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district.

Photographs of Jatt offering a gun salute to Waqar Ahmad Sheikh at his funeral in Shopian's Malikgund village have surfaced on social media.

Jatt escaped from police custody on February 6 while he was being taken to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar for a medical examination. Two policemen were killed in a shootout at the hospital.

Jatt is also an accused in the murder case of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead outside his office at Press Enclave here on June 14.
Thiruvananthapuram: In a major security lapse, a knife-wielding man created ruckus at Kerala House in Delhi by threatening to commit suicide on Saturday, minutes before Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was to leave for CPM politburo meeting.

The chief ministers security overpowered the man who was identified as Vimal Raj, from Chettinkulangara in Alappuzha. He was brandishing a knife and threatening to end his life.

The CPM politburo condemned the incident and demanded a high level inquiry into the security breach.

The incident took place at 9.45 am when journalists were waiting near the chief ministers room to seek his reaction on denial of AIIMS to the state and Centres indifference towards Kerala.

Vimal Raj was also standing with the group of media persons who had gathered there since 8.30 am.

On being questioned about his identity, the 46-year-old man immediately took out a knife and tried to rush towards the chief minister. At this time he was shouting that he wanted to end his life. The chief minister is not allowing me to live. I met the chief minister five times in Thiruvananthapuram and Delihi. However, he has not redressed my grievances. He is not allowing me to live, he screamed.

The CM security swung into action immediately and overpowered him and tied his hands behind. He was later taken away for questioning.

Sources in the Chief Minister's Office said Vimalraj was suspected to be having some heath problems. .

On Saturday he was moving around with a bag containing the knife since 7.30 am. Officials said he was also seen within and outside Kerala House premises during the past two days. The Delhi police is probing the matter.
Mughalsarai Junction railway station in Uttar Pradesh will be formally renamed today after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Uphadyay. (Photo: File | PTI)

Chandauli/Lucknow: The Mughalsarai Junction railway station in Uttar Pradesh will be formally renamed today after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Uphadyay when BJP president Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath arrive at the iconic railway station.

The three leaders will flag off a passenger train and a goods train with an all-woman crew and also launch a "smart yard" project at the century-old station on the busy Delhi-Howrah route.

The building is being touched up with saffron paint at places and signboards with the new name being put up.

Deen Dayal Upadhyay was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the Mughalsarai station in February 1968.

Mughalsarai is also the birthplace of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The leaders will launch a project to upgrade the yard at the station, officials said.

Ekatmata Express, now set to follow a new route from Lucknow to Mughalsarai, will get the green signal.

Railway officials said it will be the first time in the country that an all-woman crew runs a goods train.

Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior BJP leaders will also be present.

On paper, Mughalsarai station got a new name after Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik gave his assent to the proposal in June.

The Centre gave its in-principle approval last year to the state government's proposal to rename the station, which is among the busiest in the country.

The move drew flak from the opposition which accused the ruling party of attempting to tamper with history.

UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey on Sunday said the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre had imbibed Deen Dayal Upadhyay's philosophy of 'antyodaya', or caring for the last person in society.
BJP National President Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the inauguration of a new train at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay station. (Photo: PTI)

Mughalsarai (Uttar Pradesh): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Sunday inaugurated the new Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction railway station, which was earlier known as Mughalsarai.

"Today is a very big day for the Bhartiya Janata Party as Mughalsarai station, where Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay was killed, has today been named after him. I am happy that under Prime Minister Modi's leadership a memorial is being made after Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay," Amit Shah said.

Also present on the occasion were Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Decked-up in saffron colour now, the station is one of the oldest and biggest railway junctions in the state. The renaming of the iconic railway station was proposed by Yogi Adityanath in August last year, and was later approved by the Centre.

The central government drew flak from the opposition which accused the ruling party of attempting to tamper with history.

Also Read: Amit Shah hits out at Congress, dares party to clear stand on OBC Bill

On the special occasion, the three leaders also flagged off a passenger train and a goods train with an all-woman crew.

"Deen Dayal Upadhyay's father, maternal grandfather and uncle served for the Indian railway. In early stages of his life, he himself was associated with railway. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also worked as a chai-wala in his childhood days. Through the vision of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, this (BJP) government is concerned about all the poor people under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. I am thankful to the Prime Minister to allow the change in the name of Mughalsarai station," Piyush Goyal said.

Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyay was found dead in mysterious circumstances near Mughalsarai station on February 11, 1968.

"We have all got a new identity today with the new Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction railway station. I want to thank Prime Minister Modi, Piyush Goyal and Amit Shah for allowing this change," said Yogi Adityanath.
President Ram Nath Kovind meets DMK leaders MK Stalin and Kanimozhi at Kauvery hospital, where their father and party chief M Karunanidhi is being treated, in Chennai, on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

Chennai: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday visited ailing DMK president M Karunanidhi at a hospital here and enquired about his health.

At the hospital, the President briefly interacted with Karunanidhi's son and DMK working president M K Stalin and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

The President, who arrived here from Hyderabad, drove directly from the airport to Kauvery Hospital, where the DMK chief is undergoing treatment.

"Visited Thiru M Karunanidhi in Chennai, met Kalaignar's family members and doctors and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery," the official Twitter account of Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Visited Thiru M. Karunanidhi in Chennai, met Kalaignars family members and doctors, and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery #PresidentKovind pic.twitter.com/LIxLzTnzWc  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) August 5, 2018

Kovind was accompanied by Governor Banwarilal Purohit. A picture of the President's interaction with the family members of Karunanidhi was shared on the micro-blogging site.

Before winding up his visit, Kovind walked down a few metres and waved at the media and crowd gathered at the hospital.

Politicians and many prominent leaders have visited Karunanidhi at the hospital.

Last week, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu visited the hospital to enquire about the health of Karunanidhi.

On Saturday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister Suresh Prabhu visited him.

Karunanidhi was admitted to the hospital following a dip in his blood pressure on July 28.

On July 31, the hospital said the leader would require an extended period of hospitalisation due to "decline" in his general health although his vital parameters have normalised.
Both of them later informed Rameshkumar, Inspector of Kumbakonam west police station. All the three went to ICICI bank branch at Ayikulam and handed over the cash of Rs 10, 000 to the bank manager Hariharan.

Thanjavur: Senthilvelan (38), son of Narasimhalu of Puliyanchery near Baburajapuram in Kumbakonam, who is working as a professor in a private engineering college at Thirumangalakottai, handed over Rs 10,000 found in an automated teller machine (ATM) of ICICI bank at Uchipillaiyarkoil at Kumbakonam, to the bank manager.

According to Kumbakonam west police, Senthilvelan went to the ATM to check how much balance he has to pay for a loan he borrowed from the bank. He found a bunch of currencies in the machine. He took and counted the money and informed his friend Vijayakumar.

Both of them later informed Rameshkumar, Inspector of Kumbakonam west police station. All the three went to ICICI bank branch at Ayikulam and handed over the cash of Rs 10, 000 to the bank manager Hariharan.

Bank Manager and Inspector of police appreciated the honesty of Senthilvelan. The professor is also working as a server in a hotel of his friend during night time and sometimes drives an auto too to earn money.
Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has started extolling the virtues of the Ramayana. He reads from a script and his voice carries neither conviction nor authenticity. The message is not spiritual but political, aimed at the BJP-RSS-Hindutva combine: Its our baby too!

Poet-Minister G. Sudhakaran said last year that Ravana was more decent then Rama. Now he says the Ramayana is classic literature and the new generation should be aware of it. Thats a sign of the changing times. The CPM seems to be wallowing in confusion. To read or not to read  thats the million dollar question.

Believed to have been composed by Valmiki between 700 and 500 B.C., this heart-rending Sanskrit masterpiece comprises seven texts - Balakanda, Ayodhyakanda, Aranyakanda, Kiskindakanda, Sundarakanda, Yuddhakanda and Uttarkanda  each describing a crucial phase in the life of the ideal man (purushottam) Rama, son of Dasaratha.

Ramas image, however, is not unblemished. His rejection of Sita, his treatment of Surpanaka, and the treacherous killing of the monkey king Vali, serve to tear apart the flimsy veil of perfection. Rama is a man after all. To uphold dharma he publicly humiliates his wife. He speaks cruel words. He listens to gossip. Yes, he is an avatar of Vishnu, but he is not flawless.

Valmiki first teaches the Ramayana to Lava and Kusa, the twin sons of Rama born to Sita after she was abandoned in the forest. The boys recite the poem to Rama, King of Ayodhya. The delightful composition adorned with similie and metaphor, hyperbole and many other figures of speech, moves languidly from climax to anticlimax again and again, until it culminates in tragedy.

There is tragedy at the beginning too - the curse on Dasaratha - which appears later in a flashback. Dasarathas childlessness and the miracle cure, Kaikeyis boon, Ravanas abduction of Sita in his aircraft, Ramas use of the monkey brigade, Hanumans ocean-crossing, and the Lanka war, all serve to hold the audience spellbound.

Surprisingly, the word lakshmanrekha appears nowhere in the text. The Pampa is said to be full of lotuses. The Yamuna has swans and water-birds. Yes, there are surprises aplenty.

The oldest available version of the Ramayana is dated to the 11th century. The Adyatma Ramayanam is of the 16th century. Some interesting quotes from the Valmiki Ramayana (English translation by Arshia Sattar) are presented here, with a focus on the lesser known narratives.

We learn that the sons of Dasaratha recited the gayatri mantra. The princes bathed and recited the gayatri, the best of all mantras. I thought the gayatri was a Brahmin privilege. Here we have kshatriyas reciting it too. And whats more, on his arrival in Lanka,...In the hour before dawn, Hanuman heard virtuous rakshasas chanting the Vedas.

When Rama is reluctant to kill Tataka because she is a woman, Viswamitra advises him, Rama, for the welfare of the Brahmins and the cows, you must kill this wicked yakshi ....Have no hesitation about killing a woman, for you must do what is best for the four castes. A king must do what will benefit his subjects, even if it is unrighteous, for such is his duty. Dont you know how Indra killed Manthara...?

Lakshmana says to Rama, How can a man like you, who stands so strong and proud in the dharma of the kshatriya, sing praises of this thing called destiny? Fate is the refuge of the weak and the impotent. Now this should sound familiar to our Marxist brothers. Remember what Marx said about religion being the sigh of the oppressed creature and the opium of the masses?

When Rama refuses to take Sita with him to the forest, she exclaims How did my father, the king of Mithila and the lord of the Videhas, get you, a woman disguised as a man for a son-in-law! Later in the forest, Rama says to Lakshmana, When I think of the disaster that has befallen me as a result of the kings infatuation

I feel the pursuit of pleasure must be even more compelling than the pursuit of wealth or dharma. Even an ignorant man would not renounce his son for the sake of a beautiful woman.

To Bharata who comes to visit him in the forest, Rama says, Bharata, no man can do exactly as he pleases, for he is not his own master. His fate drags him hither and thither. All wealth is spent, men rise only to fall, all unions lead to separations, and death is the end of life...Days and nights move on, diminishing the lives of all beings, just as surely as the heat of the sun dries up the moisture in the earth...We rejoice when we see the sun rise every morning and set every evening without realising that with it our lives are passing too.

Few of us are aware that Ravana wasnt the first Asura to get hold of Sita. The rakshasa Viradha appears in the Dandaka forest, grabs Sita, and issues dire threats to the Ram- Lakshman duo, whereupon Rama says to his brother, I cannot bear the thought of Sita being touched by another man.

It upsets me more than the death of my father and the loss of my kingdom. This is so typically human, so macho male, so credible in modern society, it reinforces ones belief in the immutability of the male psyche.

In the wilderness, Sita warns Rama of the dangers of mindless violence. She expresses the view that the mind is perverted by proximity to weapons. Like dry fuel bursts into flame when it is near a fire, so too, a Kshatriyas passions are ignited when he has a bow at hand....May it never happen that you attack the Rakshasas of the forest without reason, simply because you carry a weapon. I cannot bear the thought of innocents being killed, O hero! A Kshatriya should use his bow in the forest only to protect the oppressed.

In Lanka, Ravana says to the rakshasis, Take Sita to the Asoka grove and guard her zealously, safe from prying eyes. Threaten her and cajole her alternately, the way wild elephants are tamed. Convince her that she must accede to my wishes! But Rakshasas have their code of honour too. Ravana tells Sita, Let my body be ravaged by desire, I will not touch you until you want me to.

Trust me, you have nothing to fear. I guess the erudite minister G. Sudhakaran was right about Ravana  the guy wasnt so bad after all. War over. Ravana killed, Sita reclaimed. Then comes what Shakespeare would have called the unkindest cut of all. Rama tells Sita in the presence of the monkeys and the Eakshasas, I have done my duty by rescuing you from the enemy and avenging the insult to myself. You should know that this war, which was won by the heroic efforts of my friends, was not fought for your sake. I did it to vindicate my honour and to save my noble family from disgrace...I have no more use for you, Sita! How can a man born into a noble family lovingly take back a woman who has lived in the house of a strange man?

The similies and imagery are simply out of this world. Blood poured from Sugrivas body like cascades from a mountain. And Stunned by the blow, Vali reeled, as a small boat carrying merchants and their goods is rocked upon the ocean. Ravana tells Sita, My love for you makes me hold back my anger, as a good charioteer reins in his horses that have gone off the road. Love is a terrible bind!  On the battlefield Indrajit says to Lakshmana, My arrows shall consume you the way the fire consumes bales of cotton!

Dasaratha welcomes Viswamitra with the words, Your visit here has made me as happy as if I had obtained the nectar of immortality. Your presence is like rain in drought, like the birth of a son to a childless man, like the recovery of wealth for a man who has lost everything. I welcome you from the bottom of my heart. Our politicians would do well to turn the pages of the Ramayana once in a while.

Dasaratha sends his son and crown prince to the forest. Rama sends his pregnant wife to the forest. Pathos is a common thread that runs right through the epic poem. At every twist and turn it tugs at the heart-strings. In that sense the Ramayana is beyond religion.

In our globalized world in the twenty first century is it necessary to read the same book more than once? Why not? After all, the Ramayana has captured the imagination of millions. Today it is performed all over south-east Asia, most prominently in Indonesia, a Muslim country. Malabar has a Mappilla Ramayanam and you can hear Comrade T K Hamza quote from it on youtube. M N Karassery who stumbled upon it in the midst of his research, has spoken about the pertinent questions the discovery threw up. Do Muslims need the Ramayana? Does the Ramayana need Muslims? Similarly we need to ask in the present context: Can todays communists afford to ignore the lessons of the Ramayana? Well, not when an election is round the corner.

Politics apart, there are only a few things a human being can do again and again without feeling bored. Reading the Ramayana is one of them.

(The author is an IT professional)
Lucknow/Chandauli: Looking to woo Dalit voters, BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday dared Congress president Rahul Gandhi to make public his partys stand on the amended OBC Bill before it is taken up for passage in the Rajya Sabha.

This will make it clear whether the Congress is really for the welfare of the backward communities, he said.

Speaking at a separate function in Varanasi, Mr Shah once again questioned the silence of Mr Gandhi on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) aimed at identifying illegal migrants.

The NRC was initiated by the UPA under the Manmohan Singh government to fulfil the commitment made in the Assam Accord of 1985. However, the manner in which this exercise has been undertaken by the BJP governments at the Centre and in Assam, under a Supreme Court direction, has been criticised by the Congress.

The BJP president also hit out at Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party for their silence on the NRC issue.

I would like to ask the SP, the BSP and the Congress whether they want the infiltrators to stay in the country or they should be driven out. The answer is that not even a single infiltrator should be allowed to stay in India, he said.

Shah said that no matter how hard these parties try, they would not be able to defeat the Modi government in the 2019 elections.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is learnt to have thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this gesture when he met him in Delhi on Sunday.

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is upbeat over the Centres stand on Schedule X institutions listed under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. As many as 142 institutions have been listed under Schedule X.

The Centre recently filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that there was no need to bifurcate Schedule X institutions between TS and AP and these institutions belonged to either TS or AP based on their geographical location.

The move will make TS richer by thousands of crores as almost all the Schedule X institutions are located in and around Hyderabad and possess thousands of acres of land, buildings and other assets. While the dispute between both the states for control over 142 institutions has been going on for four years, the Centres affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, which supported the TS government, came as a shot in the arm for the Telangana government.

As many as 142 institutions have been listed under Schedule X. The TS government has been citing Section 75 of the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014, arguing that a state would have absolute ownership over institutions located within that state and the other state could avail itself of the facilities of those institutions by entering into a memorandum of understanding.

It used the same interpretation to take control over the premises of the APSCHE in Hyderabad but that was struck down by the Apex Court.

However, Andhra Pradesh, to substantiate its arguments, has been citing Part VI and Section 47 of the same Act which states that all the assets and liabilities of the erstwhile state of combined Andhra Pradesh were to be apportioned between the two successor states. Schedule X institutions are not exempted, AP argues.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is learnt to have thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this gesture when he met him in Delhi on Sunday.
Hundreds of people on Sunday attended his funeral and later held protests against the killing of an innocent unarmed man.

Srinagar: A nomadic herdsman was killed and another wounded in Army firing in a remote area of Jammu and Kashmirs Ramban district early Sunday, triggering protests by Gujjar community. The State government has ordered an inquiry into the incident whereas the police has registered First Information Report (FIR) against the Army.

28-year-old Muhammad Rafiq Gujjar and 30-year-old Shakeel Ahmed were shot at by the troops of Armys 58 Rashtriya Rifles in Kohli area of Rambans Gool tehsil at around 4 am when they had just returned home. Gujjar died on the spot. Ahmed who was injured in the firing was shifted to district hospital Ramban where he told reporters that the Army barged into our dwelling and opened fire when we had just returned after delivering cattle at a nearby place.

The Army, however, said that its men opened fire after they came under fire in the area. Jammu-based defence spokesman Lt. Col. Devender Anand said that the Army had on specific intelligence inputs launched an operation at Kohli. At 3.45 am the Army patrol saw some suspicious activity. The suspected individuals were challenged by the Army as per Standing Operating Procedure (SOP). On being challenged, the suspected individuals opened fire upon the Army patrol. The Army patrol retaliated effectively, he said.

The district administration has ordered an inquiry into the incident whereas the police has registered an FIR against the men of the Army unit involved in the incident. Confirming it, SSP Ramban Mohan Lal said an FIR has been registered against 58 Rastriya Rifles at Dharamkund police station and that the investigations were underway.

The incident comes a day after a 25-year-old youth of the Gujjar community was shot dead by the CRPF posted at the residence of former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah at Bhatindi in Jammu. Hundreds of people on Sunday attended his funeral and later held protests against the killing of an innocent unarmed man.

The protesters including the relatives of the youth Syed Murfad Shah blocked the Jammu-Bantalab road near his Chinore residence for several hours and demanded that an FIR be registered against the CRPF personnel and the case handed over to the Crime Branch of the J&K police for a thorough probe. The protesters also called for releasing the CCTV footage of the incident.

The CRPF has claimed that Shah had rammed his black Mahindra XUV (JK02BW-0568) into the front gate of the residence of Abdullahs and damaged some articles inside the premises and attacked one of its men before being shot dead.

The relatives of the deceased have, however, alleged that he had been called by a CRPF officer over some issue related to gun-licensing and was shot dead in cold blood after the two entered into an argument. Shahs father runs a gun-shop in Bantalab area of Jammu. A local woman Raj Kumari who has claimed to be witness to the incident has said that Shah was shot twice outside the Abdullahs house and then dragged inside the premises by the CRPF personnel.

The government has already ordered a magisterial probe. No satisfied with it, Abdullahs party National Conference has demanded a probe by National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party patron and executive chairman of State Legal Aid Committee Bhim Singh has urged Governor, N. N. Vohra, to institute a high power judicial inquiry by a sitting judge of the high court. "The state Legal Aid Committee has collected evidence and felt that Shah was killed without any cause or reason," Mr. Singh said in a statement. It added, This is also admitted that the deceased had no weapon or anything in his hand or in the car. The facts lead to the conclusion that it was a pre-planned murder." End it
New Delhi: India has handed over a request to Antigua for extradition of Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam-accused Mehul Choksi who had obtained citizenship of the Caribbean nation. Indian Government sources had recently said New Delhi was sending an extradition request on Choksi to Antigua.

News agency reports on Sunday cited sources saying that a team from India was sent to Antigua few days back to pursue the authorities there to extradite Choksi. The team met the foreign ministry officials of the island nation on Saturday and handed over the request to extradite Choksi to India, sources were quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, markets regulator Sebi never gave any clean chit report on Choksi to Antiguas citizenship-for-investment authority, a senior official said.

The regulator is continuing with its probe into alleged violation of capital market regulations by Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi duo and their associates including some brokers in connection with two listed firms  PNB and Gitanjali Gems, the official added.
Mumbai: Union minister Nitin Gadkaris statement on the lack of jobs in the country has embarrassed the BJP. The Congress has said that Mr Gadkaris statement mirrors the governments performance.

Talking to reporters in Aurangabad on the Maratha reservation issue, Mr Gadkari said that granting reservation would not guarantee employment as jobs are shrinking in the country.

Let us assume that reservation is given. But there are no jobs. In banks, jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs? Mr Gadkari asked while responding to queries about the ongoing Maratha agitation in Maharashtra for reservation. He also said, The problem with the quota is that backwardness is becoming a political interest. Everyone says I am backward. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Brahmins are strong. They dominate politics and they say they are backward.

Mr Gadkaris statement has embarrassed his party, the BJP. Opposition parties were quick to pick on the statement and use it to corner the BJP. They said his statement is a mirror to the current employment generation situation in the country.

He is right to say that there are no jobs in the market. The Modi government has failed to create new jobs. Thats pressurising the government sector, but here also recruitment is frozen and youth are angry. We thank Nitin Gadkariji for publicly echoing the statements issued by Congress president Rahul Gandhi about employment generation, said Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.

The Nationalist Congress Party chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said that Mr Gadkaris statement exposes the BJPs failure to create new jobs in the country. These people keep lying about jobs and investment. But now, the situation is so alarming that a senior minister like him has to accept failure. The youth are feeling cheated now, he said.
Farmers belonging to 24 villages in Nizamabad and Jagitial districts are demanding release of water from SRSP to save their standing crops.

Nizamabad: Fifteen years after the Naxalite movement ended, people in north Telangana districts have witnessed huge police forces in their villages for last couple of days. Hundreds of policemen were deployed villages in undivided Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts on Sunday to quell the agitation of farmers demanding release of water from the Sriramsagar project.

Nizamabad police commissioner Kartikeya, Siddipet commissioner D. Joel Davis, Kamareddy superintendent of police N. Swetha and Nirmal SP Sashidhar Raju camped in Armoor division and supervising the security arrangements.

Farmers belonging to 24 villages in Nizamabad and Jagitial districts are demanding release of water from SRSP to save their standing crops. But the state government, citing drinking water needs, refused to release water and this has led to a series of agitations.

The farmers, along with their family members, have decided to besiege the Sriramsagar project and carry out agitations in their villages in protest against the decision of the government.

Police promulgated prohibitory orders under section 144 in the villages and also deployed heavy forces in various villages in Mendora, Balkonda, Yergatla, Morthad and Kammarpally mandals. Due to the presence of armed police forces, few farmers have participated in the agitations.

Meanwhile, a group of farmers in Uploor village in Kammarpally mandal on Sunday tried to burn the effigy of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and take out a protest rally in the village.

Noticing it, the police dispersed the gathered farmers and permitted less than 15 members to submit a memorandum to the presiding deity in Sri Bala Raja Rajeshwara Swamy temple in Uploor village.

Interestingly, the farmers submitted the memorandum to God and prayed to him to change the mindset of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in favor of farmers. Speaking to newsmen, the famers said that there was no option for them to express their woes than submitting the memorandum to God. Both elected representatives and officials turned mere spectators for the release of water from SRSP, they lamented.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Armoor Assistant Commissioner of Police K Shiva Kumar said that situation was under control in the police division. There was no untoward incident under the command area of SRSP, he said. Following the promulgation of prohibitory orders, the tense situation would come to normalcy, he added. The ACP warned that if anyone carried out into agitations by violating prohibitory orders, he would face the criminal charges.

Release water or face more stir, says Congress

Congress leaders in Nizamabad on Sunday warned the TRS government of consequences if it failed to release water from Sriramsagar and Singur projects. They said the farmers in the district were worried about the survival of their standing crops.

TPCC spokesperson B. Mahesh Kumar Goud, secretary N. Ratnakar, CCC president Kesha Venu and district Wakf board's former chairman Javed said this at a media interaction held at Congress Bhavan in Nizamabad on Sunday.

They said the Congress government released water from SRSP to save crops during Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy regime. The TRS is resorting to undemocratic policies to suppress the protests of farmers. Around 0.4 tmc water is enough to save the standing crops, they said.

The leaders said TRS MPs and MLAs would be held responsible for the unrest. They said the MLAs were not explaining the ground reality in the district to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and irrigation minister T. Harish Rao. The Congress will not tolerate injustice to the farmers, they said.
Chennai: Is Rajinikanth taking over the AIADMK? The buzzing news is growing in the political circles here as sources insist that the post-Jayalalitha convulsions in the AIADMK could throw up its biggest jolt in the next couple of weeks with the superstar joining the party and almost immediately getting crowned as its leader, even if not the Chief Minister.

The talk of Rajinikanth joining the AIADMK has been going on for the last few weeks now, particularly among the second-rung leaders in the ruling party as also in media corridors.

The climax happened during an interesting interview on the popular Puthiya Thalaimurai TV channel with editor Karthigaichelvan asking the state Tamil development and culture minister Mafoi K. Pandiarajan to comment on the persistent rumours of the Superstar getting close to the ruling party.

The journalist, in particular, wanted to know how the minister viewed the oft-repeated promise by Rajinikanth that he would deliver the 'good rule of MGR' to the people of Tamil Nadu. Who knows, he may even come to us, quipped Pandiarajan in reply.

The editor pressed further-Will he come to your party for alliance? The AIADMK minister did not hesitate in replying: It could be alliance, he could even join us.

Social media was afire with Mafois seemingly strong confirmation of what was being speculated for some time in the political circles. True, there have been reports that the superstar is working hard on putting together a team of trusted lieutenants to launch a political party with loyalists at booth level; but then, it was also said that the logistics and massive investment by way of money and human resources appeared daunting.

An said informed source, It would be a humongous task for Rajini to launch a political party and build up the cadre-base in time for the next elections. He cannot skip the Lok Sabha elections saying it happened too soon for him to be ready. And it would take huge amount of resources to get the army ready for the next Assembly polls; things will get tougher if the state polls are advanced to take place along with the Parliament election next year. Best scenario for the superstar would be getting the AIADMK with its huge cadre-base delivered to him on a platter. You may perhaps expect liberal help towards this coming from the BJP and the Centre.

It is still unclear how the AIADMK top brass has taken Mafois bombshell on the TV channel. However, the state cooperation minister Sellur Raju has come up with a sample of the sullen feelings.

Anybody is welcome to join our party as an ordinary cadre, but there is no place in the AIADMK if someone wants to come in straightaway as the leader. One must work his way up through hard work and loyalty towards the party, he said when asked if Mafoi's statement could mean that the ruling party might soon have the Superstar as its leader.

Political observers point out that Rajinikanth has been soft towards the AIADMK government during the last few weeks, ducking even when the media asked for his response to the I-T raids and other related corruption scams that the Opposition got shrill about.

It is an interesting situation. Something big is emerging, you can be sure of that, said an informed source. In any case, Rajini is most likely to come out with a decisive announcement in a couple of weeks. We must wait and see if it is the launch of a new party, or joining up the AIADMK.
On August 1 the State government informed the Madras HC of its decision to transfer the cases to CBI and on the same day a G.O to this effect was issued.

Chennai: A Central Minister has contested the State governments decision to transfer the idol wing cases to the CBI. IG (of Idol Wing police) Pon Manickavel has been doing a good job and is competent to handle the case, Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said. The BJP, he asserted, is firm on the Idol Wing police under the IG, continue the investigation.

Opposing the decision to transfer the cases to CBI, Mr. Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kuzhithurai in Kanyakumari district, As far as I am concerned, IG Pon Manickavel has functioned efficiently. He has to his credit the unique distinction of bringing home the idols smuggled several years ago  an achievement that is unimaginable. Even the Madras high court has been supportive of his efforts. Only the Centre will decide on the issue of transferring the cases to CBI at this juncture, he said while lauding the IG. On Aug. 1, the State government informed the Madras High Court of its decision to transfer the cases to CBI and on the same day a government order to this effect was issued.

Meanwhile, the state governments decision to transfer the idol theft cases to the CBI drew flak from the BJP national secretary H. Raja too. Why should the government which opposed the transfer of the Srirangam Rangarajan idol missing case to the CBI in 2016, now transfer the idol theft cases to the CBI following the arrest of additional commissioner of HR & CE Kavitha (by the Idol Wing police)? he asked.

Replying to a tweet by BJPs South Chennai district president Dolphin Sritharan, Mr. Raja said, Good question Sritharan. How can the government be trusted when it had not taken action even after the high court had directed it on Feb. 12, 2018, to evict encroachers and retrieve temple properties within six months?

Reacting to the issue, Mr. Sritharan had tweeted Pon Manickavel has not furnished any report since the last one-and-a-half years. We dont have faith on him: Govt. Perhaps, he did not submit any report, since he had no faith on the govtshall we ask?
President Ramnath Kovind interacts with DMK working president and MP Kanimozhi in Chennai on Sunday. Governor Banwarilal Purohit is also present. (Photo:DC)

Chennai: President Ram Nath Kovind visited ailing DMK president M Karunanidhi at the Kauvery Hospital on Sunday and enquired about his health. He was at the hospital for about 20 minutes.

The President briefly interacted with Karunanidhi's son and DMK working president M K Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, DMK's Rajya Sabha Member, at the hospital. He was also briefed by doctors on the condition of the ailing DMK chief, hospital sources said.

Visited Thiru M Karunanidhi in Chennai, met Kalaignar's family members and doctors and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery, the official Twitter account of Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

The President arrived from Hyderabad and was received by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and cabinet colleagues, besides senior officials.

He drove straight to Kauvery Hospital, accompanied by the Governor and senior state minister D. Jayakumar as the protocol minister. After the hospital visit, President Kovind travelled to Thiruvavanthapuram.

Several prominent personalities and political leaders have visited Karunanidhi at the hospital since his admission on July 28when his blood pressure dropped.

Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu visited the hospital last week. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister Suresh Prabhu visited on Saturday (August 4). A big crowd of DMK cadres and admirers of Karunidhi continued to keep vigil outside the hospital, many of them raising slogans hailing their leader Kalaignar whenever a dignitary came to enquire about his health.

There has been no bulletin from the hospital after its July 31 statement that had said Karunanidhi would require an extended period of hospitalisation due to decline in his general health although his vital parameters have normalised. Informed sources say the grim situation continues in the ICU.
Ordering a probe into how a clearance certificate from the external affairs ministrys Regional Passport Office in Mumbai was given to Mehul Choksi in March 2017 is like bolting the barn doors after the animals bolted. Its the same regarding the extradition request sent to the Antigua and Barbuda government to try and bring the rogue diamantaire back home. These processes can take so long, including over appeals, that it could be frustrating, if not totally futile. The elaborate fraud on a nationalised bank went on even after several representations by the jewellers franchises and others in the jewellery trade who knocked on all doors of the investigative and law enforcement agencies, besides government departments and the Reserve Bank. Its a clear case of inaction over serious allegations. The only thing to establish is whether all this inaction was deliberate or induced by bribes.

The uncle and nephew team of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi made modern Indias biggest bank heist in a $2 billion scam involving public funds. As the aam aadmi sweated it out, the rich were consorting with diamantaires and buying jewels and gems. And the authorities acted as if they had no clue about the fraud, while Choksi plotted his departure from India to the Caribbean in May 2017. The blame doesnt lie so much with these countries as with India for allowing such scams in its public sector banks, whose considerable NPAs are bolstered by such outright fraud as plotted by the diamantaires. The levels of alertness about industrialists trying to skip the country while owing thousands of crores to banks also appear to be extremely lax.
The Supreme Court is now hearing a petition on reservations for the SC/ST category in promotions as well, going beyond reservations in education and government jobs. (Photo: Asian Age)

Much has been happening recently to encourage us to study carefully key questions on the concept and implementation of reservations, or positive discrimination, in India and the implementation of policies on this. Last week, the Lok Sabha unanimously amended the Constitution to confer statutory status on the National Commission on Backward Classes, bringing it at par with the national commissions on scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. With this amendment the NCBC, when it investigates cases of discrimination against BCs, will have the powers of a civil court.

After Independence, reservations were sought only for the scheduled castes and tribes due to the centuries/millennia of discrimination they had suffered, and the urgent need for a forward push by the state and society to rescue them from poverty and give them respectability at par with other citizens and to restore their human rights. The reservation for SC/STs was meant to be for a temporary period.

While this temporary phase is ongoing for seven decades, in the early 1990s the V.P. Singh government decided to extend reservations to socially and educationally backward classes  the so-called Other Backward Classes. Unlike the SC/ST reservations, which was not a vote-catching political device, this category of reservations appeared to many to be animated by electoral considerations due to the political circumstances of the time, though its protagonists sought to claim it was to further social justice.

The Supreme Court is now hearing a petition on reservations for the SC/ST category in promotions as well, going beyond reservations in education and government jobs. This is a hoary chestnut as such reservations could not proceed due to the rulings of several high courts, and has already been gone over by the Supreme Court  in the Indira Sawhney case and the Nagaraj case in 2006.

The court also rejected a petition last week which urged that quotas be extended to those below the poverty line. The court asked the petitioner to move the government on this.

In addition to all this, there is an ongoing agitation by the Maratha community for reservations on the ground of farm distress and inadequate job opportunities  grounds also cited by other prosperous and dominant peasant groups elsewhere in the country  Patidars in Gujarat, Kapu in Andhra Pradesh, and Jats and Gujjars in several north Indian states.

While discussions in Parliament take a political shape, with political parties interested only in cultivating vote blocs, there are as yet no defining studies on the outcomes flowing from the reservations policy for different categories. This is now urgently needed. In fact, we dont even have an idea of the extent of the OBC population across India. The question also should be asked  is reservation the only way to help people overcome economic and social handicaps?
For 2018, the number of mobile phone users is forecast to reach 4.77 billion. The number of mobile phone users across the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019. In 2016, an estimated 62.9 per cent of the population worldwide already owned a mobile phone. Of these, India and China alone accounted for about 2.5 billion. The United States followed, with 327 million, and a dysfunctional country like Pakistan had 125 million. Even in countries with little semblance of a government or a state, like Somalia and Afghanistan or Mali or Libya, there are functioning mobile phone networks. There are almost four billion Internet users the world over now. Of these, 44.8 per cent are in Asia, 21.5 per cent in Europe and 11.4 per cent in all of North America. India was one of the last countries operating a telegraph service, and as of this month even that is now in the past. Literally, its all up in the air nowadays.

Quite clearly, we are talking and communicating more with each other. Billions of messages flit through the ether each day. Thats why this is called the communications era. People are constantly communicating. This has led to new forms of business and new forms of doing business. And any kind of business. With that small gizmo in your hand, that often nowadays packs more power than a bank of personal computers half a dozen years ago, you can buy an airline ticket in another continent or send flowers to a special friend in yet another one. There can be other less benign uses also. A terrorist can detonate a secreted bomb in a distant country with a mobile phone call. Criminals can orchestrate their activities without moving from their lairs. This new technology has posed many new challenges to the modern nation state, and like before every modern state has to defend itself against some enemy or the other. But states with the technical means and financial resources have, as always, risen to the challenges, and we see this in action in a variety of ways. It also poses new challenges to the law-abiding citizens right to privacy.

Lets discuss this a bit. In the pre-mobile phone era, and that was not very long ago, the state did always try to glean information germane to the well-being of its citizenry through well-known conventional methods. They were easier days, even if they were till into the mid and late 1990s. The numbers of people of interest were few, and they were not so easily concealed. The means of communication were relatively easy to police and there were far fewer of them available. Mobile telephony has changed all that. Cellular phones are now easily available. They no longer tether a person to a place and identity. Mobile telephony gives people reach, spread, speed and above all a greater anonymity.

But since data exchanged on cellular and Internet networks fly through the ether and not as pulses racing through copper wires, they are easier to net by electronic interception. But these nets catch them in huge numbers. Unlike before, when the signals to be intercepted and deciphered were a few, now you have millions to sort out and analyse for content and patterns.

This is where the supercomputers come in. The messages that are netted every moment are run through sieves of sophisticated and complex computer programmes that can simultaneously decode, detect and unravel, and by further analysing the incoming and outgoing patterns of calls and data transfers for the sending and receiving terminals or phones, can with a fair probability of accuracy tell the agency seeking information about what is going on and who is up to what.

The problem is that since this information also goes through the mobile phone network and Internet Service Providers (ISP), and the data actually gets decoded from electronic blips into voice and digital data, the private players too gain access to such information.

A few years ago, we had the case of the infamous Amar Singh CDs which titillated so many with its graphic content and lowbrow conversations featuring the likes of Anil Ambani, Jayaprada, Bipasha Basu and some others. Then we had the episode of the Niira Radia tapes, where we were privy to the machinations of the Tata Groups corporate lobbyist in the nations capital fixing policy, positioning ministers and string-pulling media stars. But more usefully than this, a mobile phone, by the nature of its technology, is also a personalised GPS indicator. It tells them where that phone is at any instant it is on. Al Qaeda terrorist and US citizen Anwar el-Awlaki was blasted by a Hellfire missile fired from a CIA Predator drone flying over Yemen with the coordinates provided by Awlakis mobile phone. In another place and time, the satellite phone used by Chechen renegade Maj. Gen. Dzokhar Dudayev gave the Russian Air Force the beacon it was looking for. A Russian missile hit Dudayev with precision accuracy.

Since a mobile phone is usually with you it tells the network (and all other interested parties) where you are or were, and even where you are headed. If you are on a certain street, since it reveals where exactly you are and the direction of your movement, it can tell you where the next pizza place is or where and what is on sale. This is also a breach of privacy, but often useful to you.

Most people do not realise that apart from the SIM card, the location of every mobile phone is also divulged by the unique IMEI number that every handset has. During the 2001 attack on Indias Parliament, the terrorists were switching SIM cards to speak to their handlers in Pakistan, but IMEI identifications nevertheless linked them to the different SIM cards and their location. If you are up to no good, then a switched-on mobile phone is a certain giveaway. Thats what gave away Osama bin Laden in the end. A momentary indiscretion by a trusted courier and bodyguard and a name gleaned from a long-ago waterboarding session was all that it took.

In 2002, interrogators had heard uncorroborated claims about an Al Qaeda courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (sometimes referred to as Sheikh Abu Ahmed from Kuwait). One of those claims came from Mohammed al-Qahtani, a detainee interrogated for 48 days continuously between November 23, 2002 and January 11, 2003 in a secret rendition camp in Poland. At some point during this period, al-Qahtani told interrogators about a man known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, who was part of the inner circle of Al Qaeda.

In 2004, a prisoner named Hassan Gul claimed that al-Kuwaiti was close to Osama bin Laden as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammeds successor Abu Faraj al-Libbi. Gul revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen for some time, which led US officials to suspect that he was travelling with bin Laden. In 2007, officials learned al-Kuwaitis real name was Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed; he was a Pathan from Pakistans Swat Valley.

The CIA meanwhile had details of a box of cheap mobile handsets sold to a man it was watching in Peshawar. These phones then came to be used sometime or the other by Al Qaeda couriers. For most of the time these numbers would remain shut. They would come to life very briefly to pass very terse messages or have very short conversations. In one of these conversations, al-Kuwaiti tells his friend that he is now working with the people he was with before. This was enough of a break for the CIA to put him under full-time physical surveillance. A satellite picked him up in Karachi and tracked him. This led to him and his brother Abrar with their families to that now very famous house in Abbottabad.
The jet-powered Bluebird roared past 300 mph (482 kph) before it vaulted into the air, flipped and crashed into the lake, breaking in two and killing the 45-year-old Campbell. (Photo: AP)

The famed jet boat Bluebird returned to the water Saturday for the first time since a 1967 crash that killed pilot Donald Campbell during a world speed-record attempt.

Watched by well-wishers including Campbells daughter Gina Campbell, the sleek blue hydroplane was lowered into Loch Fad on Scotlands Isle of Bute, where it will undergo low-speed tests.

Campbell had already set eight land and water speed records when he attempted to break his own 276.3 mph (445 kph) water-speed record on January 4, 1967 on Coniston Water in northwest Englands Lake District.

The jet-powered Bluebird roared past 300 mph (482 kph) before it vaulted into the air, flipped and crashed into the lake, breaking in two and killing the 45-year-old Campbell.

It was 34 years before divers managed to raise the Bluebirds wreckage from the bottom of 150-foot (45-meter) deep lake in March 2001.

Human remains were found near the boat and confirmed by DNA testing as belonging to Campbell. In September 2001, his body was taken on a final boat trip around the lake where he died before being buried in a nearby churchyard.

A team has been working for 17 years to restore the vessel and hopes to return it to the Lake District next year.

The plans to rebuild the Bluebird faced some opposition, but gained support from Gina Campbell, who was 17 when her father died. On Saturday, she held her fathers mascot  a stuffed bear named Mr Whoppit that was recovered from Coniston Water after the crash.

She said she was overwhelmed by the occasion.

I hope my dads looking down from above and telling everybody what a good job was done, she told the BBC.

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The Redmi 5 could have a last hurrah in the form of the red coloured variant.

Xiaomi has had a highly successful stint in 2018, coming across as one of the top smartphone manufacturers in the country. The companys extremely popular Redmi Note series and Redmi series of devices have cemented its position as one of Indias most renowned smartphone brands. While Xiaomi is gearing up to launch the Mi A2 Android One smartphone this week, they have already hinted at one of their upcoming special edition variants of the budget Redmi 5.

Xiaomi has been celebrating five years of the Redmi sub-brand and Xiaomis Global VP Manu Kumar Jain had posted a photo, showing all of their Redmi devices launched in the Indian market. While eager Mi fans could identify the all of the Redmi devices, starting right from the first Redmi 1S to the most recent Redmi Note 5 Pro, an unusual device bathed in red is lying on one edge. Xiaomi had launched a red coloured variant of the Mi A1 earlier this year, but it didnt belong to the Redmi series. In fact, Xiaomis Redmi series has never seen a red coloured device in its history in India.

#5YearsWithRedmi: 5 yrs since 1st #Redmi phone was launched globally. Today @RedmiIndia is the most loved smartphone series in India 



1st Redmi phone in India was #Redmi1S & I've used every single Redmi device. Still have all of them!



Can u identify them? Which is ur fav 1? pic.twitter.com/Jx2fTYFPoj  Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) August 2, 2018

Therefore, if you examine the photo closely, it appears that the Redmi 5 could soon be getting a red coloured variant. The Redmi 5 and Redmi Note 5 are almost identical, but the Redmi 5 has a slightly more slender profile as compared to the Redmi Note 5. Moreover, the Redmi 6 series has already been out in the Chinese market for a while. Therefore, the Redmi 5 could have a last hurrah in the form of the red coloured variant (something similar happened for the Mi A1).

Whatever the case may be, if you are waiting to buy a red coloured smartphone on a budget, you may just be in luck with the Redmi 5 red variant. Theres no confirmed information on this front, which is why you should take this with a pinch of salt.

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New York: An Indian man in the US has been sentenced to over four years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, on his conviction for possessing child pornography.

Abhijeet Das, 28, of Pittsburgh has been sentenced in federal court to 52 months imprisonment for possession of material depicting the exploitation of a minor, US Attorney Scott Brady said.

According to information presented to the court, Das unlawfully possessed computer graphic files containing approximately 1,000 photographs and 380 videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Pakistani police on Sunday killed the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting 14 schools, mostly all-girls', in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to a media report.

The schools were burnt down over a period of two days in coordinated attacks in Gilgit-Baltistan's Diamer district, triggering protest by local residents who sought safety for educational institutions.

"The prime suspect believed to be responsible for the torching of 14 girls' schools over a period of two days in Gilgit-Baltistan's was killed during a search operation in the Tanger area today (Sunday)," Diamer Police spokesperson Muhammad Wakeel was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

Shafiq  who has no known association with any militant or terrorist outfit, but is referred to as a "militant" and "militant commander" by police officials  was the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting girls' schools in the Chilas, Darel and Tanger tehsils of Diamer district, it said.

Gilgit-Baltistan government spokesperson Faizullah said that 10 to 12 police parties carried out raids in various parts of Diamer on Saturday night to track down those responsible for the arson attacks.

A police constable was killed and another wounded in a gun battle with armed suspects during a late-night raid in Tanger on Saturday. So far, 18 suspects have been arrested for torching the schools.

Wakeel said that the militants in Tanger were attempting to flee the area but locals surrounded them.

A civilian was injured and at least three to four others were injured in an exchange of fire between police and the militants during the operations, the paper said.

Nobel laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai and prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan have strongly condemned the attacks.

"The extremists have shown what frightens them most  a girl with a book," Malala, 21, tweeted.

"Shocking & condemnable torching of schools in GB...This is unacceptable and we will ensure security for schools as we are committed to focusing on education, especially girls' education which is integral to Naya Pakistan," Khan said.

Girls' schools are often attacked in the northern areas of Pakistan.
The Supreme Court is looking at questions about adultery, now criminalised under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code.

In the course of its hearing, the court has described the current law as peculiar and anti-women.

Adultery is seen as an act of a man having sexual relations with a female who he knows, or has reasons to believe, is the wife of another man. However, under the current law, the woman cant be punished as she is seen as the victim.

People battling for changes in the law are questioning the need to police a consensual act between two adults. They are also highlighting the inherent gender bias in obvious and hidden forms in this law.

What is the problem?

The law gives only the husband the right to file a case against the man who slept with his wife. So the woman and her chastity are the property of the husband, to be safeguarded by him.

The law does not criminalise adultery if the husband has consensual sexual intercourse with an unmarried woman. There is no provision for a woman to file a case against her husband if he has an adulterous affair.

All she can do is pray the other woman be married, and adulterous womans husband file a case against her husband. Easy peasy!

(Side note: There is no case at all if the other woman is widowed or unmarried.)

The presumption here is that the wife is innocent and naive and someone who can be misled. She cant be trusted to make her own decisions. There is a bizarre line in the law which means something like a husband can essentially approve of or consent to his wife having a sexual relationship with another person. In that case, the lover cant be convicted.

Many womens groups in Bengaluru favour a change in the law, activists told Metrolife.

What Bengaluru says

Malvika

Law student and intern at Vimochana, NGO for women

Adultery deserves to be decriminalised as women deserve equality and the freedom to make their own choices in all domains. It can be grounds for divorce but the present law treats women as their husbands property and that is not acceptable. Vimochana has joined in to file a PIL against criminalisation of adultery in Supreme Court.

Varun Hemachandran

Founder, Talking Earth

The whole thing is pretty straightforward. I think adultery itself should not be the subject of the legal system. It should be left to individuals to tackle. The idea that the government may legislate or the judiciary adjudicate the private lives of people is in itself outdated.

Rachna, homemaker

Decriminalising adultery may make a joke of the sacred institution of marriage. Values have an important place in Indian society and our social structure is different from that in foreign countries. So such a law is not outdated.

Uma Arya, advocate and arbitrator

I handle more than 200 matrimonial dispute cases and adultery is the main reason in most of them. I feel people will not change their mind, no matter what the law is. They will find a way to work around it. I feel it is correct to say both the man and woman are equal partners in such an act, irrespective of the circumstances and situations.

Discrimination against men

In 1951, Yusuf Abdul Aziz challenged Section 497, saying that by punishing only a man for adultery, the law is discriminating against citizens on the basis of gender. He argued it was against the fundamental right to equality of all citizens. This was one of the first challenges to the adultery law. The court ruled the section was not discriminatory and the Constitution had allowed the state to make special provisions for women.

Sensational Nanavati case

Unarguably the most famous case relating to adultery in India is the 1959 incident of Cdr Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, who shot dead businessman Prem Ahuja, his wifes lover. Nanavati was initially declared not guilty by a jury but the verdict was dismissed by the Bombay High Court and the case again went on trial before a bench. The navy man was finally pardoned by Vijayalakshmi Pandit, then Governor of Bombay and sister of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The incident received unprecedented press coverage and inspired several books. Two Hindi films, Achanak and Rustom, are based on the incident.

Chennai teachers argument

In 1985, Chennai school teacher Sowmithri Vishnu challenged before the Supreme Court the Constitutional validity of the adultery law. She said it made a hostile discrimination against women as the conviction of a man automatically earns the woman social stigma, and the woman cannot protect her interests during the prosecution. The court held that the contemplation of the law, evidently, is that the wife involved in an illicit relationship is a victim and not the author of the crime.

Neighbour's envy

Sri Lanka, Bhutan, South Korea, England and China are among the many countries to have decriminalised adultery. Pakistan and Bangladesh, alongside India, are countries where adultery is still an offence.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Misra has said the law seems archaic.

Noting that the act is committed by both, the married woman and the man she is in a relationship with, the court said one is liable for criminal offence but the other is absolved.

An order says the law is based on a societal presumption.

The central government has taken the view that the law protects the institution of marriage and diluting it would be detrimental to the matrimonial bond.

What law says

Section 497 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) states that, Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery.

The crime attracts imprisonment of up to five years, a fine, or both.

The law does not hold the woman guilty in any case of adultery: In such a case, the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor.
To avert annoying Beijing, New Delhi has of late stayed away from an initiative launched by United States, Japan and Australia earlier this week to counter the Belt-and-Road Initiative of China in Indo-Pacific region.

Japan, Australia and the US on July 30 last launched a trilateral partnership to invest in infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region. The move is apparently aimed at countering China's bid to expand its geopolitical influence in the region through its ambitious Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI). India, however, cautiously stayed away, as it was not keen to get involved with an initiative, which will run counter to the BRI of China, particularly at a time when it is trying to mend its troubled ties with the communist country.

Sources told the DH that while New Delhi remained opposed to the BRI of Beijing, it was keen to avoid making its own approach on Indo-Pacific appearing overtly hostile to China.

New Delhi and Beijing had a series of engagements over the past few months to ease strains in bilateral relations, which had hit a new low last year over the 72-day-long face-off between Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army at Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in central China on April 27 and 28 brought the bilateral ties back on track. They also had two other bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summits of Shanghai Cooperation Organization at Qingdao on east coast of China in June and the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) at Johannesburg in South Africa in July. New Delhi also lined up a series of engagements over the new few months, involving the Defence Ministers, External Affairs Ministers and Home Ministers of the two countries.

India joined Japan, Australia and the US in November 2017 and re-launched a quad for consultation on Indo-Pacific. The 'quad' was perceived as a move by the four nations to build a bulwark against the hegemonic aspirations of China. India has also been holding two separate trilateral dialogues  one with US and Japan and another with Japan and Australia  with peace, prosperity and security in a free and open Indo-Pacific being among the issues discussed in both. India, Japan and Australia discussed strengthening regional connectivity when they held the last three-nation talks in New Delhi in December 2017. Besides, when the senior diplomats of India, US and Japan held the last trilateral dialogue in New Delhi itself on April 4, they also reviewed the outcomes of the Trilateral Infrastructure Working Group, which had met in Washington in February, and agreed to continue to collaborate to promote increased connectivity in the Indo-Pacific.

But as New Delhis efforts to mend ties with Beijing gained momentum, Modi Government tweaked its approach on Indo-Pacific, with Prime Minister, himself, making it clear at Shangri La dialogue in Singapore on June 1 that India never viewed the region as a strategy or as a club of limited members.

India sought to allay the concerns of China, underlining that its own approach on the issues related to Indo-Pacific had been and would remain inclusive and not hostile to any particular country.

The trilateral partnership recently launched by Japan, Australia and the US is aimed at funding projects to build infrastructure, address development challenges, increase connectivity and promote economic growth in the countries in Indo-Pacific region. The US of late separately committed $113 million to support digital economy, energy, and infrastructure development projects in the region.

New Delhi has stayed away from the latest Japan-Australia-America initiative on Indo-Pacific, but Washington is likely to nudge it to review its stand when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will host their US counterparts  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis  for the first 2+2 dialogue between the two nations on September 6.
After two BJP ministers in the former PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir courted controversy over attending a rally in support of the Kathua rape and murder accused, a former Punjab BJP minister is now the counsel for the main accused in the case.

Former Punjab minister Master Mohan Lal is representing two of the main accused, Sanji Ram and his son Vishal, in the much-publicized rape and murder case. Former saffron party minister Mohan Lal claims he has not charged any fee from the accused.

An eight-year-old girl from the minority Bakarwal community was kidnapped, held captive and raped and murdered on January 10 this year in a temple in Kathua. The incident sparked national outrage after saffron party minister in the now collapsed PDP-BJP government in J&K participated in a rally held in support of the accused. In May this year, the Supreme Court had transferred the case from Kathua to Pathankot in Punjab.

Mohan Lal represented Pathankot in the Punjab state assembly for several years. Lal says his obligation towards the accused is purely professional and political motives should not be attributed to his decision to defend the Kathua rape case accused. Lal has been associated with the BJP for nearly 5 decades and was also a part of the Ram Mandir movement. He was a minister in the SAD-BJP alliance government in Punjab when Prakash Singh Badal was the chief minister.
India has become the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea to get the Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) status after the US issued a federal notification to this effect.

This paves way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi, particularly in civil space and defense sectors.

India is the 37th country to be designated the STA-1 status by the United States.

The federal notification, issued on Friday, gains significance as the Trump administration made an exception for India, which is yet to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Traditionally, the US has placed only those countries in the STA-1 list who are members of the four export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG) and the NSG.

In its federal notification, the Trump administration notes that India is a member of three of the four multilateral export regimes.

Mainly because of the political opposition from China, India's membership application has been pending before the NSG, which takes decision by consensus.

By placing India in the STA-1 list, the US has acknowledged that for all practical purposes India adheres to the export control regimes of the NSG.

This exception for New Delhi is intended to send a strong political message to China and the world, taking into account that America's closest ally Israel is yet to be given this status, primarily because it is not a member of these multilateral export control regimes.

"This action befits India's status as a major defence partner and recognises" the country's membership in three of the four export control regimes the MTCR, WA and AG, the federal notification said.

This rule is another in the series of rules that implement reforms to which the US and India mutually agreed to promote global non-proliferation, expand high technology cooperation and trade, and ultimately facilitate India's full membership in the four multilateral export control regimes.

This rule also makes conforming amendments, the federal notification said.

According to the notification, the US and India continue their commitment to work together to strengthen the global non-proliferation and export control framework and further transform bilateral export control cooperation to recognise the full potential of the global strategic partnership between the two countries.

This commitment has been realised in the two countries' mutually agreed upon steps to expand cooperation in civil space, defense, and other high-technology sectors and the complementary steps of the US to realign India in US export control regulations, and support India's membership in the four multilateral export control regimes, it said.

To date, with the effective support of the US, India has been admitted to three of the four multilateral export control regimes, the MTCR on June 27, 2016, the Wassenaar Arrangement on December 7, 2017, and the Australia Group on January 19, 2018.

These memberships, important to the two countries' global strategic partnership, are enhanced by the US' recognition of India as a major defence partner in the India-US Joint Statement of June 7, 2016 titled, The United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21st Century.

"This recognition facilitates and supports India's military modernisation efforts with the US as a reliable provider of advanced defense articles," the notification said.

As a result, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), formally recognises under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) India's membership in the WA multilateral export control regimes and revises the EAR accordingly, the federal notification said.

"In addition, to export control-related benefits for India as a result of prior amendments to the EAR in furtherance of the US-India global strategic partnership, BIS places India in Country Group A:5, which provides the benefit of greater availability of License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA) for exports and reexports to, and transfers within India under the EAR," it said.

The federal notification states that because India has been admitted to the MTCR, Wassenaar and AG multilateral regimes and is a 'major defense partner', it is listed in favoured country groups for purposes of license requirements, license application review policy and availability of license exceptions.

Membership in favoured country groups generally reduces the number of licenses required and increases the number of license exceptions available.

"Therefore, BIS believes that this rule will reduce the paperwork burden to the public," the notification said.

Significantly, the US did away with the public notification period before issuing this notification.

"Because this regulation involves a military or foreign affairs function of the United States," it argued.

"This rule implements decisions of multilateral export control regimes, of which the United States is a supporting member, and the rule furthers the objectives of the strategic commitment established between the United States and India, the notification said, while observing that delay in implementing the rule to obtain public comment would undermine the foreign policy objectives that it is intended to implement.

India so far was listed in STA-2 category along with Albania, Hong Kong, Israel, Malta, Singapore, South Africa and Taiwan.
HOWELL, Box Elder County  Bale hay at night, fight fire during the day.

Many ranchers near the Utah-Idaho border are sacrificing sleep to their new routine in the days after lightning sparked a 15,046-acre wildfire on grazing land in remote Box Elder County.

"We just run until we're exhausted, and then we kind of try and recoup a little bit," Box Elder County Fire Marshal Corey Barton said of those volunteering to help fight the fire. "Hopefully we catch a break in between."

The Goring Fire is among several in the remote area, including a blaze ignited with a spark from a horseshoe, Barton said. Though no homes were at risk, livelihoods of several families were threatened.

"This is what they've got to have for their cows and sheep," Tremonton Fire Capt. Jeff Oyler said. "It takes two to three years to grow back and get what they need to get out of it again."

Rancher Carl Roberts Jr. said he and his family watched Friday as the blaze approached their ranch near the tiny town of Howell.

"We stayed up there as long as we could in our valley," Roberts said. "The flames weren't 360 degrees around our area, but close enough that we decided to get out."

Fanned by 20 mph winds, the fast-moving blaze was 45 percent contained Saturday night, fire managers said. Full containment is not expected for several days, and flames continued to approach buildings, grain fields, roads and gates.

Temperatures have dipped in the last few days and humidity has risen, playing to firefighters' advantage, Barton said. But triple-digit temperatures are expected to resume in the next few days.

"It's going to make it a really rough week," Barton said.

The tinderbox conditions have him dreaming about chillier weather, he added. "I look forward to snowfall."

Authorities learned of the Goring Fire Friday and believe it began when a lightning storm passed over the hills, said Jason Curry, spokesman for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

Not long before the blaze forced the closure of I-84 overnight, a tour bus broke down on the freeway. Firefighters took a break from their usual task and helped make sure the visitors and their luggage were safe.

The road was reopened early Saturday, but authorities urged drivers to be cautious because heavy smoke has made it difficult to see very far. Nearby roads to Whites Valley, Pocatello Valley and Johnson Canyon were closed.

Crews preemptively burned along a dozer line to save hundreds of acres of grain fields, Curry added. In addition to local teams, others from the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management were working to combat the flames.

Other wildfires burning across Utah include:

 The Goose Creek Fire near Box Elder County's Nevada border had consumed 118,000 acres by Saturday, but was 80 percent contained. No homes were threatened.

 The destructive Dollar Ridge Fire in Wasatch County, at 57,000 acres, was all but 3 percent contained Saturday after destroying 90 homes in July.

 The Cove Creek Fire near Sevier County's Shingle Creek, at roughly 2,600 acres, was roughly half contained, and was not threatening houses.
SALT LAKE CITY  As Jeremy Hafen, wearing a hard hat and a yellow vest over his suit, toured the dusty construction site where his company was prepping the ground for a 200-bed women's homeless resource center, a thought struck him.

While his construction crew was literally laying the foundation for the shelter, they were also helping lay the foundation for something larger.

"We're seeing the foundation here, but there's a tie to the foundation of building something better for this community," said the president and CEO of the construction company Sunroc Corp., a subcontractor on the 131 E. 700 South shelter site. "It will help people change their lives."

"It's just starting from the ground up," he added. "And the fact that we're the ones that are building the foundation for this ... it's pretty amazing."

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, who joined Hafen his walk of the site Thursday, also reflected on the years of work and struggle that preceded the groundbreaking of the three homeless resource centers that are expected to replace the troubled downtown homeless shelter next summer and therefore transform the county's homeless system.

"They're finishing laying the foundation right now, after we spent the last several years laying the foundation of the services and the new model," McAdams said. "I guess I get chills thinking about the lives that will be blessed by what's happening right here."

Hafen was not only helping move earth to lay the physical foundation of the building, McAdams said, but helping in an even bigger way.

Hafen had recently decided to donate $25,000 of Sunroc Corp. cash to Shelter the Homeless, the future homeless resource centers' owner, to help fund the operations of the shelters when they open their doors July 1, 2019.

Hafen's donation will be matched by Utah Jazz owner Gail Miller's pledge to double all community donations up to $10 million, bringing the donation to $50,000.

Preston Cochrane, executive director of Shelter the Homeless, said his organization is grateful to Hafen and "all of our generous donors for their commitment to help reduce homelessness in our communities and improve the lives of those in need."

Hafen's pledge comes at a time when state, city and county leaders have urged community members to donate to help fund programs and services inside the three shelters. The hope is that donations will eventually match Miller's $10 million maximum.

Hafen said he hopes to encourage other community members to do the same.

"As a matter of fact," Hafen said. "I'm going to reach out to some people that I know in the business community and see if we can ask them to also contribute."

Hafen's company  which won a bid to do excavation work for the 131 E. 700 South women's homeless resource center  is doing the work for Shelter the Homeless "basically at cost," Hafen said, noting that any profits from the work will be "slim."

"We're talking single-digit thousands," Hafen said. "The donation we're making is far up and above any profit we make coming out of this job."

Why?

Hafen said sometimes businessmen focus only on "the all-mighty profit" and "start to lose sight" of what it means to give back. To him, "it's all about being a balanced contributor to society," he said.

"You have to do it," he said. "You have to give back. It's how the world works, you know?

But also, Hafen has some history  dating back more than two decades  with McAdams, and he said the mayor "was extremely influential" to his decision to make the donation.

Hafen and McAdams were companions during their LDS mission to Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the 1990s.

Hafen surprised McAdams on Thursday when he pulled out an envelope with several photos from that mission, and the two men joked together as they reminisced about their time in Brazil.

"Look how skinny that guy was," McAdams said, laughing, as he held a picture of himself. In the 1995 photo, Hafen poses side by side with McAdams during a service project where they dug out "2 feet of weeds," as Hafen described it.

McAdams and Hafen re-created that photo while at the construction site, posing in front of a backhoe.

While mulling the donation, Hafen said he thought to himself, "'I need to call Ben," because "Ben has led out on homelessness."

"Well, that was your first mistake, calling me," McAdams joked.

Hafen shook his head, laughing, but said on a more serious note that McAdams was "influential in my life 23 years ago, and now, 23 years forward, I look at him as a mentor, in a sense."

Hafen said he's a registered Republican, and yet he's backing McAdams, a Democrat, in his bid to unseat Rep. Mia Love in this year's 4th Congressional District race because he said he believes in McAdams' efforts to change the county's homeless model.

McAdams said he wasn't surprised by Hafen's donation because he said he's always known him to be "generous and kind," but McAdams said he was "very appreciative and humbled" by his donation.

"We live in a community that is very generous with time and very generous with money, and (Hafer's donation) just came at a critical time as we're underway on these facilities," McAdams said. "We know we've got a lot of work to make sure we've got the funding we need to provide these services we're hoping to provide in this new model, and we're hoping the community will step forward."
WEST VALLEY CITY  A man and woman died and another man was critically injured in two separate motorcycle accidents over the weekend, according to police.

About 12:30 a.m. Sunday, a man riding a motorcycle with a female passenger near 5400 South and 7000 West in West Valley City failed to negotiate a turn at high speed and crashed, said West Valley Police Lt. Jeff Conger.

A passerby came across the wreck and called police.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene and a medical helicopter flew the man to the hospital in critical condition, he said. Conger said the two people are in their 30s. Police have not released their names.

In Orem, a 20-year-old motorcyclist riding an estimated 70 mph crashed into the back of an SUV near 300 S. State just after 9 p.m. Saturday, said Orem Police Lt. Craig Martinez.

"There was no braking going on on the motorcycle," he said.

Two men on sport bikes were going south on State Street when a Ford Expedition carrying a family was turning left across the southbound lanes of State Street to go north, he said.

One ran into the Expedition near the back tire, Martinez said. The man, who is from Saudi Arabia, died at the scene. Police have not released his name.

The other rider was able to stop before he hit the car. A woman in the Expedition was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Martinez said it does not appear the motorcyclists were racing each other, though both were traveling well above the 40 mph speed limit.
Are You an Alcoholic or just a Heavy Drinker?

The heavy drinkers think theyre fooling people and maybe they are fooling some people, but theyll say things like Yeah, I can drink a lot but Im not an alcoholic because I can stop at anytime". Thats an interesting deduction but not entirely accurate. So, if youre not an alcoholic, why drink at all? Why do you have to drink if youre not addicted to alcohol?



Being marriage encouragers for over 25 years, weve heard the old song and dance many times before. One of the major causes of divorce in the world is alcoholism by one or both spouses. We have heard all the drunken stories and have even lived inside the stories as an alcoholic and enabler, so no one can pull the wool over our eyes when it comes to addiction. Please scroll below the video to read the rest of the article.





Alcoholics may say things like, I only have a couple glasses of wine, sometimes three. But what the person forgets to mention is how they drink every single night and their glasses of wine are filled up more than the usual amount a non-alcoholic would consume with a meal.



Alcoholism is an extremely serious health issue that affects not just you but all of the people you love and even those you dont love but may interact with on a daily basis. In the United States alone, 14 million adults have an alcohol problem or 1 in every 13 adults. It goes without saying then that some of these adult alcoholics, who are still somewhat functioning, will be taking vacations abroad or moving abroad.



In the 7 plus years we have lived in Cuenca Ecuador and had occasion to meet gringos, several of them had drinking problems. When its only 10:00 am in the morning and their breath already smells like alcohol, which their trying to cover up with breath mints, you know there is a problem. And then there is the lady who actually got inebriated in front of us, and lets not forget the older couple who couldnt wait for their highballs in the evening, foregoing looking at good-priced rentals for their evening booze binge. Theres more but well spare you the details.





Addiction by alcohol is one of the most sought out treatments in the addiction arena and yet it is also the most swept under the rug health problem world-wide. That tells you something; it tells you how enormous the problem of alcoholism really is; and while many seek help, many prefer to keep it the family secret. Good luck with that.



Americans Heavy Drinking Reputation Abroad

Its well known in the expat circles and by the locals that many Americans from the U.S who come to these countries to set up house are heavy drinkers. Locals never use the term alcoholic because they do not really know what it means to be an alcoholic. They think the alcoholics are people who pass out on the streets at night.



Its quite amazing really, even if an expat humiliates himself because of his drinking, locals do not realize the guy cannot handle his alcohol. They just think the guy is having a good time, after all, a real drunk wouldnt be walking around wearing fancy clothing, jewelry or have all that money hes waving around to buy drinks for everyone. People with drinking problems are bums, street hoodlums, thieves, right? NOTvery much NOT.



We all remain ignorant to issues in life if we do not get the education we need to understand them and alcoholism is one misunderstood problem in most developing countries and even in developed countries. Only in the last decades have developed countries started looking at heavy drinking as an addiction or what some folks call, a disease.



Heavy Drinker vs. Alcoholic  What is the Difference



Its ironic how some alcoholics like to say their only heavy drinkers and not alcoholics; but think about this for a moment: Why does the heavy drinker NEED to consume so much alcohol and what constitutes heavy drinking? Ironically, the heavy drinkers will be the first ones to speak up and tell you, heavy drinking is not addiction. Why do they have to even tell you this?



The truth is heavy drinkers are what they call functioning alcoholics. We know functioning alcoholics very well. They can get up in the morning (they hide the hangovers well), go to work, interact with the colleagues in a normal way, stay sober all day, come back home and start the drinking process all over again. They can live like this for years until one day, something triggers or changes and he bottoms out and at that moment he/she admits to him/herself he has been an alcoholic all along.



Just because an alcoholic can stop drinking after 10 beers or not pass out on the floor, doesnt mean they are not alcoholics. Calling oneself a heavy drinker is a form of denial from the addiction. You see, as long as he is just a heavy drinker he can continue to drink but if he is an alcoholic then he would be expected to quit drinking by everyone he knows. Its flat out denial.

The thing an alcoholic fears the most is having his drink taken away from him and is exactly why the first step of denial is difficult to overcome.



Alcoholics Moving Abroad

So, whether youre still in denial or the person that goes to AA, you have a few things to consider before moving abroad. Moving abroad will not necessarily help you to get sober or to remain sober, unless you are a long time sober person who does not need AA anymore. If you still need AA for staying sober, its probably not a good idea to move abroad and go outside of your familiar surroundings and that is the person were talking about in this situation. Long-timers will do fine, usually.



In fact, for the newly sober (2 years or less) or for those who still need to go to AA, quite the opposite will happen; going abroad and all the things that go with such a move will exacerbate drinking. Single, newly sober people are especially at risk of drinking when moving abroad because they tend to go out more and do not have anyone at home to be accountable to.







10 I Need a Drink Triggers Abroad



AA people know all the triggers that tempt them to drink, but what are the triggers when you go abroad?



1. Being stressed from the move and unwinding with drinks



2. Unable to speak the language and feeling frustrated and disconnected



3. Being around other expat drinkers at restaurants and bars



4. Being retired or semi retired and not staying busy with work anymore (idleness)



5. Not needing to be accountable to anyone but self



6. Being outside of usual AA meetings and familiar faces at the meetings



7. Feeling homesick or alone



8. Going out with friends that drink



9. Having a quarrel with your spouse or other



10. Going thru a bad experience with the local people



11 Unintended Consequences that Can Happen

to an Alcoholic Abroad



1. Suffering a health problem related to alcohol addiction



2. Affairs and abusive marriages abroad (we know of one couple who separated because of this exact thing happening in their marriage when they moved abroad)



3. Making a fool out of yourself in front of your new friends



4. Becoming too trusting with strangers and



5. Getting robbed or pick pocketed while inebriated



6. Getting assaulted (raped, date rape) while inebriated



7. Getting robbed by so called friends who take advantage of you while drinking



8. Becoming hostile and abusive while drunk and going to

jail in a foreign country



9. Getting robbed of your important documents (passport)



10. Drowning or other serious injury while drinking abroad



11. Suicidal thoughts and depression when living abroad (alcohol really messes with your emotions and can cause depression and negative thoughts.





NOTE: In all of these problems, they are only exacerbated by being outside of your familiar surroundings and moving to unfamiliar territory.

This is a very serious subject: Travelers to foreign countries are scammed, ripped off, abused, and assaulted every day in these places abroad because of their drinking in public. And especially when they cant speak the language, look and act like a newbie and are too trusting. Bad things happen to foreigners who are not drinking and so how much more will it be compounded for a foreigner who is drinking and doesnt have their primary senses on guard?



Do you seriously think moving abroad is a good idea after knowing this? Bottom line: For the alcoholic and or newly sober alcoholic (less than two years) moving abroad can end up being a nightmare in hell. Why compound dependency problem?



In our experience and in the experience of thousands of others, the addicted person needs to come out of himself and receive the spiritual healing he needs for total sobriety to take place.



For those people who actually recognize their alcohol dependency and are trying to quit drinking or if you are still patronizing AA meetings back home, we strongly advise not to move abroad until you have stopped attending AA Meetings and have been sober for at least 2 years!



Long time sobers should have no problem traveling or moving abroad and there are English-speaking AA meetings in Cuenca Ecuador for travelers and residents who need it.


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Minister Joe McHugh has secured grant funding of 359,000 for a programme of works on the islands off Donegal. Improving the lives of islanders and the island communities is at the heart of what I am doing as a Government Minister and these investments here are integral to that, Mr McHugh said.

We are putting money in to improve accessibility, funding better conditions for people living and visiting the islands and investing in the development of the vital tourism offerings.

The Lighthouse Road on Arainn Mhor is a prime example of this. The work is necessary to ensure people coming to the island can see the best of what the Wild Atlantic Way and island life has to offer.

We are also supporting and sustaining the islanders of Toraigh with a new crane both on the island and at Machaire Rabhartaigh and this is on the back of new ferry services, a new cargo operation, ongoing discussions on extending the helicopter service and commitment to secure a new passenger ferry boat as pledged in the National Development Plan.

Our islands are truly at the heart of what is best loved and admired about Irish culture and these kind of investments demonstrate how highly we value their communities.

Grants worth 359,000 have been sanctioned through the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for the islands programme off Donegal with the total cost of the works to run to 472,000.

Mr McHugh, Government Chief Whip and Minister for the Irish language, Gaeltacht and the Islands, said: I would like to thank the officials in the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and also Donegal County Council for their concerted efforts and strong working relationship that enabled us to bring forward such an extensive plan of works for the islands off Donegal.
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Tapping into the hot topic of immigrants, author Roger Higgins' timely book Billy Gogan, American follows the life of an orphaned Irish child who immigrated to America in 1844. "I chose this time period because it was really at the cusp of the modern era," says author Roger Higgins. "The biggest challenge was staying alive. It was putting food on the table, or in this case in Billy's mouth. It was having somewhere to live, some shelter." This riveting historical fiction is told in the first person, which lends an immediacy to the story that will reverberate with readers. It is the story of what all immigrants are in search of: a better life.

Meet Higgins in person this week in Chicago.

Thursday, August 9, 2018 from 6-8pm

Madison Vine Wines

1340 W Madison, Chicago, IL, 60607

312.526.3857

http://www.madisonvinewines.com/

During the wine tasting Roger Higgins will be signing copies of his book "Billy Gogan" in anticipation of the fall release of Gone fer Soldier, the second book of the trilogy.

The novel opens as a memoir, with 85-year old William P. Gogan, now a retired general, dictating his story so that his adventures will be carried down. The year is 1844, on the eve of the Irish famine, and Billy Gogan's father has just died in an Irish prison under suspicious circumstances. Relatives send Billy to America, where he arrives at The Five Points, which is Ground Zero in the cultural collision of native Americans, escaped slaves and immigrants. It is also the epitome of the slums. Filled with an unruly mix of folks, the only goal is survival, and the harsh realities are overwhelming.

"Roger Higgins is a bare-knuckled storyteller. In this brawny novel, he transports us to the hardscrabble lives of mid-1800s New York Irish immigrants. Though each day brings a new brawl for survival, under Higgins's deft touch, the heartbeat of tenderness, love, and even racial enlightenment pulses through 'Gotham's' brutal veins."

Gary Buslik

Professor of English, University of Illinois, Chicago

Author, A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean

"The story goes into Billy's evolution in those early months in New York, as he begins to shed that Irishness and grow to be an American." says Higgins. "I think what drives Billy is this sense of wanting to have a place in the world. My goal was to write an adventure story, and at the same time give the reader a glimpse into a way of life that has been gone for over 150 years."

The result is a great history lesson full of fascinating characters and page-turning adventures.

"Lose yourself in the pages of this exciting historical novel as you follow the adventures of Billy Gogan, an Irish orphan sent to America on the eve of the 1844 Irish Famine. Discover the dangers he faces as he lives by his wits, and does what he has to, to survive."

Susan Keefe, Midwest Book Review

His interactive website is a treat for both adults and children. Explore it to discover more of Billy Gogan's world, and to learn about American history. Don't miss the book trailer, narrated by a man with an Irish accent at this link: http://bit.ly/BillyGoganTrailer and on the author's website: http://billygogan.com/

Billy Gogan, American, ISBN 978-16095211-58, 2016, Traveler's Tales/Solas House, 416 pages, $16.95 paperback and $9.99 on Kindle on Amazon.

About Roger Higgins

Roger Higgins immigrated to American from England when he was 6 years old. After wearing his British school uniform to class on the first day, he decided it was better to try to look more American. Higgins grew up and joined the Navy, then retired to become a lawyer. He dabbles in law, while writing books to his heart's content. The next book in the Billy Gogan series Billy Gogan Gone fer Soldier

will be published later this year. He and his wife live in Chicago, IL and are the proud parents of four wonderful and successful grown children.
An Obama-era rule requiring businesses with federal contracts to give employees paid sick leave took effect last year. San Antonio businessman Patrick Garcia said he noticed the effect immediately.

A lot more workers at Division Laundry & Cleaners, a commercial laundry near Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, began calling in sick.

My senior managers of 37 years and 30 years, they came to me and they said, You know, since this sick leave went into effect we have a lot of sick people in the plant, Garcia, president of the company, told the City Council last week. Attendance is the worst in the history of our company.

From Jan. 1 to July 31, Division Laundry paid workers $155,000 for days they didnt work, he said.

Garcia is on one side of a battle over whether private employers in San Antonio should be required to provide paid sick leave.

On the other side are people like Vanessa Ruiz, who say they have to choose between working sick and sacrificing wages.

Ruiz told council members that two weeks after giving birth to twins, she was back at work. She said she had no alternative: Her employer didnt offer paid sick leave.

Despite knowing that my daughters needed more of my time, despite still dealing with and coping with my physical pains, my postpartum pains, I went back to work, Ruiz said.

Advocates successful signature-gathering campaign means the City Council soon must decide whether to pass a sick leave ordinance or put the matter before voters. The fight ultimately could be decided in the state Capitol, where conservative lawmakers have vowed to enact legislation to bar local governments from requiring paid sick leave.

City Clerk Leticia Vacek told the council Thursday that Working Texans for Paid Sick Time, a coalition of labor and community groups, had gathered more than the 70,000 valid signatures needed to move the proposal forward.

By law, council members now either must enact a sick leave ordinance or put the proposal on the Nov. 6 ballot. They have until Aug. 16 to decide. Thats the councils last scheduled meeting before Aug. 20, the legal deadline to put initiatives on the fall ballot.

If the proposal becomes law, private employers with 15 or fewer employees would have to provide six days of paid time off a year, larger businesses eight. Workers would be able to use the days for their own or a family members physical or mental illness, preventive care, to take legal action, move, or to obtain victim services related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Many business leaders  even those who already offer sick leave  say not everyone can afford it and that city government shouldnt tell them how to compensate their employees.

The key is that market conditions ultimately should decide whether these things should be added, David Fry, director of administration for Cox Manufacturing, a maker of precision machine parts on the Northeast Side, told the council.

Most larger employers already offer paid sick leave. Its business owners with only a few employees who are most likely to be affected.

Also likely to feel the pinch are temporary staffing agencies, food service companies and businesses that employ high school or college-aged employees because they have tight profit margins. They feel caught in-between.

This mandate is a game-changer for our business, said a longtime business owner who didnt want to be identified because she fears she would be targeted in social media and protests for opposing the measure.

She said mandatory paid sick leave would force her to cut benefits she already offered  medical, dental, vision, life insurance, long-term disability, 401(k), profit sharing and entry level pay that is 125 percent above minimum wage.

Its like asking my young children to help with a family budget when they dont know the familys household income, she said. Is PSL really more important than health care or employees saving for the future?

Rey Chavez, president of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association, said aerospace companies with multiyear Defense Department contracts could be put in a bind should a city policy differ from what they now have on the books.

They cant go back and renegotiate those contracts, theyre set, Chavez told the council. I think its important for you to realize that.

According to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute for Womens Policy Research in Washington, an estimated 354,000 San Antonio workers, or 39 percent of the workforce, lack paid sick days. Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, one of the groups promoting the proposal, said a community survey showed lack of paid sick leave was a top concern of local residents.

As far as Im concerned, its a basic right, she said.

Shaun Kennedy, a banking executive who is chairman of the board of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said members were almost universally against a paid sick leave mandate.

The competitive forces that are in play really drive what kind of benefits are being offered to employees and its not based on whether or not a municipality mandates an employee benefits program, he said. I just think thats a slippery slope.

Conservative groups say private businesses are at the mercy of unions wielding a new sword. Faced with declining membership, unions are increasingly using local legislation or public referendums to secure benefits they once negotiated through collective bargaining.

It has so far been a largely blue state phenomenon  starting with minimum-wage ordinances in Washington, San Francisco and Santa Fe, N.M. There now are minimum-wage ordinances in at least 40 counties and cities and paid sick leave mandates in 43 jurisdictions, including a number of East Coast and West Coast states.

What labor groups realized  is that you can go city by city in places like California, said Michael Saltsman, managing director of the Washington-based Employment Policies Institute. Youre dealing with council members who are not asking about the wisdom of a new mandate. They just sort of want to know how high and how fast.

National politics also are at play. Unions also see minimum wage or paid sick leave proposals as a way to get left-leaning voters to the polls, in this case during a crucial midterm election.

The Texas Organizing Project in 2017 took in $135,000 from three major labor organizations: the Service Employees International Union, the Communications Workers of America, and the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees.

Tremillo has said that one of the goals of the signature campaign was to increase the number of people voting in San Antonio and across the state.

Only 32 percent of registered Bexar County voters turned out for the November 2014 midterms, compared with 57 percent for the presidential election in 2016.

A problem for the City Council is that the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association already has three charter amendments on the ballot that Mayor Ron Nirenberg and most of the council dont want passed.

The proposals would crimp the power of city government by drastically reducing the number of signatures required for referendums, putting pay and term limits on city managers and giving firefighters unilateral power to take stalled collective-bargaining talks to binding arbitration.

The fear is voters will approve those along with the paid sick time. The council could put off the proposal until the May 2019 ballot, but Nirenberg has said hes reluctant to delay a decision.

As for a counterattack by business-funded lobbies, they say theyre just getting started.

Its going to our board in August, said Richard Perez, CEO of the San Antonio chamber. But Im certain that Im standing on firm ground in that we dont like the municipal government telling us what to do.  We would love and are indeed going to be working toward a statewide legislation preempting municipalities from doing such things.

Both Perez and Cristina Aldrete, CEO of the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said their groups have been waiting to see what the City Council does before deciding on an action plan.

They thought they had a reprieve from the sick leave initiative when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a July 9 letter warned Nirenberg and the council that state law prohibited it. Paxton said that under the Texas Minimum Wage Act, the city cant force private employers to pay for hours not worked.

San Antonio City Attorney Andrew Segovia, however, said Paxtons letter was not binding on the council.

The attorney generals office has petitioned to join a lawsuit against the city of Austins paid sick leave ordinance, which is set to take effect in October.

State Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican, filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs in June. She tweeted in February that she was fully prepared to pass statewide legislation to stop Austins intrusion into the private sector.

State Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin, has said he will file legislation to reverse Austins ordinance on the first day possible for the 2019 legislative session.

Gov. Greg Abbott has criticized paid sick leave as a crushing and heavy-handed mandate.

Texas is being California-ized and you may not even be noticing it, Abbott said at a meeting of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank in the state capital. Were forming a patchwork quilt of bans and rules and regulations that is eroding the Texas model. The state has fought local tree-cutting ordinances and municipal bans on fracking and plastic grocery bags, too.

Aldrete, of the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said business owners are concerned about a mixed bag of city-by-city labor laws.

W hat ends up happening then is you will have Austin has one program, one set of rules, San Antonio has another set of rules, she said.  From a big picture looking in, it just creates chaos.

She added that no one seems to know how the proposed San Antonio requirement would be enforced.

Are they going to have to hire somebody to go and check our businesses? Aldrete asked. All of those questions you start asking, and they dont have an answer.

Lynn Brezosky is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | lbrezosky@express-news.net | Twitter: @lbrezosky
Texas has a new booming real estate sector: immigrant detention facilities.

The need to shelter people caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has become a cash cow for everyone from longtime prison operators like CoreCivic and The GEO Group to Texas executives, multinational energy corporations and real estate developers. The land and buildings that house immigrants in Texas are worth at least $357 million, according to county property records across the state.

CoreCivic and The GEO Group now say their primary business is real estate management, not operating detention centers  a distinction that has netted the companies big tax breaks and shareholders hefty returns.

Real estate investors are paying attention, too, trying to cater to the land needs of the companies and nonprofits that operate immigration detention facilities such as Austin-based Southwest Key Programs, said Ernest Brown, broker with Rohde, Ottmers & Siegel Realty Services.

There may be more people looking for opportunities than there are opportunities actually there, Brown said. But the return could be pretty good and thats why people are trying to chase it.

Property managers, not prison operators

CoreCivic and The GEO Group maintain that their businesses have expanded beyond operating and managing private correctional facilities and into holding real estate assets.

The Internal Revenue Service agreed in 2013 when it allowed both companies to reorganize as real estate investment trusts  companies that own and often operate real estate holdings such as apartments, retail, health care facilities and hotels.

Congress created REITs in 1960, allowing investors to access portfolios with diversified real estate assets previously available only to the wealthiest of investors, said Ron Kuykendall, spokesman for Nareit, a national association representing REITs.

The idea was to give all investors, investors like you and me, the ability to own commercial real estate, Kuykendall said.

By restructuring as REITs, CoreCivic and The GEO Group slashed their corporate tax burden and boosted payouts to shareholders, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies continue to operate their facilities through taxable subsidiaries.

Its a tax loophole that allows them to say that their primary business is owning buildings, their primary business isnt operating prisons, said Bob Libal, executive director of Austin-based advocacy group Grassroots Leadership. Clearly their core function is operating prisons, not owning real estate.

Both companies have a major footprint in Texas. According to its website, CoreCivic runs two immigration processing centers and two residential centers that operate under contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (In June, Williamson County commissioners voted to sever their contracts with CoreCivic and ICE for the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, about 40 minutes northeast of Austin.)

Related: ICE denies report of child death at Texas immigration facility

The GEO Group runs two processing centers in Texas, two detention centers and a residential center  and is under contract with ICE to open a 1,000-bed processing center in Conroe in late 2018, its website says.

Its a good deal for investors. Federal law mandates that companies classified as REITs distribute at least 90 percent of their taxable income to shareholders. To that end, stockholders in CoreCivic and The GEO Group have reaped $2.8 billion in dividend payments since 2013, according to an Express-News analysis of SEC filings.

And those benefits will likely grow under the new tax law signed in December. Lawmakers cut the 39.6 percent tax rate on investments in REITs to 29.6 percent.

The REIT designation also substantially cut the companies tax bills. In 2012, CoreCivics effective tax rate sat at 35.8 percent, according to a federal regulatory filing. That rate plunged to 6.2 percent in 2013 after the IRS ruling. The GEO Groups effective tax rate fell from 40.4 percent in 2012 to 30.6 percent in 2013 after it became a REIT, a separate filing shows.

Real estate is an essential core of CoreCivics business, with land and buildings making up about 90 percent of the companys fixed assets, company spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist said in an email. According to a May earnings filing, the company owns $2.8 billion in property and equipment.

CoreCivic has expanded its portfolio beyond correctional and detention facilities into other kinds of government-leased assets, Gilchrist said.

Our goal for converting to a REIT was to increase shareholder value and enable our company to provide high-quality services even more competitively, Gilchrist said.

The GEO Group holds $2.1 billion in land and buildings across the U.S., according to an April earnings filing.

The companys reorganization as a REIT reflects the significant capital our company has invested in real estate assets, which provide the foundation for the high-quality services delivered throughout our facilities, GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez said in a statement.

Properties retooled

Detention centers and immigrant shelters are often just the latest use of an existing building.

Southwest Key Programs Casa Blanca shelter north of San Antonio operates out of a mansion in the Timberwood Park subdivision where David Spencer, CEO of Boernes Prytime Medical Devices Inc., once lived with his family. (An entity with Spencer as its registered agent signed a lease with Southwest Key in 2010).

Southwest Key leases a former Walmart Supercenter in Brownsville in which it runs its Casa Padre shelter for undocumented immigrants who are minors, its largest facility.

If you find a property that has no use or youre having a very difficult time finding a use and a use pops up like that, youve taken a nonproductive asset making no income into a productive asset making an income, said Brown of Rohde, Ottmers & Siegel Realty Services.

Owners of big-box stores are increasingly on the hook to find new tenants for giant shell buildings as major retailers shutter stores in the Amazon era. Retailers announced plans last year to close nearly 7,000 stores, according to retail think tank FGRT.

There are certainly lots of stores that are getting repurposed, that are going to have to be repurposed, retail analyst Jan Kniffen said. I dont think many of them are going to wind up as detention centers, one would hope.

The former Walmart in Brownsville was no longer profitable when the Arkansas-based retail giant closed 154 U.S. stores as part of a restructuring effort, company spokesman Randy Hargrove said.

If the location is closing, its just part of actively managing our portfolio of assets, Hargrove said. Thats essential to maintaining a healthy business.

Related: Reunifications still fall short in chaotic process

According to a special warranty deed, Walmart placed restrictions on the property forbidding the space from being used as a grocery store, supermarket, wholesale club similar to a Sams Club, discount store, pharmacy, adult book or adult video store, bar or nightclub, among other uses.

In several tweets, Walmart has said it was really disturbed by how our former store is being used  we had no idea itd be used for this.

But a Walmart executive signed the deed showing that Chacbak, a limited liability corporation owned by Brownsville developers Rafael Chacon and Mohamed Ryad Bakalem, was purchasing the property with a $4.5 million loan from Southwest Key, according to Cameron County records.

Representatives for Chacbak did not tell a real estate broker for Walmart that they intended to lease the building to Southwest Key or that the center would become a detention facility, Hargrove said.

Its common for Walmart to vet potential buyers but not lenders, Hargrove said, citing common practice in commercial real estate transactions. A sale agreement reached between the two parties in September 2016 did not mention Southwest Key, he said.

No one at the company foresaw that that former building was going to be used for what it is, Hargrove said.

The owners

Limited partnerships and limited liability corporations can obscure who owns the properties where immigrant detention facilities operate, and most owners are loath to talk publicly.

South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley was developed for oil field worker housing by San Antonio commercial real estate company Koontz McCombs.

Its unclear from land records whether San Antonio billionaire B.J. Red McCombs still is affiliated with the property after he sold his stake in Koontz McCombs, now called Koontz Corp., in 2014.

Representatives for Koontz Corp. and McCombs Enterprises did not return multiple phone and email requests for comment.

Chacon and Bakalem, the Brownsville developers who own the land where Casa Padre operates, are listed on state filings for entities that own land on which three other Southwest Key facilities operate: Nueva Esperanza in Brownsville along with Casa Antigua and Casa Rio Grande in San Benito. Altogether, the pair have property valued at $12.5 million where Southwest Key maintains its facilities.

Calls to numbers listed for Chacon and Bakalem were not returned.

Related: Acting ICE director defends agency during San Antonio visit

A group of limited partnerships and limited liability corporations based in Arizona and Utah own the Montezuma Key limited liability corporation, which bought the $2.6 million property where Southwest Key operates its Casa Montezuma shelter in Channelview, near Houston, in 2016.

At least one landowner has international ties. Petrosin Properties  an affiliate of Singapore-based energy firm Petrosin  holds the $2.7 million plot where Southwest Keys Casa Houston facility sits. The company did not respond to an email requesting comment. William Rohrbach, a Houston lawyer listed as Petrosin Properties registered agent on state filings, did not return a message sent through his law firms website.

Bob Weathers  founder and CEO of Mesa, Ariz.-based Edupoint Educational Systems  is an owner and partner in Talbot Key Holdings, an entity that owns the $2.1 million lot in Canutillo, near El Paso, where Southwest Key operates a facility.

Weathers and his partners were very interested in taking care of children that came in from South America and other parts of the globe without their families when they bought the property in 2004, Weathers said.

I do think that they (Southwest Key) do a terrific job there, he said.

When asked how much he earns annually from leasing the land, Weathers said: I dont know.

Joshua Fechter 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. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports
In traveling up the Fredericksburg Highway in the early 1950s, I remember seeing a railroad water tower along the old SAAP/SAF&N line beyond what is now Fiesta Texas (an old quarry at the time) at the approximate location of The Dominion today near Leon Springs. There was also a railroad sign that proclaimed Beaver Junction hard by a siding by the water tower. All is gone today, and so I am hoping you have some data you can share on the subject to substantiate these childhood memories. Too bad the line was torn up. Think of what a steam-excursion train ride even just to Boerne would draw today!

 Si McCurdy

Just to orient us all as we begin this trip: The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, nicknamed the SAAP or SAP, was constructed during the mid to late 1880s, with 222 miles of track connecting San Antonio with Corpus Christi and Kerrville as well as points south and north in between, before being acquired by the Southern Pacific in 1892. The San Antonio, Fredericksburg and Northern Railway was a much shorter and shorter-lived line, built in the mid-1910s to connect Fredericksburg with the SAAP and reach further into the Hill Country.

The route of the old Fredericksburg Highway was replaced, approximately, by Interstate 10 West; Six Flags Fiesta Texas was built into a disused portion of the Beckmann Quarry. The community of Leon Springs, settled in the mid-19th century, lies between two Army installations, Camp Bullis and Camp Stanley, both more than 100 years old and still in operation.

Besides the town, quarry and Army camps, there were ranches in the area, all of which needed rail service, while the trains themselves and those who worked on them needed service stops of their own. There were several stations around Leon Springs  which had its own proper depot and platform  but none named Beaver Junction is documented. A historical story on the railroad in the Kerrville Mountain Sun, June 14, 1967, cites a 1912 map of the railroads north-south leg, listing the stops as Center Point, Comfort, Waring, Welfare, Boerne, Van Raub, Leon Springs, Viva, Beckmann, Robards and San Antonio. Military maps later show Camp Stanley Junction and an unnamed stop that served Camp Bullis, but no Beaver Junction. An undated list of SAAP stations between San Antonio and Leon Springs adds Shavano and Olga to the 1912 maps stops, but no Beaver.

Experts consulted for this column think youre remembering either Viva (sounds like Beaver) or Beckmann (starts with the same letter), both of which were in the area.

The Viva Ranch lent its name to the Viva watering station, milepost 256 on the SAAPs station number list, included in The Settlement of Leon Springs, by Jeanne Dixon and Marlene Richardson. Located near the entrance to the present-day Dominion, wrote the authors, Viva was an essential watering stop for the steam locomotives and later was a flag stop (one where trains would only stop if passengers flagged them down). A 1930 photograph in this book shows the Viva depot, which had a freight platform, section house (for storage or housing railroad workers) and handcar shed.

Related: San Antonio readers identify historic street light as one from Fort Sam Houston

Dixon and Richardson quote Maurice Reagan, son of Viva section foreman Claude Reagan, who remembered a big old water tank, and it was my dads job to keep that tank full of water, pumping it out of Leon Creek. A map sketched by the younger Reagan shows the Viva stop, 1 miles outside of Leon Springs, with several structures  the water tank, a pump house, section foremans house, cattle-loading pen and section crew housing.

The same station is shown with a small cluster of structures that could correspond to these recollections on a 1920s topographic map of the Leon Springs Military Reservation area consulted by Fort Sam Houston Museum Director Jacqueline Davis.

Other military maps show Viva, about .3 miles north of the intersection of Highway 87 and Heuermann Road (probably named for William Heuermann, original owner of the Viva Ranch land) until 1953, said John Manguso, author of Camp Bullis, a recently published history of the training reservation established in 1906.

The station at SAAP milepost 254 was Beckmann, named for John Beckmann, artist and recluse, who spent his last years there, said Dixon and Richardson, as was the vast limestone quarry that became the site of the Fiesta Texas amusement park. Beckmann, also the name of a small community, was a flag stop; Davis found it on the Army topo map to the west of Camp Bullis Road with seven structures on the west side of the tracks. Richardson believes that Beckmann also had a water tank, since the station served the quarry and was as such a busy and important stop.

Anyone with information about a Beaver Junction station in the Leon Springs area may contact this column. All replies will be forwarded and may be used in a future column.

historycolumn@yahoo.com | Twitter: @sahistorycolumn | Facebook: SanAntoniohistorycolumn
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS  Recovering from heart surgery, Paul Buford clutched his still-tender chest as he quietly wept in the Sutherland Springs Historical Museums new memorial gallery.

Its still hard to believe it even happened, but here you know that it did, he said, gesturing to the small room of memorabilia. To think something like that, to think it was ... in our community. Its just, unfathomable.

Buford, pastor of River Oaks Church, knew almost all the people who died in the November mass shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is just 2 miles from his church.

He moved his hands to his mouth to stifle the sobs. Another resident entered, taking off his hat as a hard line creased his forehead at the sight before him.

Twenty-six framed obituaries, stuffed animals, a quilt and other tributes lined the walls of the room.

More for you Relatives of nine killed in Sutherland Springs sue Air Force

The mass shooting took 26 lives and wounded 20 other people in First Baptist Churchs worship hall Nov. 5.

THE GUNMAN'S WIFE: Danielle Kelley speaks for first time about her husband, Devin Kelley, and the day of the massacre

The congregants were having a church service just like any other Sunday when Devin Kelley, 26, arrived with a Ruger AR-556 and opened fire in the church, which is some 35 miles southeast of San Antonio.

In such a small town, the ripple effect of those affected by the largest mass shooting in modern Texas history has seemingly no end.

The memorial gallery opened Saturday. Its in a former storage space that Tambria Read, chair of the museum, spent three weeks straight this summer taking apart and putting back together for a memorial.

I could live anywhere I want to. I love Denton, Id live there. Id live in the Hill Country. But this is home. And how dare somebody do this in my home, Read said Saturday, shaking.

There were only two people who died in the shooting that she didnt know.

Sparkling painted stars hang at the entrance to the gallery, decorated with flowers and suns, overlaid with words of support.

We love you and hope that you find peace, Create your own sunshine and Strength through unity, some of them read. They rotate and swing as people walk inside, showing the names of students who made them, coming from as far as California.

The museum also unveiled its new sign Saturday and received an award from the Wilson County Beautification Association for transforming the building from an auto repair shop into the communitys only museum.

Read said that in the weeks after the shooting, when media overran the community, she tried to keep the museum as open as possible to bring Sutherland Springs history and culture to the public as well. It used to be a hot springs resort, attracting vacationers from across the country, and had a large concrete pool that was known to be the biggest in the South.

Framed news articles from the Wilson County News and the San Antonio Express-News honoring the victims who died hang on the walls of the memorial gallery. Many of the donated items came from a makeshift memorial at U.S. 97 and FM 359  half a block from the church  that formed in the days, weeks and months after the tragedy.

This is beautiful. This is going to be history here forever, said Val Junior Bayer, a fourth-generation Wilson County resident.

The favorite angel of Lou White, grandmother of the gunmans wife who was also killed, stood in a corner, its gold figures poised playing a harp. It was donated by her daughter Michelle Shields, who had received threatening texts from the gunman months before he committed the shooting.

The memorabilia pulled Buford, the pastor, back to that day. Unprompted, he spoke of it in the gallery.

I had just started preaching when the call came in to the first responder of the church, he said.

That call set off a series of events that trauma and adrenaline have obscured and distorted in his memory, leaving it all a messy, painful blur.

I mean, Bryan, you could not have asked for a sweeter guy. Always had a smile. And she was always joking, he said of Bryan Holcombe and his wife, Karla Holcombe.

The Holcombes lost nine of their own that day.

Memories unspooled of Bryan Holcombe arriving at his church with a patch kit to fix a broken water slide, of him and Karla greeting Buford at community gatherings.

Thank goodness I have lots of oxygen inside, Buford said, patting his chest.

Frank Pomeroy, pastor of First Baptist Church, and his wife, Sherri Pomeroy, glanced inside the memorial. And then withdrew.

Im not ready, Sherri Pomeroy said later. They werent in the church the day of the massacre, but their 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, was. She was killed.

You all right, sir? Pomeroy asked as Buford exited the memorial.

Yes, Buford said.

Pomeroy hugged him.

Meanwhile Christina Lilly, a local resident, was just walking into it.

She looked up at the floating stars.

Faith, hope and stars, she said with a sigh. Theyre miraculous.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFF
A San Antonio pastor and his wife were on vacation with their son when the couple was killed last week in a head-on collision on a remote West Texas highway.

Chengju Huo, 51, and his wife, Huixiang Zhang, 46, had been married for nearly 20 years said fellow pastor John Lee, but saw each other only a few times a year.

(Zhang) teaches school in Southern China and she would generally come over to the United States a couple of times a year on vacation, Lee said Saturday. In fact, they were on vacation when this accident happened. They were heading to Yellowstone.

Huo and Zhang died Tuesday afternoon when their 2015 Ford Escape was hit by a 2018 Chevy Cruze that had veered into their lane on Texas 158 near the small town of Ballinger, about 30 miles northwest of San Angelo. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Their son, 17-year-old David Newman Huo, was seriously injured and was taken to a hospital in San Angelo.

Lee, who has been staying with the younger Huo, said he is the couples only child.

He sustained some serious injuries, but is expected to make a full recovery, Lee said. He had to have some surgery, but he's responding well.

Related: Authorities identify last victim of San Marcos apartment fire

Lee said the teen, who is about to be a senior at Alamo Heights High School, could return to San Antonio as early as Monday or Tuesday.

All three were wearing seat belts, according to Texas Department of Public Safety troopers who worked the accident with Runnels County sheriffs deputies. Chengju Huo was driving the Escape.

The driver of the other vehicle, 22-year-old Taron Gipson of Calvert in Central Texas, was alone in his vehicle. He, too, died in the wreck. Gipson was southbound on Texas 158 when he veered off the highway and overcorrected as he tried to return to the road, officials said, pushing him into the other lane and head-on into Huos vehicle.

Gipson wasnt wearing a seat belt and it wasnt immediately known why he initially went off the road, officials said.

Huo became pastor of the Chinese United Methodist Church of San Antonio in July 2016, following Lee, who is now pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Aransas Pass.

I helped him get licensed (as a pastor) and we talked every couple of weeks or so, Lee said, adding that Huo and his wife stayed with him in Aransas Pass last year.

We went fishing, catching red snapper, Lee reminisced.

The church, located at 6487 Whitby on the Northwest Side, is part of Las Misiones District of the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.

On Las Misiones Districts Facebook page, friends and church members, including the Rev. Laura Merrill, assistant to the conferences bishop, posted condolences.

(Pastor Huo) was a friend, a good and thoughtful man, and a beloved pastor, Mark Mitchell wrote in a post. I will miss him as will all of Las Misiones District.

Staff Writers Fares Sabawi and S. M. Chavey contributed to this report.
A party atmosphere enveloped the parents and children gathered outside CentroMeds Palo Alto Clinic on Saturday, with music blaring as the kids lined up to receive school supplies and backpacks and participate in fun activities such as face painting.

Taking shelter under oak trees in the early morning heat, the families werent just getting what they needed to start the school year; they also received screenings to make sure theyre up to date on their immunizations. Those who needed updates or further checks of past immunizations were brought inside the brick CentroMed building.

The event, organized by the health care company, District 4 Councilman Rey Saldanas office and others, was just one of several sponsored over the weekend, providing thousands of San Antonio children with school supplies, clothing and/or health care services across the city.

Twenty-two children received vaccinations at the CentroMed event, which was funded by a combination of a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CentroMed, according to the companys vice president of development and marketing, Ana Maria Garza Cortez. Organizers said 1,145 kids took home school supplies.

In one of the clinics rooms, 12-year-old Johnathan Fabiola sat on the examination bed looking down at his feet.

Im kinda nervous, he said about the vaccinations he was about to get.

Related: As demand rises, charters open new schools in San Antonio

When nurse Alondra Guerrero came into the room, she became a whirlwind of activity as she got ready for Johnathan. She prepped the vaccines, which were for meningococcal, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, contained in two syringes, and grabbed supplies from the cabinets. Johnathans stepfather, Manuel Porras, 31, sat in a chair nearby with 7-year-old Lysette Alfrido as Guerrero rolled up Johnathans right shirt sleeve and injected one vaccine, then did the same on the left side. Johnathan barely had a chance to react.

Porras, a contract construction worker at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland, who is originally from the Rio Grande Valley, said he grew up getting all of his vaccinations.

I trust them, he said of the doctors recommendations.

While the majority of Texas children receive their vaccinations, more parents are opting for vaccine exemptions for their children. The Texas Health and Human Services Department said that for the 2017-2018 school year, nearly 57,000 Texas students had at least one nonmedical exemption from shots that would otherwise be mandatory, or 1.07 percent of the students in the survey.

Dr. Juan Parra is the director of pediatrics for CentroMed, which operates at least a dozen locations in the San Antonio area. His focus is on educating parents about the risks of not vaccinating and the risks to the wider population.

The more people that dont vaccinate, then that herd immunity starts going down and then the exposure is there for the rest of them, Parra said.

He said the immunity gained from vaccines for some children and adults isnt as good as for other people, leaving them vulnerable to exposure if someone were to get sick with a disease and expose them to it.

Parra said parents shouldnt use unreliable information they find on the internet and that multiple studies have found no link between vaccines and conditions such as autism.

Come talk to their physician, get information from their physician, Parras urged. Theyre going to have the most reliable information.

Related: SAISD, city clash over abandoned century-old elementary school building

In other back-to-school events Saturday, the Greehey Family Foundation joined with NuStar Energy and the San Antonio Tricentennial to provide backpacks filled with school supplies, new shoes and dental care to about 200 children at Haven for Hope. The foundation also provided new shoes for nearly 800 kids at St. Judes Ranch for Children, Boysville, Arms of Hope, Roy Maas, the Salvation Army, the Childrens Shelter, St. PJs and SAMMinistries.

Also Saturday, District 1 Councilman Roberto Trevino joined with Telemundo 60 and the Spurs Coyote for an event that distributed 1,400 backpacks loaded with school supplies and provided participants in need with everything from flu shots to asthma screenings at Edison High School. The San Antonio Food Bank was on hand to serve breakfast and lunch to the crowd.

At Pershing Elementary, about 1,000 backpacks with school supplies were distributed, and children got free haircuts.

And on Friday, Good Samaritan Community Services, with the help of numerous drives at schools, churches and businesses, gave out school supplies and other necessities to more than 250 students in first through 12th grades.

Rye Druzin covers energy news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rdruzin@express-news.net | Twitter: @druz_journo
As Carmen Yulin Cruz Soto talks about the turning points in her life and the people who most influenced her, it becomes clear shes not at all uncomfortable with her role since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the capital she leads.

As mayor of San Juan, it has been Cruz that the nation has seen and heard defending the islands inhabitants and challenging the federal governments treatment of them.

In the year since Maria blacked out the island and killed thousands, Cruz has become a symbol of Puerto Ricos resolve and resilience. She has come to symbolize its defiance, too.

Cruz  wholl be in San Antonio this week to accept an award from the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists, an organization to which I belong  has held onto a crushing remnant of the storm.

She has reminded us, the president included, that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. As such, theyre deserving of aid immediately after a disaster and for as long as necessary.

If the government showed empathy, it wasnt obvious.

IN SEPTEMBER: Local Puerto Ricans joined to help Hurricane Maria victims

She said the lessons her parents taught her about empathy and responsibility began with her dolls. I had a lot of dolls. I loved playing with dolls, she said.

Every holiday season, shed wash all their clothes in preparation for Christmas, Santa Claus and Three Kings Day, when Puerto Rican children await gifts, too.

Anticipation would mix with sadness, as her parents, Pedro Cruz and Carmen Soto, insisted she give away her favorite one to a girl less fortunate.

A painful idea at the time, it was designed by her parents, especially my mother, she says, to teach me a sense of responsibility toward others.

Her mother was watching in case Cruz selected her second-favorite doll, which points to how we should treat fellow citizens. It wasnt about giving away what you didnt want, or wasnt good enough for you. But to give away to those in need only what is good enough for you. It shaped how I look at government and policy, she said.

Cruz got similar lessons from her father. She recalls a drive to see sugar cane workers as they took to fields at dawn. Her father fed their family what most of the workers expected to eat all day: coffee and bread.

Her grandmother Yulin, the first in her family to read and write, was another influential figure. The founder of a school of physical therapy, she knew many students couldnt afford to go home on weekends.

So, Yulin made big pots of a hearty stew called sancocho alongside pots of white rice. Shed leave them on a stove. It fed students all weekend.

RELATED: After storm, foreclosures in Puerto Rico stopped. They're starting again.

And when her family said grace, We didnt just thank God for what we were about to eat, Cruz said. Theyd thank the hands that grew and harvested food, even the people who boxed the food, loaded and unload the boxes and the cashiers at the store.

It was to teach the idea that were not alone, that anything that happens in our lives is the sum of the work and sacrifices of people you will never meet.

Yes, shes inspirational.

When her beloved grandmother was near death, she was intubated and in a coma, but woke briefly and scribbled a few words on a napkin. She gave it to Cruz.

It said, Que no pasen hambre, roughly translated, it means, Dont let them go hungry.

Sept. 20, 2017, gave new meaning to those words. Cruz saw hunger and thirst. Island patients didnt get dialysis or chemotherapy for weeks. Diabetics went without insulin.

Pain took on a new meaning, she said. All of it came crashing through my soul.

Yet at the same time she saw the triumph of humanity and a common thread of love, she said.

Shell probably repeat one message while in San Antonio, where shell also be briefed on immigration issues: Come to Puerto Rico. Structurally, it has suffered damage, but its culture, art, food and music remain intact.

We have received, over and over, the harshest of blows, but we continue to smile and assure people that we are here, she says. Come share our heart. Come share our joy. Come listen to the stories of resiliency and hope.

Youll be helping its recovery. You would be letting us know that our lives matter.

Elaine Ayala covers religion and minority affairs in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eayala@express-news.net | Twitter: @ElaineAyala
TRIP REPORT

Submitted by Liam Rothlisberger



I have been reading this site for a few years now since our company started work in Serbia. With half of the company already having travelled to Belgrade for meetings and what not, me and two more colleagues headed to Serbia for work-related purposes. After two days we were scheduled to return back on a Saturday morning with Air Serbia. I have mixed feelings about this airline because I think the product has been downgraded extensively in business class. I will admit that I didn't fly with them before when they seemed to have an exceptional business class product, but seeing photos online and listening to colleagues who have had the opportunity to fly with them back then and who raved about their great seats and food, this experience was a bit of a letdown.





Unfortunately, we only had Friday night to do some exploring through the city. I was really positively surprised by how lively and beautiful it is. Nice buildings, very cosmopolitan and with a great vibe.





The scene outside our hotel

Our pickup for the airport was quite early. We left the Marriott Hotel at the centre of the city at around 4.30 in the morning. We were at the airport within 20 minutes. There was little to no traffic. Completely in contrast to how busy it was at the airport. Air Serbia had some 20 check-in desks open, there were huge lines everywhere. There was just one person at the business class counter in front of us so we checked in within minutes. We were also invited to the Air Serbia lounge.





The scene at the Air Serbia check-in

After check-in there was a line to enter the line for passport control! Even though it was long this line was very quick and we were through passport control within minutes.

Just after passport control you enter the duty free. Since we had over two hours until our flight we walked a bit around the airport which was very busy. I liked the layout.

There was a nice area with reproduction of works from the National Museum.

This project is everywhere at the airport (and the city too). I picked up a magazine later in the lounge and sure enough saw an advertisement for it.

After this we headed to the lounge. I think it is very good for European standards and is probably a reflection of its overall former product. There were around 10 people in the lounge, although most were sitting in the lounge area, while we were in the restaurant/dining area.





Then we were off to our flight. Security is done at the gate but there was no line since everyone was already inside the gate waiting to commence boarding. It seemed like a full flight which turned out to be true. Business class was also full with two rows of seating. The seats were standard economy class with the middle seat blocked and separated from economy with the curtain. Business class passengers and Etihad guest members were invited to board first.





Upon boarding there were two cabin crew at the door. The purser was a middle aged female who had a big smile and spoke very good English. The crew member next to her was quite a young guy.









When we got seated we were offered a bottle of water (no glass/cup). Once boarding was completed we were quickly off. Afterwards we were given a menu which had two choices of meal - Cesar salad or Serbian mezze. I took the latter. I was really disappointed with the presentation. We got a box of food, prepackaged peanuts, plastic cutlery and drinks were served in plastic cups. Felt more like economy to be honest. Also, we got a prepackaged cookie as dessert.

There was internet onboard but I didn't have the need to use it. I flicked through the Air Serbia magazine which was good. There was a big spread about Croatia in the July edition.

The crew was very nice and polite and made some small talk. She also offered us coffee and tea, which I declined. The pilot was informative and spoke to us before takeoff informing us of all the flight details and again before descent.





Everything with this flight was fine. The ground experience with the lounge is very good but the on board business product just isn't worth the extra cost. Obviously, our company paid for the tickets but I don't think I would bother flying premium product Air Serbia on these intra-European flights.

Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
In 2016, Charter Communications clinched New York state regulators approval of its $55 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The endorsement was hardly unconditional.

The New York Public Service Commissions decision late last month to revoke its approval of the merger based on Charters alleged violations of the agreements terms highlights the Stamford-based firms fraught position in New York, where it also faces a major lawsuit and strike. Charter officials have rejected the criticism as the company continues to serve some 2 million customers in the state, but some observers think the telecommunications giant should adopt a more conciliatory stance.

It seems to me that Charters reputation is at stake and unfortunately, the company executives dont seem as concerned as I would expect, said Debbie Danowski, an associate professor of communications and media arts at Sacred Heart University. In this case, Charter is creating an environment that adds to an already problematic reputation that shows little promise of ever improving.

Charter officials did not make any executives available for an interview for this article.

Regulatory pressure

The commission based its January 2016 approval of Charters acquisition of TWC on conditions including the delivery of broadband speed upgrades to 100 megabits-per-second statewide by the end of this year and 300 MBPS by the end of 2019. The commission also mandated that Charter expand its network to cover an additional 145,000 unserved or under-served homes and businesses in less-populated areas within four years of the deals closing.

In the past two months, the PSC has ordered a total of $3 million in penalties against Charter. Last September, the commission approved a $13 million settlement  the states largest-ever with a cable provider  after it said the company failed to build out its cable network as required in the 2016 agreement.

Charter's repeated failures to serve New Yorkers and honor its commitments are well documented and are only getting worse, John B. Rhodes, the commissions chairman, said in a statement.

Charter officials have disputed the commissions allegations. They said the company has extended the reach of its broadband network to more than 86,000 New York homes and businesses since the PSC approved the merger.

We believe we are in compliance, Charter CEO and Chairman Tom Rutledge said in an earnings call last Tuesday. We live up to our commitments. In fact, were well ahead of our obligations in terms of speed upgrades and in build-out itself.

But, in an apparent compromise, the company said in a statement last Wednesday it would stop airing certain advertising in an effort to help bring about a resolution of outstanding disputed matters with the PSC We look forward to resolving all matters currently disputed with the PSC in the not too distant future. The statement did not elaborate on the affected ads.

Charters New York customers would not lose their service as a result of the PSC decision because the company would keep operating in the state until another provider were put in place. But a number of experts are skeptical of the impact of the regulators ruling.

I cant imagine Charter actually being kicked out of the state, said Lawrence J. White, a professor of economics at New York University. My guess is they end up with some kind of compromise. This thing will get resolved through some sort of settlement.

Mounting controversy

At the same time, Charter faces a lawsuit from the New York Attorney Generals Office accusing the company of defrauding and misleading customers by falling short of promises to internet subscribers.

Charter denies the allegations. In February, the court rejected a motion by the company to dismiss the complaint.

In addition, the company is grappling with a 16-month strike by hundreds of New York City technicians protesting proposed contract terms.

The strike has also grabbed the attention of top elected officials. Several hundred people, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attended a march and rally last September, in Manhattan and Brooklyn, N.Y.

If they dont get their act together and fulfill that agreement, theyre going to be out of the state of New York, Cuomo said at the Brooklyn rally. I want Charter to understand this. This is not a one-day affair. This is not the end. Today is the beginning.

Rutledge said the company was concerned that labor issues have politicized actions of the PSC.

A Charter spokeswoman told Hearst Connecticut Media last week that the company had no news to share at this time on the contract negotiations. Messages left for the technicians union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, were not returned.

Embattled companies unwilling to examine their practices often blame political motivations for regulators actions against them, said Sacred Hearts Danowski.

In todays political climate, its very easy to blame circumstances rather than take responsibility for meeting requirements that benefit consumers, Danowski said. Unfortunately, this becomes a major problem when, as in this case, media companies have monopolies and little to no competition.

Steady growth

Despite the ongoing controversy, Charters business continues to expand. Its second-quarter revenues grew about 5 percent to nearly $11 billion. Its profits nearly doubled to about $273 million.

The company launched a mobile platform in late June, and it continues to work on a number of other initiatives, such as increasing internet speeds nationwide.

The companys traded this week at around $300, down about 25 percent from its peak during the past year. But the decline is likely unrelated to the New York controversies. Its value had spiked last fall amid speculation of a merger  and the accompanying possibility of another windfall for shareholders.

But the companys reputation could still suffer even if its earnings remain robust.

In many cases, its the appearance rather than the companys actions that determine the publics satisfaction with their services, Danowski said. In this case, Charter is creating an environment that adds to an already problematic reputation that shows little promise of ever improving.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
Bridgeports stock of urban entrepreneurs could use a boost.

While the population of Hispanic and black-owned businesses exist, consultant and entrepreneur Kim Bianca Williams said its been an underdeveloped and underserved component of the citys small business community.

She should know. Shes in the business of helping others develop their ideas into thriving businesses that could impact their community. In the last year alone, the Bridgeport resident has been laser focused on igniting the entrepreneurial fire in the citys black and Hispanic community with her latest project Urban Synergy in Action, or USA at 51 Crescent Avenue.

What we are trying to do is create economic development from within, Williams said. Its hard for us to tap into resources, especially as were building our businesses.

Its been roughly a year since the local business owner set out to increase Bridgeports stock of entrepreneurs that better reflect the neighborhoods they live. The company, focuses on assisting urban entrepreneurs get started by providing guidance and opportunities and develop their ideas into businesses that could impact their communities.

For the last four years, Williams has also been running her own consultancy firm, VCL Consulting Group, out of Bridgeports east side, providing professional and business training to go alongside her brainchild.

We have a lot of entrepreneurs that have good ideas, but dont have the capacity to make it thrive, she said.

That realization served as the catalyst for the project, which is looking to expand her operation into a four-unit incubator-style business for people of color looking to turn their ideas into a business.

With the space, Williams said tenants would have access to a 500-square-foot studio and 1,000 square feet of office space to get started while also receiving guidance, courtesy of VCL.

Within three-year periods, Williams said tenants with fully developed business would be able to branch out and contribute to neighboring communities.

Once they are fully ready, they go out and do it on a larger scale  not to go out and rent another space, but actually go out and purchase a building in our urban community, and repurpose that building, she said.

Making it happen

After a year of pursing traditional funding through money lenders, Williams opted to find unique ways to make it happen on her own which led her to start what she described as side hustles, sticking with her entrepreneurial ideals.

Its huge for me, this whole urban entrepreneurship move and its very important, she said. I think we have the power within ourselves to make this happen.

USA offers a fully refrigerated and air-conditioned mobile cafe available for food vendors to rent so they can make and sell their goods at events. She also offers a pedicab that people with a drivers license can rent and transport passengers for a fee.

While both allow for additional cash flow to go towards bringing the USA Building to fruition, Williams said it also keeps with her goal of teaching urban entrepreneurs how to make extra income and to gain exposure for their ideas.

While it is a means for obtaining wealth, Williams said the need for more people of color owning a business in their community goes beyond dollars and cents, as she looks to empower communities.

So often the track that they put urban communities on is: Well teach you skills to help you become employable, but who needs employment, she said. Why not teach skills that will help build wealth, which in my opinion is entrepreneurship, because not only are you building wealth for your organization but now, you are creating opportunities that help the community, for urban entrepreneurship.

Overcoming the struggle

City officials and community leaders agree that the current state of the urban entrepreneur in the city is struggling.

The city has seen contracting business thrive, but there are some that see a growing need for professional services as well.

The struggle is evident because its hard to drum up business with people who are struggling themselves for the services you may be offering, said Fred Gee, director of Bridgeports Small and Minority Business Enterprise.

The importance of seeing more people of color opening businesses hasnt been lost on local business owner Kelvin Ayala, who sees the development of local entrepreneurs as a win-win situation for more than just someones bottom line.

While development continues in different parts of the city, Ayala acknowledged the need for more black and Hispanic business owners to set up shop within urban communities as a means for creating jobs and circulating dollars within the community.

I say its no different the school education system, he said. Its important to see people who live in your neighborhood or reflect the demographic of the neighborhood, opening up businesses and having a slice of that American dream and American pie of being able to contribute, create jobs and be a fabric of the community.
GREENWICH - As a teacher at Whitby School for more than 30 years, Ursula Van Aken always enjoyed welcoming the Bruce Museums Brucemobile to her Montessori-accredited classrooms.

I felt that their program was so good, she said.

So good, in fact, that when she retired from teaching, she headed to the Bruce to sign up for its docent program, leading a new generation of schoolchildren through the museums science exhibits.

You always learn something new, said the 13-year volunteer, and I like learning new things.

On Sept. 7, the museum will hold an orientation session for new docents to join the team of knowledgeable and friendly volunteers who conduct guided tours of its diverse art and science exhibitions and educational programs. The museum is specifically seeking volunteers interested in working with children and family audiences, an ever-growing percentage of museum visitors.

Docents perform an essential task for the museum, each year leading over 500 tours and programs for groups of adults and schoolchildren and serving as museum ambassadors to the public, said Kathleen Holko, manager of school and tour services. We would not be able to carry out the level of programming we do without them.

Aspiring docents attend weekly training sessions, observe programs and co-lead tours in the yearlong training program. Trainees are also expected to complete required reading before they are eligible for active docent status on June 30.

While the program is a serious commitment, Van Aken said there are many benefits for the volunteers.

You get to meet people who are also interested in art and science, but they have very different backgrounds, she said. You teach together, you learn from each other.

Docents enjoy in-depth previews of upcoming exhibitions, access to exhibition-related lectures and training in tour techniques through the Lorraine Block Docent Lecture Series. There are group trips to other museums, recognition at the annual Lorraine Block Docent Award Dinner and an opportunity to attend the biannual Connecticut Art Docent Symposium.

Docents are expected to volunteer about 12 times a year, but Van Aken said she often finds herself at the museum once or twice a week. She takes school groups through the science exhibitions, teaching children about coastal ecology, Native American culture and geology.

Some of the children have never been to a museum before, she said. They ah and oh at the wonder of it all.

Holko said becoming a docent is a way to give back and support the community.

By joining the docent team, volunteers are enabling beneficial programs and aiding us in engaging with thousands of people each year, she said.

The museum offers a docent-led exhibition tour every Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. and Friday at 12:30 p.m. For a listing of current and upcoming exhibitions, visit brucemuseum.org or call 203-869-0376.

The orientation session will take place from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, Sept. 7. To request a docent application, contact Holko at kholko@brucemuseum.org or 203-413-6741 by August 24.
NEW LONDON  A New London woman and two New Yorkers were arrested after cops responded to two separate alleged fraud incidents at a Bank of America recently, police said.

The first incident, which was called in around 9:15 a.m. Friday, led police to arrest two men from the Bronx.

Miki Paulino, 36, of Bronx, New York, was charged with criminal attempt at third-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit third-degree larceny.

Eric Araujo, 21, of Bronx, New York, was charged with criminal attempted at third-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit third-degree larceny and interfering with police.

In the second instance, which was called in around 3:20 p.m. Friday, police arrested a Connecticut woman.

Sherri Johnson, 21, of New London, was charged with criminal attempt at third-degree larceny.

When officers tried to arrest Paulino and Araujo, one of the men took off on foot but was quickly apprehended, police said.

In both cases, police said the suspects tried to withdraw large amounts of money from accounts recently opened. These arrests took place at the Bank of America on South Frontage Road.

Associated accounts are usually opened with the minimal amount required followed by large fraudulent check deposit via an ATM, New London police said. Suspects then visit a different bank branch and attempt to withdraw money before the deposited check is found to be fraudulent.

In these two recent incidents, staff at the Bank of America branches in New London quickly noticed the scam and immediately called police.

New London police are calling this a large-scale scam, and said the department is working with other law enforcement agencies to determine the scope of it.

Anyone with information can contact New London police at 860-447-1481. Anonymous information can be submitted through the New London Tips 411 system by texting NLPDTip and the information to Tip411 (847411).
The Republican primary battle for state comptroller is a classic outsider-insider fight between a local politician, armed with his partys endorsement, and an upstart real estate mogul pouring his personal wealth into the race.

Kurt Miller, the four-term first selectman of Seymour, will be on row A of the ballot in the Aug. 14 Republican primary. Miller won an overwhelming 77 percent of delegates support at the state Republican Convention in May.

He pitches himself as the candidate who can turn around the states finances as he says he did in his hometown of Seymour, where he improved the towns credit rating and kept the mill rate at small but steady increases.

Add his private sector experience in financial services, Miller, 48 said he is ready to be the states chief fiscal guardian.

And hes running a low-budget campaign for comptroller. According to latest campaign finance reports, Miller raised only about $45,000 from February to July, not enough to qualify him for a primary grant from the states Citizens Elections Program. Miller assured that he was on track to qualify for a general election grant, though  if he wins the primary.

Self-financing

His challenger, Mark Greenberg, does not struggle with the same lack of funds. Greenberg, 64, is willing to pour as much as $1.5 million of his personal wealth into the campaign, he said.

Thats what Greenberg did when he ran for Congress in Connecticuts 5th District in 2010, 2012 and 2014. He lost all three times.

If Im a career politician, I guess that makes him a career loser, said Miller. Weve had four elections, Ive won all of them.

Greenberg dismissed that comment, pointing to his record winning 46 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbent Elizabeth Esty in 2014.

A Litchfield resident, Greenberg owns about 2 million square feet of commercial real estate in Connecticut, he said, as well as numerous condominiums in New York City. In the early 1980s, he sold his first company, Adirondack Mobile Telephone and Adirondack Radio Telephone, a cellphone and pager service provider in upstate New York. Hes never held elected office.

The primary winner will face off against the incumbent comptroller, Democrat Kevin Lembo, in the general election.

The state comptroller does not set budgets, but provides accounting and financial services to the state, administers employee and retiree benefits and prepares state financial reports. Greenberg envisions the office differently.

Im going to audit the finances of the state of Connecticut top to bottom. Im going to reduce the spending from $20 billion to $18 billion in his first year, he said.

Its going to be an expanded role where my business background, which we havent had in the comptrollers office for a very long time, will be a tremendous asset, he added.

Both Greenberg and Miller said they bring accountability for the states financial woes to the office. They agreed that the state should not prop up Connecticuts struggling cities, if suburbs foot the bill. They expressed frustration with the expense of union contracts to the state and unions political power.

Labor issues

Miller is currently engaged in his own union struggle in Seymour, where the AFSCME Council #4 municipal union filed grievances against the town in opposition to a change in insurance coverage and filed charges with the state labor board over an alleged breach of contract. Miller said the switch will save the town $1 million and coverage is comparable, but union members have disagreed.

We feel 100 percent certain that we have lived up to the language in the contract without question, Miller said. AFSCME is a big endorser of Comptroller Lembo, so if you look at some of the attacks that are being put out on me on social media by some of the town employees that are very union active and if you look at the comments and the likes, its all AFSCME people.

Larry Dorman, spokesman for AFSCME Council 4, said the union has not endorsed in the comptrollers race.

I think the first selectman is perhaps indulging in some political paranoia, Dorman said. We are trying to resolve what we feel are breaches of contractual languages and municipal labor law thats the beginning of the story and thats the end of the story.

Miller and Greenberg each painted Democratic incumbent Lembo as a rubber stamp for the policies of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy  Greenberg does so in one of his two statewide television commercials.

Lembo recently voted against Malloys $10 million tolls study, has challenged Malloys budget outlooks in his reports and presented his own economic development and pension proposals.

Kevin looks forward to talking about his record with whichever candidate wins the primary, said Patty McQueen, Lembos campaign spokesperson.
O. The very letter often places Steve Obsitnik in the middle.

When seated alphabetically on a debate stage with the four other Republicans hustling for the partys nomination for governor, Obsitnik lands smack in the center of Mark Boughton, Tim Herbst, Bob Stefanoski and David Stemerman.

The spot suits Obsitnik. He paints Boughton and Herbst as career politicians, with the best interests of their political ambitions  not the Connecticut people  at heart. But on Obsitniks other side are two men with only business experience, the kind of business experience, Obsitnik suggests, that has been about putting money in their pockets.

Obsitnik pitches himself as a new breed: a creator of products who straddled business and government worlds. The Westport entrepreneur worked on the early development of Siri, artificial intelligence technologies and was CEO of an global wireless antenna company.

I built software systems at the federal, state and local level  for the IRS, DMV of the state of Minnesota, the department of taxation for the state of Minnesota, the East Bay municipal water district, said Obsitnik.

Obsitniks political experience entails a losing race for Congress in 2012 against U.S. Rep. Jim Himes.

But like the middle child, Obsitniks central position sometimes means he is virtually ignored. At debates, verbal attacks targeting Boughton and Herbsts municipal records and Stefanowski and Stemermans Democratic party dailliances soar over Obsitniks head like heat-seeking missiles while Obsitnik, a former naval submarine officer, waits quietly below.

Ive been an underdog all my life, he said.

Obsitniks relative low profile is in spite of the fact that his Republican opponents could easily be attacking him for having expressed at least some reservations about President Donald Trump.

Obsitnik did not vote for Trump in 2016. He wrote in the name of U.S. Sen. John McCain. With his two teenaged daughters in his mind, Obsitnik could not cast a vote for Trump and his discord.

A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Obsitnik criticized Trumps decision to dismiss U.S. intelligence finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election when the president spoke to Vladimir Putin in Finland in July.

The Trump administrations move to separate undocumented children from their parents at the border was unacceptable, Obsitnik said, but he favors securing the borders, he added.

Still, Obsitnik gave Trump an A grade when speaking to Hearst Connecticut Medias editorial board last month, and said his policies generally seem to be moving the country in the right direction.

A simple formula

Obsitniks campaign message is simple and accessible. He has five steps to create 300,000 jobs in Connecticut in the next 8 years.

Five plus three equals eight, Obsitnik reminded.

He loosely sums himself up as a fiscal conservative and social libertarian. His economic plan suggests cutting $3.5 billion in annual spending, gradually phasing out corporate taxes while giving the middle class an income tax cut, repealing some business regulations and pushing for a major education-business partnership.

Meanwhile, Obsitnik, who is Catholic, backs a womens right to choose abortion and said he would protect reproductive rights.

I think a governor does three things: keeps people safe, takes care of people that cant take care of themselves and keep as much money in everyone elses pockets you can grow an economy, Obsitnik said.

Obsitniks run has been hindered by a state investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the independent group Fix CT Inc., which would violate state election law. Both groups shared a contractor, although Obsitniks staff said that the contracts did not overlap in time.

Obsitinik insisted his campaign has done nothing improper. The investigation is ongoing, and the state did grant Obsitnik a $1.35 million public campaign grant.

In his six weeks of waiting for the grant, however, Obsitnik had to loan his campaign money to keep it afloat. He now has several TV commercials out, with a new one going on air Monday ahead of the August 14 primary.

At the Cos Cobber in Greenwich  the hometown of his rival Stemerman  Obsitnik sat in a booth Tuesday with four elderly women who bemoaned how the state has worsened. Obsitnik pitched them his platform highlights and handed them business cards with his cell phone number on it.

I really hope you win, one woman said.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
Governor Dan Malloy might be Tim Herbsts most-reliable punching bag on the campaign trail.

But the former eight-year Trumbull first selectman is at least as high-profile, and as feisty, as Malloy, crisscrossing the state with daily events aimed at President Donald Trumps fiercely loyal base, which Herbst believes will propel him to victory in the primary on August 14.

Herbsts name recognition expanded beyond western Connecticut during his close- but-losing run for state treasurer in 2014. In his current campaign, he has focused on conservative strongholds including the eastern parts of the state that helped him become the runner-up to Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton for the party nomination in the May convention.

Government is about building a consensus around a core set of principals and ideals, Herbst said recently. So for me and my party, whether it be conservative Republicans or moderate Republicans, my job is to build consensus around the issues we all agree on and that resonate with Democratic and independent voters around the state.

As Trumbull first selectman, Herbst, the son of two local teachers, was a lightning rod for controversy. There was a high-profile legal feud with local schools contractor Al Barbarotta, the CEO of AFB Construction Management that led to $20,000 payment to the contractor in 2015. A follow-up case, involving a defamation lawsuit, was settled in August 2017, the details of which were not disclosed.

In 2016, Herbsts eventual brother-in-law, Jesse Jablon, charged that he was fired from his Trumbull municipal job because he was dating Herbsts sister. He claimed that Herbst portrayed rumors to prospective employers that Jablon was a drug dealer. Trumbull taxpayers this year paid $25,000 toward a nearly $42,000 settlement with Jablon, who is now married to Amanda Herbst.

Cindy Penkoff, a Republican appointed to the finance board by Herbst, has recently been criticizing Herbst in Facebook posts that question his self-professed ability to work with others toward consensus on issues, calling him a Dan Malloy on steroids, in reference to the unpopular Democratic governor. She recalled angry, emotional encounters with Herbst during his tenure as first selectman.

In the summer of 2014, Penkoff and Herbst clashed over an email she sent fellow Republicans over information local officials received on a development plan. Herbst charged that Penkoff did not correctly portray the towns plan for a Walmart Supercenter.

The tax question

But in his travels around the state Herbsts message is one of support for Trump. He promises to get tougher on crime; and proposes massive changes to pension-and-benefit programs for state employees and lawmakers.

Some of his opponents want to end the income tax, which Herbst calls impractical. Hed prefer a combination of cutting some taxes and grow the economy.

The towns mill rate on taxable property was 24.07 when he took office in 2010, and it rose to 32.74 when he left in 2018, according to the state Office of Policy and Management. But, as the grand list of taxable property in Trumbull rose over time, there were two tax decreases under Herbst.

He also succeeded in investing more resources into the towns unfunded pension liability, an achievement that he touts on the campaign trail.

Currently, the 37-year-old Herbst has been hammering Bob Stefanowski of Madison  a former corporate executive whose self-funded campaign allowed him to launch TV ads early and gain an edge  for his long-time registration as a Democrat, as well as his contributions to Democrats including former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd.

He dismisses Stefanowski, former hedge fund executive David Stemerman of Greenwich and other political newcomers in the primary field.

Business and government are two very different things, Herbst said recently. In business, very often you tell people what you expect and when they dont do that, theyre replaced. In government its a little bit different because youre working with a legislative body that has to have buy-in to the reforms that you want to pursue.

Taking a knee

Last month, Herbst was highly critical of an eastern Connecticut selectman who took a knee during the pledge of allegiance before a meeting, out of opposition to the Trump agenda. Herbsts vocal response helped make the story go national. The woman said she received many threats and she ended up issuing an apology.

David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, noted that in the same town, a Republican Haddam school board member did a similar protest.

If only the politicians manufacturing outrage over one elected official exercising her right to free speech were this incensed about police killings of Black adults and children, McGuire said. Respect and love for America doesnt require blindness to Americas failure to honor its promise of racial justice and equality, and elected officials have the right to exercise their freedom of speech by kneeling in protest during the Pledge of Allegiance.

On the campaign trail, Herbst has been warning that the next governor will inherit a projected $5-billion budget deficit over the next two years, along with more than $80-billion in unfunded retirement and healthcare liabilities, at a time when more people are moving from the state.

I should also point out that were losing 55 people a day in the state of Connecticut, Herbst says. As the unfunded liabilities continue to grow, as revenues continue to decline because of this mass exodus, whats happening? The budget deficit grows larger and larger every single year. If ever it was a time to elect proven reformers and Hartford outsiders that are committed to taking on the pervasive culture of entitlement in Hartford, completely committed to upending business as usual, its now.
Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides bandwidth infrastructure solutions for the communications industry in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company operates in six segments: Fiber Solutions, Transport, Enterprise Networks, Zayo Colocation (zColo), Allstream, and Other. The Fiber Solutions segment provides dark fiber, and fiber-to-the-tower and small cell mobile infrastructure services for carriers and other communication service providers, Internet service providers, wireless service providers, media and content companies, large enterprises, and other companies. The Transport segment offers lit bandwidth infrastructure solutions comprising wavelength, Ethernet, wholesale IP services, and SONET services through its metro, regional, and long-haul fiber networks for carriers, content providers, financial services companies, healthcare, government entities, education institutions, and other medium and large enterprises. The Enterprise Networks segment provides connectivity and telecommunications solutions comprising Internet, wide area networking products, managed products, and cloud based computing and storage offerings to medium and large enterprises. The Zayo Colocation (zColo) segment offers data center infrastructure solutions consisting of colocation space, and power and interconnection services to a range of enterprise, carrier, cloud, and content customers. The Allstream segment provides cloud VoIP and data solutions, such as voice offerings; and unified communications, as well as telecommunications services, including Ethernet, and IP/MPLS VPN solutions. The Other segment provides network and technical resources to customers in designing, acquiring, and maintaining their networks. Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.

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CONSOL Coal Resources LP produces and sells high- British thermal unit (Btu) coal in the Northern Appalachian Basin and the eastern United States. It owns a 25% undivided interest in the Pennsylvania mining complex, which consists of three underground mines and related infrastructure that produce high-Btu thermal coal located primarily in southwestern Pennsylvania. The company markets its thermal coal principally to electric utilities. CONSOL Coal Resources GP LLC operates as a general partner of the company. The company was formerly known as CNX Coal Resources LP and changed its name to CONSOL Coal Resources LP in November 2017. CONSOL Coal Resources LP was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

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Wall Street analysts have given DP Poland 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 DP Poland wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Chile 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 Chile ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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Wall Street analysts have given Petro Matad 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 Petro Matad wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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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.

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Wall Street analysts have given Enel Generacion Chile 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 Enel Generacion Chile wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Netherlands 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 Netherlands ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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Ormat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Zimmer Biomet: Abbott Spine, Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., BioMet, Biomet 3i Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet 3i Belgium N.V., Biomet 3i Benelux Holdings N.V., Biomet 3i Dental Iberica SL, Biomet 3i LLC, Biomet 3i Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet 3i Netherlands B.V., Biomet 3i Nordic AB, Biomet 3i Portugal Lda, Biomet 3i Switzerland GmbH, Biomet 3i Turkey, Biomet 3i UK Ltd., Biomet 3i do Brasil Comercio de Aparelhos Medicos Ltda., Biomet Acquisitions (Unlimited), Biomet Argentina SA, Biomet Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet Biologics LLC, Biomet Brazil Medical Device Ltda., Biomet C.V., Biomet CV Holdings LLC, Biomet Cementing Technologies AB, Biomet Chile SA, Biomet China Co. Ltd., Biomet Deutschland GmbH, Biomet Deutschland Holding GmbH, Biomet Fair Lawn LLC, Biomet Finance US LLC, Biomet France Sarl, Biomet Global Supply Chain Center B.V., Biomet Healthcare Management GmbH, Biomet Holdings B.V., Biomet Hong Kong CBT Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong Holding Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong No. 1 Ltd., Biomet Inc., Biomet Insurance Ltd., Biomet International Inc., Biomet International Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Leasing Inc., Biomet Manufacturing LLC, Biomet Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet Microfixation B.V., Biomet Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Orthopedics Puerto Rico Inc., Biomet Spain Orthopaedics S.L., Biomet Sports Medicine LLC, Biomet Trauma LLC, Biomet U.S. Reconstruction LLC, Biomet UK Healthcare Ltd., Biomet UK Ltd., CD Diagnostics, CD Diagnostics Inc., CD Laboratories Inc., Cayenne Medical, Cayenne Medical Inc., CelgenTek Innovations Corporation, Centerpulse Ltd, Changzhou Biomet Medical Devices Co. Ltd., Citra Labs LLC, Clinical Graphics, Compression Therapy Concepts Inc., Compression Therapy Products, D.S. Comp Ltd., Dornoch Medical Systems, Dornoch Medical Systems Inc., EBI Holdings LLC, EBI LLC, EBI Medical Systems LLC, EBI Patient Care Inc., ETEX Corporation, ETEX Holdings Inc., Electro-Biology LLC, Endius, Espanormed S.L., Etex, ExtraOrtho, Hakuho Company Ltd., IC Guided Surgery SRL, Implant Concierge LLC, Implant Innovations Holdings LLC, Implex, InnoVision Inc., Interpore Cross International LLC, JERDS Luxembourg Holding Sarl, Kirschner Medical Corporation, Knee Creations, LDR Brasil Comercio Importacao e Exportacao Ltda., LDR Holding, LDR Medical Hong Kong (branch), LDR Medical S.A.S., LVB Acquisition Inc., Lanx Puerto Rico LLC , Lanx Srl, Medical Compression Systems Inc., Medtech SA, Medtech SAS, Medtech Surgical GmbH, Medtech Surgical Inc., NORMED Medizin-Technik GmbH, ORTHOsoft ULC, Ortho Transmission, Orthopaedic Advantage LLC, Ospol Participacoes Ltda., Representaciones Zimmer Inc. S. de R.L. de C.V., Respondwell, SM Re Ltd., Scandimed Holding AB, Shanghai Biomet Business Consulting Co. Ltd., Synvasive Technology, Synvasive Technology Inc., ZB COOP C.V., ZB COOP LLC, ZB Cayman (Asia) Holding Ltd., ZB Cayman Island CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Dental India Private Limited, ZB EMEA 1 LP, ZB EMEA Finance UK 1 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 2 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 3 Ltd., ZB EMEA US UK LLC, ZB Hong Kong CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Holding Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Ltd., ZB Manufacturing LLC, ZB UK Group Holdings Limited, ZH2LX Barbados Branch (branch), Zfx, Zfx GmbH, Zfx Innovation GmbH, Zhejiang Biomet Medical Products Co. Ltd., Zimmer (Shanghai) Medical International Trading Co. Ltd., Zimmer Asia (HK) Ltd., Zimmer Australia Holding Pty. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Asel Alarabiya Limited Company, Zimmer Biomet Asia Holding B.V., Zimmer Biomet Asia Holdings Pte. 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by Sean Fitzpatrick | Kings Correspondent | Sat, Aug 4th 1:09pm EDT

Alex Len has officially agreed to terms with the Atlanta Hawks, after agreeing in principle back in the middle of July. Len agreed to a two-year $8.5 million deal to compete with Dewayne Dedmon at C. (Hawks PR)
Known for his appealing looks, actor and former VJ Keith Sequeira became a household name during his stint on the reality show Bigg Boss. The actor who was busy working on his television show Udaan seems too have taken time off to concentrate on getting healthy. According to Tellychakkar reports, Keith was recently seen looking fitter and healthier. While speaking to the daily, the actor told he's changed his eating habits and thus, had gotten healthy.

Apparently, he didn't want to invest a lot of time in transformation. So he decided to stick to eating healthy. He said, "I feel a lot of fitter and healthier from within now. Due to back to back shooting schedules, it definitely was difficult to shuffle back and forth between sets and the gym."

"After Love Ka Hai Intezaar, we were busy in the wedding preparations post which I took up Udaan and hence after Udaan ended I finally had some time to myself. I've been working out regularly as well as eating healthy and organic. We've also moved closer to where most of the sets are located so that once I am back to work, I am spending less time commuting in the crazy stressful traffic in Mumbai.", Keith further added.

When asked if people have noticed his new look, the actor said he's been receiving a lot of compliments. He was quoted saying, "Yes a lot of people are telling me that I look exactly the way I did 10 years ago which I take as a huge compliment!"

He married Rochelle Rao on March 3, 2018 in a private ceremony. Their beautiful beach wedding was a hush hush affair. Talking about the experience he told Hindustan Times in a interview, "It was well-divided in terms of responsibilities, but I let her take charge for everything. It is every girl's dream to have a perfect wedding and for every man, especially me, it's a privilege to have someone like Rochelle [as my wife] because she knows specifically what she wants. She wanted a quiet wedding next to her hometown. It was a spiritual journey for us... the whole affair was very close to our hearts,"

Also Read -Friendship Day 2018: Indian Television Celebrities Who Are Best Friends In Real Life!
One of hip hop's most controversial stars, credited with popularizing Chicago's bleak rap genre Drill, has stepped into the fray with a statement

Los Angeles, CA, Aug. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A murder epidemic in London linked to drill music groups has prompted a statement from U.S. rap star

Chief Keef. The controversial star, who has been credited with popularizing drill music far beyond its Chicago roots, has issued an urgent plea for peace, imploring those involved to disassociate the music from violence.

The surprise announcement will be welcomed by London's Met Police, since Chief Keef is viewed as a hero to millions of drill music fans. A tit-for-tat battle among rival drill music gangs has seen the death toll in London hit record high levels in the capital, with the most recent, a stabbing death in Camberwell.

Chief Keef said in a statement:

"There are lives being lost in London. It is sad to see, I've followed the coverage. Drill music should not equate to violence. Drill is about an energy and passion, it should not be distorted by artists or portrayed incorrectly by the media. I do not want to be associated with violence or encourage a destructive message. I have an upcoming track called Chiraq that has a different sound and details the price paid for being away from Chicago, a city I love. I want to bring a message of peace. I don't want any more lives lost in London. Young people are the heart of the city and they need to focus on making their lives better, not destroying each other."

Chief Keef, 22, is viewed as a hero in drill circles, and is the rap star first brought the music from the gritty Southside of Chicago to international attention in 2011. Keef also revealed that he has new material being released this month that takes an impressive musical u-turn, including a lament for peace with lead single "Chiraq."

The release is set to come from Keef's most ambitious album yet, the autobiographical concept album The Cozart. The album has been produced with his label FilmOn Music's founder, billionaire

Alki David. it was conceived to showcase Chief Keef's extraordinary talent and covers his early years in Chicago and his rise to fame. The album will be released via digital music distributor MondoTunes at the end of August.

"The Cozart is an incredible piece of work," says Alki David, the record's producer. "Chief Keef now wants to spread a message of peace and to show people a brighter path."

"Chiraq" was written withc Chief Keef and two British songwriters,

Justin Stoneman and

Daniel Spiller. The song details Chief Keef's troubled times as a youth in his home city of Chicago.

"Chiraq is a story of reconciliation and showcases Chief Keef's musical genius," says Justin Stoneman, co-writer of the single.

Amid a summer of terrifying violence in London, hopes remain that a positive message can filter through to the rival gangs.

For more information: owen@hologramusa.com

About FilmOn and Hologram USA:

FilmOn was founded by Greek billionaire Alki David in 2006 and is credited with accelerating the rise of streaming television through its technological advances, its legal advocacy, and its drive to let people watch what they want, where they want it. FilmOn is the exclusive streaming partner for content created by Hologram USA, and a partner with MondoTunes, the world's biggest digital music distirbutor. For more information go to hologramusa.com.
Market regulator SEBI is continuing with its probe into alleged violation of capital market regulations by Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi duo and their associates in connection with two listed firms- PNB and Gitanjali Gems

New Delhi: Markets regulator SEBI never gave any clean chit report on fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to Antigua's citizenship-for-investment authority, a senior official said Sunday.

"The regulator is continuing with its probe into alleged violation of capital market regulations by Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi duo and their associates including some brokers in connection with two listed firms - Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Gitanjali Gems," the official added.

"The regulator will now also consider sending the notices for Choksi to Antigua as the absconding businessman and Gitanjali Gems promoter has been granted a citizenship there," the official said.

Last week, an Antiguan media report quoted the Caribbean country's Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) as saying that Choksi was granted citizenship there in 2017 after a background check on him got 'no adverse report' from Indian authorities, including police, passport office and SEBI.

As per the report, the CIU received documentation of two instances in which the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in 2014 and 2017, opened investigations on a corporate entity owned by Choksi.

It further said the CIU requested updates on the status of the investigations and received documentary confirmation, issued by the SEBI, stating that in one case, the matter had been satisfactorily closed, and indicating in the other that there was not sufficient evidence to pursue the case further.

Reacting to this, SEBI issued a statement on Friday denying the claims.

"Sebi has neither received any request from the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) of Antigua for updates on any investigation nor provided any such information to CIU," the regulator said.

Explaining further, the regulatory official Sunday said SEBI is in an advanced stage of probe against fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi for suspected trading and disclosure related issues in the matter of over Rs 14,000 crore fraud at state-run PNB and it may soon issue the orders.

The regulator is probing alleged fraudulent trading, corporate governance related violations, insider trading and disclosure related issues in the case of PNB and Gitanjali Gems.

The markets watchdog, in May, issued a warning letter to PNB as well for delaying disclosures to stock exchanges about the fraudulent transactions allegedly carried out by absconding Modi and Gitanjali Group of companies.

PNB was defrauded allegedly by the diamond trader and his associates by fraudulent use of letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (LoC) in connivance with certain bank officials.

The regulator has analysed the stock market trade details of all entities associated with Modi and Choksi, who has already been under scanner for various cases including a brokerage default incident.

Incidentally, in July 2013, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in consultation with SEBI had debarred Gitanjali Gems chief and main promoter Choksi, among others, from trading, for securities market violations relating to trading in his company.

Further, they are also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

As per SEBI's warning letter, there were delays of 1-6 days by PNB in making disclosures to the stock exchanges pertaining to the filing of complaints with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and CBI. This delay in informing the stock exchanges is a violation of the listing regulations.

Under these norms, companies need to inform stock exchanges about any price sensitive information in a timely manner.

SEBI's communication refers to various disclosures made by PNB to stock exchanges during February and March 2018 regarding certain fraudulent transactions with respect to Modi group, Gitanjali group and others, and referring of the same to law enforcement agencies.
Akhilesh Yadav had been accused of damaging the bungalow he was allotted when he was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday announced a cash reward of Rs 11 lakh to whoever gave the names of those who damaged the bungalow in Lucknow at 4, Vikramaditya Marg, which was allotted to him when he was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

His announcement comes days after the state government warned that action would be taken against the SP leader as he had done "some damage" while vacating the bungalow in June.

The Rs 11 lakh will be raised through contributions of Rs 2,000 each from party members, Akhilesh said at a programme in Lucknow to mark the birth anniversary of socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra also known as Chhote Lohia.

"The way police announces cash rewards..., I would tell my friends from the media that on the said night, some people from news channels had gone there. You tell us the names of those who damaged the building, we Samajwadi people will pool in with Rs 2,000 and give a cash reward of Rs 11 lakh," he said.

SP patriarch and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was also present at the event held at Janeshwar Mishra Park.

Akhilesh had vacated the bungalow following an order by the Supreme Court. The top court had observed that former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office.

Earlier, senior Cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh had alleged that the SP chief had indulged in "todphod" (damage) before vacating the bungalow.

"...One thing is clear, that he undertook some construction for which he did not take permission from the estates department. A law is there for this (unauthorised construction) and the law will take its course," Singh had told reporters.

After Akhilesh vacated the bungalow, video clips and photos had shown damage to a cycle track, on walls and to a floor of what appeared to be a badminton court. The SP leader had then said it was an attempt by the ruling BJP to defame him.

In June, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik had instructed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order an investigation against the SP chief for leaving the government property damaged. After the visuals of the damage inside the bungalow emerged, a high-level inquiry was also ordered. The chief engineer of the Public Works Department has submitted a 266-page inquiry report to the state estates officer.

When Akhilesh became the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2012, he was allotted the bungalow, which he retained after his party lost the Assembly election last year.
DMK on Sunday claimed the 'cash-for-marks' scam at the Anna University indicated the 'deterioration' of the higher education sector in Tamil Nadu and demanded that a senior IPS officer be appointed as the investigating officer to probe the matter.

Chennai: DMK on Sunday claimed the "cash-for-marks" scam at the Anna University indicated the 'deterioration' of the higher education sector in Tamil Nadu and demanded that a senior IPS officer be appointed as the investigating officer to probe the matter.

Party working president MK Stalin, in a statement expressed anguish over the scam in which engineering students, who had appeared for exams last year, had been granted "excess marks" during re-evaluation after taking money and sought stern action against those involved.

He charged that registration of cases by anti-corruption wing police against ten Anna University professors, including a former controller of examination, and "different types of irregularities" in universities in the state indicated "the extent to which the higher education sector had deteriorated under the AIADMK rule".

Also referring to reports that irregularities had been committed in award of marks for research students, Stalin said all these had cast doubts over the reliability of the entire examination system of the Anna University. "The higher education department, therefore, has the responsibility to safeguard the good reputation of the Anna University. A senior IPS officer should be appointed as an the investigating officer to probe the issue", the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly said.

He further demanded that Chief Minister K Palaniswami appoint a committee of vice-chancellors to make suitable recommendations for ensuring transparency in the re-evaluation of mark sheets and safeguard the future of students and the quality of higher education.

The state government had on Sunday said 'strict legal action' would be taken against those found guilty in the racket. Police on 2 August booked 10 professors, including controller of examinations GV Uma, for allegedly 'receiving money' from some engineering students and giving them extra marks during re-evaluation. Uma had been suspended.

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption had earlier conducted searches at the premises related to the 10 professors and seized some documents. The action was taken based on information received from "reliable sources" that the accused had received money from engineering students for granting "excess marks" during re-evaluation.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Attorney General (AG) of India had used the fear of violence to delay the implementation of NRC in the Supreme Court in 2017

New Delhi: The Congress Sunday alleged that the Narendra Modi government had itself tried to stall the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process by appealing to the Supreme Court that such a move could lead to law and order issues.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Attorney General (AG) of India had used the fear of violence to delay the implementation of NRC in the Supreme Court in 2017, for which he was reprimanded by the top court.

"The Shah of lies and the Shahenshah of Jumlas tried their best to stall NRC. I will tell you how they hatched a conspiracy to stop, delay and disrupt the NRC process," said Khera.

This statement from the Congress came a day after the party staked ownership of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise by calling it "a baby of the Congress party," born as a consequence of the Assam Accord signed by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.

Accusing BJP president Amit Shah of speaking lies in Parliament about the government's show of courage to implement NRC, Khera said the date, 30 November, 2017, when the Supreme Court came down heavily on the Union government will be remembered in history.

"On November 30, 2017, Supreme Court of India came down heavily on the Modi government for its excuses to delay the NRC in Assam. The Attorney General of India gave the excuse of fear of violence," he said.

Khera said the Supreme Court had lashed out at the AG and criticised the government's "sheer inaction" and dragging the matter for more than three years on the excuse of impending violence and law and order situation.

The court, Khera said, had additionally criticised the government over the AG's statement that part publication of the draft NRC could result in a law and order situation as a large segment of people would understand that their name have been excluded from the draft NRC.

"We do not see how the aforesaid situation can even remotely arise as we have already indicated in the earlier part of the present order that claims of 47 lakh persons (regarding whom the doubt pertained to parental linkage) and 29 lakh persons (married women who had submitted Gram Panchayat Secretary Certificates) are still pending and would be subject to verification and covered by publication of another draft NRC at a subsequent point of time," Khera said quoting the SC.

He said it was shocking that the Union government's highest legal officer made this submission in the apex court.

"We demand that the Modi government apologise to the people of Assam for attempting to stall NRC in the Supreme Court of India. We also demand to know what is the stand of this government, which on the one hand seeks to give citizenship rights through the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (2016) to all those who migrated to India before 31 December, 2014 and on the other hand is playing politics with NRC," Khera said, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal who, he said, had no right to be the chief minister of a state that his party "so shamelessly cheated" in the Supreme Court on the issue of NRC.
The Kerala nun filed a complaint over a month ago, accusing Jalandhar diocese Bishop Franco Mulakkal of raping her 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

A Congress MLA in Kerala was arrested and remanded in judicial custody two days after a woman filed a complaint accusing him of sexual harassment. Malayalam film actor Dileep was locked in jail for 85 days on the basis of a letter written from prison by an accused in the case of an actress' abduction alleging his involvement in the matter.

In contrast, the Kerala Police did not question a Catholic bishop even 40 days after a nun filed a complaint accusing him of raping her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. The head of the investigation team AT Subhash had told this correspondent a week after the inquiry began that the charges the nun had levelled against the accused  Jalandhar diocese Bishop Franco Mulakkal  were sustainable, and that he will be summoned to Kerala and questioned soon.

Since then, a lot more evidence has surfaced against the bishop. Subhash Babu, a retired superintendent of police, said that the statement the victim recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), confirmation of the presence of the accused at the time and place mentioned in the statement and the medical examination that confirmed sexual contact are sufficient proof under the current laws to arrest the accused.

A crime committed by an individual who has power over the victim is a serious offence under Section 375 (rape) of IPC and calls for sterner punishment. The nun is a member of the congregation Mulakkal controls in his capacity as the head of the Jalandhar diocese.

The investigation team has already collected a lot more corroborative and circumstantial evidence from more than a dozen witnesses and verified a few allegations of attempt to influence and threaten the victim, her family members and friends. Yet, all of this does not seem sufficient for the Kerala Police to at least question the bishop.

The investigators wanted to go into the bishop's complaint that the nun had raised false allegations against him after he had ordered an inquiry into a complaint the Church had received from one of her relatives. The relative had accused the nun of having an illicit relationship with her husband.

"This is fair. But even after the complainant (the relative) confirmed that she had lodged the complaint (not with the police) against the nun due to a misunderstanding, the investigation team is not convinced," said Indulekha Joseph, a member of the Church Action Council. "They want to verify the nuns claim that she had lodged several complaints with the Church authorities before moving the police. If anybody sees this as part of a game plan to allow the bishop more time to wriggle out of the case, they cannot be blamed."

She also said that the way the investigation is proceeding has cemented the apprehension that the police is trying to protect Mulakkal. Indulekha pointed out the glaring example of the investigation team's attempt to take the statement of the papal representative in New Delhi on the complaint the nun had lodged with him.

A six-member team went to the Vatican Embassy in New Delhi on Saturday without an appointment and returned empty handed. Curiously, the team went to Delhi after the top brass of the Kerala Police reviewed the progress of the investigation.

"People are not fools to believe that the police is not aware of the procedure to gain entry into an embassy, let alone to question an envoy," said George Joseph, who has approached the Kerala High Court with a plea seeking a court-monitored investigation in the case. "The team went to the Vatican Embassy, that too on a holiday, without the permission of the protocol officer. This is a carefully careless act aimed at giving the bishop time."

He added that the team's reported decision to go to Ujjain to confirm the nun's claim that she had informed the bishop there about the sexual abuse she suffered from Mulakkal shows that the police want to give the accused more time to influence the victim and those who support her to retract from the legal course.

"These are secondary evidence that the police can collect after questioning the bishop and arresting him," the former police officer said. "The delay in taking action against the accused will help him destroy evidence and influence the victim and witnesses."

Several such instances have already come out in the open. One is a complaint by the victim's brother that the bishop had offered the family Rs 5 crore to withdraw the complaint. Another is an audio clip in which a priest can purportedly be heard offering the victim's friend 10 acres and a building to set up a convent for 18 nuns, who had quit the vocation allegedly because of the troubles caused by the bishop.

"Ten acres of land and a building will cost more than Rs 15 crore in Kerala. It needs to be found out how the bishop got this kind of money. He is apparently using this money power to hush up the case," George Joseph alleged.

He claimed that the documents he had showed that the bishop had sexually abused the nun as his right. In a statement the nun gave to a church committee, she said that the prelates had a right over nuns' bodies as they were the brides of Jesus Christ.

Indulekha Joseph wonders whether it is this self-claimed right that deters the Church from taking action against the bishop. She said that everyone in the Church hierarchy whom the nun had approached had failed to get her justice.

Cardinal George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church from which both the nun and the bishop hail, had tried to persuade her to settle the case within the Church. The Vatican has also been mum on the matter, though Pope Francis has been reiterating zero tolerance to sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

Indulekha Joseph believes that the authorities have been shying away from taking action against the bishop because of his high connections at the Vatican and in the government. She claimed that the administration is protecting Mulakkal because the Church wields control over the significant Christian vote bank in Kerala.

However, she said that a majority of the Christians support the hapless nun. They have started realising that the attempt to shield the bishop has been bringing disgrace to the Church and making it a subject of public ridicule.

Indulekha Joseph, who is fighting for reforms in the Church, believes that a stern action against the bishop will add to the grace of the Church and its moral authority over the faithful. Unfortunately, the Church in Kerala is not wise enough to realise this, she said.
The former chief election commissioners also said there was no feasibility in holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

New Delhi: The demand to bring back paper ballots in the next Lok Sabha elections in place of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being pressed by major Opposition parties has not found favour with two former chief election commissioners (CECs). However, they oppose the proposal for simultaneous elections, saying it cannot be coerced.

The former CECs said that though both the issues are theoretically in the realm of possibility, but they are neither feasible nor desirable in practical terms.

The CECs were reacting to a planned move by 17 parties, including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), to approach the Election Commission to press for restoring the paper ballot system in view of their apprehensions over the integrity of EVMS and the possibility of their manipulation and the failure of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips in the recent elections.

VS Sampath, who demitted office in January 2015 after nearly three years at the helm of the Election Commission, said going back to paper ballots "makes no sense". "Nobody will accept it," Sampath told IANS.

He said with the introduction of VVPAT slips, which the Election Commission said would be deployed throughout the country in all elections hereafter, there is already a paper ballot system that is going to be in place.

"VVPAT is a credible system by which the voter knows whom he has voted for and his ballot slip has gone into a box which can be retrieved at any time in case of a dispute for verfication. It does the job of paper balloting that leaves an audit trail," he said.

To incorporate safeguards and to remove doubts in the minds of political parties, Sampath said the EC could think of increasing the proportion of counting slips in consultation with parties. The quantity of sampling of slips can be increased.

Another former CEC, who requested not to be named, said EVMs have been subjected to criticism from the very beginning on one ground or another.

"While people are talking of returning to the ballot papers, let's revisit how and why we switched to the machines in the first place. There were many serious issues with the ballot papers. Firstly, it is not an environment-friendly method. So many ballot papers would need cutting of innumerable trees. On the other hand, EVMs, once made, can be used over and over again.

"Secondly, there was the issue of a large number of invalid votes. If a voter failed to put the stamp correctly, if the stamp touched the margins, the vote would be deemed invalid. This invariably resulted in disputes at the time of counting. Also, the counting of votes took a very long time, he said.

The former EC boss said there were also cases of booth capturing and ballot papers being forged. This led to frequent countermanding of polls.

It was in this background that it was decided to hold the elections with machines. The EVMs are tamper-proof  unless you get hold of one and change the motherboard. But you will need to steal a very large number of machines and then restore them back to the EC strong room that has multi-layered security, without anyone knowing about it, in order to actually influence an election, he said.

Asked about Opposition's suspicions that chips can be installed in EVMs that can make them behave in a particular way for a specific time and then return to normal, he said: "I don't think that is possible. What happens is that when a party has huge expectations of winning the polls but fails, it resorts to blaming the EVMs. They can't blame the voters because then the voters may teach them a more bitter lesson in the next elections."

Sampath said that after the 2009 general elections, too, there were grave misgivings over the machines. Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu had made a presentation at an all-party meeting convened by the Election Commission in 2010, in which 42 recognised parties participated.

"Barring three or four parties, all of them expressed misgivings. The Shiv Sena said go back to paper ballots. We said there is no question of going back to paper ballots. The first step for the VVPAT was sown in that meeting," he said, adding that a subsequent CEC announced that whenever elections are held, VVPATs would be introduced to provide for an audit trail.

The other CEC said: "You see, in 2004, it was a different party that questioned the EVMs. In 2009, it was the (currently-ruling) BJP that vigorously advocated discarding the EVMs. But the fact is that after around 120 state and national elections with EVMs, nobody has been able to prove that the EVM used by the commission can be tampered with. The EC has repeatedly thrown challenges. The demonstration in the Delhi Assembly was done using a toy machine, not an actual EVM."

He acknowledged that the "large scale" failure of VVPATs in the recent bypolls  for technical reasons or others  has created another controversy. "Having said that, if the entire system, that is all political parties agree, the EC can return to the ballot paper. The EC functions as per the law. The current law is for holding elections through machines, so that is being done. If they make a law to hold the elections through ballot papers, the EC would do that," he said.

On the issue of simultaneous elections on which the Law Commission is holding consultations, Sampath said: "Elections are held as per law of the land and they cannot be coerced."

"Even if simultaneous elections are held to the Lok Sabha and the assemblies, there is no guarantee that the respective Houses would last their terms. And then you can't wait for Parliament's term to end to hold elections to Assemblies or vice versa, given the coalition era and the political instability the country has gone through since the 1990s."

Sampath said simutaneous elections should come in the "natural course and cannot be coerced".

He acknowledged that frequent elections in India put pressure on governance because of the Model Code of Conduct that restrains governments from making decisions and sometimes this covered the Central government, too. It also puts pressure on parties because it becomes some kind of a frequent referendum.

To overcome frequent elections, Sampath suggested that elections, especially to assemblies, can be clubbed as far as possible together in a year.

"Elections becoming due in some states in different periods can be clubbed together for which the Election Commission should also be given some flexibility beyond the six-month period to have the authority to hold polls. A party that is in power with a huge majority at a given time cannot be sure that it will always be the case," he said.

Sampath said simultaneous elections can theoretically be good but "we should be able to achieve the right thing for right reasons and not wrong reasons".

He also suggested that the requirement of a by-election within six months of a constituency falling vacant can be done away with, giving the commission more leeway in clubbing vacancies together.

The other former CEC said "simultaneous polls are not that easy to do". "At least I don't see them happening in 2019. You need constitutional amendments and a legal framework for that. But again, if there is a consensus among the political parties on this, even simultaneous elections can be done. But that is easier said than done," he said.
'As long as the presiding officer is in the chair, the House is taken as in session and at least this raises some hope,' Fali Nariman said.

New Delhi: Eminent jurist Fali Nariman on Sunday urged the presiding officers of the both Houses of Parliament to refrain from adjourning them even amid the 'worst possible provocations' by disruptive MPs and frustrate their designs.

Expressing concern over persistent disruptions in Parliament, former Rajya Sabha member said the presiding officers 'should remain cool and steadfast in the chair' despite MPs rushing into the well of the House and disrupting the proceedings.

"As long as the presiding officer is in the chair, the House is taken as in session and at least this raises some hope," he said.

Nariman urged the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha not to adjourn the Houses despite worst provocations to do so, to frustrate disruptive MPs, Rajya Sabha secretariat said in a statement.

Addressing MPs on the second and the last day of the orientation programme for new members of Rajya Sabha, he said the first thing that one acquires on becoming an MP is the prefix 'Hon'ble' which cannot be shed during the whole tenure despite the conduct being contrary to that.

"So MPs should try to live up to that honour both during the membership and after. MPs should be conscious about being a privileged Member of Parliament and develop proper 'work ethic' to do justice to the people and the institution of Parliament," the eminent jurist said.

Noting that even sitting without speaking in Parliament is an elevating experience, Nariman urged the MPs not to walk out of the Houses and even if they do so, return after a few minutes.

Lamenting the politics getting devoid of ethics, Nariman praised senior BJP leader LK Advani for resigning from Lok Sabha (in 1996) when mere initials (LK) were mentioned in Jain Hawala Diary and vowed to return only after acquittal.

Advani resigned as an MP in 1996 following allegations of his involvement in the infamous Hawala scam and he was consequently re-elected in 1998 after his name had been cleared. Entries found in the diaries of Hawala broker SK Jain were presented as crucial evidences against top politicians including Advani in the court by CBI.

Citing his own case, Nariman said that after realising that he was not able to do justice both as MP and lawyer, he gave up legal practice to focus on his parliamentary responsibilities.
Mughalsarai Junction will be formally renamed after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Uphadyay when BJP president Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath arrive at the iconic railway station on Sunday.

Chandauli/Lucknow: Mughalsarai Junction will be formally renamed after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Uphadyay when BJP president Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath arrive at the iconic railway station on Sunday.

The three leaders will flag off a passenger train and a goods train with an all-woman crew, and also launch a smart yard project at the century-old station on the busy Delhi-Howrah route.

The building is being touched up with saffron paint at places and signboards with the new name being put up.

Upadhyay was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the Mughalsarai station in February 1968.

Mughalsarai is also the birth place of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The leaders will launch a project to upgrade the yard at the station, officials said.

Ekatmata Express, now set to follow a new route from Lucknow to Mughalsarai, will get the green signal.

Railway officials said it will be the first time in the country that an all-woman crew runs a goods train.

Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior BJP leaders will also be present.

On paper, Mughalsarai station got a new name after Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik gave his assent to the proposal in June.

The Centre gave its in-principle approval last year to the state government's proposal to rename the station, which is among the busiest in the country.

The move drew flak from the Opposition which accused the ruling party of attempting to tamper with history.

Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey on Saturday said the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre had imbibed Deen Dayal Upadhyay's philosophy of 'antyodaya', or caring for the last person in society.
The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Saturday said the party was open to a debate over Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers special status to permanent residents of the state

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Saturday said the party was open to a debate over Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers special status to permanent residents of the state, as protests continued against the 6 August Supreme Court hearing on petitions challenging the provision.

The apex court is hearing a batch of petitions in the matter, including the one filed by an RSS-linked NGO 'We the Citizens', seeking quashing of the article.

"The BJP is open to a debate with anyone or any political party on whether or not Article 35A is in the interest of the people of the state. We are extending an open invitation," the state BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi told reporters in Jammu.

He said over the last few days, the political climate in the state has heated up over Article 35A and some political parties, especially those active in Kashmir, have taken an "anti-national and anti-people" stand on the issue.

Targeting the National Conference (NC) and the Congress, Sethi said people in the Valley are being misled over Article 35A by being told that it is for their betterment and in the interest of the state.

"The continuation of Article 35A will not have any benefit for the state. The central government has pumped crores of rupees into the state over the last 70 years but the development has not been as it should have been," he said.

He said Article 35A has acted as an obstacle in the state's development because it did not allow outside investment.

"Investors do not come here to set up infrastructure. The youth are not getting the jobs," he added.

The BJP spokesperson alleged some politicians want to maintain the position for vote bank politics.

Responding to a statement by the NC's provincial president Devender Singh Rana that the special provision was introduced by Maharaja Hari Singh to safeguard the interests of the state, Sethi said the situation was different from what it was now when the law was enacted.

"It was a princely state and not a part of India at that time. After accession, Jammu and Kashmir became part of India," he said.

"When we are a part of India then what is the need for separate provisions and that too when it has created hurdles in the development and is also discriminatory in nature," he added.

Accusing Rana of playing politics over the name of Maharaja Hari Singh, Sethi said it was the NC and the Congress who conspired to send the king out of the state and did not allow him to return till death.

As a result of Article 35A, West Pakistan refugees, who came to the state in 1947, have been denied the right of being state subjects, which was promised to them, and local girls who marry outside the state lose their right over property, he said.

"Jammu and Kashmir is not for foreigners but West Pakistan refugees are Indians and can live anywhere in the country, but not Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals," he said.

"My appeal to the people of Jammu and Kashmir is to understand the real purpose of Article 35A. It is like an iron chain which is keeping us from moving forward. If the state subject laws change, it will benefit the state," Sethi said.

He said if the article is repealed, new laws could be made to pave way for industrial growth and to prevent outsiders from settling in residential areas.

Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state.

The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs.
Parties like Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP will cease to be politically relevant in Bihar if they stay in alliance with the BJP as there is 'discontent' among backward classes, Congress leader in-charge of the state Shaktisinh Gohil said on Sunday.

New Delhi: Parties like Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP will cease to be politically relevant in Bihar if they stay in alliance with the BJP as there is "discontent" among backward classes, Congress leader in-charge of the state Shaktisinh Gohil said on Sunday. Gohil, also a party spokesperson, said "winnability" will be the main criteria for seat sharing among 'grand alliance' parties in Bihar and Opposition unity there will show the way for cooperation in other states.

He said that in Bihar, NDA constituents Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) which primarily draw their support from people belonging to backward classes, are likely to quit the alliance before the Lok Sabha polls. "There is a loud and clear message in Bihar that the central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is against the SCs, STs, backward and most backward classes. All those in alliance with the BJP, be it Nitish Kumar ji, Paswan ji, Kushwaha ji, they all seek support of people belonging to these sections, so how will they stay with the BJP," he told PTI here.

"I don't think these parties will stay with the NDA and if they stay, the BJP will just lose, but they will cease to be politically relevant," he said. Gohil said that the best law for the SCs and STs was the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act that was brought by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the NDA government committed the "sin" of diluting it. The judge who gave two judgements against the SCs and STs was given a big post in the National Green Tribunal after retirement by the government, he said, referring to the appointment of AK Goel as NGT chairman.

"Not going by what we are saying or the RJD is saying, for their own sake, they will have to get out of the alliance with the BJP," Gohil said of NDA alliance partners in Bihar.

Asked if opposition's doors are open for Kumar, Paswan and Kushwaha, he said, "I would not like to answer a hypothetical question, I will only react if such a situation arises." Dalit groups under the banner of the All India Ambedkar Mahasabha (AIAM) have given a call for Bharat bandh on 9 August against the dilution of the Act.

A bill to overturn the Supreme Court order, which had laid down certain safeguards in the SC/ST law to prevent atrocities against people of scheduled castes and tribes, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

This is being seen as a move by the NDA government to reach out to Dalits.

LJP and Kushwaha had made statements expressing their concerns over issues related to SCs and STs and seemed to be on a collision course with the government.

However, the LJP has since softened its stand following the tabling of the bill with LJP leader and MP Chirag Paswan saying that the proposed Bharat bandh should be called off as the Centre has decided to bring an amendment to restore the law.

Gohil said the tabling of the bill was a late move by the BJP as it was under pressure from some of its allies and MPs. He said there was still "discontent" among the backward classes.

Asked if 'mahagathbandhan' coalition partners comprising the RJD, the Congress, the NCP, the Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM (Hindustani Awam Morcha), the Left and Sharad Yadav will be able to arrive at a seat-sharing agreement, he said they will have no difficulty in doing so as the alliance was ideological.

"Congress has always done ideology-based politics and not indulged in 'power politics' like the BJP. The BJP side steps ideology when it wants to grab power. In Jammu and Kashmir they abused the PDP repeatedly and then aligned with them... when the BJP saw it was hurting it nationally, then without informing its ally, it made the government fall," Gohil alleged.

"We will have no difficulty in seat sharing with these parties, and if tomorrow any party of the same ideological commitment wants to be part of the 'mahagathbandhan' (then with them as well). Winnability will be the criteria. We will sit together and do it," he said.

On Nitish Kumar, he said, "He is now with BJP. Ideologically they are east and west... people of Bihar are suffering." Talking about Opposition unity, Gohil said it was also people's demand.

"People are feeling cheated. They want the opposition to be united. They want the jumla government to go. Our unity in Bihar will show the way in other places," he said. He also accused the BJP of not treating its alliance partners well and making them fight among themselves.

"BJP is always on the lookout to finish allies and become strong at their expense," he claimed.
After the Kerala sex-for-silence scandal emerged, the NCW had recommended abolishing confessions in churches over fears that women could be blackmailed.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church on Sunday flayed the proposal of National Commission for Women (NCW) to prohibit churches from practising confession, saying it went against the spirit of religious freedom envisaged in the Constitution.

A resolution read out in most of the Orthodox churches in the state on Sunday said the proposal was against the spirit of ancient Indian culture and rich values, which respects all religions and faiths with tolerance.

"We request the government of India to reject this unilateral immature proposal of the National Commission of Women, which is against the spirit of religious freedom as envisaged in the Constitution," the resolution said.

The NCW's recommendation came in the backdrop of a rape case against four priests of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, who were accused of sexually exploiting a married woman. The matter came to light after the victim's husband wrote to the church, alleging that the priests 'blackmailed and raped' his wife by using her confession.

The NCW had recommended abolishing the practice of confessions in churches over fears it can lead to women getting blackmailed. The erala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC) had petitioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the move, calling it shocking.

Union minister Alphons Kannanthanam, who hails from Kerala, had "rejected outright" the NCW's recommendation, insisting that the Narendra Modi government would never interfere in religious beliefs of people.
A farmer tried to commit suicide inside the premises of a bank in Aurangabad on Saturday after he was allegedly denied a crop loan, police said.

Aurangabad: A farmer tried to commit suicide inside the premises of a bank on Saturday after he was allegedly denied a crop loan, police said.

Farmer Madhukar Sudham Aher (48) consumed poison and was rushed first to the Pachod rural health centre and then to the Government Medical College and Hospital where doctors termed his condition as critical, an official said.

The incident happened in a Central Bank of India branch in Paithan tehsil in Aurangabad in the afternoon on Saturday, a Pachod police official informed.

The bank's branch manager, RP Mishra, later told reporters that the farmer had been given a loan earlier but he had defaulted on the repayment.

Mishra said that Aher had been called to the bank on Saturday to arrive at a settlement on the unpaid loan by way of a part payment.

"But he consumed poison soon after arriving at the bank," Mishra said.
Major Leetul Gogoi may face action for violating the army's rule against developing a relationship in a conflict zone and breaching protocol by staying away from the place of duty.

New Delhi: Major Leetul Gogoi, who was detained by the police in a Srinagar hotel after he was seen with a local woman in May, may face punitive action as a Court of Inquiry (CoI) ordered by the army into the incident is likely to indict him in the case, official sources said in Delhi.

They said the CoI has found that Gogoi violated the army's rule against developing a relationship with a local woman in a conflict zone and breaching the standard operating procedure of staying away from place of duty.

The sources said the findings of the CoI are being placed before the top brass of the Srinagar-based XV corps for approval, after which charges against Gogoi may be slapped under relevant sections of the Army Act.

On May 23, Gogoi was detained by the police after an altercation at the hotel in Srinagar where he was allegedly trying to enter with an 18-year-old woman. Days later, the army had ordered the CoI into the incident after army chief General Bipin Rawat said in Pahalgam that exemplary punishment would be given to Gogoi if he was found guilty of "any offence". "If any officer of the Indian Army is found guilty of any offence, we will take strictest possible action," Rawat had said.

The sources said the army authorities are likely to examine the legal aspects of the case before taking a final call on future course of action.

Major Gogoi had hit the headlines last year after he tied a man to a jeep in Jammu and Kashmir purportedly as a shield against stone-pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election on 9 April. General Rawat had supported the young officer's action and honoured him with the army chief's "Commendation Card" for his "sustained efforts" in counter-insurgency operations.
Expressing concern over the two-month impasse at Manipur University, Deputy CM Yumnam Joykumar appealed to the protesting students and teachers to cooperate with the HRD Ministry and the state government in 'restoring normalcy' at the institute

Imphal: Expressing concern over the two-month impasse at Manipur University, Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar Sunday appealed to the protesting students and teachers to cooperate with the HRD Ministry and the state government in "restoring normalcy" at the institute.

Academic affairs have been under suspension at the central university since 30 May as protesters, under the aegis of Manipur University Students Union and Manipur University Teachers Association, have been seeking the removal of Vice Chancellor Adya Prasd Pandey over allegations of irregularities.

At a press meet Sunday morning, Joykumar said, "We are very concerned about the future of the students as the impasse has entered its third month. The academic activities must have suffered a huge setback because of the stir."

Pandey was granted a one-month leave earlier this week on the advice of the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. He was replaced by professor W Vishwanath Singh.

The ministry in July had formed an inquiry committee, headed by a retired chief justice of high court, to look into the allegations against Pandey.

The agitators, however, refused to accept the HRD ministry's arrangement and sought his immediate removal. They also alleged that one of the panel members was associated with Pandey and that the probe, under such circumstances, might not be impartial.

Three students' bodies - All Tribal Students Union, All Naga Students Association and Kuki Students Organisation - have threatened to intensify the protest if the crisis was not resolved by 6 August.

In an attempt to pacify the students and the teachers, the deputy chief minister said the objective behind sending the vice chancellor on a month's leave was to "expedite the probe" during his absence.

"The state government is taking all possible steps to end the crisis and restore normalcy at the university. The students should not doubt its intentions. All inquiry will be carried out based on facts and figures," he said.

Joykumar also said that he was aware of the apprehensions among a section of agitators over the composition of the HRD ministry-appointed fact-finding committee that is probing into the allegations.

"The constitution of the committee is not within the ambit of the state government, but a retired Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court has been inducted into the panel, as per the wishes of the protesting bodies," he stated.

The deputy chief minister urged the university community to complete all pending work over September.

"At least all pending work, mostly related to declaration of exam results, should be completed during Pandey's absence or the students may face the possibility of losing an academic year," Joykumar said, adding that the protesters should not lose faith in the administration.

State Education Minister Th. Radheshyam, who was also a part of the press meet, appealed to the students' bodies to reconsider its decision of intensifying the protests.

Radheshyam was a part of a ministerial team that recently met Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar in connection with the impasse.

"The administration and the probe committee should be given some time to solve the crisis. Intensifying the agitation at this juncture will only add to the problems," he added.
NCP president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said the Maharashtra government should not tamper with the existing reservations while deciding on the Maratha community's demand for quota.

Pune: NCP president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said the Maharashtra government should not tamper with the existing reservations while deciding on the Maratha community's demand for quota.

The former Union minister was speaking at a book release function in Pune.

"The reservation for SC, ST and OBC (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Class) should not be touched," he said.

"The government is not taking any decision, is only holding talks. So it seems as if the government wants the agitation (of pro-quota Maratha organisations) to continue," the veteran leader said.

The politically influential Maratha community has been agitating for the last two weeks for reservation in jobs and education.
Right after the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case came into light, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar launched a education scheme for girls

Patna: Amid a barrage of attacks over the Muzaffarpur sex scandal, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has launched an ambitious scheme which promises to provide Rs 54,100 from the birth of a girl child till she graduates.

Kumar launched the 'Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana' in Patna on Friday and expressed his government's resolve for empowerment of women.

In his launch speech, Kumar talked about his happiness over the start of the scheme, but at the same time said he was "standing here with mixed feelings" over the case of sex abuse at a state-funded girls' shelter home at Muzaffarpur".

On the occasion, the chief minister also made several other announcements like increasing the amount under the 'Bicycle Yojana' from Rs 2500 to Rs 3000.

The scheme, launched by Nitish Kumar government in 2006, providing bicycles to school going girls, has won laurels in the country and abroad.

He also announced doubling the amount for purchase of sanitary napkin to Rs 300 from existing Rs 150 under the 'Kishori Swasthya Yojna.'

The ambitious 'Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana' will be run by three departments -- education, health and social welfare.

Giving details of the scheme, Kumar had said on birth of a girl child her family would get Rs 2000. After preparation of her Aadhaar card, the family would get an additional amount of Rs 1000.

If the family completes the whole range of immunisation within two years of a girl's birth, it will get a sum of Rs 2000.

After entry into class one in a school, a girl will get Rs 600 for purchase of uniform. Similarly, she will get Rs 700 for uniform in between class three to five and it will be scaled up to Rs 1000 when she reaches 6th to 8th standard and Rs 1500 in between 9th to 12th standard.

On clearance of Intermediate, a sum of Rs 10,000 will be given to encourage her to pursue higher education. For this, only unmarried girls are eligible.

After doing graduation, she will get Rs 25,000.

This will be applicable to married as well unmarried women of a family having only two girls.

A sum of Rs 7221 crore will be spend in a year on the programme.

State Health Minister Mangal Pandey told PTI that the scheme which provides incentive for completing immunisation within two years of birth will help in maintaining good health of girls.

Principal Secretary of Education RK Mahajan described the scheme as "very progressive" which would help lift female literacy and also combat child marriage and control population surge.

The list of the girls who have cleared the intermediate examination this year has been prepared and they will be given Rs 10,000 under this scheme, he said.
Noida has cracked down on the illegal use of polythene in the city and has imposed hefty penalties on those who flout the law

New Delhi: In a crackdown on illegal use of polythene, the Noida Authority on Saturday imposed hefty penalties on vendors using plastic carry bags during an inspection at the Saturday market in Sector 19 in Noida, officials said.

The authority's officials also announced that plastic carry bags or any other items made of thermocol will be banned from 15 August and violators will be punished according to the law.

Around three kg of plastic bags were seized and Rs 17,000 collected in fine from the vendors during the inspection led by City Magistrate SK Gupta, Noida Authority Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Rajesh Kumar Singh said.

A penalty of Rs 1,000 was imposed on people who were found using plastic bags during the inspection, he said.

The authority had in July also carried out similar inspections and issued challans in sectors 6, 27, 19 and 50 soon after the Uttar Pradesh government banned the use of polythene bags and items of common use made of plastic, effective 15 July.

"We have decided to ban plastic in the entire state from 15 July. I appeal that after 15 July, plastic cups, glasses and polythene should not be used at any level. This will need the cooperation of all of you" Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said in a message released on Twitter by his office.

The state had earlier also banned plastic, but the prohibition on its use could not be implemented effectively.

In December 2015, when the Akhilesh Yadav government was in power, the state Cabinet had decided on an absolute ban on distribution, manufacture and sale of plastic and polythene bags with a thickness of more than 40 microns.

However, by January 2016 many areas, including Noida on Delhi's outskirts, had failed to adhere to the guidelines and the ban could not be implemented effectively.

The Uttar Pradesh government's move last month came within days of a similar ban coming into effect in Maharashtra.
Even if someone is the child or grandchild of a Bangladeshi or even a Bangladeshi migrant themselves, then so what? My culture and my religion tells me that I must treat them with humanity. I don't think we are showing this Hindu humanity in the process of NRC, writes Aakar Patel

Over the decades I have travelled to many countries, perhaps 30 or 40 or so. But never have I seen the tradition of offering a guest or a stranger who has come uninvited to your house, a glass of water, as in India. My mother did not specifically teach me to do this, but because she did that every time someone came home, I developed the habit.

These days, most of us have more strangers knocking on our doors than what was seen four decades ago. The courier delivery people, the cable television repair guys, and several other such other people drop in almost every day. They do not expect to be treated as guests at each house they go to, but because it is my habit I still ask them if they want to sit down and have a glass of water.

When some years ago I read the Valmiki Ramayana (the version I read is an excellent translation by my friend Arshia Sattar and published by Penguin), I was surprised to see that this tradition existed in the time of Shri Ram as well. Every time Shri Ram would go to a new place, whether some rishis (saint's) hut in the jungle or some poor persons place in a village, he would be offered a glass of water as part of a ceremony. This is our Indian tradition and we should be proud of it, especially because as I have said, I do not think anyone else around the world seems to have it.

We are all familiar with the line Atithi Devo Bhava, which comes from one of the Upanishads. The exact line is Matru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava, Acharya Devo Bhava, Atithi Devo Bhava and we were taught this sentence in our school in Surat. It means that the mother, father, teacher and guest must be respected like God. Those of us who think of ourselves as Hindus, must consider what the true meaning of being Hindu is in the light of such instruction from our texts.

Have we seen any such respect or even sympathy, in this business of the disenfranchisement that is going in Assam? The allegation is that many of the 40 lakh people who have not been able to identify themselves as being Indian citizens from before 1971 are actually Bangladeshis.

There has been some sympathy for those, like former president of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed's relatives, who have not been able to prove their citizenship. But the assumption has been that these are genuine and deserving Indians who are being left out.

My concern is for all of them. Even if someone is the child or grandchild of a Bangladeshi or even a Bangladeshi migrant themselves, then so what? My culture and my religion and my upbringing tells me that I must treat them, and especially those of them who are poor and weak, with humanity. I do not think that we are showing this Hindu humanity and humaneness in the process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which to me seems inherently cruel.

What do we imagine those who are born in Bangladesh or those whose parents were born there are doing in India? The knee-jerk reaction will be casual allegations like they are taking part in terrorist activities, are infiltrating our society, and taking advantage of the things that India has.

Such a similar allegation is also happening in the US under the American president Donald Trump. He has said he does not want immigrants from shit-hole countries but only from places like Norway. Meaning he does not want people from Africa and India (even though many Indian immigrants apply for the highly valued H1B visa which adds to the America economy) but from white countries.

The main anger is directed towards the Mexicans who are thought to come because they want to 'mooch'. This is an American expression which means someone who lives off the benefits of the state, such as free housing and cheap public transport, and unemployment benefits but is generally lazy.

I know America well, and in my experience the Mexican immigrant is, along with the illegal Gujarati Patel immigrant, among the hardest working people in that country. We know of Patel Motels but we should also know that most of these people migrated without proper visas and began their careers cleaning motel rooms, which requires hard physical labour. Something similar is happening with Bangladeshis, or those people who may be Indian but are thought to be Bangladeshis.

If we look around, at the service staff in restaurants, the watchmen and other such people across all parts of India, we would realise that many of them are from Bengal, either east or west.

In Italy, there are many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants across the country, but they are without question enterprising and hardworking and have come there because they think it is a good and decent place to live in. Why should we spit on such people who come to us because they actually like our nation more than theirs?

One hardly needs to tell a reader what he/she already knows, that unlike America and Europe India does not have free or subsidised public housing, Indians do not get unemployment benefits and India doesn't have good public health care either. India is a hard place to live in for someone who is poor.

We should keep this in mind we debate what's the next stage is in this journey towards declaring these people foreigners and figuring out what to do with them.

And we should, especially those in positions of power who take pride in our culture and tradition and religion, ask ourselves who are we to interpret Atithi Devo Bhava for such individuals.
Though elated to have been named in the final draft of NRC, Suchandra Goswami shudders to remember the days she spent in a detention centre in Silchar. 'Three days seemed like three years in the cell,' she says.

Editor's Note: Of the 4 million who didn't make it to NRC, 2.48 lakh have been marked as 'D' voters. The Supreme Court has asked Assam government not to take any coercive action on those who are found to be without proper documents as required under recent National Register of Citizens. NRC, a product of Assam Accord, is expected to solve the fear of Bangladeshi immigrants that has been prevalent in the state for quite some time now. The Centre proposed in 1999 an updated NRC in Assam to solve the problem of "illegal immigration" and two pilot projects were conducted in Dhubri and Barpeta districts. But breaking out of a riot in Barpeta grounded the project. In 2005, when All Assam Student Union opposed the prime minister's visit to the state, tripartite talk between AASU, State government, and the Centre resulted in a decision to prepare a model for the NRC process, which was delayed yet again by over 5 years by the state government. It was only when Abhijeet Sharma of Assam Public Works (APW), an NGO, filed a writ petition in 2009 that the SC's direct intervention led to the start of NRC process in 2014. Firstpost will run a series which will feature 30 profiles in 30 days of those residents of Assam who have not been covered under the final draft of NRC which will decide if they continue to live in the state that they call 'home'.

***

Silchar: Of all the things that Suchandra Goswami remembers about her stay in a detention centre in Silchar, it is the memories of the cold, hard floor that still make her shudder.

"It was the summer of 2015 and it used to get quite hot at times. Fourteen of us were cramped into a tiny cell. Sometimes, I sat on the floor to keep cool as I waited day after day for the nightmare to end. I still get sleepless nights when I look back at that time, the 47-year-old from Malugram in Silchar told 101 Reporters.

Suchandra, a science graduate from Cachar College in Silchar, and wife of a retired school teacher, was detained for three days in May 2015 after she was served a D-voter notice. She was detained though she had all the necessary documents to prove her identity as an Indian citizen, she claimed.

Her father, Mukul Roy Choudhury, who passed away this year after a long service as a forest ranger in Assam, had arrived in India from Bangladesh soon after the Partition, in 1950s.

The nightmares of the detention centre were revived when Suchandra found her name missing from the first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on the midnight of 31 December, 2017.

I could lose my identity overnight. I was scared, said Suchandra.

Relief came on a piece of paper when Suchandras name appeared in the second draft of the NRC published on 30 July, making her Indian citizenship official.

Besides Suchandra, her husband Gauranga Goswami and their 22-year-old son Gaurav were also on the list.

"I dont want anyone to go through what I did," she said.

"Three days seemed like three years in that cell. I was housed with drug addicts and criminals. The toilets were very unhygienic and the food that was served was of extremely poor quality, she added.

While Suchandra tried to come to terms with the circumstances that had landed her in the detention centre, back home, her family also struggled.

Her husband, Gauranga, said that he ran from pillar to post to arrange for her bail. Somehow, I managed to arrange Rs 30,000 and she got bail. It was a horrible time for us, he says.

While finding their names in the second NRC draft has provided relief to the family, Suchandra says that her mind was not completely at ease.

Its a spelling error that is bothering her.

"My name on the second list reads Suchandro," she says, adding that it was a spelling mistake that landed her at the detention centre three years ago.

"I was served a D-voter notice by the Foreigners Tribunal in 2011 which I ignored because it was addressed to Sochindra. I thought it was somebody else until police barged into my house in 2015. I had all valid documents to prove my citizenship but no one listened to me. I finally won the case in August 2015," she says, adding that a number of people have found their names spelled incorrectly in the NRC.

This could create trouble for people. The government needs to eliminate these loopholes while updating the NRC, she says.

Suchandra's son Gaurav says the family suffered a lot, both financially and mentally, when his mother was put in the detention centre. He said the process to update NRC is necessary to resolve the persistent issue of illegal immigrants that has riddled the state for years.

"Misspelling of names is possible due to clerical or technical errors, but the authorities should ensure that it does not push people towards any trouble," Gaurav says.

Forms for objections, claims and corrections process will be available at NRC Sewa Kendra across the state starting 7 August.

The author is a Silchar-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters
According to DRI officials, the three travelling by the Yashvantpur-Howrah Express from Vijayawada to Howrah were apprehended after the tortoises were found in their baggages on Saturday

Hyderabad: More than 1,100 endangered Indian star tortoises, meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh, have been seized from three passengers of a train at Visakhapatnam railway station in Andhra Pradesh by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials, the agency said Sunday.

The three travelling by the Yashvantpur-Howrah Express from Vijayawada to Howrah were apprehended after the tortoises were found in their baggages on Saturday, a release from DRI's Zonal unit here said.

DRI officers from Visakhapatnam Regional Unit carried out the search following a specific intelligence that the star tortoises meant to be smuggled were being illegally transported.

#AndhraPradesh: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested Three people who were illegally transporting Indian Star Tortoises from Vizag railway station yesterday. 1125 Indian Star Tortoises have been recovered. Further investigation is underway. pic.twitter.com/Na5eL4Rus6  ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2018

"As many as 1,125 star tortoises, kept concealed in the cloth bags, were seized and later handed over to forest officials," the release said.

The three passengers told the officials that they were given the tortoises by someone hailing from a place near Madanapalli in Andhra Pradesh for being handed over to his accomplice in Howrah for being smuggled to Bangladesh.

"The Indian Star Tortoises, protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and declared vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, are prohibited for export under the Foreign Trade Policy," the release added.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee who had served in the Manmohan Singh government in various capacities, on Saturday lauded the former prime minister for ushering in political stability in the country and successfully presiding over the country's finances during 'turbulent time'.

New Delhi: Former president Pranab Mukherjee who had served in the Manmohan Singh government in various capacities, on Saturday lauded the former prime minister for ushering in political stability in the country and successfully presiding over the country's finances during "turbulent times".

He said that Singh assumed his political role as the finance minister at a time when the country had lost its international credibility in money and finance. "But Dr Singh through his skill and deftness" steered the country's economy to a growth trajectory.

Singh, a former Reserve Bank governor, was appointed as the country's finance minister in 1991 by the then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao when the country's economy was passing through a crisis.

Mukherjee listed a host of legislation including the landmark Right to Information Act and the Food Security Act which were enacted during Singh's tenure as prime minister.

He said Singh displayed "skill and deftness" in handling the country's economy and decisively managed the coalition government, ending a period of political instability in the country.

"We will remain grateful to you for providing political stability in the most uncertain time," he said.

The former president was speaking at an award function in New Delhi where Singh was given the lifetime achievement award.

He recalled how the then US president George W Bush had called upon Singh to show light out of the tunnel and restore the world economy when it was passing through a recessionary phase.

He said there was widespread fear during those days that the world economy would slide the way as it happened during the 1930s.

Indian economic credential was also at stake and the country had to pledge 25 tons of gold to the Bank of England just to borrow a few hundred million dollars when nobody was prepared to give loan to India.

But on assuming the role as the finance minister, Singh "staked his own personal prestige...the skill and deftness with which doctor saheb led the economy in that turbulent period is simply marvellous," Mukherjee said.

The VC Padmanabhan Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award, given to Singh, has been instituted by Manappuram Finance Limited.
Ram Vilas Paswan condemned Uddhav Thackeray's comments, saying it was unfortunate that a leader from a state where Dalit icon BR Ambedkar was born is making a statement that reeks of 'anti-backward mentality'

New Delhi: BJP ally and Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan Sunday slammed Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for his reported criticism of the government's bill to overturn a Supreme Court order on the law against Dalit atrocity, saying it reeks of anti-Dalit and anti-backward mentality.

Paswan, also a Union minister, said he condemns Thackeray's comments and it was unfortunate that a leader from a state where Dalit icon BR Ambedkar was born is making such a statement.

The Sena supremo in a signed article in his party's mouthpiece Saamana had attacked the Modi government after it approved a bill to restore the original provisions of a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribals.

Leaders like Paswan had argued that the court verdict had diluted the law and sought a bill to overturn it.

"Such a statement is a reflection on an anti-Dalit, anti-tribal and anti-backward mentality. I need not say much about Shiv Sena's track record," Paswan told PTI in response to Thackeray's comments.

The LJP said such a bill is very much in line with the Constitution which sought to give equal dignity to all people.

"Ambedkar wrote the Constitution but leaders like them (Thackeray) do not read it," he said.

He said the bill is "historic" and a "slap" on the face of those who accused the Modi government of being "anti-Dalit".

While attacking Thackeray, Paswan later tweeted that he had spoken to Sena MP Anandrao Adsul, who belongs to Scheduled Caste, and he told him that he completely agreed with him and the government's decision.

"Uddhav Thackeray may not be having knowledge of this Act. Before making such statement Thackeray should have consulted the Dalit members of Parliament of Shiv Sena," Paswan said.
The issue of Article 35-A has assumed critical importance since the Supreme Court is to take up a challenge to the Article on Monday, 6 August.

A range of intelligence and other advisors in official positions have cautioned the Centre about the fiery reaction that might ensue in Kashmir if Article 35A ceases to be a part of the Constitution.

Those charged with the task of negotiating with leaders and people in Kashmir are apparently among those who have communicated their concerns to the government.

Some senior officials of think tanks associated with the ruling party are also said to be of the view that alternative possibilities for domiciliary rights ought to be explained to people at large in the state in preference to any precipitate action with regard to the Article.

The Article was inserted into the Constitution in 1954, a year after Sheikh Abdullah was arrested, leading to turmoil in the Valley. The UN Security Council too was actively involved in trying to determine the future of the state at the time.

It was two years before the States Reorganisation Commission divided the newly independent country into states afresh in 1956.

Hence, no state had this sort of domiciliary exclusivity at the time. Since then, other hill states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have also adopted domiciliary laws restricting land ownership within the state to long-time residents of the state.

Ironically, neither of those states existed at the time. Himachal was carved out of Punjab in 1960, and Uttarakhand was separated from Uttar Pradesh in 1999.

Hearing on Monday

The matter has assumed critical importance since the Supreme Court is to take up a challenge to the Article on Monday, 6 August. There have been a slew of articles and social media posts from influential Kashmiris urging that the Article should remain part of the Constitution.

Ironically, some of those who have written with great concern about the Article in recent days have also been backers of the 'azaadi movement.

The Article guarantees that only permanent state subjects may own property in the state, or be recruited to government jobs, and admitted to state-run educational institutions. Permanent residents have to prove that their families have been living in the state for several generations. The norms are determined under the laws of the state.

The provision was originally introduced by Maharaja Hari Singh in January 1927. The primary intention then was to reserve government jobs for state subjects. Many higher posts in government used to be held by persons with origins in the Punjab until then.

Multiple objections

The Article has been impugned on several counts. One of these is that the Article should have been discussed and passed by Parliament before it was inserted into the Constitution.

The counter-argument is that the President was authorised under the provisions of Article 370 to insert such an Article for the protection of the rights of state subjects of Jammu and Kashmir.

Of course, most of the opponents of Article 35A also want to do away with Article 370.

This, they hold, would demonstrate the full and final integration of the state into India. This has been a major campaign plank of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP.

This was the primary demand of the BJS when the party was founded by Syama Prasad Mookherjee in 1951. He had raised the slogan, `ek pradhan, ek vidhan, ek nishan' (one premier, one constitution, one flag). At that stage, the head of the states government was known as prime minister.

The state still has a separate Constitution, and a separate flag, which is required to fly alongside the national flag on state buildings and vehicles.

Many BJP leaders, too, have insisted on this demand. Some of the current leaders of the ruling party, such as minister of state in the prime ministers office, Jitendra Singh, have publicly pressed for this.

Gender inequality

The provision regarding the property rights of state subjects has also been impugned for discriminating on gender grounds.

In fact, the Article itself is not discriminatory. But discrimination against women springs from the way the provision has been interpreted by those implementing it within the state.

They have held that the children of a woman from the state who marries a non-state subject cannot be state subjects. This means that the properties of those with only daughters cannot be inherited by their grandchildren.

On the other hand, not only the children but the wife, and even the widow, of a state subject may own property in the state.
A magisterial inquiry was ordered into the killing of a man by the security guards posted at the residence of former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah in Jammu.

Jammu: A magisterial inquiry was ordered into the killing of a man by the security guards posted at the residence of former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah in Jammu on Saturday, a senior government official said.

District Development Commissioner (Jammu) Ramesh Kumar ordered the probe following massive protests by relatives of the slain man, Syeed Murfad Shah, who would have turned 26 next month.

"Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Jammu North, will conduct the probe and submit his report within four weeks," Kumar told PTI.

Meanwhile, the National Conference (NC) sought a high level probe into the incident by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

NC provincial spokesperson Madan Mantoo issued a statement in Jammu, saying, "As Abdullah is a central government categorised protectee, the Government of India should carry out its independent and impartial inquiry by a team deputed by the Ministry of Home Affairs."

Expressing grave concern over the incident, the spokesperson said the probe must cover all aspects, including how a car was able to gain entry into the supposedly highly secured residence with minimum cosmetic damage, considering the strength of the main gate.

"The security lapse is needed to be probed expeditiously so that the truth comes to the fore," the he added.

Following noisy protests by the relatives of the deceased, the Jammu and Kashmir unit of BJP also demanded that an impartial and prompt investigation be conducted into the incident and CCTV footage released.

"BJP demands an impartial and prompt enquiry into the matter of fake encounter. To set at rest the apprehensions of the members of the family of deceased, the CCTV footage should be released to the media by police immediately," BJP state spokesperson Anil Gupta said in a statement in Jammu.

He said the "cold-blooded" murder in a VIP residence raises many questions.

"The family of the deceased is calling the incident a fake encounter and insists that their son was called by somebody to the residence of the former chief minister," he said.

Gupta said, quoting friends of the deceased, that the youth was not a drug addict, as was being alleged by some.

In a major security breach on Saturday morning, the man rammed his car into the front gate of the residence of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah in Jammu, and vandalised the house before being shot dead by the CRPF personnel guarding the premises, police said.

Both Farooq and Omar Abdullah are Z-plus protectees.
The Supreme Court judges fear that lowering Justice KM Joseph's seniority could hamper his chances of being elevated to the chief justice's post as well as of heading a bench.

Several Supreme Court judges are upset with the Centre over Justice KM Joseph's seniority being altered in his appointment notification. They are planning to lodge a protest with Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, according to several reports.

The Supreme Court judges are planning to meet the CJI on Monday and lodge a complaint about what they called the Centre's "interference", NDTV quoted one of the judges as saying.

The government notification places Joseph below justices Indira Banerjee and Vineet Saran. "It is a blatant interference by the government," one of the judges told NDTV. "Justice Joseph's name was sent first and reiterated by the collegium, and his name should have been first in the appointment notification. But his name is the third, making him junior to the other two judges."

According to News18, though the government cleared the appointments on Saturday, it placed Justice Joseph's name third in the notification, making him lower in seniority to the other two judges. This could hamper his chances of being elevated to the post of the CJI as well as of heading a Supreme Court bench, according to the report.

Justice Joseph's elevation to the top court ended a protracted stand-off between the government and the judiciary. With the latest appointments, the number of judges in the Supreme Court has risen to 25. There are still six vacancies yet to be filled.

The collegium headed by the CJI had recommended Justice Joseph's name for promotion to the Supreme Court on 10 January. On 30 April, the government had returned the recommendation for reconsideration on the grounds that he lacked seniority. The executive had also pointed out that several high courts remain unrepresented, and Justice Joseph's elevation would be against the principle of regional representation. His parent high court is the Kerala high Court.

An earlier recommendation of the collegium to transfer the judge to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court on health grounds was kept pending by the government for a long time. On 16 May, the collegium had reiterated the decision to recommend Justice Joseph's name, but it was forwarded to the government in July.

Justice Joseph had struck down the imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand in 2016 after the dismissal of a Congress government led by Harish Rawat.

With inputs from PTI
The Russian Ruble dropped Thursday to a near-term low after bipartisan United States senators announced what they are calling a "bill from hell" round of new sanctions and restrictions targeting the Russian economy and leadership.

Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. The new sanctions would not apply to projects already underway at the time of the bill's enactment.

A bipartisan group of six senators on Thursday introduced a bill to impose new sanctions on Russia's energy sector as well as numerous political figures and oligarchs, citing Moscow's continued attempts to meddle in US elections through cybersecurity breaches.

"The current sanctions regime was not able to deter Russian Federation from interfering in the upcoming midterm elections of 2018", said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

The bill also aims to severely restrict Russia's ability to raise sovereign debt, and to restrict their ability to seek investment in energy projects.

Introduced by Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with Senators Lindsey Graham, Bob Menendez, Cory Gardner, Ben Cardin and Jeanne Shaheen, the bill proposes a series of new sanctions on political figures, oligarchs and family members and other persons that facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The bill comes amid growing speculation that Trump could weaken United States sanctions on Russia's energy sector.

The bill, which would strengthen USA defense against such interference, still needs to pass the Senate, the House of Representatives, and President Trump himself before becoming law.

Senator John Barrasso, Republican-Wyoming, has introduced a bill which would impose mandatory sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican-Kentucky, said "there's a possibility" that the Senate would take up a bill from senators Marco Rubio, Republican-Florida, and Chris Van Hollen, Democrat-Maryland, known as the DETER Act, which would impose new sanctions against Russian Federation.
Amit Shah dared the Congress to clear its stand on the amended OBC bill before it is taken up in the Rajya Sabha, saying it will expose whether the party was really for the welfare of backward communities

Chandauli: BJP chief Amit Shah Sunday dared the Congress to clear its stand on the amended Other Backward Class (OBC) bill when it is taken up in the Rajya Sabha, saying it will expose whether the party was really for the backward communities.

He also charged the opposition with playing vote bank politics on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, commonly known as OBC bill, was passed in the Lok Sabha on 2 August and will now go to the Rajya Sabha for passage.

The proposed legislation seeks to grant the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) constitutional status on a par with National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

"Modi government has got the OBC bill passed in the Lok Sabha. This will go to the Rajya Sabha. Will (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi clear his stand before the country that whether his party will help in the passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha or not. This will make it clear whether the Congress was really for the welfare of the backward," Shah said.

He was here to attend a function on renaming of Mughalsarai junction after RSS stalwart Pt Deendayal Upadhyay.

On the NRC issue, the BJP chief said, "We have to push out each and every Bangladeshi infiltrator from the country."

"Mamata Banerjee and Congress say that NRC should not be done. I ask Rahul Baba whether NRC should be conducted in the country or not. But, he does not answer. You all should tell that whether the Bangladeshi infiltrators should be pushed out (from India) or not."

"Today I would like to ask the SP, the BSP and the Congress whether they want the infiltrators to stay in the country or they should be driven out. I know the answer of the people of Uttar Pradesh. The answer is that not even a single infiltrator should be allowed to stay in India," he said.

Shah attacked the Opposition parties on their efforts to forge unity and said, "Today the entire opposition is hell bent upon spreading the rumour about impact on the poll equation in UP if the SP and the BSP come together."

"Even if Bua (BSP chief Mayawati), bhatija (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) and Rahul join hands, our tally of seats (in Lok Sabha from UP) will be 74 instead of 73 now and will not be 72," he said.

He exuded confidence that the BJP and its allies will perform better than in 2014 when the saffron party bagged 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state and two went to ally Apna Dal, taking the NDA tally to 73.

"I throw a challenge to them that in the planes of Ganga-Yamuna, apart from the BJP's victory, nothing else will happen," he said.

The BJP chief said that Sunday is an important day for the party workers, as in the place where Pandit Upadhyay was found dead under mysterious circumstances, the same Mughalsarai station has now been associated with Upadhyay's name.

"With the help of the Central Government, the Uttar Pradesh Government and its people a big task of establishing a grand memorial and research centre in memory of "Upadhyay ji" is going to be done," he said.

"For this I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath from the bottom of heart," Shah said.

Shah, on the occasion also said, "Until development takes place in Uttar Pradesh, development of India will remain incomplete. Until and unless the Poorvanchal (eastern) region of the state develops, the country will not develop. Today, I am happy to inform you that the Modi government has spent more on Poorvanchal than that done by previous governments in the past 70 years.

"As the BJP party chief I want to assure you that when we come back to you after five years to seek votes, UP would had become the number one state in the country," he said.

The BJP chief also charged that in 15 years, under the rule of SP-BSP, Uttar Pradesh's law and order was "extremely pathetic" while in the Yogi government, criminals in the state were forced to run away from Uttar Pradesh."

He said the Congress government of "Sonia-Manmohan" provided central assistance of just Rs 3,30,000 crore to Uttar Pradesh during the 13th Finance Commission, while the Modi government allocated an amount of Rs 8,08,000 in the 14th Finance Commission.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the central government has decided to increase the minimum support price of crops by one and half times to the cost price, fulfilling the much anticipated demand of the farmers of the country for 70 years, he said.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal said, "Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay learnt different principles in his early life. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a tea seller started his life at a railway station and trains."

Minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha said: "In the last four years, a number of works have been done in UP. Earlier the big projects of the Centre were able to reach only Amethi and Rae Bareli. The work done by the Railways in the last four years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not done in last 40 years."

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said Deendayal Upadhyay is the source of inspiration for all the public-welfare works being done by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, who is also the MP from Chandauli, also addressed the gathering.
The CPM on Saturday demanded enactment of a comprehensive law to tackle crimes like mob lynching in the current session of Parliament to meet the apex court directions.

New Delhi: The CPM on Saturday demanded enactment of a comprehensive law to tackle crimes like mob lynching in the current session of Parliament to meet the apex court directions.

After the two-day meeting of the politburo which concluded on Saturday, the Left party said that the government and the law enforcement agencies "cannot turn a blind eye to such crimes".

"The politburo reiterates its demand for the enactment of a comprehensive law in the current session of Parliament to meet the apex court directions," CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters.

"Many BJP leaders have come out openly in support of such criminals and the very fact that the culprits, even when identified, go unpunished speaks volumes of how they are patronised by RSS and BJP," he alleged.

Yechury asserted that the law by itself is never enough until it is implemented.

In the backdrop of Imran Khan, who is likely to be soon sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan, expressing his desire of holding talks with India, the party demanded that the Centre respond to the offer.

The politburo also took stock of the situation consequent to the publication of the draft NRC rolls in Assam and condemned the statements made by BJP president Amit Shah.

It alleged that Shah made misleading statement with regard to the exclusion of 40 lakh people declaring them as "illegal migrants".

Such irresponsible statements only add to the fear and anxiety of already harassed people, the party said.
Pitching for a 'formidable front' against the BJP, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda has said he is not averse to projecting TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as the Opposition's prime ministerial face for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

New Delhi: Pitching for a "formidable front" against the BJP, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda has said he is not averse to projecting TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as the Opposition's prime ministerial face for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The remark by Gowda, 85, comes against the backdrop of reports that the Congress and other Opposition parties favour leaving the issue of a prime ministerial candidate for the post-election phase as they feel that Opposition unity could be hurt if the subject is taken up ahead of the polls.

The remark also comes days after top Congress sources indicated that the party will not mind a nominee for the top post from any Opposition alliance which does not have the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Gowda, whose party has formed a coalition government in Karnataka with the support of the Congress, said the Congress will play a crucial role in forging Opposition unity in the bid by the alliance to dislodge the BJP from power.

In an interview to PTI in Delhi over the weekend, the former prime minister noted while the formation of a third front is still in the "early stage" Banerjee is "trying her best" to bring all the non-BJP parties together. Gowda headed the Janata Dal-led United Front (UF) coalition government in 1996 but his tenure did not last more than a year.

Banerjee is pursuing the task of the formation of a federal front seriously after the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that excluded 40 lakh people from the list in the eastern state, he said.

Banerjee is a bitter critic of the NRC and has pilloried the BJP over the citizenship issue. She is also seeking the support of other opposition parties to take on the ruling party. The BJP has stoutly defended the Supreme Court-mandated exercise, saying it concerned national security and safety of the country's citizens.

Asked if he would support the TMC chief as the prime ministerial face of the Opposition, Gowda said: "Most welcome if Mamata is projected as prime minister. Indira Gandhi ruled as prime minister for 17 years. Why should we (men) alone become prime ministers? Why not Mamata or Mayawati?"

Indicating he is not opposed to a woman prime minister, Gowda said he had piloted the women's reservation bill in Parliament way back in 1996.

Noting that the JD(S) has not made any effort to unify regional parties so far, he however said the regional party is prepared to cooperate with other parties to fight the BJP.

"It is because there is a sense of fear in the country. There is a suffocating atmosphere for minorities in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat. A formidable front is necessary to take on the BJP in 2019," he noted.

Observing that the clamour for a political alternative to BJP will gradually gain momentum, Gowda stressed that the Congress as a national party will also play a crucial role.

"I want to see how things will shape up in the next two-three months," he added.

Gowda also mentioned that the Congress and his party will fight together in Karnataka during 2019 general polls. However, the issue of seat sharing has not been discussed yet, he said. Karnataka accounts for 28 Lok Sabha seats.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi made it clear at the CWC meet and thereafter at Jantar Mantar on Saturday that the party has begun its groundwork to counter the Narendra Modi behemoth

From addressing the core members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) during the day to symbolically lighting the candles with the Opposition in a display of unity at Jantar Mantar in the evening, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had a packed day on Saturday.

The signs were clear  Congress has begun its groundwork for the 2019 General Election in earnest to counter the Narendra Modi behemoth.

Congress made it clear at its CWC meeting Saturday and thereafter in the evening that the party has begun working to get the alliance chemistry right.

Immediately after taking over as Congress president, Rahul, while chairing his first CWC meeting on 22 December 2017 (CWC wasnt reconstituted then), had emphasised on organisation restructuring, revamping partys state units (Pradesh Congress Committees), building new teams, bringing new faces, discipline among party cadre and to hold the CWC meeting once in every two months to effectively counter the Modi juggernaut.

"I would like that we institutionalise a meeting of the working committee, maybe once every two months and we just close the date. And, every two months automatically, the working committee meets so that we can hear what you want to say and what the nation is feeling, Rahul had said.

But considering the gravity of the upcoming Assembly election in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh by the end of this year, and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls thereafter, the Congress president reiterated Saturday that the CWC should meet on a regular basis  unlike in the past  in a month or one-and-half months and the discussion should be on important issues, so that decisions can be taken by the party to carry it forward.

Besides, issues of alleged corruption in the Rafale deal, banking frauds and growing unemployment as well as entering alliances with non-BJP 'like-minded parties' from the Opposition block was the key area of discussion.

"Modi wont have second chance in office, if Congress gets its alliance game right, asserted top party sources on Friday.

The party sources had also said that as part of the strategy to counter BJP-RSS combine, the Congress' role would be to provide a platform to all opposition parties and unite them against the BJP-RSS combine.

Rahul conveyed the same message on Saturday evening by joining Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and other leaders from Opposition parties including CPI and CPM at Jantar Mantar.

Congress has a natural alliance with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar and today while standing by Tejashwi Yadav and other Opposition leaders, the Congress has made its role clear on getting alliance partners together against the NDA government, a senior Congress leader said.

In a bid to make the grand alliance work, Congress has already made its stance clear on the possible factor of dispute like the leadership issue.

Almost a week ago, the Congress party had expressed its willingness to support Mayawati or Mamata Banerjee or any other candidate  whos not backed by the RSS or the BJP  for the prime ministerial post in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Prior to it, Congress had announced that party president Rahul Gandhi would be its prime ministerial candidate.

It seems the Congress president doesnt want to lose any opportunity unlike in the past, when he was known to be as an absentee leader.

According to party sources, in Saturdays CWC meeting  second within a period of two weeks  Rahul presented a road map on how to go ahead with a new narrative to the public, both individually and jointly with other opposition parties.

"It was decided on how to narrate the issues of corruption like the Rafale deal, banking frauds, unemployment amongst youth, agrarian distress, rise in lynching cases, atrocities against Dalits and minorities, etc, in the days to come and amplify their effect," a member present in the CWC meeting told Firstpost.

Congress party wants to build a mass agitation on the issues of falling economy, unemployment and farmers distress, by raking these both inside and outside the Parliament. Senior party leaders will chalk out a blueprint along with Congress general secretaries and members of the state and district units.

"The Congress president wants our party workers and leaders to take up these issues outside the Parliament at all levels, whereas our MPs would raise them from the floor of the Parliament. We will compel government to respond, said AICC communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala.
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday asserted that there was no vacancy for the prime minister's post in 2019 and the Opposition should work hard and aim for it in 2024.

Chandigarh: Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday asserted that there was no vacancy for the prime minister's post in 2019 and the Opposition should work hard and aim for it in 2024.

The ruling NDA partner Lok Janshakti Party chief Pawan made the assertion and claimed that the achievements of the Narendra Modi government in last four years were more than those of any other regime since Independence.

Paswan also spoke at length on Dalit issues, acknowledging that the government earlier had a problem of perception on the Dalit issue, but the same had been set right.

The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution was addressing a news conference, during which he also described the NDA government as "pro-poor, pro-Dalits and pro-farmers".

Paswan made the remarks in reply to queries on his experience as the NDA partner and if he would be the part of the BJP-led alliance in the 2019 polls.

"The Modi government has been in power for over four years now and if you count the achievements of this government during this tenure, it has been better than any other government since Independence.

"There is no charge which the prime minister faces, he comes from a humble background. Out of 24 hours, he works for 20 hours... This government brought so many schemes for common man and the poor like Jan Dhan Yojana, insurance cover for common people. Besides, India is emerging as an economic superpower," he said.

He said the LJP supported the NDA when it had only two other allies  the Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena.

"For the last two years, we (LJP) have been saying that in 2019, there is no vacancy, the Congress and the Opposition can work hard, but they should realise there is no vacancy in 2019. They can work hard for 2024 and not 2019," he said.

Asked if the LJP would be part of the NDA in 2019, Paswan categorically said, "Not being so is unthinkable."

Referring to the Supreme Court's March 2018 order which had laid down some safeguards against the misuse of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan said after this verdict some people started a campaign to portray the Modi regime as "anti-Dalit".

He said the entire country knew that the Supreme Court had diluted the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and that it was not a government decision, but a countrywide protest was started as if the government had done it.

"We filed a review petition in the court. As we felt it may take time, a decision was taken in the Cabinet and a bill (to undo the Supreme Court order) was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday," he said.

With the Opposition targeting the BJP over dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan said various Dalit organisations would hold rallies across the country from 11-14 August, and thank the prime minister for bringing the bill to undo the apex court verdict on the matter.

The Dalit Sena, affiliated to the LJP, has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the government's "historic" decision to bring the bill to undo the apex court order on the law on atrocities against the Dalits.

Paswan said four-five months back he had stated that despite so many works and achievements of the Narendra Modi government, there was "a perception that this regime is anti-Dalit." And, he had also said he would set this perception right, he added.

Paswan said while speaking in the ongoing session of the Parliament recently that he had pointed out that that the Opposition brought the no-confidence motion against the government, "but not even one from the Opposition, be it the Congress or the Samajwadi Party, uttered a word pertaining to Dalits or the atrocities."

Asked if the government's stand would change in case the Supreme Court stands by its verdict in response to the petition for review of the March verdict on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan asserted that "it is the government's job to make law."

"Parliament is supreme, the court's work is to see whether the laws which have been made, are constitutionally right... it is the government's job to make law," he said.

Countering arguments that the apex court's judgment had only laid down some safeguards to prevent the misuse of the SC/ST Act, Paswan said any act can be misused, but the misuse of any law is not a valid ground for repeal of its provisions.

"Did it not happen in dowry cases when entire family often landed behind bars?" he asked.

He said "many Dalits feared lodging an FIR after dilution of the Act."

"Now, they have said a DSP will probe, but which DSP favours the poor? The result will be that the atrocities will once again rise," he said referring to the apex court's 20 March verdict, which stipulated that before registering the FIRs under the SC/ST Act, a DSP-level officer would hold a preliminary inquiry and the prior permission of an SP-rank officer would be needed to arrest the accused.

Asked about Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) protest rally with other Opposition parties at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi over sexual abuse of the girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home, Paswan said taking out protest march was the job of the Opposition and they would do that.

What was important in this case, he said, was to see the intent of the Bihar chief minister, who has described the incident as "shameful" and assured that the culprits would not be spared.
Senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy on Sunday described as very fair TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's stand that a decision on the opposition's prime ministerial candidate should be taken after the outcome of the 2019 polls.

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy on Sunday described as very fair TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's stand that a decision on the opposition's prime ministerial candidate should be taken after the outcome of the 2019 polls.

He also asserted that the Congress will cross the bridge when it comes to it. Reddy's remarks came days after sources said a broad consensus has been reached among various Opposition parties to unitedly take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and a decision on the prime ministerial candidate will be taken after the results.

I think Mamata Banerjee has clarified that such questions will be decided upon after the polls. I think that is a very fair position, I won't differ from her, Reddy told PTI when asked if Opposition parties will be able to come to a consensus on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate. As for the Congress, our leader is Rahul, he asserted.

Banerjee had said there would be a collective leadership of the opposition front to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, indicating that the proposed coalition may not name a prime ministerial candidate ahead of the polls. Reddy also predicted that in terms of strength of the legislative party, the Congress tally was likely to go up by three to four times.

Asked if this would make Rahul the top contender for the PM's post, he said, All those factors will be taken into consideration after the election." "Why should I keep predicting and anticipating? ...the Congress will take a view on that when the time comes, we'll cross the bridge when we come to it," Reddy said.

Reddy was last week appointed as a spokesperson of the AICC. He had earlier been a spokesperson of the party too. He had been the Union minister for Information and Broadcasting in the IK Gujral cabinet in 1998 and in 1999 he returned to the Congress party after 21 years.

In 2004 he was re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha and then he served as a Union minister for information and broadcasting and Union Minister for urban development in United Progressive Alliance-1. In 2009, he was re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha and served as a Union minister for urban development and Union minister for petroleum and natural gas.

He was also the Union minister for the ministry of earth sciences and the Ministry of science and technology from October 2012 to May 2014.
Nimish Sawant

The International Blockchain Congress took place in Hyderabad on 3 August, saw participation of over 3000 attendees, was held in partnership with the governments of Telangana and Goa and blockchain startup Nucleus Vision. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and IT Minister of Telangana KT Rama Rao were the keynote speakers, in addition to 80 other speakers.

Blockchain, which is a digital, decentralised, public ledger meant to record any cryptocurrency related transactions (the underlying technology on which Bitcoin runs) is increasingly also being thought of as relevant to many other fields. The nature of the blockchain is such that it creates a permanent record of every digital transaction and any addition to it, will be visible to everyone on the blockchain. Any change to the Blockchain affects all the blocks in the chain and these changes are visible for everyone on the Blockchain to notice.

This makes it easier to digitise, code and insert any document on the blockchain such as smart contracts, land deed records, healthcare data and so on. So instead of your data being contained with a single centralised authority, it can be distributed in an encrypted manner within the entire community, thereby reducing the chances of the data being compromised due to a cyberattack on the central authority.

The current discourse over Blockchain is with regard to cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin in particular, which suddenly came to the front pages in December 2017. But there are many areas where Blockchains underlying nature can be of immense value. The International Blockchain Congress is an attempt to get major stakeholders working in the Blockchain community together, and this was the first edition of the Congress.

Importance of Blockchain in the government sector

Speaking about the promise of Blockchain, Kant said that it is one of the most important emerging technologies to look forward to as it helps in enabling ease of collaboration for enterprises, building transparency and could prove to be useful for democracy and free markets.

Unlike other technologies, Blockchain is not visible to citizens or consumers, but works in the background. It is important to understand where it can be used and where it has little or no value. We need to work towards use cases which significantly exploit the advantages of Blockchain, said Kant stating that force-fitting Blockchain into applications was defeating the purpose.

Echoing Kants sentiments, Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao spoke about the measures taken by his government to focus on major areas of emerging technologies. Rao stated that in 2016, the government of Telangana had come up with two policies specifically for the Internet of Things segment. One of the major areas of focus, as part of the IT policy of Telangana, is to do with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain and IoT.

The nature of Blockchain which features a distributed ledger make it conducive to be used in government related functions. Transactions made using blockchain are immutable and transparent, so it makes it an ideal candidate for many non-financial use cases in the public sector. This includes healthcare, real estate, insurance, managing land records, managing welfare payments, peer-to-peer energy transactions and other sectors, Rao said.

Indias first Blockchain District

Telangana will also be getting Indias first Blockchain District. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Telangana State Information Technology Electronics and Communications department and Tech Mahindra, Nucleus Vision and Eleven01 Foundation for the same at the IBC 2018.

This district will be a Centre of Excellence for Blockchain and will work as an incubator for the proliferation of Blockchain technology for the public good. Tech Mahindra will be providing the platform and technology assistance.

The Telangana government will allocate land and other infrastructure for the cluster, which will provide platform and technology assistance to all the incubators in the Blockchain District.

CP Gurnani, CEO and MD of Tech Mahindra, said that the Blockchain District would work towards becoming a global talent hub, help in reskilling and right skilling the future workforce.

"What we trying to do in Blockchain District is to make sure all relevant players come together. It will be a cluster of buildings which will have a lot of people from different kinds of practices. Some could be based on infrastructure, some on healthcare, fashion retail, pharmacology and research and development," Gurnani said.

Globally, the only other areas with a Blockchain District include those in South Korea and China.

Eleven01 Protocol

Tech Mahindra also announced another partnership with Eleven01, a multi-organisation conglomerate working with multiple stakeholders in the Blockchain ecosystem. Together they announced the Eleven01 Protocol initiative.

The idea behind the Eleven01 Protocol is to create an indigenous blockchain protocol that has local government compliance standards built in. The idea is to act as an enabler for Indian Blockchain startups or companies to reduce their reliance on foreign technologies to build decentralised applications.

The Eleven01 Protocol will comprise incubators, labs, community of developers. It will have a growth advisory section to connect Blockchain startups to the right partners. In order to make an ecosystem of stakeholders, Eleven01 will be partnering with over 13 startups, over 50 colleges, incubators such as t-hub and so on.

Role of the government in enabling Blockchain

Frans Kempen, Blockchain lead for Logistics and Supply Chain industry at IBM Netherlands said that in his home country where he is on the board of a Blockchain coalition which houses government bodies and industries, defining common standards was key.

As a government entity you need to define agreed upon standards. Within the government, there are several organisations who are key for enterprises to build up on. All of these industries need to support Blockchain as a model and in order to do that, all the stakeholders need to have the right tools to support business consortiums, said Kempens.

According to Sreeram Anathasayanam, partner, government and public services at PwC said that it was pertinent to have a convergence point to the Blockchain applications in various fields. There has to be communication between blockchains, which would allow different areas to thrive, said Sreeram.

The government of Goa too is keen on ensuring Blockchain technology is used for the public good. Ameya Abhyankar, secretary (Goa Public Service Commission) said that the government of Goa is keen to take forward the right implementation of Blockchain.

Blockchain is a mystery to the common man, so people need to understand the nuts and bolts of it. Other issue is to do with cost efficiency. We want to build a Centre of Excellence for Blockchain in Goa. We have a very strong social safety net, so we want to build and strengthen it through Blockchain. We want innovators to come to Goa and work on Blockchain related projects, said Abhyankar.

Apart from the keynotes, the IBC 2018 had over 50 stalls of Blockchain startups working on various projects from smart contracts, cypto-exchanges, healthcare and more. The International Blockchain Congress will conclude in Goa on 5 August.
Reuters

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is racing to pull his private space company out of start-up mode and move into production amid signals that his firms heavy rocket set for lift-off in 2020 may slip behind schedule, according to people familiar with the project.

Blue Origin has added hundreds of engineers over the past three years and continues to ramp up in an expansion that one employee described as hyperbolic. The Kent, Washington-based company is looking to double its current workforce to around 3,000 employees over the next two to three years, a top customer told Reuters.

The urgency centers on a rocket dubbed New Glenn. The heavy-launch vehicle, which Bezos promises will be able to haul satellites and, eventually, people into orbit, is central to the companys hopes of winning lucrative military and commercial contracts.

New Glenns first-stage booster will be reusable, a key piece of Bezos strategy to lower costs and increase the frequency of launches. Blue Origin executives have stated publicly that test flights will begin within two years.

But whether Blue Origin can hit that mark remains to be seen.

With the clock ticking on 2020, company engineers are still finalizing details on New Glenns design and just beginning to build model components that must be put through extreme testing, people familiar with the project said. They requested anonymity because they are not authorised to speak publicly.

Blue Origin has privately acknowledged in conversations with French satellite firm Eutelsat SA  its first New Glenn customer  that its 2020 time frame is very aggressive, a person with direct knowledge of talks between the companies said.

The firms have padded their contract, which covers the launch of a geostationary satellite in the period 2021-2022, so that Blue Origin will incur no penalties if it is late, the person added. Yohann Leroy, Eutelsats Deputy Chief Executive Officer, declined to discuss details of his companys contract with Blue Origin, but said he was optimistic New Glenn will be ready to carry his firms satellite by the end of 2022.

Of course, I cannot guarantee that they will respect their initial timeline, but we are confident that they will not be very far from it, Leroy said.

A Blue Origin spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment about the companys hiring practices, strategy or competitive challenges. The private firm has been tight-lipped on New Glenns production status and plans for bringing it to market.

Mounting a successful test in 2020 would give Blue Origin its best shot at fending off competing rockets and new ones expected to enter the market in the next few years, analysts said.

Rivals include aerospace stalwarts United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin; and Frances ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran. Japan and China are likewise designing reusable rockets.

But 18 years after its founding, Blue Origin has found itself lagging a competitor closer to home: SpaceX.

Founded by Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk, the Hawthorne, California-based company has upended the space industry with its relatively low-cost reusable Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX has completed more than 50 successful Falcon launches and snagged billions of dollars worth of contracts, including deals with NASA and the US Department of Defense.

SpaceX in February transfixed a global audience with the successful test launch of its newest rocket, the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful operational rocket in the world.

Musk had predicted game over for other makers of heavy rockets if his launch succeeded.

The good news for Blue Origin is that demand for satellite launch services is projected to soar.

Around 800 small satellites are expected to launch annually beginning around 2020, more than double the annual average over the past decade, according to Marco Caceres, senior space analyst with Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal Group.

If New Glenn can be ready in the next two years (Blue Origin) may be able to seize that window of opportunity, he said.

Rocket science

Like Musk, Bezos is passionate about the prospect of humans living and working in space.

Now the worlds richest man, thanks to the success of online retailer Amazon, Bezos has been liquidating $1 billion of its stock annually to fund his interplanetary dreams.

He set up Blue Origin in a warehouse some (32 kilometres) south of Seattle. The companys Latin motto means step by step ferociously, a reference to Bezos belief that success comes through steady, incremental progress.

But after nearly two decades, and with the private space race heating up, Bezos is intent on moving closer to commercialization, three Blue Origin employees told Reuters.

Part of those efforts include selling sightseeing trips to the edge of space aboard another Blue Origin rocket dubbed the New Shepard, with ticket prices in the $2,00,000-$3,00,000 range.

Blue Origin also is vying to supply its BE-4 engine to United Launch Alliance to power its forthcoming Vulcan rocket, ULA said.

The recent hiring binge has focused mainly on throwing talent at the New Glenn, and has included more than 60 engineers who worked previously for SpaceX.

Blue Origins workforce of more than 1,500 has more than doubled from its early 2016 levels, three employees said. Its ranks are expected to double again by the time New Glenn is flying, Eutelsats Leroy said. By comparison, SpaceX has more than 6,000 employees.

Bezos company has also invested more than $200 million in a rocket-making facility near NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Still, Leroy said he expects to see a New Glenn prototype no sooner than mid-2019.

In the meantime, NASA, the US Air Force and satellite companies are directing business to SpaceX.

Matt Desch, Chief Executive Officer of McLean, Virginia-based Iridium Communications Inc, SpaceXs largest commercial customer, told Reuters that Blue Origin has been a little less clear about its strategy.

Nobody disputes that with the investment theyre making they wont eventually be successful, but how and when they become reliable is still uncertain, Desch said.
Agence France-Presse

Chile made history on Friday when it became the first country in South America to ban the commercial use of plastic bags.

"I want to share with you the joy that as of today we're enacting the law," said President Sebastian Pinera at a public ceremony in the centre of Santiago, after which he handed out cloth bags to passers-by.

Large businesses have six months to phase out the use of plastic bags, while smaller ones will be given two years to adopt the new rules.

It means that any form of plastic bag other than those constituting primary packaging "necessary for hygiene or to prevent food wastage" are prohibited, the government gazette Diario Oficial said on Friday.

Those flouting the ban will be subject to a $370 fine, in a country where the minimum wage is just $800.

"Without a doubt we're taking a giant step towards a cleaner Chile," added Pinera.

In the meantime, companies will be limited to handing out a maximum of two plastic bags per transaction.

The law was passed on 1 June but appealed by the Association of Industrial Plastics, whose objections were rejected by the constitutional court.

Chile leading the way

Chile has been one of the countries leading the way in Latin America against the use of plastic bags.

In 2014 the government of Michelle Bachelet banned them in Chilean Patagonia and last year extended that to coastal areas.

Chile's problem has reached epic proportions with 3.2 billion plastic bags used every year  some 200 per person, according to the government.

"A plastic bag takes seconds to make, is used for less than half an hour between the supermarket and the home, and then takes 400 years to biodegrade," said Pinera.

Some 90 percent of them end up in landfill sites or the sea, where they can be swallowed by birds or fish.

The toxic impact of these polyethylene bags on oceans was highlighted recently in Thailand by the death of a whale that had swallowed more than 80 plastic bags.

"We cannot continue like this," said Pinera, adding that "nature is suffering the effect of plastic bags."

On top of that, only four percent of Chile's 17.5 million people recycle.

"What we want to do is very simple: we want to change Chileans' way of life," said Pinera.

Environmental disaster

Latin America and the Caribbean are particularly vulnerable to this environmental disaster as the region enjoys one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world.

According to the UN, it has 16 million square kilometers (6.1 million square miles) of sea comprising almost a quarter of the world's fish population.

The Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda were the first country in the region to ban plastic bags in 2016. That same year Colombia prohibited the use of small bags before also placing a tax on the use of bigger ones a year later.

Ecuador has moved to restrict the use of plastic bags, straws and bottles around the biosphere reserve of the Galapagos Islands, which are a World Heritage Site.

Panama was the first country in Central America to announce a complete ban on plastic bags in January, but it has given businesses up to two years to comply to the new directives.

The three biggest cities in Latin America have also taken action, with Mexico City banning the distribution of free bags in 2009. Sao Paulo followed suit in 2015 while Buenos Aires went a step further in January 2017, putting a stop to supermarkets either using or selling such bags.

Public and government awareness about the environmental impact of plastics has been increasing. Last year the United Nations passed a resolution, albeit non-binding, to prevent plastics from entering the oceans.
tech2 News Staff

A Kurdish refugee whose top mathematics prize was stolen minutes after he received the honor this week in Rio de Janeiro will get a replacement medal on Saturday, organisers said.

Caucher Birkar, 40, received the gold Fields Medal, which is considered math's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, on Wednesday.

Less than an hour later, it emerged that his briefcase containing the award had vanished and when the case was found later at the Rio convention center hosting the event, the medal was missing.

But for Birkar  an Iranian Kurd who won political asylum and citizenship in Britain  minus one plus one equals gold again.

"On Saturday, he will receive an identical medal to the one that was stolen," said a spokesman for the International Congress of Mathematics, which organised the award ceremony.

The spokesman said that a fifth medal had been kept as a spare. All that remained to do was to have Birkar's name engraved.

Birkar celebrated his achievement  alongside co-winners Alessio Figalli, Peter Scholze and Akshay Venkatesh  as a fairy tale come true for the often beleaguered Kurds. "I'm hoping this news will put a smile on the faces of those 40 million people," he said.

Born in a village in the ethnic Kurdish province of Marivan, near the Iran-Iraq border, Birkar said "Kurdistan was an unlikely place for a kid to develop an interest in mathematics."

Despite that, he went from Tehran University, where he recounts having looked up dreamily at portraits of past Fields winners, to get political asylum and citizenship in Britain  and establish himself as an exceptional mathematical mind.

The Fields medal recognizes the outstanding mathematical achievements of candidates who were under 40 years old at the start of the year. At least two and preferably four people are honored each time.

Akshay Venkatesh, the fourth awardee, is an Indian-born and Australian-raised prodigy who began his undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Western Australia when he was just 13.

Now 36, and at Stanford University in the United States, Venkatesh specializes in number theory and describes his work in terms more often associated with the artistic fields.

"A lot of the time, when you do math, you're stuck. But you feel privileged to work with it: you have a feeling of transcendence and feel like you've been part of something really meaningful," Venkatesh said.

In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani from Iran, became the award's first and so far only female winner for her research in theoretical mathematics. She died in 2017 after having battled breast cancer for a long time.

With inputs from the Agence France-Presse
Iran appears to be preparing a major military exercise in the Gulf in reaction to escalating tensions with the United States after it withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal and renewed sanctions on the Islamic republic, according to U.S. officials.

"We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in global waterways", Navy Captain Bill Urban, the chief spokesman at Central Command, said Wednesday.

A spokesman for the US Central Command said that the military was closely monitoring movements of Iranian troops in the area and would continue to work to guarantee freedom of navigation in the waterway.

"We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in worldwide waterways", he added.

U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Iran's Revolutionary Guards has appeared to have prepared more than 100 vessels for exercises. In addition, the timing of such exercises also selected unusual: as a rule, they are held much later in the year.

Relations between Iran and the USA deteriorated after Washington agreement on the Iranian nuclear program and sanctions against Tehran.

Last month, Iran threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz over Washington threatening to sanction any country that fails to stop importing oil from the Islamic Republic by November 4. According to a USA official who spoke to Reuters last month, Washington has also launched a media campaign to spur the protests on and undermine the influence of the Iranian leadership, but some familiar with Iranian politics argue that this will have a boomerang effect.

"Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz", Mattis said.

In reply, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned Trump to "be cautious", saying that they have been around for millennia and have seen the fall of several empires, including their own, which lasted more than the life of some countries.

"In the event Iran choose to militarily close the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. and our Arabian Gulf allies would be able to open it in a matter of days", retired Adm. James Stavridis previously told CNBC.

Trump announced the USA was leaving the agreement in May.

Iranian authorities have not commented on the increased activity detected by the Pentagon. They've done that previously in years past.

"If Iran tries to block the Straits of Bab al-Mandeb, it will find itself facing an worldwide coalition determined to prevent it from doing so, and this coalition will also include the State of Israel and all its arms", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience of graduating naval officers August 1, Haaretz reported.
A suicide bomber killed three NATO service members on a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, and Taliban militants claimed responsibility.

Kabul: A suicide bomber killed three NATO service members on a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, and Taliban militants claimed responsibility.

A NATO Resolute Support mission service member, an American, and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, the mission said in a statement.

"Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history and further strengthen our resolve," said US Army General John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support and US Forces-Afghanistan, in the statement.

Local officials said the blast happened in the Khalazai area of Charikar, capital of Parwan province.

Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the Parwan provincial governor, said the suicide bomber targeted foreign forces who were on a routine foot patrol.

Eastern Afghanistan, where US Special Forces units have regularly been deployed against militants, continues to be one of the deadliest areas for the US military since its main combat operation against the Taliban ended in 2014.

The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, claimed responsibility.

We have killed eight US invaders in a tactic bombing, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in statement.

The invaders had to bring three helicopter ambulances to protect their forces, he said.
Students in their tens of thousands have brought parts of Dhaka to a standstill since two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

Dhaka: Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina urged students Sunday to go home as police fired tear gas at teenage protesters during an eighth day of unprecedented demonstrations over road safety which have paralysed parts of Dhaka.

Students in their tens of thousands have brought parts of the capital to a standstill since two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

The unrest quickly spread beyond the capital and authorities have shut down mobile internet services across swathes of the country, officials and local media said. On Saturday, the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighbourhood, with more than 100 people injured as police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators.

A car carrying US ambassador Marcia Bernicat was also attacked by 'armed men' but she escaped unscathed, the embassy said.

The violence continued Sunday with police firing tear gas into a large crowd marching toward an office of the ruling Awami League party, an AFP correspondent said.

Dozens of protesters were attacked by people alleged to be ruling party activists, some armed with machetes, in Dhaka's Dhanmondi neighbourhood. Twelve were treated at Dhaka Medical Colleague Hospital, police inspector Bacchu Mia told AFP. A photographer for an international news organisation was among those beaten.

The United Nations said it was worried for the safety of the children and young people caught up in the protests. "We are deeply concerned about the reports of violence and call on all for calm," the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo said. "The concerns expressed by youth about road safety are legitimate and a solution is needed for a mega city like Dhaka," she said in a statement.

Hasina warned Sunday that a 'third party' could sabotage the protests and put the safety of demonstrators at risk.

"That's why I request all guardians and parents to keep their children at home. Whatever they have done is enough," the prime minister said from her office.

Hasina's warning came as protesters marched towards the scene of Saturday's clashes chanting "We want justice!"

Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters Saturday. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, and injuries were consistent with rubber bullet wounds.

The Awami League has denied that its officials beat up students.

On Saturday, US ambassador Bernicat's vehicle was set upon by a mob.

"As she was leaving about 11 pm and getting into her car, a group attacked her car," said rights activist Badiul Alam Majumder, who was hosting the ambassador for dinner.

The US embassy confirmed an official vehicle "was attacked by a group of armed adult men" but the envoy and her team departed unharmed.

Internet shutdown

The country's biggest-circulation newspaper Prothom Alo said 3G and 4G internet services have been shut down for 24 hours since late Saturday, shortly after the violence broke out. Social media has been filled with comments from Bangladeshis unable to access the internet via their phones, although wireless and wired networks appear to be unhindered.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said it would comment later Sunday.

A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: "The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government."

The move may be an attempt to limit the ability of students to mobilise or express growing online anger at how the government has handled the protests, hours after police and unidentified men wielding sticks and stones clashed with students.

Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by ruling party activists have flooded social media, prompting renewed anger.

Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous. As news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government.

Hasina's government has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by separate mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment.

Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid fears the unprecedented teen anger could spark widespread anti-government protests before a general election due later this year. But their pleas have had little effect.

An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, fuelled the flames last week.

Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the minister's resignation despite his subsequent apology.

High schools were shut on Thursday as officials promised students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered.

The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka, which already suffers from daily gridlock, and elsewhere in the country.
Since 29 July, students in Bangladesh have been out on the streets demanding that the government take action against those who violated traffic rules and indulge in negligent and rash driving, and make the roads safer for its citizens.

Editor's note: Since 29 July, students in Bangladesh have been on the streets demanding that the government take action against those who violate traffic rules and indulge in negligent and rash driving, and make the roads safer for its citizens. Students have been checking licences of vehicles and drivers, and streaming live videos on Facebook. The peaceful protests, however, turned violent on Saturday. While students accused the police of using rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, the police denied it. Now, reports have emerged that the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party, was actually behind the attacks on students on Saturday. Greeshma Rai of Firstpost spoke to journalists, students and professors in Dhaka, to get a first-person account of what actually transpired on Saturday.

Shan* is a student and a resident of Dhaka's Dhanmondi. He'd heard about student deaths caused by careless driving before but 31 July was the first time he'd saw protests about this. Shan had been following the outcry through social media posts. He didn't participate until Friday, when he joined the students at Shahbag.

There were close to 3,000 students: Some were checking vehicles for documents, while others were sitting in clusters across the stretch of the road. Those without permits or licences were being issued notices by the police officials (in fewer numbers). Shan saw that many students were accompanied by their parents who were helping with distribution of food and water.

Shan walked to Science Block intersection, which he termed as the epicenter of the protests, due to its proximity to a large number of schools and colleges. More than 7,000 students had turned up. Shan helped distribute water and hung around for a while. The students' placards demanded better roads, punishment for reckless drivers and justice for those who lost their lives in road accidents. Like at Shahbag, vehicles were being checked for licences and permits. He even saw police vehicles being stopped and their drivers being checked. He left Science Block at 6 pm. On his way back, he noticed smaller groups of students holding placards and sloganeering or just walking around with friends.

He woke up the next day and was preparing to visit Science Block when social media started buzzing with messages of attacks on the protesting students. His WhatsApp groups were filled with messages stating that the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) was on a rampage on the streets, attacking every student they could find.

Rumours of shootings and rape also surfaced on social media. One rumour doing the rounds stated that a group of girl students were confined and sexually assaulted at the Awami League head office at Dhanmondi 3/A. Since he lived close to this office, Shan and a friend decided to see for themselves if the rumours were true.

On his way, Shan noticed a large police deployment across the area. When he reached closer to the head office, he saw men in plainclothes carrying sticks. He approached the Awami League office entrance and joined a crowd of around 350 persons already assembled there. They were in the middle of an argument with the police.

They wanted the police to search the Awami League premises to see if the rumour about the girls being confined was true but the police refused. Shan said that while this was happening, members of Awami League were hurling abuses at the crowd. The police asked everybody to sit down while they figured out what needed to be done.

In fifteen minutes, even more policemen turned up. Five minutes later, the police ordered the crowd to disperse, failing which they threatened arrest. When the crowd refused, a lathi charge was ordered. Shan received blows on his head and back. He began running away, but received even more blows. He and his friendwho was bleedingran home. He saw more students being attacked by individuals while the police only stood by and filmed the assault.

As told to Greeshma Rai

*Name changed to protect identity
Bangladesh students protests have brought issue of road safety, which is most talked about but hardly finds space in mainstream discussions, the weak governance in almost every sector, and people who are taking advantage of this

Since 29 July, students in Bangladesh have been out on the streets demanding that the government take action against those who violated traffic rules and indulge in negligent and rash driving, and make the roads safer for its citizens. Students have been checking licences of vehicles and drivers, and streaming live videos on Facebook. The peaceful protests, however, turned violent on Saturday. While students accused the police of using rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, the police denied it. Now reports have emerged that the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party, was actually behind the attacks on students on Saturday. Greeshma Rai of Firstpost spoke to journalists, students and professors in Dhaka, to get a first-person account of what actually transpired on Saturday.

Students in Bangladesh have been protesting against lack of road safety for close to a week now. The ruling Awami League government has tried many methods to curb the protests which have brought the State to a standstill for eight days now. It is therefore, not very surprising that certain groups indulged in violence to disperse the crowd, which up until now had been peaceful.

These unprecedented protests were led by school and college-going students between the ages of 11 and 17 who have no political affiliation. Statements were made by the ruling government regarding involvement of ex-prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party but looking at the nature of the protests, nobody in Bangladesh questioned the motivations of these young students.

The protests are a result of anger building among students because of regular deaths due to road accidents caused by negligent and rash driving. The tragic death of two students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College caused by negligent driving was the tipping point.

Coupled with this was the apathy of the government. Shahajahan Khan, Minister for Shipping, is also the executive president of the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, which is dominated by private bus operators. When asked about the deaths, Khan smiled and responded with something along the lines of: 'Arent these accidents common?'

He has been regularly blamed for stalling traffic-related regulations and it was evident why he made a statement like this.

His statement furthered inflamed the outrage against the student deaths. Protests started with the students from Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College taking to the streets. They were joined by more students and protests spread across the country.

In Dhaka, wherever there are schools, the students have gathered outside with placards and slogans. It is not only students, even their parents, guardians and teachers who have been accompanying them to these protests. The students' demands? That the government makes roads safer for common citizens by stopping vehicles without the necessary permits and drivers without licences.

They also demanded that government officials failing to regulate or press for compliance of traffic-related rules be brought to book.

Public transportation has always been a contentious issue in Bangladesh, especially bus services. The common people are at the mercy of private bus operators and no strict regulations are in place. If there is a protest by the people when a death is caused (due to negligent driving) or an untimely price hike, the Bus Operators Association promptly calls a strike, paralysing the only regular mode of public transport. The government has never interfered or tried to strengthen regulations pertaining to their operations. Even now, the association has suspended all operations. There are no buses plying to or from Dhaka.

When the protests broke out, the public consensus was that these children were spearheading a genuine cause. In addition, protests were peaceful other than stray incidents here and there.

From day one of the protests, students posted live videos on Facebook of them checking licences and permits. Everybody was stopped. Videos of four ministers travelling in vehicles which didnt have necessary documents went viral. Even high-ranking police officials and Bangladeshi press seemed to have been flouting the rules, as the videos revealed. These students held up a mirror to the society, with something as simple as a Facebook Live.

All these videos brought forth the issue which is most talked about but hardly finds space in mainstream discussions: Weak governance in almost every sector, and who was taking advantage of this.

In transport, for instance, it emerged over the past few days that it's not just bus operators who are flouting norms, so is everybody else in positions of power like high-ranking officials. Heated discussions started about the shortcomings of other sectors such as banking, the loss-making State-owned industries, and the bad state of railways.

It is true that this situation can easily be politicised by the Opposition with the upcoming general elections in Bangladesh. The Opposition is already trying hard to do so. The student wing of the ruling party, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, which has a terrible reputation in Bangladesh, was allegedly behind the attacks on the protesting students.

Now, both the sides will blame the other and with this politicking, we will eventually lose focus of what these students set out to do. Also, anything that is against Awami League is labelled as Jamaat-e-Islami influenced. This has become an easy method to dismiss any form of discontent. Nevertheless, one would be forced to agree on the point that the government doesnt have much to save face. Charges of corruption have been levelled against the government and the state of affairs are far from good.

The truth is Bangladesh is facing a huge crisis of leadership. The prime minister probably has good intentions but her government is filled with individuals whose records are far from clean. The dismissive attitude from ministers like Khan is becoming the new normal. Public discontent against ministers and government officials like Khan and his ilk cannot be silenced forever, as these protests have clearly shown.

As told to Greeshma Rai
Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season.

San Francisco: Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season.

Brown, who inspected neighborhoods wiped out by a wildfire in the Northern California city of Redding, said he was confident the president with whom he has clashed over immigration and pollution policies would send aid, which Trump did last year when California's wine country was hit hard.

"The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters, so I'm hopeful," said Brown, a Democrat. "Tragedies bring people together."

Brown's call for help came shortly before authorities called on residents in Glenn and Colusa counties in Northern California to evacuate as a wildfire there continues to grow.

Cal Fire issued the evacuation order Saturday night for people who live in several parts of the counties, including an area just east of the boundary of Mendocino National Forest. The blaze, known as the Mendocino Complex fire, has grown to 357 square miles and is 32 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.

The National Weather Service forecasts hot and windy conditions to persist in Northern California.

There are 17 major fires burning throughout California, authorities said. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people  including four firefighters  and shut down Yosemite National Park.

Hundreds of colleagues, family and friends attended a memorial service Saturday in Fresno for National Forest Service Captain Brian Hughes, the Fresno Bee reported . Hughes was killed on 29 July by a falling off a tree while fighting the wildfire that has closed Yosemite National Park at the height of tourist season.

Firefighters have achieved 41 percent containment of that forest fire.

The fire had reached into remote areas of the country's third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemite's popular Valley region were ordered to leave on Friday because of inaccessible roads.

The biggest blazes continue to burn north of San Francisco, including twin wildfires fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather. Those fires destroyed 55 homes and forced thousands of residents to flee their neighborhoods about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the city. They have grown to a combined 300 square miles (648 kilometers).

The two fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27 percent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated.

The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph (56 kph) that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flames.

"This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach," the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco.

Meteorologist Steve Anderson said temperatures will remain in the 90s in the region throughout the week with wind gusts reaching 25 mph (40 kph) during the day Sunday.

"It's not good firefighting weather," Anderson said.

More evacuations were ordered Saturday afternoon for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where the week-old twin fires are threatening about 9,000 homes. The largest of the two fires was 50 percent contained.

The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake, but "it looks like there's dicey weather on the way," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said.

However, most evacuations were lifted by Saturday in and around Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft continue battling an immense blaze about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fire's southeastern flank were reopened to residents.

The fire near Redding, which killed six people and incinerated 1,067 homes, started two weeks ago with sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer's flat tire, Department of Agriculture and Fire Precention officials said.

The blaze is currently 41 percent contained.

The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber.

It burned so furiously on 26 July that it created what is called a fire whirl. The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph (230 kph), which rivaled some of the most destructive midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles (533 square kilometers).

"Fire season is really just beginning," Cal Fire chief Ken Pimlott said.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro survived a drone attack while delivering a speech in Caracas but, local authorities claim that it was just a gas tank explosion

Caracas (Venezuela): Drones armed with explosives detonated near Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro as he gave a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas, but the socialist leader was unharmed, according to the government.

Seven people were injured in the apparent attack on Saturday, which came as Maduro celebrated the National Guard's 81st anniversary, said Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez. Maduro's speech was abruptly cut short and soldiers could be seen breaking ranks and scattering.

"At exactly 5.41 pm in the afternoon several explosions were heard," Rodriguez said in a live address to the nation minutes after the incident. "The investigation clearly reveals they came from drone-like devices that carried explosives."

But firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the government's version of events.

Three local authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the case said the incident was actually a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near the site of Maduro's speech. Smoke could be seen coming out a building window.

Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.

Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings.

Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the lam.

"The right insists on violence to take public spaces that they can't win with votes," Diosdado Cabello, a high-ranking socialist party leader, wrote on Twitter yesterday after the apparent assault, which he characterized as a "terrorist attack."

State television was broadcasting Maduro's speech at the National Guard anniversary live when the incident took place.

"We are going to bet for the good of our country," Maduro declared triumphantly moments before the sound of an explosion pierced the air. "The hour of the economy recovery has come." Seconds later Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up to the sky and winced.

The cameras then turned to a wide shot of uniformed military officers standing at attention in neat lines as they broke rank and began running. The transmission then cut off.

Images being shared on social media showed officers surrounding Maduro with what appeared to be a black bullet-proof barrier as they escorted him from the site.
Imran Khan, who is set to become Pakistan's new prime minister, may take oath of the office on the country's Independence Day on 14 August, a media report said on Sunday.

Islamabad: Imran Khan, who is set to become Pakistan's new prime minister, may take oath of the office on the country's Independence Day on 14 August, a media report said on Sunday.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in the 25 July elections, winning 116 National Assembly seats out of the contested 270 parliamentary constituencies.

Earlier on 30 July, Khan, 65, had expressed his desire to take the oath of prime minister on 11 August, as his party announced that it had acquired enough seats in the lower house through coalition talks to form a majority government.

"It is my and caretaker prime minister retired Justice Nasirul Mulk's desire that the oath-taking of the new prime minister should take place on 14 August," caretaker law minister Ali Zafar told Dawn on Saturday. Unveiling a tentative schedule of the National Assembly formation, the minister said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was already on board as it was engaged in making necessary arrangements required to hold the prime minister's election on the desired date. Zafar said a fresh session of the assembly could be called on 11 or 12 August.

"If it is held on 11 August, the election of the prime minister can take place on 14 August and on the same day President Mamnoon Hussain can administer the oath to the new prime minister," he added. Zafar elaborated that if the National Assembly (NA) session was held on 11 August, the same day the new members would be administered the oath. He said that after printing of ballot papers for the elections of the NA speaker and deputy speaker, their elections could take place on 13 August and the next day the election of the prime minister could be held.

However, if the National Assembly session was called on 12 August, the election of the prime minister would be held on 15 August, he added. "We wanted that the new prime minister should take his oath on Independence Day so that the new government can start its functioning with full national fervour and commitment to bring progress to the country," he said.

Meanwhile, successful candidates of the 25 July general elections will have to submit returns of their election expenses on Sunday  the deadline fixed by the ECP for the filing of returns  and a notification will be issued the following day.

Three days will be given to independent candidates if they want to join any party. Similarly, three days will be spent on seats reserved for women and minorities. The caretaker law minister told the media that as per the Constitution, the first session of the National Assembly would have to be summoned within 21 days after the general election. He said it was necessary to fulfil this obligation by 15 August.

After the election, the newly-elected prime minister would take the oath and the job of the caretaker prime minister and his cabinet would be over and power would be transferred to the new government under constitutional provisions. The minister said the ECP was completing legal formalities, including consolidation of elections results, and collection of returns of election expenditures from the winning candidates.

The ECP after giving time to independent candidates to join a political party or stay independent would issue parties position in the assembly, Zafar said, adding that after that the commission would issue a list of winning candidates on a reserved seat for women and minorities.
Kenya and Tanzanya will mark 20 years of Al-Qaeda attack in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam that killed 224 and injured 5,000, on Tuesday

Nairobi: Kenya and Tanzania on Tuesday mark 20 years since the devastating US embassy bombings that thrust Al-Qaeda onto the global stage and went on to shape how a generation thinks about personal security.

It was mid-morning on 7 August, 1998, when the first massive blast hit the US embassy in downtown Nairobi, followed minutes later by an explosion in Dar-es-Salaam, killing a total of 224 people and injuring around 5,000 - almost all of them Africans.

With two monster bombs loaded onto the back of trucks and a trail of carnage in east Africa, the world was introduced to Osama bin Laden three years before the 11 September attacks in New York would make him a household name.

"It wasn't the first time Al-Qaeda had carried out an attack, but in terms of the spectacular, catastrophic nature of the incident, they really announced their entry onto the world stage," said Martin Kimani, head of Kenya's National Counter Terrorism Centre.

"When 9/11 happened it was shocking and surprising, but a precedent had been set here in east Africa." According to The Looming Tower, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the rise of Al-Qaeda, bin Laden gave various reasons for targeting the embassies, such as the deployment of American troops to Somalia and a US plan to partition Sudan, where he had lived for five years until being expelled in 1996.

However, author Lawrence Wright concluded that the main goal was to "lure the US into Afghanistan".

This aim was achieved, in the aftermath of the attacks, with the US launching strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan that were "largely seen as ineffective", said Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert at the Brookings Institution.

The strikes led the Taliban in Afghanistan to "embrace the group more closely", he said, and also boosted the image of a group seen as standing up to the US in the Muslim world. Byman said the attack was the first to show that Al-Qaeda "had tremendous reach and it can do sophisticated operations".

"It showed Al-Qaeda that international terrorism could generate tremendous attention, and not just attention from its adversaries it was a form of advertising in a way." The years since 9/11 have been shaped by the so-called "war on terror" and the proliferation of American military operations - notably in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

At the same time, Al-Qaeda went on to inspire affiliates around the globe, carrying out attacks across West Asia as well as from Bali to Madrid, London and Paris.

Islamist insurgencies have wreaked havoc in the Sahel, Nigeria and Somalia, and - on several bloody occasions since the 1998 bombings - Kenya.

"Kenya itself was not primarily the target but of course we ended up with the majority of fatalities and consequences of that attack," said Kimani. "We continue to be on the frontlines of this struggle."

Two years after Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab - which had been carrying out attacks on its soil - the group killed 67 people in an attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in 2013.

Then in 2015, a Shabaab attack on the Garissa University in eastern Kenya left 148 dead.

However, Kimani said counterterrorism efforts by Kenya had proved successful, confining Shabaab attacks to remote areas in recent years as a result of new anti-terror legislation and improved co-ordination between different security forces.

He said efforts to build trust with communities where jihadists hide out, and understanding how recruitment happens to nip it in the bud has also been key.

"The threat is still there, believe me, but 20 years later we have become much better at dealing with terrorism than we used to be. Globally terrorism has left a deep, deep social imprint. It has changed the way people think about security. Here in Kenya there are guards at malls and hotels and that is replicated in many parts of the world" he said.

Kimani said governments need to focus on improving livelihoods and providing basic services to erase the "pockets of desperation" that prove so fruitful for recruitment.

In recent years, attention has swung away from Al-Qaeda to its rival Islamic State group which formed in 2013, captured swathes of territory and inspired numerous so-called "lone wolf" attacks from afar.

However, experts warn that while Islamic State has since lost its territory and reach, Al-Qaeda has been quietly rebuilding. "Their ideological ability to be grafted onto local grievances continues to make them a threat," said Kimani.
Pakistan Police killed a prime suspect and arrested 18 others behind the arson attack on 14 schools in Gilgit-Baltistan region

Islamabad: Pakistani police on Sunday killed the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting 14 schools, mostly all-girls', in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to a media report.

The schools were burnt down over a period of two days in coordinated attacks in Gilgit-Baltistan's Diamer district, triggering protest by local residents who sought safety for educational institutions.

"The prime suspect believed to be responsible for the torching of 14 girls' schools over a period of two days in Gilgit-Baltistan's was killed during a search operation in the Tanger area today," Diamer Police Spokesperson Muhammad Wakeel was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

Shafiq - who has no known association with any militant or terrorist outfit, but is referred to as a 'militant' and 'militant commander' by police officials - was the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting girls' schools in the Chilas, Darel and Tanger tehsils of Diamer district, it said.

Gilgit-Baltistan government spokesperson Faizullah said that 10 to 12 police parties carried out raids in various parts of Diamer last night to track down those responsible for the arson attacks.

A police constable was killed and another wounded in a gun battle with armed suspects during a late night raid in Tanger on Saturday. So far 18 suspects have been arrested for the torching of the schools.

Wakeel said that the militants in Tanger were attempting to flee the area but locals surrounded them.

A civilian was injured and at least three to four others were injured in exchange of fire between police and the militants during the operations, the paper said.

Nobel laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai and Prime Minister in-waiting Imran Khan have strongly condemned the attacks. "The extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book," Malala, 21, tweeted. "Shocking and condemnable torching of schools in GB. This is unacceptable and we will ensure security for schools as we are committed to focusing on education, especially girls' education which is integral to Naya Pakistan," Khan said.

Girls' schools are often attacked in the northern areas of Pakistan. In December 2011, at least two girls' schools were partially damaged in low-intensity explosions in Chilas.

Earlier that year, unidentified assailants had also blown up two girls' schools.

In 2004, girls' schools in Chilas came under a string of attacks. Nine schools of which eight were girls' schools were attacked and destroyed in five days in the area in February.

Terrorists have also blown up educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

According to a report, about 1,500 schools have been destroyed in the tribal belt during the last 10 years.

In 2017, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report stated that attacks by the Taliban and other militant groups disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of children, particularly girls, in Pakistan.
Underlining Washingtons desire to build a strong security partnership with India, the John McCain National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for the 2019 fiscal has urged the Donald Trump administration to strengthen its defence partnership with India, noting that such a partnership should enable strategic, operational and tactical coordination between our militaries.

Underlining Washingtons desire to build a strong security partnership with India, the John McCain National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for the 2019 fiscal urged the Donald Trump administration to strengthen its defence partnership with India, noting that such a partnership should enable strategic, operational and tactical coordination between our militaries. The annual Act authorises the US military spending but is often used as a vehicle for a broad range of policy matters.

India was designated a Major Defence Partner towards the end of the Barack Obama administrations tenure. While the Trump administration is moving ahead with its plans to implement this designation for India, the NDAA for 2019 seeks to give it a legislative cover. The NDAA has also asked the US to work towards mutual security objectives by expanding engagement in multilateral frameworks, including the Quadrilateral Dialogue between India, the US, Japan and Australia, to defend shared values and common interests in the rules-based order. It has advised Washington to pursue strategic initiatives to help develop Indias defence capabilities and conduct joint exercises with India in the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean region, and the Western Pacific.

So far, so good. However, what seems to have escaped attention of observers is the fact that the US Congress has avoided highlighting Indias role in Afghanistan in the Bill. An earlier version of the Bill highlighted the US desire of furthering cooperative efforts with India to promote security and stability in Afghanistan. But the joint conference report does not underline this point. A conference report refers to the final version of a Bill that is negotiated between the House of Representatives and the Senate through conference committee.

Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani has been keen to begin peace negotiations with the Taliban, and has already offered peace talks without preconditions. But the Taliban views the regime in Kabul as illegitimate and refuses to engage. A key Taliban demand for holding talks has been the removal of all foreign troops. Washington earlier insisted that the Taliban must negotiate with Kabul. However, things are changing very fast. If talking directly to the Taliban was a taboo until recently, it is now seen in Washington as the only way forward to peace in Afghanistan. Also, there is a strong feeling among the influential Trump administration officials that too much emphasis on Indias role in Afghanistan could annoy Pakistan and the Taliban, which could hurt efforts to start purposeful talks with the Taliban.

When he assumed presidency last year, Trumps instinct was to pull out of Afghanistan. However, he allowed himself to be persuaded by the Pentagon to give another shot at increasing US troops in Afghanistan. One of the major aims of Trumps Afghan policy announced in August 2017 was to compel the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. He also criticised Pakistan, terming it deceitful while praising India for its development work in Afghanistan. The indictment of Pakistan was followed by then defence secretary Jim Mattis issuing one last chance to Islamabad to rein in the Taliban and Haqqani network. But what could India expect from the highly unpredictable Trump whose tendencies have proved destabilising?

If a breakthrough in the talks with the Taliban is achieved, it will help the US get out of its longest war ever, and Trump can take credit for that. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a surprise visit to Afghanistan in early July, expressed the US willingness to participate in direct talks with the Taliban when he said that Washington will support, facilitate, and participate in these peace discussions which will also include a discussion of the role of international actors and forces.

Consequently, senior US diplomats held a meeting with the Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, fulfilling a major demand of the Taliban to hold negotiations with the US. Although New Delhi has been against Washington holding direct talks with the Taliban, the Doha meeting did not have any representation from the Ghani-led Kabul government. There are credible reports of the Trump administration asking its Indian interlocutors to give up their antagonism to the Taliban and agree to the strategy of co-opting them in order to break the stalemate.

Washingtons eagerness to negotiate a political settlement with the Taliban is undoubtedly a major psychological win for Pakistans military establishment, which has long insisted that there is no alternative to engaging their proxy: the Afghan Taliban. One need not repeat that Islamabads room for strategic manoeuvring vis-a-vis New Delhi has been directly proportional with its political fortunes in Afghanistan. The Chinese and Russians have been highlighting the Islamic State (ISIS) and not the Afghan Taliban as the real threat. With Washington on board, Pakistan feels emboldened to execute its plan to rehabilitate the Taliban into governing structure of the Afghan State.

It is widely expected that Imran Khans first overseas visit as prime minister will be to Kabul, where his main agenda would be to deploy his charm offensive to convince the Kabul regime to accede to the Talibans major demands. Imrans sympathetic rhetoric toward the Taliban, whom he calls our brothers and our own people, has earned him the nickname Taliban Khan. Imrans success would be a strategic coup for Pakistani deep state, bringing it close to its imagined military strategic depth vis-a-vis India in Afghanistan.

The politically-turbulent geostrategic environment prevailing in Afghanistan presents huge challenge for India. It is vital for the Narendra Modi government to make sure that Indias security interests are not endangered when the Afghan Taliban is granted international legitimacy, which is going to happen sooner than expected. There is nothing wrong with dealing with all sides in the Afghan dispute, including the Taliban, provided New Delhi is assured that Afghan soil will not be used against India.

India, which has avoided any military engagement in Afghanistan, continues to deploy various soft power tools in Afghanistan, in contrast to Pakistans hard power tactics. Hence, there must be a renewed emphasis on framing Indian-Afghan ties around culture, democracy and connectivity: three major pillars of Indias strategic narrative to wield soft power influence in Afghanistan. It is time New Delhi boosted its efforts to project Indias developmental presence in Afghanistan as practical implementation of ancient Indian worldview of universal goodness. Indias assertion of helping rebuild Afghan economy, coupled with its commitment to strengthen Afghanistans democratic institutions must be an essential part of this strategic argumentation, without any hint of a zero-sum competition with Pakistan.

Afghanistan is of huge geopolitical importance to India and there is an immense reservoir of goodwill among ordinary Afghans for India. Moreover, India has always respected Afghanistans agency as a sovereign nation-state with an independent set of foreign policy preferences. The Kabul regime has equally found it useful to deepen its partnership with India to develop asymmetric capabilities to gain strategic parity vis-a-vis Islamabad.

New Delhi can ill afford to remain a mute spectator to the current developments in Afghanistan, which indicate that the US is desperate to appease the Taliban without proper assessment of attendant risks and dangers. Accommodating the irreconcilable Taliban in Afghan government is not in Indias interest but will work fine with Pakistan. The hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 en route to Delhi from Kathmandu by Pakistan-based terrorists, and its forced landing in Taliban-controlled Kandahar airport, is not yet a distant memory.
Tennessee Republicans will need a shower after tomorrow's final vote in the gubernatorial primary because both campaigns from Randy Boyd and Diane Black have been some of the most deceptive, slanderous and embarrassing of all time. Black, for her part, played a key role in the passage of the president's signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December as the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Voters had mixed feelings about the Trump-themed GOP election. For the Senate, the last Tennessee Democrat to win was former Vice President Al Gore in 1990.

President Trump won the state of Tennessee back in the 2016 election, surpassing opponent Hillary Clinton by 26-percentage points. Easy primary wins Thursday just made it official. The top four Republican contenders for governor, including Black, Lee, Boyd, and State House Speaker Beth Harwell, spent a combined $40 million of their own personal wealth fighting over who is more devoted to Trump, setting records and underscoring the president's continuing influence in state races.

Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, a moderate, won the Democratic primary for the state's governorship, defeating state House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh in a mostly cordial race.

But unlike Blackburn, Black did not have President Donald Trump 's endorsement.

Blackburn served on Trump's transition team and has not shied away from embracing the president.

Trump has endorsed Blackburn, an eight-term congresswoman, and traveled to Tennessee in May to campaign for her. Blackburn told Fox News at the time that Trump's support had helped her candidacy build "momentum". "He ran a great campaign and now will finish off the job in November".

In the end, the race was less about political ideology than it was about character, likeability, and outsiders versus insiders, and in that choice, voters overwhelmingly preferred Lee. Six candidates competed for the Republican nomination, and three candidates ran against each other on the Democratic side.

Bredesen has criticized Trump's tariff policies, which threaten an estimated $1.4 billion in Tennessee exports, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a longtime Republican ally. She has expressed "grave concern" about the tariffs, but said she appreciates the administration's goal of punishing bad actors like China.

Tennessee has a history of electing centrist senators. Corker, for one, has further complicated the race by saying he's supporting Blackburn but won't actively campaign against Bredesen, whom he has called a friend.

Haslam, the popular two-term governor, threw his backing behind Blackburn at a campaign event Thursday, telling her supporters that the race is about Senate control.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it has appointed American actor Steven Seagal as a "special representative" for Russian-American humanitarian relations.

The Russian foreign ministry has explained that the position is public and is not expected to be paid.

The Foreign Ministry described Seagal's new role as that of a goodwill ambassador charged with deepening ties between the two nations on culture, art and youth.

The martial arts experts and the owner of a 7th-dan black belt in aikido is often credited as "Vladimir Putin's good friend" in the Western media after he signed his newly received Russian passport in the presence of the President in 2016.

After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Seagal called Putin "one of the great living world leaders" and even performed with his blues band in the annexed Black Sea peninsula.

Putin personally presented a Russian passport to USA actor, saying he hoped it would serve as a symbol of how fractious ties between Moscow and Washington were starting to improve.

The announcement comes with Russia-US ties at a low ebb, over long-standing conflicts in Syria and Ukraine and allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, which Moscow rejects.

Seagal's new role was noted by Kremlin-backed TV station RT, who noted Seagal as welcoming the appointment.

"I've always had a very strong desire to do all I can to help improve Russian-American relations", RT cited Seagal as saying. His movies, including such titles as "Under Siege" and "Sniper: Special Ops", are popular with Russian audiences.

Ukraine banned Seagal from the country previous year, deeming him a national security threat.
4 years of 'Creating Together with its Fans' has brought OnePlus to the top News oi-GizBot Bureau OnePlus is now leading the premium smartphone segment for the first time ever for the full quarter.

Indian smartphone market is going through some exciting times. After a flat start of the year, the market gained momentum and returned to double-digit growth YoY in the second quarter. While budget handsets largely contributed to the high sales, consumers also invested heavily in the premium smartphone segment. When we talk about high-end premium smartphones, OnePlus 6 emerged as the best-selling premium handset in the second quarter of the year 2018. Due to its high sales, OnePlus came out as the leader for the full quarter, surpassing industry leaders -Samsung and Apple.

The launch of OnePlus 6 made OnePlus the fastest growing smartphone brand during the Q2, 2018. With such high sales figures, it didn't come as a surprise that OnePlus lead the premium smartphone segment in the Indian market with an exponential growth of 284 percent. In just four years, the company has surpassed the big names in the industry with such huge margins.

This isn't an overnight success. Every OnePlus smartphone is a product conceived and built by tech enthusiasts, hand-in-hand with users. As OnePlus says, the company's products are born from amazing technology, design, and innovation. We can totally vouch for it as we have personally reviewed each and every OnePlus product and they offer the best value for your money in their respective price-point.

Moreover, OnePlus has always proved to be a consumer-centric brand that believes in creating smartphones without compromises. It goes without any saying that consumers have always been the focus of OnePlus. The brand has always shown a huge responsibility of making its consumers happy with every new product. Whether it's the products, after sale service support or about pushing timely updates, OnePlus has never left any stone unturned. This is the reason every OnePlus consumer becomes a 'OnePlus fan' after using the company's products.

OnePlus runs an active fan community that provides in-depth feedback about the company's products to maintain a two-way communication between consumers and the brand. OnePlus consumers can discuss their queries and get instant responses on the company's software and hardware products.

OnePlus also organizes pop-up events across the world for its consumer fan base. These meet-ups give OnePlus fans and interested buyers a chance to experience the company's new products and meet the highly dedicated team behind them. Moreover, consumers and fans also purchase the OnePlus products and exciting merchandises from OnePlus pop-up meets at company's official stores.

We have seen fans gathering in long queues at OnePlus pop-up meet-ups to experience company's new products. It is truly incredible to see such a sizeable fan following in just four years of its existence in the Indian market. What OnePlus has garnered in the past four years, is something that some big brands hasn't managed to achieve in decades.

Besides the pop-up events, OnePlus also allows its fans and consumers to witness the launch of the company's new products during the launch events. The brand also came out with 'Open Ears' events to discuss and resolve consumer's issues by actively taking their feedback. This clearly talks about OnePlus' 'Never Settle' motto where the brand is always seen eager to improve on various quality aspects by taking user's feedback seriously. These active discussion forums help OnePlus create a smartphone that is created based on users' needs.

Interestingly, OnePlus also gave its fans a chance to attend special movie screenings of Star Wars Jedi and Avengers marking the company's association with Disney for OnePlus Special Edition products. Notably, OnePlus gave away 6,000 complimentary tickets in collaboration with Paytm during the launch of OnePlus 6 Marvels Limited Edition smartphone.

The transparent and healthy brand-consumer relationship is one major contributor of the company's success in a market like India, which is full of challenges and cut-throat competition. Another reason is the quality products that ensure unmatched user experience in software and hardware department. We expect OnePlus to continue this trend of high-quality products and active brand-consumer relationship in the coming years.

Best Mobiles in India

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Pop-out selfie camera

This is one of the recent trends. Initially, Vivo came up with the same with the NEX lineup of flagship models. Now, it looks like the next-generation Xiaomi flagship could also arrive with the same. Even the Mi Mix 3 is rumored to arrive with such a selfie camera arrangement. But Vivo NEX selfie camera was said to emerge even when it wasn't necessary and we hope Xiaomi Mi 9 doesn't face the issue.

Triple-lens camera setup

After having seen dual-lens camera modules at the rear, it looks like it is time for us to witness the launch of triple-lens camera arrangement on the upcoming flagships. Already, we have seen the Huawei P20 Pro feature such a rear camera. While the Samsung Galaxy S10 is rumored to feature a triple-lens camera, it looks like it will not be the only one to be launched next year. This concept video visualizes a triple-camera module with 16MP, 20MP and 16MP sensors with OIS and PDAF.

In-display fingerprint sensor

One of the recent smartphone trends we saw this year is the presence of in-display fingerprint sensor. We have come seen a few devices such as the Vivo X21, Vivo NEX S and Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition flaunt an in-display fingerprint sensor. In 2019, we can expect more devices to feature such a sensor and one such device appears to be the Mi 9.

High screen space visualized

The upcoming Xiaomi smartphone is likely to arrive with a high screen-to-body ratio of 98%. the concept designer has visualized it to be clad by glass and flaunt a 6.2-inch QHD+ display.

What else to expect

As it will be a flagship smartphone, it is expected to feature the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. This device would arrive with the company's MIUI 10 or MIUI 11 preinstalled. In the meantime, you can take a look at the concept video from above.
A spokesman for the Houthi-affiliated health ministry said on Friday that "the United States bears full responsibility" for the deadly attack, adding that "the United Nations, its organizations and the worldwide community have remained silent in the face of the aggression" from the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition that invaded Yemen in 2015.

The attack also damaged the Al-Thawra hospital, Yemen's largest, on which hundreds of thousands of people rely, according to a United Nations official.

Rebel-run media outlets accused the Saudi-led coalition of carrying out the two attacks Thursday, but there was no immediate response from the alliance headed by Riyadh.

However, a coalition spokesman said the Houthi militia was behind the deaths of civilians in Hudaida, according to Al Arabiya TV.

"The unilateral suspension of our naval operations is for a limited period", the rebels said in a statement released by their defence ministry.

"Saudi Arabia has set up an oil base in collaboration with the French Total company in the Southern parts of Kharkhir region near the Saudi border province of Najran and is exploiting oil from the wells in the region", Yemeni economic expert Mohammad Abdolrahman Sharafeddin told Fars News Agency of Iran last March.

Hudaydah, the impoverished Yemen's main port city, has been under aerial and maritime siege by the Saudi regime military forces.

The Red Cross said 55 civilians were killed and 170 injured "when a series of explosions rocked densely populated districts of the coastal city, including a fish market and the area around Al-Thawra Hospital" - a facility supported by the ICRC.

The Saudi-led coalition has not yet confirmed that it was responsible for the air strike.

A missile attack last week against a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi fighters drove home the dangers to worldwide shipping from a seemingly unwinnable war in the impoverished country.

Later on Thursday, Griffiths announced plans to invite Yemen's warring parties to Geneva on september 6 to hold the first round of consultations.

"A bomb exploded just outside the hospital, on the street", an unnamed staff member of the humanitarian service Save the Children said in a report on the news website Middle East Eye.

Soon after the Saudi-led coalition began bombing Hodeidah on Thursday, Martin Griffiths, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council that he plans to bring representatives of the Saudi-led coalition - which includes the United Arab Emirates - and the Houthi rebels together for peace talks in September.

He said on his official Twitter account that the consultations "will provide the opportunity for the parties to discuss the framework for negotiations, relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward".
Nations to Partner for Exercise Rapid Trident 18 in Ukraine

By Ms. Lacey Justinger (USAREUR) August 3, 2018

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (Aug. 3, 2018) -- Exercise Rapid Trident 2018 will take place Sept. 3-15, 2018, at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center, Ukraine.

Rapid Trident is an annual, multinational exercise involving approximately 2,270 personnel from 14 nations.

The exercise is composed of:

 a multinational, brigade-level, computer-assisted command post exercise, that is

 integrated with a battalion-level field training exercise, and

 a platoon-level situational training exercise.

This exercise supports joint combined interoperability among the partner militaries of Ukraine and the United States, as well as Partnership for Peace nations and NATO allies.



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Taiwan willing to participate in talks over South China Sea: MOFA

ROC Central News Agency

2018/08/03 22:23:11

Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) Taiwan has the capacity and is willing to participate in multilateral negotiations in a joint effort to promote peace and stability in the South China Sea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Friday.

It also reaffirmed its territorial claims in the region.

"The South China Sea islands are part of the territory of the Republic of China (Taiwan)," MOFA spokesman Andrew Lee () told CNA.

The ministry's comments came in the wake of an agreement between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on a draft code of conduct (COC) that lays the foundation for negotiations over the disputed South China Sea.

The agreement was reached at the annual ministerial meeting between China and ASEAN member states in Singapore on Thursday.

Though Taiwan holds Taiping Island in the Spratly Island chain, it was shut out of the agreement because of its diplomatic isolation and China's suppression, but Taiwan feels it should have a say.

The ROC is a constructive member of the international community and has the will to deal with issues related to the South China Sea based on the "four principles" and "five actions" put forth by President Tsai Ing-wen () in July 2016, Lee said.

According to MOFA, one of the four principles includes settling the dispute peacefully in accordance with international law and the law of the sea, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The "five actions" pertain to safeguarding the ROC's fishing rights and its rights to participate in multilateral negotiations, to promote scientific cooperation, to strengthen humanitarian response and to continue nurturing and encouraging research talent in the law of the sea.

(By Elaine Hou and Ko Lin)

Enditem/ls

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On Scene, Unseen: RIMPAC Submarines Showcase Capability in Undersea Domain

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS180803-07

Release Date: 8/3/2018 10:03:00 AM

By Lt. Egdanis Torres Sierra, Commander, Submarine Forces Pacific Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Multinational submarine forces conducted high-tech scenario-based exercises in the undersea domain enhancing partnership and cooperation during the world's largest international maritime exercise, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) June 27 through August 2.

The Virginia-class fast-attack submarines USS Hawaii (SSN 776), USS Illinois (SSN 786) and Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Olympia (SSN 717) alongside Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS Rankin (SSG 78) and Republic of Korea Navy submarine ROKS Park Wi (SS 065) conducted carefully coordinated operations ranging from anti-submarine warfare missions to supporting Special Forces (SOF) in amphibious operations.

With a stated goal to build cooperation among Rim of the Pacific participants, these submarine forces employed unique training opportunities designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships, critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's interconnected oceans.

"The integration of the force as a whole collective partnership Navy has been impressive," said Rear Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and the theater anti-submarine warfare commander for RIMPAC 2018. "This is a two year planning process and about a two-month execution. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly our partners and allies can come together, and within a short period of time, create such an incredible force working together so collaboratively."

During the biennial exercise, the robust constellation of allies conducting operations and the active integration of the submarine force contributed to increased lethality, resiliency and agility needed to deter and defeat aggression by major powers across all domains and levels of conflict.

IMPROVING RANGE AND LETHALITY - HARPOON ANTI-SHIP CRUISE MISSILE

One of the highlights of RIMPAC 2018 was live-fire demonstration, for the first time in 20 years, of the submarine-launched Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) system conducted by Olympia.

Following the successful completion of two SINKEX launches, the submarine force pursues to reintroduce the Harpoon ASCM system into their arsenal inventory to improve lethality, expand capabilities, and ensure mission readiness.

"Today's highly capable navies and adversary countries, the competitive countries that we are in power competition, have extremely good surface ships with very capable missile systems themselves," Caudle said.

The original Harpoon missiles were placed in deep storage in order to reintroduce the capability if required, Caudle explained.

Today, with the potential threat from great power states or rogue nations, there is again a need for a submarine-launched ASCM capability.

"This multinational platform of exercises provided a convenient venue to safely demonstrate the Harpoon ASCM system. This has been at least a year in the making. The folks doing the software coding worked hard up in Newport to get that system and the coding built," Caudle explained.

In addition to the Harpoon engineering team, the crew onboard the submarine practiced tactics, techniques, and procedures to shoot the Harpoon missile.

"We shot the Harpoon, which worked perfectly, went into cruise, and hit the decommissioned ex-USS Racine (LST-1191) dead center," Caudle recounted. "The system worked as designed. So we were thrilled. We met all the test objectives."

Caudle said after a thorough evaluation of that shot to make sure it meets all of the criteria, a decision will be made on how to bring the Harpoon back as a submarine arsenal asset.

"The success of the Harpoon launched by Olympia is a testament to the dedication and cooperation of our technical and operational partners," Caudle concluded.

EMERGING FROM THE DEEP - SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES

The Pearl Harbor-based submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776) supported multinational Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel from the United States, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Peru, and Japan executing a submarine insertion evolution at sea off the coast of Oahu.

The submarine, using a reconfigured torpedo room, successfully transported about 30 multinational SOF operators to an undisclosed debarkation point for insertion to the beach by using rigid hulled inflatable boats.

"It sounds like it should be easy, but it's a lot of work," said Cmdr. John C. Roussakies, commanding officer of the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776). "It took five to six sailors to carry each raft onto the sub, as we were 'rocking and rolling' on the surface."

SOF personnel used the submarine's lockout chamber to exit the submarine, inflate rigid hull inflatable boats, and finally make an amphibious landing to carry out a mission as part of the exercise.

"For some of our partner-nation special operators, submarine evolutions like today were new," said Army Capt. Matthew Song, detachment commander of Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha from 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group based out of Okinawa, Japan. "We rehearsed the day before, and that set us up for success because they executed the mission well today."

Song said amphibious insertion operations like the one performed during RIMPAC are essential because it provides critical standoff distance for our special operators during maritime operations.

But the purpose of this exercise goes beyond mastering SOF tactical maneuvers. Its main goal is to demonstrate the value of capable and adaptive maritime partners.

"The main purpose of RIMPAC is to bring countries together and build partnerships," said Roussakies. "Developing that interoperability is important because it's a big ocean out there, and we cannot do the job ourselves."

Roughly 70 percent of the world is water, 80 percent of the world's population lives on or near a coast, and 90 percent of international commerce moves by sea. Capable maritime partners help ensure stability and prosperity around the world, and RIMPAC helps participating nations improve capability, Roussakies concluded.

CAT AND MOUSE

The role of a submarine is to navigate anywhere around the world to be on scene, unseen. During this year's exercise, multinational surface ships played a sort of "cat and mouse" game with submarines, attempting to locate surface ships while also attempting to evade detection.

"During the exercises, we conducted anti-submarine maritime exercises to search for submarines from the detection phase all the way to the advanced engagement stages," said Peruvian Capt. Jorge Vasquez, commanding officer of the Peruvian Frigate, BAP Ferre (PM 211).

Conversely, submarines were also engaging in detecting surface ships.

"We were hunting ships and we were also being hunted by ships," said Australian Navy Lt. Kristy-Ann Youd, the navigating officer aboard Rankin. "We've been working hard all year to achieve success."

Rankin's Executive Officer, Australian Navy Lt. Cmdr. Susan Louise Harris, also stressed the importance of RIMPAC's impact in enhancing international relations.

"RIMPAC has always been the highlight of our program. The exercise has grown so much over the years that it now allows us to work with a large variety of units we normally wouldn't be able to work with."

SUBMARINE RESCUE SYMPOSIUM

As part of RIMPAC, submariners from all nations discussed the different ways they can all work jointly in the event of a submarine accident or casualty.

"The great thing about RIMPAC is that we get more participation from around the world, specifically Asian countries that were not able to join our working groups throughout the year," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Joshua Powers. "This increased and diversified participation allows us to engage with our partners who operate submarines and are interested in submarine rescue."

One of the most valuable discussions was on the lessons learned from recent submarine incidents, including the tragedy of Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan that cost the lives of all hands on board.

"First of all, it's about people. We are trying to save people and you can't put a price on that," said Royal Norwegian Navy Cmdr. Dag Hanssen. "It is easy to share what you are doing, what your plans are, what your equipment is because all of it is unclassified. All of this is about saving lives."

The symposium included an extensive demonstration of the U.S. submarine search and rescue procedures and a workshop discussing and exchanging procedures performed differently by other nations and within their own submarine communities.

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US defense bill mainly targets Russia, China and Turkey

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 3, 2018 08:35PM

A US defense policy bill for fiscal year 2019 puts emphasis on two Washington's "potential adversaries," namely Russia and China, and punishes Turkey for planning to buy a Russian missile defense system.

The $716-billion bill known as the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act was passed by the US Senate on Wednesday and now goes to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it into law.

The legislation necessitates "a continuous and enduring presence" of the US contingent, special operations forces and military equipment in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the three Baltic states located on Russia's western border.

It also prioritizes "the need for additional United States Army forward presence in Europe" and "increased forward-stationed combat enablers to enhance United States Army capability and capacity" in order to "deter Russian aggression."

The bill forbids the US from officially recognizing Crimea's reunification with Russia and allots $250 million for lethal defensive arms for Ukraine.

On China, the bill prohibits the Pentagon from using China's communications services, systems and equipment, specifically ZTE and Huawei technologies, due to security concerns.

In addition, the bill stipulates that the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, which was disinvited from taking part in the US-held multinational Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise, cannot participate in the drills until China "ceased all land reclamation activities in the South China Sea" and demilitarizes the area.

Furthermore, the legislation envisages strengthening defense ties with Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as China's "breakaway province."

"The United States should strengthen defense and security cooperation with Taiwan to support the development of capable, ready, and modern defense forces necessary for Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability," the legislation says.

Regarding Turkey, which US lawmakers want to be punished for the upcoming acquisition of Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems, the legislation envisions the potential expulsion of Ankara from the F-35 program.

The measure demands that "the transfer of any F-35 aircraft currently owned and operated, by the Government of the Republic of Turkey, from the territory of the United States" be prohibited until a report is issued on Turkey's behavior.

The bill's authors argue that any effort by Ankara "to further enhance their relationship with Russia will degrade the general security of the NATO alliance, and NATO member countries, and degrade the interoperability of the alliance."

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UN health agency warns of new Yemen cholera surge after Saudi strikes hit medical facilities

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 3, 2018 03:11PM

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Yemen is likely to be struck by another "major wave" of cholera cases after a series of airstrikes by Saudi Arabia struck water facilities and medical infrastructure in the port city of Hudaydah.

WHO's emergency response director, Peter Salama, during a press briefing in the Swiss city of Geneva on Friday, called for a three-day truce to allow vaccinations.

"We have had two major waves of cholera epidemics in recent years and unfortunately the trend that we have seen in recent days to weeks suggests that we may be on the cusp of the third major wave," the official said,

"We are calling on all parties to the conflict to act in accordance with international humanitarian law and to respect the request of the international community for three full days of tranquility to lay down arms and to allow us to vaccinate the civilian population," he added.

The warning came a day after a deadly airstrike by Saudi Arabia on Yemen's largest hospital in Hudaydah, where WHO staff were preparing the cholera vaccination drive.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Salama explained that the vaccination drive is set to run from Saturday to Monday and is aiming to target more than 500,000 people.

Earlier on Friday, Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, voiced shock at the strike on the al-Thawra hospital, saying it had put the cholera response at risk.

"This is shocking," Grande said, adding, "Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Nothing can justify this loss of life."

Dozens were killed after warplanes of the Saudi-led military coalition hit a hospital and a fishing harbor in Hudaydah.

'Hundreds of pregnant women risk death in Yemen'

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) also said Friday that hundreds of pregnant women in Hudaydah were at "extreme risk" of dying as it became harder to access care, with the maternal death rate likely to have doubled from its 2015 tally of 385 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The violence limits the agency's access to the city, but it estimated 90,000 women were due to give birth there in the next nine months.

Meanwhile, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore also said in a statement the airstrikes earlier this week damaged a sanitation facility and a station that supplies most of the city's water. "Attacks on water infrastructure jeopardize efforts to prevent another outbreak of cholera and acute watery diarrhea in Yemen."

WHO said in July that the cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen had killed 1,500 people since late April.

Cholera infection first became epidemic in Yemen in October 2016 and spread until December the same year, when it dwindled. The second outbreak began in the Arabian Peninsula country in April last year.

UN set to convene Yemen talks in Geneva next month

In another development, UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Thursday that the world body will invite warring sides in Yemen for talks on September 6 in Geneva to discuss a framework for peace negotiations.

Griffiths said that "a political solution" to end the war in Yemen was "available". He also urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotiations.

"These consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties, among other things, to discuss the framework for negotiations, relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward," said Griffiths.

The UN envoy also said that he was "still trying" to negotiate a deal to avoid a full-blown battle for Hudaydah, which is a key entry point for humanitarian aid.

UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured until then. The war and the accompanying blockade have also caused famine across Yemen.

The Saudi-led aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country's infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories. The United Nations has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

Several Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

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Shia mosque bombing kills nearly 40 in Afghanistan

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 3, 2018 12:22PM

Nearly 40 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a bombing and shooting attack at a Shia mosque in eastern Afghanistan near Pakistan's border.

The police on Friday confirmed the attack in the city of Gardez, the center of Paktia province.

Two burka-clad militants attacked the mosque, where more than 100 people had gathered to offer prayers, said Raz Mohammad Mandozai, the police chief of Paktia.

At least 80 people were injured when the men struck with guns and explosives at the Khawaja Hassan mosque.

Gardez city hospital reported receiving at least 50 adults and 20 children wounded in the attack. Abdullah Hazrat, a senior government official, said the militants opened fire on the worshippers and one blew himself up, while the other assailant was gunned down by the mosque's security forces.

Casualty numbers are sketchy. A police official said 70 people had lost their lives in the attack, for which no group or individual has claimed responsibility.

Militants of Taliban and the Daesh Takfiri terrorists in Afghanistan frequently attack civilian and government targets.

Despite the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, which was conducted as part of Washington's so-called war on terror, acts of terror remain across the country.

In July, the United States said it was ready to initiate direct talks with Taliban in an attempt to end a 17-year-old war in Afghanistan, a significant shift in American policy in the conflict-ridden country. Taliban have repeatedly declared that they would not enter into talks unless the foreign forces leave the country.

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China, 10 ASEAN nations hold naval drill in Singapore

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 3, 2018 09:47AM

The navies of China and Southeast Asian countries have carried out their first emergency naval drill amid lingering maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

The naval exercises, hosted by Singapore, involved the navies of China and all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Officials say the drills are aimed at widening cooperation in times of safety-related sea incidents.

The two-day drills started Thursday at Singapore's Changi Naval Base, and will be followed at sea in waters near China in October.

"At the end of the exercise, we have strengthened our ability to work together," Singapore navy commander Lim Yu Chuan said on Friday.

"We have achieved a greater understanding among the ASEAN navies and the PLA navy," he said while referring to the Chinese navy.

ASEAN is a regional bloc consisting ten members; Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines.

"The exercise is beneficial to promote military exchanges and cooperation between China and ASEAN member states, to advance our mutual trust," said Chinese navy commander Liang Zhijia.

This comes as more countries, including ASEAN member states, are tilting away from the US toward China as President Donald Trump's recent contradictory trade policies has caused a deep skepticism in the region.

According to Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations said many in the region are concerned that "the Trump administration could force countries in the region to choose openly between Washington and Beijing, a move that they say would backfire."

China, which claims over 90 percent of the South China Sea, regularly conduct drills in the waterway to assert its sovereignty over the region.

China's sovereignty claim has been challenged by five regional nations  Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Washington, which has taken sides with Beijing's rival countries, has sent several of its warships to the sea to protect what it calls "freedom of navigation."

China has repeatedly warned the US against such measures, accusing Washington of interfering in regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions.

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At Least 25 Killed In Afghan Suicide Bombings

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan August 03, 2018

Afghan police say at least 25 people have been killed in twin suicide blasts at a Shi'ite mosque in southeastern Afghanistan.

Raz Mohammad Mandozai, the police chief of Paktia Province, said two suicide bombers detonated their explosives inside the Khawaja Hassan mosque in the provincial capital of Gardez on August 3.

Mandozai said the suicide bombers, who he said were disguised in burqas, first killed two security guards at the entrance of the mosque before firing on worshippers and detonating their explosives.

Mandozai said at least 40 people were wounded in the attack and were rushed to nearby hospitals.

Sardar Wali Tabasun, the police spokesman for Paktia Province, said the attack occurred after Friday Prayers.

Officials warned that the death toll could rise.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although similar attacks in the past have been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which has a presence in eastern Afghanistan.

The Sunni extremist group has frequently targeted Afghanistan's Shi'ite minority, which IS calls "apostates."

The stronghold of the IS group is in neighboring Nangarhar Province, which has been the scene of multiple IS attacks in recent months that have killed dozens.

Many of those killed in the blasts in Gardez were Pashtun Shi'a, known as the Turi or Torai.

Most Turi live in Pakistan's northwestern Kurram tribal district, while a smaller population lives in Paktia.

The Turi have been targeted in both countries for decades by extremist groups, including the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, and Al-Qaeda.

The attack in Gardez comes as U.S. and Afghan forces are intensifying ground and air offensives against IS, and the Taliban is stepping up its war with the group.

Afghanistan has mostly avoided the sectarian violence that has hit countries such as Iraq, but there have been increasing numbers of attacks on Shi'ite targets in recent years.

In April, IS militants claimed responsibility for an attack on a voter registration office in a heavily Shi'ite-populated area in the Afghan capital, killing 57 people and wounding over 100 others.

According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, 161 people were killed and 257 others were wounded in 2017 in targeted sectarian attacks against Shi'ite places of worship or worshippers.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/at-least- 20-killed-in-suicide-bombing-at- afghan-mosque/29409721.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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Afghan Special Forces Free 61 From Taliban Captivity

August 03, 2018

Afghan special forces have freed 61 captives held by the Taliban in an operation in the southern province of Helmand, the military says.

Jawid Saleem, a spokesman for the elite commando units, said the operation was conducted late on August 2 in the Kajaki district in Helmand, a stronghold of the Taliban.

Saleem said at least two Taliban militants were killed during the rescue mission by Afghan special forces.

The Taliban did not immediately comment on the matter.

The prisoners were transferred to the provincial army headquarters, said Munib Amiri, an army commander.

Those held had been captured for a range of reasons, Saleem said, from cooperating with Afghan security forces to belonging to the local police force.

According to Saleem, the prisoners were held in poor conditions, including a lack of proper food and health care. They were also tortured, Saleem added.

Hundreds of prisoners have been freed from Taliban prisons by Afghan security forces in Helmand Province in recent months.

On May 31, Afghan special forces freed 103 people held at two sites run by the Taliban in Kajaki district.

According to the latest report by the Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, an independent U.S. federal auditor, the militants control nine of 14 districts in Helmand. Half of the population of the province lives in areas under Taliban control.

Based on reporting by Tolo News, dpa, and Khaama

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghan -special-forces-free-61-from- taliban-captivity/29409687.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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A family of four have been killed after a small plane crashed into a forest in Switzerland, police have said.

According to German-language newspaper Blick, the plane was full for the flight, suggesting that up to 20 people may be dead.

In a separate incident, another small plane crashed in southeastern Switzerland on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Alpine resort of Flims.

Police have confirmed the crash of the aircraft, saying in a tweet that it occurred on the western side of the mountain Piz Segna (top picture) at about 2,540 meters (8,333 feet) above sea level.

The airspace above the crash site was closed by the Federal Office for Civil Aviation and access to popular hiking trails in the surrounding area was blocked.

Ju-Air said on its website: 'We have the sad duty to announce that one of our Ju-52 aircraft had a accident today.

There was no immediate word on the possible cause of the crash, which was under investigation by Swiss authorities.

Neither authorities nor the airline were available to provide further details ahead of a news conference at 1200 GMT.

Police said a large rescue mission had been deployed to the scene of the crash, including five helicopters.

Neither police nor the airline could immediately be reached on Saturday night but police said on Twitter that further information would be provided on Sunday morning.

Ju-Air, a company based in Duebendorf, near Zurich, that offers flights with old-time Junkers Ju-52 planes, said one of its aircraft had been involved in the accident.
Japan Slams South Korea for Sending Its Ship to Disputed Islands

Sputnik News

08:06 03.08.2018

TOKYO (Sputnik) - Tokyo filed a protest with Seoul on Friday over a ship researching waters around a group of South Korea's tiny islets contested by Japan, cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.

"We used diplomatic channels to demand that South Korea explain the course followed by the research vessel and strongly protested as unacceptable activities carried out without our consent," he told reporters at a briefing.

Japanese authorities said the ship was spotted near the Takeshima islands, called Tokto in South Korea, on August 1-2. It refused to leave the disputed waters despite warnings by Japanese coastguard.

The Dokdo islands, also known as Liancourt Rocks, lie in the Sea of Japan. They have been administered by South Korea since the end of World War Two despite a contesting claim from Japan. Tokyo has been disputing Seoul's sovereignty over the territory, with both sides stating that they have long-standing historical ties to the island group.

In June, the Japanese government expressed protest over Seoul holding its regular military exercise in the area of the disputed Liancourt Rocks.

In February, South Korean Foreign Ministry criticized Japan over holding a "Dokdo day" in the prefecture of Shimane and Tokyo's repeated claims to the disputed group of islands.

"The government of the Republic of Korea expresses strong protest over the fact that the Japanese government is repeating unjustifiable claims to Dokdo, as can be seen from the attendance of a high-level official of the central government at the provocative "Dokdo day" event hosted by the country's provincial government on February 22, and urges that the event be discontinued for good," the ministry said in a statement.

 Sputnik

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Remarks at the U.S.-ASEAN Ministerial

Remarks

Michael R. Pompeo

Secretary of State

Singapore Expo

Singapore, Singapore

August 3, 2018

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Minister. It's an honor to co-chair this ministerial meeting with you. It's my first meeting as well. I'm delighted to participate in this first engagement here with U.S.-ASEAN, and it's great to be back in Singapore.

I would like to thank you, Foreign Minister Balakrishnan, for Singapore's warm welcome, both here and back in June, and for its leadership as this year's ASEAN chair.

On behalf of the United States, let me also offer my condolences to the people of Laos for the loss of life and devastation caused by the dam breach. The U.S. Government is providing assistance to respond to this disaster, and we welcome the support already provided by the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Center. I would also like to express my condolences to Indonesia, where a powerful earthquake struck; and to Myanmar, for the casualties suffered in recent flooding and landslides.

The United States is a Pacific nation, and we remain committed to ASEAN centrality under our Indo-Pacific strategy. Earlier this week, on Monday, I gave remarks on the Indo-Pacific and announced new United States commitments to the region. This included a $113 million down payment on a new era in U.S. economic commitment to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.

Last year, we celebrated ASEAN's 50th anniversary, as well as 40 years of U.S.-ASEAN relations. We look forward to broadening and deepening our Strategic Partnership.

Over the first year and a half of this administration, President Trump attended his first U.S.-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit in Manila; Vice President Pence visited the ASEAN Secretariat; and numerous cabinet secretaries traveled to the region, including my own recent travel to Vietnam. I expect and am eager for this frequent engagement to continue.

Our economic engagement has created hundreds of thousands of jobs on both sides of the Pacific. ASEAN is the number one destination for U.S. investment in Asia and ASEAN member-states have increased their investment into the United States by over 1,300 percent between 2004 and 2016. Our policy cooperation on issues like ICT, energy, transportation, and agriculture is also developing rapidly.

On security, we appreciate ASEAN's ongoing efforts to promote peace and stability in the region, support the rule of law in the South China Sea, and to strictly enforce sanctions on North Korea. We are also working with ASEAN member-states to counter the threat of terrorism and violent extremism in the region.

In terms of ASEAN's socio-cultural issues, we are building capacity among ASEAN's youth, building opportunities for women, and working to improve disaster response and promote a healthy marine ecosystem. Our cooperation to jointly address cybersecurity challenges has also expanded, and we appreciated ASEAN's leaders' first-ever cyber statement in April.

Again, Mr. Minister, ASEAN colleagues, it's a great pleasure to be with you here today. I look forward to our discussions and to hearing your thoughts on how the United States and ASEAN can strengthen our ties. Thank you, Mr. Minister.

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Update: air strikes against Daesh

The RAF are continuing to take the fight to Daesh in Syria.

3 August 2018

Summary

Friday 1 June  Typhoons hit a command post in eastern Syria.

Sunday 3 June  a Reaper attacked another command post in eastern Syria, whilst Typhoons collapsed the entrance to a terrorist tunnel.

Monday 4 June  a Reaper destroyed an armed terrorist truck concealed under cover in eastern Syria.

Tuesday 5 June  a Reaper killed two terrorists on a motorcycle in eastern Syria.

Friday 8 June  a Reaper demolished a Daesh-held building in eastern Syria, and struck terrorists in the open.

Saturday 9 June  a Reaper knocked out both an armed terrorist truck and a mortar in eastern Syria.

Sunday 10 June  a Reaper eliminated a light machine-gun position in eastern Syria.

Monday 11 June  Typhoons attacked a Daesh-occupied cave, tunnel and bunker in northern Iraq.

Tuesday 12 June  a Reaper destroyed a terrorist mortar in eastern Syria.

Monday 18 June  Tornados destroyed an armoured truck concealed inside a building in eastern Syria.

Wednesday 20 June  Typhoons attacked a cave containing stockpiled weapons, in western Iraq.

Thursday 21 June  Typhoons bombed a hostile position which persisted in firing on coalition forces in southern Syria.

Saturday 23 June  a Reaper eliminated a Daesh mortar team spotted firing in eastern Syria.

Thursday 5 July  a Reaper struck a terrorist team planting improvised explosive devices in eastern Syria.

Saturday 7 July  Typhoons bombed a Daesh hide in northern Iraq.

Wednesday 18 July  a Reaper sealed off a cave containing stockpiled weapons in eastern Syria.

Detail

On Friday 1st June a Typhoon flight employed a single Paveway IV to demolish a smaller command post in the Euphrates Valley.

An RAF Reaper remotely piloted aircraft patrolled over eastern Syria on Sunday 3 June. It provided surveillance support to a coalition air attack on a terrorist vehicle, then followed up with two attacks with its own Hellfire missiles against a further Daesh command post. Meanwhile, Typhoons used a Paveway IV to collapse the entrance to a terrorist tunnel.

A Reaper provided further close air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces in the Euphrates valley on Monday 4 June. An armed terrorist truck was reported to be to the north of Abu Kamal, and the Reaper's crew were able to identify the vehicle, parked under cover in an attempt to conceal it, after a thorough search. A Hellfire missile destroyed the vehicle, with a number of subsequent secondary explosions as ammunition on the vehicle caught fire. The following day, another Reaper operated over eastern Syria, some ten miles east of Al Shadadi. A pair of Daesh terrorists were tracked on a motorcycle, and both were killed by a direct hit from a Hellfire.

Reaper operations east of Al Shadadi continued on Friday 8 June; a terrorist was tracked to a building where he joined forces with other extremists, allowing the building to be struck with a Hellfire. The Reaper's crew then conducted a further successful attack with a Hellfire as Daesh fighters sought new positions after artillery fire destroyed their previous location. On Friday 9 June, a Reaper used a Hellfire to destroyed a pick-up truck armed with a 23mm gun, which had been concealed under trees east of Al Shadadi. Another Hellfire missile then dealt with a mortar in the same area, with a number of secondary explosions following the attack on its position. A further Reaper attack east of Al Shadadi was conducted on Sunday 10 June, when our aircraft observed a light machine-gun position being set up in an orchard; a Hellfire quickly dealt with the threat.

Intelligence had allowed the identification of a small cluster of Daesh locations hidden in the hills south of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. A flight of Typhoons were tasked with their destruction on Monday 11 June, and they delivered a simultaneous attack with Paveway IVs against a tunnel and a cave, then a further attack to destroy a bunker dug into the hillside. The following day, a Reaper was again in action east of Al Shadadi; its crew spotted a mortar hidden in trees and destroyed it with a direct hit from a Hellfire, whilst a coalition aircraft then conducted a successful strike on the building nearby where the terrorist team, who had been operating the mortar, were seen to be hiding.

Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s, supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, patrolled over eastern Syria on Monday 18 June. Daesh terrorists had been observed hiding an armoured truck inside a building to the west of the border with Iraq, and the Tornado flight was duly able to destroy the building, and the vehicle therein, with a single Paveway IV guided bomb.

Intelligence indicated that Daesh had a stockpile of weapons hidden inside a cave in a remote area of the western Iraqi desert; a pair of Paveway-armed Typhoon FGR4s therefore attacked on Wednesday 20 June, as part of the continuing effort to eradicate any attempts by the terrorists to resume operations within the country.

On Thursday 21 June, coalition forces operating against Daesh in the south of Syria were fired on by hostile positions, not believed to be held by Daesh. Although the coalition forces decided to withdraw to attempt to de-escalate the situation, one particular position continued to fire on them. As an act of collective self-defence, RAF Typhoons dropped a single Paveway IV on the position, which successfully removed the threat to our coalition partners.

A Reaper crew, flying an armed reconnaissance patrol over eastern Syria, close to the Iraqi border, on Saturday 23 June, were tasked to investigate reports of a Daesh mortar being fired. Using the aircraft's advanced surveillance sensor suite, they were able to identify terrorists carrying mortar ammunition into a treeline where the weapon was concealed. One Hellfire missile killed the terrorists, a second destroyed the mortar position itself.

A Royal Air Force Reaper conducted an armed reconnaissance mission over the eastern borders of Syria on Thursday 5 July. A number of vehicles were seen and, after careful surveillance, identified as a refugee convoy. However, further down the road, a Daesh team was observed burying improvised explosive devices; given the threat these could pose to innocent traffic, an immediate attack was conducted using a Hellfire missile which put an end to the terrorists' activities.

On Saturday 9 July, Typhoon FGR4s flew to northern Iraq, where a terrorist hide had been spotted, concealed in woodland on the bank of the Tigris to the north-west of Mosul. A single Paveway IV destroyed the site.

RAF aircraft continued to fly daily reconnaissance missions to identify potential Daesh activity, but did not need to engage a target until Wednesday 18 July. A cave in eastern Syria was confirmed as the location of a stockpile of terrorist weaponry, so a Reaper employed a GBU-12 guided bomb to deny Daesh access. The weapon scored a direct hit on the cave entrance and it was successfully collapsed.

UK contribution to the fight against Daesh



Map of UK forces committed to Operation Shader

Campaign against Daesh



Map of Daesh losses and gains in Iraq and Syria since September 2014

Previous update

Friday 4 May  Typhoons destroyed a truck-bomb factory in eastern Syria, whilst Tornados struck a terrorist position and vehicle in the countryside south of Kirkuk.

Saturday 5 May  Typhoons and Tornados demolished six buildings and a defensive position used by Daesh in eastern Syria.

A similar operation was carried out by Tornados on Friday 4 May; their target on this occasion was a terrorist position hidden in remote woodland some distance south of Kirkuk. Again, two Paveways were used, one striking the position, another taking care of the terrorists' truck, parked nearby. Meanwhile, in Syria, intelligence analysis had identified a truck-bomb factory in a compound, east of the town of Abu Kamal. A pair of Typhoons successfully destroyed the factory with three Paveway IVs.

Further strikes were conducted in eastern Syria the following day, Saturday 5 May. Typhoons employed Paveway IVs to destroy three buildings which were being used by Daesh as an operating base, as well as a nearby defensive position. A Tornado flight similarly dealt with a large Daesh security post, established in three more buildings; each received a direct hit from a Paveway.

A flight of Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s were tasked on Wednesday 9 May to deal with two terrorists who had been spotted by a coalition surveillance aircraft as they moved on foot in the western desert of Iraq, some 25 miles south-east of Ar Rutbah. The Typhoons successfully located the terrorists and used a single Paveway IV guided bomb to strike them.

The following day, another Typhoon flight supported the Syrian Democratic Forces operating in the Euphrates valley. A large building, defended by Daesh extremists, had been identified to the north-north-west of Hajin. Having checked that there were no signs of any civilian presence in the vicinity, the Typhoons conducted an attack with two Paveway IVs which demolished the terrorist strongpoint.

Typhoons delivered a further attack against Daesh on Monday 14 May; a Paveway IV was employed to destroy successfully a mortar position and ammunition cache which had been spotted in eastern Syria. On Sunday 20 May, a pair of Tornado GR4s were tasked with the destruction of a tunnel complex which terrorists were attempting to reoccupy in the open countryside south-west of Mosul. Three tunnel entrances were identified, and each struck with a Paveway IV.

Daesh efforts to re-establish an operational presence in Iraq were struck a blow on Wednesday 23 May, when Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s guided a Paveway IV bomb onto a terrorist safe house which had been identified by intelligence at a remote wadi deep in the western desert of the country, some 65 miles south-east of Ar Rutbah. On Monday 28 May, a Tornado flight responded to a similar request for assistance when two Daesh extremists were spotted on a hillside in northern Iraq, some miles to the north of Makhmur; our aircraft delivered an attack with a Paveway IV.

Armed reconnaissance sorties also continued daily in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the east of the country. Two Paveway IVs from a Tornado flight scored direct hits on a Daesh strongpoint in a building to the north of Hajin, in the Euphrates valley, on Wednesday 30 May. The focus for RAF attacks for the remainder of the week were terrorist facilities in eastern Syria towards the border with Iraq. On Thursday 31 May, flights of Tornados and Typhoons joined forces to deliver an attack with twelve Paveway IVs against two large adjoining compounds, which were being used by Daesh as a headquarters, weapons store and muster point. All twelve weapons hit and destroyed their intended targets.

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Suicide attack killing dozens at prayer in Afghan mosque 'may amount to war crimes,' says top UN official

3 August 2018 - A suicide attack that took place inside a Shia mosque in Afghanistan during Friday prayers, killing 48 and injuring more than 70, has been condemned by the head of the UN Mission in the country who said it "may amount to war crimes."

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) denounced the attack in Gardez city, about 50 miles south of Kabul, when two suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests.

"This attack targeting civilians has no possible justification," said UNAMA chief, Tadamichi Yamamoto, who also serves as the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan. "Those who are responsible for enabling this attack must be brought to justice and held to account."

According to news reports, the Taliban has denied any links to the attack and there was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militants linked to the ISIL terrorist group, also known as Da'esh, have carried out similar attacks against Shiites in the past.

"These brutal and senseless attacks against people at prayer are atrocities," said Mr. Yamamoto.

International humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks against civilians and civilian property, including places of worship. It also commits warring parties to allow religious leaders to serve their communities without fear of attack.

"Such attacks directed against congregations and places of worship are serious violations of international law that may amount to war crimes," he stressed.

UNAMA expressed its condolences to the loved ones of those killed and wished the injured a full and speedy recovery.

The latest terrorist assault comes on the heels of a suicide attack and hostage-taking at a government building on Wednesday, in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

According to mid-July figures from UNAMA, 1,692 civilians had been killed and another 3,430 injured in the first six months of the year. This sets a record high for the first six months of any year, despite an unprecedented days-long ceasefire between the Government and Taliban extremists in mid-June.

Terrorism is "criminal and unjustifiable"

The Security Council also issued a statement condemning "in the strongest terms, the heinous and cowardly terrorist attacks" that took place over the past week.

They expressed their deepest sympathy to the victim's families and the Afghan Government, and wished those injured a full and speedy recovery.

The Council reaffirmed that "terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security."

Stressing the need that "perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism" be held accountable and brought to justice, they urged all States, "in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of Afghanistan and all other relevant authorities in this regard."

The Council reiterated that "any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed."

Finally, they reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the UN Charter and other obligations under international law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.

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Fresh Yemen hospital attack raises risk of new cholera epidemic

3 August 2018 - A deadly attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in Yemen in the key port city of Hudaydah has put hundreds of thousands of people at risk and damaged efforts to prevent a third cholera epidemic in the war-torn country, top UN officials warned on Friday.

Early reports suggest multiple deaths and injuries after Yemen's largest hospital, Al Thawra, was hit on Thursday, said Dr. Peter Salama, who is in charge of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the World Health Organization.

"We're particularly saddened at WHO by the attack on one of the major hospitals in the country yesterday, Al Thawra in Al Hudaydah," he said. According to latest news reports, at least 20 have been killed by several air strikes, which also hit a fish market in the city.

The attack on the hospital  which houses a major cholera treatment centre - is the latest outrage in the fight to capture the key Red Sea port from Houthi opposition militia.

Yemen's conflict has its roots in uprisings that date back to 2011, but fighting escalated in March 2015, when an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened militarily at the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. The coalition's objective was to secure the return of the Government to the Houthi-held capital, Sana'a.

The fighting is still raging and the ensuing humanitarian crisis has only deepened in a country that was already one of the world's poorest, with some eight million people believed to be on the brink of famine.

Sharing WHO's condemnation of the Hudaydah attack, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, described the impact of the strikes as "appalling".

Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law, the UN official insisted, adding that "hundreds of thousands of people" depend on the hospital to survive.

"Everything that we are trying to do to stem the world's worst cholera epidemic is at risk," Ms Grande said, noting that new cholera cases have been identified in the city "every day this week".

In a bid to prevent the disease spreading once again, WHO's Dr. Salama explained that combatants have been asked to down their weapons, so that an oral vaccination campaign can take place. More than 500,000 people are expected to receive the vaccine in a three-day operation beginning on Saturday.

"We have requested, as the UN, three days of tranquility, associated with, first, our cholera vaccine campaign across August 4, 5 and 6 in the north of the country," Dr. Salama said. "You will recall that we were able to start campaigns in the south of the country previously, but we've never before been able to do it in the north."

Asked to assess the level of risk from cholera, whose symptoms include watery diarrhea and fever, the WHO official said that the level of infection this year is "not at the same massive level" as last year.

Nonetheless, many people are far weaker than 12 months ago and far less able to cope with infection, he added.

"We've had two major waves of cholera epidemics in recent years," Dr. Salama said, "and unfortunately the trend data that we've seen in the last days to weeks suggest that we may be on the cusp of the third major wave of cholera epidemics in Yemen."



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WHO: Yemen May Be on Verge of New Deadly Cholera Epidemic

By Lisa Schlein August 03, 2018

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns Yemen may be on the verge of another cholera epidemic, which could be deadlier than previous ones because of widespread malnutrition in the war-torn country.

Yemen has had two major waves of cholera epidemics in recent years.

The World Health Organization reports that an increasing number of cases in several heavily populated areas over the past few weeks indicate the country may be on the cusp of a third major wave of this deadly disease.

WHO's emergency response chief, Peter Salama, told VOA another cholera epidemic is likely to be more life-threatening than the previous ones because the population is seriously weakened after three years of civil war. Fighting has been raging between the government and rebel forces.

"What we are likely to see is that interplay with cholera and malnutrition occurring more and more and food insecurity," he said. "And, not only more cases because of that, but even higher death rates among the cholera cases that do occur because people just do not have the physical resources to fight the disease any longer."

The United Nations is calling for three days of tranquility between August 4 and 6. It wants the warring parties to stop fighting during this period so WHO and its partners can carry out a massive oral cholera vaccination campaign.

Salama said 3,000 health workers are being mobilized in three districts in northern Yemen. Their aim is to vaccinate more than 500,000 individuals above the age of one. Last year, cholera cases in Yemen topped one million in the world's worst outbreak of the disease.

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Taliban takes control of Chenartu, Afghanistan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Kabul, Aug 4, IRNA -- A local official in Uruzgan Province, central Afghanistan announced that Taliban has taken control of Chenartu city.

Speaking in a phone call with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the local source said that about 40 military forces were killed, injured or arrested.

The army forces were deployed in Chenartu Governorate building, he said.

From among 60 soldiers, 15 of them could escape and about 45 others were killed, injured or arrested, he added.

Uruzgan is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the center of the country, although the area is culturally and tribally linked to Kandahar Province in the south.

9376**2050

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Yemeni ballistic missiles target S. Arabia

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 4, IRNA -- Yemeni Army's missiles unit and popular committees on Friday night targeted positions of Saudi forces in the south of the country with ballistic missiles

According to al-Massira News Website, two missiles 'Zelzal 1' precisely hit intended targets in Majazah region in the Yemeni province of Asir.

No report has so far been released on possible casualties as a result of the missile attack.

Earlier, Yemeni local sources announced that Al-Hudaydah Hospital in west of Yemen came under attack by the Saudi fighters, which killed 26 and wounded 35.

Al-Hudaydah Port is the only crossing for humanitarian aid to the war-torn country, as 70 percent of foodstuff and pharmaceutical aid enter the country via the port.

Yemen's defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for the past three years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

8072**1396

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Over 110 student protesters wounded in clashes with police in Bangladesh

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 4, 2018 05:48PM

More than 100 people, mainly students, have been wounded in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka after police fired rubber bullets at thousands of student demonstrators protesting against the death of two fellow students mowed down by a speeding bus in the city.

In a major stand-off between the government and infuriated protesters, at least 115 people sustained injuries in clashes with riot police in Dhaka on Saturday, witnesses and medical sources said, adding that protests particularly took a violent turn in Jigatala neighborhood.

"We have treated more than 115 injured students so far since the afternoon," emergency ward doctor Abdus Shabbir said, adding that a number of sported injuries consistent with rubber bullets. "A few of them were in very bad condition," he further said.

For the last week, tens of thousands of uniformed students have brought parts of the capital to a standstill with protests against poor road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

The fury was provoked on Sunday, when a privately-run bus hit a pair of teenage students. Bangladesh's transport sector is purportedly seen as corrupt, unregulated and unsafe, and as news of the students' deaths spread swiftly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of rage against the government.

"We all are feeling threatened here. We wanted a peaceful protest. We don't want any trouble occurring around here. Yet rubber bullets were shot at our brothers," a student said.

A number of influential ministers have already called on students to go back to their classes, amid concerns that the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government demonstrations ahead of general elections due to be held later this year.

The American and Australian embassies have warned of significant delays and disruptions as a consequence of the rallies across the capital and elsewhere in the country.

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US State Department approves sale of Black Hawk choppers to Latvia

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 4, 2018 08:12AM

The US State Department has approved an arms sales package worth $200 million to the Baltic state of Latvia as part of NATO's eastward expansion.

According to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the contract has an estimated price tag of $200 million that covers four UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, 10 engines and associated equipment including embedded Global Positioning Systems.

"This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally," the DSCA statement said.

"The helicopters, it said, will allow for interoperability with US and NATO forces in rapid response to a variety of missions, and quick positioning of troops with minimal helicopter assets.

"The sale of these UH-60 helicopters to Latvia will significantly increase its capability to provide troop lift, border security, anti-terrorist, medical evacuation, search and rescue, re-supply/external lift, and combat support in all weather," the statement noted.

The arms deal must now be cleared by the Senate, where the total quantities as well as the estimated price may change from the original DSCA announcement.

On Friday, the Swedish government also approved the purchase of Patriot missile system from the United States.

The deal  with a value of 10 billion Swedish crowns ($1.13 billion)  would include four firing systems and two types of missiles as well as other equipment and training.

Sweden, not a NATO member, had previously expressed concerns over what it described as worsening security situation in the Baltic Sea region over the past few years.

NATO member states, largely made up of Western European countries, have significantly increased their military activities near Russia's western borders in recent years to counter what they claim as "Russian threats."

Russia has held several military drills to maintain its readiness in light of increased activities of the US-led military alliance under its nose. NATO countries have pointed to the drills as what they call signs of Russian aggression.

Moscow has repeatedly warned of consequences of NATO's military buildup near its western borders, saying the move would provoke conflicts and cause military and political instability in the region.

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Canada's exports rose 4.1 per cent to $50.7 billion in June, surpassing for the first time the $50 billion mark, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

Meanwhile, imports from the United States were up 0.3 per cent to $32.9 billion, resulting in Canada's trade merchandise trade surplus with the US rising to $4.1 billion.

Canada's trade deficit fell to Can$626 million ($482 million US) in June, according to official data released Friday, as the nation searched for new trading partners and eased its reliance on the United States.

The trade deficit with Mexico widened to $6.7 billion and the gap with European Union countries grew to $12.8 billion.

"Canadian trade was a large and pleasant surprise in June, and a surge in exports for the month capped a solid quarter", Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce chief economist Avery Shenfeld wrote in a research note. Yields on 2-year government bonds rose to 2.1 per cent, touching the highest in nearly a decade.

Economists at Barclays see Friday's report as a harbinger of things to come, as the tax cuts boosting the USA economy will continue to grow imports while exports growth is likely to slow as firms deal with the impact of tariffs. President Donald Trump's administration imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum in June, predicated on national security considerations; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government retaliated dollar-for-dollar on July 1.

The data underscored the importance to Canada of the United States, which took 73.0 percent of all Canadian goods exports in June. The report raised expectations for a Bank of Canada rate increase in September to 39 per cent, from 32 per cent yesterday and 12 per cent a fortnight ago.

Exports to countries other than the United States increased 8.7 per cent in June to a record $13.6 billion. "As a result, trade is likely to subtract from GDP growth in the coming quarters, reversing the significant positive contribution recorded in Q2". Aircraft exports alone were up 44.5 per cent to $984 million. Exports of both metals had risen significantly in the months leading up to the tariffs as industries stockpiled supplies. "Nominal exports jumped 4.1%, while imports edged down 0.2%".

And so as Yahoo Finance has written before, tax cuts could end up working against Trump's efforts to bring down the USA trade deficit, which in 2017 totaled $570 billion.

Aluminium exports to the USA fell 7.0 percent in the month.

Imports of energy products decreased 15.1 per cent to $2.9 billion in June compared with May, as Canadian refineries came back on stream following spring maintenance shutdowns. Higher shipments of soybeans helped bring the trade deficit in May to its lowest monthly level since late 2016 and, due to seasonal adjustments, provided an outsize boost to second-quarter gross domestic product.
Saudi under missile barrage after Hudaydah attacks

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 4, 2018 08:09AM

Yemen has fired five missiles at southern Saudi Arabia shortly after a coalition of invaders led by the kingdom staged deadly strikes against the country's al-Hudaydah Province.

The Yemeni army and its allies fired the projectiles at the kingdom's southwestern tip, which comprises the Jizan, Najran, and Asir regions, over Thursday and Friday.

The missiles were all of the Zalzal type, which the country has been using in its retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia.

It is not yet clear whether the retaliation has resulted in any human or material losses.

Separately, the Yemeni soldiers took Saudi positions in Asir's Majazah area and Alab border crossing under rocket fire. They also killed three Saudi-backed militants in the al-Doud and al-Dukhan mountains in Jizan.

Other reports emerging from the battleground showed that the army and its allied popular fighters had clashed with Saudi Arabian forces and Saudi-backed militants in Derihemi District along Yemen's west coast on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia and its allies invaded Yemen in March 2015 to restore power to its former Riyadh-backed officials. The invasion has killed thousands, and placed the country on the edge of outright famine.

Yemen's Supreme Revolutionary Committee, founded by Yemen's popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, has named the fourth year of the invasion "the Year of Missile Rain" as the impoverished country keeps up its struggle against the invaders. The Houthis likewise defend the country against the Saudi-led invasion.

The retaliatory missile barrage came shortly after at least 55 people were killed when the coalition's warplanes hit a hospital and a fishing harbor in al-Hudaydah.

A day earlier, at least nine fishermen had been killed after Saudi-led warplanes targeted their ship off the coast of Hudaydah.

The port city of Hudaydah, the province's capital, receives the majority of Yemen's imports, prompting international bodies to warn the invaders against keeping up their attacks.

Hezbollah speaks out

In a statement published on Friday, Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement condemned the attack on the hospital.

"The attack by the Saudi and American aggressors reveals the moral devolution of the coalition and its heavy defeat," read the statement.

"The brutal atrocity has bewildered the world," it added.

The United States has been lending generous arms supplies, bombing coordinates, aerial refueling, and commando support to the invasion.

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US Congress Demands Regular Reporting on Chinese Actions in South China Sea

Sputnik News

01:39 04.08.2018

The US military has been ordered by Congress to report on Chinese military activity in the South China Sea, but this measure is likely to do little more than give the US justification for maintaining a presence in the backyard of the world's second-largest economy.

A defense policy bill that made its way through Congress over the past couple weeks, known as the "John S. McCain" National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 (NDAA), contains a section on "matters relating to foreign nations" stipulating that a report must be produced "on military and coercive activities of the People's Republic of China in the South China Sea" as Beijing undertakes such activities.

The production of such a report will serve as justification for sustained US maneuvers in the region, such as "freedom-of-navigation" missions, but it won't do anything to pressure China into changing the course of its activities in the strategic waterway, an expert told Sputnik.

"Publication of new information on Chinese militarization of the disputed island will justify continued and enhanced US presence, but so far it has not helped to curtail Chinese activities, so I fail to see how more publication will achieve that goal," Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center, told Sputnik News Friday via email. The Stimson Center is a nonpartisan policy research think tank based in Washington.

Indeed, Beijing has called US Navy freedom of navigation missions a threat to China's sovereignty and described them as provocative.

Congress wants the Pentagon's reporting to include notes on "any significant military deployment or operation or infrastructure construction" in the South China Sea. Lawmakers said such South China Sea reports are to be submitted to Congress and released to the public.

"Each report on a significant reclamation or militarization activity shall include a short narrative on, and one or more corresponding images of, such significant reclamation or militarization activity," according to the text of the defense policy bill.

The bill furthermore contains aggressive language about what Beijing's military is doing in the South China Sea.

"It is the sense of Congress that the pace and militarization by the Government of the People's Republic of China of land reclamation activities in the South China Sea is destabilizing the security of United States allies and partners," the text of the bill says. The measure overwhelmingly passed the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by US President Donald Trump soon.

The US Congress declared that China's activities in the South China Sea  perhaps akin to US activities in the Gulf of Mexico or along one of its borders with the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans  are even "threatening core United States interests."

Aside from demanding future regular reports on Beijing's moves in the South China Sea, the US also recently prohibited the People's Liberation Army-Navy from participating in the multilateral RIMPAC exercises in Hawaii until further notice.

Beijing can get back into RIMPAC exercises under very specific conditions that defy China's current stance to defend itself by militarizing the sea: the Chinese government would have to cancel "all" reclamation activities in the South China Sea, withdraw its defense weaponry from islets in that sea and establish a "four-year track record of taking actions toward stabilizing the region."

 Sputnik

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Press Availability at the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and Related Meetings

Remarks

Michael R. Pompeo

Secretary of State

Singapore

August 4, 2018

SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning, everyone. It's been an honor to participate in my first ASEAN ministerial meetings here in Singapore. I want to first thank Foreign Minister Balakrishnan for hosting. We have reaffirmed our strong bilateral relationship, and it's great to be back in Singapore again after having been here in June.

We remain grateful for Singapore's support of President Trump's successful summit back in June, and we appreciate Singapore's dedicated efforts to promote a resilient and innovative ASEAN during this past year. I also appreciate the opportunity to have met with Prime Minister Lee to discuss the critically important and strategic U.S.-Singapore partnership.

And I'd like here, too, to pause just for a moment to offer my condolences on behalf of the United States to the people of Laos regarding the recent unfortunate tragedy and loss of life from the dam breach. We have disaster relief experts on the ground and are supporting Lao authorities and international humanitarian organizations with needed assistance. Our condolences also go to the victims of recent flooding and landslides in Myanmar and the earthquake in Indonesia.

Throughout my ASEAN-centered engagements these past days I've conveyed President Trump's commitment to this vital part of the world that continues to grow in importance. Security has been a major focus of our conversations. As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the United States is excited to announce nearly $300 million in new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region. This new security assistance will advance our shared priorities, especially to strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and enhance programs that counter transnational threats.

I've also emphasized the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, as agreed to by Chairman Kim. It's worth remembering this isn't just an American security goal; it is clear our partners and allies within ASEAN know how important the denuclearization of North Korea is for their own security. I called on them to strictly enforce all sanctions, including the complete shutdown of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum destined for North Korea.

We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers. If these reports prove accurate  and we have every reason to believe that they are  that would be in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2375.

I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. Any violation that detracts from the world's goal of finally fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously.

In addition, while here at ASEAN I raised concerns about Chinese militarization of the South China Sea and the importance of maintaining a rules-based order in the region. And we discussed advancing cooperation on counterterrorism, including addressing the threat of foreign terrorist fighters returning to the region, and cyber security.

While reaffirming our support for Myanmar's ongoing democratic transition, we also addressed the important steps required to resolve the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Rakhine State.

Progress on these and other critical security issues is essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific. ASEAN will remain at the center of this effort. A free Indo-Pacific is one in which every citizen can exercise his or her fundamental rights without any constraint.

Regarding the issue of good governance, we regret the elections in Cambodia were neither free nor fair. The Cambodian people deserve better.

Economically, President Trump recognizes the long-term strategic importance of one of the world's most competitive regions. The Indo-Pacific has been and will be a major engine of economic growth, and President Trump wants to make sure America and all countries can responsibly reap the benefits of all current and future opportunities. The United States is committed to doing just that according to our values, the rule of law, transparency, and good governance.

As I said earlier this week, the United States practices partnership economics; we seek partnership, not dominance. Earlier this week at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum hosted by the United States Chamber of Commerce, I outlined the Trump administration's economic strategy for advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific, and I talked about why U.S. businesses' engagement in the region is crucial to our mission of promoting peace, stability, and prosperity.

There is no better force for prosperity in the world than American businesses. When nations partner with American firms, they can have confidence they are working with the most scrupulous, well-run, and transparent companies in the world. As a down payment on a new era in American economic commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, I announced at the forum $113 million in new U.S. Government resources to support foundational areas of the future: the digital economy, energy, and infrastructure.

In addition, the Trump administration is working with Congress to encourage the passage of the BUILD Act. It recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives and now before the United States Senate. Under this bill, the government's development finance capacity would more than double to $60 billion to support U.S. private investment in strategic opportunities abroad. These initiatives are strategic investments designed to spur our partners' engagement with American companies, the greatest force for prosperity in the world.

As part of the $113 million I announced this week, 10 million in funding to support economic programming, much of which will fall under the U.S.-ASEAN Connect program. The United States will continue to work with our partners to foster regional security, fair and reciprocal economic partnerships, and good governance so that independent nations of the Indo-Pacific region can prosper side-by-side in freedom and peace.

Last year we celebrated 50 years of ASEAN's success. This year we look forward to ASEAN's continued centrality in the Indo-Pacific region as we celebrate a fruitful U.S.-ASEAN strategic partnership.

And with that, I'm happy to take a few questions.

MS NAUERT: Okay, we have time for three questions. The first one  and one question each, please  Tracy Wilkinson from the LA Times.

QUESTION: Hi.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Hi.

QUESTION: Thank you. Okay, so could you talk to us a little bit about how difficult it is or complicated it is to talk to China, to negotiate with China and ask them to help on North Korea, when you are engaged in such a brutal trade war with them?

And on North Korea you talked about  you called on them, so I'm thinking you actually met with the North Koreans here. Is that true? And you said earlier today that they  that Kim kind of controls the timeline of denuclearization, and so what do you want to see as the next major step there?

And finally, you've mentioned --

MS NAUERT: Tracy, one question.

SECRETARY POMPEO: That's six by my count.

QUESTION: No, that was just two. (Laughter.) Okay.

SECRETARY POMPEO: So let me start with the first issue you raise, which is the U.S. relationship with China. President Trump desperately wants free, open, fair trade all across the world. All the work that we're doing in the trade arena is designed exactly for that purpose. President Trump inherited an unfair trade regime where American workers and American companies were not treated reciprocally or fairly by the Chinese, and the efforts of the Trump administration are to right that, to correct that, to adjust that. And I talked with my Chinese counterpart about that yesterday. We also, of course, talked about the importance of enforcing the UN Security Council resolutions, and they made clear their continued commitment to do that.

Your second question was about North Korea and progress along the way. Chairman Kim made a commitment on June 12th in this very place. He said that he would denuclearize his country. We have been working since then to develop the process by which that will be achieved. We were heartened by the repatriation of the remains of 55 persons, a commitment that Chairman Kim has made. He made a commitment to begin the dismantlement of an engine test site. That work has begun.

The process of achieving denuclearization of North Korean  the North Korean peninsula is one that I think we have all known would take some time, but I must say from my meetings here the world is united in seeing this achieved. There has not been a single country that hasn't thanked the United States for its efforts in moving the world towards the possibility of achieving this end-state goal. We're determined to do it. Chairman Kim is committed to doing it. I am optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded.

QUESTION: Did you meet with the North Koreans here today?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Go ahead.

QUESTION: Did you meet with the North Koreans here?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I've not met with the North Koreans.

QUESTION: Here?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I've not met with the North Koreans here.

MS NAUERT: Next. Next question, Nick Wadhams from Bloomberg.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. On Turkey, do you anticipate now that Pastor Andrew Brunson still has not been released that the U.S. would consider imposing new sanctions on Turkey? And does the deterioration of ties with Turkey on this issue, but more broadly, threaten Turkey's membership in the NATO alliance?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I had a constructive conversation with my counterpart yesterday. I made clear that it is well past time that Pastor Brunson be free and be permitted to return to the United States, and the others behind held by Turkey also similarly must be freed as well. I am hopeful that in the coming days we will see that occur, and I don't want to predict in the future what we might or might do to further enhance the likelihood that that occur. We had a good conversation. I'm very hopeful that we will make progress along that in the days and weeks ahead.

And more broadly, there are lots of challenges with Turkey but places that, frankly, I've worked closely with my foreign minister  the work that  their foreign minister. We've  we developed a roadmap for how we would proceed in Manbij  a very contentious issue that existed for a long time. We've not only achieved agreement but made actual progress on the ground in implementing that agreement. We're working diligently, and Turkey is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention of continuing to work cooperatively.

MS NAUERT: And our last question goes to Charissa Yong from the Straits Times. Hi, Charissa.

QUESTION: Hi, Mr. Secretary. My question is you said that ASEAN remains central to the free and open Indo-Pacific, but in practice what does that mean? Will ASEAN have a seat at the table for trade negotiations and all of that or free trade arrangement programs, or will it be more of a top-down approach?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Yes, ma'am. Precisely how that will play out will be up to each of the ASEAN countries to see how they will choose to participate in that. As I said, this has been my first trip here to ASEAN and to a ministerial meeting, but it's not the first time I've interacted with nearly each of the countries, my counterparts with whom I've had the chance to meet during this trip.

What I have found from this ASEAN gathering is a deep commitment to work along the United States  along with the United States on the things that are important to each of their countries, to ASEAN, and to the United States. I've talked about them here this morning: a free and open Indo-Pacific, a place where every country can have true opportunity to compete, to transit their goods, in a way that is not dominated, not threatened by any one member of ASEAN or any country in the region. That's important, and it is among those security and economic objectives are very much at the center of what ASEAN has stood for now for over five decades, and I think this particular ministerial moved that forward significantly as well.

Thank you, all.

MS NAUERT: Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, all. Have a great day.

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Afghan Mosque Attack Victims Buried in Common Grave

By Ayaz Gul August 04, 2018

Villagers and relatives in eastern Afghanistan Saturday dug a common grave and buried 35 victims of the previous day's devastating suicide gun-and-bomb attack on a Shiite mosque.

A reporter for VOA's Afghan language broadcast said hundreds of mourners attended the mass funeral organized under tight security in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, where Friday's massacre took place.

Three children were among the dead. The provincial health director, Walayat Khan Ahmadzai, confirmed to VOA on Saturday that the attack injured more than 90 people and the condition of 17 of them is "extremely critical."

Attackers wearing burqas

Police and witnesses said a pair of burqa-clad suicide bombers, armed with assault rifles, stormed the crowded mosque during afternoon prayers in the Khawaja Hasan area of the provincial capital.

The assailants entered the main prayer hall and sprayed worshippers with bullets before blowing themselves up, the provincial police chief, Raz Mohammad Mandozai, told VOA.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the bloodshed in Paktia, which borders Pakistan.

A spokesman for the Taliban insurgency swiftly denied its involvement in the mosque raid, prompting suspicions Islamic State could be behind the Shia carnage.

The Afghan branch of the Middle Eastern terrorist group, known as ISK-P, has claimed responsibility for almost all recent attacks against Shiite worship places and gatherings in Afghanistan.

Attack condemned

President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah have both strongly condemned the terrorist attack on innocent civilian worshipers.

"This attack targeting civilians has no possible justification," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA. He called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and held to account.

"These brutal and senseless attacks against people at prayer are atrocities. Such attacks directed against congregations and places of worship are serious violations of international law that may amount to war crimes," Yamamoto said.

UNAMA in its civilian casualty report released last month said that civilians continue to bear the brunt of the Afghan armed conflict. In the first six months of 2018, it said, battlefield attacks and militant bombings killed nearly 1,700 Afghan civilians, the highest number of fatalities recorded in a decade.

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Unresolved Eritrea-Djibouti Tensions Threaten Regional Peace

By Salem Solomon August 04, 2018

When Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed last month to end their decades-long conflict, the international community responded enthusiastically.

Less than a day after the countries signed a joint declaration of peace, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres suggested that sanctions against Eritrea, imposed for alleged support of al-Shabab, an extremist group based in Somalia, may soon be lifted.

That action would further undo Eritrea's isolation.

But lingering grievances with its neighbor, Djibouti, could complicate regional integration, experts say.

Escalating tension

Eritrea's push to forge regional ties moved forward last week when President Isaias Afwerki invited Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to the capital, Asmara, in a striking show of high-level diplomacy after more than a decade of frayed relations.

But rapprochement with one neighbor heightened tensions with another.

During the visit, Mohamed voiced his country's support for lifting U.N. sanctions against Eritrea, a gesture that drew ire from both Djibouti and opposition groups within Somalia.

Sanctions were imposed in 2009, not only over concerns about Eritrea's role in Somalia, but also its dealings with Djibouti.

Last November, the U.N. recommended dropping inquiries into connections in Somalia after failing to find evidence of links to al-Shabab. But it reiterated concerns about Eritrea's border with Djibouti and its unwillingness to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

That's prompted Djibouti, which contributes troops to the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia, to demand mediation.

But other factors may be fueling its grievances.

Some experts on the region believe that a rekindled relationship between Ethiopia and Eritrea leaves Djibouti out in the cold.

Ulterior motives?

Kelsey Lilley is the former associate director for the Atlantic Council's Africa Center. She told VOA that Djibouti's response to the possible lifting of sanctions reflects deeper concerns.

"The fear of U.N. sanctions being lifted on Eritrea points to the really sticky situation that Djibouti is in overall, which is that, as Eritrea opens, what happens to its business model," Lilley said.

Djibouti has spent recent years investing in large-scale infrastructure projects: a port, a railway, a water pipeline and, most recently, a free-trade zone.

The deals for these projects, funded and built by China, were inked when Djibouti provided Ethiopia's sole access to the sea. With discussions already underway for Ethiopia, the region's economic powerhouse, to utilize Eritrean ports, Djibouti's unique value may be diminished, and that puts it in a precarious economic position, Lilley said.

Djibouti has taken on massive debt to build its infrastructure, and most projects promise to pay dividends, but only after many years.

Diplomatic impasse

In an open letter to the U.N. Security Council on July 30, Mohamed Siad Doualeh, Djibouti's ambassador to the United Nations, said, "[T]here is no escaping the fact that the international boundary remains disputed, Eritrea continues to occupy Djiboutian territory, prisoners of war remain unaccounted for, threat of force continue to emanate from the Eritrean side, and the risk of violent confrontation remains high."

In a series of tweets, Nebil Said, Eritrea's counselor to its Permanent Mission to the United Nations, refuted Djibouti's claims. Said stated that Eritrea had released all Djiboutian prisoners of war in 2016 and had never occupied Djiboutian territory. The burden of proof to substantiate accusations of wrongdoing, he added, lies with Djibouti, not Eritrea.

Doualeh's concerns have been validated, at least in part, by the U.N.'s Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group. In its most recent report, published in 2017, the Monitoring Group concluded that Eritrea was continuing to support the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy, an armed group intent on destabilizing Djibouti.

But the truth behind other claims remains obscure.

Last year, U.N. investigators said they saw evidence of Eritrean troop movement near disputed land, but only on their own side of the border. And claims about the number of POWs still captive in Eritrea have not been verified following prisoners who escaped, were released, or have died.

Conflicting claims have led to an impasse, and Eritrea has, so far, not shown a willingness to negotiate.

Political stability

Threats to Djibouti's economy could also jeopardize political stability in the country, Lilley said. That stability has helped the current government maintain its grip on power, but it hasn't necessarily translated into benefits for everyday people.

Djibouti has a high poverty rate, and the political opposition says they're locked out of the process.

"I think the regime could lose here, but I think the Djiboutians really are already losing," Lilley said.

For things to improve, the government would have to rethink how it uses the money that comes in through sources like multi-year leases to rent space for military bases, a source of significant revenue for the country.

It may also have to re-approach its relationships with international partners. Tighter regional integration could mean the possibility of military bases in Eritrea, giving nations interested in a presence in Africa's Horn more options.

That could prompt countries to scrutinize their partnerships with Djibouti, Lilley said, and consider better deals elsewhere.

Djibouti has been backed into a corner, according to Lilley, but its best strategy is to avoid being a spoiler for the peace process unfolding.

"Peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea should be good for the entire region, should be good for all of East Africa, should be good for the world," Lilley said.

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Group claims responsibility for Maduro assassination attempt

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 5, 2018 07:22AM

An unknown rebel group has claimed responsibility for the failed assassination attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which the president himself earlier blamed on Colombia.

Maduro was targeted with but survived an attack by what was described as an explosive drone during a speech and a military parade in the capital, Caracas, on Saturday.

Live footage showed him interrupted as an explosion is heard in the near distance. Bodyguards are then seen scrambling to protect the president with bullet-proof shields and then move him.

"It was an attack to kill me, they tried to assassinate me today," Maduro said shortly afterwards.

Venezuelan state television images also showed members of the country's National Guard lined up in the parade suddenly scattering.

The government said seven guards were wounded in the incident.

Maduro blamed Colombia.

"I have no doubt that the name Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack," he said, referring to the Colombian president, without offering proof.

He added that investigations suggested that the incident's financiers "live in the United States, in the state of Florida. I hope that President Donald Trump is ready to fight these terrorist groups."

Late on Saturday, a civilian and military rebel group calling itself the "National Movement of Soldiers in Shirts" claimed responsibility for the explosion.

"It is contrary to military honor to keep in government those who not only have forgotten the Constitution, but who have also made public office an obscene way to get rich," the group said in a statement passed to US-based opposition journalist Patricia Poleo, who read it on her YouTube channel.

"If the purpose of a government is to achieve the greatest amount of happiness possible, we cannot tolerate that the population is suffering from hunger, that the sick do not have medicine, that the currency has no value, or that the education system neither educates or teaches, only indoctrinating communism," added the statement.

Venezuela has been suffering from an acute economic crisis, including shortages of basic commodities.

Colombia denies involvement

The Colombian Foreign Ministry denied involvement, saying the allegations were "absurd" and "lacked any foundations."

Maduro often accuses the opposition and the United States of working together to foment a "coup" to topple him.

Last year, four months of protests against the government ended with the intervention of the army, the National Guard, and police. However, the protests left 125 fatalities from both sides.

Maduro won another term in office in May, in elections boycotted by the opposition.

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Colombian FM Refutes Claims on Involvement of Santos in Failed Assassination

Sputnik News

07:03 05.08.2018(updated 07:35 05.08.2018)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday that the failed assassination was plotted by the Venezuelan right-wing forces as well as by the Colombian right under the country's President Juan Manuel Santos.

Colombia's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is not responsible for the failed attempt of assassination of his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro despite the claims that the latter has made against him.

"The claims that the Colombian leader could be responsible for a supposed assassination of the Venezuelan president sound absurd and lack basis, "the ministry said in a statement.

Bogota also went on to urge Caracas to respect Santos and noted that Maduro often accuses Colombia of all problems.

Earlier in the day, Maduro said that he was attacked by several drones loaded with explosives during his address at a public event in Caracas. The president and the officials, who were present at the demonstration, were unhurt in the incident.

Maduro said in his first address to the nation after the attack on him that "the investigation was launched immediately, it has already moved forward, some organizers of the assassination have already been detained." Mduro also said that some other plotters were living in the United States, adding that he asked his US counterpart Donald Trump for a help in bringing the alleged suspects to the justice.

However, earlier in the day, Venezuelan mysterios rebel group dubbed "Flannel Soldiers" claimed responsibility for the attempt of President Nicolas Maduro's assassination.

Venezuelan Prosecutor General Tarek William Saab said on Sunday that a probe has been launched into the failed attempt of President Nicolas Maduro's assassination.

 Sputnik

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Failed Assassination of Maduro: Firefighters Reportedly Claim Gas Tank Exploded

Sputnik News

06:42 05.08.2018

On Saturday, the televised address of the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was abruptly interrupted by the alleged attack of the drones loaded with explosives.

Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said that several drones loaded with explosives targeted the stage, where Maduro had been giving a speech. As documented in the videotape of the address, the president and people around him on the stage suddenly looked up, while the participants of the demonstration rushed from the scene.

The country's Information Minister confirmed that the incident during the demonstration was a failed attempt of assassination of the president.

However, firefighters at the scene disputed the government's version. Three Venezuelan firefighters told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to discuss the case, the incident was actually a gas tank explosion inside an apartment. Smoke could be seen coming out of a building window at the site of the incident. The Venezuelan officers provided no further details to the Associated Press on how they had reached that conclusion.

Local media suggested earlier that some explosive-carrying drones failed to reach their targets, crashing in a residential area in the vicinity of the presidential event, causing fire and large plumes of smoke. A source in Venezuelan police told Sputnik on Saturday that authorities managed to down a drone which attacked President Nicolas Maduro during a demonstration.

According to the Associated Press, a previously unknown group, Soldiers in T-shirts, has claimed responsibility for an attempted attack on Venezuela's leader. Soldiers in T-shirts said in a tweet Saturday that it planned to fly two drones fitted with explosives at the president, but government forces shot them down before reaching its target.

Meanwhile, Ex-Military Aide to the Venezuelan government, Anthony Daquin said in an interview with NTN24 broadcaster that an alleged explosion of a gas tank occurred, adding that the venue of the presidential event was previously declared a no-fly zone for any aerial vehicles or aircrafts. The drones spotted near the stage with Nicolas Maduro were operated by the Venezuelan authorities, Anthony Daquin stressed.

A total of seven servicemen were injured in the incident, Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said. Nicolas Maduro was unharmed in the attack.

Maduro accused of a failed assassination attempt the Venezuelan right-wing forces and Colombian rights, vowing to "hold accountable those responsible, who live abroad, especially in the United States."

 Sputnik

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Maduro Accuses Colombian Right-Wing Forces of Seeking Violence in Venezuela

Sputnik News

03:51 05.08.2018(updated 04:41 05.08.2018)

According to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, some of those responsible for organizing the failed assassination attempt have been detained.

"The investigation was launched immediately, it has already moved forward, some organizers of the assassination have already been detained," Maduro, exhibiting no visible signs of stress, said in his first address to the nation after a failed attempt to assassinate him.

During his televised address to the Venezuelan nation, Maduro claimed that some of those who plotted the assassination live in the US state of Florida. The Venezuelan president expressed his hope that US President Donald Trump would collaborate on bringing those in the US responsible for the assassination attempt to justice.

"We will hold accountable those responsible, who live abroad, especially in the United States. According to the preliminary findings, many of the organizers of the assassination are living in the United States, in the state of Florida. I hope that the government of Donald Trump will be ready to fight the terrorist groups that commit attempts against peaceful countries, in our case  Venezuela," the president of the South American nation emphasized.

Particularly, Maduro accused Colombian right-wing forces of being behind a Saturday attack on him using explosives-laden drones, claiming that the assassination was plotted with the blessing of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

"It was an attack to kill me, they tried to assassinate me today," Maduro said in a televised address. "I have no doubt that the name Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack."

The Venezuelan president asserted that he survived the assassination attempt as a result of the combines energies of his God, the Venezualen people and the country's armed forces.

"That drone was coming for me but there was a shield of love," Maduro said, cited by Reuters. "I am sure I will live for many more years."

Earlier in the day, several drones loaded with explosives targeted the stage where Maduro had been giving a speech. A total of seven servicemen were injured in the attack.

Venezuela is mired in a deep political and socioeconomic crisis which many blame on dropping oil prices as well as leadership decisions. In May, Maduro was reelected president with some 68 percent of the vote. A number of countries, including the United States, Argentina, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom characterized the vote as unfair and illegitimate.

 Sputnik

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Maduro TV Address Interrupted by Drone Assassination Attempt

Sputnik News

01:24 05.08.2018(updated 05:10 05.08.2018)

A televised address by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was cut short during a speech at a military event on Saturday and soldiers were seen running before the TV transmission was cut off.

A military demonstration in Venezuela was abruptly interrupted on Saturday after an alleged assassination attempt on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, according to video of the leaders' televised address.

As documented on video, Maduro was delivering his speech when he and those around him onstage suddenly looked up as participants in the military demonstration rushed from the scene, according to several Venezuelan media outlets with access to the footage

According to NTN24 broadcaster, the assassination attempt on Maduro was alleged to have been committed with the use of a drone filled with C-4 explosives.

However, the assassination attempt on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has failed, a source in Caracas told Sputnik on Sunday.

"Yes, the assassination has presumably happened, but it turned out to be unsuccessful," a source said.

According to local media reports, Maduro was not injured and was evacuated from the scene. According to Reuters, at least seven national guard soldiers were injured.

Local police downed a drone that attacked the scene where officials, including Maduro, were present.

According to Venezuela's Minister of Information, not one, but several, drones allegedly fitted with explosives attacked the country's leadership during a military parade.

Meanwhile, local media outlets report that some explosive-carrying drones failed to reach their targets, crashing in a residential area in the center of Caracas, causing fire and large plumes of smoke.

The Venezuelan leader as well as the rest of the political and military leadership of the Latin American country feel fine and were not injured during the attack, according to the president of a state-owned bank Miguel Perez Abad.

"Soon, our national government will inform about what happened on the Bolivar avenue  Our President Nicolas Maduro feels fine as well as the supreme political and military command of the revolution," Perez Abad wrote on Twitter.

Venezuela has been recently mired a political and socioeconomic crisis, which many blame on dropping oil prices as well as the leadership's decisions. The nation experienced months of mass protests last year, which initially were a response to the Supreme Court's decision to severely limit the parliament's legislative powers.

The protests in Venezuela were further fueled by the election of a new lawmaking body, known as the Constituent Assembly, initiated by Maduro with the aim of rewriting the constitution.

 Sputnik

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Morocco loses between 5 to 7% of its GDP due to corruption, head of the government Saad Eddine El Othmani said urging action to fight this calamity.

Speaking at a recent meeting with his party members, El Othmani stressed the need for achieving the goals of Moroccos anti-corruption strategy in two years.

There should be cooperation between all the societys components in order to curb corruption and improve the performance of the civil service, he said.

Morocco launched an anti-corruption strategy meant to eradicate all sorts of corruption, strengthen the trust of citizens in institutions and improve business climate.
Russia Grants Kazakhstan Access to Military Satellite Signal  Space Agency

Sputnik News

03:09 04.08.2018(updated 03:21 04.08.2018)

Kazakhstan now has access to a frequency of Russia's Glonass global navigation system used by the military to guide high-precision weaponry, a Kazakh space agency official told Sputnik.

"Kazakhstan has been granted access to a high-precision Glonass navigation signal," the official with the Kazakhstan Defense Ministry's Aerospace Committee, Kazcosmos, said.

The frequency has also been used by India since 2010 and Algeria since this year. Glonass is a satellite-based global navigation system alike the US Global Positioning System.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in May of last year that the number of operating Russian remote sensing satellites orbiting the Earth would reach 15 by 2020.

In June, Russian space corporation Roscosmos said that Mario Abdo Benitez, Paraguay's president-elect, was also interested in Russia's group of satellites for Earth Remote Sensing (ERS) and Glonass satellite navigation system.

Director General of Russia's Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems (ISS-Reshetnev) Nikolay Testoyedov told Sputnik earlier that Russian Glonass satellites would contain only 10 percent of foreign-made components by 2022 and would completely rely on national manufacturers by 2025.

While currently this ratio exceeds 60 percent, Roscosmos plans to completely substitute the foreign-manufactured components in GLONASS by their Russian-made analogues by 2025, the manufacturer added.

In 2017, Roscosmos adopted its development strategy for the period until 2030, which includes the diversification of production and commercialization of space activities. The strategy came amid the increasing western sanctions which banned contracts with a number of leading Russian companies and Moscow's counteracting restrictions on technology imports.

 Sputnik

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Brazilian Workers' Party Nominates Jailed Ex-Head Lula as Presidential Candidate

Sputnik News

20:12 04.08.2018

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik)  The congress of the Brazilian left-wing Workers' Party (PT) on Saturday announced that it would nominate former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, currently serving a jail term on corruption charges, its candidate for the October presidential vote.

"Lula can and will be a candidate," the party wrote on Twitter.

Under the Latin American nation's law, a person serving a prison term cannot be nominated for the presidency. However, Lula has repeatedly voiced his plans to run in the election.

Lula has to register as a candidate until August 15. Raimundo Bonfim, the representative of the Popular Movement Association, has promised that thousands of Brazilians would take to streets on August 15 to support Lula's candidacy.

Media reported on Friday that the PT would nominate ex-mayor of Sao Paulo, Fernando Haddad, as its candidate if the authorities would bar Lula from participating in the vote.

The presidential election will be held in Brazil alongside the parliamentary vote. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 7. The second round is set to be held on October 28 if the 50-percent threshold would not be met by any candidate.

Lula, who served as the country's president from 2003 through 2010, was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison last summer for allegedly accepting a luxury apartment from a construction firm in return for political favors. Lula has denied the accusations. An appeals court upheld the ruling in January and increased Lula's jail term to 12 years and a month.

 Sputnik

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North Korea alarmed by US attitude toward nuclear deal

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 4, 2018 06:21AM

North Korea has hit out at the US for urging that sanctions be maintained against Pyongyang, saying it is increasingly alarmed by US attitudes towards the country.

North's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said on Saturday despite "goodwill measures" taken by the North, Washington was "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK."

Ri made the remarks in an address to a security forum in Singapore, using the initials of the North's official name.

He criticized "insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention" after President Donald Trump reached a general agreement on denuclearization last month.

"As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri said.

The vague commitment to "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" is a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.

Ri said, "The DPRK stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the DPRK-US Joint Statement in a responsible and good-faith manner."

"What is alarming however is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," he added.

Earlier US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged major powers attending the same forum, including China and Russia, to keep up sanctions pressure against the North.

UN: Weapons program continues

A UN report says North Korea continues its weapons programs despite its leader's promise to denuclearize.

The six-month confidential report from independent experts monitoring Pyongyang's nuclear and missile activities, cited by Reuters, said the North is still developing its weapons programs.

Pyongyang has "continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," the report said.

This is not the first time that reports are suggesting Pyongyang is pressing ahead with its nuclear and missile activities since Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June.

The report came as Pompeo called for more diplomatic and economic pressures on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.

"The work has begun. The process of achieving denuclearization of the (Korean) peninsula is one that I think we have all known would take some time," Pompeo said on the sidelines of the ASEAN security forum in Singapore on Saturday.

"I'm optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded," he added.

He is on a visit to the South Asian country to attend meetings of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is also attending the conferences.

Pompeo visited Pyongyang last month for inclusive talks aimed at agreeing a denuclearization roadmap, but North Korea accused his delegation of making "gangster-like" demands.

A senior US official said on Monday spy satellites had detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

The Washington Post also claimed that North Korea appeared to be building one or two new liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles at the research facility.

Kim and Trump met in Singapore in June, and announced a broad statement on working towards denuclearization.

Trump declared after the summit that North Korea was "no longer a Nuclear Threat" to the US, but Washington maintains sanctions on Pyongyang.

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U.S. Calls On Russia To Comply With UN Sanctions On North Korea

RFE/RL August 04, 2018

The United States has called on Russia to comply with UN sanctions on North Korea, citing "deeply troubling" reports that Moscow has granted new work permits to North Korean laborers that are barred under the sanctions.

The calls from top U.S. diplomats on August 3 came a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Moscow has allowed thousands of new North Korean laborers into the country and granted them work permits in what appear to be sanctions violations. Russia is denying the accusations.

Citing records from the Russian Interior Ministry and Labor Ministry, the Journal wrote that over 10,000 new North Korean workers have registered in Russia since September and a minimum of 700 new work permits have been issued to North Koreans in Russia this year.

The non-profit research organization C4ADS also recently reported that initial restrictions on new North Korean laborers set by both China and Russia -- where around 80 percent of North Korea's laborers work -- appear to have been loosened recently.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited the reports on August 3 in calling on Russia to comply with the UN sanctions.

"We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said as he visited Singapore. "If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation" of UN sanctions, he said.

"I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow," he said. "We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea."

'Deeply Troubling'

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the "credible reports of Russia violating UN Security Council resolutions on North Korean laborers working abroad are deeply troubling."

"Talk is cheap -- Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," she said in a statement at the UN.

"Until we see the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, there can be no easing of sanctions," Haley said.

The labor sanctions are a part of a broader series of sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council last year to eliminate important revenue streams that reportedly have been used to finance North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The labor sanctions specifically bar governments from issuing new work permits for North Korean workers, and require that current contracts for laborers be terminated by 2019.

Aleksandr Matsegora, Russia's ambassador to North Korea, denied Moscow had allowed any new workers to enter Russia, saying fresh documents had been issued only to laborers already based in Russia who were working under old contracts, Russian news agency Interfax reported on August 3.

Matsegora said the laborers granted work permits this year are allowed to work in Russia until November 29, 2019 because their work contracts were signed before the sanctions went into effect, Interfax reported. He said 3,500 new work permits have been issued to workers who signed contracts in Russia before November 29, 2017, Interfax reported.

Most of the money North Koreans earn abroad ends up in government coffers, the UN has said.

"It is estimated that North Korean laborers in Russia send between $150 milliion and $300 million annually to Pyongyang," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on August 3. "Moscow should immediately and fully implement all the UN sanctions."

Call To Black List Bank

Also on August 3, the United States asked the UN council to add a Russian bank and two North Koreans working in Moscow to the UN's sanctions blacklist after the U.S. Treasury targeted them with sanctions.

The Treasury said it was targeting Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank with sanctions because it allegedly had conducted "a significant transaction" for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank.

The Treasury also slapped sanctions on Ri Jong Won, the Moscow-based deputy representative of FTB, and said both Ri and Han should be expelled from Russia.

At the UN, the United States is asking that the Moscow bank and the North Korean banking officials working in Moscow all be put on the UN's blacklist, which subjects them to a global asset freeze and travel ban.

Washington has been struggling to maintain international support for sanctions on North Korea since U.S. President Donald Trump made a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April to work toward ridding the country of nuclear weapons.

So far, U.S. officials say North Korea has made little progress toward shutting down its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities despite several rounds of talks.

U.S. officials have said that sanctions violations are hurting their efforts to gain concessions from Pyongyang.

Last month at the UN, the United States charged that Pyongyang has already exceeded a limit on its imports of oil products imposed under the UN sanctions because of illegal transfers of oil to Korean ships on the high seas.

But Russia and China teamed up to block a U.S. demand that all further legal deliveries of oil products to North Korea be stopped in light of the alleged illegal oil smuggling.

Russia denies any involvement in the illegal smuggling, but Reuters has reported instances of North Korean ships leaving Russia with cargoes of fuel and heading for their homeland despite having told Russian authorities the fuel was headed to other destinations.

U.S. officials told Reuters that this ploy has often been used to undermine sanctions.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-accuses-russia -violating-un-sanctions-north-korean-laborers-work- permits-oil-embargo/29411081.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 Korean FM Slams US' Stance on Pyongyang's Denuclearization Drive

Sputnik News

15:07 04.08.2018

In late July, US President Donald Trump praised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for making "terrific progress" toward peace, saying that "for nine months, no nuclear tests, no rockets are going up, no missiles are going over Japan."

Speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) session on Saturday, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho berated the US for what he described as its attempts to move away from initial steps to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Ri underscored that all this comes as Pyongyang initiated a spate of "goodwill measures", including "a moratorium on nuclear tests and rocket launch tests as well as dismantling of a nuclear test ground."

"However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and showing the attitude (that it may) backtrack, even from declaring the end of the [1950-1953 Korean] war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula," he pointed out.

Ri signaled North Korea's determination to adhere to the DPRK-US Joint Statement, which was clinched during June's Pyongyang-Washington summit, in a "responsible and good-faith manner."

"What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old (situation), far from its leader's intention," he noted.

Ri's remarks came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged other countries to strictly enforce UN sanctions against Pyongyang, emphasizing the significance of "maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization that DPRK has agreed to."

Earlier, Reuters cited a UN report as claiming that Pyongyang has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs, in violation of the United Nations sanctions.

The Washington Post, in turn, quoted unnamed sources familiar with the information that US intelligence agencies have allegedly seen signs that North Korea was developing new intercontinental ballistic missiles, including the type that could reach the United States mainland.

At the same time, US President Donald Trump said during a speech in Granite City, Illinois, last week that Kim Jong-un was making great progress toward peace on the Korean Peninsula after the two leaders held their historic summit in Singapore on June 12.

On that day, Trump and Kim specifically signed an agreement stipulating that North Korea will denuclearize in exchange for a freeze on the US-South Korean military drills and potential sanctions relief. The White House did not specify any deadlines on the implementation of the accord.

Pyongyang has faced several rounds of sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, conducted in violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions. The restrictions have not been lifted yet despite easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

 Sputnik

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Chinese Foreign Minister Vows to Assist North Korean Economy

Sputnik News

03:59 04.08.2018

BEIJING (Sputnik) - China will promote North Korea's economic growth and national development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Singapore on Friday.

"The Chinese side is ready to provide North Korea with all possible assistance to help it develop economically and as a nation," the minister said as he stood alongside North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho.

Speaking at the Asia-Pacific forum, Wang Yi praised Pyongyang for taking steps to fulfill the promises it made to the United States on June 12.

In turn, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said that Pyongyang wants to work with China to secure a lasting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

"China has played an important role in maintaining stability on the Korean peninsula and in promoting denuclearization. North Korea is ready to keep up strategic contacts with China and jointly protect stability and development on the Korean peninsula and in the region," Ri Yong Ho said on the sidelines of the ASEAN regional forum, which brought together ten Southeast Asia group member states and foreign ministers from other Asia-Pacific nations.

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged after their historic summit they would work toward ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.

Wang Yi said he hoped that North Korea would continue acting on its commitments and urged the United States to mind Pyongyang's concerns. He said China was open to contacts with both countries to ensure a lasting peace.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday, commenting on the US president's words about obstacles that the country was allegedly creating for Washington in the talks with Pyongyang that China has always consistently advocated for political settlement and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula has significantly improved over the last months, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un having held several rounds of talks with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in and a summit with Trump in Singapore.

In July, Trump said, however, that China may be exerting negative pressure on the agreement reached with Kim to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula over the trade row with the United States, and expressed hope that this would not happen. Trump did not elaborate on specific types of China's alleged negative pressure.

 Sputnik

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US Calls on Countries to Maintain Sanctions on North Korea

By VOA News August 04, 2018

The United States has urged countries to be diligent in maintaining sanctions on North Korea.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, says it is alarmed by recent U.S. attitudes, but remains committed to its nuclear deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on countries Saturday to strictly enforce sanctions on the isolated nation. His remarks followed the release of a United Nations report warning that North Korea has found ways to navigate around the sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear weapons program.

Pompeo emphasized "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization that DPRK has agreed to," using the initials of the North's official name.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country "stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing" the terms of denuclearization "in a responsible and good-faith manner."

The minister said, however, that recent U.S. attitudes are "alarming" and "go back to the old, far from its leader's intention."

The U.N. report said North Korea has had a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions.

The report also documented violations of a ban on North Korean exports, including coal, iron and seafood which generate millions of dollars of revenue for Pyongyang.

There are also indications that the North is continuing to build rockets and concerns that it has not been clear on when and how it will disarm.

Pompeo said the U.S. is taking any infringement of the sanctions very seriously.

"We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said.

"If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation "of U.N. sanctions." he said.

At a meeting of regional foreign ministers in Singapore Saturday, Pompeo and Ri approached each other during the "family photo," shook hands and exchanged a few words.

Pompeo said, "We should talk again, soon."

"I agree," Ri said. "There are many productive conversations to be had."

Following that exchange, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines gave Ri a letter from President Trump to North Korea Chairman Kim. The White House said it was a response to a letter Kim had written to Trump earlier in the week.

Cindy Saine contributed to this report.

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When Size Matters: German Military Faces XL Problem With New Super Tanks

Sputnik News

21:41 04.08.2018(updated 23:08 04.08.2018)

The country's army has ordered some 350 Puma tanks - considered to be the most expensive at about $9.3 million each - as well as other up-to-date vehicles of its class, to revamp the national forces. But it turns out that soldiers may be too tall to fit inside the German machines due to an alleged failure in planning and design.

The German military Bundeswehr is facing a problem of size with its new Puma tank, which has turned out to be unable to fit soldiers taller than 1.84 meters, according to a report by German newspaper Welt.

Existing standards for tanks currently in service allow for soldiers to be up to 1.96 meters tall. Meanwhile, in the front part of the new tanks, the maximum height is limited to 1.91 meters and some soldiers are expected to not be able to meet the requirements in switching to the new Puma, according to the newspaper citing the German military.

Welt suggests that Berlin estimated the future size of soldiers using medical stats from over 15 years ago, and subsequently required that the new model have particularly high protection for the crew, as well as special seat construction, defending tank operators from explosive shock waves.

According to the German military, cited by the media, it "is still to be clarified" if the design of the new tank can be altered. According to Welt, an expert panel is to meet shortly.

According to sources, the incorrect size standards are causing the German Ministry of Defense to look into ordering new equipment new uniforms for tankmen, as well as altering hiring standards.

About 350 of the 6-person crew tanks are set to enter service by 2020. Delivery of the Puma tank has now been delayed some 57 months  nearly five years, as the total price for the new armored vehicles has increased to $1.41 billion, with each Puma 55 percent more expensive than was initially indicated.

 Sputnik

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Iran not to talk with US under pressure: Spokesman

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 4, IRNA -- Iran will not talk with the US under pressure, Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Iran will not sit down with the US under pressure, in particular with a person who has breached its obligations, Bahram Qasemi said in an exclusive interview with the Pupils Association News Agency (PANA).

He noted the US should remove the sanctions and stop the pressures on other countries before any new comment on negotiations.

Qasemi said that the Iranian people will resist the pressures and will conquer finally.

He rejected the possibility of war between the US and Iran, and said that in the current world situation, no country is able to carry out such actions.

The spokesman advised US President Donald Trump to change its warmongering advisors who have a long history of hostility against Iran.

Referring to Iran talks with the EU, he said that Tehran expects the European countries to bring forward a practical package of proposals.

Qasemi noted that Iran wants guarantees from Europe in banking and oil fields and also continuation of cooperation between Iranian and European Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Elsewhere in his remarks, the spokesman referred to certain Arab countries' offfers for mediation between Tehran and Riyadh, and said that Iran has always been ready for talks with Saudi Arabia.

Commenting on the possibility of opening of Iran's interests section in the Swiss embassy in Saudi Arabia, he said that there are positive signs in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman lauded the victories of the Syrian government over terrorism, and said that whenever the situation in Syria will become stable and the danger of terrorism will be reduced, Iran can decrease its advisory support for the Syrian army or end it.

9191**2050

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Support for terrorism, enemies' plot to undermine Iran: Defense chief

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 4, 2018 01:56PM

Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami says enemies have supported terrorism in the Middle East and hatched plots to cause chaos in regional countries, including Iraq and Syria, and undermine Iran.

"Enemies sought to perpetuate insecurity and chaos across the region," Hatami said on Saturday, but added that all their plots have been thwarted thanks to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei's prudence and preparedness of forces from the resistance front.

"One of the regional countries has acknowledged that it had spent $137 billion to carry out its plots to drag Iran into chaos and support terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria," the Iranian defense chief said.

"The Americans and others have spent more than $500 billion to create insecurity in the region," he added.

He said the ultimate goal of the US and the Israeli regime was to create terrorist and criminal groups in order to portray a tarnished image of Islam mixed with violence, bloodshed and extremism.

Hatami added that enemies created insecurity, chaos and civil wars in regional countries to guarantee Israel's security and enable the regime to carry out its "malicious plots."

He noted that Iran's enemies have been opposed to the Islamic Revolution and its consolidation for the past 40 years. Hatami emphasized that the "economic war and cruel sanctions" by the US and its allies are in line with their "hostilities" towards the country.

The Iranian defense minister also said last week that the Islamic Republic would never bow to enemies' excessive demands.

Hatami added that enemies wrongly believe that they can force the Iranian nation and the Islamic establishment to yield to their demands through pressure.

Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for Political Affairs Brigadier General Yadollah Javani also warned any country that seeks to endanger Iran's interests, particularly the United States, saying Tehran will retaliate in kind in such a case.

"If some seek to endanger the Islamic Republic of Iran's interests, Iran will also endanger their interests with its capabilities," Javani said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Yahoo News, a former US under secretary of state for political affairs, Wendy Sherman, took US President Donald Trump to task for his rash policies and uncalculated measures towards Iran after taking Washington out of a nuclear deal with Tehran, saying Trump does not understand Iran's culture of resistance.

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The decision by King Mohammed VI to fire Economy and Finance Minister Mohamed Boussaid continues to draw the attention of the Moroccan media and analysts who have been trying to find other interpretations of such a decision.

The Royal palace said in a statement that Boussaid was dismissed in line with Article 47 of the constitution and in implementation of the accountability principles.

The dismissal also comes after multiple calls by the King in previous speeches for officials saying that enough is enough! Fear God in what you are perpetrating against your homeland. Either discharge your obligations fully or withdraw from public life. There are plenty of honest men and women in Morocco.

Moroccan media mentions that the finance ministry has delayed payments leading to stalling projects in Al Hoceima.

The issue of the liberalization of the oil sector has also come to the fore as the measure did not benefit citizens but rather distributing companies. The price of oil was among the issues that emerged in a popular boycott launched last April.

Boycotters complain that despite the drop in the international market, oil importing and distributing companies made unethical profits estimated at 17 billion dirhams according to MPs.

The issue of the insurance company Saham that was sold to South Africas Sanlam for $1 billion has marred Boussaids management of the finance ministry. The media said that there is a conflict of interest between Boussaid and the owner of Saham Moulay Hafid El Alamy, who holds the portfolio of industry, as both belong to the same RNI political party. El Alamy is accused of benefiting of a preferential treatment in the 2018 appropriation bill that deprived the state of tax revenues estimated at more than 420 million dirhams.

The dismissal of Boussaid came after the heads of the Central Bank and the Court of Accounts submitted to the King reports pointing to serious economic and financial dysfunctions.

Abdelkader Amara of the PJD party will replace Boussaid until a new minister is appointed.
Druze engage in mass rally in Tel Aviv against 'Jewish state law'

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 4, 2018 08:23PM

Tens of thousands of Israeli Druze have gathered in central Tel Aviv to protest Israel's controversial "Jewish state" law.

During the Saturday demonstration, protesters chanted "equality" while waving colorful Druze flags.

While addressing the protesters, Israeli Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif said that the argued that the new legislation makes them second-class citizens.

The protesters accuse the Tel Aviv regime of racism and discrimination against other ethnicities.

Last week, Two Druze Israeli officers resigned from the military in protest against the controversial bill.

Earlier in July, Israel's parliament (Knesset) adopted a controversial bill that declares the occupying entity "the nation-state of the Jewish people," in what is widely criticized as an apartheid measure that could lead to discrimination against its own Arab population.

Besides officially designating Israel as a "state" exclusively for the Jews, the law defines occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel, downgrades the status of the Arabic language and encourages the promotion of the regime's settlements  which have been built on occupied land and thus viewed as unlawful by the world community.

A senior Iranian diplomat says Israel's adoption of the law that is further proof of the regime's apartheid nature, urging international pressure on Tel Aviv to cancel the law.

The law had drawn criticism by a wide range of NGOs and rights groups as a racist bill that would divide the society. Arabs in the occupied territories form about 20 percent of the population.

Tensions have been running high along the fence separating Gaza from the Israeli-occupied territories since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests, dubbed "The Great March of Return," demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.

The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

Israeli fire has taken the lives of more than 150 Palestinians since March 30.

Nearly 15,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries, of whom at least 360 are reportedly in critical condition.

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Secretary Pompeo's Meeting With Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

August 4, 2018

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Heather Nauert:

On August 4, Secretary Pompeo met with Japanese Foreign Minister Kono in Singapore to discuss next steps on DPRK engagement. Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Kono reaffirmed our commitment to the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK. The Secretary and Minister agreed that pressure must continue until the DPRK denuclearizes. They also affirmed the strength of the U.S.-Japan Alliance and vowed to continue working together closely to address common challenges, seize shared opportunities, and advance the interests of both the United States and Japan in the Indo Pacific region.



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Secretary Pompeo's Meeting With Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

August 4, 2018

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Heather Nauert:

Secretary Pompeo met with Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha today on the margins of the ASEAN-centered ministerial meetings. They discussed the enduring strength of the U.S.-ROK Alliance, which remains the linchpin of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and across the Indo-Pacific region. The Secretary and Foreign Minister also reaffirmed close cooperation on achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, as agreed to by Chairman Kim in Singapore.

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Russia Slams Latest U.S. Sanctions Efforts, Says They 'Do Not Work'

August 04, 2018

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has blasted the latest sanctions efforts coming out of Washington, contending that experience has shown such sanctions "do not work."

Ryabkov's comments on the ministry's website late on August 3 came after the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions targeted against a Russian bank and two North Korean bankers living in Moscow, saying that they, among others, had not complied with UN sanctions imposed on North Korea last year.

The remarks were also directed against legislation recently introduced in Congress to impose "crushing" sanctions on Russia because Moscow allegedly continues to interfere in U.S. political campaigns and target the United States with cyberattacks, among other alleged "malicious" activities.

Ryabkov denounced the "pile of bills surfacing in the U.S. Congress" and claimed that the Treasury's sanctions against Agrosoyuz bank in Moscow "are the 54th sanction attack by the United States on our country since 2011."

Ryabkov said the growing number of sanctions coming out of Washington "will surely fail" to "make Russia swerve from its course."

"Even U.S. politicians, who suffer from a particularly sharp form of Russophobia, have started to admit that attempts to put pressure on Russia do not work,"he said.

Ryabkov claimed Washington legislators are sponsoring get-tough measures against Moscow in an effort to attract votes in the upcoming congressional elections -- something that he said "makes us smile."

Based on reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-slams-latest-us-sanctions- efforts-says-they-do-not-work-ryabkov/29411101.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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Russia confirms it sent Syria rebuilding proposal to US

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 4, 2018 03:24PM

Russia's Defense Ministry has confirmed it sent a letter to Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford last month with a proposal to cooperate on reconstructing Syria and repatriating refugees to the war-torn country.

The Russian army's chief of staff General Valery Gerasimov sent the letter to Dunford on July 19, saying Moscow was willing to cooperate with Washington in demining the Arab country and helping refugees return to their homes.

Reuters reported the letter on Friday, citing a US government memo.

"It is disappointing that the American side is unable to comply with the agreement on publicizing the content of contact only after both sides agree," Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

In the letter, Gerasimov said Moscow was ready to "work with the Syrian authorities to provide security guarantees to refugees in the Rukban camp in the US-controlled Al-Tanf area and to create conditions for their return to their homes."

Rukban situated within a 55 kilometers so-called de-confliction zone set up by the United States to ensure the safety of its military base close to the Iraqi-Syrian border.

"A proposal was also made to coordinate humanitarian de-mining, including in Raqqa, and other priority humanitarian issues," the Russian ministry said.

Addressing the UN Security Council last week, Russian Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky urged world powers to help Syria's economic recovery and the return of refugees as Damascus nears final victory over terrorist groups.

Polyansky said the "revival of the Syrian economy" was a "critical challenge," with Syria facing an acute shortage of construction material, heavy equipment and fuel to rebuild areas destroyed by war.

In July, Moscow also sent a proposal to Washington to jointly organize the return home of Syrian refugees from Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt that would involve international financial support.

Russia has military advisers in Syria and runs a number of military bases, from which it has been carrying out an aerial bombardment campaign against Daesh Takfiri militants on behalf of the Syrian government since September 2015.

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UN Confirms Return Of Peacekeepers To Syrian-Israeli Border

August 04, 2018

United Nations has confirmed Russia's claim that UN peacekeepers have returned to a buffer zone on the border between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the first time in six years.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on August 3 that the force, known as UNDOF, is "implementing a gradual return" to the area.

"The ultimate goal for UNDOF is full return, conditions permitting," he said, adding that a key goal for the peacekeepers is the reopening of the Quneitra crossing between the two countries.

Syrian government forces, backed Russian air power, have recently retaken full control of Syria's Quneitra Province and other border areas with Israel and Jordan.

UNDOF had patrolled the Golan Heights area until 2012 under a 1974 cease-fire deal between Israel and Syria that created a UN-monitored buffer zone between the two countries following the Arab-Israeli War of 1973.

But the UN forces were driven out during Syria's long and chaotic civil war, with Syrian rebel groups -- including an affiliate of the Islamic State extremist group -- becoming entrenched in parts of the border area.

In a swift campaign this summer, Russia and Syria ousted the last of the rebel groups and reasserted control of the region, where by some accounts the Syrian civil war began with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011.

Russia announced on August 2 that UN peacekeepers had returned to the area and were patrolling alongside Russian military police.

But Haq emphasized that the Russian military police patrols have been kept "separate and distinct" from the UN peacekeeping force.

Russian officials have said their police are there, in part, to ensure that no Iranian fighters or facilities are stationed within 85 kilometers of Israel's border, in keeping with an agreement recently reached with Israel.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-confirms-return-peacekeepers- syrian-israeli-border-golan-heights/29411105.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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Al-Nusra Terrorists in Idlib Reportedly Reject Ankara's Demand to Disband

Sputnik News

18:27 04.08.2018

In February 2018, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged that the Turkish army will do its best to destroy the threat of terrorism in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib.

Militants from Al-Nusra Front* have rejected Turkey's demand for dissolution of the terrorist group's units in Idlib province in Syria's northwest, according to the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan.

The developments came after Ankara demanded that al-Nusra Front militants join the so-called "Northern Syrian Army," which is being formed by the Turkish military.

Also, Turkey urged al-Nusra Front's foreign mercenaries to return to the countries from which they arrived and surrender to the law enforcement agencies there.

Al-Watan reported that Ankara also plans to use the recently established National Liberation Front, made up of several rebel groups, to drive al-Nusra Front terrorists out of Idlib.

Last week, Syrian President Bashar Assad estimated that Idlib province was currently home to "tens of thousands of terrorists," stressing that the province was among the top priority areas for Syrian military's operations.

The statement came as a source told Sputnik that the Syrian Army was sending military equipment and ammunition to the borders of Idlib province and preparing for a large-scale operation to clear the area of terrorists.

In February, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised that "after we defeat the terrorists in Afrin, we will defeat them in Idlib too," adding that Turkey is committed to clearing the north-western areas of Syria from terrorists in order to ensure the return of refugees to their homeland.

Over the last three years, militants from Aleppo, East Ghouta, Daraa province and other regions have been evacuated to Idlib under agreements with the Syrian government. With the liberation of broad areas of southern Syria earlier this month, Idlib province has become one of the last anti-government strongholds in the country.

*Al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group banned in Russia

 Sputnik

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Tehran Reveals Terms of Its Withdrawal From Syria

Sputnik News

17:33 04.08.2018(updated 18:24 04.08.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Iran might decrease its military presence in Syria and even leave altogether after the situation in the war-torn country normalizes and the fight against terrorism there brings significant results, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.

"As soon as we see that Syria is close to certain stability, and the fight against terrorism is close to its end, and significant results have been reached, of course, we might decrease the presence of our advisors in Syria or even withdraw from the country," Qassemi said in an interview with the Iranian Pupils Association News Agency (PANA) as quoted by the Iranian Foreign Ministry's website on Saturday.

Tehran would maintain its presence in Syria as long as Damascus wants it to, Qassemi pointed out. The diplomat noted that fighting terrorism was one of the Iranian forces' tasks in Syria, apart from granting support to the war-torn country's government.

In July, Iranian Supreme Leader's Top Adviser for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati said Tehran would be present in Syria and Iraq at the request of these countries' legitimate governments and would not leave despite the threats voiced by the United States.

Israel has also repeatedly expressed security concerns over the Iranian presence next to its borders in Syria. Velayati has noted that the Iranian presence in Syria was coordinated with Moscow and Damascus and did not have to be agreed upon with Israel.

Iran, alongside Russia and Turkey, is a guarantor state of the Syrian truce. Syrian President Bashar Assad has said that only Iranian officers, not troops, were operating in his country.

 Sputnik

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Over Half of UN Peacekeepers Deployed on Syrian Side of Golan Heights  UNDOF

Sputnik News

14:41 04.08.2018(updated 14:48 04.08.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - More than half of all United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) peacekeepers in the Golan Heights are positioned on the Syrian side, including Camp Faouar headquarters, UNDOF public information officer Keishamaza Rukikaire-Kagwa told Sputnik.

"In accordance with the Protocol to the Disengagement of Forces Agreement of 1974, the authorized strength of UNDOF is about 1,250 troops. Currently, UNDOF is comprised of about 990 troops and supported by 70 military observers from Observer Group Golan/UNTSO in carrying out its tasks. More than one-half of the Mission's military personnel is deployed on the Bravo [Syrian] side, including its headquarters at Camp Faouar," Rukikaire-Kagwa said.

The UNDOF is gradually coming back to the area, with the full return as the ultimate objective, the spokeswoman said.

"UNDOF is implementing a gradual return to the area of separation. The ultimate goal for UNDOF is the full return, conditions permitting. The safety and security of UNDOF and Observer Group Golan personnel remain paramount as the Mission continues to implement its gradual return," she said.

The spokeswoman noted the ongoing fighting between the Syrian government forces and armed groups in the southern part of the buffer zones and limitation areas next to them.

"The peacekeepers observe high numbers of heavy explosions, rockets, heavy machine gun fire and artillery while in the central and northern parts of the separation areas of kinetic activity is low," the press officer said.

According to the UNDOF, it kept on observing carefully the developments related to the de-escalation zone in the southwest of Syria, which had been established in accordance with an agreement reached last year by Russia, Jordan and the United States. The de-escalation zone and the UNDOF area of operation partially overlap.

"UNDOF maintains contact with relevant interlocutors to seek clarity with regard to arrangements envisaged under the agreement and their potential implications for UNDOF in relation to the implementation of the UNDOF mandate and in ensuring the freedom of movement of the Force, as well as the safety and security of its personnel," the spokeswoman said.

On Thursday, the Russian military said that UN peacekeepers, accompanied by Russian military police, carried out the first patrol in six years near the Syria-Israel disengagement line. UNDOF personnel had to abandon the positions on the Syrian side in 2014 due to the internal clashes in Syria and outbreaks of violence in the area.

In 2014, most UNDOF personnel and Observer Group Golan military watchdog had to move to the Israeli side, although UNDOF maintained four UN positions on Mount Hermon and one position (Position 80) in the southern part of the area of separation on the Syrian side. The mission returned to Camp Faouar on the Bravo side in 2016. According to the UNDOF press office, limited patrolling on the Syrian side resumed in February 2018.

UNDOF's mission is to ensure the ceasefire under the 1974 agreement, which was signed after a 1973 military conflict between Israel and several neighboring states including Syria.

 Sputnik

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Outside the Manafort trial in Alexandria, Virginia, last week. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Back in May, T.S. Ellis, the veteran federal judge who is overseeing Paul Manaforts first trial in Virginia, whipped the Fox News set into a frenzy when he seemed to berate prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller. Federal judge accuses Muellers team of lying was the headline Donald Trumps favorite network went with, and his allies and even the president ran with it, as though finally a member of the judiciary had the temerity to stand up to the rigged witch hunt.

There was one problem: There was no such accusation from Ellis. And the judge  who at best was playing hardball with the lawyers before him, as magistrates are wont to do  ruled for Mueller in the end, rejecting a pretrial challenge to the legality and propriety of the charges against Manafort, and the special counsels mandate itself. Fox News ended up appending a correction to its breathless report, owning up to erroneously putting words in Ellis mouth.

Now that the federal trial for Trumps former campaign chairman is well underway, lots of breathless, sensational headlines and tidbits are bound to emerge from Elliss Alexandria courtroom in the coming days and weeks. And they have already: Tales of questionable offshore wire transfers and lavish spending on luxury menswear, ostrich-leather jackets, and high-end real estate and vehicles are already dominating print and cable-news reports, with little emphasis given to how Manaforts charges relate, if at all, to the broader Russia investigation. Or why this first trial, a bellwether of sorts for other Mueller trials to come, matters at all.

Because the Virginia indictment is largely about tax and bank fraud stemming from Manaforts pre-2016 lobbying work for a Russia-friendly politician in Ukraine, Ellis has rightfully sought to limit any attempts to get jurors to draw improper inferences about presidential politics, the sitting president, or even the existence of a special counsel. Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday that even the word oligarch, in connection with well-to-do Ukrainians, would not be allowed in Elliss courtroom  a sign that the judge wants jurors to remain focused on the charges and the charges alone. He may also want to impress on their minds that association with sleazy, wealthy foreign figures does not a federal fraudster make.

Thats not the American way, Ellis warned prosecutors as they fought to introduce a truckload of evidence about Manaforts profligate spending habits, which in their view reinforced their theory that he had something to hide from federal tax authorities.

Nothing about this is any different from any other high-profile trial weve seen. Properly instructed and shielded from unduly prejudicial evidence, jurors in the Manafort trial will then, as they should, be expected to determine if the facts  the story Muellers attorneys are trying to tell about their targets dealings  support a conviction under federal law for the indicted conduct. If you read an account of how Ellis is holding the governments feet to the fire, thats his job as a judge. Thats the American, constitutional way to handle a trial, and were all the better for it.

That doesnt mean Muellers team is on the ropes, not in the least bit. Nor are we obligated to follow every waking moment of the trial, which Ellis seems to want to wrap up quickly. Just as the judge doesnt want prosecutors to lose focus or go on irrelevant tangents, the same is true for the rest of us. Dont get distracted by the shiny objects and fashion bills. Instead, focus on the most remarkable aspect of the Manafort trial thus far: the reaction from President Trump, as well as what will come next.

Ponder for a moment that the president of the United States, on the day prosecutors representing the United States were in court making their case against Manafort, ordered the countrys top prosecutor, Jeff Sessions, to shut the whole thing down. Or that Trump went to bat for his disgraced former campaign chief, likening Manafort favorably to mob boss Al Capone and suggesting that the prosecution his own government brought against Manafort is malicious and rotten to the core. If thats not improper interference with an ongoing law enforcement and judicial matter, I dont know what is.

President Trump has been paying a lot of attention to the Manafort trial. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Theres undoubtedly something at the heart of Paul Manaforts legal troubles that unsettles the president. As if theres something the two of them know that could implicate the bigger fish in high crimes or malfeasance of some kind. Manafort did a lot for his client, the unlikely presidential candidate, than most people like to give him credit for. Could Manafort, who lived well beyond his means and yet worked for the campaign for no money, be sticking to his guns and bleeding money defending himself because he expects Trump to reciprocate? And maybe, with the stroke of a pen, absolve him like he did Joe Arpaio?

To understand how far Manafort is willing to go for Trump, look at the far more interesting court activity happening across the Potomac. In Washington, D.C., Manafort stands accused of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, of failure to register as a foreign lobbyist, and of obstruction of justice, among other charges  and that alongside a mysterious co-defendant, Konstantin Kilimnik. Earlier this year, Mueller disclosed in court documents that this wingman possessed ties to Russian intelligence service, which persisted during the presidential campaign. That case is still on schedule to go to trial in September, despite Manaforts best efforts to delay it.

But theres more. Just as jury selection was underway in Alexandria on Tuesday, the chief judge of the federal courthouse in Washington issued a 92-page ruling ordering an aide for Roger Stone, the irreverent Trump confidant and longtime Manafort pal, to testify before a grand jury. The decision was categorical, the third affirming the authority and legality of the special counsel investigation. But this one came with a bit of extra oomph. U.S. Chief Judge Beryl Howell, its author, may also be overseeing the secret grand-jury proceedings unfolding in the nations capital  a task that would place her at the center of nearly every pre-prosecution aspect of every public case so far initiated by the special counsel. More than anyone, shed know that the Mueller probe is no hoax.

The scope of the Special Counsels power falls well within the boundaries the Constitution permits, as the Special Counsel is supervised by an official who is himself accountable to the elected President, wrote Howell. She also gave Mueller a boost last year in a similar, pre-indictment dispute with a Manafort lawyer who was wanted for testimony before the grand jury.

This is all tough news for Manafort. For months now, he has mounted similar Hail Marys attempting to delegitimize the Mueller probe. Both Ellis and U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson have rejected separate motions to dismiss the two active cases against him. So far, all Manaforts efforts have been for naught, as has his bid to stand trial at liberty rather than behind bars. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit affirmed Jacksons order to revoke Manaforts home detention over allegations that he was tampering with witnesses  a new crime that, if proved, would only add to his legal woes. So theres little doubt hell sit in jail through the duration of both trials.

Were not done. Jackson this week sided with a special counsel request to not allow Manaforts lawyers to game the clock on the Washington trial involving Kilimnik, which for months has been set for September. All along, Muellers team has been doing its due diligence  turning over certain pretrial materials to the defense in good faith, hoping the other side will do the same as the two adversaries prepare their cases-in-chief. But Manaforts side hasnt turned over anything. The defense has made no showing whatsoever for its requested four-week extension, and to grant it would unfairly prejudice the government, Muellers lawyers charged in a court filing that accused Manaforts legal team of gamesmanship. Jackson ruled later that same day that shes opposed to any attempts to delay the Washington trial.

Thats where the real action will be, and where talk of election interference and Russian conspiracy may be inevitable. With Manafort hanging on by the skin of his teeth, and Mueller refusing to make it any easier for him, patience through all these trials and tribulations may just be the price he has to pay as he hopes that maybe, just maybe, President Trump will throw him a lifeline.
No collusion? Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

President Trump publicly acknowledged on Sunday that his son, Donald Trump Jr., had met with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign in order to obtain damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

Within a series of morning tweets making what has become a routine attack on the Robert Muellers Russia investigation, Trump first denied Saturdays reports that he was worried about his son being ensnared by the probe. He then acknowledged that the infamous June 2016 meeting between Trump Jr. (and other top campaign officials) and a Kremlin-linked lawyer was indeed about obtaining dirt on Clinton  only the president insists he didnt know about the meeting, and that it was still totally legal and something thats done all the time in politics:

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018

Previously, the Trumps had pushed other explanations for the meeting  after having failed to disclose it and having denied that anything of the sort had ever happened in the first place. When the story of the meeting broke open in July of last year, Trump Jr. quickly issued a statement that the meeting had been about Russian adoption, except that statement was dictated by his father, who had recently discussed that very topic in person with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Then, during the rolling political disaster that followed, Trump Jr. was forced to revise his recollection several times and ultimately admit that information about Clinton and the Democratic Party had been offered up front  though he claimed that offer had had just been a ruse to arrange the meeting, and that there were no further interactions with the Russians.

Amid the fallout, Trump Jr. even released his own emails regarding the meeting, which proved that it had been pitched to him, by music publicist Rob Goldstone, as a meeting with the Crown prosecutor of Russia who had offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. Trump Jr. was also told the offer was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. He quickly replied, if its what you say I love it.

At a press conference not long after composing his sons statement, the elder Trump again tried to downplay the meeting, suggesting it was too brief to be significant, falsely implying that Trump Jr. had not known he was taking a meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, and making it sound as though Trump Jr. and the Russians mostly just talked about adoption. The president also alluded to the promised Clinton dirt, asserting that he thought from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting  its called opposition research or even research into your opponent.

Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but its very standard where they have information and you take the information, Trump continued, again indicating that neither he nor his son thought taking anti-Clinton intel from the Russians was out of bounds.

In the case of Don, he listened, I guess they talked about, as I see it, they talked about adoption and some things. Adoption wasnt even a part of the campaign, but nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting, and honestly I think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people were doing.

But for something so many people were supposedly doing or willing to do, the Trumps and their advisers clearly thought it was bad enough that they repeatedly tried to hide it. Trump Jr. had previously claimed that he had never participated in any such meeting. Did I meet with people that were Russian? Im sure, Im sure I did, Trump Jr. said in March 2017. But none that were set up, he continued. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.

How Trump's defense has "evolved": we had no meetings with Russians >> had a meeting, but it was about adoption >> wasn't about adoption, but who knew? >> was "to get information on an opponent," but I didn't know >>> ???  David Lauter (@DavidLauter) August 5, 2018

Also on Sunday, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, who has had to walk back a lot of his statements on the Trump Tower meeting, admitted that it was a mistake for him to have claimed that President Trump didnt dictate Trump Jr.s Russian adoption statement. Over time facts develop, Sekulow explained as part of his excuse.

President Trumps other claim in his Sunday tweet  that he did not know about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians  may also be exposed as a lie. Last week, CNN reported that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has claimed that the president did know about the meeting in advance, and that he was willing to tell the Mueller investigation about it. Cohen has reportedly said he was with Trump when he was told about the meeting  and that the then-candidate gave his approval to proceed.

President Trump repeatedly insists there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russian government, and he will undoubtedly continue to maintain that. But on Sunday, he effectively admitted that his son had indeed taken a meeting with a Kremlin-linked official in the hopes of colluding with the Russian government. Perhaps the Trumps, as they claim, didnt accept any help from Russia to win the 2016 election  but as even the president now acknowledges, they definitely wanted it.

This post has been updated to include Trumps last known reference to the meeting being in some way related to intel about Clinton, in July 2017.
GREENWICH  As a ban on plastic bags takes effect next month, environmentalists and policy-makers are turning their attention to use of plastic straws and the damage they can inflict on the environment.

Town lawmakers approved the ban of the thin plastic bags from local stores in March.

The discussion over waste, plastics and single-use straws has now become a major topic for businesses and consumers in Greenwich, following a national trend.

A lot of businesses are being won over, said Claire Werner, a member of the local environmental advocacy group, Bring Your Own (BYO) Greenwich. Everyones looking how to proceed in a responsible and economically viable way to solve this pollution problem.

Starbucks announced last month it would remove single-use plastic straws from its stores by 2020, eliminating more than 1 billion plastic straws per year from their stores. American Airlines made a similar announcement. Earlier this year, Hyatt hotels said plastic straws would be available only upon request. McDonalds is also testing alternatives to plastic straws.

At the municipal level, on July 1, the city of Seattle banned the use of plastic straws, becoming the first major U.S. city to do so. Other cities, including New York City, are considering similar steps.

In Greenwich, those moves by big corporations and municipal governments are being followed closely by members of BYO, the advocacy group behind the move to enact the plastic bag ban in Greenwich.

Weve become too accustomed to being a throwaway society, to believing that convenience is the ultimate priority. In our view, there are other priorities. Theres long term thinking. We dont live in a disposable world anymore, said Mary Shaw Marks, a member of BYO.

She said Greenwich is at the forefront of the movement to limit waste associated with plastics. We feel Greenwich has been a leader in the state in this regard. We were the second town (to ban bags), after Westport, and now dozens of towns are coming to us, asking how you do this, said Shaw Marks.

She said a number of local businesses, clubs and restaurants have been considering the elimination of plastic straws, or switching to paper.

What does your town want to be? Taking a chance of polluting your environment? Or forward thinking and innovative? When the whole world is addressing plastic pollution, why wouldnt Greenwich be right up there, too? asked Jeanine Behr Getz of BYO.

Local businesses have been taking a hard look at the plastic straw issue, few more than Green and Tonic, which produces a large number of smoothies in easy-to-consume cups every day. The store is working toward the elimination of plastic straws.

As a healthy plant-based shop that sells smoothies and strives to keep our eco-footprint small and gentle, weve tried to get away from plastic straws in the past. We currently offer paper ones as an alternative to our plastic ones or re-usable metal ones for purchase, said Green and Tonic marketing manager Emily Watson.

We even encourage our guests to sip their smoothie neat, without a lid or Watson said. When youre on the go, like so many of our guests, however, a lid and straw is almost mandatory. Thats why were really happy and proud to offer a really awesome paper straw in the next several weeks. Its wide and sturdy enough for smoothies, and we cant wait to launch it.

Paper straws will add cost for the store, she said, But we know that our purchases are leading to a more sustainable future and a happier planet. And if more and more shops like ours move to paper straws, it will become the norm and customer expectation will shift for the better.

At Town Hall, Director of Environmental Affairs Patricia Sesto said the town administration isnt contemplating any regulatory action on plastic straws. She said the movement to cut down on plastic straws appears to have plenty of grassroots momentum without any input from government officials.

Right now the social movement associated with it is cruising along pretty well, Sesto said. It just got to the tipping point ... Already, you go to restaurants, and you see paper straws or people declining straws.

While the discussion over straws is continuing, town officials and BYO are focused on the successful roll-out of the plastic bag ban on Sept. 12. Customers will be expected to bring their own bags when shopping, and stores will offer paper bags to those who dont.

BYO has held a collection drive to collect 5,000 reusable bags to give to anyone who needs them. We want to be focused on the bags, to make sure thats successful, that everyone is comfortable, Shaw Marks said.

Sesto said she is cautiously optimistic the bag ban will be an easy transition. She said the town recently carried out a mass mailing to local businesses about the new bag policy, and there were only 10 or so questions about compliance from local businesses.

I see that as a positive, Sesto said.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
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As per tradition, rumors started flying in as early as March this year. We were hearing all sorts of crazy stories including in-display fingerprint and a built-in breathalyzer for the S Pen. But as time passed by, the dust settled and we started seeing more reasonable and accurate information regarding the future Samsung flagship.

Most fans will probably be disappointed to know that the Note9 won't be radically different from its predecessor, the Galaxy Note8. but there's a silver lining to it. This means that the Note9 won't be getting one of those pesky notches and the 3.5 mm audio jack is here to stay. Sadly, the same goes for the Bixby button, although it will be faster and will offer extended functionality.

Also, the rear-mounted fingerprint reader's new position has been confirmed numerous times. So no excessive stretching of your fingers and, no smudgy camera lenses anymore. Yay!

To spice things up, Samsung is reportedly throwing in new colors that will affect the S Pen's appearance as well. The Coral Blue variant with the yellow S Pen is probably the hottest looking one.



The Galaxy Note9 color versions



Note9's supposedly available colors

But enough about the design. As always, the Note9 will pack impressive hardware. The device will be built around a big 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen, with QHD+ resolution and improved outdoor visibility, compared to last year's model. The Snapdragon 845 will sit behind the wheel in the US and Chinese market, as before, while the rest of the world will get Samsung's in-house Exynos 9810 Octa chipset, which can be found on the Galaxy S9 and S9+.

On the memory front, Samsung will introduce a new 8GB/512GB variant. We've been hearing about this every now and then and the initial reports claim that this particular configuration will only be available in Korea. But the leaked intro video of the handset yesterday, which Samsung already took down, points at 1TB total storage achieved by 512GB internal storage and another 512GB, via a microSD card. The base version will have 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.



Galaxy S9+ on the left, Galaxy Note9 on the right

From what we've gathered from the recently leaked hands-on video, the Note9 will borrow the Galaxy S9+'s camera setup. This was later confirmed, by the retail box, listing all the key specs and features. So, in the end, the phone should get a 12MP main camera, with variable aperture (f/1.5-2.4) and a telephoto lens, with a 12MP sensor and f/2.4 aperture.

The duo of cameras will have an upgrade over the Galaxy S9+ - the length of the super slow-motion 960fps video clips will be doubled. And on the front, the handset will get a familiar 8MP camera sitting alongside the iris scanner.

Another big selling point of the Note9 will be the S Pen. We feel like the latter has been left out in the past couple of updates of the Note-series, but the Note9's stylus game could be stronger than expected, if the rumored features turn out to be true.

The latest version of the stylus will work as a Bluetooth remote controller for self-timer and shutter button on the camera app, music playback control and even some game-related functionalities. The S Pen will charge wirelessly, once docked so no need to worry about that either.

Moving on to multimedia, Samsung once again partnered with AKG to bundle its smartphone with AKG earbuds. Not only that, but the Galaxy Note9 will in all likeliness be equipped with stereo loudspeakers, tuned by AKG.

The device is expected to ship with Android 8.1 Oreo and Samsung's Samsung Experience UI, while a considerably larger 4,000 mAh battery will make sure this is Note phone with the best battery life so far. That last claim was confirmed by Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency and the retail box, we showed you.

Since the back is made of glass, support for wireless charging is inevitable. The Korean company even plans to release a fast dual wireless charger along with the phone, so that you can charge it up together with the Galaxy Watch.

Finally we come to pricing. The good news is that it won't be more expensive than its predecessor, but the bad news is that's still around 999 in Europe and $930 in the US. We guess even that's a positive development though, as just about every lineup is getting more and more expensive these days, so remaining flat almost feels like progress.

So that's the picture leaks and rumors paint and it's a pretty detailed one. The official unveiling on August 9 will show if Samsung managed to hide some cool bits to surprise us. We'll be on-site, supplying you with timely coverage and first-hand impression.

But until the time comes, feel free to stop by the comments section and tell us if you like what you have seen so far and if the Galaxy Note9 managed to impress you.
Published on 2018/08/05 | Source

The International Fleet Review will be held at a naval base in Jeju on Oct. 10-14 despite protests from locals who did not want the noise and commotion in their backyard.

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A Navy spokesman told reporters on Tuesday, "We decided to hold the International Fleet Review in Jeju to have an opportunity to heal the scars of conflict caused in the process of building the port, to achieve reconciliation and to find a win-win solution between civilians and the military".

This year's fleet review is the third and marks the 70th anniversary of the armed forces. The Navy plans a parade on Oct. 12.

The naval base will be opened to the public on Oct. 13-14, and Korean and foreign naval vessels will also be accessible to civilian visitors. Visitors will be introduced to the cultures of various participating countries with hands-on events and performances.

Adm. Sim Seung-seob, the chief of naval operations, thanked residents of Jeju and Gangjeong Village, where the port was built, "for helping make it possible to hold the fleet review".
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
Published on 2018/08/05 | Source

Yemenis wait to file asylum applications in Jeju, in this undated picture. /Newsis

The government on Wednesday promised to toughen screening of asylum seekers amid a surge of xenophobia over the arrival of hundreds of Yemenis on Jeju Island.

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Record numbers of citizens signed a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website urging the government to toughen screening of foreigners.

But Cheong Wa Dae pointed out that Korean independence fighters benefited from generous asylum policies in the early 1900s, freely setting up an interim government in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of Korea.

"We must discuss the issue of refugees based on an understanding of foreign cultures", a Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said.

The petition was put up on June 13 and drew 714,875 signatures, prompted by the arrival of 549 Yemenis in Jeju who fled civil war and famine in their country by taking advantage of a visa waiver aimed at attracting tourists.

Jung Hye-seung, the presidential secretary in charge of the website, said, "Many people became refugees during the Korean War, and residents of Jeju fled to Japan during the Jeju Massacre", a murderous postwar government campaign to root out communism. Jung added that more thought needs to be put into the issue but added the top priority will be the safety of Korean citizens.

Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said, "We will bolster the screening process by making it mandatory for asylum applicants to submit their social media accounts and other measures". "We will conduct stringent screenings for drug use, infectious diseases and records of violent crimes", he added.

The minister also pledged to crack down on human traffickers who take money to send foreigners to Korea with the promise that asylum seekers can abuse the country's permission to work while their paperwork is being reviewed.

Cheong Wa Dae had been silent on the issue until now, apparently because the government's core constituency is among the most xenophobic groups in society.

"Opposition to refugees is high especially among people in their 20s and 30s and women", a Cheong Wa Dae official said, and is related to high youth unemployment and safety fears among women. "There were concerns of a backlash if we hastily expressed an opinion".
Published on 2018/08/05 | Source

Storefronts are empty in Myeong-dong, Seoul on Sunday.

Seoul's major shopping districts are seeing a raft of store closures as the economic slump takes a deeper bite.

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Myeong-dong in downtown Seoul, Tehran-no area in Gangnam and the trendy Hongik University neighborhood have seen store vacancies rise sharply over the last year.

According to the Korea Appraisal Board, vacancies among mid-sized to large stores in the capital rose from 9.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017 to 10.7 percent in the same period of this year. In Myeong-dong it rose from four to 6.4 percent and in Tehran-no from 9.3 to 11.9 percent.

Although vacancies fell in the Hongik University area for larger stores, the opening of big shopping malls drew away customers from small stores in the area, with vacancies surging from 3.7 to 18.2 percent.

In Itaewon in central Seoul, one out of five stores remains vacant after the U.S. Forces Korea headquarters moved to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

There are several reasons for the slump, the main one being a decline in tourists. The number of tourists in the first half of this year dropped 10.9 percent from 2016 to 7.22 million. Chinese package tourists were kept away by the boycott over the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery, and they made up a substantial proportion of customers for pure shopping destinations.

Another reason could be that big businesses have shortened the working week. "The shortened work week resulted in office workers heading home early instead of having company dinners, so sales on Thursdays and Fridays, which are the peak days, fell by 50 percent", the owner of a restaurant in Myeong-dong said. "Sales have dropped 15 percent overall but staff costs keep rising" because of the minimum wage hike.

On the upside, rents have fallen in top locations. According to the KAB, the rising vacancy rates in Myeong-dong have prompted store rents to fall two percent from W914,595 to W896,544 per 3.3 sq.m (US$1=W1,119).

A realtor said, "The number of Chinese tourists has yet to recover, while the shortened working week and minimum-wage hike have scared off small businesses. With few people venturing to open their own store in this slump, the situation is likely to get worse".
Published on 2018/08/05 | Source

Changdeok Palace is the most popular royal palace in Seoul, according to a straw poll released on Tuesday.

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In the poll of 356 foreign tourists conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, about 43 percent chose Changdeok Palace, known for its secluded paths, ponds and feeling of natural harmony. They especially liked the nighttime tours.

The runner-up was Gyeongbok Palace, which is probably the best known of Seoul's five royal palaces. Changgyeong Palace took third place.
By Panos Kotzathanasis | Published on 2018/08/04

With a base focused on showing the blights of capitalism towards the traditional way of life, "Ieodo" (or "Ieoh Island" as it is also known) soon reveals its true, thriller-like nature, through a quite complex narrative that includes flashbacks into flashbacks, and an atmosphere that thrives on ritualism.

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The aforementioned island is one of the many in the Korean archipelago whose economy is based on its women divers. However, the element that distinguishes this particular one is a curse that seems to haunt the men born there, who are destined to die in the sea near the island, no matter how far they try to escape. According to the legend, these men end up in Iodo Island, a place no one seems to pinpoint its location.

Seon Woo-hyeon works for an agency that is about to build a hotel in one of the islands in the area. In a publicity stunt, he takes the investors and the press to a tour around the islands, supposedly in an exploration trip to find the cursed island. One of the passengers is Cheon Nam-seok, a journalist who ends up drowned during the trip, with Seon Woo-hyeon being the main suspect for his death. In order to prove his innocence, the accused travels to Parang, along with the deceased's boss. In there, however, he comes across a series of strange stories revolving around the deaths of a number of males in the island, while he also learns of the troubling past of Cheon. The story becomes even more complicated when the local bar waitress, Sohn Min-ja, shares some tales about a secret girlfriend from the past, while the "shadow leader" of the island, a shaman, seems to have an agenda, along with the knowledge about the deceased, of her own.

As said in the prologue, Kim Ki-young's narrative is a complex one, since it includes two basic parallels, one in the present focusing on Sun's research, and one in the past, focusing on Cheon's life, actually starting with his childhood, and an oath his mother made a neighboring girl take about taking care of her son forever. Apart from these two basic ones, though, there are a number of peripheral stories presented through flashbacks, that revolve around the mysterious deaths of the men inhabiting the island and eventually connect the dots of the basic arcs. This approach induces the film with a sense of disorientation, and along with the ritualistic nature of the shamanism that seems to dominate the story and the "supernatural" events forms the basis of the narrative style, which thrives on mystery.

In terms of context, Kim focuses on portraying the clash between the modern and the traditional, the money-driven capitalism and the superstition-filled folklore, with the various stories repeatedly highlighting who the winner is, in dramatic fashion. The central theme of the film, though, seems to revolve around propagation, a concept that is mainly depicted through Seon Woo-hyeon's story, with it actually shaping his whole life, both in social and professional terms.

The production values of the film are a mixed lot. Jeong Il-seong's cinematography is exceptional, with him portraying the island and the area that surrounds it with artistry, through a combination of beauty and mystery that finds its apogee in the waving trees and the sea. Hyeon Dong-choon's editing is a bit strange, particularly due to the nature of the narrative, but through some repeating methods, as the images of sea waves before each one, he manages to keep the plethora of flashbacks from becoming confusing. On the other hand, the sound and the various SFX almost point toward the parody, in a testament of the productions lack of funds. The general atmosphere though, prevents the film from becoming one, with these faults being easily ignored as the story progresses, while the finale compensates for every fault.

The acting is on par with the film's aesthetics. Kim Jung-chul as Seon Woo-hyeon depicts his perplexion convincingly, while Choi Yoon-suk as Cheon Nam-seok is great in revealing his character's complexity, which derives from powers that seem to be above him. The ones who steal the show though, are the female leads. Lee Hwa-si as Son Min-ja, Park Jung-ja as the shaman and Kwon Mi-hye as Mrs Park are all exceptional, as they portray the mysteriousness surrounding their characters with gusto, with the scene in the finale and the various exorcisms additionally highlighting their great chemistry. Overall, the acting is characterized by a theatricality that follows the rules of the melodrama, but in the end, this tactic actually benefits the film.

"Ieodo" is a very interesting movie, a testament to Kim Ki-young's narrative abilities, and a must-see for anyone exploring Korea's cinematic past.

Review by Panos Kotzathanasis

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"Ieodo" is directed by Kim Ki-young and features Lee Hwa-si, Kim Jung-chul, Park Jung-ja, Park Am, Kwon Mi-hye, Choi Yoon-suk.

Available on Blu-ray from YESASIA



Blu-ray (En Sub)
By William Schwartz | Published on 2018/08/04

In the far-off year of 2029, reunificiation between South Korea and North Korea is imminent. There are riots in the street. So the South Korean government makes use of "Illang : The Wolf Brigade", a paramilitary task force that attacks anti-reunification terrorists. Jin-tae (played by Jung Woo-sung) leads the brigade. Cheol-jin (played by Choi Minho) gathers intelligence for them. Our main character Joong-kyeong (played by Gang Dong-won) agonizes over his past role in the death of a large number of innocent schoolgirls, taking solace upon meeting the mysterious Yoon-hee (played by Han Hyo-joo) at Seoul Tower.

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It's difficult to keep track of everything that's going on in this movie, mostly because information is withheld for the sake of later plot twists. The main thing we know for sure is that the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood is going to be metaphorically worked into the conclusion. Director Kim Jee-woon deliberately includes a lovingly creepy, highly stylized, minimally animated sequence where Joong-kyeong and Yoon-hee discuss the story's themes.

But more than the theming, I was caught off guard by how horribly tone-deaf "Illang : The Wolf Brigade" is politically. Take the opening scene in Gwanghwamun- a popular site of real life protests, except this particular anti-reunification protest features Wolf Brigade Stormtroopers, complete with terrifying all-black uniforms, beady red eyes and a huge face covering masks. The sudden appearance of violent terrorists is not a particularly convincing justification for their presence, considering that fascists have always used the excuse of violent terrorists to commit all manner of police state evil.

To an extent the production team is obviously aware of how unconvincing this looks. After the Wolf Brigade hunts down a bunch of normal humans in a sewer, the story shifts gears to a complicated conspiracy theory, since normal humans inevitably come off as the sympathetic side when they're fighting against nightmarish killing machines. Well, that and the romance between Joong-kyeong and Yoon-hee I guess. They don't really stand out that much compared to the infinitely more intense action scenes.

And that's the real shame here. "Illang : The Wolf Brigade" contains some of the legitimately greatest action sequences I have seen in quite some time. Every last confrontation is a brutal logistical battle. Firearms, robots, those suits, defensive ground, and scouting takes major preeminence in every conflict, whether Joong-kyeong's goal is to escape or exterminate all of his opponents. Yet for all this high tech mastery, a simple low tech move like smashing something with a giant metal pipe can be all it takes to force a complete turnabout in the latest battle.

Ironically enough the very brutal realism of the movie's violence, coupled with the political pretensions, completely kills any hope "Illang : The Wolf Brigade" has when it comes to functioning as escapism. While the movie is technically masterful, the moral implications are profoundly disturbing, and only made worse by the tacked-on happy ending. That much might just be an adaptational issue. The original Japanese version, Jin-roh: The Wolf Brigade, felt no need to pretend like any of its characters were particularly noble.

Review by William Schwartz

"Illang : The Wolf Brigade" is directed by Kim Jee-woon and features Gang Dong-won, Han Hyo-joo, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Mu-yeol, Han Ye-ri and Choi Minho.
Published on 2018/08/05 | Source

Workers smoke outside of an office building in Yeouido, Seoul on July 19.

Smokers who sneak out of the office for a cigarette during the shorter working week are increasingly under scrutiny from bosses who think that productivity is to be measured by long ineffectual hours at the desk.

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One office worker with a large retailer who smokes about half a pack a day has already had to cut back as his employer banned cigarette breaks at the busiest times.

"Most of my coworkers who smoke seem to be voluntarily cutting back", he said. "Many smoke either at lunch or before and after office hours".

Some big businesses keep electronic tabs on when staff leave and return to the office and cut it out of their working hours. One worker for a large IT company said, "Although smokers don't face clear-cut disadvantages, the electronic trail they leave behind each time they head out for a smoke makes them a bit uneasy".

Some traditionalists worry that cigarette breaks harm productivity. The Korea Health Promotion Institute contracted Ewha Womans University to assess the amount of time workers spend smoking at the office, which tallied it at an average of 41 minutes a day.

The university studied seven companies that employ on average 1,009 workers, and then boldly tried to tally the financial loss, regardless whether the workers had assembly-line jobs where presence at the post might translate into actual productivity or whether they would otherwise just sit at their desk surfing the web.

It arrived at a tentative figure of W3.18 million lost per employee a year based on a daily wage of W155,000 (US$1=W1,120).

Ahn Jung-hoon, a professor at Ewha, said, "The lost time does not include the time it takes for smokers to leave and return to the office, so the actual losses in productivity are probably bigger".

On the other hand, workers who smoke less may be healthier. The study estimated that if workers quit smoking, they will spend around a W530,000 less on medical costs five years later.

Kim Kwang-kee, a professor at Inje University, said, "We should no longer approach smoking as a personal problem but look at it as a crisis that requires the government to lead prevention".
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Alia Bhatt is back in town and in the mood to party. The actor was spotted with mother Soni Razdan and her best friend Akanksha in Mumbai on Friendship Day as they celebrated the day with cake and some fun all-girl time. It appeared to be a double date as Alia and her best friend and Soni and her best friend Anu came together for a rather loud lunch. Alia shared on Instagram, 2 + 2 friends = 1 loud lunch #happyfriendshipday.

Alia recently returned from Bulgaria where she was shooting with boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor for Ayan Mukerjis Brahmastra. While Alia is back, Ranbir and Amitabh Bachchan continue to shoot for the film. This is the first film in which Ranbir and Alia are starring together. Akanksha was also with Alia in Bulgaria and the two besties often shared photos together.

Alia Bhatt shared this on her Insta Stories.

#dishapatani snapped at Bastian A post shared by Viral Bhayani (@viralbhayani) on Aug 5, 2018 at 1:37am PDT

Alia is very close to mother Soni and the daughter-mother duo also starred in Raazi together. In an earlier Instagram post, Alia had called her mother her twin.

Talking of lunches, Disha Patani also stepped out for lunch with alleged boyfriend Tiger Shroffs mother Ayesha and sister Krishna. Strangely, Tiger Shroff was nowhere to be seen as this also became an all-girls affair. Dressed in a short green dress, Disha looked beautiful as always.

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This July, I ventured into the hallowed halls of the Victoria & Albert museum, with the highly coveted tickets of Making Herself Up in hand. The exhibition promised to offer a fresh perspective on Frida Kahlos compelling life story. I knew what most of us know about Kahlo already: she was a bold and passionate artist, a communist by belief, an obsessed lover; she had a bad back, a polio leg and she spent a lot of her childhood in bed, looking at herself in a hand mirror and sketching her own images. What more was there to know about her?

Frida Kahlos exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum has her prosthetic leg, a contraption attached to a red boot, with appliqued Chinese motifs (Photo: Javier Hinojosa. Museo Frida Kahlo.  Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Archives)

There was however, a yearning in me to see her major artworks, and I impatiently walked from one room of the exhibition to another, hurrying past her family photographs, pictures clicked by her photographer father, her rebozo shawls, other pieces of her iconic wardrobe, and the footage of the revolution. The only time I paused was when I came face-to-face with her vividly hypnotic self-portraits. There werent as many of her works on display as one had expected, but the ones that were spoke in vivid colours of beauty, ideals, love, exploration, joy and pain.

Love and pain

Very early in the retrospective, one picked up details of her accident through images, personal notes from her diary and sketches. Frida was already crippled by polio when a bus accident at the age of 18 caused trauma and internal damage to her body, ripping apart her uterus and fracturing her back and leg in several places. She recovered from it for some time and went on to fall in love with Diego Rivera with whom she shared her political beliefs and love for art.

Fridas self-portrait on the border between Mexico and the United States of America, 1932 (Photo: (c) Modern Art International Foundation , Courtesy Maria and Manuel Reyero)

There are breathlessly romantic letters exchanged between her and Diego on display too, along with translations. Kahlo affectionately called Diego frog because his bulging eyes and body reminded her of one. Their marriage was complex and tumultuous but it did not discourage her from marrying him twice.

I have suffered two major accidents in my life, one was when a street car knocked me down and the other was Diego, she is known to have said.

Self-portrait of Frida Kahlo, 1941 (Photo: (c) The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of 20th Century Mexican Art and The Vergel Collection)

Fridas enduring love for Diego compared only with her commitment and love for her country Mexico and during her long travels to the US, even as she was surrounded by admirers, she missed Mexico and longed to return to it.

Frida was already crippled by polio when a bus accident at the age of 18 ripped apart her uterus and fractured her back and leg

The video footage of the blue house (La Casa Azul) where Frida was born, raised and died, is comforting and affirmative to look at against the backdrop of all the information that one has on her life. She lived in that house with Diego after they were married; Diegos infidelity caused her great anguish, so the footage that features the two of them in it gives a heart-warming glimpse of their good days together.

Sore feet, soaring wings

It is only once you arrive inside the room that has on display her medicines, medical equipment, corsets, plasters painted with communist symbols, crutches and photographs of her with foot in traction, painting a canvas with great effort from her hospital bed, that you begin to appreciate the courage and forbearance that defined Kahlos short life.

Self-Portrait of Frida Kahlo, 1948 (Photo: (c) Private Collection)

Among these very personal belongings is also her prosthetic leg, a contraption attached to a beautiful red boot with appliqued Chinese motifs on it. She had it designed as per her specifications, and it is a very personal article that one is not sure she would have ever wanted to display to the world. The hand-painted plasters that speak of the pain they could not confine, make one wince, especially when one realises that one is staring at extreme human suffering, not mere plasters. Pies para que los quiero si tengo alas para volar, reads the inscription of a painting displayed next to Kahlos crutches. The quote translates to, Feet, what do I need them for, when I have wings to fly.

Art isnt just about how you draw and paint but also how you present yourself to the world and Making Herself Up uncovers that aspect of Fridas fierce personality. One of the earliest feminist icons, she maintained her famous unibrow and the prominent hair on her upper lip, refusing to succumb to conventions she felt were forced upon women.

Fridas suffering wasnt limited to her limbs and back alone. While her spine that was broken in various parts was held together by corsets, there was another irreparable setback that left her devastated. She suffered a miscarriage.

I cried a lot, but its over, there is nothing else that can be done except to bear it, Frida wrote to her personal doctor.

I have suffered two major accidents in my life: one was when a street car knocked me down, and the other was Diego Frida Kahlo

An illustration depicting her miscarriage hangs inside one of the cabinets at the exhibition. It shows a woman mourning the loss of her unborn child and an artist holding a palette in her hand, conveying to the viewer a sense of the mothers grief but at the same time also the artist searching for creative expression.

Expressionless mannequins wearing reproductions of her unconventional skirts and intricately designed blouses fill up a room. Her clothes were an expression of her individuality but more importantly a beautiful way to mask her disabilities.

When I finally exited the exhibition, what stayed with me was the realisation that pain was Kahlos constant companion.

Making Herself Up didnt seek to elicit sympathy for the artist. It was a homage to her physical agonies and it exhorts us to view the artists entire life as a work of art by itself.

Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, is on till November 4

Shunali is a writer, an avid traveller and the author of the bestselling book Battle Hymn of a Bewildered Mother. (It is, however, her strong opinion on Twitter that often gets her the most attention.) Follow her on social media at @shunalishroff

From HT Brunch, August 5, 2018

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The ruling BJP on Sunday said the Uttarakhand government might soon create a National Register of Citizens (NRC) on the pattern of Assam so that infiltrators entry into the state could be banned, a move that drew a sharp criticism from the Congress.

The Opposition party alleged the BJP governments move to create an NRC is an attempt to polarise the society ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and divert its attention from the all-round failures of the BJP regime at the Centre and its involvement in a scam in its Rafale fighter aircraft deal with the French government.

The BJP government downplayed its supposed move to create an NRC, stating it was only keeping a close watch on the infiltrators. It is not something unusualOfficials have always been on standing orders to keep a watch on people with fake identitiesIf any such individuals are caught living in the state, strict action would be taken against them, cabinet minister Madan Kaushik told reporters on Saturday.

He was replying to a query if the government was planning to prepare a dossier like NRC that has excluded over four million people in Assam. Kaushik also parried queries about the data concerning people with fake identities living in the state.

The BJP though claimed that the state government might create an NRC to identify the infiltrators. Our government is serious about the issue of infiltrators staying in the state, state BJP president Ajay Bhatt said. The government, he clarified, is also serious about creating an NRC in the national interest, so they (infiltrators) cease to become a threat to our country and burden on our resources.

The Congress hit out at the BJP, accusing the ruling party of diverting public attention from the scam in the fighter aircraft deal between India and France. Not only is that party trying to divert the peoples attention from the scam in the (Rafale) fighter aircraft deal but also from the central governments failures to fulfil the promises it (BJP) made ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, said Congress leader Surendra Kumar. It (BJP) is also trying to polarise the society ahead of the next (2019) Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.

A BJP leader, who holds a senior position in the state government, said the Congresss anger over the NRC issue is understandable. It is understandable because thousands of migrants from Bangladesh who illegally settled in Udham Singh Nagar district and elsewhere in this state post the India-Pakistan war are the Congress partys vote bank, he alleged. It is they (Congress) who got the fake Bengali settlers the status of bona fide citizens by providing them critical documents like voter identity cards and ration cards, the BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.

The Congress leaders are worried about NRC because such infiltrators forming that partys vote bank are settled not only in this state but also across the country.

On the NRC issue the BJP has got support from its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates. A process like NRC is necessary not only for this state but also for the entire nation because it will also help keep the infiltrators out of the country, said former state RSS general secretary LP Jaiswal. He agreed that the infiltrators are not only a drain on the countrys precious resources but are also a security threat to the country.

Bhatt rubbished the allegation levelled by the Congress that the BJPs supposed plan to create an NRC was to polarise the society ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. That is a baseless allegation aimed to mislead the people, he said. The concept of NRC was mooted in the Assam accord which was an agreement reached between the Congress government and the leaders of the Assam movement in 1985.
Delhi Assemblys five-day Monsoon Session is set to begin from Monday. Three important topics installation of CCTV cameras, Supreme Court verdict on the powers of the elected government and a separate public service commission for Delhi  have been listed for discussion on the first day of the session.

A new confrontation between the bureaucrats and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which was sparked when transport minister Kailash Gahlot allegedly misbehaved with transport secretary Varsha Joshi on Friday, is likely to resonate in the House. Gahlot has denied the allegations.

Fridays alleged incident may also lead to officers boycotting assembly committee proceedings. During the last assembly session, IAS officers boycotted proceedings after an alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash by AAP MLAs at chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence on February 19.

The session, which is likely to start with the question hour, has at least 20 items listed on the agenda. The question hour will be followed by legislators raising issues related to their constituencies and then to the House business (list of resolutions). During the Assemblys Summer Session in June, AAP legislators had alleged the officers had not given complete answers to their questions. The move was taken up by the Speaker of the House Ram Niwas Goel after which the matter was referred to the Assemblys privilege committee.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said he hoped IAS officers would provide answers to all questions asked by the MLAs. This five-day session is basically to raise issues and questions, which have already been notified. Several short duration discussions including a separate cadre of officers for Delhi have been listed for Monday, said Bhardwaj.

This will also be the first session after the Supreme Courts July 4 order on the power tussle between the elected government and the lieutenant-governor.

Besides, two resolutions are expected to be tabled in the House on August 10 by private members. One of the resolutions is regarding officers allegedly providing misleading information to the media and the court about House panels.

The resolution titled To condemn behaviour of officers providing misleading information to the media and the court of law about the assembly committees is to be tabled by AAP MLA from Ghonda, Shri Dutt Sharma.

Sharma, who is also a member of privilege committee, claimed officers had been spreading misinformation about Assembly committees in the media and to the court.

Another resolution likely to be tabled in the House is over the menace of stray dogs and monkeys in Delhi. The resolution is to be brought in by AAP legislator from Chandni Chowk, Alka Lamba.

Besides these resolutions, a privilege committee report is also likely to be tabled during the session.

The privilege committee is likely to table its report against an officer of the Delhi Waqf Board for misleading the Assemblys question and reference committee on a matter pertaining to illegal sale of some land belonging to dargah of sufi saint Naseeruddin Aulia, a member of the committee said.

Also, BJP MLAs are expected to question the government over frequent cases of waterlogging in the city.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday announced a reward of Rs 11 lakh to whosoever exposing those who damaged the government bungalow he used to reside in.

Addressing party workers while flagging in the SP cycle rally from Ballia to Lucknow at Janeshwar Mishra Park here, Yadav denied any illegal construction at the bungalow when he was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and refuted allegations that he or his near ones were behind the damages.

Some people, under the cover of night, went there (to the bungalow) with hammers the day we vacated the house. Names of those people must come out. SP will give 11 lakh to the person who exposes their names, he said.

Neither did we cause any damage to the house nor did we make any illegal constructions. We have provided all the evidence in the form of NOCs (no objection certifications), maps and other documents, he said.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) president has come under attack over alleged illegal construction and the damage caused to the government bungalow at 4, Vikramaditya Marg in Lucknow.

Last week, citing a 266-page report of a technical committee, the government said that an estimated damage to the tune of Rs 5.84 lakh was caused in the bungalow which included floor, brickworks, plaster, paint and sanitary fixtures.

In a taunt, Akhilesh said that now, the big ministers of the BJP government are writing applications to get the bungalow.

He said the ministers were not interested in the bungalows vacated by other former chief ministers Rajnath Singh or Kalyan Singh. They want the one that was vacated by me. So one can easily guess whose government did the development works, he said.

Earlier, health minister Sidharth Nath Singh had said that the report submitted by the five-member committee had stated that Yadav not only caused damage to the government bungalow but also carried out illegal construction inside it.

He carried out extra construction without taking permission of the estate department. Legal action will be taken against him for flouting the rules, he said.

His party also released the government orders, documents and maps approved by the Lucknow Development Authority pertaining to the construction of the bungalow.

The estate departments documents released by the SP said Rs 89.9 lakh were released for the outhouse, security room and waiting room in 2015 and the LDA-approved maps showed that the constructions were legal.

The Supreme Court on May 7, 2018, struck down the amendment to the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (salaries, allowances and miscellaneous provisions) Act, 1981, to provide government residence to former chief ministers throughout their lifetime.

Former CMs, including Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh, Akhilesh Yadav and ND Tiwari vacated the government bungalows following the Supreme Court order.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Sunday attacked the Congress again over Assams National Register for Citizens (NRC) and dared it to clear its stand on the OBC Bill, saying that would expose whether the party was really for the backward communities.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, commonly known as OBC Bill, was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 2 and will now go to the Rajya Sabha. The proposed legislation seeks to grant the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) constitutional status on a par with National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Shah, who attended a function over the renaming of Mughalsarai railway junction to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction, charged the Opposition with vote bank politics on the issue of NRC.

Complying with the orders of the Supreme Court, we have brought the NRC. Mamata Banerjee says NRC should not be there. Congress says there is no need for it. For the last four days, I am asking Rahul baba (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) whether NRC should be there or not. Rahul ji is not responding, he said.

Do the Congress, Samajwadi Party and BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) want Bangladeshi intruders to stay in the country? I know the people of UP dont want Bangladeshi infiltrators here. Every Bangladeshi infiltrator should be thrown out of the country, he said.

The Modi government has got the OBC Bill passed in the Lok Sabha. This will go to the Rajya Sabha. Will Rahul Gandhi clear his stand before the country whether his party will help in the passage of the Bill in Rajya Sabha or not? This will make it clear whether the Congress is really for the welfare of backward classes, Shah said.

Shah, railway minister Piyush Goyal and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath formally unveiled the renamed stations plaque, giving the over-a-century-old Mughalsarai junction a new identity. Shah termed the moment as historic.

Goyal said, Renaming of the (Mughalsarai) junction is a matter of pride. Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya is a sapoot (son) of the railways as his father and maternal uncle worked for the railways.

This name will be a source of inspiration for all, Adityanath said.

The state government had issued a notification to rename Mughalsarai junction on June 4 and sent a copy to the Railway Board and other departments concerned. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the Bharatiya Jan Sanghs founder member, was found dead near the station under mysterious circumstances in February 1968.

(With PTI inputs)
Fugitive Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Bimal Gurung has accused West Bengals Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of secretly identifying land in Darjeeling to accommodate people excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

Settling illegal Bangladeshis, who have been excluded from NRC in Assam, creates a national security threat, warned Gurung, a former Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chief executive, in a statement issued from his hideout late on Saturday.

Anit Thapa, a leader of rival Binoy Tamang-led GJM faction and GTA vice-chairman, accused Gurung of misleading the people. He said Gurung been away from the Darjeeling hills for over a year just to save his life. He has left people to suffer. More importantly, after himself being involved in subversive activities, he has no right to talk about national security. He is trying to mislead the people of the hills.

TMCs Darjeeling district (hills) president and Mirik municipality chairman L B Rai dismissed Gurungs allegations as totally baseless. He is unnecessarily trying to make things murkier.

The Tamang faction has echoed chief minister Banerjees allegations that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government was trying to create turmoil through the NRC. According to it, nearly one lakh Gorkhas have been excluded from the NRC.

Gurung has been on the run since he was booked under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, for violence during the last round of agitation for statehood that rocked Darjeeling in June last year.

The GJM split following a three-month-long bandh for the statehood demand. The Tamang faction took control of the partys larger section and is currently running the GTA, a semi-autonomous administrative body, with the state governments backing.

Gurungs statement is being seen as an attempt to seek relevance as TMC seeks to wrest the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat from the BJP, which won in 2014 because of GJMs support.

GJMs pro-BJP Gurung faction has dominated politics in Darjeeling since 2008.
The Bihar government has suspended six officials of the state social welfare department in connection with the sexual abuse of minors at a Muzaffarpur shelter home.

The officials had failed to report undesirable activities and take timely corrective steps at shelter homes in Muzaffarpur as well as other places despite being flagged about it in a social and audit report by Koshis, a field-action project of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, a senior official said on the condition of anonymity.

The six, who were posted as assistant directors of child protection units in Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Bhojpur districts, were charged with negligence and dereliction of duty. A notification for their suspension has been issued by the department.

The official said more heads are likely to roll as the investigation gains momentum in the coming days. Social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma is also under pressure to resign, given her husbands alleged involvement in the incident, he added.

Besides this, the government has started preparing a roadmap for complete restructuring of the department of social welfare to plug loopholes that unscrupulous non-governmental organisations allegedly took advantage of. It also plans to fill existing vacancies and make new contractual appointments in the department to enhance monitoring of such homes.

Read: Muzaffarpur shelter home rape: Accused used sex racket to get govt funds, says report

The official said the scandal highlighted gaping flaws in the system. The guilty wont be able to get away, considering that the CBI is probing the case. However, the larger issue now is to develop a robust monitoring mechanism to prevent such instances from recurring, he added.

The official said the likes of main accused Brajesh Thakur were able to pull off the scandal due to lack of monitoring brought about by numerous vacancies in the social welfare department. Two joint director posts and three deputy director posts are still vacant. There are only five assistants, as opposed to the sanctioned strength of 12. There is just one section officer. How can effective monitoring happen when the staff is spread this thin? The posts were sanctioned when Bihar had 10 to 15 shelter homes, but the number has now gone up to 110, he added.

Social welfare department director Raj Kumar asserted that the government will do everything in its power to plug the loopholes. After this incident, there is no room for delay. We are working on them, he said.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had broken his silence on the issue on Friday, condemning certain individuals for committing heinous sins.

I have underlined the need for removing flaws in the system that allow such transgressions to happen. We need to be alert, and make every effort to develop a transparent mechanism to ensure that such incidents are discovered in time. Otherwise, the entire system will be defamed, he said.

The matter is listed for hearing in the apex court on August 7.
A senior BJP leader in Assam has claimed that an equal number of Muslims and Hindus may have been left out of the draft of National Register of Citizens published on July 30. The draft excluded 40,07,707 people.

It is my idea that an equal number of Hindus and Muslims have been left out, said Kabindra Purkayastha, the former Union minister of state said on Saturday. It is propaganda that there are more Muslims or more Hindus.

Purkayastha gave no explanation for his 50-50 theory. There has been no official break up of religious affiliations of those left out of the NRC with Prateek Hajela, the state coordinator of NRC going on record to say that the secretariat does not have a religious data of applicants. We did not ask for it, Hajela said.

Assam has 61.4 percent Hindus and 34.2 percent Muslims according to the 2011 census.

Purkayastha is confident that a majority of the 40 lakh people not named in the NRC will eventually make it to the list.

Even in these 40 lakh, at least 25 lakh will get in during the claims and objections exercise, said the three-time former MP from Silchar who is credited with laying the foundations of the BJP in Assam.

He said there are clear directions from the BJP to its workers to ensure that all those people who have been left out of the draft are provided assistance.

Purkayastha said while several documents have been accepted by NRC officials in some places, they were ejected at others.

Refugee certificates were accepted in some places while rejected in many, he said adding how further consideration is needed. Bengali-speaking Barak Valley in Assam has a sizeable population of Hindus, a section of which has been traditional supporters of the BJP even before the party found its feet in other parts of the state.

Asked if BJP president Amit Shah was right when he said all those who are not part of the draft are illegal immigrants, Purkayastha said, It is a misunderstanding since Shah also said it is not a final list.
For the first time, ex-servicemen will join hands with Dalit organisations and the All India Kisan Sabha on August 9 to protest against the NDA government at the Centre, seeking redressal of their grievances.

The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM), which has in the past fought for one rank, one pension, rues that the government ignored many of their demands.

Whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised us on one rank, one pension has not been delivered. He lied to us. Earlier, we fought separately. Now, we will fight unitedly with farmers organisations and Dalits, Priyadarshi Chowdhury, coordinator for IESM, told PTI.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the farmers organisation of the CPI(M), has given a call for jail bharo across the country on August 9, demanding action on the agrarian crisis.

This is the first time ex-servicemen will join a protest called by a Left organisation. We have come together to put forward our demands, AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah said.

Though AIKS, Dalit organisations and the ex-servicemen have separate sets of demands, the three organisations will band together to protest the growing incidents of hate crime and lynching.

They are also expected to demand the passage of the Women Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha and scrapping of Aadhaar, which they feel has wreaked havoc on welfare schemes.

The AIKS has been pressing for fixing the minimum support price for all crops at 1.5 times the input cost, guaranteed procurement, one-time waiver of all loans of farmers and land to landless farmers.

Chowdhary said that their demands are  complete OROP as per approved definition of Parliament, pay parity and cancellation of the Cantonment Roads order.

Dalit organisations have demanded restoration of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 to its original form and establishment of Indian Judicial Service under Article 312 of the Constitution.

They have also demanded that the government withdraw cases against those detained under the stringent National Security Act on April 2, when a Bharat bandh was observed by Dalit groups.

While AIKS supporters in 400 districts across the country will hold a jail bharo agitation on August 9, the Dalit organisations will observe a Bharat bandh on that day.

We have ex-servicemen all over the country. After their retirement, most have gone back to farming and other jobs. So, we also support the farmers demands. We all share the demands made by the Dalit organisations, Chowdhury said.

Reacting to BJP president Amit Shah meeting former Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag as part of the partys outreach programme, Chowdhury said such initiatives cannot influence the ex-servicemen who were deceived by the prime minister.
For seamless experience of air travellers, the ministry of civil aviation has proposed a joint venture between private airport operators and Airports Authority of India (AAI) for implementing Digiyatra.

The Digiyatra platform will help passengers to plan their trips efficiently by identifying price trends and estimate future airfares at the time of booking. Passengers will have the option to link their Aadhaar to airlines at the time of booking for faster airport entry and automated check-ins.

The ministry is also trying to get in-principal approval from UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) to grant AUA (authentication user agency) to this yet to be formed company so that passengers can authenticate using Aadhaar.

The ministry has however, clarified that Aadhaar will not be mandatory and passengers can generate Digiyatra ID using other identification method as well.

MOCA will forward a proposal to UIDAI for in principal approval to grant AUA status to a company being formed by airport operators in which AAI will hold a minor stake. A common Digiyatra id platform will be built that offers the core services for enrolment, authentication, consented profile sharing, etc. Getting a Digiyatra ID will be completely voluntary and the choice of government id whether Aadhaar, PAN, passport, driving license or student ID will also be voluntary, said a civil aviation ministry official.

According to the officer, part of the technical committee formed for Digiyatra, there will be Digiyatra authentication kiosks at the airport and passengers face will be his ticket and boarding pass. The ministry is targeting January 1 as the launch date.

There will be no storage of Aadhaar number of any passenger and technical committee will prepare RFP and will select vendor for development, operations and maintenance of the Digiyatra platform, the officer added.
The ongoing Amarnath Yatra from Jammu to the cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley is being temporarily suspended as Kashmir readies for a two-day separatist-called shutdown ahead of the Supreme Court hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of Article 35 A of the Constitution.

The protest shutdown was called to support Article 35A that gives special powers to the state legislature.

Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) had given the call for a shutdown on Sunday and Monday across the state. The strike call is being supported by organisations across the spectrum, which have threatened to launch a mass agitation if the article is removed by the court.

Authorities said the pilgrimage is being suspended on Sunday and Monday. According to the police, no pilgrim was allowed to move from the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu.

Further, special check posts have been set up in Udhampur and Ramban to ensure that the movement of pilgrims does not take place on the Jammu-Srinagar highway which passes through these two districts.

However, pilgrims camped at the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps in the Valley will continue to perform the yatra, officials said. Over 2.71 lakh pilgrims have performed the pilgrimage this year since it opened on June 28.

Article 35A of the Constitution gives special rights to Jammu and Kashmirs permanent residents. It disallows people from outside the state from buying or owning immovable property there, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. It also forbids the J&K government from hiring people who are non-permanent residents.

Read | What is Article 35A and why the controversy

Four petitions  three clubbed with the main one filed by NGO We The Citizens  have challenged Article 35As legality on the grounds that it was never presented before Parliament and was implemented on the Presidents orders in 1954. Under the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954, the provision appears as an appendix in the Constitution and not an amendment.

The Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association has already filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court to defend the constitutional provision that allows the state legislature to define permanent residents and confers special rights on them. The bars team is already in New Delhi.

For the past three days, protests have been organised by various groups in different parts of the Valley as people fear that efforts are being made to remove the Article. Posters and video clips issued by separatists and social organisations have been making the rounds on social media, explaining Article 35As importance and dangers if it is repealed.

(With agency inputs)
There was a widespread shutdown in Kashmir on Sunday in protest ahead of Mondays hearing in the Supreme Court on a batch of petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution that guarantees special privileges to Jammu and Kashmir.

Srinagar woke up to deserted roads and markets as businesses and shops were closed and public transport remained off the roads amid heavy deployment of security forces in several areas.

Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), had called for the two-day shutdown on Sunday and Monday across the state, blaming the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) of attempts to change the demography of the state.

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a clutch of petitions against the Article 35A, which empowers the Jammu and Kashmirs legislature to define permanent residents of the state and provide special rights and privileges to them. Political parties in the state had asked the Supreme Court to defer the hearing, citing upcoming panchayat and urban local body elections.

The separatists had appealed to people to make Monday an outstanding protest day too and if God forbid any anti-Kashmir judgment is delivered by the court, be ready for a full-fledged peoples agitation.

Jammu Kashmir is a disputed territory and the people of this state have a unique identity, a rare distinctiveness and heritage and this uniqueness in fact guarantees our right of self-determination and therefore no Kashmiri can think of allowing any tinkering with this uniqueness, which is also known as state subject law, a statement by the separatists said.

Read: What is Article 35A and why the controversy

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP said on Saturday the party was open to a debate over Article 35A. The continuation of Article 35A will not have any benefit for the state. The central government has pumped crores of rupees into the state over the last 70 years but the development has not been as it should have been, the state BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said.

Many residents said on Sunday the intensity of shutdown was unprecedented, citing the example of auto-rickshaws being off the roads, which they said had rarely happened in the past 30 years in the Valley. Even the Dal Lakes iconic shikaras (leisure boats) lay moored in the jetties.

There is an unprecedented concern among people that our special status will be revoked and our land will open to machinations from outside. How can we remain silent? said 34-year-old Javaid Ahmad, a Shikara owner.

State authorities suspended movement of Amarnath Yatra convoys from Jammu to Kashmir owing to the shutdown even though the pilgrims present in Kashmir were allowed to move towards the cave shrine from the two base camps.

A sit-in followed by a protest rally was organized by traders in the city-centre against any change in states special status.

Kashmir is a political issue and any change in our laws to weaken our position wont be allowed. People of J&K wont allow anybody or any government to play with our (special) laws, said Yasin Khan, president of the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation.

Four petitions  three clubbed with the main one filed by NGO We The Citizens  have challenged Article 35As legality on the ground that it was never presented before Parliament and was implemented on the Presidents orders in 1954. Under the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954, the provision appears as an appendix in the Constitution and not an amendment.

The strike call was supported by many organisations, including trade, travel and tourism bodies and civil society members, who have also threatened mass protests.

The ordinary Kashmiri is worried about his future. Everybody is waiting with bated breath as to what the Supreme Court will pronounce on Article 35A, said senior journalist Altaf Hussain.

Since August 1, there have been repeated protests in the state against any change in Article 35A and Article 370, with the states main political parties such as the National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party taking to the streets. Senior Congress leaders in the state have also warned of a massive agitation if Article 35A is tweaked.

While Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Article 35A disallows people from the rest of India from buying or owning immovable property in the state, settle permanently, or get state government jobs.

Any fiddling with states special position is fraught with the dangerous consequences and could turn the state into a veritable inferno, leaving all the peace building measures of the past in tatters. It is a high time that instead of a confrontational attitude, the central government needs to put its best foot forward and explore the ways that could make peace an inseparable feature of the state, said Peoples Democratic Party chief spokesman Rafi Ahmad Mir on Sunday.

The state police have said that peaceful protests will be allowed. If people want to observe a shutdown, it is their will but they should do it peacefully, director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid said.

The situation throughout the Valley on Sunday remained calm, with stray cases of stone-pelting, a police officer said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association and the NC have filed applications in the Supreme Court to defend the constitutional provision.
The body of an unidentified man  head and arms missing  was found stuffed in a black plastic bag near the Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa college bus stop in Delhi Universitys North Campus on Sunday morning, according to the police.

A case of murder has been registered but the police are yet to find any clues about the identity of the victim.

The bag was spotted by a passerby at around 8 am, according to deputy commissioner of police (North) Nupur Prasad. The man informed the police control room, and when investigators reached the spot, they could see blood oozing out of the bag. A body was found stuffed. The head and both the arms were missing. There were no bullet or stab wounds, Prasad said. A police officer said they suspect the man was murdered somewhere else and the body was dumped at North Campus. A search is on for the missing body parts.

There have been many instances in the past where killers dumped headless bodies to ensure a delay in establishing the identity of the victim. In this case, the mans arms are also missing. We suspect his arms may have had identification marks such his name tattooed on one of them, said the officer who asked not to be named.

Prasad said police stations in Delhi and adjoining states have been informed about the recovery of the body and all available details and photographs have been uploaded on the unidentified bodies list on the zonal integrated police network website.

We are preparing a list of men who have been reported missing at different police stations in the last one week. Our first priority is to identify the man. Once the identification is done, it will become easy for us to establish the motive behind the murder and identity of his killers, she added.

Till Sunday evening, investigators were looking at the footage from CCTV cameras installed close to the bus stop and the roads leading there to find out how the bag containing the body was transported there, but were yet to make any headway.

In November 2016, the bodies of two women  one decapitated and another mutilated  were found in south Delhi s Munirka. Police had then suspected the role of a serial killer because that month two more mutilated bodies of a man and a woman were found within a radius of 10 km in south Delhi. Police later solved the two Munirka murders with the arrest of two men and said that the murders were a result of monetary dispute.
A day after the Opposition gunned for Nitish Kumars resignation over the Muzaffarpur shelter home abuse scandal during a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the Bihar chief minister said all those involved in the incident would not be spared.

Neither the culprits nor their accomplices will escape from the clutches of law. They will be put behind bars. I am not going to spare anybody  whoever they may be, he said while speaking at the launch of a sustainable livelihood project in Patna on Sunday.

Kumars statement came on a day the state government suspended six officials of the social welfare department in connection with the rapes. The suspended officials, posted as assistant directors of child protection units in Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Bhojpur districts, were charged with negligence and dereliction of duty, said an official, adding that more heads are likely to roll as the probe progresses.

Meanwhile, at a press meet in Delhi on Sunday, senior Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi dismissed the Oppositions attack on Nitish Kumar and said the CM would not resign. He added the party was ready for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the case.

Also read: Too much focus on one negative incident: Nitish Kumar on Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes

On the same day, senior BJP leader CP Thakur, while speaking to a regional news channel, called for the resignation of Bihar social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma. He said Verma, of the JD(U), should take a call on the Oppositions demand for her resignation keeping in view the lapses on part of the social welfare department.

Manju Verma should resign taking moral responsibility for what happened in the shelter home... and resign, Thakur said. The seven-member committee probing the disappearance of a speech-impaired girl from a shelter home in Madhubani on July 11, submitted its report. The missing girl was one among 14 inmates shifted from the Muzafarpur shelter. Madhubani district magistrate Shirsat Kapil Ashok said, The report has been submitted and I will take appropriate action after going through it. The committee had also visited the shelter home...

The principal secretary of the health department said the government is set to terminate the contract of yet another NGO, believed to be a front of Brajesh Thakur, the prime accused in the case. He added that action was being initiated against Madhu Kumari, project director of the Wama Shakti Vahini, the NGO in question. The firm is empanelled with the Bihar State Aids Control Society as a target intervention NGO. Kumari, believed to have close links with Thakur, is also an accused and is absconding.
Trinamool Congress head Mamata Banerjees decision to send a delegation to Assam to protest the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise was part of an evil design to polarise the society, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Saturday.

He was referring to the arrival of an eight-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress at the Silchar airport on Thursday, only to be sent back by the district administration without being allowed to interact with the people. Banerjee  who is also the chief minister of West Bengal  termed the instance as an example of the super-emergency that the country is being subjected to under BJP governance.

In a statement issued through the chief ministers office, Sonowal thanked the residents of Barak Valley for the exemplary composure they had exhibited without falling prey to the divisive design of external forces. He also expressed his gratitude to the states Bengali-speaking people and organisations for unequivocally registering their protests against the West Bengal chief ministers plan to polarise the state.

The chief minister then went to say that ever since the process of updating the NRC was taken up, some vested interests have been trying to derail it by making remarks inimical to the unity prevalent among the people of Assam.

Over 40 lakh people were excluded from the complete NRC draft brought out on Monday. Banerjee stated that the exercise would lead to a bloodbath and a civil war, spurring several individuals to file cases against her in Assam.
Six persons were arrested for allegedly gang-raping a woman in Mehsana town in Gujarat, police said on Sunday.

Police said that the woman was going from Ahmedabad to Siddhpur in Patan district to her in-laws place on Friday and had hired an auto-rickshaw at Radhanpur Circle.

The driver of the auto-rickshaw raped her after taking her to a hotel, said deputy superintendent of police Manjita Vanzara.

She was first raped in a hotel, then in the back seat of a rickshaw and inside a shop where she was also beaten up. At the shop, she raised an alarm and some people from a nearby eatery rushed to her help, said Vanzara.

It took us time to understand what had happened with her since she was not able to explain the sequence of events properly because she was mentally disturbed as her child had recently died, the DSP said.

Vanzara added that the family members of the victim were intimated and a case was registered on Saturday in Mehsana B division police station.

The official said that seven persons, identified as Navsad, Javed, Sohel, Rakesh, Tino, Vijay and Ajay, were booked under relevant sections of the IPC and six of them were arrested.

A hunt was on for the seventh accused, the official added.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.)
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has requested his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma to take urgent measures for ensuring smooth movement of people and vehicles of Assam passing through Meghalaya, an official release said.

The chief ministers request to Sangma on Saturday came in the wake of reports of some groups setting up private check gates in Meghalaya to stop people moving to Meghalaya after publication of the complete draft NRC on July 30.

An official release from the chief ministers office on Saturday night said that Sonowal sought Sangmas expeditious intervention during the telephonic conversation and also informed him that the harassment caused to the people of Assam had been brought to the notice of the Union Home minister Rajnath Singh.

Sangma, while taking cognizance of the seriousness of the matter, assured Sonowal of taking all necessary measures in this regard, the statement claimed.

On August 1, Khasi Students Union (KSU) president L Marngar said KSU activists had set up infiltration check gates and sent back over 1,500 people to Assam as they tried to flee to Meghalaya after their names did not feature in the draft NRC.

The KSU chief had expressed apprehension that many of those over 40 lakh people, whose names were not included in the NRC draft, would try to infiltrate to Meghalaya that shares a 900-km-long border with Assam.

Altogether, 2,89,83,677 persons were included in the complete draft of the NRC out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants, thereby excluding the names of 40,07,707 people.
Even as the Tamil Nadu unit of Congress has an alliance with the major opposition party in the state, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), other regional parties are trying hard to woo the grand old party of India.

Till recently, the major regional players AIADMK and DMK would be wooed by the national parties for a state alliance but now, the regional parties are speaking about aligning with the Congress directly.

The latest such proposal came from rebel AIADMK leader and RK Nagar MLA TTV Dhinakaran, who said that his recently-launched party, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam  to represent the Sasikala faction of AIADMK  was ready to join hands with Congress if they broke terms with DMK.

If Congress walks away from DMK alliance, we will consider an alliance with Congress, Dhinakaran had said on Thursday.

However, Tamil Nadu Congress committee president Su Thirunavukkarasar has made it clear that his party will go with DMK for the upcoming polls.

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagams (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko has also tried to woo Congress in the state. In May, he said his party was ready to align with the Congress to defeat the BJP.

Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Ramadoss also concurred with Vaiko.

We dont have any inclination to go with BJP. However, we are likely to join with Congress. After conducting the general body and executive committee meeting of our party, we will make a final announcement, Ramadoss said at a recent meeting.

M Krishnaswamy, former PCC president, Tamil Nadu, and ex-MP, observed that the state-wide anti-BJP stand has been drawing many regional parties to Congress.

People who criticised us in the past have realised about the necessity of Congress to safeguard the secular nature of the country, he said.

However, Tamil Nadu BJP leaders said the regional parties are making these attempts to increase the bargaining power to get more seats from BJP.

MDMK and PMK were already in our alliance. In a bid to increase the bargaining power, they are saying that they would align with Congress. All these parties will settle with us finally, S R Shekar, spokesperson, Tamil Nadu BJP, told HT.

According to political observers, Congress had led the alliance only twice in the state  in 1977 and 1989. In 2016, the party contested alone in all the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and lost all.

As PMK, AMMK, MDMK are worried over the LS polls, they want to have a strong national party in their alliance. As of now, there are no negative votes for Congress in TN. However, it is not the case for BJP, observed Raveendran Duraisamy, a noted political analyst.

As Congress is projecting itself as a secular party, to consolidate the minorities votes, all the parties chant the name of Congress in TN, he said.
Facing heat over the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said he would not spare anyone in the case.

Targeting opposition and media, he said that his government has done many positive works and asked them to focus on that.

Zara positive feed par bhi aap log kripa karke dekh lein. Ek aad negative cheez hogya, usi ko lekar chal rahe hain. Jo gadbad karega vo andar jaega. Usko bachaane wala bhi nahi bachega, vo bhi andar jaega (Look at the positive things also. You are focussing too much on just one negative incident. No guilty will be spared. Even those who try to protect them will go to jail), Nitish said at an event, according to ANI.

Hum kisiko bakshne wale nahi hain. Aaj tak nahi kiya hai koi samjhauta. Baaki hum hi ko gaali dena hai toh dijiye. Kaise kaise logon se gaali dilwa rahe hain: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar pic.twitter.com/FM93YmsLrP  ANI (@ANI) 5 August 2018

He went on to say that he would not protect anyone and has not made any compromises.

Major opposition parties came together on Saturday to protest against the alleged rape of young girls at the shelter home and demanded that the guilty be brought to book, and accused the BJP-led NDA government of pursuing anti-women polices.

At the protest, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said that if Nitish Kumar was ashamed, he should take action immediately.

Bihar opposition leader and RJD vice-president Tejashwi Yadav said there was Rakshas Raj (demon rule) in the state although those who support the government (the BJP) talked about Ram Rajya (Lord Rams regime).

On Sunday, he targeted the ruling party over the disappearance of one of the minors rescued from the shelter home and kept at Madhubani, a day after he expressed fear that the girl might have been killed.

The NGO authorities blamed it on security lapse or conspiracy.

Had adequate security but somehow a girl went missing due to security lapse or conspiracy. This should not be made into a political issue, said Pragya Bharti, who runs the NGO in Madhubani.

Dismissing her claims, Tejashwi said Bharti was the wife of PA of Sanjay Jha- most closest aide of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. He is National General Secretry of JDU, Member (Bihar State Planning Board) & Former MLC. See the Shamelessness governance of Nitish Kumar. Nitish Ji must hv to trace that girl. I said MUST have to.

She is the wife of PA of Sanjay Jha- most closest aide of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. He is National General Secretry of JDU, Member (Bihar State Planning Board) & Former MLC.



See the Shamelessness governance of Nitish Kumar. Nitish Ji must hv to trace that girl. I said MUST have to https://t.co/tFPpzhS7Bw  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) August 5, 2018

According to investigators, 34 of the 42 girls of the were found to have been sexually exploited at the shelter home in Muzaffarpur.
The United Kingdom has rejected Indias demand to ban a pro-Khalistan event on August 12, saying that people in the country have the right to gather and demonstrate views within the law.

A US-based group called Sikhs for Justice is preparing for the event at Trafalgar Square, when a London Declaration is supposed to be issued, calling for a referendum on independence of Punjab.

The event has revived New Delhis long-standing demand that London clamp down on such elements.

Official sources said the Union ministry of external affairs and the Indian high commission sent verbal notes to the foreign office, requesting the Theresa May government to deny permission for the event.

Indian high commissioner YK Sinha also met UK foreign office minister Mark Field on this issue.

However, amid some unease in Indian quarters over the event, a UK government spokesperson told Hindustan Times: In the UK, people have the right to gather together and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law.

However, we will not tolerate any group spreading hate or deliberately raising community fears and tensions by bringing disorder and violence to our towns and cities and the police have comprehensive powers to deal with such activities, the spokesperson said.

Sources said a similar response had been sent to Indian authorities.

Indian community slams event

As the group, SFJ, put up billboards and claimed support of some Kashmiri groups, members of the Indian community took to social media to oppose it. There are also indications of a counter-event on the day to oppose the event.

On August 12, we will unveil the case for Sikhs right to self determination as guaranteed in the UN Charter and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, stated attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ.

Jasdev Rai of the Sikh Human Rights group questioned the validity of a referendum sought by the group, and said: This appears to be a sketch better suited to a Punjabi comic drama A hocus-pocus referendum exercise is undermining the authority and status of Sri Akal Takht Sahib.

It will be best for the organisers to rethink and sit with people who have been part of the Sikh struggle since 1984 and take advantage of the unconditional talks offered by the Narendra Modi government, Rai, who has been in talks with New Delhi since Modis visit to London in November 2015, said.

Rami Ranger, co-chair of the Conservative Friends of India, said: These handful of Sikhs are an embarrassment to Sikhs at large and also an impediment to progress in PunjabImagine, if people of Scotland make demand for a referendum for their independence in India.

Jasbir Singh Parmar of the Bedfordshire Asian Business Association said majority of people in Punjab would not want a referendum.
Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has conveyed to the ruling dispensation that the House deputy chairmans election process should be expedited and if possible, held during the current monsoon session of Parliament, which is due to end less than a week later.

A top leader of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) met Naidu last week and during their conversation, the vice-president spoke about the need to appoint a new deputy chairman early, a political functionary said on condition of anonymity. The ongoing session of Parliament, which opened on July 18, ends on August 10.

An official considered close to Naidu pointed out that the Rajya Sabha chairman had been working long hours; and although there exists a panel of presiding officers, a deputy chairperson would be able to ease his workload.

He also told the leader that it would take just two days to finish the entire process of election, said the functionary cited above.

Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien of the Congress retired last month, necessitating the election that is decided by a simple majority. The Opposition has 113 members in the Upper House to the NDAs 95, but the result will depend on how 32 fence sitters vote.

By Monday it will be possibly clear whether the election will be held in this session or not, a Rajya Sabha official said on condition of anonymity.

The arithmetic of the House is such that neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress is in a position to elect a leader from its fold.

The names of Naresh Gujral from Shiromani Akali Dal, a part of the NDA, and Biju Janata Dals Prasanna Acharya are doing the rounds as possible candidates for the post. Both these leaders have an excellent equation with Naidu and with leaders cutting across political lines, a politician said.

When reached for comment, Gujral said: I will be honoured if I am elected to the post but I will contest only if I am a consensus candidate. I feel that the person in the deputy chairmans post must carry the entire House with him.

A senior opposition leader said that although the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had pulled out of the NDA, its leaders had signalled that if Gujaral becomes a candidate, the party may back him because of TDP boss N Chandrababu Naidus association with Gujrals father, the late former Prime Minister IK Gujral.

At a farewell programme for Kurien, Naidu had urged a consensus in selecting the next deputy chairman.

The ruling dispensation has not sent out any signal so far that it wants the deputy chairmans election during the monsoon session primarily because the House rule book doesnt stipulate any time frame for holding such polls.
A passenger was detained at Jaipur airport on Sunday morning for causing a bomb scare and refusing to cooperate during the security check.

The passenger was handed over to the police after he loudly claimed he had a bomb in his bag. He was apparently miffed at being put through a second round of security check. No bomb was found.

Jaipur airport director JS Balhara said that the passenger, identified as 40-year-old Jai Prakash Choudhary, who was booked on an Indigo flight to Delhi, got into an argument with the staff during the security check and created a row.

The security has been beefed up at the airport in view of Independence Day. This passenger got into an argument with the staff during the second round of security check when he was asked to get his bags checked. The passenger was handed over to the police after he made a reference to a bomb in his bag. The flight departed after a delay of 30 minutes, he said.

The passenger was being interrogated by Sanganer police.

We have detained Jai Prakash Choudhary. He was going to Delhi from Jaipur and during the security check, he shouted mere bag me bomb hai (I have a bomb with me) after which the airport authorities informed us about the matter. No bomb was recovered from him. We are further investigating the matter, Sanganer police station (SHO) Lakhan Singh said.

Choudhary, a resident of Chitrakut Nagar in Jaipur, runs an e-mitra (computer kiosk) service agency.

The plane, Indigo flight 6E 203, was scheduled to depart at 10:40 am, but was delayed by half an hour.

The incident follows the arrest of a man in June after he made a hoax bomb threat call to IndiGo Airlines call centre for its Jaipur-Mumbai flight. Mohit Kumar Tank, a choreographer, had made the call fearing he wouldnt be able to reach the Jaipur airport on time to catch the flight.
It is said that the party that wins Mewar  the tribal region of southern Rajasthan that accounts for 28 assembly seats  goes on to rule the state.

Since she became the chief minister for the first time in 2003, Vasundhara Raje has always started her election campaign from the Charbhuja temple in Rajsamand, one of the six districts in Udaipur division that constitute the Mewar region.

Its not just the chief minister, but senior leaders of the BJP and the Congress have given importance to Mewar, known as the land of valiant Rajput rulers like Maharana Pratap.

In September 2013, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had launched Rajasthans poll campaign with a farmers and tribal rally at Salumber in Udaipur district. A month later, BJPs the then prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, addressed a big rally in Udaipur that had set the tone for the assembly elections held two months later.

Pura Rajasthan aham hai par yeh kah sakte hain ki Mewar sarkar banata hai (The whole state is important but one can say that Mewar makes the government), said a BJP leader and prominent face of the party from the region.

The data from the past few elections supports the belief that Mewar plays a significant role in a partys victory.

In 2003, the BJP won 22 out of 28 seats and the party comfortably formed the government. In 2008, the Congress returned to power, winning 20 seats in the Mewar region. In 2013, the BJP again swept the region and the state, winning nearly all the seats.

The 28 seats in Mewar are spread over six districts in Udaipur division  Udaipur, Dungarpur, Banswara, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand and Chittorgarh.

The importance of Mewar for the BJP could be gauged from the fact that the party has inducted five faces from the region in the cabinet. The state BJP general secretary (organisation), Chandrashekhar, recently went on a four-day tour of Udaipur division to assess the public mood in the region.

The RSS too is quite active in the region. In November 2016, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had inaugurated Maharana Pratap Gaurav Kendra in Udaipur where idols of 29 great personalities have been installed.

Some experts are of the view that this time the Mewar region will not vote for the ruling party.

The Mewar is a symbol of dominance of feudalism that refers to dominance of caste and religion. So when political parties hold the belief that whoever wins Mewar will win the state, then it shows that the culture of feudalism is still persisting. BJP wants the support of Raja and Bhagwan by wooing the Rajputs and playing the religion card, political analyst Rajiv Gupta said.

But Mewar region also has a significant presence of tribal population and also of the Jain community who are basically traders. All these communities and also the labourers and the farming community are not happy with the ruling BJP. So, this time the Mewar belt will not vote for BJP, he said.

The BJP is going all out to woo the Rajput community that is unhappy with the party. Rajasthan BJP president Madanlal Saini said people of Mewar are known for their valour and spirit of nationalism and party was confident that the community will vote for the BJP.
The Jodhpur district and sessions court rejected on Saturday Salman Khans petition seeking permanent permission for foreign visits, making it clear that the Bollywood actor will have to continue taking approval every time he travels abroad.

District and sessions judge Chandra Kumar Songara heard Salmans plea against his conviction by a lower court, which had handed him a five-year jail sentence for killing two blackbucks at Kankani village near Jodhpur on the night of October 1-2, 1998.

Public prosecutor Pokar Ram Bishnoi said since the arguments had begun, it would not be appropriate to grant Salman permanent relaxation from permission to travel.

Salmans lawyer Mahesh Bora cited a similar relaxation allowed to the actor earlier by the high court during the trial of another poaching case against him. Bora argued that the applicant is an actor and his profession demands him to travel abroad frequently.

When the judge asked why there was a problem in seeking the courts permission each time, Bora withdrew the application.

The lawyer moved a fresh application, seeking permission for Salman to travel to Malta and Abu Dhabi in August and September for shooting assignments. The judge granted the application.

Arguing against the chief judicial magistrate courts judgment convicting Salman, his lawyer mentioned the delay in filing of an FIR by the forest department, saying that this allowed time to concoct evidence to frame the actor.

Bora told the court that the forest department claimed that two blackbucks were killed at Kankani village, and an FIR was registered on October 2, 1998. The FIR number was not mentioned in the documents prepared by the forest department. The number was later written with another ink, Bora said.

The witnesses have also confirmed this, the lawyer said, adding the forest department had written the date of October 2 in the FIR, but in reality, it was filed a few days later to implicate the actor in the case.

Salmans counsel will continue to argue his case during the next hearings on September 5 and 6.

The trial court had convicted Salman on April 5 for killing the endangered animals when Bollywood movie Hum Saath Saath Hain was being shot. The court had acquitted his four co-actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre.

The district and sessions court began hearing the plea against the conviction a month later.
Rahul Jadhav, a former autorickshaw driver, was elected as the mayor of the Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation (PCMC) on Saturday. Jadhav believes that Pimpri-Chinchwad is known as the city of workers and he understands the problems of the workers. He promised an all-inclusive development of the township.

Sachin Chinchwade of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was also elected as the deputy mayor of PCMC.

Addressing the media on Saturday, Jadhav said, Pimpri Chinchwad city is known as the city of workers. I have worked as an autorickshaw driver and know what the problems of the workers are. With the help of senior party leaders, we are committed to the all-inclusive development of the city.

In the absence of Shravan Hardikar, PCMC municipal commissioner, Nayana Gunde, chairperson and managing director of Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML), conducted the election to the mayor post at the municipal corporation hall on Saturday.

Jadhav, who represents ward number two, has promised to focus on the overall and all-inclusive development of the industrial city. Jadhav bagged 80 votes, including six from independent corporators. However, Vinod Nadhe of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) only managed to bag 33 votes. However, Chinchwade received 79 votes against the 32 of NCPs Vinaya Tapkir. Representatives of Shiv Sena abstained from voting process.

Before the commencement of the voting, Gunde also gave 15 minutes time to candidates to withdraw their nomination from the election process.

In the municipal corporation election held in 2017, Chinchwade was elected as a corporator from ward number 17 (his first term) on BJPs ticket. He is considered lucky by many corporators as he will now be the deputy mayor in his very first tenure as a corporator.

On July 24, a day after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis visited Pimpri-Chinchwad and held talks with party workers, mayor Nitin Kalje and deputy mayor Shailaja More had resigned. The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) had appointed Nitin Kalje as mayor, Shailaja More as deputy mayor, and Eknath Pawar as the leader of house for a fifteen-month term, after the local body elections in February 2017. As the term ended in June, both Kalje and More resigned.
As it battles revolt within its ranks, the state leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Saturday, passed a resolution rejecting the resignations of state convener Bhagwant Mann and co-president Aman Arora.

The senior state leadership of the party, including zone presidents, wing presidents, district presidents and halqa presidents had met under co-president Balbir Singh.

The Sangrur MP (Mann) and Sunam MLA Arora had quit party posts in protest against the unconditional apology that AAP supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had offered to Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia over drug allegations against him. These allegations had been the main poll plank of the AAP in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 state elections.

Raising a banner of revolt, ousted leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira, on Thursday, had declared the state unit as autonomous at a workers convention in Bathinda. Seven other AAP legislators had supported him. Balbir said discussion about the present and the future of the AAP in Punjab was held during the meeting.

The party will also take on the rebel group. Balbir said the in-charge of AAP, Punjab, and Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia along with Mann will address office-bearers on August 13 in Jalandhar.

The party will also hold conferences at Issru and Baba Bakala on August 15 and 26, respectively.

Saturdays meeting also hailed the appointment of Harpal Singh Cheema as the leader of the opposition and thanked the party high command for giving respect to the Dalit community.
A day after 11 people reported Rs 6 lakh in all withdrawn fraudulently from their HDFC and ICICI bank accounts using cloned credit and debit cards at ATMs located in Phase 5, Mohali, the Canara Bank authorities on Saturday claimed to have found a skimmer attached to an ATM in Sector 35, Chandigarh.

A skimmer is a device that is affixed to the mouth of an ATM and secretly swipe credit and debit card information when bank customers slip their cards into the machines to pull out money.

A case under Sections 420 (cheating) and 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable to life imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered at Sector 36.

Investigating officials said customers pointed it out to the Canara Bank officials that they had seen some device attached to the ATM. After checking it, the bank officials immediately informed the police, which registered a case after preliminary investigation.

Sources said Canara Bank officials informed the police that they have recovered four such devices from ATMs in the city in a short span.

Breach at mohali microbrewery

Meanwhile, suspecting that data of debit and credit cards of their customers was allegedly stolen by cloning at a microbrewery in Mohali, HDFC Bank lodged a complaint with the Punjab Police cyber crime on Saturday.

Assistant inspector general (AIG), cyber crime, Hardial Singh Mann said: HDFC Bank officials filed a complaint after scrutinising their records. Even we have got some vital leads and hope to crack the case soon.

The AIG, however, declined to reveal the microbrewerys name, stating that it could hamper the investigation.

HDFC Bank corporate affairs head Rajeev Banerjee said: We have mentioned the name of the microbrewery in the complaint, but it could not be disclosed at this stage because police investigation is in progress.

Police sources said investigating officials are focusing on Phase 5 as card cloning is suspected to have taken place in the area.

As many as 11 residents of Mohali on Friday morning received alarming text messages about withdrawal of 6 lakh. All fraudulent transactions were made at various ATMs in Mohali and Kharar when victims had their debit cards in their possession suggesting card cloning.

Mann said that the banks had been told to give exact detail of the ATMs and send the exact timings of withdrawals from account of the victims. The two banks have also been asked to provide video footage of the ATMs from where the money was withdrawn.
A boy aged just eight or nine, whose world was the city of Multan, now in Pakistan, moved with his parents and siblings to Delhi after Partition. However, Mumbai, then Bombay, was the city of his dreams. So he reached there to struggle as they say. A poet at heart, he dabbled in films first, producing a few, including Thikana (1987) directed by Mahesh Bhatt.

However, it was the instant rapport he had with another migrant boy, Sunil Dutt, that was to chart the course of his life. He became the production-in-charge of Ajanta Arts, started by Dutt and his wife, the actor Nargis, and a part of the Dutt household.

Now with his wife Shashi in New York (to be close to their children and grandchildren) the book he has come out with touches upon the era of films from the mid 1950s to the 1970s.

With delightful accounts of his encounters with the stars, it was initially published in Urdu, the first language of Grovers Multan school days and titled Yaad Zara Zara (memories bit by bit), which was also simultaneously transcribed and published in Hindi. The English translation, The Legends of Bollywood with the telling subtitle: Tales of Madness, Mischief and Mayhem!, has now been translated in English by former Society magazine editor Suchitra Iyer and published by Jaico Books.

The three Ms are well represented in these stories that come straight from his heart of simpler times, yes, even in the world of Hindi movies. But where Grover excels is in recounting stories of struggle and successes of other migrant boys like him from different destinations of West Punjab, as it was called before August 15, 1947. These young boys rose above the trauma of Partition to achieve major success in the movies. Included in this list are Sunil Dutt from Jhelum, Rajendra Kumar from Sialkot, Manoj Kumar from Abbottabad and Vinod Khanna from Peshawar.

The lone migrant girl he writes about with great warmth is Rakhee Gulzar, who was the leading lady of a film he made that did not do too well, unlike their friendship, which lasted a lifetime. He mentions his joy when Rakhee from Sylhet in Bangladesh married Gulzar from Jhelum: While she was a migrant from Sylhet in Bangladesh and he was uprooted from Jhelum, it was as though they shared the same pain and fell in love.

The writer also laments that he never came to know what went amiss between the two but even in separation Rakhee and Gulzar confessed that the love had never ended.

Sunil Dutts story from a producer with Radio Ceylon to stardom, as told by Grover, goes like this: He was interviewing Dilip Kumar on the sets of Shikast when filmmaker Ramesh Sehgal spotted him. The latter was so impressed that an instant screen test was held and Dutt was signed for his first film Railway Platform, which was released in 1955. However, real fame came to him and his fellow struggler Rajendra Kumar in Mehboob Khans Mother India (1957) when both of them played sons to Nargis. Interestingly, the two had shared a shabby room in the city of dreams. Rajendra went on to be called Jubilee Kumar when every film of his would run for more than 25 weeks (called a silver jubilee film in India). Later, his son Gaurav married Namrata, daughter of Nargis and Sunil, and the two friends of youth became relatives.

The stories of Manoj Kumar and Vinod Khanna and their rise to stardom are also told with warmth and humour. Manoj Kumar, who before entering the films was Hari Krishna Goswami, was Grovers friend from Delhi days. In Mumbai, he would spend weekends with Grover in his room in Kurla and the two would be in the toilet queue in the mornings with lota and soap in hand! Vinod Khannas father, who did not believe that sons from good families acted in films, however, gave the go-ahead for Sunil Dutts Man ka Meet because Grover, son of his respected educationist neighbour Lala Dinanath of Multan, had put in a word.

Thus this readable book moves from one delightful anecdote to another, of Grovers Anglo-Nepali girlfriend dismissively called angrez (English) by Nargis. The engagement broke when Rosys British father demanded that Grover convert to Christianity. After the search for the right girl began, Grover says: Shashi was found and even Nargis Bhabi approved. As for me I fell in love all over again and love her still!

The Chandigarh Girl

Once on a visit to Chandigarh with Dutt Saab, Grover says,  I stopped with my family on way to Shimla and found it a good and clean city. However, I recall a young and extremely talkative and beautiful girl talking to Nargis-Sunil in Delhi. Chattering non-stop she convinced Nargis that she deserved to be in films. She came to Mumbai, stayed, fought all odds and finally conquered. She was just Kiran then but is now Kirron Kher, also the MP from Chandigarh!
A string of Singhs and Kumars pops up on the screen as one browses through the inmate locator of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons. Their release dates: Unknown.

The pull of the grand American dream pushes these Punjab youngsters to peril. They defy the swampy cocaine smuggling corridor of Darien Gap linking Colombia with the Panama, trek through Panamas jungles, often empty stomach for days, groggily dodge snakebites, bear assaults by armed bandits, disease, injury and the eventuality of death.

These young people, mostly from Punjab and neighbouring states, are now detained in different federal prisons for entering the United States illegally or on asylum pleas. At present, more than 50 people are detained in Oregons Sheridan federal prison and many more at federal detention facilities in California, Arizona and the Washington state.

Some have a hope to get refuge having got thumbs-up from the asylum officers who interviewed them for determining a credible fear of persecution. Others face deportation, not to India, but to Mexico.

Yes Mexico, the country which shares a 3,155-km border with the US and is the final destination of these illegal aliens, a tag the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US agency tasked with enforcing immigration laws, chooses to describe them, before they enter the US soil.

From Mexico, a coyote (a human trafficker) would stealthily slip them inside the US territory or they present themselves to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials at one of the ports of entry with an asylum plea. Even if they are detained by the CBP for crossing over illegally, they have an asylum petition tucked in pocket, said a CBP personnel who did not wish to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media. This is the backdoor route to enter the US for thousands of youngsters from Punjab and neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh who put their lives at risk chasing Benjamin Franklin and a better life in the First World.

President Donald Trump speaks at a rally to show support for Ohio Republican congressional candidate Troy Balderson on August 4, 2018 in Lewis Center, Ohio. (AFP)

The Trump effect is gone

There was a steep decline in the number of Indian migrants daring to sneak inside the US in 2016-17 through the Central American backdoor trail when Donald Trump became the US President in 2016. But that was probably a one-off thing.

Between October 2017 and May 2018, there has been a 50% surge in the number of Indians detained by the CBP or the ICE for crossing over illegally into the US, statistics indicate.

Randy Capps, director of research, US programs, Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC, said that from October 2016 to September 2017 (when Trump was freshly sworn in), 2,227 Indians were apprehended by the US authorities for illegally entering the United States. However, the number shot up to 4,197 apprehensions between October 2017 and May 2018, Capps said.

The dip, Capps said, was probably due to the fact that migrants in 2016-17 were afraid of the stance of the Trump administration in tackling illegal migrants.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has estimated the size of the Central America-Mexico-United States migrant smuggling market in the 7-billion dollar range annually.

Gruelling passage starts at Ecuador

The hazardous journey often takes months to complete as human traffickers deploy buses, cars, boats and also make their clients walk for hundreds of miles, often without no food and sleep.

In fact, coyotes sketch out different routes for the migrants to cover the 4,600-km journey between Ecuador and the US.

The journey begins from the South American nation, Ecuador, an easy to pull in destination for the US-bound migrants due to its easy 90-day visa on arrival policy. Also, stricter migration regulations and enforcement by Mexico leading to increased migrant apprehensions meant that flying directly to Mexico to leap over into the US was not always workable.

The migrants then travel by sea to arrive at Capurgana in Colombia, embark on a demanding trek through the marshy Panama jungles, including the Darien Gap, to reach Costa Rica only to travel onward by sea or road to Nicaragua. They pass through Honduras and Guatemala hidden inside compartments in buses and cars before they get to Mexico, their gate to the United States.

S Alvarez Velasco, a research scholar at Londons Kings College, writes that a relay race modality has developed for defying controls along the route.

Ecuadorian coyotes have been incorporated in broader transnational smuggling networks. Via mobile phones, they are connected with foreign coyotes along the route. They exchange information and even coordinate payments via Western Union or MoneyGram for the different stretches of the route, said Velasco.

Why so many from Punjab?

Nirvikar Singh, distinguished professor of economics at University of California, Santa Cruz, says that Punjab is falling in the relative income rankings in India. Many young men do not have meaningful occupations that they feel are consistent with their social status. This is especially true among marginal farming families, he says.

Singh, who has co- authored a book on Indian migration, The Other One Percent, says for years, intermediaries have been actively recruiting young men in Punjab for illegal migration. Their grand promises are not exposed because the numbers are relatively small compared to the population, and the information flow back to Punjab about the reality is incomplete and biased. The migrants are misled about the actual trip and prospects. Also, many Punjabis have relatives in the US, and think that will give them a headstart when they get here, giving them an inflated sense of expected gains.
Travelling is fun. But when its with your best buds, it can be even more exciting and end up being a memory for a lifetime. Remember that random travel plan you made with your gang? Now is the time to actually book your tickets and pack your bags. This friendship day, call your tribe and make memories on a trip of a lifetime to these wonderful destinations in India. After all, these are the best spots to visit with your gang of friends.

Frozen river. (Shutterstock)

Chadar  frozen river trek: The best way to stay warm at this cold destination is to tag along with your closest buddies. Called as one of the most thrilling experiences, the Chadar trek, which connects villages in Zanskar is a great way to bond with your friends. This is definitely a once in a lifetime kind of experience.

Manali during summer. (Shutterstock)

Manali: One of the most popular destinations in India, Manali still remains a top favourite because of its various offerings  theres something for everyone. Right from adventure activities to lazing around at the many cafes in Old Manali, you and your gang have tonnes to do.

Lake Pushkar (Shutterstock)

Pushkar: Considered as one of the oldest cities, Pushkar is a must visit for you and your friends. Right from good resorts to luxury spots, Pushkar has something for every budget. And dont even get us started on the amazing food. Remember, food can be a great way to bond with your friends.

Malana trek to Kasaul. (Shutterstock)

Kasol: This beautiful place is the perfect destination for your gang. Apart from the natural beauty, there are many trekking options available. You can even head to Malana or the Parvati valley for a day trip.

Rann Of Kutch (Shutterstock)

Rann of Kutch: Imagine beautiful white landscape and nothing else  and only you and your friends around. Thats what Rann of Kutch can offer you. This place comes alive in October with festivals and fairs. This is also the time that it starts to dry up offering the landscape its own magic.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more
More than 200 Indian pilgrims have been stranded in Nepals Humla district while returning from the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra due to bad weather, officials have said.

According to the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, 154 pilgrims are stranded in Simikot  the district headquarters of Humla  and 50 in Hilsa, close to the border with Tibet. These are the two areas where an estimated 1200 Indian pilgrims had been stranded in July.

The embassy said inclement weather in Nepal has meant that it is impossible to airlift those stranded in Hilsa to Simikot, and those in Simikot to the border city of Nepalgunj, just four hours from Lucknow.

Simikot has basic boarding and lodging facilities to hold up to 500 pilgrims comfortably, the embassy said, adding that there are also facilities of medical examination and first aid. Though the pilgrims are stranded in Humla since Saturday, there is no complaint of lodging and medical difficulties, it said.

The embassy said its representatives in Simikot, Hilsa and Nepalganj are on alert and are continuously monitoring the situation.

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A suicide bomber killed three NATO service members on a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, and Taliban militants claimed responsibility.

A NATO Resolute Support mission service member, an American, and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, the mission said in a statement.

Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history and further strengthen our resolve, said US Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support and US Forces-Afghanistan, in the statement.

Local officials said the blast happened in the Khalazai area of Charikar, capital of Parwan province.

Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the Parwan provincial governor, said the suicide bomber targeted foreign forces who were on a routine foot patrol.

Eastern Afghanistan, where US Special Forces units have regularly been deployed against militants, continues to be one of the deadliest areas for the US military since its main combat operation against the Taliban ended in 2014.

The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, claimed responsibility.

We have killed eight US invaders in a tactic bombing, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in statement.

The invaders had to bring three helicopter ambulances to protect their forces, he said.
Britain has rejected Indias demand seeking a ban on US-based pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ)s plan to issue a London Declaration for a referendum on Punjabs independence at Trafalgar Square on August 12.

In the UK, people have the right to gather together and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law, a United Kingdom government spokesperson told HT as opposition to the event grew within the Indian community.

However, we will not tolerate any groups who spread hate or deliberately raise community fears and tensions by bringing disorder and violence to our towns and cities and the police have comprehensive powers to deal with such activities.

The Indian high commission in London did not want to comment beyond acknowledging they had received a similar response.

People aware of the developments said a similar response had been sent to the Indian authorities in response to their note verbales. The external affairs ministry and the high commission had sent note verbales requesting the British government to deny permission for the event. A note verbale is a formal, unsigned diplomatic note written in the third person.

The event has revived New Delhis long-standing demand that London clamps down on such elements. Indian high commissioner Y K Sinha also met British foreign office minister Mark Field over the issue.

Indian community members took to the social media to oppose the event as SFJ put up billboards and claimed support of some Kashmiri groups and sought to rally followers.

On August 12, we will unveil the case for Sikhs right to self-determination as guaranteed in the UN Charter and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, said SFJs legal advisor, attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. It is the principle of the right to self-determination and the common occupying power  India  that brings Sikh and Kashmiri people on a joint platform in their democratic quest for freedom of their homelands.

There were indications of a counter-event to oppose the event.

Sikh Human Rights Groups Jasdev Rai questioned the validity of a referendum. This appears to be a sketch better suited to a Punjabi comic drama A hocus-pocus referendum exercise is undermining the authority and status of Sri Akal Takht Sahib (the highest Sikh temporal seat).

It will be best for the organisers to rethink and sit with people, who have been part of the Sikh struggle since 1984 (anti-Sikh riots) and take advantage of the unconditional talks offered by the Narendra Modi government, Rai, who has been in talks with New Delhi since Modis visit to London in November 2015, said.

Conservative Friends of India co-chair Rami Ranger said: These handful of Sikhs are an embarrassment to Sikhs at large and also an impediment to progress in Punjab Imagine, if people of Scotland make demand for a referendum for their independence in India.

Jasbir Singh Parmar of the Bedfordshire Asian Business Association said a majority of the people in Punjab would not want a referendum.
The UK government on Sunday announced new plans to change the law for organ and tissue donation to address the urgent need for organs within Indian-origin communities in the country.

The proposed new system of consent for organ and tissue donation is expected to come into effect in England in 2020 as part of a drive to help black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people desperately waiting for a life-saving transplant.

Under the new presumed consent system, those who do not want to donate their organs will be able to record their decision on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) Organ Donor Register (ODR).

Organ donation is of course a deeply personal choice, and for many, their faith will play an important factor in their decision, said Jackie Doyle-Price, UKs Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health and Inequalities.

We want to make it much easier for people to record and share their decision with friends, families and to NHS staff so that they can be confident their wishes  whether or not they choose to donate  will always be respected, she said.

The announcement comes as a recent report called on the NHS to take more proactive action to address the high death rate among Indian-origin people in Britain due to low levels of organ donation within the community.

The Organ Donation: Breaking Taboos Amongst British BAME Communities report, commissioned by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, was aimed at studying the low levels of donation among BAME communities in the UK.

These communities are seen as generally less inclined to opt for organ donation, largely due to deeply-entrenched cultural and religious beliefs discouraging organ donation.

The governments latest initiative is well-intentioned but subsequently its success will depend on the degree and efficacy of engagement with the BAME populations, says report author Nishtha Chugh.

Death is a sensitive and highly emotive issue in South Asian cultures. And thats just one of the barriers to organ donation.

Unless the new programme sufficiently addresses these core issues surrounding beliefs and specific cultures, unless it aims at normalising and encouraging prior family conversations about organ donation in Indian or Pakistani families, the new programme will not succeed in producing the desired numbers the government so desperately wants to see in these ethnic minorities, added Chugh, a 2016 Churchill Fellow.

As part of her research, she uncovered evidence from a number of countries, including India, to show that it is possible to counter religious and cultural beliefs around organ donation.

India has seen a 10-fold increase in its organ donation consent rates over the last decade as a result of sustained public awareness programmes, policy initiatives, and multi-stakeholder collaboration, the findings reveal.

The NHS strategy to engage with BAME communities on organ donation is woefully inadequate. The focus has always been on awareness rather than behaviour change, Chugh said.

A substantial number of patients on the transplant list, and dying as a result of long waiting periods, are Indians and Pakistanis. Each person on dialysis costs the NHS more than 33,000 pounds a year. We can not only save on costs but also save lives, Chugh added.

According to NHS records, only 7 per cent of donors last year were from BAME backgrounds, with Indians accounting for just 1.9 per cent of the NHS ODR.

It found that 21 per cent of people who died on the organ donation waiting list in the UK last year were from a BAME background, compared with 15 per cent a decade ago. Family refusal continues to be the biggest obstacle to organ donation among the UKs Asian communities, the NHS noted.

Chughs research, which covered the US, Qatar and Israel besides India, found that ethnic minority communities in these countries have made significant gains in addressing their deeply ingrained taboos surrounding death rituals, increasing awareness about organ donation, and in most cases, consent rates.

Sustained public education campaigns and youth engagement are responsible for a higher number of registrations and consent rates in these countries.

The UK needs to think beyond opt-out. Its not a magic pill; and will not solve the core issues surrounding BAME consent rates, Chugh said.

Both India and the UK follow the opt-in system, whereby families decision to donate organs of their loved one after death is discretionary.

The UK government is now moving towards adopting legislation favouring the opt-out system to address the growing crisis in the country.

Incentive does not need to be a dirty word. Incentivising organ donation can correct the imbalance between takers and givers in a society, where a few weeks or months longer on the waiting list for organs can mean the difference between life and death, the report notes.

As a multi-ethnic country with complex social and cultural structures, India can offer a number of valuable lessons to the UK on how to address deeply-entrenched beliefs discouraging organ donation in the South Asian disapora, the author argues.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar has said that the United States should pay heed towards paying off its own loans to China instead of worrying about Pakistan.

Umar, set to be Pakistans next finance minister under Imran Khans premiership, told the media on Saturday that he categorically rejected US secretary of state Mike Pompeos statement pertaining to capital from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) being used to pay off Pakistans debt to China.

He said the PTI government will bring all China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreements to the fore to show no such issue will take place.

One friendly advice to the Americans, well worry about our Chinese debt, but I think they better handle their own Chinese debt first, Dawn quoted him as saying. We have a serious external debt problem, Im not saying we dont, (though) we dont have a Chinese debt problem.

Umar said Pakistan is facing a conundrum in the guise of foreign loans and the country needed to decide from where to conjure up $10-12 billion dollars within the next six weeks. Either the nation can go to the IMF or friendly countries or sell bonds to overseas Pakistanis and raise the amount, he added.

Pakistan is expected to seek a bailout of about $12 billion from the IMF or China to avert a currency crisis. China has pledged $57 billion in loans for CPEC, deepening economic ties at a time when relations between Pakistan and the US are fraying over Islamabads action against terrorists.

Pompeo has said that the US will be watching what the IMF does. Theres no rationale for IMF tax dollars, and associated with that American dollars that are part of the IMF funding, for those to go to bail out Chinese bondholders or China itself, Pompeo had said.

Pakistan has said that concerns that any new IMF bailout for the country could be used to repay Chinese debt is totally wrong.

On Saturday, Umar, while explaining the economic policy of the incoming government, said that privatisation of state enterprises is not the answer.

Neither Pakistan International Airlines nor Pakistan Steel Mills will be privatised, he said, adding that PTI will turn government companies into wealth funds so that they cannot be politically influenced.

Currency alignment should be decided by the state (central) bank based on economic fundamentals, not by finance ministry based on political considerations. I dont think the IMF wants free-float for Pakistan, its such a thin market, Umar added.

To make businesses more competitive with regional countries, the new government plans to decrease taxes on energy supply factories and agriculture. We will cover up the lost revenue by introducing a wealth tax, he said.
Back in 2016, Steven Seagal was awarded Russian citizenship, likely because he was making so many trips to visit his friend Vladimir Putin. The Putin-Seagal love affair has now taken a more interesting turn because as of now the semi-retired actor is being counted on to improve U.S.-Russian relations. The title bestowed upon him is that of a "special representative" for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They made the announcement themselves on their official Facebook page this afternoon.

According to the press release, Seagal will also asked to influence matters "in the sphere of culture, public and youth exchanges" between both nations. Seagal will not accept a salary for apprising the role, akin to a United Nations' goodwill ambassador position both in terms of penance and responsibility.

Long before Seagal and Putin became buds, the dual citizen tried in jest to influence the Russian president's reputation overseas. "For anyone to think that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with fixing the elections, or even that the Russians have that kind of technology, is stupid," was quoted as saying in the wake of allegations Trump sought Russian intervention during his electoral campaign. Back in 2013, Seagal was Putin's choice to lead a special diplomatic envoy. We haven't heard the last of this story, I do believe.
Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro was the target of an aerial attack on Saturday while he addressed his military officers in a special ceremony. The footage provided by ABC News shows Maduro moments before his mic was cut and explosive drones dropped to the ground. Several people were arrested and taken into question.

A section of those in attendance were injured (7 or so). Maduro himself believes the nation of Colombia is responsible for the assassination plot, allegations their ministry was was quick to refute.

In his latest address, Maduro administered a portion of the blame to "a right-wing plot" coerced by the United States with the objective of overseeing the downfall of his socialist agenda. The Tweet (below) administered on his official page literally translates to: "My solidarity with the troops of our @GNBoficial wounded, I pledge to do justice fall who falls! Before the criminal attack ordered from Bogota."

Incidentally, the U.S. denied any involvement. National Security Adviser John Bolton added that the assassination could be "a pretext set up by the regime itself". Meanwhile a rag-tag group on Twitter named "Soldiers in T-shirts" claimed responsibility for the attack, but political observers don't seem willing to credit or entertain that theory at present time.
Cameron Terrell, an 18-year-old from Palos Verdes Estates, was recently acquitted from a murder trial. The former South Bay high school student had admitted to driving the black Mercedes in which the two other accused rode on their way to an alleged murder.

Prosecutors identified Terrell as the getaway driver in the killing of 21-year-old Justin Holmes on October 1, 2017, in a South Los Angeles.



The defendant's lawyer mentioned the wealthy teenager's upbringing as part of his defence.

Cameron Terrell did not possess any weapons, he did not shoot anybody, he was not part of any conspiracy, or any plan or plot.  At best the evidence suggests that Cameron was a witness, the defense attorney said, adding that his client's story should be favored because of his background, his family, where he resides, his school.

Prosecutors insisted that Terell knew about the murderous plan since he had parked out of sight to protect his fellow gang members at the time of the incident. They also brought up the video Cameron Terell filmed of his friends kicking over candles at a memorial erected for Justin Holmes, the deceased victim.

The teen didn't express any flagrant remorse when addressing the loss Holmes' life.

Rest in peace, Justin Holmes, you shouldnt have gone that day. [] I pray for his family every night. This has been weighing on me every single day of my life. [] I dont have to explain myself to anyone. God knows what really happened that day, and God knows what was in my head that day.

Cameron Terrell's $5million bond was posted with $500 000 in cash when he had admitted to being the driver in October. Debra Terrell, an interior designer, and media executive Donald Wayne Terrell are his parents. The getaway vehicle was owned by Terrell's father.

The two other suspects of the murder are awaiting trial.

The acquitted Terrell, who earned the nickname of "White Boy," was known to appear in the background of rap videos. He most likely graced the screens for free.

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A teenage Arnett Cobb used to wander around the Fifth Ward looking for some wide-open space to play his saxophone. This was during the 1930s, when the neighborhood wasnt quite as densely populated.

Hed just find some spot where he wouldnt bother anybody, and hed blow, says Lizette Cobb, daughter of Houstons legendary saxophonist.

Lizette mentions the great jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery and how he developed his distinctive sound by having to play quietly in the attic of his home. Cobbs rehearsal space allowed him to set loose a growling bear of a tone on his instrument, with which hed come to define the Texas Tenor style.

Its interesting how different players develop different technique, Lizette says. I also have the technical information on his reeds. His reed was very thick, a big piece of wood. Most saxophonists dont use such a hearty reed. Thats part of it, too.

Friday marks Cobbs centennial, and affords another opportunity to look back at a remarkable musician who was born in Houston in 1918 and died here 70 years later. Lizette and her son Shae have also unearthed a diamond of a previously unreleased recording from 1963 that Cobb made with some top jazz players of the day. The Cobbs planned to release the album this week for the saxophonists birthday, but some personal complications have pushed back the release a few months. Still, the week remains one of celebration by and for Cobb enthusiasts.

THE LOST ALBUM: Arnett Cobb created a love letter to Houston. Then it got lost for 55 years.

More Information The Jazz Church of Houston presents Arnett Cobb 100th birthday celebration Featuring Shelley Carrol, Andre Hayward, Mark Simmons and more When: 7 p.m. Friday Where: Eldorado Ballroom, 2310 Elgin Details: free; facebook.com/jazzchurchhouston Arnett Cobb Birthday Celebration! Featuring Woody Witt, Shelley Carrol, Mike Wheeler and more When: 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday Where: Cezanne, 4100 Montrose Details: $20; cezannejazz.com See More Collapse

Two concerts will honor a musician whom jazz star Kendrick Scott calls one of the true masters, including a free Friday night date at the Eldorado Ballroom and a two-night stint Friday and Saturday in the Cezanne.

Saxophonist Shelley Carrol, another Houston native who studied under Cobb before playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, calls Cobb the epitome of Texas jazz.

He had this great big tone, but he also taught me Willow Weep for Me. He could blow the house down, but he wasnt just a rough rider. He could milk so much emotion from his instrument. I remember seeing him, hed play a beautiful solo and then go sit down and start crying.

He played with incredible feeling.

Cobb is so associated with the saxophone, but his first instrument was the violin, a gift from his mother. He took the stringed instrument with him to Wheatley High School and tried to make his way into the marching band. Its difficult to believe, but Cobb was, briefly, inaudible. So the band instructor gave Cobb a saxophone, and the young student found quiet spaces where he could work on his tone.

In addition to band, Cobb started playing gigs across the city while still in high school. He graduated from Wheatley and joined Milton Larkins Orchestra, a proving ground for many aspiring Texas jazz musicians. Larkin sought saxophonists with burred tones, including Cobb and Illinois Jacquet. Both of those tenor players moved from Larkins band to Lionel Hamptons big band.

As a vibraphonist, Hampton developed a sound full of open spaces, so the deep, chesty sounds of Texas tenors such as Cobb and Jacquet were perfect for his ensemble. Cobb played with Hampton from 1942 until about 1947.

He started his own band, which pulled R&B and blues into its jazz. Cobb for a time lived in New York, but his health brought him back to Houston. He suffered from pleurisy and tuberculosis. A nearly fatal car accident in 1956 necessitated spinal surgeries and the use of crutches hed require the rest of his life.

The way he played the saxophone played a big part in his health as he got older, Lizette Cobb says. It kept him strong. Somebody started a rumor that he only had one lung. I dont know where that came from. But I see how we need our myths and legends. Its not true. But he had some challenges.

Being in Houston in the 1960s established Cobb as a cornerstone of the citys jazz scene, past and future. He was a fixture on local stages, recorded regularly and also mentored subsequent generations of players.

But because he wasnt in New York in the 60s, he was far from the center of a storied era of jazz as it evolved further away from the big-band era.

Cobbs many recordings havent made the same jump from vinyl to the digital sphere as artists whose work appeared on labels such as Blue Note and Impulse. They require a hunt, but theyre worth the effort. Which makes the prospect of the 1963 session more tantalizing. Cobb cut the record with saxophonist Don Wilkerson, another Houston player whose brilliant playing was scantly recorded; avant garde bassist Buell Neidlinger; drummer Duke Barker; and pianist Paul Schmitt.

We dont want to rush it just to hit an anniversary, Lizette says of the recording. We want to do right by it.

Ideally, the set will put attention back on a performer whose renown further faded after his death in 1989.

When Tierney Malone  an artist and poet from Alabama  moved to Houston, he says, he was unaware of the citys jazz history, including Cobbs work.

I discovered quickly how important some of these cats were through their entire careers, he says. Malone hosts the Houston Jazz Spotlight on KPFT and champions from the citys musical past.

Hes so important. If Arnett Cobb didnt come back in the 60s and make Houston his home, you wouldnt have had this amazing jazz scene for decades, Malone says. His presence is undeniable. Houston can be slow to appreciate its history and culture. But Lizette has said you cant talk about jazz in America without the Lone Star State. And thats true. You cant find a single musician in the jazz universe who doesnt have some Houston connection. And thats all part of his legacy.

Malone helped organize one of the citys Cobb tributes this week. Hell play host at the show, which will include stories about Cobb as well as a performance by the new Houston Jazz Collective, a group that includes Carroll, trombonist Andre Hayward, organist Bobby Sparks of Snarky Puppy and Mark Simmons, who drummed for the late Al Jarreau.

Well be interviewing cats who knew his life and his music, Malone says. You dont hear enough about this brother. So were going to do our part to let people know how important he was.

andrew.dansby@chron.com
Tiny hands fly up, waving pastel green play money in the air as children offer up bids with high-pitched, eager squeals.

I have $6!

$10!

Well, I have $12!

At the 2018 Bellaire Coin, Stamp & Collectible Show, a throng of children used pretend money to stage an auction as their much-older counterparts sit nearby selling rare coins valued at thousands of dollars.

Larry Harmon, a seasoned coin collector in his 70s, admits the coin show usually attracts an older demographic.

You do see a lot of gray-haireds, he chuckled, a term coined by his fellow collectors. Younger folks dont collect anything anymoremom and dads money, thats about it.

But Harmon said coin collecting is not just a great hobby, it can also be very profitable. At the convention on Saturday, he displays a diverse set of coins: everything from collections dedicated to former presidents like Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Roosevelt to international currency from South Korea. Vietnam, the Bahamas, and UK.

According to Harmon, some of the most valuable coins are worth millions of dollars. One of the most expensive coins, the 1794-1795 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar, sold for $10 million in 2013. He is adamant coin collecting is still active and alive, despite the shift to virtual transactions like credit cards and the most recent trend, bitcoin.

The rapid crash of bitcoin, a type of electronic cash seen as the next biggest thing in cryptocurrency, shocked many this year. Since December 2017, bitcoin has lost more than 70 percent of its value.

John, an avid coin collector who didnt wasnt his last name published, said he is wary of electronic currency like bitcoin because it is so fleeting.

The bitcoins are a personal credit card, he said. Money comes out in never Neverland. With hard cold cash, you know what youve got.

He shares his love of coin collecting with his 5-year-old grandson Christopher, whom he brought to the pretend auction. With orange, Cheeto-crusted fingers, Christopher proudly lifted up the new Black Panther coin his grandpa bought him.

We spend time looking at them, said John. He is in my business when grandpa is playing with coins.

Tony Cangelosi, 20, is one of the only Millennials at the convention. He carefully studies a bill under the lamplight, a magnifying glass clutched in his hand. He said collecting has become a little side business for him, allowing him to sell five bills for nearly $1,000.

I wish more people my age would get into it (coin collecting), he said. They would appreciate the history.

He is different than most of the fellow numismatists, people who collects currency, because he just became interested in coin collecting earlier this year. A visit to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth got him thinking.

It made me wonder how much currency goes for, so I researched, and later started selling bills, Cangelosi said.

Cangelosi said he has a greater appreciation for cash versus electronic payment.

Theres always a catch when it comes to using something convenient, he explained. Cash is reliable. I like having my own cash on hand.

Manning a booth on the side of the expansive ballroom, 69-year-old Nicholas Economopoulos started collecting U.S. coins when he was 10. He runs Pegasi Numismatics, a coin-collecting business based in Ann Arbor, Mich. and Holicong, Penn. Every year, he goes to more than 30 coin shows.

His background in classical archaeology led him to collect coins from ancient Greece and Rome.

You can put these bits of metal into history, he insists.

From his collection, he pulls out a coin from the time of Julius Caesar. Gesturing to the engraved depiction of an elephant crushing a snake, he explains that it represents Caesar crushing Rome.

He said there is a lot to be learned from these coins that cant be taught in a classroom. Economopoulos said history is no longer being taught in schools the way it used to be, making for many missed opportunities.

Shaun Jones grew up sharing his love of coin collecting with his dad and now he wants to pass it on to his two daughters, Margaret and Payton. He brought them to participate in the pretend auction, looking over their shoulders as they listened to the instructions.

What better way to get them involved? he asked.

His younger daughter, Payton, shook her play money with both hands in anticipation of the pretend auction. Theyre fun and I like how theyre named, she said of coins

Houstonian Martin Kaplan, 73, has been coin collecting for 60 years. He said he understands how hard it is for younger children to get into coin collecting these days.

For young kids to get started, they have to pay a premium, he said.

Nudging a friend sitting next to him, Kaplan said back in his day, any kid could afford a penny or two. He reminisced about simpler times, when kids collected coins instead of watching television or playing video games.

Accusingly, he points to his phone saying Today kids are playing with this (smartphone)  they are not collecting coins.

Nevertheless, Kaplan said coin collecting will die out if younger generations dont take an interest.

If you look around the room, we all have gray hair, he said with a laugh. Thats a potential problem.
This story has been updated to reflect two corrections that have been added to the original story on Dr. O.H. "Bud" Frazier.

During the past month, nearly 50 physicians, researchers, patients and community leaders have authored letters criticizing an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica that revealed allegations of serious research violations and ethical breaches by famed Houston heart surgeon O.H. "Bud" Frazier.

Several of the letters supporting Frazier were published in the Houston Chronicle's opinion pages; others have been shared directly with reporters or compiled on a website that was launched following publication of the article.

Many of the writers lavished praise on Frazier, who helped pioneer mechanical heart pumps and is working to develop an artificial heart. Indeed, the news organizations' reporting described in detail Frazier's contributions to his field and included supportive comments from a fellow surgeon and a former patient.

Some letter writers went further, however, saying the story was inaccurate; one called it a "biased smear attempt." Linda Gale White, the widow of former Texas governor Mark White and a friend of Frazier's, called it "fake news."

We stand by our reporting and have corrected two errors.

The story, which revealed that Frazier has been accused of violating federal research rules and skirting ethical guidelines at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (now Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center) and its research arm, the Texas Heart Institute, was based on internal hospital records, court filings, official reports to federal regulators and interviews with medical professionals. Reporters posted several source documents with the online version of the story.

HEART FAILURE: At St. Luke's in Houston, patients suffer as a renowned heart transplant program loses its luster

Frazier had an opportunity to respond to every finding from our reporting before the story was published. We sent extensive and detailed questions to Frazier and a lawyer representing him and repeatedly extended the deadline for them to respond. We took their responses seriously and included them in our story.

Below are specific criticisms of the reporting and our responses:

'Claims' of research violations

"We were taken aback by claims that Dr. Frazier violated clinical research protocols and good research practice by implanting left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) in patients ineligible for the studies. ... Neither Mr. Hixenbaugh nor Mr. Ornstein had access to the case report forms or requested information from the sponsor of the trial or the physician primary investigators making the source of their allegations pertaining to research misconduct unclear and raising the possibility that other 'facts' are inaccurate."  Dr. Robert L. Kormos, Dr. Joseph G. Rogers, Dr. Mark S. Slaughter, in a letter to reporters

The authors of the letter  three of the primary researchers in the HeartMate II clinical trial  and others characterized the story's findings as "claims" or "allegations" made by reporters. Texas Heart Institute, St. Luke's research partner, made a similar statement in a letter to donors this month. These characterizations are incorrect. The findings of research violations in Frazier's LVAD program reported in our story stemmed from an internal review by top officials at his hospital.

None of the letters written in support of Frazier acknowledge that.

In the 2008 internal report, St. Luke's concluded that Frazier and his team implanted experimental heart pumps in patients who did not meet medical criteria to be included in clinical trials. St. Luke's and Texas Heart together reported the violations that year to the federal Office for Human Research Protections and pledged a host of research reforms. (Read the letter they sent to federal officials and other correspondence.)

Despite having self-reported these research violations a decade ago, Texas Heart's letter in response to our story said the institute had assisted with a review that found no evidence to support the "assertions" made by ProPublica. In fact, Dr. James Willerson, then-president of Texas Heart, co-signed the 2008 letter reporting the research violations in Frazier's program to the government. In subsequent correspondence with regulators, Texas Heart and St. Luke's reported auditing all of the studies led by Frazier to find and correct any similar violations.

Our story included, in detail, Frazier's contention that the hospital's findings of research violations were incorrect. The story also quoted David Pate, the CEO of St. Luke's at the time, who said he stood behind the decision to report the research violations and repay millions of dollars to Medicare based on findings of problems in Frazier's research program.

AT ST. LUKE'S IN HOUSTON: A heart transplant, a medical mishap and a drawn-out death

The letter from the researchers said that we did not request information from the sponsor of the trial or the physician primary investigators. That is not correct. A statement from the trial's sponsor was included in the story, and prior to publication, reporters sent two emails seeking comment from Slaughter, one of the primary investigators, but he did not respond.

The New England Journal of Medicine, which published studies based in part on Frazier's research, initially told reporters that it was not aware of any concerns prior to our reporting. In an email this month, a journal spokeswoman wrote that editors subsequently received information about patients enrolled in the trial.

"Based on this information, which is confidential, we are satisfied that the published data are accurate and that the trial is appropriately described. For these reasons, we do not consider it necessary to take further action. The internal Texas Heart Institute review you provided to us focused on the clinical trials of two different devices: the HeartMate II device and the Jarvik 2000 device. NEJM did not publish any data from the Jarvik 2000 study, so we cannot evaluate the veracity of reports from that trial."

Now Playing: David Kveton died after a failed heart transplant at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center. At first, his wife thought he had just been unlucky. Then she received an anonymous letter from someone at the hospital. Video: Katie Campbell & Jon Shapley

Financial conflicts

"(Frazier) sacrificed a large financial gain, yet the Chronicle has falsely accused Dr. Frazier of being unethical in his financial dealings."  Dr. Joe N. Kidd, cardiovascular surgeon

Several letter writers criticized reporters for focusing on Frazier's financial relationships with device makers, which he often did not disclose in medical journal articles. They maintained that Frazier could have gotten rich off his work developing heart pumps but did not. Frazier made a similar point, which was included in the story.

Regardless of how much Frazier could have earned, he did receive payments from companies that make devices he tested, but he did not fully report these potential conflicts of interest in medical journals. The Chronicle and ProPublica reviewed the past 100 papers on which Frazier was listed as an author, dating to 2010. Frazier disclosed conflicts of interest in less than 10 percent, and those disclosures often were inconsistent and incomplete.

For instance, Frazier received stock options from HeartWare International, which made a continuous flow pump that he helped develop and tested in patients at St. Luke's. In the midst of working on the device's clinical trials, Frazier gave those options to his son, who earned $130,813 by exercising them, none of which was disclosed in Frazier's journal articles.

Most medical journals require such disclosure so that other scientists and the public can judge whether personal interests may have influenced research findings.

As a result of our reporting, the New England Journal of Medicine said Frazier had agreed to submit corrected disclosure forms, according to a journal spokeswoman.

Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle

LVAD mortality rates

"I am not the least convinced by using the newspaper's quotes of Medicare mortality figures as a reliable tool to compare surgical outcomes since they are NOT risk-adjusted. Furthermore, these numbers do not take account of how many patients have died while waiting for a heart transplant that never became available. Indeed a surgeon who selects the better risk patients would obviously have better survival at one year, than somebody like yourself who will accept the neediest and sickest patients, without concern about how the publicly available statistics would look down the road."  Dr. Kamal G. Khalil, adjunct professor of cardiothoracic surgery at UTHealth's McGovern Medical School, in a letter to Frazier

From 2010-15, about half of the traditional Medicare patients who received an implantable heart assist device from Frazier died within a year, nearly double the national mortality rate for such patients, according to a ProPublica analysis of federal data. We published an article explaining how we conducted the analysis.

TELL US YOUR STORY: Help us investigate care at the Texas Medical Center

It is correct that the mortality figures were not risk adjusted. That said, the differences between Frazier and other surgeons nationally and at his own hospital were profound. His Medicare outcomes ranked among the worst in the country.

We included in the story that Frazier took issue with ProPublica's analysis, saying it was "grossly unfair" to focus only on Medicare patients rather than the larger pool of patients the hospital treats, though he did not provide data showing his overall outcomes.

Frazier also said he was rarely the lead surgeon during his final five years operating, from 2010-15, but when asked about this contention, St. Luke's said it stood behind the accuracy of the numbers it submitted to Medicare.

The unlicensed physician

"The Chronicle report on Dr. Branislav Radovancevic is totally a hospital issue. The hospital should have removed him immediately if he didn't have the correct credentials. Dr. Frazier was never censored (sic) or warned of any wrong-doing. These events occurred over 20 years ago and aren't relevant at this time. The Chronicle's attempt to make Dr. Frazier look as bad as it can in the public's view is unfounded."  Dr. Joe N. Kidd, cardiovascular surgeon

As reported in the story, Radovancevic completed a fellowship at Texas Heart in the late 1980s but subsequently failed his medical licensing exams and could not practice as a doctor in Texas. Nonetheless, according to a federal lawsuit filed by a former St. Luke's nurse, Radovancevic continued treating patients, with the knowledge of hospital officials and Frazier.

TROUBLED LEGACY: A Houston surgeon's hidden history of research violations, conflicts of interest and poor outcomes

The lawsuit also alleged that Frazier, Radovancevic and others at the hospital "participated in a scheme" to unnecessarily admit patients to an intensive care unit in order to move them higher on the organ waiting list and increase their odds of receiving a transplant.

Frazier was named as a defendant in the lawsuit and was specifically accused of allowing Radovancevic to treat patients. In some instances, according to documents filed with the court, Frazier's signature was stamped onto medical orders made by Radovancevic. Frazier testified in a deposition as part of the lawsuit and he was named as a party to a settlement.

We included Frazier's response, in which he defended Radovancevic as a brilliant researcher who merely offered advice on patient care, and we linked to documents that Frazier's lawyer said vindicate his position.

***

This story is the result of a collaboration between the Chronicle and ProPublica, an independent nonprofit newsroom based in New York. Mike Hixenbaugh is an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle. Charles Ornstein is a senior editor at ProPublica.

HEART FAILURE: St. Luke's, the Houston transplant center made famous by Denton Cooley, has fallen far and fast, dropping to levels far short of its reputation. In recent years, the famed program has performed an outsized number of transplants resulting in deaths or unusual complications. Read our full investigation on our subscriber website, HoustonChronicle.com.
Its a given that political candidates will target each other with as much oppositional propaganda as they can get away with. But with the Kremlin now playing a third-party shadow role in U.S. elections, the usual game seems to be shifting from blood sport to cold war.

Given Russias well-established preference for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, its possible, if not likely, that the next round of election meddling will be geared toward keeping the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

For Democrats, this added pressure from Russia could easily begin to feel like a threat. Imagine believing that youre not only running against a Republican but also against a former KGB agent who seems to be in cahoots with your very own president.

What else should one think?

During a rally Thursday evening in Pennsylvania, Trump once again referred to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation as the Russian hoax. This, amid the intelligence communitys stepped-up warnings about new Russian interference. And, lets not forget the 12 Russians whom Mueller indicted last month for hacking Democratic Party computer networks.

Mueller is not generally known as a hoaxer.

But Trump remains the slick salesman, entertainer and pot stirrer hes always been. Just hours before his stick-it-to-em jamboree, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and several national intelligence officials convened a media briefing to address Russian attempts to impact the midterm elections.

That is, with a slight modification. In her statement, Sanders assured gathered media that the administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation-state or other dangerous actor, clearly indicating that the focus would not be only on Russia.

As it should be, given that others would also like to meddle in our affairs. But as the gathered officials made clear  including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen  Russia is of central concern here and now. Wray said that Russia continues to engage in malign influence operations that target the integrity of our democratic institutions. Coats said: We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States.

Then why is the president undermining his own advisers?

Although Trump is referring primarily to Muellers core mission  to determine whether the Trump campaign was involved in the Russian interference  he seems more than willing to minimize the importance of what we already know. Thus, the question has to be: Why, if theres no concern about collusion, would Trump keep pounding Mueller while defending Putin?

One can only conclude that either theres a little smidge of guilt, a problematic family connection, a dossier embarrassment  or the president of the United States doesnt care that Russia tried to ruin Clinton so that he could become president. He seems to care so little, in fact, that hes essentially calling Americas intelligence community a pack of liars and Mueller a hoaxer. Meanwhile, last month in Helsinki, Trump said Putin was an extremely strong and powerful denier. (Have these guys exchanged jewelry yet?)

If Putin says he didnt do it, then Trump takes him at his word? Yet, when teams of skilled, honorable investigators tackle the problem and present indictments based on facts, Trump insinuates that theyre making it up?

This reversal of loyalty to his own people, not to mention the country he is tasked with leading, is so preposterous that normal people are at serious risk of joining lemming colonies. It isnt possible to use logic with the illogical; its futile to explain the obvious to the willfully thick; and when it comes to Trumps base, witness only the rally last week in Florida where CNN reporter Jim Acosta was the target of dozens of Trumpers extending their middle digits and shouting, among other salutations, You suck!

Perhaps, some in Trumps camp see things like steady job growth and low unemployment and say to themselves, Who cares how he got elected? And if Russia likes Trump, why is that necessarily bad?The president, they would note, has been checking off his list of campaign promises without so much as changing his expression.

One could make such an argument, but this would be a narrow view and an unserious response to other facts. These include what almost any Russian would surely tell you  that Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle  and that something was stinky in Helsinki.

Parkers email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.
I have vivid memories of the notorious T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a former medium security prison in Taylor, Texas, run by CoreCivic, one of the nations largest for-profit prison companies. More than a decade ago, families were housed in cells and subjected to a strict prison regime. Even infants were dressed in prison garb.

Children at Hutto invented games in which they played border patrol agent and immigrant, arresting and freeing each other. One mother grabbed my legs tightly as she fell to the floor sobbing and begged me to get her family out.

I never imagined that in 2014, U.S. immigration policy would return to the misguided practice of detaining families, much less that this year we would see the horror of parents and children forcibly separated. Last week at the Karnes Detention Center, located just south of San Antonio, I met with reunited families, where crying fathers and young sons talked about fleeing violence in their home countries and the trauma of being separated at the U.S. border. One father held tight to his son the entire time; another told me the well-behaved son he knew before they were separated now was acting out and fighting with other children.

This time around, at least, the images of children and parents in cages has sparked outrage in the American public.

ICE has a history of mismanagement and lack of transparency and public accountability. Chaos has for years been the standard in the U.S. immigrant detention system, where the daily average number of incarcerated immigrants has been growing rapidly and now stands at more than 40,000 people held in a sprawling array of mostly for-profit private facilities located primarily in remote rural areas.

In this current crisis, ICE failed to meet a court-imposed deadline to reunite families, it lost or destroyed records documenting relationships among separated families, and deported more than 400 parents, many of whom may never be reunited with their children.

Although immigration violations fall under civil law, immigrants are treated as criminals but with few due process protections. They are not entitled to court-appointed lawyers, making navigating the immigration system nearly impossible for the vast majority who are unable to secure counsel. Separated parents have been moved from one detention center to another for administrative convenience. There are too few Spanish language interpreters, and interpreters for rare languages are virtually unavailable. Thus speakers of indigenous languages are especially isolated and powerless, as they often are unable to understand why their children were taken. Attorneys cannot call clients directly, but must leave messages that may or may not be delivered. Waiting times at detention centers can be as long as three hours, and attorneys must share the few available visitation rooms.

Abhorrent conditions, sexual abuse, inadequate food, lack of medical care and deaths in detention have been repeatedly documented over the years. Although nothing in the detention system changes, the response of the current administration has been to push for expanded, lengthier detention for immigrants, including parents and children.

Parents should not, as they currently are made to, have to choose between being deported without their children or prolonged detention with them. Under a civil system, detention should be the last alternative, not the first. Immigration courts should assess flight risk and public safety before depriving any person of her liberty. Absent any exceptional circumstances, immigrants should be released to their families or into the community, which is cheaper and more effective than over-use of detention.

Another solution is to adequately fund nonprofit organizations that provide legal representation to immigrants. One recent study, Detaining Families: A Study of Asylum Adjudication in Family Detention, showed that 96 percent of families with lawyers show up for scheduled hearings. Further, represented immigrants have a much higher chance of success in their cases than those forced to navigate the complexities of immigration law on their own.

Having caught a glimpse of the inhumanity of the immigrant detention system, Americans should take a fresh look at over-incarceration and support community-based options to help adults, parents and children to pursue their cases. We can do better  much better.

Hines is a retired clinical professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law.
As a Latin American immigrant and a naturalized citizen who made a life, family and career over the last two decades in the United States, I have never seen threats to our existence or expressions of hate like those Ive encountered since President Trumps election.

Not only is the administration deliberately closing U.S. borders to people seeking protection, it is also attacking immigrants who already legally reside here.

Recently, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service publicly announced the creation of a denaturalization task force, which was already looking into the cases of more than 2,500 U.S. citizens for allegedly committing fraud. While the administration claims that it will only be pursuing cases of fraud, these actions appear to be meant to inspire fear among all immigrants.

We know what President Trump says about immigrants and asylum-seekers. He describes them as animals arriving in the United States to infest the country. The hateful policy of separating children from their parents for exercising their legal right to seek asylum from violence and persecution was emblematic of the disdain his administration has shown toward those coming to the United States, many from Central America seeking protection.

This has never been about following the law. If it were, the administration would not have to bend the law or even blatantly disregard it to accomplish its discriminatory ends.

Ive seen the devastation of these policies firsthand. Just four days before Mothers Day, I met with families forcibly separated from their children after they requested asylum in El Paso. Despite what Trump claims, fleeing violence and persecution to ask for protection in the United States is absolutely legal. Many people fleeing their countries do so because their justice systems cannot hold perpetrators of crimes accountable, or keep survivors safe in the process.

Maria arrived with her grandson at the El Paso port of entry in August 2017. She had his medical records and notarized documentation proving legal guardianship. She also had a doctors note warning that the child had severe cognitive disabilities and would have epileptic attacks if separated from her. Nevertheless, border patrol agents tore the sick child away from his grandmother and flew him to a facility in Connecticut.

Maria burst into tears when she spotted her grandsons picture in her lawyers file. This child should never have been separated from his grandmother in the first place, and yet they have been separated for an astonishing nine months with no indication that they will be reunited soon. By ripping her grandson out of her arms, the administration violated both of their human rights and the laws it claims to defend.

Weve seen distressing and heartbreaking images of children locked in cages. Weve heard audio of their cries, as they ask for their parents and plead to be reunited. Weve watched their desperate parents ask for help, hoping the public will see the senselessness of separating families fleeing from violence and persecution. Weve even seen toddlers sitting alone in immigration court, made to defend themselves without a lawyer even though they are too young to string words together. And now legal citizens are having their status questioned.

These recent developments, as well as the specter of the thinly-veiled discrimination of the Muslim ban, show that Trump has no interest in upholding the law and every interest in making any and all immigrants feel unwelcome.

What other terrible cruelties will happen in the name of Trumps xenophobic and discriminatory policies? It is far past time for all of us to rise up, come together and denounce the hatred that has led us to this shameful moment in U.S. history. This is the moment to call our elected officials, attend rallies and protests, and support marginalized people in our communities. We must hold administration officials and agencies accountable for their heartless and devastating actions. No matter what values the president claims to uphold, we must continue to call out the animus behind these hateful policies as the bigotry that it is.

Margerin is the advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA.
If an employees conduct on social media outside of work and outside of work equipment is unacceptable then an employer may still be able to discipline or dismiss an employee, said Kynaston.

Again, there has to be some connection to the workplace and some impact on the employer that might be abusive comments that undermine work, that undermine colleagues, that harass or bully.

The comments might have an impact on the trust that the employer has on the employee.

In those circumstances an employer can have a genuine interest and discipline or dismiss if the conduct is unacceptable.

A notable case in New Zealand involved a childcare centre manager who was dismissed for 'liking' a negative Facebook post about her employer. The case highlights the need for having social media policies for employees, on and off the job.
Imperial Valley News Center

Six Filipinos Indicted for Domestic and International Money Laundering and Conspiracy for Multi-Year Bribery and Fraud Scheme

Los Angeles, California - A Filipino woman and her family members were indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday for conspiring to funnel in and out of the United States approximately $20 million in Philippine public funds obtained through a multi-year bribery and fraud scheme. Charged in the indictment for Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, Domestic Money Laundering and International Money Laundering were:

Jannet Lim Napoles, 54,

Jo Christine Napoles, 34,

James Christopher Napoles, 33,

Jeane Catherine Napoles, 28,

Reynald Luy Lim, 52, and

Ana Marie Lim, 47.

Four defendants together with approximately 20 Philippines legislators and other government officials not charged in U.S. indictments converted to their own benefit hundreds of millions of dollars in Philippine public funds through the intricate scheme and then transmitted approximately $20 million from that scheme into the United States to purchase assets, including real property and luxury vehicles.

The defendants fraudulently converted money from a lump-sum discretionary Priority Development Assistance Fund granted to each member of the Philippines Congress as well as other government funds designed to benefit poor Filipinos.

The money was paid to dozens of non-governmental organizations controlled by Jannet Napoles pursuant to contracts that required the money to be spent on development projects. The projects were not performed. Instead, the money was diverted to kickbacks for the legislators and other government officials, and for the personal use of the Napoles family.

Approximately $20 million of those funds were diverted to money remitters in the Philippines and then wired to Southern California bank accounts where the money was used to purchase real estate, shares in two businesses, two Porsche Boxsters, and finance the living expenses of three family members residing in the United States: Jeane Napoles, Reynald Lim, and Ana Lim.

The charges handed down today pertain to events beginning in September 2012 and continuing through August 2014. In September 2012, an audit discovered the fraud. In July 2013, the fraud and the U.S. proceeds were exposed in the Filipino press. In August 2013, Jannet was arrested by Philippine authorities and Napoles family bank accounts were frozen in the Philippines. Thereafter, Napoles and her family members attempted to quietly liquidate the assets in the United States, secretly repatriate most of the resulting funds back to the Philippines and to other accounts in the U.S. and United Kingdom, and disburse some of the funds to Jeane Napoles, who used the money to finance her lifestyle and open a fashion business.

Even after Jannet Napoles made a highly publicized statement admitting that she had bribed Philippine legislators in connection with these ghost projects, the defendants attempted to convert the proceeds of this crime to their own use, said United States Attorney Nick Hanna. The efforts of the Philippine and American investigators demonstrates that there are consequences to abusing the public trust and we hope to deter such conduct in the future. To do this, we will work with our Philippine counterparts to secure the extradition of the defendants to the United States.

According to court documents, approximately $12.5 million in Southern California real estate has been seized by the United States Attorneys Office and is subject to a civil forfeiture case pending before United States District Judge James V. Selna. If the court orders the assets forfeited, the United States will work with Philippine officials in an attempt to return the stolen funds back to the Philippine government.

U.S. authorities have received ongoing cooperation and substantial assistance from the Philippine government, including the Department of Justice, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Anti-Money Laundering Council, and the Commission on Audit, which responded to official requests pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the Philippines and the United States and through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel OBrien, Deputy Chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section.
Michael James Frew Arrested in Nevada for Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, and Money Laundering Charges

San Francisco, California - On July 26, a federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted former Bay Area resident Michael James Frew charging him with wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering announced Acting United States Attorney Alex G. Tse, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Internal Revenue Service (IRS-CI) Tara Sullivan. The indictment was unsealed today following Frews arrest in Beatty, Nevada, on the charges.

According to the indictment, beginning no later than 2010, Frew, 70, formerly of Hillsborough, Calif., solicited investments from numerous individuals on the premise that their money would be invested into real estate in the United States and abroad. After receiving misrepresentations in connection with Frews solicitations, several victim investors provided funds to Frew for the purpose of allowing him to invest funds on their behalf. In fact, Frew used these investments primarily to support his personal lifestyle, to speculate on the stock market using an account in his name, and/or to repay other victims a portion of their investments.

The indictment alleges that Frew convinced his victims he would make investments into real estate in the United States and foreign countries in areas under recent distress from natural disasters. The indictment describes how Frew allegedly persuaded one couple to transfer to him $380,000 in cash for the purpose of making investments in foreign real estate and a short term investment that would yield a 10% return. Nevertheless, instead of investing the money as he promised, Frew used the money to make expenditures for personal expenses, to speculate on the stock market, and to repay other victim investors. The indictment describes similar transactions between Frew and four other victims during the period 2010 through 2014.

In sum, the indictment charges Frew with two counts each of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1343; mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1341; and money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1957.

After his arrest, Frew made his initial appearance in United States District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was released on certain conditions, including that he give up his passport. A local initial appearance in San Francisco is scheduled for August 21, 2018, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley.

An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment on each count of wire fraud and mail fraud, and 10 years imprisonment on each count of money laundering. In addition, Frew faces fines of $250,000 on each count in the indictment and restitution for the losses he is alleged to have caused. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C.  3553.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert David Rees is prosecuting the case with assistance from Bridget Kilkenny. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS-CI.
Border Patrol Arrests 28th Sex Offender this Fiscal Year

Calexico, California - U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Border Patrol station arrested a previously deported sex offender shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday evening.

The incident occurred after agents encountered a man who had illegally entered the United States roughly five miles west of the Calexico Port of Entry.

Record checks revealed that the man, later identified as Maximo Flores-Lezaman, a 43-year-old Mexican national, is a previously convicted sex offender.

The checks showed that Flores-Lezaman had a felony conviction from April 2002, in California, for Sex with a Minor. Flores-Lezaman was sentenced to one year in prison and three years probation after the 2002 felony conviction.

Flores-Lezaman is the 28th sex offender arrested by El Centro Sector in fiscal year 2018 and will remain in federal custody pending prosecution for violation of criminal law.
Russian Hacker Sentenced to Nearly 6 Years in Prison in Scheme that Caused $4.1 Million in Losses with Fraudulent Debit Cards

Los Angeles, California - A Russian national was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for hacking into the accounts of two companies and issuing unauthorized debit cards associated with dependent care accounts to conspirators around the world, leading to losses of more than $4 million.

Mikhail Konstantinov Malykhin, 36, an illegal alien who was living in the Park La Brea district of Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee after admitting to hacking into the accounts and conspiring to use the fraudulent debit cards.

In addition to the 70-month sentence, Judge Gee ordered Malykhin to pay $4,131,731 in restitution. Malykhin has agreed to forfeit approximately $1.3 million in cash and more than $22,000 in gift cards previously seized by FBI agents from Malykhins safe deposit boxes, as well as several gold bars, nearly $30,000 that Malykhin sent to a plastic surgery center, and a 1966 Ford Mustang.

Judge Gee today described Malykhins offenses as reprehensible, noting that he had caused much pain and ruined the lives of many of his victims.

Malykhin pleaded guilty in 2016 to two felony offenses  conspiracy to use unauthorized access devices (the stolen debit cards) and unauthorized access to a protected computer.

According to court documents, in late 2015 and early 2016, Malykhin used login credentials supplied to him by another hacker to illegally access the online software platform of a Massachusetts company, which other companies used to manage flexible spending accounts and dependent care accounts. Once he illegally accessed the platform, Malykhin reactivated dormant dependent care accounts associated with an Oregon company and issued debit cards from these accounts with limits of up to $5 million. Malykhin also illegally accessed the platform and issued debit cards linked to a Colorado company that later went out of business as the result of the losses suffered through the hack.

Malykhin caused the debit cards to be sent to conspirators around the world, including to people in the United States and Russia, where the cards were used to purchase big-ticket items at retail stores, such as Best Buy and Apple in the Los Angeles area. For his part, Malykhin received cash payments, luxury items, and gift cards obtained when items purchased with the fraudulent debit cards were returned.

Malykhins conduct resulted in over $4 million in losses, with the now-defunct Colorado company suffering the bulk of those loses, which had to be shouldered by the Massachusetts company in the wake of the primary victims insolvency. As a result of the losses caused by Malykhin, employees of the Oregon and Colorado companies lost their jobs, as well as investments in those small businesses and retirement savings.

Judge Gee today described some of the victim-impact letters submitted to the court as heart-breaking and noted the lasting emotional harm that Malykhin had caused the victims.

Last year, five local runners who used the fraudulent debit cards at retail locations were sentenced to federal prison.

The case against Malykhin was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The case against Malykhin was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anil J. Antony of the Cyber & Intellectual Property Crimes Section, with assistance provided by Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Galatzan of the Asset Forfeiture Section.
Eleventh Ministerial Meeting of the Lower Mekong Initiative

Washington, DC - On August 3, 2018, the Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lao PDR, the Permanent Representative to ASEAN of Myanmar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam, the U.S. Secretary of State, and the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN met in Singapore for the Eleventh Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Ministerial Meeting. The Foreign Ministers of the Mekong partner countries welcomed Secretary Pompeo as the chair of his first LMI Foreign Ministers Meeting, and applauded the LMIs collaborative process in developing cross-border and integrated initiatives to promote regional policy and solutions to address trans-boundary development challenges.

The Secretary and the Foreign Ministers re-affirmed their commitment to the development of LMI and emphasized the importance of the LMI as a key driver of connectivity, economic integration, sustainable development, and good governance in the Lower Mekong sub-region. The Foreign Ministers commended the LMIs forward-looking vision for prioritizing womens empowerment across all lines of effort, and taking an integrated approach to enhancing water, energy, food security, and addressing environmental challenges in the region. The Secretary and Foreign Ministers also praised engagement of the Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM), and that donor groupings work under the Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership, building capacity in LMI governments to develop socially and environmentally sound infrastructure and strengthening regional policy-making practices.

The Secretary and the Foreign Ministers approved a joint plan to update and streamline the LMI to be more dynamic in responding to the sub-regions needs by combining previous work streams into two inclusive pillars: 1) the Water, Energy, Food, and Environment Nexus; and 2) Human Development and Connectivity (which will include but is not limited to activities related to connectivity, health, and education). Member countries will integrate the themes of gender equality and womens empowerment, connectivity, and public-private partnership across all LMI activities.

The Foreign Ministers also applauded the progress of the Mekong Water Data Initiative (MWDI). Since its inception in 2017, MWDI has sparked collaborative efforts among the Lower Mekong countries, donors, the Mekong River Commission, and other stakeholders to improve the management and sharing of water resources data among the Lower Mekong partner countries. Ministers affirmed that prudent and collaborative stewardship of the Mekong is fundamental to the LMI countries long-term economic success and human development. The Ministers urged continued advancement of a shared vision and strategic framework, through regional cooperation and collective efforts, for improved water resources management led by riparian member countries, and a framework to modernize national and regional capacities for water data collection, access, analysis, and application.

The Ministers also welcomed significant progress in the training of 182 government, university, non-profit, and industry professionals in the development of national and regional One Health networks  a key step towards combatting antimicrobial resistance and lowering the risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks.

Additionally, the Ministers praised the continued progress in the LMI partnership to share cutting-edge educational approaches and technologies, which has better prepared over 44,000 youth for the 21st century workplace.

The Foreign Ministers endorsed the updated Master Plan of Action to Implement the Lower Mekong Initiative 2016-2020. Reviewing the progress from the May 2018 Regional Working Group in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, the Ministers instructed their respective staffs to implement proposals faithfully under the new pillars to achieve sustainable development, and contribute to ASEAN Community building.

Heads of Delegation:

E. Sok Siphana, Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Kingdom of Cambodia E. Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic E. U Kyaw Tin, Union Minister for International Cooperation, Republic of the Union of Myanmar E. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand E. Michael Pompeo, Secretary of State, United States of America E. Mr. Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

E. Dato Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary-General of ASEAN
Secretary Pompeo's Meeting With Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono

Washington, DC - Today, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo met with Japanese Foreign Minister Kono in Singapore to discuss next steps on DPRK engagement. Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Kono reaffirmed our commitment to the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK. The Secretary and Minister agreed that pressure must continue until the DPRK denuclearizes.

They also affirmed the strength of the U.S.-Japan Alliance and vowed to continue working together closely to address common challenges, seize shared opportunities, and advance the interests of both the United States and Japan in the Indo Pacific region.
Australia-Japan-United States Trilateral Strategic Dialogue Joint Ministerial

Washington, DC - Australia-Japan-United States Trilateral Strategic Dialogue Joint Ministerial Statement:

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, Julie Bishop, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Taro Kono, and the Secretary of State for the United States, Michael R. Pompeo, met in Singapore on August 4, 2018 for the eighth ministerial meeting of the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD).
Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

Never assume that your outbound journey on an airline will be subject to the same joys as the one coming back.

The crew will likely be different. Their moods will likely be different. And consistency in airline service isn't so easy to find.

This is something DePaul University music student Jingjing Hu found to her cost.

On Thursday, she was flying back to her home in Chicago from Miami.

She had perhaps her best friend with her -- her cello. Hu had been performing in a music festival.

Airlines allow musical instruments on board, as long as you buy them a seat and strap them in.

Musical instruments are like children, but infinitely more melodic and much quieter on planes.

As her husband Jay Tang described on Facebook, this was where the music became hard to listen to, as the mood, dynamics and tempo of the trip were derailed.

Hu was suddenly told that her cello was too big for a Boeing 737.

Accelerando

This was just before the plane's doors were about to close.

Yes, she was already on the plane, having been through all the palaver of security. She was also allowed to pre-board and says she had been given a belt by cabin crew to strap the cello in securely.

Why now?

Worse, as she was escorted off the plane, her cello allegedly brushed the pilot. He apparently felt hurt by this.

She took a picture of him as he displayed what some might take as a V for Victory sign, as Hu was ushered away.

The airline insists he was signaling to ground staff that there were now two free seats on the plane. Airlines rarely miss a money-making opportunity, do they?

Could that have played a role here? The two seats were quickly filled.

Rallentando

This, though, was merely the first movement of many.

Hu said she'd been told that she could catch the next flight, a mere hour or so later.

Alternatively, she could purchase a First Class seat. Well, two.

Ah, but that flight wouldn't let her and her cello on. It was also a 737. And there, at the gate, there were three police officers. The airline had called law enforcement.

Then she says she was taken to a Holiday Inn -- first the wrong one, then the right one -- and only put on a flight the following day.

Even at this point, she says she was denied pre-boarding.

Sforzando

Of course, so far we only have her and her husband's side of things. Could it be that she'd begun to show frustration at some point in this mess?

It would have been hard not to, perhaps.

"You have so many chances to tell me that you cannot board yesterday," she told NBC Chicago. "You never told me until I sat down."

On Facebook, Tang, who said his wife had been "humiliated," offered dark motives for her expulsion:

AA is just playing around with customers. They just kick off passengers when they oversell their tickets using FAA regulations as an excuse. I could have been told those regulations when purchasing the ticket. My wife could have been told those regulations when flying from Chicago to Miami, at check in counter in Miami International Airport, at the gate or even when boarding the plane.

American Airlines rules allow an instrument on a separate seat if it weighs less than 165 lbs. Hu's cello weighs 10.

My own calculations suggest that the seats on an American 737 are actually more or less the same size as those on the 757 and 767 which also fly on the Chicago-Miami route.

So she should have been allowed on the second 737, never mind the first.

Espressivo

I contacted American to ask for its side of this troubling farrago. A spokeswoman told me:

A passenger on flight 2457 from Miami to Chicago was traveling with her cello. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication about whether the cello she was traveling with met the requirements to fit onboard the particular aircraft she was flying, a Boeing 737. We rebooked our passenger on a flight the next morning on a larger aircraft, a Boeing 767.

A miscommunication.

And somewhere, the University of Euphemisms announced that its work was done.

The airline added that it had provided hotel and meals for the "inconvenience."

My sources suggest the airline believes the problem may have begun with a customer service manager, not a Flight Attendant. This manager suddenly decided that the cello was inappropriate for the plane.

Or, rather, had decided the cello was actually a bass violin.

It isn't.

The rules do say that cellos should be in a bulkhead window seat in an exit row.

Tang told me his wife was booked in 23A and 23B, not bulkhead seats. But the airline had told him and his wife in advance that there would be no problem. And the cello was strapped into the window seat, so it wouldn't be in anyone's way.

Tang said the airline told him it would perform a "deep dive" into the issue. He says it hasn't contacted him since.

The customer service manager -- if that's the person at the heart of this -- was clearly, though, a touch mistaken. There was nothing wrong with the size of the cello.

Some might wonder whether the pilot and/or the Flight Attendants would also have known the cello rules -- or at least got the plane moving.

Instead, a scene.

Misterioso

When it comes to cellos, American has a discordant record.

Last year, the airline kicked another cellist off a flight, claiming his cello was a security risk.

Why, though, didn't it dawn on the cabin crew and the pilot that Hu had been allowed onto the plane and, presumably, told there was no problem with her instrument? After all, she'd already been given a belt to strap it in.

Indeed, Tang says he'd made all the appropriate calls when booking to ensure that her cello was permissible.

At the core, then, is another example of airline personnel enforcing rules -- worse, in this case, seemingly not even knowing precisely what they actually are.

Which can cause a little frustration for passengers.
Brighton Pride organisers have released a statement following the dangerous incident which saw thousands marooned after Britney Spears' headline concert.

Many expressed their safety concerns on social media as police ordered Brighton train station to close with services to London temporarily suspended.

Passengers said the area around the train station descended into mayhem, with photos posted to Twitter bearing testament to the chaos as vast crowds amassed and people complained of being crushed.

We were appalled to see that Pride-goers were standing for long periods of time, at the end of the event, while waiting to access Brighton Station, the statement read. People's safety was put in jeopardy by GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) and the station's failure to plan for adequate train service.

It continued: We successfully and safely cleared the event site at the Park in less than 30 minutes, with roads around the park clear and open again in under an hour. We thank everyone who attended the Pride Festival at the park for the way in which they left the area calmly and peacefully.

Despite this, several Twitter followers have highlighted the danger they faced while attempting to leave the site following Spears' first UK show since 2011.

Brighton music photographer Jamie MacMillan stated he had never felt as unsafe than he had not just after but also during last night's performance. People couldnt move or breathe, no security or first aid in sight, he tweeted.

Leaving the site was fine in the end, but the crush at Brighton Station was potentially deadly. Not just someone getting hurt unsafe, but potential for multiple fatalities unsafe, he wrote, describing station staff as rabbits in headlights.



Police said they decided to close the station in a bid to impose crowd control measures, but the measures left many of the 57,000 people who attended the event stranded with many reportedly resorting to sleeping on the beach.

Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

Earlier that evening, Spears had stunned fans with a 90-minute performance filled with hits including ...Baby One More Time and Toxic.

"We ran 15 extra trains yesterday in addition to the plan agreed with the event organisers to cope with the unprecedented visitor numbers."

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The spokesperson assured revellers GTR is "talking to the organisers and police about whether we need to enhance today's timetable with extra capacity."
As many as 700 lives a year will be saved by new organ donation laws which will presume everyone is a donor unless they explicitly opt-out, the government has said.

The new system will now be introduced after a consultation showed the public are overwhelmingly in favour of organ donation, but only a minority have registered as organ donors.

There will be a one year introductory period to give people time to register their wishes before the it takes effect in Spring 2019, the Department of Health and Social Care has said.

The changes will be known as Maxs Law after Max Johnson, a 10-year-old boy who was saved by a heart transplant.

Organ donation saves lives, said Jackie Doyle-Price, parliamentary under-secretary of state for mental health and inequalities.

We believe that by making these changes, we can save as many as 700 more lives every year.

But organ donation remains a gift.

However the change is not a magic bullet, she added and urged everyone to talk with their families about their wishes.

NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday Nurses test the hearing of a newborn child Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday The waiting room is busy in Milton Keynes University Hospital Reuters NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 24, two nurses work at the nurses station Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In A&E, a porter rushes a patient through the corridor Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A surgical team prepares a patient for their operation Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In the physiotherapy department, patients are treated in the hydrotherapy pool Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, an inpatient awaits visitors Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In the physiotherapy department, amputees take a class Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A junior doctor is at work in the staff room Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A surgical team prepares a patient for their operation Reuters NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday An inpatient has her hair washed by the staff hairdressers Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In the audiology department, a mother watches on as her son is given a hearing test Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, staff serve lunch to the patients Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 24, a patient waits on their bed Reuters NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, a cleaner is at work Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A nurse takes blood from a patient Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, an inpatient receives a visitor Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday Inpatient Donald Ritson lies in bed in Ward 24 in Milton Keynes University Hospital Reuters

Currently, would-be donors must indicate their intentions on the NHS Organ Donor Register, or grieving families must make the decision if a patients wish to donate is unknown.

While research shows that 82 per cent of people in England support organ donation, only 37 per cent have indicated so on the register.

Fewer than half of families give consent for their loved ones organs to be donated.

Some 411 people in the UK died on the transplant waiting list in 2017.

 Organ donor memorial unveiled

New systems to record an individuals faith and ensure the NHS consults religious leaders or family members on any traditions that need to be respected will be in effect from December 2018. Staff will receive extra training on these issues.

Under-18s, people with limited mental capacity and others who have not lived in England for at least a year prior to their death will be exempt from the scheme.

It follows a consultation earlier in 2018 which drew 17,000 responses from the public.

The legislation, which was introduced in Parliament in July 2017, will return to the House of Commons in the autumn.

Those who do not wish to donate can record this on the NHS register either online, by phone or on an app to be released by the end of the year.

Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: There is a desperate shortage of organ donors in the UK.

Introducing an opt-out system in England will better reflect the views of the general public and give hope to those currently waiting for a transplant they so desperately need.

Nursing staff overwhelming support moving to a soft opt-out system for organ donation, said Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing.

When hundreds are still dying for want of a donor, this new system could give more of them a fighting chance.
Sergio Marchionne was a master negotiator who engineered one of the most brazen automotive deals in history. He persuaded the US government to sell bankrupt carmaker Chrysler to Itays Fiat.

Marchionne, who died in Zurich aged 66, then turned the combined Fiat Chrysler into one of the most profitable firms in the industry in less than a decade.

The businessman had already planned to retire next year and turn the reins over to successor Mike Manley, who headed the companys 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 Italys industrial and banking sectors for generations.

The manufacturer said no injuries had been reported as a result of the fault (Reuters)

The Italian-born, Canadian-raised Marchionne vaulted to instant fame in car industry circles at the peak of the financial crisis in 2009, when he wedged himself into the centre 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 Obamas auto task force, which had the mandate to analyse companies and manage any possible bankruptcies. Marchionne convinced officials that Fiat, which he had run for only five years, was the right partner for Chrysler.

On 30 April, 2009, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. On 10 June, Fiat and Chrysler announced the merger of the two companies, with Marchionne emerging as chief executive and, in the eyes of many, the saviour of one of Motor Citys 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 doesnt make any sense.

Marchionne engineered a brilliant deal for Fiat, Keller said.

The initial terms gave Fiat a 20 per cent stake in Chrysler, and the US 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 US 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 US TV channel CBSs 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, took off in the US.

The Jeep brand also thrived under his helm, with international sales giving Fiat Chrysler a footprint in China, the worlds 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 chairmans office on the top floor.

Im on the floor with all the engineers, he told 60 Minutes. I can build a car with all the guys on this floor. Thats all I care about.

In his 2015 report on the car industry, Confessions of a Capital Junkie, Marchionne said consolidation was inevitable. He tried for another merger with General Motors, but the talks never advanced.

Its highly unlikely that Chrysler would exist today had he not taken that gamble, Autotrader.com analyst Michelle Krebs, told AP. The company was in such bad shape, being stripped of any kind of resources by the previous owners.

(AFP/Getty (AFP/Getty)

Perhaps Marchionnes 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 Italys Carabinieri.

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 17 June 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. Marchionnes sister, Luciana, died of cancer in 1980.

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 bachelors degree in philosophy in 1978 from the University of Toronto, where he also obtained a bachelors degree in commerce the next year. He completed a law degree from Torontos York University in 1983 and a masters 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 Fiats holding company. He later became the holding companys chief executive and, in 2006, was made chief executive of Fiats 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 ($183m) since 2005, and paid back its $6bn federal bailout six years before it was due.

I remember when I came here in 2009, he said. Theres nothing worse for a leader than to see fear in peoples faces. Its been a long, rocky road, but the fear is gone.

Sergio Marchionne, businessman, born 17 June 1952, died 25 July 2018

Additional reporting by Brian Murphy

 Washington Post
A planet more than 12 times bigger than Jupiter has been found drifting alone through space around 20 light years away from Earth.

The rogue planet is not attached to any star, and is the first object of its kind to be discovered using a radio telescope.

Both its mass and the enormous strength of its magnetic field challenge what scientists know about the variety of astronomical objects found in the depths of space.

Recommended Scientists find planets where life could have begun just like on Earth

This object is right at the boundary between a planet and a brown dwarf, or failed star, and is giving us some surprises that can potentially help us understand magnetic processes on both stars and planets, said Dr Melodie Kao, an astronomer at Arizona State University.

Brown dwarves are difficult objects to categorise  they are both too huge to be considered planets and not big enough to be considered stars.

Originally detected in 2016 using the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in New Mexico, the newly identified planet was initially considered a brown dwarf.

Much still remains unknown about these astronomical bodies  with the first one only observed in 1995  and the scientists behind the discovery were trying to understand more about the magnetic fields and radio emissions of five brown dwarves.

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

However, when another team looked at the brown dwarf data they realised one of the objects, called SIMP J01365663+0933473, was far younger than the others.

Its age meant that instead of a failed star, they had found a free-floating planet.

The boundary often used to distinguish a massive gas giant planet from a brown dwarf is the deuterium-burning limit  the mass below which the element deuterium stops being fused in the objects core.

This limit is around 13 Jupiter masses, so at 12.7 the newly identified planet was brushing up against it.

As this was being established, Dr Kao had been conducting measurements of this distant objects magnetic field  the first such measurements for a planetary mass object outside our solar system.

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When it was announced that SIMP J01365663+0933473 had a mass near the deuterium-burning limit, I had just finished analysing its newest VLA data, she said.

Similar to the aurora borealis or northern lights seen on Earth, this planet and some brown dwarves are known to have auroras of their own  despite lacking the solar winds that traditionally drive them.

It is the radio signature of these auroras that allowed the researchers to detect these distant objects in the first place, but it is still unclear how they are being formed.

However, the research teams analysis showed the planets magnetic field is incredibly strong, around 200 times stronger than Jupiters, and this could help explain why it also has a strong aurora.

This particular object is exciting because studying its magnetic dynamo mechanisms can give us new insights on how the same type of mechanisms can operate in extrasolar planets  planets beyond our solar system, said Dr Kao.

We think these mechanisms can work not only in brown dwarfs, but also in both gas giant and terrestrial planets, she said.

Their research was published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The scientists said their study shows that auroral radio emissions can be used to discover more planets beyond our solar system, including more rogue ones not attached to stars.
Thousands of people were temporarily marooned in Brighton after Britney Spears headline concert at the citys annual Pride event, after the police ordered the train station to suspend its services and temporarily close.

Passengers said the area around the train station descended into mayhem, with photos on social media bearing testament to the chaos as vast crowds amassed and people complained of being crushed.

Police said they decided to close the station so they could impose crowd control measures, but the measures left many of the 57,000 people who attended the pop superstars first live UK show in seven years stranded  with some reportedly resorting to sleeping on the beach.

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It was mayhem. How were we supposed to go back home?! said Konrad Czapla, who was travelling back to London.

A crush against a metal gate wasnt exactly how I expected an otherwise wonderful Pride to end, said Robert Hart, a freelance journalist. Seriously, will people have to die before [Southern Rail] have their franchise taken or finally learn to run an actual service?!

Southern Rail said crowd control measures were put in place by the British Transport police, which said it was working with Sussex police to assist with overcrowding issues.

Revellers complained that staff had screamed at them as they were pushed into each other outside Brighton station as police guarded the doors, only to get inside to find an empty station and trains with plenty of space as services to London resumed at 2.15am.

Prior to this, people said trains were seen departing Brighton under capacity.

One passenger said she waited for at least three hours before getting on a train, and there were also reports of people fainting in the large crowds with others claiming emergency services did not provide travellers with water.

Thousands of people had Brighton Pride ruined for them again this year because of the incompetence of Southern Rail and Thameslink Rail, said Mick Tayk. How dare they display Pride colours on their trains and Twitter account when all they do is bring misery to the event.

More than 300,000 people attended the event yesterday, one of the largest LGBT parties in the world.

Britney Spears serenaded the crowd with classic hits including Baby One More Time, Oops!... I Did It Again and Toxic for 90 minutes before bringing the days festivities to a close.

Nick Graham, who was was also caught up in the chaos, said: Amazing day at Pride yesterday soured by the poor organisation and mass crush at Brighton station. Im amazed nobody was killed or seriously injured. Seriously scary, and then trains were leaving not full!

The police and the train operators had expected hundreds of thousands of people to attend, but it appears they were unprepared for the sheer volume of people with suggestions that there were not enough trains scheduled.

A Govia Thameslink spokesperson told The Independent: We ran 15 extra trains yesterday to cope with the unprecedented visitor numbers, in addition to the plan we had agreed with the event organisers.

Access to Brighton station was closed for a period by the police to help with crowding in the town.

A Southern spokesperson suggested that the chaos stemmed from a failure of the marshalling from the event to the station, for which the rail operator is not responsible.

Sussex police said it had made 30 arrests throughout the day and that the crowds were controlled to ensure the safety of everyone.

Brighton & Hove City Council said there was overcrowding in some areas and an increase in calls to emergency services.

It opened the Brighton Centre conference venue for those needing a place to stay overnight while many others were said to have headed to the beach instead.
Police have issued an appeal in an attempt to identify a man with a dragon-like tattoo more than a week after he was rescued from the River Thames.

Scotland Yard hopes to trace friends or family of the man, who remains in critical but stable condition after he was pulled from the river by RNLI lifesavers near Londons Putney Embankment.

Detectives have ruled out foul play and believe the man injured himself after wading into a part of the river he thought was shallow.

The Metropolitan Police released a photo of the man in his hospital bed in the hope someone recognises him. He is described as a white male, dark in complexion, brown-haired and of medium build.

One of two tattoos on his left hand resembles a dragon. Another on his leg appears to be tribal in nature. The man was wearing a camouflage t-shirt with the slogan: Now or never, no regrets, past/present/future on it.

He was not carrying any identification and due to his poor state of health police are keen to trace his family as soon as possible, police said.

He has two distinctive tattoos on his left hand and one on his lower right leg, that are faded black in colour."

On the night of his rescue, July 26, the London Ambulance Service was alerted shortly after 7pm to reports of a man in the Thames.

Passers-by helped the RNLI drag him out of the river before he was airlifted to hospital.

Detective Sergeant Samantha Batchelor said: We have exhausted all our lines of enquiry to identify this man and we are hoping with the release of his image a friend or family member will be able to come forward tell us who he is.

Anyone who can identify the man should call the missing persons unit on 101.
Australian meat industry leaders are heavily lobbying their government to put pressure on Britain to accept products currently banned under EU law after Brexit.

Among the meat products suggested for export to the UK are hormone-treated beef and burnt goat heads.

Ministers from both countries met last week to discuss the future of their trading relationship, amid concerns that the Australian government could force the UK to lower food standards.

It comes as a petition supporting The Independents campaign for a Final Say on Brexit passed 570,000 signatures.

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Trade minister Liam Fox has long mooted Australia as a key trading partner for the UK when it ceases to be part of the EU.

The Department for International Trade has stated it will not lower food, animal welfare or environmental standards as part of any free trade agreement.

Maintaining them is the right thing to do for our consumers and maintains the UKs world-renowned reputation for high-quality products, a spokesperson told The Independent.

But Kierra Box, Brexit campaign lead at Friends of the Earth (FoE), said the government is "saying one thing but doing something completely different.

The government can continue to claim they are protecting our environment and health but in reality these promises are flimsy and unconvincing.

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

An investigation by FoE has revealed the extent of lobbying by the Australian meat and livestock industry as Brexit draws closer.

Foremost among their demands has been the insistence that technical barriers to trade are removed once the UKs relationship with the EU ends.

However, farmers and environmentalists are concerned about the impact the removal of such barriers could have both on British farms and the quality of food.

Brexit provides an unprecedented opportunity for the Australian red meat industry to enhance its trading relationship with the UK, Andrew McCallum from Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) wrote in a letter to Australian Parliament in 2017.

A more liberalised UK import regime than is currently in place, would deliver substantial advantages not only to the Australian red meat industry but to UK importers, wholesalers, distributors, food service and retail operators as well as consumers.

David Larkin, the general manager of production at Thomas Foods International, explained in an inquiry last October that the UK once accounted for 80 per cent of Australian red meat exports before joining the EU.

Though still considered important, the UK now makes up only 1.5 per cent of exports by volume.

The Australian meat industry is keen to re-establish itself as a major exporter of meat to the UK, but it is currently restricted by EU rules and quotas that it feels are unfair.

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The [UK] market has continued to establish itself as a high-value market and is one that is protected by a number of barriers to trade, explained Mr Larkin.

Those barriers to trade are subsidies, tariffs and quota, and technical trade barriers in the form of HGP [hormonal growth promotant] bans and processing directives in terms of equivalence in processing sites.

Growth hormones that have been banned in the EU since 1981 due to health concerns are used on about 40 percent of Australian cattle and have been in employed for more than three decades.

During a hearing of the Australian trade sub-committee at the end of 2017, Jason Strong, chair of the EU and UK Red Meat Industry Taskforce, said increased trade quotas with the UK would be an opportunity to export not only more high quality products but also those of the lowest quality.

According to agricultural news service Farm Online, Mr Strong told the committee Australia could send low value products including burnt goat heads.

The industry is confident that Brexit will open new opportunities for its meat industry, and the Australian parliament concluded in October that since Brexit, UK standards and conformance bodies have expressed greater intent to cooperate further with Australias standards and conformance infrastructure.

In Britain, there is concern about what this could mean.

Our standards adopted through the EU are possibly some of the highest standards in the world, Jon Andrews, a farmer from south Devon and England chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, told The Independent.

He highlighted worries about lower animal welfare and environmental standards in nations like Australia, as well as the impact on British farmers.

Sheep and beef imports of that nature risk depressing the UK beef price, beyond which our producers really couldnt remain in business if it happen on a larger scale  its not something Id like to see Liam Fox trading away, he said.

Ms Box said: Facing future deals that will force us to accept dodgy meat we would never have previously considered isnt what people voted for.

We used to be rightly proud of our food safety and environmental standards. Those safeguards didnt just magically exist, they were deliberately put in place for good reason and were vigorously controlled.

If the UK doesnt set out our stall for the future of food right now, it wont just be Australia pushing their reject meat onto us.
The government's infrastructure tsar has raised the prospect of the cost of High Speed 2 rocketing further after suggesting an extra 43bn of funding is needed to ensure people can make the most of the scheme.

Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, said more investment was needed to prevent users of the new line encountering inadequate public transport links" around major stations.

The additional funding would take spending on HS2 to 99bn - three times the original 2013 estimate of 33bn and close to double the current forecast.

The scheme is currently due to cost 56bn but a recent Cabinet Office assessment said it was highly likely to cost at least 60 per cent more, taking the total to more than 80bn.

Sir John's calls prompted demands that minsters "re-evaluate" whether HS2 will deliver value fo taxpayers' money.

HS2 involves the construction of 330 miles of new track linking London, the West Midlands, Manchester and Leeds.

However, fears have been raised about the lack of connectivity in areas with stations on the line. The increased number of passengers resulting from the new line is expected to put pressure on bus, tram and local train services in a number of towns and cities.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Sir John said the government and local councils needed to stump up further money "to get the biggest bang for our buck".

He wrote: "HS2 is the most significant investment in the capacity and connectivity of our transport networks for a generation or more. The potential impact could extend 100 years or more, and its upfront costs should be considered in that context.

"But this also means we cannot simply construct a new high speed rail line and leave it at that: to get the biggest bang for our buck we need to think about the whole journey."

Highlighting the need to make the most of this opportunity, he called on ministers to provide increased funding for cities and agree significant new funding for major infrastructure programmes in the fastest growing and most congested cities, including new trams and bus networks.

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He said: All this would mean the UKs cities outside London receiving a 43bn boost in funding up to 2040."

This would be in addition to funding for the Crossrail 2 line in London and the Northern Powerhouse Rail, which will improve links between Sheffield, Hull, Liverpool and Newcastle, he said.

Sir John insisted the call for an extra 43bn of infrastructure spending was not an "unaffordable pipe dream", but rather the best way to "make the most of all that HS2 will have to offer".

However, his suggestion is likely to infuriate opponents of HS2.

Tory MP Cheryl Gillan, a longstanding critic of the project, said: One of the major problems has always been that the connectivity is not there.

But I dont think anybody expected it to be twice the cost of HS2. This is money that wouldnt be going into schools, the health service and making the existing railway system efficient and effective.

Its time for the government to re-evaluate from top to bottom whether this project is value for money for the taxpayer.
Jeremy Corbyn looks set to make a partial climbdown in the furious row over the definition of antisemitism adopted by Labour, as he attempts to put an end to the crisis engulfing his party.

The Independent understands the Labour leader is likely to agree to adopt three of the four internationally-recognised examples of antisemitism omitted from the party's new code of conduct.

However, he will continue to insist it is not necessarily antisemitic to say the existence of a state of Israel is a "racist endeavour".

It comes as Mr Corbyn apologised to Jewish people for the "hurt" caused by the dispute over Labour antisemitism.

Labour's decision not to adopt in full the widely-used International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition in its code of conduct was heavily criticised by Jewish groups and Labour MPs, reigniting the row over antisemitism in the party.

The document uses the IHRA definition and seven of the 11 accompanying examples of antisemitic behaviour but does not directly include the other four. Labour insisted these were covered elsewhere and claimed its code of conduct went further than the IHRA.

The four example not incorporated word-for-word are:

comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis

suggesting Jewish people are more loyal to Israel than their home country

holding Israel to different standards to other democratic countries

denying Jewish people have a right to self-determination  for example by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a "racist endeavour".

Mr Corbyn is understood to be ready to accept the first three examples, but appears likely to resist demands to adopt the fourth.

Jewish News quoted a source close to the Labour leader as saying: There has been movement, as suggested in the article, on those examples that arent explicitly referenced in the article or included word for word in the code. The consultation is open and it looks like were ready to include those examples.

Mr Corbyn hinted at a possible shift in position in a newspaper article late last week, in which he attempted to begin to rebuild the relationship between his party and the Jewish community.

Writing in The Guardian, he said the row over the IHRA definition centred on "half of one example out of 11", implying he was ready to accept the other three.

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

He wrote: "Our actual differences are in fact very small  they really amount to half of one example out of 11, touching on free speech in relation to Israel. It is unfortunately the case that this particular example, dealing with Israel and racism, has sometimes been used by those wanting to restrict criticism of Israel that is not antisemitic. The Commons home affairs committee acknowledged this risk when it looked at the IHRA examples.

"But I feel confident that this outstanding issue can be resolved through dialogue with community organisations, including the Jewish Labour Movement, during this months consultation."

Mr Corbyn said it was wrong to suggest "anti-Zionism is racism", just as people in the past had been "wrong" to suggest "Zionism is racism".

He wrote: "Hostility to the Israeli state or its policies can be expressed in racist terms and that needs to be called out. But there are also many non or anti-Zionist Jews who should not be branded as antisemites simply because they are not part of the Zionist tradition. Both traditions have always had honourable proponents in our movement."

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The Labour leader used a video message sent to all party members on Sunday to apologise for antisemitism in Labour's ranks.

He said: "People who use antisemitic poison need to understand: you do not do it in my name or the name of my party. You are not our supporters. And anyone who denies that this has surfaced within our party is clearly actually wrong and contributing to the problem.

"Driving antisemitism out of the party for good and working with the Jewish community to rebuild trust are vital priorities.

"I am sorry for the hurt that has been caused to many Jewish people. We have been too slow in processing disciplinary cases of, mostly online, antisemitic abuse by party members."

He added: "I acknowledge there is a real problem of antisemitism that Labour is working to overcome.

"It's my responsibility to root out antisemitism in the Labour Party."
Labour has criticised Sajid Javid over the governments unacceptable gagging of people caught up in the Windrush scandal.

It comes after The Independent revealed the Home Office had made at least one person sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in return for compensation, while another person is understood to have been asked to do so.

That prompted accusations that Mr Javid, the home secretary, had broken a promise to parliament.

Last month, he told MPs: No one will be asked to sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement or anything like that.

Responding to reports that at least two people have been asked to do so, Diane Abbott, Labours shadow home secretary, said: The Windrush generation has been failed time and time again by this government. The home secretary promised to do right by our fellow citizens from the Windrush generation yet it appears he has gone back on his word. The Home Office must not attempt to buy the silence of citizens who have been so shockingly wronged and had their rights so gravely infringed in return for compensation that they are entitled to.

It is totally unacceptable for the Home Office to impose non-disclosure agreements and gag those who have suffered at the hands of the hostile environment in order to cover up the true scale of the Windrush scandal. The Home Office must compensate all those who have suffered without further delay and without any form of non-disclosure agreement.

It is an insult that the home secretary has still failed to even confirm when the promised compensation scheme will be up and running after so many of our fellow citizens have been left destitute, in debt and jobless by the governments hostile environment.

The Home Office said the case in question predates its compensation scheme.

Earlier, Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee (HASC), had said she was extremely concerned about the reports.

She said: The home secretary has assured us that the Home Office will be transparent over Windrush  but using NDAs to hide things that have gone wrong cannot be justified. We will continue to pursue this.

The controversy follows criticism of Mr Javid over delays in implementing the governments official compensation scheme for Windrush victims and plans to cap their payments.

No decision on how the scheme will work will be taken until the end of the year, despite warnings that people have been left destitute after losing their jobs, their benefits or even their homes, or being wrongly detained.

They were trapped by Theresa Mays hostile environment crackdown, unable to provide the correct documents to employers, landlords and the NHS acting as de facto border guards.

Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Show all 15 1 /15 Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaican immigrants being welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' landed them at Tilbury. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner who arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex, speaking at his home in Leeds PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner in Leeds shortly after he arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Gardner was 22 years old when he boarded the ship in Kingston, Jamaica, with his brother Gladstone before they and hundreds of Caribbean migrants called on to rebuild post-war Britain disembarked the ship in Tilbury Docks PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner (right), during his RAF service in 1947 PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The son of Ruth Williams, a Windrush-generation immigrant, wants to the leave the country after threats of deportation. According to his mother, Mr Haynes applied for British citizenship in 2016 but was rejected, despite Ms Williams having lived in the UK almost permanently since arriving from St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1959. Ruth Williams, 75, said she felt "betrayed" by Britain after the Home Office twice turned down applications for her 35-year-old son, Mozi Haynes, to remain in the country. Ms Williams is understood to have cancer and said she relies heavily on her son for support. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port in 1954. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Ruth Williams, 75, with her British passport. "I feel betrayed and a second class citizen in my own country," she said. "This makes me so sad and the Home Office must show some compassion. "I am unwell and almost 75, I live on my own and I need my son to stay here. I need my family around me and I cant face being alone. He has applied to the Home Office and been refused twice." PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK From the top, hopeful Jamaican boxers Charles Smith, Ten Ansel, Essi Reid, John Hazel, Boy Solas and manager Mortimer Martin arrive at Tilbury on the Empire Windrush in the hope of finding work in Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaicans reading a newspaper whilst on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' bound for Tilbury docks in Essex. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK After half a century in Britain, Anthony Bryan decided it was time to go abroad. But the decision set off a nightmare that saw him lose his job, detained twice and almost deported to Jamaica. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaica-born Anthony Bryan poses outside his home in Edmonton, north London. Now 60 and a grandfather, Bryan thought the issue could be resolved swiftly, as he legally moved to Britain with his family as part of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants after World War II. In 1948, the ship Windrush brought the first group of migrants from the West Indies to help rebuild post-war Britain, and many others followed from around the Commonwealth. A 1971 law gave them indefinite leave to remain, but many never formalised their status, often because they were children who came over on their parents' passports and then never applied for their own. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Three Jamaican immigrants (left to right) John Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush', smartly dressed in zoot suits and trilby hats. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury in 1948. Getty

But Mr Javid has now revealed the Home Office is prepared to pay out immediate compensation if threatened with possible legal action and if it accepts it is culpable.

However, these offers are sometimes accompanied by confidentiality clauses, depending on individual circumstances, said a letter sent to the home affairs committee.

Where we consider that the department has erred, we will seek to reduce any further distress for the claimant by making an offer of compensation, rather than continue through a lengthy legal challenge, Mr Javid wrote.

I can confirm that Windrush generation cases are sometimes addressed through this route.

The Home Office refused to say how many Windrush victims had been asked to sign gagging orders, but did confirm that one individual had done so and there had been contact sought with a second person.

A Home Office spokesperson said: The case referred to in the letter to the HASC predated the Windrush Compensation Scheme. There will be no requirement or need to sign a non-disclosure agreement for any individual who receives compensation through this scheme, and the home secretary has already made clear his intention to take this different approach for the Windrush generation.
More than 50 MPs and peers from across the main political parties have written to the Metropolitan Police and the National Crime Agency asking them to investigate unlawful activities committed by the Vote Leave and Leave.EU campaigns.

The group demanded thorough investigations into Electoral Commission findings that pro-Brexit campaigners breached spending rules, saying it was vital to the integrity and security of our electoral system and democracy.

Several Conservatives signed the letter, including Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons health committee, and peers Baroness Altmann and Baroness Wheatcroft.

Senior Labour and SNP MPs, and Liberal Democrats including party leader Sir Vince Cable, were also among the signatories.

They urged law enforcement agencies to investigate the Brexit campaigns law-breaking.

In their letter, the group said: The Electoral Commission, the Information Commissioner, the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee and others have been doing and continue to do important work in this area. However, their powers of investigation and the sanctions at their disposal are limited and they have no power to prosecute. This places a particular responsibility on those who do.

The MPs and peers said the investigations carried out so far were extremely important but added: So is your role and responsibility in investigating wrongdoing, enforcing our laws and protecting our democracy. This is why we are urging you to investigate these matters thoroughly and with urgency.

Among activity they said needed further investigation was Vote Leaves unlawful campaign spending. The organisation was fined 61,000 by the Electoral Commission for four breaches, including misreporting spending, overspending the 7m limit by more than 500,000 and filing a return that included 43 wrong items.

The overspending was partly a result of collusion between Vote Leave and another group, BeLeave, during the referendum campaign. VoteLeave was found to have channelled hundreds of thousand of pounds to BeLeave for a series of campaign adverts, helping it evade strict spending limits. Student Darren Grimes, who led the BeLeave group, has since been fined 20,000 over the matter and is facing a police investigation.

The MPs and peers also said the Leave.EU campaign, led by Nigel Farage and UKIP donor Arron Banks, should be investigated by police over numerous legal breaches, including spending at least 10 per cent more than permitted. The group was fined 70,000 for the offences.

The Electoral Commission has passed its findings to the police, who are considering whether criminal charges should be brought.

Ben Bradshaw MP, a former Labour cabinet minister who helped organise the letter, told The Observer: There has been no bigger decision  beyond questions of war and peace  before the British people in the last half century. The importance of the question demanded that both the spirit and the letter of the law were respected.

But we know that Leave did neither and have been fined by the Electoral Commission, and leading figures have been referred to the police. They ran a campaign that was so bent they probably discussed whether they could pay for their dubious and disgusting Facebook ads with 9 notes.

Threatening the integrity of the electoral system is surely one of the highest crimes in any democracy. It is essential that the police rigorously and fully investigate these allegations. These are not minor questions of missed deadlines, wrongly ticked boxes or badly filed invoices, but matters of the gravest importance.

Tory peer Baroness Altmann, also a former minister, added: Democracy needs to be based on honest representation. But representations made to the people in the referendum campaign were untrue. If voters relied on the assurances and descriptions made by the Leave campaign, which were false, then democracy is not served by forcing parliament to obey that vote, regardless of the consequences once the true position is known.

In our country, there are strict rules which require honest disclosure. You could not sell someone a washing machine, or a pension, on the basis of flawed representations such as those made by the Leave campaign. Those who tried to sell someone a product which was so dishonestly described would be prosecuted, and the customer would be compensated for any loss.
Donald Trump has accused the media of casing wars, in his latest doubling down on his belief that the press is the enemy of the people and his effort to undermine its credibility.

The president has repeatedly attacked the US media, accusing it of producing fake news and failing to focus on the purported achievements of his administration. His attacks have had the effect of causing some of his supporters to heckle CNN reporters at his recent allies and critics say they are designed to distract attention from issues such as the ongoing probe into his campaign alleged collusion with Russia and the controversial splitting up of families at the Mexican border.

On Sunday morning, the president added a new twist, saying in one of several tweets that the media can also cause war. He also said it purposely caused division and distrust in the country.

Mr Trump did not specify what he had in mind when he accused the media of starting wars. Parts of the US and UK media were widely critiqued in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq - and some publicly apologised - for running stories that supported unfounded intelligence claims spun by the White House and Downing Street that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Trump has often claimed he opposed the 2003 invasion and said what transpired was a disaster. But his comments prior to the invasion appeared mixed and somewhat shifting.

In 2002, asked by so-called shock jock Howard Stern whether he supported the invasion, he said: Trump responded: Yeah, I suppose so.

 Lebron James says he would considering running against Donald Trump for president

In January 2003, a few months before the invasion, he was interviewed on Fox News and asked whether President George W Bush should be more focused on Iraq or the economy.

Well, he has either got to do something or not do something, perhaps, because perhaps shouldn't be doing it yet and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations, you know, Mr Trump said.

He's under a lot of pressure. I think hes doing a very good job. But, of course, if you look at the polls, a lot of people are getting a little tired. I think the Iraqi situation is a problem. And I think the economy is a much bigger problem as far as the president is concerned.

The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Show all 14 1 /14 The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Time for a break-up? Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Sometimes simplicity works best. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Theres no place for Trump's other policies in our society. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Many were quick to point out that in the UK, Trump means 'fart'. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Some people were looking out for The Queen Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests There's a Mean Girl's quote for every occasion Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests There were a lot of hair references at the march toupee. Sorry, today. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Frack off. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Try and read this out without singing it... Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests A message all Brits will understand. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Simple, and to the point Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests We don't entirely understand this one, but we do rather like it Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests The Inbetweeners sends a hilariously petulant message Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Never underestimate Cher Horowitz Harriet Hall

The White House last week was at the centre of no small drama when press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to say the administration did not believe the press was the enemy of the people. Earlier in the day, Mr Trumps eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, has said she did not think he media deserved such a description.

Mr Trump later said on that day Mr Trump weighed in on the issue in a manner that confused matters. In a tweet, he said Ivanka Trump had been correct when she said the media was not an enemy, but added: It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!

While Mr Trump has claimed he invented the phrase "fake news", it has been in circulation since the 18th or 19th Century and probably had its origin in Britain.

Yet his use of the phrase has certainly been picked up and used by other leaders in the world - many of them the heads of authoritarian regimes, something activists say is one of several damaging fall-outs of the president's "weaponisation" of the words.

Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the government of Myanmar's Rakhine state, have all used the phrase "fake news" to respond to accusations of human rights abuses, chemical weapons attacks and ethnic cleansing.

The exchange at the White House came as the UN said Mr Trumps verbal attacks on the media ran the risk of triggering real violence against journalists.

Reuters said the UN rapporteur for freedom of expression, David Kaye, claimed in a joint statement with Edison Lanza of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, that Mr Trumps tirades against the media violated the basic standards of press freedom.

These attacks run counter to the countrys obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law, they said.

We are especially concerned that these attacks increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence.

President Trump on Sunday ratcheted up his attacks on the news media as the enemy of the people, saying they can also cause war.

He accused journalists in an early morning tweet of purposely causing division and distrust in the country.

The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know its TRUE, he said. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People.

They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!
Donald Trump would most likely fight any subpoena to testify before the Russia probe all the way to the Supreme Court, his personal lawyer has said.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been in negotiations with the presidents legal team about questioning about his campaigns alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 election. The president has said  at least in public  he wants to sit down and talk with Mr Mueller and his lawyer said the ultimate decision would be Mr Trumps.

If Mueller were to try to compel the presidents testimony, there would be a legal fight over the constitutionality of requiring such an act of a sitting president, Mr Trumps lawyer Jay Sekulow, told ABC News.

A subpoena for live testimony has never been tested in court as to the president of the United States.

In January, Mr Trump said he was prepared to testify under oath, claiming he believed any such session would clear him of any suspicions he had been involved in colluding with Russia.

Im looking forward to it actually, Trump told reporters in the West Wing. There has been no collusion whatsoever, there has been no obstruction whatsoever.

 Donald Trump gets Ohio victory figure wrong, and talks about 'space force'

Yet, his various lawyers have always been opposed to the idea, fearful the president may not retain the sort of discipline they would require of him if he were to sit down with Mr Mueller.

Rather, they have playing for time and instead exploring the possibly of responding to written questions. Last week, it was reported by the New York Times Mr Mueller had told the presidents lawyers he would agree to written responses, if in-person follow questions were permitted.

Mr Trumps lawyers reportedly disliked this idea, but the president told his team to keep negotiating, convinced that he could show Mr Mueller he did nothing wrong.

If Mr Trump refused to agree to questioning, Mr Mueller could try and obtain a subpoena, forcing him to appear. But Mr Sekulow claimed the president had the authority under Article II of the US Constitution to stop any investigation conducted by the Department of Justice. The article enumerates the powers of the executive branch of the federal government, Reuters said.

One part of Mr Muellers inquiry and congressional investigations has focused on a meeting months before the November election in Trump Tower in New York between Russian officials, Donald Trump Jr, the presidents eldest son, and other campaign aides.

Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests Show all 16 1 /16 Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Reuters Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests An advert from Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat is on display in Helsinki Reuters Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests President Trump in a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto AFP/Getty Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests President Trump meets with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki EPA Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests President Trump talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Mantyniemi, the official residence of the Finnish President EPA Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests US, Finnish and Russian flags fly in front of the Presidential Palace in Helsinki EPA Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests AFP/Getty Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests Vladimir Putin gifts a football to President Trump at the press conference that followed their meeting AP Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests Trump supporters hold banners during a demonstration in Helsinki AFP/Getty Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests People protest for women's reproductive rights in Helsinki's Senate Square Reuters Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests A crowd watches the motorcade transporting President Trump through Helsinki AFP/Getty Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests Russian President Putin drives through Helsinki on his way to meet with President Trump EPA Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests A man in the audience of the joint press conference holds up a sign sign that reads "NUCLEAR WEAPON BAN TREATY". REUTERS Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests A man is removed from the joint press conference in Helsinki. Security removed the man after he pulled out a sign that read "NUCLEAR WEAPON BAN TREATY". REUTERS Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests President Trump and Russia's President Putin sit for a working lunch in Finland's Presidential Palace AFP/Getty Trump in Helsinki: Putin meeting and protests President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Reuters

While originally Mr Trump said the meeting was about adoptions, on Sunday he said on Twitter that it was about getting information on his election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump and his son have both said then-candidate Trump had no advance knowledge of the meeting and that the meeting itself was not useful to the campaign. CNN reported last month that Michael Cohen, the presidents longtime personal lawyer and self-described fixer was willing to tell Mr Mueller that Mr Trump did know about the meeting in advance.

On Sunday morning, Trump responded to reports in the Washington Post and on CNN that he was concerned Donald Jr could be in legal trouble.

He wrote: Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics  and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!

Mr Trump has always denied colluding with Russia during the 2016 election. Russian president Vladimir Putin has likewise denied his nation interfered in the process.

The US intelligence community just last week said it stood by its assessment that Russia had interfered and was trying to again. After a controversial summit in Helsinki last month with Mr Putin during which the president appeared to say he trusted the Russian leaders denials as much as the claims of his intelligence officials, Mr Trump belatedly read from written remarks to say he accepted Russia  and perhaps others  had sought to intervene in the election.
At least 91 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Lombok, near Bali.

The earthquake, which hit early on Sunday evening, prompted local authorities to issue a tsunami warning although the alert was later lifted.

Authorities said on Monday the death toll could rise further still, and that rescuers still had not reached some hard-hit areas.

It was the second deadly earthquake in a week to hit Lombok. On 29 July 16 people were killed and hundreds of houses damaged, some of which collapsed in Sunday evenings temblor, killing those inside.

Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Show all 55 1 /55 Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Rescue workers extract a woman, who survived after being trapped in rubble since the earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia Antara Foto/Ahmad Subaid/Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A man inspects the ruins of houses AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A ten-month old baby girl survivor, Refi, is aided by volunteer doctors at an emergency hospital in Tanjung EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A man riding a motorcycle passes by a damaged house at Sira village in northern Lombok AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Rescuers with sniffer dogs search for victims at a mosque damaged by the earthquake AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesian search and rescue teams look for victims at a collapsed mosque Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Search and rescue personnel look for victims AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesians carry an elderly woman at a temporary shelter in Pemenang Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A woman prays near her temporary tent near Tanjung hospital Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Search and rescue personnel look for victims AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Rescue teams search for victims in the rubble caused by an earthquake at a Mosque in North Lombok AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Tourists sleep while waiting to depart from the Praya Lombok International Airport on the West Nusa Tenggara AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A doctor and paramedics give medical treatment to a man injured in the earthquake AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Rescue teams search for victims AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Tourists sleep on the floor as they wait to depart from the Praya Lombok International Airport AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesian search and rescue personnel work on a collapsed mosque in Pemenang, North Lombok AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island An elderly man rests in a makeshift hospital after surviving a major earthquake in Kayangan on Lombok AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Tourists affected by a strong earthquake line up on a beach as they wait to be evacuated on Gili Trawangan AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesian rescuers search for victims under the ruin of a collapsed house after an earthquake struck in North Lombok, Indonesia EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A father accompanies his injured child outside of Tanjung hospital, Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A damaged in Pemenang, North Lombok AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Makeshift tents are erected to be used as a temporary shelter for those affected AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Usable items are salvaged from a home destroyed in an earthquake in North Lombok AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island According to media reports, a 7.0 magnitude quake hit Indonesia's island of Lombok on 5 August, killing at least 91 people AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Hospital patients are moved to an emergency tent outside of a hospital building in Denpasar, Bali EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Map locating the earthquake in Lombok Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesian soldiers carry the body of an earthquake victim Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Evacuation from Gili Trawangan in Indonesia James Kelsall/PA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Workers cleanup parts of a shopping mall building which collapsed after an earthquake, in Denpasar, Bali EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Recovered items sit next to destroyed buildings in Pemenang in northern Lombok AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Hundreds of people attempting to leave Gili Trawangan AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesian local residents stay outside of their collapsed houses EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Rescue personnel stands next to a motorcycle that fell down at a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Hospital staff treat patients outside a hospital after a major earthquake rocked Indonesia's Lombok island, in Mataram AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island People affected by the earthquake rest at a temporary shelter in Lombok AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A man removes debris outside a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island People react following an earthquake in Ampenan district, Mataram, Lombok Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A hospital patient is moved outside of the hospital building in Denpasar, Bali EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A policeman gestures as he walks next to damaged bikes and debris at a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island People next to an ambulance near the Golden Palace Hotel after an earthquake hit Lombok Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Residents stand next to bikes and debris at a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesian soldiers tend to a woman injured in the earthquake at a makeshift hospital in Lombok AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Tourists wait outside a hotel in Denpasar AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island People clean up debris following a strong earthquake on nearby Lombok island, in Denpasar Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island An ambulance near Golden Palace Hotel after an earthquake hit Lombok Island Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Indonesians stand on road outside a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Security and mall personnel walk over debris AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Residents wait as they evacuate to higher ground AP Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island An ambulance rushes out of the hospital AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Hospital patients and relatives wait outside in Mataram AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Hospital patients and relatives stand outside after being evacuated in Mataram AFP/Getty Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A hospital patient is moved outside EPA Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island Residents evacuate by motorcycle Reuters Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia's Lombok island A hospital patient is moved outside EPA

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a news conference damage was massive in the north of Lombok.

Some areas still had not been reached, with rescuers hampered by collapsed bridges, electricity blackouts and damaged roads blocked with debris.

Video showed screaming people running in panic from houses in a Bali neighbourhood and vehicles rocking. On Lombok, soldiers and other rescuers carried injured people on stretchers and carpets to an evacuation centre.

The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics said the latest 7-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 15km (9.3 miles) on Sunday evening.

Najmul Akhyar, district chief of north Lombok, told MetroTV three people had been killed, although he was unable to assess the whole situation due to an electrical blackout.

Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the quake was felt strongly across Lombok and Bali and had damaged houses on both islands.

The quake was felt for several seconds in Bali, where people ran out of houses, hotels and restaurants.

All the hotel guests were running so I did too. People filled the streets, said Michelle Lindsay, an Australian tourist.

A lot of officials were urging people not to panic.

Other witnesses said the quake got stronger over several seconds and rattled windows and doors in their frames.

Video captured by local stations showed patients being evacuated from a hospital in the islands Tabanan district.

Twitter user Brad Palmer said in a post: Not everyday you feel a level 7 earthquake hit. Currently in Bali and was sat in restaurant and suddenly the whole place started shaking and everyone fled to the streets, very scary experience.

Have read its hit Lombok hard again so I hope anyone over there keeps safe.

An ambulance near the Golden Palace Hotel after an earthquake hit Lombok Island, Indonesia (Reuters) (REUTERS)

Another social media user, Daniel Nepstad, said: The tsunami warning just ended here in Bali. Our children, Astrid, 5, Hendrik, 21 [months], bewildered and frightened by violent shaking, are back asleep from 7.0 earthquake in Lombok, 73 miles away.

The sea lies 150 metres away from our house. Our bags are packed, and will remain so.

Iwan Asmara, from the local disaster mitigation agency, said people poured out of their houses in panic and moved to higher ground, particularly in Mataram and north Lombok.

Take That singer Garry Barlow was reportedly in Lombok, while model Chrissy Teigen was on Bali, when the earthquake hit. They both reported being safe.

The United States Geological Service (USGS) said the epicentre was 2km east-southeast of Loloan, with a depth of 10.5km (6 miles).

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Associated Press contributed to this report
A plan to exhume the body of General Francisco Franco  the military dictator who ruled for more than four decades  has opened up old wounds in Spain.

The countrys new centre-left government wants to remove Francos body from the Valley of the Fallen, a memorial site found 30 miles outside Madrid.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who won power from conservative Mariano Rajoy after a no-confidence vote in June, believes the symbolic gesture is needed to help the country come to terms with its troubled past.

Fernando Martinez, the official appointed to oversee Spains new Directorate General for Historic Memory, said the move would consolidate the democracy forged after Francos death in 1975.

Not everyone is happy about it, however. Francos descendants are refusing to take his remains to the family sepulchral vault in Galicia, and are now preparing a legal challenge against plans to shift the former leader from his grandiose mausoleum.

Hundreds of people still nostalgic for the Franco era have even staged protests at the Valley of the Fallen, despite a 2007 ban on public events supporting the old regime.

Fresh flowers are always on display at his imposing tomb and it remains a popular pilgrimage destination for those in Spain who cling to a sympathetic view of the dictatorship.

Franco ruled over Spain for four decades (Getty)

Unswayed by the opposition, Mr Sanchezs government has wider plans to establish a Truth Commission similar to the body set up in South Africa in the aftermath of apartheid.

It wants to unearth and identify the 114,000 victims of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Franco.

There will be an up-to-date census of anonymous burials in ditches across Spain, and a new system for reparation payments for victims relatives.

Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Show all 24 1 /24 Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War A legendary World War II era Soviet tank T-34 AP Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with military personnel during the Victory Day parade at Red Square AFP/Getty Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian army MiG-29 jet fighters of the Strizhi (Swifts) and Su-30 jet fighters of the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights) aerobatic teams fly in formation Reuters Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russia's newest robotic complex Uran-9 takes part in the Victory Day military parade EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian troops march during the Victory Day military parade AP Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian servicemen drive military vehicles during the Victory Day parade Reuters Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian servicewomen march at Red Square AFP/Getty Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend the Victory Day military parade EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian Msta S artillery vehicles AFP/Getty Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War People carrying picturers of fallen soldiers queue to pay their respect at the Soviet War Memorial AFP/Getty Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russia's new generation of strategic missiles Yars EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian President and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the Victory Day military parade EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Army ATV-1 during the parade Rex Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian military servicemen march during Victory Day parade in Moscow EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Buk-M2 air defence missile systems parade through Red Square AFP/Getty Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War A Russian World War II veteran is greeted by a young boy after the Victory Day military parade EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian servicemen ride on a military vehicle Reuters Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian honour guards march AFP/Getty Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian President Vladimir Putin, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a wreath laying ceremony to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the Victory Day parade EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War WWII veterans take part in celebrations marking the 73rd anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during World War II AFP/Getty Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian President Vladimir Putin, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take part in a wreath laying ceremony AFP/Getty Images Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russia's Msta-S self-propelled howitzers during the Victory Day military parade EPA Victory Day 2018: Russia commemorates end of Second World War Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, toast during a reception after the Victory Parade AP

There are also plans to transform the Valley of the Fallen  which contains 34,000 people from both sides of the war  into a monument for reconciliation and create a museum against fascism.

Exhuming the body of the dictator will begin healing the wounds of this country, Mr Martinez told The Associated Press. But that task will only be completed when the last ditch with a mass grave in this country has been opened.

A panel of UN rights experts recently praised the Spanish authorities move for placing the right to truth at the top of the political agenda by leading efforts to search for those disappeared and investigate crimes that occurred under Franco up until his death.

Mr Sanchezs government also faces the politically sensitive task of banning the National Francisco Franco Foundation, a group glorifying the former leader which was still receiving public funding up until 2003.

Every foundation justifying Francoism has no space in democracy, the same way it wouldnt by supporting fascism or a Nazi ideology, because these are ideologies that go against democratic values and liberties, said Mr Martinez.

Those of us in favour of democracy have a mandate to defend democracy.
Russia has appointed martial artist and action film star Steven Seagal as a special envoy to improve ties with the United States.

In a Facebook post, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the Under Siege as been appointed to a new role, which allegedly will be unpaid.

His responsibility will be to facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges.

Recommended Steven Seagal granted Russian citizenship

In 2015, BuzzFeed News reported that two years earlier, Vladimir Putin had suggested to then President Barack Obama that he could make Mr Seagal the honorary Russian consul to California and Arizona.

Then in November 2016, Mr Seagal visited the Russian president at the Kremlin and was granted Russian citizenship.

Seagal's grandmother was born in Vladivostok and the actor and Mr Putin share a passion for martial arts.

Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Show all 20 1 /20 Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is pictured with a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin aims at a whale with an arbalest to take a piece of its skin for analysis on the Olga Bay, some 240 kilometres north-east of Nakhodka on August 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin plunges into the icy waters of lake Seliger during the celebration of the Epiphany holiday in Russia's Tver region AFP/Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (top) takes part in a judo training session at the "Moscow" sports complex in St. Petersburg, on December 22, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin works out at a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi on August 30, 2015. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin fishes in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (L) and the leader of the Night Wolves biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov (R), also known as the Surgeon, ride motorcycles on August 29, 2011 at a bikers' festival in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia. Putin described leather-clad bikers as brothers and boasted of the "indivisible Russian nation" after roaring into a biking rally on a Harley Davidson. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears glasses as he visits the Technology Park of the Novosibirsk Academic Town in Novosibirsk on February 17, 2012. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin rides a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin holds a pistol during his visit to a newly-built headquarters of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in Moscow, 08 November 2006. ?Some countries are seeking to untie their hands in order to take weapons to outer space, including nuclear weapons,? Putin said at the Chief Military Intelligence Department on Wednesday. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin sits inside a T-90AM tank during a visit to an arms exhibition in the Urals town of Nizhny Tagil on September 9, 2011 Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears a helmet and the uniform of the Renault Formula One team before driving a F1 race car on a special track in Leningrad region outside St. Petersburg on November 7, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin guides a boat during his vacation in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin hunts fish underwater in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is seen at the Russian boxing team training club after casting his vote for the Russian Presidential election, 14 March 2004 in Moscow. Putin coasted to a landslide victory with 69.0 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, according to the first exit poll aired on Russian television moments after voting ended across the country's 11 time zones. AFP/Getty Images Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture inside the Tupolev-160 strategic bomber jet at the Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport, 16 August 2005. President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow for a supersonic flight in a cruise-missile carrying Tupolev-160 bomber jet, the latest in the Russian leader's action-packed public appearances. After a health check, Putin donned a flight suit and took the commander's position in the strategic bomber, which was piloted by Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel in charge of navigation, Russian media reported. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? A picture released on March 6, 2010 shows Vladimir Putin look through binoculars in the Karatash area, near the town of Abakan, during his working trip to Khakassia, on February 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin measuring a polar bear on the island Alexandra Land, part of the Franz Josef Land archipalego in the Arctic Ocean. Putin, better known in the West for his tough-guy image, expressed concern for the fate of Arctic polar bears threatened by climate change. "The polar bear is under threat. Their population is currently only 25,000 individuals," Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin carries a hunting rifle during his trip in Ubsunur Hollow Biosphere Reserve in Tuva Republic in this undated picture released on October 30, 2010 by RIA Novosti news agency. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin pilots a motorized hang glider while flying with cranes as he takes part in a scientific experiment as part of the "Flight of Hope", which aims to preserve a rare species of - cranes on September 5, 2012. At the helm of a motorized hang glider that the birds have taken as their leader, Putin made three flights - the first to get familiar with the process, and two others with the birds. AFP/Getty

In a 2013 interview with news channel RT, Seagal said he believed Mr Putin was "one of the greatest world leaders, if not the greatest world leader, alive today.

But Seagal has faced some criticism for some comments he has made about the controversial Russian leader.

After he praised Putin's annexation of Crimea, Kiev banned Seagal from entering Ukraine for five years, claiming he had committed socially dangerous actions that could threaten their security.

Seagal was also granted Serbian citizenship in 2016, after he offered to open a martial arts academy in Belgrade.

The action film star has also met with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko.

The Washington Post
Linked Finance, an Irish peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, recorded its strongest quarter to date in the three months to the end of June, facilitating over 10.1m to Irish SMEs.

This followed on from a strong start to 2018, with total lending for the year now more than 18.7m, up 65pc on the same period in the previous year.

The increase in lending is down to both the volume and size of loans. The number of loans that went live on the platform rose by 39pc in the period to 335, with average loan size up 19pc to almost 56,000.

Since its launch in 2013, Linked Finance has provided more than 1,550 loans totalling over 60m to businesses across the country and in a wide ranges of sectors in the economy.

Companies which have raised funding with Linked Finance in the past include Viking Splash Tours, The Rolling Donut, Lolly & Cooks, Murphy's Ice Cream, Iconic Offices and the Irish Fairy Door Company.

The lending is predominantly by individuals lending to local Irish businesses. Linked Finance's lenders have already earned more than 4.5m in interest and received more than 30m in repaid principle since 2013.

Linked Finance recently secured backing from Portugal's fastest-growing digital bank, Banco BNI Europa, which will use the platform to lend up to 50m to Irish SMEs over the next two years. The agreement will further boost liquidity on Linked Finance and ultimately, make it easier for Irish business owners to access the funds they need to fuel growth.

"We are delighted to report record performance in this quarter, breaking the 10m mark for the first time," said Linked Finance chief executive Niall Dorrian. "P2P lending is now a well-established funding source, and the increases we have seen in loan value, volume and registered lenders strengthens our position as the preferred alternative lender to Irish SMEs.

"The recent commitment from Portugal's Banco BNI Europe to deploy up to 50m on the platform over the next two years will help us to achieve our goal of making Linked Finance the biggest source of non-bank funding to SMEs in Ireland."
Jim is about to saddle up when I drop by, having taken a spin through several counties to reach his rural neck of the woods. A drive is the only spin this farmer's son has time for these days, having lacerated the Department of Agriculture in this column last month for being all spin over substance when it comes to the grim reality behind the live export of Irish animals to foreign shores.

"I feel vindicated," he says, referring to the RTE report that followed less than two weeks later.

For the formal complaints, that have been made to the EU concerning recurrent breaches in regulations dating back to 1999, confirm much of what he claims to have witnessed at Irish ports.

But Jim is frustrated that the department plans to penalise the drivers, instead of taking heed of the growing global outrage at an industry that inflicts unimaginable suffering on animals who already make the ultimate sacrifice for meat eaters such as himself.

New Zealand ended the trade in 2007, while the UK is in the process of banning live exports for slaughter.

Jim believes that only a handful of exporting companies benefit from live exports. "It's the meat processors that the Government needs to sort out," he says. "There's no competition. The Government should never have allowed it. That's what's killing the trade and driving live exports."

Jim wishes farmers well "but not at the expense of animals being mistreated. If they want Irish meat in the Middle East, then give them that - meat. Not living, breathing animals that can suffer".

But as long as live exports go on, Jim vows to go on too, speaking out about the reality he witnesses which belies the smooth words of the industry. Which is why he was in Cork recently when 3,500 young bulls and 400 pregnant Friesian heifers were shipped to distant shores.

"It was heartbreaking to see those innocent animals, trusting their owners to take care of them and having no idea what horrors they'll soon face. Some were very lame and a couple in particular didn't want to get on the boat. A man on each side of the gangway had a big red paddle to hit and poke at them to get them to hurry up."

Jim wonders at the callous denial of some department officials who have undoubtedly seen the footage of what awaits animals when they finally arrive into some of these countries, where unskilled slaughterhouse workers have no concept of animal welfare.

Minister Michael Creed's predecessor, Simon Coveney, particularly gets his goat. "He is responsible for much of the problem because he allowed the IFA to hugely expand the Irish dairy herd."

Maybe Coveney, Creed and other live-export enthusiasts should join the next boatload so they gain first-hand experience as well as empathy. Because shouldn't the savage state of affairs awaiting Irish animals on foreign shores matter to our Minister for Foreign Affairs?
A plan for French company Picard to issue more bonds in order to pay dividends to its shareholders, Swiss Irish food company Aryzta and Lion Capital, has been described as "opportunistic" by ratings company Fitch.

Picard completed a debt refinancing in December 2017 allowing the group to repay its existing debt. It also included an exceptional 110m dividend distribution to the shareholders, which gave a much-needed boost to Aryzta's coffers.

The bond included a clause which permitted a so-called tap issue, which allowed more funds to be raised in certain circumstances.

In a pointed note Fitch said: "Picard Groupe SAS's planned tap issue to fund an additional dividend distribution to shareholders highlights the opportunistic behaviour of the retailer's owners, ie Lion Capital (49.7pc owner) and Aryzta AG (48.7pc), evidenced by increasing debt to enhance shareholders' returns, thus taking the maximum advantage of the company's inherently cash-generative business model."

It said that under the original terms of the 1.19bn floating-rate notes, there was room for a dividend payment to be made if Picard's debt ratio remained below a certain level. "Such leverage threshold has been met to date, leading to the proposed dividend distribution," said Fitch.

Investors have been closely watching Aryzta's own debt levels to ensure the embattled company does not breach its banking covenants.

Aryzta, led by Kevin Toland, received around 35m from the tap issue in addition to 53.5m received from Picard in the first half of its financial year. Some analysts believe that this has allowed the company to stay below covenant thresholds.

In May, Aryzta issued a fresh profit warning when the company said full-year ebitda (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) would be 9pc-12pc lower than previous expectations.

The share price was hit further by a downgrade last week from Credit Suisse which suggested the company may be "forced" to sell assets.
'Accounts for Ampleforth showed that in 2017, revenues at the company totalled 15.12m.' Stock image

Businessman Michael Holland is investing 20m in the expansion of his luxury hotels, the Fitzwilliam in Dublin and the Fitzwilliam in Belfast.

Bedrooms and common areas at the five-star Fitzwilliam on St Stephen's Green will be completely refurbished, with work due to start at the end of 2018.

The hotel will also begin work on an additional 50 new bedrooms on the upper floors, which Dublin City Council has granted planning permission for. Holland's Ampleforth group also owns the well-known Bailey Bar Cafe just off Grafton Street in Dublin.

Through a separate corporate entity, Holland also owns the five-star, 150-bedroom Fitzwilliam Hotel Belfast on Great Victoria Street. A refurbishment has recently been completed and the addition of 23 new rooms will be completed by the end of August. Holland bought the hotel in 2015 for a reported 23m. His management company, Hotel Partners, had been running the hotel since it opened in mid-2009.

Accounts for Ampleforth showed that in 2017, revenues at the company totalled 15.12m. This was a 62pc drop on the 40.23m revenues of 2016, with revenues from 'discontinued operations' accounting for 26.1m.

The results revealed that Holland gained 10.47m when he sold his Irish Welcome Tours business. The sale of the business by Holland to Mayfair Equity Partners last year contributed to pre-tax profits at Ampleforth increasing almost threefold to 14.6m for 2017. The firm received an unsolicited report from Mayfair regarding the sale of the tour business.

The directors reports said: "Terms were agreed and the transaction was completed in July 2017."

According to the directors' report, "the Dublin hotel market continues to benefit from strong tourist numbers as well as a vibrant corporate market".

The strength of the hotel business in Dublin resulted in the company enjoying an unrealised gain of 22.97m following the revaluation of the company's fixed assets. As a results of the sale of the tours business numbers employed at the business fell from 173 to 129. The low-key Holland also owns the Four Star Pizza franchise, which he bought out of examinership in 2011.
Quintessential Brands is about to start hiring for its new 10m Dublin 8 distillery and visitor centre, which will promote two of its Irish whiskeys - The Liberties and The Dubliner - when it opens later this year.

The company first dipped its toe in the Irish market with its Irish cream liqueur business in Abbeyleix, which makes Feeney's and O'Mara's Country Cream, as well as a range of own-brand variants for supermarkets. But whiskey has evolved into a key part of the business to become the British group's next largest business segment after gin.

Recently-appointed marketing director Shane Hoyne, a Kilkenny man who has worked for the likes of Heineken and Bacardi, is now pushing out the premium labels for the group in Britain and Ireland.

He told me that its Irish whiskey is now being sold in 50 countries, with 10 new locations added since the start of the year.

However, next on Hoyne's agenda is an Irish gin for Quintessential Brands. "

"The Irish gin sector has exploded with a load of different gin offerings and some really interesting ways to create gin and has created something different to the UK gins," he said. "We absolutely will be looking at developing an Irish gin once the distillery is up and running." It will be aimed at the upper end of the market. "All Irish products should be able to command a premium around the world," he added.

Student digs plans booming with OFlynn development

Boomtime Cork home-builders Dan and Denis OFlynn are back with a proposal for a new development in Wilton, Co Cork, in the south of the city.

Their company Minkbury is planning a large student accommodation project. According to the documents submitted to An Bord Pleanala, the development would comprise 228 bed spaces  47 apartments arranged in three blocks which would vary in height from four to six storeys. The development, which will no doubt cause a bit of a stir in the suburb, is close to CIT and would also appeal to UCC students. It is the latest in a raft of student accommodation projects planned for the city. The redevelopment of the former Square Deal furniture premises on Washington Street West got the go-ahead in May after objections were withdrawn. The scheme from Summix WSC Developments will provide bed spaces for around 200 students. Summix also plans a 146-bed student complex on the citys Farranlea Road, Sundays Well.

* * * * *

The Playwright pub was a landmark bar in south Co Dublin for decades, but Margaret Heffernan is planning to woo Blackrock residents by bringing the new high-end Dunnes Stores offering to the site.

The pub was bought by Ciaran and Colum Butler, who hold the Starbucks licence for Ireland, in 2014 and they subsequently got planning permission to turn it into a shop. Speculation was rife that Lidl or Aldi would snap up the prominent corner site but Dunnes is seeking permission to erect its signage at the new store.

It is perhaps fitting that Dunnes will now occupy the premises. The pubs past owners include Tom Moran and Arthur Ryan, the man credited with the success of Penneys/Primark who learned his trade from Ben Dunne Sr, Margarets father. Leaving historical connections aside, the move to the Playwright site is a wily one. Heffernan will no doubt hope that her upmarket food range will win over some of Marks & Spencers customers base at the Frascati Centre, also in Blackrock.

AIB executive lends her expertise to the 30% Club

In these times of heightened awareness of gender equality  or the lack of it  I can reveal that AIB has entered into a timely relationship with the 30% Club.

The organisation is a voluntary international movement of companies committed to better gender balance at all levels of business. It launched in Ireland in January 2015 and is now supported by the leaders of over 200 Irish businesses and organisations across various sectors, including agri-food, financial services, tech, professional services, construction, semi-state and the public sector.

AIB is not just giving lip service to the 30% Club  it is seconding a senior member of the banks HR team to work with the body for a year. Gillian Harford is the former head of diversity and inclusion at AIB. She has held several senior HR and strategy roles within the bank and she will now work with the organisation to help it expand in Ireland.

No doubt demand for its expertise will be on the rise as companies brush up on their gender equality obligations.

* * * * *

We may be in the middle of the school summer holidays, but Galway-based health supplement business Revive Active is busily working on a new product timed to coincide with back-to-school shopping.

Owner Daithi OConnor told me that he has been working with Kerry Group to develop products aimed at children and teenagers. Junior Revive and Teen Revive both contain Wellmune, a product from Kerry Group which is derived from yeast and is clinically proven to naturally strengthen immune cells.

Unlike other supplements aimed at children, the products wont mimic sweets. After working with Kerry it was decided that the supplements, which will hit the shops in the third week of August, should be tasteless and odourless and so can be added to drinks or yoghurt. Revive Active employs 22 people and will soon recruit two more. Turnover is due to top 5.3m this year, with products available in 1,000 shops here and Selfridges in London. And OConnor is planning to launch in the US next year.
While growing up in the 1980s in Danville, an affluent Californian suburb, 12-year-old Andy Stewart opened up an account with discount brokerage Charles Schwab in nearby San Francisco and put all the earnings from his paper round into an investment fund.

Living in California, "you couldn't help but be sucked into the technology universe", says Stewart. "People think fintech is a relatively new phenomenon, but Charles Schwab was one of the earliest online discount brokerages."

After getting his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Stewart studied at the Indiana University School of Law. His college friends made fun of him for spending his time scrutinising the Wall Street Journal in the library but, after qualifying as a lawyer, his interest in the markets paid off. Stewart went on to run alternative investment businesses at some of the world's largest asset managers and investment banks, including Credit Suisse and BlackRock.

These days, Stewart is a 44-year-old founding and managing partner at Motive Partners, a new private equity firm based in New York and London that specialises in investing in fintech companies. In the past year, Stewart has flown to Ireland "over a dozen times", scouting for deals and partnerships.

Repeat visits to Clonakilty culminated last week in Motive Partners buying a 40pc stake in the West Cork town's Global Shares, a developer of software and cloud-based services to enable global corporations in more than 100 countries manage share plans for employees. It counts pharma giant GSK and Italian insurer Generali among its some 250 blue-chip clients.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though sources say Motive paid $25m (21.4m) for the minority stake in the 13-year-old company. Global Shares is one of the world's leading software providers for share plan administration, a market worth an estimated $2bn a year and one that is predicted to grow an average 5pc a year.

Employee numbers at the Clonakilty company, which has posted a 60pc surge in revenue over the previous year, have jumped from 68 in 2015, to a current 175, and it now has 10 offices around the world.

Global Shares will leverage Motive Partners's capital, fintech expertise and contacts to accelerate its expansion. Stewart, who worked 100 hours a week in the run-up to finalising the deal, says job creation at Global Shares will likely continue at the same pace and that the investment will help the Cork firm open an office in Japan, extend its foothold in the US and Europe, and develop new software.

Motive Partners's stake in Global Shares values the company at $62.5m. Richard Hayes, the chairman of the Cork firm, had been mulling a stock market debut for 2020 and Stewart says he wouldn't rule out an initial public offering in the long term.

Stewart's trips to Ireland also resulted in Motive Partners securing a 25m cash injection at the start of the year from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), an 8.9bn sovereign development fund.

After Motive Partners was established in 2016, it spent "quite a bit of time mapping out where the interesting parts of the fintech universe are and that included not only the sector but geography", Stewart says. "So we would look at how big the market is, how much competition there is, what secular headwinds and tailwinds are there, and one of the things that kept popping up was Ireland. It has a highly educated workforce with a long tradition in working in both financial services and technology."

Some of the 25m in funding Motive Partners received from ISIF went towards the purchase of the stake in Global Shares, Stewart says. The strategic partnership is set to yield even more investments, albeit not all necessarily in Ireland.

Motive Partners styles itself as an investor that builds, buys and backs the companies that will form the backbone of the world's future financial services infrastructure. Global investment in fintech ventures hit a record high in 2017, figures from Accenture show.

"Our model is predicated on our ability to add value beyond just dollars," Stewart says.

This year, the firm set up Motive Labs, a fintech innovation and investment hub that includes Allied Irish Banks among its founding strategic partners. Motive Labs has opened a 14,000-sq ft centre in Canary Wharf in London where fintech teams from AIB and other partners can work with startups to create new products and services for the sector.

"We work with financial organisations to collaborate on solving industry problems. Cybersecurity and data are a big concern, and there are challenges such as what regulations such as PSD2 (the second Payment Services Directive, which compels banks to open up their technology platforms to third parties) mean for banks."

Motive Partners is considering whether to open an office for Motive Labs in Dublin. Indeed, Stewart believes that because of Ireland's emergence as a global fintech hub, the country is a natural alternative to the UK for companies seeking an EU presence to hedge against the impact of Brexit - and for private equity firms seeking to capitalise on the growth of indigenous fintech companies.

However, Brexit hasn't deterred its commitment to London's financial hub. UK negotiators on Brexit have reportedly told their counterparts in Brussels that some 7,000 European-based investment funds that rely on UK clients will be hit by regulators unless the EU changes its position on the City of London after Brexit.

"I don't think it's in anyone's interest for a hard landing on Brexit to happen, so we are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst," Stewart says. "We are interested in working with other jurisdictions like Ireland, which is an English-speaking part of the EU, has regulations familiar to Anglo-Saxon businesses, and friendly regulators."

Motive Partners, which is staffed by veterans of the fintech industry and investors, was set up at the end of 2016 to capture a slice of the $700bn being spent by financial institutions on technology every year. Indeed, the firm cited Goldman Sachs estimates that $4.7trn in annual revenue is at risk of displacement by new tech-enabled entrants.

It also boasts a star-studded global advisory council, including Larry Summers, the former US Secretary of the Treasury, Microsoft chairman John Thompson, and former HSBC chairman Douglas Flint.

Stewart, too, has quite the pedigree. He joined Motive Partners from BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager. There, he was co-head of BlackRock's alternative investments, overseeing teams investing in property, hedge funds and private equity. He helped grow the business to more than $120bn in assets under management and more than $1.2bn in revenue. While working for BlackRock, he also spent time in Cork, where the American money manager was acquiring renewable energy assets.

Before that, Stewart was head of the liquid alternatives group at Credit Suisse, having moved there in 2010 from Man Investments where he was president and chief operating officer for its US business in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

He says being at Credit Suisse in the aftermath of the crisis was "a fascinating time" because "some banks and wealth managers were using technology as a way to become more efficient - a nice way of saying 'cutting costs' - but also to innovate things they couldn't do historically".

"I saw at Man how technology was taking more and more of a front seat, and BlackRock now has some of the best fintech technology and is working hard to present itself to the market as a tech company rather than asset manager.

"Those pressures to become more efficient continue. Consumers are used to having everything available on their phone and now demand the same from financial institutions. Consumers can use Netflix and Amazon to get what they want when they want it. But if their bank or asset manager is lagging 20 years behind, their customers are not going to put up with that."

However, investors shouldn't be dazzled by companies inflating their value simply by using buzzwords such as "machine learning" or "blockchain", Stewart believes. Blockchains, or digitised ledgers of cryptocurrency transactions without central record-keeping that were first developed as the accounting method for bitcoin, are now attracting financial institutions and stock exchanges eager to replace costly and inefficient accounting and payment functions.

Indeed, Stewart warned last year that fintech valuations were "frothy", or at prices that didn't match the underlining performance of businesses.

Motive Partners is "positive" about technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence but remains "sceptical about some of the companies behind it", Stewart says.

"They are definitely worth investing in but it depends which companies you are specifically talking about and at what prices you are buying into it," he says. "There is broad history of overestimating the short-term impact of a technology company and underestimating the long-term impact. Just look at the dotcom bubble - lots of companies that were built around the internet and don't exist now."
There are countless ways for businesses to grow. Some of these include organic growth, which is about growing sales and/or margin with existing customers or by reducing costs. That sales growth might involve new products related to the portfolio, more customers, increasing prices, hiring more salespeople, and so on.

Another option for growth is through diversification. This can be a challenge for any business and the world is full of examples of successes and failures. Virgin is one exception, where it capitalises on its unique brand name to exploit opportunities in many ways. But Virgin Cola wasn't such a positive result. Neither was Cosmopolitan Yoghurt, an offshoot of the international magazine.

Other global brands like Disney, with its extension into theme parks, retailing and cruise ships, worked amazingly well. So did Hewlett Packard, when it ventured from PCs into printers. So what's the secret to successful diversification?

Conditions for effective diversification

Donnelly Fruit and Veg in north Co Dublin has diversified over its 39 years of existence with great success. Now one of the top wholesalers of fruit and vegetables in the country, they have a lot to build on for the future. In its case, the key ingredients for successful diversification answered two key questions

1 Does the new business significantly improve or take away from the value proposition of the current business?

2 Does it use enough of the company's unique capabilities to give the company a right to succeed in the new market?

FruitBox.ie

FruitBox.ie is a newly-launched business for Donnelly, headed up by Paul Hussey, the wholesale fruit and veg manager. Capitalising on the very strong health and wellness revolution in society, FruitBox is a B2B business that delivers a box of fresh fruit direct to your business.

As organisations look for innovative ways to engage their own employees, this is a novel idea that also supports their health and wellness. Orders can be placed on a fixed basis, say twice a week, or can be ordered at short notice and delivered inside a guaranteed 90 minutes.

Challenges with creating a new adjacent business

Does the new business add to the value proposition of the current business?

The FruitBox concept was born out of a number of industry dynamics. One is the evolving retail landscape in Ireland which is dominated by five big players. Acquiring additional new customers is less of an option. Additionally as it is a commodity business, prices and therefore margins, are very tight. And Donnelly also wanted to ensure they built a B2B model, so that it doesn't encroach on the existing retail customer base.

The name 'Donnelly' is only starting to get recognised by the consumer, but has a strong reputation for quality and service built up over its lifetime with its retail customers. Building further on that reputation, it was keen to develop a proposition that was aligned with that strategy. The product mix is an exact subset of the main portfolio in the wholesale collection.

Does it use the company's capabilities?

Clearly the skills of the organisation such as buying, marketing, selling and delivering fresh fruit and vegetables is being used in FruitBox.ie. No new suppliers or products are being used. Products are already in stock and some systems are in place. The people involved are highly experienced and skilled at what they do, so it seems like an obvious extension or adjacency to the main Donnelly business. Having answered the two questions above, Donnelly set out to launch FruitBox.

New Diversified Business Launch Tips

1 Invest wisely: The only significant investment made was in technology, packaging and, more recently marketing, to launch the concept. The team have been clever in partnering with a new 'Uber-type couriers' service called Zendfast. Headed up by logistics industry expert Declan Murray, Donnelly has not had to invest a single cent in delivery vans or drivers.

When a customer places an order, a message simultaneously goes to Donnelly and Zendfast, where a Zendfast courier will collect the box from Donnelly and deliver to the customer's door. It has been decided to not build an app at this time. It is assumed that all B2B customers will have ready access to a desktop, so orders are placed online from a desktop PC or mobile device.

2 Get the message out there: Starting with a social media campaign only for now, Donnelly has also outsourced the digital marketing to a specialist company called Effector.ie. Recognising that this marketing medium is very specialised, Donnelly has decided to embrace this channel, taking comfort from knowing that it can be clearly measured.

Going forward, Donnelly may well face the challenge of using traditional marketing channels and not be so dependent on social media. Industry trade fairs, press, magazines, PR and radio are all worth considering at some point as scaling up is the ambition.

Summary

Diversification into adjacent industries is often very doable so long as you follow some careful steps in the initial planning phase. In my view, a key word here is 'relevance'. Being relevant to your own business model and to your customer is essential.

Alan O'Neill is a change consultant and non-executive director. For 25-plus years he has been supporting global and iconic brands through change. Alan-oneill.com. Business advice questions for Alan can be sent to sundaybusiness@independent.ie
When then Taoiseach Enda Kenny visited the White House in March 2017 for the annual St Patricks Day celebrations, he not only presented the traditional bowl of shamrock to divisive US president Donald Trump but brought along Irish gifts for his wife, Melania, and the couples only son, Barron.

Among the haul presented by Kenny, who famously pointed out in what turned out to be a viral speech that St Patrick was the patron saint of immigrants, was The Moon Spun Round: WB Yeats for Children.

The collection of Yeatss poetry and folklore tales had been illustrated by Shona Shirley Macdonald, a Scottish artist who moved to Ireland a decade ago. Indeed, Irish folklore and language are also the raison detre for Mireog, the design company she runs.

The illustrator set up Mireog in a studio at the home she shares in the Co Waterford Gaeltacht of An Rinn with partner Ciaran O Nuallain, a 36-year-old artist, print-maker and art teacher who also designs the T-shirts they produce. The couple met while they were both studying at the Edinburgh College of Art.

Shona founded Mireog in 2014 after realising there was a gap in the market for eco-friendly illustrated greeting cards, stationery, T-shirts and postcards, all emblazoned with proverbs, songs and folklore in Irish and other Celtic languages. The front of one of Mireogs T-shirts, for instance, has six similar proverbs in each of the Celtic languages that are arranged in a spiral fashion. The Irish version of the proverb reads tir gan teanga, tir gan anam, which means a country without a language is a country without a soul.

Shona (32) grew up in Aberdeenshire, with a father whose first language was Scottish Gaelic. However, she rarely heard him speak it and she was mostly indifferent towards Celtic languages until she met Ciaran, a fluent Irish speaker from Carlow. A 2011 census revealed only 1.1pc of the Scottish population reported being able to speak Scots Gaelic.

My father had Scots Gaelic but never really spoke it to us, so I didnt have a positive attitude towards it, Shona says. People dont really learn it at school, though there are some Gaelic-medium schools and some schools teach it as a subject. So it wasnt until I met Ciaran that I found Celtic languages interesting. Hes the inspiration behind Mireog.

After relocating to Ireland, Shona lived in Carlow and then Cork. But six years ago, she and Ciaran moved to An Rinn. Being immersed in an Irish-speaking environment sparked a desire in Shona to create illustrations and designs that would promote the language.I wanted to help the language and I didnt think there were many products available like ours, she says. I started learning Irish, by going to classes and speaking to Ciaran through Irish a bit. Im the manager of Mireog. But because Ciaran is the fluent speaker, hes the one who promotes Mireog through Irish.

Before establishing Mireog, which means frolic in Irish, Shona dipped her toe into the business by selling a small number of cards through Etsy, the artisanal online marketplace. I didnt sell a lot because its such a huge website, she says. But I worked on designs for two years before setting up Mireog in 2014.

During her market research, when she produced the same greeting card in both Irish and English, the artist realised the Irish version was more popular. This gave Shona the confidence to approach retailers about stocking the products. I emailed Charlie Byrnes bookshop [in Galway] because I liked the shop so much, and they replied and ordered a bunch of cards, she says. Theyve been a big customer ever since.

Mireogs T-shirts, meanwhile, are hand screen-printed with water-based inks by the couple in their studio. It is important to them that their materials have a minimal environmental footprint  not only do the products not come in plastic packaging, but Mireog uses 100pc organic cotton T-shirts that are produced by Earth Positive in India in a factory using wind and solar energy.

Shona was also prompted to use Earth Positive because the company is affiliated with the Fair Wear Foundation, a non-profit organisation that audits them to ensure they are not using sweatshop, child or forced labour or manufacturing in unsafe conditions.

In 2013, there was a collapse of a garment building in Bangladesh that killed 1,134 people, which occurred due to the negligence of the building owners. Its not an isolated case and, unfortunately, since then little has changed, says Shona, who plans to improve the sustainability of Mireogs materials further.

Since Mireog was set up, the burgeoning business has sold its wares at festivals. It began selling its Celtic proverb T-shirts at the Pan Celtic Festival in Carlow and has taken stands at the West Waterford Festival of Food.

The Pan Celtic has been in Carlow a few times and is a festival of food, music, writing, dancing and singing competitions, Shona says. When we did our first market at it, the Welsh and Scottish choirs were at either ends of the pub and having a sing-off.

In 2017, Mireog made its debut appearance at Showhouse, an annual exhibition at the RDS which highlights Irish craft and design to international trade buyers seeking new suppliers. Mireog was one of six exhibitors at the Made in Waterford stand, supported by the Local Enterprise Office. The company used the exhibition as an opportunity to sell its Irish-language range of notebooks, which are made in Ireland from recycled paper and card.

Being at Showcase was the best thing we could have done because thats when stockists are open to getting new products, Shona says. Mireog products now sell in 30 outlets around the island. Its range of stockists include The Cat & The Moon crafts and jewellery shop in Sligo, a flower shop in Dungarvan, the Bastion Gallery in Athlone, The Winding Stair restaurant in Dublin, and Siopa.ie, an online retailer of Irish-language products.

Online, we sell about third of our products to Ireland, a third to the UK and a third to the USA, Shona says. There are also customers in a smattering of other countries, such as in Scandinavia, where some people either speak Irish or have an inclination towards the language.

Sales at Mireog have risen 260pc in the year to date and Shona believes the international demand at its online shop demonstrates there is a market for the companys products in physical outlets in the US and the UK.

Not bad for a company led by two artists with no background in business. Weve been figuring it out and learning as we go along, Shona says. There were lots of challenges, as its a very time-consuming process and there are just two of us so we have to do all the jobs ourselves and wear all the different hats.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten has said there is a Plan B

The former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson used to call the final stages of a competition "squeaky bum time".

In Ireland's broadband industry, there are a few backsides now squeaking loudly.

Arguably the two highest-pitched modulations are coming from Communications Minister Denis Naughten and US business mogul David McCourt.

Both have most to lose if a credible plan for the rollout of rural broadband can't be salvaged from the SSE mess over the next few weeks.

Enet will face charges that it couldn't keep a consortium together at the most important juncture of a critical procurement process. It may also lose credibility across Europe, with many eyes watching the Irish rural broadband experiment.

As for the Communications Minister, he will obviously face a barrage of criticism about the structure of the process and how player after player dropped out. (SSE joins Vodafone, the ESB and Eir in ditching the NBP, leaving only the smallest player, Enet.)

Conversely, both men also have much to gain if a deal can yet be pulled out of the fire.

McCourt would emerge as a fixer, someone who can deliver on a promise despite potentially critical blows being suffered.

Naughten might also emerge as an individual who held firm to tough conditions for what is arguably Europe's most ambitious telecoms infrastructure rollout plan.

A number of in-between scenarios are also possible.

Eir may yet emerge in some enhanced co-operation role, not quite taking the place of SSE but agreeing smaller contractual issues to facilitate infrastructural build-out.

But it hangs in the balance.

Bullish statements from the Government and from Enet last week about nothing changing seem odd. SSE was in Enet's consortium for a very important reason: it was the only entity that could actually build Enet's network.

It seems unlikely that Enet can simply absorb SSE's role or split it among itself and its other consortium partner, specialist investor John Laing.

The Government knows this, carefully stating last week that while it still believes the current process is on track, it is up to Enet to spell it out now.

"A formal notification from the consortium with regard to structural changes is awaited," said a spokesman for the Department of Communications.

"The Enet consortium has reaffirmed its commitment to the National Broadband Plan and timelines around the procurement process."

So far, no such clarification appears to be forthcoming from Enet.

It is looking at its options, telling the world that everything will be fine.

And that does nothing to stop the sound of the squeaking.

Ironically, Eir remains a critical actor in the NBP's fate.

It still owns most of the country's telecoms infrastructure. This means that any plan to build a new rural network will inevitably intersect or cross Eir's infrastructure at regular points.

Enet and Eir have been in regular contact about this, sometimes amid considerable tension.

But given that dialogue is already there, many eyes will naturally turn to Eir to see whether it might assume a bigger part in the state plan with Enet.

Executives there have distanced the company from an official partnership role.

"We didn't pull out of the NBP to go back in," one said last week.

But there's no escaping that Eir remains one of the few telecoms companies in these parts that has the capability and local know-how to do what SSE was supposed to do.

But Enet and Eir and anyone else in private industry will do what they do.

Ultimately, it's up to the Government to accept or reject a modified proposal to a build a network that has been fought over and painstakingly planned for five years.

Would Government ministers have the guts to reject a revised proposal from Enet that seemed less satisfactory than its previous indications? Would it accept a proposal that cost substantially more than originally anticipated?

If one is to believe the tenor of Naughten's assertions some months ago that the Government would not accept any old proposal and that there remains a 'Plan B' if the current strand collapses, then it will hold firm.

But to say that this would be politically difficult is an understatement. Assuming that there actually is no 'Plan B', it would be a question of going back to the drawing board.

Remember, it has taken six years to get to this point in this process. It would surely take at least two to three years to arrive at a similar advanced stage under a newly formed process.

A delay of a further few years would leave the 540,000 rural businesses and homes that were marked down for coverage under the NBP in a fairly miserable state for the foreseeable future.

That represents upwards of one million people, a fair chunk of them being in Naughten's own Roscommon-Galway constituency.

One recent survey by Amarach suggested that a quarter of such rural residents would consider relocating to a large town or a city purely to get better broadband.

Such residents regard it as a professional survival issue - most jobs aren't now possible without access to broadband. Education is following suit.

This all comes against the backdrop where the European Commission repeatedly highlights Irish SMEs as being the best in Europe at adapting to high speed for the purposes of ecommerce and doing business online.

For the past three years, the EU body has released results marking Irish small firms at the top of the pile, but only when they have access to broadband.

So there's a lot more at stake than squeaking.
Burton Richter, who has died aged 87, shared the 1976 Nobel Prize with Sam Ting for their discovery of a subatomic particle which triggered a revolution in the understanding of matter.

The hunt for the quark, now enshrined as one of the basic particles of matter, began in the late 1960s when scientists working at the 3km-long particle accelerator at Stanford University bombarded protons (which were then considered to be fundamental particles) with electrons.

The way the electrons bounced off led them to believe there were small hard points within the protons. In other words the "fundamental" protons were made of yet smaller particles. Nowadays it is agreed these smaller particles were quarks, the building blocks of protons, neutrons and numerous exotic particles known as mesons.

Theorists had been kicking round the concept of quarks for years but there were problems with the theory and many scientists saw quarks as abstractions rather than things which had a physical existence. So the Stanford scientists named these smaller particles "partons" - a term that did not carry the same theoretical baggage as "quark".

In 1974, however, everything changed. Two new particles were found: one, called the psi, by Richter at Stanford, using the new Stanford Positron Electron Accelerating Ring (which accelerated electrons and positrons in opposite directions around a circular ring to cause high-energy collisions releasing new particles); the other, called the J, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, by Ting.

The two men met on November 11 and as Richter recalled: "Sam said to me, 'Burt, I have some interesting physics to tell you about'. My response was, 'Sam, I have some interesting physics to tell you about!'"

It was quickly decided the two particles were one and the same and after some debate the new particle became known as the J/psi meson.

Richter had been surprised when the Stanford machine produced the new particle. But the simultaneous discovery by Ting - using a different procedure - ruled out the possibility of a mistake.

As it turned out the odd behaviour of this new particle could only be explained according to the theory of quarks, which meant that there was now only one way to understand all other particles. Belief in quarks was no longer optional.

The "November revolution", as it became known, marked the beginning of a new era of particle physics. Less than two years later, an unusually short period of time, Richter and Ting were summoned to Stockholm.

Before the J/psi discovery, standard theory included three quarks, known as up, down and strange.

Some theorists had suggested a fourth quark should exist. They gave it the whimsical name "charm" and it soon became clear that the J/psi was made of a charm quark paired with a charm antiquark, each circling the other.

Burton Richter was born on March 22, 1931 in Brooklyn to a textile worker and educated at Far Rockaway High School, Queens, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in physics in 1952 and taking a doctorate in 1956.

He then joined Stanford University's High-Energy Physics Laboratory, where he became an assistant professor of physics in 1960.

In 1963 he also joined the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center where, in the early 1970s, he designed the Stanford Positron Electron Accelerating Ring.

In the 1980s he oversaw the construction of the Stanford Linear Collider, which fired positrons and electrons at each other along straight trajectories. Later he turned to energy issues, becoming an advocate of nuclear power.

Richter, who died on July 18, is survived by his wife, Laurose, and a son and daughter.

 Telegraph

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Sean Atkinson appears to have no regrets on his company, Siro, leaving the topsy-turvy National Broadband Plan process.

Since its dramatic withdrawal last year, the 450m joint venture between Vodafone and the ESB has knuckled down to pursuing the reason why it was created in 2015: to roll out a private fibre broadband network to 450,000 homes and businesses in 'regional' towns.

"We wish the NBP, well," Atkinson says slowly. "The NBP is something that has to happen for Ireland. I'm not going to comment on regrets."

Siro spent north of 10m on its abandoned bid. But looking at how the State bid process is threatening to unravel, Atkinson's calm demeanour is understandable.

Without any State broadband scheme to worry about, Siro will hit a milestone of 175,000 homes connectable to its new fibre service, which can offer speeds up to 1,000 megabits per second, much faster than any phone line.

These are almost all in large regional towns outside major cities and the 25,000 homes that have signed up so far have done so through retail partners such as Vodafone, Digiweb and Sky.

While this is a net addition for some broadband-starved parts of Ireland, the company is considerably behind schedule.

It had pledged to hit its 450,000 target by this year when it launched in 2015.

Why the delay?

"It's very hard to build networks," he says. "It's infrastructure. It's difficult. There were a lot of things that we ran into. A big storm can slow you up. That's not an excuse, it's just a fact. Something like this had not been done previously by ourselves or the ESB or the contractors."

Was the public roadshow of 450,000 within three years too ambitious?

"No," he says. "We're really not too far away from where we wanted to be. Both shareholders remain committed to the Siro business plan."

So when might that 450,000 target, spread across 50 medium-sized towns and satellite exurb areas, be hit?

"We'll hit it within a couple of years, but it's hard to say. We're happy with where we are now. We have 175,000 premises now, rising to 225,000 by the end of the year. We have learned a lot and, with that experience, can say with a high degree of certainty what the numbers will be from now on."

A financial return is a long term-bet, too.

Siro's initial 450m capital estimate - divided equally between the ESB and Vodafone -has risen since the plan was first drawn up.

"It's mostly labour costs," he says. "It's simply more expensive now to hire people to do the work than it was five years ago."

Despite this, Atkinson says that the profits could be considerable.

"If you've built a robust network and a lean operation model and you have take-up, it becomes a cash cow," he says. "Because the money's spent up front, it's a matter of when do you get a simple payback and what the return looks like. We're very comfortable with the business plan today."

Take-up, he says, is running at about 30pc.

"We'll certainly be making money within 10 years," he says. "The nature of a network is it's capital-intensive up front."

Siro's initial mission was to focus on large regional towns such as Clonmel, Castlebar and Killarney: places with no proper broadband infrastructure but which have a big enough population to bet on a likely return in five to 10 years.

It was very clear on one point, however - it would not go into direct competition with Virgin's cable broadband, which now dominates Dublin's high-speed market, because it would be a much harder sell compared to pitching against Eir's old telephone lines.

There are signs that Siro's thinking on this point may be changing. "I'd say it's evolving, yes," Atkinson says. "We're not targeting Dublin between the canals or anything like that. But we're now working in over 40 towns, some of them being satellite towns of Dublin."

Such satellite 'towns', include the suburbs of Swords, Finglas and Balbriggan, are now described by Siro as 'underserved'.

"If you look at a place like Tyrellstown, we think this isn't being served properly at the moment," says Atkinson. "We see an opportunity there. Similarly with towns such as Naas, we've now seen an opportunity to go into adjacent areas like Clane."

Even still, Siro isn't about to radically upscale its ambition to tackle cities.

"We aspire to be a national player, but we haven't made a decision to go in and tackle Dublin. We're not afraid of building there, although it would cost a fortune and it would be a step change from what we're doing now. What we are doing is seeing opportunities in the greater Dublin area and the commuter towns but we're not planning on doing battle between the canals."

If it doesn't though, the company may find whatever opportunity there is to battle Virgin's stranglehold slipping away. Eir is increasingly signalling an overhaul to its urban networks in Dublin and other cities from copper lines to something much closer to real fibre. If it does, it will resell those lines to fast-growing competitors such as Sky and possibly even Vodafone, locking Siro out of Ireland's biggest broadband markets.

"That's what Eir is saying but it's not clear yet what they will do," says Atkinson. "I haven't actually seen a demonstration of any of that yet. They have a new owner in who's talking that way but we'll have to see."
US President Donald Trump with Xi Jinping, Chinas President. Many of Trumps concerns over trade were shared by previous administrations Photo: Bloomberg

'Global trade recorded its highest growth rate in six years in 2017, both in volume and value terms." That was the happy opening line of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) analysis of recent trends in cross-border commerce in its flagship annual trade publication launched last week.

The Geneva-based organisation's latest figures show that last year global exports of goods rose by 11pc to nearly $17.7 trillion.

Stripping out price effects, volume growth was a somewhat more modest 4.7pc. Cross-border sales of services grew by 7pc, to $5.25 trillion.

The uptick in commerce among the nations of the world last year may be a sign that rising political uncertainties are having less impact on internationalised economic activity than might have been expected.

One measure economists have used to check how globalisation is faring is the comparison between trade growth and GDP growth. As the chart shows, world trade has grown twice as fast as global GDP in recent decades. The exceptions were periods of recession and the half decade to 2016, a period which raised questions as to whether the pace of globalisation was slowing.

But last year's acceleration in the rate of world trade growth gives some reason to believe that the previous five-year period of unusually low trade growth may have been an aberration rather than the result of structural changes, policy shifts or a reaction to political changes.

The main driver of trade is usually economic growth. As long as there's a liberal international trading system, businesses can access growth opportunities in foreign markets, while increased prosperity at home encourages the purchase of goods and services from abroad.

The WTO noted last week how the composition of economic growth affects trade patterns. In general, investment spending - on plant, machinery, buildings and infrastructure - is the most import-intensive activity in most economies, as many of materials have to be sourced abroad. Consumer spending follows, with non-investment spending by governments the least import-intensive component of domestic economic growth.

The report underscores that investment was particularly strong last year. That was especially so in Asia, which accounted for 60pc of the global increase imports volumes, proving that the East is as much an opportunity for the West as it is a competitive threat.

Countries and companies involved in natural resources benefited from higher commodity prices, which in turn lead to greater investment in commodity extraction.

In value terms last year, strong growth in global exports was recorded for fuels and mining products (28pc), while agricultural goods exports rose more modestly (9pc). Manufactured goods, which account for more than two-thirds of total goods trade, grew by 8pc. There was growth in most services categories, too, including computer services (+7pc), tourism and travel (+8pc) and transport (+9pc).

The WTO's report and its statistical database allow cross-country comparisons to be easily made. Here Ireland often performs remarkably well given the small size of the country. Out of 163 members, Ireland is the 33rd biggest goods exporters in absolute terms. Even more striking is Ireland's position in international trade services.

Thanks to the tech sector and multinationals using Ireland as an international hub for services provision, the country is the 7th biggest services exporter in the world. For every $100 that spent on cross-border services worldwide, $3.5 accrues to Ireland Inc.

Moreover, services account for 58pc of Ireland's total exports, according to the latest WTO data. Among developed countries, only in Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta do services exports out-sell goods exports to a greater degree. (In the context of Brexit, it is worth noting that the UK also has a relatively high services share in its international trade, at 44pc.) And the dominance of services in the Irish export mix is increasing. Ireland recorded the highest growth in commercial services exports among "leading traders" in 2017, with another 20pc increase. There was also good news for the wider continent. European trade growth picked up after several years of a less than stellar performance. The EU is the world's largest regional trading bloc, accounting for a third of global trade.

Last year, export growth both within the EU and with non-members hit 10pc. Any analysis of global trade patterns has to mention China. Since joining the WTO in 2001, Chinese trade has boomed. It is now the single largest exporter in the world and second largest importer after the US.

The Asia superpower's trade has surged across all categories of goods and services, but one trend may be of particular interest in Ireland. In 2000 China accounted for only 3pc of global food imports. That had risen more than threefold, to 10pc, by last year.

Chinese consumers have long been a target for Irish agri-food companies and marketeers. With Brexit looming, and a big decline in sales into the UK a real prospect, finding new markets is now an imperative. Beijing's recent lifting of a ban on Irish beef is a positive sign.

Of course, China's rise has created tensions. The world's most populous country has been one of the main targets of US President Donald Trump and his advisers, who blame it for taking American jobs. Although the recent tariff measures taken against China by the Trump administration are dangerously provocative, many of its complaints were shared by previous administrations, and are shared by other countries. China has not liberalised its economy as was expected. There are valid protests about subsidies to state or semi-state companies, violations of intellectual property rights, and forced technology transfers by companies located there.

Concerns about the security implications of Chinese FDI into Europe (and the US) is also rising rapidly up the agenda.

However, the White House's anti-globalisation has changed the dynamic of global trade politics. Along with China, America's allies in Asia, Europe and North America have been targeted with tariffs.

Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has talked of 16 countries with trade deficit "problems" with the US, of which Ireland is one. The trade ceasefire in talks 10 days ago between President Trump and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker was positive, but it remains to be seen whether this is temporary or whether the US side will return to bellicose rhetoric on transatlantic trade.

The WTO has been central to resolving disputes among its members over decades. But the court system in Geneva is increasingly clogged up. This has been made worse by the Trump Administration's refusal to fill court vacancies. From 2019 there may be fewer judges to hear an increasing number of cases.

The US might even quit the organisation - Trump threatened to withdraw the US entirely during his election campaign.

While last week's WTO's overview predicts stronger trade growth than GDP in 2018, it also notes that there was a sudden drop in global export orders earlier this year, because of what it describes as "anti-trade rhetoric".

The future of global trade depends on how much of the White House's rhetoric turns into further action. If it does, the liberalising post-war global trading system will be at risk.
Ewan McGregor will be joined by Hayley Atwell and Peter Capaldi for the European premiere of Christopher Robin today.

The Scottish actor plays the now-adult title role in the new Disney film, in which he is reunited with Winnie The Pooh, the stuffed bear of his childhood, to help put his priorities into perspective.

He will be joined at the premiere at Londons BFI Southbank by Jim Cummings, who has voiced Winnie The Pooh for the past 30 years, and who also lends his voice to the ebullient Tigger in the film.

Something sweet awaits Grab your hunny and adventure to UK cinemas in 2 weeks for #ChristopherRobin  pic.twitter.com/XVCBH1vmCO  Disney UK (@Disney_UK) August 3, 2018

Also attending will be Brad Garrett, who lends his voice to misanthropic donkey Eeyore, and Toby Jones, who voices Owl, as well as Mark Gatiss, who plays Christopher Robins demanding boss Giles Winslow.

Atwell stars in the film as Christopher Robins wife Evelyn, while Capaldi lends his voice to Rabbit.

The film shows McGregors character has lost touch with his childhood self and is now so committed to his work he sends his wife and daughter away for a weekend in the country without him.

But after Pooh tracks him down to ask for help after he is separated from his friends, Christopher Robin returns to the Hundred Acre Wood and is reunited with the beloved characters from when he was a boy.

Christopher Robin is released in UK cinemas on August 17.
Almost 700 unexpected deaths of older people in nursing homes last year should be investigated by the health watchdog, an advocacy group has claimed.

Latest figures from the health watchdog show that 697 people died unexpectedly in nursing homes, compared with 726 the previous year.

The Irish Patients' Association says the "unexpected deaths" each year are disturbing and are not receiving the attention they deserve and should be reviewed.

Stephen McMahon, director of the association, said: "We call on the Minister for Health in the public and residents' interests, to set up an independent review of these patient events that we have received from HIQA."

An unexpected death is defined as one that was not anticipated or occurred earlier than expected.

"What analysis has HIQA conducted on each of these events? Where adverse events did occur to living or dead residents have all of these been disclosed to the next of kin and or residents, family's or their advocates?" said Mr McMahon.

Nursing homes are required by law to notify unexpected deaths and other events to the Health Information and Quality Authority. The watchdog received 4,846 notifications in total, slightly up on the previous year.

The figures show a sharp increase in the number of notifications of suspected or confirmed allegations of abuse of a resident, with 899 reported last year, compared with 679 the previous year.

Nursing homes also reported: 227 outbreaks of notifiable disease; 182 cases of unexplained absences of a resident from the nursing homes; 104 allegations of misconduct by staff or by the nursing home provider; and 16 cases in which a staff member was the subject of a review by a professional body.

Mr McMahon said: "While each and every case may have a meaningful explanation of what and why such an event happened, each of these categories are a cause of concern, the numbers of unexpected deaths is 4.4 times the number road deaths in 2017, and look at the attention that road safety, and indeed air safety, give to each and every tragic event."

HIQA said the regulations require providers and persons in charge of designated centres to notify us of specified events. "This ensures HIQA is notified within specific time frames about certain incidents, events or changes within a centre." It says the notifications are reported in the Regulation Overview Report.

The notifications by nursing homes to the watchdog are separate to the 680 unsolicited complaints made to HIQA by members of the public and families last year - although some complaints are likely to overlap. The allegations included complaints of physical and sexual assault, filthy conditions, inadequate food, and a lack of care and compassion.
DNA results have confirmed that a body exhumed in Wales is that of Irishman Brendan Dowley, who has been missing for the past 33 years.

The father-of-four was last seen boarding a bus in Kilkenny on October 17, 1985 for onward travel by ferry to Britain.

A body washed up on Rhosneigr beach in Wales three weeks later and has gone unidentified until his body was dug up at Menai Bridge Cemetery, close to Holyhead in north Wales in June and DNA tests were conducted.

Forensic science was limited at the time of Mr Dowley's disappearance meaning that it has taken over three decades for the mystery to be finally solved.

Over 600 unidentified bodies lie in British cemeteries and 114 of these were recovered from along the western seaboard, which indicates some may be those of Irish people who drowned and were swept across the Irish Sea.

Speaking last year, Brendan's son Alan, a retired garda, called on people to not give up hope in their search for answers.

He told RTE's Prime Time: I gave my DNA recently to Sergeant Richie Lynch in the Garda Missing Persons Bureau and Im now waiting to see when the body in Wales might be exhumed for a DNA comparison to be carried out.

I would encourage any other family of a missing person to give their DNA if they havent done so yet. Each of these unidentified bodies is someones loved one.

He and his siblings provided the DNA samples that have led to this discovery.

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Anyone wishing to contact the Garda Missing Persons Bureau can do so at missing_persons@garda.ie
A dedicated Garda unit is needed to police railways and protect against anti-social behaviour during busy travel periods, a leading safety authority has told the Government.

There have also been calls for State-sponsored travel passes to be revoked from people who are found to be unruly on public transport.

Transport Minister Shane Ross contacted key rail and bus stakeholders, including Irish Rail, Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus, to assess the adequacy of policing on their services.

The Rail Safety Advisory Council (RSAC), an authority with powers similar to the Health and Safety Authority, responded last week, telling Mr Ross current security arrangements were inadequate.

He has now written to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan to advise him of concerns about security across the transport network.

In a letter seen by the Sunday Independent, RSAC chairman John Power called for new legislation to protect customers and staff on trains, trams and buses. He also called for a dedicated transport police to deter anti-social behaviour.

"These transport police can either be a unit within An Garda Siochana, which we would recommend, or a separate stand-alone body," Mr Power said.

"Detailed planning is required to ensure all rail users, can with confidence, travel to and from events without any risk to staff or passengers."

Mr Power added the dedicated Garda unit would not be expected to be available for all journeys but must be available for journeys that involve inevitable alcohol consumption. He said travelling security personnel within the proposed Garda unit must have the authority to remove unruly passengers from a service.

The RSAC chairman also called for passengers using a free travel card to have their passes revoked if they are found engaging in anti-social behaviour.

He then suggested they should be put through "an education programme" after offending.

Mr Power proposed the passes would eventually be reinstated but a second offence should lead to a 12-month ban from the free use of public transport. "A third offence must mean permanent withdrawal," he added.

Mr Ross said bus and rail companies already have a close working relationship with gardai to combat anti-social behaviour but he is taking the RSAC's advice seriously.

"I have now written to Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, to get his views to see how we can address the issue of anti-social behaviour on our transport system, in particular on the Irish Rail network."

Mr Flanagan said anti-social behaviour can also be dealt with locally.

"The Joint Policing Committee structures at local level also provide important forums for communities to engage directly with local Garda management about their concerns about policing and safety to ensure appropriate and integrated responses."

National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) general secretary Dermot O'Leary, who sits on the RSAC board, said additional security arrangements and legislation to tackle the issue must be fast-tracked.

"The issue of anti-social behaviour on public transport has been a source of concern for many years," he said.

"However, we have over recent times witnessed an alarming increase in what can only be described as downright thuggery across our rail, bus and tram system.

"This behaviour is not confined to any one section of our community, rather it has a broad demographic across society, and whilst the NBRU would support sanctions on individuals who abuse State-supported travel concessions, our focus will remain on campaigning for a dedicated Garda Transport Division to police our public transport system."
Traffic chaos looms for Dublin when it goes into lockdown under new plans to accommodate the visit of Pope Francis later this month.

A raft of road closures and parking restrictions are set to bring the capital to a halt.

Practically the entire city centre will be hit with hours of road closures from early on Saturday, August 25, the day the Pontiff arrives at Dublin Airport around 10.30am.

Most bizarrely on the Sunday, roads across the city centre will be closed from 6am, while the Pope is 211km away in Knock for the morning.

Sundays closures will go out to Ballyfermot, Cabra and Crumlin until 11pm. While local access will be maintained as far as possible, intermittent temporary road closures may also be enforced by gardai.

Dublin City Council is considering a request from the Office of Public Works for the road closures.

More than 50 roads will be closed on the Saturday under the plans, with Bow Street, May Lane, Friary Avenue and New Church Street affected from 6am to 5.15pm to facilitate the Popes visit to the Capuchin Day Centre, scheduled for 4.30pm.

From noon on the Saturday swathes of the city including Sean McDermott Street, OConnell Street, Abbey Street and Henry Street on the northside, and Westmoreland Street, Dame Street, Nassau Street and College Green on the southside are set to close to traffic until late in the afternoon. The restrictions will also impact the Luas and Dublin Bus services.

Parking will be suspended on streets within those areas, including the Sean McDermott Street/Cathal Brugha Street region and Abbey Street.

Sundays road closures are due to start around 6am and affect areas including the Old Naas Road, Bluebell Avenue, Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot Road and Chapelizod Road south of the city as well as Ballyboggan Road, Ratoath Road and Fassaugh Road north of the Liffey.

Many of the quays will also be shut including Burgh Quay, Aston Quay, Crampton Quay, Wellington Quay, Essex Quay, Wood Quay, Merchants Quay and Ushers Quay.

Bridges along the Grand Canal from Blackhorse to Grand Canal Dock will be subject to closure until 11pm.

Sundays parking suspensions include Parkgate Street, areas of the North Circular Road near the Phoenix Park, Benburb Street and Infirmary Road.

After arriving in Dublin, the Pope will first travel to Aras an Uachtarain to meet President Michael D Higgins.

He will then transfer to Dublin Castle at noon, later to the Pro Cathedral and then to the Capuchin Day Centre.

On Saturday evening the pontiff goes to Croke Park for the Feast of Families.

Organisers of that event confirmed last night that legendary tenor Andrea Bocelli will be performing.

Father Timothy Bartlett said: Andrea Bocelli will bring so much to our gathering not just because of his wonderful talent but because of his love for his faith.

On Sunday, Pope Francis will visit Knock Shrine before celebrating mass for 500,000 people in the Phoenix Park.
NUIG students have expressed their relief after complaints about the organisation of the BA Journalism course during the third year of the program were upheld.

Over the last week, NUIG announced that they will be refunding an entire years worth of tuition fees to current third and fourth year students on their BA Journalism course after they received complaints about the organisation of the course during the third year of the program.

For the students of this course, who have spent thousands of euros pursuing their degree over the span of four years, this was exactly what they wanted to hear after campaigning for it.

The course outline of the Bachelor of Arts with Journalism program, on the NUIG website, states that the students will be guided and advised on a one-to-one basis by the program director and mentor, and will immediately be placed in a learning environment with people of similar journalistic interests and instincts.

However, according to a student who does not wish to be named, they were not guided or placed in any way.

They explained how the programme worked: It was for four years. The first and second year we had two main arts subjects, and seven hours of journalism studies a week.

The third year is supposed to focus on just journalism, with two semesters dedicated to it: one semester was supposed to be teaching and another one was to secure work placements.

In the first semester of the third year, we only had two hours of lectures throughout the whole thing.

According to the student, the second semester focusing on work placements did not pan out as promised either. As part of the third year of the course, students are required to find a six to eight-week placement. However, they were left dissatisfied with the level of assistance they received in finding a placement and were unhappy with the overall management of the course.

They were supposed to direct us when it came to securing placements; in turn, I had to direct them, said Cathy Lee, another NUIG student who also completed her course this year. Ms Lee said that she had to use her own contacts to secure an internship and received no help from the department.

We just werent given any help at all - I emailed the department over five times and never got any response, said the student who does not wish to be named. The fees for the third year of the course, that are due to be refunded to students now, are 3,000.

The fourth year of the course had them choose more arts subjects, but even then some of the modules we were told to choose from were already done, the student said.

What I was also really disappointed by was the lack of TV and radio modules, they said. They were told that radio and TV aspects of journalism will be covered, but according to the student, that did not happen.

Since the course did not pan out as promised, students decided to take the matter into their own hands.

A girl in my class, she started campaigning to try to get the fees back, the student said. We all had to write personal statements and send them through.

Current third years lodged an official complaint in relation to the third year of the programme, while the fourth-year group who will graduate in October placed a complaint in relation to their overall experience but especially the third-year experience.

The University board heard responses to these complaints from staff members and made the decision to uphold the complaints in relation to the third-year experience in both instances and students have been told by the University that they will receive a full refund.

However, Ms Lee thinks that the course wasnt that bad.

Of course, the third year was not what we expected it to be, but it wasn't that bad.

Refuting the students claims that radio journalism was not covered, Ms Lee said that they had to be self-motivated for things. Things werent given to you - you had to volunteer, and you had to be self-motivated, she said.

Despite that, Ms Lee supports the boards decision. Everyone deserves the compensation.

In a report issued to students from the board, the board held that "it is clear that there were significant shortcomings in the management of the third-year placement which had a detrimental impact on the student experience for the third year of programme".

NUI Galway told the Irish Independent that the BA programme was being restructured and will now be under the steerage of Mr Tom Felle, who was appointed after a review of the MA Journalism programme last year.
A hard border as a result of Britain crashing out of the EU would be "impossible" to police, a senior garda has warned.

As garda management prepares a report for the Government on the security risks posed by Brexit, Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan, who covers the country's biggest border crossing in Louth, said smuggling and illegal immigration could spike if the worst-case scenario came to pass.

He said gardai did not have enough resources to manage in the event of a hard border with the North.

He also warned that the main route into the North, the M1, would be extremely difficult to police.

Insufficient garda resources and infrastructure that was not fit for purpose would also create challenges, he said.

In an interview with the Sunday Independent, Chief Supt Mangan said a hard Brexit would "drain" gardai from non-border communities which would have a knock-on effect on crime.

Dissident republicans, although diminished in numbers, remain active in the border region, with some now hiring themselves out as paid bodyguards for drug dealers.

"A hard border will present significant complications. Nobody seems to know exactly what it means. Certainly, on the ground, it hasn't been explained to us what is going to happen if there is a dramatic exit by the UK from the EU," Chief Supt Mangan said.

He added that it would be "impossible" to man each of the 291 crossings along the 500km border. Primary routes would have to be policed.

"If you try and start stopping traffic on the M1, you will have chaos. You will have a lot of difficulties," he said.

The need for additional gardai required appropriate infrastructure. He said Dromad, a "key border position, not alone for Louth but for the whole border", operates from a Portakabin.

"We have a presence in that area obviously. But if there is a hard border, and there is a need for an increase in staffing, that Portakabin is not fit for purpose," he said.

An allocation of extra gardai in the county had allowed him to reopen one station and boost another, he added.

"This gives us the chance to proactively police rather than reactively police and to put gardai back into the community. Brexit will drain those resources from those communities and from other areas in the country," he said.

While the good working relationship gardai had fostered with the PSNI would continue, he said uncertainty over the European arrest warrant and data sharing, post Brexit, were also a cause for concern.

Chief Supt Mangan, who previously warned councillors that a hard Brexit posed a "doomsday" scenario for policing, is the latest senior officer to raise concerns about a hard border. His comments will add to growing fears over Ireland's security should Britain fail to strike a deal with Europe.

The Government has been criticised by opposition parties for failing to produce a plan addressing the security fall-out from a hard Brexit.

The head of the Association of Garda Superintendents, Supt Noel Cunningham, has warned that border crossings will become "crime corridors" and called for officer numbers to be increased.

The Garda Representative Association has also complained that the force is "totally unprepared" for Brexit, warning at least 1,000 extra members would be needed to police the Border.

Garda management is working on a policing plan for various Brexit scenarios but is keeping details under wraps. The issues under examination are understood to include policing resources and infrastructure; the operation of EU arrest warrants; data and information sharing; opportunities for crime and smuggling that Brexit may present in the event of different customs tariffs for goods on either side of the border; and illegal immigration.

A statement from the Garda press office said Deputy Garda Commissioner John Twomey was chairing a "strategic group examining the potential impact of Brexit on policing and this group is liaising with other government departments and agencies, as well as our counterparts in the PSNI".

One of the big concerns of a hard Brexit is the opportunity for increased crime, with criminals poised to capitalise on different tariffs on both sides of the border by smuggling cheaper goods.

A hard border would also present opportunities for tax fraud and immigration, said Chief Supt Mangan.

Dissidents active in border counties were involved in crime, he said. "They are involved in providing support to some of our drug dealers, physical, armed support," he said. "This is funding for them, whether it is for their dissident aims or for their own personal gain."

Chief Supt Mangan said the murders of two gardai, Adrian Donohoe and Tony Golden, in the county, had left colleagues feeling "very vulnerable" to the threat from serious criminals. "I certainly can see the residue of what is left with serving members here," he said.

"Any border offers opportunity to commit crime. Crimes that are unique to the border are theft of livestock, cattle, sheep, plant machinery, stolen cars - a little different to what you'd have in urban settings."
The true scale of the crisis facing the healthcare system is revealed in worrying new HSE figures which show there are at least 350 vital hospital consultant posts lying vacant.

The impact of the vacancies is being felt right across the country but hospitals in Waterford, Cork and Kerry are the worst affected with 67 consultancy positions currently unfilled.

In University of Limerick Hospital, alone, there are 25 out 155 consultant positions vacant.

There are at least 24 senior consultancy jobs unfilled in the HSE's Children's Hospital Group - this includes Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin and Temple Street Children's Hospital. The figures show 10 of these unfilled roles are crucial paediatric consultant positions. The state of the country's mental health services are also laid bare in the new figures which show there are 65 unfilled psychiatry consultant positions.

There are 43 vacancies in the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group which includes the Coombe Hospital, St James's Hospital, Tallaght, Portlaoise Hospital and Naas General Hospital.

There are also 43 vacancies in the Ireland East Hospitals Group which includes St Vincent's University Hospital, the National Maternity Hospital, Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin, St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny and Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.

Overall, the figures provided to Fianna Fail show that, of 3,155 approved consultant posts, some 349 are vacant.

The party's Mental Health spokesperson James Browne said the figures are "stark evidence" of the strain the health services are under in terms of recruitment and retention.

"To have one in nine positions vacant can only have a detrimental effect on the provision of health care and it is crucial the Government address the matter. Of course, these figures only cover consultant vacancies. The HSE was unable to provide up-to-date figures for vacancies amongst other medical staff posts," Mr Browne said.

"Some specialities are worse affected than others, of course. Of particular concern to me, as my party's Mental Health spokesperson, is the number of unfilled psychiatrist posts with 65 out of 478 approved positions vacant. These are not just posts in acute hospitals but also in the community. In Cork and Kerry almost one in five community psychiatric posts are vacant," he added.

"Unsurprisingly the hospital groups that suffer the worst overcrowding also record the highest proportion of vacancies. The South/South West Group has 67 (of 489) posts unfilled and in the Limerick group 25 of 155 positions are vacant."

Last week, Irish Hospital Consultants Association secretary general Martin Varley said the vacancies are undermining the quality of care being provided to the public. "It is contributing to growing waiting lists for consultant outpatient appointments, and is over-stretching the capacity of hospitals to provide the type of care that patients need and deserve," he said.

The Irish Medical Organisation has previously said the country needs an extra 1,400 consultants to deal with growing demands on the health service.
Carol cremation artworks are subtle enough to be hung in the home but are a unique way to remember a loved one

Carol McGowan's life was turned upside down in 2010. She tragically lost her parents, Gerry and Antoinette within weeks of each other.

Not only that, as she struggled to deal with her grief in the years that followed, Carol's long-term relationship broke down.

She found herself in a city where rapidly rising rents left her struggling to cope financilally.

She explains: "I had a busy life, and a great job working as a graphic designer. Then I sustained an injury, which meant I lost my job. The financial pressures were enormous as I could only work part time hours whilst recovering.

"All this coincided with the sudden death of my parents - weeks apart. It was devastating."

"Rental prices were nuts and rising. I could no longer afford to live in the City. When I heard that my landlord was raising my rent again, I realised that a move outside of Dublin would make sense," she says.

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Carol was born and raised in Dublin but both of her parents had retired to Co Leitrim, during a visit to a small village called Kiltyclogher in 2016 - which has a population of less than 300 people - she saw an opportunity and decided to grab it with both hands.

"My parents retired to Co Leitrim, I visited there regularly from childhood and really loved it. When I saw that rent was much more reasonable there, I thought, what have I got to lose?

"I was offered a chance to rent a little house in Kiltyclogher and when I went to visit the village in October 2016 I thought it had so much potential.

"Theres an enormously kind and warm community here. When I scratched the surface, I realised that within 35 minutes is Sligo town centre, in the other direction is the busy town of Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh,

"Award-winning beaches of Donegal are within 12 minutes drive of Kilty, there are also digital hubs with hot desks for the self employed in Manorhamilton. The place is oozing with culture and it has staggeringly beautiful views on its doorstep.

"I thought this is my chance to re-start, and took the plunge," she recalls.

Carol had originally trained as a designer in NCAD and in a bid to deal with her grief, she had turned to creativity and began to paint and cut mosaic again.

It was when she was helping to plan her parents' funerals, she realised there was a lack of creativity and uniqueness in how we commemorate our loved ones.

She points out: "When my parents died, the finality was hard to swallow. I wanted to do something really special In their memory so I went about designing a memorial for them.

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"I was disillusioned with the standard of headstones - they lacked individuality, my parents deserved more.

"So I went about researching materials, suppliers, installers and allied myself with world class mosaicists. It all became the foundations of my business - HEARTSTONE.

"It took a lot of hard work and several years piecing together how these memorials could become a reality.

"While researching, it became evident cremation in Ireland is on the rise, for a number of reasons - burials cost significantly more than cremation and there is a shift in attitudes toward cremation over traditional burial.

"Again, I wanted to design something unique for those who were cremated. Something beautiful and precious - a real tribute to the person who had passed, something that had not been done before.

"So I created real gold cremation artworks, in bespoke designs, that contain a small portion of the cremated remains. These artworks could be displayed in the home, and although they contain cremated ashes of a loved one, they are subtle enough to stand alone as beautiful contemporary artwork.

"There is also an opportunity to finish the artwork with a copy of an inscription by the deceased. It could be a signature - or a touching excerpt from a diary, Written on the bottom of the artwork with robot technology.

"I wanted to create something truly personal and colourful  something to be really proud of  a final artwork that would last generations.

"I love the thought that in designing each piece, that I create a memorial that in hundreds of years time, would still remind people of the significance of the person that lay beneath  that they were loved and very special.

She admits getting finance was first proved difficult but she persevered and bought what she could afford, bit-by-bit, she also stuck by her ethos of using 100 per cent Irish materials for the cremation artworks.

Carol says a game-changing moment for her company was when she one of just two entrepreneurs chosen for Enterprise Ireland's "New Frontiers" programme in Sligo Institute of Technology.

She is now based at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre in Manorhamilton and is developing a range of Celtic headstone and cremation artworks at the moment and next year will also launch a new glass feature.

Funerals are increasingly more expensive and Carol says she is keen that people don't feel under added financial pressure when they're already grieving.

"The Headstones start at 2,750 (full graves can cost upwards of 6,000).

"The cremation artworks are a world first, although headstones in general are expensive, I deliberately tried to keep the cost of the cremation artworks (450 upwards) more accessible to people.

"If someone is in a difficult position financially - especially in the aftermath of a funeral and cremation - they should not be priced out of remembering their loved ones in a unique way," she reasons.

It's not just her career that's turned around, Carol also loves life in Leitrim and after meeting he partner there she got engaged last Christmas.

She says: "Im gainfully employed in my own business, my work life balance is far healthier and traffic jams are a thing of the past.

"People may be feeling too much pressure financially, but a move is not the end of the world, for me leaving the city and the financial pressures was a Godsend.

"Little did I know when I moved to a tiny village in Leitrim that I would end up meeting someone new and getting engaged, I had completely turned my back on that side of things.

"It's amazing what happens when you make changes but you have to be a bit brave and make the most of things, I do worry about where I'd be if I was still in Dublin."

When asked what advice she has for others who may be considering the move, she says: "Its certainly not for everyone. You need to be able to drive - and be prepared for wilder winters if heading to the west.

"You would be amazed what job opportunities are out there, do your research - meet the locals - ask questions. And dont rule out starting your own business - Im living proof its never too late."
At a time when important legislative decisions are being made in the country, there has been a growing chorus of several civil society groups demanding a suitable legislation to address the presence of hate crime in Ireland.

The chorus grew louder in light of the report published last month, titled Life Cycle of a Hate Crime, which stated that Ireland has one of the highest rates of some forms of hate crime in the EU but is "seriously deficient" in tackling them.

According to authors of the report, hate crime is simply not a part of the language of the Irish criminal justice system.

For Sammy Akorede (51), who moved to Ireland 18 years ago and has been working as a Luas driver for the past 14 years, this report did not provide much new information, but voiced what he had been saying for a long time: racism is prominently present but largely ignored in the country.

He recounts the varying degrees of racial abuse he encounters while on duty: Theres all sorts of name-calling and bullying involved - Ive been called a monkey, and things that I cant even bring myself to repeat. But, to me, the worst experience Ive had is people spitting at you.

As much as physical abuse is considered worse and is condoned more, spitting on a fellow human being is the worst of the worst experience you can ever encounter.

Mr Akorede said that he faces most of the abuse when he is on the job and asks a passenger for their ticket: Asking for ticket leads to people abusing you. Name calling, bullying - they even go to the extent of physical violence, because they know you cant touch them.

Im not just talking about myself- I represent most of my foreign colleagues here, and so many of my colleagues have been attacked while on the tram. Just doing your job gets you loads of abuses almost everyday.

Youll be shocked that a fellow human being treats another one like this.

He said that most of these attacks have been carried out by youngsters, between the ages of 12 - 25 years.

Even outside work, according to Mr Akorede, racism lingers and forces him to always be cautious.

As an African, the only day you dont face any iota of racism is the day you dont leave your house.

So, you have to be cautious of the environment. For example, if Im driving and I see a group of youth, Ill be cautious. Because it has happened to friends of mine, that theyve left their cars, only to come back and see that the glass has been smashed in. I have friends that have faced vandalism at home - in their houses and properties. 

According to Mr Akorede, the final straw is the absence of any redressal mechanism after encountering abuse, which leads to serious levels of under-reporting amongst his peers.

He cites an instance when he encountered the problem head on: Years ago, I was abused by someone at Smithfield Luas stop, without any provocation, he said. Usually they abuse you when you ask for tickets, but this was without any cause.

These two guys just started abusing me - they said almost everything they could say, and my colleague, who was Irish, just couldnt take it anymore. Smithfield is very close to Four Courts, where theres a Garda station. Luckily, he saw two guards walking away. He ran to them for assistance.

They didnt touch us- but it was verbal abuse. My colleague ran to the guards to ask what they can do to assist us, and the guards told us that unfortunately, there was nothing they could do. Because the guy was just ranting, there is nothing they can do about it.

Mr Akorede said that the procedure the Luas head office follows is not enough either, and lack of redressal makes his colleagues wary of filing reports with Garda again.

The law is not on our side, in the sense that whoever abuses us walks away. We try to call the control while its happening, who then call the guards, but with due respect to them, such cases are not important to them as such.

When the staff gets back- in most cases they get along with it and continue their normal duties, but in some few cases the abuse is enormous - the procedure is for them to come back to the office, sit down and chill out- we can put the camera and if were lucky, we can get the image of the abuser.

We dont have the power to hold somebody on the Luas, so they just walk away. The staff write a statement, and we ask them to report to the police. Theyre wary now, because they keep reporting and nothing happens- the same person will abuse them on the tram tomorrow.

In response to the report and its findings, the Department of Justice has cited the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989, that creates offences of incitement to hatred on account of race, religion, nationality, ethnic or sexual orientation.

In addition to the 1989 Act, the criminal law also addresses crimes motivated by hate, said Cathal Redmond, from the Department of Justice.

Where criminal offences such as assault, criminal damage, or public order offences are committed with a racist motive, they are prosecuted as generic offences through the wider criminal law and the trial judge can take aggravating factors, including racist motivation, into account at sentencing.

However, Jennifer Schweppe, co-author of the Life Cycle of a Hate Crime report, said that is not how it transpires once the case is reported and recorded.

What we clearly showed in the report, talking to people within the criminal justice system, that the element of hate gets dropped in the process of reporting or prosecution of the crime. It does not get to the courts. Even if it does, its not recognised by the judge.

Or sometimes, judges will see a hate element when it is not present, she said.

Basically, our research has found that the hate element of the crime is routinely filtered out of the justice system. To cite the 1989 act is to misunderstand what a hate crime is.

Internationally, hate crime is defined as a criminal offence committed with a bias motive. There is no such offence in the Irish law. The 1989 Act is not suitable, wasnt designed to address it and should not be used in that context.

The Department of Justice states that the provisions of the 1989 Act are currently under review in the Department, and this work will have regard to the views of stakeholders and the recent report of the ICCL and the University of Limerick as they relate to that Act and the legislative provisions by which other hate crime offences are prosecuted.

However, in the third Ireland based report of European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, the Irish authorities informed ECRI that the review of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 is nearly complete. This report came out in 2006.

Pippa Woolnough, from the Immigration Council, also pointed out that the National Action Plan Against Racism expired in 2008, and ever since then, there has been no other initiative in its place.

She said that it is necessary to act now: Ireland is increasingly diverse; 1 in 8 persons of the population is from a non Irish background. If we dont take action now, there is a real danger that we might sow seeds and see potential overt racism.

The lack of political prioritisation is worrying; there have been no state funded campaigns to tackle racism. Ireland is a very welcoming country, but if proactive efforts are not taken for deliberate integration we might run a danger in the future, she said.

Talking about the wave of support he has received whenever he talks about his experiences, Mr Akorede said that until strong legislations are made, nothing will change. He appeals to the public to empathise with his experience.

Look into my eyes, and tell me Im a monkey. Put yourself in my shoes- someone telling your son or your daughter vile things, imagine how that feels.
Transport Minister Shane Ross has sharply criticised Government partners Fine Gael and senior State officials for attacking his demand that grandparents receive a payment to mind grandchildren.

In a stinging article in the Sunday Independent today, in which he also strongly defends the proposal, Mr Ross rounds on what he calls the "Establishment" and "conservative forces" whom he claims are determined to shoot down the mooted plan.

The transport minister also lashed out at the "childcare industry" and claimed that the Independent Alliance had been "deliberately misrepresented".

He admits that some "fair", but "often frivolous" questions have been raised about the proposed scheme to pay a grandparent 1,000 a year to mind their grandchildren.

Referring to a recent suggestion from a senior civil servant that free travel for senior citizens should be curtailed, he claimed "the current gospel" was that the elderly "should be seen and not heard".

The vehemence of Mr Ross's attack led senior Fine Gael sources to state yesterday that the Budget in October may not pass and believe that a general election was now back on the agenda.

In his article, Mr Ross refers to the criticism he received last week: "The establishment went to work. Anonymous Fine Gael sources were widely quoted as rubbishing the suggestion and its proposers.

"Official Ireland circled the wagons. Conservative Ireland took to the airwaves.

"A threatened childcare industry joined forces with an incoherent Fianna Fail. Kill this one dead before it gets legs."

Alarm in Government in relation to the Budget has been heightened by further severe criticism by Fianna Fail Social Protection spokesman Willie O'Dea, who has demanded across-the-board pension and welfare increases.

In the Sunday Independent last week, Mr O'Dea wrote that at a time of strong economic growth, "the very least that the Government must do is to give an increase in payments to families in poverty, to carers, to people with disabilities and to pensioners that keeps pace with increasing cost of living".

Yesterday he also said he would be "very slow" to support a Budget that did not include a 5-a-week increase in the State pension.

Also in the Sunday Independent today, economist Colm McCarthy says Exchequer returns for the seven months to July published last week suggest that "the 2018 budget is veering off course". He says there appears to be a "limited capacity" in a pre-election atmosphere, to control spending and he suggests raising taxes.

However, senior Government sources yesterday said that the twin attacks by Mr Ross and Mr O'Dea had put an "election budget back on the agenda".

A Government source said: "We thought that issue had been put to bed, but now we see it is not. It is again evident that the election is distinctly possible this year."

Today, Minister for Transport Shane Ross writes: "According to the all-powerful mandarins' agenda junior partners in government are not meant to be heretics. They are supposed to be slowly tamed by the system, worn down by two years in league with Fine Gael.

"Last week where was the ghost of the Labour Party, the passive, obedient coalition partners, when the mandarins needed them?"
Dublin Airport is set to lose out as Ethiopian Airlines is set to axe its service to Los Angeles. (Stock picture)

Revenue officials have seized 100,000 in cash after searching a man and woman travelling through Dublin Airport.

The operation, which was intelligence-led, targeted a man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s who were about to board a flight.

The pair were due to travel to Budapest via Dusseldorf when they were stopped by Revenue officers on Wednesday.

Following a search of the man and woman, as well as their belongings, 100,000 was discovered hidden in their hand luggage.

Dogs

Revenue officers seized the cash suspecting it to be the proceeds of, or intending for use in, criminal activity, a spokesman said.

On Thursday, the matter was brought before the court, where Revenue officials applied for the cash to be seized.

Judge John Lindsay granted a three-month detention order on the 100,000 at Dublin District Court.

A spokesman for Revenue said that no further information on the background or nationality of the pair in possession of the cash was available.

In a separate operation on Tuesday, Revenue officers seized more than 192,000 unstamped cigarettes.

A further 10kg of tobacco and 1,960 litres of alcohol were also recovered when officers searched a house in Laois.

The property was seized under warrant as part of an ongoing operation.

The detections were made with the help of detector dogs Elvis and Stella, and were part of a joint operation involving Revenues Customs Service and gardai.

Separately, the leader of a cross-Border crime gang and one of the biggest drug dealers in the north of the country was targeted in a series of raids by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

The Donegal gang boss (34) is a target of both garda units and anti-organised crime units within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

He was recently jailed after being arrested over a 350,000 drug seizure being smuggled across the Border.

Sources told the Herald that the CAB operation targeted a property portfolio that the convicted drug trafficker had been attempting to establish.

He is involved in trafficking across Donegal and the North and is attempting to establish a property empire, they said.

Yesterday, CAB officers and gardai carried out raids across Donegal.

The properties searched were three residential homes, a solicitors firm and a property agent.
It is an unlikely headquarters for an age-old congregation that used to be one of the most powerful and feared institutions in the State.

The European Province of the Christian Brothers is run from a modern office block, built by the order in a leafy lane off Griffith Avenue in Dublin 9.

When I arrive to meet Brother Edmund Garvey, the leader of the Irish Christian Brothers, I am greeted by a woman in the reception area of a sleek modernist building with the atmosphere of a small multinational corporation.

In days gone by, lengthy conversations between Brothers and women were actively discouraged.

The rules of the order stated that Brothers "in all conversations with females, must observe great reserve and modesty and make the conversations as brief as possible".

The Brothers have dispensed with the dark cassocks in which they patrolled classrooms up and down the land for generations. I am welcomed into a boardroom by Brother Garvey, neatly dressed and businesslike in a sky blue shirt and navy tie.

The modern Christian Brothers are a slimmed-down operation. They have had to adapt to a society in which vocations are non-existent - and their role as disciplinarian teachers has long vanished.

Louth-born Brother Garvey tells me that when he became a postulant, a trainee for the congregation, as a 14-year-old in 1959, the order was hitting its peak in terms of numbers.

In its heyday there were as many as 1,300 Christian Brothers across the country - and over 4,000 around the world - who had all taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Now there are no more than 170 brothers surviving in the whole of Ireland - and the average age is 79.

The Congregation's Irish leader says the last Brother to join up was in 1995 - and he left after only half a decade.

The power may have gone as the Brothers disappeared suddenly from public view, but they have left a deep imprint on the male Irish psyche.

There is a legacy of resentment among many former pupils about their excessive use of corporal punishment.

Memories of beatings are still vivid among a cohort of middle-aged and elderly men, and there is a lingering feeling that all too frequently the punishment was indiscriminate and random.

At the same time, there is also an appreciation that the Brothers provided an education, particularly to the less well off.

Often, when you talk to ex-pupils, they may harbour both resentment and a certain level of gratitude at the same time. When I raise the difficult questions about the Brothers' legacy, the response of Brother Garvey is one of studied remorse, and he chooses his words carefully.

The congregation's founder Edmund Ignatius Rice was actually against the use of physical punishment, a point that is highlighted by Brother Garvey.

"He believed that where possible, it should not be used at all," says Brother Garvey.

"There was a huge overemphasis on corporal punishment that crept into the schools, unfortunately."

So why did the order go against the wishes of its founder, to such an extent that it became a byword of classroom brutality among a significant section of the population?

Pressure on exam results

He attributes this to the fact that schools were paid by their exam grades - so there was enormous pressure to get results.

Even more damaging to the congregation than the reputation for classroom severity were the damning findings of the Ryan Report of 2009, which found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in industrial schools for boys run by the Brothers.

The report also found that "a climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment" permeated the schools.

"Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," the report said.

Pondering the findings of the Ryan Report almost a decade later, Brother Garvey expresses regret about what happened. "The report was extremely severe on the industrial schools, on the Christian Brothers and the way those institutions were run.

"It's a matter of extreme regret and sorrow and shame that people would have suffered to the extent that was described in the Ryan Commission in those institutions."

Brother Garvey acknowledges that the most vulnerable in society living in industrial schools suffered "in horrendous ways".

"That is unpardonable, unconscionable - and I would almost go as far to say even unforgivable, but I would perhaps not go that far."

The Brothers leader says the State committed young people to these institutions.

He questions why the severity of the industrial schools was not spotted, inspected and eliminated.

"Somebody had to know, but nothing was really done about it."

So is it hard for the surviving Brothers to come to terms with the damage done to the Congregation's reputation?

"If people have a difficulty with us, it is difficult listening to their story and accepting it," says Brother Garvey.

But he says that generally the local communities in which the Brothers live are extraordinarily loyal, and there are good relationships.

"By and large, they have not shown any animosity or aggression towards the Brothers."

In 2009, the congregation promised to pay 34m towards a redress scheme for victims of abuse in residential institutions. Brother Garvey says the order still has to pay 8.8m of that amount, and he says he hopes the total bill will be cleared by early next year.

The Brothers may be diminished in number, but the congregation still has a high turnover of cash, tied up in a number of companies and charitable trusts.

Assets of 332m

In 2009, the assets of Brothers were valued at 332m - of which 262m was tied up in real estate and 70m was in financial assets.

On top of this, the congregation transferred school property worth 430m to a linked body known as the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.

It is not clear how much the assets of the order are worth now.

In the most recent accounts published by the charity regulator for 2015 and 2016, the European Province of the Brothers, whose activities are largely in Ireland, had a total gross income of 29m and it spent 33m.

Brother Garvey says the money helps towards the care of retired members of the congregation, most of whom are elderly. The order also funds adult education and summer camps for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promising a "week of fun-filled activities in a safe and friendly environment".

Richmond Newstreet, an Irish-registered company linked with the congregation's international operations, has net assets of 20m, according to the most recent accounts. So, after the horrors of the Ryan Report, and the never-ending accounts of beatings inflicted on pupils in the past, what does Brother Garvey believe is the positive legacy?

"If it hadn't been for the Christian Brothers, you'd wonder what kind of education system we would have had," he says.

"They provided a good education and gave it freely, and laid down a good schools infrastructure that is going forward."

While the abuse in industrial schools and other institutions was investigated in the Ryan Report, has the issue of violence perpetrated by teachers in Christian Brothers schools really been explored. Many ex-pupils still carry the emotional scars.

Professor Pat Dolan, director of the Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway, believes there should be a type of truth commission so that adult victims can tell of what they suffered in school.

Dolan, who suffered regular beatings at North Brunswick Street CBS, says: "The Brothers did a lot of physical harm and they got away with it - when they shouldn't have got away with it."

Brothers carried an exotic range of weapons, from bamboo canes, to chair legs and ruler sticks - and the familiar one-and-a-half-foot leather strap.

"In the classroom, if you got your spelling wrong you got slapped, and at one time I was slapped on a daily basis," says Professor Dolan.

While this form of corporal punishment was still quite common in other schools apart from the Christian Brothers, many former pupils educated by the congregation report much more violent attacks that went unpunished.

It is the apparently random nature and frequency of these assaults that Professor Dolan finds disturbing.

He remembers one attack from a lay male teacher, who punched and slapped him repeatedly across the head when he tried to defend a classmate with a stammer.

"I was very fortunate in that I had a very protective mother who complained about this, and as a result after first year, it was not so bad."

Dolan says there are three arguments commonly made in favour of the disciplinarian regime: firstly, pupils got slapped, but it did not do them any harm; secondly, not all the teachers were violent, and many were decent; and thirdly, there is the familiar defence, articulated by Brother Garvey, that the Brothers provided an education when no-one else would do.

Prof Dolan says the fact that some pupils did not feel that they were harmed by corporal punishment should not negate the suffering of others.

Corporal punishment

He acknowledges that there were kind Brothers, but he says many of these men worked with violent teachers - and did nothing to stop them.

By the late 1960s, campaigners were beginning to question the approach of the congregation to discipline and call for a ban on corporal punishment.

Frank Crummey, who was involved in the campaign group Reform, recalls the uproar in Ireland after he went on the Late Late Show in 1968 and accused the Brothers of abusing children.

Crummey had suffered beatings at Christian Brothers schools in Crumlin and Synge Street.

He says that on one occasion, an unidentified cheeky pupil called a Brother with a limp a "hoppy bastard", and the teacher did not know who it was.

"The Brother took me to a glasshouse, and twisted my leg until I screamed - and told him the name of the boy."

He remembers the regime at Synge Street as "cruel and vicious". And he says he suffered more because he would not hold out his hand for a slap - or bend over for a beating. "I could never bring myself to do that, so one occasion, the teacher got another Brother and they kicked the shit out of me in a corner as I lay there."

Damages of one shilling

Later, in his work as a campaigner for Reform, Crummey was involved when Kathleen Moore took a case against the Brothers when her son David was badly beaten. A jury found the punishment excessive, but only awarded damages of one shilling.

The former Labour Party senator and newspaper editor John Whelan can see two sides to the Christian Brothers story. In 1973, at just 12 years of age as a boy in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, he signed up to become a Christian Brothers postulant and left home for the life of a trainee in Carriglea Park in Dun Laoghaire.

That was in spite of some Brothers in his school meting out harsh punishment.

"At school, there was definitely an element that was sadistic and brutal. They did not pass up the opportunity to give you a dig in the ribs, a crack across the side of the head, or a box across the lugs."

But Whelan does not go along with the idea that the Brothers were all brutal and says we should not apply modern-day standards to an era when corporal punishment was not only legal, but actively encouraged.

He says he found some of the brothers "extremely decent".

In his period as a postulant, he says he learned a lot and prayed a lot, read Thomas Aquinas, and spent long periods with his fellow trainees in total silence. The only woman in his life at this time, according to his own account, was Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.

Gradually it dawned on the teenager that the life of a Brother was not for him.

"I could not see a life without girls - puberty came in the door and my vocation went out the window."

Whelan says he was shocked at the revelations in the Ryan Report, but not surprised by them.

According to Whelan, if you take a coterie of young boys away from home and school them in a surreal, sexually repressed environment over a period of years, there are obvious dangers.

From the 1960s onwards, the authority of the Brothers was increasingly questioned, and their hold on the male population loosened. Brother Edmund Garvey says the cultural change happened from the moment The Beatles made their first noise in Liverpool.

"We began to feel the effects of a well-educated population," says the congregation leader.

"We created a people who could stand up and question their lives. From the mid-sixties on there was a numerical and inexorable decline."

@KimBielenberg
Ten-month-old Eli McCarthy Curtin has a smile that would lift the spirit of a gloomy room.

The force that he is, its hard to believe that the first few weeks of his life were something of a rollercoaster.

Eli arrived early, at just 25 weeks gestation, or half a pregnancy", his mum Marguerite explains simply.

He weighed 905 grams, or two pounds, one ounce.

It was very scary because there are babies that dont make it when theyre born that early. There are a lot of babies that do make it, but you just dont know.

The paediatric consultant said to me that theres a 10 to 20 per cent mortality rate for babies born that early, so I held onto that as a positive, that there was an 80 to 90 per cent chance that hed survive.

Before Eli was born, doctors had ordered full bed rest for Marguerite, whod been experiencing spotting. There was a concern that Eli could arrive early, so lactation consultants at the Rotunda hospital recommended antenatal breastfeeding workshops.

Breastfeeding can be a lifeline for babies born prematurely.

I was glad I went because the workshop gave guidance around expressing, and the importance of the initial colostrum to the baby. Eli wasnt able to breastfeed when he was born initially. He was on breathing support, an incubator, and tubes for feeding. The nurses were able to put a small drop of colostrum in his cheek even and that helped him.

After giving birth I expressed straight away with a tiny little syringe to have colostrum for the baby.

When I was in the labour ward, the nurse assisted me in getting the colostrum and the early milk and brought it very quickly to the baby. I continued to express every three hours, eight times a day, to bring my milk in. I hand expressed for the first few days, then I started using the pump in the intensive care unit.

Eli was in hospital for the first 115 days of his life, a journey with many bumps.

You walk into the hospital every day not knowing what news youre going to hear. One night, we got a phone call to say that Eli had to be resuscitated; they worked on him for 10 mins and gave him three shots of adrenaline to bring him around. His lung had collapsed. They thought an infection had gotten into his blood.

He went through a lot. They thought at one stage that he had sepsis and queried meningitis, and he had to be on antibiotics for 23 days.

And within the first five or six weeks he had to be transported to Crumlin - he had an open duct in the heart, a murmur, a duct they had to close.

Little Eli also suffered a grade II brain bleed while he was in hospital. He also has chronic lung disease, which still leaves him at risk of infections.

It wasnt until January 12 that Elie was allowed home for the first time.

He had a rough journey. Thats why it was even more important that I breastfeed him, explained Marguerite.

Figures released today confirm that the numbers of mothers who are initiating breastfeeding in the Rotunda hospital after the birth of their baby has risen.

Some 73 per cent of mothers initiated breastfeeding while at the hospital last year, a reassuring and positive step in the right direction, the hospital said.

In recent years, Ireland had been found to have the lowest rate for breastfeeding in Europe.

Marguerite explains that eventually as Eli grew, he learned to breastfeed, and she doesn't need to express anymore.

I tried to wean him onto the breast at home. Hed get top ups of my expressed milk in a bottle before that. Now hes fully breastfeeding without any bottles and hes on solids as well.

Im very proud that I stuck with it but Im also very proud of him Since he left hospital in January, he hasnt been sick once.

Marguerite says she would not have been able to breastfeed Eli without the support of the medical team at the Rotunda hospital, her husband James and her family. She says the service whereby donor breastmilk is giving to premature babies is invaluable for babies of mothers who cant, for various reasons, breastfeed themselves.

Now at home with Eli, and looking back at all theyve achieved together, Marguerite brimming with pride.

You always value your children but going through a journey like that, its really opened my mind to how fragile life can be and how precious they are.
Prawns from the tasting menu at the Park Kenmare. Photo: Pol O Conghaile

Kenmare has a surprisingly French flavour.

10am: Raison d'Etre

Take a 3.5-hour tasting trail with Karen Coakley's Kenmare Foodies, watching pastries come to life at Maison Gourmet, tasting Benoit Lorge's handmade chocolates, and supping Gallic specials with Alain Bras at The Wine Shop. Irish mouthfuls include sinful sausages at Roger O'Sullivan's butchers and Expedition Ale made by Tom Crean's granddaughter, Aileen, with Torc Brewing.

1pm: Scream for ice cream

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Murphy's is the ice-cream everyone associates with Kerry, but Margaret McCarthy and Rose Glynn's Kenmare Ice-Cream has eked out a nifty niche - offering all the TLC at a great price. Starting with Lee Strand Milk, getting the vanilla right ("It's a bit like a pub getting its Guinness right"), scoops start from 2. Don't leave Kenmare without trying the lemon meringue. It's killer.

How: 4 Henry Street; facebook.com/kenmare.ice.cream

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4pm: Pancake o'clock

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It's the Kingdom's worst-kept secret. A short drive from Kenmare, The Strawberry Field is a giggle-inducing yellow cottage serving pancakes... and more pancakes. Start savoury - with bacon and mozzarella, perhaps - before going all out on a 12in pop of pure, Instagrammable pleasure.

How: 11am-5.15pm; strawberryfield-ireland.com

8pm: Park life

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Chef James Coffey is breathing new life into Francis Brennan's flagship dining room with a bold switch to tasting menus. Bag a window table and tuck into deeply Irish dishes ranging from organic Kerry lamb to pillowy prawns from Castletownbere (below). This is a rich, thoughtful and delicious riff on The Park Kenmare's locality.

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How: B&B with tasting menu from 210pp. parkkenmare.com

Do it

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Food tours with kenmarefoodies.com from 55pp. See kenmare.ie and wildatlanticway.com for more info.
Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arrives at the wedding of Charlie Van Straubenzee and Daisy Jenks at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Frensham, in Surrey, Britain, August 4, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Prince Harry has assumed wedding duties once again - this time attending the wedding of his childhood friend as best man.

Harry, who was the star of the show just weeks ago, stayed low-key in morning dress and sunglasses as he accompanied Charlie van Straubenzee into St Mary the Virgin church in Frensham, Surrey.

He was dropped off at the church gates by bus along with a group of groomsmen.

The Duchess of Sussex, pictured left, celebrating her 37th birthday yesterday, attended separately and waved to crowds of well-wishers as she entered. Meghan, who wore a navy fit-and-flare dress and matching hat, chatted to guests outside the church before the service began at 3.30pm.

Charlie van Straubenzee, who works for investment management firm Brown Advisory, was marrying party and wedding videographer Daisy Jenks. Harry and Charlie are said to have struck up a close friendship as the groom (30) and the royal attended Ludgrove School in Berkshire together.

The groom played a major part in Harry's wedding in May as an usher, along with his older brother, Thomas, and was said to have roasted the royal in a reception speech.

Charlie's older brother, Thomas, is close friends with Harry's brother William, the Duke of Cambridge, and is godfather to Princess Charlotte.

Guests clad in summery outfits and morning coats began filing into the church as wedding bells rang an hour before the ceremony began.

Well-wishers lined the sun-drenched street in front of the church to catch a glimpse of the royals and of the wedding couple.

The bride arrived in a vintage car shortly before 3.30pm. Hymns included Shine Jesus Shine and Lord Of All Hopefulness.
All 20 people on board a vintage plane were killed when the aircraft crashed into a mountainside in south-east Switzerland, police said.

The Junkers Ju-52 plane went down on Saturday on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountains western flank about 2,540 metres (8,330 feet) above sea level.

The mountainous area in south-eastern Switzerland is popular with hikers and skiers and includes a glacier.

Police said they have now determined that all 20 people on board the plane, including its three crew members, died.

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Eleven men and nine women were killed. Most of the victims were Swiss but they also included a couple and their son from Austria. The victims were aged between 42 and 84.

The plane was operated by Ju-Air, a Swiss company that offers tours with vintage former Swiss military aircraft.

Swiss officials said they are not aware of any distress call from the plane. They also expect the investigation into the cause of the crash to be relatively complex.

Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, said the plane appears to have hit the ground near-vertically and at high speed in the crash.

Mr Knecht said the vintage plane presumably did not have the crash-resistant cockpit voice and data recorders that more modern aircraft have.

He said officials have essentially ruled out a collision with another aircraft or hitting an obstacle such as a wire.

He also said there is no indication of foul play or that the aircraft lost parts or broke up before the crash.

The plane was flying the passengers back from a two-day trip to Locarno in southern Switzerland to its base at Duebendorf, near Zurich.

Nearly 5,000 Ju-52 planes, a product of Germanys Junkers, were manufactured between 1932 and 1952.

Ju-Airs Ju-52 planes are former Swiss military aircraft, built in 1939, that were retired by the air force in 1981.

The company, which operates two other Ju-52s, suspended flights until further notice after the crash.
Zimbabwe's election was meant to be a moment of national transformation: a textbook exercise in tolerance and democracy to banish the demons of Robert Mugabe's brutal misrule.

But a week after the violence-marred election, tensions are running high in Harare and a deal to bring the country back into the community of nations appears to be unravelling.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former intelligence chief who served Mugabe for decades before ousting him last year, entered what were probably the most credible elections in the country's history betting he could secure power with a victory transparent and peaceful enough to gain approval from the world.

The quid pro quo whispered in his ear by foreign, and particularly British, diplomats was an end to isolation, a return to the Commonwealth, and financial assistance to rebuild his country.

Instead, he won the narrowest victory, the world has been shocked by troops shooting civilians in the street, and the opposition has refused to recognise the result.

Nelson Chamisa, Mr Mnangagwa's 40-year-old populist challenger, has told supporters that the result was a fraud and has promised a "robust strategy" of political and legal pressures to force him to step down. The upshot is a febrile and uncertain atmosphere in which fear, suspicion, and rumour, are rife.

"This is obviously very bad for the country," said one western diplomat in Harare. "The door is not closed, but they have got to get a grip on alleged assaults by troops."

Officially, six people were killed and three remain in critical condition after troops were unleashed when an opposition protest in Harare descended into riot last Wednesday.

Mr Chamisa, who says he won about 200,000 more votes than the results showed, will file a legal challenge with the constitutional court this week to force a rerun of the election.

Mr Mnangagwa said he is "free to do so" because Zimbabwe is a democracy.

But the prospect of a second election would raise memories of 2008, when Mr Mugabe and Mr Mnangagwa unleashed a campaign of killings and intimidation against MDC supporters to force Morgan Tsvangari, the leader of the MDC at the time, to withdraw from a second-round run off.

The opposition say they are already facing harassment. Police raided the offices of Mr Chamisa's MDC Alliance, attempted to break up his first post-results press conference, and surrounded the house of a senior opposition MP's mother. Activists arrested in the raid on the party office were denied bail yesterday.

Uncertainty in Zimbabwe is fuelled by reports of division at the highest level of government.

Sources close to the military said that the troops were deployed not because police could not cope but because the government is uncertain of the force's loyalty.

The sources said that the police are perceived to be dominated by Mugabe loyalists and were sidelined in security roles after the November military coup.

 Telegraph
Smoke columns rise due to a wildfire close to Monchique in the Portuguese Algarve

Hundreds of firefighters are battling a wildfire in Portugals southern Algarve region during the height of holiday season.

More than 100 people were evacuated from villages near Monchique, in Faro district, on Saturday as two blazes raged close by.

Portugals National Civil Protection Agency said 700 firefighters and water-dropping aircraft had been deployed in a bid to contain the flames.

Nine emergency workers have been injured since the fire broke out on Friday, although none are thought to be seriously hurt.

Vaz Pino, commander of relief operations in Faro, told Jornal de Noticias residents in rural areas were being moved long before the fire hits.

The fire continues with two active fronts, one of them totally under control and close to extinction and another which continues to burn in an area inaccessible from the ground, he said.

He added water drops from aircraft had so far proved ineffective against the fire continuing to burn out of control, due to its location in a valley.

Portugal sees large wildfires every year, although unseasonably cool weather through the end of July has meant fewer blazes in 2018.

The government says only about 15 percent of the 10-year average area has been charred so far this year.

However, the Iberian Peninsula has been hit by a heatwave this week, with some inland areas sweating in 45C conditions.

Temperatures in Portugal peaked at 46.4C on Saturday, a degree off the national record set in 2003.

In the Alentejo province, which saw the worst of the heat, streets were largely deserted. Some farmers chose to work during the night instead of in the heat of the day.

In neighbouring Spain, authorities said three people had died this week due to high temperatures, including a 41-year-old road worker collapsed on a highway near Murcia.

The Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said on Friday authorities were prepared for wildfires despite the heatwave conditions and could deploy around 11,000 firefighters if needed.

Fortunately in this abnormal situation we have not had many other incidents like the one in Monchique, he told Publico.

The country has shown that everything is prepared, people have had the good sense and judgment to take precautions and to prevent fires.
A review of police force will be carried out after the clashes (Mark Graves /The Oregonian via AP)

Police in Portland, Oregon, have been accused of being heavy-handed with people protesting against a rally by extreme-right demonstrators.

The citys new police chief has ordered a review of officers use of force after some counter-protesters were reportedly injured during the demonstration.

Police in riot gear tried to keep the two groups apart on Saturday, many of whom had come dressed for battle in helmets and protective clothing.

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Dozens of the extreme-right protesters were bussed to Portland, one of Americas most liberal cities, from nearby Vancouver, Washington.

Saturdays clashes were the most recent of several this year in the city as right-wing militants converged, met by counter-protesters, including members of anti-fascist, or antifa groups.

City officials have struggled with striking a balance between free speech and keeping events from spiralling out of control.

But on Saturday, some said police seemed to act mostly against those protesting against the presence of the extreme-right demonstrators, using stun grenades and what appeared to be rubber bullets against them.

Officers have continued to seize items that can be used as weapons throughout todays protests. pic.twitter.com/s5QsyxuKrI  Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 4, 2018

Police targeted Portland residents peacefully counter-protesting against racist far-right groups, including white supremacists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazi gangs, the Oregon chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America said. It called on officials to investigate.

Police ordered the counter-protesters to disperse, then moved in behind a volley of stun grenades. One of the rounds reportedly hit a counter-protester in the head, becoming embedded in his helmet and injuring him.

One woman was taken to hospital after being hit in the arm and chest with a flash-bang grenade, local media reported.

Four people were arrested.

UPDATE #2: Four People Arrested During Saturday Protest (Photo) https://t.co/7In64OXQzU pic.twitter.com/HDI052RdOi  Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 5, 2018

Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, who assumed command less than a year ago as Portlands first African-American female police chief, said she takes all use-of-force cases seriously.

She directed the professional standards division to begin gathering evidence to determine if the force used was within policy and training guidelines. The Office of Independent Police Review will be provided with the information for review and investigation.

Saturdays incidents started with demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, gathering in a riverfront park. The Proud Boys have been characterised as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.

Hundreds of counter-demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with messages such as Alt right scum not welcome in Portland. Some chanted Nazis go home.

Officers stood in the middle of a four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated.

The counter-protesters were made up of a coalition of labour unions, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists and other groups.
Flames from a wildfire advance down a hillside, towering over homes near Lakeport, California (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP)

The governor of California has called on US President Donald Trump to help the state fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season.

Jerry Brown made the appeal as he inspected neighbourhoods wiped out by a wildfire in the northern California city of Redding.

Mr Brown said he was confident the president he has clashed with over immigration and pollution policies would send aid, which Mr Trump did last year when Californias wine country was hit hard.

The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters, so Im hopeful, said Mr Brown, a Democrat. Tragedies bring people together.

Expand Close A sign announcing the closure of Yosemite National Park (Noah Berger/AP) / Facebook

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Mr Browns call for help came shortly before authorities called on residents in Glenn and Colusa counties in northern California to evacuate as a wildfire there continues to grow.

Cal Fire issued the evacuation order on Saturday night for people who live in several parts of the counties, including an area just east of the boundary of Mendocino National Forest.

The blaze, known as the Mendocino Complex fire, has grown to 357 square miles and is 32% contained, according to Cal Fire.

The National Weather Service forecasts hot and windy conditions to persist in northern California.

Smoke is impacting much of California and surrounding areas. Check https://t.co/33ODsO2xOp for the latest forecasts, and to see if Air Quality Alerts and/or Dense Smoke Advisories have been issued for your area. https://t.co/OvCMm5UeTl  National Weather Service (@NWS) August 4, 2018

There are 17 major fires burning throughout California, authorities said. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people  including four firefighters  and shut down Yosemite National Park.

Hundreds of colleagues, family and friends attended a memorial service on Saturday in Fresno for National Forest Service Captain Brian Hughes. He was killed on July 29 by a falling tree while fighting the wildfire that has closed Yosemite National Park at the height of the tourist season.

Firefighters have achieved 41% containment of that forest fire.

The fire had reached into remote areas of the countrys third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemites popular Valley region were ordered to leave on Friday because of inaccessible roads.

The biggest blazes continue to burn north of San Francisco, including twin wildfires fuelled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather.

Those fires destroyed 55 homes and forced thousands of residents to flee their neighbourhoods about 100 miles north of the city. They have grown to a combined 300 square miles.

The two fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27% contained.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, an uniformed official bleeds from the head following an incident during a speech by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro dodged an apparent assassination attempt when drones armed with explosives detonated while he was delivering a speech, officials said.

Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced on Saturday after hearing the sound of an explosion pierce the air.

He was giving a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas which was being broadcast live on television when the incident occurred.

"This was an attempt to kill me," the 55-year-old said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. "Today they attempted to assassinate me."

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the incident took place shortly after 5.30pm as Mr Maduro was celebrating the National Guard's 81st anniversary.

The visibly shaken head of state said he saw a "flying device" that exploded before his eyes, and thought it might be a pyrotechnics display in honour of the event.

#BREAKING Speech by Venezuela President #Maduro cut off during a military parade, soldiers seen running pic.twitter.com/1mPcrSiDYV  Guy Elster (@guyelster) August 4, 2018

Within seconds, Mr Maduro said he heard a second explosion and pandemonium ensued.

Bodyguards escorted the Venezuelan leader out of the event and television footage showed uniformed soldiers standing in formation quickly scattering from the scene.

He said the "far right" working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible.

Some of the "material authors" of the apparent attack have been detained he said, adding: "The investigation will get to the bottom of this."

Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Mr Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.

He has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the run.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Mr Maduro, but rather the military's entire high command on stage with the president.

Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Mr Saab, adding that he would give more details on Monday.

"We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela," he said.

Firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the government's version of events.

Three local authorities said there had been a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near Mr Maduro's speech where smoke could be seen streaming out of a window. They provided no further details on how they had reached that conclusion.

A Colombian official with the president's office described Mr Maduro's claims that Santos was involved in the attack as baseless.

Adding to the confusion, a little known group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target.

"We showed that they are vulnerable," the group said in a tweet. "It was not successful today, but it is just a matter of time."

David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said the incident did not appear to be a staged attack by Mr Maduro's government for political gain.

The "amateurish" attack prompted embarrassing images of Maduro cut off mid-sentence with droves of soldiers running away in fear, making the president appear vulnerable, Mr Smilde said.

"He will use it to concentrate power," he said. "Whoever did this, he'll use it to further restrict liberty and purge the government and armed forces."
The secret behind whats cooking between Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra is a mystery that has left the audiences baffled. The duo has been spotted with each others family. Nick even visited India some time ago and was seen hanging out with PCs family. They have been spotted walking hand-in-hand at several occasions and their mushy-gushy posts and comments on Instagram for each other has made it almost clear that something is happening between them for sure.

Priyanka Chopra unexpectedly opted out of Salman Khan starrer Bharat and the grapevine suggested the reason behind this is her marriage with Nick, which is on cards. Not only Indian, but even the people in the west are wondering whats happening.

Now, adding fuel to the fire, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra were recently spotted at a night club together. In the video going viral, they can be seen cozying up. Did he plant a kiss on her cheek? Or did he just whispered something into her ears?

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas Jonas spotted at Lavo last night in Singapore!  pic.twitter.com/PXnFRcl8Kt  Priyanka Malaysia FC (@Priyanka0nline) August 5, 2018

This PDA suggests that they are dating, right? Are they seriously in love? Or this is being blown out of proportion? What are your views? Tell us in the comments section below. Meanwhile, it is also being said that a duo will do a song together. Now that's something, right?
A 32-year-old man was allegedly set on fire by two men in Sapoha village in Mathura, on Friday, after he refused to share a packet of gutkha with them. However, police have not ruled out possibilities of the victim indulging in an act of self-immolation.

According to victims brother, Vishambhar, Pardesi (who goes by his first name) went to buy something at a general store, where the two men, Raju and Rahul Thakur allegedly attacked him, when he refused to share gutkha with them.

They allegedly poured kerosene over him and set him on fire.

On seeing the flames, locals gathered there and immediately took him to the hospital. The victim sustained 20 per cent burns on the lower part of his body and is undergoing treatment at a district hospital in Mathura.

Station house officer, Highway police station Mathura, Udaiveer said that a case has been registered under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC as well as sections of SC/ST Act against the accused, who are from the same village. However, no arrests have been arrested so far, said the police officer, adding that further investigations are on.

TOI

According to police, preliminary investigations revealed that Pardesi poured kerosene on himself and lit the fire after Rahul slapped him following the altercation between them over the packet of Gutkha.

It is alleged that Pardesi immediately went to his house and poured kerosene over his body and came to a nearby halwai shop and set himself afire.
Had he quietly kept back the bag filled with gold, diamonds and cash, which he found in his rickshaw, he could have had a far better life than what he led in his shanty and hoped for proper treatment for his ailing son. But his honesty far superseded the "easy but deceitful way out".

Mantu Saha (54), a rickshaw-puller in Howrah, returned a bag filled with diamond and gold jewellery, worth Rs 2.98 lakh, and Rs 60,000 in cash to a commuter, who left it behind when she alighted near her Liluah home on Friday evening.

Overwhelmed by his honesty, Rukmini Devi (58), a Dubai resident, gifted Mantu Rs 10,000 and promised to fulfil his request to buy an auto or Toto by sending him a cheque on her return to Dubai.

toi

After visiting a relative near Howrah's Bajrang Bali Market on Friday afternoon, Rukmini had bought the ornaments from a shop in the area.

Thereafter, she took Mantu's rickshaw to her home at Liluah. She realized she had left the bag behind only after entering her flat. She immediately rushed to the Belur police stationand lodged a missing diary.

Mantu, meanwhile, had returned to his home at a slum near Belur Simultala Ghat and he noticed the bag on the seat. He went inside his shanty, which has a mud floor and tally roof with a tarpaulin sheet covering the broken part, and showed the contents to his wife, Anu.

reuters/representational image

Without wasting time, the couple decided to visit the Belur police station together and deposit the bag there. Mantu and Anu have two sons and two daughters. One of the sons has an ailment which Mantu couldn't explain but said the boy needed blood transfusion.

After the couple arrived at the police station, Belur OC Swapan Saha called Rukmini back. Finding the contents intact, Rukmini was so impressed with Mantu's honesty that she immediately gave him Rs 10,000.

Thanking him over and over again, she asked him what else she could do for him, when Mantu said if he could drive an auto or an e-rickshaw, it would financially uplift him and his family. Rukmini, who was slated for her return-flight to Dubai on Saturday morning, promised Mantu to send him a cheque through the OC so that he could buy the vehicle.
People around the world have attempted the kiki challenge which involves dancing alongside it to Drakes hit In My Feelings but its two Telangana farmers whove won over the internet.

The video showing Geela Anil Kumar (24) and Pilli Thirupathi (28) dancing with gay abandon as they plough a rice field with bullocks has attracted more than 16 million views.

Not only that, comedian and Daily Show host Trevor Noah has posted the video on his Instagram page, declaring them winners of the keke (or kiki depending on who you ask) challenge. It has also been posted by Bollywood celebrities like Vivek Oberoi.

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Geela Anils old parents, Nirmala and Malleshan, who work as farm labourers, are quite surprised by how their sons stardom has gone beyond Lambadipally village.

Theyve never used the internet and have no clue about social media. It took some time explaining to them how we were suddenly so popular and why they were getting that many calls from friends and relatives, says Anil, who farms, teaches and acts in videos about village life.

Another cute turn to this charmingtale is Thirupathi naming his newborn son Keke. My little boy turned 21 days today, when the video went viral. So weve started calling him Keke, says Thirupathi.

facebook

The video, shot on August 1, was uploaded by movie director Sriram Srikanth on his local YouTube channel My Village Show. He says got interested in the challenge when he saw a message from police not to indulge in it since it involved dancing alongside a moving vehicle.

So I went online and was amazed at the number of people dancing to Drakes song. Id never heard that song or that artist before. But we loved it, he says.

He discussed the idea with Anil and Thirupathi. We wanted to do something safe and yet fun, says Srikanth. Despite the duo practising some of the steps prior to the video shooting, some of the best moments in the video occur unscripted.

facebook

We were shooting, and the guys were dancing, when suddenly the bullocks stopped. Anil, without missing a beat, went on to prod them to continue and danced like never before. We got lucky I guess, says Srikanth.

How did they decide on bullocks as props for the video? Well, ours is a small village where farming is the main occupation. Seemed ideal, chuckles Srikanth.

Local TV channels and a few producers have expressed interest online in hiring the two talented youngsters.
On June 29, 2017, Alimuddin alias Asgar Ansari was lynched to death by an infuriated mob in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand based on suspicions that he was carrying beef. More than one year after his lynching, his family is running from pillar to post to get his death certificate.

The police are yet to submit a report to establish the spot of his death due to which the family is struggling to get his death certificate.

Alimuddins son Shahjad Ansari, in his early 20s, told The Sunday Express, We have been running around  to the police station, the office of the Sub-Divisional Officer, the office of the Deputy Commissioner and also RIMS (Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences) in Ranchi. My father had some savings in insurance schemes. We need money for our sisters wedding, but we can claim the insurance money only if we have a death certificate.

Alimuddins case was the first in which a fast track court convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 out of the 12 accused. In June this year, nine of them got bail from the Jharkhand High Court.

Controversy erupted when Union Minister Jayant Sinha greeted and honoured the accused recently.
In Palo Alto and San Francisco, demonstrators joined a national call-to-action by Movimiento Cosecha, a movement working for the protection of undocumented persons. The campaign #NoBusinessWithICE targeted institutions that have contracts with ICE and profit from family separation.On July 31, protesters demonstrated in front of Palantir in downtown Palo Alto. Palantir runs a data program called Investigative Case Management that allows immigration agents to access a vast ecosystem of data that helps them find their targets and form cases against them. Demonstrators demanded that CEO Alex Karp cancel the companys contract with ICE.From July 29 to 31, a flurry of immigrant solidarity activities during a 48-hour vigil at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in San Francisco reaffirmed the goals of the ICE occupation that was held there for one week before it was raided by the San Francisco Police Department on July 9.In the East Bay, ICE contractor Palantir will be present on UC Berkeley campus on August 31 to recruit potential future employees.
Burma This Week in Parliament (July 30-August 3)

Central Bank of Myanmar Governor U Kyaw Kyaw Maung / Central Bank of Myanmar Facebook.

Monday (July 30)

In the Lower House, lawmaker U Nay Myo Htet of Kyauktada Township asked about the Construction Ministrys plan to build an inner ring-road in Yangon to ease the citys traffic woes.

Deputy Construction Minister U Kyaw Lin said that construction of the Yangon Elevated Expressway project would begin next year and should be completed within three years.

Tuesday (July 31)

The Union Parliament approved the re-appointment of U Kyaw Kyaw Maung to serve another five-year term as the chief of the Central Bank of Myanmar. President U Win Myint submitted U Kyaw Kyaw Maungs nomination to the Parliament last week.

Members of the business community and some lawmakers expressed disappointment with the Parliaments approval of another term for U Kyaw Kyaw Maung, 79, one of the senior-most officials from the former military juntas regime still serving in the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government.

Wednesday (Aug. 1)

Lower House Speaker U T Khun Myat took over the position of Union Parliament Speaker from Upper House Speaker Mhan Win Khaing Than. According to the Constitution, the two speakers serve as the head of the bicameral parliament for alternate two-and-half year terms.

Thursday (Aug.2)

U Soe Thein, a Karenni State lawmaker who served as Presidents Office minister in U Thein Seins administration, called on officials of the NLD-led government and members of the legislature to disclose their financial assets.

The lawmaker asked the government if it would proceed with its predecessors plan to join the Open Government Partnership. State Counselors Office Deputy Minister U Khin Maung Tin responded that the plan would not proceed as the previous government had abolished the relevant committees on March 29, 2016, before the transfer of power.

Mrauk-U Township lawmaker U Oo Hla Saw asked the Information Ministry if it has a plan to open an ethnic journalism college. Deputy Information Minister U Aung Hla Tun replied that the Education Ministry and Ethnic Affairs Ministry should take the lead role in establishing such a college and the Information Ministry would provide necessary assistance.

Friday (Aug.3)

In the Lower House, lawmakers debated the proposal of Maubin Township lawmaker U Sein Win urging the government to prohibit the export of cows and buffaloes used in farming as the country has still yet to mechanize agricultural production. The Lower House decided to put his proposal on record.
If you want to build and maintain Google-scale websites, Googles free e-book may be right for you.

Googles Site Reliability Engineering book is about the principles of Site Reliability Engineering, otherwise known as SRE, and which Andi Mann, chief technology advocate for Splunk, described as giving IT operations its mojo back.

SRE is a discipline incorporating aspects of software engineering, applying it to IT operations problems. The main goals are to create ultra-scalable and highly-reliable software systems.

It arose out of Google's own need to find ways to manage large-scale systems and at the same time introduce new features continuously, all the while maintaining a high-quality end-user experience.

The result is SRE and is now practised within Google by 1500 dedicated engineers. Other large-scale companies that have adopted Google's processes include Microsoft, Apple, ServiceNow, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, Amazon, Oracle, IBM and GitHub.

The SRE book can be read free online, or purchased as a physical book, while the free e-book deal is for Googles brand new companion book, The Site Reliability Workbook, and which can be downloaded as a complete ebook at no charge until 23 August.

The SRE book is about the principles of SRE, while the workbook will help organisations implement SRE.

It is the hands-on companion, using concrete examples to show how to put SRE principles and practices to work. This book contains practical examples from Googles experiences and case studies from Googles Cloud Platform customers. Evernote, The Home Depot, The New York Times, and other companies outline hard-won experiences of what worked for them and what didnt.

You can find it for free here.
The union representing Telstra workers claims the telco is forcing those who will not be affected by the sackings announced in June, as part of its new strategy known as Telstra2022, to take a cut in their take-home pay.

Telstra said at the time that it would cut a net total of 8000 jobs, with 9500 to go and 1500 new workers to be hired. On 20 July, the company announced it had sacked four top managers, and made other changes in order to implement the new strategy.

The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union said in a statement on Monday that the company had walked away from talks with unions, after guaranteeing no wage increase for one portion of its workforce, and only 1.5% for the other.

Those who are classified as Job Family employees have been offered a 1.5% increase in their overall pay pool, leaving any rises to be decided by local management.

The CEPU said for Workstream employees a 1.5 per cent wage increase was below the current annual cost of living increase of 2% and also well behind the average wage rise of 2.7%.

CEPU national president Shane Murphy accused Telstra management of showing "shocking disrespect" to its workers, who, he claimed, were already feeling the trauma that would accompany the massive jobs cull.

Telstra workers are doing it incredibly tough at the moment. The company has just announced the biggest job purge in Australian corporate history since Ansetts collapse and now to add insult to injury, workers are being asked to take a pay cut,  Murphy said.

Telstra had gone directly to its employees seeking their endorsement in a ballot which opens on Monday.

The company is seeking to exploit the current climate of insecurity and upheaval to slip through an absolutely insulting wage deal," Murphy added, recommending that the workers vote against the company's wage proposals.

This is precisely the sort of wages agreement Australia doesnt need right now, he said.

Telstra chief executive Andy Penn is completely out of touch with reality. He clearly has no concept of what life for your average worker, who is just trying to pay their bills and get by, is like.

The current management team at Telstra are completely gutting a company that was once one of Australias most trusted and respected brands.

Telstra customers should be incredibly worried about the way the current management team is tearing the telecommunications company apart. Its impossible to see how customer service wont suffer as result of these moves.

Telstra has been contacted for comment. The company's response is here.
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Washington, DC (Foreign Policy in Focus)  Division in the ranks of the conservative movement is a critical sign that a war with Iran isnt inevitable.

Tucker Carlson has impeccable conservative credentials.

He started out as a low-level staffer at the Heritage Foundation and now he hosts a popular show on Fox News. In between were stints at The Weekly Standard and the on-line publication he co-founded, The Daily Caller. His often contentious prime-time show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, which now occupies Bill OReillys former slot at Fox, is third in the cable news ratings war behind Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow.

When Tucker talks, the president listens.

Carlson believes that Donald Trump has been, on balance, a long overdue wake-up call for the Republican Party and an assault weapon that can be used against Americas misguided ruling elite. Shocking, vulgar, and right, is how he described Trump in a Politico article back in January 2016.

Since Trump entered the White House, Carlson has occasionally disagreed with the president, but usually for not being sufficiently tough and reactionary, for instance on immigration.

I think President Trump is interesting, and I agree broadly with his agenda, he recently told the Heritage publication The Daily Signal.

Thats why his commentary last week on Iran is so important.

Carlson initially supported the Iraq War but then became disenchanted about a year later, along with many others whod ordered a cakewalk and received a quagmire instead. Now Carlson is warning Trump not to go down the same road as George W. Bush.

If theres one thing that Washington loves more than open borders and fat lobbying contracts, its pointless wars half a world away. Contractors get rich. Neocon intellectuals feel powerful. Bill Kristol, Max Boot, and Nancy Pelosi agree on one thing: War is good as long as the war does not help the United States.  We are moving toward, however slowly, some kind of confrontation with Iran. And that should worry everybody, but it should especially be of concern to anyone who supported the president. If President Trump decides to go to war with Iran, it will destroy his presidency just as the Iraq War destroyed the presidency of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

Things must be getting pretty hairy if a top Fox News pundit feels that he has to talk the president down from the ledge.

Perhaps Carlson has good reason to be freaked out. In the last 10 days, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a rah-rah rant in favor of regime change in Iran. The president issued an all-caps tweet threatening Tehran with consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. And Australian government officials told the press that the Trump administration is prepared to start bombing Iranian nuclear facilities as early as this month.

But, as always, the Trump administration has been aflutter with mixed messages. Pentagon chief James Mattis, for instance, categorically denied the Australian reports. Then, on Monday, the president himself announced that he was willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with no preconditions anytime they want.

As if this werent inconsistent enough, even as Trump was talking about a meeting without preconditions, Pompeo was directly contradicting his boss:

If the Iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their malign behavior, can agree that its worthwhile to enter into a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation, then the president said hes prepared to sit down and have the conversation with them.

Since Iran already entered into a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation and since the government (like all governments) thinks it treats its people fine and dandy and behaves properly toward all other countries, Pompeos very obvious preconditions are not likely to go down well in Tehran.

The question remains: How likely is a war between the United States and Iran?

The War Before the War

First of all, this is not a repeat of the Venezuela situation in which a hotheaded president had to be disabused of his plan to invade a country by his more circumspect advisors. Nor is it a North Korea situation in which the president ignores his advisors in order to take a bold leap into the unknown. Its not even a Cuba situation in which the president has rolled back the previous administrations initiatives but otherwise largely ignored the country.

Instead, the likelihood of a conflict breaking out with Iran depends in large part on another war: the war before the war.

This other Iran war has divided the conservative world into two parts. In one corner are the rabid Iranophobes, the Benjamin Netanyahu fan club, the hawks who never met a war they didnt like, the neocons who cling to a dream of regime change and nation-building throughout the Middle East, and the fanatics who believe that intervening in a longstanding conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran on the side of the former will (improbably) be a net plus for U.S. national interests.

There is considerable overlap among these groups.

For instance, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton have been pushing for war with Iran for years. Theyre joined by congressional hawks like Tom Cotton (R-AR) and John McCain (R-AZ). Likudniks like Republican Party donor Sheldon Adelson adhere closely to the Israeli right-wings agenda and its even more belligerent approach to Iran. Neocon think tanks like the Foundation for Defense of Democracies  with Mark Dubowitz and Richard Goldberg  have been vigorously supporting the war option. And then, of course, there are all those  from Rudy Giuliani to John Bolton  who have been handsomely compensated for talks given to the fanatical, cult-like Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian exile organization dedicated to regime change and with little to no support within Iran itself.

In the other corner are the cautious conservatives. They include once-bitten-twice-shy Iraq War supporters, a handful of never-Trumpers, some libertarians, a scattering of pugnacious isolationists, and a few realists who rightly calculate that a war against Iran would be devastating for long-term U.S. interests.

So, for instance, this camp includes newly cautious pundits like Max Boot, who thought bombing Iran was a good idea back in 2011 but now thinks that it could spin out of control. Libertarians like Rand Paul (R-KY) supported the nuclear deal with Iran and opposed the appointment of Pompeo to secretary of state largely because of his simmering desire for war with Tehran. The isolationist Patrick Buchanan also opposes the war, arguing that Bibi Netanyahu, with due respect, wants the United States to fight a war with Iran on Israels behalf.

Not everyone fits neatly into these pro-war and anti-war camps. For instance, some like Michael Gerson would prefer that the Iranians, with U.S. help, accomplish regime change by themselves.

This conflict within conservative circles occasionally breaks into the open, like when Tucker Carlson issued his warning last week. But even here, Carlson wasnt accurately describing the protagonists. Two of the three abovementioned objects of his ire  Max Boot and Nancy Pelosi  show no interest in a war with Iran. Indeed, Pelosi opposed the Iraq War when Carlson supported it, so his disingenuousness is quite appalling.

Later in his monologue, Carlson zeroed in on the real cheerleaders for war: Bolton, Pompeo, and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. This triumvirate is doing what it can to bait Iran into doing something reckless. Theyre thrilled that hardliners like Revolutionary Guard Major General Qasem Soleimani have responded tit for Trumps tat: If you begin the war, we will end the war. You know that this war will destroy all that you possess. In both countries, the escalating rhetoric marginalizes the moderates.

Who Will Win?

But the real question: Who will win the war before the war?

Division in the ranks of the conservative movement is a critical sign that a war with Iran is not inevitable. To prevent such a war, non-intervention advocates have to win this other Iran war first.

After all, its not likely that Donald Trump is actually going to sit down with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and work out another nuclear deal. Nor is it likely that the Trump administration will simply decide to ignore Iran and focus on other issues.

In the meantime, there are far too many ways for war to break out  after a naval clash in the Persian Gulf, because of an altercation between Israel and Iranian forces in Syria, as a result of a direct Saudi provocation, or simply because Trump gets it in his head that a war with Iran will boost his partys sagging political fortunes ahead of the mid-term elections in November.

When it comes to influencing Trump or restraining the warmongering triumvirate whispering in his ear, Im guessing that Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party and the progressive anti-war movement arent going to do the trick.

Hey Tucker, want to be the president of the No War in Iran Coalition?

Via Foreign Policy in Focus

Featured Photo via Wikipedia.
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BETHLEHEM (Maan)  Swedish solidarity activist Divina Levrini, one of many international activists who were attacked and detained by Israeli forces aboard the Freedom Flotilla ships last week, talked to Maan on the Israeli treatment of international activists inside the Israeli Givon (al-Ramla) prisons.

The international activists were deported to their home countries after two days of being held in detention.

Levrini told Maan that the ship on 42 nautical miles on international waters when they ship was boarded by the Israeli navy; they had talked to our radio operator, who repeatedly told them that we were on international waters and had no intention to cross the border to Israel. That it is a right according to international law to travel on international waters.

The tasered many of the peace activists. Some got tasered in both head and neck, which could be deadly, Levrini said.

Our captain got a death threat and I witnessed him get brutally beaten up by a soldier. Many, including myself got beaten. Some were thrown down a ramp and could have broken their necks. One got injured on his foot and there was a lot of blood. He also was beaten on his chest and stomach.

Following their detention by Israeli forces that boarded their ship, the activists were taken to the Ashdod military camp where they were interrogated on the reasons they were illegally trying to go to Israel.

Levrini said that the activists refused to say anything before speaking to their lawyers.

We were strip searched several times and all of our belongings were stolen, Levrini told Maan, After a while, they pushed me outside and I found all of our clothes, bags and stuff on the ground. Clothes were torn out from the bags and everything was mixed up. I was pushed by a soldier while others stood by and laughed as I was yelled at to collect my belongings and I got 20 seconds to take what was mine. I found two empty bags and my guitar, maybe some t-shirt or other clothing I dont remember because I am still traumatized about it all.

Levrini added that activists were tortured in different ways while at the Givon prison; we were six women in one dirty cell with a hole in the ground.

The Swedish activist said that Israeli prison guards would come in and yell every one or two hours and beat on the walls with batons.

The mind games were really awful. They could give me cigarettes but no lighter. They said that I can use the payphones outside whenever I want but would not give me my money to use them.

Levrini said that activists were separated from each other at some point after they protested when one of the activists, identified by Levrini as Larry, asked for a doctor as he was injured in the foot.

One thing was sure, and that was that when they said something, 9 times of 10 they were lying.

Levrini said that Israeli forces hit one of her activist friends, a 75-year-old woman who had had a hip replacement surgery four months ago.

They did not really beat us any time before or after that in jail so we thought that they are so used to beating Palestinians that they forgot our embassies were ready to act if something like that would happen.

The activists asked for a doctor afterwards to check on the woman, the Israelis then had certain conditions which activists refused and were then told that they could not see the doctor if they do not agree to the conditions.

She added that they were able to see the doctor several hours later but were put in a small outdoor cell in gassing hot son and hard benched (where) she couldnt sit.

Levrini said that after waiting for hours before finally seeing the doctor, the doctor told them in perfect English that he does not understand English; she had to Explain in Hebrew, she got no help.

Levrini was deprived of her important medications for 36 hours. She then received half a dose of her most important medicine after her embassy intervened; the embassy yelled at a guard to give me my medicines and he said that I would get an appointment with the doctor, but he told me in perfect English that he doesnt understand English and I have to speak Arabic.

Israeli forces confiscated the activists driving licenses, medicines, phones, money and credit cards; most of our luggage is gone. I came home with only a small bag with random clothes I found. I was at sea for two-and-a-half months, so I had much more with me.

Levrini along with several other activists who were detained by Israeli forces began a hunger strike inside the Israeli prison until they received information that other activists, who were deported earlier than them, had safely arrived to their countries.

Levrini said that most of the peace activists did not know that they were being deported until minutes before they were.

On the activists message to the world, Levrini said that their mission was never about us or the treatment by the government in Israel; what the Palestinians go through is much worse.

She pointed out that Israeli forces also confiscated a cargo full of medical supplies and the four ships they were aboard, which were meant to be a gift for Gazans; of course there are two million souls living in Gaza and we only had four ships, but the symbolic act is important because the fishermen are shot in their own waters and the much needed medical supplies never reaches Gaza.

There is a genocide going on by an apartheid regime and the world must act, even if it happens in small acts like these.

Levrini said that it was and has always been about raising awareness, making politicians act and making sure that the Palestinians know that we will never forget them. The ships will continue to sail until Gaza is free.

Via Maan News Agency

Featured Photo: Swedish activist Divina Levrini.
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David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan OConnell at WaPo have revealed that the declining revenues at Trumps hotel in New York City were turned around in the first quarter of 2018, with a 13% bump produced by the stay there of a Saudi retinue in connection with the visit to the US of Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman.

The crown prince himself did not stay at the Trump property, since it did not have any rooms big or luxurious enough for him, but he parked his retinue there. Hmm. So he did not stay there. He stayed somewhere else, and surely it would have been more convenient to have his hangers-on in the same hotel where he was staying. But no, they were sent over to the Trump towers. Could that move have been, like, I dont know . . . AN EMOLUMENT?

The Constitution says,

[N]o Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them [i.e., the United States], 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.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates really wanted Trump to violate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and to enable them to take on Iran. Somehow they got their wish.

WaPo says that the Saudi government also dropped $270,000 on Trumps hotel in Washington DC last year. One of the items they paid for was food and parking for American veterans groups whom the Saudis had brought to DC to lobby against a bill in Congress that the Saudis were against.

People who argue that the Saudis arent bribing Trump because their activities were anyway not political are not paying attention.

Eric Trump lashed out at Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post for the story, accusing Bezos of hatred for, and willingness to disparage, the Trump family.

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, too, has opened an investigation into whether Trump is in violation of the constitutions Emoluments Clause (which forbids a sitting president from accepting gifts from abroad).

Earlier, the AGs in Virginia and Maryland had filed suit over the Washington, DC, Trump hotel and emoluments, since foreign dignitaries are accused of staying there or holding receptions there as a way of currying favor with Trump. US District Judge Peter Mesitte of the District of Maryland declined to dismiss the suit, which signals that he thinks Trump may well have violated the constitutional ban on accepting any gifts from foreign rulers.
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Tehran (AFP)  Iranian protesters have attacked a religious school in Karaj province near Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported Saturday, as sporadic protests simmered ahead of the reimposition of US sanctions.

Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the major cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over water, the economy and wider anger at the political system.

During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing protesters.

At 9:00 pm (1630 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things, Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying, giving only his clerical rank and no first name.

They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested, Hindiani said.

Fars acknowledged protests have taken place in five or six cities since Tuesday over water shortages, rising prices and joblessness, with about 1,000 or 2,000 people taking part.

But it said these peaceful protests were taken over by people who come into the crowd with political slogans such as Death to the dictator'.



AFP / Simon MALFATTO. Key economic statistics about Iran.

It said this was part of a pre-planned plot by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia to exploit economic tensions inside Iran.

Because foreign media are barred from observing unauthorised protests, it has been impossible to verify any of these claims or the videos of protests spreading on social media.

 Clerical opposition 

With tensions high ahead of the return of US sanctions on Tuesday, the government of President Hassan Rouhani also faces opposition from conservatives and religious leaders, who have long disliked his outreach to the West and accuse him of governing only for the rich.

The conservative Qom News published a video of a protest in the holy city of Mashhad after Friday prayers, in which a cleric tells the crowd: Most of your representatives dont care about peoples problems.

Most have two passports and their families are abroad. The judiciary should find these people and arrest them, the cleric says, to chants of Allahu akbar (God is greater) from the crowd.

Former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has fallen out with the conservative establishment since leaving office in 2013, has tried to ride this wave of anger.

In a Wednesday Twitter post, he called on US President Donald Trump to release a list of relatives of Iranian government officials that have green cards and bank accounts in the United States, if such a record exists.

 Sanctions return 

So far, social media reports suggest the current protests are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities.



AFP/File / ATTA KENARE. A man withdraws Iranian Rial notes in the capital Tehran on July 31, 2018.

There were allegations at the time that they had been sparked by conservative opponents of Rouhani in Mashhad before quickly spiralling out of hand.

But all Iranians are concerned about the struggling economy, especially since the United States walked out of the nuclear deal in May and announced it would reimpose full sanctions in two stages.

The first phase hits on Tuesday with blocks on financial transactions and imports of raw materials, as well as sanctions on Irans automotive sector and commercial aircraft purchases.

Iran Air announced it would take delivery of five ATR aircraft from the French-Italian firm on Sunday, sneaking under the wire before the sanctions return.

Iran says the sanctions are endangering lives by blocking the sale of new planes and spare parts for its ageing fleets.

Irans Aseman Airlines was ordered to ground its fleet of ATR planes in February after one of them crashed in the Zagros mountains, killing all 66 people onboard.

Remaining sanctions  including on Irans oil and gas sector and central bank  will resume on November 5.

Although smaller foreign firms have vowed to work around the US measures, multinationals such as Frances Total and Peugeot, and Germanys Siemens have already said they will have to pull out.



Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency/AFP/File / HO. Iranian MPs burn an American flag on May 9, 2018, after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord. Picture provided by the Iranian Parliament.

It is not yet clear how all this will affect ordinary Iranians, but a European diplomat in Tehran who monitors the economy said prices of basic foods were already creeping up.

She said the collapse in the rial, which has lost more than half its value since April, was driven by people rushing to secure their savings in dollars because they lack faith in the government.

There is a massive loss of confidence in the financial system and the governments ability to control things and withstand sanctions, she told AFP.

NASIM NEWS AGENCY/AFP /  A cleric speaks to protesters in the holy city of Mashhad on August 3, 2018, from a video by Nasim News Agency.
Ten years ago, in August 2008, Russia and Georgia went to war over South Ossetia, a small separatist Georgian region which Moscow would later controversially recognise as independent, in the face of international criticism.

Here is a recap of the five-day war in South Ossetia, a territory of 50,000 people which remains one of several sticking points in Russias ties with the West.

 Build up to war 

In April 2008 Russia angers Georgia by announcing it is bolstering ties with its rebel provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are on the Russian border.

Tensions rise as Georgia accuses Russia of seeking to annex the provinces, which account for around one-fifth of its territory.

Moscow is meanwhile annoyed by Tbilisis ambitions to join NATO and the European Union.

There are clashes in South Ossetia on an almost daily basis; Tbilisi and South Ossetian separatist forces are blamed but both deny responsibility.

 Russian troops enter Georgia 

Overnight on August 7-8 the Georgian army launches an offensive to retake control of South Ossetia, bombarding the regional capital, Tskhinvali.

Russia immediately riposts.

On the morning of August 8, Russian tanks, light armoured vehicles and personnel carriers sweep into South Ossetia en masse.

The aim is, according to Russia, to defend its citizens, the great majority of Ossetians holding a Russian passport.

The Russians bombard Georgian positions around Tskhinvali and also the town of Gori in Georgia.

By August 10 Tskhinvali is under Russian army control. Georgia announces a withdrawal of its forces from South Ossetia and a ceasefire.

A day later, Russia bombards Gori, the Black Sea port of Poti and the suburbs of Tbilisi. Georgia says most of its territory is occupied.

Images of triumphant Russian troops in the gun-turrets of their tanks or waving flags on Georgian soil are beamed around the world.

The lightning conflict claimed 800 lives, according to official tolls from the various sides, with more than 120,000 fleeing their homes.

Human Rights Watch says in 2009 that South Ossetian forces deliberately and systematically destroyed ethnic Georgian villages.

A 2009 report by an EU fact-finding mission alleges ethnic cleansing against Georgians.

 Europeans weigh in 

European nations, unanimous in wanting to extinguish the flames in the Caucasus region, condemn the Russian intervention while keeping their distance from Tbilisis own offensive.

On August 12 the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, negotiates a ceasefire on behalf of the European Union.

It involves the return of Georgian troops to their barracks and Russian troops to positions they held before the conflict.

The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, signs on August 15 and Russias Dmitry Medvedev a day later.

 Disputed recognition 

On August 26 Russia recognises the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the first among only a handful of countries to do so.

Saakashvili slams the first attempt since World War II to change the borders of Europe by force.

The United States and other Western countries also condemn Russia.

On August 29 Tbilisi severs its diplomatic ties with Moscow.

In October Russian troops wind up their pullout from Georgia but remain in the separatist regions, maintaining thousands of soldiers and lending financial support.

The EU sends a civilian ceasefire monitoring mission.

 War crimes probe 

In mid-2015 NATO opens a training centre outside the Georgian capital, at Krtsanisi, a move Russia slams as provocative.

And in early 2016 the International Criminal Court (ICC) opens an ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by all sides during the conflict.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was headed Sunday into a crucial week, with President Joseph Kabila set to declare whether he will run again in elections as one key challenger returned home and another was banned.

The DRC was thrown into a crisis nearly two years ago when Kabila refused to step down.

And it has been further roiled by the return of former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, freshly acquitted of war-crimes convictions in The Hague, who flew back to Kinshasa for a brief visit to lodge his candidacy for the December 23 elections. He is due to head back to Europe this week.

Another key rival is Moise Katumbi, a powerful former governor of mineral-rich Katanga province  who has been living in self-imposed exile after falling out with Kabila.

But his supporters are incensed after authorities twice barred him from returning, and said he could be arrested if he sets foot in the country.

Katumbi tried to come back, no-one can criticise him for doing what he needed to do, we are now waiting to see what happens on Wednesday, said a diplomatic source in Kinshasa who doesnt believe Kabila will reveal his plans by the set deadline.

Katumbi is seen as the main challenger because he is from the east of the country, like Kabila, and can galvanise support there, said Georges Kapiamba, human rights lawyer and president of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice.

He said the 53-year-old would likely join forces with another major political player, Felix Tshisekedi, 55  an alliance that would pose a hefty threat to Kabila or his chosen successor.

The DRC is one of the worlds most volatile countries and worries about the elections run deep, with many observers fearing it could spiral once more into bloodshed.

The vast country has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

In the space of one generation, it was gripped by two wars that sucked in countries from around the region.

Many provinces are already in the grip of armed conflict and millions have had to flee their homes, many flocking to Uganda, Tanzania, Angola and Zambia.

A regional summit has been scheduled for mid-August, and the DRC elections are likely to dominate the agenda.

Last month, the UNs High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, warned of numerous violations of human rights norms and principles in the DRC, raising serious doubts about the credibility of the countrys long-delayed elections.

The level of anxiety today is the worst in 20 years, said the head of a political NGO who has lived in the DRC for two decades.

 Kabila fears 

Kabila, who took the helm in 2001 from his assassinated father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, was meant to step down at the end of 2016 at the end of his second mandate.

But he has stayed in office, invoking a constitutional clause to stay in power until a successor is elected, and provoking protests that have been suppressed with deadly fire.

As Wednesdays midnight deadline looms, there are growing fears Kabila, 47, could claim he has only completed one term under a revised constitution and run again.

To do so would heighten the risk of large-scale violence and instability, with potentially devastating consequences across the region, said Ida Sawyer, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

But Congolese political analyst Jean-Claude Mputu said it was still possible he could choose a successor. He knows his (own) candidacy would be the end of a seemingly legitimate electoral process.

The international community, in particular the United States, has been calling on Kabila to step aside.

Kabila recently postponed a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres but this week made a visit to Angola, a country with which he is traditionally allied, to confer with President Joao Lourenco.

 Split opposition 

Whether it is Kabila or his hand-picked successor who runs, the opposition will have to unite as December approaches  a task that will require challengers to overcome policy or personal differences and rally their supporters to a compromise.

This election will be highly competitive, said Paul Fagan, director of the Human Rights and Democracy programs for the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University.

If there are several high-profile candidates like Jean-Pierre Bemba, Moise Katumbi, Felix Tshisekedi, Vital Kamerhe and Joseph Kabila, then that bodes well for Kabila or his chosen successor since its a winner-take-all situation. Several opposition candidates will split the vote.

In a recent poll conducted by CRG/BERCI, Katumbi and Tshisekedi tied at 19 percent of votes nationwide. Bemba polled at 17 percent and Kabila was at 9 percent.

Overshadowing the vote is a widespread distrust of the electoral process in a country where contested results have led to political deadlock or violence.

Nearly two-thirds of voters  62 percent  do not trust the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) to conduct free and fair elections.

There are also significant logistical and security challenges with organising the elections.

But theres little MONUSCO can do in this situation except refuse to participate in electoral preparations, which would be a last-ditch option, said Fagan, referring to the worlds largest UN peacekeeping operation.

Registration by August 8 is only the first step for presidential hopefuls.

CENI will then have to validate each candidate, before a definitive list is scheduled to be published on September 19.
A Kurdish-Arab coalition in Syria on Sunday denied a Human Rights Watch report that it was recruiting children from displacement camps in the countrys northeast in violation of international law.

Thousands of people live in camps scattered across parts of Syria held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed coalition that has played a key role in the fight against the Islamic State group.

The Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), which forms the backbone of the SDF, has used child soldiers in the past, according to the United Nations, HRW and other rights groups.

In a report published Friday, the New York-based watchdog again accused the YPG of recruiting minors.

The SDFs political arm vowed to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for individual cases.

We are against the recruitment of children under any pretext, said the Syrian Democratic Council.

What was mentioned in HRWs press release is only irresponsible individual abuse, which does not represent the overall method or strategy of the Syrian Democratic Council.

It said it would study the allegations, return any child recruits to their families and hold accountable those responsible for these abuses.

International law prohibits non-state armed factions from recruiting anyone under the age of 18, and enlisting children under 15 is a war crime.

HRW spoke to eight families in three displacement camps in northeastern Syria who said Kurdish militiamen and security forces had encouraged their children to enlist.

The youngest among them was a 13-year-old girl.

We are poor, so they told my daughter they would give her money and clothes, her mother told HRW. She objected, but her daughter enlisted in the forces and had not been heard from for around a month.

The YPG and the broader SDF coalition have seized large parts of northern Syria from IS after years of fierce fighting that displaced thousands of people.

A YPG-linked political administration runs much of northern Syria with a system that is autonomous from Damascus, complete with its own schools and tax system.

Kurdish authorities also enforce military conscription for those above 18 years of age in areas under their control.




Guwahati: Assam police have registered five cases against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for making provocative remarks regarding the Assam NRC issue in different police stations in the state.





According to the reports, one each case has been registered against the West Bengal Chief Minister at Geetanagar police station, Pan Bazar police station in Guwahati, Jagiroad police station in Morigaon district, North Lakhimpur police station in Lakhimpur district and Jorhat police station.





The Geetanagar police in Guwahati city had registered a case against the West Bengal Chief Minister and eight All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) MPs, MLAs after an Assam based organisation Assam Public Works lodged an FIR.





The Guwahati city police had registered a case (no - 286/18) under sections 20B, 153A and 198 of IPC at Geetanagar police station.





In the FIR copy lodged by Dhrubajyti Talukdar, General Secretary of Assam Public Works stated that, on 30/07/2018, at around 12-00 (Noon) Smti. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, organized a press meet wherein she made various statements regarding the publication of the draft NRC Her statements were widely published in various News Channels as well as other form of Media across the entire Country. Those statements were totally communal as she tried to colour the process of NRC in Assam with Bengali versus Assamese which is likely to cause breach of peace and tranquility amongst the two communities residing in Assam as well as threat to the life and liberty of Assamese people residing in West Bengal.





Further those statements of Smti. Mamata Banerjee, has created a tense situation and is on the verge of breaking some communal riot amongst Assamese and Bengali people across the State and other parts of the country as well. To the utter surprise, yesterday an eight member delegates namely Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna Dey Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Firhad Hakim and Mahua Moitra landed in Silchar, who had no connection with the process of NRC in Assam, with an intension to aggravate the tense situation created by their party leader Smti. Mamata Banerjee. Despite there being Section 144 in exercise, all the aforesaid eight members created a chaos at the Kumbhirgram Air Port and injured three Police personals namely Champa Das, Partha Shil and Rubirani Das. From the act, conduct and statements of Smti. Mamata Banerjee along with Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna Dey Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Firhad Hakim and Mahua Moitra, being the MLAs, MPs and office bearers of the political party Trinamul Congress, they are attempting to start communal riot, feelings of enmity, hatred which is to be curbed immediately, stated in the FIR.





Abhijit Sarma, President of Assam Public Works said that, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tried to create a disturbance atmosphere over the NRC issue.





She said that, this NRC process is against the Bengalis, Hindus and Muslims. But the NRC process is going on to identify Indian and non-Indian. Yesterday we had filed a case at Geetanagar police station against Mamata Banerjee and few others, Abhijit Sarma said.





On the other hand, another case has been registered at Pan Bazar police station in Guwahati following an FIR lodged by a person named Pulin Sarma.





Pranjal Baruah, Officer-in-Charge of Pan Bazar police station said that, police had registered a case (no - 466/18) under sections 120B, 153A, 294, 298 and 506 of IPC.





One case has been registered at Jagiroad police station in Morigaon district and Officer-in-Charge Dijen Deka said that, a case (no - 288/18) has been registered under sections 121, 153A of IPC .





Earlier, Assam police had registered a case (no  832/2018) under sections 120B and 153A of IPC at the North Lakhimpur Sadar police station following following a complaint filed by Sudipta Hazarika, General Secretary of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Parishad (AJYP).





On the other hand, an Assam police constable Rubi Rani Das, who injured in a scuffle with the TMC delegation team at Silchars Kumbhirgram airport on August 2, has filed an FIR at Udharbond police station on Saturday against seven of the eight members delegation including 6 MPs and one MLA, barring West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim.





A case (no - 177/18) was registered at Udharbond police station under sections 353, 323 and 338 of IPC.








Guwahati : The Fourth Regional Consultation of North Eastern States and Sikkim on Effective Implementation of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 with focus on status of Integrated Child Protection Services was held on Saturday at the Assam Administrative Staff College, Guwahati.





The programme was organised by the Supreme Court Juvenile Justice Committeeand Gauhati High Court Juvenile Justice Committee in collaboration with State Child Protection Society, Assam, Social Welfare Department, Government of Assam and supported by UNICEF.





Justice Deepak Gupta, Judge, Supreme Court of India, while delivering the inaugural address, spoke on various initiatives to be undertaken to benefit the children.





He calls for an introspection to see what changes need to be done to ensure protection and care to children in the aftermath of recent incidents.





Justice Ajit Singh, Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court, in his address said that the consultation is focused on the integrated Child Protection Schemes so that protective environment for children could be preserved for

their protection in difficult circumstances.





Jishnu Barua, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Social Welfare, Government of Assam, also addressed the Consultation and reiterates on Integrated Child Protection Services.





He spoke on the active initiatives undertaken by the Assam Government for the well being and protection of children.





Dr. Tushar Rane, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF delivered the opening remarks. He highlighted the centrally sponsored schemes of ICPS rolled out by the Govt. of India which has proved to be widely beneficial in

provisioning of structure and services under the Juvenile Justice Act across all the states of the country.





The welcome address was delivered by Justice Arup Kumar Goswami, Judge-in-charge, Administrative Department (JAD), Gauhati High Court.





The key objectives of the consultation are to take stock of progress on key recommendations from round three, focus on implementation of ICPS and its support for effective implementation of JJ Act 2015- Programmatic and

Financial implementation as well as monitoring and review mechanisms and tomake the fourth round more effective and focus on taking stock on what hasbeen the actual progress since 2014.





Other dignitaries who attended the programme includes. Justice Madan B Lokur, Judge, Supreme Court of India, Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai, Acting Chief Justice and Chairperson JJ Act & Rule, High Court Sikkim, Justice N. Kotiswar Singh, Judge, Manipur High Court, Justice S. Talapatra, Judge, Tripura High Court, Stuti Kacker, Chairperson, NCPCR, Manoj Kumar, Director, MWCD,etc.




The family of an Irishman who disappeared almost 33 years ago has been told that DNA analysis has confirmed a match with a body that has remained unidentified in Wales since 1985.

The last sighting of Brendan Dowley was in October 1985 by his daughter who dropped him off at the bus station in Kilkenny city, where Mr Dowley was due to travel to Dublin and from there by ferry to Wales.

He never arrived home to London, and his whereabouts have remained a mystery for more than three decades.

The DNA comparison has provided a "one in a billion" match, confirming the body washed up on the Welsh coast in November 1985 is that of Brendan Dowley who disappeared three weeks earlier.

Mr Dowley, a father of four, was 63 years old when he was last seen boarding a bus in Kilkenny on 17 October 1985 for onward travel by ferry to Britain.

Last June, a body was exhumed at Menai Bridge Cemetery, close to Holyhead in north Wales, so that DNA samples could be taken and compared to the Dowley family.

The decomposed body had washed up on the Welsh coast on 9 November 1985.
This year's Famine 1848 Walk in Ballingarry attracted one of the largest attendances ever with Irish and international visitors.

The Walk was led by Waylon White Deer of the Choctaw First Nation in the United States to honour an extraordinary act of generosity by the Choctaws to the starving Irish during the Famine.

The Walk commemorates all those who suffered and died during the Great Famine and the 1848 Rising which took place during the Famine in Ballingarry. The Walk also bears witness to contemporary famines in the Third World.

The determination of the walkers on the Walk was striking. There had been heavy rain right up to the start of the Walk yet this did not put off the large attendance. Neither did a heavy shower of hailstones deter the walkers as they left the 1848 monument in The Commons village for the Famine Warhouse. Indeed for a moment as walkers took refuge from the hailstones the very elements hinted at the misery endured by the Irish during the Famine.

The national heritage site, Famine Warhouse 1848 was the location of the state national famine commemoration led by An Taoiseach last September. On reaching their destination, Walk Leader Waylon White Deer made a moving address. He spoke of the similarities between the experiences of the Irish and the Choctaws. The Choctaw tribe owned vast territories in the US but the government pushed them 600 miles to the west. They lost 25% of their population when they were forced to embark on this 'Trail of Tears' in the dead of winter.

Walkers after completing the Walk to the Famine Warhouse

Mr White Deer stated that the mass evictions of the Famine years paralleled the 'Trail of Tears' and the experiences of contemporary refugees. He called for a moment of silence to remember those who died during the Famine and those who fell at the Famine Warhouse.

This year is the 170th anniversary of the Famine Rising of 1848 and Mr White Deer noted the coincidence that it was 170 dollars which the Choctaws raised from their own scarce resources as a donation to be sent to the starving Irish. He commented that 'The Irish-Choctaw famine link transcends both the Irish and Choctaw peoples and speaks to a common humanity. This is how we regard one another when we are following our better angels. In its telling, this story of how one poor dispossessed people reached out in a remarkable moment to another poor, dispossessed people, becomes timeless.'

The organisers of the event, the voluntary Ballingarry 1848 Society, are endeavouring to have Famine Warhouse 1848 developed fully as a significant educational, heritage and tourist attraction mid-way between the Rock of Cashel and Kilkenny City.

The Society called on the government to make good its long made promise to renovate the final out-building as an Education Room in honour of the famine dead.

At the conclusion, the local band, the Mangled Badgers played the national anthem, and refreshments were served to all in the courtyard. Mr White Deer commented that 'the graciousness of the people who took part in the Walk will long stay with me'.
By Chang Se-moon





Andrei Lankov is director of the Korea Risk Group and a professor at Kookmin University in Korea. Professor Lankov is one of only a few scholars who know more about issues in North Korea than I do. When I was invited to his presentation in Washington, D.C., July 24, I immediately accepted the invitation.



His presentation was titled "Kim Jong-un's Survival Strategy, Why It Might Work," sponsored by two well-known organizations: the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) and the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEIA).



According to Lankov, Kim has two objectives. One is to "die in old age" while still in power, and the other is to develop the North Korean economy. However, he faces threats to his objectives from three sources:



The first threat is the possibility of being overthrown by the elite leaders in North Korea or through a military coup. To minimize such possibilities, Kim is replacing high-level military leaders rather frequently to keep them from building a power base that can revolt against him. Clearly, the danger of such a revolt has been rising lately owing to negotiations for denuclearization currently in progress.



The second threat comes from the possibility of a "popular uprising." To develop the North Korean economy while keeping its people from rising against him, Kim is forced to pursue "reform without openness." To reform the North Korean economy, Kim wants to follow the Chinese experience that may be characterized as "You are free so long as you do not criticize the government."



What Kim has to understand is that China has a system that has allowed changes in the top leadership, at least until now. Kim, on the other hand, wants to continue his family control of North Korea and not allow changes in leadership.



Lankov predicts Kim's plans of reforming the economy without openness will fail, since any meaningful reform requires cross-border open communication. If he allows openness, he is likely to be overthrown.



The third threat lies in invasion from another country, notably the United States. To ease Kim's fear, the U.S. negotiators floated the idea of securing the preservation of Kim's power in North Korea.



Lankov raises two issues that are likely to make regime security guarantees ineffective, if not irrelevant.



One is the possibility that the policy of regime security for Kim to hold onto power could be nullified by a U.S. future president. A regime security guarantee is not a law, and the next president will have the option to reverse it.



The other is the possibility of an internal uprising in North Korea. The promise of securing Kim's power means little, if anything, if Kim is overthrown through an internal uprising. If Kim were pursuing family security, instead of regime safety, either the U.S. or South Korea may be able to honor that. Any mention of family security, however, may lead to the end of Kim's life.



What does the future hold in negotiations with North Korea?



Lankov's assessment is rather pessimistic. He states the opportunity to obtain any meaningful concession from North Korea is likely lost. This loss may well be caused by lack of preparation by South Korean and U.S. leaders who had such opportunities when they met Kim for summits.



Any progress has become even more difficult because of the trade dispute between China and the United States, which makes Chinese cooperation even less likely in future negotiations.



Lankov's assessment on denuclearization is again pessimistic. He states North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons.



When I asked whether there would be changes in negotiation strategies if Kim were somehow replaced by other leaders in North Korea, Lankov's answer remained the same in that North Korea would never give up its nuclear weapons.



If his views turn out to be the reality, the new arrangement of the two Koreas would be a temporary peace while North Korea is allowed to keep its current stock of nuclear weapons. This is the situation many experts on North Korea have feared to be the end product of current negotiations among South Korea, the United States and North Korea.



My personal suggestion is for South Korea and the U.S. to develop massive economic assistance programs that can create hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs in North Korea. As I proposed to President Moon Jae-in in my May 16, 2017, column and again in June 26, 2017, everything has a price.



If Seoul can prepare a massive economic assistance program for North Korea in exchange for dismantling its nuclear weapons, Pyongyang may still reject it, but will have to reject it at its own great peril of mass revolt.





Chang Se-moon (changsemoon@yahoo.com) is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies.




Jihyun, male, escaped to South Korea in 2007



I hear from other North Korean refugees that they were influenced by foreign TV shows or movies, but in my case, it was reading a philosophy book from China. It opened my mind so much; I was a different person after that. For the first time, I began engaging in critical thinking after I read the chapter about Plato. I continued to pretend that I believed everything, but my mind had already escaped North Korea. I was then in my last semester in college in North Korea, but I couldn't wait to graduate, I had to get out of North Korea.



I am so glad I did. The amazing thing was libraries and book stores here. I couldn't believe how huge they were, how many choices I had. There were so many books that I had never heard of, and if I had stayed in North Korea I would still be unaware of them. There seemed to be an unlimited number of books. I read all of the time,



I was enjoying the freedom of reading whatever I wanted. The biggest change that came over me is that I no longer thought in only 2 dimensions: right or wrong. If someone did something "wrong" in North Korea, I was taught to believe: "You did something wrong. You're a bad person." I didn't think about the context; only, "you're right or wrong." But in South Korea, I learned there could be a variety of contexts, thoughts, different understandings of the same things and situations. It is possible to think about "why" someone did something differently.



Chang-ho, male, escaped to South Korea in 2015



I was a soldier in North Korea for 10 years. So you can imagine that I had a difficult life, and it was true. I graduated from college in North Korea and it seemed that I was destined for an adequate life there. There always seemed to be something missing, something wrong, but I couldn't understand it when I was in North Korea. It may have just been human instinct and the desire to live as I wished.



People ask me about my adjustment to living here in South Korea. I'm one of those people who can say without reservation: "I'm satisfied! I'm satisfied because of freedom." I can make decisions for myself without having to pay a fine for every little thing or just because an officer has targeted me for a wrong look. In North Korea I was poor, but it seemed that it was my job to support the families of police officers, security people, teachers and others in positions of authority.



There are so many things that I hope to accomplish here. I'm now studying law, it is so interesting and I am learning so many things. I am now learning English, so that is also so satisfying. My English still isn't good but I am lucky that I have teachers who are so patient with me. Even when I am sure I am saying stupid things, they never laugh at me; they patiently explain things to me and demonstrate with body language when I can't understand their words.



Probably the biggest difference is that I realized that I can express "thank you" and "I love you" to people other than dictators. Sometimes I am still trying to grasp those exact feelings of "love" and "thank you." Trying to understand and express them makes me feel more like a human being, not just a dictator's puppet.



Sometimes I will say to South Korean friends, "Thank you for being my friend, I love you." They will laugh at me, they say that I shouldn't say it, but trying to express one's feelings is what makes us human. I may not always be saying things correctly, but I hope the day will come that I learn the proper way or that people learn to accept my way even if it is not always perfect.





Casey Lartigue Jr., co-founder of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center, compiled these statements from interviews with refugees studying at the TNKR. TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee translated their comments from Korean to English.






Guwahati: Assams well-known healthcare institution Dispur Hospital conducted a media OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club on 7 May 2019, where Dr Drapan Dutta (medicine) was available for free consultations to the participants. Member-journalists of the press club also checked their blood pressure & sugar by nurse Maina Das in the camp.




Guwahati: Chennai based Gleneagles Global Hospitals will conduct the next media OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club on Tuesday (7 August 2018). Dr Meera Raghavan (gynecology) and Dr N Raghavan (urology) from the acclaimed healthcare institution will be available from 2 pm to 3 pm at the press club for free consultations to scribes.





Organized under the series of weekly Evening with a Doctor programs for the benefit of press club members along with their close relatives, the last media camp was conducted by Apollo Hospitals Guwahati on 4 August, where Dr Adwaita Avatar Chakrabarty (medicine) offered free consultations to the scribes. The participants also got their weight, height, pulse, blood pressure & sugar checked in the camp.





Two nurses namely Collyn Buongthangpui and Sandham Bidyalakshmi assisted the physician in the clinic, where the hospitals public relation officer Rasmita Sarmah and business executive Abhijit Choudhury were also present.





Till date, media camp has been supported by Apollo Hospital Chennai, SIMS Chennai Hospital, Down Town Hospitals, GNRC Hospitals, Dispur Hospital, Ayursundra Hospital, Wintrobe Hospital, Health City Hospital, Nemcare Hospital, Excelcare Hospital, MMC Panbazar etc.




New Delhi, August 5: India plans to invoke a 32-year-old Commonwealth pact to seek details from Pakistan about the 2018 Sunjawan Army camp terror attack mastermind Mufti Waqas, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant who was killed by security forces in March this year, according to officials.

The move is also expected to help India in making a fresh appeal to the United Nations to get the JeM and its chief Maulana Masood Azhar banned under the Security Council resolution 1267. China has blocked previous moves by India seeking a ban on the JeM and Azhar.

According to officials in the Union Home and External Affairs ministries, the relevant papers were being readied to send a request to Pakistan under the Commonwealth pact for international cooperation in criminal matters, under which commonwealth nations are bound to provide Mutual Legal Assistance on such issues, they said.

The agreement was originally adopted by Commonwealth law ministers at their meeting at Harare in Zimbabwe in 1986.

Citing this pact, India will seek details from Pakistan about Mufti Waqas, who was killed in an encounter in March this year with security forces at Awantipura in South Kashmir, the officials said.

The details include phone numbers dialled by Waqas before and after the terror attack on the Sunjawan Army camp on February 10 in which six soldiers, one civilian and three terrorists were killed.

Citing the amendments made to the Harare agreement during the meeting of law ministers in 2011 at Sydney in Australia, India will, if necessary, also seek details of the recording of statements of possible witnesses through video calls, they said.

In 2011, Commonwealth law ministers adopted amendments to the Harare pact envisaging cooperation in some new provisions that related to the interception of telecommunications and postal items, covert electronic surveillance, use of live video links in the course of investigations and judicial procedures and asset recovery.

Waqas, a Pakistani national who had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley in 2017, was the operational commander of the JeM. Besides being the mastermind of the Sunjawan Army camp attack, Waqas was also behind the suicide attack on a CRPF camp in South Kashmir's Lethpora on the intervening night of December 30 and December 31 last year.

According to officials, he was functioning as the operational commander of the terror outfit and had even despatched fidayeens or suicide bombers from Tral in South Kashmir to Jammu. It was then that the fidayeens had carried out their strike on the Army camp in Sunjawan.

Waqas is also suspected to be responsible for radicalising local boys Fardeen Khandey and Manzoor Baba. The two boys had carried out the suicide attack on the Lethpora CRPF camp in December last year.
Lucknow, August 5: The Yogi Adityanath government has expanded the ambit of the State Disaster Relief Fund and has announced that snake bites, incidents of boat capsizing, victims of man-animal conflict and death due to sewage cleaning as well as gas leakages, will merit compensation in Uttar Pradesh.

The state relief commissioner Sanjay Kumar was quoted saying by English daily Hindustan Times that the families of people who die in any of the above mentioned incidents will get Rs 4 lakh as compensation.

CM Yogi Adityanath, is said to be disturbed by the large number of people dying due to snake bites and falling houses in the monsoon, said Mrityunjay Kumar, principal secretary to the chief minister. He said that the decision is being taken to provide some relief to the needy.

A notification has already been issued by the Uttar Pradesh state government, to this effect. The practice so far has been to provide monetary compensation to only those who have been injured or to the relatives of the person who has died because of natural calamities or factors such as earthquake, floods and heat wave.

Ramesh Pandey, chief conservator of forests, Uttar Pradesh, talking on the decision by UP government, said that UP has now become a state that values human life and animal life at par. According to a data, hundreds of people die every year in Uttar Pradesh due to snake bites and lack of first aid medical facility in the initial hours after the bite.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 05, 2018 05:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The U.S. has been unable to persuade China to cut Iranian oil imports, according to two officials familiar with the negotiations, reports Bloomberg. Beijing has, however, agreed not to ramp up purchases of Iranian crude, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified because discussions with China and other countries continue.

Bloomberg said Chinas ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce didnt immediately reply Friday to faxed requests for comment.

Francis Fannon, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Energy Resources, was recently in China to discuss sanctions, Bloomberg said, citing a U.S. government official.

Chinas stand of rejecting U.S. demand is a blow to President Donald Trumps efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic after his withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord. The U.S. also said that it would exert "maximum economic and diplomatic pressure" on other countries to stop buying crude oil from Iran.

Washington imposed a series of additional sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals, as well as foreign companies in Iran, squeezing Iran economically.

In June, the U.S. state department said that countries buying oil from Iran should bring down to zero their Iranian crude imports by the time Washington re-imposes sanctions on November 4.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the U.S. against any attempt to stop Tehran's oil trade, threatening to block the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.

Iran is one of Indias top suppliers of crude oil. After the re-imposition of sanctions, New Delhi had asked to be exempted but the Trump Administration refused. The U.S. has told all countries, including India to stop their oil imports from Iran by November 4 or face sanctions for carrying out any transaction with Tehran as there would be "zero" waivers to any country.

Iran's oil import could emerge as a major topic of discussion between India and the U.S. during the rescheduled 2+2 dialogue in September.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 05, 2018 10:35 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Washington D.C., Aug 5: The motorcade of United States Ambassador to Bangladesh, Marcia Bernicat, was the subject of a late-night attack in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, on Saturday, as she was leaving a farewell dinner organised for the chief of a non-governmental organisation. VOA's Bangla service reported that Bernicat was not harmed in the incident, but her driver was. However, the extent of the driver's injuries was not clear.

Bernicat was attending a dinner for Badiul Alam Majumder, vice president of the human rights group, 'The Hunger Project', and also its Bangladesh country director. Former Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Kamal Hossain was also believed to have attended the dinner. Thousands of students have been protesting on the traffic conditions in Dhaka over the past week, but it was not clear whether Saturday's attack on the US ambassador's motorcade was related to those protests.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, August 5: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday announced an investment to the tune of USD 113 million in the Indo-Pacific region to boost energy projects, infrastructure, and maritime security. "At the ASEAN Regional Forum on August 4, Secretary Pompeo announced the intent to provide nearly USD 300 million in security assistance to improve security relationships across the Indo-Pacific region. This assistance includes USD 290.5 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to strengthen maritime security, humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR), and peacekeeping capabilities, and USD 8.5 million in International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INCLE) funds to counter transnational crime," an official statement from the U.S. Department of State noted.

The decision came after Pompeo held a meeting with senior administration officials at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Washington DC 'demonstrating a strong, whole-of-government US commitment to both economic and security engagement and assistance in the Indo-Pacific'.

The investment plan by the US will cover projects in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Pacific Islands, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and others. To boost Maritime Security, the US, in collaboration with select partners, will make efforts to 'develop coastal radar-enhanced maritime domain awareness (MDA) with manned and unmanned aerial systems, maritime platforms for rapid deployment of HA/DR efforts, and increased information sharing mechanisms to link security and defense institutions at the operational level'.

Moreover, it will also provide aid to their Southeast Asian allies in order to combat transnational threats and will provide them with training and support to improve MDA and patrol capacity.

"Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands: The United States will work with partners in Southeast Asia and the Pacific to help nations successfully monitor their Exclusive Economic Zones and address transnational threats. Assistance will focus on training and logistical support to improve MDA and patrol capacity, as well as professionalization and maintenance capacity to assist partners in developing defense and security institutions," the statement read.

The White House in its statement also said that it will work with India and Sri Lanka, which are surrounded by the Bay of Bengal, 'to enhance the capacity of civilian and military maritime actors in the Indian Ocean Region to improve the target areas of detection, information-sharing, and response to emerging threats'.

Under Humanitarian Assistance, the White House said that it will work towards 'improving search and rescue capabilities, will develop disaster risk reduction strategies, and logistical support to provide short-term solutions in times of need'. The US believes that by undertaking such initiatives, they will be able to save lives and reduce economic consequences of such events on the regions. It also lauded Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Fiji, and Nepal for sending scores of its troops for the United Nations peacekeeping missions.

"The Indo-Pacific countries are steady contributors to UN peacekeeping missions, with Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Fiji, and Nepal consistently among the top-ten troop-contributing countries. The United States will continue to work with partners in the Indo-Pacific to strengthen both regional and global peacekeeping capabilities and address critical mission shortfalls by focusing on the deployment of enabling capabilities," the statement highlighted.

The US further highlighted issues such as illicit trafficking of people and narcotics, under which the most South Asian countries are reeling for the past few decades, and said it will strive to strengthen border security in order to curb such menaces.

"The United States will support regional efforts in South and Southeast Asia to counter transnational crime by strengthening border security to counter illicit trafficking of people, narcotics, and goods; expanding security sector and law enforcement cooperation with emerging democracies; promoting safe and efficient commerce; and strengthening the rule of law to counter corruption," the statement concluded.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kristin Davis, the former madam made famous for her role in the 2008 sex scandal that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, sat for a voluntary interview this week with investigators working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, CNN reported Friday.

A spokeswoman for Davis told the Daily News that the former madam had an informal meeting in D.C. on Wednesday.

Davis, who was dubbed the Manhattan Madam and once ran for governor and controller before going to prison on a two-year sentence for selling prescription pills to government informants (she was released in 2016), worked with flamboyant Republican consultant Roger Stone for a decade.

The two are close friends, and Stone is the godfather to Davis son.

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Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, has been a rumored target in Muellers investigation into Russian election meddling.

Last month, following reports that the onetime head of a prostitution ring had been subpoenaed by the special counsels office, Stone told the Daily News that Davis has no knowledge of Russian collusion during the 2016 election.

I cannot imagine why the special counsel wants to interview her other than for the purposes of harassment, he added.

A representative for Davis told the Daily News last month that Davis is currently in the cosmetology business.

Meanwhile, Andrew Miller, who ran Davis campaign for governor and worked with Stone during the 2016 campaign, was ordered by a judge this week to testify before a Mueller grand jury.

Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected Millers challenge to a subpoena on the grounds that Muellers appointment was unconstitutional.

Multiple statutes authorize the Special Counsels appointment, and the official who appointed the Special Counsel had power to do so. For these reasons ... the witnesss motion to quash the grand jury subpoenas is denied, Howell wrote in a 93-page opinion signed July 31.

Mueller is reportedly interested in Stones contacts with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the Twitter handle Guccifer 2.0, which was allegedly used by Kremlin-linked hackers during the 2016 election to share emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee.




KABUL, Aug 5: A Taliban suicide bomber killed three NATO forces on a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday in an attack that also wounded a U.S. soldier and two Afghan troops, NATO said in a statement.





The Czech military confirmed that the three killed were Czech service members.





The Taliban claimed the attack, which took place near Charakar, the provincial capital of the Parwan province.My thoughts and prayers, along with those of all of the 41-contributing Resolute Support nations, are with the families and friends of our fallen and wounded service members, and our injured Afghan brothers and their families, said U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history, and further strengthen our resolve.





Czech Defense Minister Lubomir Metnar also offered his condolences. The Czechs had recently approved a plan to deploy 390 soldiers in Afghanistan through 2020, up from the current 230, as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.





NATO formally concluded its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but some 16,000 U.S. and other NATO soldiers are providing support and training to Afghan troops and carrying out counterterrorism missions.





Last month, the Taliban struck a NATO convoy with a suicide car bomb in the eastern Logar province. The attack killed two civilians and damaged a NATO vehicle.





Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban attacked a newly constructed district headquarters in the southern Uruzgan province early Saturday, killing four Afghan soldiers, according to Mohammad Maruf Ahmadzai, the provincial police chief. He said nine Taliban fighters were killed in the ensuing gunbattle.





The Taliban claimed the attack and said they captured soldiers alive.




The meeting brought more than 50 people to the MAYE Center on Anaheim St. just days before the City Council (Charter Amendment Committee) is scheduled to meet on August 7 at 3 p.m. to vote on whether to conduct a special November citywide election on the Redistricting Commission Charter Amendment plus four other Charter Amendments sought by Mayor Garcia.





The four other measures include creation of an "Ethics Commission" whose majority would be chosen by the Mayor and City Auditor and would have a significant role in deciding who could serve on the line-drawing Redistricting Commission.

That issue was squarely raised by Carlos and Juan Ovalle, co-founders of a newly formed grassroots group "People of Long Beach" (POLB), who voiced concern over enabling an advisory Commission chosen (and removable) by the Mayor and the Council serve as a "screening committee" in deciding what applicants can, or can't, become members of the line-drawing Redistricting Commission (detailed process on pdf pages 13-14 at this link



Juan Ovalle of People of Long Beach (POLB) voices concerns about lack of independence in Charter Amendment text governing selection of Redistricting Commission members



Messrs. Ovalle urged representatives of CA Common Cause (Sylvia Moore and Dan Vicuna) not to support the Redistricting measure as currently written.

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POLB has also come out in opposition to Mayor Garcia's proposed Term Limits Charter Amendment that would let the Mayor and Councilmembers avoid term limits for three years instead of two.

Following the meeting, Juan and Carlos Ovalle (who live in the 8th and 7th districts respectively) told LBREPORT.com that POLB has met the leaders of a number of prominent LB grassroots groups, found common ground with them on a number of issues and plans to become an active voice in addressing city issues in a non-partisan manner.

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In response to the Ethics Commission issues raised by POLB, Dr. Norman said he has similar concerns about the independence of the Ethics Commission and he is waiting to see how the issues are addressed regarding the Redistricting measure text.

In response to a question from LBREPORT.com, Mr. Vicuna said CA Common Cause hasn't taken a position on the Mayor's Ethics Commission or the other measures at this point but is working with the Mayor's office on the matter.

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Councilman Al Austin was present at the start of the meeting but exited early; his Chief of Staff, Jonathan Kraus, remained through the entire meeting. The Mayor's Chief of Staff, Mark Taylor was present for most of the meeting.

In November 2017, Councilman Austin agendized a Council item (passed 7-0) asking the City Attorney and City Clerk to provide options for creating a Redistricting Commission and an Ethics Commission and asked the Mayor to schedule meetings of the Charter Amendment Committee to discuss the issue within 60-90 days. It didn't happen. Instead, Mayor Garcia unveiled Redistricting Commission text in June that drew opposition from Mr. Coleman and members of the Cambodian community who said it didn't provide sufficient safeguards against electeds redrawing their own district lines. Mr. Coleman said the Mayor's office responded by inviting him to provide the text of a better measure, which he and supporters did...and he credited the Mayor's office for putting their text forward.

Dr. Norman, who'd compiled the population data, said "we aimed for the moon and got the stars." .

Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to incumbent Long Beach officials, development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.

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A pair of community members have donated $10,000 to help support emergency workers working during the flooding at Musikfest.

Jim Stocklas of Bethlehem, an original volunteer at the first Musikfest, and Barry Bartakovits of Bethlehem, an ArtsQuest Circle supporting member and longtime festival fan, donated $10,000 in Musikfest Food & Beverage tickets to aid Bethlehem's Emergency Response Management division.

The donation supplies water and other beverages to the first responders working at the 10-day festival.

Stocklas said once he and Bartakovits learned of the efforts of emergency workers during the flooding, something had to be done to help them. Crews worked tirelessly Saturday into Sunday to reopen Volksplatz by 5 p.m. Sunday -- less than 36 hours after shutting down.

The pair in 2016 were part of a trio who won $291.4 million in a Powerball lottery. Stocklas also spent 32 years on the bench as a district judge before retiring about 10 years ago.

Volksplatz, along with Handwerkplatz and Familienplatz, closed Saturday when streams overflowed their banks and flash flooding led to water rescues and road closures across the Lehigh Valley region.

"We knew we needed to do something to support these men and women -- many of whom have been working nonstop since yesterday," Stocklas said. "The fact that one of the venues is already set to reopen is simply amazing. This is just a small thank you for everything they do, not only during Musikfest but throughout the year."

Tickets will be used to keep police, fire, health and emergency response personnel hydrated as they continue the clean-up efforts at Volksplatz, as well as Handwerkplatz and Familienplatz, in which those two venues remain closed.

Wade Haubert Jr., deputy director of emergency management/911 for the city, said the "generous donation is greatly appreciated by everyone working on the cleanup efforts."

"As you can imagine, the cost to provide water and other beverages for this many people can grow quickly," Haubert said. "These Food & Beverage tickets will help us to ensure our many employees on site remain hydrated, allowing them to continue the important task of getting Musikfest's Handwerkplatz and Familienplatz venues back up and operational as soon as possible."

ArtsQuest Chief Operating Officer Curt Mosel said the effort by Stocklas and Bartakovits are just another example of the incredible support the community has for Musikfest.

Since 1984, Mosel said, the festival has received tremendous backing from the community from the 1,500 volunteers and 160 corporate partners who lend a hand to the many patrons who attend the festival.

"Every time we've had a major issue such as flooding, we've seen our community rally around us to help us keep the festival going," he said. "We thank Jim and Barry for taking a lead role in supporting our city services during this challenging time."

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A woman who was part of a $7.89 million civil settlement after her fiance was killed during a Bethlehem Police SWAT team raid has died, the Lehigh County Coroner's Office said.

Kristin A. Fodi, 42, of Bethlehem, was pronounced dead at 11:43 p.m. Friday at St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill. At autopsy has been scheduled to determine Fodi's exact cause and manner of death, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said.

Fodi was one of the plaintiffs in a high-profile police brutality lawsuit filed by the family of 21-year-old John Hirko, Jr., who grew up in Palmer Township.

She was engaged to Hirko of South Bethlehem in April 1997 when the SWAT team barged into their home and raided it after an informant claimed Hirko had drugs. Police started the raid by tossing a flash grenade through a window, seconds after knocking, because they feared from the informant Hirko had a gun, according to court testimony from the civil trial.

In believing at the time Hirko had a gun, Officer Joseph Riedy shot Hirko 11 times. Police then left his body to burn in a fire started by a flash-bang concussion grenade. The blaze burned Hirko's body beyond recognition.

Fodi barely escaped the fire which caused severe damage to the house owned by Tuan Hoang. She and Hirko were only "recreational users" and Hirko believed he was being robbed at the time of the raid, Fodi later stated in a Huffington Post report.

In the lawsuit Hirko's family filed against the city, expert witnesses for Hirko's estate testified that the disorienting effects of the grenade and its deployment in such close proximity to the alleged announcement, along with the lack of a clear police insignia on the SWAT team's black uniforms would have made it difficult for anyone to determine if they were being apprehended by police or invaded by unlawful intruders, the Huffington Post reported.

An expert witness for the city -- a longtime officer with the LAPD SWAT team -- testified SWAT officers should not have insignia on their uniforms to make them easily identifiable as police officers or they could become targets, according to the report.

In the end, a federal jury disagreed, finding in March 2004 Bethlehem police had violated Hirko's Fourth Amendment rights. Soon after the verdict, the city of Bethlehem settled with Hirko's estate for $7.89 million and efforts to improve the city's police force.

John Karoly, then the attorney who represented Fodi, Hirko's mother, Gwendolyn Dashner, and Hoang, described Fodi as "very intelligent" and "very compassionate," but forever haunted by what happened.

"I'm deeply saddened and I hope it (her death) has nothing to do with the Hirko case; I know the images of that have ghosted her for all these years," he said. "She never escaped the horror of seeing her fiance."

Karoly added Fodi and Hirko's mother were never interested in any monetary amount, but wanted to deter law enforcement from operating raids improperly.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Musikfest's Handwerkplatz and Familienplatz plans to reopen by 5 p.m. Sunday after flooding shut down the venues Saturday.

Streams overflowed their banks and flash flooding led to water rescues and road closures across the Lehigh Valley region. The flooding prompted Musikfest organizers to close Volksplatz, Handwerkplatz and Familienplatz.

ArtsQuest representatives earlier Sunday announced Volksplatz would be reopening with various musical acts scheduled to perform into the evening. The nonstop work Saturday into Sunday by Bethlehem's police, fire, health and other departments; Northampton County emergency response; Musikfest vendors and partners; and ArtsQuest staff and volunteers led to the reopening of all three venues, said spokesman Mark Demko.

Handwerkplatz and Familienplatz are expected to remain partially open, with a number of artists, vendors and food stands available.

Jim Stocklas of Bethlehem, an original volunteer at the first Musikfest, and Barry Bartakovits of Bethlehem, an ArtsQuest Circle supporting member and longtime festival fan, also donated $10,000 in Musikfest Food & Beverage tickets to aid Bethlehem's Emergency Response Management division during the cleanup efforts.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
An Allentown man is accused of waving a handgun at bouncers at a Hanover Township hotel, fleeing and crashing his car in Freemansburg before assaulting two police officers.

Colonial Regional police said the incident began at 12:30 a.m. Sunday at the Bar With No Name at the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel & Conference Center, 300 Gateway Drive in Hanover Township, Northampton County.

Alfredo Nives III, 27, of the 1400 block of East Susquehanna Street in the city, attempted to sneak an underage woman into the back of the bar when bouncers spotted him and ejected the pair, court records state.

Nives then allegedly went to the lobby area and asked to speak to a manager. When the manager ordered him to leave, Nives drew a black handgun from his waist area and racked the slide.

"I got all of you, I got all of you," Nives allegedly said while waving the gun at security guards.

He proceeded to flee the scene in a vehicle, ultimately crashing into a guardrail near the ball fields along Freemansburg Avenue in Freemansburg.

As Freemansburg police officers tried to arrest Nives, he kicked and punched police, as well as threatened to kill them; pepper spray eventually was sprayed to subdue and arrest him, police said. No officers were injured in the altercation.

A portion of the roadway was shut down as investigators searched for the handgun, which a male passenger in Nives' vehicle allegedly threw into the bushes. The handgun was found later Sunday morning at the scene, police said.

Nives denied possessing a handgun and while being interviewed by police, stated it was a "BB gun," court records state.

Nives is charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, making terroristic threats, possessing an instrument of crime, disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest. He was arraigned Sunday before District Judge Jacqueline Taschner, who set bail at $150,000.

In lieu of bail, Nives was sent to Northampton County Prison.

Lower Saucon Township and Bethlehem Township police officers also responded to the crash in Freemansburg.

An earlier version of this post was updated with additional information from court records.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Over the last few years the Korean car manufacturers of Hyundai and Kia have been producing some excellent new cars.

For those who do not know, Hyundai actually own Kia but market their two brands completely, while sharing platforms and technologies.

We often dont realise it but Hyundai are in the top 10 of the worlds largest car manufacturers.

I see the advance of the Koreans as being very much like what we saw with the arrival of Japanese car manufacturers to Europe many decades ago.

Hyundai are producing some really class winning cars.

They have style, panache, quality, reliability and to be honest an ingredient sadly lacking in many mainstream Japanese cars these days.................flair!

The latest cars I have tested from the Koreans surpass many of their Japanese rivals.

What is so interesting is that they have achieved this in such a very short time too.

This week I am testing the new Hyundai i30 Fastback.

The i30 hatch is a familiar sight on our roads as its a good seller here but the Fastback is a new take on the i30.

Essentially its the same car but with coupe-like lines in a 5 door Fastback design.

So has it any street cred?

In my opinion the i30 Fastback is one of the most stylish compact cars around. It looks great from any angle and has real flair in its design.

Whats it like inside?

The cabin is well laid out with clear instrumentation and a large 8 inch centrally mounted touch screen with excellent integrated connectivity.

Boasting Navigation, rear view camera, Cruise control, Apple Car Play and Android Auto functionality the new i30 Fastback is right up there with the latest in-car tech.

Apart from the usual electric windows, Bluetooth etc we now expect it also has, Voice Activation, Lane Keep Assist, Autonomous Emergency Braking and electrically folding exterior mirrors all as standard.

There is plenty of room inside and it seats four adults in absolute comfort and five at a squeeze.

The boot is a good size and there is a space saver spare wheel.

The materials feel of good quality and it all feels well screwed together.

Whats under the bonnet?

The i30 Fastback tested was powered by a 1.0 litre T-GDI turbocharged petrol engine, mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox.

It's a very nice power plant with a good sound and reasonable power despite its small capacity.

Over a week of mixed driving it burned just 5.8 litres of petrol per 100km and annual road tax is 200.

Will I enjoy driving it?

Designed, tested and built in Europe the i30 Fastback is well suited to European road conditions.

I found it rides and handles well, soaking up the bumps and undulations our country roads can throw at a car.

Overall its a refined motorway cruiser too though its here I noticed its only vice.

There is quite a bit of tyre roar on some surfaces at motorway speeds. Wind and engines noise are however well surpressed.

Whats the Verdict?

The new Hyundai i30 Fastback costs 24,995 and it gets my highest recommendation!

I love the styling, its roomy, practical and well kitted out, comes with a five year warranty and right now Hyundai have some great 182 Reg offers which will tempt you even further.
The annual St Brigids Way Pilgrimage dedicated to the life and works of St Brigid finished up its nine day walk from Louth to Kildare town on Sunday, July 22 last.

Day nine of St Brigids Way Celtic Pilgrimage and St Brigid[s Way Pilgrims have arrived in Kildare, said organsier Karen Ward.

May Brigids cloak spread wide and far back to all the lands from which they came.

The event, which is now in its fifth year, is now known as the Irish Camino.

Travellers from far and wide join in the pilgrim to strip back their busy lives to just the basics for nine days in honour of the way St Brigid lived her life.

Under sunny skies we walk into Kildare with a warm welcome from the Solas Bhride sisters, said Karen.

We made it  what an epic voyage of discovery, friendship and inspiration.

Pilgrims from around the World completed the 2018 Brigids Way Pilgrimage. United as a tribe and their hearts rejoicing with the joy and adventure with Brigid  Goddess and Saint.

From Brigids Well in Faughart, Co Louth, they travelled to Kildare to Brigids Monastic City, Solas Bhride and Brigid's holy wells.

What an epic journey for all.

This years the St Brigids Way walk to Kildare town for devotees of St Brigid, kicked off on July 14 last in Co Louth.

The Kildare route takes part over the last two days of the walk, from Donadea, via Ballinafagh Lake over to Robertstown, taking in Kilmeague and the Hill of Allen and then in towards Kildare town, where weary pilgrims bathe their feet in the waters of St Brigids Well.
Procrastination and inertia come at a cost. Fewer than 40% of private sector workers belong to a pension scheme or have a private plan of their own.

For many, this is because their employer does not offer an occupational scheme (or a PRSA group scheme to which they are otherwise obliged) and they have decided they either cannot afford a private plan of their own (especially if they are trying to save for a home) or feel they have no need for one.

This coverage figure has been dropping for the last decade and the government claims to be committed to introducing a universal auto-enrolment scheme by 2023. It cant happen soon enough, but our current, complex, multi-type pension system needs serious root and branch reform, all parties  workers, unions, employers and the Oireachtas need to be on board and time is running out.

Nearly an entire generation of young, and not so young workers are at risk of depending entirely on the pay-as-you-go State Pension when they retire, just as the older population of Ireland is rapidly increasing.

Irish Life, the countrys largest private pension provider has recently produced data from 2,000 Defined Contribution pension schemes which they administer for about 60,000 members.

The findings of this Better Company Pensions report are alarming. The average age at which workers are starting a company pension is 37, but annual contributions from the worker and employer only amount to 11.4% of their salary.

Delaying funding a pension can have a hugely significant negative impact on its final gross value.

Irish life estimate that the person who starts a pension at the age of 55 will have a retirement fund pot of 84,470 saved by age of 65.

Starting at 45 gives a sum of 187,050; at 35 a sum of 311,590 and at 25 462,830.

The pension value examples shown above assumed that the worker and company contribute 11.4% of salary each year beginning at ages 25, 35, 45 and 55. Retirement age is 65 in each case. Each workers salary grows each year by 2% (starting from a base of 51,250 for the 25 year old, which seems high given that the average industrial wage is c39,000.) It is assumed that the pension fund itself grows by 4% gross per annum.

The person who only starts their pension at 35 (which is two years younger than the average age Irish Life has noted) will be starting their contributions out of a salary of 62,474, due to the annual wage indexing that has applied. Their final gross pension fund at maturity will be 311,590, about 150,000 less than the pension fund of their 25-year-old colleague who, even though on a much lower salary when they started saving, had a 10 year head start.

Using these assumptions, the 35-year-old can expect a gross income of 11,780 a year for life, while the 25-year-old, can expect an income of 17,490, nearly 6,000 a year more.

The picture is even worse for the 45 and 55 year olds who start their pensions much later with only 20 and 10 years respectively for their funds to grow.

Not only do they have far less time for time and compound interest to do its magic, but they will need to be even more careful about the kind of investment risk being taken: they may not have sufficient time to make up the periodic losses that are inevitable in investment markets.

Costs and charges and commissions will also inevitably eat away thousands of euro every year from their fund; these costs will have a disproportionate effect on pensions that are started later.

The two most important factors in producing a satisfactory retirement fund and income, independent financial advisers and planners agree, are that you start saving as early as possible, that is, from your first paycheque and that you save enough.

A 25-year-old who puts away at least 10% of their gross income into a well-diversified, tax deductible, low cost investment fund for their entire working life (which could easily end up being 50 years) and who ideally also enjoys a employer contribution, is unlikely to ever have to worry much about a comfortable retirement, no matter how volatile the markets.
Leitrim-based social enterprise project, Social Farming Ireland, is one of the eight successful awardees of the 1.6 million Social Enterprise Development Fund.

Joseph Gilhooly, Director of Services, Leitrim County Council, welcomed the announcement.

Social Farming Ireland coordinates social farming activities in Ireland, by providing placements on farms for a range of people including people with disabilities, those recovering from mental ill health and brain injuries, young people, older people, long-term unemployed, and asylum seekers.

They are focused on working with families of farmers or growers, where small numbers of people benefit from individualised support and the opportunity to take part in day-to-day farm activities in a non-clinical environment.

These social farms operate with a strong emphasis on a person-centred approach, community connections, social inclusion and on enabling participants to do ordinary things in ordinary places.

The fund was set up to support social enterprises from across the country to achieve their goals and create measurable social impact that can be scaled all over Ireland. The 1.6 million fund, created by Social Innovation Fund Ireland in partnership with Local Authorities Ireland, is supported by IPB Insurance and the Department of Rural and Community Development from the Dormant Accounts Fund.

Chosen from over 100 applicants from almost every county in Ireland, the 8 successful awardees, made up of a mixture of urban, town and rural social enterprises, will not only receive a cash grant of 50,000, but will also land a place on Irelands most prestigious Accelerator Programme for social enterprises.

The Accelerator Programme is run in partnership with Local Authorities Ireland and provides intensive, expert and bespoke supports for social enterprises to hone their social impact, business skills and accelerate their growth.

Deirdre Mortell, Chief Executive Officer, Social Innovation Fund Ireland said: "We believe that weve found amazing organisations that are already creating real change and, with the support of this new fund, will grow and reach more and more people in need of their work. These awardees collectively demonstrate the powerful impact social enterprises can have on every community across Ireland."

Joseph Gilhooly said: "Social Enterprises hold the key to creating sustainable communities across Ireland and todays awardees are excellent examples of how social enterprises such as theirs are achieving these goals. We are delighted to partner with Social Innovation Fund Ireland in creating this invaluable fund and to host this inspiring event.
TWO woman were attacked and one of them robbed while walking to bingo, a court has heard.

One of the culprits  Roxanne Reynolds, aged 24,of no fixed abode  has pleaded guilty to a number of charges relating to the incident which happened near the Peoples Park earlier this year.

Garda Eoin McDonagh said the women (aged 60 and 57) had parked their car and were walking at Upper Mallow Street at around 6.30pm on January 12, last when they were approached by the defendant and another man who was on crutches.

One of the women was struck on the back of the neck by Ms Reynolds who grabbed her handbag.

Garda McDonagh told John OSullivan BL, prosecuting, the woman was struck in the face when she resisted resulting in her glasses falling off.

The other culprit  described in court as Mr X  assisted Ms Reynolds and threatened to assault the woman further if she did not hand over her bag, which contained various cards and around 180 in cash.

Having been alerted, gardai learned that a woman matching the description of the culprit had been seen near Colbert Station a short time before the incident.

Judge Tom ODonnell was told CCTV from the area was obtained and the defendants identified as suspects.

Ms Reynolds and Mr X were also identified from CCTV at a store in the city centre the following day after they attempted to tap one of the stolen bank cards.

Following her arrest, Ms Reynolds identified herself on the CCTV footage and made certain admissions relating to the incident.

Eimear Carey BL said her client suffers from a significant heroin addiction and is a vulnerable person.

She said she has slept rough in the past and that most of her previous convictions relate to her drug habit.

The barrister said her client is doing well in custody and that she is making efforts to address her issues.

She is drug-free at present, she is genuinely remorseful and realises how frightening it was for the two women, she said submitting her client was under the influence of Mr X on the night.

Judge ODonnell will impose sentence in October.
A STREET name in Newcastle West is a gentle reminder of his life and times but it is in Ardagh that Bishop Robert De Lacy is best remembered.

Although Bishop of Limerick from 1737 to his death in 1759, he was buried, by his own wish, in the family plot in Ardagh. On Friday, a new memorial stone was unveiled to mark his final resting place in the Norman ruin in the graveyard.

The memorial stone is being put in place by St Kierans Heritage Society because, as its secretary, Mary Kury explains, the original gravestone and its inscription has worn away over time and become illegible.

Happily however, the historian of the Diocese of Limerick, John Begley writing in the last century recorded the inscription: Beneath this stone are deposited the mortal remains of the Right Rev. Dr. Robert De Lacy who was R.C.B. of Limerick 21 years. He departed this life Aug 4 1759, R.I.P 

Robert De Lacy was born, one of nine children to Pierce DeLacy and Lady Arabella Gould in Dromadda, Athea. His father rented his estate from the Courtenays in Newcastle West. As with all aspiring priests during Penal Times, the young Robert had to go abroad to train and be ordained and eventually became superior of the Irish College in Bordeaux.

There, in 1737, he received word of his appointment as Bishop of Limerick. This was no easy appointment. While the 1691 Treaty of Limerick had supposedly secured the rights of Catholics, a series of penal laws affecting Catholics religiously, politically and economically were in force until they were repealed at the end of the 1700s.

When Fr Robert De Lacy was appointed bishop, there had been no Bishop of Limerick from 1702 to 1720 and no Catholic churches in the city.

The new bishop spent the first year of his new role living with his sister, a Mrs OMahony, in Newcastle West. The street where he lived became known as Bothar an Easpaig, the Bishops Road and now known as Bishop Street.

Over this weekend, a series of events will mark Bishop De Lacys life and death. On Friday, there was a Graveyard Mass in Ardagh, followed by the pattern rounds at St Moluas Well.

Dr Michael White, of Complutense University Madrid also gave a talk about Bishop de Lacy in the adjoining Ardagh Community Centre.

On Sunday, there will be a tour of places associated with the bishop. Starting at 12.15 in the church carpark in Ardagh, a bus will take participants to Dromada, where the walk will begin taking people down Rooska, past the Mass Rock at Ballyine and on to the Old Mill before returning to Ardagh Community Centre for refreshments at 2.30pm.

People who wish to follow the trail by car are very welcome to do so.

These are all free events and people will be very welcome to attend, Ms Kury stressed.

Meanwhile, the St Kierans Heritage Society is also working hard in preparing for the 150th anniversary of the finding of the Ardagh Chalice.

The celebrations will take place over two weekends in September with a packed programme.
THE new deal between US president Donal Trump and EU Commission President, Jean Claude Juncker could spell good news for the Shannon estuary and bring the building of the Shannon LNG plant at Ballylongford Tarbert closer.

The deal, announced last week, is aimed at averting a trade war and includes a commitment by the EU to import more liquid natural gas from the US.

While details of the deal remain scant, President Trump claimed that LNG would be big. This makes the building of Shannon LNG terminal at Ballylongford now much more likely, MEP Sean Kelly said.

Mr Kelly believes the new deal will lead to more LNG plants being built in Europe and he is optimistic this will include the Shannon LNG plant at Ballylongford/Tarbert.

As part of the agreement on tariffs and trade, Commission President Jean Claude Juncker gave a specific commitment to President Trump that the EU would build more LNG terminals to import and store natural gas from the USA, Mr Kelly explained,  Mr. Trump strongly criticised the EU during his recent visit for over-reliance on natural gas from Russia because the USA has an abundance of LNG for export.

There are projects planned already which are known as PCIs, projects of common interest, which would include LNG terminals. That means if we are going to take in more LNG from the US, then we must complete PCIs and one of those is Shannon LNG, he continued.

Mr. Kelly recently secured the designation of Ballylongford deepwater site as a Project of Common Interest. That means the European Commission will back its construction with grants and financing.

This new development between the EU and the US would make Shannon LNG a more attractive proposition for investors also, Mr Kelly said.

I would be quite optimistic, he added. It is part of the European strategy to ensure we have energy security and on that Ireland is one of the most vulnerable. We have only one pipeline coming into us from Scotland and once the Corrib field runs dry in about 15 years, we would be very vulnerable.

The Shannon LNG plant would also provide an additional safeguard for Ireland in the event of a hard Brexit or if Britain decided to keep all its gas for its own needs.

Currently, he added, the company is in discussion with Shannon Properties to renew its lease on the landbank at Ballylongford.

The Shannon LNG project involves importing liquid natural gas into a plant at Ballylongford Tarbert and then converting it into gas which would be fed into the national grid.

The original plan for the plant suggested it would cost up to 600m and create up to 400 jobs during construction and 50 permanent jobs at the plant as well as downstream jobs.
A LIMERICK MAN who falsely imprisoned his elderly father in a hotel in the midlands for several days was previously deported from the United States as he had been living there illegally.

James OConnor, aged 41, who has an address at Lord Edward Street, Limerick, has also admitted forcing his father  Jim OConnor  to withdraw more than 8,000 from his post office and credit union accounts in the city.

During a sentencing hearing, Detective Garda Brian Colbert said the now 80-year-old victim was reported missing on May 29, 2017 after members of his family expressed concerns to gardai that he was in the company of his son.

They were concerned about his behaviour towards his father, he told John OSullivan, BL, prosecuting.

Judge Tom ODonnell was told Jim OConnor was located near Portlaoise a number of days later after gardai in the midlands were alerted to reports that an elderly man was being held captive in a car.

Mr OConnor, who was wearing slippers, was crying and in a distressed state when encountered by local gardai who responded to the call.

When interviewed, the pensioner said he had been held against his will by his son and that he had been put under pressure to withdraw monies from his credit union and post office accounts.

He said the defendant had also refused to let him speak with other members of his family.

Detective Garda Culbert said CCTV was obtained from Sarsfield Credit Union and Henry Street Post Office in Limerick which corroborated Jim OConnors timeline.

He said the defendant, who has a number of previous convictions, made no admissions following his arrest a number of days after his father was located.

Nothing of evidential value emerged, Mr OSullivan told the court.

Limerick Circuit Court was told James OConnor moved to America almost 20 years ago and despite being legally married and running a business there he was deported in 2009.

Brian McInerney BL said his client has been unable to return to the United States and that he has been living a chaotic lifestyle since he returned to Ireland.

He said he was paying his way during his time in America as he was working as a painter/decorator and had his own home and van.

It (his deportation) had a bad effect on him, effectively he has been living as a recluse, he said adding that his wife had no interest in moving to Ireland.

The barrister said his client has had difficulties transitioning back into life in Ireland and he asked that he receive maximum credit for his guilty plea as it averted the need for what could have been a complex and lengthy trial.

Detective Garda Culbert agreed the defendant has no trappings of wealth and that he has been living a Walter Mitty existence in recent times.

While the incident has fractured the OConnor family, the detective said Jim OConnor was hopeful there can still be a relationship between him and his son once the court process has concluded.

Mr McInerney asked the court to note his clients entire way of life was ended in a matter of hours when he was detained and deported from the United States.

He said he has had difficulties with illicit substances since and he asked the court to have regard to the concept of rehabilitation.

After hearing the evidence, Judge ODonnell said the matter would require the deepest of consideration before he imposes sentence.

Adjourning the matter to October, he commented that the forgiving air to Jim OConnors victim impact statement was exemplary.

While James OConnor was previously granted bail by the High Court, he remains in custody as he has not been able to meet the terms of the bail as set down by the court.

The maximum sentence for false imprisonment is life while a ten year sentence is applicable for each of the theft offences.
BIRDHILL certainly doesnt sit on its laurels.

The village has been winning awards for its built environment for many years culminating in the overall Tidy Towns award in September 2017.

However, Denis Floyd, chair of Birdhill Tidy Towns, said they also place huge importance on the human environment, improving the quality of life for their residents and ensuring that inclusion is at the heart of everything they do.

An initiative to make Birdhill Irelands first autism-friendly village is part of the bigger picture of their community inclusion and integration policy, which aims to be socially inclusive in their development and enhancement of community spaces, and in running community events.

Mr Floyd said it is not their intention to highlight disability as true inclusion should be seamless. The project will be formally launched in the community park in Birdhill this Thursday, August 2 at 7pm.

Mr Floyd said they want to create spaces that are accessible to all, from the beginning and not as an afterthought.

We want to create a community that meets everybodys needs, said Mr Floyd.

The committee are working on raising awareness of the challenges experienced by persons with autism, educating the wider community about the condition and creating a more inclusive setting and environment to enable families to access amenities and services in the village, and to participate in community events.

We have created an autism friendly play area in our community park, including The Nook, a safe retreat for children who may be experiencing sensory overload. We have met with local business owners and offered guidance on making their premises autism friendly, through the use of social narratives, photos and video clips, to allow families to prepare in advance of their visit to Birdhill, said Mr Floyd.

The committee is working on a communication board in the community park to assist children who are pre-verbal or non-verbal to communicate their needs.

They are updating their website to include a video walk through of the community park to all families to plan for a visit. They have provided noise defenders to businesses, and asked them to make them available on request.

See birdhilltidytowns.ie for more
Beneath the soil in Cologne, Germany, lies a bibliophile's dream: an ancient Roman library that once held up to 20,000 scrolls, according to news reports.

Archaeologists discovered the epic structure in 2017 while they were excavating the grounds of a Protestant church to build a new community center. Considering Cologne is one of Germany's oldest cities, founded in A.D. 50, it's no surprise that it still has structures dating back to Roman times.

However, archaeologists didn't figure out that the structure was a library until they found mysterious holes in the walls, each measuring about 31 inches by 20 inches (80 by 50 centimeters), The Guardian reported.

The niches in the wall were likely "cupboards for the scrolls," Dirk Schmitz, an archaeologist at the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne, told The Guardian. "They are very particular to libraries  you can see the same ones in the library at Ephesus [in Turkey]." [Photos: Centuries of History Revealed Beneath Roman Ruins]

While it's anyone's guess as to how many scrolls the library once housed, it's fair to say the number would have been "quite huge  maybe 20,000," Schmitz said. He noted that the newfound library is slightly smaller than the Celsus Library in Ephesus, which was built in A.D. 117. Even so, its discovery is "really incredible  a spectacular find," Schmitz said.

"[It] is, at a minimum, the earliest library in Germany, and perhaps in the northwest Roman provinces," he said. "Perhaps there are a lot of Roman towns that have libraries, but they haven't been excavated. If we had just found the foundations, we wouldn't have known it was a library. It was because it had walls, with the niches, that we could tell."

This is the oldest public library on record in Germany. (Image credit: Roman-Germanic Museum of Cologne)

The ancient Romans chose a good spot for the building, he noted.

"It is in the middle of Cologne, in the marketplace, or forum: the public space in the city center," Schmitz said. "It is built of very strong materials, and such buildings, because they are so huge, were public."

During its heyday, the library was probably two stories tall and measured about 65 feet by 30 feet (20 by 9 meters), and an extension was added later, Cologne historic preservation official Marcus Trier told Deutsche Welle (DW), a German news outlet. This extension was likely an alcove where a statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess counterpart to Greece's Athena, once stood, Schmitz told The Art Newspaper.

The ancient library's remains will be integrated into the new church community center, giving access to visitors and future archaeologists, DW reported.

Original article on Live Science.
A movie just recently released called "Rampage" features Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson using a genetic engineering technology called CRISPR, to transform a gorilla, among other animals, into a flying dragon-monster with gigantic teeth. Though this is science fiction, not to mention impossible, the movie captures the imagination of the public and their recent interest and fascination with CRISPR.

CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, was originally part of bacterial defense system that evolved to destroy foreign DNA that entered a bacterium. But this system was also capable of editing DNA  and now geneticists have honed the technology to alter the DNA sequences that we specify. This has generated enormous excitement and great expectations about the possibility of using CRISPR to alter genetic sequences to improve our health, to treat diseases, improve the quality and quantity of our food supplies, and tackle environmental pollution.

But a few recent scientific papers suggest that CRISPR is not without its problems. The research reveals that CRISPR can damage DNA that is far from the target DNA we are trying to correct. As a cancer biologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, I use CRISPR in my lab to study human cancers and develop ways to kill cancer cells. Although the new finding appears significant, I don't think that these revelations rule out using the technology in a clinical setting, but rather, they suggest we take additional cautionary measures as we implement these strategies.

Treating human diseases

CRISPR/Cas9 is being used to edit DNA in plants, animals, and in humans. But new studies are casting doubts about whether the technology is safe to use for human therapies. (Image credit: TotallyMJ/shutterstock.com)

Using genome editing to treat human diseases is very tantalizing. Correcting inherited genetic defects that cause human disease just as one edits a sentence  is the obvious application. This strategy has been successful in tests on animals.

In the U.S. and Europe, clinical trials have been planned for several human diseases. Most notably, a gene-editing phase I/II trial is planned in Europe for human -thalassemia, a hereditary blood disorder that causes anemia that requires lifelong blood transfusions. In 2018, a CRISPR trial for sickle cell anemia, another inherited blood disorder caused by a mutation that deforms the red blood cells, is planned in the U.S.

For both of these trials the gene editing is done ex vivo  outside the patient's body. Hematopoietic blood cells, the stem cells that generate red blood cells, are taken from the patient and edited in the lab. The cells are then re-introduced into the same patients after the mutations have been corrected. The expectation is that by correcting the stem cells, the cells they now produce will be normal, curing the disease.

The ex vivo approach has also been used in China to test treatments against an array of human cancers. There researchers take immune cells  called T cells  from cancer patients and use CRISPR to stop these cells from producing a protein called PD-1 (program cell death-1). Normally, PD-1 prevents T cells from attacking one's own tissues. However, cancer cells exploit this protective mechanism to evade the body defense system. Removing PD-1 allows T cells to attack cancer cells vigorously. The initial results from clinical trials using gene-edited T cells appear mixed.

In my lab we have recently been focusing on the chromosome rearrangement, a genetic defect where a segment of chromosome skips and joins distant parts of the same or different chromosome. A scrambled chromosome is a defining characteristic of most cancers. The most famous example of such an alteration is the "Philadelphia Chromosome"  in which chromosome 9 is connected to chromosome 22  which causes acute myeloid leukemia.

My team has used CRISPR in animal models to insert a suicide gene to specifically target liver and prostate cancer cells that harbor such rearrangements. Since these chromosome rearrangements occur only in cancer cells but not normal cells, we can target the cancer without collateral damage to healthy cells.

CRISPR concerns

CRISPR is a tool for editing DNA that researchers claim is as precise as a surgeons's scalpel. But new studies suggest it that CRISPR may cause off-target damage by slicing up the DNA far from the intended target, which could set the stage for cancer. (Image credit: andriano.cz/shutterstock.com)

Despite all the excitement surrounding CRISPR editing, researchers have urged caution on moving too fast. Two recent studies have raise concerns that CRISPR may not be as effective as previously thought, and in some cases it may produce unwanted side effects.

The first study showed that when the Cas9 protein  part of the CRISPR system that snips the DNA before correcting the mutation  cuts the DNA of stem cells it causes them to become stressed and stops them from being edited. While some cells can recover after their DNA has been corrected, other cells could die.

The second study showed that a protein called p53, which is well known for guarding against tumors, is activated by cellular stress. The protein then inhibits CRISPR from editing. Since CRISPR activity causes stress, the editing process may be thwarted before it even accomplishes its task.

Another study over the past year has revealed an additional potential issue with using CRISPR in humans. Since CRISPR is a bacterial protein, a significant portion of human population may have been exposed to it during common bacterial infections. In these cases, the immune system of these people may have developed immune defense against the protein, which means a person's body could attack the CRISPR machinery, just as it would attack an invading bacterium or virus, preventing the cell from the benefits of CRISPR-based therapy.

Additionally, like most technologies, not all editing is accurate. Occasionally CRISPR targets the wrong sites in the DNA and makes changes that researchers fear could cause disease. A recent study showed that CRISPR caused large chunks of the chromosome to rearrange near the site of genome editing in mouse embryonic stem cells  although this effect isn't always observed in the other cell systems. Most published results indicate that off-target rates ranges 1-5 percent. Even if the off-target rate is relatively low, we don't yet understand the long-term consequences.

CRISPR dangers have been hyped

The studies referenced above have led to a glut of media reports about the potential negative effect of CRISPR, many citing potential cancer risk. More often than not, these involve a far-fetched extrapolation of actual results. As far as I am aware, no animals treated with the CRISPR-Cas9 system have been shown to develop cancers.

Studies have shown CRISPR-based genome editing works more efficiently in cancer cells than normal cells. Indeed, the resistance of normal cells to CRISPR editing actually makes it more appealing for cancer treatment since there would be less potential collateral damage to normal tissues  a conclusion that is supported by research in our lab.

Looking forward, it is obvious that the technology has great potential to treat human diseases. The recent studies have revealed new aspects of how CRISPR works that may have implications for the ways in which these therapies are developed. However, the long-term effect of genome editing can only be assessed after CRISPR has been used widely to treat human diseases.

Jianhua Luo, Professor of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
Downtown Berkeley on Sunday became, once again, the site of a conflict between right-wing protesters and counterprotesters, crushing the hopes of city officials for a mellow day.

For most of the afternoon, flocks of protesters surged along Berkeleys central streets, defying police officers attempts to corral them. Meanwhile, in Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, a small group of anti-Marxists sparred with those who came out to denounce them as white supremacists.

The afternoon ended with more than a dozen arrests, several small fires being set and a lot of screaming and slogan chanting  but by evening, the commotion was over.

The confrontation stemmed from an announcement earlier in the week from the Proud Boys and another right-wing group that they might stage a gathering Sunday at Civic Center Park, the site of previous clashes.

A Proud Boys posting on Twitter indicated that the gathering was canceled, but nonetheless, approximately 400 counterprotesters gathered in Ohlone Park at 11 a.m. and marched along downtown Berkeley streets, heading toward the location of the originally proposed rally.

Some of the marchers were dressed in black, the common uniform of antifa (anti-fascist) activists. They held up signs such as Hatefully targeting marginalized groups is not political discourse and chanted slogans in support of a host of leftist political positions.

We want to show them that hatred is not welcome here, said Levon Johnson of Berkeley, who came to protest right-wing groups.

The Berkeley Police Department had prepared for possible violence by setting up barriers in Civic Center Park and by closing surrounding streets to vehicle traffic. The city also banned items that could be used as weapons, as well as face-covering masks, from the protest.

Were going to do what we can to keep people safe, said Matthai Chakko, a city spokesman. Neither the conservative nor the opposing groups had obtained city permits.

By 12:30 p.m., several dozen right-wing demonstrators amassed at the marchers intended destination, wearing Make America Great caps and waving signs with slogans such as No to Marxism in America and Slave labor made America great.

With the group was Eddy Brock, 30, who said his parents were both immigrants from socialist countries, and he was there to protest communism and Marxism. He pointed at the police barriers, saying, All these barriers arent for the 30 to 40 patriots who showed up.

Arguments between the sides, not surprisingly, grew heated. Counterprotesters surrounded right-wing activists chanting, Nazi scum, well shut you down, Berkeley is an immigrant town. Film crews from the conservative media outlet InfoWars, flanked by bodyguards, prowled around the park in search of controversy.

Around 1:45, a series of explosions erupted near the intersection of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue, several blocks from the park. According to Berkeley police spokesman Byron White, marchers threw fireworks at officers, who deployed handheld smoke canisters and fired rubber bullets in response.

In a statement Sunday evening, the department reported that officers arrested 20 protesters  mostly for possession of weapons in parks and on streets and sidewalks. Earlier in the day it posted photographs on its Twitter account of objects police confiscated, including rocks and hammers. They also reported that protesters started three dumpster fires, set one car on fire and vandalized an additional 20.

By 3 p.m., the marchers had largely dispersed and the smaller rally in Civic Center Park devolved into loud, but nonviolent, discussions between sides.

The Berkeley actions came on the heels of a rally organized by Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys on Saturday in Portland, Ore. There, activists on the right squared off with counterprotesters, occasionally engaging in scuffles. Police arrested four people, and a reporter was injured covering the event.

Created by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes in 2016, the Proud Boys adopt a somewhat coy relationship with white nationalism, saying they are Western culture chauvinists rather than racist but sharing members and actions with some white supremacist organizations. Its initiation rites include Fight Club-style beatings, and McInnes reportedly endorses violence as a political tactic. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Proud Boys as a hate group.

Michael Cabanatuan and Jonathan Kauffman are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, jkauffman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan, @jonkauffman
NEW YORK  The government has dropped a two-year investigation into how Exxon Mobil Corp. factors climate-change regulations into its calculations of the value of its assets, the company said Friday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission informed the energy giant in a letter dated Thursday that it would not recommend an enforcement action against the company at this time.

Exxon Mobil cooperated with the inquiry, producing more than 4.2 million pages of documents, company spokesman Scott Silvestri said.

After a thorough investigation, including a review of these documents, the SEC issued its closure letter, he said.

Silvestri added that Exxon Mobil is confident its financial reporting meets all legal and accounting requirements.

The SEC letter including standard language stating that the decision should not be construed as an exoneration and leaving open the possibility of further future action. The SEC declined to comment.

Exxon faces separate investigations in New York and Massachusetts into whether it misled investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change and how the issue could affect its business.

In March, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by Exxon Mobil aimed at the stopping the investigations, dismissing as implausible the companys allegations that the states were acing in bad faith.

Our investigation remains ongoing, said Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood. Were gratified that multiple courts have now rejected Exxons arguments regarding our investigation fully dismissing Exxons lawsuit against our office, and ordering Exxon and its accounting firm to produce the documents we subpoenaed.

The Irving, Texas-based oil company has called the two state investigations politically motivated.

As we have said all along, the SEC is the appropriate entity to examine issues related to impairment, reserves and other communications important to investors, Silvestri said.

The SEC investigation began under the Obama administration. Its decision to drop the case came on the same day that the Trump administration proposed rolling back car-mileage standards, a move that would weaken one of the federal governments chief weapons against climate change.
As California's wildfires continue to burn, their collective destruction has become visible from space.

Several of NASA's satellites have captured images of three wildfires  the Carr Fire and Whaleback fires in California, as well as the Perry Fire in Nevada. The images highlight the burning areas in alarming detail, and showcase the thick blankets of smoke the fires continue to produce.
Singapore

Asia's top diplomats pressed North Korea on Saturday to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns that it's proceeding with its programs.

North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, however, hit the United States in an Asian security forum in Singapore for certain "alarming" moves, including "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" the North.

Those moves, Ri told fellow ministers, could make an agreement with the Trump administration, including the North's commitment to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, "face difficulties."

China and Southeast Asian nations also faced calls in the Singapore meetings to rapidly conclude an effective nonaggression pact that can help fend off possible clashes in the disputed South China Sea. Both sides have announced an agreement on an initial draft of a regional "code of conduct" that they regarded as a milestone after 16 years of sporadic talks.

Alarm over rising trade protectionism, which Asian governments warn could stymie economic growth, dominated the meetings too, with Japan calling for the swift conclusion of a 16-nation Asian free trade agreement that does not include the United States.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the rapprochement between North Korea and the United States, along with completion of a negotiating draft of the code of conduct for the South China Sea, are breakthroughs. But he added that "like any other breakthrough in diplomatic negotiations, they may lead to something great, they may lead to nothing."

"Now the hard work is really on the details," Cayetano told reporters before walking into daylong meetings between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their partners the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.

ASEAN foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, urged the U.S. and North Korea "as well as concerned parties to continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," according to a draft communique they were to issue after their meetings Saturday, which was seen by The Associated Press.

In the communique, they would "note"  often a diplomatic subtlety for a reminder  the "stated commitment" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name, "to complete denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests during this period."

A summary of a new report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea, which was sent to the Security Council Friday night and obtained by the AP at the United Nations, said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missiles programs and continues to defy the sanctions resolutions.

The North was also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions, the report said.
Earlham College in Indiana might lack a national brand name, but as Rick Seltzer pointed out in the online publication Inside Higher Ed recently, it's "not an average down-on-its-luck liberal arts college." It has an endowment of $438 million and draws about half of its students from outside the Midwest.

That's what makes the college's announcement of a nearly $13 million deficit even more surprising. As a result, Earlham is cutting $8 million from its $50 million budget. In late June, a few weeks after the announcement, the college said its president of just one year was leaving.

While the news roiled the campus of 1,000 students and its alumni, what is happening at Earlham is in many ways emblematic of the financial issues facing much of higher education these days. A few weeks ago, Moody's Investors Service said that 25 percent of private colleges are running deficits. The news isn't much better for public universities, according to Moody's. Last year, revenue at state-run schools grew 2.9 percent while expenses jumped 4.8 percent - the second consecutive year that expenses outpaced revenue.

Moody's examines the finances of more than 500 colleges and universities that issue debt through the public markets. So while it doesn't follow all colleges and universities, Moody's tends to look at the strongest players, and its ratings provide a good indicator of the strengths and weaknesses of colleges and universities.

In the public and private sectors, reports from Moody's tell a tale of a growing divide in higher education. Large public research universities, such as the University of Maryland at College Park, the University of Michigan, Arizona State University and other top public schools, hold more than 90 percent of the total cash and investments in the sector, despite enrolling 80 percent of the students. Among privates, the top quarter of colleges and universities hold 85 percent of all cash and investments.

What's especially troublesome for colleges and universities is that these trends are emerging in a strong economy and as higher education heads into a period of stagnation among traditional high school graduates nationwide. The number of high school graduates is projected to rise slightly in the middle of next decade. Then, between 2026 and 2031, the ranks of high school graduates are expected to drop by 9 percent. In that period, four-year colleges nationwide stand to lose almost 280,000 students. In addition, the number of white graduates is expected to decrease sharply, while the number of Hispanic graduates grows substantially.

These demographic head winds come as a new generation of students with different needs and motivations arrives. Generation Z, born beginning in the late 1990s, has replaced millennials on campus. "Unlike millennials who were willing to pay for the college experience and go into debt for it, Gen Z is more focused on value and price," said Corey Seemiller, an assistant professor at Wright State University and co-author of "Generation Z Goes to College." Most of all, Seemiller said, this is a generation that saw its predecessors amass more than $1.3 trillion in student debt and doesn't want to do the same.

That means colleges won't have much of an ability to raise prices in the future, putting more pressure on them to cut costs, develop different pricing models or build entirely new models for the traditional four-year residential college.

One of those new models comes from Paul Quinn College in Texas. A decade ago, the college was on the brink of closure, but now it's receiving national publicity for its work-college model. All Paul Quinn students, regardless of financial need, are required to work at least eight hours a week, first on campus, then off campus for participating employers. Part of students' pay goes to offset their tuition, and the rest is a cash payout. Students' supervisors double as their mentors.

Paul Quinn's president, Michael Sorrell, wants to create a national network of work colleges. Last month he took the first step toward that vision, announcing that the school would open a second campus in Plano, Texas, and partner with companies that include FedEx, JPMorgan Chase and Liberty Mutual to sponsor internships.

"America's colleges and universities," Sorrell said, "need to change and do more to address the needs of students."

Indeed, one needs only to look through the Moody's reports on public and private colleges and the research on what Generation Z wants out of college to know that major changes are on the horizon for higher education. The question is whether college leaders will be able to find the right solutions, and in enough time.
Joaquin Oliver's 17th birthday was celebrated with a surprise party - a gathering of nearly 50 friends and family who packed his house in Florida.

Born in Venezuela, he had just received his American citizenship. He was about to begin his senior year of high school.

A year later, his friends and family stood outside the National Rifle Association headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia, surrounded by hundreds of protesters and sang "Happy Birthday" through waves of tears.

Joaquin was one of the 17 people killed in a February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. His 18th birthday would have been Saturday.

"I don't know what the right way is to celebrate today," said his sister, Andrea Ghersi, 26, after the crowd had dispersed. "There's nothing I can do that will make today feel okay. He should have been here. He should be here."

The birthday tribute served as the emotional climax to a rally that brought hundreds to the doorstep of the NRA, demanding stricter gun laws and the revocation of the gun group's nonprofit status. They were met with dozens of counterprotesters, some of whom arrived with guns strapped to their hips or across their chests.

The protest, which was organized by a coalition of anti-gun-violence organizations, included survivors of gun violence from around the country - though the headliners were students from Stoneman Douglas. They have been touring the country registering young people to vote and raising awareness about gun violence.

Organizers, who dubbed the protest the National March on the NRA, said they were there for multiple reasons: to confront the NRA and condemn the lobbying efforts of the group, and to make demands of local and federal lawmakers who may be watching.

Their demands include instituting universal background checks of gun buyers through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and banning high-capacity magazines and "any weapon of a caliber higher than .30-caliber or more and any rifle, long gun, or short-barreled rifle that fires in semi-automatic and takes self-loading magazines," according to a website for the march. They also called for a searchable database of gun owners through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The NRA did not respond to a request for comment.

Though police separated the groups, placing thick orange barricades and a chunk of space between them, several activists said they came to Saturday's rally to engage the other side and have a conversation.

"When you're just yelling at each other, nothing is going to change and no one is going to change their minds," said Lindsey Nystrom, 18, who carried a sign listing NRA contributions to prominent Republican lawmakers. "It's such a different energy when you take the time to really listen and have a conversation. That's why we came today. That's what we wanted."

She and her sister, Grace Nystrom, 16, spent much of the day speaking to NRA members and gun owners who milled around on their side of the barricades.

Wade Guzman, 31, of Aberdeen, Maryland, had similar motivations - he wanted to engage people on the other side of the gun debate. So he stood with the student protesters and their supporters, refusing to move to the other side of the barricades where his fellow pro-gun activists were corralled.

With his 9mm gun strapped to his hip, Guzman greeted passersby with a smile and a hand-drawn sign that challenged people to "disarm" their expectations and assumptions.

Though he's a gun owner, Guzman is not a member of the NRA. He grew up near Parkland, and felt personally affected by the attack on students there. But he said he doesn't believe stricter gun laws will fix the problem.

"We can find middle ground if we work together and see past what we assume about each other," he said. "People look at me and they think they know all about who I am and what I believe. But they would probably never guess that my parents came here illegally from Guatemala, my sister is married to a black woman, I personally disagree with the Muslim ban - there's a lot you can learn when you just talk to people," Guzman said.

"I'm here because I'm trying to hear them. I'm trying to be sensitive and help them hear me, too," he said.

Several counterprotesters said they support better enforcement of existing gun laws, broader mental-health checks and safety training for gun owners. But they dismissed attacks on specific firearms, such as the AR-15, which was used in the Parkland attack.

Despite the occasional heated exchange, the event remained peaceful.

Fairfax County police Lt. Eli Cory said one arrest was made. A man, crossing from the counterprotesters' side, was charged with unlawfully crossing a police barrier.

Similar "sister marches" took place in nearly two dozen cities, where marchers were expected to target local guns groups or state legislatures.

Outside the NRA headquarters, a pile of sunflowers was left beside a mural that Joaquin's father, Manuel Oliver, created to honor his slain son. He had painted the teen's face, framed by 18 small flames and the words: "We demand to blow out our candles."

Then, with a hammer, he struck a hole through each flame, blowing them out.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Sunny with gusty winds developing this afternoon. High 79F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 48F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Sen. Rand Paul is planning to start a trip to Russia on Monday, a venture aimed at "supporting President Donald Trump engaging around the world," according to a spokesman.

Paul, R-Ky., has emerged in recent weeks as a fierce proponent of Trump's dealings with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, making him a unique voice in Congress at a time when Republicans and Democrats have been chiding or excoriating the president for not taking a harder line against the Kremlin.

Paul went so far last month as to label the president's critics as "unhinged" and "crazy" for suggesting that Trump had erred by holding a one-on-one summit with Putin in Helsinki, in which he suggested that he might take the Russian leader's denials of election interference over the conclusions of his own intelligence community.

He suggested that those criticizing Trump's efforts at diplomacy with Russia, whose number include House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and war hero Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are simply "people who hate the president."

In the weeks since announcing his trip, Paul also objected to an effort from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to affirm the intelligence community's conclusions about Russian interference, calling the resolution a sign that "Trump derangement syndrome has officially come to the Senate" and an affront to diplomacy.

On Wednesday, top national security officials made a rare appearance in a White House news conference to warn that Russia continues to target U.S. elections, posing an ongoing threat in advance of the 2018 midterms.

Paul is expected to hold meetings with an unspecified list of Russian officials. A spokesman for Paul also did not respond when asked how long Paul expects to be in the country.

His visit comes just a few weeks after a delegation of eight Republican lawmakers visited Moscow for meetings with of the Russian parliament, as well as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. They were not granted an audience with Putin.

Those lawmakers faced scorn at home for making the trip over the July 4 recess, and ridicule in the Russian media for promising to talk tough but adopting a seemingly more conciliatory stance once in Russia. Lawmakers pushed back against that impression, arguing that they had delivered tough messages to the Russians, particularly concerning election interference, during their meetings.

The delegation, which was made up of Sens. Richard C. Shelby , R-Ala.; Steve Daines, R-S.C.; John Hoeven, R-N.D.; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; John Kennedy, R-La.; Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; and John Thune, R-S.D., and Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas), was the first such congressional delegation to travel to Russia in three years, according to the participants.

No other members of Congress have announced plans to travel with Paul.
ALBANY  The 18-year-old son of a former Albany imam convicted of money laundering in an FBI sting has filed a petition in U.S. District Court to force federal immigration authorities to rule on his request for citizenship.

The petition filed this week by Kotcher Muhiddin says that more than 120 days have elapsed since he underwent an exam and interview on April 2 at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, and that his naturalization application has been unnecessarily delayed  just as it was for his siblings.

His attorneys, Kathy E. Manley and Barbara Weiner, contend that as a result of the conviction of Muhiddin's father, Yassin M. Aref, the application "may linger indefinitely" in the government's Controlled Application and Review Resolution Program (CARRP).

Muhiddin was two months old when his family entered the U.S. as Kurdish refugees. He and his sister, Alaa, and brother, Raiber, were all born in a Syrian refugee camp where their parents had gone to escape persecution in Iraq.

Aref, who is from northern Iraq, and Mohammed M. Hossain, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh, were found guilty by a federal jury in Albany in October 2006 on charges they participated in a scheme to launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile.

The weapon was to be used in the assassination of a Pakistani diplomat in New York City. The plot was not real and had been concocted by the FBI, which enlisted a Pakistani informant with a criminal background to lure the men into the scheme. Aref and Hossain were both sentenced to 15-year prison terms. Aref is scheduled to be released in October; Hossain's release date is August 2020.

Muhiddin's petition indicates his father will be deported when he is released from prison. The family, including Aref's wife, Zuhur Jalal, are scheduled to reunite in northern Iraq but the three children, all adults, plan to return to Albany.

The attorneys for Muhiddin said that years-long delays had plagued the efforts of his siblings to obtain their citizenship, and that documents released under the Freedom of Information Act confirmed their applications had languished in the review resolution program. The attorneys noted that Muhiddin was 2 years old when his application for adjustment of his citizenship was filed.

"Clearly he could not have been, himself, considered a national security threat," the attorneys wrote in the petition. "Obviously, he and his siblings were swept into CARRP because they are the children of Yassin Aref, arrested and convicted in the 2006 federal sting operation."

The convictions of Aref and Hossain galvanized the community and brought harsh criticism on the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in a case that hinged largely on the cooperation of a controversial informant, Shahed "Malik" Hussain.

Manley and Weiner wrote in the petition that the documents on Alaa and Kotcher Muhiddin showed that federal authorities had checked a box indicating they were both "Known or Suspected Terrorist" on their CARRP documentation. That made them automatically considered a national security concern, and they allege the same designation may have been given to their brother in his pending application.

"Small children at the time, it is obvious that they received this designation under CARRP as 'known or suspected terrorists' solely based on the identity of their father," the petition states. They said the secretive system does not allow anyone to know their application has been flagged, and there is no mechanism to challenge it.

Kotcher, who will turn 19 later this month, has been a permanent resident of the United States since October 1999 and is studying for his general equivalency diploma. He has never been arrested and "is a person of good moral character," his lawyers state.

Attorneys for Aref and Hossain argued unsuccessfully in appeals that the men had been entrapped and had no predisposition to take part in a missile attack or money laundering before the FBI sent their informant in. They said the investigation was fatally flawed by language barriers, faulty government intelligence and an overzealous FBI counterterrorism task force in Albany.

Justice Department prosecutors countered that evidence at the trial was sufficient to prove that Hossain and Aref continued doing business with the FBI's informant even after learning he was involved in the sale of a missile launcher to terrorists.

Aref served as spiritual leader of a Central Avenue mosque and was the investigation's primary target. He was acquitted on 20 of the 30 counts he faced, but convicted of key charges that included money laundering and conspiracy to support terrorism.




Speeding has become a very serious problem in south Longford and needs to be addressed, according to local councillors.

A recent meeting of Ballymahon Municipal District heard three motions regarding speeding in various parts of south Longford, with councillors insisting that there is an urgent need to address the problem.

Cathaoirleach of Ballymahon Municipal District Cllr Paul Ross was the first to raise a motion about speeding, proposing that speed ramps be installed at Smithfield Crescent Housing Estate in Legan in the interest of public safety.

There's a creche out there and OPDs, and there's a lot of concern about children playing in the area, Cllr Ross told his fellow councillors last Thursday afternoon.

Speed ramps are the only solution to slow down traffic.

Phase 2 Works Begins on Natural Gas Pipeline to Center Parcs in Ballymahon

Lanesboro Cllr Gerard Farrell immediately agreed, stating that speed ramps are a tried and tested method of slowing down traffic.

Ramps are the most successful speed-reducing thing out there, he said, to murmurs of agreement from his council colleagues.

He later divulged to the Leader, It seems a no brainer that speed ramps are the best solution. Theyre a bit annoying when youre driving, but they work.

Longford County Council's Executive Engineer, Paul Newell took the comments on board, but said that all other options for enforcement of speed limits should be considered first.

Ramps should only be chosen if no other suitable means can be used, he said, stressing that ramps cause a lot of noise when cars cross them and would also slow down emergency vehicles.

Ross elected Ballymahon Municipal District Cathaoirleach

Cllr Farrell responded by referring to the series of speed ramps near the Albert Reynolds Peace Park in Longford Town, which are small and insignificant, adding that noise should not be a problem.

However, Mr Newell stressed, policy dictates that all other options need to be considered first - namely signage and lighting.

I suppose we'll have to rumble on for another while, joked Cllr Ross but, speaking to the Leader after the meeting, he expressed his disappointment that a policy, which was clearly in place for the main roads, was being cited for such a small housing estate in Legan.

Signage is no good unless you have enforcement. And you won't have the gardai sitting in an estate to enforce it, he said.

There are kids out playing in the estate who feel like they're in a safe space, but it's not safe at all. I don't agree with Paul's (Newell) assessment at all.

Two more speeding motions were discussed at last week's meeting, regarding solar-powered speed detection signs in Kenagh and Lanesboro.

Cllr Colm Murray called on the council to install a sign at the entrance to each side of Kenagh village along the R397, to stop people from speeding into the residential areas of Kenagh.

There is a speeding problem coming into the village. There are a lot of housing estates on either side with young children, he explained, stressing the need for two speed detection signs in the interest of public safety.

His Lanesboro colleague, Cllr Gerard Farrell had a similar motion for the Ballymahon Road in Lanesboro.

Gallery: Spectacular aerial photographs reveal construction progress at 233m Center Parcs Longford Forest holiday resort

There are two big housing estates and a school on the approach road to Lanesboro and we're two years looking for a sign there, he said.

Both motions received firm support from the rest of the councillors present with Colehill Cllr Mick Cahill pointing out that obviously, every village has speeding issues and that the signs were badly needed in the areas mentioned.

It's good to see our new engineer supporting this, said Cllr Ross, prompting a jovial response from his colleagues.

He didn't speak yet, Cllr Murray pointed out.

Ah but he's doing a lot of smiling, said Cllr Cahill.

Executive Engineer Paul Newell broke his silence then to show that he did, indeed, support the councillors in their bid for speed detection signs.

I propose we get three signs - two for Kenagh and one for Lanesboro, he said.

We'll get the ball rolling around September, October, but it's recommended that they're moved around every three weeks.

The councillors expressed their approval of Mr Newell's proposal, with Cllr Ross and Cllr Cahill joking that the signs should be moved out to the Colehill and Legan areas around election time.
An online petition has been set up calling on Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to accept Vekash Manzoor Khokhars application for asylum and to not deport him to Pakistan. Vekash, a qualified ER nurse and talented dancer, is living in Longford.



Friends of Vicky, as he is known, have set up the petition, saying that he is about to be needlessly deported from Ireland.



Vekash arrived in Ireland from Pakistan in June 2015 seeking asylum.



Since then, he has volunteered for many activities in Longford, from the local samba band, the local church, St Mels Cathedral, St Mels Musical Society, the Attic Youth Cafe and dance projects, to voluntarily working five days a week at a local nursing home.



You can read more about Vekash in this Irish Times article HERE



His original asylum application failed and those behind the petition say if Vekash is deported, he will be banned from Ireland for 10 years and imprisoned back in Pakistan.



We have until August 27 to try and help Vicky stay or at least enable him to return voluntarily and avoid deportation, leaving him with a chance of coming back.



They are asking for common sense to prevail and for Vicky to be granted permission to stay in Ireland, at least until his work permit is ready.

You can sign the petition HERE

Also read: Looking after our youth: Skate Park a possibility in Longford town

Also read: New bill to strengthen powers of Longford coroners

This fantastic #dancer from #Longford has been issued with a #deportation order August 27. Vicky is a super guy that has so much to offer Ireland. Were trying to rally together to help him. Please sign the #petition https://t.co/27H8gz9yWY  Edwina Guckian (@EdwinaGuckian) August 4, 2018

I'm calling on @CharlieFlanagan to save Longford nurse Vicky Khokhar from deportation. https://t.co/wIxoqNacB2 via @UpliftIRL  Donal O'Kelly (@DonalOKellyInfo) August 5, 2018

I'm calling on @CharlieFlanagan to save Longford nurse Vicky Khokhar from deportation. https://t.co/DWs8Jmaca7 via @UpliftIRL Stop Deportations now  Bernadette (@Bernieadufe) August 4, 2018

This fantastic #dancer from #Longford has been issued with a #deportation order August 27. Vicky is a super guy that has so much to offer Ireland. Were trying to rally together to help him. Please sign the #petition https://t.co/86jawhHxIY August 4, 2018
Authorities in Maine found the body of a Massachusetts man who went missing on Moosehead Lake.

The Maine Warden Service confirmed divers found the body of Robert Hammond, 66, of Hanson, Massachusetts on Moosehead Lake Saturday around 12:45 p.m.

An autopsy will be conducted to confirm cause of death. No other details were released.

The Maine Warden Service received a complaint about an abandoned boat near the shore of Moose Island on Moosehead Lake Thursday.

Game wardens went to the area Friday and found a boat almost on the shore in very shallow water with no signs of Hammond.

Game wardens checked his campsite at Spencer Bay on Moosehead Lake and learned he had not returned to it.
SPRINGFIELD - A man who was injured in a two car crash in Springfield early Saturday morning has died, according to Ryan Walsh, spokesperson for the Springfield Police Department.

The Hampden County District Attorney's Office plans to release the victim's identity after familial notification, Walsh said.

Update: The driver traveling east on Sunrise prior to this crash has been pronounced dead at Baystate. Both drivers were males. The other driver remains in the hospital but is expected to live. The @HampdenDA will release the victims ID after his family is notified. https://t.co/wGKzNS1JMJ  Ryan Walsh (@PIO_SPD) August 4, 2018

Authorities were called to the intersection of Parker and Sunrise Street around 4:40 a.m. where a 2012 Acura TSX and a 2000 Toyota Avalon had collided, said Dennis Leger, spokesperson for the Springfield Fire Department.

The drivers of both cars were extricated. The Avalon driver had "life threatening injuries," while the Acura driver suffered minor injuries, Leger said.

Both men were taken to Baystate Medical Center for treatment, where the Avalon driver was pronounced dead. The operator of the Acura is expected to live, Walsh said.

No further details have been released at this time.
A common symptom among people with dementia is agitation, which can affect their and their carers well-being. Dementia experts conducted a new study and found the most effective means of addressing agitation. Share on Pinterest A newly published paper outlines the best approaches for dealing with dementia-driven agitation and psychosis. In a paper that is now published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics, experts from several research institutions  including the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD  express their consensus on the best approaches to manage dementia-related behavioral and psychological symptoms. More specifically, they speak of how to address states of agitation and psychosis in people with Alzheimers disease. This paper  which is based on evidence presented by dementia experts across the globe  ranks the best methods of addressing agitation in Alzheimers, and nondrug-based approaches come first. This research advocates a significant shift from current practice, recommending that nonpharmacological treatments are a first-line approach for agitation in dementia. Study co-author Dr. Helen Kales, University of Michigan

Person-centered care to be prioritized In the new study, the first four treatments that the researchers advise healthcare professionals and other caregivers to prioritize are all nonpharmacological, focusing on behavioral approaches instead. The specialists advise, first and foremost, the assessment and management of underlying causes for agitation and other behavioral and psychological symptoms. They also encourage providing appropriate education to caregivers and adapting the environment that people with Alzheimers inhabit to suit their needs as closely as possible. According to the experts evidence, a person-centered approach to care and providing an activity program that fits the individuals needs are, more often than not, preferable to administering drugs when it comes to addressing agitation. As for the pharmacological treatments, the highest-ranking drug for behavioral symptoms was the antidepressant citalopram, and even this only ranked sixth on the experts list. Medication for pain management also ranked higher than other drugs. Of the antipsychotic drugs currently prescribed, the specialists consensually recommended only risperidone, which came in seventh on the list of treatments and approaches. Aside from risperidone at number [seven] in the list, none of the other atypical antipsychotic drugs were recommended, notes Dr. Kales. This is a very welcome change, she emphasizes, given the known harms associated with these treatments.
A new study that appears in the journal Circulation looks at the effects of low levels of pollution on the anatomy of the heart. Share on Pinterest Living next to a busy road may cause you serious heart problems, a new study suggests. The perils of air pollution are real and plentiful. Two years ago, a study published in The Lancet Neurology claimed that air pollution was one of the leading risk factors for stroke worldwide. Also, even low levels of pollution seem to be very harmful. Medical News Today recently reported on a study that linked levels of air pollution deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a high risk of diabetes. Now, Steffen Petersen  a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London in the United Kingdom  has led a new study that suggests that low levels of air pollution may cause changes in the heart that are similar to those seen in heart failure. Dr. Nay Aung, who is also affiliated with Queen Mary University, is the first and corresponding author of the paper.

Air pollution may cause heart enlargement Dr. Aung and colleagues examined data on over 3,900 healthy people enrolled in the UK Biobank study. The participants volunteered information about their health, residential area, and lifestyle, and they allowed the researchers to take measurements of their hearts size, weight, and function using MRI. The study revealed a strong correlation between living next to a busy road and therefore being exposed to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and developing enlarged right and left heart ventricles. The researchers note that ventricle enlargement of this type is often seen in the early stages of heart failure. Furthermore, Dr. Aung and team found a dose-response relationship between pollution exposure and changes in heart anatomy. Using fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to measure air pollution particles, the scientists found that the heart ventricles enlarged by 1 percent for every microgram of PM2.5 per cubic meter and for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of NO2.
The Saturday, Aug. 4 program at Northside Downs featured three divisions of Atlantic Sires Stakes and two divisions of Nova Scotia Stakes with each winner of the Atlantic Sires Stakes lowering the track marks for their division.

Dusty Lane Mavis lowered the track record for two-year-old trotting fillies in a non-wagering $7,880 division of Atlantic Sires Stakes, winning in 2:03.4 and besting the previous mark of 2:08.3 by Glencove Umay.

Little Miss Winnie parked first over to the quarter as Dusty Lane Mavis led in :31. The two battled on the front for the mile with Little Miss Winnie sticking a half-length ahead of Dusty Lane Mavis by the half in 1:02.1. Dusty Lane Mavis then retook control by a neck passing three-quarters in 1:33.1 before extending to a two-length lead into the stretch. Little Miss Winnie faltered while Dusty Lane Titan tipped off the rail to the center of the track and rallied for second, a length and a quarter behind.

Gary Chappell drove and trains Dusty Lane Mavis for owner Daniel Ross. The filly by Armbro Barrister, from the Muscle Mass mare Muscle Mannequin, won her first race in four starts, earning $7,913.

West River Cindy lowered the track record for three-year-old trotting fillies, winning the $8,380 Atlantic Sires Stakes for three-year-old trotters in 2:02.3, besting the previous mark of 2:04.1 set by Rustico Tapdancer.

Sent the odds-on favourite, West River Cindy sat pocket to Buddy White as he led by two lengths through a :30.3 opening quarter. He maintained that lead through a 1:02.3 half and by three-quarters 1:32.3 before West River Cindy popped pocket in pursuit of Buddy White. She edged her head in front at the wire while A Pure Heart chased three lengths back in third.

Owned by Haley Shepherd, West River Cindy returned $3.80 to win. Kenneth MacDonald drove the filly by Armbro Barrister, from the Broadway Hall mare Pannacotta Hanover, for trainer Mary Clare MacDonald. She won her third race in four starts this season and in 14 overall, earning $18,326.

Buckaroo blew away his competition winning the second $8,380 Atlantic Sires Stakes for three-year-old trotters, scoring with an eight-and-one-half length victory in 1:59.4 and besting the previous record of 2:01.2 set by Pick Up Point.

Leading through a :28.3 opening quarter, Buckaroo held an eight-length lead moving into the far turn first time. Pocket-sitter Miss Emerson Ridge closed the gap heading to the half, timed in :59.2, but Buckaroo opened a wider margin heading to three-quarters.

Windmeredontuworry took second as Miss Emerson Ridge gave chase 13 lengths behind Buckaroo in 1:29.2. Windmeredontuworry, the odds-on favourite, continued to chase through the stretch while Dora took third from Never Fear about 18 lengths farther back.

A gelding by Tad The Stud from the Keyston Nordic mare Buckling Banbury, Buckaroo won his second race in six starts this season and his eighth in 19 overall, earning $37,011. Marc Campbell drove the Bo Ford trainee for owners Larry & Kathy Chappell and paid $5.00 to win.

Windemerebarrister won the other division of the Atlantic Sires Stakes Two-Year-Old Trot in 2:07.2 as the 8/5 favourite.

Jareds Courage held a two-length lead through a :32.3 opening quarter while Windemerebarrister trailed the on-stride field by 11 lengths. She quickly recovered that ground to charge first over against Jareds Courage to the half in 1:06.3 before rushing to take the lead. Windemerebarrister opened a four-and-a-half length lead by three-quarters in 1:36.2 and maintained an open-length margin through the stretch ahead of Jareds Courage in second and Ableway in third.

Owned by Gregory Francis, Sualsbrook Stables and Jennifer Baxter, Windemerebarrister, winning her second race in four starts, has earned $8,093. William McNeil trains and drove the $5.10 winner.

Fern Hill Dynamic kicked off a rail trip to the center of the course to win the first of two $4,887 divisions of Nova Scotia Stakes for two-year-old pacing colts in 2:00.3.

Notorious brushed to the lead wide of Itssammyfrommiami through a :28.3 opening quarter. Notorious continued on the lead while Fern Hill Dynamic recouped nine lengths from third by the half in :58.3.

Itssammyfrommiami pulled first over heading to three quarters with Fern Hill Dynamic tracking cover from three lengths away. Leading through three-quarters in 1:29.4, Notorious maintained control into the stretch but Fern Hill Dynamic ranged into contention, tipped wide and slid to a neck victory over the favourite. Itssammyfrommiami finished a length behind in third.

By Western Paradise from the Willow Bird mare Helen O Grace, Fern Hill Dynamic won his first race in five starts, earning $8,379. Daniel Romo drove the Tom Weatherbie trainee for owners David Kennedy and Ian Smith. He paid $8.90 to win.

Mrs Browns Boy won the other Nova Scotia Stake with a first-over trip by a half length in 2:00.3.

American Sonic set the pace from the rail, leading through a :30 opening quarter before Mrs Browns Boy edged wide moving to the half. He continued to race wide two lengths off the lead while American Sonic paced to the half in 1:01.4 and through three-quarters in 1:30.4. Breaking into the stretch, Mrs Browns Boy and pocket-sitter Feelin Haggard circumvented the galloping hazard and were a half-length apart into the stretch. Mrs Browns Boy then held off a late bid from Howmac Finale from second over to grab victory. Feelin Haggard held third.

A gelding by Malicious from the Coastocoast Yankee mare J J Solara, Mrs Browns Boy, owned by Morah Kerr and Phonsie Maceachern, won his first race in four starts, earning $7,325. Mary Clare MacDonald trains and drove the $7.10 winner.

Accelerator swept to a two-and-a-half length win in the $1,200 Winners Over Pace in 1:59.3. The five-year-old stallion by Driven To Win sat off a :29.4 opening quarter set by Brother John before moving second over into a 1:00 half. Continuing second over while Burn Em Up Burr pressured the leader from first-over through a 1:29.4 third-quarter, Accelerator edged wide of his cover into the stretch and powered to the top in the final stages. Burn Em Up Burr took second from Rockrockwhosthere.

Owned and trained by Robert Blanchard, Accelerator won his third race in eight starts this season and his 12th in 60 overall, earning $12,097. Mark Pezzarello piloted the $8.60 winner.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Northside Downs.

To view Saturday's special card results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Northside Downs.
Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mostly drifting lower during morning trading on Friday, with the complex coming under pressure from a combination of US-China trade tensions and a firmer dollar.Weakness was the dominant theme across the SHFE base metals complex this morning with only aluminium and zinc managing to secure any gains, albeit marginal ones.Check Metal Bulletin's live futures report here Labor unrest has spread throughout South America and threatens to envelop the entire continent and flip the copper market back into a sustained deficit after a strike vote at Chile's largest copper mine (by production).Mergers and acquisitions in the metals and mining sector may have slowed overall but battery metals deal activity has begun to accelerate , according to a report by consultancy EY.Chinas steel consumption is expected to grow by 1-2% in 2018 , major steel producer ArcelorMittal said in an earnings report on Wednesday.The pig iron export market in the Commonwealth of Independent States has softened on falling scrap prices , sources told Metal Bulletin on Thursday.
Charles Ed Mullinax, 85, of Amherst, Ohio, passed away on Saturday, August 4, 2018, in Port Orange, Fla., and enjoyed his final days surrounded by the family he loved.

Mullinax is survived by his wife of 58 years, Janet (Kline); sons, Larry (Lisa) and Jerry (Denise); daughter, Terri (Andre) Jones; and eight grandchildren, Brad (Sarah), Claire, Anastasia, Grant, Clayton, Cole, Lindsay and Kellie.

He was born of humble beginnings in Ellijay, Ga., on April 4, 1933 to William and Clarissa (McAlpine) Mullinax. He always bragged about his Georgia roots, although he spent most of his life in Ohio. He graduated from Stow (Ohio) High School in 1952, earning eight varsity letters in football, baseball and basketball. He briefly attended Wilmington College, where he played football, before joining the Army and becoming a paratrooper and M. P. with the 82nd Airborne Special Forces Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

After the military, he worked at the Mohawk Rubber Company, the Ford Engine plant and spent a short time at Kent State University before finding a job in 1957 that would turn out to be a career: selling cars. He sold cars at several dealerships, then advanced to used car manager at Graham Ford in Akron in 1963 and then part owner of George DiFeo Ford in North Canton in 1967. In 1970, he opened his first dealership, Ed Mullinax Ford, in Amherst, Ohio. He was a great leader and tremendous marketer who transformed this previously closed business into the fifth largest Ford dealership in America. He owned 17 Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships throughout his career and in the mid-1990s became the largest Ford retailer in the USA.

Mullinax was an innovator and in 1975, he invented one-price selling by putting his best, non-negotiable price on every windshield to make car buying easier for the customer. He built the world's largest indoor showroom, which could display 120 cars. He created a jingle, Ed Mullinax is a Friend of Mine, that would become known by all in Northeast Ohio. He was selected by Automotive News in their 50 Visionary Dealers of all time.

He touched many lives during his lifetime, whether it was donating to charities or teaching people how to succeed in the car business. He was especially proud that many Mullinax employees, including his own sons, went on to become managers, general managers and even dealers with their own stores.

Mullinax entered the harness racing business in 1993 and owned many horses, including P Forty Seven, the 2005 winner of the Little Brown Jug in Delaware, Ohio. He also owned Dragon Ranch Golf Course, named after his best horse, Dragon Again.

He loved playing golf, horse racing, Cleveland sports, talking politics, challenges, competition, anything American and the great friendships he had being a member of the Amherst Noonday Club. He was also a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church.

He said, "I'd hate to leave this world having lived a boring life." God blessed him with a wonderful life that was anything but boring.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Alden and Wayne; sister, Arlene Albright; and his father-in-law and mother-in-law, John and Rose Kline.

Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 11 a.m. on Friday (August 10) at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church, 4675 S. Clyde Morris Boulevard, Port Orange, FL 32129. Private burial will be in Cape Canaveral National Cemetery, Mims, Fla.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Halifax Health Hospice, 3800 Woodbriar Trail, Port Orange, FL 32129 or to a charity of your choice.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Ed Mullinax.

(USTA)
Retired Marine infantry officer Joe L'Etoile remembers when training money for his unit was so short "every man got four blanks; then we made butta-butta-bang noises" and "threw dirt clods for grenades."

Now, L'Etoile is director of the Defense Department's Close Combat Lethality Task Force and leading an effort to manage $2.5 billion worth of DoD investments into weapons, unmanned systems, body armor, training and promising new technology for a group that has typically ranked the lowest on the U.S. military's priority list: the grunts.

But the task force's mission isn't just about funding high-tech new equipment for Army, Marine and special operations close-combat forces. It is also digging into deeply entrenched policies and making changes to improve unit cohesion, leadership and even the methods used for selecting individuals who serve in close-combat formations.

Launched in February, the new joint task force is a top priority of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps infantry officer himself. With this level of potent support, L'Etoile is able to navigate through the bureaucratic strongholds of the Pentagon that traditionally favor large weapons programs such as Air Force fighters and Navy ships.

"This is a mechanism that resides at the OSD level, so it's fairly quick; we are fairly nimble," L'Etoile told Military.com on July 25. "And because this is the secretary's priority ... the bureaucracies respond well because the message is the secretary's."

Before he's done, L'Etoile said, the task force will "reinvent the way the squad is perceived within the department."

"I would like to see the squad viewed as a weapons platform and treated as such that its constituent parts matter," he said. "We would never put an aircraft onto the flight line that didn't have all of its parts, but a [Marine] squad that only has 10 out of 13? Yeah. Deploy it. Put it into combat. We need to take a look at what that costs us. And fundamentally, I believe down at my molecular level, we can do better."

Improving the Squad

Mattis' Feb. 8 memo to the service secretaries, Joint Chiefs of Staff and all combatant commands announcing the task force sent a shockwave through the force, stating "personnel policies, advances in training methods, and equipment have not kept pace with changes in available technology, human factors, science, and talent management best practices."

To L'Etoile, the task force is not out to fix what he describes as the U.S. military's "phenomenal" infantry and direct-action forces.

"Our charter is really just to take it to the next level," he said. "In terms of priorities, the material solution is not my number-one concern."

Gifted Grunts

For starters, the task force is looking at ways to identify Marines and soldiers who possess the characteristics and qualities that will make an infantry squad more efficient in the deadly art of close combat.

The concept is murky, but "we are investing in some leading-edge science to get at the question of what are the attributes to be successful in close combat and how do you screen for those attributes?" L'Etoile said. "How do you incentivize individuals with those attributes to come on board to the close-combat team, to stick their hand in the air for an infantry MOS?"

Col. Joey Polanco, the Army service lead at the task force, said it is evaluating several screening programs, some that rely on "big data and analytics to see if this individual would be a better fit for, say, infantry or close-combat formations."

Polanco, an infantry officer who has served in the 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain divisions, said the task force is also looking at ways to incentivize these individuals to "want to continue to stay infantry."

L'Etoile said the task force is committed to changing policy to help fix a "wicked problem" in the Marine Corps of relying too heavily on corporals instead of sergeants to lead infantry squads.

"In the Marine Corps, there are plenty of squads that are being led by corporals instead of sergeants, and there are plenty of squads being led by lance corporals instead of corporals," he said. "I led infantry units in combat. There is a difference when a squad is led by a lance corporal -- no matter how stout his heart and back -- and a sergeant leading them."

Every Marine must be ready to take on leadership roles, but filling key leader jobs with junior enlisted personnel instead of sergeants degrades unit cohesion, L'Etoile said.

"When four guys are best buddies and they went to boot camp together and they go drinking beer together on the weekends ... and then one day the squad leader rotates and it's 'Hey Johnson, you are now the squad leader,' the human dynamics of that person becoming an effective leader with folks that were his peers is difficult to overcome," he said.

It's equally important to stabilize the squad's leadership so that "the squad leader doesn't show up three months before a deployment but is there in enough time to get that cohesion with his unit, his fire team leaders and his squad members," L'Etoile said. "Having the appropriate grade, age-experience level and training is really, really important."

The Army is compiling data to see if that issue is a persistent problem in its squads.

"When we get the data back, we will have a better idea of how do we increase the cohesion of an Army squad, and I think what you are going to find is, it needs its own solution, if there in fact is a problem," L'Etoile said.

No Budget, But Deep Pockets

Just weeks after the first U.S. combat forces went into Afghanistan in late 2001, the Army, Marine Corps and U.S. Special Operations Command began modernizing and upgrading individual and squad weapons and gear.

Since then, equipment officials have labored to field lighter body armor, more efficient load-bearing gear and new weapons to make infantry and special operations forces more lethal.

But the reality is, there is only so much money budgeted toward individual kit and weapons when other service priorities, such as armored vehicles and rotary-wing aircraft, need modernizing as well.

The task force has the freedom to look at where the DoD is "investing its research dollars and render an opinion on whether those dollars are being well spent," L'Etoile said. "I have no money; I don't want money. I don't want to spend the next two years managing a budget. That takes a lot of time and energy.

"But I am very interested in where money goes. So, for instance, if there is a particular close-combat capability that I believe represents a substantive increase in survivability, lethality -- you name it -- for a close-combat formation, and I see that is not being funded at a meaningful level, step one is to ask why," he continued. "Let's get informed on the issue ... and then if it makes sense, go advocate for additional funding for that capability."

The task force currently has reprogramming or new funding requests worth up to $2.5 billion for high-tech equipment and training efforts that L'Etoile would not describe in detail.

"I have a number of things that are teed up ... it's premature for me to say," he said. "In broad categories, we have active requests for additional funding in sensing; think robots and [unmanned aerial systems]. We have requests for additional funding of munitions for training and additional tactical capabilities [and] additional funding for training adversaries, so you get a sparring partner as well as a heavy bag."

The task force is requesting additional money for advanced night-vision equipment and synthetic-training technologies. L'Etoile also confirmed that it helped fund the Army's $500 million effort to train and equip the majority of its active brigade combat teams to fight in large, subterranean complexes like those that exist in North Korea.

"We can go to the department and say, 'This is of such importance that I think the department should shine a light on it and invest in it,' " he said.

Endorsing Futuristic Kit

One example of this is the task force's interest in an Army program to equip its infantry units with a heads-up display designed to provide soldiers with a digital weapon-sight reticle, as well as tactical data about the immediate battlefield environment.

"The big thing is the Heads-Up Display 3.0. I would tell you that is one of the biggest things we are pushing," Polanco said. "It's focused primarily on helping us improve lethality, situational awareness, as well as our mobility."

The Army is currently working on HUD 1.0, which involves a thermal weapon sight mounted on the soldier's weapon that can wirelessly transmit the sight reticle into the new dual-tubed Enhanced Night Vision Goggle III B.

The system can also display waypoints and share information with other soldiers in the field, Army officials said.

The HUD 3.0 will draw on the synthetic training environment -- one of the Army's key priorities for modernizing training -- and allow soldiers to train and rehearse in a virtual training environment, as well as take into combat.

The service has already had soldiers test the HUD 1.0 version and provide feedback.

"If you look at the increased lethality just by taking that thermal reticle off of the weapon and putting it up into their eye, the testing has been off the chart," Brig. Gen. Christopher Donahue, director of the Army's Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team, said at the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium earlier this year.

The Army tried for years in the 1990s to accomplish this with its Land Warrior program, but it could be done only by running bulky cables from the weapon sight to the helmet-mounted display eyepiece. Soldiers found it too awkward and a snag hazard, so the effort was eventually shelved.

"Whatever we want to project up into that reticle -- that tube -- it's pretty easy," Donahue said. "It's just a matter of how you get it and how much data. We don't want too much information in there either ... we've got to figure that out."

The initial prototypes of the HUD 3.0 are scheduled to be ready in 18 months, he added.

"It is really a state-of-the art capability that allows you to train as you fight from a synthetic training environment standpoint to a live environment," Polanco said, adding that the task force has submitted a request to the DoD to find funding for the HUD 3.0.

"One of the things we have been able to do as a task force is we have endorsed and advocated strongly for this capability. ... It's going forward as a separate item that we are looking for funding on," he said.

Perhaps the biggest challenge before the task force is how to ensure all these efforts to make the squad more lethal will not be undone when Mattis is no longer in office.

"We ask ourselves every time we step up to the plate to take on one of these challenges, how do we make it enduring?" L'Etoile said.

"How do we ensure that the progress we make is not unwound when the priorities shift? So it's important when you take these things on that you are mindful that there ought to be an accompanying policy because ... they can't just get unwound overnight," he said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date.
Regions containing this locality

Caribbean Plate Tectonic Plate Central America Region

Select Mineral List Type Standard Detailed Strunz Dana Chemical Elements

Detailed Mineral List:  Chalcopyrite Formula: CuFeS 2 Reference: U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.  Galena Formula: PbS Reference: U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.  Gold Formula: Au Reference: Rocks & Min.: 22:119.; U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.  Marcasite Formula: FeS 2 Reference: U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.  Pyrite Formula: FeS 2 Reference: U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.  Pyrrhotite Formula: Fe 7 S 8 Reference: U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.  Quartz Formula: SiO 2 Reference: U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.  Sphalerite Formula: ZnS Reference: U.S. Geological Survey (2005) Mineral Resources Data System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification Group 1 - Elements  Gold 1.AA.05 Au Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts  Chalcopyrite 2.CB.10a CuFeS 2  Galena 2.CD.10 PbS  Marcasite 2.EB.10a FeS 2  Pyrite 2.EB.05a FeS 2  Pyrrhotite 2.CC.10 Fe 7 S 8  Sphalerite 2.CB.05a ZnS Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides  Quartz 4.DA.05 SiO 2

List of minerals arranged by Dana 8th Edition classification Group 1 - NATIVE ELEMENTS AND ALLOYS Metals, other than the Platinum Group  Gold 1.1.1.1 Au Group 2 - SULFIDES A m X p , with m:p = 1:1  Galena 2.8.1.1 PbS  Pyrrhotite 2.8.10.1 Fe 7 S 8  Sphalerite 2.8.2.1 ZnS A m B n X p , with (m+n):p = 1:1  Chalcopyrite 2.9.1.1 CuFeS 2 A m B n X p , with (m+n):p = 1:2  Marcasite 2.12.2.1 FeS 2  Pyrite 2.12.1.1 FeS 2 Group 75 - TECTOSILICATES Si Tetrahedral Frameworks Si Tetrahedral Frameworks - SiO 2 with [4] coordinated Si  Quartz 75.1.3.1 SiO 2

List of minerals for each chemical element O Oxygen O  Quartz SiO 2 Si Silicon Si  Quartz SiO 2 S Sulfur S  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 S  Galena PbS S  Marcasite FeS 2 S  Pyrite FeS 2 S  Pyrrhotite Fe 7 S 8 S  Sphalerite ZnS Fe Iron Fe  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 Fe  Marcasite FeS 2 Fe  Pyrite FeS 2 Fe  Pyrrhotite Fe 7 S 8 Cu Copper Cu  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 Zn Zinc Zn  Sphalerite ZnS Au Gold Au  Gold Au Pb Lead Pb  Galena PbS

Regional Geology

A gold mine owned by the Agua Fria Mining Co.The closed mine was once the second largest in the country.Free gold in oxide zone, complex sulfides at depth, averages 1 oz/ton au. Thickness 1-6 ft, length 200-1400 ft, maximum depth 400 ft. Unknown size criteria As reported by icaitaJ.c. Denton acquired property in 1924 and blocked out 30,000 tons or ore; in 1935 sold to cia minera agua fria who built 50 ton/day cyanide/flotation mill. ; mill.cap: 120 ton/day flotationThin bedded shales and massive gray quartzites form NW limb of syncline that plunges SW. They are intruded by a hornblende-biotite granodiorite about 2000 ft in diameter.

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Honduras Group Age: Mesozoic (66 - 201.3 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Agua Fria Formation; El Plan Formation; Todos Santos Formation Description: Consists of the Agua Fria Formation, the El Plan Formation, and a superior siliciclastic unit (previously known as the Todos Santos Formation). Agua Fria beds are generally composed of thin bedded black shales and tan sandstones. Massive sandstones and coal beds are also present. Comments: Sedimentary siliciclastic, continental Lithology: Shale, sandstone, coal Reference: Wieczorek, G.F., W.L. Newell, P.G. Chirico, G.S. Gohn, R. Nardini, T. Putbrese. Preliminary digital geologic map database for Honduras. U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-774. [113] Paleozoic crystalline metamorphic rocks Age: Phanerozoic (251.902 - 358.9 Ma) Lithology: Crystalline metamorphic rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References

Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A)

Rocks & Minerals (xxxx) 22, 119. Roberts, R.J. and Irving, E.M. (1957) Mineral Deposits in Central America. United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1034, 176-178.
How to use the mindat.org media viewer

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Summary of all keyboard shortcuts
10:36pm: There is nothing official between Holland and the Nationals yet, Chelsea Janes tweets, though it seems like a deal will indeed happen eventually.

9:58pm: The two sides have reached an agreement, Heyman tweets.

1:19pm: It appears the two sides are moving toward a deal, Jon Heyman of Fancred reports.

11:42am: The Nationals and free-agent reliever Greg Holland are in discussions on a contract, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post reports. Theyre one of several teams to show interest in the Scott Boras client since the Cardinals released him on Friday.

On paper, Holland would help replenish a Washington bullpen which lost fellow right-handers Brandon Kintzler (traded to the Cubs) and Shawn Kelley (designated for assignment) earlier this week. However, both Kintzler and Kelley have outpitched Holland, who endured a shockingly poor stint as a member of the Cardinals.

Thanks to his past work as a closer with the Royals and Rockies, Holland secured a $14MM guarantee from the Cardinals on Opening Day. That came after Holland unexpectedly sat on the open market for the entire offseason, and its likely that not getting to partake in spring training contributed to his subpar St. Louis tenure. Regardless, Holland posted an equally peculiar and unacceptable line with St. Louis, where he notched a 7.92 ERA with 7.92 K/9 and 7.92 BB/9 over 25 innings (32 appearances). Consequently, despite the Redbirds sizable investment in Holland  whose signing also cost them their second-round pick in 2019  they cut the cord on him after four months.

Landing Holland would be a far less risky play for the Nationals than it was for the Cards, as hed only cost the Nats the prorated league minimum through seasons end. Reeling him in would also add yet another Boras client to a roster which already has seven such players, give Holland a chance to rebuild his stock going into the offseason and perhaps help keep Washington in contention. At 56-54, the Nationals will enter play Sunday trailing the NL East-leading Phillies by six games and a wild-card spot by 4 1/2.
Although this has been a nightmarish year for the Mets, it doesnt appear rookie manager Mickey Callaways job is in jeopardy. Even if the Mets hire a new general manager, Callaway is expected to return in 2019, Steven Marcus of Newsday reports. Sandy Alderson, the GM who played a key part in hiring Callaway last offseason, went on leave in June to battle cancer. Whether the soon-to-be 71-year-old Alderson will return to his post in 2019 is unclear, but in the meantime, the Mets have essentially been utilizing tri-GMs in John Ricco, J.P. Ricciardi and Omar Minaya. Any of those three could be candidates for the teams full-time GM role if Alderson doesnt come back next year, but regardless of who ultimately holds the position, it seems that individual will be working with Callaway.

Heres more from the National League
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Just a few finishing touches and final inspections are needed this week for the debut of Haute at New Hotel Mertens.

The 9th floor, rooftop lounge at 35 Oakes St. SW in downtown Grand Rapids will offer spectacular views of the city skyline and will seat about 40 people, said Anthony Tangorra, restaurant director and Managing Member of Mertens Hospitality LLC.

The lounge will feature a French menu of charcuterie, fresh seafood, substantial hors d'oeuvres and a full bar serving cocktails, wine and beer, he added.

Haute is expected to open as early as Wednesday (Aug. 8, 2018), but could take a few more days. It will be open through Oct. 31 or as the weather permits.

Diners will gain access through the restaurant's main street-level entrance where a hostess will indicate hours and availability.

Learn more about the menu and other offerings:

More info at newhotelmertens.com.
ANN ARBOR, MI - An out-of-town group that's declining to disclose its campaign funders is trying to influence the outcome of the Tuesday, Aug. 7 Democratic primary in Ann Arbor.

In recent days, a Lansing-based organization called the Great Lakes Renaissance Fund has sent campaign mailers to Ann Arbor households, attacking certain candidates for the City Council and Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners.

The motivations behind the campaign are unclear and the funders are unknown.

Separately, a local nonprofit called the Library Green Conservancy, which is in favor of creating a downtown central park on the city-owned Library Lot and is at odds with the mayor and his allies, also has sent out mailers to remind voters how the mayor and his allies on council voted on the issue. The local nonprofit group also is not disclosing its funders and says it doesn't have to do so.

Some local residents and political candidates are now concerned it appears thousands of dollars in "dark money" is coming into play in Ann Arbor races, and some argue the attacks in the Renaissance Fund's mailers are misleading or false.

For instance, one candidate who maintains he's pro-choice is accused of being anti-choice on abortion.

Targeted by the Renaissance Fund's attacks are 1st Ward council candidate Jeff Hayner, 2nd Ward council candidate Kathy Griswold, 4th Ward council candidate Elizabeth Nelson, and Washtenaw County Commissioner Conan Smith, D-Ann Arbor. It's unclear if there are others or if more mailers may be coming before Tuesday.

With the exception of Smith, those being attacked are all opponents of the City Council majority led by Mayor Christopher Taylor.

Taylor and some of his allies on council have joined their opponents in denouncing the attack mailers, as have both Smith and Katie Scott, Smith's opponent in the District 9 county board race.

Candidates say the Renaissance Fund mailers are disappointing and not how political campaigns should be conducted.

"My campaign has been, and will continue to be, unfailingly positive and focused on what we can do to improve the lives of residents in Ann Arbor," Taylor said, adding he had no advance knowledge of the mailers or the group sending them. "I oppose negative materials, whether distributed by campaigns or otherwise."

Political consultant T.J. Bucholz, president of Vanguard Public Affairs in Lansing, is executive director of the Great Lakes Renaissance Fund, a political organization that's organized under Section 527 of the federal Internal Revenue Code. The mailers arriving in Ann Arbor mailboxes disclose that they're paid for by the group, but Bucholz says the group has no legal obligation to disclose its funders.

Bucholz said the organization supports progressive causes in Michigan and complies with all laws.

He declined to say who's funding the mailers in Ann Arbor or the motivations behind them.

"I'm not going to tell you that, because I'm not obligated to do so," he said. "We follow the law in Michigan."

Ann Arbor resident Jen Eyer, a former political opponent of Smith and Hayner and an outspoken critic of the candidates targeted by the Renaissance Fund's attacks, works with Bucholz at Vanguard as senior vice president of branding and development.

Eyer, a former MLive/Ann Arbor News employee, said she's not involved with the Renaissance Fund or the mailers.

The Renaissance Fund, as a 527 organization, is not required to file campaign finance disclosures with the state of Michigan, but at least one of its funders has disclosed donations in the past.

Campaign finance reports filed by the Michigan Pipe Trades Association Super PAC, which gets its money from plumbers and pipefitters unions across the state, show the Super PAC gave $20,075 to the Renaissance Fund in 2017.

According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, the Renaissance Fund was one of multiple "dark money" groups behind attacks against Flint Mayor Karen Weaver in a recall election last November. The group put out an ad criticizing Weaver for choosing "not to hire licensed workers to replace our damaged pipes."

"The ads against Weaver are examples of the role of outside spenders in Michigan elections. These spenders can raise unlimited amounts money, and their efforts to influence voters can be difficult -- and sometimes impossible -- to trace," the network reported.

The Pipe Trades Association did not report any contributions to the Renaissance Fund this year, but it has reported giving more than $45,000 this year and $52,000 last year to Vanguard.

Bucholz said the Renaissance Fund and Vanguard are completely separate, and the money the Pipe Trades Association has given to Vanguard is solely for ongoing public affairs consulting services.

A spokesperson for the Pipe Trades Association couldn't be reached for comment.

Some local political insiders are theorizing that union interests may be funding attacks against City Council candidates opposed to building a 17-story high-rise on the city-owned Library Lot, a project that could employ many skilled trades workers.

And in the case of the race between Smith and Scott, some are theorizing Smith is being attacked by the Renaissance Fund because his opponent is backed by various union groups.

Bucholz declined to comment on that other than to say the Renaissance Fund has supported pro-union candidates in the past and is likely to do so again in the future.

Ann Arbor City Council Member Jack Eaton, a retired labor attorney who is challenging Taylor in the Democratic primary for mayor, said he hasn't seen a mailer attacking him, but he's disappointed in the ones he has seen in other races and attacks he's seen online.

"I'm really disappointed because, for the most part, I think that Mayor Taylor is a good and decent guy, but it's unfortunate that his supporters have just gone on the attack, and I think that really what it indicates is a sense of desperation," he said.

Scott said she recently received the mailer attacking Smith, her opponent in the race for the county board seat representing Ann Arbor's west side, and she was taken aback by it.

"I was like, where did this come from? And my stomach sort of dropped, because I was like, who is doing this?" she said, adding she had to research to find out about the Renaissance Fund.

The mailer attacking Smith encourages voters to Google him, and includes screenshots of old news stories, including one from 2011 in which it was alleged that Smith improperly collected $591 in per diem payments from the county, a matter he and the county have since resolved, and another from 2016 when he faced criticism for seeking a full-time county job and ended up dropping out of the running.

Smith said he's not sure what's motivating whoever is funding the attacks against him.

"Since you don't know who is doing it, you can't really assess their motivations," he said.

"This could be somebody local who just doesn't like me," he said, adding it also might be somebody who doesn't like that he sits on state-level boards and is a progressive voice.

"It's kind of abhorrent," he said of the mailers. "I've never negative-campaigned in any of my races. I think it has no good place in our democracy."

Scott agreed negative ads are not her style, and she's concerned they turn people off and make them disengage from politics.

The mailer attacking Hayner, who is running for an open 1st Ward council seat against Ron Ginyard, states that he's pro-guns, anti-choice and anti-progressive, and that he thinks Ann Arbor residents are "douchebag yuppies." It includes some of his tweets about gun control and abortion, tweets he maintains are taken out of context.

One states, "We demand the right to abortions! Also, ban guns before any more of our precious children are killed! See how stupid that sounds? 'Leftists', go right ahead & have all the abortions you want, you're doing the world a favor. #Overpopulation #WaterPlanet"

In an interview, Hayner explained that tweet by saying he was "trolling" some "fake leftists" and he knew some would take it out of context and think it's outrageous.

Hayner said he considers himself a "pretty liberal guy," both pro-choice and in favor of gun control reforms.

As for the other claim in the mailer, Hayner did tweet he was going to a costume party "as a douchebag yuppie that's ruining A2." Asked about that remark recently, Hayner said, "We certainly have our fair share. I mean, who pays seven bucks for a cup of coffee?"

The mailer attacking Griswold, who is trying to unseat 2nd Ward City Council Member Kirk Westphal, states that she fought against funding for schools in 2009, led a campaign against funding for mental health and public safety, and fought against increased funding for Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority services.

Griswold has campaigned against a number of tax proposals in recent years, including the 2014 AAATA transit expansion millage and a 2009 school enhancement millage.

She also spoke out against a countywide mental health and public safety tax proposal ahead of the vote on it last November. She said she opposed it because she thinks it was deceitful and the ballot language did not clearly state how the funds would be used.

Westphal said he's disappointed to see the negative mailer attacking his opponent.

"I'm just focused on speaking with voters and coming up with solutions that help our residents," he said.

Griswold said she considers the mailers "hit pieces" and thinks the group behind them is using questionable tactics.

"I just think it's multiple layers between who's funding it and who's actually named on the postcard, and if you Google that name you're not getting much information about them, so there's obviously an attempt to withhold information from the public in terms of who's funding this campaign," Griswold said.

Griswold said she thinks the mailer attacking her is "almost comical" and "not very sophisticated." She said she's more concerned about the one attacking Nelson, who is trying to unseat 4th Ward City Council Member Graydon Krapohl on Tuesday.

That mailer notes Nelson sent fake city notices to her neighbors in 2006, telling them they were in violation of a made-up city ordinance for not finishing painting their garage for more than two years, and it notes police said forging a city document is illegal and people can be prosecuted for that. Nelson said it was a joke and was never charged.

Bucholz said he believes the assertions made in the mailers his group distributed are 100-percent true.

"We are just letting voters know the facts," he said.

He declined to say how many mailers have been sent or how much money is being spent.

The Library Green Conservancy's mailers encourage Ann Arbor residents to vote in Tuesday's primary, while reminding voters that Taylor and his allies on the City Council voted against putting a downtown park proposal on the ballot for voters to decide. The mailers further say those candidates are now trying to add extra wording to the citizen-initiated proposal on the November ballot to state the benefits of selling the Library Lot for development.

"Did your Council member vote to let ANN ARBOR CITIZENS DECIDE about the Library Lot?" the mailer asks. "Did his or her vote represent YOU? VOTE AUG. 7!"

Scio Township resident Will Hathaway said his nonprofit group, the Library Green Conservancy, is registered with the IRS and does not have to legally disclose its donors unless it has crossed the $50,000 threshold, and he said it's nowhere near that point. He said the group's funds are coming from local people.

Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, said he has some concerns about the Library Green Conservancy mailers and whether they cross the line into "electioneering," for which charitable funds raised by nonprofits aren't supposed to be used.

Hathaway said his group was careful not to expressly advocate for or against any candidates, so he believes it meets the rules.

Warpehoski said he's also disappointed in the Great Lakes Renaissance Fund's attack mailers.

He said he's been trying to run a positive campaign. And even though some other candidates have gone negative in their campaign literature, he said, at least they put their names behind their attacks.

"To have the money coming in and you don't know where it's coming from, and it's coming in to give attacks, I think it's what turns people off from civic engagement and government, and I don't think it helps the local dialogue," he said. "I want an honest, issues-focused debate."
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A 1-year-old old girl who went missing late Saturday has been located and is safe, according to Grand Rapids police.

An Amber Alert was cancelled for the case of 20-month-old Jaionna Jayzlyn Ross, who was reported missing before 3 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 5.

Lt. Terry Dixon with Grand Rapids police confirmed that the girl had been found shortly after 11 a.m.

No other information has been released at this time. Dixon said his department will likely issue a limited release on the incident.

Dixon did not disclose where Jaionna was found, how or whether any arrests were made in connection to the incident.

Earlier Sunday morning, Grand Rapids police said the child was with her mother, Jennell Michelle Ross, 27, in Ross's vehicle about 11 p.m. at a gas station near 44th Street and Kalamazoo Avenue SE.

There also was a man named "Terrell" in the vehicle that Ross knew, but did not know his last name.

Police said Ross exited the vehicle and began walking toward the gas station store when the man named Terrell apparently drove off.

Police were called to the scene and soon found Ross's vehicle. It was abandoned and the baby's car seat was still in the vehicle but the baby was gone.

Terrell is described as a black male in his late 20s, about five-feet, eight-inches tall, with medium build but a muscular upper body. He has chin facial hair and hair in braids and is missing a tooth on the upper left side of his mouth that is noticeable when he smiles.

However, it is uncertain if the man known as Terrell is still considered a suspect.

In the Amber Alert, authorities said Ross met Terrell about a month ago and had developed some type of relationship. But when talking to police, she did not know his full name or have a phone number for him.

On Saturday, the two met in a park before eventually arriving at the gas station, according to the Amber Alert.
DETROIT, MI - U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, fired up a crowd for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, just two days before the Michigan's primary election.

"I'm here not only because I support the very bold and progressive ideas of Abdul, but because I appreciate the kind of campaign that he is running," Bernie told the crowd of around 1,400 supporters Sunday afternoon.

El-Sayed is one of three Democrats competing in the Aug. 7 gubernatorial primary. He's strived to portray himself as more progressive than his opponents, Shri Thanedar and Gretchen Whitmer.

At the rally with Sanders - one of two, as the pair are slated to speak in Ypsilanti later on Sunday -- El-Sayed hit on the highlights of his platform in his speech. He wants to "de-DeVos" public schools, guarantee Michiganders safe water, put a $15 minimum wage in place and institute single-payer health care and reverse auto insurance rates.

He also spoke out forcefully against discrimination, including against people for their skin color, ethnicity, sex or being LGBT.

"I'm done waiting while people all over the state are told that they don't belong," El-Sayed said.

Bernie Sanders, too, spoke of an all-inclusive vision. He said the ideas he and El-Sayed had were not radical, they were ideas that resonated with the American people.

And he was dismissive of polls that showed El-Sayed coming in third of three candidates in the primary.

"I understand there has been some discussion here in Michigan about the polling and the fact that Abdul is behind on some of the polls. So let me give you the personal perspective," he said.

Sanders was down 27 points in the polls the day before the primary, he said.

"And that was pretty good, because the poll the day before had me 36 points behind. Well, we won that election. And by the way, so will Abdul," Sanders said.

The crowd was enthusiastic when speakers referenced systemic changes to the health care system. El-Sayed supports single-payer health care.

"We believe that it's time for Democrats to stop pussyfooting and playing around with health care. We need a real health care plan," said Rev. Charles Williams, president of the Michigan National Action Network to a roar of applause.

El-Sayed spoke of his experience leading Detroit's health department and the systemic issues he saw.

Many in the crowd were supporters of both El-Sayed and Sanders. That was the case for Adam Stout, 22, of Marysville, who voted for him in his first ever presidential primary. Sanders' message resonated with Stout, and so does El-Sayed's.

"When the governor's race started and I started to read about Abdul's campaign... it was kind of a no-brainer for me," said Adam Stout, 22, of Marysville, who supported Bernie Sanders in 2016.

He kept checking to see if Sanders had endorsed El-Sayed yet, and when the endorsement finally came he said it built momentum in the days leading up to the election.

"I feel like he came in at the right moment," Stout said of Sanders.

Rawan Khuja, 29, of Dearborn, also supported Sanders. Now she is supporting El-Sayed in the gubernatorial primary. Asked what drew her to his candidacy she said she likes what he stands for and finds it inspiring that he is an Arab-American.

"It shows diversity in our country," she said.

At this rally, speakers focused on helping him get into the governor's mansion.

Nina Turner is president of Our Revolution, a national group that endorsed El-Sayed. She, too, urged people to get to work in the remaining time before the election.

"We're preaching to the choir, but you have got to leave here more committed to give your time, your talent or your treasure," Turner said.

El-Sayed encouraged people to put in the work. There are two days until the election, he said, and it's enough time for volunteers to make a difference.

"It's not about how much time you have, it's about how much of yourself you put in your time," El-Sayed said.

He's one of a number of candidates looking to rally supporters in Southeast Michigan ahead of the primary. Gretchen Whitmer held a rally in Detroit with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan at the same time as the Sanders event on Sunday. Republican candidate for governor Bill Schuette continued his statewide "Time to Win Again" tour in Metro Detroit.

The primary election takes place Aug. 7. The Democratic candidates are El-Sayed, Thanedar and Whitmer. Running on the Republican side are Brian Calley, Patrick Colbeck, Jim Hines and Bill Schuette. The general election takes place on Nov. 6.
JACKSON, MI - Fans of movies, marching bands and everything in between will find something to love at the Jackson Symphony Orchestra's Aug. 24 concert.

The year's annual Summer Pop concert is titled "Movies and Marches," according to a Jackson Symphony Orchestra press release. It will feature a selection of songs from several hit movies, as well as popular marching band anthems.

The show begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, at the CP Federal Square, 212 W. Michigan Ave. General admission for the event is free, and VIP seating and pre-concert reception tickets are available for $30.

Music director Matthew Aubin will conduct the orchestra in theme music from a variety of popular film franchises, including "Star Wars," "Jurassic Park," "Harry Potter," "Frozen," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Lord of the Rings."

The orchestra also will perform military and marching band tunes, including John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever," Bob Lowden's "Armed Forces Salute" and Michigan State University and the University of Michigan fight songs.
PARCHMENT, MI -- Gov. Rick Snyder said he hopes PFAS contamination won't become Michigan's next water crisis, but the state is taking the issue seriously.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is finding per- and polyflourinated substances in public drinking water systems as a statewide investigation continues. A 70 parts per trillion state cleanup standard is based on a 2016 EPA lifetime health advisory, but legislators are calling for the level to be adjusted.

While visiting Parchment, where high levels of PFAS forced 3,100 people to drink bottled water, the governor said it's "premature" to determine if the health advisory should drop.

He acknowledged a draft report by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found the current health advisory could be seven to 10 times higher than levels that would pose a minimal risk to health. Snyder said more information on whether Michigan should lower its health advisory should be coming in "at least a few months."

"A lot is still being learned about PFAS," Snyder said. "This is something people used for a lot of different products and a lot of different ways decades ago, but now we're learning it wasn't such a good thing to do."

According to ATSDR, the toxic compounds are known to increase risk of cancer, kidney disease, thyroid conditions and auto-immune disorders. Both PFOS and PFOA can be found in blood, and at much lower levels in urine, breast milk and in umbilical cord blood.

Before PFAS was found in Parchment, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and Rep. Kildee, D-Flint, sent a July 17 letter to EPA urging it to revise standards to match the ASTR levels. They also supported a bill amending the Safe Drinking Water Act to set a national maximum contaminant level for PFAS.

Upton said on Aug. 5 that he hasn't received a response from the EPA yet. A hearing on PFAS is being scheduled at the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Sunday, Snyder visited one of several sites where the city of Kalamazoo is connecting its water system to Parchment to bring residents to clean drinking water in the near future. Contamination was found in Parchment as part of a statewide testing initiative Snyder launched by in 2017, which is discovering the toxic compounds in water supplies across Michigan.

Snyder said Michigan is leading the nation in identifying PFAS. He applauded the response effort in Parchment, one week after the governor's office declared a state of emergency in Kalamazoo County due to ongoing health and safety concerns.

"We are doing far more, I believe, than any other state because we recognize that this is a serious health issue," Snyder said. "I think you're going to find (PFAS) cropping up more and more across the country, with Michigan hopefully being a role model on how to address it most effectively.

DEQ spokesperson Scott Dean said Michigan is "approaching the halfway mark" of testing all of its 1,380 public water systems and 461 schools. Snyder said the testing effort will likely continue through the end of 2018.

"There is not lab capacity in the entire country to do this faster than that," Snyder said.

Upton said he expects PFAS will be found in other Southwest Michigan communities. The testing began in the region due to its geology and industrial history.

Snyder was not in Michigan to declare the July 29 state of emergency, so Lt. Gov. Brian Calley made the announcement in his place. An estimated 3,100 people in the city of Parchment and parts of Cooper Township were told to stop using water from the tap on July 26.

Two rounds of DEQ tests showed highly contaminated water entering the municipal water system from three source wells. The latest test showed one well was contaminated with PFOS and PFOA, two PFAS compounds, at levels more than 26 times greater than the EPA health advisory.

Long before PFAS was found, the groundwater wells were determined by the DEQ to be highly susceptible to potential contaminants. DEQ officials Sunday said they are not aware of the 16-year-old analysis.

The 2002 source water assessment, required by 1996 amendments to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, found the aquifer is unconfined. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, unconfined aquifers are more sensitive to contamination from external sources.

Dean said the three wells are relatively shallow -- each are under 60-feet-deep -- but said he didn't know if the 2002 assessment was acted on.

Last week, DEQ took samples from 14 monitoring wells a capped paper mill landfill in Cooper Township. The landfill, now owned by the township, is less than a mile south from Parchment's wellfield and both are near the Kalamazoo River's east bank.

Paper-making waste from the adjacent Parchment mill was historically dumped at an 84-acre site near East G Avenue. Officials see it as a possible source of the PFAS contamination.

"It's pretty clear, based on the history, that this particular paper mill did do coated papers," Dean said. "Things like pizza boxes (and) fast food wrappers; we know they can contain PFAS, at least they did back in the day."

Mark DuCharme, DEQ incident management specialist, said staff are investigating whether records exist that would show the use of PFAS in mill operations.

Dean said there are other industrial sites are being considered possible sources. Almost 100 private wells were tested to determine the extent of contamination, and results should be available next week.

Sites associated with paper products in Kalamazoo County have already been found to be discharging the toxic compounds into Kalamazoo's municipal wastewater system.

Parchment hadn't been tested for PFAS before this summer. State officials are still working to determine how long the drinking water may have been contaminated.

After the water system was found to be contaminated, the city of Kalamazoo started working to supply clean water to Parchment.

"This is a permanent solution we are looking at here," Snyder said.

Last week, results of tests at 15 water pumping stations serving the Kalamazoo municipal drinking water system found between 2 parts per trillion and 19 ppt of PFOS and PFOA in three stations. According to environmental chemists, the proposed ATSDR "minimum risk levels" translate roughly to 7-ppt for PFOS and 11-ppt for PFOA.

The connection depends on whether tests taken last week by the DEQ will show low levels of PFAS in Parchment's pipes. Results are expected sometime this week, officials said.

"We want to be very cautious, folks have access to alternative water now, we want to be 100 percent certain that the water coming via Kalamazoo is 100 percent safe for them to drink," Dean said.
Michigan's Supreme Court recently ruled that public school districts can legally ban guns on school property, and at least one area superintendent is calling the decision a victory both for student safety and for local control.

Dr. Michael Shibler, longtime superintendent of Rockford Public Schools, says he is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, but, as with any freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, there ought to be restrictions that come with those protected rights.

"I believe in the constitutional amendment, but I also believe there should be restrictions on that based upon where a person might want to carry a concealed or open carry sidearm," Shibler said. "Because of the way the world is today, we can't be sure of the mental health of anyone coming into our schools.

"I have the responsibility of protecting 8,000 kids, 1,000 employees and any community member that wants to come into our schools, and I take that responsibility very seriously," he said.

Shibler said his job of protecting students and staff has been made a little easier with the state Supreme Court's July 27 ruling on two related cases involving gun rights groups versus Ann Arbor Public Schools and the Clio Area School District, both of which have policies banning firearms on school property.

Rockford has had a weapons-free policy in place for some time. In addition, the school system has maintained a security department comprised of retired law enforcement professionals since 1998 and, more recently, equipped all district buildings with entrant vestibules and shatterproof first-floor windows.

Even so, Shibler said the court's decision was not insignificant, as it served to reaffirm schools' right to set their own policies regarding weapons on school property.

"We have signs on the front of every building that say 'weapon-free zone,' which means if you're going to carry a gun, you're going to be stopped and questioned and we'll discuss the need for you to even have an open-carry or concealed carry (firearm)," he said.

"We've already set that policy ... and people who wish to carry a sidearm or a rifle into our schools, whether they have the correct CPL training or not, the answer would be no, you're not going to do that - just because of the serious responsibility that I have to make sure that our students and our community members and staff are safe."

Shibler, who has testified before the State Legislature on weapons issues on a handful of occasions over the last several years, said he respects the opinions of those who stand on the other side of this issue, but he also believes he has to look at the guns-in-schools question from a different perspective in his capacity as an administrator.

"I've talked with people who are on the other side of the issue, who believe in the fact that they can carry open or concealed carry weapons into public places, including schools, and we've had a polite debate about those issues," Shibler said. "I respect their position ... but the fact is I have a responsibility that they don't have.

"I believe that local communities ought to be able to define what their expectations are for their public schools systems, and I've always been a strong advocate for local control.

"Our schools are safe, as safe as they humanly can be made safe in Rockford," he added. "No public area can be completely safe -- it just can't be -- but we're doing everything we possibly can here in Rockford ... to make our public facilities as safe as possible."
Tyre major Ceat plans to invest around Rs 2,000 crore over the next three to five years on setting up a new manufacturing facility in Chennai.

The first phase of the plant is expected to start production in 2019. The RPG Enterprise flagship firm has already acquired a 163-acre parcel of land for the project.

"The company is setting up a greenfield plant with an estimated investment of approximately Rs 2,000 crore to be spent over three to five years," Ceat said in its annual report for 2017-18.

Civil work for the first phase of the project has begun and the plant is expected to begin production in the next 12 months, it added.

Ceat will start with passenger car radial tyres at the plant with an initial capacity of around 250 tonnes per day. It also plans to utilise the facility for exports.

The company currently ships tyres to more than 100 countries.

Ceat has manufacturing facilities at Bhandup, Mumbai, Nashik, Halol and Nagpur. Besides, it also has an off-highway tyre manufacturing plant at Ambernath, Maharashtra, which commenced commercial production in last fiscal.

Ceat meets its production through in-house plants and secures the rest from various outsourcing partners on the conversion-cost basis and bought-out basis.

It also operates in Sri Lanka through a 50:50 joint venture named Ceat Kelani Holdings Company (Private).

In the domestic market, the company has a distribution network of more than 4,500 dealers and over 30,000 sub-dealers.
Aadhaar Card

In light of Googles admission that the inclusion of now-defunct Aadhaar helpline number in some phones was their fault, the parent body of Aadhaar, Unique Identification Authority of India, has slammed entities with vested interests who were criticising the body for it.

In another statement released on Sunday, the UIDAI condemned the vested interests who tried to misuse Googles inadvertent act as an opportunity to spread rumours and go around fear-mongering against Aadhaar.

The UIDAI said that the messages that "the helpline number mysteriously popped into the contact list and will be harmful" are being spread via Twitter and WhatsApp. It reiterated that the claims were unfounded.

This is totally false propaganda and is nothing but scare-mongering against Aadhaar by vested interests trying to exploit Googles act to spread misinformation about Aadhaar by scaring people, UIDAI said.

It must be clearly understood that by merely having a helpline number that, too, an outdated one, on a mobile/smartphone, no harm can be caused. Just by a helpline number in a mobiles contact list the data stored on the mobile phone cannot be stolen. Therefore, there should be no panic to delete the number as no harm will be caused.

The UIDAI also suggested the users to rather update the existing number to the correct helpline number 1947.

After public outrage over Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Google had on Saturday accepted that the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the setup wizard of the Android release and distributed to mobile manufacturers. The company also apologised for the error.

However, the critics have raised questions on Googles admission asking why UIDAIs number was added to the code, not some other.

By the way, this is an opportunity for you (Google) to be transparent. Please disclose the details of the deal you made with the Indian government, French security expert who goes under the pseudonym Elliot Alderson and describes himself as "worst nightmare" of the UIDAI said.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav today announced a cash award of Rs 11 lakh to whoever gave the names of those who damaged the bungalow here at 4, Vikramaditya Marg, which was allotted to him when he was chief minister.

His announcement comes days after the Uttar Pradesh government warned that action would be taken against the SP leader as he had done "some damage" while vacating the bungalow in June.

The Rs 11 lakh will be raised through contributions of Rs 2,000 each from the party's members, Yadav said at a programme here to mark the birth anniversary of socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra also known as Chhote Lohia.

"The way police announces cash rewards..., I would tell my friends from the media that on the said night, some people from news channels had gone there. You tell us the names of those who damaged the building, we Samajwadi people will pool in with Rs 2,000 and give a cash reward of Rs 11 lakh," he said.

SP patriarch and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was also present at the event held at Janeshwar Mishra Park.

Akhilesh Yadav had vacated the bungalow following an order by the Supreme Court. The apex court had observed that former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office.

Earlier, senior Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had alleged that the SP chief had indulged in "todphod" (damage) before vacating the bungalow.

"...One thing is clear, that he undertook some construction for which he did not take permission from the Estates Department. A law is there for this (unauthorised construction) and the law will take its course," Singh had told reporters.

After Akhilesh Yadav vacated the bungalow, video clips and photos had shown damage to a cycle track, on walls and to a floor of what appeared to be a badminton court.

The SP leader had then said it was an attempt by the ruling BJP to defame him.

In June, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik instructed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order a probe against the SP chief for leaving the government property damaged.

Following the visuals of the damage inside the bungalow, a high level inquiry was also ordered.

The Public Works Department chief engineer has submitted a 266-page inquiry report to the state estates officer.

When Akhilesh Yadav became Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2012, he was allotted the bungalow, which he retained after his party lost the assembly election last year.
Senior BJP leader C P Thakur today said Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma should resign owning moral responsibility for the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur. Talking to a regional news channel here, the former Union minister said Verma of the JD(U) should take a call on the demand for her resignation by opposition parties, keeping in view the "lapses on part of the social welfare department" on which the scandal has been blamed.

"The scandal points at huge lapses on part of the state social welfare department. How could the department be unaware of such a huge racket taking place right under its nose?" Thakur asked.

"There are also complaints of similar irregularities having taken place at other organisations controlled by the department," Thakur said.

Asked about the demand by opposition parties for the resignation of Verma, whose husband has been accused of being a regular visitor to the Muzaffarpur shelter home by the wife of one of the arrested accused, Thakur said, "She should take a decision on the same based on her conscience. I think she should take moral responsibility for the scandal."

The BJP is a partner in the ruling coalition in Bihar.

Asked about Thakur's statement, the JD(U), which is headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, came up with a guarded response.

"CP Thakur has expressed his personal opinion. It is not that the BJP has come up with an official stand. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, himself a senior BJP leader, has been articulating the government's position on the issue," JD(U) spokesman and MLC Neeraj Kumar said.
Sambit Patra (Credit: Twitter/@sambitswaraj)

The BJP today described the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as "corruption wali committee" (committee of corruption) hours after it resolved to take on the government on the issue of graft.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said every act of corruption in India is linked to the party and it was peddling lies and misleading people against the government.

"The Congress has hard connection with corruption. Wherever corruption happens in India, it goes to 10 Janpath. 10 Janpath is the permanent address of corruption in India and every act of corruption leads to the Gandhi family," he said.

The ruling party also dismissed allegation about irregularities committed by the Modi government in fixing prices of the Rafale fighter jets, saying the Congress is spreading untruth on the issue as it is "frustrated" over the absence of any middlemen in the deal.

"He (Rahul Gandhi) told Parliament that French president said something in his ears. Within hours the French government issued a statement exposing his lies. Can there be anything more humiliating than this. He was criticised the world over and it happened for the first time that another country had to intervene...and issue a letter. But Rahul is carrying on with his lies," Patra said.

He said the government took a decision on Rafale jets at a time when the squadron strength was vastly depleted and the Congress did nothing between 2002 and 2012 to address this issue.

Patra also accused the Congress of playing vote bank politics on the controversy surrounding Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) and said that the party was only interested in having a "national register of illegal immigrants".

Seeking to expose the party's hypocrisy on the issue, he said that while the party did not allow BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah from speaking on the issue in the Upper House, they were deliberating upon it in the CWC meeting.

"Is CWC more important than Parliament," he wondered.

Taking a dig at the CWC members over allegations of corruption they face, he said it is "corruption wali committee".

Countering the Congress claim of the Modi government's complicity and connivance in allowing bank scan accused Mehul Choksi to flee from the country and getting him citizenship of Antigua, Patra pointed to an interview given by Mehul Choksi's Antiguan lawyer David Dorsett where he had reportedly said that Choksi was being targeted as he had a "loose" connection with the Congress.
Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a Shia Muslim mosque in eastern Afghanistan that killed 39 people and wounded at least 80 others.

In a statement carried by its Amaq news agency, the group said around 150 Shia Muslims and security forces members were killed or wounded in Friday's attack in the city of Gardez in Paktia province, but gave few details on how the attack was carried out.

The Paktia police chief said that two burka-clad militants carried out the attack on the mosque, where more than 100 people had gathered to pray.

Islamic State militants view Shia Muslims as heretics.

The group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Shia mosques, security installations and civilians in Afghanistan in recent weeks as pressure builds for peace talks between the Western-backed government and the Taliban.

The attack underlines the dire security situation after four decades of war and 17 years of U.S. intervention.

No reliable census information exists on the size of the Shia community in Afghanistan, but estimates range around 10-15 percent, including most members of the Persian-speaking Hazara ethnic group and some Tajiks.
The Sri Lankan government is reworking on the draft of a memorandum of understanding to hand over the management of Mattala Rajapaksha International Airport at Hambantota to an Indian airport operator, according to a media report today.

Built with high interest commercial loans from China by the Mahinda Rajapaksha government, the MRIA is dubbed as the "world's emptiest airport" due to lack of flights. It was officially opened in March 2013 and the only international flight operating from there was halted in May.

The Sri Lanka government had announced that it will go ahead with the deal with India to jointly operate the USD 210 million MRIA at Humbantota, about 241km south-east of Colombo, through a joint venture with the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The government had last month asked the Indian airport operator to submit its business plan for operating the loss-making airport.

A draft MoU on handing over of the MRIA to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was recently presented before the Sri Lankan Cabinet and is now being reworked at the Indian government's request, the Sunday Times reported.

The talks for management control of the MRIA are continuing between India and Sri Lanka, at no point during the negotiations with India was the proposal withdrawn or denied despite what the media reported, it said, quoting an unnamed official.

"The Sri Lankan government's terms only allow for management control of the commercial activities of the airport while ownership and statutory functions including air traffic control and air traffic rights will be under the control of Sri Lankan authorities," said another official.

Mattala airport, named after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was one of the major infrastructure projects of Rajapaksa's nearly a decade-long rule. The airport has the capacity to handle one million passengers a year and is expected to handle five million passengers, 50,000 tonnes of cargo and 6,250 air traffic operations per annum by 2028.

The government in 2017 invited investors to turn the airport into a profit-sharing joint venture. However, no proposals were received to operate, manage and maintain it.

Sri Lankan Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva had said that only India had offered to help, now discussion were on with the Indians for the joint venture.

The AAI is to enter a deal with Sri Lanka Civil Aviation Authority to run the MRIA. The AAI is to have a 70 per cent stake while Sri Lanka's CAA will invest 30 per cent, de Silva had said in the parliament.

The private-public-partnership will allow AAI to enter into a 40-year lease agreement to take up the management control of the airport.
As wide-moat Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A BRK.B reported second-quarter results that were basically in line with our expectations, we are leaving our $330,000 ($220) per Class A (B) share fair value estimate in place. Second-quarter (first-half) revenue, which now includes both unrealized and realized gains/losses from Berkshire's investments and derivatives portfolios, increased 19.3% (decreased 2.9%) to $68.6 ($119.0) billion. Excluding the impact of investment and derivative gains/losses and other adjustments, second-quarter (first-half) operating revenue increased 8.4% (decreased 0.8%) to $62.2 ($120.7) billion.

Operating earnings, excluding the impact of investment and derivative gains/losses, rose 67.3% (58.7%) year over year to $6.9 ($12.2) billion during the second quarter (first half) of 2018. When including the impact of the investment and derivative gains/losses, Berkshire's operating earnings rose 181.8% (30.7%) to $12.0 ($10.9) billion during the same period(s). With no share repurchase activity during the past year, net earnings per Class A equivalent share rose a similar amount to $7,301 ($6,610) for the second quarter (first half) of 2018.

Book value per share, which serves as a fairly good proxy for measuring changes in Berkshire's intrinsic value, increased 3.1% sequentially to $217,677 (from $211,184 at the end of the first quarter of 2018), which was better than our forecast of $216,464. The company closed out the June quarter with $111.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents, up from $108.6 billion at the end of March. This should have left Berkshire with around $86 billion in dry powder that can be committed to investments, acquisitions, share repurchases, and dividends. There were no meaningful commitments to acquisitions during the second quarter, and the firm did not commit any capital to share repurchases or dividends.

Looking more closely at Berkshire's insurance operations, all three of the company's insurance units--Geico, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group (which now includes National Indemnity Company, Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska and General Re), and Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group--reported earned premium growth during the second quarter. As for underwriting profitability, both Geico and BHRG Re saw marked improvements in underwriting results, while BHPG's underwriting earnings deteriorated a bit during the period when compared with the second quarter of 2017. While BHRG and General Re have effectively merged their operations, Berkshire is reporting results for the combined entities in a way that allows us to continue to differentiate the results of these two firms when talking about their underwriting results.

Geico's relentless pursuit of growth the past couple of years, which had come at the expense of profitability, seems to have come to an end, with the firm positing a marked improvement in underwriting results during both the first and second quarters of 2018. The company's loss ratio, in particular, dropped to 77.7% during the first half of the year--well below the average loss ratio of 84.5% put up during 2016-17. Even so, Geico's earned (written) premium growth of 14.4% (13.3%) during the second quarter, and 15.0% (13.9%) during the first half of the year, remained elevated relative to historical norms. During the five-year period prior to 2017, Geico's earned premium growth averaged 10.7% per year. It then spiked up to 15.3% last year, as the company aggressively pursued business its peers were unwilling to go after. That said, while the auto insurer's first-half earned premium growth remained elevated, it is now being driven more by price increases than a relentless pursuit of new business, which has had a positive impact on profitability.

Geico's combined ratio of 91.9% (91.7%) during the second quarter (first half) of 2018 was the firm's best result since the second quarter of 2014 (when the company put up a ratio of 92.3% and 92.5%, respectively, for the quarter and first half of the year). With first-year business tending to come with acquisition costs and higher loss ratios that tend to leave total costs about 10 percentage points higher than renewal business, the company's pullback from voluntary new business sales (which declined 9.3% when compared with the first half of 2017) and its 8.7% increase in per-policy premium pricing over the past year has led to the marked improvement in Geico's loss ratio, which was 78.5% (77.7%) during the second quarter (first half) of 2018 compared with 84.3% (83.0%) in the year-ago period(s). Tight expense controls and increased scale left the firm's expense ratio at 13.4% (14.0%) during the second quarter (first half), better than last year's 14.0% (14.9%) level(s). As we move forward, we continue to expect to see a gradual reduction in earned premium growth to something closer to Geico's historical average, with its combined ratio hovering around the mid-90s by the end of our five-year forecast.

With regards to Berkshire's reinsurance arms, General Re posted another abnormal period of earned premium growth of 24.8% (30.0%) year over year during the second quarter (first half), driven by both new business and increased participations for renewals (along with favorable currency exchange) in its property/casualty and life/health units. The old BHRG unit, on the other hand, was always going to face an uphill battle this year, given the large retroactive reinsurance policy the firm underwrote with AIG last year, with earned premium growth up 8.8% (down 73.6%) year over year during the second quarter (first half) of 2018. Going forward, we expect General Re and BHRG to constrain the volume of reinsurance they are underwriting, given the excess capacity in the reinsurance market. While we have earned premium growth in negative territory for both firms over the remainder of our five-year forecast, we have always been quick to note that there could be some lumpiness in reported results, as both firms have a knack for finding profitable business (much as they have the past year), even when reinsurance pricing is unattractive. As for profitability, we expect tight expense controls (and a lack of extremely adverse events over a multiyear period) to allow both General Re and BHRG to keep their combined ratios below the 100% mark, which is what we're seeing from the combined entities right now.

As for BHPG, the insurance unit posted an 11.0% (17.2%) increase in earned (written) premiums year over year during the second quarter, and a 12.7% (17.0%) increase during the first half of the year, led by solid growth at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, or BHSI, MedPro Group and Guard. The division's combined ratio of 88.0% (91.4%) during the quarter (first half) of 2018 put it back on the path to the levels of underwriting profitability we've been accustomed to seeing from the unit. BHPG's combined ratio of 94.8% during the first quarter was its worst quarterly showing (that did not include major catastrophe losses) since the first quarter of 2013 (when it posted a 92.4% combined ratio), with both elevated loss and expense ratios (driven primarily by its commercial liability and workers' compensation insurance offerings) driving the poorer results. This past quarter's results were more on par with the average annual ratio of 87.7% that BHPG posted during 2013-17. Going forward, we believe BHPG will generate earned premium growth in a 13%-15% range with a combined ratio between 88%-90%, reflective of the higher costs associated with growing businesses like its BHSI unit.

Despite the earned premium growth during the second quarter, Berkshire's insurance float remained relatively flat at $116.0 billion at the end of the June quarter (when compared with the first quarter of 2018). Going forward, we expect gains in insurance float to be much harder to come by, especially with Berkshire limiting the amount of reinsurance business it underwrites (noting that much of the growth in the company's float over the past decade coming from reinsurance). We continue to believe that Geico and BHPG will be the more consistent generators of insurance float for Berkshire as we move forward, especially given the growth potential that exists for BHPG's specialty insurance unit. We should note, though, that these are short-tail businesses, with the float generated by the two units tending to be invested in less risky and more liquid investments with smaller return profiles. That said, we wouldn't be surprised to see General Re and BHRG, which are long-tail businesses whose float can be invested in riskier longer-term holdings, pick up some additional float from time to time.

Berkshire's non-insurance operations typically offer a more diversified stream of revenue and pretax earnings for the firm, helping to offset weakness in any one area. We already had a sense of how things were likely to look for BNSF, given that the other Class I railroads reported earnings late last month. While Union Pacific is usually a good proxy for BNSF, given that both firms focus on the Western U.S. market and have similar shipment profiles, there was some difference in their results during the most recent period. For starters. BNSF's second-quarter (first-half) revenue growth of 12.0% (10.2%) was better than the 8.0% (7.4%) top-line growth that Union Pacific put up during the same period(s). BNSF's revenue growth during the first half reflected a 3.6% increase in average revenue per car/unit (including fuel surcharges) and a 5.2% increase in volumes. Union Pacific, meanwhile, saw average revenue per car/unit (including fuel surcharges) rise 4.5% (4.7%) during the second quarter (first half) on higher fuel surcharge revenue and core pricing gains, with total volumes increasing 3.7% (2.8%).

BNSF's consumer products volumes increased 4.7% (5.4%) during the second quarter (first half) of 2018 because of higher domestic and international intermodal volumes driven by continued economic growth and tightening truck capacity. Union Pacific's premium volumes saw a nice recovery, up 6.1% (3.9%) during the second quarter (first half), driven primarily by growth in international intermodal shipments. As for industrial products, volumes at BNSF increased 10.4% (9.8%) year over year during the second quarter (first half), aided by an increase in shipments of sand, petroleum products, steel, and plastics for the energy and industrial sectors. Union Pacific's industrial volumes rose 5.9% (4.0%) during the second quarter (first half), driven by growth in construction products, increased metals shipments, higher volumes of industrial chemicals and plastics, and growth in lumber shipments.

While agricultural shipments rose 9.1% (7.8%) for BNSF during the second quarter (first half) of 2018, some of this was due to stronger export and domestic grain shipments ahead of the looming trade war with China and other global economy, so our expectation is that we'll see volumes fall off some in the back half of the year. That same could not be said for Union Pacific, where volumes declined 1.4% (2.6%) during the second quarter (first half) on weaker grain shipments year over year, which could be a sign that BNSF is also capturing share in this category. As for coal, which accounts for about a fifth of BNSF's volumes and revenue, both firms saw a return to more normal coal volumes, with shipments falling 0.5% (1.4%) at BNSF during the second quarter (first half) of the year. Within Union Pacific's energy segment, which includes coal as well as some categories (like sand and petroleum products) that BNSF lumps together in its industrial products segment, coal volumes declined 10.0% during the second quarter, primarily on a lost contract (with volumes falling 3.5% during the first quarter). With coal in secular decline, as coal plant continue to be retired and natural gas and other alternatives remain competitively priced, our long-term forecast for coal volumes calls for 3.0% average annual declines in shipments for the two railroads (given their proximity to Powder River Basin coal supplies).

While operating income increased 6.9% (8.7%) year over year during the second quarter (first half of 2018, BNSF's operating ratio declined slightly from 67.6% to 68.0% year over year at the end of June, with the timing of higher fuel surcharges playing a material role. Union Pacific saw a similar degradation in its first-half operating ratio of 63.8% from last year's level of 63.5%, but was also dealing with network fluidity problems, a tunnel outage, and train crew shortages in some regions in addition to the higher fuel surcharge issue. With our railroad analyst maintaining his long-term operating ratio target of 58% for Union Pacific, we've left our long-run operating ratio target of 61% for BNSF in place. As for pretax profits, second-quarter (first-half) earnings at BNSF increased 7.7% (9.9%) when compared with the same period(s) in 2017.

Normally a beacon of stability, Berkshire Hathaway Energy reported a 9.7% (8.3%) increase in second-quarter (first-half) revenue, and a 9.7% (13.3%) decrease in pretax earnings due primarily to increased depreciation, maintenance and other operating expenses, as well as less favorable rate case across its utilities and pipeline portfolios. BHE has typically been the least volatile of Berkshire's subsidiaries, given that the regulated utilities operate in an environment where in exchange for their service territory monopolies, state and federal regulators set rates that aim to keep customer costs low while providing adequate returns for capital providers. The only meaningful change in these operations tends to occur when BHE does an acquisition, with this subsidiary tending to be one of Berkshire's most aggressive when it comes to doing deals, or when it is coming off particularly strong/weak results year over year. In this case, it was more of a perfect storm of rising operating and interest costs, compounded by changes in rate structures across the portfolio.

With regards to Berkshire's manufacturing, service and retail operations, the group overall recorded a 4.6% (4.7%) increase in second-quarter (first-half) revenue, which was in line with our long-term forecast calling for mid-single-digit annual revenue growth (exclusive of acquisitions) over the next five years. As for pretax profits, second-quarter (first-half) earnings increased 13.1% (17.6%) when compared with the same period(s) in 2017, which to lifted the division's pretax margins to 8.2% for the first half of 2018, well ahead of our long-term forecast that calls for margins to improve 20-25 basis points annually over the 7.0% level that was produced during in 2017. We expect that the group will likely give some of this back as we proceed over the next year, but we may have to re-evaluate our long-term profitability forecast if the group continues to see a marked improvement in pretax margins.

Results for Berkshire's finance and financial products division--which includes Clayton Homes (manufactured housing and finance), CORT Business Services (furniture rental), Marmon (rail car and other transportation equipment manufacturing, repair and leasing) and XTRA (over-the-road trailer leasing)--were somewhat mixed, with revenue increasing 17.3% (14.6%) year over year during the second quarter (first half) but lower pretax earnings from the railcar leasing business, due to a decline in lease revenues and higher repair costs, kept the expansion in pretax profits to 14.8% (12.4%). We continue to envision revenue increasing at a 5%-7% range over the remainder of our five-year projection period, with pre-tax operating margins in a 24%-26% range (despite the 23.9% margin the segment reported during the first half of 2018). It should also be noted that the finance and financial products segment is a mere rounding error for Berkshire's overall results, accounting for around 6% of pretax earnings on average the past five years.

As we noted above, book value per Class A equivalent share at the end of the second quarter was $217,677. The company also closed out the period with $111.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its books. With CEO Warren Buffett liking to keep around $20 billion on hand as a backstop for the insurance business, the firm's non-insurance operations generally needing between $3 billion and $5 billion in operating cash, Berkshire still has (by our estimates) around $86 billion available to dedicate to investments, acquisitions, share repurchases and/or dividends. Along those lines, there were no meaningful commitments to acquisitions during the second quarter, and the firm did not commit any capital to share repurchases or dividends.

That said, we do expect to see Berkshire whittle some of its excess cash in the third quarter, as it has already dedicated $2.5 billion to the purchase of Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company, a New York-based underwriter of medical professional liability insurance (in a deal put together by NICO in 2016), as well as another $2 billion in a term-loan deal with Seritage Growth Properties (composed of an initial loan of $1.6 billion at a fixed rate of 7%, which matures in July 2023, with an option to borrow an additional $400 million). We'll also have to see if Berkshire's shares are trading at a deep enough discount to the firm's intrinsic value (conservatively determined) for Buffett and Vice-Chairman Charlie Munger to finally start buying back stock after the company altered its share buyback program last month.
Our monthly church newsletter advertised an upcoming youth mission trip to visit Heifer International in Little Rock, Arkansas. Heifer International is a charity organization working to teach farming to underdeveloped and impoverished villages around the world. The group focuses on sustainable agriculture, as well as providing education and leadership training for women. Our kiddos fundraise for them all year, helping buy farm animals and equipment. This trip would be a wonderful way for them to see their money in action, feeding families worldwide. The kids would also spend a very hands-on day working in a food pantry and wrap up with a trip to Wild River Country waterpark.

The long van ride with a dozen kids he didnt know very well, coupled with air mattresses and sleeping bags, should have deterred my introverted son. You could have knocked me over with a feather when he said, That sounds fun, I want to go.

Whoa, Nellie! Are we really ready for an away trip? Hes just a baby! It made me flash back to moving out in college. My parents spent the day helping me set up my first campus apartment. New bedding, ice trays for the tiny fridge/freezer combo, clothes hung in the closet. After they left, I laid on my freshly made bed, looked around the room and burst into tears. Years later, my mom told me that my dad turned to her and said, I never should have let it get this far as they drove back to Midland. It is hard giving children wings; it is hard learning to fly.

But being the good mother I am, I signed him up despite my reservations. Over the weekend, I got him a sleeping bag, travel pillow, dopp kit, travel toothpaste and toothbrush, and a new hair brush. By Monday morning, I lay sobbing in my bed once again, knowing exactly how my dad must have felt. The Hubs was perplexed to find me in full-on hysterical womb mode when he emerged from the shower. I told him I didnt think I could let my baby boy go on the trip. This would be the first time my son had been outside our familys reach.

He tried reassuring me. He told me Little Son was not so little anymore; he was strong and smart and capable.

With heaving sobs and angry hissing I responded reasonably. You have no idea what this feels like, I blubbered. He grew inside me, you cannot possibly understand how terrifying this is. You know what? You have to get him a cellphone. Better yet, you have to go with him!

All the terrifying 10 oclock news scenarios were pouring through my head. What if he got lost, separated from the group in a completely foreign place? Or worse, what if he flailed in the wave pool and sank to the bottom without anyone to see? Dark thoughts. Paralyzing thoughts. Thoughts that left unchecked, steal joy.

The Hubs said he would be glad to pick up another phone, and quietly suggested that this trip might be good for me and good for our son. I tried to put the thoughts out of mind; I didnt want to ruin the trip for him. But between you and me, I secretly hoped he would change his mind. I packed and re-packed for him. Made him practice folding his sleeping bag. I put cortisone and antibiotic creams and Band-Aids in his kit, along with sunscreen and bug repellent. I packed wipes, shampoo, a new book, a Rubix cube and extra socks and water shoes, goggles and a dive mask. There was an entire backpack filled with snacks, a new phone, wall charger, car charger and headphones. So much stuff -- I couldnt stop myself, I wanted him to be prepared because I wasnt going to be there to help him.

A few days later, I dropped him off at church and didnt cry. I didnt chase the van down for one last hug or follow them to the highway. It was hard. I just kept telling myself, dont be that mom, dont embarrass him.

He texted me that night. Hey mom. Hi. Well, Heifer was cool. A boy of few words, but I relaxed a little. Then the next morning I get, Hey. I dont feel so good. To which I replied, CALL ME. And he responds, No. Were eating donuts. Cant be feeling that bad, then. But still, I race to the bathroom and interrupt The Hubs shower.

You need to get dressed, go get him! He looked at me like I was insane. There are three mothers on that trip, Melanie. He is fine. Let him grow.

But I dont want to let him grow. Growth is uncomfortable. Growth hurts. I dont know how parents do away camps, summers abroad, college, marriage. How do you fight the urge to gobble them up, stuff them back inside to keep them safe and always near you?

Momma Mary called me the next day to see how I was coping with Little Sons absence. Our boys are so very much alike. She made me feel a lot less crazy. Apparently, those urges are normal and never go away. You just have to learn to trust -- trust your children, trust their decisions, trust your ability to prepare them for life.

You know, it doesnt matter how old your children get. They are always your babies, you will always worry, always want them to be safe. But try to remember what a wonderful opportunity this is for him to learn about Gods work in the world.

She is wise, my mother-in-law, a thrower of life lines.

But I sure will be glad when he gets back home to you. Me too, Momma. Me, too.

We picked him up late Thursday night, and dont worry. I played it cool. When we got home, he let me tuck him in, something I never get to do anymore. He told me he had a good time and that he learned a lot. But I am never leaving you again, Mommy. I missed you too much.

Sweeter words were never spoken, and my eyes filled and my heart burst. But I know that one day, despite his promises, hell leave me just the same. It is the natural way of things. There will be a school or a girl, and he will go out into the world. And I will wonder, again, how I ever let it get this far.

Melanie Nicholas is a full-time momma, writer and mommy blogger. She and The Hubs have two uh-mazing children, Parksalot, 9, and Bodacious, 7. You can follow her amazing adventures fighting grime and insecurity on Facebook @MelNicholas13 and at TheBathwaterBlogs.com. Her column appears in the Midland Reporter-Telegram every other week.
Midland has for a long time enjoyed a lot of great philanthropy. Todays actions by the Commissioners Court set our community apart even further. To have common and unity  a community was demonstrated today in incredible fashion. I am so proud of Judge Bradford and the commissioners for what they have done and am so happy for our community.

Grant Billingsley, executive director, Scharbauer Foundation

It is tremendous when our community can come together in so many different ways. From multiple entities thinking about the amazing resource we call children that we want to ensure thrive in our area.  Support like this allows us redirect our aspect of focus and think through security during a day and time when that is heavily on our mind. To think out of the box, that is what allows a community to get to the forefront of success.  It is an incredible gift and a legacy that has been established.

Orlando Riddick, superintendent, Midland ISD

We have tried very hard in the last couple of years to understand and raise awareness for the mental behavioral issue that is impacting our community. This new funding from the county will help us advance the cause of bringing greater mental health to the people of Midland County.

Russell Meyers, chief executive officer, Midland Health

You know our purpose is to share our resources with the community and when your join us in that vision, more will benefit and higher education will reach further. It is particular an honor to witness such far reaching vision. We are grateful.
GETTYSBURG, Pa.  The sun rose on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg 2018 to reveal a line of cars parked behind the Union Armys tents.

It was an annoying historical anachronism for the brigades commander, Ted Brennan, 49, who was brushing his teeth with a horsehair toothbrush.

We try to be as authentic as we can without getting dysentery, Brennan said of his unit, several of whom were frying bacon and brewing coffee over a fire. They were camped in a sea of canvas tents that housed many of the 6,000 re-enactors at the event. Beyond the spectator stands and hot dog stalls, the Confederates were camped just out of sight.

The 155th Gettysburg anniversary re-enactment, which was held during the second weekend in July, was a chance for dedicated hobbyists to blast away at each other with antique rifles and rekindle old friendships over campfire-cooked meals. Spectators paid $40 to watch nearly a dozen mock skirmishes over the course of four days, and there was an old-timey ball Saturday night. An Abraham Lincoln impersonator was on hand to pose for photos.

It also was a snapshot of a hobby in decline. Gettysburg is among the biggest re-enactments of the year, and it still draws thousands to the sweltering Pennsylvania countryside in the middle of summer.

But thats nothing compared with the re-enactments of the 1980s and 1990s, when tens of thousands would turn out. In 1998, at the 135th anniversary of Gettysburg, there were an estimated 30,000 re-enactors and 50,000 spectators.

Many of todays re-enactors were born as the last Civil War veterans were dying, and grew up amid the celebrations and re-enactments of the centennial that lasted from 1961 to 1965. But the heyday of re-enacting was the 90s, during another moment of national fascination with the Civil War.

In 1990, Ken Burns Civil War documentary pulled in nearly 139 million viewers (huge ratings for a PBS program), and James McPhersons 900-plus page academic book, The Battle Cry of Freedom, published in 1988, spent months on the best-seller lists.

Interest in the battlefield experiences of Civil War soldiers was fueled by cinematic hits, like the 1989 Oscar-winning film Glory and Gettysburg, a 1993 release that was more than four hours long. (Hundreds of re-enactors were cast as extras.)

But in the past decade or so, the crowds at large scale re-enactments have dwindled. Longtime hobbyists are aging out and retiring  soldiers in their 50s and 60s filled much of the camp at Gettysburg  and younger people arent marching onto mock battlefields in nearly the same numbers.

Enthusiasts cite a number of factors. Video games are to blame, some grouse, while others attribute diminishing interest to the rising expense of gear. A reproduction Civil War rifle alone can cost more than $1,000.

But many are more introspective about it. In the 1980s and 90s, the whole tone of the country was different, said Thomas Downes, 68, a retired machinist from Cleveland who has been re-enacting for the Union side for 38 years.

Up until the last five or 10 years, the social causes of the war did not come into what we do, he said. We were paying tribute to the fighting man.

It wasnt Im racist and I want to glorify slavery, he said. Nobody really thought a lot about the social reasons of why the South went to war. It was just these poor guys who were underfed, undermanned, underequipped, fighting valiantly to the last man, until they couldnt stand anymore.

Brad Keefer, a 61-year-old corporal in the Union re-enactor ranks and a professor of history at Kent State University, said: Re-enactors look at the war as a four-year period between 1861 and 1865 in which you can cut out all the stuff leading up to the war and very much ignore everything that happened afterward.

We dont get tangled up in all the messy bits, which are the causes and outcomes, which are complicated and uncomfortable, he said.

Its a vision of history placed in narrow context. The military details are meticulously researched and re-created down to the stitching of a uniform, but the broader social and political realities of the Civil War  the profound struggle over slavery and emancipation, racism and equality, citizenship and disenfranchisement  are largely confined to the margins.

Still, those issues cant be ignored. After a white supremacist rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, where demonstrators wore swastikas and carried Confederate flags and where an anti-racist protester named Heather Heyer was killed, at least two smaller Civil War re-enactments were canceled. That the battle flag Confederate re-enactors carry still is used as a means of intimidation makes it hard to defend as a purely historical object, independent of its racist implications.

You build a comfort zone for the hobby to function, Keefer said. Pointing to the Confederate camp, he said: And give them the benefit of the doubt that they werent at Charlottesville.

There are many ways to be a Civil War re-enactor.

Its not just the battlefield roles. At Gettysburg this year, there also were nurses and surgeons, nuns and chaplains, and 1860s-era government volunteers.

Steven Mark Diatz, a retired librarian from Alexandria, Virginia, had appointed himself the role of war correspondent for the New York Herald, one of the largest newspapers at the time and, in Diatzs words, a sensationalist rag.

I was always intrigued by how the war was brought home, said Diatz, 63. Plus I can go anywhere on the battlefield as long as I stay out of the way of the firing.

Diatz spends much of his free time portraying other historical characters, including soldiers in the American Revolution, the Spanish-American War and World War II. After Gettysburg, he planned to shave off his mustache and spend the next weekend dressed as a Royal Navy officer at a Jane Austen festival in Louisville, Kentucky.

Katie Mullins, who was portraying a volunteer for a long-extinct government organization, said that, technically, she and her fellow volunteers on the U.S. Sanitary Commission shouldnt be at the re-enactment at all. Its a bit of an anachronism that were here now during the course of the battle because the Sanitary Commission arrived afterward, she said. But nobody does a re-enactment of a battles aftermath.

Despite the obsession with historical detail, there were plenty of re-enactors who brought air mattresses, propane burners, flashlights and jugs of Gatorade. Some camped out with entire families in tow.

There are many hard-core re-enactors  the kind of people who want to know what it felt like to march 25 miles in disintegrating shoes, sleep in ditches and subsist on hardtack and rancid salt pork  who eschew Gettysburg as a mainstream event. But at least one Union unit spent several days marching along highway shoulders to get to this years re-enactment, retracing the movements of the Army of the Potomac.

Another unit traveled from Germany, and hundreds of cavalry re-enactors showed up with their horses.

One cavalryman, Nathaniel Williams Sr., said he grew up riding in southern Virginia but didnt learn that his ancestors served in the 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry, a Union regiment of free blacks and liberated slaves, until later in life.

I had no idea we were in the Civil War, said Williams, his horse grazing in a field behind his tent. It was never taught to me. It opened up my eyes to a lot of things.

Williams first organized a re-enacting group about 20 years ago, recruiting relatives, friends and members of his church. This year, about two dozen people in his unit made the trip. They were the only black unit there.

Black re-enactors form a small faction within the overall hobby. But groups who portray U.S. Colored Troops  the designation the Army gave to ranks of all-black regiments  tend to re-enact battles where black troops played key roles in the fighting, including the Battle of Fort Wagner in South Carolina, depicted in Glory.

Army commanders initially made black regiments perform menial labor and didnt regularly order them into combat until after Gettysburg.

Even though we didnt fight here, we make it a family event, said Williams, sitting alongside his wife, Angela, who was wearing period dress. Weve got three days, we can spend time together and have fun.

The actual battle of Gettysburg was some of the most savage fighting in the Civil War, but no one wants to die early in a re-enactment. If you catch an imaginary bullet in the beginning of a skirmish, you miss out on most of the action. (For the cavalry, dying in mock battle is even rarer because it means falling out of the saddle.)

But casualties inevitably mount. Sometimes, theres just no way around it, Keefer said, not long after going down under intense fire from the Confederate lines.

We were getting killed there, he said. There were just too many Rebs shooting.

Once down, some of the wounded took the opportunity to pull out their smartphones and take photos and videos. A crew of bucket-carrying women made their way around the battlefield, topping off the canteens of both the living and the dead.

Re-enactors shoot gunpowder, not bullets, but serious accidents do happen from time to time. Usually its heatstroke and heart troubles that pose the greatest threat, a problem that has grown as the average participant has aged. A Friday evening skirmish at this years event was interrupted when an infantryman collapsed in the sun. Modern medics carted him off the field.

The fighting was over when the buglers sounded taps. The soldiers placed their caps over their hearts, shook hands and congratulated each other on a good fight.

Union and Confederate re-enactors alike turned out to a ball Saturday night, as did women in hoop skirts, bonnets and period jewelry. Music was provided by the 2nd South Carolina String Band, which played several hours worth of popular mid-1800s ballads and waltzes with a decidedly pro-Southern slant, ignoring requests for Yankee Doodle in favor of Dixie. (The bands website boasts that all five of their recordings have been listed in the Top 30 selections on Amazon.coms Civil War Music page for the past 5 years running.)

Back in the army camps, re-enactors pulled out bottles of whiskey and moonshine, traded stories and rehashed historical debates.

Well talk about McClellan moving too slowly on the peninsula and then well talk about Joe getting divorced, said Frank Beachem, a 59-year-old from Manassas, Virginia, and a onetime mall Santa who works in government procurement.

At one camp, a seasoned re-enactor tested a new recruits recipe for hardtack, the tooth-cracking bread that formed the backbone of a soldiers field rations.

If its edible, its not real hardtack, he said. As he bit into a piece  barely edible, passably accurate  the sound of a banjo and fiddle wafted over.

Historical flourishes and stacked rifles aside, the camp at a Civil War re-enactment resembles a Boy Scout jamboree. The slice of rustic outdoor life is one of the hobbys big draws.

I tell people its a chance to have a guys weekend out camping, just doing it a little more old school than people are used to, said Christopher Wesp, 34, a relatively recent recruit and former Marine who served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

From my first event, the camaraderie that I felt and started building was very close and comparable to what it was like being in the service, he said. Thats the thing I missed most about being in the Marine Corps.

Politically, Civil War re-enactors tend to be conservative, perhaps a reflection of the demographics of a hobby that skews heavily white and middle-aged. But its not a monolith. One Union infantryman, a 20-year-old college student, described himself as a Marxist and card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Most re-enactors have strong preferences, but few stick exclusively to one side, instead switching into Confederate or Union garb if the opposing ranks are too thin.

Still, some Union re-enactors said they chose to wear blue at least in part because of their political convictions or because they wouldnt fight against the U.S. flag. The Confederates were more likely to say family history had a role in how they picked their side.

We portray Confederates because they were the underdogs and they had all the odds stacked against them, said Bill Adams, known as Pork Pie, an engineer from southern Michigan who has been playing a Confederate soldier for the past 35 years. The politics that caused the war, we dont even care about.

Some Confederate re-enactors, including Kenny Glass, 46, an emergency medical technician from Selma, Alabama, said that slavery had little to do with Southern secession, an assertion that is at odds with historical scholarship.

Ive been called a racist, a bigot, everything you could think of in the world when people find out I do this, Glass said. I tell them they need to learn their history. It wasnt fought over slavery. It was fought over Southern rights, thats just the way I see it.

Don King, a Confederate re-enactor who grew up in North Carolina and now lives near Sykesville, Maryland, disagreed. The South fought the war because of slavery, he said, but you cant fight a battle with only one side.

Think of what a Star Wars movie would be without the Empire, he said. Just because youre acting on one side doesnt mean you embrace their historical beliefs.

Part of the problem is that the historical beliefs have modern day implications. Scrutiny of Civil War re-enacting from outside  as well as introspection and concern about its future on the inside  reached a fever pitch after the violence last year in Charlottesville, Virginia. But it built along with protests in many cities that demanded the removal of Confederate statues and monuments from state grounds, spurred by the murder of nine black worshipers in South Charleston, South Carolina, by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

Recently, threats against re-enactors have disrupted several events. In October, police in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia discovered a suspicious device  possibly a pipe bomb  amid the concession stands at the annual Cedar Creek re-enactment. A month later, a threat was made against participants in a parade that commemorates Lincolns Gettysburg Address.

Those incidents cast a shadow over Gettysburg this year. Word trickled out that Cedar Creek had been canceled entirely, and while the reason was not stated, many thought it was obvious.

Who would mess with Civil War re-enactors? said Downes, the retired machinist from Cleveland. Were just a bunch of nut cases running around playing cowboys and Indians.

After a skirmish Saturday afternoon, Downes was in a melancholic mood. He said that problems with the heat were forcing him to consider retirement.

Lighting his pipe in the shade of the generals tent, he reminisced on nearly four decades of re-enacting, saying it provided an outlet and escape. This is so fulfilling, he said. It carries over.

Historically, Im way too old to be doing anything like this, he said. A lot of the people I re-enacted with have either crossed over the river or are just too old.

His wife tagged along for years, portraying a camp washerwoman, but she finally caught what Downes called a severe case of common sense about a decade ago. Ive got friends whose knees are gone, whove got bad backs. You just keep coming out for the friendships, he said.

Like other re-enacting units, his group finds itself back in Gettysburg and other battlefield towns with some regularity. They occasionally set up camp on National Park Service land to serve as a living history exhibit, and they also meet up during the winter to practice drills.

Afterward, the troops may head to a local bar for a cold beer, and theyve learned to leave their costumes on. Without their Union insignia, no women are coming up and asking to take their picture with us, Keefer said with a wry smile.

Without these uniforms, he said, were just a bunch of middle-aged schlubs.
Facebook has finally taken steps to combat efforts to interfere in U.S. elections.

But will it be enough?

Facebook disclosed this week that it removed 32 pages and fake accounts that were engaged in efforts to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections. Facebook did not confirm the accounts came from Russian agents but said some tools and techniques resembled those used by a Kremlin-linked group ensnared in a recent indictment alleging interference in 2016.

Facebooks disclosure is further proof of efforts by outside groups to sow discord and doubt in U.S. elections. And it is yet another wake-up call to lawmakers to do more  now  to combat the interference.

After all, removing 32 pages from Facebook is a tiny blip in the broad and aggressive response needed to fight the misinformation war and preserve our democracy. Two years ago, Facebook looked the other way as Russian agents disseminated inflammatory posts that reached 126 million users during the run-up to the presidential election.

In February, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the United States is under attack. He said Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea posed the greatest cyber threats along with terrorist and criminal organizations. Coats added that Russia was likely to continue to target U.S. elections to undermine democracy.

Sadly, President Trump remains largely uninterested in doing much to preserve, protect, and defend the United States from Russias election interference. If anything, he seems more inclined to fan confusion and even side with Russia.

Trumps lack of clear leadership makes it difficult for intelligence agencies to mount a coordinated effort to combat the interference.

Congressional leaders have no clear idea what to do beyond lip service. As Washington dithers, it is up to others to guard against the misinformation war.

Facebook and other social-media giants must do more to police their networks by investing in tools that identify bogus news, increasing accountability and reducing incentives to profit from disinformation. But without any clear rules or regulations from lawmakers, the companies are unlikely to go beyond the minimum to protect their bottom line.

Likewise, state and local education officials should make it a priority to promote news literacy and teach basic civics, including voting, and the importance of preserving basic American ideals that have set us apart from the rest of the world, such as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary.

A recent survey by the University of Pennsylvanias Annenberg Public Policy Center found roughly one-third of respondents could not name any rights guaranteed under the First Amendment and only 26 percent could name all three branches of government.

To be sure, the media has a responsibility to provide fair and accurate reporting. At the same time, individuals have a responsibility to stay informed, engaged, and skeptical of fringe information providers.

Facebooks recent steps are encouraging. But this is a long fight that requires action by government, schools, businesses, and individuals  anyone, in fact, interested in preserving democracy.

 Philadelphia Inquirer
REDDING, Calif. - The wildfire here that has burned with speed and efficiency through neighborhoods, jumped the wide Sacramento River and killed a half-dozen residents and firefighters, has turned yet another place into a harbinger of what the future holds for this state.

The neighborhoods along the Trinity Highway were tucked among Douglas firs, oaks and eucalyptus, among the nearly 2 million homes statewide that - after years of permissive development in California - sit amid lovely and hazardous tinder.

Now some of them are ashes, only brick chimneys rising from charred foundations. The Carr Fire has burned more than 1,000 houses to the ground.

A summer heat wave, fanned by evening winds, helped light up the parched land. And despite the scope of the blaze, not nearly enough firefighters are on the scene, their ranks stretched thin by the 15 other wildfires burning throughout the state.

"We grabbed a change of clothes, our medications, some pictures of my mother," said Stephen Dobbs, as he smoked a cigarette in the 104-degree heat of the Shasta College evacuation center, with his companion dog, Shay, at his feet.

Around his neck dangled a small silver vial, containing some of his mother's ashes.

"Luckily, I have this on," he said, "I always have this on now in case we need to leave quickly."

On Saturday, more than 13,000 firefighters continued corralling blazes across the state, including the Carr Fire, which is 40 percent contained. A huge blaze southwest of here, known as the Mendocino Complex, has surpassed it as the biggest burning. That inferno has charred more than 200,000 acres, larger than the land area of New York City.

Smoke from the Carr Fire hovers over Northern California, including the state capital, Sacramento, providing a dramatic backdrop for one of the most consequential policy debates in years - about who should pay for the growing number of increasingly destructive fires, now and in a hotter, drier future.

The election-year debate reflects a change in focus, from the long-term to the immediate, for a state that has been at the leading edge of environmental regulation. As wildfires become a year-round threat, California is moving to change long-standing laws to address the emergency of climate change, with the interests of those fighting, suffering from and paying for the fires in the balance.

The question before state lawmakers is whether public utilities should remain "strictly liable" for damage from fires that start because of their equipment, even if the utilities are not negligent. The largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, faces costs that could reach $12 billion for its role in last year's deadly Northern California fires. Company officials say they cannot continue to afford the escalating payouts.

Insurance companies are fighting any change, given that costs will be theirs alone if utilities escape future liability for fires caused by their equipment. The Carr Fire, which was sparked by a malfunctioning vehicle, is a case in point. The insurance companies will pay for that damage.

Only Alabama applies the same strict standard, and state utility officials here say the frequency and scale of fire damage in a changing climate make the law obsolete. Six of the 20 most destructive fires in California history have occurred in the past year, including ones caused by utility company equipment.

Speaking to reporters this past week in Sacramento, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown said "there is concern that we could lose our utilities" to bankruptcy unless the law changes. Utilities here are owned by shareholders, and liability for fire damage has, in the past, been passed on to customers.

If utilities suffer financially because of the strict-liability law, "our whole program of trying to deal with renewable energy and mitigate climate change would be adversely affected," Brown said.

Brown, who leaves office at the end of the year, has made climate change the centerpiece of his legacy. His point now is that if California's big utilities cannot afford to pay the exorbitant liability costs each year, the state will have no partner in vehicle electrification, solar and wind power proposals, and other measures that need utility money and support.

Brown has named a special legislative committee, which includes lawmakers from districts hardest hit by recent wildfires, to develop a measure before the session ends on Aug. 31. He offered his own proposal, which would be a step toward lifting the "strict liability" standard. Utility companies have spent nearly $2 million this year lobbying for such a change along with others they are pursuing.

"What's different today is that the scale of the liability in California from these fires has gotten so large that it is essentially bigger than the companies involved," said Michael Wara, a senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. "The fear is that if the utilities get pneumonia for the next 10 years, it really calls into question the state's ability to achieve its climate goals."

The utility with the most at stake immediately is PG&E, whose power lines, according to California investigators, started 16 fires last fall in what was the most catastrophic season on record.

PG&E has already written off $2.5 billion of earnings to cover potential costs, a figure that the company's senior vice president for strategy and policy, Steven E. Malnight, called "a low-end to our possible liability."

Some estimates place the potential damage from last fall's North Bay fires as high as $12 billion, although investigations into some of the most damaging fires have not been concluded.

"We've moved beyond fire seasons in this state," Malnight said. "And we have to recognize that yesterday's laws will not keep up with tomorrow's risks."

The strict-liability standard is in place because, in California, utilities have the right to seize private land to accommodate their power lines, transformers and other equipment. This is the power of eminent domain usually reserved for government agencies.

The principle in question is called "inverse condemnation," which holds the utilities liable for damage. It is the flip side of eminent domain.

Malnight argues that "inverse condemnation is not a policy aligned with the future we face." He prefers a "reasonableness" standard - that is, if a utility is found to have a state-approved security plan and has executed the plan correctly, it should not be automatically held liable for damage.

Brown's proposal took a step in that direction. But Malnight said it is not enough to make sure the utility can pay for future damage. The utilities are also seeking legislative approval to issue low-interest bonds to help defray liability costs, something that has been allowed in the past.

"This does not mean we will not be held liable if we are found to have done something wrong," Malnight said. "We will be and we will pay. But we are taking this opportunity to remind the public that the status quo is unsustainable."

On the other side of the argument are the insurance companies, which would face a huge increase in costs if liability for fire damage is shifted away from utilities.

This is an election year, and the debate between two big political players in Sacramento is a perilous one for lawmakers so close to November. There is a chance no legislation emerges this year.

In a statement last week, the group Stop the Utility Bailout said that the "threats of bankruptcy are merely scare tactics designed to distract from the real issue, which is PG&E's abject failure to invest in safety upgrades that could have prevented the wildfires," an assertion the company rejects.

PG&E executives say the utility has spent $15 billion over the past five years on measures to better safeguard their equipment and plan to spend a total of $1 billion this year and next for the same purpose. But the insurance companies say such an investment should not change the liability principle at stake.

"We still strongly support inverse condemnation," said Mark Sektnan, a vice president of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, which has nearly 1,000 insurance company members. "This is a basic standard and does not need to be changed."

Sektnan said his members "are out there on Day One in these fires" and have paid out $10 billion to cover customer losses from the North Bay fires, which killed 45 people and destroyed nearly 9,000 homes and other buildings as it swept through Wine Country in October.

"The focus of any change should be on how we can be much more careful in what we do," he said. "If there is no spark, there is no fire."

The debate is beginning as lawmakers return from a summer hiatus. Already, though, a consensus is emerging that, regardless of any liability change, much more needs to be done to clear decades of highly flammable dead trees and windfall, examine planning policies that have allowed suburbs to spread into forests and better fund firefighting efforts.

The state has spent $125 million fighting fires this budget year, which began July 1. That is more than a quarter of its allotted budget to do so, and the height of what has traditionally been fire season here - September and October - is still to come.

Assemblyman Jim Wood's district was ground zero of the North Bay fires last year, including the Tubbs Fire, the most devastating in state history. His district is burning again, and he's spent much of the past few weeks viewing neighborhoods lost and visiting constituents unsure where to turn.

Wood, a Democrat whose district includes most of the fire-scorched city of Santa Rosa, is on the special committee set up to examine liability issues. His first instinct is "a concern about unintended consequences," including the retroactive effective date for Brown's legislation of Jan. 1, 2018.

"We're not even through this fire season, and we have no idea what's going to happen before the year is over," Wood said. "The damages have been so catastrophic, and right now I'm very sensitive to concerns that people are not getting what they need from the parties involved."

Like others in the debate, Wood said the wildfires have demanded a reconsideration of priorities. The state has moved aggressively on regulating tailpipe emissions - policies now being challenged by the Trump administration - and on electrifying the state vehicle fleet, along with other measures.

But Wood notes that one blaze the size of the Carr Fire, which has burned more than 140,000 acres, has the potential to wipe out an entire year of gains resulting from those environmental policies.

"We're just considering the other consequences of these fires," Wood said. "And I find it baffling."

The open fields on the edge of this river city have become staging areas for the helicopters fighting the Carr Fire, all grounded on a recent afternoon by heavy smoke cover hanging in still, hot air.

Pop-up insurance villages - tents erected by State Farm, Nationwide, USAA, Farmer's and many others - are busy on the Shasta College campus. The gym, usually home to the Knights, is temporarily housing hundreds of evacuees, those without the money for hotels or nearby relatives.

Most have no idea whether their homes have survived.

Dobbs, 35, was a firefighter for a couple years before a disability prevented him from working. He's never seen a blaze like this, marked by speed and explosive heat. He said he is likely to remain in Redding.

"But all of this really frightens me," he said.
Decked in orange and chanting as they marched through the streets of downtown San Antonio, the local branch of Students Demand Action rallied against the National Rifle Association on Saturday morning.

We want to remind adults that were still here, were still going to make a change, said Sophia Mendez, 16, a San Antonio native and march organizer.

The activist group started in Main Plaza and ended outside the federal courthouse on Cesar Chavez Boulevard, calling for common sense gun reform and an end to the NRAs political influence.

Around 60 individuals participated in the march, many of whom appeared to be high school students. Escorted by police officers on motorcycles and led by a team of students holding megaphones and a large banner reading National March on NRA | San Antonio, Texas, participants joined together in chants of  among other things  No more silence, end the violence and We are the answers to your thoughts and prayers.

Members of Move Texas and ACLU People Power were also present to encourage participants to register to vote.

The event began with a rally near San Fernando Cathedral, where student speakers criticized politicians who accept money from the NRA and called for greater voter engagement. The crowd then set off on foot.

Subsequent stops were made outside the offices of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Congressman Henry Cuellar, who have previously received A+ and A ratings from the NRA, respectively.

The march came in the wake of deadly school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Santa Fe, Texas. It was just one of many such events taking place across the country Saturday.

We want to be able to show  how united we are, not only as a city but as a nation, Mendez said. We want to show how the youth can unite for this, and how  adults can support us.

One such adult was Whitney Walston, a marcher who moved to San Antonio four years ago.

I really, really support the cause, and I really support protecting these kids, Walston said.

Brian Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. | brian.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @_B_Contreras_
I have taught writing, rhetoric, research methodology, literature, and critical thinking classes at universities in both America and abroad. As someone with a deep understanding of the importance of language and how it shapes our thinking and thus the way we see the world and everything in it, I would argue that words matter, now more than ever given todays highly politicized climate.

In the interest of transparency, I am what some call a leftist. The GOP, a political party composed mostly of self-described conservatives, refers to someone like me as liberal (when they are being kind) but also uses the descriptor libtard when they arent.

I have long argued that those of us on the left need to be more muscular in our messaging and more aggressive in our pushback against those who want to present us in a negative light.

Progressives and Progressivism are far more accurate labels  if we must use them and we probably do  to describe who we are and what we advocate.

Calling ourselves progressives allows us to differentiate ourselves from our political opponents, the Regressives, a group of backward-thinking individuals who want to undo progress and political gains of all sorts. Regressivism is certainly not conservative in almost any significant sense because it wants to deconstruct, to roll back hard-won victories for environmental protections, for example. Regressives dont want to conserve clean air and water. They want to go back to the bad old days when no one did anything about those who polluted. That is not conserving. That is destroying. And they want to put the health of the public at risk.

Regressives also like to misrepresent what progressives stand for and what values we hold dear. I want to push back against that today.

The following is a list of things progressives believe in. These beliefs are illustrative of our core values.

First, progressives believe in globalism and multiculturalism. We understand that all people, regardless of the language they speak, the color of their skin, the country they come from, the religion they practice, or their socio-economic status, are our brothers and sisters because we are all human beings. We all feel pain and experience happiness and are doing our best to make good lives for ourselves and our families. Because of this shared humanity, it behooves us to love and respect one another.

Second, we believe that sharing is a good thing. Thus, millionaires and billionaires need to be encouraged to share their wealth with those who have less. The government has a role to play in this redistribution. Progressives are not advocating taking all the money away from the rich. We appreciate that many wealthy people worked hard and used their brains and bodies to get where they are. But the world will be a happier and heathier place  for all of us, including the well-to-do  if we can close the gap between the rich and poor.

Third, we believe that government was created to safeguard its citizens. Thats why countries have militaries. But it is equally important that governments keep their nations and citizens strong and safe by making affordable health care accessible to all. After all, how strong can a country be if its filled with sick people who cant see a doctor when they need to?

Fourth, we believe the world is a beautiful place that we should cherish. Therefore, we need to take care of the planet by polluting less and taking action to make sure that we are living sustainably so that future generations can enjoy the wonderful home we all inhabit. Just think about it: If we make the place unlivable, it wont really matter how much money we have in the bank.

This, of course, just scratches the surface of what progressives believe. Do any of these beliefs seem radical to you? Do they seem hateful or unChristian?

I would bet, if youre being honest with yourself, that these are the sorts of values your parents wanted to instill in you to ensure that you grew up to be decent, kind and good.

Troy Headrick is a writer, artist, educator and political activist who currently manages a writing and learning center at Palo Alto College.
The Trump administration, in claiming it met a court-ordered deadline to reunite immigrant parents with children snatched from them, must have some trouble counting. And some trouble, apparently, differentiating cruelty from law enforcement.

There are more than 700 children still in U.S. custody. That means there are likely 700 or more children still being traumatized by the Trump administration to punish their parents for coming here.

The administrations explanation that it completed all the reunifications it was required to falls flat. The ones left out are deemed ineligible children  children whose parents had already been deported, left voluntarily, been released in this country or simply cant be found. This is unacceptable on any number of levels.

First, there are reports that parents were bamboozled into signing documents relinquishing their children, rendering both these deportations and voluntary departures suspect. Second, one might think that garnering contact info in home countries for deported adults with children still in U.S. custody might have been more of a priority. Third, there is no reason that adults who the government knew were going to be deported couldnt have been held until their children were with them. And no contact info for adults released in the U.S.?

This happened, said U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, because the federal government, acting unconstitutionally, was utterly incompetent. Thats our synopsis of her comments. We have our own, a variation. Incompetence, yes, but borne of cruel indifference.

These forced separations now compete for infamy with with other nativist blots on this nations immigration history  such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, Operation Wetback and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II.

This hot mess was an inevitable outcome from a hastily enacted zero-tolerance policy that criminalized border crossings that had mostly been treated as civil violations. But criminalizing all crossings was a choice. And that means the cruel separation of parents from children was also.

These children cannot be allowed to languish indefinitely in U.S. custody separated from their parents. Congress must step up to its oversight obligations. Reunite them with their parents.
MEMBERS of the Zimbabwe National Army went on a rampage Thursday evening, indiscriminately beating up revellers in some Harare and Chitungwiza high density suburbs.

The abuses came few hours before the official announcement of the presidential election results by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

In Harares Dzivarasekwa suburb, NewZimbabwe witnessed beatings at New Members Bar shortly after 10 pm on Thursday.

The close to a dozen servicemen stormed the bar through a rear entrance and ordered everyone to lie on their stomachs before beating the puzzled revellers with sjamboks, clenched fists and booted feet.

I was on my way out of the bar when they suddenly burst in and ordered everyone to lie down, said Frank Barreta, a reveller who frequents the drinking spot.

I tried to resist and force my way out but they dragged me back inside and started beating me with a sjambok all over my body.

Barreta said the soldiers were ruthless.

Moments before the attack, a concerned citizen had rushed into the bar to alert revellers of the pending danger but the warnings were ignored.

Outside the bar, people were forced to scurry in all directions on noticing they were about to get into trouble.

It further emerged the soldiers were also coming from another bar within the same area where they had also beaten up revellers before ordering the closure of the bar.

The soldiers were accusing the residents of having taken part in riotous scene that erupted in the city centre Wednesday afternoon.

Another reveller, Simbarashe Dzapasi said he was tripped to the ground before being kicked all over with booted feet. He, however, said he had no visible injuries although he was still feeling some pain.

It was also reported that soldiers also beat up revellers in Glen View and Chitungwiza.

Reached for comment, Zimbabwe Defence Forces spokesperson, Overson Mugwisi said he was not aware of any army deployments in high density areas.

I am not aware of any such deployments in that area but if it was part of the elections operations, then it was not the ZDF in charge of such operations, he said, referring further questions to Police Spokesperson Charity Charamba.

Despite the denials by Mugwisi, the army was Friday evening still said to be beating up people in Kuwadzana and forcing bars to close early.

Soldiers on Wednesday allegedly fired live ammunition at hordes of Harare youths who took to the streets to protest the MDC Alliances electoral loss to Zanu PF in Mondays election.

Six were killed while several were wounded as a result of the beatings.

 NewZimbabwe

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By Hubert Horan, who has 40 years of experience in the management and regulation of transportation companies (primarily airlines). Horan has no financial links with any urban car service industry competitors, investors or regulators, or any firms that work on behalf of industry participants

Overview



Morningstar released a research report three weeks ago predicting that Uber would become profitable in 2020 and could achieve an IPO value of $110 billion. Understanding the problems with Morningstars report is important because it illustrates the exact process and challenges Uber will face when it tries to sell its shares to investors next year

Morningstars analysis is horrendously bad. Its profit forecast depends on plugging $4.5 billion in arbitrary and indefensible P&L gains into its forecast spreadsheet. Its valuation estimate depends on the equally indefensible claim that 39% five-year CAGR demand growth will occur independently of pricing, industry profitability or economic conditions. It provides absolutely no evidence substantiating its various claims about Uber efficiency improvements, fails to explain the source of these efficiencies, let alone demonstrate how they could drive powerful P&L gains, or explain why they didnt generate profits until Ubers 11th year of operations. They omit major factors relevant to a legitimate valuation analysis, such as pre-2017 P&L results, cash flows, and the costs and returns from current investments in future businesses such as driverless cars.

Ubers IPO will be the biggest challenge in its history. Ubers Board believes it needs to achieve an IPO valuation north of $100 billion to ensure all existing investors achieve the profits they are expecting. The IPO process will inevitably result in Uber losing control of their heretofore tightly and effectively controlled media spin. The SEC requires that Uber release detailed, audited historical financial data, and independent financial analysts will be able to scrutinize their IPO forecasts and valuation claims

As Morningstars atrocious analysis demonstrates, there is no legitimate way to reconcile a valuation estimate anywhere near $100 billion with objective data about Ubers abysmal economics and financial results.

For its entire history, Uber has gone to considerable length to evade public scrutiny of its black hole of losses and the dependence of its business on massive, and ultimately unsustainable investor subsidies, most importantly by presenting only fragmentary financial data that is largely non-comparable over time. Uber has succeeded nevertheless in using talking points that plays heavily on Silicon Valley mythology and libertarian gospel to create the impression that it is a highly successful venture. Uber is likely to rely heavily on PR and propaganda to convince investors it is worth over $100 billion.

Morningstars report illustrate how difficult it will be next year for Uber to maintain its sales pitch in the face of hard financial data. A legitimate valuation would consider a wide range of objective evidence and critically scrutinize key company claims. Instead Morningstars report uncritically repeats longstanding elements of Ubers sales talk. The report is not designed to help potential investors, but to serve as advocacy on behalf of Ubers current shareholders.

Morningstars report is potentially valuable to Uber because it allows them to claim that independent analysis by an objective financial firm endorsed the idea that Ubers is worth more than $100 billion, and that claims Uber is likely to make during the IPO process have been independently verified. Given all of the problems and deficiencies documented here, it is important that no one ever grant any credibility to the profitability, valuation and long-term growth arguments Uber or others might make because Morningstar reached similar conclusions.

Ubers 2019 IPO will be the biggest challenge in its history

Uber plans to go public a year from now. Committing to a 2019 IPO was an essential element of the pact that resolved protracted board-level battles and allowed Dara Khosrowshahi to replace founder Travis Kalanick as CEO. Kalanick believed that Uber was not ready to face full capital market scrutiny, but faced open rebellion from Board members who wanted to convert their paper profits into real money.

Ubers IPO valuation needs to meet two objectives. It must be high enough that all of Ubers current investors can cash out with big profits on the funding (roughly $18 billion) they have provided. However, the share price must also provide IPO investors with the opportunity for additional equity appreciation.

Ubers Board seems to believe an IPO valuation of $100 billion would meet these objectives, and has agreed to pay Khosrowshahi a $100 million bonus if the Uber goes public at that valuation in 2019.[1]

The Uber IPO process would start with the publication of a prospectus that would include much more detailed audited historical financial data than Uber has released to date. It would present a narrative explanation of why investors (despite dismal historical results) should expect the many years of robust, highly profitable growth needed to justify a $100+ billion valuation. It would also need to include pro-forma forecasts of profits and cash flows consistent with the claims in the narrative.

The central question here is how Uber will be able to reconcile these aggressively optimistic pro-formas, narratives and valuation justifications with the documented, audited record of the first nine years of Ubers actual economics and financial results.

Over its nine-year history, Uber has largely succeeded in controlling how the public sees the company. While the press gave extensive and highly critical coverage of sexual harassment and other cultural issues at Uber, reporting about the business was almost completely consistent with Ubers positioning. Perversely, the press failed to connect the cultural issues with the fundamental businesses strategies that created them.

As Kalanick feared, Uber will no longer enjoy this freedom from scrutiny and level of control over public discussion once the IPO process begins. For the first time, independent outsiders will be able to use objective financial data to scrutinize its historical performance and business model economics, and anyone considering an actual investment will have ample incentive to do so.

If financial analysts and business reporters were to scrutinize the data in Ubers IPO prospectus seriously, it is difficult to see how they could ever reconcile that information with a $100+ billion valuation.

Ubers losses have grown steadily. No previous venture-capital funded company lost over $2 billion in its sixth year of operation and then doubled those losses to $4.5 billion in year eight. It would take one of the biggest corporate turnarounds in world history to rapidly replace those growing losses with growing profits.

In addition, despite numerous attempts over nine years, Uber has never successfully leveraged its car service position into any other businesses. Many of its attempts to expand ridesharing overseas have been spectacular failures.[2]

If investors realize that Ubers economics are far worse than what past press coverage led them to believe and its current performance is totally inconsistent with claims that its equity will appreciate beyond its target $100 billion value, Uber will face an enormous crisis. If IPO investors would accept only a substantially lower valuation, many current investors would lose money. Perhaps even more important, the bubble of favorable Uber publicity would burst, as Ubers claims could no longer be taken at face value.

On the other hand, Uber has survived and grown for nine years despite these abysmal economics and episodes of highly negative media stories. As this series has separately documented, one of Ubers greatest strengths is its ability to construct and promulgate a very positive public image. This image is divorced completely from Ubers performance because the company has successfully gotten the press and public to accept the sort of narratives commonly used in political campaigns. They rely heavily on emotive language to obscure agendas, distract attention from contrary arguments, and conceal the lack of factual support.[3]

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, Ubers executives have convinced the vast majority of interested observers that Uber is an extraordinarily successful company, that its rapid growth was driven by innovative, cutting-edge technology, and that it has transformed urban transport and created massive public benefits. It has even succeeded in portraying the rare voices criticizing Uber as either beholden to corrupt, entrenched interests or ignorant of what it takes to build economic value.

With $100 billion on the line, can Uber develop an IPO narrative that will once again triumph over pesky facts like audited financials?

The Morningstar/Pitchbook Uber Report illustrates the structural approach Ubers IPO prospectus will likely take, and the problems it will likely face

While this series has described why Uber is structurally unprofitable, until now, no one had ever attempted to lay out a detailed quantitative counter-argument claiming that Uber could rapidly become profitable and justify the huge valuation its investors hope to achieve.

On July 19th, Morningstar (and its subsidiary firm Pitchbook) issued the report Uber may Pick Up Investors, Along With Riders, in its IPO and subtitled The ride sharing pioneer is likely to maintain its competitive advantage via its network effect.[4]

Morningstar did not include detailed historical Uber financial data. But its report covered everything else that a future Uber IPO prospectus would. It included pro-forma Uber financial projections through 2022 that showed Uber producing profits in 2020. The text described how Uber will gain share as it expands globally and thus grow much faster than competitors. The document asserted that there are narrow moat protections in the ridesharing market and forecasts profitable growth in food delivery, freight services, bikesharing, other public transit services. It also foresaw huge long term potential for autonomous and flying cars. And most importantly (certainly from Dara Khosrowshahis point of view) is the central finding that Ubers greatly-improved economics justify an IPO valuation of $110 billion.

A review of the Morningstar paper quickly answers the central question. There is no way that an honest, rigorous financial analysis could reconcile actual Uber economics with the need to justify the $100+ billion valuation that Ubers current owners need.

The challenge here isnt finding factual or logical flaws with Morningstars attempt to do this, but how to sort through and prioritize which of the many egregious analytical errors to document.

The Morningstar report is an embarrassingly shoddy piece of work, and its major conclusions dont hold water. But it is important to understand why the Morningstar report is so bad: it shows the remarkable number of distortions and omissions that it takes to try to reconcile Ubers story of an inevitable march to profits to at least some financial analysis.

We contacted the authors of the report, sent a detailed list of questions, and considered their responses. In most cases, the replies appeared to reflect a lack of comprehension of the issues we were raising.

The next two sections look at the problems with Morningstars forecast spreadsheet while the subsequent sections will discuss how Morningstar then refocused its efforts on building a propaganda-style narratives tightly aligned with existing Uber PR narratives.

Morningstars profit projection depends on $4.5 billion in gains from two huge but totally unjustified spikes in profitability.

To claim that Uber will become a profitable soon enough to justify a high 2019 share price, Morningstar needs to quickly reverse Ubers $4.5 billion 2017 loss. It did this by making arbitrary, unexplained (and inexplicable) plugs in in 2018 ($1.5 billion) and 2020 ($2.5 billion) forecast numbers.

The table below combines historical data with Morningstars forecast, and shows year-over year changes in Uber Revenue and Uber EBIDTAR expenses and the calculated EBIDTAR contribution margin of the each years incremental growth.[5]

The contribution margin of actual Uber growth 2014-17 improved very gradually, and Morningstars post-2020 forecast shows similarly gradual EBIDTAR margin gains. But there is a 45 point margin improvement in 2018 growth versus 2017 growth and a 40 point margin improvement in 2020 growth versus 2019 growth, which drive P&L gains of $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion respectively. The text fails to mention these huge 2018 and 2020 profit spikes, much the less give any justification for them.[6]

Morningstars forecast is based on indefensible claims about exogenous market growth, and Morningstar assumes Uber can grow rapidly regardless of pricing or profitability

Morningstar must show extremely high rates of revenue growth to justify Ubers valuation target. Instead of basing its revenue forecast on Ubers actual past results and analysis of what prices Uber would need to charge to operate profitably in the future, Morningstars forecasts assume demand will grow completely independently of the ability of operators or drivers to make money or the prices customers pay.

The double-digit demand growth forecasts that drive Morningstars valuation are based entirely on crude calculations that claim to measure the size of Ubers addressable markets (i.e. aggregate market demand for ridesharing, food delivery and other products). Morningstar claims that the overall rideshare market will grow at a 29% five year CAGR (compound annual growth rate) and that Uber will grow at a faster 39% rate. If Uber only grows at a 25% five-year CAGR (Morningstars bear-case), its valuation estimate gets cut in half, to only $49 billion.

Seasoned investors know that trees do not grow to the sky. 39% growth for years for an already large company entering its second decade in a well-established industry is in the category of trees growing to Mars.

For these growth forecasts to be remotely plausible, one would need to provide indisputable evidence of both overwhelming new efficiency advantages (e.g. ecommerce versus brick and mortar) and the huge cash flow/profit generation that would warrant ongoing investment in capacity growth. Morningstar gets the economics entirely backwards. Instead of growth occurring when companies figure out how to exploit major new efficiencies profitably, companies suddenly become efficient and profitable because market demand magically falls from the heavens into their shareholders laps.

Data on the total market demand for urban car services is extremely limited and unreliable, and revenue data is largely nonexistent.Morningstar extrapolates a single revenue datapoint (New York City taxi revenue in 2014) to a global scale to come up with its ginormous growth forecast. This is ironic in that New York City, having recognized the destructive impacts of a massive oversupply of unprofitable capacity, is considering limiting the number of Uber drivers.

Using ginned-up global numbers allows Morningstar to grossly inflate its growth multipliers, by combining demand for transport in hundreds of huge, rapidly growing non-US cities with the much more mature transport markets in the US.

This distortion also allows Morningstar to ignore the fact that with a handful of possible exceptions (e.g. London) the available evidence suggests that Ubers efforts to penetrate these faster growing markets have been financially disastrous.[7]

Finally, this approach also ignores evidence that (like many other startups) Ubers rate of revenue growth has slowed over its nine years of operation and was only 20% in 2017, in part due to efforts to reduce its financial losses. Nothing in Morningstars report explains why, despite large continuing losses, Uber will suddenly increase revenue growth to 60% in 2018.

Morningstars car service revenue analysis never mentions the word price and its report completely ignores the fact that its historical revenue growth was largely driven by multi-billion dollar subsidies. Readers have no way of knowing whether Morningstars forecast of five year 39% revenue CAGR is due to market stimulation from increasingly lower prices, from Ubers ability to charge increasingly higher prices than customers they pay today, or whether Morningstar ever even considered these issues.

Morningstars forecast of aggressive Uber growth in non-car service markets also depends on totally ignoring the economics of those industries. Its optimistic view of food delivery demand growth is based on a single article noting that Uber has rapidly captured share from a financially struggling (but still much larger) competitor. Morningstar has no evidence that Uber Eats generates positive cash flow or actual GAAP profits, or that the business is rapidly moving toward GAAP breakeven.

Morningstars paper best seen as as PR and propaganda, not financial analysis

Morningstars effort confirms that there is no legitimate way to reconcile financial forecasts that would justify a $100+ billion IPO valuation with Ubers economics. As discussed earlier, if honest financial analysis cannot justify a $100+ billion IPO valuation, the alternate path is to focus exclusively on boosterism.

The vast majority of Morningstars report is pure narrative that is almost entirely disconnected from any specific spreadsheet numbers, and many of the critical numbers the spreadsheets are not explained in the text. In fact, the the apparent purpose of the spreadsheets is to create the appearance that the reports conclusions were based on legitimate financial analysis.

The next three sections will discuss specific components of Morningstars narrative in greater detailthe emphasis on network effects in lieu of actual evidence of operational efficiency, the misrepresentation of the drivers role in Ubers business model, and how discussions of autonomous and flying cars are intended to create the vague impression of long-term growth potential but misrepresent their impact on Ubers actual value.

Morningstars narrative depends on totally unsubstantiated claims about Uber efficiencies driven by network effects

Morningstars central claim that Uber efficiencies are driven by network effects is false. Worse, Morningstars attempt to imply that network effects could explain either a rapid $4.5 billion profit improvement or profitable growth at 39% CAGR over five years is complete nonsense.

Morningstars paper mentions network effects over 40 times. Evidently they believe the use of Silicon Valley buzzwords has a talismanic effect and eliminates the need for economic evidence.

The authors fail to explain where these alleged network benefits come from, how they actually drive cost efficiencies or increased revenue, or whether they create any material, sustainable advantages over competitors. Morningstar presents absolutely no evidence linking any operating efficiencies to the dramatic revenue growth and profit improvement they are claiming. In keeping, they cannot explain why these effects have failed to produce profits over the past nine years, let alone why they will suddenly gain immense power. Nor do they provide any other examples where a new entrant with network effects was able to drive incumbent operators out of business and create $100 billion in corporate value.

They claim that Ubers network effects benefit drivers and riders; the benefits for each create a continuous virtuous cycle and cite Facebooks network effects as a comparable example of network benefits for consumers.

But Uber has none of Facebooks network economies, where (following what is known as Metcalfes Law), each additional user makes the company and its platform more valuable to all other (existing and potential) users.[8]

Uber users may like its prices and service, but they do not care how many other people download the app. Aside from purely digital companies like Facebook and Ebay, no consumer companies with app-based platforms have created the tens of billions in corporate value that Uber falsely attributes to network effects.

Similarly, if Uber network effects created meaningful (and steadily increasing) benefits for drivers, there would be corresponding evidence of better (and rapidly improving) driver economics and work satisfaction.

In fact reports of drivers having to sleep in their cars are becoming more common. Driver take-home pay has fallen below minimum wage in most large cities,[9]and as Morningstar acknowledges, 96% of drivers quit Uber within the first year.[10]

Network effects supposedly explain Ubers capacity utilization advantage, as they eliminate the need for bright yellow cars to roam about, waiting for a hand in the air to match with it. In fact Morningstar has no evidence that Uber has a capacity utilization advantage over traditional taxis that could have any material bearing on its growth and profitability forecasts. The only relevant data Morningstar actually provides shows Uber utilization falling 7% in 2017.[11]

Morningstar badly misrepresents the economics of Ubers drivers

As readers of this series, know, the Uber/driver split of gross passenger fare revenue is critical to any discussion of Ubers economics and profitability. To stem losses, Uber had been unilaterally increasing its commission from 20% to 30% while also eliminating many driver incentives. These changes resulted in the driver share falling from 83% in 2014 to 68% in 2016. That increased Ubers EBIDTAR contribution by over $2.6 billion, and improved EBIDTAR margins from (118%) to (50%). But Uber would have still had triple digit negative margins if the driver share had remained above 80%. The only major progress Uber has made towards a breakeven P&L required pushing driver compensation to (or below) minimum wage levels.

Morningstars forecast ignored the importance of the Uber/driver revenue split to Ubers bottom line, and asserted that 21-22% Uber shares (similar to 2017 actuals) will remain stable for the next ten years.

Even though it would be arithmetically impossible for both Uber and drivers to increase their share at the same time, Morningstar set that forth as a scenario. The report made the absurd claim that as pressure to increase driver pay increased (as seems likely given tightening labor markets, regulatory pressures and widespread driver recognition of the raw deal theyve gotten), Uber would respond by simply increasing its share of passenger fares from 20% back towards 30%.

More fundamentally, this intelligence-insulting narrative illustrates either Morningstars ignorance of Ubers business model or its willingness to flagrantly misrepresent it.

Morningstar insists Uber is not a transportation company but a software company, and its software serves as a passive intermediary between passengers and wholly independent drivers. Aside from eliding questions about depriving drivers of basic labor law protection, Uber drivers are not economically independent; Ubers business model ties them into vehicle financing obligations. Uber could not have imposed $2.6 billion in unilateral compensation cuts on truly independent drivers.

The fiction that the drivers are independent conceals the fact that Ubers drivers contribute 83% of what passengers are paying for, and that the overall Uber-driver business model cannot survive unless both parties can earn satisfactory returns on what they contribute to the business.

Morningstars narrative badly misrepresents the impact of Ubers autonomous car and flying car programs on its corporate value

Morningstar provides detailed arguments about Ubers long term potential to exploit businesses such as autonomous vehicles (AVs) and flying cars (Uber Elevate) but then totally excludes the cost of developing them from their valuation estimates. One might argue that these investments will increase the value that IPO investors will get (long-term potential greatly exceeding near-term costs) or that they will actually decrease Ubers value (the low probability of far-off returns doesnt justify the costs and risks), But it is unacceptable for Morningstar to claim a specific ($110 billion) Uber value while pretending none of these issues exist.

Morningstar defense of Ubers AV program rests on Dara Khosrowshahis false claim that autonomous vehicles would allow Uber to reduce the price of rides by 60%.[12]Drivers do account for roughly 60% of the costs of a traditional taxi operation, but the introduction of autonomous vehicles would significantly increase other costs (vehicles, databases, communication links, machine leaning systems, vehicle planning and control systems, new safety/insurance models, etc).

More important, a shift to autonomous vehicles would also require Uber to become a highly-capital intensive business, since it could no longer push all the costs and risks of AVs onto its drivers. It is not clear whether Uber has the management skills or strengths appropriate to the challenges AV or flying car businesses would pose. Since Morningstar ignores the questions of what would be required to succeed in those businesses or how long it would take to determine who the competitive winners would be, it is impossible for a reader of this report to have any idea whether Ubers current investments make any sense.

Uber has openly acknowledged that Khosrowshahis narrative is the primary driver of its AV and flying car investments. As one interview reported,  working on flying cars is important to the Uber narrative, according toUber COO Barney Harford.. I think being able to demonstrate [to investors] that we are a company that is able to deliver multiple growth engines and is able to incubate and execute upon a few different opportunities, I think thats a really important story.[13]IPO narrative imperatives have led Uber to claim it can have flying cars in full revenue service within five years, a ludicrous claim given the immaturity of the technology, the huge public safety and infrastructure implications, and the well-established rigor of aviation regulatory requirements.[14]

Khosrowshahi has acknowledged that his original plan after joining the company was to cancel both programs given their huge cash drain and uncertain returns, but changed his mind once he recognized that the IPO pitch required giving investors the prospect of growth beyond ridesharing.[15]That narrative transforms Ubers rideshare ordering app into the gateway to all forms of urban transport, and transforms Uber into ..the Amazon for transportation.[16]

Lots of investors might be interested in investing in the Amazon of transportation. But a good-faith valuation analysis of this opportunity would examine whether Ubers economics gave it the same potential to profitably expand across new transport modes that Amazon demonstrated when it expanded from bookselling into other ecommerce fields. Morningstar fails to provide that legitimate valuation analysis.

Morningstars evasiveness here is designed to prevent its readers from understanding a fundamental contradiction in Ubers pursuit of a $100+ billion valuation. There are many things Uber could do to improve short term profitability, such as abandoning unprofitable overseas markets, eliminate spending on AVs and flying cars, but all of them would directly undermine their long-term growth narrative. Hypothetically, one could show strong 2018-19 P&L improvements, or one could show the investments Uber thinks will be required to become the Amazon of transportation but under no circumstances could one show both.

The report shifts Morningstar from independent analysis of Uber to proactive advocacy on behalf of Ubers shareholders

Regardless of the size of the final estimate, even if it were supporting a strong, positive valuation, the text explaining a bona fide valuation analysis would show how it had considered a wide range of objective evidence (historical financial trends, sensitivities to external factors, comparisons showing how claimed strengths/risks affected similar companies) supporting it and that it had critically scrutinized key company claims.

Morningstars narrative did not do any of these things. Reading it one gets the impression that it started with its bottom-line conclusion (a $110 billion valuation), worked backwards and plugged numbers into a spreadsheet that would produce that bottom-line, and then filled its paper with unsubstantiated but pro-Uber opinions roughly in line with its positive valuation.

Much of Morningstars story line repeats longstanding elements of Ubers talking points uncritically, without any attempt to provide objective supporting evidence. Thus Morningstars report should not be seen as independent analysis designed to help investors but as proactive Uber advocacy, in support of the number 1 priority of current Uber shareholders, an IPO valuation north of $100 billion.

Uber wants people to believe that its growth was driven by powerful operational efficiencies derived from things like network effects capacity utilization and synergies between ridesharing and food deliveries. Morningstar simply repeats Ubers preferred messaging, without providing any evidence that things are real or economically important, or explaining why they wont produce profits until Ubers 11th year of operations.

Uber wants people to believe it is a technology company, and not a company that provides rides in automobiles. Morningstar simply repeats the claim that Uber is a software company, and that independent drivers freely chose its software because of the huge benefits it provides them, without showing any tangible evidence of these benefits, or explaining why their well-documented experience blatantly contradicts the idea of driver benefits.

Morningstar emphasizes that ridesharing is significantly different economics than taxis even though it has not done any analysis of the competitive economics of the two approaches.

Morningstar then claims that the companies with the most comparable economics are Facebook, Microsoft and Google. This serves Ubers theme that its IPO value should not be based on comparisons with any other transportation companies but only with reference to the most elite companies in the Silicon Valley.

Morningstar does not explain why Uber is many years behind these most comparable companies in terms of the scale economies needed to convert growth into profitability, in terms of generating enough positive cash flow its core business to fund all its future growth, in terms of achieving dominant market positions or being able to go public.

As with any propaganda-based approach, distracting attention from the issues Morningstar (and Uber) dont want investors to think about is just as important as the positive impressions that one is trying to create.

Morningstar presents no pre-2017 Uber financial results, and heavily emphasizes size metrics, in order to distract attention from the nine years of huge, steadily increasing losses in pursuit of growth-at-all-costs. This also allows Morningstar to conceal the huge discrepancy between recent P&L trends and the sudden $4.5 billion profit spikes it has forecast for 2018 and 2020. Morningstar asserts that network effects fully explain Ubers ability to capture share from yellow taxis in Manhattan, in order to distract attention from the huge subsidies that actually created Ubers price and service advantage.

Although Morningstars methodology statement opens with At the heart of our valuation system is a detailed projection of a companys future cash flows its report does not actually include projections of Uber cash flows. These would seem to be critical to any investors trying to evaluate Ubers future value, but Morningstar wants to distract attention from the nearly $11 billion in cash[17]Uber has already burned through so far, the continuing operating losses Uber needs to fund, and the huge cash requirements of its longer-term growth opportunities that Morningstar failed to analyze.

The Morningstar does mention a variety of widely-known negative Uber issues (low entry barriers in ridesharing, the failure of Uber China, the pedestrian killed by an Uber AV, growing legal/regulatory threats, etc.) But it ignores other important issues such as Ubers open pursuit of quasi-monopoly industry dominance and artificial market power, the huge sensitivity of the P&L to driver compensation changes, and Ubers inability to produce urban car services as efficiently as the traditional taxi operators it has been driving out of business, and makes only passing reference to its largely dysfunctional management and corporate culture.

Morningstars worst case scenario does not consider the possibility that it may take years longer to reach breakeven, or that full-time Uber drivers win the labor law protections of other full-time employees, or that its autonomous and flying car programs fail to ever generate positive cash flow. The only downside Morningstar quantifies is that 2018-22 Uber revenue grows at a 25% CAGR, instead of 39%.

It is not obvious as to why Morningstar chose to publish an Uber IPO valuation estimate a full year before they go to market, although the report would seem to be highly useful for Uber as its builds its own valuation PR/propaganda narrative. The Morningstar report will allow Uber to claim that independent analysis by an objective financial firm has directly endorsed the idea that Ubers 2019 IPO might yield a valuation north of $100 billion and that many of the justifications Uber is likely to use have been independently vetted. One can expect that as the actual IPO approaches, more seemingly independent voices will endorse the idea that Uber has a value north of $100 billion, with many years of robust, highly profitable growth ahead of it.[18]Given all of the problems and deficiencies documented here, it is important that no one ever grant any credibility to the profitability, valuation and long-term growth arguments Uber or others might make because Morningstar reached similar conclusions.

_______________

[1]Kolhatkar, Sheelah, At Uber, a New C.E.O. Shifts Gears, New Yorker, 9 April 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/09/at-uber-a-new-ceo-shifts-gears?currentPage=all

[2]Source references for evidence and arguments presented in prior parts of this series will not be repeated here. All of the central arguments about Ubers economics, and Uber financial results through mid-2017 are documented in my Transportation Law Journal article Will the Growth of Uber Increase Economic Welfare? 44 Transp. L.J., 33-105 (2017) which is available for download at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2933177 Uber financial results for full year 2017 and the first quarter of 2018 were presented in this series in Part 13: Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5 Billion in 2017 (16 Feb 2018) and Part 15: Ubers Q1 Results  Reporters Show They Arent Up to Reading Financials (24 May 2018)

[3]The evidence showing that Ubers communication efforts fit academic definitions of propaganda, and the actual development of Ubers PR/propaganda narrative over time is laid out in part IV of the Transportation Law Journal article.

[4]The 48 page report can be downloaded at https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/3q-2018-morningstar-pitchbook-uber-may-pick-up-investors-along-with-riders-in-its-ipo. The authors are listed as Ali Mogharabi, Julie Bhusal Sharma, Asad Hussain and Brian Colello. Three of the four work for Morningstar; for the sake of brevity I will refer to this as the Morningstar report instead of the Morningstar/Pitchbook report.

[5]It is not possible to prepare a similar table showing year-over-year changes in total revenue versus total expenses because Uber has never disclosed total expense or net income data for 2016.

[6]I sent Morningstars authors (via email) the table shown here and asked them to explain how their of 2018 and 2020 forecasts could diverge by $2+ billion from the P&L trends in every other year between 2015 and 2022. Their answer completely ignored the question I had posed and simply repeated the following text from their report: Besides the driver take rate, which is netted out of Ubers net revenue, we believe a portion of Ubers cost of goods sold is fixed and revenue will grow at a faster pace than these costs, leading to gross margin expansion. We also project that Uber will benefit from operating leverage in the years ahead. The firm might be able to increase revenue at a faster pace than selling, general, and administrative costs, especially in the sales and marketing lines, while also having to spend relatively less on operations and support costs. However, we anticipate that R&D will remain elevated as Uber invests in new ventures, resulting in only slight declines in R&D as a percentage of net revenue.

[7]Given the failure of Uber China Morningstar does exclude China ridesharing demand from its claimed total addressable market but it did not exclude other markets Uber has already abandoned (Russia, Southeast Asia) or is rumored to be failing badly (India) markets where it has been totally blocked (e.g Japan), or where it is facing much better financed competitors such as Didi Chuxing. Morningstar fails to disclose what portion of its future Uber revenue estimates are domestic and foreign.

[8]Andreessen Horowitz, All about Network Effects, 7 March 2016; http://a16z.com/2016/03/07/all-about-network-effects/ Noah Smith, Uber Still Doesnt Look Like the Next Facebookit lacks the powerful network effects that compel customers to stick with it, Bloomberg 6 June 2017; https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-06/uber-still-doesn-t-look-like-the-next-facebookMany companies have app-based platforms that generate no network economies. For example no airline passenger or pizza consumer cares how many other people use the American Airlines or Dominos Pizza app. Consumers may derive benefits from the size of these companies (enabling them to offer more flights or take-out locations) but those are scale economies, not network economies.

[9]Mishel, Lawrence, Uber and the labor market: Uber drivers compensation, wages, and the scale of Uber and the gig economy, Economic Policy Institute, 15 May 2018; https://www.epi.org/publication/uber-and-the-labor-market-uber-drivers-compensation-wages-and-the-scale-of-uber-and-the-gig-economy/

[10]Amir Efrati, How Uber Will Combat Rising Driver Churn, The Information,20 Apr 2017; https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-uber-will-combat-rising-driver-churn

Chantel McGee, Only 4% of Uber drivers remain on the platform a year later, CNBC, 22 Apr 2017 https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/20/only-4-percent-of-uber-drivers-remain-after-a-year-says-report.html

[11]This is shown in Morningstars Exhibit 11.The issue isnt that Uber might not have some utilization advantages in some situations, but that there is no public evidence supporting the broader claim, and no evidence that it has a powerful impact on overall cost competitiveness.

[12]Amir Efrati, Uber Seeks Deal for Waymo Cars, The Information5 Mar 2018

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/uber-seeks-deal-for-waymo-cars

[13]Johana Bhuiyan, Uber wants to sell a flying car service in five years  but we dont know if the tech (or the law) will happen by then, Recode 11 May 2018 https://www.recode.net/2018/5/11/17332646/uber-flying-car-vtol-barney-harford

[14]Bhuiyan 11 May, also Sean Captain, How Uber Plans To Get Flying Taxis Off The Ground, Fast Company, 2 May 2018. https://www.fastcompany.com/40522758/how-uber-plans-to-get-flying-taxis-off-the-ground

[15]To Kalanick, the autonomous-driving unit was the jewel of the company. When Khosrowshahi took over, he considered closing the program, since it could potentially cost billions of dollars. Kolhatkar, Sheelah, At Uber, a New C.E.O. Shifts Gears, New Yorker, 9 April 2018. Khosrowshahi now believes Elevate fits into Ubers mission to be a platform for all types of transportation.

What youre trying to do as a company is take growth that is coming in today and stage them and invest them in forward opportunities down the road  opportunities four years and six years and eight years from now, he said. Johana Bhuiyan, Ubers CEO says hes willing to lose money on flying cars  at first, Recode 9 May 2018. https://www.recode.net/2018/5/9/17337764/uber-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-flying-cars-elevate-vtol 

[16]Khosrowshahi says he wants to transform Uber into a multi-modal company that connects people to bikes, buses, car rentals, and maybe even flying taxis Andrew Hawkins, Uber CEO: Our Future Wont Just Be Cars, The Verge, 15 May 2018. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/15/17340064/uber-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-interview-elevate-flying-cars ..we wanna kinda be the Amazon for transportation. Swisher, Kara, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at Code 2018, Recode, 31 May 2018 https://www.recode.net/2018/5/31/17397186/full-transcript-uber-dara-khosrowshahi-code-2018

[17]King, Ian & Newcomer, Eric, Uber Spent $10.7 Billion in Nine Years. Does It Have Enough to Show for It? Bloomberg, 6 March 2018 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/uber-spent-10-7-billion-in-nine-years-does-it-have-enough-to-show-for-it

[18]This is consistent with Uber PR/propaganda techniques previously documented in this series.

Part Eight of this series (Brad Stones Uber Book The Upstarts PR/Propaganda Masquerading as Journalism, 16 Feb 2017) describes how Uber got a seemingly independent journalist to write an entire book promulgating Ubers main PR/propaganda narratives while ignoring all contrary financial and economic evidence. Part Six (Latest Data Confirms Bleak P&L Performance While Stephen Levitt Makes Indefensible Consumer Welfare Claims, 12 Jan 2017) illustrates how Uber paid a seemingly objective outsider to make (largely specious) claims about how Uber created huge consumer welfare benefits, and then how press reports and articles by Uber supporters amplified the findings and created the appearance that it was a widely-held consensus view.
Europes extreme summer is so hot it melted the highest peak in Sweden, and now its only the second-highest Business Insider

The rise and the rainfall of the Roman empire The Economist

Watch Corals Form a Wall of Mouths to Catch and Eat Jellyfish National Geographic

Wells Fargo says hundreds of customers lost homes because of computer glitch CNN

Bitcoin Whales Bad Trade Leaves Counterparties Holding the Bag Bloomberg

The revenue-growth rate that helped fuel Teslas rally relied on an apples-to-oranges comparison Francine McKenna, MarketWatch

The Stock Market Is Shrinking. Thats a Problem for Everyone. NYT

Americas contaminated recycling The Week

Brexit

UK Housing Downturn Pushes Biggest Real-Estate Agency with 10,000 Employees to Brink, Shares Collapse Wolf Street

Jeremy Corbyn ditches consensus to reject EU trade deals FT

Syraqistan

Dam collapse highlights risks to communities as Laos seeks to become hydroelectricity hub ABC Australia

Dodged a bullet. Thread:

A bit about South Korean politics topic du jour: the insane coup d'etat plan that the S Korean military had set up during the Candlelight Protests in late 2016.  T.K. of AAK! (@AskAKorean) August 1, 2018

North Korea

Venezuela President Maduro survives drone attack BBC

VIDEO: CIA Director Mike Pompeo Hints U.S. Is Working with Mexico and Colombia to Push Regime Change in Venezuela Alternet. From 2017, still germane.

New Cold War

Bright fireball flies across Siberian sky (VIDEOS) RT. Russian fireball dash-cam videos are actually a minor genre

How anti-liberalism went global The Week

Trump Transition

Special report: Americas greatest threat is a hurricane-force cyberattack Axios

Big Brother Is Watching You

The Women of WikiLeaks: Speaking Truth to Power Fair Observer (CL).

Our Famously Free Press

Health Care

Neoliberal Epidemics

Scientists FINALLY discover why thalidomide caused birth defects: Pill taken by thousands of mothers in the 1960s left a generation with deformed limbs and organs  but until now, no one knew why Daily Mail (KW).

Guillotine Watch

What Its Really Like to Have a Trust Fund The Cut

Old-Money Billionaires Are Chasing New Tech Riches WSJ

The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley NYT

Class Warfare

Internal Documents Reveal How Bronx Prosecutors Are Taught to Slow Down Cases The Appeal (DK).

The tender, terrifying truth about what happened inside the Trader Joes hostage siege Los Angeles Times

Antidote du jour:

Bonus goats:

#Breaking  About 100 goats are on the loose right now in a #Boise neighborhood. They are going house to house eating everything in sight. Nobody has a clue where they came fromupdates to follow pic.twitter.com/K0ghUwQEfk  Joe Parris (@KTVBJoe) August 3, 2018

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
The former museum and library building in Parnell Street, Clonmel has been sold for 162,000.

Cllr. Siobhan Ambrose stated at a meeting of Clonmel Borough District that she was delighted the building had been sold by Tipperary County Council to Michael Guiry Auctioneers, Waterford, for office space, which had been specified in the contract.

However Cllr. Pat English said he was very disappointed that it had been sold to private individuals.

"It's not value for money", he stated.

He said the building had served the council well over the years and should have been put to some use in the community.

He was disappointed the council had "sold off their silverware" and hoped it wouldn't be the start of a trend.

Cllr. Michael Murphy welcomed the sale of the building, saying it had gone through a very open and transparent process. It would provide a welcome boost to Parnell Street and would result in more footfall there.

Cllr. Murphy said significant work was required on the building, estimated at between 300,000 and 500,000, and that was money the council didn't have.

In his report to the meeting, District Administrator Anthony Coleman said that the council-appointed agent, GVA Donal O'Buachalla, had received four expressions of interest in the building.

These offers were assessed and further information sought in terms of the proposed use and the timeframe for development.
(Natural News) Science fiction is making headlines as actual news these days, suggesting that aliens from outer space are threatening to take down society using artificial intelligence, or AI. Researchers from Hawaii and Germany reportedly claim that aliens are already sending messages to humans that should be immediately deleted, lest they infect computer systems with malicious software that would result in an AI takeover.

[Editors note: This claims sounds like bulls##t propaganda from the fake news media, but we are covering this story so that you know the latest nonsense being pushed by the establishment to try to make everybody in the world terrified of aliens. Its like the Russia hoax on steroids, and it sounds like a cover story for a human-planned global false flag event, quite frankly. The little green men did it!]

A new paper entitled Interstellar Communication. IX. Message Decontamination is Impossible claims that extra terrestrials may already be in the process of trying to infect human computer systems with AI viruses for the purpose of bringing about widespread apocalypse to earth. And unless we stop accepting these messages, this threat could very soon become a reality.

Such a message cannot be decontaminated with certainty, and technical risks remain which can pose an existential threat, the studys researchers write. Complex messages would need to be destroyed in the risk averse case.

Reading alien correspondences, in other words, is inherently risky because we simply dont know what might be hiding inside these message transmissions that might disrupt our human-engineered systems. The scientific consensus seems to be that aliens are smarter than humans, and that even an empty threat of shutting something down without actually following through with it could create enough panic to cause major societal problems.

As we realize that some message types are potentially dangerous, we can adapt our own peaceful transmissions accordingly, they add. We should certainly not transmit any code. Instead, a plain text encyclopedia, images, music, etc. in simple format are adequate. No advanced computer should be required to decrypt our message.

For anything more complex than easily printable images or plain text, the technical risks are impossible to assess beforehand.

Researchers worried about alien computer viruses say its still important for humanity to join galactic network

Whether such a threat even exists at all remains questionable, as all this ET chatter could simply be a cover story for conditioning the public to blame a future false flag cyber attack instigated by rogue human elements on aliens. And yet, the narrative continues unabated as technocrats spread their version of what might one day take place.

Whats interesting is that these same folks seem eager to join the AI brain by syncing up human advancement with the galactic network of outer space. The researchers involved with this paper on alien hackers actually make the suggestion that joining up with the aliens could be beneficial, but that it needs to be approached with caution.

It is always wise to understand the risks and chances beforehand, and make a conscious choice for, or against it, rather than blindly following a random path, they contend. Overall, we believe that the risk is very small (but not zero), and the potential benefit very large, so that we strongly encourage to read an incoming message.

Astrophysicist Lucianne Walkowicz, who works at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, agrees. She believes that trying to contact non-human life could be catastrophic  and yet, at the same time, is intrigued by the idea of what might happen in the event that aliens turn out to have the best interests of humans in mind.

It could be something that ends life on earth, and it might be something that accelerates the ability to live quality lives on earth, shes quoted as saying. We have no way of knowing.

On the other hand, physicist and former professor Stephen Hawking has compared the arrival of aliens to the arrival of Columbus in America, which didnt turn out well for the Native Americans, he noted.

To keep up with the latest (sometimes bizarre) news on extraterrestrials and artificial intelligence, visit UFOs.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Arxiv.org[PDF]
Nina Tomasieski logs on to Twitter before the sun rises. Seated at her dining room table with a nearby TV constantly tuned to Fox News, the 70-year-old grandmother spends up to 14 hours a day tweeting the praises of President Trump and his political allies, particularly those on the ballot this fall, and deriding their opponents.

She's part of a dedicated band of Trump supporters who tweet and retweet Keep America Great messages thousands of times a day.

"Time to walk away Dems and vote RED in the primaries," she declared in one of her voluminous tweets, adding, "Say NO to socialism & hate."

While her goal is simply to advance the agenda of a president she adores, she and her friends have been swept up in an expanded effort by Twitter and other social media companies to crack down on nefarious tactics used to meddle in the 2016 election.

And without meaning to, the tweeters have demonstrated the difficulty such crackdowns face  particularly when it comes to telling a political die-hard from a surreptitious computer robot.

Last week, Facebook said it had removed 32 fake accounts apparently created to manipulate U.S. politics  efforts that may be linked to Russia.

Twitter and other sites also have targeted automated or robot-like accounts known as bots, which authorities say were used to cloak efforts by foreign governments and political bad actors in the 2016 elections.

But the screening has repeatedly and erroneously flagged Tomasieski and users like her.

Their accounts have been suspended or frozen for "suspicious" behavior  apparently because of the frequency and relentlessness of their messages. When they started tweeting support for a conservative lawmaker in the GOP primary for Illinois governor this spring, news stories warned that right-wing "propaganda bots" were trying to influence the election.

"Almost all of us are considered a bot," says Tomasieski, who lives in Tennessee but is tweeting for GOP candidates across the U.S.

Cynthia Smith has been locked out of her account and "shadow banned," meaning tweets aren't as visible to others, because of suspected "automated behavior."

"I'm a gal in Southern California," Smith said. "I am no bot."

The actions have drawn criticism from conservatives, who have accused Twitter, Facebook and other companies of having a liberal bias and censorship. It also raises a question: Can the companies outsmart the ever-evolving tactics of U.S. adversaries if they can't be sure who's a robot and who's Nina?

"It's going to take a really long time, I think years, before Twitter and Facebook and other platforms are able to deal with a lot of these issues," said Timothy Carone, who teaches technology at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.

The core problem is that people are coming up with new ways to use the platforms faster than the companies can manage them, he said.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. But the company has said it identified and challenged close to 10 million suspected bot or spam accounts in May, up from 3.2 million last September. It's also trying to weed out "trolls," or accounts that harass other users, pick fights or tweet material that's considered inflammatory.

Twitter acknowledges that there will be some "false positives."

"Our goal is to learn fast and make our processes and tools smarter," Twitter executives said in a blog post earlier this year.

Tomasieski and her conservative friends use so-called Twitter "rooms"  which operate using the group messaging function  to amplify their voices.

She participates in about 10 rooms, each with 50 members who are invited in once they hit a certain number of followers. That number varies, but "newbies" might have around 3,000, Tomasieski says. Some have far more.

Everyone in the room tweets their own material and also retweets everyone else's. So a tweet that Tomasieski sends may be seen by her roughly 51,000 followers, but then be retweeted by dozens more people, each of whom may have 50,000 or more followers.

She says she's learned some tricks to avoid trouble with Twitter. She's careful not to exceed limits of roughly 100 tweets or retweets an hour. She doesn't use profanity and she tries to mix up her subjects to appear more human and less bot-like.

During a recent afternoon, Tomasieski retweeted messages criticizing immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Democratic socialists and the media. One noted an Associated Press story about an increase in the number of Muslims running for public office  news the user described as "alarming."

Tomasieski says she loves to write. But most important is helping "my guy."

"There is as much enthusiasm today as there was when Trump was elected. It's very quiet, but it's there. My job is to get them to the polls," she said. "That's rewarding. I go to bed feeling like I have accomplished something."
Russia has appointed actor Steven Seagal as a special envoy to improve Russian-U.S. ties, NBC News reported.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the appointment on Saturday saying Seagal's role would be to develop Russian-U.S. relations in the "humanitarian" sphere, including in the fields of culture, art and youth exchanges.

The 66-year-old martial arts star  who rose to fame in the 1980's and 1990's for his roles in movies such as 'Above the Law' and 'Under Siege'  was granted Russian citizenship in 2016 and is a vocal supporter of President Vladimir Putin.

Seagal, who sometimes appears on Russian state TV to talk about his views and career, was cited by Kremlin-backed TV station Russia Today (RT) as welcoming the appointment. "I've always had a very strong desire to do all I can to help improve Russian-American relations," Seagal said according to RT. "I have worked tirelessly in this direction for many years unofficially and I am now very grateful for the opportunity to do the same thing officially."
The body of a Massachusetts boater who went missing Thursday was recovered Saturday afternoon in Moosehead Lake in Maine, officials said.

At approximately 12:45 p.m., Warden Divers located the body of 66-year-old Robert Hammond, a Hanson, Massachusetts resident who was last seen getting gas from store before heading to the lake.

It is believed that Hammond left the Spencer Bay camps with his boat Thursday morning the traveled south to Greenville, Maine to dock his boat. Officials suspect he bought gas from a local store then headed back to Moosehead Lake, where his boat made a 180-degree slow turn for unknown reasons.

Hammonds body was found near the south end of Moose Island, not far from where wardens found his boat.

Maine Warden Service remind boaters to wear life jackets when operating boats.
What to Know Two tornadoes touched down as powerful storms ripped through New England.

Three buildings were deemed unsafe and had to be demolished in Webster, Massachusetts as a result.

Webster fire chief says there was only one minor injury, thankfully.

Two tornadoes touched down Saturday in New England, causing extensive damage.

An EF-1 from Dudley, Massachusetts to Webster was reported at 110 mph while an EF-0 with winds up to 80 mph was reported in Woodstock, Connecticut.

Trees are down and roofs were ripped from buildings, according to multiple reports.

The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado early Saturday afternoon but said they are continuing to survey the damage, adding in a tweet that it will "take quite some time" to determine intensity, path and width of the tornado.

Residents in Dudley, Massachusetts are cleaning up following a tornado that touched down in the area.

The tornado warnings expired at 10:45 a.m. after being in effect Saturday morning for Worcester and Middlesex counties.

The most significant damage appears to be along Main Street in Webster near the Dudley town line, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said in a tweet Saturday that the significant damage in Webster and Dudley displaced both residents and businesses.

This morning's tornado has caused significant damage in Webster and Dudley, displacing both residents and businesses. @MassEMA is coordinating the response with local officials, utilities and the @RedCrossMA. Thank you to first responders and others for your quick response.  Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) August 4, 2018

"[Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency] is coordinating the response with local officials, utilities and the [American Red Cross]," Baker's tweet read. "Thank you to first responders and others for your quick response."

Main Street at the Webster-Dudley line was shut down due to damage from the tornado.



"In Dudley, the main impacted locations include the Schofield Ave, Chase Ave, Central Ave, Cross Street, and West Main Street near the Webster line," Dudley Police Chief Steve Wojnar said in a statement. "There are power outages and numerous roads, including much of Websters South Main Street, blocked by debris and trees. Several are Impassable. Non-emergency vehicle and pedestrian traffic are asked to stay out of the area, especially due to downed power lines."

The Uxbridge Fire Department confirmed building damage in Webster early Saturday, and images showed part of a roof that was ripped off of a Webster building. MEMA shared there have been reports of significant tree debris in Dudley, but no significant structural damage at this time.

In Webster, three buildings were demolished, two commercial and one mixed use that includes several apartments in the upper levels, according to MEMA. An additional four to five buildings have been declared uninhabitable.

Webster Fire Chief Brian Hickey said it was necessary to tear down three buildings that were deemed unsafe. The roof of the first brick building was torn completely off and it landed on the second building.

It sounded like a train coming through, the woman said of the weather event, which has been confirmed as a tornado.

"Everything that's being torn down is being treated as hazardous waste," Hickey said.

The fire chief, along with town administrator Doug Willardson, held a 2 p.m. press conference Saturday to provide an update.

Hickey said the immediate concern is the safety of residents in the area, and crews will be focusing Saturday evening on restoration of power, telephone poles and getting downed trees out of the area.

"We're working to open up the streets and get things back in order," Hickey said.

Willardson added, "we'll get this cleaned up as soon as we can."

A woman told NBC10 Bostons Mike Manzoni that her business was completely destroyed by a possible tornado in Webster.

Hickey said most residents in town had their power back online; more than 880 Worcester and Essex County residents remained without power as of 2:45 p.m., and National Grid remained on scene to resolve the outages. At one point, more than 5,600 people were without power following the tornado Saturday.



Webster Deputy Police Chief Michael Shaw told NBC10 Boston there was one minor injury but they are making sure everybody else who was affected by the event has been accounted for and is okay.

"It was a woman who was traveling on Main Street and a piece of debris hit her car and caused a minor injury. She was transported to the hospital but believe she is going to be okay," he said.

Hickey confirmed that woman has since been treated and released for her minor injuries.

Tia Durand-Paradis, of Southbridge, was in downtown Webster for a ribbon cutting ceremony when the severe weather moved through. She described what she witnessed as the storm came through.

He added she was inside her vehicle, driving down Main Street when the tornado came through. Hickey said when the roof of the first building came off, landing on the second and third building, part of it also landed on her car.

Hickey said thankfully there were no other injuries.

"Extremely lucky... very fortunate to only have one minor injury," he said.

Cleanup crews and utilities on the ground were on scene all morning and afternoon Saturday.

"We are running through with MEMA, and we have the Red Cross on scene, obviously the fire department and EMS, everyone is working," Shaw said.

The deputy chief, who was in Worcester at the time the tornado touched down, added that the damage is pretty good in size, and that Main Street in Webster took the brunt of the damage.

PHOTOS: Tornado Causes Major Damage in Central Mass.

"We've got several buildings that were affected, a couple of them were vacant. We do have some buildings that are contained apartments that unfortunately had to have residents evacuated," Shaw said. "Our building inspector is checking to make sure that those are OK in case they are able to go back into them. If not, we have opened an emergency shelter. But we've got a lot of debris down, telephone poles snapping. From what I'm being told, the majority of the town is without power, so we're taking precautions. We have National Grid on scene, both gas and electric, making sure that we can try to resolve that situation as soon as possible."

Hickey said 30 to 50 people are homeless following the tornado. He added the American Red Cross is on scene to assist those people in finding temporary housing.

Shaw said everything happened pretty quickly, and while images do show the damage, seeing it in person "doesn't prepare you when it's your community."

"We have a very dense downtown with a lot of buildings, and it could have been a lot, lot worse. And fortunately it wasn't."

Tia Durand-Paradis, of Southbridge, was in downtown Webster for a ribbon cutting ceremony when the tornado touched down. She described what she witnessed as the storm came through.

"The whole sky changed...it was just like sideways rain, and the windows kind of started rattling so everyone kind of made their way downstairs...by total luck the backdoor blew open which I think saved all of the windows from smashing, but the next store over, the costume shop, blew out every window that's in the place, and just a few doors down I guess took the roof right off the building, so it was pretty intense," she said.

A tornado warning has expired for Middlesex and Worcester counties in Massachusetts.

Durand-Paradis added that they were concerned because the Main Street buildings have all glass fronts.

"We were just focused on the glass not coming in at us," she said. "Looking out at it, the only way I can explain it is if you were to stand in an automatic car wash, like it was just torrential downpour, and sideway winds and things just literally blowing by."

Durand-Paradis said she has never witnessed anything like it, adding it was pretty scary to experience.

Kristen St. Laurent, who owns the Dancer's Sole on Main Street in Webster, told NBC10 Boston they all took cover in the basement.

"We grabbed our stuff and ran downstairs and we heard a loud bang and the power went out and it was extremely scary, one of the scariest moments of my life," St. Laurent said. "I was honestly in shock and panic, and I don't even know, I ran, and my safety, and my mom's safety, and my staff's safety, that was my first priority. I didn't care about anything else. I just wanted to get to a safe area and make sure that we were going to be OK. Damage is damage and it can be fixed. You know, people can't be replaced so that's what's important."

St. Laurent added her dance studio suffered a lot of damage.

"We do have a lot of damage, we do have windows blown out in our front studio, lots of glass, water. Our upstairs studio, part of the roof is missing so we can look up and see the sky which is a little devastating...we definitely have some work to do and repairs to get done," she said.

On Pleasant Street in Webster, an electrical pole snapped in half. One woman who has a business down the road from there discussed the devastating damage following the tornado.

Severe Storms Cause Flooding and Damage Throughout New England

"It took the whole roof off," the woman said. "We have trees down, everything. It's our business, and it's destroyed. We lost everything over there."

The woman said she was at the store when it touched down.

"Thank God we weren't here, we probably would have been gone with it," she said.

The business woman said she witnessed a lot of damage, including at stores like CVS and gas stations. She added it will take time to rebuild everything.

The Auburn Fire Department sent ambulances to Webster for station coverage, as Webster was backed up on multiple calls for both Fire and EMS.

The Southbridge Fire Department covered Dudley, as both Dudley and Webster received multiple calls due to the tornado.

Willardson thanked all of the emergency responders Saturday and said they appreciate everyone who reached out.

"It's been an all around good effort to respond," the town administrator said.

The town's senior citizen center was opened for a period Saturday to allow people to cool off.

Meteorologists from the National Weather Service conducted damage surveys in Woodstock, over to Dudley and to Webster, according to a second tweet. They made the determination that it was a tornado. NBC10 Boston meteorologist Michael Page says it's all about the trees when surveying damage. He says the direction the trees fall is very telling. If the trees are perpendicular to each other, it would indicate there was rotation touching down.

The National Weather Service team moved into Dudley around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon as it continues to work southwest along the track towards Woodstock, Connecticut. The team will then work back toward Webster and toward Grafton as it continues to do an evaluation of the tornado's strength along the track.

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito surveyed the damage at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Chief Hickey said the Department of Environmental Protection was also on scene to investigate the source of a spill into a nearby river. He added that booms and spill pads were placed in the river to try to contain the spill, but officials are not currently sure how much has spilled into the water. It's not immediately clear what kind of spill it is.
A spate of overnight shootings that left multiple people wounded culminated in a chaotic scene Sunday morning at Stroger Hospital, where victims families and friends were prevented from entering the emergency room as the staff dealt with the influx of trauma patients.

Two people were killed and 28 others were wounded between midnight and 3 a.m. Sunday, according to Chicago police. Ten of them were taken to Stroger for treatment.

The Chicago Police Department announced Sunday morning that a press conference would be held around 1:30 p.m. to discuss the incidents.

#ChicagoPolice Chief of Patrol Fred Waller will address overnight violence today at 1:30p at CPD Headquarters. @Chicago_Police  Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) August 5, 2018

Some media outlets reported that the hospital could be placed on lockdown due to the amount of trauma patients.

But spokespeople for the hospital and CPD rebuffed reports of a potential lockdown.

Over the past 24 hours, Strogers trauma unit received an unusually high volume of patients, said Caitlin Polochak, the hospitals communications manager. At no time did Stroger go on bypass or lockdown its trauma unit.

We are asking the families of trauma patients to limit visitation at this time to immediate family members only so staff may focus on patient care, Polochak added.
A 3-year-old boy was killed in a house fire Saturday afternoon in the Lithuania Plaza neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

The fire broke out in the basement of the home about 2 p.m. in the 6900 block of South Artesian, according to Chicago Police and the Chicago Fire Department.

Paramedics took 3-year-old Christopher Cherry to Holy Cross hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to police and the Cook County Medical Examiners Office. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

An investigation found that the fire was caused by an electrical panel that had an unauthorized modification. Items near the panel caught fire and started the blaze, fire officials said.

The fire department said it would be going door to door in the neighborhood distributing smoke detectors and information on fire safety starting at 10 a.m. Sunday, officials said.

The medical examiners office scheduled an autopsy for Cherry.
A teenage girl was killed and five other people, including an 11-year-old boy, were wounded in Lawndales second shooting early Sunday on the Southwest Side, police said.

About 2:35 a.m., several people were standing on a sidewalk in the 1300 block of South Millard Avenue when two males approached on foot and opened fire, according to Chicago Police.

A 17-year-old girl suffered a gunshot wound to her face and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The Cook County Medical Examiners Office hasnt released details about her death.

Among the wounded was a 21-year-old woman who was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to her back and arm, according to police. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.

Gunmans Car Found Incinerated After Fatal Shooting in Back of the Yards

Two boys, ages 11 and 14, were shot in their legs and were taken to Mount Sinai, where their conditions stabilized, police said. A second 17-year-old girl was shot in her arm and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where her condition stabilized.

The sixth victim, a 17-year-old boy, suffered a gunshot wound to his leg and was taken to Rush University Medical Center, where his condition stabilized.

No one was in custody early Sunday as Area Central detectives conducted a homicide investigation.

Hour earlier, four people were shot at a block party in the same neighborhood.
A 77-year-old man who was reported missing in Guilford has been found dead on Saturday.

Officers from Guilford Police and firefighters from Guilford Fire Department responded to Trolley Road around 9:45 a.m. after getting a report of a missing 77-year-old man.

The man's vehicle was found in a parking lot after he was reported to have gone there on Friday.

First responders said they found the man's body a short distance away from his vehicle. There were no signs of foul play, according to police, but it is unclear how the man died.

Police have not released the man's identity.
The University of Connecticut's John Dempsey Hospital is opening the state's first milk depot.

The center, which operates like a blood bank, will serve as collection point for the distribution of donated, pasteurized human milk to babies at neonatal intensive care units across the northeast.

The hospital will be working with Mothers' Milk Bank Northeast to find and screen breast milk donors in Connecticut.

The donations will be accepted at the hospital and kept at UConn Health in a new freezer before being shipped to the Mothers' Milk Bank in Massachusetts for pasteurization processing and distribution.

UConn officials say mothers with premature newborns often experience difficulty creating enough breast milk while their baby is in intensive care. They say donor milk is a more beneficial substitute than formula.
An Ohio woman who was an acquaintance of the man suspected of killing one of former President George H.W. Bush's doctors in Houston learned several days after the fatal shooting that he'd deeded his home to her.

Jeannette Spencer, of Painesville, Ohio, told the (Willoughby) News-Herald she called Joseph Pappas on July 24 after being notified by mail about the deed transfer. Dr. Mark Hausknecht was fatally shot while riding his bike four days earlier.

She says Pappas told her he'd given the home to her because he was terminally ill. She says she'd known Pappas for about 25 years.

Spencer says Pappas texted her Monday and said he was committing suicide and provided instructions on securing the home.

Pappas killed himself Friday during a confrontation with Texas authorities.
As they prepare for a fall showdown over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Republicans and Democrats are working hard to extract maximum political benefit while the potential timing of the vote inches closer to the midterm elections, NBC News reported.

For Democrats, the confirmation of Kavanaugh would cement the makeup of the court for a generation, and their base wants a fight. But the political reality, which includes the re-election of red-state Democrats in November, makes it an extremely difficult fight to win.

"Some pundits are saying that it's not worth fighting a Supreme Court nominee," Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said at a progressive Netroots Nation convention Saturday. "Is it worth the fight? Damn right it's worth the fight."

Meanwhile, Republicans are carefully calculating the timing of the Kavanagh vote to occur at a point with the highest political impact, just before the fall elections, to pressure vulnerable Democrats to vote for Kavanaugh and to remind their own GOP voters of the importance of a Republican Senate.
Beverly White, NBC4s veteran general assignment reporter, received the National Association of Black Journalists prestigious Chuck Stone Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday, August 4.

She was selected in June to receive the annual honor.

An accomplished journalist with nearly 40 years of experience, White joined NBC4 in 1992.

She has covered a variety of breaking local and national stories for NBC4, including the 1994 Northridge earthquake; the salon mass murders in Seal Beach; the theater killings in Aurora, Colorado; the death of music icon Prince in Minneapolis; and floods, wildfires and mudslides across Southern California, including the recent deadly disaster in Montecito.

In July, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored White and her journalism career.

"It is a national acknowledgement of how her extraordinary work as a journalist has contributed to the enrichment and understanding and advancement of life and culture as we know it in our communities and beyond," LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas said.



White said she was "overwhelmed" by the recognition.

"The organization [NABJ] boosted my career in amazing ways, connecting me with lifelong friends, professional development and reporting opportunities at NBC in Miami and most recently, for the past 25  years, right here in Los Angeles ... I'm not retiring anytime soon," she said.

In November, she was also honored by the Los Angeles chapter of NABJ, and in February her work was recognized by the City of Los Angeles.

NABJs lifetime achievement award "is awarded to a journalist with at least 15 years of experience and a track record of extraordinary contributions to the enrichment, understanding and advancement of black life and culture. It is named for Chuck Stone, late columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and former Tuskegee Airman, who died in 2014."

By Beverly White: The Legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen Lives On



NABJ president Sarah Glover praised White's career and commitment to journalism in a statement announcing the award.

"Beverly White is simply a legend, a broadcasting mainstay," said the NABJ president, who is social media editor for NBC-owned television stations. "For more than a quarter of a century, Beverly has been delivering strong news stories in the country's second-largest market. To say she has a powerful presence that resonates with her viewers would be an understatement."

Previously, White has been the recipient of the 2017 Leadership Award from Kappa Tau Alpha, the Journalism Honor Society at Cal State University, Northridge; the 2012 Distinguished Journalist Award from the Society of Professional Journalists; the 2008 California Legislative Black Caucus Leadership Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Killeen Independent School District in Killeen, Texas.

By Beverly White: 1st African-American Female LAPD Captain Continues to Serve Community



Prior to joining NBC4, White was a reporter at WTVJ, an NBC affiliate in Miami, where she was on the 1992 Peabody Award-winning team that covered Hurricane Andrew, and earlier, she anchored the morning weekday newscast for WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. She began her career in her home state of Texas at KCEN-TV, an NBC affiliate in Temple/Waco, and KENS-TV in San Antonio.

White continues to share her time and talent with colleges, community and civic groups.

White holds a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Los Angeles and enjoys traveling with her husband, a fellow journalist.
With high temperatures forecast for this week, Orange County Fire Authority officials are warning people who live where urban areas meet wildlands to be ready to evacuate should brushfires threaten their homes.

"If you live near a wildland interface, be prepared and leave when asked," OCFA Capt. Steve Concialdi said.

"Remember the Five P's," Concialdi said. "Prescription medications, Personal computers, photos, papers and pets."

[NATL-LA GALLERY UPDATED 10/28] Smoke and Fire From Space: Wildfire Images From NASA Satellites

Meanwhile, OCFA firefighters are providing mutual aide at major brushfires throughout California, including the Mendocino Complex, Creek, Carr, Terina and Cougar fires, he said.

OCFA takes part in the State Master Mutual Aide Plan, which means firefighters from around the state also come to Orange County when needed, Concialdi said. And, despite the mutual aide assignments, all Orange County fire stations are fully staffed."


The Delray Beach Police Department said at least one officer responding to a gun-related threat fatally shot a man who ran outside of a home while brandishing a firearm.

DBPD said officers responded to the incident at 648 West Drive at about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday over a "call of a man with a gun who had reportedly threatened his mother."

When officers arrived, the man  identified as a white male in his 30s  was alone in the house.

"Officers attempted to communicate with him for quite some time," DBPD said. "During that time, he was agitated and screaming at officers. Around 7:50 a.m., he ran out of the house brandishing a handgun."

At least one DBPD officer fired at the man, who was previously known to officers. The man's parents were not harmed and the gun was recovered from the scene, DBPD said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident  as is the protocol with police-involved shootings.

Please check back with NBC 6 for updates.
The redacted details of an independent report on how Broward County Public School officials handled the special-needs education of Parkland shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz were revealed due to a technical error.

The 70-page report, conducted by Collaborative Educational Network Inc. and commissioned by the Broward County school board, concluded that officials made the correct decisions in most instances under programs for students with learning disabilities and behavioral problems in Cruz's 16 years in the system.

"Available evidence indicates that, with isolated exceptions, the district adhered to procedural and substantive requirements when implementing this student's exceptional education program," according to the report.

The blacked-out text in the heavily redacted report could be revealed if those segments were copied and pasted into a computer word processor.

The decision to redact the document was made by a Broward County civil court judge due to privacy concerns.

The report said Broward officials in general properly handled Cruz's education but said officials in the district, in some instances, failed to provide special-needs accommodations based on state and federal law.

Key findings in the revealed report include that Cruz  who was diagnosed with a learning disability  had been receiving support services throughout his education. Cruz studied at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the special-needs-focused Cross Creek School.

According to the report, Cruz was transferred out of MSD but improved at Cross Creek School to the point where he returned to MSD. However, a series of conduct violations in 2016 led officials to recommend Cruz transfer back to Cross Creek School.

Cruz  as he was then 18 years old  wanted to remain at MSD but instead opted out of receiving further education as his only choices were to return to Cross Creek School, sue the school district or return to MSD without special-needs assistance, according to the report.

The report also discussed how Cruz's mother knew he wanted to acquire a Florida identification card to purchase a firearm. His mother, who adopted him after his biological mother died, told a youth emergency services team about her son's escalating behavior. Broward County officials have been heavily criticized for their response to what have been described as red flags that could have prevented the shooting from occurring with proper intervention.

Days after Cruz withdrew from school, he purchased the AR-15 weapon used in the Feb. 14 attack in which 17 people  mostly teenage students  were killed, according to the report.

The report found that while the Broward school system largely supported Cruz, it did not allow Cruz to stay at MSD  his school of choice  with special education support and also did not follow through on Cruz's request to return to Cross Creek School two months after dropping out of MSD.

Cruz, 19, faces the death penalty if convicted of 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. His attorneys have said he will plead guilty if guaranteed a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that offer.

A number of other general recommendations for improvement of the handling of students like Cruz were also listed in the report.

"We accept the recommendations regarding procedural improvements, and are pleased with the overall review, recommendations and findings. We are actively reviewing our policies and procedures, training protocols and data systems in an effort to implement the recommendations in a timely and effective way," Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said in a statement.
What to Know A gas station employee shot and killed another worker after the two got into an argument, officials said

Police say the shooting happened around 11:20 a.m. at the Citgo gas station and D and R automotive shop in Glen Head

Police didnt provide details about what prompted the argument

A gas station employee shot and killed another worker after the two got into an argument, officials said.

The two men got into an argument at the Citgo gas station and D and R automotive shop on Glen Head Road in Glen Head, New York around 11:20 a.m. on Saturday, Nassau County police said.

As the argument escalated, one of the men shot the other man, police said. The 35-year-old victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

The alleged shooter, 71-year-old Lawrence Grammer, of Glen Cove, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and first-degree criminal use of a firearm, police said.

Police didnt provide details about what prompted the argument.

The incident wasnt a random attack, Nassau County Police said.
H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, who made a fortune as an early pioneer in cable television and then became the pre-eminent philanthropist in Philadelphia, has died. He was 88.

Lenfest, with his wife Marguerite always at his side, touched nearly every public and private institution in the city through his charitable giving. He gave $1.3 billion to more than 1,000 institutions, according to the Philly.com obituary posted Sunday.

"Today we mourn the loss of a Philadelphia giant who left an indelible mark on the City and the entire Philadelphia region," Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement. "His generous contributions transformed the lives of countless individuals and institutions. His imprint will long remain on jewels like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Curtis Institute of Music."



While his giving was wide-ranging, he made headlines nationally throughout the last decade for his ownership of Philadelphia's two daily newspapers, the Inquirer and Daily News. In what many in journalism dubbed as revolutionary, he then turned the papers over to a non-profit formed in his name, the Lenfest Institute, which he hoped to spur on donors to support journalism through charity.

He also was instrumental in the creation and opening of the American Revolution Museum, which opened in 2016.

Keith Leaphart, chairman of the Lenfest Foundation, the family's charitable organization, said Lenfest didn't see money in the traditional sense.

"Wealth didn't define Gerry. Gerry defined what wealth should be," Leaphart said.

Gov. Tom Wolf called Lenfest "a great human being and an even better citizen."

"Long before I became governor, I met and came to know and admire Gerry Lenfest for his commitment to making communities stronger," Wolf said. "Gerry and his wife, Marguerite, took their incredible success and offered the full energy of their lives in service of their fellow citizens and the city and state that they loved. There is likely not an organization or charity in Philadelphia that didn't benefit from the Lenfest family's generosity in some way."

He died Sunday morning at Presbyterian Hospital in University City, Philly.com reported.



Comcast Corp. chairman and CEO Brian Roberts described Lenfest as "one of the greatest philanthropists the city has ever seen," according to Philly.com.

"He has changed our city and so many institutions," Roberts told the website, which was also donated to the Lenfest Institute along with the newspapers. Comcast eventually took over Lenfest's cable company, according to Philly.com.

Leaphart, the foundation chairman, said the world lost a bright light.

"He was an amazing man. My hurt is more for the city and what we lost," Leaphart said. "If we had more Gerry Lenfests, the world would be a much better place."

Check back for updates on this breaking news story.
Philadelphia police say a 42-year-old nurse at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was stabbed in the leg by a woman who was trying to stab her sick father.

The 55-year-old father suffered a gash to his head from a soda can during the attack around 7:10 p.m. Saturday. He and the nurse, who was stabbed in the left leg, both are in stable condition.

The woman has been arrested and a weapon was recovered.

Police did not identify anyone involved in the incident.
A 42-year-old woman fell several floors to her death at the courtyard of a downtown apartment complex Saturday afternoon, police said.

Neighbors living in the Atmosphere apartment complex in the 1400 block of Fourth Avenue reported the fall around 3:15 p.m., according to San Diego Police Department.

"It's just weird," neighbor Tom Hocherein said. "Then I see caution tape and all the cops and it's like what the hell is going on right now?"

When officers and paramedics arrived, they found the woman with "traumatic injuries" to her body and pronounced her dead at the scene, Lt. Anthony Dupree said.

The woman lived on the eighth floor of the complex and it appeared she may have jumped, he said.

"Initially some of the witnesses thought they heard some arguing but no one heard anything specific to someone being pushed," Dupree said.

SDPD homicide detectives are looking into what led to the fatal fall and are investigating it as a suspicious death "out of an abundance of caution," Dupree said.

The man whom police believe is the woman's boyfriend was questioned but was being treated as a witness, police said.

The woman's identity has not been released pending notification of next of kin.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.
A family is splitting in two in Florida, where the wife of a former Marine and Iraq War combat veteran is being deported after exhausting all her appeals.

Tears flowed as Alejandra Juarez checked in for her flight to Mexico Friday at Orlando International Airport.

Her husband Cuauhtemoc Temo Juarez, a naturalized citizen, had written a letter to President Donald Trump, who he had voted for, requesting help, Stars and Stripes reported. It was delivered through his congressman, Democratic Rep. Darren Soto.

Alejandra Juarez said that if she could talk with Trump, she'd ask how he could let this happen, since her husband served the United States and Trump "always says he loves the military and he's doing everything for the military."

There is an immigration policy for military members and their families called "parole in place," NBC News reported. The Citizen and Immigration Services website says they provide discretionary options such as parole in place or deferred action on a case-by-case basis.

The 39-year-old woman lived in the U.S. for 20 years without trouble until a traffic stop in Davenport, Florida, exposed her legal status.

Afterward, she regularly checked in with U.S. Immigration and Customs officials, which typically went after higher-priority targets like people with criminal records. Temo didn't figure his vote for Trump would affect them personally. That was before the enforcement of Trump's "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal immigrants.



Alejandra Juarez raised two American citizen daughters, ages 16 and 8, with her husband, a naturalized citizen who runs a roofing business.

The older daughter, Pamela, cursed at the immigration agency before her mother checked in for her flight, saying, "My mom is a good person. She's not a criminal."



For now, Alejandra Juarez was traveling by herself. After she is settled, younger daughter Estela will join her. Temo Juarez will care for Pamela in Florida and pay the bills.

"My husband fought for this country three times. The administration, yourself, you think you are punishing me. You're not just punishing me," she said, referring to her family. "I hope this make him happy. Perhaps we will forgive him."



Alejandra Juarez petitioned to become a citizen in 2001, but was rejected because she was accused of making a false statement at the border when she sought asylum in 1998, said her attorney, Richard Maney. Asked about her citizenship, she had told authorities she had been a student in Memphis, Tennessee for a short time, and border officials apparently thought she was falsely claiming to be an American citizen, the attorney said.

U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., who couldn't get the votes in Congress for legislation to allow Juarez to remain, called her situation disgraceful. "We're not going to give up," he told her with a hug at the airport.

"It's an absolute disgrace by the Trump administration to be deporting a patriotic spouse," Soto said. "Her husband, Temo, served in the Marines ... while she was at home on the home-front, raising two young women. What justice does this serve?"

Alejandra Juarez ultimately decided to "self-deport" to Mexico, rather than turn herself in to be detained and then deported. After 20 years in the United States, she no longer has family or friends in the country, so she chose Merida, a city in the Yucatan where a small community of deported military spouses might help her.

Emotionally spent, she wiped her own tears behind sunglasses and stroked Pamela's hair while gripping Estela, who stood by her side. Temo Juarez said he preferred not to talk before they were all escorted through security for their final goodbyes.
What to Know Turkey ordered authorities to "freeze the assets of America's justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any"

Turkey retaliated against sanctions the U.S. imposed on Turkey's justice and interior ministers

The U.S. imposed the sanctions over the detention of American evangelical pastor Andrew Craig Brunson in Turkey

Turkey will freeze the assets of two U.S. officials in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor, Turkey's president said Saturday in a move that appeared more symbolic than practical.

Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had been "patient" since the U.S. Treasury sanctions were imposed Wednesday, but ordered authorities to "freeze the assets of America's justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any."

It is unclear who that would affect, due to differing Cabinet roles in the United States than in Turkey, or if the U.S. officials even have any holdings in Turkey.

Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul mocked the sanctions against them this week, saying they have no assets in the U.S, but the deteriorating Turkish-American relations sent the value of Turkey's national currency  the lira tumbling.

Erdogan called the sanctions "serious disrespect toward Turkey" and accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for demanding the release of evangelical pastor Andrew Craig Brunson while its ally Turkey tries him over alleged links to terror groups.

Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for decades, was jailed in December 2016 and is now under home detention. He is facing a 35-year sentence if convicted of the charges of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member" and espionage.

Top U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, have said there's no evidence against Brunson and demanded his release.

Despite the announcement of sanctions, Erdogan called for a return to the two country's partnership.

"We think there is no problem we cannot solve with the American administration," he said, urging Trump's government to drop its "hot-tempered attitude and return to its good senses."

Bilateral conflicts include the arrests of U.S. citizens as well as local consular staff, U.S. senators who are pushing to block the delivery of American F-35 jets following Turkey's pledge to buy the Russian S-400 missile system, and Turkey's demand that Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric, be extradited to stand trial for his alleged ties to a failed 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Gulen denies the accusations.

Yet another looming issue is whether the U.S. will impose a hefty fine on Turkey's state-run Halkbank after a New York court sentenced its deputy general manager for his role in helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Mehmet Hakan Atilla has about 15 months remaining in prison and media reports this week claimed Atilla and Halkbank may have been part of a deal for Brunson.

Erdogan accused the U.S. of attempting a swap and said the "mentality of swapping" did not fit his country, arguing that Halkbank had no link to the evasion scheme and should not be made to pay.

Erdogan, however, had once suggested a trade between pastor Brunson and cleric Gulen.

"We do not want to be part of a lose-lose game. To move political and judicial disputes to the economic dimension hurts both sides," Erdogan said as Turkey's economy shows serious signs of instability.
A hospital employee is accused of poisoning a co-worker at the Gifford Medical Center in Vermont.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department described an isolated incident between two workers that did not put patients in danger. Police announced Friday that 63-year-old Wayne Parezo, of Braintree, has been charged with aggravated assault.

The sheriff's department said Parezo is accused of putting a "foreign substance" into a coworker's drink. The coworker ended up in the emergency room.

Parezo, who's due in court in September, didn't immediately return a message left at his home.

The hospital said he's no longer employed there. A hospital website indicates he'd worked as an environmental services worker for several years.
The Kent Art Association will present the fourth lecture in its Discovering Our Founders series, focusing on sculptor and artist Willard Dryden Paddock, Aug. 11 at 3 p.m. at 21 South Main St. gallery.

Husband and wife artists Deborah Chabrian and Ed Martinez, who currently reside in Paddocks former home and studio in South Kent and who have done extensive research on Paddock, will discuss his life and work.
Temple Sholom in New Milford will present a program about French author Marcel Proust and his complicated relationship with his Jewish heritage Aug. 11 at 5:30 p.m.

Temple member and renowned architect Robert Couturier will engage Barnard College professor Caroline Weber in the question-and-answer program at the Temple on Route 7.
Tehran : The French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR delivered five more turboprops to Iran on Sunday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The ATR 72-600 passenger planes landed at Tehran's international Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning, a day before the return of first round of US sanctions against Iran, reports Xinhua news agency.

Flight licenses have been issued for the ATR passenger planes to join Iran Air's fleet, the Iran Air announcement said.

In April 2017, Iran Air signed a contract with ATR to purchase 20 short-haul passenger jets worth $576 million. Iran had already received eight ATR 72-600 aircraft and deployed them in domestic flights.

After US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement, Washington is trying to bring sanctions back on Iran with the aim of blocking Iran's international financial transaction and reducing its oil exports to zero.
Tehran : Iran will not sit down for negotiations under pressures, in particular with US President Donald Trump who "has breached obligations," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qasemi said on Saturday.

If the US wants negotiations, it should stop pressures and sanctions, Qasemi was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

Under such circumstances negotiations cannot be held, he said, adding that the Iranian people will resist the pressures and will conquer finally.

In the meantime, Qasemi rejected the possibility of war between Tehran and Washington, saying no country is able to carry out such actions in the current world.

He also said Tehran expects the European countries to bring forward a practical package of proposals to salvage Iranian nuclear deal, also known as JCPOA, after the U.S. pull-out in May.

Iran wants guarantees from Europe to maintain banking cooperation and investments in Iran's oil fields as well as continuation of cooperation between Iranian and European small and medium-sized enterprises, Qasemi noted.

Following Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear pact on May 8, the United States vowed to reimpose sanctions lifted under the accord against Iran and inflict punishments like secondary sanctions on nations that have business links with Iran.

Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iran nuclear deal was criticized across the world. Some of its major European allies have been working to prevent the 2015 deal from falling apart.
Moscow : Russian Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the attempted attack against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, stressing that using terrorism in political struggle is "unacceptable".

"We consider categorically unacceptable the use of terrorist methods as tools of political struggle. Obviously, such actions are aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country," the ministry said in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.



Maduro escaped unharmed from an attempted attack of explosive drones on Saturday night during his speech to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the country's National Guard.



The foreign ministry noted that the attack came at a time when the congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela held just a few days ago outlined the priorities for restoring the country's economy.



"We are convinced that the settlement of political differences must be carried out exclusively in a peaceful and democratic way," the ministry said.
Caracas : A television broadcast by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was cut short during an outdoor speech at a military event after a reported explosion, the media reported.

The country's leader was addressing the military to mark the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela, Daily Star reported.

While Maduro was speaking about Venezuela's economy, the audio suddenly went.

Witnesses told Efe that the Venezuelan President was apparently attacked by a drone.

The TV visuals showed scores of soldiers running, before the transmission was cut.

There were reports of an explosion but the Information Ministry has not yet confirmed this.

Maduro is believed to have been taken to safety.
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BROOKFIELD  Nearly three months after the town defeated a more expensive plan, residents will vote Tuesday on the $2.15 million capital improvement budget.

The town will hold a referendum on the plan, which includes projects such as road paving, handicap-accessible bathrooms at the library and renovations to the boys locker room at the high school.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., with District I voting at Huckleberry Hill Elementary School and District II voting at Center Elementary School. The latter district normally votes at the high school, but water will be shut off at the building because the tank is being replaced.

We need to move the town forward, said First Selectman Steve Dunn, adding it was critical voters approve the plan so the projects can start  some were delayed because the initial budget failed.

Voters initially rejected a $2.6 million plan in the first budget referendum, the day a massive storm knocked out power to nearly all residents, preventing some from going to the polls. The boards of selectmen and finance then proposed an identical plan, which voters again defeated at a special town meeting in June.

This revised plan does not include $300,000 for the schools and $110,000 for incident command vehicles for the volunteer fire companies, which were part of the original budget.

The town is required to hold a special town meeting on its capital budget and then wait 45 days for a referendum, which meant the plan could not be on the second and third referendums on the operating budgets, Dunn said.

The $66.6 million operating budget passed in the third referendum in mid-June.

The biggest chunk of the budget would go toward paving the roads. The town plans to borrow $650,000 for this work and spend $850,000 in cash.

People are very happy with the shape the roads are in and we want to continue that, Dunn said.

The town also wants to borrow $15,000 for an engineering study to explore the feasibility of replacing the windows at the library, as well as $23,500 to make the bathroom handicap accessible.

Library officials have not given up on building a new library after voters rejected their proposal in February. But Dunn said the building needs improvements in the meantime.

The single-pane windows are old and not energy efficient, but new ones could pay for themselves in energy savings, Dunn said. Meanwhile, the bathroom is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Also part of the plan is $350,000 to replace the generator at the high school, $60,000 for a time and attendance system for the district, $50,000 to replace the transfer switch at the high school and $50,000 to renovate the boys locker room at the high school. The dilapidated locker room is in desperate need of repair, Dunn said.

That needs to be done, he said. You have to have reasonable facilities for our kids to use. Having a clean, usable locker room seems a basic, not a fancy extra.

More Information Total capital budget: $2.15 million Major projects: Road paving, generator at high school, renovate boys' locker room at high school, upgrades to Parks and Recreation Department building, handicap accessible bathrooms at library See More Collapse

The Parks and Recreation Department maintenance building also needs several upgrades, including a new roof, a sewer system connection and door and window replacement. This will cost $65,000.

The building is about to fall down, Dunn said. Its getting dangerous. It goes to maintaining our infrastructure. We have a lot of expensive equipment in that building and we dont want to get it destroyed.

He said this project likely would have already been started had the first referendum been approved.

Dunn said the town has posted on social media and put up signs around town to get out the vote.

Summer is typically going to have a low voter turnout, he said. A lot of people are on vacation. Were hoping that everyone gets out there.
In the decades-long war over milk - with purveyors of cow juice on one side and the people who make an increasing array of ecru-colored plant- and nut-based drinks on the other - this is as close to consorting with the enemy as it gets.

The manufacturer of a popular brand of almond milk has announced a recall for what some would say sacrilegious act: Somehow, cow's milk got into their almond milk.

The recall affects nearly 150,000 half-gallon cartons of Almond Breeze almond milk shipped to wholesalers in 28 states, according to the Food and Drug Administration. That is less than 1 percent of all the refrigerated almond milk shipped by HP Hood LLC in the past month.

HP Hood is a national dairy company based in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Among its brands is Kemps and Crowley. But the company also handles the production of Almond Breeze, the brand of Blue Diamond Growers, a California almond cooperative.

This revelation could be more than enough to sour fans' perception of the Almond Breeze brand whose carton features almonds plopping into a sea of pure white liquid.

It was a perception carefully cultivated by Blue Diamond Growers, whose website features a picture of a singular, perfect almond sitting upright on a wooden table and another photo of a farmer meticulously inspecting a blossoming almond tree. If the photos weren't enough, the text near the top of the page proudly proclaims: "Almonds are all we do."

But a statement from Hood about the mix-up conjures a different image. The almond milk was produced in a factory - one that, almond drinkers now know, was essentially playing both sides in the milk wars.

RELATED VIDEO: Parasite Concerns Lead To Recall of Salads And Wraps

"Although the almond milk is processed on a separate line and filler and we confirmed that the allergen control protocol all standard validation testing was conducted in accordance with our allergen control program, this particular batch of almond milk was contaminated with one container of milk through an employee error," the representative said in an email to CBS News. "Hood made the decision to recall all of the product from this batch as a precaution."

One person with a lactose allergy was sickened by the almond milk, but Hood said the product is completely safe to drink for anyone without that allergy.

For many, it was another salvo in the greater debate over what is and isn't "milk," with billions in revenue at stake.

Victoria tweeted "Is the dairy industry trying to get back at us by poisoning our almond milk with dairy???"

Frank Mitloehner tweeted "Blue Diamond almond milk has been recalled, because the product did not contain only almonds and water, but also real dairy milk. Ironic, for the first time their product deserves the name almond MILK, and what do they do, recall it..."

People who ship cows milk argue that people who sell hemp, nut, and soy-based drinks are using the centuries-old good name of milk to market products that should more appropriately be labeled soy juice or hemp drink.

In 2000 and 2010, the National Milk Producers Federation wrote the FDA to argue for a more exclusive use of the word "milk" on labels. At the time, federation spokesman Christopher Galen told USA Today, "We had to do something," which included creating a Facebook page: "They Don't Got Milk."

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it planned to start heavily enforcing a regulation that says the only products that can call themselves "milk" are things that come from the "milking of one or more healthy cows." In a statement at the Politico Pro Summit, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb summed it up this way: An almond doesn't lactate."

The debate has also entered the halls of Congress. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, submitted an amendment to kill spending for the required FDA study that would look at relabeling, according to Roll Call, but it was defeated. Afterward, the National Milk Producers Federation declared a small victory.

"Today's vote should send a very strong message to food marketers who have long been ignoring FDA's food labeling standards by inappropriately using dairy terms on products that do not contain any dairy," the federation said. "Those days are numbered."

The other side argues that no consumer believes that when buying, say, almond milk, that it originated from a cow. Declining sales of cow's milk and the exploding market for alternatives is not due to the labeling on the carton, they argue, but rather what's inside it. Increasingly health conscious consumers view milk alternatives as simply better for them.

Nancy Chapman, executive director of the Soyfoods Association of North America, told The Post in 2016 that her organization has conducted studies of shoppers and found that the "overwhelming majority" - 98 percent - don't confuse it with cow's milk.

"Folks are selecting soy milk because they know it's not from dairy," she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly listed Kemps as one of the brands of HP Hood. Farmers co-op Dairy Farmers bought Kemps in 2011.
"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."
On your mark, get set, go! Alex Fitts, a first-grade student at Chatfield School in Lapeer, was all smiles as he took off from the starting line during a bicycle race...

Im happy its out there OREGON TWP.  Connor Martin always wrote little stories when he was younger. It was a good way to channel an active imagination and became...

Booster shots available in county LAPEER TWP.  COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are available to Lapeer County residents from all three manufacturers  Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Booster...
WASHINGTON - Metro is no longer considering running separate trains for protesters participating in the Aug. 12 "Unite the Right" white nationalists rally in Washington, the transit agency's board chairman said Saturday.

Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans had previously said that running a separate train was among options being weighed by officials.

"Metro will not be providing a special train or special car for anyone next Sunday," Evans said.

Word about the possibility of the service for rallygoers spread quickly Friday and Saturday, drawing condemnation from those who decried "special treatment" for white nationalist groups, which are focused on the goal of achieving a whites-only state or the separation of whites from other groups. Others thought the possible move to constitute a form of segregation.

Evans had said that Metro was simply exploring every option in an effort to prevent violence between rally participants and counterprotesters.

"We're just trying to come up with potential solutions on how to keep everybody safe," he said of discussions with Washington police Chief Peter Newsham and Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld, who would have the final say on extra security measures.

The event is being organized by the white supremacist group behind the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last summer that led to protests, violent clashes and the death of a counterprotester. Two Virginia state troopers conducting surveillance of the event were also killed when their helicopter crashed.

Jason Kessler, a white nationalist who organized the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville with Richard Spencer and other white-supremacist leaders, submitted a Mall Special Event permit request on May 8 to hold a "white civil rights" rally in Northwest Washington's Lafayette Square to protest "civil rights abuse in Charlottesville."

Evans, who is also a Democratic D.C. Council member representing Ward 2, said officials are concerned that the event could lead to physical clashes between rally attendees and those who may come out in droves to protest their presence.

"We're not trying to give anyone special treatment," Evans said. "We're just trying to avoid scuffles and things of that nature."

Evans said that officials also are considering increasing police presence on trains.

"Frankly, we don't know who's coming, how many people we're expecting for this thing, and whether it's actually going to happen at all," Evans said.

But the board chairman said the transit agency must take steps to ensure safety for all riders.

"If we did nothing and there were clashes and people were hurt or killed, you'd be all over us," he said.

He said the plans for police response to the rally are unlikely to be set until the day before the event.

Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said the agency "is working collaboratively with law enforcement to ensure safe travel for our customers and employees."

"Transit Police are engaged in ongoing discussions with MPD, the lead agency for the Aug. 12 event, as well as Virginia State Police and others as to how to keep everyone safe on that day," Stessel said in an email. "While details of the plan are security sensitive at this stage, I can tell you that it has not been finalized."

A Washington police spokeswoman said the agency does not discuss "operational tactics" but that one of its divisions is prepared to handle rallies.

Plans for the special trains were first publicized by Metro's largest union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which released a statement expressing outrage at the idea that Metro would provide "private" rail cars to "Unite the Right" participants.

ATU Local 689 President Jackie Jeter said members of the union, the majority of whom are people of color, "draw the line" at providing special service for supporters of a group that espouses white nationalism.

"Local 689 is proud to provide transit to everyone for the many events we have in D.C. including the March [for] Life, the Women's March and Black Lives Matter," Jeter said. "We draw the line at giving special accommodation to hate groups and hate speech."

Jeter also cited a recent legal case in which a court affirmed Metro's decision to ban "controversial" advertisements from the bus and subway system.

"Considering that the courts granted Metro the ability to deny ads on buses and trains that are 'issue-oriented,' we find it hypocritical for [Wiedefeld] to make these unprecedented special accommodations for a hate group," Jeter said.

From the union's statement: "More than 80% of Local 689's membership is people of color, the very people that the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist groups have killed, harassed and violated. The union has declared that it will not play a role in their special accommodation."

Tim Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney who conducted an independent review of the Charlottesville protest, said Metro was doing "the right thing" by trying to keep the white nationalist groups separate from any counterprotesters.

"It's absolutely paramount when you're trying to balance both public safety and free speech to enforce separation," he said. "If they've decided that there's a basis for a permit, then they have an obligation to do everything they can to keep everyone safe."

Asked to recommend a security plan, Heaphy suggested having the white nationalist protesters meet military or police escorts at an undisclosed location outside the District and then be taken to Lafayette Square by bus.

Heaphy said members of the transit workers union were within their rights to refuse to operate a train intended for white nationalists.

"Law enforcement has this professional obligation to protect speech, regardless of how hateful it is," he said, "but transit workers don't sign up for that."

Monica Hopkins, executive director of the Washington branch of the ACLU, said she was glad to see transit and police agencies planning for the rally.

"But it is imperative that the safety and rights of communities of color and those protesting white supremacists' message are equally protected," she said.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has stated that it is not worth it for Russia to compete for space launches against SpaceX and China. Russia used to dominate commercial space launches but now SpaceX and China are more inexpensive. SpaceX can now even beat the lower costs in China. China will still use its own rockets to launch their own GPS and Earth observation and other satellites.

China has made 22 launches this year and will have about 35 total launches in 2018.

Russia will try to get into Satellite manufacturing and satellite services.

China is pushing to match SpaceX first stage rocket reusability by about 2021.

Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin, also hopes to get close to SpaceX Falcon Heavy payloads with first stage reusability with the New Glenn rocket in 2020.

SpaceX has improved its first stage reusability with the block 5 and SpaceX is very near to recovering the $6 million fairings (nose cone covers).

SpaceX has plans to recover second stages using an inflatable heat shield.

China would probably be willing to sacrifice margins and operate with some small losses with only first stage recovery against SpaceX first stage, fairing and second stage recovery.

If SpaceX succeeds with the SpaceX BFR in 2022 with full recovery of all parts of a 150-ton payload rocket then it will take until 2030-2035 for China to catch up again.

Any Rocket company without some level of reusability in the SpaceX BFR age and willingness to fund full reusability development will likely drop out.

The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program of the Department of Defense will be renamed the National Security Space Launch program as of March 1, 2019. The military will not only use expendable rockets and will have to explain any contract that excludes reusable.

The Space Launch System of United Launch Alliance should already be canceled with the success of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. However, the SpaceX BFR will cause the Space Launch System to get canceled.
Patrick Stewart is returning as Star Trek Captain Picard in a new streaming TV series. It will not be a Star Trek Next Generation reboot.

The new series will tell the story of the next chapter of Picards life.

Star Trek: Discovery co-creator/executive producer Alex Kurtzman will oversee development of new Star Trek content under a big new overall deal with CBS TV Studios.

This is the third Star Trek series to be officially announced. Star Trek: Discovery will start its second season. Star Trek: Short Treks is a four-part limited series.

Captain Picard Story

Star Trek the Next Generation ran from 1987 to 1994.

Star Trek: Generations (also has some TOS cast) $75,671,125 Released 11/18/94 Star Trek: First Contact $92,027,888 Released 11/22/96 Star Trek: Insurrection $70,187,658 Released 12/11/98 Star Trek: Nemesis $43,254,409 12/13/02

Patrick Stewart is now 15 years older than when Star Trek Nemesis was released. They are talking about a 20-year time jump. There will be some experiences that will have changed Picard. This will be explored.

It is the same actor and character. So it seems they will pick up a story 15 years later in the prime universe timeline.

There has been no announcement about any of the other Next Generation, DS9 or Voyager actors. However, those actors are mostly available in real life.

Jonathan Frakes is involved in directing Star Trek Discovery episodes.

Michael Dorn has been trying to get a series for his Klingon Worf character.

However, the shows will likely be very focused upon Stewart. It would not be that difficult or expensive to incorporate CGI effects and ship models. There would not be any economic reason to keep the scope of the shows or stories small. They will need to stay ahead of the effects and story scope of fan productions like Axanar.

Stewart said that they are thinking about the fans.

If this is the case then revisiting other characters and races would be desired.

However, there would be a desire to see a hopeful and uplifting amount of progress over twenty years. In the announcement Stewart talked about how he liked making shows that were hopeful about the future.

Stewart and other TNG people have been involved in Seth MacFarlanes Orville. Orville is very much inspired by TNG.

If CBS is working towards something like the Marvel Movie Universe or the DC television Arrowverse, then they would need to be willing to open up the stories.

Anti-time Future and Irumodic Syndrome

I hope they either ignore or immediately deal with the Irumodic syndrome disease issue.

In the series finale there were events from 25 years after that time-period. Picard was in the advanced stages of Irumodic Syndrome which had began to cause his mental pathways to deteriorate.

Those would not be interesting stories.

Budgets and Netflix

In July, CBS Studios International licensed the series to Netflix for release outside the United States and Canada. This deal paid for that shows entire budget (around US$67 million per episode).

The Netflix Travelers show is science fiction television series created by Brad Wright, starring Eric McCormack. McCormack is the main star and is getting a big cut of the profits of the show. I believe this is the model that Patrick Stewart would have tried to negotiate.

If an anchor star is able to make a Netflix TV series successful, then they can make tens of millions and even hundreds of millions.

Netflix focuses on creating content to satisfy hundreds of niches identified from data mining. Netflix knows that Star Trek Discovery was adequate but that a Patrick Stewart anchored quality Star Trek show would be huge.

This would also be obvious to CBS executives as well.

Stewart indicated that they had no scripts but were working on storylines.

It would make the most sense to go for significant multi-show arcs that lead to big payoffs.
Saudi Arabia wants its Public Investment Fund (PIF) to control more than $2 trillion by 2030 so that it can be used to support transition from oil.

Saudi Arabia wants to diversify its the economy away from oil, under a plan known as Vision 2030.

Saudi Arabia has tried and mostly failed to diversify its economy for over 40 years. Oil and oil-related industry is still about 90% of the kingdoms export earnings, 87% of budget revenues, and 42% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017.

The PIF has $150 billion of assets in listed Saudi companies, including stakes in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) the worlds second-biggest chemicals manufacturer. It currently has assets of about $230 billion.

PIF is investing $45 billion into the Softbank Vision Fund. Saudi Arabia is building a $500 billion high technology city called Neom. They are investing $20 billion in a Blackstone infrastructure fund.

Aramco is being ordered by the Prince to buy a 70% ownership in the $100 billion Sabic. This would provide PIF with $70 billion in liquidity.

Aramco had been looking at a $100 billion IPO but they were not getting the $2 trillion valuation that they wanted. Investors have valued it at as low as $400 billion. Aramco does not own the oil. It is owned by the State.

Saudi Arabia has been educating its workforce but they are not productive. The economy and businesses are dependent upon harder working and more competent expats.

Saudi Arabia compared to Dubai and UAE

UAE and Dubai are more successfully diversify into tourism, finance and trade. Dubai has a population of 3 million. UAE has a population of 5.3 million. Dubai is part of the UAE. Saudi Arabia has a population of 33.6 million. Saudi Arabia will have a population of 39-40 million in 2030.

Saudi Arabia GDP is about $750 billion. UAE has a GDP of $408 billion.

Nuclear and Solar Energy

Saudi Arabia will build two large nuclear power reactors as part of a plan for up to 16 nuclear power plants over the next 20 to 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion. They could have 17 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2032 to provide 15% of electricity and have more than 40 GW of solar power.
HAMDEN  It was peaceful on the Tower Trail at Sleeping Giant State Park Thursday, with birds and cicadas calling and the thrum of traffic and tools off in the distance. On top of the namesake tower, turkey vultures rested easily, then flew off into the summer sky.

With your eyes closed, you could believe the May tornado never happened.

But evidence of the calamity that reshaped and shuttered the park was plain to see  logs and branches piled alongside the path, broken trees in the brush, potholes gouged by machinery.

Crews are working to repair Sleeping Giant State Park and its showcase trail, but theres more to do.

Theres still a substantial amount of work to go. This is going to be a little bit, said Chris Collibee, spokesman with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. I understand, we understand, how much people love this park, but the critical thing is that the park is made safe for park-goers.

Collibee said progress is being made appropriately  this process takes time. The aim is to restore the park holistically, not haphazardly, he said.

He said the lower picnic area has been cleared  the sea of trees that previously greeted visitors as they entered the park, damaged in the storm, is now gone, to be replaced by grass for the time being  and the Tower Trail also has largely been cleared.

But the side trails are still damaged, with the Sleeping Giant Park Association working on them; the parking and picnic area is being redesigned; and the Tower Trail will be widened, allowing vehicles to clear the wood and brush that remains there and ultimately speeding travel for emergency responders, he said.

Even today, those working in the park still hear trees and limbs falling to Earth, he said.

Park Supervisor Jill Scheibenpflug said though that while the storm was devastating and sad, it provided new opportunities as well.

Workers can plant hardwood trees in the picnic grove, which will hold up better than pine. The restroom building will be replaced  a task that needed to be done, pressed to the fore by a falling tree.

Im trying to look at the good things, because its just so devastating, you have to kind of find the silver lining, said Scheibenpflug. At some point, you have to come up with a positive side of it, too. Its a blank slate and hopefully well make the right decisions and make the park look really nice. Itll be different, but that doesnt mean it wont be nice.

Collibee said there is no timeline for re-opening Sleeping Giant.

He stressed that people should stay out of the park at this time, as it remains hazardous, and suggested people try the other parks maintained by DEEP, which have their own beautiful views. Wharton Brook State Park in Wallingford will hopefully re-open by the end of summer, he said.

And while the face of the Giant has changed and work remains, the place will restore itself, Collibee said.

The park does look different. But, in time, it will heal itself, said Collibee. Ultimately, well get this park re-opened  and the park will come back.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
HAMDEN  Two Hamden police officers were recently disciplined after settlements were reached with Police Chief Thomas Wydra and approved by the Police Commission and union UPSSEU/COPS Local 062.

Officer Michael Cirillo, charged with assaulting a North Haven man after leaving his post while on duty, was demoted from sergeant, had his name removed from the list of those eligible for a promotion to lieutenant, and agreed to complete an anger management program, according to a last chance/settlement agreement received through a Freedom of Information request.

Officer Timothy McKeon was suspended for 30 days after an internal investigation revealed that, between 2009 and August 2017, he made a minimum of five purchases of illegal steroids and was associated with an individual who he knew to be selling illegal steroids for several years and failed to report the ... criminal activity, according to his settlement agreement, also received through a FOI request.

McKeon also assented to submit to unlimited drug testing, based on reasonable suspicion or on a random basis, for 60 days following the July 23 agreement.

Cirillo said on Friday he ultimately understands the decision, but feels he did not have to be demoted.

He said he has an exemplary record, serving more than 20 years with the department and could have continued to serve as an effective supervisor.

The incident in question  Cirillo accosted Vincent Terrone, 38, in North Haven in December, prompting a charge of third-degree assault  was a colossal mistake that effectively ended (his) career, but was very unusual and out of character, he said.

He said Terrone had threatened his wife, who, in turn, called him, crying hysterically. He reacted, went to North Haven, and grabbed Terrone by the shirt, who dropped to the ground, he said.

He disputed the severity of the altercation  he said he did not place Terrone in a headlock, as indicated in a North Haven police report. The incident was a brief lapse in judgment, he said.

This was a horribly poor decision for me to go over there, said Cirillo. I briefly just kind of lost it.

Cirillo entered into accelerated rehabilitation, a judicial program for those deemed unlikely to commit further offenses, in April.

If he successfully completes the requirements that come with the program, which include the anger management class, the charges will be dropped.

People at the police department had welcomed him back after the demotion, easing the situation, he said.

McKeon referred the chance to comment to his attorney, John Chip Walsh, who said it was appropriate to move forward with the agreement, given the negotiations and factors at play, and close this chapter for the department and his client.

Walsh said McKeons history as a police officer should not be summed up in this single incident  he loves the job and is an asset to the community, he said.

You need to judge an officer, not on one incident ... You need to judge an officer on the body of work, said Walsh. Hes the kind of cop you want on the streets.

McKeon is the second Hamden police officer to be linked to steroids in recent months.

Bryan Kelly, 46, of East Haven, pleaded guilty in May to possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Michael Iezzi, chairman of the police commission, said on Friday that both agreements were reached between Wydra and the officers in question, which pre-empted the need for further consideration by the group.

Its sad that these situations occurred, but we addressed them in the best interest of the town, in the best interest of the community, Iezzi said.

Wydra said the agreements took into account the entirety of the matters at hand in a statement Friday.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Few things say local like the Chesapeake blue crab.

It has scuttled its way into Maryland's tourism slogan and is part of the region's signature dish, proudly touted on menus and in markets as a taste of the Bay in an era when "eat local" has become the mantra of foodies.

But a few years ago, a tipster reached out to authorities with an unsavory allegation: A major Virginia seafood supplier was selling packages of premium Chesapeake blue crab meat cut with cheaper foreign crab. It wasn't even the same species.

In an unusual probe, federal agents fanned out to markets across Virginia, Delaware and North Carolina, scooping up crab meat from Casey's Seafood and sending it out for the type of DNA analysis more common in rape and murder cases.

The results would reveal the tip of what authorities say is a massive fraud worth millions of dollars, one so large it has shaken the food industry and raised questions about just how much of the iconic food labeled as local comes from the Chesapeake Bay.

Federal prosecutors allege in a case unsealed this year that the Newport News, Virginia, company sold a whopping 398,000 pounds of Chesapeake blue crab mixed with cut-rate crab from as far away as Indonesia and Brazil, and labeled it as an American product. The retail value of the crab is roughly $14 million at current prices.

It is difficult to ascertain how widespread such problems are, but watermen, seafood suppliers, lawmakers and environmental groups have all expressed concerns about crab fraud in recent years and whether enough is being done to stop it. A 2015 report by Oceana, an international nonprofit group focused on ocean conservation and advocacy, found that nearly 40 percent of crab cakes it tested that were labeled as local in area restaurants contained imported meat.

"It's a species that's well loved around the area," said Kimberly Warner, the senior scientist at Oceana who authored the report. "The thought that we've all been subject to this fraud when we are enjoying what we think is a local product really hits home with diners in this region and undercuts the watermen."

But it's not just consumers and industry insiders who suffer. Oceana says the foreign crab that ends up in local products is sometimes illegally fished in an unsustainable fashion, such as via bottom trawling, that can kill fish and other species and deplete crab stocks.

Then, there's the taste. Some chefs and crab aficionados say Chesapeake blue crabs are a cut above blue crabs found in warmer waters such as those in the Carolinas and Louisiana, as well as other similar species. Crab cakes made with other meats - or crab fakes as some have derisively taken to calling them - just don't hold up.

"We are one of the farthest northern points they harvest the blue crab from," said Steve Vilnit, vice president of marketing for Capital Seaboard, based in Jessup, Maryland. "Our crabs have to hibernate in the winter and to do that they have to put on fat. Just like with a piece of beef, fat gives it flavor."

The cache of Chesapeake blues and the limited supply allows stores and restaurants to charge a premium. Investigators said that higher price point may have provided incentive for Casey's to cheat in the current case. It may motivate others, too.

A federal agent from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in a search warrant that an informant told him Casey's Seafood was trying to undercut the market, because prices for Chesapeake blue crabs had climbed with their scarcity. The fraud allegedly occurred between 2012 and 2015.

James R. Casey, the company's president, directed employees to remove foreign crab meat from packing containers and blend it with meat from another processor before placing the meat in containers containing the label "Product of the USA," according to court documents.

The employees also brazenly slapped "Product of the USA" stickers over the labels of the discarded cans that read "Product of Brazil" or "Product of China," presumably to cover their tracks, according to court documents.

In 2015, federal agents scoured the Casey's Seafood processing plant in Newport News, removing 17 bags and cans of crab meat labeled "Product of Vietnam," invoices, computers and dozens of other items, according to court documents. After the action, Harris Teeter and Farm Fresh supermarkets announced that they were dropping Casey's Seafood products.

Casey, 74, has been charged with violating the Lacey Act, a federal law on the labeling of fish and wildlife. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted. Casey's attorney did not return requests for comment and Casey's listed phone number has been disconnected.

The way federal prosecutors filed the charge - as a "criminal information," or a written accusation - indicates that they may be moving toward a plea deal with Casey. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment on the case. No hearing dates have been set.

In 2015, Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., before her retirement, wrote to President Barack Obama urging greater regulation of crab processing to stamp out fraud.

"The fraudulent labeling of Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean blue crab meat has a detrimental impact on an industry that plays an important role in the Virginia and Maryland economies," they wrote.

At the time, the Obama administration was studying ways to monitor seafood imports and cut down on fraud - which, in addition to crabs, affects other sectors of the seafood industry.

New rules went into effect at the start of 2018, requiring importers to document that the catch is legally and sustainably caught.

The rules apply to blue crab, but not other species commonly mixed with it. And the regulations do not do much to combat fraud that occurs within the United States, such as a domestic processor mixing foreign crab with Chesapeake blue crab - the allegation against Casey.

Fraud has frustrated some crabbers.

Richard Young, who has been a commercial waterman since the early 1990s, and his wife, Lee Carrion, own Coveside Crabs in Dundalk, Maryland, where they have built a business selling only the premium crabs Young has caught.

Both said they consider crab fraud to be rampant. Carrion said she has seen retailers purportedly selling local crabs at the end of the year, even though crabbing is banned during the winter months, while Young says some suppliers and retailers supplement the catch. They say it undermines the integrity of the local product and leads to lower prices for their specialized offering.

"The demand is for Maryland crabs and the Chesapeake just doesn't produce enough to meet the demand, so they bring in the crabs and mix them with Maryland crabs," Young said.

They said they want to see Maryland do a better job of enforcing a law that requires restaurants and markets to list the state where the crabs were caught when they have been labeled as local. Maryland does have a program called True Blue, which certifies 150 restaurants and retailers as selling mostly local crabmeat.

Jeff Gaetjen, fishmonger at BlackSalt Fish Market & Restaurant in Northwest Washington, said he continually works with the same suppliers to ensure he gets an authentic local product. He said customers can also take a few steps to do the same.

"Always insist on fresh crab meat that's not pasteurized," Gaetjen said. "Go to a reputable fish store. Create a relationship with that person."
Twenty years ago, Lisa Reisman of Branford received the news that would unalterably change her life. Feeling tired, she took a nap and woke up two days later in the hospital. She was told, I had a mass in the right frontal lobe of my brain, she said.

The diagnosis: grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme, a lethal brain cancer. The prognosis: 18 months to live.

On Saturday, Reisman, 52, a former New York lawyer who now freelances for the Shoreline Times , held a party to celebrate two decades of survival. Looking back on the years after her surgery, Reisman said the fear that the cancer could return was compounded by the anxiety she felt about the multiple MRIs she was required to undergo to make sure it hadnt.

Reismans experience has buttressed the concern of Dr. Cary Gross, her brother-in-law, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine. With new studies showing that multiple surveillance procedures dont necessarily improve patient outcomes in at least some cancers, he is concerned about whether aggressive post-treatment testing is really necessary, given the anxiety, cost and even occasional false positive results that accompany it.

When Reisman underwent her first MRI, the day after her surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, she had a panic attack. It felt like a coffin, she said. I had never had one before. She then underwent six weeks of radiation and six rounds of chemotherapy over the next year. But there were more MRIs to follow. Whatever the result was would tell me whether Id live or die, she said. The anxiety started two weeks before each test, continued through the 45-minute scan and lasted until she heard that her results were negative for cancer.

The only hope came from Reismans radiation oncologist, Dr. Jonathan Knisely. He had this beautiful way of pictorially describing what was going on, she said. He told me exactly what I needed to do to get through this time.

He said, get through six weeks of radiation, get through your first two rounds of chemo. In December, Ill have you undergo an MRI. If thats clear, you should be OK, Reisman said. Imagine that. I was exhilarated and at the same time I had to cope with my dread of another MRI, another 45 minutes in that narrow tunnel.

To prepare for that second test, she lay under a blanket on a coffee table for 45 minutes. In the month leading up to it, she watched television for hours on end. During the test, her father squeezed her foot to comfort her. And Knisely read her MRI right away. Its clean! Its clean! No change! she said he told her.

But that didnt end the MRIs. She was scheduled for three a year for three years, then two a year for another two years, and once a year after that, indefinitely. Even though I was told I was OK, it never got easier, Reisman said.

Five years along, a different radiologist, who hadnt looked at her previous MRIs, saw some kind of frost on her scan and warned her of a possible return of the cancer, not realizing it had been there each time.

Finally, eight years after her surgery, meeting with her primary oncologist, Dr. Jill Lacy, Reisman said, I suddenly said, I dont want to do this anymore. I had to say it.

Part of the issue is that few patients with glioblastoma, the most severe of malignant gliomas, survive more than a few years, so doctors dont know when they can stop surveillance, Reisman said. U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., died 15 months after being diagnosed with glioma. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had a glioblastoma tumor removed on July 14, 2017.

What is most effective?

For Gross, the question is, what is the most appropriate way to get follow-up testing once cancer treatment  surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy  is completed.

When youre done with your cancer, its imperative that you follow up with your oncologist regularly and you follow up with your primary care doctor, and you should be evaluated to see whether or not the cancer has recurred, he said. The question is, what is the most effective strategy for survival?

While Reisman serves as a personal example, Gross bases his questions on studies showing that more frequent testing does not necessarily increase survival rates. One study of post-treatment surveillance and survival for prostate cancer, presented at a May meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, stated that the standard follow-up, the prostate-specific antigen test, or PSA, has an undefined guideline, ranging from once to four times a year. In the study, 10,477 randomly chosen patients, at low, intermediate and high risk, were followed for five years.

The researchers concluded: More frequent PSA surveillance after definitive treatment for localized prostate cancer is not associated with improved survival. This is the first large-scale study to provide data to inform guidelines and patient/physician decisions. Based on these results, surveillance guidelines recommending PSA tests every 3-6 months likely represent overutilization of care.

Another study, published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed 2,509 post-surgical patients with stage 2 or 3 colorectal cancer at 24 centers in Sweden, Denmark and Uruguay over five years. Patients were assigned to two groups who were tested with computerized tomography scans and a blood test to measure carcinoembryonic antigen. One group was tested at six, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months after surgery; a second group was tested at 12 and 36 months.

The study found that the difference in testing frequency did not result in a significant difference in the five-year overall mortality rate (13.0% vs 14.1%, respectively) or colorectal cancer-specific mortality rate (10.6% vs 11.4%).

The bottom line here is its essential to follow up with your oncologist but its also important to ask, How frequently should I be getting this test? because getting tested more frequently may not translate into getting a better outcome, Gross said.

Given that more frequent testing can increase a patients angst, Gross said, Were entering a new phase of medical research where were not only trying to find new treatments; were also trying to find opportunities to dial back.  Were realizing sometimes less is more, he said.

If fewer doctors visits will result in a similar outcome as more frequent testing, less testing may be called for, Gross said. Additional surveillance can increase anxiety, it can increase the burden of treatment, driving to and from the hospital, to and from the doctor. Some patients have to pay out of pocket for these additional tests, he said.

Also, there is a risk of false positive results, he said. A biopsy might find a small, little abnormality [that] doesnt turn out to be anything abnormal.

Gross said more studies are needed so that, if a patient wants more frequent testing to be reassured the cancer hasnt returned, he or she can be told what the evidence shows. He added that the current studies arent going to end all debate on the topic. Fewer visits to the doctor wont be the right answer for every patient, he said. Some people probably feel that if they get tested they feel reassured that its negative.

At the end of the day, the patient needs to be the one whos steering the ship and the one whos making the decisions, Gross said.

As a society, we invest very heavily in discovering new treatments, new tests, new surgical devices, and thats terrific and that should continue, but at the same time we need to carefully research when are these new treatments and tests helpful and when are they not, he said.

Dr. Nita Ahuja, chairwoman of the Department of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine and chief of surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital, expressed caution about the recent studies, especially the one about colorectal cancer.

If you look at all colorectal cancers, 25 to 50 percent come back, she said. We follow all patients for two things: one, for recurrence  and for side effects of treatment.

She said the amount of follow-up care depends on the severity of the disease when it is found. If someone is stage 1, not a lot of follow-up is needed. Youre not going to do a lot of surveillance because the likelihood of recurrence is low, she said.

Ahuja said guidelines for stage 2 or 3 colon cancer are to have a CT scan every six months for five years. Theyre saying, Well, maybe dont do it as frequently; maybe do it less, and I think the answer is somewhere in between.

Its good to have some healthy debate, she said, but added, Our guidelines are a little more stringent than this paper [on colorectal cancer] suggests. My sense is surveillance is needed, and we need to follow patients for five years.

Ahuja pointed out that, in prostate cancer, Weve dialed back on some treatments. Even for small tumors, we do watchful waiting, not immediately removing the tumor if it appears to be slow-growing or if the patient is older.

As surgeons we would absolutely advocate surveillance in discussion with your physician, she said.

Ready to just live

Reisman, who left her legal practice, has written a book about her experience, including running the Hammerfest Triathlon 10 years after her surgery, which benefits the Branford-based charity Brians Hope.

Her books title is 5 Months, 10 Years, 2 Hours. The five months refers to when I didnt know whether I would live or die.  The 10 years is when Im trying to figure out what to do. And the two hours refers to her triathlon time, which was actually 1 hour, 47 minutes. Shes taken part in two more triathlons since.

It was also at the 10-year mark that she started freelance writing. I really like what Im doing now, Reisman said. I really love reporting and talking to people and sort of dignifying their lives.

I really cant stand this metaphor of cancer as a battle, as a war, she said. Its far more about enduring and getting through each day and taking the next step and keep going.

She has no regrets about ending her annual MRIs. I dont know if any doctor has any idea of the terror one faces, she said. Its really facing your mortality each time you go in. I think patients should know theyre the one who have to say enough. Some may want the reassurance. I was ready to leave it behind and just live.

This story has been edited to clarify that patients receive CT scans after colorectal surgery.

edward.stannard

@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382.
3 1 of 3 /Contributed photo /East Haven police Facebook page Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributed photo /East Haven police Facebook page Show More Show Less 3 of 3





EAST HAVEN  Police are hoping the public can help them identify a man suspected of stealing from a grocery store Sunday morning.

The white or Hispanic man came into My Country Store on Main Street through the back door around 6:30 a.m. and took cash from the register, according to a post on the polices Facebook page.
NEW HAVEN  This could be a year of intense financial review.

After two credit agencies downgraded New Havens rating, dinging it for ending the year in a deficit with little in savings while carrying a high-debt load and poorly funded pension liabilities, the city is pledging to create a five-year budget plan with needed policy changes.

It is very sobering, aldermanic Majority Leader Richard Furlow, D-27, said of the feedback from S&P Global Ratings and Fitch as New Haven went out to the market for $58 million in new capital funds and $160 million in refinanced debt.

For the first seven years of the refunded bonds, the city will save $108 million in debt service over what it would have paid under the current debt service schedule. In the next nine years however, it will pay $197.6 million in debt servicing just due to the refunding.

Furlow and others said the city needed the flexibility the refunding offers for those seven years to start to get its structural problems under control, while stabilizing an environment where development continues to grow.

What got us to this point and what we have to do as legislators is to make some serious changes, Furlow said. We are going to be meeting weekly to make sure we get this five-year plan developed and not one penny is spent that shouldnt be. It is crucial or we are going to be back in this position in five years or three years, Furlow said.

The preliminary bond sale document put the citys existing general obligation debt service at $755,302,355 by 2038 with $67 million due this fiscal year. It peaked at $69.7 million in debt service payments in fiscal fiscal 2020 and then continued to drop to $3.3 million in 2058 after which it is cleared.

With the refunding, the payment schedule in effect in 2018 equals the old payment schedule after which it continues to decline. From 2027 through 2032 it mostly equals out around $53 million a year, before spiking in 2033 and dropping back in 2034.

The restructuring generates a budgetary savings of $31.2 million which is expected to boost the fund balance to cover unanticipated shortfalls in state aid and high medical costs; cover the $11.5 million deficit in the General Fund and put $2.5 million extra in each of the two pension funds.

The city said there will be budgetary savings ranging from $18.9 million to $4.1 million for fiscal 2020 through 2025 because of the refunding.

The majority leader said they are looking at changing the tax deferral program for future developers; paying the pensions in September rather than at the end of the year and bringing in their own experts as they go through the citys finances.

Furlow promised that the alders will also tackle the police and fire departments huge overtime costs.

We are going to get this overtime under control. Everyone is not going to be happy about it, but these are the measures that we are going to have to do, he said.

The majority leader said the difference this time that makes him confident it will get done is having a five-year planning documentand sticking to it to counter the weak management and structural imbalances citing by the rating agencies.

To be honest with you I was flabbergasted that we still dont have a plan in place, Furlow said.

Furlow, aldermanic President Tyisha Walker-Myers, D-23 and Alder Aaron Greenberg, D-8 were unanimous in their vote for the bonds, as they joined Mayor Toni Harp and Controller Daryl Jones in approving the sale as the five members of the Bond Sale Committee.

Furlow said they did not want, as an alternative, to send out supplemental tax bills to cover the fiscal 2018 deficit.

But perhaps their biggest fear was being forced into the Municipal Accountability Review Board, where the state takes over your financial decisions.

As long as we can make sound fiscal financial decision, then we are not going to do it. We are going to help this administration the best we can, he said.

He said it also did not make sense to issue tax anticipation notes as the payback would be too soon.

As a resident with family going back almost 100 years in New Haven, Furlow said, I owe it to the city to do the right thing.

Harp is on board with the aldermanic leaderships agenda.

Some alders, who werent involved in the decision however, said the bond sale wasnt the best move for the city.

Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr., D-26, said in an email, If we dont deal with our fiscal situation now, we will continue to hurt future generations.

He said the city needs a more aggressive development plan in addition to finding other sources of revenue. Brackeen said the administration should look at regionalization and continue to fight for more PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes. Brackeen said he would have preferred to have had more legislative input, although the board ultimately decides where the $31.2 million will go.

Alder Abby Roth, D-7, said the administrations solution to financial problems is to refinance debt.

This is not a solution  it is creating temporary cash savings, while increasing what we will owe in the future: Fitch predicts the city's current refunding will cost the city taxpayers $10 million in the long run, she said.

We must stop irresponsibly increasing our future debt and start addressing the underlying structural problems by seriously engaging all stakeholders so that we can make hard but necessary decisions about how to reduce huge cost drivers such as pension, health care, and police and fire overtime, Roth said. She said the police and fire contracts are a good opportunity to do that.

She also wants to engage the MARB for advice.

Alder Steven Winter, D-21, said the city should have looked at other options before refinancing.

He said it is irresponsible to add to the citys debt if the city hasnt explored all other options, like issuing tax anticipation notes connected to the next installment of property tax payments, Winter said in an email before the vote.

Winter said hes not surprised by the citys recent credit downgrade because it hasnt taken steps to substantively address its structural budget deficits. Further downgrades are likely unless significant steps are taken to bring spending and revenue into alignment.

The alder supports the suggestion of the Financial Review and Audit Committee to get an independent cost study of police and fire staffing levels and move more pension funds to low-cost, passive investments.

Like Roth, he wants the city to seriously consider engaging with the MARB sooner rather than later as the next state leaders might not be as interested in helping cities as Gov. Dannell P. Malloys administration has shown.

Nobody wants to take decision making away from a city, Office of Policy and Management and MARB Chairman Ben Barnes said. Just because a city has financial problems, doesnt mean state takeover is necessary. .

New Haven has a history of financial troubles, no question, but it also has a history of high-quality management, he said and sees no reason New Haven is at a point where it will not be able to find structural balance.

Harp is not interested in engaging with MARB, but also said the agency does not have any money at the moment to help New Haven..

As long as we have the right tools, I dont believe its necessary, she said. Im not certain it will exist or the new government will want it to exist. We know what we can do today. We dont know what will happen in January.
NEW HAVEN  As new infections of a gay cancer began to spread in the 1980s, White House officials under the Ronald Reagan administration were notoriously derisive, laughing the idea off until 1985, after thousands of mostly gay men had already died.

But today, decades into a global AIDS crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a pill known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, taken daily, reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90 percent and among people who inject drugs by more than 70 percent.

However, the CDC estimated in March that slightly more than 8 percent of the estimated 1.1 million Americans at substantial risk for HIV filled prescriptions for PrEP in 2015.

Part of the problem with the uptake is people dont know about it, so they dont know to ask, medical providers might not be knowledgeable about it, and anecdotically we know many medical providers are uncomfortable talking to patients about their sexual histories, said Shawn Lang, deputy director of AIDS CT, a statewide coalition of AIDS-based organizations based in Hartford.

We have a chance to change the course of this epidemic with a one-a-day pill and I think the beauty of PrEP is, when youre on it, you see your doctor once every three months, he said.

Marianne Buchelli, health program supervisor at the state Department of Public Health, said in an emailed statement that the department does not yet have accurate statewide statistics on the use and cost of Truvada, a drug manufactured by Gilead Sciences and the only commercially available form of PrEP.

Theres a lot that needs to be done on the medical provider side of this, Lang said.

Tom Butcher, the local project director of the Ryan White CARE Act program, which provides HIV/AIDS services for low-income people in New Haven and Fairfield counties, said he takes PrEP, which is made easier because he attends a gay-oriented health care practice, something he says are few and far between.

Theyre for white, privileged guys like me, for the most part, he said.

Butcher said a young, low-income black man in Connecticut may not have the same access, opportunities or knowledge base as someone like him.

Its up to the providers to understand that young man, to do a sexual assessment, to create an environment where that young man would feel safe to say hes a gay man and This is the kind of sex I enjoy, and lets talk about risk, he said.

Cost barriers

According to the state DPH statistics, in the four-year period after the federal Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada in 2012, the number of annual new infections in Connecticut has not gone down substantially  from 294 in 2012, to 269 in 2016.

However, even with that decline, massive racial gaps exist. According to state data, from 2012 to 2016, the rate of newly reported HIV infections in black residents of Connecticut fell from 36.4 per 100,000 people to 32.8, a number that eclipses the 3 in 100,000 white people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2012, which fell to 2.7 in 2016. In Hispanics, the rate fell from 18.2 per 100,000 in 2012 to 17.1 in 2016.

Young black and Hispanic men who have sex with men and trans women are really the bullseye of all of this, Butcher said.

Additionally, Butcher said federal funding is often allocated to areas where the need is greatest, so if Connecticut were to begin cutting into its rate of new diagnoses, it would also see its budget for prevention services and care slashed.

Its leaving Connecticut residents behind and putting us behind the eight ball, he said.

Although the drug price-tracking website GoodRx estimates that 30 pills of Truvada costs about $1,600, a group of activists penned an op-ed in the New York Times arguing that the generic drug in other countries costs $6 for a months supply. Activists also argue that, since public funding from the National Institutes of Health largely funded the development of Truvada, Gilead Sciences patent on the drug is unethical and has transformed a drug with potential to end an epidemic into a luxury.

Gilead Sciences reported $5.6 billion in revenues in the second quarter this week, with a net income of $1.8 billion. The company, which markets 25 products, saw its revenue exceed Wall Street expectations, but stock prices fell as the company failed to surpass revenues in prior years. Gilead CEO John Milligan recently announced his resignation after 28 years, saying in a statement that it was a mutually agreed-upon decision with the companys board of directors.

Butcher, who works with a low-income population  which qualifies for the Ryan White program once they are already infected  said Gileads patient assistance programs, including co-pay coupon programs and patient support programs, help to offset costs and make the drug affordable.

Gilead did not return a request for comment Friday.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the senator is aware of the pricing issue with these and other drugs but has not had any letters or complaints from Connecticut patients about Truvada.

(C)urrent federal HIV Prevention funding through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), prohibits the purchasing of PrEP medications. This is the barrier. People who dont have insurance or have the type of insurance that will not cover the medication due to cost, are the populations that the Department is planning to focus more on in the future, Buchelli wrote in an email. Despite this, DPH has concentrated on raising awareness about PrEP, how to access it, and last year piloted several programs with the goal of assisting people to access PrEP services regardless of insurance.

The DPH announced a public health initiative in June to target new infections in the five municipalities with the largest number of new HIV infections  New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford, Waterbury and Stamford  called Getting to Zero.

The Commission aims to engage with consumers and providers to determine how to most effectively use those tools to reach the G2Z goals of no new HIV infections, no AIDS-related deaths and no more AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. The Commission is focused on learning what barriers exist to ending the epidemic, said Buchelli, of the DPH. Using a data-driven process, the campaign is focused on three populations at greatest risk (young men of color who have sex with men, African American/Black women and Transgender Women). The Commission is currently conducting listening sessions with the various groups in each city as well as with other consumers and providers of prevention services.

According to DPH statistics, the number of new diagnoses in New Haven has not exceeded 40 annually since 2010, but it did not go below 29 between 2011 and 2016. Its a noticeable decline from the first year of data, where there were 103 reported new diagnoses, a number which didnt fall below 60 until 2007. In Bridgeport, the annual number of new diagnoses has mostly been level this decade, hovering between 26 and 45, although there were 119 new diagnoses in 2002.

The decline is more noticeable in Hartford, which reported 26 new diagnoses in 2016, down from 43 in 2012 when Truvada was introduced to the market, and from 164 in 2002.

Getting the word out

Lang, of AIDS CT, said the Getting to Zero initiatives commission, which includes stakeholders local to several communities, can be valuable assets in the fight against new infections.

We like having more tools in our toolbox, she said. I think a lot of people dont even know about (PrEP).

Butcher said he spoke to a young gay man in New York City who said he was aware of PrEP because of the prevalence of advertisements on the subway. Lang said she saw a commercial on television for PrEP and felt surprised and excited at seeing the drug discussed on a mainstream platform.

In fact, Gilead launched its first branded ad for PrEP in 2016, four years after its version of the drug was approved. That year, it spent $450,000 advertising Truvada, mostly to gay black and Latino men, transgender women and couples in which only one of the partners has a positive diagnosis for HIV/AIDS, according to MM&M. By comparison, the company spent $101 million in 2016 advertising its hepatitis-C treatment.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Looking for the vulture assist with Neolithic burials

1 year ago
A 40-year-old man from Fair Lawn accidentally shot himself and a friend with his semiautomatic handgun while he was showing it off in his home Saturday night, police said.

The .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun discharged one round in his Rosewood Street residence. The bullet struck the owner in his left hand, and his friend in the right hip, Fair Lawn police said.

The man and his friend, a 49-year-old man from Paterson, were taken to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center by an acquaintance. Neither of the men were identified.

While at the hospital, an off-duty Paterson police officer, who was working security, contacted Fair Lawn police about the gunshot victims.

Police did not say if the gun was legally owned and registered. No one has been charged in relation to the shooting.

Neither man was critically injured, and both were being treated for their injuries Sunday morning, police said.

Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross.
Authorities are searching for a hit-and-run driver who killed a pedestrian in Woodland Township.



New Jersey State Police spokesman Sgt. Lawrence Peele said a woman was struck around 1:22 p.m. Friday near the intersection of Gilbert Street and Kester Street in Woodland Township. After hitting the woman, the driver of the vehicle fled the scene.



Peele said the woman was taken to Deborah Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.

The accident occurred near the New Lisbon Developmental Center, which is operated by the state Department of Human Services.

"We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident," the department said in a statement. "We share in the sadness and send prayers and condolences to the victim's family and friends. The Department is working with New Jersey State Police on this active investigation. Further inquiries should be directed to the New Jersey State Police at 609-882-2000."



The identity of the woman has not been released. The State Police's Fatal Accident Investigation Unit is investigating the incident.

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
A 41-year-old Sewell man who rescued a father and two young children from a burning house early Saturday is reluctant to accept any praise of his heroics.

"I just hope everybody would do the same," Patrick Finn said.

When his neighbors were trapped on the second-floor of their burning home, Finn got a ladder from their garage and pulled a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old and the father from a room that was so smoky the window looked like an opaque, black wall.

Patrick Finn (Provided)

In an interview Saturday evening, Finn said he heard from the Washington Township Fire Department that all three had been released from the hospital.

The fire department said they responded to the blaze at the twin home on Phillips Court at 2:35 a.m. and found the family in the driveway and noted Finn "is being credited with possibly saving the lives of the family."

Finn said that he was asleep in his home, which adjoins the home that burned, when he woke up because he heard screaming. Then someone rang his doorbell six or seven times and he ran outside, but no one was there.

"All of a sudden I hear the screaming," he said. "I see black smoke billowing out of the second-floor window and the father is screaming but I couldn't even see him."

The man told him to get a fire extinguisher from the open garage, but Finn realized a fire extinguisher wasn't going to help much when he looked in the door to the first floor, explaining he saw "flames everywhere."

He got a ladder out of the garage and yelled to the father that the only option was to come out the window. Finn was able to climb the ladder to the edge of a lower roof area, a little ways below the window. It was so smoky in the room that Finn and the man couldn't see each other.

"I kept saying, 'follow my voice,'" Finn said.

The next thing he knew, a 1-year-old child appeared out of the smoke, and had to slide down the roof a foot or two before Finn could reach him. He had been yelling for help and another neighbor was at the base of the ladder to take the child.

Next was the 3-year-old -- Finn said both children seemed "out of it" from the smoke" -- and the father.

Unreal Posted by Patrick Finn on Saturday, August 4, 2018

Emergency responders whisked them to the hospital and firefighters extinguished the fire in about 30 minutes, according to the Washington Township Fire Department. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Authorities did not describe the extent of the damage to the home, but Finn said it will be "a long time" before it will be habitable.

Finn's home appears to have just smoke and a little water damage -- and his body was a little worse for wear after the adrenaline wore off, he said.

Finn, who works with children with autism, said he only moved into the development two months ago and didn't know his neighbors very well. After what happened this morning, it seems likely they're grateful Finn was their next door neighbor.

"It was good I was there," Finn said modestly. "But it wasn't like I was fighting flames."

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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What makes the perfect peach pie?

According to Krista Winters, it's all about the crust. And she would know -- she just took home the gold at the 7th annual Riverview Farmers Market's Perfect Peach Pie contest.

"You need good crust," Winters, of Palisade Avenue, said, "and you have to make sure that you don't get the soggy bottom.

"It's absolutely crucial to not get the soggy bottom," she said.

Winters took home the top prize competing against 14 other recipes in her first go at the local peach pie contest.

Later this summer, she will represent Jersey City in a regional competition against other winners across northern New Jersey.

"I honestly didn't think I was going to win, I just thought it was a fun thing to do," she said. "And I love to bake!"

The Perfect Peach Pie competition is a statewide event organized by the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council. For the past seven years, the event has been hosted in Jersey City by Farms in the Heights, a local nonprofit that runs the Riverview Farmers Market every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

They hold similar competitions throughout the summer -- including an apple dessert contest in September. And every Sunday, tents pop up throughout the park that serve all kinds of produce.

Most of the produce is grown within at least 50 miles of the city. Local Heights and Jersey City businesses set up tents as well.

But for many, it's more than a place to pick up some groceries.

"For us, the farmers' market is more than just an economic thing," said Mark Bunbury, president of Farms in the Heights. "It's a community meeting place above all else. It allows the community in the Heights to connect in a way that no other place allows it to."

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- A small fire in a three-story displaced six residents early this morning, officials said.

Two adults and four children were forced from the building at 479 Ocean Ave. when fire broke out sometime before 4:40 a.m., city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said.

When they arrived, firefighters saw a small fire at a second-floor window, Wallace-Scalcione said.

Residents had already gotten out, and firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, she said. No injuries were reported.

"When I arrived all tenants were already outside," said Angela Davis, whose mother owns the building. "Some of tenants just happened to come home at 4 in the morning and said they smelled smoke so they began touching the walls and felt the heat coming off of it so they called the Fire Department and my mother as well."

The Red Cross is assisting the residents.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, Wallace-Scalcione said.

The building sustained moderate fire damage and minor water damage, she said. No other structures were affected, she said.
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and his wife, Jaclyn, will soon be parents.

The couple found out during a reveal party yesterday that they will be having a baby boy, their first child. Baby Fulop is due on Jan. 2.

From @jaclyn_fulop blog. One of the most exciting weekends for us as we went to Rhode Island, spent the weekend with our parents, and found out the gender of our 1st baby! https://t.co/EHdUIIT1bw  Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) August 5, 2018

"We're excited. What better place than Jersey City to raise a little boy?" Fulop said. "We got a cake from a local Jersey City bakery -- Cocoa Bakery -- and so up until yesterday the only people who knew was the doctor and Cocoa Bakery."

It is truly good news for the couple, who in 2017 endured a "devastating" second trimester miscarriage.

"It was the saddest thing I've ever gone through," Jaclyn said over the phone. "It was a long year (but) we both stayed positive. So this is just such a blessing."

Steven and Jaclyn were married on April 2017 in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

The two began dating during Fulop's first mayoral run in 2013, when he unseated his longtime rival. Jaclyn agreed to host a meet-and-greet for Fulop's campaign at the request of Daniel Rivera, then a City Council candidate running on Fulop's ticket.

The two dated for more than two years before they decided to wed. The mayor popped the question on a Sunday morning in November 2016, on the balcony of their newly purchased home in the Heights.

After the miscarriage, Jaclyn said she threw herself into her work.

"It was the best therapy for me," she said.

A physical therapist who owns a practice at Exchange Place, she opened her third clinic last year. Her local business, Exchange Physical Therapy Group, also helped raise funds for Jersey City's first low-cost spay/neuter mobile van, which was revealed by Liberty Humane Society during a ribbon cutting ceremony last week.

"That was really great therapy to get my mind off of what was happening last year. Because you don't expect it, especially in the second trimester," Jaclyn said. "And I know a lot of women go through that but they don't talk about it so I feel it's important that I share my story so people don't feel like they are alone."

Fulop, 41, is in his second term as mayor of Jersey City. He won re-election in November.

When asked if he had been rooting for a son, he said he'd "have to defer to Jaclyn on that."

"I think he was rooting for a boy," she said. "But the most important thing is that (the baby) is healthy."

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
Residents of a Howell homeless encampment will be forced to find a new place to live following a township decision to sell a large parcel of land to a pharmaceutical executive.

Howell's Township Council approved the sale of the 11-acre property to Lakewood resident Dr. Richard H. Roberts, whose $1.6 million offer was the highest bid for the land.

The nine homeless residents will have 30 days to vacate the lot once the sale closes, which could take several months.

Howell officials sanctioned the camp in April 2017, allowing the homeless to stay on the township-owned property, according to Steve Brigham, the founder of Destiny's Bridge, a nonprofit that runs the camp.

Each resident signed a release stating that they understood the camp was a temporary arrangement, there was no tenant-landlord relationship with the township, and that the municipality could close the camp at any time to sell it, Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro said during a July 17 Council meeting.

Most of the people who live in the tarp-covered tents on the property have jobs, Brigham said. They just don't earn enough to afford permanent housing and make too much to qualify for government assistance.

The contract between Roberts and the township stipulated that Roberts had to help relocate the residents, Brigham said. Roberts, who could not be reached, offered each of them $1000, but the group voted to reject his offer.

Roberts, a medical doctor, was CEO when the pharmaceutical company his father founded was sold to a Japanese company for $800 million in June 2012, and is a big political donor.

Nicastro said the lot is zoned for commercial use and "the town has no space to relocate them."

Jeffrey Wild, an attorney representing the camp pro bono and the president of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness, is working to relocate the residents, Brigham said.

Cassidy Grom may be reached at cgrom@njadvancemedia.com Follow her at @cassidygrom. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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A 36-year-old man has been indicted on arson and attempted murder charges in connection to an April fire he allegedly set to a friend's home, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced.

Kenneth Lyons, 36, of Ocean, was indicted on Friday after authorities said he set fires at a Toms River home on Castro Grove Drive and a Hyundai Sonata parked at the residence.

Kenneth Lyons (police photo)

Police who responded to the home on April 7 around 1:30 a.m. noted "suspicious circumstances" around the fire, and later identified Lyons as setting both fires, the prosecutor's office said.



Lyons was an acquaintance of the person who owned the home, the prosecutor's office said.



Lyons was indicted two counts of first degree murder and five counts of aggravated arson. He is being held in Ocean County Jail.

Gianluca D'Elia may be reached at gdelia@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @gianluca_delia. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The nation has never been so adamantly divided over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It presents itself as a fair arbiter of immigration policy, while critics portray its separations of parents and children and targeting of grandpas and pizza guys as heartless and bigoted.



Yet no matter which side of this debate you fall on, the agency could hardly do better at fueling the worst impression of itself, and sowing further distrust, than to hire someone with ties to anti-Muslim fanatics.



At issue is the man who speaks for ICE in New Jersey, Emilio Karim Dabul. According to our research, done with help from the Southern Poverty Law Center, he was previously an editor for an anti-Muslim hate group, and published a piece for another anti-Muslim hate group, praising an Islamophobe.



Dabul has links to three anti-Muslim celebs, we found: Brigitte Gabriel, David Horowitz and Steven Emerson.



He was an editor for Gabriel: Dabul was formerly an editor for Gabriel's organization, ACT for America, once called American Congress for Truth, according to an online profile and a short bio in the New York Daily News. The SPLC classifies it as a hate group and the largest anti-Muslim outfit in the United States.



Gabriel, its founder, is a Lebanese Christian who became a U.S. citizen and declared in 2007 that practicing Muslims "cannot be loyal citizens of the United States," that "every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim," and, four years later, that "[t]ens of thousands of Islamic militants now reside in America, operating in sleeper cells, attending our colleges and universities."



She's been spewing such vitriol for years, and recently visited the White House to support President Trump's Muslim ban.



He wrote for Horowitz: Dabul published a piece at FrontPage Magazine, a project of the anti-Muslim hate group David Horowitz Freedom Center. Horowitz is a major bankroller of Muslim-bashers in America, according to the SPLC, working closely with Pamela Geller to help fund her hate group, Stop Islamization of America.



On Horowitz's payroll is the poisonous Robert Spencer and his hate website, Jihad Watch. Spencer's work was cited dozens of times in the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist who killed 77 people, and Spencer was banned from the U.K. as an extremist in 2013.



He praised Emerson: In the 2007 piece for FrontPage and a 2015 video online, Dabul defended Emerson, a peddler of anti-Muslim lies, hyperbole and innuendo.



In 2011, Emerson accused Gov. Chris Christie of having a "strange relationship with radical Islam" after he nominated a Muslim, Sohail Mohammed, for a state judgeship. That prompted Christie to denounce the "crazies" in his own party. Emerson was also one of the first to claim that lawless "no-go zones" exist in Europe that non-Muslims can't even enter, overrun by Islamist thugs enforcing Shariah law.



Fox News had to apologize for his 2015 declaration that Birmingham, England was a "totally Muslim" city "where non-Muslims just simply don't go." Prime Minister David Cameron called Emerson a "complete idiot." The pundit apologized, but that didn't stop his nonsense from being repeated far and wide.



He also claimed before the Oklahoma City bomber was caught that the 1995 attack showed "a Middle Eastern trait" because it aimed to "inflict as many casualties as possible." In fact, it was a white guy, Timothy McVeigh.



And in 1997, Emerson gave Associated Press reporters what he said was an FBI dossier showing ties between Muslim American organizations and radical Islamists, which the AP concluded he had made up himself, according to the watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).



The think-tank Center for American Progress (CAP) considers Emerson's group, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, part of "the Islamophobia network in America."



Yet Dabul argued that Emerson was the victim of "an electronic lynching," is not an Islamophobe, and described him as a hero and a friend.



In the video above, Emilio Dabul praises Steven Emerson, a peddler of anti-Muslim falsehoods. In other sections, Dabul makes fair, legitimate points about the threat of terrorism.

The 2015 video in which Dabul praises Emerson has some reasonable stuff in it. Dabul says he is not looking for all Muslims to be profiled, and not all terrorists in the U.S. are Muslim. He argues, rightly, that terrorism is a real problem in the Muslim world.



But the bottom line is that he is promoting Emerson, a vile guy who the SPLC and CAP consider a dangerous anti-Muslim extremist.



Nobody at ICE - not Dabul, not John Tsoukaris, the head of the agency's New Jersey office for deportations, nor its D.C. media office - will answer questions about this.



A woman who answered the phone in ICE's D.C. press office on July 18 refused to give her name, but said Tsoukaris did not hire Dabul: "His boss is here with headquarters."



She refused to discuss the matter further. "Obviously, no one's going to put that on the record," she said. "A media request, and no one answered it: That means they're not going to answer it."



Since then, Dabul has remained active in his role as ICE spokesman, issuing news releases about its enforcement operations and politely responding to our questions on other topics.



For someone with anti-Muslim affiliations, he has a curious online history. In the 2015 video, Dabul says his grandparents on his father's side were Syrian Muslims who emigrated to Argentina during World War I. He calls himself Arab-American, though he does not say he is Muslim.



He penned a couple freelance pieces that showed no anti-Muslim bias, appearing in the New York Post and the Daily News, including "One Arab's Apology" for 9-11 and an op-ed titled, "I am with Israel: One Arab American's salute."



But it's hard to believe his romance with the haters was all an innocent mistake. "It's almost impossible for me to imagine that you don't know that Emerson, Horowitz and Gabriel have anti-Muslim views," said Heidi Beirich, who tracks hate groups for the SPLC.



Of Dabul, she added, "It sounds like he's at least sympathetic to these people. He's gone out of his way to type something up and turn it in."



Now, Dabul types up what sparse information we get about deportations in New Jersey, and news releases that slander Middlesex county as a "sanctuary" that releases sex offenders, when in reality, ICE's own agents had ample opportunity to pick them up.



Granted, it's hard to hold an ICE spokesman to account for associating with Islamophobes, when Gabriel posed for photos with Trump and top presidential advisor Stephen Miller hobnobbed with Horowitz's hate group and authored the Muslim ban. Anti-Muslim bigotry is at the top of this administration.



But that doesn't mean we have to accept it in New Jersey. A guy affiliated with anti-Muslim extremists has no place in this particularly sensitive spot for Muslims and minorities.



Given ICE's expanded power and shrunken use of humanitarian reprieves under this administration, the New Jersey field office director's silence on the man who speaks for him is troubling.



Tsoukaris' office has nearly doubled its arrests of people with no criminal convictions, to 40 percent, way higher than the national average of 26 percent.



Tsoukaris admits his use of humanitarian discretion is less generous. "All our discretion is case by case," he said in June. "Under the past administration, it was wider. Now it's more restrictive." He added, "Just because you're harmless doesn't mean that you get a free pass."



No. But ICE seems perfectly willing to give his spokesman one, a disturbing example of how it handles allegations of bias.

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In 2005, before state Sen. Stephen Sweeney became the Senate president, he raised the red flag on the future solvency of New Jersey's government-worker pension funds.

Sweeney, D-Gloucester, was lambasted. Few paid attention and his reform ideas went nowhere at the time. History has shown that he was right about chronic underfunding. While some limited reforms have since been adopted, if they had been implemented when Sweeney first proposed them, the workers and taxpayers would have been much better off.

Now, 13 years later, Sweeney is about to offer a new reform package. Those with short memories will ridicule him again. But, times have changed and the problem is much bigger. It is now too late to buy our way to solvency. It is unproductive to play the blame game.

As a 20-year state worker and a union member, I implore all stakeholders to participate in open, constructive discussion about this serious financial problem. I, and others like me, will soon be depending on the benefits promised from my pension fund.

This is too big to be a state workers' union issue alone. It is too big to be just a government funding issue. This is a state crisis that must be fixed. No one talked seriously in 2005, and look where that got us!

It is time for listening and not rhetoric. It is time for problem solving and not finger-pointing. State taxpayers deserve nothing less.

As Bob Dylan once wrote in "Times They Are A-Changin' ":

"Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall

For he who gets hurt will be he who has stalled."

Open-minded, intelligent people can fix this. Let's do it!

Michael J. Makara, Mays Landing

Positive Trump news missing in action

Over the last few days, there have been two big stories that warranted front-page news -- one of them historical! Yet, as I perused the newspapers at my local store, I found no such headlines about them.

U.S. Gross Domestic Product growth for the second quarter of 2018 is flying high at 4.1 percent and, after 60 years of being held by North Korea, the remains of 55 of the U.S. soldiers who were killed in the Korean War were finally returned home to American soil.

In the era of Barack Obama as president, those flag-draped coffins would have adorned the front pages in all their sad, but honoring glory. But I had trouble even finding the story in one of the area's most predominant newspapers.

News is supposed to make itself, but real, relevant news today must pass through the sausage grinder of liberal minds. These two stories are no-brainers as major news but, of course, they reflect well on and send a positive vibe about our current president, Donald Trump. In that case, they must be massaged down to a lesser category of relevance and importance.

Americans are savvy consumers. They will not be easily manipulated. Papers should have blared these stories.

Friends of the public? Fake news? Real reporting? Again, the public is wiser than some in the press realize. It's not about politics, but about truth and unbiased, fair information.

Where were those flag-draped coffins, anyway? Headed home at last, that's where!

Ken Frank, Pitman

Editor's note: The front page of the Aug. 2 South Jersey Times print edition was dominated by coverage of the return of the remains from North Korea. We received Frank's emailed letter on Aug. 3.

Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com

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By Pete McDonough Jr.

Pope Francis this week called for the complete abolishment of the death penalty. It was a salve at the end of an otherwise tough week for Catholics.



The news that Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Newark and Metuchen, cardinal of the Diocese of Washington and longtime political and spiritual fixture in New Jersey, has allegedly committed repeated acts of sexual abuse has the faithful reeling.



For those of us who know the 88-year old McCarrick, the news was personally devastating. It made many question what, if anything, the Church stands for.



Pope Francis gave us a clue.



The death penalty is wrong. No human being has the right to take a life. Ever.





His change to the Catholic Catechism will make elected Catholics uncomfortable, it may put Catholic judges in a difficult spot. Vast numbers of U.S. Catholics support the death penalty. It was a bold, if belated, move by the pope.

New Jersey, in 2007, became the first U.S. state to legislatively abolish the death penalty. The bipartisan effort was led at the time by Democratic Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts and state Sen. Ray Lesniak and Republican Sen. Bob Martin and then-assemblyman and now Sen. Kip Bateman, R-Somerset. I directed the communications program for the effort as a complement to a bipartisan grassroots lobbying effort by religious leaders, prosecutors, family members of homicide victims and others.



We called ourselves New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and we supported replacing the death penalty with a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murderers.



The time was ripe for change. A bipartisan commission earlier in the year found that the death penalty, despite necessary precautions and attempts to make it work, remained deeply flawed, causing nothing but delays and pain. The report found that the death penalty was proven to be a false and ineffective choice for taxpayers and our neighbors who have lost loved ones. The report noted that the foundation of the death penalty had for too long been sustained by mythology and fiction, propped up by outdated rhetoric, when courage and common sense would have served us far better.



The report revealed that the death penalty costs millions more than locking someone away for life, does not deter future crime, is not worth the very real risk of executing an innocent person, and runs contrary to our evolving standards of decency.



Prosecutors testified that capital murder cases drained enormous resources from their offices, rarely resulted in the imposition of the death penalty and inhibited their efforts to pursue other crimes. Criminal justice experts discussed racial bias in the application of the death penalty. The most moving testimony came from family members of murder victims.



They told heartbreaking stories of how the judicial process, because of its endless, yet appropriate, automatic appeals, forced them to relive their trauma over and over again. They were clear that nothing the state could possibly do to the killer would lessen their pain.



Sixty-one of those family members wrote to the entire Legislature and pleaded for justice that is swift and sure. "Life without parole, which begins immediately, is both of these; the death penalty is neither," they wrote.



The legislation was enacted by then-Gov. Jon Corzine on Dec. 17, 2007. Although the governor was largely absent from the public debate and discussion, he signed the bill and deserved much of the credit he received at a bill signing ceremony with a cast of dozens.





Within hours, the Coliseum in Rome was illuminated throughout the night to celebrate New Jersey's bold action. It was an international celebration some 4,200 miles from Trenton, a stone's throw from the Vatican, and was meant to send a signal to the world.



I am encouraged that the Church this week saw the light on the death penalty. I wish it came sooner.



I am encouraged, too, that Pope Francis has accepted, perhaps demanded, that Cardinal McCarrick resign from the College of Cardinals.



Having taken one strong step, I can only hope that it doesn't take a decade to take another and deal with the sex abuse allegations that this week crept all the way to Cardinal McCarrick -- a man who was but a puff of white smoke away from the papacy.

Pete McDonough Jr., a practicing Catholic, is senior vice president for external affairs at Rutgers University and is a member of the faculty at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

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Members of the U.S. government flew to Kabul last week to negotiate with members of the Taliban. No members of the Afghan government were present. The conversations reversed years of U.S. policy dictating that any negotiations with the Taliban be lead by the local Afghan government. The U.S. says the talks are an important step toward peace after 17 years of war in the region. Others feel that by negotiating with terrorists we are putting Afghans at risk. What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

The talks come at a time when the Taliban has been showing an unprecedented willingness to compromise with the United States. The Taliban considers the U.S. a hostile occupying force Afghanistan and has insisted it would only negotiate if there was a complete withdrawal of troops. Recently, though, the group has indicated in private that it would be willing to accept a settlement in which the U.S. maintains a troop presence in the country, in exchange for allowing the Taliban to participate in the Afghan government as a legitimate political party. With political recognition for the Taliban, the group agrees it would cease terrorist activity.

The negotiations have been spearheaded by Robin Raphel, a former senior U.S. diplomat, and Chris Kolenda, a retired U.S. Army Colonel. Both believe it is imperative to take advantage of the willingness the Taliban is showing to talk. According to the Daily Beast, Kolenda said of his involvement in the Afghan War:

In the same Daily Beast piece, Raphel agreed, saying:

Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan -- as well as Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon -- fears the negotiations will put the social gains that have been made in the country at risk.



Talking to NPR, Crocker noted the Afghan government, with the support of the U.S., has emphasized women's rights in the country, increasing the number of women in leadership roles, expanding educational opportunities for girls, and more. He worries the violently conservative Taliban would undo all of those advances if allowed to regain control of the country. Crocker also fears that by acknowledging the power of the Taliban, the U.S. has begun a slow but definitive retreat from the country.

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WASHINGTON -- Celgene Corp. under Bob Hugin, the Republican running for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, raised U.S. prices by 20 percent for its Revlimid cancer drug while cutting them by 45 percent in Russia last year, documents show.

The disparity in drug prices is not unusual, experts said, but the pricing practices could provide another line of attack for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who has found fertile ground plowing through Hugin's tenure at Celgene.

Celgene under Hugin spent a record amount of money to help defeat legislation that would have made it easier for generlc companies to get drug samples, and President Donald Trump's Food and Drug Administration singled out the company for refusing to make those samples available to competitors.

Menendez has used the high cost of Revlimid in the U.S. -- the out of pocket costs for Medicare Part D enrollees was $11,538 in 2016, before last year's price hikes, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation -- to deflect the attacks on his own ethical problems that have been a theme of Hugin's campaign

"It's clear that Bob Hugin is more than happy to rip off American cancer patients to line his own pockets, but when he gets a little pressure from Vladimir Putin, like Donald Trump, he caves," Menendez campaign spokesman Steven Sandberg said. "If he can cut the price in Russia, then he can cut the price here at home. He just won't.''

The Hugin campaign's reply was blunt.

"Putin is a thug. Menendez is a crook and a liar," Hugin spokeswoman Megan Piwowar said. "And any attempt to link Marine Corps veteran Bob Hugin to Vladimir Putin doesn't even merit a response."

Integrity NJ, the pro-Hugin super political action committee whose principals have ties to Gov. Chris Christie, has begun airing commercials calling Menendez "shamelessly corrupt" and highlighting his 2015 indictment on federal corruption charges.

Menendez's trial ended with a deadlocked jury, and the Justice Department declined to try him again after a federal judge acquitted him of some of the charges. He later was "severely admonished" by the Senate Ethics Committee for accepting gifts from Dr. Salomon Melgen, a friend and campaign donor, while intervening with federal agencies on his behalf.

Celgene's pricing of the cancer drug Revlimid has come under attack by Trump and advocacy groups.

The price of a 21-tablet supply of Revlimid in 25 mg dose was $14,529 in the United States, according to a report by Patients for Affordable Drugs Action, a super political action committee opposing Hugin.

That same product cost $4,175 in Russia after the price reduction, according to the Russian Federation's Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Celgene spokesman Greg Geissman said there was nothing unusual about the practice of adjusting prices in different countries.

"Actions like these are a regular occurrence in many countries outside of the United States where the health authorities assess overall health care spending, including medicines, and impose price actions on the manufacturers," Geissman said.

The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service reported in September 2017 that Celgene agreed to reduce the price of Revlimid by 45 percent following negotiations after suggesting that "manufacturers of appropriate medicines voluntarily reduce the inflated prices."

While Russia was able to obtain lower prices for Revlimid, its cost continued to rise in the U.S. even as Trump railed against high drug prices.

Last year, the U.S. price of Revlimid was raised three times, totaling around 20 percent, according to Yatin Suneja, a SunTrust Robinson Humphrey biotech analyst.

The price for a 28-count bottle rose to $18,546 in October 2017 from $15,483 in August 2016. It went up another 5 percent, to $19,473, last month.

Trump invited Pam Holt, an Indiana woman who said she had to refinance her house to afford Revlimid, to the White House in May when he announced efforts to reduce drug costs.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb then reported that the agency had received more requests from generic companies for samples of Revlimid than any other drug but one.

"Celgene is able to continue raising prices because it has managed to keep a generic off-market here and other countries negotiate more aggressively with these drug companies than we do," said David Mitchell, who heads Patients for Affordable Drugs, which supports actions to lower drug prices, and founder of the anti-Hugin super PAC.

Celgene's Geissman said drug prices reflect their value to patients and help fund research into new products. Celgene's research budget is equal to 45.5 percent of sales, one of the highest percentages of any large company in any industry, Geissman said.

In addition, on a per person basis, Russia's gross domestic product is much lower than that in the U.S., he said.

"To achieve our goal of access to our innovative medicines, one of Celgene's pricing principles is the concept of flexibility," Geissman said. "Celgene believes in providing broad global access to our therapies to patients from counties of differing economic circumstances."

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Juaquin Oliver would have turned 18 years old Saturday (Aug. 4), the day his classmates from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gathered at Tulane University in New Orleans during the group's last stop in the Southern leg of the Road to Change tour - a national effort by the March for Our Lives group to increase voter registration. Oliver was one of 17 students and faculty members killed in the Florida mass shooting in February.

The panel of teens made their message clear Saturday evening:

"We are not going to go away. We won't back down until we see actual change," Alex Wind, a 17-year-old rising senior at the high school, said to the dozens of people who attended the panel Saturday.

Starting in June, members of the March for Our Lives began traveling across the nation holding town hall-style meetings to get young people educated, registered and inspired to vote. While the group's focus is decreasing gun violence and improving school safety, the students' encouraged political participation on all fronts.

"Voting is democracy," Love Lundy, a 16-year-old student from Alabama, said. "Democracy does not work unless everybody participates."

The panel started with the students explaining some of the most frequent misconceptions they encounter regarding their movement's goals.

"A huge misconception is that we're an anti-gun organization," Ryan Cerebitas, 15, said. "We are a pro-safety organization and an anti-gun violence organization."

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More than once in the two-hour meeting, the students repeated the phrase, "We are not trying to take your guns." Instead, the group is working towards policy changes to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people - ranging from comprehensive background checks to safe storage laws, they said.

The meeting came one week after two shooters opened fire into a crowd on South Claiborne Avenue, killing three and injuring seven others, a tragedy that was not lost on the audience or the panel members.

"Because this is such an everyday occurrence here, in our city, we've become so desensitized to it," said Olivia Keefe, a raising senior at Benjamin Franklin High School. "It's heartbreaking, but it is eye opening and it helps us realize we need to make real change. That you need to remember people, and you need to say their names."

Ashonta Wyatt, a local educator and activist, was motivated by the recent violent weeks to attend the meeting.

"I'm a mother in New Orleans," Wyatt said. "My son is only 12 years old, but age doesn't matter to bullets. I am scared for his safety every time he leaves our home."

Despite her fear, Wyatt said she left the meeting feeling "energized," by the sight of young people fighting for their beliefs.

"I came because I want to be where the change is," Wyatt said. "Anywhere there is youth using their voices to effect change is a move in the right direction. What these children are doing is so important and beautiful."
The Grannies Respond caravan, a group traveling to protest President Donald Trump's immigration policies, stopped in New Orleans for a rally during their journey from New York City to McAllen, Texas.

The group of mostly senior citizens joined about a hundred locals for the demonstration at First Grace United Methodist Church on Canal Street.

Among the speakers was a woman seeking asylum, and whose husband is jailed in Arizona. The rally culminated with a jazz funeral and second-line that processed from the church and down the neutral ground of Jefferson Davis Parkway.
President Donald Trump cited new evidence this past week to bolster his threat for shutting down the government if Congress refuses to meet his demands for border-wall funding and other immigration measures.

"One of the reasons we need Great Border Security," Trump tweeted Tuesday (July 31), "is that Mexico's murder rate in 2017 increased by 27% to 31,174 people killed, a record!"

The president was responding to reports that Mexico had revised its 2017 homicide count from 25,339 to 31,174, the highest since at least 1990. The new data from the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography put Mexico's homicide rate at 25 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017.

The murder rate that same year for New Orleans was 40.6 per 100,000.

Comparing a city to an entire country is admittedly flawed. Mexico's murder rate is much higher than the entire United States, which averages about 5 homicides per 100,000. And parts of Mexico are exceptionally dangerous. Killings in the state of Colima, on the Pacific coast, rose 38 percent last year to a rate of 113 per 100,000.

But realizing that New Orleans' murder rate is 62 percent higher than a country notoriously wracked by savage drug cartel wars, plagued by generational poverty and policed by historically corrupt law enforcement is a wakeup call to just how bad things are here.

And it's nothing new. New Orleans, with some of the same problems as Mexico, has ranked at or near the top of America's most murderous cities lists for decades.

That was personified last Saturday (July 28) when three people were killed and seven injured in what police say was a gang-related retaliation shooting in which two gunmen fired indiscriminately into a crowd outside a neighborhood daiquiri shop and restaurant on South Claiborne Avenue.

The dead included 27-year-old Taiesha Watkins, a Houston mother of a 5-year-old in New Orleans to comfort a friend who recently lost her mother; 38-year-old Kurshaw Jackson, the father of two who worked as concrete finisher; and 28-year-old Jeremiah "Zippa" Lee, the father of three who is believed to have been the gunmen's target.

That was followed by a midday shooting Wednesday that wounded three, including 2-year-old and 16-year-old boys, when occupants of one car opened fire on another on Interstate 10 between the Read and Crowder Boulevard exits.

In the two-week period between July 18 and Aug. 2, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reported that 34 people were shot in the city, including four children. Seven of those people died from their wounds.

In addition, the bodies of two people were found burned beyond recognition Monday in a wooded area of Algiers. The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office has not released a cause or manner of death for either, but police said the bodies found at Maumus Avenue and Bennett Street showed "evidence of foul play."

The city recorded its 100th homicide of the year Thursday, the 49th consecutive year that New Orleans has reached triple digits, according to crime analyst Jeff Asher. New Orleans is just slightly behind last year's pace, which ended with 157 homicides.

As the statistics pile up, the concern is that too many New Orleanians will chalk it up to "that's just the way it is" or retreat behind their own walls where they feel relatively protected.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell expressed the right sentiments after the Claiborne shootings when she declared, "There is no place in New Orleans for this kind of violence. I speak for everyone in our city when I say we are disgusted, we are infuriated, and we have had more than enough. Three more lives gone. It has to end."

Cantrell's pithiest quote on the campaign trail was, "Nothing stops a bullet like a job." That's a workable long-term strategy, but it's neither easy nor quick. Assuming that the Claiborne gunmen or I-10 shooters were not going to holster their weapons upon being offered an employment application, what is the response for now?

Through the first five years of Mayor Mitch Landrieu's two terms, New Orleans appeared to be making great strides in reducing homicides through a variety of programs under the umbrella called "NOLA for Life," launched in 2012.

The key was targeting gangs for arrests, sprawling indictments and interventions, "call-ins," aimed at preventing feuds from becoming all-out wars. Early returns were encouraging. The 150 murders New Orleans recorded in 2014 were the fewest since 116 murders in 1971.

But by 2015, the targeted efforts faded as the New Orleans Police Department's staffing levels continued to erode after a hiring freeze Landrieu implemented to deal with a massive budget deficit he inherited when taking office in 2010.

Cantrell has said she is committed to rebuilding the police force and making sure that officers are correctly trained and deployed to make a difference in communities. Again, these are good choices but still just a beginning. What do we do now?

Building a wall is not going to work here.

Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.
The exercise is as old as the Republic, but the first thing you need to understand about redistricting is that hot-water cornbread is as ubiquitous in north Louisiana as etouffee is in the south, says Rick Gallot, the Ruston Democratic representat
A man who authorities said died after jumping from the Huey P. Long Bridge on Saturday evening (Aug. 4) had stopped his pickup truck and exited on the side of the road before jumping over a concrete barrier, a witness recalled shortly after the incident.

"I just saw a guy jump," said Leonard Armant, 32, who was traveling on the bridge when the man jumped. "I was really surprised, and I just called 911."

Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Jason Rivarde said a man parked his blue truck on the eastbound lanes of the bridge and jumped, landing on the ground below sometime before 5:30 p.m. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, Rivarde said.

Armant said he was traveling eastbound on the bridge, from Bridge City to Elmwood, on his way home when he saw a blue Toyota Tundra pickup truck stopped partially on the far left lane. Armant said he saw a man who was already outside the truck jump over a concrete barrier.

Armant said he had to move his vehicle to evade the pickup truck, and called police immediately after. He said the man, whom he said looked "like a younger guy," jumped from a section of the bridge over the West Bank, before the bridge reaches the Mississippi River.

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The Coast Guard said JPSO was the leading agency responding to the incident because no water was involved.

Armant said his children were traveling with him, so he did not stop, and instead traveled around and went back to the scene to talk with deputies. He said he saw a dog inside the pickup truck, but no other passengers. He said looking over the barrier he saw the man lying on the ground, motionless.

JPSO said it would not be releasing additional information because the death was a suicide.

Note: If you or you're concerned a loved one is having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK. You can also text "START" to 741741, the Crisis Text Line. If you suspect someone of needing immediate help, call 911.

This story was updated to include confirmation from JPSO that the man had died.
In a statement, Mr. Kurtzman, an executive producer on the project, said: With overwhelming joy, its a privilege to welcome Sir Patrick Stewart back to the Star Trek fold. For over 20 years, fans have hoped for the return of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and that day is finally here. We cant wait to forge new ground, surprise people, and honor generations both new and old.

It is unclear what part of Picards story will be explored or when the project will begin production. It is also uncertain whether other Next Generation cast members will be a part of the project. Mr. Stewart, Rod Roddenberry, Akiva Goldsman, Heather Kadin, Trevor Roth, James Duff and Michael Chabon are also listed as executive producers.

And while Star Trek fans are excited about Mr. Stewarts return to the franchise, the move comes with a great deal of risk. Films involving The Next Generation have been met with mixed reviews, and critics accused the film writers of mangling Picards character in comparison with the portrayal on the television show.

But at a moment when several legacy television shows have returned or are in the process of coming back to the screen, perhaps it is fitting that one of the most famous roles in science fiction history will return.

During these past years, it has been humbling to hear many stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods in their lives or how the example of Jean-Luc inspired so many to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration and leadership, Mr. Stewart said. I feel Im ready to return to him for the same reason  to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times.
The long-running battle between Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and the National Rifle Association, which says it has lost millions of dollars because of state officials political agenda, entered another round of legal wrangling and public posturing this week.

Mr. Cuomo announced on Friday that the state was moving to dismiss a lawsuit the N.R.A. filed in federal court in May, which he called frivolous. The lawsuit, which accused state officials of blacklisting the gun rights organization, was amended with sharper language last month.

At issue is whether New York regulators violated the constitutional rights of the N.R.A. by preventing financial institutions and insurers in the state from doing business with the organization.

In the lawsuit, the N.R.A. accused Mr. Cuomo, as well as the New York State Department of Financial Services and its superintendent, Maria T. Vullo, of discrimination that violated the organizations right to free speech.
CARACAS, Venezuela  A drone attack caused pandemonium at a military ceremony where President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela was speaking on Saturday, sending National Guard troops scurrying in what administration officials called an assassination attempt.

The president, who was unharmed, later told the nation, To all of our friends in the world, I am fine, I am alive. He blamed right-wing elements and said, The Bolivarian revolution keeps its path.

Mr. Maduro has presided over a spectacular economic collapse in Venezuela, where inflation is expected to reach one million percent this year despite the countrys large oil reserves. Economists blame decades of mismanagement under Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

The drone attack was the latest in a string of attempts in recent years to end the tenure of Mr. Maduro, who was declared the victor of an election in May that carries his term until 2025. No previous assaults have been as bold, though, and this appeared to have been the first assassination attempt on a head of state using drones.

It was an attack that seemed scripted for Hollywood: Off-camera explosions. Low-flying drones exploding midair. The president and first lady ducking for cover. Thousands of soldiers in a military parade suddenly fleeing in a stampede that was broadcast to the country, live.
1. Another dizzying week in the White House.

President Trump broke with members of his administration on several key issues. Be it Russia, NATO, Iran or North Korea, Mr. Trumps staff and his party projected a radically different message from that of the president himself.

Against the advice of his lawyers, he pushed to arrange an interview with the special counsel, Robert Mueller  who is investigating Russian election interference and any related crimes  in the hopes of bringing the investigation to a swift end.

The president is on a working vacation, spending some time at his Bedminster estate in New Jersey, but hes also rallying his supporters and is, of course, on Twitter.
Cheryl Mcleod of Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy in January after struggling to keep up with her mortgage payments and other expenses. I am 70, and I am working for less money than I ever did in my life, she said. This life stuff happens.

As the study, from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, explains, older people whose finances are precarious have few places to turn. When the costs of aging are off-loaded onto a population that simply does not have access to adequate resources, something has to give, the study says, and older Americans turn to what little is left of the social safety net  bankruptcy court.

You can manage O.K. until there is a little stumble, said Deborah Thorne, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho and an author of the study. It doesnt even take a big thing.

The forces at work affect many Americans, but older people are often less able to weather them, according to Professor Thorne and her colleagues in the study. Finding, and keeping, one job is hard enough for an older person. Taking on another to pay unexpected bills is almost unfathomable.

Bankruptcy can offer a fresh start for people who need one, but for older Americans it is too little too late, the study says. By the time they file, their wealth has vanished and they simply do not have enough years to get back on their feet.
Good morning. Its an empty house were living in these days, with the children off adventuring. Ive cut dinner sizes in half. Sometimes we eat with the radio on, my wife and me, let Glynn Washington riff while we stab at our Parms. Were happy but glum at once.

Which puts us ahead of the animals. The dogs depressed, and the cat almost lost to the streets. Theres a headless bird on the stoop most mornings. Franzens apoplectic, or would be, if he knew it was happening. I threaded a bell onto the cats collar the other day and thought about it. I need to cook a little happiness into our lives.

We all do. And so for the animals, a few squirts of salmon oil in with the feed. Glossy fur! And for the two of us and those we gather near: Melissa Clarks beautiful new recipe for lemon-blueberry bars (above). Id like to make those today so I can eat them tonight, after a dinner of buttermilk fried chicken (lately Ive been adding a little molasses to the marinade), biscuits and pickleback slaw.

Then on Monday night, another new recipe: David Taniss herb omelet pita sandwich, which is all kinds of beautiful and absolutely crammed with flavor.
Amanee Michelle Markos and John Russell Ablan were married Aug. 4 at Christ Episcopal Church in La Crosse, Wis. The Very Rev. Archpriest Dionysios Wilhelm, an Antiochian Orthodox priest, performed the ceremony.

The bride, 35, is a program manager at The New York Times for its educational student travel program, Student Journeys. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received a masters degree in international comparative education from Stanford.

She is a daughter of Terri L. Markos and Richard E. Markos of La Crescent, Minn. The brides father owns and operates Markos Apparel, a retail and wholesale clothing company in La Crosse. He is also an elected official for the township of Hokah, Minn. Her mother retired as the director of international services and cultural outreach for Winona State University in Winona, Minn. She is also a committee member for the global awareness fund of the La Crosse Community Foundation.

The groom, 32, is a vice president and legal counsel for Credit Suisse in New York. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. He also received an Master of Science in economic history from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a law degree from Vanderbilt.
Tiya Nandi and Aditya Avinash Gulanikar were married Aug. 4 in New York. Pandit Harish Sharma, a Hindu priest, officiated at the Plaza Hotel.

Mrs. Gulanikar, 26, advises clients at Prosek Partners, a strategic financial communications firm in New York. She also serves on the young professionals board of Childrens Hope India, a nonprofit organization that raises funds to improve access to education, medical care, and job skills training. She graduated from N.Y.U. and received a law degree from Fordham.

She is a daughter of Dr. Reena Nandi and Dr. Dipak Nandi of Old Westbury, N.Y. The brides mother is a child psychiatrist and the director of psychiatric services at North Shore Child and Family Guidance in Roslyn, N.Y. He father, a psychiatrist, is also the chairman of Sunknowledge, a health care information technology company in New York.

Mr. Gulanikar, also 26, is an investment analyst at Silver Point Capital, an investment management firm in Greenwich, Conn. He graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth.
They really shouldve opened an office with resources for young people instead, she said, in Spanish. The government shouldve stuck their hands in there. Especially for the teenagers, or a resource center for low-income families. Thats what people wanted. Not the reopening of a bodega.

Gloria Arroyo, 36, a roofer who lives in the neighborhood, said she did not understand why anyone would open a bodega in the same site. She said what the neighborhood really needs is something to give the kids something to do without having them worry about money, because thats the main issue around here, a lot of parents dont want to be paying out the money cause they dont have it.

She said shes planning to move out of the area soon.

The neighborhood is not a neighborhood for you to be raising kids, she said while holding her daughters hand as they walked past the bodega.

Although she used to be a regular customer, Ms. Feliz said she will not shop at the bodega again.

That night is now stuck in the hearts of everyone who lives here, she said.

Modesto Cruz, the bodegas former owner, was running the stores checkout on the night of June 20 when Lesandro ran inside and tried to hide behind the counter, terrified of the gang members who were chasing behind him. In security video footage, a visibly confused Mr. Cruz and another worker watched as Lesandro was dragged out of the bodega by the men. Minutes later, just outside the door, the teen was mortally wounded with knives and a machete. The police said he had been mistaken for another gang member.

Lesandro stumbled back inside, a gaping wound in his neck, but Mr. Cruz motioned for him to leave, pointing toward St. Barnabas Hospital a block away, the video shows. The teenager ran in that direction and fainted from loss of blood.

Soon after the footage of the boy being dragged out of the bodega went viral on social media, community members boycotted Mr. Cruz and his shop, ultimately forcing him to close the store. In an interview with PIX11 days after the murder, a tearful Mr. Cruz insisted that he did try to help the boy.
The idea was to commemorate the war to end all wars, which ended 100 years ago on Nov. 11. She was commissioned by the Public Art Fund, a nonprofit group in New York City, and 14-18 NOW, the United Kingdoms public arts program, for the centenary, which had already had three ships dazzle painted in Britain. The John J. Harvey is the only American vessel that was dazzle painted for the centenary. Emma Enderby, the Public Art Funds an adjunct curator who was involved in choosing Ms. Auerbach for the project, said the ideas inherent in dazzle were inherent in her work, in the way she played with perception.

She thought about the idea of fluid dynamics and its relationship to the boat  although this is not a physics lesson  and also the fact that this was a fireboat, Ms. Enderby said. Meaning, Ms. Enderby explained, that the John J. Harvey not only moves through water, but also that water moves through it, thousands of gallons that are sprayed from the brass nozzles, which are just about the only exterior parts of the John J. Harvey that did not get Ms. Auerbachs dazzle treatment.

Ms. Auerbach also studied the wake patterns left behind as objects pass through water. From hundreds of pages, she enlarged two of the images that resulted. Then, with a crew of painters on ladders, she painted the John J. Harvey when it was in dry dock on Staten Island.

The colors are the same as before  only the look changed. Ms. Auerbach said she took the John J. Harveys usual paint combination and scrambled it  dragged a comb through it. But the vivid red and the bright white were ideal for dazzle painting. She said the John J. Harveys color scheme exaggerates the fact that dazzle was more about confusing and outsmarting than about hiding.

I like those instances where cleverness is an antidote to brute force, she said.

And dazzle painting was all about cleverness, because it was about fooling the U-boat gunners.
A 54-year-old Arizona man died after jumping out of a freezer and attacking an employee with a kitchen knife on Sunday at a popular restaurant in Manhattan, the police said.

The man shouted, Away, Satan! and grabbed the knife after an employee opened the walk-in freezer at Sarabeths on the Upper West Side around 11 a.m., the police said. Workers who heard the commotion came and wrestled the man to the floor and took away the knife, according to the police.

During the brunch-time struggle, the man lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest, the police said. He was rushed to St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The police did not release the name of the man, who was from Cave Creek, and said he appeared to have mental health issues. Investigators were trying to determine how he got into the freezer and how long he had been there.
Nancy Ludlow Tuckerman was born on Oct. 24, 1928, in Manhattan. Her father, Roger, was a stockbroker, and her mother, Betty Thompson Tuckerman, was an event planner.

She said she first met Jacqueline Bouvier at 8 or 9 when both were students at the Chapin School in Manhattan. Later they were roommates at Miss Porters School, a college preparatory school in Farmington, Conn., where young Jackie tried with only limited success to teach her to ride a horse. Next to Jackies 1947 yearbook photo, it says that she can generally be found laughing with Tucky, Ms. Tuckermans nickname.

Ms. Tuckerman had been a travel agent in New York City for about 10 years when her old friend, now the first lady, asked her to become her social secretary, taking over the job from Letitia Baldrige. Tuck Replaces Tish on Mrs. Kennedys Staff, read a headline in The Times over a United Press International article announcing the news.

Miss Tuckerman is attractive with golden brown hair, blue eyes and a comely five foot five figure, the article said, a sentence indicative of the tenor of the day.

Reporters may have viewed the social secretarys job with a certain condescension, but it required serious organizational skills, since Mrs. Kennedy was proving to be a popular first lady and the focus of countless requests.

I think we received about 800 letters a day, Ms. Tuckerman said in the oral history.

She also supervised other staff members and organized dinners and other White House functions. She took over the job just as the busy spring season was ending and Mrs. Kennedys pregnancy was leading her to reduce activities. But in early September 1963 she had her first chance to stage a major event, a dinner for the king and queen of Afghanistan.
Jared Evans, a member of the Indianapolis City-County Council, is proud that the city is among 20 finalists for one of the most coveted prizes in the country: the planned second headquarters of Amazon.

He does, however, have one small question: What financial incentives did his city dangle in front of Amazon?

What have I been told? Mr. Evans said. Absolutely nothing.

Across the country, the search for HQ2, as the project has been nicknamed, is shrouded in secrecy. Even civic leaders cant find out what sort of tax credits and other inducements have been promised to Amazon. And there is a growing legal push to find out, because taxpayers could get saddled with a huge bill and have little chance to stop it.

The only time the public may become aware if the city has promised Amazon incentives is if we win and then we need to get those incentives passed, Mr. Evans said.
BOSTON  The jukebox has exploded.

Its pieces zoom through the air like candy-colored shrapnel, whizzing by before the memory can tag them and making the blandly familiar sound enticingly exotic. Im talking about the recycled pop hits, mostly of a romantic stripe, that make up the seemingly infinite song list of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, at the Emerson Colonial Theater here.

By the end of this smart, shameless and extravagantly entertaining production, adapted from Baz Luhrmanns 2001 movie, youll think youve heard fragments of every Top 40 song of lust and longing that has been whispered, screamed or crooned into your ear during the past several decades. You may even believe that once upon a time you loved them all.

Part of the genius of Mr. Luhrmanns original version  which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor as doomed lovers in a Bohemian, fin-de-siecle Paris  was that it put mainstream, latter-day radio songs into the context of a verismo costume opera like La Traviata. Not for nothing was Eltons Johns Your Song the ballad most memorably shared by the films leading lovers.

Thats because it was your song, too. By dressing up the melodies you sang in the shower in opulent gaslight-era drag, Mr. Luhrmann created an equalizing paean to love ballads of all ages. The soundtrack of the commuters daily life acquired a purple grandeur, with Bowie, Labelle and Madonna assuming the velvet cloaks of Verdi and Puccini.
She didnt speak up until recently, when she heard there were other women with similar experiences.

Thats what makes some of this so confusing, because he has been a champion for women, said Ms. Beach, who has since left Willow but still preaches widely.

Humiliated, Guilty and Ashamed

In the late 1980s, crusading against pornography was a top priority for evangelicals. Mr. Hybels told Ms. Baranowski that he had been told to educate himself on the issue by James Dobson, founder of the ministry Focus on the Family, who had been appointed by President Ronald Reagan to an anti-pornography commission.

Calling it research, Mr. Hybels once instructed Ms. Baranowski to go out and rent several pornographic videos, she said, to her great embarrassment. He insisted on watching them with her, she said, while he was dressed in a bathrobe.

One night, she said, Mr. Hybels felt too sick to go to a church event, so he sent his wife in his stead to introduce the guest speaker, a famous evangelist from India. He asked Ms. Baranowski to bring him something to eat, and fondled her again, she said.

Ms. Baranowski said that during the years of harassment, Mr. Hybels never kissed her, and they never had intercourse. She was particularly ashamed about the oral sex. She grew increasingly wracked by guilt and tried to talk with him. One day in his office, she told him that it was unfair to his wife, that it was sin, and that she felt humiliated.

That night she recorded in her journal what he had said in response: Its not a big deal. Why cant you just get over it? You didnt tell anyone, did you?
The deadly Carr Fire in California, already described by officials as the states sixth most destructive wildfire, grew nearly 10,000 acres overnight on Saturday as the authorities said a seventh death was tied to the blaze.

The fire, which is centered about 200 miles north of San Francisco, has been one of this years most prominent blazes, an emblem of the yearly destruction visited on a state grappling with extreme weather that has made severe wildfire seasons more likely, scientists say.

The authorities said 16 other major fires continued across the state in what Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday described as the new normal. Officials said 40,000 people have been evacuated and 14,000 firefighters were battling the blazes.
Even those who back Ms. Bush expect many voters, and older black voters in particular, to support Mr. Clay.That has prompted Ms. Bush at times to tailor her message to a younger audience. When she filmed a radio ad last week, she had the producer underlay it with Cardi Bs I Like It, in part because she and her advisers thought it would help her appeal to young voters.

She was worried, however, about the optics of using a song with a Latin sound, because she said she had been accused of not caring enough about the black community.

Its almost like I should be solely focused on just issues that affect black people directly, she said later. We have to all work together.

Despite the long odds Ms. Bush faces, there may be no better race to assess the actual power of an anti-establishment progressive message than here, where Mr. Clay, and his father before him, have held power for the last half-century.

Ms. Bush, for her part, remains undaunted, especially after seeing Ms. Ocasio-Cortez win.

Before it was kind of like, It is an uphill battle but you might be able to do it, she said. Now, its like, O.K., we think youre going to do it.
His decision to run for re-election invited distinct but intertwined deliberations that have played out in different ways across the country: how the political establishment should respond, and whether and how his accusers should seek his electoral unraveling. The answers in Washington led to a message striking for its starkness: that Mr. Sawyer, as one piece of direct mail put it, needs to be stopped from harassing any more young women working in the State Capitol.

A lot of folks in party leadership or political leadership are grappling with how to handle these issues, said Bob Ferguson, the states attorney general, who endorsed Ms. Morgan. Were seeing it more frequently: Do I speak up? Do I endorse their opponent? Do I stay out of it?

There has been no consensus. More than once, Ms. Morgan said, she has been rebuffed by people who told her they could not go against an incumbent, no matter his personal history. In public and in private, some Democrats have questioned whether they should be spending precious campaign dollars fighting one of their own incumbents.

Mr. Sawyer, seeking his fourth term at the marbled Capitol in Olympia, is vowing to stand tall and not bend to the will of Seattle money.

But Ms. Gavre is having none of it. Sitting at a coffee shop near posters declaring We the People Defend Dignity and We the People Are Greater Than Fear, she argued that Mr. Sawyer deserved to be met with an organized campaign to derail his political career.

I have no idea whats going to happen, she said, but what I know is that either way, it sends this really clear message.
For the scientists, coming to Senegal was a process of elimination. Most of the areas that offered the best viewing were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The other options  in neighboring Mali, for example  were in areas patrolled by violent extremists.

The countryside of Senegal is peaceful, parts of it do not have electricity, and many rural areas are sparsely populated. That was a bonus for the scientists, who wanted a clear sky, free of light. Still, Senegal was a risky proposition. The area is on the cusp of the rainy season, and cloudy skies threatened to block the event, which occurred early Saturday and lasted less than a second.

Scientists are still evaluating data from the viewing, but the skies turned out to be clear and they are hopeful.

Senegal was an enthusiastic host. About two dozen Senegalese astronomers and scientists, including Ms. Sylla, accompanied the New Horizons team in the field and contributed to the viewing.

African countries have racked up their own space achievements. Moroccan astronomers have discovered comets, asteroids and planets outside our solar system. Ghanas first satellite is now orbiting the earth. Students in Tunisia have organized public events to observe the sky, even though they do not have an observatory.

Astronomy is virtually as popular in Africa as it is everywhere in the world, said David Baratoux, the president of the African Initiative for Planetary Sciences and Space, who is based in France.

The biggest hindrance is money. The United States spends more on its space program than the value of Senegals entire economy. The 21 high-powered telescopes brought by the New Horizons team were nearly double the number of telescopes available in all of Senegal.
Then came a second blast. Suddenly, hundreds of national guardsmen, standing in formation for the parade, abandoned the president, scrambling in a panic to find safety.

Carlos Julio Rojas, an activist who was attending a small protest nearby, said he saw a stampede.

I hear screams and I saw National Guardsmen with long guns on the streets, running like crazy. They even pushed an old lady who was trying to run, he said. Imagine this: Our military are supposed to protect us, and then you see them running like that.

Mr. Maduro emerged from the attack unscathed, appearing on television that evening to declare the assassination attempt a failure. But he offered little real certainty as to who might have tried to kill him. While he blamed right-wing elements in Venezuela and the Colombian government, he offered no evidence to support that claim.

A communique, attributed to a shadowy group of rogue Venezuelan military men, appeared on Twitter after the attack, with vague statements denouncing the government, leading some to think that the group was accepting responsibility.

And some in Venezuela turned the conspiracy back on Mr. Maduro, suggesting that his government might have had some hand in the attack to fuel a further crackdown against opponents. No special security measures were visible on Sunday around the site of the attack, raising suspicions of how serious the government viewed it and the continuing investigation.

The idea is if this was a self-inflicted attack  are they going to take advantage now to double down on a repressive wave? said Nicmer Evans, a political scientist who broke from Mr. Maduros party and has run in opposition campaigns.

At 5:41 p.m., Mr. Maduro was at the end of a ceremony commemorating the 81st anniversary of the National Guard, the troops that were on the front lines last year in his deadly crackdown against protesters.
KABUL, Afghanistan  A suicide bomber struck a joint patrol of NATO and Afghan forces near a large military base just outside the Afghan capital on Sunday, killing at least three NATO service members and injuring three others, officials said, on a day that saw deadly violence across the country.

An Afghan soldier was killed in the eastern city of Jalalabad trying to stop a suicide bombing at a checkpoint, and in the south, the Taliban continued a bloody assault on the district of Chinarto, in Uruzgan Province.

Lt. Col. Martin ODonnell, a spokesman for the coalition, said the attack on NATO troops happened in the Charikar district of Parwan Province, to the north of Kabul.

All three service members killed were from the Czech Republic, according to Lt. Gen. Ales Opata, the Czech Armys chief of general staff. NATO said one of the wounded was American and two were Afghan.
DHAKA, Bangladesh  Thousands of students paralyzed parts of Bangladeshs capital on Sunday to protest the countrys abysmal road safety conditions. Teenagers dressed in school uniforms erected checkpoints across the city, forcing the police and government ministers to observe traffic laws that are otherwise poorly enforced.

The protests in Dhaka, the capital, have entered their second week with no signs of abating, with demonstrators demanding justice after two students were killed and 12 others wounded when a bus plowed into a bus stop on July 29.

The driver had lost control of his vehicle while racing another bus to pick up passengers, a common occurrence in Bangladesh, where dozens of poorly regulated private transportation companies vie for customers. Nearly 7,400 people died in traffic accidents across Bangladesh last year, with 16,100 others injured.

The protests intensified on Sunday when university students joined the middle and high school students who have led the movement so far. The newcomers joined in solidarity after a pro-government student union joined the polices ranks and clashed with protesters on Saturday, wounding dozens.
The action-movie star Steven Seagal has played a former C.I.A. agent, a hit man and a killer of criminals. On Saturday, Russian officials tapped him for another role: special representative to improve relations between the United States and Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the appointment on Facebook, saying his mission will include promoting relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges.

The position is unpaid, said Russian officials, who compared the role to that of a United Nations good-will ambassador  a distinguished volunteer who calls attention to the work of the United Nations.

Relations between the two countries have been fraught as United States intelligence agencies have accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 elections and have warned it could do so again in the November contests. The countries have also been at odds over the Syrian civil war and the Russian annexation of Crimea.
He said this recent episode could be an important test, since its the first case to fall under the provisions of the law.

Romania, which was allied with Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944, had a prewar Jewish population of about 800,000. Today that number is thought to be fewer than 11,000. A 2004 report by an international commission led by Mr. Wiesel estimated that during the war years, 280,000 to 380,000 Jews died in Romania or in areas under its control.

In a statement on Saturday, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its regret over the vandalism at Mr. Wiesels childhood home, and condemned any anti-Semitic gestures and any behavior or expression that promotes intolerance and xenophobia.

Mr. Wiesel died in 2016 in Manhattan at the age of 87, and spent most of his adult life in the United States. He was born in Sighetu Marmatiei in 1928. At the age of 15, he was deported to Auschwitz, along with his family and other Jews from the area. His mother and youngest sister died in the camp.

Mr. Wiesel, who became an eloquent witness for the six million Jews slaughtered in World War II, wrote several dozen books on the Holocaust, including the memoir Night, which remained a best-seller decades after it was first published. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986.

In a statement published on the website of the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, Alexandru Florian, the institutes director general, described the graffiti as a grotesque act.

It is not just an attack on Elie Wiesels memory, he said, but on all the victims of the Holocaust.
The newly appointed chairperson of the committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), Mubarak Munyagwa says Ugandans will see a tough, serious and committed person who will be following accountability issues to their logical conclusion.



Munyagwa, the Kawempe South MP said Ugandans who are cynical about his appointment do not know him well as a person who can't be coerced or corrupted to push things under the carpet. In a reshuffle by Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party president Patrick Oboi Amuriat last week, Munyagwa was appointed Cosase chairperson to replace seasoned lawyer and Bugweri MP Addu Katuntu.

The appointment has attracted a lot of cynicism especially on social media with many a commentator saying it was a downgrade given Munyagwa's comical character. However, Munyagwa said Ugandans are in for a surprise as he will not be like Katuntu who would initiate a probe but fail to deliver when it really maters. Unlike Katuntu, he says, he will not engage in the business of exciting the public.

Mubarak Munyagwa

"How many reports has Hon Katuntu submitted on the plenary. You see, there is a difference - somebody can initiate an investigation, grill witnesses because he is a senior lawyer, use very good English, excite the public but what happens after? What happened to the presidential handshake? Munyagwa will always follow matters to their logical conclusion not this business of exciting the public," said Munyagwa.



Despite pointing out Katuntu's weaknesses and failures, he still lauded him as a senior competent lawyer and good legislator.

"I can't match him in anything. He is a senior lawyer who can even be appointed chief justice. However, he was also at a certain time given an opportunity to exhibit what his capabilities are. What I have and he doesn't have is consistency," he argued.

On those doubting his capabilities, Munyagwa who is currently a third-year law student at Makerere University said he's well grounded in constitutional law as well as parliamentary procedures.



"You see I have two personalities in me - that is why I laugh at Ugandans and I will keep on surprising them. I dont think that a committee chair can be picked from National Theatre...Even some people suggested that Im a senior four dropout. Do I care? Im a student of Prof Oloka Onyango, he taught me constitutional law. Im a student of Dr Mayambala Kakungulu - he taught me the law pertaining parliamentary business. I know it, am a lawyer. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry can study law from Makerere," said Munyagwa.

"So, some of these bloggers on Facebook, I even dont know [what to say]. When it comes to matters of lawIt is only that we chose to fight to become activists and liberate this country. For them they chose after university to spend their time in lodges, guesthouses, in bars and that is where they base to judge us." he added.

Though often a jocular when engaged in discussions and debates, Munyagwa dismissed arguments that he is a comedian, saying he has two personalities. He said he is not among MPs who take themselves as small gods.

He warned that he will be a tough Cosase chairman, adding that people will be complaining about his change of character.

"I have two personalities in me; Munyagwa the activist, and Munyagwa - the real Munyagwa. No, no, Im not a comedian that cannot happen. Some people do possess archaic minds and think if youre a member of parliament you must not crack a joke. That youre a small king, youre a small godI know when to do whatI dont pretend, that is Munyagwa - that is who I am. Even if I became prime minister tomorrow. I mean, these a simple positions that you can also become." he said.



Asked about corruption allegations that have shrouded the Cosase committee, Munyagwa said he's heard about the allegations but argued that for him he's not corrupt and will not accept to be corrupted.

"Me, I love money but Im not corrupt. You see this not the first opportunity that I have gotten. I was mayor in KCCA where the ED was oozing with money with councillors getting millions. Im on record, I and Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago of having refused a huge salary which they had given us in order to scandalise us. I have gotten a number of chances to make money and in Uganda you dont even need to become chairman of Cosase in order to make money. It is just a matter of choice. Parliament is a matter of choice. If you want to make money, bribe is everywhere but me am not a corrupt man. One, I feel satisfied I dont think I can easily be corrupted that is why you will see it in the way I have moved with my politics. I dont easily switch camps and jump unto this and that. Even in times when we have taken unpopular decisions like in Bugiri I have kept my guard."



Munyagwa said he is humbled by the appointment and will always be grateful to the FDC president Amuriat who appointed him.
7th Pay Commission: Latest update, big bonanza for these employees announced

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Mumbai, Aug 5: The 7th Pay Commission will be implemented for government employees in Maharashtra from January 2019, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced.

The announcement is significant as Assembly elections are due in Maharashtra next year. The decision will impose an additional burden of a whopping Rs 21,000 crore on the exchequer, as per the government estimate Rs 4,800 crore would be allocated for the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission in the Budget, the chief minister said.

The decision comes against the backdrop of the Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers Federation, Maharashtra State Employees Organisation and the Maharashtra State Class Four Employees Association threatening to go on a three-day strike from August 7 for various demands including pay hike. "The arrears of 7th Pay Commission will be given retrospective from January 2016 while the Dearness Allowance will be retrospective for the last 14 months," the chief minister said in a statement after chairing a meeting with the unions.
Step by step instructions on how to lock and unlock your Aadhaar biometrics online

Aadhaar-PAN Linking Deadline and Penalty Fine Details: How to check Aadhar linked with PAN

No denial of Covid vaccine, treatment, essential services for want of Aadhaar: UIDAI

Baal Aadhaar: No fingerprint or eye scan required for kids below 5 years

Aadhaar has been made a surveillance tool by BJP says former Maha CM

India

oi-Madhuri

New Delhi, Aug 5: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan accused the BJP government of working hand in glove with global tech giants and turning Aadhaar into a surveillance tool.

The senior Congress leader also alleged that in 2016 the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) had asked global tech companies to embed Aadhaar encryption into their technology.

"BJP Government working in cahoots with global tech giants and turning AADHAR into a surveillance tool. Government must come clean," Chavan said in a tweet.

"Under what authority UIDAI directed tech companies to embed AADHAR encryption. If not, what penal action Govt/TRAI will take against Google," he asked.

Late last evening, the Cyber Security Cell of Maharashtra police issued an advisory saying that if any number in the name of UIDAI was automatically added to the mobile phone contacts, it should be deleted.

Amid public outrage over Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Google apologised last night for "inadvertently" loading the old UIDAI helpline number and 112 helpline number into the 'setup wizard' of Android phones.

The clarification came following reports that many Android-run mobile phones listed by default the Aadhaar helpline number 1800-300-1947.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 6:49 [IST]
ATM fraud: Romanians may have been part of larger conspiracy

India

oi-Madhuri

Kolkata, Aug 5: The two Romanians arrested from New Delhi for their alleged involvement in the recently reported ATM fraud cases in Kolkata might have links to their fellow countrymen held from other cities in similar cases, police said.

Kolkata Police arrested two Romania nationals Opera Obidu Simon (31) and Dumidru Caling (32), from New Delhi's Munirka area on Friday, when they were about to enter an ATM kiosk. It is apparently the same kiosk from where fraudulent withdrawals had been made using fake ATM cards in the past couple of weeks, a Kolkata Police officer said.

The two were brought from New Delhi on transit remand and when produced before a city court, they were remanded to 14 days' police custody. So far we had arrested Nigerians in connection with such fraud cases reported from the city. This is for the first time that Romanians have been arrested for such cases. "We are questioning them to find out whether they have any link to the other Romanians arrested from other cities in the country. These two seemed to be part of a gang involved in such ATM frauds taken place in other parts of the country recently," the IPS officer said.

Preliminary investigations showed that several cards were cloned using skimmers installed in three ATMs in the city. Later money was withdrawn using cloned cards from ATMs in New Delhi. Several documents, cloned debit and credit cards, fake passports were seized from the place where the two were staying in New Delhi, he said.

An initial probe revealed that two had put up at at a rented apartment in the city between March and May. Kolkata Police, so far, has received 76 complaints from customers of two nationalised banks in the city in this connection, the officer said. ATM frauds using cloned cards are on the rise across the country, he said referring to the arrests of Romanians in such cases in cities such as New Delhi, Kerala, Mumbai and Bangalore.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 9:53 [IST]
Bihar By-polls: Lalu Yadav to campaign for RJD candidates on Wednesday to ensure 'visarjan' of Nitish Kumar

Bihar shelter home rapes: Nitish Kumar will not resign, says JD (U)

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

New Delhi, Aug 5: With political temperatures running high over the rape of over 30 girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur, the Janata Dal (United) on Sunday said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not resign, adding that the politicising such a sensitive matter is 'unfortunate'.

Earlier, six officials of Bihar's social welfare department were placed under suspension on account of "negligence and dereliction of duty". The state's Social Welfare Department suspended the officials on grounds that they did not act despite being informed over the ill treatment meted out to children at shelter homes.

Rejecting the opposition's demand for Kumar's resignation, senior JD(U) leader K C TYagi slammed opposition leaders including Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attending the RJD-organised protest in Jantar Mantar on Saturday.

"How can rape of young girls which has shamed us could be an issue for opposition parties to unite against the NDA government and the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar and demand his resignation. This politics over hapless victims in Bihar is the most unfortunate thing," Tyagi said in a press conference on Sunday.

Brajesh Thakur, who was chief patron of the NGO which ran shelter home, is the main accused in this case and a chargesheet has been filed against him and nine others. An FIR lodged by the state social welfare department in June led to the arrest of 10 people.

Tyagi today asserted that despite the opposition's demand, Kumar would never step down as the chief minister of Bihar and challenged them to unseat him in the Assembly.

"Nitish is a sensitive person and felt ashamed over the incident which the opposition parties are trying to use to hit at his conscience so that he steps down. But, he will never step down, we will not let him do so," he said.

He charged that the opposition parties wanted "anarchy" and "jungle raj" back in Bihar by replacing JD(U) and Nitish Kumar. Tyagi also demanded that all shelter homes for juveniles in the country be probed under a monitoring committee of the apex court.

Nitish Kumar earlier today said no one would be spared, adding that even those trying to shield the accused would be put behind bars.

Hum kisiko bakshne wale nahi hain. Aaj tak nahi kiya hai koi samjhauta. Baaki hum hi ko gaali dena hai toh dijiye. Kaise kaise logon se gaali dilwa rahe hain: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar pic.twitter.com/FM93YmsLrP  ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2018

OneIndia News with PTI inputs

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 16:28 [IST]
After Jitin Prasada's exit, will Sachin Pilot be the next?

BJP has emotionally exploited people says Sachin Pilot

India

oi-Madhuri

Jaipur, Aug 5: Accusing the BJP of misleading people in the name of religion, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot today asked if the saffron party shows concern and talks about temples only to seek political advantage in elections.

Hitting out at the BJP and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Pilot said the BJP has emotionally exploited people and misled them.

"BJP has been doing politics with temples at the centre of it. The party has always worked to force its divisive thought and mislead people in the name of religion," Pilot said in a statement here.

He said over 300 temples were demolished in the state capital for the construction of the metro corridor.

Pilot alleged that while some of the idols sustained damages in the process of shifting of temples, a number of them were stolen.

He said Chief Minister Raje, who began her "Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra" after offering prayers at the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district today, should reply to the questions raised by the Congress.

Pilot said his party would raise 40 questions for Raje during 40 days of her 58-day "yatra".
Dont get swayed by infighting, CJI Dipak Misra tells budding lawyers

India

oi-Madhuri

New Delhi, Aug 5: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra today asked budding lawyers and judges not to get swayed away by infighting and distractions that come their way and suggested them to deal with such situations courageously.

He was addressing law students at the sixth convocation of the National Law University here.

"You are required to develop an attitude not to get swayed away by the infighting and distractions that come your way. Remain firm and courageous," CJI Misra told the students.

He said it was important for budding lawyers to familiarise themselves with the undercurrents of various social diversities and disparities that divide society.

"Unless you do it, you will find it difficult to mature in your role either as a lawyer or as an administrator... Without having a comprehensive and pragmatic understanding of social realities, you may not be able to correlate law and social impulses," he said.

The CJI said the "welfare of people is the supreme law" and hoped that the newcomers would move up the scale of their profession by taking deprived sections of society along.

"You are the crusaders for change in the drive towards equal rights, liberty and justice. You are going to be contributors to the process of imparting justice to the people at large. Always devote some time in your capacity as lawyers for the wellbeing of the underprivilege...Welfare of the people is the supreme law.

"Scaling up in your profession by taking deprived sections of society along with you will give a sense of satisfaction... which will be a far more greater achievement," the CJI said.

He asked the students to foster high ambitions to enter the legal hall of fame and have lots of courage to translate their dreams into reality.

"You should cultivate the quality of clarity of thought and intellectual vigour. These are primary qualities that budding lawyers must strive to attain," he said.

The CJI also said that while witnessing the conferment of awards during the convocation, he was "slightly perplexed by how the young minds have worked".

"We cannot these young minds can grow, aspire and get it... If you look at history, John Keats died at the age of 26 and who can forget his poems. Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment at 26, Mahavir Jain approximately at 25 plus, Shankaracharya, who had written so much, died at 32. The great poet Lord Byron died at 36.

"So, age does not matter. The young can teach the old. I am prepared to be taught by the degree holders today," he said.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 14:44 [IST]
Govt should've consulted all parties on NRC says Sharad Yadav

India

pti-PTI

Bhopal, Aug 5: The Centre should have consulted all parties to work out a "unanimous mechanism" before going ahead with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav has said.

Taking a dig at the Modi government, the former Union minister said it has been unable to ensure the safety of women and girls in the country but talks of cow protection. The NRC, a list of Assam citizens, was published on July 30 with the names of over 40 lakh residents of the state not being included in it.

"The government should have called an all-party meeting to find out an amicable solution to the problem in Assam. But if you do it just like that, you won't be able to do it by just declaring a cut-off date... you will get tired," Yadav told PTI in an interview.

The former Janata Dal (United) chief said he agrees that the issue of Assam has "reflections on democracy", but asserted they should have found a "justifiable solution of the problem and a unanimous mechanism" for it. Criticised the BJP, Yadav said, "This party is not giving ticket to any Muslim. Therefore, we are not ready to believe that it will do justice with them." "People have come here from Tibet.

Bangladeshis had come and gone to Bangladesh. When Pakistan was created, a large number of people went there and were called 'Mohajirs', and Sikhs too had come here from there," he said. This movement of population took place maximum in India, he claimed. "No proper debates are taking place in Parliament. Many agitations are going on in the country. If you find on which date a person had come to this country, then it (country) will get destroyed," he said.

On the bill tabled in Parliament to overturn the Supreme Court verdict putting safeguards on arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Yadav claimed the government has done so "under pressure" in view of the bandh call given by all opposition parties. "Dalits came to my place and strategies for both (bandh) 2nd (April 2) and on ninth (August 9) were formulated. Everyone, including Ambedkarites and others like Sharad Pawar, and other parties supported it," he added.

The bill was brought under pressure, otherwise the government could have fallen on the issue, he said. "The government should have brought it at the time when the Supreme Court had given that judgement of diluting the SC/ST Act," he said. The Supreme Court had in an order on March 20 diluted certain provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. It had laid down new guidelines for police officers on how to ensure that innocent people, especially public officials, are protected from false complaints under the Act. Dalit groups had organised protests across the country on April 2 against the "dilution" of the Act.

Asked if he would support the candidature of Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the prime minister's post in the next elections, Yadav said the party had itself clarified its position on the issue. Therefore, there is no need for him to make a statement on it.

The Congress said its first objective is to stop the BJP from coming to power in 2019, he noted, adding that saving the Constitution and democracy is a major issue. "The time is to save the democracy, like in 1977. That was a declared Emergency but this time it is undeclared, in which one cannot predict where things will go wrong," he said. Further criticising the central government, Yadav alleged that it is unable to protect women and girls and "talks about cow first". "They have become a champion of cows," he quipped.

PTI
Mehul Choksi gets bail by Dominica HC, can travel to Antigua for medical treatment

India hands over extradition request to Antiguan authorities for Mehul Choksi

India

oi-Madhuri

New Delhi, Aug 5: The Indian government on Sunday formally handed over the extradition request to Antiguan authorities for Mehul Choksi.

On Saturday, the Mumbai Police said they gave a clear report to Choksi last year as no criminal record found against him.

Choksi submitted its application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017.

Choksi reportedly fled from the United States to the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda to secure himself from the extradition as the Antigua and Barbuda have strict Banking Secrecy laws and difficult terms and conditions for the extradition of an offender.

As per reports, Antiguan authorities cleared his citizenship in November 2017 after India did not give any adverse report to stall his application. Choksi had fled India on January 4 this year and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15.

Under the Citizenship by Investment Program of Antigua and Barbuda, a person can take their passport on a minimum investment of USD 1,00,000 in the NDF investment fund.

Choksi and his companies allegedly availed of credit from overseas branches of Indian banks using the fraudulent guarantees of PNB given through letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of credit issued by the Brady House branch which were not repaid, bringing liability on the state-run bank, the officials have said.

(with PTI inputs)
Ishrat case: Order on discharge pleas of Vanzara, Amin on May 2

Ishrat Jahan case: Discharge plea of two ex-cops to be heard on Aug 7

India

oi-Madhuri

Ahmedabad, Aug 5: A special CBI court, hearing the discharge applications of former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin in Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, is likely to pass its order on August 7.

Special CBI court Judge J K Pandya said the order, which was listed for today, will be passed on Tuesday.

The court had last month concluded hearing arguments of the two accused retired police officers, the CBI and Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser, who had challenged Vanzara's discharge plea.

Former Gujarat DIG Vanzara has sought discharge on the ground of parity with former in-charge DGP of the state P P Pandey, who was discharged in the case in February this year for want of evidence against him.

In his plea, Vanzara had also claimed that the charge sheet filed by the central agency was "concocted" and there was "no prosecutable material" against him.

The former Gujarat ATS chief said statements of the witnesses were "highly suspicious".

Amin, who retired as the superintendent of police, sought his discharge on the ground that the encounter was genuine and that testimonies of witnesses produced by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were not reliable.

Ishrat's mother sought to oppose Vanzara's plea and told the court that her daughter was "murdered following a conspiracy between high-ranking police officers and others holding powerful and influential positions".

She said Vanzara played a "direct and key role" in the conspiracy behind the "staged encounter".

Jahan, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra near Mumbai, and three others -- Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar -- were killed by the police in an "encounter" on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

At that time, the police had claimed that the four had terror links and plotted to kill the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

A Special Investigation Team, set up by the Gujarat High Court, however, concluded that the encounter was "fake".

Following this, the court transferred the case, initially handled by the state police, to the CBI.

In the first charge sheet filed in 2013, the CBI named seven police officials, including IPS officers Pandey, Vanzara and G L Singhal, as accused.

All were booked for kidnapping, murder and conspiracy, among other charges.

Vanzara was also named an accused in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a suspected gangster, and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati. He was discharged by a court in Mumbai last year.
We are a big loser, J&K better off when governed by CMs: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Protect country without worry, Modi govt will take care of your families: Amit Shah to troops

Amit Shah spends night at CRPF camp in Pulwama; says will see a peaceful J&K 'in our lifetime'

Balkanisation of India: Lt. Gen would look to further bolster Operation Tupac in Kashmir

J&K bar association to be part of Article 35-A heading in SC

India

oi-Madhuri

Jammu, Aug 5: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA), Jammu passed a resolution to file an impleadment application before the Supreme Court in connection with petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35-A of the Constitution.

A statement issued by the JKHCBA, Jammu said it was unanimously resolved that the bar association would file the application before the court in the litigation regarding Article 35-A.

JKHCBA president B S Slathia said termed the provision an aberration and said that no provision in the Constitution could be added or deleted, without amending the Constitution.

He said the Presidential Order can't be an article of the Constitution and emphasised that it was important to abolish it in order to establish gender equality.

He said senior lawyer Permod Kohli had agreed to plead the association's cause before the Supreme Court, it said. A committee of eminent lawyers also assured their pro bono services in representing the bar association in the court.

Article 35-A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state.

The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs.

Political parties including the National Conference and the CPI-M, have moved the Supreme Court in support of the Article 35-A that empowers the state assembly to define "permanent residents" for bestowing special rights and privileges to them.

In a separate meeting, some lawyers passed a resolution for strengthening and retention of the Article 35-A. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of senior lawyer A V Gupta.

He said Maharaja Hari Singh had executed the Instrument of Accession with certain conditions which later came out in the shape of Article 35-A read with Article 370.

Gupta said that Article 35-A was beneficial for the permanent residents of the state.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 15:43 [IST]
Kerala Church protests NCW's proposal over ban of practicing sacrament of Holy confession

India

oi-Madhuri

New Delhi, Aug 5: The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church is observing August 5 as 'day of protest' against a recommendation of the National Commission for Women (NCW) to ban the sacrament of confession in churches.

In a statement on Saturday, Church authorities said,''We protest proposal of National Commission for Women to prohibit churches from practicing Sacrament of Holy Confession. This is against spirit of ancient Indian culture which respects different faiths with tolerance. Request Centre to reject this.''

The NCW had made the suggestion following a rape case involving four priests of the Orthodox Church. Many of the cases were linked to confessions and one, where the woman alleged years of sexual abuse, involved the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 14:44 [IST]
Rahul Gandhi meets party leaders from Gujarat, asks them to be prepared for assembly polls

Muzaffarpur rape case: 'Prove that you're ashamed' says Rahul Gandhi on Nitish Kumar

India

oi-Madhuri

New Delhi, Aug 5: Opposition leaders came together at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Saturday evening to protest against Bihar shelter home rape case.

Rahul took the opportunity to slam Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the handling of the case.

Delivering a sharp message to Nitish Kumar, Gandhi said,''"If Nitish Kumar is really ashamed, he should quickly take action... Prove it by your work."

Earlier, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav demanded death penalty for Muzzafarpur shelter home owner Brajesh Thakur. He also rued apathy by the administration in the case and said that Brajesh was a close aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The case came to light when Bihar's social welfare department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home, conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai (TISS).

FIRs were filed on May 31 and July 29 in connection with the case, while the shelter home was sealed on June 14.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 17:08 [IST]
Covid test must for those visiting Bihar from other states during Diwali, Chhath

Bihar By-polls: Lalu Yadav to campaign for RJD candidates on Wednesday to ensure 'visarjan' of Nitish Kumar

Muzaffarpur Shelter home case: Assistant Director of Social Welfare Department suspended

India

oi-Madhuri

Patna, Aug 5: The Assistant Director of Social Welfare Department Devesh Kumar suspended for delay in taking action in Muzaffarpur shelter home, Bihar after TISS social audit report. The girls alleged that not just visitors but Brajesh Thakur, owner of the shelter home, also used to sexually abuse them.

Following the TISS report, the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal United (JDU) government in Bihar came under sharp criticism from the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav. He accused the state government of shielding the main accused in the Bihar shelter home assault case and asked if he will be arrested "when minor girls will be raped in the state".

The investigation into the Muzaffarpur shelter home case found that 29 of the 34 minors were sexually exploited. 11 employees of the shelter home were arrested so far including Brajesh Thakur, the owner of NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti.

Earlier on Saturday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi joined the protest called by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav against the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape cases and asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to prove that he's ashamed of the incidents.

"If Nitish Kumar is really ashamed, he should quickly take action....Prove it by your work," he said before the leaders from various political parties led the candle march to protest against the case.
BJP wants Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, says Shah; asks other parties must make stand clear on the issue

'There is partnership between TRS and BJP', says Rahul Gandhi in Telangana

'NRC is a way to evict illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam', says Amit Shah

India

oi-Madhuri

New Delhi, Aug 5: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Sunday attacked opposition parties - Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) - over draft National Register of Citizens, released by Assam government last week.

Speaking at inauguration even of Deen Dayal Uphadyay Junction in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP president asked the Congress, the SP and the BSP to clarify on whether they want illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to stay in India or want them to be evicted.

Asserting that the move of the Assam government was in compliance with the Supreme Court order, Shah said,''Complying with Supreme Court orders we brought NRC. The NRC is a way to evict illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam. I would like to ask SP, BSP & Congress to clear their stand on whether they want illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to stay here or evict them.''

Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated new Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway station, which was earlier known as Mughalsarai. Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were also present. The leaders also launched a project to upgrade the yard at the station.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 17:12 [IST]
Farooq Sahab suggested me to speak with Pakistan but I will speak to the youth: Amit Shah in Srinagar

Amit Shah spends night at CRPF camp in Pulwama; says will see a peaceful J&K 'in our lifetime'

Paswan says no vacancy for PM's post in 2019, Oppn should work hard for 2024

India

oi-Madhuri

New Delhi, August 5: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday said that Congress should work harder in 2024 for the Prime Minister's post as there's no vacancy for it in 2019.

The Lok Janshakti Party chief made the assertion claiming that the achievements of the Narendra Modi government in last four years have been more than those of any other regime since 1947.

Speaking to ANI, Paswan said,''We have been constantly saying since 2-3 years that there is no vacancy in 2019. Congress and opposition, you can work hard but do that for 2024, there is no vacancy in 2019.''

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Saturday flagged off the "Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra" at Charbhuja temple in Rajsamund and asked the Congress to give an account of the work done by its leaders during their four generations of rule. "Instead of shooting 40 questions, you should present the report card of the last four generations of Congress, which ruled the country for many decades," he said
Farooq Sahab suggested me to speak with Pakistan but I will speak to the youth: Amit Shah in Srinagar

Relatives of man shot dead at Farooq Abdullahs Jammu house stage protest

India

oi-Madhuri

Jammu, Aug 5: Dozens of relatives of the youth, who was shot dead by security forces after he forcibly drove into the residence of former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar today, staged protests demanding an inquiry into the incident, officials said.

Syeed Murfad Shah (25), a resident of Chinore locality in the outskirts of Jammu, was killed when he drove his XUV into the heavily fortified residence of the former chief minister at Bhatindi this morning before being shot dead by security forces, according to witnesses.

On hearing about the incident, Shah's father and other family members reached the spot and demanded a probe into the incident, officials added.

After the body was taken to the Government Medical College hospital for postmortem, about 200 acquaintances of the deceased, originally hailing from Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district, assembled there.

They prevented doctors from performing an autopsy for several hours and asked why an "innocent unarmed person" was killed, officials said.

While the postmortem of the deceased was underway at the hospital, another large group of protesters blocked the main road at Chinore, they said.

Senior police and civil officials were at the spot and efforts were on to persuade the protesters to lift the blockade on the Jammu-Bantalab road.

The agitated protesters burnt tyres and raised slogans against security forces and the national media for "misleading reporting", the officials said.

"An intruder gate-crashed into the house of Abdullah, had a scuffle with security personnel and attempted to snatch a rifle from an officer (before he was killed)," Inspector General of Police (Jammu) S D Singh Jamwal told reporters.

He said the youth was alone in the vehicle and an investigation was on to ascertain how he managed to reach the house without being challenged.
Radhe trailer out: Salman Khan gifts an Eid 2021 blockbuster; Fans declare it 'Full Paisa Vasool'

Superstar Salman Khan to fans: Say no to piracy, watch 'Radhe' on right platform

Salman Khan warns of action by Cyber Cell after 'Radhe 2021 movie' leaks on pirated sites

'You will get into trouble': Salman Khan warns of action after 'Radhe' leaks online

Salman Khan will need court nod every time he travels abroad

India

oi-Madhuri

Jodhpur, Aug 5: Salman Khan will have to continue taking permission from the court every time he travels abroad, it was made clear today by the judge hearing a plea against the actor's conviction in the blackbuck poaching case.

The actor's counsel had moved an application before the District and Sessions Judge Chandra Kumar Songara here on Friday, seeking exemption from the requirement.

But he withdrew the application after the prosecution raised objections.

The court is hearing the Bollywood star's plea against his conviction by a lower court, which had handed him a five-year jail sentence for killing two blackbucks 20 years ago in Kankani village near here.

Public prosecutor Pokar Ram Bishnoi said since the arguments had already begun it would not be appropriate to grant Khan permanent relaxation from permission to travel.

Khan's lawyer Mahesh Bora had cited a similar relaxation allowed to the actor earlier by the high court during the trial of another poaching case against him.

When the judge asked why there was a problem in seeking the court's permission each time, Khan's counsel withdrew the application.

The lawyer, however, moved a fresh application seeking permission for Khan to travel to Malta and Saudi Arabia in August and September for shooting assignments.

This was granted by the judge.

Arguing against the trial court judgment convicting Khan, his lawyers mentioned the delay in the filing of the FIR, saying that this allowed time to concoct evidence to frame the actor.

Khan's counsel will continue to argue his case during the next hearings on September 5 and 6.

The trial court had convicted Khan on April 5 for killing the endangered animals in October 1998, when Bollywood movie 'Hum Saath Saath Hain' was being shot.

The court had acquitted his four co-actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre.

The district and sessions court began the hearing the plea against that conviction a month later.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 15:07 [IST]
Are Imran Khan and Gen Bajwa at war over appointment of new ISI chief?

Imran Khan likely to take oath as PM on Pak Independence Day

International

oi-Madhuri

Islamabad, Aug 5: who is set to become Pakistan's new Prime Minister, may take oath of the office on the country's Independence Day on August 14, a media report said today.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in the July 25 elections, winning 116 National Assembly seats out of the contested 270 parliamentary constituencies.

Earlier on July 30, Khan, 65, had expressed his desire to take the oath of Prime Minister on August 11, as his party announced that it had acquired enough seats in the lower house through coalition talks to form a majority government.

"It is my and caretaker prime minister retired Justice Nasirul Mulk's desire that the oath-taking of the new prime minister should take place on August 14," caretaker Law Minister Ali Zafar told Dawn yesterday.

Unveiling a tentative schedule of the National Assembly formation, the minister said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was already on board as it was engaged in making necessary arrangements required to hold the prime minister's election on the desired date.

Zafar said a fresh session of the assembly could be called on August on 11 or 12.

"If it is held on August 11, the election of the prime minister can take place on Augst 14 and on the same day President Mamnoon Hussain can administer the oath to the new prime minister," he added.

Zafar elaborated that if the National Assembly (NA) session was held on August 11, the same day the new members would be administered the oath.

He said that after printing of ballot papers for the elections of the NA speaker and deputy speaker, their elections could take place on August 13 and the next day the election of the prime minister could be held.

However, if the National Assembly session was called on August 12, the election of the prime minister would be held on August 15, he added.

"We wanted that the new prime minister should take his oath on Independence Day so that the new government can start its functioning with full national fervour and commitment to bring progress to the country," he said.

Meanwhile, successful candidates of the July 25 general elections will have to submit returns of their election expenses today - the deadline fixed by the ECP for filing of returns - and a notification will be issued the following day.

Three days will be given to independent candidates if they want to join any party.

Similarly, three days will be spent on seats reserved for women and minorities.

The caretaker law minister told the media that as per the Constitution, the first session of the National Assembly would have to be summoned within 21 days after the general election.

He said it was necessary to fulfil this obligation by August 15.

After election, the newly-elected prime minister would take the oath and the job of the caretaker Prime Minister and his cabinet would be over and power would be transferred to the new government under constitutional provisions.

The minister said the ECP was completing legal formalities, including consolidation of elections results, and collection of returns of election expenditures from the wining candidates.

The ECP after giving time to independent candidates to join a political party or stay independent would issue parties position in the assembly, Zafar said, adding that after that the comisssion would issue a list of winning candidates on reserved seat for women and minorities.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 6:25 [IST]
Indian-origin Sunita Williams to fly NASAs first commercial flight

International

oi-Madhuri

Houston, Aug 5: Indian-origin US astronaut Sunita Williams is among the nine astronauts named by NASA who will fly the first missions into space on commercially provided rockets and capsules, starting next year.

After years of vehicle development and building anticipation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has now put the crew in commercial crew spacecraft.

The space agency announced yesterday that the nine astronauts will launch on the first crewed test flights and missions of new commercial spacecraft built and operated by The Boeing Company and SpaceX.

"Future Commercial Crew astronauts will be riding to space on partner vehicles built by SpaceX & BoeingSpace," NASA said in a tweet.

"We are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during the 'Launch America' announcement.

The eight active NASA astronauts and one former astronaut-turned-corporate crew member will launch on Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragoncapsules to the International Space Station beginning in 2019.

The missions will mark the first crewed launches from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme in 2011.

"Today, our country's dreams of greater achievements in space are within our grasp. This accomplished group of American astronauts, flying on new spacecraft developed by our commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX, will launch a new era of human spaceflight," Bridenstine said.

He said the announcement advances "our great American vision" and strengthens America's leadership in space.

NASA has worked closely with the companies throughout design, development and testing to ensure the systems meet its safety and performance requirements.

"The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight," said Mark Geyer, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"It will be thrilling to see our astronauts lift off from American soil, and we can't wait to see them aboard the International Space Station," Geyer said.

In addition to naming the crews of the test flights, NASA also announced the four astronauts who will fly aboard the first operational Starliner and Dragon missions to the space station. Both vehicles were developed in cooperation with NASA to deliver crew members to and from the orbiting laboratory.

Josh Cassada, 45, will fly with Sunita ("Suni") Williams, 52, aboard NASA's first contracted Starliner mission. It will be Cassada's first spaceflight. Williams previously logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012.

The commercial crew members took to the stage during an event led by Bridenstine at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 51, will fly together as SpaceX's first Dragon crew.

Veterans of two spaceflights each, Behnken and Hurley will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A - the same Florida launch pad where the space shuttle left Earth for the last time in July 2011 with Hurley as pilot.

NASA astronauts Eric Boe, 53, and Nicole Mann, 41, will join the commander of that same final space shuttle mission, former astronaut and now Boeing executive Christopher Ferguson, 56, as the crew of the Starliner test flight, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Ferguson, who has been involved from the start in the Starliner's development, flew three shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut. Boe piloted two shuttle flights. This will be Mann's first launch, having joined the astronaut corps in 2013.

Behnken, Hurley, Boe and Mann are NASA's first astronauts to be named to the test flights of new US spacecraft since the March 1978 announcement of the space shuttle's first orbital flight test crews. Ferguson will become the first former NASA astronaut to return to orbit as a company's crew member when he flies.

Prior to their maiden crewed missions, both Boeing and SpaceX plan uncrewed test flights in late 2018 or early 2019.

Both companies will also conduct abort system test flights to ensure the astronauts can safely escape should their rockets go awry.

Victor Glover, 42, and Michael Hopkins, 49, will fly on the first operational mission of SpaceX's crewed Dragon. It will be Glover's first time in space. Hopkins logged 166 days aboard the space station in 2014.

The two pairs of NASA crewmates will fly to the station with Russian cosmonauts and international astronauts to be announced at a later date. Between the end of the space shuttle program and the start of commercial crew operations, NASA's crew members have and are continuing to launch to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Behnken, Boe, Hurley and Williams were named in 2015 as NASA's "commercial crew cadre" and have been working with Boeing and SpaceX on the development of the spacecraft and the simulators that will be used to train astronauts to fly.

Boeing's and SpaceX's commercial spacecraft may also open the space station - and more broadly, Earth orbit - to more privately-funded visitors and spaceflight participants from countries that do not have their own domestic crewed spacecraft and rockets.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 5, 2018, 8:29 [IST]
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A New Era in Sweden Dawns with a Sweet New Applicant

Published August 5, 2018 by Lee R

The massive market is ready to trade the shadow of monopoly for an unexpected position at the forefront.

Global Gamings application for license brings to light the unique new model for regulation on the way to Sweden for 2019.

New Blood

With Global Gaming subsidiary SafeEnt Ltd. Maltas recent filing of a licence application in Sweden, the new market is taking shape for the first time.

The New Regime

Taking effect January 1, 2019, all operators in the Swedish gaming market will be required to hold a license from Swedish Gambling Authority Lotteriinspektionen, with the application window having just now opened on August 1.

Global Gaming Leader Speaks

Of his organisations bold new move, Global Gaming CEO Joaqim Miller called Sweden Global Gaming and Ninja Casinos premier market.

New Approach

Global Gaming is a new breed in iGaming, built on innovative and safe gaming services built into several successful casino brands.

Globals flagship offering Ninja Casino features disruptive technologies to afford players the safest and most seamless online casino experience possible by eliminating lengthy registration processes.

By offering this aggressive innovation, Global Gaming is carving a niche that can carry over into a new type of regulation model in the highly sought after yet long monopolized Swedish market.

Swedens Recent History

The Swedish market has experienced its growing pains, with tedious reviews and hair-splitting with the EU characterising a process of transformation in approach to the market which was so long monopolized by government-owned Svenska Spel.

The about-face of the Swedish government can likely be traced to the elephant in the room rising around the governments obstinance: a massive and growing unregulated market that by 2018 was set to overtake legal gaming activity.

Nonetheless, it took right up until May for a fully re-regulated gambling bill to be adopted by the government so that in the words of Minister for Public Administration Ardalan Shekarabi the country could take action and regain control of the Swedish gambling market.

New Provisions

Key provisions of the re-regulated gambling law indicated the dissolution of the national gambling monopoly that gave Svenska Spel a stranglehold over the market.

In its stead, a more Democratic model of three new gambling sectors will replace it, centered around the competitive sector allowing licensed operators to offer and market online gambling services to the Swedish market.

In a unique twist, licenses will be available to operators within and outside the European Economic Area, with those outside the EEA required to establish representation within Sweden.

Swedens gaming authority will now be known as Spelinspektionen, whom will grant licenses for maximum 5 year terms, and collect an across the board 18% tax on gross gaming revenues.

A list of sanctions has been established for unlicensed operators, with the gaming authority retaining the right to block the ISPs of violating operator sites.

Outlook

The new regulation in Sweden represent something of new era for iGaming. Bold entrants such as Global Gaming seem like ideal new blood to set the tone for a freer, more equitable, and innovative regulation model in Sweden that certainly has the potential not only can to come current with iGaming, but to blaze a new trail of leadership as well.
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Mostly cloudy and windy. High near 65F. Winds NW at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy and windy. Low around 50F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
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.
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RT @palestinalibre: #AhedTamimi wants the world to know what's happening in Palestine  VIDEO https://t.co/8fCYRVwjji https://t.co/kdvNL at https://t.co/8fCYRVwjji  Yolanda Rodriguez (@yoli595959) August 4, 2018

Upon Ahed Tamimi's release after eight months in an Israeli military prison for slapping a soldier, she shares some of her experiences in this video by Guardian News. She noted that she completed her school studies and even took a course in international law while incarcerated, saying she wants to become a lawyer in order to "restore my country's rights."

Her treatment, which included public cries for her to be shot and killed, seemed wildly out of proportion compared to her "crime" which, after all, involved slapping a soldier who was on her property, uninvited and unwanted. It placed a spotlight on how child prisoners are treated by the Israeli military, and punctuated the fact that over 300 Palestinian children are currently behind Israeli bars. The international community paid attention and Ahed says she was proud to "bring Palestine's voice to the entire world."

Ahed poignantly shared her joy in being able to see the sky, the moon and stars, and to walk in the street, without handcuffs.
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From Truthdig



Still from 'Generation Wealth.'

(Image by (Screenshot / YouTube)) Details DMCA



Photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield is an expert in Americans' yearning for material wealth. Since the early '90s, her work has documented our hunger for it in photography books, multiple traveling exhibitions, short films and four documentary features, notably 2012's "The Queen of Versailles," the story of one Florida woman's quest to build a replica of King Louis XIV's home.

Greenfield's latest feature, "Generation Wealth," involves multiple stories, giving viewers a wide view of the cultural and social forces that drive Americans to covet becoming rich above all other goals. As Greenfield explains in an interview with Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer, our wealth addiction has intensified in the last few decades, influencing everything from our spending habits to whom we elect president.

Click Here to Read Whole Article
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In a few weeks' time, school will resume in many countries, and quite a few parents now worry about the dangers of vaccination. Are they real or false? What are the facts?



First, a word on what we can believe to be real. Some might remember Ripley's Believe It or Not? We are all fascinated by the odd, the unusual, even more so when science with its mundane explanations takes away the mysteries of life. So it is that reasonable people begin to believe in the incredible. We want to.



Take the case of chemtrails -- a theory that trails left by jet airplanes high in the sky are chemical sprays. Why would anyone do that? The reasons vary. They want to change the climate, control our minds, lower life expectancy, reduce fertility or cause sterilization for population control, spread aluminum that causes Alzheimer's but Monsanto profits from a GMO seed designed to grow with it, and so on.



The physics experts tell us it is relatively simple: Jet engines exhaust water vapo r, which condenses in the cold of higher altitudes. Called contrails (a contraction of condensation and trail), an acute observer will note they correspond to the number of engines on the airplane. Numerous scientists, scientific bodies, the Environmental Protection Agency and independent journalists have investigated and debunked chemtrails without eradicating the idea.

The results of a nationally representative 1000-person poll published last October finds that only 32 percent believe chemtrails are 'false'. A good 25% percent are 'unsure' and 15 percent, think they are 'somewhat false'. The rest consider them 'somewhat true' (19 percent) or 'true' (9 percent). Note that just a one-third minority categorically rejects a complete hoax despite the efforts of scientists and government agencies. Perhaps a natural skepticism of officialdom doesn't help. Of course, the blame rests squarely on some internet sites and social media (with its echo chambers) where chemtrail discussion, instead of debunking the idea, favors it and propagates conspiracy theory.

But there is another belief worse than chemtrails germinated by fake science. It has led to actual harm. For one reason or another, people known as anti-vaxxers (Trump among them) are refusing vaccinations for their children; thus an alarming global increase in measles -- an illness that can cause hearing loss and, in rare cases, even death.



Developing countries have their own unique problems with vaccination. Pakistan trying to eliminate polio has experienced deadly violence against vaccinators because Taliban leaders have proclaimed it a means of sterilizing Muslims.



But there are problems in developed countries also: A survey in Australia showed one in three parents having concerns with vaccination. In response, some health facilities are refusing to treat unvaccinated children. Australia is not alone; the U.S. too has a vaccine dilemma and Europe is not exempt.

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(Image by Photo by Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition) Details DMCA



On June 8, 1967, U.S. Navy Signalman Joe Meadors was standing watch on the USS Liberty off the coast of Gaza. In an aerial and sea attack on the USS Liberty that lasted 90 minutes, the Israeli military killed 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 174. Signalman Meadors watched the Israeli military almost sink the ship including Israeli forces machine gunning lifeboats.

Fifty-one years later, on July 29, 2018, U.S. military veteran Joe Meadors witnessed another brutal Israeli military action, the violent takeover of an unarmed civilian ship named Al Awda in international waters, 40 miles off Gaza. Al Awda is part of the four-boat 2018 Gaza Freedom Flotilla that began its voyage in mid-May from Scandinavia, and 75 days later arrived off the coast of Gaza. Al Awda arrived on July 29 followed by Freedom on August 3. The two other boats of the flotilla, the Filestine and Mairead Maguire, were unable to complete the voyage due to damages incurred during a storm off Sicily, and maintenance problems.

Meadors said that on July 29, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) appeared when the boat was 49 nautical miles off Gaza. He commented that there were six large patrol craft and four zodiac boats with storm troopers onboard. Meadors said one group of crew and passengers protected the pilot house. The IOF commandoes beat the Captain of the boat, hitting him and knocking his head against the sides of the ship and threatening him with execution if he did not restart the engine of the ship.



Photo of Delegates and Crew on Al Awda

(Image by Photo by Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition) Details DMCA



Four crew members and delegates were tasered by IOF forces. One crew member was repeatedly tasered on the head and neck and a delegate was also tasered repeatedly. Both were in dangerous medical conditions after repeated tasering and only semi-conscious during the seven-hour trip to Ashdod.



Dr. Swee Ang

(Image by Photo by Freedom Flotilla Coalition) Details DMCA



Renown orthopedic surgeon from the United Kingdom, Dr. Swee Ang, who is about 4 feet, 8 inches and weighs about 80 pounds was hit on the head and body and ended up with two broken ribs. Dr. Swee wrote that:

"After a while the boat engine started. I was told later by Gerd who was able to hear Captain Herman tell the story to the Norwegian Consul in prison that the Israelis wanted Herman to start the engine, and threatened to kill him if he would not do so. But what they did not understand was that with this boat, once the engine stopped it can only be restarted manually in the engine room in the cabin level below. Arne the engineer refused to restart the engine, so the Israelis brought Herman down and hit him in front of Arne making it clear that they will continue to hit Herman if Arne would not start the engine. Arne is 70 years old, and when he saw Herman's face went ash colour, he gave in and started the engine manually. Gerd broke into tears when she was narrating this part of the story. The Israelis then took charge of the boat and drove it to Ashdod.



Larry Commodore on his arrival at the Toronto airport after his medical ordeals while in Israeli prison.

(Image by Photo by Audrey Huntley) Details DMCA



Indigenous leader from Canada Larry Commodore was thrown to the deck when he requested to have his passport back before the delegates left the ship and injuring his foot. As he told in The Real News Network interview... when he arrived in Toronto, after processing at the Ashdod dock, he was taken to a hospital where his foot was sewn up. He said he passed out several times during the process.

A few hours after his return to Givon prison, he developed bladder problems resulting from his injuries and had to be re-hospitalized as he could not pass urine. Prison guards did not believe he was injured and forced him to drink more water which resulted in a very uncomfortable bladder. He had to wait 10 hours for a doctor to come to the prison and order that he be taken to the hospital where a catheter was inserted. When he was deported and returned to Canada, he was taken to a Toronto hospital where he received further treatment.

Several delegates were not given their prescribed daily medicines creating dangerous personal health situations for each of them...

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu describes the Israeli military as the most "morale" military in the world. Crew and delegates on Al Awda found that the Israeli commandos and military administrative staff and prison staff were brutal and a bunch of thieves.

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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"In his new book, Bottom-Up, Rob Kall's exploration of top-down and bottom-up forces in our culture, our brains, and our planet provides a deep insight into the challenges we face. He offers pathways we can use to create the changes we need to break free of the war economy and build local peace economies."



Jodie Evans, cofounder of Code Pink and Chair of the Women's Media Center
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From Reader Supported News

Five years have passed since Edward Snowden told Americans that our government was spying on us. Before he said anything, most of us believed that it was illegal for the NSA (or the CIA or any of the other myriad intelligence agencies) to spy on Americans. Indeed, the NSA's charter expressly forbids it. But Snowden came forward with the proof. And it was damning.

The revelations began a national debate on what, exactly, Americans want their three-letter agencies to do to keep them safe. Nobody wants to see another day like September 11, 2001. We all want security. But we also want to maintain our civil rights and civil liberties.

Personally, I would rather face another terrorist attack than give up my right to privacy. But that's just me. Where does the rest of America stand after five years? And where is Congress in all this?

First, let's look at Ed Snowden. I think the guy is a bona fide hero. Without him, we wouldn't have any idea of the depths to which US intelligence agencies were spying on us and retaining the information in massive depositories in Maryland and in the Utah desert.

Believe it or not, there have been a lot of public opinion polls about Snowden over the past five years. And the results haven't changed terribly much in that period, except very recently. A 2015 poll commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that 64 percent of Americans held a negative view of Snowden, versus 36 who held a positive view. Snowden's approval rating in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Spain was found to be over 80 percent.

A year later, after a petition on the White House website calling for President Obama to pardon Snowden attracted more than 160,000 signatures, a Rasmussen poll found that 15 percent of Americans considered Snowden to be a "hero," 30 percent considered him a "traitor," and 45 percent said he was somewhere in the middle.

By 2018 things had changed. A Time Magazine poll found that 54 percent of Americans believed Snowden had done the right thing versus 38 percent who thought he should be prosecuted. Why the sudden change? Because Snowden's revelations had finally found voices on both the left and the right on Capitol Hill.

Much of the NSA's overreach is a result of the 2001 Patriot Act. Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) proposed the bill on October 23, 2001, in response to the September 11 attacks and the concurrent anthrax attacks in the US. It was passed into law the next day by a vote of 357-66 in the House and 98-1 in the Senate, with Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) the only dissenting vote. The Act allowed the indefinite detention of immigrants; it gave law enforcement officers the authority to search a home or business without the owner's or occupant's consent or knowledge; it expanded the use of "National Security Letters," which allow the FBI to search telephone, email, and financial records without a warrant; and it allowed expanded access for law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records.

Several members of Congress who opposed the law sounded the alarm almost immediately, saying that Americans would lose their civil liberties in the name of national security. But they didn't gain much traction until Snowden went public with his revelations. It's taken five years, but Snowden and his document release really have begun to have an impact on the intelligence community and its collection programs. Not all the news is good. But at the very least, there is a public debate, and that's thanks to Ed Snowden.

First, pressure from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and from the right-wing Freedom Caucus resulted in the NSA ending its policy under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allowed it to search literally all internet data that passed through its computers for certain search terms and to collect that data if any part of the communication passed outside of the US, even if one or both parties to the conversation were Americans. NSA now limits collection to communications coming from or going to a foreign national. We only learned about this program from Snowden.

When it comes to actual legal changes -- those mandated by acts of Congress -- however, we're just not there yet. In May, Congress voted mostly along party lines to renew a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the warrantless internet surveillance. Snowden warned us about this in 2013 and nobody seemed to care. It's still law, even though Donald Trump has complained about it and accused Democrats of using it against him in the 2016 election.

When I sat down to write this article, I really wanted to talk about the success of Snowden's revelations. For some reason, I thought there were more. There certainly have been some great leaps forward. Americans are far better informed now than they were in 2013. But the government is still spying on us with impunity. The courts are no help. Our only hope is to elect like-minded supporters of privacy and civil liberties. Or we can hope for another Snowden to shake things up again.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Weeks after the feds raided Butina's apartment, the gun group's president made a hasty exit.

On May 7, the National Rifle Association released a curious press release declaring that Oliver North, the key player in the Iran-contra scandal and an NRA board member, was "poised to become" the group's president. Earlier that day, Peter Brownell, then finishing his first term as NRA president, had announced that he would not seek a second annual term in order to devote more time to his family business, a firearms retail company.

This changing of the guard -- and how it happened -- was odd. For 15 years, the NRA leadership had followed a specific pattern: an officer was elected by the board to serve two consecutive annual terms as second vice president, then two as first vice president, and, finally, two as president. But the Brownell-to-North transition broke this orderly process. North at the time was serving in neither vice president position. And his ascension was a surprise -- even to North. The day of the move, North told NRATV, "I didn't expect this to be happening...This was very sudden." (North also remarked, "A coup is being worked against the president of the United States and every conservative organization on the planet.")

This development puzzled NRA watchers. North had not been in the line of succession. He was not prepared for the position and said he would need weeks before he could assume the post. Brownell was the first NRA president in a decade and a half not to seek a second term, and the first vice president, Richard Childress, was passed over. Childress claimed that because of his own commitments he could not even serve as interim president. That job went to the second vice president, Carolyn Meadows. The NRA had been known as an outfit with a strict hierarchy. But now all that was being thrown aside in what North called an "unexpected" and "sudden" action.

Go to Mother Jones for the rest of this article.
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The Saturday night, Druze minority led demonstration opposed the "Basic Law - Nation-state", enacted last month by the Netanyahu government, designating Jews as an upper class by law. In a complex social disintegration/constitutional crisis, the Trump administration is unhelpful...



(Image by Joseph H Zernik) Details DMCA



Druze in traditional garb, during the demonstration.

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Rabin square was totally packed, as well as surrounding streets.

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(Image by Joseph H Zernik) Details DMCA



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(Image by Screen print from Channel 13 broadcast) Details DMCA



VIDEO: Screen print, showing the general scene of the demonstration, from the Channel 13 broadcast: https://www.facebook.com/reshet.tv/videos/10155568522670373/

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Tel-Aviv, August 04 - the Saturday night demonstration demanding equality, was held in response to the "Basic Law - Nation-state", enacted a couple of weeks ago by the Netanyahu government, which designated Jews as an upper class by law... The demonstration was led by the Druze minority. The Druze are a small (~140,000), Arabic speaking minority in Israel. They serve in IDF, and some of them rose to high ranks in the military.

However, it drew heavy participation by Jews as well as Christian representatives. Among the participants in the demonstration were former Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo, former senior IDF officers and various opposition members of Knesset. The demonstration was probably the largest in the square, since the 1995 pro-peace rally, at the end of which PM Rabin was assassinated...

Sheik Muwakaf Tarif, the Israeli Druze religious leader, said, "we believed that part of the Jewish heritage of the State of Israel would be full equality for non-Jewish citizens...". Former Shin-Bet head Yuval Diskin said the Basic Law- Nation-state was "despicable", "intended to serve petty political purposes". A written statement by Netanyahu's former Deputy PM, Dan Meridor, said the law was "shameful". Former State Attorney Moshe Lador said that the act would have a major impact on the courts, and warned the Druze community against any compromise. Druze former IDF general Amal As'ad, who leads the Druze opposition to the law, recited that Israeli Declaration of Independence, which promised "full political and social equality, with no distinction by religion, race, or gender".

The demonstration reflects current conditions in the State of Israel, which amount to social disintegration and a constitutional crisis, which are deliberately generated by PM Netanyahu, who is mired with corruption investigations. [i]

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This is a very surreptitious way of doing business whereby you're trying to hide ...something perhaps you don't want us to know."

- Roberto Fonseca, LAUSD Parent

The passage of the Board resolution that enacted this index was itself stained by controversy. Originally scheduled for consideration at the May Board meeting, it was moved back a month to the April meeting with 24 hours notice, which is a violation of LAUSD policy. Apparently given advance warning of the change of date, "nearly 100 student and parent supporters from organizing groups like Inner City Struggle and the Community Coalition of South L.A. packed the meeting, waving signs and pounding drums just outside, urging board members to proceed with the rewrite." With the time to prepare cut short, Board members were unable to secure additional funding for the initiative, turning the exercise into what the former chair of the LAUSD's Parent Advisory Committee called "shifting deck chairs while we try to maneuver away from icebergs."

Under the previous policy, funding was provided to schools so that they could serve students who were low-income, in the foster system or English learners. Contrary to charter-industry philosophy which states that education funding belongs to the student instead of the district, SENI 2.0 will change allocations to reflect the conditions of the neighborhood. Schools in areas that have higher rates of asthma or injuries from gun violence will receive more funding. This will come at the expense of students receiving free and reduced priced lunch in schools located in more desirable neighborhoods.

With the new funding formula passed by the LAUSD Board, the Division of Instruction will hold learning and working group meetings starting on August 6. While all LAUSD run schools will be affected, only the three members of the charter majority, Monica Garcia, Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez, have been invited to participate. In fact, an early version of the form needed to RSVP did not even include the other four Board Districts.

It is also interesting to note that while the charter schools within the District receive their funding directly from the state and will, therefore, not be affected by this policy, the California Charter School Association was invited to participate in the working group as a "stakeholder". Other pro-privatization groups including Teach for America, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, and Parent Revolution were also included on the list of organizations receiving an invitation. Noticeably absent from the list were groups who support public education like In the Public Interest, Public Advocates, TEAch (Transparency, Equity, Accountability in Charters), or Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE).

While the charter industry provides the majority of funding used in school board elections, the vast majority of students within the LAUSD still attend public schools operated by the District. It is time for Garcia, Melvoin, and Gonez to start fulfilling their oath of office and represent the students in these schools. Rescheduling the kickoff meeting so that public school students from all areas of the district are represented would be a good start.

____________________________________________

Carl Petersen is a parent and special education advocate, elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a "strong supporter of public schools." His past blogs can be found at www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.
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(This is a reprint from NewsBred).



Sonia Gandhi: above reproach

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Take a deep breath and reflect who you are not allowed to criticize in India . I could think of no other than Sonia Gandhi, former Congress and UPA chairperson. Run the entire gamut, pore over the worksheet of honchos of Indian media, Shekhar Gupta, Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose etc; google as you might; dive into the archives of Lutyens Media like Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express, The Hindu; Sonia Gandhi, much like Caesar's wife, has been above reproach.

That's astounding. I mean nobody has been the president of 134-year-old Congress longer than her (19 years); she got her party two consecutive Lok Sabha victories; a whole lot of scams were unearthed; yet not a word against her. I mean yes, BJP and her bete noire Dr. Subramaniam Swamy keep pelting her windows but that's par for course for any opposition. But what accounts for no "black sheep" within Congress bleating ever? No media house opening its edit pages for trenchant views; no historian/academician offering critiques? No scholarly paper in JNU? No diagnosis on a person out on bail?

I do recall two embarrassing Sonia interviews, that is for any self-respecting journalist, by Rajdeep Sardesai (he kept saying "fought like a tigress," both in 2005 and 2016), as it was for Aroon Purie on another occasion, coy and adolescent. Yes Shekhar Gupta ("she keeps a formidable dynasty on her slender shoulders,"), Barkha Dutt ("she has made a public commitment to Women's Reservation Bill") have also interviewed her; Vir Sanghvi has been profound in "Nobody-in-Nehru-Gandhi-Family-Has-Given-Kind-of-Authority-she-has-to Manmohan-Singh," echoed by a gushing Sagarika Ghose ( "She never undermined Manmohan Singh, always backed him up"). Both Sanghvi and Ghose don't touch upon how another Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao, was humiliated, even in death. And these clowns happily go toting about "bhakts" to everyone else. Phew.

Two books on Sonia immediately come to my mind. One is a pathetic account by a sychophant; another is "Red Sari" which was unofficially banned in India for six years due to machinations by Abhishek Sanghvi, as alleged by its author.

There was though one voice of dissent which was muzzled without much ado by this "deep state" in India . Margaret Alva, a former Union minister of state and Governor, was quite scathing in her autobiography: "Courage and Commitment:" Excerpts:

"While Pilot, Prasada and Scindia got all the honours due to them as Congress leaders--with shamianas erected at the AICC to receive their remains before the last rites--PV Narasimha Rao, the tallest of them all, was denied a state funeral in Delhi. His body was not even let into the AICC compound; instead, the gun carriage carrying the former Prime Minister and Congress President was parked on the pavement outside the gates, with chairs lined for party leaders. I was shocked"ever since, I have regretted not protesting and walking away." -- On PV Narasimha Rao's death in 2004

Alva details that she played a peacebroker between Sonia and Rao: the latter falling out probably for deciding to appeal against the Delhi High Court's decision to quash a complaint against the Bofors case. Sonia Gandhi once retorted to Alva: "What does the Prime Minister want to do? Send me to jail?"

Alva's outburst about the unfair ticket distribution in Karnataka led to her ouster. She was asked to resign from the post of All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in 2009. In her resignation, Alva wrote thus:

"Times have changed and for the first time I have come to feel like a misfit in an organization that I considered as precious as my own home. A look at our recent candidates lists show a distinct patter of patronages to the wealthy and rich lobbies like mining, education and real-estate""

Just reflect on the above in line of recent Karnataka assembly elections and ponder why no newspaper or media celebrity ever brought this book out of the shelves to examine Congress' candidates in 2018? Why Congress' demise in the state is not looked through the prism which Alva afforded us?

As per one reviewer of the book: "Alva's book offers an amazing insight into the maneuverings of 10 Janpath--the home of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Without being too harsh, Alva clearly indicts Gandhi for lacking transparency in her manner of functioning, her penchant for surrounding herself with a handful of loyalists"".

Alva was made to leave Delhi , appointed as she was governor of Uttarakhand. In her words: "Once I had made the mistake of saying: 'The Alvas are the only political family to have a member in Parliament without a break for almost half a century.' This statement sealed our fate."
Some 10,000 people have been evacuated on the Indonesian island of Lombok after a powerful 6.9 magnitude quake left more than 90 people dead, reported BBC.



The tremor struck at 19:46 local time (11:46 GMT) on Sunday at a fairly shallow depth of 31km, it stated.



Witnesses spoke of chaos and terror as buildings collapsed and power and communication lines were cut, said the report.



Boats have been sent to evacuate more than 1,000 tourists from the nearby Gili islands. Aid agencies said the priority was to provide shelter for residents too scared to return to their homes, added the report.



According to senior authorities, the impact was far bigger than another quake that hit Lombok region last week, killing 16 people.



Lombok is a roughly 4,500 sq km island east of the slightly larger island of Bali. The two islands are home to about three and four million people respectively. Both are popular with tourists who visit beaches and hiking trails, the BBC reported.



The earthquake was of magnitude 6.9, according to the US Geological Survey. There have been more than 130 aftershocks since the quake hit, it added.
As a former Oregon governor, attorney general, and supreme court justice, I was pleased to read the op-ed from Columbia Sportswear Chief Executive Officer Tim Boyle in The Oregonian/OregonLive supporting the sanctuary law of Oregon ("We are a state and nation of immigrants. Remember that when you vote on Measure 105," July 29). I also support the Oregon sanctuary law.

This has been the law of Oregon for over 30 years. The law protects Oregonians because it means that our law enforcement officials can focus on people who commit serious crimes, rather than on people whose only offense is not having appropriate legal documentation of their residence.

The sanctuary law is a non-partisan issue. It's not about who is right, it's about what is right -- for Oregon and for our shared humanity.

Ted Kulongoski, Northeast Portland

Kulongoski was governor of Oregon from 2003-2011.
By JEFF SMITH

In just under 10 years, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in North Portland has gone from under $675 per month in 2009 to between $1,165 and $1,438 in 2018. That's one small fact from the recently released draft Urban Growth Report from Metro.

The housing crisis and its impacts on residents is on display across the region today. It is essential that we turn our attention to solutions that will improve housing affordability for decades to come. In early July, Metro released the draft report. This document, once final, will act as the blueprint for our region's growth. Yet, despite its significance, most people know almost nothing about it or the fact that meetings are being held and recommendations being made to change it right now.

More than 500,000 people are expected to move into the Portland metro region over the next 20 years. About 300,000 new housing units are needed to meet the projected demand. Against this backdrop, Oregon has underbuilt its housing supply by 155,000 units over the past 15 years.

Metro states that there are two possible ways that our region can absorb growth. First, increase density through the construction of more apartments, condos and multifamily homes. And second, strategically let more land into the urban growth boundary. We believe that both are needed to help address the current housing crisis.

That means saying "yes" to a modest, thoughtful expansion of the urban growth boundary and saying "yes" to more density.

Included in the Urban Growth Report, four cities (Beaverton, Hillsboro, King City and Wilsonville) have carefully planned and proposed modest growth on land set aside for residential development. The cities' proposals would generate an additional 9,200 units of housing on 2,200 acres of land. Metro projects that if built, the new housing "would result in modest reductions in housing prices" while staying within the land "budget" for future growth.

We all see the increased homelessness across the region, the growing deficit of affordable housing, and the supply pressure that puts middle-income residents in increasing competition for the same housing sought by lower-income residents.

This housing crisis requires a thoughtful response that necessitates multiple strategies to resolve. We should use every tool, every reasonable option today to help prevent an even worse crisis tomorrow.

Metro Council will determine whether or not to approve the city proposals by the end of the year, with key deadlines coming this summer and fall. We urge Metro councilors to say yes to all solutions, including approving the four city expansion requests.

Jeff Smith is president of the board of directors for the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland
The concussive crack of stun grenades echoed through the streets of downtown Portland Saturday as groups on opposing sides of the political spectrum took to the streets.

But despite weeks of heated rhetoric, the protest  which was organized by right-wing Patriot Prayer and countered by groups on the left  resulted in little violence between the two groups. Past clashes have quickly devolved to open fistfights and mayhem.

The protest, billed ostensibly as a rally for free speech and campaign event for Joey Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer and Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate from Vancouver, saw hundreds of his supporters, many of whom came from out of state, bussed in from across the border decked out in helmets, crash pads and shields festooned with the Confederate battle flag.

They were met by counter-protesters from a coalition of organizations on the left including a group called Popular Mobilization, which formed recently specifically to counter Gibson's protest, another group dressed up as clowns and a cadre of antifascist activists commonly known as antifa.

Police formed barriers along Southwest Naito Parkway early in the day and effectively kept the groups separated, close enough to hurl insults, but too far to throw punches.

The biggest dust-up came when police in riot gear ordered a group of counter-protesters to disperse around 2 p.m. The group, which was tightly clustered near the intersection of Southwest Naito Parkway and Southwest Columbia Street, did not immediately leave and officers quickly began firing dozens of flash-bang grenades and rushing toward the crowd, shoving some protesters out of the street.

In a statement released Saturday night, officials said police vehicles were surrounded by the group and protesters were "throwing an unknown chemical agent as well as other projectiles at officers" prior to the use of flash-bang grenades. Police also fired pepper balls and so-called "less lethal" rounds at protesters.

The move elicited loud cheers of "USA! USA!" from the right-leaning group cordoned across the street.

After the dispersal order was given, some projectiles were thrown at police, one of which hit Eder Campuzano, a reporter from The Oregonian/OregonLive, in the head. He was bloodied, but is doing fine.

"Unfortunately, today, some people chose to commit illegal acts of violence, which required members of the Police Bureau to take action in order to keep all participants and non-participants safe," Police Chief Danielle Outlaw said in a statement. "This was a dangerous situation for all those involved, including officers, and I am disheartened that this kind of illegal behavior occurred in our beautiful city."

The protest shut down Naito Parkway, a major thoroughfare through downtown, for much of the day Saturday.

The runup to the demonstration took on an ominous tone after Gibson moved it to Tom McCall Waterfront Park, where those with permits to carry concealed weapons could legally arm themselves. Gibson also encouraged his supporters, who were legally able, to bring guns to the protest.

Throughout the day, Portland police released images of weapons collected from both sides, including knives, sticks, shields and fireworks. Unlike past demonstrations, however, Saturday's dueling events never turned into the melee that many had predicted.

At least four people were arrested during the protest, most for disorderly conduct.

Oregonian reporters Eder Campuzano, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Anna Spoerre, Hannah Boufford and Jim Ryan contributed to this post.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048
Police said two men were shot early Sunday morning outside a 7-11 in outer Southeast Portland.

The men suffered serious injuries in the shooting at 3500 Southeast 122nd Ave. and were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital but neither had life-threatening injuries, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Investigators said they believe two men fired shortly after 2 a.m. Based on witness accounts, police said the suspects are African American. One is young, close to 6-feet tall, with a goatee and tattoos on his chest and torso. Witnesses said the other suspect had hazel-colored hair.

Police said they believe the suspects left the scene of the shooting in a white sedan.

The police bureau said its Gang Enforcement Team is conducting the investigation. They are seeking additional witnesses and possible video of the shooting and ask people with information to call the enforcement team at 503-823-4106.

-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699
78' - Polo dribbles to the top of the box and fires a shot on goal. Blake makes the save. Asprilla gets the rebound, but somehow touches the ball out of play instead of taking a shot

Jamie Goldberg
In the decades-long war over milk - with purveyors of cow juice on one side and the people who make an increasing array of ecru-colored plant- and nut-based drinks on the other - this is as close to consorting with the enemy as it gets.

The manufacturer of a popular brand of almond milk has announced a recall for what some would say sacrilegious act: Somehow, cow's milk got into their almond milk.

The recall affects nearly 150,000 half-gallon cartons of Almond Breeze almond milk shipped to wholesalers in 28 states, according to the Food and Drug Administration. That is less than 1 percent of all the refrigerated almond milk shipped by HP Hood LLC in the past month.

As per the FDA, the cartons were shipped to Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

HP Hood is a national dairy company based in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Among its brands is Kemps and Crowley. But the company also handles the production of Almond Breeze, the brand of Blue Diamond Growers, a California almond cooperative.

This revelation could be more than enough to sour fans' perception of the Almond Breeze brand whose carton features almonds plopping into a sea of pure white liquid.

It was a perception carefully cultivated by Blue Diamond Growers, whose website features a picture of a singular, perfect almond sitting upright on a wooden table and another photo of a farmer meticulously inspecting a blossoming almond tree. If the photos weren't enough, the text near the top of the page proudly proclaims: "Almonds are all we do."

But a statement from Hood about the mix-up conjures a different image. The almond milk was produced in a factory - one that, almond drinkers now know, was essentially playing both sides in the milk wars.

"Although the almond milk is processed on a separate line and filler and we confirmed that the allergen control protocol all standard validation testing was conducted in accordance with our allergen control program, this particular batch of almond milk was contaminated with one container of milk through an employee error," the representative said in an email to CBS News. "Hood made the decision to recall all of the product from this batch as a precaution."

One person with a lactose allergy was sickened by the almond milk, but Hood said the product is completely safe to drink for anyone without that allergy.

For many, it was another salvo in the greater debate over what is and isn't "milk," with billions in revenue at stake.

Victoria tweeted "Is the dairy industry trying to get back at us by poisoning our almond milk with dairy???"

Frank Mitloehner tweeted "Blue Diamond almond milk has been recalled, because the product did not contain only almonds and water, but also real dairy milk. Ironic, for the first time their product deserves the name almond MILK, and what do they do, recall it..."

People who ship cows milk argue that people who sell hemp, nut, and soy-based drinks are using the centuries-old good name of milk to market products that should more appropriately be labeled soy juice or hemp drink.

In 2000 and 2010, the National Milk Producers Federation wrote the FDA to argue for a more exclusive use of the word "milk" on labels. At the time, federation spokesman Christopher Galen told USA Today, "We had to do something," which included creating a Facebook page: "They Don't Got Milk."

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it planned to start heavily enforcing a regulation that says the only products that can call themselves "milk" are things that come from the "milking of one or more healthy cows." In a statement at the Politico Pro Summit, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb summed it up this way: An almond doesn't lactate."

The debate has also entered the halls of Congress. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, submitted an amendment to kill spending for the required FDA study that would look at relabeling, according to Roll Call, but it was defeated. Afterward, the National Milk Producers Federation declared a small victory.

"Today's vote should send a very strong message to food marketers who have long been ignoring FDA's food labeling standards by inappropriately using dairy terms on products that do not contain any dairy," the federation said. "Those days are numbered."

The other side argues that no consumer believes that when buying, say, almond milk, that it originated from a cow. Declining sales of cow's milk and the exploding market for alternatives is not due to the labeling on the carton, they argue, but rather what's inside it. Increasingly health conscious consumers view milk alternatives as simply better for them.

Nancy Chapman, executive director of the Soyfoods Association of North America, told The Post in 2016 that her organization has conducted studies of shoppers and found that the "overwhelming majority" - 98 percent - don't confuse it with cow's milk.

"Folks are selecting soy milk because they know it's not from dairy," she said.

-- The Washington Post
The Central Michigan University Board of Trustees has appointed Robert O. Davies the 15th president of the 126-year-old university. He is scheduled to start Sept. 1.

Davies, 51, president at Murray State University in Kentucky since 2014, grew up in the academic world. His father was a history professor who became a dean, provost and interim president.

Davies' own path started in university advancement, fundraising to support the delivery of high-quality education. He emphasizes strategic planning, setting goals, measuring progress and delivering results that prove the value of a university.

"Central Michigan University is a nationally recognized research university that is 100 percent committed to student success," Davies said. "That is a unique niche most research universities don't fill, because they outgrow the ability to focus on students as individuals.

"The relationships between CMU faculty, staff and students create an environment, a culture, an ethic, an ethos. I'm excited to be at CMU, because we're all here to guide students through their career choices. To help them engage and become leaders. To give them educational experiences they wouldn't have at a larger university," he said.

Davies succeeds George E. Ross, who stepped down Tuesday after eight years as president.

Board Chair Bill Weideman said those who have worked with Davies speak of an inclusive leader who communicates a bold vision based on insights from faculty, staff, students, alumni and external stakeholders. He then inspires the university community to achieve that vision.

"Dr. Davies, his wife and daughter will be great additions to the CMU family," Weideman said. "He's a seasoned leader. He's student- and faculty-focused. He has extensive experience in fundraising and in connecting with alumni and community, business, and political leaders.

"I'm delighted to have Bob Davies as our 15th president. He will help expand CMU's leadership, especially our pivotal role in addressing the need for health care, STEM and business professionals who will take Michigan into the future and serve residents across the state."

Board Vice Chair Tricia Keith, who led the search advisory committee, said Davies matches the presidential leadership profile that was developed with input from across the campus and community.

"When the leadership profile was written, faculty, staff and students said we'd nailed it -- we'd described the president they'd hope to find. Bob Davies exemplifies that profile," Keith said.

Keith pointed to the strategic plan and related outcomes Davies oversaw at Murray State, including in enrollment and in academic excellence. He created an honors college, introduced a new scholarship model, broke ground on two academic buildings and opened a new residence hall.

Murray State has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as a top-tier institution in the South for 27 years and has been named a "Great College to Work For" by the Chronicle of Higher Education for seven of the past nine years.

Brad Swanson, biology professor, chair of the Academic Senate and search advisory committee member, said Davies dedicates time, energy and budgetary resources to student success.

"President Davies stands out with his focus on students, including their recruitment and retention. He shows an obvious commitment to students, faculty and staff, and he wants everyone to know their contributions are valued," Swanson said. "He has a strong commitment to shared governance and believes personal interactions with faculty are key to a successful university."

Anna Owens of Midland, a May 2018 graduate of CMU, former president of the Student Government Association and member of the search advisory committee, said Davies stood out for being passionate about the student voice.

"It's one thing to say you put students first. Dr. Davies was clear about consulting with students before making decisions," Owens said. "He will listen. He will evaluate, trusting the people of CMU to guide him in what the situation is."

Prior to Murray State University, Davies was president of Eastern Oregon University and vice president for university relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He also had alumni relations and development positions at The State University of New York at Buffalo, Boise State University and the University of Nevada-Reno.

Davies earned his doctorate in higher education administration from the State University of New York-Buffalo, his master's in business administration in finance and marketing from the University of Oregon, and a bachelor of science in management from University of Nevada, Reno.

Davies and his wife, Cindy, have one daughter, Katie, who will be a high school senior this fall.
When voters head to the polls on Tuesday, they will have only a few choices to make when it comes to candidates for state office and Congress.

Because it is a Primary Election, state law says voters may only vote for candidates in one party. Cross voting will not be allowed. If voters select candidates from more than one party, their ballot will be returned. They will then have the choice to cast the ballot "as is" or may request a new ballot.
The first ever Index Dubai Sleep challenge will pit Dubais best nappers against one another to see who can enjoy the longest, most peaceful snooze right in the middle of the exhibition floor, abuzz with exhibitors and visitors at the autumn edition of the Middle Easts leading interiors exhibition, Index.



Sponsored by DeRUCCI, a global beds and mattresses company, the event takes place on September 16.



In the UAE, 90 per cent of people are not getting enough sleep, according to the results published by researchers at the University of Michigan in the United States based on comparing global sleep patterns. A good start for the sleep-starved could be a good quality bed.



According to the Sleep Health Foundation, an important factor that contributes to a good nights sleep is the right mattress.



Index event director Samantha Kane-Macdonald, said: Increasingly, the right bed is gaining importance in homes as well as hotels worldwide. A recent survey by Mattressadvisor.com found that nearly 81 per cent of travellers say a comfortable bed is the single most important feature in a hotel room.



DeRUCCI has just opened its flagship shop in Dubai and this unique contest taking place at the first autumn edition of Index, is a great way for the bed superstore to showcase its superior quality bed range that promises to make a good night's sleep a breeze.



To participate, all you have to do is share your most memorable or bizarre sleep story in 150 words on the Facebook page of Index Dubai.



Entries have to be submitted before September 2.



Four contestants will be shortlisted from the entries received, to go head-to-head in a three-hour siesta contest that will take place on mattresses from DeRUCCI. The winner will take home a brand new bed which will be perfectly matched to the individuals sleep requirement assessed by DeRUCCIs signature digital Mattress Selecting System.



Septembers Index exhibition will be running alongside The Hotel Show Dubai, The Leisure Show and the FIM show at Dubai World Trade Centre from September 16 to 18. Together, they will offer three-days of B2B product sourcing and networking opportunities for professionals working across the interiors, design and hospitality industries.  TradeArabia News Service
In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs three days apart on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

The bombings combined killed almost 200,000 people.

It remains the only time that nuclear weapons were used in warfare.

As World War II was entering its sixth year, Nazi Germany had surrendered in May but the Japanese refused to accept the terms of surrender.

The United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Failure to comply would result in "prompt and utter destruction," according to history.com.

A uranium atomic bomb called "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The "Fat Man" plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9.

Thousands were killed instantly. Thousands of others died within months from burns and radiation sickness.

On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies.

The Evening News, Monday, Aug. 6, 1945:

"Atomic Bomb Used First Time"

"Truman Reveals Secret of Miracle Explosive Equal to 20,000 Tons of the Deadliest TNT"

"The United States has unleashed against Japan the terror of an atomic bomb 2000 times more powerful than the biggest blockbusters ever used in warfare.

President Truman revealed this great scientific achievement today and warned the Japanese that they now face 'a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.'

The new atomic bomb was used for the first time yesterday. An American plane dropped one on the Japanese army base at Hiroshima."

Hiroshima Memorial Day will be observed Aug. 5-6 in Harrisburg by the Harrisburg Peace Promenade and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

A service will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 5 at Market Square Presbyterian Church followed by the "Candles on the Water" in the Susquehanna River at Front and Mulberry streets.

A wreath will be laid at the Hiroshima Monument at Front and Woodbine streets at 3 p.m. Aug. 6. Speakers will include artist, activist and pastor Virginia Cohn Parkum and poet laureate Rick Kearns.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the Pennsylvania man charged in connection with the 1992 sexual assault and strangulation of an elementary school teacher.

Raymond Rowe, 49, is facing charges of criminal homicide, four counts of rape, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and burglary in the death of 25-year-old Christy Mirack.

LancasterOnline reports the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office is pursuing the death penalty against Rowe, a professional DJ known as "DJ Freez."

Police were unable to identify Rowe as a suspect until they uncovered genealogical data.
The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh says it too will be releasing the names of clergy against whom allegations of child sexual abuse of a minor have been made.

The announcement was made in a letter to from Bishop David Zubik that was distributed this weekend to be read in all parishes.

Zubik said the names will be made public when the report of a grand jury that has been investigation child sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses is made public.

"You can expect that the Grand Jury's report, once released, will be a sad and tragic description of events that occurred within the church," he wrote.

The grand jury report could be released as early as this week, and no later than Aug. 14.

Zubik's letter comes three days after Bishop Ronald Gainer of the Diocese of Harrisburg released the names of 71 priests and religious who have been accused of sexual abuse over the years. Gainer said he had intended to release the list in 2016, but was asked to delay that while the grand jury investigation was continuing.

Gainer also ordered that the names of anyone accused, and of any bishops who served since 1947, be removed from any places of honor on diocese property.

The Allentown diocese also said this week it would make public the names of accused clergy on the day the grand jury report is released. The Diocese of Erie earlier this year became the first to make such a list public.

Zubik, in his letter, noted that 90 percent of all reported incidents of abuse in the Pittsburgh diocese occurred before 1990.

"We respond to allegations today very differently than decades ago," he said. Once an allegation is made, he said immediate action is taken to remove the priest or deacon from ministry. None of the accused on the diocese list is today in active ministry, he said.

"Every act of child sexual abuse is horrific, no matter how long ago it occurred. I ask that you join with me in praying for all victims and for their loved ones," he wrote in the letter.

Below is the text of the letter:

Letter to the Faithful (for Distribution) 8.4.18 by Teresa Bonner on Scribd
Police in York are seeking the public's help in finding a 10-year-old girl whom they say ran away from home.

Tatalia Ivorie Martinez.

Police say Tatalia Ivorie Martinez was last seen leaving her home on the 400 block of E. Philadelphia St. Saturday night wearing a book bag.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the York Police by calling 717-846-1234, texting 847-411, or by downloading the York City Police Department app.
The 42-year-old man accused of assaulting a police officer, which proceeded the three-car fatal crash involving a state trooper called in for back up, has been arrested.

Peter Budwash, of Robesonia, was taken into custody Sunday morning, and is being charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, and possessing an instrument of crime, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.

According to the state police, the incident occurred like this:

Troopers were called Saturday morning to the 400 block of West Oak Ave. in Robesonia to assists with a call for an "aggravated assault in progress" of a police officer with the Western Berks Regional Police Department.

The responding trooper was traveling west on Route 422 with his lights and siren activated. At the same time, a car occupied by Paul and Mary McCoy, 82 and 72, was heading east on 422 and a vehicle occupied by James and Michele Cooling, 62 and 65, entered the intersection from Sportsman Road in South Heidelberg Township, Berks County.

They got into a three-car crash. The Coolings, from Denver, Pennsylvania, were pronounced dead at the scene. The McCoys, from Narvon, were injured and transported to the Reading Hospital.

The trooper was also injured in the crash and transported to the hospital.

A second trooper, also responding to the original assault call, stopped at the crash to render first aid.

The state police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Specialist Unit is reconstructing the crash, which is also being investigated by the Major Case Team and Forensic Services Unit.

Budwash was taken into custody around 10:30 a.m. today at Reading Hospital.
Two people in Lebanon have suffered stab wounds, and they are now being treated for non-life-threatening injuries as police piece together what happened.

According to the Lebanon City Police Department, officers were called around 3:11 a.m. Saturday to the 600 block of N. 7th St. for a report of a 22-year-old man who had been stabbed.

At the same time, police learned a 36-year-old man was brought to an area hospital with what appeared to be stab wounds.

Police are investigating both as one assault with a knife.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information should call the police, 717-272-2054 or Crime Stoppers, 717-270-9800.
A marked state police cruiser was involved in an accident that left two people dead and injured two others Saturday morning in Berks County, state police said.

The three-vehicle crash occurred just before 10:30 a.m. along Route 422 near Sportsman Road in South Heidelberg Township, police said.

Two people were killed this morning and a state trooper was injured in a three-vehicle crash in South Heidelberg Township, officials said. https://t.co/zOxCKbhkse pic.twitter.com/BRvNBhqQLp  Dustin Leed (@DustinLeedRE) August 4, 2018

Troopers were being called to the 400 block of West Oak Avenue in Robsonia to assists with a call for an "aggravated assault in progress" of a police officer with the Western Berks Regional Police Department, state police said.

The trooper was traveling westbound along Route 422 when he struck the vehicle occupied by James B. Cooling, 62, and Michele J. Cooling, both of Denver, Lancaster County, state police said.

Additional details about the crash were not provided.

"A second trooper was also responding to the aggravated assault in a marked patrol unit came upon the crash and immediately began providing first aid," police said in a statement.

Both James and Michele Cooling were pronounced dead at the scene by the Berks County Coroner's Office, police said.

Cellphone video of the aftermath of the crash shows at least of the vehicles burst into flames, according to a report from The Reading Eagle.

The impact from the crash pushed the Cooling's vehicle into a vehicle occupied by Paul McCoy, 82, and Mary Lynn McCoy, 72, both of Narvon, Lancaster County, police said.

Both Paul and Mary McCoy were taken to Reading Hospital for treatment. Updates on their conditions were not provided.

The trooper involved in the crash was also taken to Reading Hospital. An update on his condition was not provided.

State police are still searching for the subject of the aggravated assault call, Peter Budwash, 42, of Robesonia, who was wanted for probation and DUI warrants, police said.

Budwash has also been charged with with aggravated assault, simple assault, burglary, criminal trespass and criminal mischief because of today's incident, police said.
By Jeffrey Kucik

President Donald Trump justifies tariffs on imports by arguing that "unfair trade policies" have harmed American workers. This has led to a trade war in which the U.S. and China have placed tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's products.

Jeffrey Kucik (The Conversation, photo)

Most recently, China said it's ready to slap tariffs on US$60 billion in U.S. imports if Trump goes ahead with his threat to tax another $200 billion of Chinese goods.

Since the president claims to be acting on behalf of working-class Americans, it's fair to ask: How do tariffs actually affect them?

Scholars of international political economy, such as myself, recognize that trade hasn't always been good for poorer Americans. However, the economic fundamentals are clear: Tariffs make things worse.

American auto workers demonstrate against trade tariffs they say will negatively affect U.S. auto manufacturing. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Free trade and tariffs

The erosion of American manufacturing became a hot-button issue during the 2016 election. And for good reason. Total employment in manufacturing has fallen by 25 percent since 2001, putting about 4.5 million workers out of a job.

Members of both parties now agree that free trade is largely to blame for this decline. Off-shoring and "bad" trade deals are cited as evidence that trade no longer serves America's interests.

The Trump administration's solution is tariffs. In recent months, entry barriers have been erected, first to protect solar panels and washing machines in January and then steel and aluminum in March.

Although he's fighting these trade battles with many partners, including Canada and Europe, most of Trump's attention is directed toward China. He claims that China manipulates its currency, fails to protect intellectual property and stunts economic innovation. Sweeping tariffs - beginning with a 25 percent increase on $34 billion of Chinese imports - are an attempt to combat those issues.

Trump has said another $200 billion in tariffs are ready to go - and that he's even prepared to tax everything China sends to the U.S.

Unfortunately, there are several reasons to think that tariffs will only harm those Trump wants to protect.

Some U.S. manufacturers are feeling the impact of tariffs of up to 25 percent on some foreign imports. AP Photo/John Raoux

Tariffs raise prices for consumers

The purpose of a tariff is to help domestic companies.

Tariffs are a tax on imports. As taxes go up, so do the prices of foreign goods. Consider the metal tariffs. Foreign imports of steel and aluminum became more expensive overnight - to the tune of 25 and 10 percent, respectively. Higher prices drive down consumption of foreign goods while bolstering demand for domestic equivalents.

Unfortunately, protecting a few narrow industries can generate much broader costs. Not least, consumers now have to pay more for everyday goods.

Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports go far beyond steel and aluminum and affect a wide variety of basic products, from consumer electronics to shoes and apparel.

That's not a problem for higher earners who can absorb the extra costs. But, for those with more limited incomes, who are especially vulnerable to tariff increases, price hikes can quickly gobble up take-home pay.

Basic necessities such as food and clothing make up a larger share of working-class household expenditures when compared to higher-income families. And most of those products are imported. Foreign producers make up an overwhelming percentage of sales of many basic goods, such as shoes. In fact, one manufacturing industry group reports that 80 percent of Walmart's suppliers are housed across the Pacific.

One 2017 paper estimated that a 10 percent across-the-board increase in tariffs on imported goods would cost the poorest 20 percent of earners $300 a year.

That's a meaningful chunk of the less than $13,000 earned by the poorest U.S. households in 2015. Moreover, Trump's first round of tariffs weren't the 10 percent used in the study. They are 25 percent.

And the president isn't stopping there. While the White House initially threatened a 10 percent tariff increase on the next $200 billion of goods he's targeting, officials are reportedly considering raising that to 25 percent.

Taken together, this means the real impact of tariffs on household incomes could be more than double earlier estimates.

Tariffs raise prices for companies

Tariffs also have negative consequences for American producers that rely on foreign inputs.

The metals tariffs, for example, mean that manufacturers of cars, aircraft and tractors all have to pay more to produce their goods. Hence the vocal opposition to Trump from companies such as Ford and Boeing. Their costs are now going up, endangering their competitiveness.

What this also means is that tariffs put jobs at risk - far more than they help protect.

Trump's recent steel and aluminum tariffs were said to benefit as many as 400,000 workers. But 10 times as many workers - 4.6 million - are employed in industries that rely on metals as a core input.

The comparison is even starker for solar panels. About 2,000 workers directly manufacture solar panels in the United States. However, 260,000 work in related industries such as installation and maintenance. Those workers depend on a thriving solar market - a market that has stagnated since the tariffs.

If one wants to count jobs, the numbers simply don't add up to a net benefit for the U.S. economy.

Farmers and agricultural economists worry that Trump's trade policies will cost farms billions of dollars in lost income and force some out of business. AP Photo/Nati Harnik

Tariffs make it harder to do business abroad

Finally, trade protectionism is a two-way street.

Beijing wasted no time in responding to Trump's tariffs, announcing duties of 15 percent to 25 percent on nearly $45 billion of U.S. exports to China, mostly agricultural products. And more will be coming if the war escalates, with some of the highest tariffs being put on food products.

Of course, targeting agrarian goods is a strategic decision. Agriculture is one of the United States' few remaining export-oriented sectors. And, since China is the second-largest buyer of U.S. agricultural exports, farmers are particularly vulnerable to retaliation. If a country wants to hit the U.S. economy where it hurts, target agriculture.

China did exactly that, hitting U.S. producers of soybeans, corn, poultry and beef particularly hard. As a result, agricultural workers will find it more difficult to make a living in a sector where incomes have historically lagged behind the national average of all industries.

And poorer areas of the country will be harder hit than others. Three of the states that are the most vulnerable to retaliation - Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina - all have per capita incomes far below the national average.

That means that poorer households, in poorer states, face the greatest threat if export-dependent agricultural companies can't do business with one of their most important trade partners.

The U.S. could slap tariffs on more than $500 billion in imported Chinese goods. Beijing imported just $130 billion in U.S. goods last year. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

The bigger picture

This is not to say that removing all trade barriers and opening the U.S. economy to all comers will solve the problems facing working-class and poorer Americans.

No one argues that trade is cost-free. Some industries inevitably contract due to foreign competition. And workers in those industries aren't easily employed in the new jobs that are created.

But there's something else that costs jobs, too: trade wars.

The Conversation

As tensions continue to escalate, poorer households, already

, will face additional downward pressure on their incomes. That's bad news for the workers whom Trump promised to help.

Jeffrey Kucik is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Arizona. He wrote this piece for The Conversation, where it first appeared.
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BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters)  Chinas state media said on Saturday the governments retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods showed rational restraint and they accused the United States of blackmail.

Late on Friday, Chinas finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States, with the extra levies ranging from five to 25 percent on a total value of goods less than half of that proposed by U.S. President Donald Trumps administration.

The response follows the Trump administrations proposal of a 25-percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

Chinas countermeasures are rational, the Global Times, a tabloid run by the official Peoples Daily, said in a commentary.

China will not rush to compete with U.S. numbers, it said, echoing comments made by state television.

The United States and China implemented tariffs on $34 billion worth of each others goods in July. Washington is expected to soon implement tariffs on an additional $16 billion of Chinese goods, which China has already said it will match immediately.

The White Houses extreme pressure and blackmail are already clear to the international community, said a state television commentary. Such methods of extreme blackmail will not bear fruit against China.

TRUMP TOUTS TARIFFS, SAYS THEY ARE WORKING

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Trump disagreed.

Tariffs are working far better than anyone ever anticipated, he claimed, citing a big drop in Chinas stock market. They are really hurting their economy.

Trump also claimed that China was talking to the United States about trade, but he provided no details. He said his administration would continue to employ tariffs if other nations were unwilling to come to the table on trade. We are using them to negotiate fair trade deals, Trump said.

China has now either imposed or proposed tariffs on $110 billion in U.S. goods, representing the vast majority of Chinas annual imports of American products. Last year, China imported about $130 billion in goods from the United States. Trump has ultimately threatened tariffs on over $500 billion in Chinese goods, covering virtually all U.S. imports from China.

The U.S. has repeatedly resorted to threatening and deceitful routines, trying to force China to compromise, both overestimating its own bargaining power and underestimating Chinas determination and ability to defend its national dignity and the interests of its people, said a commentary in the official Xinhua news agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, remained staunch on Washingtons push for fairer trading conditions with China.

President Trump inherited an unfair trade regime where American workers and American companies were not treated reciprocally or fairly by the Chinese, and the efforts of the Trump administration are to right that, to correct that, Pompeo told reporters on the sidelines of a regional forum in Singapore.

Pompeo added that he had discussed trade issues with Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi on Friday. Wang said on Friday they did not get into details.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he met Pompeo in Singapore and that his message was clear.

My objective was quite straightforward: I think I need to inform him that we are very concerned, said Saifuddin.

Countries like Malaysia form an integral part of Chinese exporters supply chains, and analysts have warned a trade war could knock billions of dollars off their economic growth in coming years.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing, David Brunnstrom, John Geddie and Christian Shepherd in Singapore, Engen Tham in Shanghai; Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann in Washington; Writing by Engen Tham; Editing by Stephen Powell and Sandra Maler)
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By Lee van der Voo

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters)  Scores of right-wing and anti-fascist demonstrators squared off on Saturday in Portland, Oregon, where four people were injured in similar rallies on June 30.

Police tried to keep the two sides apart as protesters chanted and hurled insults at each other. Authorities set up a security perimeter around a waterfront park and officers frisked attendees and confiscated flag poles and other potential weapons.

Clashes after similar protests in Portland in June sent four people including a police officer to the hospital. [nL1N1TX0A5]

Among the right-wing marchers, some of whom wore body armor and carried shields, were members of the Patriot Prayer group founded by Joey Gibson, a conservative Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate in Novembers midterm elections.

They were opposed by counter-protesters, some dressed in black with face masks, who shouted anti-Nazi slogans.

Using a Portland Police Bureau sound truck, an officer told people gathered in and around Tom McCall Waterfront Park that no firearms were allowed, and that officers would use reasonable force to curtail any assaultive behavior.

Police said on Twitter that they had seized multiple items that could be used as weapons, and that they are observing people in helmets and protective padding.

Meanwhile, due to the events at the park, officers were only responding to emergency service calls, the bureau said.

Slideshow gallery:

[ngg_images source=galleries container_ids=16 display_type=photocrati-nextgen_basic_slideshow gallery_width=600 gallery_height=400 cycle_effect=fade cycle_interval=10 show_thumbnail_link=1 thumbnail_link_text=[Show thumbnails] order_by=sortorder order_direction=ASC returns=included maximum_entity_count=500]

(Reporting by Lee van der Voo in Portland; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Alistair Bell)
The construction of a deep tunnel storm water system in Dubai is expected to get a boost with the arrival of two huge earth pressure balanced tunnel boring machines (EPB TBMs) in October 2018.

Work on the project is currently under way by the Porr-Six Construct joint venture for Dubai Municipality.

The objective of this prestigious project is to collect and convey groundwater and storm water runoff from the Dubai World Central area (about 135 sq km) and adjacent communities (about 245 sq km).

The two EPB TBMs will excavate a 10-km-long tunnel with a boring diameter of 11.05 m - the biggest TBMs ever utilised in the UAE, said a Besix statement.

Following detailed and successful tests by Porr tunnelling specialists on the two completely assembled TBMs during the last couple of weeks in the manufacturer's facilities in China, representatives of the Porr-Six Construct joint venture signed the "factory acceptance certificates with the China Railway Engineering Equipment Group (CREG), the manufacturer.

The joint venture was awarded the tunnel contract by Dubai Municipality on October 1, 2017 and it placed orders for two EPB TBMs with CREG in November last year.

Christoph Duempelmann of Porr, project director of the deep tunnel storm water system project, and Francois Springuel of Six Construct, deputy project director, together with Zhang Zhiguo, group director and deputy general manager of CREG, amongst other attendees, concluded the design and manufacturing phase of the TBMs by signing the Factory Acceptance Certificate in front of the two mega-machines.

The factory acceptance tests were attended by senior representatives of Dubai Municipality and the project management consultant, under the leadership of Dubai Municipality project director Dr Jayapregasham Tharamapalan.

Dubai Municipality has a strong vision for Dubai to be smart and sustainable, and the deep tunnel storm water system being built provides the infrastructure needed to serve Dubais growing residential and business communities.

The drainage system of the tunnel needs to be strong enough to cope with increasing urbanisation that causes high-level groundwater level and rain events, though rare, that can impact the business communities severely. This groundbreaking tunnel will tackle both rainwater and groundwater, and will drain almost 40 per cent of the entire urban area of Dubai, including the flagship Dubai South with project Al Maktoum International Airport, the Expo 2020 site and several other emerging developments.

Dr Tharamapalan said the early procurement of the TBMs by the joint venture and timely manufacturing of the TBMs by CREG that met the strict factory acceptance tests form an important milestone in the project. He added that Dubai Municipality is pleased that two brand new machines of this size have been purpose-built in such a short duration of nine months to meet the extremely tight project schedule.

Duempelmann confirmed: The Porr-Six Construct joint venture and CREG have been working very hard to meet the tight schedule till date. To finalise negotiations for such long-lead key equipment, and then design and manufacture two completely new TBMs of this scale in only nine months is extremely challenging, and was only achieved due to the great commitment of all parties, the joint venture including Porr technical head office team, the TBM manufacturer, the designer, the project management consultant and Dubai Municipality.

Duempelmann confirmed that works are on track and timely completion before the Expo 2020 will be achieved.

We are extremely proud to have chosen CREG as our partner for the TBM manufacturing. The track record of CREG introducing EPB TBMs for the tunnelling market is very impressive and this, along with the number of TBMs produced, convinced us to order two TBMs for this project, said Springuel. - TradeArabia News Service
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The House Freedom Caucus thought that they were helping Trump by trying to impeach Rod Rosenstein. Instead, they made it easier for Trump to be impeached.

Ex-Watergate attorney Michael Conway wrote on NBCNews.com:



Meadows resolution also degrades the standard necessary for the House to initiate an impeachment proceeding. Some respected commentators have argued that the House should never initiate impeachment proceedings unless there is a likelihood that the Senate will convict following a trial on the merits. This thinking parallels the notion that a prosecutor should not seek a criminal indictment unless there is a reasonable prospect of a conviction at trial.

But Meadows endorses a far more relaxed standard, as his resolution has almost zero chance of leading to the Senates removal of Rosenstein. To remove Rosenstein from office, 67 senators would have to vote to convict him. With only 51 Republicans in the Senate, there is no possibility that Rosenstein would be removed by the Senate. As a result, Republicans call to impeach Rosenstein undermines the proposition that the party in power must refrain from starting an impeachment inquiry if the prospect of a Senate conviction is nil.

In Their Rush To Help Trump, House Republicans Lowered The Standard For Impeachment

The members of the House Freedom Caucus actually damaged Trump by lowering the impeachment standard with the Rosenstein resolution. These House Republicans have laid the groundwork and made it easier for the next Congress to impeach Donald Trump. The next Congress is a logical assumption because there is no way that the current Republican-controlled House will begin impeachment proceedings before the midterm election.

Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, and company have set a precedent that is dangerous for Trump. The bar for impeachment has been lowered. It doesnt matter if the Senate will convict Trump, if the House believes that Trump has committed impeachable offenses, they could tie up Congress for the next two years and effectively kill the Trump presidency.

Republicans were trying to save their president, but in their desperation, they made a critical strategic error that makes it easier for Trump to be impeached.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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Rep. Adam Schiff said that Republicans have refused to agree with Democrats not to use any information that they may gain from Russian attacks in the 2018 election.

Video:



Transcript via CBS Face The Nation:

BRENNAN: And you are talking about Microsoft disclosing that.

I also want to ask you about what the special counsel disclosed a few weeks back, where, in that filing, he mentioned that there were congressional candidates, at least one of them, who was requesting help from Guccifer, which has been linked, of course, by the special counsel to the Russian meddling effort.

Do you have any indication who that congressional candidate was or if they are currently in Congress?

SCHIFF: Well, I can only talk about the public reporting.

And there certainly was a lot of public reporting about Russian hacking involving Florida candidates for Congress and Florida incumbents. And, of course, this is a great concern in terms of the midterms. They not only hacked the DNC, but they hacked the DCCC two years ago.

We tried to get the Republican Campaign Committee to agree that, if a foreign power intervened, as they did in 2016, that we would reject it, that neither party would exploit it. We werent able to get that agreement from the GOP in 2016.

We really need to develop that kind of national consensus for the midterms, that no matter who a foreign power may intervene on behalf of, both parties have to agree not to exploit it. And I think one of the chief impediments to getting to that agreement is the president of the United States.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Republicans Who Dont Agree Not To Use Info Gained From A Russian Attack Are Betraying Their Country

This is not complicated. If Republicans refuse to agree not to use the information they may gain from a hostile foreign actors attack on America, they are coopering with an enemy of the United States, which makes them an enemy of the US.

Schiffs statement that we are less than 100 days away from a midterm election and Republicans still refuse to present a united front against Russia is telling. The only way that the American people are going to secure their democracy is if they elect a Democratic Congress in November.

The situation is worse than Republicans doing nothing while Russia attacks America. Republicans are doing nothing and willing to benefit from the attacks.

Anyone who loves their country must take a stand against the Republican collaboration with Putin to destroy US democracy.
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Weve been reporting for some time that Donald Trump, Jr. could be sent to jail, and now it seems that his father may finally be realizing this himself.

The Washington Post and CNN have both reported that President Trump has privately been expressing increasing fears that his son Donald Trump Jr. may be in legal trouble. They say that Trumps desperate posts on Twitter recently have been caused by these fears that the special counsels investigation may soon ensnare his namesake.

The president stepped up his social media attacks on Mueller last week and on Wednesday sent a tweet saying that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop the Mueller investigation right now. On Friday he sent over 20 unhinged tweets, reflecting his increased desperation.

The Post reported Saturday that Trump has told some of his advisers that he doesnt believe his son broke any laws intentionally, but said he could have broken them accidentally.

The president does not believe his son purposefully broke the law, but is fearful nonetheless that Trump Jr. inadvertently may have wandered into legal jeopardy, the Post article said.

Don Jr. is in trouble partly because he set up the infamous Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin attorney in June 2016, specifically for the purpose of getting damaging information about Hillary Clinton to help his father win the presidency.

He admitted this to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but then he also lied under oath and told the committee that his father didnt know anything about the meeting ahead of time. (Note: he may have told other lies to the committee also.)

Since the presidents former attorney Michael Cohen is now willing to tell Mueller that Trump did in fact know about the meeting in advance, and since there is reportedly another witness who will say the same thing, it seems that prosecutors will probably be able to prove in court that the presidents son lied under oath. He may have committed other crimes also, such as conspiracy and election law violations, which of course increases his chances of going to jail.

According to CNN fears that the Russia probe could put members of the Trump family in legal jeopardy has consumed the president for months. He is said to be especially fearful about the fates of both son in law Jared Kushner and Don Jr..

Concerning the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Mueller has in evidence an email sent by music publicist Rob Goldstone to Trump Jr. saying that the Russians were offering damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of their package of support for candidate Trump.

In another email Trump Jr. replied to Goldstone, If its what you say I love it especially later in the summer.

Trump and others, including Trump Jr., have asserted numerous times that the president did not know about the meeting until it was first reported in the media last July. Trumps attorney Rudy Giuliani said after the CNN report that the president did not know about the meeting, calling Cohens claims flat out untrue.

These denials, however, may not hold up in court if witnesses such as Michael Cohen and Rick Gates are able to testify credibly that the president was told about the meeting by his son.

A former Trump Organization executive said that the claims of the president and his allies that Trump didnt know about the meeting are not credible. She said it was impossible for him to have been kept in the dark about such an important event, because Don Jr. told him everything.

Impossible, in my opinion, based on my experience working with Trump and everybody that worked with Trump, that he wasnt informed. Barbara Res told CNN. Something major, something newsworthy, something press-worthy would always go before Trump, she said.

Only the president knows for sure what the truth is, and this may be what has him worried. He may know very well that Mueller can prove that Don Jr. lied under oath, and that he himself has lied about it and obstructed justice.

Whenever we see Donald Trump going more on Twitter than usual it is because something is really worrying him. And the prospect of seeing his son convicted of criminal charges may be just the thing that sets him off.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Rain showers early then thundershowers for the afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 72F. Winds SE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low near 60F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Last week the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport released an interim report on fake news and disinformation. While couched in the usual do-good language, it illustrates the seriousness of the threat to free speech, most of which takes place, nowadays, on the internet. The report is worth reading in its entirety. Here are some selections, along with my comments.

There are many potential threats to our democracy and our values. One such threat arises from what has been coined fake news, created for profit or other gain, disseminated through state-sponsored programmes, or spread through the deliberate distortion of facts, by groups with a particular agenda, including the desire to affect political elections. Such has been the impact of this agenda, the focus of our inquiry moved from understanding the phenomenon of fake news, distributed largely through social media, to issues concerning the very future of democracy.

It is common for liberals to assert that the future of our democracy (or, as here, Britains) is somehow threatened by the fact that misinformation can be posted to Facebook or Twitter, or elsewhere on the internet. I have yet to see any coherent explanation of why that is the case. Misinformation has been a common feature of our democracy for a long time.

Arguably, more invasive than obviously false information is the relentless targeting of hyper-partisan views, which play to the fears and prejudices of people, in order to influence their voting plans and their behaviour.

It is interesting to see how quickly the committee moves from false information to hyper-partisan, or targeted information. More:

In August 2014 Dr Kogan worked with SCL to provide data on individual voters to support US candidates being promoted by the John Bolton Super Pac in the mid-term elections in November of that year. Psychographic profiling was used to micro-target adverts at voters across five distinct personality groups. After the campaign, according to an SCL presentation document seen by the Committee, the company claimed that there was a 39% increase in awareness of the issues featured in the campaigns advertising amongst those who had received targeted messages. In September 2014, SCL also signed a contract to work with the American Conservative advocacy organisation, For America. Again, they used behavioural micro-targeting to support their campaign messages ahead of the mid-term elections that year. SCL would later claim that the 1.5 million advertising impressions they generated through their campaign led to a 30% uplift in voter turnout, against the predicted turnout, for the targeted groups.

The instances of pernicious micro-targeting are of course on the right, but this is done by all sides and has been for a long time, e.g. through direct mail, which is now commonly targeted on a household-by-household basis. Why is such micro-targeting effective? Because it delivers information on the particular issues a given voter cares most about. Why, exactly, does that call for new regulations?

The freedom that exists on a platform like Facebook is seen as problematic, since Facebook doesnt prioritize good journalism over other material:

What appears on individuals newsfeeds is there either by an algorithm, based on their behaviour and profile, or it is targeted at their demographic by paid promotion. Indeed, it is common for publishers to pay for their content to be posted so that they can reach a wider audience, due to the fact that Facebook, for example, does not recognise or seek to categorise good journalism or news over other material.

The Parliamentary committee has various ideas about how government can promote good journalismwhich, of course, is journalism that promotes government.

We recommend that the Government uses the rules given to Ofcom under the Communications Act 2003 to set and enforce content standards for television and radio broadcasters, including rules relating to accuracy and impartiality, as a basis for setting standards for online content. We look forward to hearing Ofcoms plans for greater regulation of social media this autumn. We plan to comment on these in our further Report.

Yes, the same rules that guarantee the accuracy and impartiality of the BBC should be applied to all online information sources! More:

Algorithms are being used to help address the challenges of misinformation. We heard evidence from Professor Kalina Bontcheva, who conceived and led the Pheme research project, which aims to create a system to automatically verify online rumours and thereby allow journalists, governments and others to check the veracity of stories on social media. Algorithms are also being developed to help to identify fake news. The fact-checking organisation, Full Fact, received funding from Google to develop an automated fact-checking tool for journalists. Facebook and Google have also altered their algorithms so that content identified as misinformation ranks lower. Many organisations are exploring ways in which content on the internet can be verified, kite-marked, and graded according to agreed definitions.

This wouldnt sound so sinister if we believed that governments and various liberal groups and companies are trying to stamp out online reports of Martian landings in Ohio. But of course that isnt their agenda. As I wrote here, when Facebook executives gave a press conference for members of the Television Critics Association, they were jeered and hissed because Facebook allows Fox News, the most-watched cable news network, to use its platform.

The Parliamentary committee recommends that the British government collaborate with experts to devise a system for rating web sites according to their level of verification.

The Government should support research into the methods by which misinformation and disinformation are created and spread across the internet: a core part of this is fact-checking. We recommend that the Government initiate a working group of experts to create a credible annotation of standards, so that people can see, at a glance, the level of verification of a site. This would help people to decide on the level of importance that they put on those sites.

Hate speech naturally rears its head. The committee speaks positively about the draconian German system:

In Germany, tech companies were asked to remove hate speech within 24 hours. This self-regulation did not work, so the German Government passed the Network Enforcement Act, commonly known as NetzDG, which became law in January 2018. This legislation forces tech companies to remove hate speech from their sites within 24 hours, and fines them 20 million Euros if it is not removed.

20 million Euros! It would be helpful if anyone had any idea what hate speech is.

Some say that the NetzDG regulation is a blunt instrument, which could be seen to tamper with free speech, and is specific to one country, when the extent of the content spans many countries. Monika Bickert, from Facebook, told us that sometimes regulations can take us to a placeyou have probably seen some of the commentary about the NetzDG law in Germanywhere there will be broader societal concerns about content that we are removing and whether that line is in the right place. The then Secretary of State was also wary of the German legislation because when a regulator gets to the position where they are policing the publication of politicians then you are into tricky territory. However, as a result of this law, one in six of Facebooks moderators now works in Germany, which is practical evidence that legislation can work.

It is evidence of something, anyway. Theoretically, that cant happen in the U.S. because hate speech is constitutionally protected here. But dont think the liberals wont try.

This Parliamentary report is an interim version, with more to come later this year. But it is easy to see which way the wind is blowing. Mainstream media outlets are deemed to be mainstream because of their support for the governing class and its favored policies, which broadly can be described as liberal. The internetnot just Facebook and Twitter, although they have come to play a huge roleis unregulated. Worse, it is home to lots of dissenting voices. (I say dissenting, even though such voicesours, for exampleprobably represent the views of a majority of Americans on most issues.) This freedom poses a serious threat to the power of the governing class and its media toadies, and they arent taking it lying down.

The good news is that here in the U.S., we have robust legal protections for free speech. The bad news is that the companies that control discourse on the internetGoogle, Facebook, Twitter and Appleare all run by liberals who may prove happy to accede to pressure to stifle views that run contrary to the liberal orthodoxy of Silicon Valley.
On July 31 the Santa Barbara News-Press published the letter to the editor by Santa Barbara restauranteur and Power Line reader Kevin Boss. For the reasons Steve suggests in the adjacent post, we think his letter is generally applicable and deserves the widest circulation. Mr. Boss writes:

This month, our elected City Council representatives spent quite a bit of time and energy deciding to end the scourge of plastic straws. Think about that. For some reason, the people we elected to manage the city felt the most pressing issue of the day was to ban a product that was partly developed originally to prevent illness and cross contamination. After a lot of virtue signaling, our fearless leaders indeed voted to ban something the marketplace had already begun to reject.

Did unmanageable public employee pension obligations come up at the meeting? Did the very real public health threat of feces and urine in our streets come up? Was the crisis of empty storefronts on State Street discussed? No. They banned plastic straws. And they were proud of themselves for doing so.

Unfortunately, Councilmember Jason Dominguez lowered the veil on the real reason our City Council (like others across this crazy state) felt it imperative to act. Mr. Dominguez was quoted as saying of his constituents, we need to regulate every aspect of peoples lives. In other words, people are too stupid or too venal or too deplorable to do so themselves. In case you missed it, thats us he was referring to.

Because of the ridiculous new district elections in the city, Mr. Dominguez is in the position of regulating every aspect of our lives because he received a whopping 1,100 votes in his district. This amazing demonstration of democracy in action has given him the power he craves. He really thinks we need to have every aspect of our lives regulated by smart and sophisticated people like him and his fellow progressives on the council. We know this because he said so openly.

Maybe it is unfair to focus on Mr. Dominguezs comments, since it is so clear that the majority of our City Council has the same opinion of our ability to manage our own affairs. Does anyone else wonder at the totalitarian mindset behind such a comment?

What makes these people think they were elected to regulate the lives of free Americans? Why do we elect people who have such contempt for our intelligence and creativity? Heres a newsflash: The city, the county and the state of California already regulate us to death. They tell us what kind of light bulb we can use. They tell us how much water we can use to flush our toilets. There is hardly a facet of our lives that is not regulated or taxed by them. Any Californian who has to interact with government on any level knows this.

Here is a message to those council members and our other elected officials who believe their duties include regulating every aspect of peoples lives  to hell with you people.
A little noticed detail in Santa Barbaras recent drive to criminalize plastic straws, which culminated in the Santa Barbara city council taking testimony from a nine-year-old about the planetary menace, has come to light in recent days. During that council session, councilman Jesse Dominguez said the following in response to citizens who asked whats next?:

Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of peoples lives.

Take that one in for a moment, for it expresses the core impulse of liberalism today. In fact, lets repeat it:

Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of peoples lives.

Well, it seems this kind of directness is imprudent, even for a liberal, so Councilman Dominguez is trying to walk back that statement:

The comment sparked an immediate backlash from people who read the quote in Noozhawk and other local media, wondering did he really say that? Yes, he did, and on Tuesday, Dominguez apologized for the comment. I just wanted to apologize, Dominguez said at the beginning of the meeting. A few weeks ago I made a string of words in a rhetorical fashion about regulation and they were not taken as rhetorical and thats my fault so I want to apologize.

Now, we do have to admit that the good councilman has a point about Santa Barbara citizens lacking common sense. Hes on the city council, after all. Sort of an inversion of the great rhetorical question both Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan liked to ask: Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?

But string of words? I know of a new editorial board member at the New York Times who will buy that, but otherwise I think everyone can understand exactly what the councilman believes. That string of words combines into a noose for individual liberty. And common sense. Heres to hoping the voters of Santa Barbara recover their common sense and pull the string on Dominguez (and his words) at the next election, along with the other five knuckleheads who voted for the plastic straw ban.

One last morsel:

I learned that there was confusion about what I said, Dominguez said.

No, theres no confusion.

Hat tip: Local Power Line reader KM.
Advisian, a global consulting unit of WorleyParsons, has been selected as the owners engineer on a 700 MW concentrating solar power project in Dubai.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) awarded the 700 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai to a consortium formed by Acwa Power and Shanghai Electric. The consortium together with Dewa have formed the Noor Energy 1 entity to design, build and operate what will be the largest CSP project in the world.

Noor Energy 1 has appointed Advisian as the project owners engineer.

Advisian will provide a review of the basic and detailed engineering; will help manage technology risk and provide technical support as required for the factory acceptance tests and during the construction and commissioning of the plant.

Advisian will deliver the project using the specialised CSP technology team based in the Renewable Energy Center of Excellence in Madrid, Spain, with support from Shanghai-based engineers, to interface with the power block design, and will draw on the Dubai office for site supervisory support, said the company.

Our recent work in the renewable energy sector, in solar, floating offshore wind, microgrids and green hydrogen is directly aligned to our organisational strategy. This partnership between Noor Energy and Advisian further demonstrates our shared organisational commitment to paving the way forward for the renewable energy sector, said Tony Frencham, group managing director of power, WorleyParsons.

Were indeed proud of our cooperation and integration of the Advisian CSP Center of Excellence with our project company team for the design and engineering of the worlds largest CSP Project, said Abdulhameed AlMuhaidib, executive managing director of Noor Energy 1. Were confident that such partnership will be the key to overcoming the most important milestone of the project and successful delivery of the 4th Phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park on time. - TradeArabia News Service
The Lefts attack on free speech has many fronts, but two of the most important are Twitter and Facebook, simply because a large portion of political discussion, involving many millions of Americans, takes place on those platforms. As I noted here, our First Amendment gives powerful legal protection to political debateprotection that for now, at least, is acknowledged even by the four Democratic Party Supreme Court justices. (See, e.g., Matal v. Tam.)

Unfortunately, the companies that dominate the internet, like Facebook and Twitter, are run and staffed overwhelmingly by liberals. This means that conservatives are constantly placed at a disadvantage in trying to get their messages out. Almost every day provides new examples. Here are a few for today.

Last night, Twitter suspended Candace Owens, who has 663,000 Twitter followers, for 12 hours on account of an unspecified violation of the platforms terms and conditions. Maybe it was because Candace tweeted this criticism of Sarah Jeong:

Black people are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins. They have stopped breeding and will all go extinct soon. I enjoy being cruel to old black women. The above statements are from @nytimes editor @sarahjeong. I simply swapped out the word white for black.  Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 4, 2018



Or maybe it was because she expressed opposition to abortion, noting that it accounts for 61% of African-American deaths. In any event, a large number of Candaces supporters contacted Twitter to complain, with this result:

BLOWN AWAY by the amount of patriots that just came to my side to make this happen.

I will be periscoping LIVE about this entire debacle, in 30 mins.

I am blessed to know you all.  pic.twitter.com/r91vwRoVuA  Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 5, 2018



There was no way Twitter could sustain the suspension, in view of the hateful trash that is constantly tweeted by leftists like Jeong. But some low-level employee evidently vented his or her hostility toward conservatism by arbitrarily suspending Owens.

Then there is Facebook. Republican Congressional candidate Elizabeth Heng, a highly impressive young woman, nearly upset Democratic Congressman Jim Costa in Californias open primaries in early June, and is now facing him in the general election. If she were a Democrat, she would be getting the sort of rhapsodic press coverage accorded to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Hengs parents fled Cambodia during the Communist genocide there, and Heng placed a video ad on Facebook that describes her background and explains her motivation for wanting to serve in Congress. It begins with images from the Communist terror in Cambodia. Facebook banned the video.

This is the video. YouTube hasnt taken it down; not yet, anyway:

And this is Facebooks notification to Ms. Heng of the ban:

Here is one more: Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not as important as Facebook and Twitter, but I suppose it must be the worlds number one reference source. Christina Sommers tweeted yesterday:

No mention of Sarah Jeongs demented tweets on her Wikipedia page. Why? A little group of activist editors wont allow it. Amazing. See them in action here: https://t.co/HHAyz2G2vN https://t.co/FhdAKBjSRP  Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) August 5, 2018



By the way, speaking of the New York Timess newest editorialist, here is another instance of her demented leftism. She continued promoting the fake news story about the alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia well after it had been debunked:

Here is her deleted 12/8/14 post on https://t.co/luHXi0sZVU in which new NYT Editorial Board Member explains in rather  intense prose why she still BELIEVES in Rolling Stone's UVA fraternity gang rape on broken glass tale, despite RS itself disavowing:https://t.co/Hvls2JergI pic.twitter.com/ngOENzG0h9  Steve Sailer (@Steve_Sailer) August 4, 2018



She will fit right in at the Times!

Silicon Valley liberals will do all they can to help the Democrats recapture Congress in November, and defeat President Trump when he runs for re-election in 2020. Usually they will use out-of-sight algorithms and shadow bans rather than outright, visible censorship. Their political meddling is a vitally important issue.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-08-05 07:40:02

One of hip hop's most controversial stars, credited with popularizing Chicago's bleak rap genre Drill, has stepped into the fray with a statement

Los Angeles, CA, Aug. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A murder epidemic in London linked to drill music groups has prompted a statement from U.S. rap star Chief Keef. The controversial star, who has been credited with popularizing drill music far beyond its Chicago roots, has issued an urgent plea for peace, imploring those involved to disassociate the music from violence.

The surprise announcement will be welcomed by London's Met Police, since Chief Keef is viewed as a hero to millions of drill music fans. A tit-for-tat battle among rival drill music gangs has seen the death toll in London hit record high levels in the capital, with the most recent, a stabbing death in Camberwell.

Chief Keef said in a statement:

"There are lives being lost in London. It is sad to see, I've followed the coverage. Drill music should not equate to violence. Drill is about an energy and passion, it should not be distorted by artists or portrayed incorrectly by the media. I do not want to be associated with violence or encourage a destructive message. I have an upcoming track called Chiraq that has a different sound and details the price paid for being away from Chicago, a city I love. I want to bring a message of peace. I don't want any more lives lost in London. Young people are the heart of the city and they need to focus on making their lives better, not destroying each other."

Chief Keef, 22, is viewed as a hero in drill circles, and is the rap star first brought the music from the gritty Southside of Chicago to international attention in 2011. Keef also revealed that he has new material being released this month that takes an impressive musical u-turn, including a lament for peace with lead single "Chiraq."

The release is set to come from Keefs most ambitious album yet, the autobiographical concept album The Cozart. The album has been produced with his label FilmOn Music's founder, billionaire Alki David. it was conceived to showcase Chief Keef's extraordinary talent and covers his early years in Chicago and his rise to fame. The album will be released via digital music distributor MondoTunes at the end of August.

"The Cozart is an incredible piece of work," says Alki David, the record's producer. "Chief Keef now wants to spread a message of peace and to show people a brighter path."

"Chiraq" was written withc Chief Keef and two British songwriters, Justin Stoneman and Daniel Spiller. The song details Chief Keef's troubled times as a youth in his home city of Chicago.

"Chiraq is a story of reconciliation and showcases Chief Keef's musical genius," says Justin Stoneman, co-writer of the single.

Amid a summer of terrifying violence in London, hopes remain that a positive message can filter through to the rival gangs.

For more information: owen@hologramusa.com

About FilmOn and Hologram USA:

FilmOn was founded by Greek billionaire Alki David in 2006 and is credited with accelerating the rise of streaming television through its technological advances, its legal advocacy, and its drive to let people watch what they want, where they want it. FilmOn is the exclusive streaming partner for content created by Hologram USA, and a partner with MondoTunes, the world's biggest digital music distirbutor. For more information go to hologramusa.com.
The Nigerian governments Strategic Intervention Programme (SIP) was aimed at giving the present administration a channel to reach and touch the lives of the most vulnerable people in society. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on SIP, Ismaeel Ahmed, explains to PREMIUM TIMES BASSEY UDO and IFEOLUWA ADEYEMO, in an exclusive interview in his office in Abuja, the impact of the four strands of the programme. EXCERPTS:

PT: The federal governments Social Intervention Programme has been going on for some time now. But, how would you say it is really faring?

ISMAEEL: Very well, as a matter of fact, its coming up very well.

PT: How do you mean very well? What about reports of so many challenges its implementation appears to be facing.

ISMAEEL: Just like every other thing in life, challenges are normal. But, I think the programme is coming up pretty well from where we started from.

PT: Could you elaborate on this?

ISMAEEL: Its interesting. But, let me give you a brief history how we came by this programme.

Several times we went out on campaigns, from 2007 through 2011, to 2015, wherever the president went, there were mammoth crowds that came out to either receive him or attend his political rallies.

So, in 2015, before he won the election, he went to one of those outings in one those states, the people that thronged out to see him were so much we couldnt just see any heads.

The vice president (Osinbajo), then a candidate, was sitting next to him. Then, the president turned and said to him: You know Prof., this 2015 elections, what worries me is not whether we are going to win, but whether we will be able to meet the huge expectations of this multitude of people.

That statement struck a chord with the vice president as well. It was as a result of that they knew they had to initiate a programme that would impact the people directly.

Not as if there are no other intervention programmes that previous governments did before. But, we wanted to do something different that would touch the lives of the people and bring succour to the grassroots directly, cutting out all the middlemen.

That was how the idea of the Social Intervention Programme (SIP), as we later named it, came about, to help solve basic problems the people face every day.

For instance, you go to a local government and visit some schools, they have only one teacher for Primary Six, other than the headmaster. So, we knew clearly we had deficiencies in public schools  teachers.

Again, we know there were more than 10 million children who are out of school. Our universities are churning out between 500,000 to 800,000 graduates every year into the labour market.

There is no country in the world that would be able to sustain being the largest or the only employer of labour in a country. It has to create private sector-driven economy, where private sector would absorb people and give them something to depend on.

So many of these issues were identified as major problems that would need to be tackled.

Then, there was the issue of abject poverty. There are people living below the poverty line. So, we asked ourselves: What can we do? So, these things were conceptualised and four programmes came out it.

One, was N-Power, targeted at young graduates. It is not possible for government to take care of everybody at the same time. But, we needed to attempt to stop the vicious cycle of saying one does not have a job, because one does not have experience, or because one does not have experience, one cannot have a job.

So, we needed to get people trained. We called them volunteer teachers. We opened a portal for people to apply.

PT: What was your target?

ISMAEEL: Unemployed graduates that we pushed to public schools to teach, or public health institutions to become health support staff and agricultural farms, because agriculture is a large industry that can engage a lot of people.

We got 200,000 volunteers at the beginning. Now, we are deploying another 300,000. Thats about 500,000.

We pay them N30,000 every month. It might look small. But, in reality it is humongous, because they did not have anything before. Most of them never had jobs before. They were living off the benevolence of their parents and guardians.

The other programme is for non-graduates, which was supposed to have taken off with a 100,000 people and give them all kinds of vocational trainings and get them off the ground to be useful to themselves.

Then we have the Schools Feeding Programme, which is by far one of the most impactful programmes I have seen in the whole sub-Saharan Africa.

As we speak, we are feeding about 8.7 million school children between Primaries 1-3 in all public schools across 28 States of the federation every day. Thats a lot.

The essence of calling the programme Home Grown School Feeding is because we buy the foodstuff from local farmers.

So, the menu we serve the children are detailed to tally with what is produced in their locality, so that you do not have people importing eggs, milk or other foodstuff that are supposed to be home-grown.

In doing that, what we have succeeded in doing is creating an agricultural revolution from bottom-up.

PT: How have you done that?

ISMAEEL: For instance, in almost all the schools, the programme is implemented, the children are fed, at least once a week, throughout the five days. We include one egg in each kids menu.

What this means is, with 8.7 million children being fed across the country, giving each of them an egg a week, we will need 8.7 million eggs.

For us to get 8.7 million eggs every week, we will need to have at least 250,000 poultry farms with at least 20,000 chickens that lay an average of six eggs every day.

Again, to feed those chickens to enable them lay those eggs, we need millet and maize or corn by local farmers for the poultry farms.

Imagine the ripple effect of that agricultural bandwagon. Think about similar impact on other items included in the menu, the children are served on a daily basis. The value chain created as a result of the programme is so huge.

So, it is a silent revolution for the people who were hitherto doing subsistence farming. Now, they are doing commercial farming to meet the high demand for the food items for the schools feeding programme. The beautiful thing is that the number continues to grow.

PT: Whats your target?

ISMAEEL: From the current 8.7 million, our target is to feed 12 million children by the time the programme has gone round the 36 States.

There is also the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme we are doing in collaboration with the World Bank, to pay the vulnerable people N5,000 a month. Often, we put together and pay them N10,000 once in two months.

PT: But, critics say the N5,000 can hardly solve any problem for beneficiaries?

ISMAEEL: I have been to a place where I saw a woman, 54 years old, who has never seen N10,000 in bulk.

She was besides herself when she was selected as one of the beneficiaries. The first day she was to receive the money, she had to bring two of her sons, because she thought she needed several men to assist her in carrying the money. Its as bad as that. Its not a joke.

So, people living in the comfort of Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja and other such places and can afford N5,000 can think that it does not have any value.

But, if they have ever met anyone who has been robbed of any human dignity because of pure poverty, then they will know what it means to have N5,000 consistently every month.

But, its not just about the money. It is the consistency and confidence the person has that the money was coming to him. It gives the people a sense of hope and security, something to look forward to life every month.

Its like a civil servant who takes N80,000 salary every month and lives in Abuja with three or four children.

Yet, he has to pay his way to come to work every day from wherever he lives. Obviously such a person would live far outside Abuja city where the office is.

If you aggregate what the person spends daily, apart from his children in school, which he has to pay school fees for, takes them to the hospital and pays the rent of where they live, clearly N80,000 a month is not enough.

But, the consistency that he gets that money every month gives him enormous confidence and hope about life. That is the most important thing.

Little as it may seem, it robs him of that basic indecency poverty breeds. Thats what the Conditional Cash Transfer is all about.

About 300,000 to 400,000 benefit from this scheme every month. We hope the number will go up to over a million households as we continue.

Then, we have the G-Market Money where we give up to about N50,000 to traders who are able to put their trade together their trade activities from point A to B.

If they can come together under a cooperative society, the G-Market money is given to them interest-free and they pay within six months, with a moratorium of two weeks.

So, these programmes are changing the lives of Nigerians wherever you go.

PT: Despite the picture you have painted, like everything Nigerian, sometimes programmes like this are mired by poor implementation and monitoring by the handlers, particularly the selection of personnel. How do you handle this?

ISMAEEL: I am not saying it is a perfect system. But, the way we select participants in the various programmes, either as beneficiaries or officials, takes care of all that.

For the beneficiaries of the N-Power programme, we open a portal for them to apply. Applicants will get a criteria for pre-selection for physical verification, to ensure their submissions are real.

Officials will also go for physical verification. There were so many people who were disqualified during the process of physical verification, either because they live in Enugu, but said in the form they filled that they lived in Kano.

There must be a process that ensures even the people living around you know you. We uncovered people with fake degrees and diplomas who were weeded out.

There is no preferential selection treatment given to any particular individual, whether as beneficiary or official. We follow strictly the criteria we had spelt out.

Application is online. If you listen to the testimonies by some of our beneficiaries, you would have heard them say this was the first time they got something from government without knowing anybody.

For the Cash Transfer Scheme, beneficiaries are selected in conjunction with the World Bank without any influence from any quarters. In fact, that is one of the criticisms by the elite who ask how money could be shared without their knowing those involved in their locality and who is getting what.

What I always said each time these questions are asked is that our goal is not to allow anybody know the people who are giving people the money.

PT: What about the allegation of diversion of food stuffs under the Schools Feeding Programme?

ISMAEEL: I will get to that point. What is happening is that there are community-based teams who visit the communities with the statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, World Bank and other statistics agencies.

They identify the states that are much poorer than others, just as there are communities in those states that are poorer than others in the same state. That is where to start.

Then, in a town hall meeting with all the stakeholders  the imams, pastors, district or village heads, they identify what they consider as poverty in their environment. So, the process is open. Nobody sits down anywhere and writes down the names of beneficiaries.

But, the identification is done by NASCO, a subsidiary under the Office of the President, using the social register developed by visiting the households to now the asset or assistance the people have and so on.

Once that is done, the next place to go is the Conditional Transfer Office, which handles the disbursement of the funds.

Then, there is the grievance team, which handles complaints of people who have either been stigmatised for being poor, and do not want him to benefit, or there is family history about being infected by one disease of the other. We try to identify all the problems and

address them.

PT: What about monitoring to check abuses?

ISMAEEL: Yeah, recently we set up our monitoring team, including civil society organisations and other third party monitors recently commissioned to monitor our activities. They are going to start work this August. They are going to visit the communities randomly.

In future, we plan to set up a telephone system for people to make calls to send in their reports. Again, we will be evaluating the programme on a monthly basis as we go on.

PT: From the monitoring so far, were reports of abuses established? What did the monitors find out?

ISMAEEL: The monitoring has been going on well. There were few issues here and there. We have been able to rectify them. We have had people who were given money and they have not been going to the schools they were posted to teach.

We have people who have been selected under N-Power and they have another job. We have been able to take such people out. Many things are happening. But, the important this is that the successes far outweigh the challenges.

PT: Some critics say the SIP is an indirect strategy by the present to use public funds to mobilise for 2019? How do you react to this?

ISMAEEL: Straight up, I will say that is absolutely not the goal of the president or his vice. But, even if it were, as a politician, I will tell you why not?

Which is better: to continue to share the money among politicians as others were doing in the past and the people did not benefit, or to do what we are doing to add value to the peoples lives?

But, let me say that there are some of these programmes the government has been implementing in collaboration with the state governments, most of whom are not controlled by the ruling All Progressives Congress.

In those states, we have issues with our party members who complain every day. For instance, in the South-south, they say APC members are not benefitting, as the governors are using them as if they were their own programmes.

So, if they have any political motive, they would have been delayed in states not controlled by the APC.

I can understand why people are making such insinuations. The SIP is a huge project with a humongous impact touching the lives of the people at the grassroots directly. And this is where the real voters are.

One of the few places the Schools Feeding scheme started was Anambra, which is not controlled by the APC. Our members in the state are not happy. They are saying the governor is using the programmes for his benefit.

A file photo of the school feeding programme

PT: There are 36 States and the FCT. And you are talking about 28 States. What is happening in the remaining?

ISMAEEL: In terms of the Schools Feeding programme, we have to do MoUs with each of the states. All public schools are owned by the state governments. The federal government cannot just push its way to start the programme without the states playing their roles.

Those states left have not done all the things they need to do for us to engage them in the scheme.

PT: What are these things they have to do?

ISMAEEL: Some of those have to do with the number of schools and pupils they have. The Parents/Teachers Association of the schools are supposed to identify and select the cooks who are going to cook for their children, to achieve the level of hygiene required. The state governments should be able to hold the meetings and fix all those details for us.

PT: The beauty of the Schools feeding programme is perhaps its linkage with the agricultural sector. Do you see any threat to its sustainability, in terms of supply of the foodstuff in the near future?

ISMAEEL: Demand drives supply. Once there is a demand, people would be compelled to move to supply to meet it. This programme will make a lot of people go back to the farms, because there is a ready market for the products and perhaps money to be made.

On the other hand, government is driving a lot of initiatives  be it the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme, or the Ministry of Agriculture, to ensure several hectares of land are cultivated to produce the countrys staple foods. For now, the local farmers are happy to sell stuff to us and (are) smiling to the bank.

PT: What about the fear of sustainability beyond this administration?

ISMAEEL: I cannot speak for another administration. Our goal is to ensure there is enough ownership of the programme by the people themselves. Nothing can be forced on any administration. For me, I never thought the government had the capacity to impact on peoples lives the way these programmes have.

PT: In those states you said a lot of abuses were uncovered, how did you handle them?

ISMAEEL: Once they are reported and we verify, we stop the programme until they (issues) are rectified.

PT: What about the issue of paying back the loans to enable others also benefit?

ISMAEEL: That is the reason beneficiaries have to come through cooperative societies and not individuals, to allow us hold the leadership of the cooperatives responsible if the beneficiary defaults in payment. Its not for people who do not have an existing business.

PT: So far, are there cooperative societies whose members defaulted and were sanctioned?

ISMAEEL: Yeah, there have been some of them. But, I cant have their names at the top of my head right now. Usually if the cooperative society has, say 100 members, the first 20 would be given, just to see how serious they are.

The other 80 would put pressure on the 20 to make sure they repay so as not to spoil their chances of getting theirs. Despite that, we have people who thought since it was government, they can take it as freebie.

PT: How did the Abacha loot come to be involved in the Cash Transfer scheme?

ISMAEEL: Initially, it was the federal government budget we used to do the Cash Transfer. But, the recovered Abacha looted funds came in because the World Bank was interested in getting involved in the Cash Transfer, to get to the real people impacted by poverty.

The Bank made sure they put eyes on how the beneficiaries were selected. At the end, they were comfortable the selection process was transparent, without any political interference. Then, they decided they were going to loan us about $500 million to do it, not for the logistics of it.

The recovered funds from Abacha loot ($322million) has been going on for a while in the court case in Switzerland. When the court finally decided to release the money, the judgement came with a proviso they will only release the money to Nigeria on condition that it was going to be applied in a projects to be supervised by the World Bank.

They had released similar monies in 2005 and it were misused by the previous government. As long as Nigeria gets the money and the World Bank is involved in knowing where it goes, the government was comfortable with that arrangement and gave its approval.

PT: Talk to us about the future of these programmes, going forward?

ISMAEEL: I am beginning to have the feeling people are beginning to see that they own it now. I hope there would soon be a legal backing through the National Assembly.

But, ultimately, I think there is a populist move toward owning this programme and having it sustained. I hope it continues, because we are in a developing country.

We need interventions and social safety nets. Regardless, whatever happens the next 10 to 12 years, I doubt there will be another programme that will be able to cater for the less privileged and the vulnerable in the society as this. I am confident this programme has come to stay.
Since the story of her forged NYSC certificate was made public about a month ago, Nigerias Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has almost completely steered clear of her social media handles.

The PREMIUM TIMES investigation revealed that apart from skipping the NYSC scheme, Mrs Adeosun also procured a forged National Youth Service Corps certificate. Skipping the national service scheme and forging an official document attracts up to four years combine jail sentence.

Neither Mrs Adeosun nor President Muhammadu Buhari has deemed it fit to comment on the revelation. Mr Buhari has also ignored calls by Nigerian to take punitive action against the finance minister, despite making anti-corruption his governments loudest slogan and publicly vowing to punish his aides caught indulging in corrupt acts.

But since July 7, when the revelation was first published, PREMIUM TIMES observed that Mrs Adeosun, who used to be very active on Facebook and Twitter posting update of her ministrys plans, policies and events, has suddenly gone quiet.

An analysis of posts on Facebook shows that from January to June she made an average of seven posts per month; but only made one post in July, which was her last.

The comments under that post, which was made on July 12, five days after PREMIUM TIMES revelation was published, may have forced Mrs Adeosun to stay off social media. Many of the comments under the post advised her to respond to PREMIUM TIMES revelation while some reminded her that her continued silence would not have been acceptable in the United Kingdom, where was educated.

Screenshot of Mrs Adeosuns Twitter page

The audacity of this people in government. No response to forged NYSC certificate allegation but continues as if everyone is a fool to demand clarification. God what have we done to deserve this kind of leadership in 2018?, wrote Aj Odunowo underneath the post.

So, this woman has no shame at all. There is a weighty allegation of forgery against her and she is here giving us press statement. The economy of Nigeria is not safe in the hand of a woman who can have the boldness to forge her certificate. Madam forger, Scammer, looter, wrote another commenter, Jane Wendy.

Go and clear your name from NYSC forgery scam before you can talk to Nigerians again, scammer, can you do this in UK where you were brought up, you can only fool people for a short time, wrote Okite Chima, another of her Facebook followers.

However, some of the comments rose to her defence stating, erroneously, that the revelation was aimed to bring her down politically.

Similarly, on Twitter, where the minister had been more prolific posting an average of 41 tweets and retweets a month between January and June, she has not posted nor retweeted any tweet since the story was published. Her last tweet on the social media site was on June 19.
The defection of Senate President Bukola Saraki as well as that of Governors of Kwara and Sokoto states from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), dominated political discourse last week.

Also in the news was the reaction of President Muhammadu Buhari and leadership of the APC to the defections, as well as the declaration of intent to run for president by Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State under the PDP.

Barely 24 hours before Mr Saraki announced he was leaving the APC, the National Working Committee (NEC) of the party announced the dissolution of its Kwara State executive of the party loyal to the senate president.

The dissolution was announced in a resolution signed by the partys National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and its National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni, on Monday in Abuja after a meeting of the NWC.

The following day, Mr Saraki formally announced his departure from the APC.

The Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, made a similar announcement at about the same time.

Mr Saraki first made his announcement on his official social media handles.

While Mr Saraki said he was forced out of the party by some of its top leaders through their actions, the Kwara governor said the allegations by the Nigerian Police that he and Mr Saraki had links to armed robbers influenced his decision.

Both of them returned to the PDP.

Following the development, the APC urged the senate president to quit the office after he defected to the opposition.

The APC, through Mr Oshiomhole, said Mr Saraki should act honourably and relinquish his position.

But whatever is the reason, we can decamp from the party but we cant decamp from Nigeria. The only thing is that there are other consequential issues that every man or woman of honour, who had taken such decisions would be expected to follow through, party chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, told journalists Wednesday.

On his part, President Muhammadu Buhari, who spoke in Lome, Togo, said he was not bothered about the defections.

The president made his feelings known while responding to a question during an interactive session with the Nigerian community in Togo at the Nigerian Embassy, Lome.

Governors elected under the platform of the APC also met with Mr Buhari Wednesday night and assured him that they would ensure there were no more defections in the APC.

President Muhammadu Buhari

Like Mr Saraki, Nigerias Ambassador to South Africa, Ahmed Ibeto, also joined the PDP and resigned his position.

Mr Ibeto, a former deputy governor of Niger State, was appointed ambassador by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Ibeto reportedly submitted his resignation letter at the foreign affairs ministry.

Nigerias main opposition party, PDP, also confirmed on Tuesday that Mr Ibeto has joined its fold after leaving the APC.

LAWMAKER ADVISES FG, DEFECTORS

In his reaction to the defections, a federal lawmaker, Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central), advised the federal government on how defectors from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should be treated.

The senator took to his Facebook page in the early hours of Wednesday to stress the need for both the ruling party and the opposition party to maintain a harmonious relationship.

In view of the current reality, its possible to have a harmonious working relationship between the parliament led by the opposition, and the presidency led by the ruling party, in the remaining lifespan of this political dispensation, if the following rules are kept by both sides, Mr Sani said.

He warned the government not to persecute the defectors and told the defectors not to hold the government hostage.

The defections also had some repercussions.

While Mr Saraki departed the APC, his sister, Gbemisola, affirmed her support for President Buhari.

Few hours after Mr Sarakis announcement, Gbemisola declared her unwavering support for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and the success of the APC.

Mr Sarakis protegee and former APC spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, also resigned his position and defected from the party.

Bolaji Abdullahi (Photo Credit: The Cable)

Mr Abdullahi made this known in a statement he signed on Wednesday.

In view of recent political developments in the country and within the All Progressives Congress (APC), I have decided to resign my position as the National Publicity Secretary as well as my membership of the party with effect from today, he said.

THE KWARA DEFECTIONS

In permutations that show the influence Mr Saraki has over Kwara politics, the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Ali Ahmad, also defected to the PDP.

Mr Ahmad defected alongside 22 other members of the 24-member Kwara State assembly on Wednesday.

The only state lawmaker remaining in the APC is Saheed Popoola, representing Ojomu-Balogun Constituency in Offa Local Government Area.

It was not all victory for Mr Saraki in Kwara though. As he moved into the PDP, the existing leaders of the party led by the state chairman, Iyiola Oyedepo, on Wednesday announced their defection to the APC.

Rex Olawoye, the erstwhile publicity secretary of the Kwara PDP, who made the announcement, said I hereby officially announce the exit of our members from PDP to APC.

Mr Olawoye, who described Mr Saraki as an anathema, said PDP members in the state could not work with him.

In the same vein, the only National Officer of PDP from Kwara State, Ahmed Aluko, left the PDP and joined the APC.

Mr Aluko, who was the PDP deputy governorship candidate in Kwara in the 2015 elections, resigned his membership of the party during its NEC meeting Thursday.

Mr Aluko said he was irked by the decision of PDP national leadership to hand over the structure of the party in the state to Mr Saraki.

TAMBUWAL DEFECTS

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State also within the week defected from the APC to the PDP.

Mr Tambuwal, who is believed to be nursing a presidential ambition, called on Nigerians to vote out President Buhari in next years election.

Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal decamping to PDP

He said Mr Buhari has been ineffective as president.

Mr Tambuwal did not leave alone as 18 members of the 30 member state assembly followed him out of the APC into the PDP.

However, 12 members of the State House of Assembly declared their loyalty to the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari.

The lawmakers stated this in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday afternoon.

We reiterate our commitment and loyalty to the APC led government under President Muhammadu Buhari, they said in the statement.

Also in a swift reaction, Mr Tambuwals predecessor and former political benefactor, Aliyu Wamakko, described Mr Tambuwals decision to leave the APC for PDP, as his worst decision.

Mr Wamakko made the statement during an interview aired on BBC Hausa Service Thursday.

Mr Wamakko said Sokoto State remained with President Muhammadu Buhari. He said Mr Tambuwals defection will be of no consequence.

He told his supporters that Mr Tambuwal and others who left the APC for PDP will surely regret their actions.

OTHER NEWS

Following Bolaji Abdullahis resignation, the APC appointed its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, as its new spokesperson.

Mr Nabena in his first official reaction to the defection of Governors Ahmed and Tambuwal said the defectors had the right and freedom to pursue their political ambitions wherever they desired.

In a statement, Mr Nabena said the APC saluted the resolution of the defectors to openly declare where they belonged.

Also, the PDP accused the APC and the federal government of shopping for a fraudulent interim court order to declare vacant, the seat of the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, following his defection.

The PDP also said it has credible information that some cabals in the presidency and APC had perfected a plan to institute a lawsuit to challenge the validity of Mr Sarakis seat with the sole aim of securing a fraudulent injunction to force him out of office pending the determination of the substantive suit.

Also, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State said he is confident President Muhammadu Buhari would win the 2019 presidential election for a second term in office.

In Benue, eight of the 30 lawmakers of the Benue State House of Assembly resolved to remove Governor Samuel Ortom.

The eight lawmakers also took control of the premises of the state parliament with the support of the police, Tahav Agerzua, a spokesperson for Mr Ortom said.

Mr Agerzua said George Akume, a former governor and APC senator from the state, brought police officers from Abuja to use eight lawmakers to remove a governor in a House of 30 lawmakers.

The planned removal of the Benue governors by minority lawmakers was condemned by most Nigerians including the presidency.

THE KANO REMOVAL

In Kano, North-west Nigeria, the House of Assembly on Monday removed its Speaker, Abdullahi Ata.

The assembly also re-elected Kabiru Rurum, the immediate-past speaker of the house who was also then removed over allegations of corruption.

The motion for Mr. Atas removal was moved by Labaran Madari, representing Warawa Constituency.

The speaker was removed alongside two other principal officers of the assembly.

Shortly after, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State described the change in leadership in the State House of Assembly as another process for strengthening internal democracy.

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje; Photo: DailyPost

The leadership change shows how Kano as a state is serious about internal democracy, he said.

Also on Monday was the announcement by a former governor of Kaduna State, Ramalan Yero, that he has submitted his letter of intent to vie for the state governorship position in 2019.

Mr Yero, while submitting the letter at the states PDP secretariat, said his decision was informed by genuine concern of the people of the state.

According to Mr Yero, he received several calls from people who wanted him to vie for the number one seat in the state.

Also on Monday, Mr Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, issued a joint statement where they condemned the plot to remove the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom.

On Wednesday, the National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, told defectors who joined his party to be ready for war.

He described the defectors as courageous men and women, whom he said refused to keep quiet in the face of flagrant disobedience of rules in the country.

On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari likened defectors from the APC, to bad eggs saying God will continue to fish out the bad eggs among us.

Mr Buhari, speaking in Bauchi, also told supporters not to be perturbed by the recent defections in the party.

The President was in Bauchi for an APC rally.

Mr. Buhari had a day earlier also announced that he will be taking a 10-day leave. His spokesperson, Femi Adesina, who made the announcement said Mr Buhari will spend the 10 days in the UK beginning from Friday, August 3.

The PDP, however, alleged that Mr Buharis two-week vacation in London was designed as an alibi to exonerate him from planned political illegalities, forceful invasion and mayhem about to be visited on the polity and particularly the National Assembly.

The party said in a statement Thursday that it was aware of plots already perfected in a meeting, on Wednesday night, between the presidency and some compromised APC senators, to forcefully reconvene the Senate with protection from security agencies, with a view to remove Mr Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.

The Nigerian presidency fired back immediately saying the claim was ridiculous and a hollow narrative to garner cheap sympathy.

Mr Buharis spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said the president had handed power to his deputy without compulsion.

He said that decision is itself exemplary and innovative, something that the PDP failed to produce in their sixteen years of monumental mismanagement and sadistic plunder.

EKITI TRIBUNAL

In Ekiti, the PDP governorship candidate, Kolapo Olusola, filed a petition at the governorship election tribunal against the results declared by the electoral commission, INEC.

Kolapo Olusola-Eleka [Photo credit: Official website of the Ekiti State government]

While filing the petition on Friday in Ado Ekiti, the deputy governor said he polled the highest number of lawful votes in the election.

The results as declared by INEC showed that governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, scored 197,459 to defeat Mr Olusola, who polled a total of 178,121 votes.

Mr Fayemi had since received his certificate of return and would be sworn as governor on October 16, 2018.

Also, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Friday that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar should not count on him for support in his latest bid to actualise his life-long ambition of being elected the president of Nigeria.

How can I be on the same side with Atiku? Mr Obasanjo asked. To do what?

If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support, he said.

On Saturday, a presidential aide announced that the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, will defect from the PDP to the APC.

Senator Godswill Akpabio

President Muhammadu Buharis Special Assistant on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla, posted a message on Facebook, Saturday night, saying that Mr Akpabio will be received into APC by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and other top leaders of the party at a rally in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.
A senior Buhari administration official who has slammed arbitrary fines on media organisations for allegedly broadcasting hate speeches has himself been caught spewing vicious propaganda on WhatsApp.

Modibbo Kawu, director-general of National Broadcasting Commission who has led the charge against government-defined hate speech, shocked many in a WhatsApp group of northern editors and intellectuals on Thursday morning after going on a hate-filled tirade targeted at Senate President Bukola Saraki.

Mr Kawu, also of Kwara State, ventilated about Mr Sarakis influence on Kwara people and said the situation has gone beyond normal.

It is not the natural human condition to continuously vote for a kleptocratic hegemony such as Saraki has imposed on our dear Kwara State, the NBC chief said shortly before 9:00 a.m. Thursday.

He then went on to detail a slew of nasty and uncorroborated assertions against the Senate President, all to the consternation of the groups members who immediately carpeted the top bureaucrat for using the platform to further the cause of ethnic and sectarian tensions.

Bukola Sarakis hegemony has been responsible for a systematic underdevelopment of Kwara; the entrenchment of a pattern of cult killings and blood letting thats unique.

And over a three year period, 2010, 2011, and 2013, tens of people were killed in stampede in front of the offices and residence of the Saraki. Even the Offa robbery where 33 people died was far more like their pattern of ritual killings than robbery!

How much money do they have in Offa banks that 33 people had to be killed? These are questions people ask in Kwara. Hopefully the incredibly arrogant Bukola Saraki, whose family has no Asali whatsoever, has finally arrived at a denouement! Nothing lasts forever; not a kleptocratic hegemony; not an oppressive domination of a state by a family, which really isnt even from our state! Mr Kawu said.

Mr Kawu blamed Mr Sarakis alleged wrongdoings on his ancestry which he said was questionable.

Thats why he doesnt share the values of our community; looks down at our people and carries himself with so much contempt! Mr Kawu said. Even his names tell anyone who knows Ilorin that this is an alien individual. His full names are OLUBUKOLA OLABOWALE ADEBISI (sic).

These are not names an Ilorin person would normally be called. And he didnt have a Muslim name until he wanted to run for governor in 2002-2003! They first named him Muktar after his grandfather and that was then dropped for Abubakar, the name his father was also borrowed in Ilorin. These are the facts! Mr Kawu said.

Some members of the WhatsApp group were enraged by the level of ethnic and religious epithets emanating from Mr Kawu, who was once an editor of Daily Trust, and took turns to condemn him. and preach oneness instead.

We should not allow politics to becloud our judgments and hence destroy all the principles we claim to stand for, a member of the group Zainab Okino said. We cannot build or grow a nation, when we remain stuck in the past; that one is not qualified for this or that because hes not from so so state.

Instead we should work towards being citizens of one nation identified only by residency, without labelling or profiling. This is an ideal which I thought Modibbo espoused.

How will he feel if Kwara people also disclaim him, having traced his origin to Wurno in Kebbi or may even be farther to Futa Jalon in Guinea, Senegal or Mali.

We all come from somewhere, so it should not be a yardstick to assess individuals, even if they do not represent what we stand for, Ms Okino added.

Another member of the group, Ibrahim Sheme, put a simple question to Mr Kawu about Mr Saraki: Is he a Muslim or not? I thought he was.

Mr Kawu did not return PREMIUM TIMES requests for comments between Thursday and Sunday.

Unbridled hypocrisy

Mr Kawus bilious rants were apparently aimed at consoling himself and other supporters of Mr Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress for the recent events in politics. The APC has lost scores of state and federal lawmakers within the past week, with many defecting largely under the influence of Mr Saraki.

Mr Saraki dumped the ruling party after several months of tension between him and the Buhari administration. The APC blamed the top lawmaker for its woes, and his latest political exploits had been seen as highly pivotal and potentially caustic for Mr Buharis re-election bid.

While Mr Saraki has faced heavy backlash for his manoeuvres, including murder allegations without evidence and attempts to remove him as Senate President, top Buhari administration agents largely avoided using charged invective against the lawmaker.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

When Lai Mohammed spoke about Mr Sarakis alleged betrayal of the party, he only reportedly demanded that political appointees seconded to federal offices by Mr Saraki should immediately vacate their seats.

But even if some aides chose to disseminate hateful diatribe against Mr Saraki for political gains, Mr Kawus personal and professional undercurrents do not give him much latitude to get involved, said political analyst Lilian Eronini.

This is a disgraceful conduct by Mr Kawu, Ms Eronini told PREMIUM TIMES Sunday morning. A public official who has been going about preaching against hate speech and imposing heaving fines against journalists and media houses should not be seen doing this.

A career journalist, Mr Kawu was appointed head of NBC in May 2016 by Mr Buhari. His immediate task was to re-organise the NBC and transform the Nigeria broadcasting industry into one that can compete with the best in the world. By December 2016, he announced the Nigerias launch of digital switch-over, a project initiated and built by the previous Goodluck Jonathan administration.

NBC logo used to illustrate the story

But he is perhaps more known for his campaign against hate speech. He, alongside Mr Mohammed, have been championing the cause for a civil and highly responsible media space.

Within the past two years, Mr Kawu has has delivered lectures against hate speech, threatened heavy sanctions against errant media houses and sanctioned scores of media houses for alleged infractions against the guidelines.

Even though the governments definition of hate speech remains largely vague, broadcast stations have continued to comply with its fines, which had been criticised as arbitrary and unjustified.

As part of stringent measures aimed at moderating speech in public space, Mr Kawu also ordered broadcasters to minimise audience participation in phone-in programmes as a way of censoring citizens ventilation.

The measures had been condemned by free speech advocates and other commentators who said they confirmed fears that Buhari administration was only interested in curbing speech which it does not like. Although the government denied the allegation, an APC chieftain Joe Igbokwe was recently caught also circulating fake news online without any disciplinary action being taken by his party.

Earlier this year, an APC senator proposed a bill that sought to punish convicted hate speech purveyors with death.

Only last week, Daar Communications announced it had paid heavy fines imposed by Mr Kawu for alleged use of provocative, inflammatory and decisive comments during July 24 edition of Political Platform, a popular morning magazine programme on Ray Power FM.

Raypower

Although the station said it would contest the action in court, it had to first comply to avoid being forced out of airwaves by the NBC.

Ms Eronini, a Lagos-based lawyer, also slammed Mr Kawus excoriation of Mr Saraki for allegedly adding Abubakar to his name in order to widen his political appeal in a predominantly Muslim Kwara State.

She said Mr Kawu lacked any moral justification to accuse anyone of modifying their name because he also added Modibbo to his name allegedly to ingratiate himself to the northern elite.

Mr Kawu was formerly widely known as Olanrewaju Kawu throughout his formation years and well after he had graduated from the university. It was when he became a professional whose activities were largely concentrated in the north that he added Modibbo to his name, those familiar with his background told PREMIUM TIMES.

It is really difficult to imagine his level of hypocrisy, Ms Eronini said. He is supposed to be relieved of his post, but we know the kind of government he serves.

This government does not engage in fairness or obey the rule of law, the lawyer added. That is why they would not punish a man who should be disgraced out of office for passing hate speech against a Senate President who has not done anything outside the law.

Mr Mohammed, who supervises Mr Kawus agency, did not return PREMIUM TIMES messages seeking comments about the impact of Mr Kawus action on the administrations larger campaign against hate speech.

PREMIUM TIMES reached out to Mr Sarakis spokesperson, Yusuf Olaniyonu, but he declined comments on Mr Kawus claims, including the part about using Offa robbery deaths for ritual, saying he was not appointed to comment on everything about his principal.
The Deputy Governor of Kano State, Hafiz Abubakar, has resigned his position,

A copy of his resignation letter sent to PREMIUM TIMES by the media aide to Mr Abubakar, Abdulwahab Ahmad, indicates that the resignation letter was sent to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje on Saturday.

Mr. Abubakar, a close political associate of former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, said he resigned his position due to irreconcilable differences on matters relating to governance and government operations, personal opinion and respect for democratic ideals and values.

He said it would be unfair to his conscience and to the people of Kano to remain in his position as deputy governor of Kano state.

Your Excellency would recall several instances I had to draw your attention on the need to understand and appreciate these differences in order to avoid drifting into the kind of unnecessary crisis we are facing today, but to no avail. Instead of heeding to my counsel to save the government from the present state of crises, your reaction was and still is, to prosecute and mete all sort of injustices on me.

I have endured immeasurable and unjustifiable humiliation for over two and half years without any reason other than my principled position on issues of governance and the desire to keep government on track. Under circumstances, and given the deteriorating state of affairs and your continued disrespect for the office of the deputy governor as well as your expression of several injustices on my person, I regret to say that I have no option than to succumb to my inner calling with the hope that this decision is in accordance with the guidance and wishes of Allah (SWT) for me and good people of Kano state, the letter said.

Mr Abubakar is expected to defect to the PDP, the party Mr Kwankwaso joined.

A spokesperson to Mr Ganduje confirmed the resignation to PREMIUM TIMES Sunday afternoon.

It was unclear whether Mr Ganduje has accepted the resignation, but he is expected to accept it.
The Kaduna State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has reacted to a directive from the national body that the indefinite suspension of a senator, Shehu Sani, be lifted.

In a statement on Sunday, the state chapter of the party said the lawmaker, representing Kaduna Central, remains suspended as the national body cannot impose a member on them.

Earlier in the day, the national headquarters of the APC in a statement lifted the purported suspension of Mr Sani.

The ward had on Thursday affirmed the suspension of the senator. A statement signed by the factional chairman of Kawo Ward 6, Ibrahim Togo, said the initial decision to suspend the senator was taken based on the provisions of the constitution of our great party.

The Sunday statement signed by Salisu Wusono, the Assistant Publicity Secretary of Kaduna APC re-affirmed the indefinite suspension of Mr Sani.

The statement was sent to PREMIUM TIMES by an aide to the Governor Nasir El-Rufai, but Mr Wusono confirmed the content to PREMIUM TIMES on phone.

The Kaduna State APC will not sacrifice its cohesion, discipline and unity for political expediency, the statement reads We have waged a long and consistent struggle to uphold respect for the Party, its constitution, and party spirit so that this party can grow and fulfil the hopes that inspired its formation.

Therefore, we affirm the indefinite suspension of Shehu Sani for serial indiscipline and violations of the party constitution, and further clarify that the constitution of our party does not bestow any powers on the national headquarters to quash the decisions of the Ward, Local Government and State Executive of the Party. You cannot join the party at your ward level, proceed to treat the same party with utmost contempt for three years, then delude yourself into a belief that the national headquarters can now declare you a saint, and impose you on the state party!

The statement went ahead to list offences for which the party meted out the indefinite suspension.

The senator was accused of working against the progress of the party and the state in connivance with another senator, Suleiman Hunkuyi.

It reads further, The party shall support only those who uphold its substance and spirit, and it cannot condone the opportunism of people who having used the APC to get to the Senate, began rebelling against it as soon as they got to Abuja. Article 9.2(i) of the APC Constitution clearly states the obligations of members.Members of the Party shall be obligated to affirm the partys aims and objectives and conduct themselves in a manner that shall not bring the party to public odium and disrepute. Members of the party shall also observe the rules and regulations embedded in this Constitution.

Article 21A (i-xi) of the APC Constitution lists offences for which a member is liable to disciplinary action. Shehu Sani has violated several of these, before and since his suspension.

We are not a party of anything goes! Shehu Sani is on indefinite suspension from the APC. The process for his suspension was initiated in December 2015 by the Party Executive in Ward 6, Kaduna South Local Government, which suspended him for 11 months. Shehu Sanis indiscipline, his disrespect for the APC, and the whole notion of party spiritpersisted during the first suspension. Therefore it was extended to indefinite suspension, with the endorsement of the State Executive Committee of the party.

Since 2015, Shehu Sani has engaged in unremitting hostility to the APC, joining the gang-up against the party in the Senate. At the national level, the utterances in which he has ridiculed the party and President Buhari are well-chronicled.

In Kaduna State, Shehu Sani has since July 2015 opposed everything the APC and the government it installed has tried to do. On Security, Education, Law and Order, and Social Welfare issues, he shamelessly diverged from party position with an enthusiasm and recklessness that even the opposition parties in the state did not demonstrate. We recall the undisguised glee with which he denied Kaduna State the $350m loan the World Bank had adjudged the state eminently qualified to access. This loan was to help improve lives by building more schools, hospitals and vital infrastructure. We cannot sit with such a renegade except he can reverse course and ensure that we get our loan, among other conditions.

While on suspension, Shehu Sani joined Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi in an attempt to factionalise the APC in Kaduna, opening a parallel secretariat and claiming to have their own chairman. The Kaduna State APC swiftly defeated this attempt at factionalisation. We were dismayed that rather than promptlyapplying the provisions of the party constitution to punish factionalisation, the national headquarters of the party constituted a fact-finding committee.

While Suleiman Hunkuyi has left our party after trying and failing to destroy it, his partner in indiscipline, Shehu Sani, is desperately trying to hang in because he has sought, but not found, greener pasture. His posters are all over Kaduna without the name or logo of the APC, or indeed any party. Everyone recalls how he was the loudest of the irresponsible lot that over several weeksthreatened the party with defection, only to relapse into customary cowardice, unable to join his allies in carrying out the threat.

The party called on the national leadership to uphold the party constitution in handling the issue.

The Kaduna State APC issues this as a notice that we will robustly insist on our prerogatives. We will not indulge those that have betrayed our people. And we call on the national headquarters to uphold party spirit, respect its constitution and avoid the appearance of taking loyal party members for granted, or treating traitors as heroes.

The stance of the Kaduna APC reflects the deep-rooted animosity between Mr Sani and the state governor, Mr El-Rufai. Both men, although members of the APC, have been at loggerheads since 2015, shortly after they were inaugurated.

Due to their seemingly irreconciable differences, Mr Sani had been expected to leave the party. He was, however, persuaded not to by national leaders of the party.
The Presidency on Sunday appealed to the National Assembly (NASS) to reconvene as urgent matters pending before it may affect the running of Nigeria and matters affecting Nigerians.

The appeal was made by the Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, at a news conference in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Nigerian Senate, on April 24 adjourned sittings for the next two months.

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, announced the adjournment at plenary following a motion on the siege on Saraki and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, by security operatives.

The Senate is expected to reconvene on September 25.

NAN however reports that some of the pending urgent issues before the adjournment included the approval of a supplementary budget to fund the 2018 budget and the 2019 general elections.

The supplementary funds would enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to commence preparation for the 2019 polls.

Also pending are several key appointments for the EFCC, ICPC, Deputy CBN Governor and AMCON among others.

Mr Enang said that although the Senate had lined up those matters before the adjournment, there was need for them to resume because of the urgency required for the approval.

We are appealing to Senate leadership and all caucuses of the National Assembly to see this as a clarion call for the good of the nation.

Presidential aide, Ita Enang,

As the Liason Officer between NASS and the federal government, I know it is not the intention of the lawmakers to make Nigerians suffer.

The NASS vacation is usually planned to coincide with school vacations so that members can spend time with their children. However this is an election year and the budget has just been appended to hence the urgent need to give approval for Supplementary funds for it.

We are not compelling them, we are appealing to them. As a liason officer between the presidency and the NASS, my duty is to make sure that both arms stay together and work in harmony, he said.

On the defections in the house, Mr Enang explained that it had nothing to do with the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari and that the issues for defection were personal and domestic to the political actors.

According to him, the defections are perennial and usually happen in election years where politicians look for platforms to achieve their aspirations.

In all the defections, they have maintained that they do not have problems with the federal government.

There is too much competition within the major political parties. Politicians study the platforms and would not want to be where they may not get the tickets especially for those seeking re-election. Some need automatic tickets but their party may say no.

Defections are not a sign of anything to worry about in a political party. None of the defectors is complaining about executive treatment of their people but about winning nominations for tickets outside, he added.

(NAN)
The Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has distanced the national oil company and its Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, from the ongoing political tango in the National Assembly and the trending reports in some section of the media insinuating that the corporations helmsman had doled out funds to effect the impeachment of Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

The corporation in a terse statement issued by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, described the report as the handiwork of mischief makers seeking to drag the NNPC and its GMD into a purely political affair totally different from its mandate as the national oil company with fiduciary responsibilities to the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The NNPC emphasised that the report is not only false but also an affront on the verifiable reforms in the operations of the corporation under the remit of Mr Baru which has witnessed irreversible strides in the area of transparency leading to the sustained publication of NNPC monthly operations and financial records.

The statement added that it is mere fiction and outright tales by moonlight for anybody to insinuate that Mr Baru or anybody else could just take a dip into the Corporations till and dole out the volume of funds being portrayed in that phantom report for political purpose.

The corporation called on all well-meaning members of the public and oil and gas industry stakeholders to discountenance the said story noting that the management of the NNPC remains committed to its statutory role and responsibility to the entire federation.
Jordan's Siag Arabian Auto Manufacturing Company has signed an agreement to build a car production plant at a cost of around $1.5 billion, said a report.



The project will be set up in the Southern economic zone of Aqaba and will produce nearly 50,000 cars a year, a Zawya report said citing Al-Rai daily.



Siag will build the plant under an agreement signed with Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, it said.



Total investments in the project are expected to reach nearly $6 billion after the first six years of operation, added the report.
Hundreds of stranded train passengers on Sunday protested over alleged underhand dealings in the sale of tickets for the Kaduna-Abuja train service.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that although the train for the 4:00pm trip to Abuja had arrived on time, passengers had formed human shield preventing entry into the departure area at Rigasa station on Sunday in Kaduna.

The passengers said tickets were sold for only 10 minutes before they were told it had been exhausted.

A passenger, Usman Lamin, alleged that the train station officials had sold off the over 600 tickets to touts who openly sell at double the price.

The passengers said the station manager must allow everyone to board the train and collect the fares along the way, otherwise no one will get in.

Efforts to get official reaction was unsuccessful, but one of the workers at the train station said the only solution is to increase the number of train shuttles from the present two on Sundays.

He said on condition of anonymity that because of the fear of travelling by road due to security concern, people going to Abuja from Kaduna are increasingly relying on the train service.

As at the time of filling this report (4:10 pm) soldiers had to be deployed to the station where they barricaded places before passengers could board the train. (NAN)
A former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, has visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo to solicit his (Obasanjo) support for his 2019 presidential ambition.

The aspirant, a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led a delegation of his campaign team on Sunday to Mr Obasanjo at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

He explained that the visit was to seek his prayers, advice and support.

He described Mr Obasanjo as his leader and mentor, and attributed his success as Sokoto State Governor between 1999 and 2007 majorly to the advice from the former president.

He said based on Mr Obasanjos advice on savings, he left about N11.8 billion in Sokoto State treasury when he left office in 2007.

Mr Bafarawa also recalled that Mr Obasanjo visited Sokoto State 14 times to commission various projects, adding that he (Bafarawa) replicated an all-inclusive government ran by the former president.

The aspirant hailed Mr Obasanjo for his continued interventions at critical stages of the nations history, noting that many Nigerians had misunderstood the intentions of the elder statesman. He also commended the former president particularly for laying the foundation for the crusade against corruption.

Nobody can successfully lay claim to fighting corruption without recourse to what Obasanjo had done, Mr Bafarawa said .

The former president in his response noted that Nigeria can be better than what it is now. He pledged his support for any step to lift it up.

My own strong belief is that Nigeria deserves better than we have now and we can get better than what we have. I believe the task of moving Nigeria to an enviable height is a collective responsibility and if we fail to act together as we ought to, the nation will not be where it is supposed to be in 2019, Mr Obasanjo said.

He recalled his role during Nigerias civil war between 1966 and 1970 as well as his travails in prison, saying, I have made sacrifices for Nigeria and will continue to do so.

He called for new strategies to fix Nigeria, saying we have continued to tread on the old path.

Mr Obasanjo called for more attention to the welfare of less privileged Nigerians and increased educational development, particularly in the North-east.

He charged Mr Bafarawa to strengthen the leadership qualities he identified in him (Bafarawa), including humility, diligence, selflessness and lack of discrimination and also prayed for Gods guidance and support for Mr Bafarawas presidential ambition.
The Reformed All Progressives congress (R-APC) has accused the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of trying to woo senators with N50 million to facilitate the removal of Senate President Bukola Saraki who recently defected from the APC.

The rAPC made this known in a statement on Sunday by its publicity secretary, Kassim Afegbua.

It did not provide any evidence to back the claim.

Part of the plot was to reach out to some PDP senators especially those who have EFCC queries in order to give them a clean bill of health once they defect to the APC. They also agreed to woo some senators with the sum of fifty million naira each.

The group said the Nigerian constitution clearly states the procedure for electing and removing a senate president and this should be adhered to.

According to the rAPC, the APC plans to remove Mr Saraki by hook or crook for which a meeting was allegedly held at the residence of Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of APC.

The disputed leadership of the APC, working in cahoot with the Attorney General and Minister of Justice coupled with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation have perfected their plans to apply Gestapo methods to forcefully unseat the senate president.

A high-powered meeting of these persons was held at the Maitama residence of the disputed Chairman of the APC on Thursday, 2nd August, 2018 where they brainstormed on the possible ways to carry out their illegality.

Senator Abdullahi Adamu has been penciled down to succeed Distinguished Senator Bukola Saraki, amidst a host of other changes in the Senates principal officers. Once the Senate leadership is overthrown in a coup detat manner, the Senate will immediately consider the virement budget of the INEC and also approve the pending nominations in the Senate, Mr Afegbua wrote.

Part of the plot, according to the R-APC, is to get a friendly Judge to legalise the removal.

The APC however describes the allegations as false.

It is a cry of a drowning man. Kassim Afegbua and his cohorts are trying to elicit sentiment and to make futile attempt to dent the integrity of the APC led government. The reason why most of them are defecting is because the President Buhari led administration is not sharing money which is the PDP philosophy.

So this administration can not inject tax payers money into impeaching the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. This is a serious government and not a dead party called the PDP, the ruling party said in a statement by its spokesperson Yekini Nabena.

The APC, however, said it would use lawful means to remove Mr Saraki, saying it was improper of him to continue to lead a Senate where the APC was still the majority.
The opposition party, PDP, has criticised Nigerias ruling party, APC, for wooing its members.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP describes the move as a failed antic of an apprehended and deflated felon.

The Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, are among PDP leaders said to be wooed by the APC to join the ruling party.

On Saturday, a presidential aide told PREMIUM TIMES arrangements had been concluded and Mr Akpabio would join the APC this week.

Scores of ex-APC members including Senate President Bukola Saraki and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, recently joined the PDP.

Read the PDPs full statement below.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) mocks the presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as shameless, despicable and hypocritical, for attempting to woo PDP members into its now discredited and famished fold.

The PDP describes the move as a failed antic of an apprehended and deflated felon who, in his immoral proclivity, attempts futilely to pull off one last survival stunt before facing the gallows, or more so, a mortally wounded snake furtively seeking for one last bite before its inevitable painful death.

The PDP has nothing but pity for the APC, who, in its blind desperation, cannot see that the train has since left the station and that no body, no matter the lure, abandons a cruising liner, which the PDP now represents, to jump into a sinking ship with a disoriented captain which the APC has become.

Indeed, no one, no matter the enticement, runs into a collapsing building from where terrified, wounded and traumatized people are already taking flight for their dear lives.

Nigerians can now see the shameless hypocrisy of the APC, which is now going about, cap in hand, to beg the same persons it haunted as corrupt and evil, seeing that it has been overrun by the tides.

Having failed to cow such persons through threats, media trials, trumped up corruption charges and raw violence, the APC is now seeking to ensnare them with promises of political opportunities it no longer has control over.

The dilapidated APC, by now, ought to have known that no Nigerian will again fall for its gimmick of false promises and subject him or herself to the prison yard democracy, that it offers.

We therefore counsel the APC to leave our members alone and stop acting like that evil character who roams about seeking for whom to devour or drag along into the pit, knowing that his time is short.

The APC should quit its antics and find an abandoned cave of history to lick its wounds, having squandered the goodwill given to it by Nigerians in 2015.

The eclipsing APC must know that Nigerians have had enough of its lies, deception, propaganda, contrivances, beguilements and are now resolute in their iron-cast determination to rally on the platform of the repositioned PDP to rescue our nation from the curse which the APC has come to represent in the last three years.
The Nigerian Army hase announced the arrest of a wanted Boko Haram suspect, Maje Lawan, at Banki, Borno.

According to a statement by Texas Chukwu, the army spokesman, the suspect is believed to be number 96 on the wanted list earlier published by the army.

Mr Chukwu, a brigadier general, said Mr Lawan was apprehended after he infiltrated an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in the area.

The suspect is currently undergoing preliminary investigation and will be handed over to the appropriate authority for further action, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Chukwu said troops had killed two terrorists at Malari village also in Borno during an ambush while others fled into the bush.

He said 10 bicycles were recovered from the terrorists during the encounter.

In a similar development, he said troops had dislodged armed militia from their camp at Gbamjimba-Akor axis in Guma Local Government Area of Benue.

He said unspecified number of the armed militia men were neutralised, adding that others escaped into nearby bushes with gunshot wounds.

Mr Chukwu said one AK 47 rifle, two AK 47 rifle magazines, 60 rounds of 7.62 mm special ammunition and five motorcycles were recovered from them.

(NAN)
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has condemned the invasion of the runway of Sultan Abubakar III International Airport, Sokoto, by loyalists of former governor Aliyu Wammako in the state.

The agency said politicians broke through the airport fence and invaded the airport in a bid to receive their political masters on Friday.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and loyalists of Mr Wammako had besieged the airport in a bid to welcome the former governor into the state. The event occured days after the defection of Aminu Tambuwal, the state governor into the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Mr Tambuwal was elected governor on the platform of the APC.

The unfortunate incident, which occurred on Friday August 3, 2018, is a gross violation of the security and safety arrangements at the airport, as thousands of political loyalists violently accessed restricted areas at the airport, breaking down the airport fence in the process and resisting all security machineries in place, the agency said in a statement on Sunday.

However, our team of aviation security officers were able to curtail the situation and normalcy was restored at the airport.

The airport environment is a highly regulated environment and should be seen as such.

The supporters, who trooped out to receive the senator, also showed solidarity to President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC government.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported that Sokoto was literally shut down as the surging crowd came out in a show of solidarity with Wammako, President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress.

Immediately the plane carrying the senator landed at the Sultan Abubakar III International Airport, motorcyclists ran onto the tarmac to offer a guard of honour.

But FAAN on Sunday said politicians should respect aviation and safety rules while using the airport as electioneering draws closer.

As the 2019 general elections is drawing closer, the Authority will like to advise the general public, especially politicians and their supporters to ensure compliance with all rules and regulations at the airports, as we will not compromise security and safety at our airports for any reason, the statement said.
The Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) said on Sunday that a total of 313 of its officers in the rank of majors and captains across Army formations in the country will be sitting for the senior staff course qualifying examination this year.

The TRADOC Commander, Ademoh Salihu, said in Kaduna that the exams would begin from August 6, at the Headquarters, Infantry Corps Center, Jaji Military Cantonment in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State .

Mr Salihu said that the lot of 313 majors and captains were selected for the Senior Staff Course Qualifying examination which would run till August 10.

Mr Salihu who was also President, Army Examination Panel, explained that the test was compulsory for the personnel to qualify for senior staff course.

The exams will determine their progress in the army and is also an assessment of their level of proficiency in the army, Mr Salihu said.

The Commander explained that a candidate must score at least 50 per cent in each paper, adding that there would be no excuse for failure as the personnel were assumed to have garnered enough experience in their fields of assignment.

It is the examination that will propel them to higher heights and understand the profession much better so as to add value to the security architecture of the country, he said.

He cautioned the candidates against any sharp practice during the test, stressing that the Nigerian Army will not tolerate any indiscipline as it has zero tolerance for exams malpractice.

He charged the officers to focus fully on the task ahead.

He said the examination was a major prerequisite for officers that would lead them to attend Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC).

The Commander said that the Policy of Army Headquarters required that candidates were allowed three attempts to sit for the exams.

(NAN)
The Kaduna Islamic cleric kidnapped last week, Ahmad Algarkawi, has been freed, the police said on Sunday.

Mukhtar Aliyu, the spokesman for the police in Kaduna, confirmed the release to PREMIUM TIMES.

Yes the sheikh has been rescued by the police in Kaduna. And as far as I know there was no ransom paid, Mr Aliyu said.

He said the cleric was rescued on Sunday.

Mr Aliyu later told the News Agency of Nigeria that two suspects were arrested in connection with the clecics abduction.

The two suspects are under investigation and the other suspects are under our trail, he said.

Mr Algarkawi, a resident of Kinkinau area of Kaduna State, was kidnapped on Thursday afternoon.

He was Kidnapped at his farm at Nariya, a community along Kaduna eastern bye-pass. Some of his students were also reportedly abducted, although the police did not confirm that.

Musa Aliyu, a student of the cleric, confirmed he had been freed.

 We have been praying since Thursday and thank Allah the sheikh is now freed. He returned to his family at about 6 p.m.
The Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Onofiok Luke, has said that nothing would make him leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

There have been speculations in Akwa Ibom that Mr Luke is among the high profile politicians in the state likely to resign from the PDP because of the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabios defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Luke, before becoming a legislator, has had a personal relationship with Mr Akpabio and his family. He once served as personal assistant to Mr Akapbio when the latter was the governor of Akwa Ibom State.

I am a full-blooded member of the PDP. I am a principled person, and I like being known for consistency, Mr Luke told PREMIUM TIMES, Sunday morning while dismissing the speculations.

The speaker said he started his politics in PDP and that he will continue to stay with the party.

Mr Luke was in Lagos for the Conference of Speakers meeting, when two presidential aides took to social media to confirm that Senator Akpabio was indeed defecting to the APC.

The speakers absence at the emergency meeting of PDP leaders convened in Uyo by Governor Udom Emmanuel may have fueled the speculations that he was leaving the PDP.

Some political analysts in the state are of the opinion that Governor Emmanuel needs the likes Mr Luke and the senator representing Uyo Senatorial District, Bassey Albert, to hold forth for him, now that Mr Akpabio is out.
The Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, has reinstated nine student activists expelled over a year ago for their involvement in a protest against tuition fees hike.

The recall came amidst a legal action by the students.

The protest took place on February 17, 2017, after which the school expelled the students identified as spearheads.

However, in a recall letter issued to each of the affected students on Friday and sighted by our correspondent the university said it had reversed its decision during a meeting of the Senate in July.

Some of those affected are Collins Ogbonna, Fishery and Aquaculture Technology; Elvis Onuoha, Animal Science Technology; Ebuka Odunze, Computer Science Department; Kenneth Megwa, Prosthetics and Orthotics Department; and Nnamdi Madu and Collins Ugwu of the Optometry Department.

The Senate at its 437th meeting held on Tuesday, July 3, 2018, ratified the amnesty granted by the Vice-Chancellor to the students who were expelled for their involvement in the planning and execution of the violent demonstration of Friday, February 17, read the letter signed by schools registrar, John Nnabuihe.

Your recall is however subject to the paying of the surcharges and signing an undertaking, along with your parents to be of good behaviour for the rest of your studentship in the university, added the letter.

Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the students had approached a court to press for their reinstatement before the school pardoned them.

In fact, the recall followed the out-of-court settlement deal between the school and the students before Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Owerri, on October 19, 2017.

One of the reinstated students, Mr Collins, in an appreciation message posted on Facebook, said: The judiciary is the last hope for the Common Man. We believed in the Aluta Spirit and Victory was Assured.

Also, in a public release to appreciate those who participated in the protest, the Alliance of Nigerian Students Against Neoliberal Attacks (ANSA) urged the mass of students, civil society groups, and labour unions to join in the historical struggle of ridding campuses of tyrannical maladministration.

Despite the protest, the fees regime that triggered the demonstration of February 2017 was not reviewed.

First-year students fee was increased from N48,000 to N54,300 per session while second and third-year fees rose from N32,000 to N49,000.

Also, the fee for the fourth-year and final-year students went up from N28,000 to 39,000, while the acceptance fee was raised to N45,000 from the initial N25,000.

However, despite the spike, students complained in interviews with our correspondent of no changes in the services available to them.

We pay for a lab coat every session, said Sunny Olufemi, a student. Up till now, Im yet to get one. They have always been collecting money and nothing has been done after several complaints.

Mr Sunny added that the free Wifi connection being paid for was not really functional and is no longer available as the ICT centre of the school was razed by fire in July.

We still pay for it even its no longer available, he said.

Another student, Okafor Ifunaya of Optometry Department, lamented poor electricity supply. We hardly have light. If they give us light in a day, dont expect it in two days.

She added that N5,000 for shuttle bus was added in the breakdown of the new fees regime, whereas students still pay 50 naira as transport fare on each trip within the campus.
E-Mal, a full-fledged financial ecosystem powered by Dubai-based eFatoora, has signed an agreement with Estonian cybersecurity company Hacken to ensure the protection of its wallet.



With the acquisition of Hackens security services, e-Mal increases its capabilities to accomplish a sustainable and growth-driven economy.



E-Mal brings together banking and financial institutions, as well as retailers and end users, connecting end users and retailers seamlessly in a cost-effective and secure manner. The e-Mal digital wallet is the platform which connects users to various services available on the e-Mal hubs. In order to enable this ecosystem, e-Mal needs a strong cybersecurity company to secure supporting networks and systems.



We are delighted to have Hacken on board with e-Mal as our cybersecurity partners. We believe their testing and security services will further enhance the e-Mal blockchain platform and we will continue to ensure that our users are always transacting in the most secure manner, said Yasmine Khan, founder/CEO of e-Mal.



We believe in partnering with companies where it's not only about our product but where there is extended value adding to the UAE's National Agenda we are following. As we are promoting e-Mal, a digital Fin-Tech platform, we want to ensure that our users take comfort while transacting on the e-Mal platform and are confident that the partnership with Hacken will add comfort to the e-Mal user experience.



Hacken is a cybersecurity consultancy that provides services customized to each clients need. The flagship services include bug bounty, smart contract audits, penetration testing, and anti-phishing protection including a recently developed anti phishing bot for Telegram.



We are excited to have become a cybersecurity services partner of a progressive company such as e-Mal. We are glad to see that the company thats addressing financial and ecological issues really cares about the security of its clients and investors. Hacken aims to make e-Mals operations simple and comfortable by building a transparent and secure Internet environment suited for their aspirations, said Dmytro Budorin, founder/CEO of Hacken.



Relying on Hackens expertise, e-Mal can concentrate on meeting their set goals: transforming and revolutionizing the way payments are processed, and bring together an eco-friendly financial hub, provisioning both national and international, digital and fiat currency exchanges to work together seamlessly.  TradeArabia News Service
The Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has criticised the All Progressive Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, for demanding apology from him for his alleged refusal to grant the APC permission to use the Abakaliki stadium for its rally.

Mr Oshiomhole had on Saturday called on Mr Umahi to tender apology for denying the party the use of the stadium for their Saturday rally in the state.

Mr Oshiomhole made the call while addressing APC faithful in Ebonyi State at the rally which later held at a playground, beside the Offia Nwali flyover, Abakaliki.

He warned that the governor should not overuse his powers. He said he felt bad when he heard that the governor, whom he described as his friend, could deny his party the use of the township stadium.

When the people are determined, no obstacle will stop them. I hope he will apologise to his people for denying them access to the stadium.

I was governor before, I allowed PDP access to the stadium as many times as they wanted. It is just about being civilized. And any time the then president is coming to the state, I rolled red carpet to receive him even when I will abuse his party the following day. Assuming that everybody matters is a hallmark of leadership.

When you refuse to display power, when everybody knows you have it, you even become more powerful. When you abuse power, you simply become so small and so powerless.

He who abuse power, abuse will await him. What I want to tell my friend is that the stadium belongs to the people, the governor is the manager of this public facility. The manager does not drive away the shareholders.

You are the shareholders and I dont want to say more than that. But if Im pushed I will ask the people question. If we were to take it in other level and the federal government decides that the governor should not drive on the federal government roads, what happens? Somebody said he will fly. What if we stopped him from flying through federal government airport? What happens? Mr Oshiomhole asked.

But Mr Umahi in a reaction on Sunday described the statement as childish and pure blackmail aimed at scoring public sympathy.

Mr Umahi who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Emmanuel Uzor, described the statement as APC propaganda.

It is very shameful for APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, to have made the statement credited to him while in the state.

He has not disappointed Nigerians on his usual naked dance when he said Governor Umahi denied his party usage of the PA Ngele Oruta Stadium which is undergoing reconstruction.

It became more childish for the national party chairman who had earlier called Governor Umahi on phone and informed him of his coming to the state to have made such ridiculous statement whereas he was aware of the decision of a faction of his party to shift the date for the rally to 11th August.

APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole

Oshiomhole and Umahi have shared great friendship before this rally and as a sitting governor, Umahi while in Edo State to conduct governorship primary election of PDP in 2014, did not only pay a courtesy call on Oshiomhole but had personal interaction as brothers despite their differences in political associations. This is a pure example of political maturity exhibited by Umahi which APC lacks

One would have expected Oshiomhole as a senior comrade to show respect to a sitting governor if he was not hypocritical in his alleged relationship and tolerance for opposition. But he decided to fly into Abakaliki, enjoyed the ambience of a serene environment and drove round a beautiful city with the best road network in the country and then mounted the podium and started spewing his usual political blackmail which he has been known for

More worrisome is his visible silence over the factions in his party in the state and his inability to fuse the divided party into one but has descended so low to demand apology from a sitting governor over a stadium that is under construction.

Mr Umahis spokesperson also gave an indication that his principals rumoured planned defection to the APC was not true.

APC has been rejected by Nigerians and Ebonyians have no reason whatsoever to identify with a political party without known direction towards betterment of the country. This is what Oshiomhole should be concerned about and not waiting for apology from Governor Umahi because he will have to wait forever.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Saturday that the Ogun West Senatorial District should produce a credible governorship candidate for the Ogun State election in 2019, declaring that would be only condition for him to support the zones governorship ambition.

Ogun West is the only senatorial district yet to produce the state governor since inception of the state.

Mr Obasanjo made this known at the burial service for Adepoju Adeyemi, former Secretary to the Ogun State Government held at Comprehensive High School, Ayetoro in Yewa North Local Government Area of the State.

He said his support was because the zone was yet to produce a governor since the creation of the state over 40 years ago.

I am going to support a credible governorship candidate from Ogun West Senatorial District. So I want to appeal to you to look inward and produce a credible candidate, who is tested and trusted and will deliver for the betterment of the state.

The former president also commended the incumbent governor, Ibikunle Amosun, for also supporting the course of getting a candidate from zone to be elected governor.

I started the project of supporting governorship candidate from Ogun West to become the next Ogun State Governor. And I want to commend Governor Amosun in thinking in same line with me. But what is now important is for the zone to produce a performing candidate who will add value to the state, he stressed.

Mr Amosun has repeatedly told leaders from the zone that he would support a candidate from there. He, however, opposed the candidacy of Solomon Adeola, an incumbent Lagos senator who is from the zone, also known as Yewa. Mr Adeola is believed to have shelved his ambition due to the opposition from Mr Amosun.

Mr Obasanjo also used the occasion to eulogise the late former Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Adepoju Adeyemi, who he described as a great civil servant, family man, community man and politician who contributed meaningfully while alive.

To the best of our knowledge, he was a good follower of Christ and he deserves all the tributes being paid to him by his compatriots as a man of outstanding character and committed patriot, the former president said.

The passage of this great Nigerian whose life-long commitment to the noble principles of equity, justice and fairness to all will remain a glowing example to the present and future generations in our country. He will be solely missed by all of us, he added.
Modupe Akindele-Martins, a chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ondo State, has dumped the party with her supporters for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

She disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure on Sunday.

Mrs Akindele-Martins was the Deputy Governorship Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in November 2016 election in the state.

She was the running mate to Olu Agunloye of the SDP.

Mrs Akindele-Martins was also the Ondo State Woman Leader of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

She said she had resigned her membership from the SDP and was defecting with thousands of her supporters in all the 18 local government areas of the Ondo State to PDP.

Absolutely, am leaving SDP with thousands of my supporters in the 18 local government areas of the state to join PDP, she said.

She said that SDP, as a party, did not have the commitment to effect any change of government in 2019 and was not well positioned to wrestle power from APC.

So, with my exit at this point in time, that means the SDP only exists as a nomenclature at the state level.

SDP has been in a total mess after the former State Secretary, Hon. Dele Ogunbameru, left on October 24, 2017 with more than half of the state structure, she said.

According to her, all is now set to formally join the PDP with her supporters as all arrangements have been concluded.

Mrs Akindele-Martins, who is from Okitipupa in Ondo South Senatorial District, expressed regret that the area had been neglected by the current administration, hence the need for her to pitch tent with the PDP to save the people from the shackles of APC government in the state.

All hands must be on deck to save the people of Ondo South Senatorial district and entire state from the shackles of the so-called progressives party.

The good people of Ondo South Senatorial District have made up their minds to pitch tent with the PDP to wrestle power from the APC at all levels in the 2019 general elections, she said.

Mrs Akindele-Martins, therefore, called on the people of the state to support the enthronement of PDP at all levels of government.

(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.




Swiss luxury watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen has announced the appointment of Mehdi Rajan as Regional Brand Director for the Middle East, India and Africa.

Rajan, who joined IWC Schaffhausen in 2013, has been with the Richemont Group for seven years and is an integral member of the team, having already helped take the brand to new heights.

Rajan has over 10 years experience in the luxury sector. His career began in 2007 in Paris, where he dedicated his time to working with some of the worlds leading and most iconic luxury brands.

After experiencing the luxury sector first-hand, he made the decision to move to the Middle East in 2009 and joined the Richemont Group. In 2013, he went on to join IWC Schaffhausen Middle East, India & Africa, where his wealth of knowledge in luxury goods and watch manufacturing helped transform the business.

In his new role as Regional Brand Director, Rajan will be responsible for strategically leading the brands growth within the region.

Rajan commented: Celebrating IWCs 150-year anniversary this year marks a successful milestone for the company, and I feel honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead the brand to even bigger and more momentous achievements as we enter into a critical stage of growth and expansion.

"This region is a key market for us and I look forward to growing the business here over the coming years with the team," he added. - TradeArabia News Service
Marc Orfaly is a seven-time nominated James Beard Award winner, Food & Wine "Best Chef in America" and "One of the Top Chefs to Watch in the Country" by John Mariani of Esquire Magazine and Corby Kummer of Boston Magazine. With over 25 years of culinary experience in some of the most esteemed kitchens in America, Chef Orfaly is known among his peers for his astute palate, his commitment to authenticity, and his enthusiasm for all things culinary. Orfaly uses his skills, vast experience and passion to enhance the varied dining experience at all Navy Yard Hospitality Group locations including: Pier 6, Mija and ReelHouse.

In New Orleans, Chef Orfaly competed against top seafood chefs from across the country for the title of "King" or "Queen" of American Seafood. Chefs prepared dishes that showcased sustainable fish and shellfish and that were native to their home states. Chef Orfaly won second place for his dish his, "Deconstructed New England Clam Bake," featuring littleneck clams, mussels, smoked chorizo, local corn, potatoes, fresh peas and butter poached lobster from Gloucester, MA. Chef Braulio Carranza of Mija Cantina & Tequila Bar acted as sous chef for the event.

ReelHouse will add the 2018 Great American Seafood Cook-Off to their growing collection of accolades and Best of Boston awards.

The Great American Seafood Cook Off was held on Saturday, August 4th at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans during the Louisiana Foodservice Expo. More information is available at www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookoff.com.

For information on Marc Orfaly, ReelHouse or the other properties within the Navy Yard Hospitality Group, please visit http://www.navyyardhospitality.com/

ABOUT REELHOUSE:

ReelHouse, the newest addition to the Navy Yard Hospitality Group brings globally-inspired coastal seafood to the buzzing waterfront at Jeffries Point in East Boston. Located at the base of luxury apartment building, The Eddy, ReelHouse offers picturesque sky-line views of Boston harbor and stays true to the nautical atmosphere with modern and unique touches that transform guests from land to sea, including an elaborate ceiling treatment of wooden boat ribs, black olive trees and striking wooden tables adorned with captain's chairs. Using locally-sourced ingredients, Culinary Director Marc Orfaly offers an innovative take on fresh New England fare with powerful flavors from around the world while enjoying the spanning views of the city inside or on the grand 130-seat oceanfront patio. The contemporary bar program contains an extensive wine list, local craft brews available in both draft and bottle, and signature craft cocktails and frozen drinks. ReelHouse is open for lunch and dinner seven nights a week as well as brunch Saturdays and Sundays and is located at 6 New Street, Boston, MA, 02128. For more information please visit www.reelhouseboston.com.

SOURCE ReelHouse
Tehran, Aug 5 : Iran will not sit down for negotiations under pressures, in particular with US President Donald Trump who "has breached obligations," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qasemi said on Saturday.

If the US wants negotiations, it should stop pressures and sanctions, Qasemi was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

Under such circumstances negotiations cannot be held, he said, adding that the Iranian people will resist the pressures and will conquer finally.

In the meantime, Qasemi rejected the possibility of war between Tehran and Washington, saying no country is able to carry out such actions in the current world.

He also said Tehran expects the European countries to bring forward a practical package of proposals to salvage Iranian nuclear deal, also known as JCPOA, after the U.S. pull-out in May.

Iran wants guarantees from Europe to maintain banking cooperation and investments in Iran's oil fields as well as continuation of cooperation between Iranian and European small and medium-sized enterprises, Qasemi noted.

Following Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear pact on May 8, the United States vowed to reimpose sanctions lifted under the accord against Iran and inflict punishments like secondary sanctions on nations that have business links with Iran.

Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iran nuclear deal was criticized across the world. Some of its major European allies have been working to prevent the 2015 deal from falling apart.
Rome, Aug 5 : Model Heidi Klum flaunted her svelte figure in palm leaf print bikini while soaking up the sun in Sardinia.

Klum wore a daring palm leaf print bikini at Porto Cervo, Sardinia on Friday, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Drawing attention to her toned abs, her swimwear featured a spaghetti-strap bikini top which accentuated her ample cleavage.

She continued to showcase her enviable figure as she slipped on a pair of matching bikini bottoms which highlighted her lean legs and posterior while wading through the crystal clear water.

She accessorised her beach attire by layering a number of long silver pendants over one-another and wore a pair of oversized shades.
Caracas, Aug 5 : Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has survived what he called an "attempt against his life" involving explosive drones, blaming far-right elements and Colombia's outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos for carrying out the foiled assassination bid.

Maduro was evacuated from a stage on Saturday during a speech at an event event to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard here after what authorities concluded was an attempted "terrorist attack against the President", reports CNN.

Two drones loaded with explosives went off near the podium from where the President was speaking, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez confirmed to the media.

Just few hours after the incident, Maduro appeared on national television saying that as he was mid-speech in the event when a device exploded right in front of him.

"A flying object exploded near me, a big explosion. Seconds later there was a second explosion," he said, adding that he initially thought it was fireworks as part of the parade.

Maduro said the investigation into the incident started immediately and that some of those involved in the attack had been captured and charged, although he did not specify the charges against them.

The President also said that authorities were able to obtain evidence of the attack and said the investigation was in an advanced stage.

It was "an attempt to kill me, they have tried to assassinate me today", he added.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that many of those responsible for the attack, the financiers and planners, live in the US in the state of Florida," Maduro said.

"I hope the (President Donald) Trump administration is willing to fight terrorist groups that commit attacks in peaceful countries in our continent, in this case Venezuela."

Venezuela's attorney general, Tarek William Saab, told CNN he ordered an investigation into the incident.

The Venezuelan government has long blamed Colombia for plotting overthrows and, and far-right elements in Bogota and Miami for attempting to undercut Maduro.

Ivan Duque takes over as the Colombian President next week.

The Colombian government however, has denied any involvement, saying there is "no basis" to Maduro's allegations.
Jammu, Aug 5 : A civilian was killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district when security personnel opened fire after noticing suspicious movement, police said on Sunday.

The incident took place on Saturday evening when the personnel posted at a tunnel construction site in Sumbad Kholi area noticed movement around their camp.

"Despite warnings, there were no response which led to the personnel to open fire. Besides the victim, another person was injured," the police added.
Dhaka, Aug 5 : Student-led protests against the lack of respect for traffic regulations and increasing road accidents have heated up in Bangladesh, with violent outbreaks across the country.

The students poured onto the streets here for the seventh straight day on Saturday, occupying its main intersections and paralysing traffic, Efe news reported.

"The situation is very bad in the area. Several teams of security forces have been sent to restore the order," Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Police Abdullah Hel Kafi said.

No details about the number of people injured in the clash have been given.

The demonstrations began after two youths were run over and killed while several others were injured by a bus on July 29.

"We want justice after the accident. Unless a fair judgment is reached and there is more safety on the highways, we're staying on the streets," Redwanul Islam, a 17-year-old student said.

It is common in Bangladesh for people without licenses to drive and the traffic is massive, which leads to several road accidents.

According to the National Committee for the Protection of Ships, Highways and Railroads, 4,289 people died in 2017 including 539 children, in 3,472 traffic accidents in Bangladesh, while 9,112 people were injured.
Srinagar, Aug 5 : A shutdown called by separatists in support of Article 35A, which gives special powers to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, affected life across the Kashmir Valley on Sunday.

The separatist Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) called for a complete shutdown for two days in support of the Article that has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

Public transport remained off the roads and very few private vehicles were seen plying in Srinagar city and other district towns in the Valley, officials and residents said. There was heavy deployment of security forces to maintain law and order.

The ongoing Amarnath Yatra from Jammu to the cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley was partially suspended for two days due to the shutdown.

Police said no pilgrim was allowed to move from the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu.

Special checkposts were set up in Udhampur and Ramban to ensure that the movement of pilgrims did not take place on the Jammu-Srinagar highway which passes through these two districts.

However, pilgrims camped at the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps in the Kashmir Valley will continue to perform the Yatra, officials said.

Since the annual pilgrimage began on June 28, over 2.71 lakh pilgrims have taken part. The Yatra ends on August 26 coinciding with the Shravan Purnima festival.
Kabul, Aug 5 : Eight Taliban militants were killed and three injured during a military operation in Afghanistan's Takhar province, an army spokesman said on Sunday.

"Among those killed was a Taliban divisional commander," Xinhua news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

The National Security and Defence Forces launched the ground operation supported by the Air Force against militants in Baharak district on Saturday.
Islamabad, Aug 5 : The prime suspect behind the torching of 14 girls' schools in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region was killed during a search operation on Sunday, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman told Dawn news that Shafiq, who has no known association with any organised militant or terrorist outfits, was the prime suspect behind the brazen arson attacks targeting girls' schools in the Chilas, Darel and Tanger tehsils of Diamer district between 2.30 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Friday.

The police began conducted raids in various parts of Diamer on Saturday night to track down those responsible for the arson attacks.

So far, 18 suspects have been arrested.

Among the schools targeted, eight were government-run while the other four were run by non-profits in the remote and mountainous region that borders Afghanistan, China and Jammu and Kashmir.

There were between 200 and 300 girls enrolled in each school on an average, taking the total enrolment to around 3,500 in the area.

In 2004, half a dozen girls' schools had been torched in one go. Girls' schools were also targeted by extremists in 2011 and 2015.

Destruction of schools and attacks on teachers and students, especially girls, by Islamic insurgents are common in Pakistan, where around 23 million children are out of school.

Nobel Prize winner and education activist Malala Yousafzai was shot and injured by the Taliban in 2012 for advocating the education of girls in Swat valley.
Abu Dhabi Airports is hosting delegates candidates from the Royal Saudi Air Force at the Gulf Centre for Aviation Studies (GCAS) for a series of selected aviation training sessions.



The trainees will benefit from knowledge-sharing exercises covering areas related to safety and security, forming part of the close cooperation between the aviation sectors and industries of both countries.



Sultan Al Mansoori, acting general manager GCAS, said: This training session, held at our Regional Centre of Excellence, is an important step in bolstering our aviation ties with our peers in Saudi Arabia. The selection of GCAS as the training provider for the Royal Saudi Air Force demonstrates its position as a leading regional aviation training institution, and Abu Dhabis status as a prime hub for Aviation, confirming its key roles in the regions sustainable economic development.



Over the course of four weeks, GCAS has worked with the Royal Saudi Air Force to deliver four key training modules to its trainee Aviation Management, Iata Dangerous Goods CAT 6 Initial course, ICAO on the Job Training Instructors Course, and Examination Techniques Course. These modules will equip the trainee with the knowledge of key aviation concepts as well as Train the Trainer skills and techniques.



Our officers have received valuable training from GCAS in Abu Dhabi, which will serve to further reinforce their knowledge and skills, said brigadier general Ahmed Al Jahani from Royal Saudi Air Force. Knowledge sharing exercises such as these not only improve performance but also stimulate innovation and growth, from which both sides can benefit equally, he added. - TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi, Aug 5 : The demand to bring back paper ballots in the next Lok Sabha elections in place of Electronic Voting Machines being pressed by major opposition parties has not found favour with two former Chief Election Commissioners, who, however, share their opposition to a proposal for simultaneous elections, saying it cannot be "coerced".

The former CECs say that though both the issues are theoretically in the realm of possibility, but, in practical terms, they are neither feasible nor desirable.

They were reacting to a planned move by 17 parties, including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, to approach the Election Commission to press for restoring the paper ballot system in view of their apprehensions over the integrity of the EVMS and the possibility of their manipulation and the failure of the VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) slips in recent elections.

V.S. Sampath, who demitted office in January 2015 after nearly three years at the helm of the Election Commission, said going back to paper ballots "makes no sense".

"Nobody will accept it," Sampath told IANS.

He said with the introduction of VVPAT slips, which the Election Commission has said would be deployed throughout the country in all elections hereafter, there is already a paper ballot system that is going to be in place.

"VVPAT is a credible system by which the voter knows whom he has voted for and his ballot slip has gone into a box which can be retrieved at any time in case of a dispute for verfication. It does the job of paper balloting that leaves an audit trail," he said.

To incorporate safeguards and to remove doubts in the minds of political parties, Sampath said the Commission could think of increasing the proportion of counting slips in consultation with parties. The quantity of sampling of slips can be increased.

Another former CEC, who declined to be named, said the EVMs have been subjected to criticism from the very beginning on one ground or another.

"While people are talking of returning to the ballot papers, let's revisit how and why we switched to the machines in the first place. There were many serious issues with the ballot papers. Firstly, it is not an environment-friendly method. So many ballot papers would need cutting of innumerable trees. On the other hand, EVMs, once made, can be used over and over again.

"Secondly, there was the issue of a large number of invalid votes. If a voter failed to put the stamp correctly, if the stamp touched the margins, the vote would be deemed invalid. This invariably resulted in disputes at the time of counting. Also, the counting of votes took a very long time, he said.

The former EC boss said there were also cases of booth capturing and ballot papers being forged. This led to frequent countermanding of polls.

It was in this background that it was decided to hold the elections with machines. The EVMs are tamper-proof -- unless you get hold of one and change the motherboard. But you will need to steal a very large number of machines and then restore them back to the EC strong room that has multi-layered security, without anyone knowing about it, in order to actually influence an election, he said.

Asked about opposition's suspicions that chips can be installed in EVMs that can make them behave in a particular way for a specific time and then return to normal, he said: "I don't think that is possible."

"What happens is that when a party has huge expectations of winning the polls but fails, it resorts to blaming the EVMs. They can't blame the voters because then the voters may teach them a more bitter lesson in the next elections," he said.

Sampath said that, after the 2009 general elections too there were grave misgivings over the machines. Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu made a presentation at an all-party meeting convened by the Election Commission in 2010 in which 42 recognised parties participated.

"Barring three or four parties, all of them expressed misgivings. The Shiv Sena said go back to paper ballots. We said there is no question of going back to paper ballots. The first step for the VVPAT was sown in that meeting," he recalled.

He said a subsequent CEC announced that whenever elections are held, VVPATs would be introduced to provide for an audit trail.

The other CEC said: "You see, in 2004, it was a different party that questioned the EVMs. In 2009, it was the (currently-ruling) BJP that vigorously advocated discarding the EVMs. But the fact is that after around 120 state and national elections with EVMs, nobody has been able to prove that the EVM used by the Commission can be tampered with. The EC has repeatedly thrown challenges. The demonstration in the Delhi assembly was done using a toy machine, not the actual EVM."

He acknowledged that "large scale" failure of VVPATs in recent bypolls -- for technical reasons or whatever -- has created another controversy.

"Having said that, if the entire system, that is all political parties agree, the EC can return to the ballot paper. The EC functions as per the law. The current law is for holding elections through machines, so that is being done. If they make a law to hold the elections through ballot papers, the EC would do that," he said.

On the issue of simultaneous elections on which the Law Commission is holding consultations, Sampath said: "Elections are held as per law of the land and they cannot be coerced."

"Even if simultaneous elections are held to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, there is no guarantee that the respective Houses would last their terms. And then you can't wait for Parliament's term to end to hold elections to Assemblies or vice versa, given the coalition era and the political instability the country has gone through since the 1990s."

Sampath said simutaneous elections should come in the "natural course and cannot be coerced".

He acknowledged that frequent elections in India put pressure on governance because of the Model Code of Conduct that restrains governments from taking decisions and sometimes this covered the Central government too. It also puts pressure on parties because it becomes some kind of a frequent referendum.

To overcome frequent elections, Sampath suggested that elections, especially to Assemblies, can be clubbed as far as possible together in a year.

"Elections becoming due in some states in different periods can be clubbed together for which the Election Commission should also be given some flexibility beyond the six-month period to have the authority to hold polls. A party that is in power with a huge majority at a given time cannot be sure that it will always be the case," he said.

Sampath said simultaneous elections can theoretically be good but "we should be able to achieve the right thing for right reasons and not wrong reasons".

He also suggested that the requirement of a by-election within six months of a constituency falling vacant can be done away with, giving the Commission more leeway in clubbing vacancies together.

The other former CEC said "simultaneous polls are not that easy to do".

"At least I don't see them happening in 2019. You need Constitutional amendments and a legal framework for that. But again, if there is a consensus among the political parties on this, even simultaneous elections can be done. But that is easier said than done," he said.

(Mohd. Asim Khan can be contacted at asim.k@ians.in)
Geneva, Aug 5 : Computer science is now obligatory at Swiss upper secondary schools as the Alpine nation seeks to boost its citizens' IT skills, the Education Ministry announced.

Schools tailored for pupils who typically go on to university have until the school year 2022-23 to introduce the compulsory lessons under a regulation change that came in on August 1, the Swiss national day, reports Xinhua news agency.

Previously, IT had the status of a non-obligatory supplementary subject, Swiss public television RTS reported.

Pupils will learn programming basics as well as about computer networks and digital communication security issues.

They should also develop a "well-versed understanding of developments in the information society", according to an Education Ministry statement.

The change was made due to the "rising importance in society" of information and communication technologies (ICT), said the Ministry.

There is currently a strong demand for IT specialists, but those in the field say there are not enough skilled workers to fill these positions, reported Swissinfo, the website of the national broadcaster.

"We don't have any problem finding people for the helpdesk, which is quite easy in IT terms, but it's much more complicated to find developers," Lionel Rieder, co-founder of website developer Raccoon in NeuchAtel, told RTS.

According to statistics shown in the RTS report, some 90,000 people were employed in Swiss IT professions in 1991.

This had risen to 210,800 by 2015. By 2024, there is expected to be a shortfall of almost 25,000 IT specialists.
Managua, Aug 5 : The Nicaragua Police has cracked down on anti-government marches being held in several cities across the country and barred foreign journalists from covering the protests.

"You cannot go here, go to the park and shoot there," said a police officer, while stopping journalists from entering a street that was part of a common transit, Efe news reported.

Several reporters have been captured and assaulted during the protests, in which, until now, 317-448 people have lost their lives.

The protests against President Daniel Ortega, who has been accused of corruption and abuse of power, started on April 18 over a set of social security reforms and had led to repeated calls for him to step down.
Mumbai, Aug 5 : Actor Riteish Deshmukh described his wife and actress Genelia Deshmukh as his best friend, lifeline and strength on her 31st birthday on Sunday.

"Serendipity: Friendship Day meets birthday. Wishing my bestest friend, my strength, my lifeline, my 'Baiko' a very happy birthday. Loads of surprises in store before the day ends. Love you Genelia! And yes, every birthday you don't need to remind me that you are way younger than me!" Riteish, 39, tweeted on Sunday.

Genelia began her acting career with "Tujhe Meri Kasam", also starring Riteish, in 2003. She later established herself in Telugu cinema by acting in several films from 2003 to 2005.

In 2004, the actress appeared in her second Bollywood movie, "Masti", which she co-starred with Riteish.

Her breakthrough performance in 2008 was through the portrayal of the role of Aditi Mahant in the blockbuster movie "Jaane TuA Ya Jaane Na".

The couple tied the knot in 2012 and welcomed their first child, a son named Riaan, in November 2014. Their second son Rahyl Deshmukh was born in June 2016.

Other celebrities also used Twitter to wish Genelia. Here's what they tweeted:

Preity Zinta: Happy birthday to the sweetest, nicest and cutest girl Genelia! Loads of love always!

Jackky Bhagnani: Wishing Genelia 'vahini' (sister-in-law), a very happy birthday! May happiness, peace, love and joy follow you wherever you go. Have a great day.

Milap Zaveri: Happy birthday Genelia. May you have a wonderful day and year! Big hug.
Patna, Aug 5 : Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister C.P. Thakur on Sunday demanded the resignation of Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verna in connection with the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district.

"Manju Verma should resign taking moral responsibility for what happened in the shelter home being run under her department and resign," Thakur said.

Thakur is first BJP leader to demand the resignation of Manju Verma since the Muzaffarpur horror surfaced last month.

Thakur wondered how it was possible that such a crime happened and there was no information about it to the social welfare department.

"The Muzaffarpur incident is the result of lapses of the social welfare department," he said.

Thakur said when he was informed about the incident, he wanted to visit the shelter home. But the shocking case hit the headlines in the media.

Till now, only the RJD, Congress, HAM and Left parties have demanded the resignation of Manju Verma and the arrest of her husband for his alleged involvement in the case.

The CBI is investigating the multiple rapes in the shelter home.

The Muzaffarpur crime came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Cardiff, Aug 5 : Despite a multi-million pound campaign to boost tourism, Wales is "standing still" in attracting foreign tourists, an expert has said.

Renowned travel writer Simon Calder said that it was really concerning that visitor spending dropped by 17 per cent at a time when the pound was weak, the BBC reported.

A record 39.2 million visitors came to the UK in 2017 but headed mainly to London and Scotland, new figures show.

The numbers of foreign tourists rose by 0.5 per cent but their spendings dropped by 17 per cent in the 12 months. Five million pounds was spent on the "Year of Legends" campaign, which aimed to give visitors legendary experiences.

"These figures are really concerning for the Wales tourism industry. Scotland in particular has done very well while Wales is effectively standing still," Calder said.

The tourism analysis published by the Welsh Government describes UK-wide increases being driven by visitors from north America and non-European countries.

Overall, 20 million headed for London (up 4 per cent from 2016) and 3.2 million for Scotland (up 17 per cent). In comparison, there were only 1.1 million visitors to Wales (up 0.5 per cent).

The lack of flights from major countries meant Wales was regarded as "an add on" to a trip to England rather than a destination in its own right, Calder added.

The Wales Tourism Alliance described the figures as "disappointing".
Kolkata, Aug 5 : West Bengal's Left Front leaders on Sunday demanded that no Indian citizen should be left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and accused the BJP and Trinamool Congress of trying to communally polarise people on the issue.

"We want all the Indians to be registered in the NRC list. Not a single person should be left out. All the Indian citizens among the 40 lakh persons left out of the draft NRC in Assam should be immediately registered," West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Bose said.

Accusing Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of opposing the NRC to gain political mileage and promote communal polarisation, Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Surjya Kanta Misra said that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Banerjee's Trinamool Congress were on the same page on the citizens' list in the past.

"Banerjee brought forth this idea of NRC to Bengal. We all know her mindset regarding the Bangladesh refugees since 2005. Now she is opposing it (NRC) to promote communal polarisation so that people think that the Trinamool and the BJP are fighting. But actually, their stand on this issue is the same," Misra alleged.

He said that the BJP and its allies would not have been able to get a foothold in Bengal without Banerjee's support.

"The BJP has been trying to do this for a long time. I can recall that they were attempting this even 40 years ago. But they will not get any foothold in West Bengal without the support of this Chief Minister," he added.
London, Aug 5 : Have you ever felt annoyed with yourself, maybe for forgetting to do an important task, or for leaving the house keys behind? If so, acting out things you are supposed to remember or pretending that you are actually doing it, can help you recall, suggests a research.

The findings showed that alternative enactment techniques, such as acting, can improve patients' prospective memory -- where you have not remembered to take the action you had planned.

This involves recreating an action one would like to remember, and pretending that you are actually doing it, in as much vivid detail as possible, the researchers said.

A failing prospective memory can be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease, according to lead author Antonina Periera, psychologist at the University of Chichester in the UK.

"The study suggests that enactment techniques are effective in improving prospective memory," she added.

In the research, published in the journal Neuropsychology, the team examined the prospective memory performance in nearly 100 participants, which included patients with mild cognitive impairment aged 64-87 years, healthy older adults aged 62-84 years and younger adults aged 2-18 years.

Participants of all age groups reported improvement in prospective memory, especially the older subjects with mild cognitive impairment in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, after the enhancement technique.

The researchers confirmed that prospective memory erodes as we get older and that enactment techniques might support those with a poor prospective memory.

Encouraging people in this category to adopt enhancement as a means to enhance prospective memory could result in them leading independent, autonomous lives for longer.

The enactment techniques "can have very long lasting effects and work even for people with cognitive impairment. Acting is the key," Periera noted.
Tehran, Aug 5 : The French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR delivered five more turboprops to Iran on Sunday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The ATR 72-600 passenger planes landed at Tehran's international Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning, a day before the return of first round of US sanctions against Iran, reports Xinhua news agency.

Flight licenses have been issued for the ATR passenger planes to join Iran Air's fleet, the Iran Air announcement said.

In April 2017, Iran Air signed a contract with ATR to purchase 20 short-haul passenger jets worth $576 million. Iran had already received eight ATR 72-600 aircraft and deployed them in domestic flights.

After US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement, Washington is trying to bring sanctions back on Iran with the aim of blocking Iran's international financial transaction and reducing its oil exports to zero.
Damascus, Aug 5 : Aziz Asber, the head of the Scientific Research Centre in Syria's central province of Hama, has been assassinated, according to activists and pro-government reports.

Asber was killed when an explosion targeted his vehicle in Masyaf in the western countryside of Hama late on Saturday, killing him and his driver, Xinhua news agency quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the man had close ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran.

The Scientific Research Centre in Masyaf has been targeted by the Israelis several times and most recently was in last month, giving rise to reported suspect that Israel is behind the assassination of Asber, according to the watchdog.

Some Israeli reports said the Syrian scientist was involved in Iranian missile programme.

Asber was also on the sanction list of the US for developing long-range missiles.

There have been no official comments from the Syrian government, with pro-government activists posting photos online of a charred car said to be the scientist's.
Online voting for the fourth Middle East Hospitality Excellence Awards, set to take place at the Majestic QE2 in Dubai this November, is going on in full swing and with over 40,000 votes already received in just two weeks.



"The fourth Middle East Hospitality Excellence Awards 2018 will be presented to recognise top industry organisations which have shown skill, creativity, ingenuity and success in the Middle East & Africa's growing hospitality industry. The voting should only take five minutes, and responses are completely anonymous," said, Raj Bhatt, CEO, Hozpitality Group - organiser of the awards.



"The voting will be in two phases. Hozpitality Group has over 1 million registered hospitality professionals from over 186 countries. They are being asked to vote online for these award nominations. We are also sending the voting link to all the hotels who could hand them over to their guests/staff for voting," added Raj Bhatt, CEO, Hozpitality Group.



The list of candidates is also floated online among all hospitality members and social media for online voting and the top seven finalists per category will be chosen by end of August, who would further continue to collect votes. The final result will be based on the results of the online voting and judges votes. Gold and Silver Winners will be awarded at the Award ceremony on November 26, added Raj. - TradeArabia News Service


New Delhi, Aug 5 : A 27-year-old cook was arrested on the charge of stealing ornaments, including diamonds, from the house of a 60-year-old woman who was his former employer in south Delhi, police said on Sunday.

Police said jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh was recovered from him.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said the woman, a resident of New Friends Colony, had complained to police in July about the theft of diamonds, polki and kundan necklaces, earrings, and other jewellery while she was away.

Police said Roop Narain of Datuali Chander village in Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, who had left his job as a cook at the elderly woman's house two months before the crime, was arrested on August 3.

He told police that he had started an eatery at Aali village in Sarita Vihar after leaving his job but the business was not good, forcing him to commit theft.
Ghaziabad, Aug 5 : A senior lawyer on Sunday spoke out strongly against his colleagues accused of resorting to violence in the Ghaziabad court complex.

Ram Autar Gupta, a two-time Bar President, condemned the agitation by a section of lawyers here demanding action against police personnel.

"The court complex has become a haven for vagabonds," Gupta said. He accused the guilty lawyers of getting drink, beating up an eatery owner, threatening hospital staff, assaulting an innocent police inspector and roughing up a senior police officer.

And all this happened even though Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna had suspended four police constables who had acted wrongly vis-a-vis the lawyers earlier, Gupta said.

Gupta said the strike by Ghaziabad lawyers was lowering the image of the fraternity. "We are not going to support this anarchy," he said.

The police have registered a FIR against 300 to 350 lawyers under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including attempt to murder, for beating up a police sub-inspector and roughing up Superintendent of Police Akash Tomar.

Two complaints were also filed by journalists who alleged they were beaten, kept hostage and their cameras were broken by lawyers when they came to cover the violence.
Kolkata, Aug 5 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday attacked the BJP and the RSS, accusing them of "spreading misinformation" on the Supreme Court's directive in publishing the National Register of Citizens in Assam.

Reiterating that the names of many Indians were "deliberately" left out of the draft NRC in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Assam, Banerjee said every step taken by these outfits are influenced by "political vendetta".

"It is unfortunate that the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are making and spreading misleading statements against the Supreme Court which never asked for deletion of names of Indian citizens from the list," Banerjee wrote on Twitter.

"The list of Indian citizens left out comprise Bengalis, Assamese, Rajasthanis, Marwaris, Biharis, Gurkhas, UPites, Punjabis and natives from four southern states," she claimed.

Referring to kin of former Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed who were left out of the draft NRC, Banerjee said that such families are being put in panic because of serious anomalies.

She also raised questions over the deployment of 200 companies of central forces in Assam following the publication of the draft NRC on July 30 and alleged that the core values of India, such as democracy and secularism, are being destroyed by the BJP and RSS.

"Where is democracy? Where is secularism? Why are the core values of our country being destroyed? Why have 200 companies of central forces being sent to Assam. Every single action of the BJP and RSS is one of deliberate destructiveness and political vendetta," she added.
New Delhi, Aug 5 : The National School of Drama here on Sunday clarified that a young woman who complained of molestation by a guest lecturer was never its student.

The 25-year-old woman, in her complaint on August 1, alleged that she was inappropriately touched by a 62-year-old retired Professor at a workshop.

"The applicant was never a student of National School of Drama, as has appeared in a section of print and electronic media. She was an applicant for the selection process for admission to the three-year diploma course in dramatic arts," an NSD statement said.

It said that an internal committee set up to probe is yet to submit its final report for further action.
Moscow, Aug 6 : Russian Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the attempted attack against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, stressing that using terrorism in political struggle is "unacceptable".

"We consider categorically unacceptable the use of terrorist methods as tools of political struggle. Obviously, such actions are aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country," the ministry said in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Maduro escaped unharmed from an attempted attack of explosive drones on Saturday night during his speech to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the country's National Guard.

The foreign ministry noted that the attack came at a time when the congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela held just a few days ago outlined the priorities for restoring the country's economy.

"We are convinced that the settlement of political differences must be carried out exclusively in a peaceful and democratic way," the ministry said.
As we continue to develop our product offering, changing the name of our client communication platform to Fuse made perfect sense, said Agency Revolution President, Rick Fox.

Agency Revolution, the leading marketing technology provider for independent insurance agents, is changing the name of its flagship product, Connect. The new product will provide the same extraordinary client communication capabilities, now under the name Fuse.

As we continue to develop our product offering, changing the name of our client communication platform to Fuse made perfect sense, said Agency Revolution President, Rick Fox. Fuse invokes the concept of bringing together as well as lighting the fuse in your marketing. Our goal is to create products that help the independent agent build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their customers  something that is a necessity in todays insurance world. We believe that Fuse will help us achieve that goal.

Agency Revolution, located in Bend, Oregon, has been helping insurance agents increase their retention rates and find new prospects for over 20 years. They will continue to offer their software solution with the same robust features and support team, along with their marketing suite for insurance agencies and brokerages, Attract.

"There's no better software in the industry for strengthening the relationships between clients and the insurance agency." Said Lucas Jans, Director of Product Engineering for Agency Revolution. "Fuse has tight integration with 8 different Agency Management Systems - so the name fits perfectly."

Agency Revolution

Agency Revolution provides marketing and communication tools for independent insurance agencies and brokerages, allowing them to keep their customers and engaged and stay top-of-mind with prospects. In 1995 Michael Jans founded Insurance Profit Systems to give independent insurance agents and brokers the knowledge they need to succeed, before changing the name to Agency Revolution in 2010 and shifting the focus to providing digital tools that would allow agencies and brokerages the power to scale their relationships and communicate their value.
Known for its solid reputation as one of the most trusted names in the industry, Intempus Property Management recently expanded beyond its home in San Franciscos Bay Area to Indianapolis, where the company has continued to form strong relationships with local real estate investors.

Owners Michael Khesin and Eugene Korsunsky have made it their mission to provide the best possible service to real estate investors from the very beginning, and it shows. Not only does Intempus strive to maximize each propertys ROI; the company prioritizes customer satisfaction, and maintains a strong connection with each unique client.

This customer-centric business model has yielded incredible success in California, where the company originally launched. More recently, Intempus extended its operations to Indiana, when the market began heating up a little over one year ago. Despite the short amount of time that has passed since this expansion, the company is already experiencing tremendous growth in its new location.

Thanks to its unmatched level of service and dedication, Intempus has quickly acquired scores of additional rental properties over the past 12 months. In fact, the company now manages more than 1,000 rental propertiesincluding single family houses, condominiums, townhouses, and apartments between the two regions where it operates.

Considering the thorough service Intempus clients enjoy, it almost comes as no surprise that the company is celebrating so much success. Since it was founded, Intempus has assisted investors with every aspect of property management, from the thorough tenant screening services to streamlined rent collection, and 24/7 client support.

For more information about Intempus property management services or to speak with a leasing agent, contact Intempus at (408) 748-7592 or email info(at)intempus.net.

About Intempus

Intempus Property Management is part of the larger Intempus Realty brand, which includes brokerage and construction services for residential and commercial property owners. Clients have trusted the Intempus brand for unparalleled service, trustworthiness, and dedication to professionalism since 2005.
We are always excited at the international scope and depth of the Brahman cattle industry.

Moreno Ranches, the leader in Brahman genetic products, is pleased to announce availability of Moreno Mr. Polled Kyros 571 semen in Australia. Kyros recently concluded his successful show career after accumulating three Division titles, being named Reserve Grand Champion at the Heartland Classic, and placing third in the competitive Senior Bull Class at the International Show.

He is sired by JDH Mr. Kabram Manso 434/8, our proven son of the National & International Champion and global producer, +JDH Woodson De Manso 206/7. The dam to Polled Kyros is sired by JME US Lexor Manso 71, the polled sire who was a former champion and leading sire for some of the breeds most respected breeders and out of the dam of Polled Paulette, the High Selling Lot at the 16 International Sale, and Man of Mans the award winning bull purchased by Megan Roberts. Polled Kyros is a moderate framed, beefy, deep ribbed and big boned sire that should produce low birthweight, moderate growth offspring with superior carcass traits.

"We are always excited at the international scope and depth of the Brahman cattle industry," explained Kelvin Moreno, Ranch proprietor. "The heat resistance of Brahman cattle makes them an excellent choice for Australia, and it's no surprise to us to see vibrant demand for Brahman genetic products in Australia."

Those who would like to learn more about Moreno Ranches and their superior Brahman cattle have a number of options. First, they can visit the website at http://www.morenoranches.com/. The website is full of full color photos of Brahman cattle. Second, the Ranch hosts and participates in a number of Brahman cattle shows and sales throughout the year. Some of the shows and sales are online, making it possible for someone literally anywhere in the world with an Internet connection to view and participate. For example, the Ranch hosts an annual "Cyber Monday" sale that builds on the momentum in the United States for the Monday after Thanksgiving each year. But regardless of whether a person is in the United States or not, they can participate in this digital event. Fourth, the Ranch allows "ranch tours" of both its Texas Brahman Cattle ranch and its Florida Brahman Cattle ranch. Many times foreign visitors are coming to Texas or to Florida and can just add in a stop to the Ranch. Finally for Brahman genetic products it must be noted that easy export is possible. In this way, one can avoid the hassles of attempting to import or export a rather heavy Brahman animal and instead just deal with genetic products.

The Ranch is known as a top seller of both Brahman semen (http://www.morenoranches.com/brahman-semen-for-sale/) and Brahman embryos (http://www.morenoranches.com/brahman-embryos-for-sale/), much of which is destined for export.

Interested persons are well advised to first visit the Ranch website to reach out via email, web form or telephone for more information.

ABOUT MORENO RANCHES

Moreno Ranches is a top producer of Brahman cattle for sale. Customers come to the company for genetically superior Brahman bulls for sale and Brahman semen (seed stock) as well as Brahman embryos. The company produces both Brahman heifers and calves for sale, including for use as show cattle or to produce Brahman F1 hybrids. Visit the company's website to browse stock. The company is a trusted source of Brahman cattle whether a buyer is in Florida, Texas, Mississippi, or Louisiana - Latin America, or anywhere in the world.

Web. http://www.morenoranches.com/

Tel. 863-444-8745
READ MORE: LLB Students call for cancellation of Law School exams

According to them, the exams questions and the making scheme were leaked hours before paper, giving some students unfair advantage.

The IEC has decided to set a supplementary compulsory question for the candidates who had earlier sat for the exams.

The acting Executive Secretary of the IEC, in a notice, noted that the examinations have been scheduled for August 17, 2018, at 10:00 am at the same centre at the University of Ghana, Legon.

The 45-minute compulsory question will be based on one of the subject areas, including Law of Contract, Law of Torts, Criminal Law, Law of Immovable Property, Ghana Legal System and Methods, Equity and Succession, Company Law and Commercial Law, according to the GLC.

Only candidates who sat for the first examination are eligible to rewrite the supplementary entrance examination, according to the notice.
The released follows the adoption of the quota system of admission in 2017.

READ MORE: Ghana Registered Nurses Association agrees to reintroduction of quota system

"I would want to caution Principals and Heads of Institutions running nursing and midwifery programmes to adhere to the quota," the statement said.

The statement comes on the heels of a new admission policy adopted by stakeholders last year.

"Any school who flouts the quota policy will be severely dealt with," the statement warned.

The decision to revert to the quota system was backed by the leadership of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA).

President of GRNA, Mr. Kwaku Asante-Krobea explained that health training institutions in the country have in the past few years overpopulated their campuses irrespective of not having the capacity to accommodate them.
By Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net

Mumbai: Questions about Somnath temple destruction, Shah Bano, and Sawarkar features among the questions asked in a written test conducted in May 2018 for recruitment for Mumbai Railway Police.

Questions ranged from mathematics, analytical reasoning, general knowledge, current affairs and also History. However many candidates who appeared for this written test found some questions objectionable.

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A candidate who talked to a TCN journalist asked, How is it relevant to us who attacked the Somnath temple in the 11th century?

Another question asked about the Shah Bano case while another asked which revolutionary organization was established by Savarkar.

Mumbai Railway Police is provide services to about 7 million commuters travelling daily on Central, Harbour and Western Railway. One wonders what is the purpose of asking these questions and how is that relevant to the job of policing?
The closed season was meant for all fleets comprising canoes, Inshore Boats and trawlers.

The fishermen had condemned the ban, saying the government was going to deprive them of their livelihood.

The President of the Farmers and Fishermen Association of Ghana, Rev Kojo Nkrumah, reacted to the ban saying:Farmers are going to suffer following this decision. \

How do you expect them to feed their families and pay for the fees of their children? he asked.
Dr Amoah is one of the prosecution witnesses in the ongoing trial of the former Chief Executive of Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Dr Stephen Opuni, together with businessman, Siedu Agongo,CEO of the fertilizer company, Agricult Ghana Limited.

It is unclear why his contract was terminated, but the newspaper reports that he is being sent him home for the second time after his August 2015 retirement at age 60.

Upon assumption of office by President Nana Akufo-Addo, the substantive boss of CRIG, one Dr. Gilbert Kwarpong, was removed from his position, and Dr. Amoah, made to replace him, according to the Herald.

According to the pro-opposition newspaper, at the last court session of the trail of Dr Opuni, Dr. Amoah, testified that the CRIG, recommended the use of Agricut Lithovit foliar on matured cocoa to COCOBOD.

He also admitted authoring and signing the scientific report that led COCOBOD to purchase the fertilizer called, Agricut Lithovit.
The suspension of the strike follows government's decision to meet the conditions tabled by the doctors at their 4th annual executive council meeting in Jirapa in the Upper West Region.

Following the executive council meeting, GMA threatened to withdraw all emergency services on August 20, then on August 27, all services offered by doctors in the public health facilities shall be totally withdrawn.

The doctors had expressed concerns over their conditions of service, especially on the freeze of their market premium.

In a statement calling off the strike, the president of the association, Dr. Frank Ankobea said: Government has agreed to unfreeze the market premium with effect from May 2013. Some percentage points increase on the current rate has also been agreed.

"Government has also agreed to give a detailed directive to all agencies and facilities to implement all the other aspects of the conditions of service that falls within their remit.

Following the agreement, the road map issued at Jirapa on Saturday, July 28, 2018, has been duly suspended by National Executive Council (NEC), the statement added.
He is reported to have killed his brother, Tor Kwabena Alex, 26, using a stick.

The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Sampa Government Hospital mortuary pending autopsy, the Daily Guide newspaper has reported.

The quarrel between the two brothers is said to have occurred about 9 PM on Thursday at Duadaso No 1.

During the melee, Kwame picked a stick and hit the head of Alex who instantly fell unconscious, according to Daily Guide.

He was rushed to the Sampa Government Hospital where he died later, but its unclear what really caused the quarrel.

The spokesman of the Brong Ahafo Police, Chief Inspector Augustine Oppong, confirmed that the police were investigating circumstances that led to the death of Kwabena Alex in an interview.

The case was reported to the Sampa Police by one Okra Emmanuel, who is also a family member, according to the newspapaer.
At issue is whether New York regulators violated the constitutional rights of the NRA by preventing financial institutions and insurers in the state from doing business with the organization.

In the lawsuit, the NRA accused Cuomo, as well as the New York State Department of Financial Services and its superintendent, Maria T. Vullo, of discrimination that violated the organizations right to free speech.

Last months amended complaint included more details about how state regulators have squeezed the organization.

The NRA said officials had discouraged banks and insurers, including Lockton Companies and Chubb Group Holdings, from working with it.

If insurers remain wary, the organization said, it could be forced to shut down some of its programs, such as its online video channel, NRATV.

Defendants conduct indeed shocks the conscience, the complaint said.

Cuomos response Friday was terse: If I could have put the NRA out of business, I would have done it 20 years ago.

While the complaint said the NRA had suffered tens of millions of dollars in damages because of New York state officials, it did not make specific claims about the organizations current financial standing.

Much of the argument revolves around Carry Guard, an insurance program started by the NRA last year that was meant to cover legal fees for people who fired a weapon in self-defense.

New York financial regulators began investigating the program in October. That investigation was continuing when a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February.

Survivors of the shooting have led protests in support of stricter gun control. Politicians have voiced their support, including Cuomo, who stretched out on a sidewalk to participate in a die-in with students in lower Manhattan in March. Several businesses, including car rental services, airlines, technology companies and insurers, announced they were cutting ties with the NRA.

Three months after the Parkland shooting, the Department of Financial Services announced that Lockton and an affiliate would pay a fine of $7 million while Chubb and a subsidiary would pay $1.3 million for underwriting Carry Guard.

According to the department, the program unlawfully provided liability insurance to gun owners for acts of intentional wrongdoing.

Days later, the NRA filed its initial complaint, arguing that the states aims went far beyond its opposition to Carry Guard. From the outset, it was clear that the investigation was meant to advance Cuomos political agenda by stifling the NRAs speech and retaliating against the NRA based on its viewpoint on gun control issues, it said, claiming that its constitutional rights had been violated through conspiracy and implicit censorship.

Last months amendments added two more accusations: that state officials had interfered with potential revenue and that they had violated the NRAs freedom of association.

Defendants seek to silence one of Americas oldest constitutional rights advocates, it said. If their abuses are not enjoined, they will soon, substantially, succeed.

In announcing the filing to dismiss the suit, Cuomo said that while the NRA tries to play the victim, New York stands with the real victims  the thousands of people whose lives are cut short by gun violence every year.

The NRA is a staunch, sometimes incendiary defender of the Second Amendment with a long record of hobbling regulatory efforts, grading legislators on their voting histories and running ads suggesting that the rights of gun owners are forever under siege.

During the 2016 presidential election cycle, the NRA spent $20 million to persuade voters to reject Hillary Clinton and another $11 million in support of Donald Trump. Public records from that year showed that the organizations expenses exceeded revenues by about $46 million.

Donations to the organization spiked after the Parkland shooting, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.

William Brewer, a partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors who is lead counsel in the organizations lawsuit against the New York officials, said Saturday that the NRA is growing and in good financial standing.

However, the conduct of defendants, from the home state of the NRA, now threaten the financial growth and overall trajectory of the organization, he said.

On Saturday afternoon, Cuomo doubled down in his opposition to Carry Guard, announcing a national effort urging states across the country to follow New Yorks lead and outlaw the insurance program.

At a time when Washington has completely abdicated its responsibility to protect the American people, states must lead, he said in a statement.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has joined Kenyans in mourning the untimely death of primary school children who perished in a grizzly accident on Saturday night.

The President sent a message of condolences to the families of eight pupils who died in a road crash on

It is indeed sad and unfortunate that we lost those we look forward to secure the future of our great nation, said Mr Kenyatta in his message to the parents and guardians of the students.

The students from St Gabriel Primary School in Mwingi were travelling from Mombasa where they had gone for a study tour when their bus was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry at Kanginga bridge about 1 Km from Mwingi town on the Thika-Garissa Road at around 11:00 pm.

After the collision, the bus lost control and plunged into the Kanginga river bed.

The 10 pupils were among 50 passengers who included their teachers.

Eight pupils died on the spot while the two others succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment.

Of the injured, 32 students were admitted in Mwingi Level Four Hospital, six of them in critical condition while 26 are in stable condition.

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu also condoled the families that lost children in the tragic crash.

"I want to call upon everyone to pray for the parents to be strong enough to bear with this tremendous loss. Let's all pray for the souls of the little angels to rest in peace. Poleni sana," Ms Ngilu said.
The recall according to Premium Times came amid a legal action by the students.

The students reportedly led the protest on February 17, 2017.

In a recall letter issued to the affected students on Friday, August 3, 2018, the university said it had reversed its decision during a meeting of the Senate in July.

According to Premium Times, some of the affected students are: Collins Ogbonna, Fishery and Aquaculture Technology; Elvis Onuoha, Animal Science Technology; Ebuka Odunze, Computer Science Department; Kenneth Megwa, Prosthetics and Orthotics Department; and Nnamdi Madu and Collins Ugwu of the Optometry Department.

The letter reads partly:

The Senate at its 437th meeting held on Tuesday, July 3, 2018, ratified the amnesty granted by the Vice-Chancellor to the students who were expelled for their involvement in the planning and execution of the violent demonstration of Friday, February 17,
In his long response on Instagram, Okonkwo said "One wonders what this busybody wants to achieve by writing this. It is this shameless, psychophantic attitude of such people like Reno Omokri, of writing falsehood, that is promoting the culture of fake news on the internet. Shame!!"

Earlier on Saturday, August 4, 2018 at about 11AM, Omokri had taken to his Twitter to call out Okonkwo for supporting President Muhammadu Buhari.

ALSO READ: Kenneth Okonkwo wants to be the next governor of Enugu state

"This is Kenneth Okonkwo when he was telling @ the same thing he is now telling President @. He will also say the same thing to the next occupant of that office. That is what he is good at. He knows how to ACT loyal without BEING loyal!"

Okonkwo has made public his intention to run for the position of Enugu state governor under the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the next general elections.

Kenneth Okonkwo says south-east should support Buhari

Kenneth Okonkwo has said that if the people of the south-eastern part of the country don't support President Buhari in 2019, they will wander in the wilderness for eight years.

The actor turned politician made this known during an event where he was given the opportunity to speak.

The actor campaigned for Buhari by urging the Igbos to support the President for a second term as there is no better alternative.
This comes after her role as Itohan in "Esohe," an epic film which is a collaboration between Nollywood and Hollywood.

Written, directed and co-produced by Michael Matteo Rossi, "Chase" tells the story of a hit man, who must prove his loyalty to his mentor and best friend.

The upcoming film stars Damien Puckler as the hit man, and Itene as the character Jayla. Others include Jessica Morris, Aries Spears, Richard riehle , Devanny Pinn and Simeon Panda.

Chase really is a roller coaster of a ride. I feel theres a lot of stinging emotion mixed with some action and a lot of unique kills from our lead hit man. Itll definitely be a bloody journey for the characters involved that the audience will be invested in," Michael Matteo Rossi, whose other works include "Misogynist" and "Stable," said in an official statement sent to Pulse on August 4.

Before she landed a role in "Chase," Oghenekaro worked in South Africa as a make up artiste in the music and movie industry, with some acting jobs on the side. "This has been my brightest dream. I have dreamt about this since I can ever barely remember. And I am glad my dreams are coming to fruition," she told Pulse.

"I am glad of who I am becoming. I am proud of how much I am achieving. It has changed my life positively that I think of success always now. I am so glad of this life changing opportunity that I have and I will make very good use of its advantages to bear a fruitful result."
She made this known in a post which she published on Facebook.

Onochie put up the list in reaction to a statement issued by the Senate President when he dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Buharis anti-corruption war is personal

According to the Senate President, Buharis anti-corruption waris being used as a weapon to silence any form of dissent.

He said However, what we have seen is a situation whereby every dissent from the legislature was framed as an affront on the executive or as part of an agenda to undermine the government itself.

The populist notion of anti-corruption became a ready weapon for silencing any form of dissent and for framing even principled objection as corruption fighting back.

Governance principles were deliberately violated in APC

Saraki, while listing his also said that All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined. And all entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion.

He also revealed that some blocked all his efforts to make peace.

Buharis aide fires back

In her response, Onochie said that the APC is the most tolerant party in the world.

See her full response and list of Sarakis sins below:

THE MANY SINS OF DR. BUKOLA SARAKI AGAINST APC AND THE APC LED GOVERNMENT.

APC is the most tolerant political party in the world.

No other party would accommodate Dr. Saraki the way APC did till we could take no more. Here are a few of his sins. Just a few obvious ones that are in the public domain:

1. Non-confirmation of EFCC Chairman sent in by the President impeding and threatening to derail the fight against corruption.

2. Giving preference to PDP members in committee appointments in the Senate.

3. Delay in the confirmation of the boards for AMCON, CBN, NERC, NSADA, ICPC, among others.

4. Giving the Deputy Senate President to the opposition party.

5. Placing roadblocks to the actualization of governments promises to Nigerians.

6. Constituting a clog in the wheel of progress of the development of the country and the implementation of the policies of the administration.

7. Joining forces with the opposition to ridicule President Buharis fight against corruption.

8. Stole money from the APC Campaign during the Presidential campaign in 2015 and starved the Campaign Council of funds.

9. Maintains a relationship with a gang of armed robbers who have been notorious for disturbing the peace of good people of Kwara State.

10. Rallied corrupt elements to buy his Senate Presidency seat against the wishes of the Party.

11. Currently inducing Senators with $100,000 each to suffocate PMBs government in the Senate.

12. Delay of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 budgets and thus impeding the economic development of the country.

13. Budget padding and inserting 391 projects into budget of only two agencies.

14. Shutting down the National Assembly and personalizing the National Assembly affairs especially when he is required to answer questions at law enforcement authorities, we see the entire senate following him to the CCT and shutting down the Senate.

15. His refusal to entertain the virement for the funding of critical MDAs which will ensure key agencies like INEC, NSA, NPF conduct their duties to ensure a free and fair elections.

16. Frustrating key laws in the fight against corruption and promoting laws that serve personal interest like the Bill on re-ordering the sequence of elections.

17. Fictitious insertions of amounts that are diverted in the name of constituency projects.

18. Lack of internal democracy where he, at will, suspends senators with different opinion from him.

19. Refusal to approve loans meant for infrastructural development of the country.

20. Using the Senate as an institution to fight personal vendetta.

21. Generally undermining the government for the past three years.

22. Permitting and tacitly endorsing frivolous motions to unjustly attack the President and the Government.
According to a statement by Brig.-Gen Texas Chukwu, the army spokesman, the suspect is believed to be number 96 on the wanted list earlier published by the army.

Chukwu said Lawan was apprehended after he infiltrated into an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in the area.

The suspect is currently undergoing preliminary investigation and will be handed over to the appropriate authority for further action, he said.

Meanwhile, Chukwu said troops had neutralised two terrorists at Malari village also in Borno during an ambush while others fled into the bush.

He said 10 bicycles were recovered from the terrorists during the encounter.

In a similar development, he said troops had dislodged armed militia from their camp at Gbamjimba-Akor axis in Guma Local Government Area of Benue.

He said unspecified number of the armed militia men were neutralised, adding that others escaped into nearby bushes with gunshot wounds.
According to Punch, the EFCC has also launched an investigation into an alleged N90m estacode scam in the ministry of foreign affairs.

When contacted, the Spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Tope Fatile, denied knowledge of the happenings.

According to an EFCC source, Nigeria has 114 embassies all over the world and personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are posted to the different embassies abroad. The promotion examination of the personnel is usually conducted abroad.

For the 2018 promotion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was said to have grouped embassies into four zones for ease of coordination. There is the Africa Zone with Nairobi, Kenya as centre and the European Zone with its centre at London.

ALSO READ: Yahoo Boys abandon exotic cars at Club 57 to escape EFCC raid

The Asia Zone centre is in New Delhi, India; and the America zone centre is located in New York. About 36 officers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allegedly supervised the examination in the aforementioned zones while the Federal Civil Service Commission deployed 51 officers for the same exercise.

The source said that the officers did not spend the whole nine days approved for the exercise.

The source also told Punch that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid N37, 741,590 as estacode to its officers while the Federal Civil Service Commission spent N52,474,072, adding that the civil servants will be made to refund the excess estacode.
This was made known by a presidential aide, Tolu Ogunlesi.

Ogunlesi in a post on Twitter, said that Akpabio met with the President on Sunday, August 5, 2018.

APC ready to welcome Akpabio

The President's Special Assistant on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla had earlier told Premium Times that Akpabio, a former Governor and PDP chieftain, has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said Senator Akpabio is defecting to the APC, you can take that to the bank.

Sources in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have alleged that Akpabio is moving to the APCto avoid prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to Vanguard, the suspect, Maje Lawan was nabbed in a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Banki.

The Army Director of Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu told newsmen that the suspect is number 96 on the wanted list.

The suspect believed to be number 96 on the wanted list earlier published by the Army was apprehended after he infiltrated into the Internally Displaced Persons camp in the area.

 The suspect is currently undergoing preliminary investigation and will be handed over to the appropriate authority for further action.

The public is reminded to be vigilance and to report any suspicious person, movements as well as activities to the law enforcement agents for prompt action, Chukwu added.

Air Force bombs Boko Haram meeting hall

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) also conducted a successful attack on a Boko Haram hideout in Daban Masara in Borno.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the executives emerged through affirmation by delegates from the 21 local government areas of the state.

Alhaji Yahya Hamman-Julde emerged Chairman, while Mallam Dauda Dautiye became Deputy Chairman.

Thd others are: Musa Hamman-Adama, Secretary; Umar Abubakar, Treasurer; Shuaibu Isa, Organising Secretary; Farouk Muhammed, Publicity Secretary; Mohammed Adamu, Youth Leader; and Zainab Bello Women Leader.

In his acceptance speech, the newly elected Chairman, Hamman-Julde, thanked ADC members for having confidence in him.

He pledged to carry the members along.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Congress Committee, Alhaji Mijinyawa Kugama, lauded the maturity shown by the party members toward a hitch-free congress.

He urged maximum support for the new executives to ensure the partys success in the 2019 General Elections.

The Leader of the party in the state, Sen. Abdul-Azeez Nyako (Adamawa Central), who recently defected from APC, said that the successful conduct of ADCs congresses at all levels in the state showed growth.
Oba Akiolu said Buhari, Ambode and Obasa have performed excellently well in their course of duty and deserve another term.

"They have done well. And going by their performances during the few years that they have been saddled with the leadership positions, they have shown to all and sundry that they can do more if given the opportunity again," he said.

The Lagos monarch stated further advised politicians to work for the interest and welfare of Nigerians.

"Politicians can only do this by settling their differences amicably. Politics is characterised by alignment and re-alignment of personnel but in doing this, politicians should not take actions or make utterances that can heat up the polity.

"We should ensure that we live in peace and harmony and that's when the country can grow and develop. Through this, Nigerians will enjoy real dividends of democracy," Oba Akiolu said.

The host Speaker, Rt. Hon. Obasa described Oba Akiolu as a supporter of truth and an agitator for justice.
This was made known in a post on Facebook by President Buharis Special Assistant on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla.

The presidential aide also revealed that Akpabio's welcome rally into the APC will hold at Ikot Ekpene Stadium.

Obono-Obla said There shall be an APC Rally at Ikot Ekpene , Akwa Abasi Ibom State on Thursday the 9th August 2018 to receive the former indefatigable Governor of the State , His Excellency, Senator Godswill Akpabio to the All Progressives Congress! Acting President Osinbajo accompanied by Senator Ita Enang and leaders of the APC in Akwa Ibom will formally receive Senator Godswill Akpabio into the APC at Ikot Ekpene Stadium on Thursday August 9, 2018.

Also, the Presidential Adviser, National Assembly Liaison, Senator Ita Enang put out a post on Twitter announcing Akpabios reception into the ruling party

He said I'm confirming that the @APCNigeria family as earlier indicated will formally receive H.E,@godswill_akpabio on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8,2018 at an elaborate ceremony in Akwa-Ibom State.Senator (Dr) ITA ENANG.Presidential Liaison to the National Assembly- Senate. Sen@itaenanglaw2.com

Premium Times alsoreports that Obono-Obla confirmed the former Governor of Akwa-Iboms defection to the APC in an interview.

The presidential aide said Senator Akpabio is defecting to the APC, you can take that to the bank.

When asked whether Akpabio wants to become the Senate President, Obono-Obla had this to say: I cannot confirm that.

But if he wants the position of a senate president, he is eminently qualified for it.

He also said that he believes Akpabios defection to the ruling party will make things better for the APC in the South-South region and Akwa-Ibom state.

Why Akpabio defected

Some sources say that the former Governor decided to leave the ruling party following a fall between him and his protege, the Governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Emmanuel Udom.

Another source who spoke to The Nation alleged that the APC is blackmailing Akpabio to deliver Akwa-Ibom state or he will face the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Godswill Akpabio is the Senate's Minority Leader.
She disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure on Sunday.

She was also the running mate to Dr Olu Agunloye of the SDP in the last governorship election in the state.

Akindele-Martins was also the Ondo State Woman Leader of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Akindele-Martins said she had resigned her membership from the SDP and was defecting with thousands of her supporters in all the 18 local government areas of the Ondo State to PDP.

Absolutely, am leaving SDP with thousands of my supporters in the 18 local government areas of the state to join PDP, she said.

She said that SDP, as a party, did not have the commitment to effect any change of government in 2019 and was not well positioned to wrestle power from APC.

So, with my exit at this point in time, that means the SDP only exists as a nomenclature at the state level.

SDP has been in a total mess after the former State Secretary, Hon. Dele Ogunbameru, left on Oct. 24, 2017 with more than half of the state structure, she said.

According to her, all is now set to formally join the PDP with her supporters as all arrangements have been concluded.

Akindele-Martins, who is from Okitipupa in Ondo South Senatorial District, expressed regret that the area had been neglected by the current administration, hence the need for her to pitch tent with the PDP to save the people from the shackles of APC government in the state.

All hands must be on deck to save the people of Ondo South Senatorial district and entire state from the shackles of the so-called progressives party.

The good people of Ondo South Senatorial District have made up their minds to pitch tent with the PDP to wrestle power from the APC at all levels in the 2019 general elections, she said.
In a statement by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sunday, August 5, 2018, the opposition party called on Nigerians to hold the ruling party, APC, responsible should Nigeria's democracy fall under any harm.

The party also claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari is aware of the APC's antics to compromise the security architecture in other to enable an alleged forceful takeover of the leadership of the Senate by minority APC senators.

PDP, in the statement, also cautioned the APC and the Federal Government to steer clear of the National Assembly and the leadership of the Senate.

ALSO READ: PDP accuses APC of luring its members with juicy offers

Here's PDP's full statement on alleged threat to the Senate

The People Democratic Party (PDP) has asked Nigerians and the international community to hold the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its Federal Government responsible should our nations democracy fall under any harm in the coming days.

The party also warns that any attempt by anybody to forcefully take over the control of the National Assembly is a direct recipe for crisis and anarchy, as this will be directly resisted by Nigerians.

This caution by the PDP comes against the backdrop of yet another plot by the APC and its agents to flood the National Assembly with armed plain clothed security operatives to compromise the security architecture to enable the forceful takeover of the leadership of the Senate by minority APC senators.

Nigerians would recall that we alerted the nation that the purported overseas vacation by President Muhammadu Buhari was to enable his cabal overrun the National Assembly in a manner reminiscent of the siege at the Benue State House of Assembly, so as to sack the current elected Senate leadership and install their stooges.

When this is done, the Buhari Presidency will in its characteristic response claim the 'Mr President is unaware.'

The PDP however cautions, in the strongest possible terms, that Nigeria as a nation will never allow such direct assault to the highest symbol of our integrity as a democratic state.

The laws of our nation regarding the sanctity and sovereignty of our legislature are clear and our citizens will never allow any person or group of persons, no matter the circumstances, undermine the constitutional integrity of the legislature as representatives of the people. Any attempt to tempt the will of the people in this direction is a clear recipe for very serious crisis.

The laid down rules for reconvening the Senate whenever it is on recess, which must be followed when it becomes compelling to reopen the senate on a date order than the earlier adjourned date, are clear and direct.

In such a circumstance, Order 12(2) of the Senate Standing Rule (2015) clearly vest such powers and functions on the Senate President, who shall give notice of such new date and time.

Anything outside the provision of the law is a direct coup not only against the National Assembly but also on our entire democratic system. It is a clear recipe for anarchy of monumental proportion capable of disarticulating our nation.

The PDP therefore charges all Nigerians to be at alert, stand up for democracy and condemn this conspiracy against our land.
Just as the streets of Sokoto were littered with followers and fans of Senator Wamakko, Twitter was abuzz with the happening in the state.

Wamakko, who returned home to further canvass people to believe in APC, had boasted in Abuja that he's still in control of the APC in Sokoto.

Confirming the heroic welcome which supporters accorded Wamakko, President Muhammadu Buhari's aide on new media, Bashiri Ahmad said pessimists writing off the ruling party because of Governor Tambuwal's defection should think again.

"Those who are busy writing off the in Sokoto State, following the defection Gov. Aminu Tambuwal and some members the national and states Assembly to the PDP, should stop writing a bit and see whether the is still in control or not. Sen. visits home today," Ahmad tweeted.

ALSO READ: No impeachment meeting held in my house, says Wamakko

Earlier in the week, Wamakko had boasted about his popularity amongst his people saying "By weekend when I get back to Sokoto, you will see who is really in charge Sokoto. I am assuring you that there is no cause for alarm. The people Sokoto are solidly behind President Muhammadu Buhari.

Here are some of the tweets reacting to Wamakko's heroic arrival
I have learnt of the passing of Hon. Henry Obwocha. My very sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to his family, the people of Mugirango whom he served with dedication as MP and the Abagusii community in general. Hon. Obwocha was a dedicated public servant of high integrity. My prayers and thoughts are with the family, said Raila Odinga.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on his message said Obwocha was a distinguished long serving public servant.

It is with deep sadness that I learn of the untimely death of Hon. Henry Obwocha this morning. The late was a distinguished long serving public servant, lawmaker and accountant whose service to the nation will be greatly missed. May God the Almighty grant his family, friends and indeed all Kenyans the grace to bear the loss of our beloved brother, Said Uhuru.

The two leaders along with a host of others sent out their condolences to the family of Obwocha and to their friends.

Obwocha who was West Mugurango MP from 1992 to 2007 served as the Minister of Planning and National Development and also Minister for Energy in an acting capacity in 2006 as well as Finance assistant Minister.

Condolences

@JamesOngwae I have learnt with sadness news of the untimely passing of former Cabinet Minister Hon. Henry Obwocha. Gusii has lost a great son who had an illustrious career in the public service. On behalf of the Kisii County Government, I wish to extend sincere condolences to his family, the people of West Mugirango and Nyamira County. Rest In Peace!

@Wetangulam I have learnt of the passing on of Henry Obwocha with great shock. He distinguished himself as a great Ford Kenya mp in the 7th parl. RIP. My prayers to the Obwocha family for the loss of their Patriarch. God rest his soul in Eternal Peace. Amen.

@WilliamsRuto Condolences to the family, friends and the people of West Mugirango in Nyamira County following the passing on of former minister Henry Obwocha. Mr Obwocha served the country with distinction, mettle and performed admirably in the Planning and National Development docket. As a member of the National Economic and Social Council and a brilliant economist, he played an important role in drafting Vision 2030 that informs our aim to transform Kenya into an industrialised, middle income economy with high quality of life for its citizens.
Paul Brislen joins Vaughn Davis talking apps of the week.



Ransomware comes to the Naki

A hacker has caused digital havoc at Hawera High School.

On Monday teachers arrived at school to find a message on the computer system, demanded $5,000 ransom in bitcoin. The chair of the school's board of trustees Phil Nixon says it is causing huge disruption.

Files that were scrambled in a ransomware attack on Hawera High School in Taranaki included school assessments that students had only partly completed as well as backups.

LinkedIn recommendations and endorsements

LinkedIn has added a new feature.

The way LinkedIn endorsements work is that you first need to list something as a skill on your profile in order for someone else to endorse you for it.

Huawei overtakes Apple in smartphone shipments

Chinese smartphone giant Huawei is now the second biggest smartphone manufacturer and has overtaken Apple.

Huawei shipped 54.2 million smartphones this quarter, where as Samsung shipped 71.5 million and Apple 41.3 million.

BNZ Convert It avoids post holiday visa bill shock

Weve all been there in a shop in china and wondering if 30,000 yuan is a good price for a teapot.

This app lets you point your phone at a price tage and see the price magically turn into NZD (ignoring credit card exchange fees).

It's free and you dont need to be a BNZ customer.

Terms and conditions are 10,000 words long and it seems to have a bazillion currencies available and it has an auto detect feature.

To hear about all of the other hottest apps of the week, listen to the audio with Julian Waters above.

Sunday Social with Vaughn Davis, 7pm - 8pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the Rova app on Android and iPhone.

RadioLIVE.
QUIZ: Guess the Road Songs

We can't wait to get back on the road again! Play this quiz and see if how many you can get right!
Anti-Trump Media Just Can't Help Themselves

The media didn't even need Hillary Clinton this past week to denounce President Trump and his supporters as deplorables once more.
Floridas primaries are still three weeks away, but on the Republican side at least, the gubernatorial race is effectively over. Ron DeSantis has won over his party.

This will be hard news to hear for Adam Putnam, DeSantis main rival. Putnam, twice elected commissioner of agriculture and before that a five-term congressman from the Sunshine State, was the early favorite and the establishment choice. He easily out-fundraised the rest of the field, andas he is fond of notingsecured the endorsement of two-thirds of Floridas sheriffs.

But one endorsement he didnt get may be the only one that matters. Donald Trump remains popular in Florida, and in June the president gave DeSantis his full Endorsement after hinting his support for him back in December.

DeSantis surged ahead of Putnam in the weeks following Trumps endorsement and now leads by 11 percentage points in the RCP polling average. Also, after the president endorsed his campaign, DeSantis got the better of Putnam in a nationally televised debate, and has been drawing large, enthusiastic crowds on the campaign trail. Trump campaigned for him at a well-attended rally in Tampa on July 31

Putnams campaign, meanwhile, never seems to have gotten off the ground. After a year of campaigning and fundraising, Putnam was not able to build on the early base of support he enjoyed as an early candidate twice elected to statewide office.

Its time for Adam Putnam to recognize that this wasnt his moment. The sooner Florida Republicans unite behind DeSantis, the stronger he will be as he heads into the general election. The current leader on the Democratic side is Gwen Graham, daughter of former Florida governor and senator Bob Graham.

A Graham victory in November would put at risk the many successes of Gov. Rick Scott, but this race is also important for Republicans nationally. The next governor will have an important role in post-Census redistricting in 2020, and if the Republicans lose the governors race it will be portrayed in the press as an ominous bellwether for Trump in 2020.

Putnam need not light his hair on fire and go out in a blaze of glory, fighting to the bitter end in a GOP battle that can only serve to weaken the candidate most likely to face Graham in the fall.

By graciously suspending his campaign now, Putnam can conserve his political and financial capital for the future while genuinely, and selflessly, acting in the interests of his own party. Putnam is only 44 years old and has a long career in politics still ahead of him if he wants it. If Putnam drops out with class and dignity, Florida voters will remember it and thank him for it. But if he continues to run dishonest ads against DeSantis positions on immigration, the fair tax, Medicare and Social Security  voters will remember that too.

Ron DeSantis has the proven leadership, experience, and political guts to keep Florida on the successful path chartered by Rick Scott. He is best equipped to work with President Trump to grow Floridas economy, recover from the next natural disaster, and take seriously the problem of illegal immigration.

Sometimes in politics, its just not your timeno matter how many well-connected people tell you it is, how hard youve worked for it, or how much you want it. Adam Putnam is an impressive politician. And he can do the most good for his own party and his career by acknowledging the inevitable and helping to unite Florida Republicans behind his GOP opponent.
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LITCHFIELD  Litchfield Bancorp recently announced the promotions of Mickie-Ann Budny and Susan Dickinson to vice president.

Budny started with Litchfield Bancorp in 1989 as a Customer Service Representative. After leaving in 1994, she returned in 2013 as branch manager in the main office with more than 25 years of experience as assistant vice president, regional manager and mortgage specialist. Budny was also recently installed as the president of the Litchfield-Morris Rotary Club and is a community leader in Northwest Connecticut.

Dickinson started with Litchfield Bancorp in 2004 and has more than 34 years of banking experience. She is a graduate of the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program, as well as the Connecticut School of Finance and Management. Much of her time is spent volunteering in the local community. She was awarded the Rotary Clubs Paul Harris Fellow Award in 2013. Since her employment with Litchfield Bancorp, the Lakeville Branch has more than doubled in asset size.

In regards to these promotions, Paul McLaughlin, EVP & COO of Litchfield Bancorp, said,I have had the honor and privilege of working with Mickie and Susan over the years. They are reliable, loyal, hardworking and tremendously knowledgeable. They exemplify everything Litchfield Bancorp stands for.

VNS appoints Paulette Sementilli

BRIDGEPORT  Visiting Nurse Services of Connecticut, the leading not-for-profit home healthcare and hospice provider for residents of Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties, has announced the appointment of Paulette Sementilli, RN, MS as the agencys Director of Customer Relations and Care Transitions. In her new role, Sementilli will manage VNS referral and admission processes and serve as VNS primary liaison with referral partners including acute and long term care providers, physician practices and Accountable Care Organizations. Paulette will also coordinate the activities of VNS team of hospital and community based transitional care coordinators.

Sementilli joined VNS in 2010 after working in the Burn Unit at Bridgeport Hospital. Recently, she managed VNS Telehealth program and was responsible for expanding the program to all four of VNS branch offices and achieving an average daily census of 125 patients on service. A Business Management graduate of Providence College, she earned a nursing degree from Bridgeport Hospital School of Nursing and was awarded an MS in Nursing (2014) by Sacred Heart University.

In announcing the appointment, Ann Olson, RN, BSN, MBA, President and CEO of VNS, said that Paulettes prior experience as an acute care and home-health nurse will be instrumental in supporting care transitions, particularly from the hospital setting to home health. According to Olson, With Paulettes accomplishments as team leader and program manager, I am confident she will provide the vison and leadership that will be responsive to the needs of our referral partners as we continue to coordinate care to improve patient outcomes while reducing the incidence of re-hospitalization.

Sementilli will manage VNS Intake, transitional care coordinators and referral partner communication activities for the agencys clinically staffed offices in Bridgeport, Trumbull, Oxford and Torrington and can be contacted at 203-330-9198 and by email at psementilli@vsnct.org.

Berkshire Taconic announces launch of ACloserLook.Net

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation recently announced the launch of ACloserLook.net, an easy-to-navigate, interactive web resource providing current data, resident perspectives and multimedia stories on the four-county region Berkshire Taconic serves.

A digital companion to the foundation's print report of the same name, ACloserLook.net features:

An interactive map with at-a-glance profiles of 67 towns; Berkshire, Columbia, northern Dutchess and northwest Litchfield counties; and the BTCF region overall. The data is organized by topic: population, jobs, education, incomes and poverty, and housing. The map also shows public school enrollment data for 30-plus districts.

Dozens of data visualizations using graphs, charts and maps to bring five themes into focus: jobs and the economy, demographic transition, youth and the future workforce, deepening inequality, and assets and infrastructure.

Multimedia stories that illustrate these themes through the lives of local residents.

Results from the foundation's resident survey, with responses available by age, income and education level.

A downloadable PDF of Berkshire Taconic's Plan for the Future, which outlines three new priority areas where the foundation believes philanthropy can make a difference.

Designed to build community knowledge and inspire critical thinking about the region's future, ACloserLook.net will be regularly refreshed with new data and stories.

Learn more at www.berkshiretaconic.org

Jones, Seward join foundation board

WATERBURY  Connecticut Community Foundations members have elected Brian M. Jones of Southbury and Stephen Seward of Roxbury to three-year terms on the Foundations Board of Trustees. Jones and Seward will join a board composed of local residents from across 21 towns in the Foundations service area in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills.

The trustees lead the Foundation in its mission to create rewarding lives and thriving communities in the regionthrough stewardship of charitable funds created by donors and through grantmaking to nonprofit organizations tackling pressing community issues.

Douglas Johnson, chair of the Foundations Board of Trustees, said, The talents, wisdom and energies of members of the Board of Trustees have navigated Connecticut Community Foundation though 95 years of change and renewal in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills. Brian Jones and Stephen Seward, with their enormous commitments to community service and to the region, will be extraordinary assets as we look to the future.

Brian M. Jones has lived in Southbury since 1978. For the past 29 years, he has managed a specialized, highly-credentialed and experienced financial planning, investment and insurance practice, The Jones Financial Group at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company in Southbury, serving clients in over 25 states. He is active professionally and civically. Currently, Jones serves as chairman of Stewardship, the United Church of Christ Southbury; Board of Directors, St. Mary's Hospital Foundation; and chairman for past 20 years, Southbury Celebration (an annual community food, music and fireworks event). He has been an active firefighter/engineer for 35 years with the Southbury Volunteer Firemens Association. Jones earned a bachelors degree in accounting from the University of Connecticut, and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Certified in Long Term Care (CLTC), and has numerous investment and insurance licenses.

Stephen Seward, a Roxbury resident since 2003, has been a consultant in the nonprofit sector for over 35 years. He began his career at the Foundation Center as a reference book editor and the manager of a nationwide technical assistance program for nonprofit organizations. Seward then joined the John ODonnell Company where he eventually became the firms executive vice president, with clients in human services, arts and culture and international education. More recently, he has been the principal fundraiser for The Nature Conservancys New York City office; vice president for development at Andrus, a Westchester-based program in mental health and special education; and executive director of the Scarsdale Schools Foundation.

Michael Giardina and Doug Johnson of Cheshire and Kathy Taylor of Waterbury were also re-elected to serve second three-year terms on the Foundations Board of Trustees. Edith Reynolds, Elner Morrell and Dan Caron each are departing the board after completing six years of outstanding service.

The foundations entire Board of Trustees, including their bios, can be viewed at www.conncf.org/board.

Society awarded grant to complete a risk assessment plan

KENT  A $4,999 grant to the Kent Historical Society was awarded by Connecticut Humanities to put the Kent Historical Societys existing emergency and disaster plan on a sounder footing.

We had a good start on emergency and disaster planning, said Curator Marge Smith. Several years ago, we took part in a 3-part disaster planning and response workshop presented by the CT State Library and Conservation ConneCTion. During the exercise on emergency response and collection triage a mock-flood event was staged. As part of this workshop we received training and assistance in using dPlan Lite from the Northeast Document Conservation Center. We made excellent progress toward completing this plan, but found it difficult to update as often as is needed.

With the grant funding, the society hired professional risk assessment consultant, Kathy Craughwell-Varda, to lead the board and staff in a simplified multi-step process to assess the societys holdings and create an emergency response plan. Ms. Craughwell-Varda submitted a detailed report of the findings, which she then reviewed with the board and staff. A paper Pocket Response Plan was created for the societys first responders to carry with them at all times in case of a disaster such as tornado, fire or flood. The report also detailed other such risks as staff time, collections storage space and smaller issues such as insufficient fire extinguishers and smoke alarms.

Completion of all the recommended steps and changes will take time, but the society is well on its way. We are, as always, grateful to CT Humanities for their awareness of the needs of small heritage nonprofits, and their willingness to fund activities that meet those needs, said Smith. They have been active partners in our forward progress since 2005 when they funded our first strategic plan.

Connecticut Humanities, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, supports cultural and historic organizations that tell the states stories, build community and enrich lives.

For more information about the exhibit, call 860-927-4587 or visit www.kenthistoricalsociety
Summer vacations are in full swing but business leaders can be torn between taking well-needed time off and worrying about their business while they are away. There is an interesting article on the topic written by Dr. Leigh Vinocur, the Diamond Resorts Vacation Doctor. Here are parts of his Reasons Why Vacations Matter:

*Vacations relieve stress. At one time or another, we may have experienced how destructive chronic stress is to our bodies and minds. Getting away from the daily stresses does give one a break and helps us to look at situations differently when we return.

*Vacations help maintain focus. Stress can be distracting while working on projects and may cause memory lapses and issues with concentration. Wouldnt it be nice to get away, feel more energized and upon return ready to tackle almost any task?

*Vacations help prevent illness. There is research that finds stress can make you susceptible to numerous issues and increase your chance of infections. Some researchers believe that long-term stress may contribute to cancer and heart disease.

*Vacations make you happier. One survey shows that people who take regular vacations were reported to feel extremely happy compared to those who do not. Many reported that the positive effects last beyond the vacation.

*Vacations make you more productive at work. Studies indicate that more vacations actually increase company productivity, decreasing the numbers of sick days. Employees feel more creative when they return and more satisfied with their jobs.

*Vacations strengthen relationships and create more memories than any other activity. Hopefully you are fortunate to vacation with your family to help forge closer bonds. In fact, Dr. Vinocurs study shows that people place a higher value on shared experiences with families that material goods saved over the years.

I am taking this advice to heart and enjoying a wonderful vacation with family and friends by the sea. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of an amazing staff and volunteers, we are on track and things will run smoothly in my absence.

I cannot promise to ignore my emails but I will consider this good advice and return refreshed, energized and anxious to get back to work.

My hope is that you, too, will be able to enjoy some well-deserved time off.

JoAnn Ryan is President & CEO of the NW CT Chamber of Commerce. You can reach her by email: joann@nwctchamberofcommerce.org or phone: 860-482-6586.
Contributed photo

20-year-old Paris is at our Waterford location, calmly waiting for her next adventure! Paris would like to live with adults and older kids, over 12 years of age, who are gentle and respectful of pets. Paris is an older kitty, and she is also a quiet and reserved cat. She has not had experience living with cats or dogs but she is willing to consider sharing her home as long as they are gentle. Paris does have some special needs as we all do as we age, but she still has lots of life to live and love to give. Please ask the adoption counselor to explain when you visit. Remember, the Connecticut Humane Society has no time limits for adoption. Inquiries for adoption should be made at the Connecticut Humane Society located at 701 Russell Road in Newington or call toll free: 1-800-452-0114.
Arsene Tchakarian, the last surviving member of a famed group of immigrant Resistance fighters in France during World War II, has died at age 101, his family said on August 5.

Tchakarian, who was born to Armenian parents in Turkey in 1916, died on August 4 at a hospital at his home in the Paris suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine.

Tchakarian arrived in France in 1930, when his father accepted a coal-mining job. He was conscripted into the French Army in 1937, but was demobilized after France surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940.

He eventually became a member of a small group of foreign Resistance members led by Missak Manouchian, an Armenian poet and fellow communist. The fighters carried out attacks on German forces and conducted sabotage in Nazi-occupied France in 1943.

The group, which also included several Jewish members, was broken up in 1944 when 23 of its fighters were captured by German forces and sentenced to death by a military court.

Tchakarian managed to avoid the roundup and escaped to Bordeaux, where he remained active in the Resistance until the end of the war.

The Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis, attempted to discredit the group after anger surfaced over the executions, denouncing the fighters as "the army of crime."

The government's "Affiche Rouge" or "red poster" focused on the foreign and Jewish origins of the group as part of efforts to turn the populace against the Resistance.

A film, titled Army Of Crime, was made about the group in 2009.

Tchakarian, who received multiple medals for his bravery after the war, was granted French citizenship in 1958.

He received the Legion of Honor, France's highest distinction, in 2012.

President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that Tchakarian was "a hero of the resistance and an indefatigable witness whose voice sounded strongly right to the end."

Tchakarian campaigned after the war for recognition of the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide.

The mass slaughter and deportation of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks is a highly sensitive issue in both Armenia and Turkey.

Turkey objects, saying that Armenians died in much smaller numbers and because of civil strife rather than a planned, systemic effort by the Ottoman government against the Christian minority.

At least 23 countries, including France and Germany, recognize the killings as genocide.

With on reporting by AFP and dpa
Five new passenger planes arrived in Iran from a French-Italian manufacturer on August 4. The twin-engine ATR 72-600 turboprops landed in the northwestern city of Orumiyeh a day before the United States starts reimplementing sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. (IRINN via AP)
Rallies against the government continued for a fifth consecutive day in a number of Iranian cities on August 4. Protesters chanted "Death to the dictator" -- in a reference to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- and other slogans condemning the self-styled theocratic rule in Iran. Iranians have shared videos from Tehran, Karaj, and Qom, although the locations could not be independently verified.
Iran has received five new commercial aircraft just before the United States starts reimplementing sanctions that had been lifted under the nuclear accord with world powers.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported the arrival on August 5 of the five ATR72-600 airplanes -- twin-engine turboprops used for short-distance regional flights, made and sold by ATR, a firm jointly owned by European consortium Airbus and Italy's Leonardo, and based in the French city of Toulouse.

Including the latest delivery, state carrier Iran Air has received 13 of the 20 aircraft it ordered from the French-Italian manufacturer in April 2017.

The deal had a list value of $536 million.

The delivery represented perhaps the last benefits Iran will see under the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted international sanctions in return for Iran limiting its nuclear program and allowing regular inspections.

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in May. Economic troubles are sparking sporadic protests across Iran.

Iran's economy has rapidly deteriorated in recent months due in part to uncertainty over the atomic accord, fueling the protests. The Iranian rial has fallen to 99,000 to the U.S. dollar despite a government-imposed rate of 44,000.

Protests have broken out in several cities, with at least one person shot and killed in recent days. Some protesters have shouted "Mullahs get lost!" and "Death to the dictator!" the semiofficial Fars news agency has reported.

Based on reporting by AP and IRNA
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that U.S. action film star Steven Seagal has been appointed Russias special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States.

Seagal was granted Russian citizenship in 2016 and has vehemently defended President Vladimir Putins policies, including Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula, along with criticizing the U.S. government.

He was also granted Serbian citizenship in 2016.

Kyiv last year banned Seagal from entering Ukraine for five years on national security grounds.

The ministry said on August 4 that Seagal's unpaid position would be intended to "facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public, and youth exchanges."

The 66-year-old Seagal was a popular U.S. actor in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He starred in film such as Under Siege and Above The Law.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters
Croatian leaders have celebrated a victorious military operation at the end of the countrys 1991-95 war for independence, while Serbia's president accused Croatia of intentionally expelling Serbs from the country because of their ethnicity.

"[Adolf] Hitler wanted a world without Jews; Croatia and its policies wanted Croatia without Serbs, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in the northwestern town of Backa Palanka late on August 4.

Croatia split from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and fought Belgrade-backed Croatian Serb forces for four years to establish its sovereignty.

In August 1995, Croatian forces retook the self-proclaimed republic of Srpska Krajina from rebel Serbs in a military offensive code-named Operation Storm (Oluja).

In addition to many hundreds of civilian deaths, some 200,000 Serbs were forced to flee their homes as a result of the operation, in what was described as the war's largest exodus of Serbs.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of Operation Storm, Vucic said Anne Frank, the famous Jewish diarist who died in the Holocaust, was persecuted for the same reason as Croatia's Serbs.

An estimated 6 million Jews were killed in the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Lawmaker Branko Bacic of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) called Vucic's comments a "historic lie."

On August 5, the Croatian political leadership gathered in the town of Knin to mark the anniversary of Operation Storm, hailing it as a victory that reunited the country's territory and ended the war.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in a speech that the Oluja operation "brought much-desired freedom, the end of war, and peace."

"[Operation Storm] has become a textbook successful military operation," Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said. "It was the time of total unity of the Croatian people and Croatian soldiers."

U.S. and Israeli military envoys were among the guests attending the event in Knin, while Israeli jets took part in a flyby, Croatia's Defense Ministry said.

Relations between Serbia and Croatia -- an EU and NATO member  remain volatile.

Vucic has pledged to boost cooperation with other Balkan states and lead Serbia toward EU membership, while improving ties with Russia.

With reporting by AP and dpa
The bodies of three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) have arrived in Moscow after being transported on an Air France flight from Paris.

The FlightAware website reported that the plane landed on August 5 shortly after midnight at Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport. The Air France jet had earlier evactuated the bodies from Bangui in the African country.

Maksim Shevchenko, a friend of one of the victims, told state-run TASS news agency that the bodies were being taken to a mortuary and would be examined by investigators before being returned to the families.

He added that they had been told the Russian Investigative Committee would require at least two days for the examinations.

A United Nations peacekeeping mission in the CAR is helping national authorities there investigate the killing of the journalists, who were filming a documentary on a Russian paramilitary group.

The peacekeepers were the ones who found an abandoned vehicle and the bullet-riddled bodies of Orkhan Dzhemal, Aleksandr Rastorguyev, and Kirill Radchenko. The killings took place late on July 30 north of the central town of Sibut on the main highway to the capital, Bangui.

The CAR has been ravaged by violence since a 2013 rebellion overthrew then-President Francois Bozize. But the UN mission in CAR said the zone where the men were ambushed is patrolled by armed forces in collaboration with the mission and has not been the site of serious incidents recently.

Questions have swirled about who was behind the deaths of the journalists, who were investigating a shadowy Russian paramilitary group that evidence indicates President Vladimir Putin's government has been using to fight battles abroad when it does not want to use the Russian military.

The online news organization Investigation Control Center (TsUR), funded by exiled Putin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said on Facebook on July 31 that the journalists were in CAR to make a documentary film about ChVK Vagner, a private contractor employing hundreds of mercenaries reportedly funded by Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin that has carried out clandestine combat missions in eastern Ukraine, Syria, and elsewhere.

Local and international media have reported that Vagner has been operating in CAR since Russia delivered light arms to the country's security forces this year and deployed hundreds of military and civilian instructors to train them.

Russian authorities have denied that the Vagner contractors are carrying out orders on their behalf anywhere in the world.

Andrei Konyakhin, the chief editor of TsUR, said the journalists were carrying several thousand dollars in cash as well as valuable equipment, but he said he was skeptical the slayings resulted from a mere robbery. He said he thinks the attack could be linked to their investigation.



CAR has been plagued by violence, often fought along religious lines between predominantly Christian and Muslim militias, since a 2013 rebellion overthrew Bozize.

Most of the country is beyond the control of the Bangui government, and the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission has struggled to keep a lid on the violence.

With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, TASS, and Reuters
A suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan has killed three Czech members of NATO's Resolute Support force.

In a Twitter post, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis hailed the three soldiers killed early on August 5 as "heroes" and sent his condolences to their families.

Taliban militants claimed they carried out the attack, which took place near the Bagram military base in Parwan Province.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the soldiers were targeted by a suicide bomber while on a routine foot patrol alongside Afghan forces.

A U.S. soldier and two Afghan troops were also wounded in the blast, the statement added.

The Czech government has recently approved a plan to deploy 390 troops in Afghanistan through 2020, up from the current 230, as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

U.S. Army General John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said in a statement, "Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history and further strengthen our resolve."

NATO formally concluded its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but thousands of troops are still providing support and training to the Afghan National Army, and carrying out counterterrorism missions.

In the eastern province of Nangarhar, officials said on August 5 that a suicide bomber killed an Afghan soldier in the provincial capital, Jalalabad.

Three security personnel and one civilian were also injured in the attack, said Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for Nangarhar's governor.

No one immediately claimed responsibility, but both Taliban and the Islamic States group are active in the province.

Eastern Afghanistan remains one of the deadliest areas for the U.S. military since its main combat operation against the Taliban ended in 2014.

Last month a U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded in an "apparent insider attack" in southern Afghanistan, NATO said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of mourners have buried the victims of a twin suicide attack on a Shi'ite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, as the death toll rose to 35, officials said.

Two suicide bombers dressed as women struck a Shi'ite mosque in Gardez, capital of Paktia Province, on August 3 as it was crowded with worshippers for weekly prayers.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
At least 17 suspects have been detained in a police operation in northern Pakistan to apprehend those responsible for torching more than a dozen schools, officials say.

Faizullah Firaq, a spokesman for the administration in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, told RFE/RL on August 5 that the search operation began overnight and was still under way.

One officer and one suspect were killed during the operation, police said.

Suspected militants on August 4 set fire to at least 12 girls' or co-ed schools in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, according to police.

There were no casualties because the schools -- half of them girls-only -- were closed at the time.

No group claimed responsibility for the alleged arson attacks.

Following the fires, residents staged a protest demanding the arrest of the culprits and greater safety for schools.

"The extremists have shown what frightens them most -- a girl with a book," Pakistani Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai tweeted. "We must rebuild these schools immediately, get the students back into their classrooms and show the world that every girl and boy has the right to learn."

Local authorities said the schools would be restored before classes resume in the last week of August.

Gilgit-Baltistan is a remote and mountainous area that borders Afghanistan, China, and the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Pakistan faces significant education challenges, with an estimated 25 million children out of school, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

HRW said in a 2017 report that Pakistani militants had destroyed school buildings, targeted teachers and students, and terrorized parents into keeping their children out of school.

With reporting by Dawn, Geo TV, and AP
149 Central Americans detained after found illegally entering Mexico

Tabasco  A group of 149 Central Americans were pulled from the crammed quarters of a trailer Saturday after the vehicle was stopped for a random inspection.

The National Security Commission said that the migrants were discovered when troops were carrying out random inspections along the Choapas-Ocozocoautla highway.

Authorities stopped the semi for a random inspection after seeing it pulling two trailers. Inside they found a total of 149 illegal people from varying Central American countries. Those inside the trailers were detained by personnel of the National Institute of Migration (INM) in Tabasco.

After requesting the corresponding documentation of the driver and his companion, elements of the corporation, with the support of the INM personnel made a detailed inspection in the loading area where 149 people of different nationalities were found, all of whom were without documents that would prove their entry and legal stay in Mexico, officials reported in a statement.

The agents reported finding 77 Guatemalan adults, 62 minors, one adult from El Salvador, six adults from Honduras and three adults from Nicaragua, all of whom were found to be without legal documentation.

The driver and passenger of the semi were arrested and placed at the disposal of the Agent of the Public Ministry of the Federation while agents continue investigating.
Elina Chan, MD of Shenzhen Shi Qing Yu Zhubao Ltd completed her higher education from Xiamen University and Masters degree from Hong Kong University. To achieve her dream to start a business, Elina gave up numerous job opportunities in Hong Kong and moved to Shenzhen where she founded her company. Striving hard for 6 years to provide good quality products and services, her company has now earned an extraordinary reputation in the industry.

Elina started her business aiming to excel in e-Commerce and also supply customized products to jewellery connoisseurs. When not running her business, she spends ample time teaching Chinese as a second language to foreigners.

Here, in an Interview with Rough&Polished, Elina takes us through her voyage to achieve her dream with elan

Some excerpts:

When was Shenzhen Shi Qing Yu Zhubao Ltd established? What is the size and strength of the company in terms of employees, production volume etc?

Shenzhen QingYu Jewellery Co. was established on 2nd July 2012. We have a staff of over 30 people in various departments namely sales, jewellery design, manufacturing, financial and IT departments. We provide customized manufacturing services for jewellery brands  using gemstones, white and fancy colour diamonds, jade and pearl. We do hand drawing, 3D model till the final setting in-house. Our highly skilled staff possess on an average atleast 10 years of experience in the customized jewellery industry. We receive about 1500 customized orders, based on personal demands. We focus highly on the customized orders.

Can you tell us briefly about yourself prior to starting your business? Do you have a family background in the jewellery business or you started it on an impulse? What inspired you to start your own company?

I was born in a small city called Lanzhou. The dream was to walk out of the mountains and be a successful businessman, to contribute to society and gain valuable experiences. After the Chinese college entrance examination, I was admitted to Xiamen University, but due to insufficient scores, I was unable to obtain the Economics and Business Degree. Instead, I was then assigned to the Chinese Department. After 4 years of university, I volunteered to teach the Chinese Language for 1 year in Satun, a southern province in Thailand. During this time, I learnt a lot of different things. I started thinking about what I should do in the future, and this led me to have strong ideas in my mind. I had only 1 persistent idea --- to start a business and one that is meaningful. My parents were not in the jewellery industry, they are simple people. After I returned from Thailand, I searched online regarding entrepreneurship and stumbled upon a site giving information on the concept of jewellery customization. This gave me the interest to set foot in the jewellery industry.

What type of jewellery does your company manufacture? Gold, precious stone studded, as well as diamond jewellery as well? How is the demand for colour diamond jewellery in China?

The company mainly focuses on the white diamond, colour diamonds, emerald and pearl jewellery, as they are the most popular and in demand. At present, colour diamonds are an in great demand in the jewellery market in China. More and more people are beginning to understand and purchase colour diamonds. However, there are not many factories that manufacture jewellery of colour diamonds. We have been studying the setting for colour diamonds for quite some time now, and there are many secret technologies in regard to this. Many of our customers have manufactured their jewellery in Taiwan before, but are now doing it with us instead.

Do you manufacture your own 'Brand' of jewellery  for example, your own specialized jewellery? If yes, please give details?

We are positioned as an up-scale supply chain production service provider, specializing in providing services to jewellery brands. Currently, we do not sell in the retail market.

Does your company cater only to the domestic market or are you in exports as well? If so, to which countries do you export? Do you undertake orders from other companies/buyers for customized jewellery?

QingYu mainly focuses on the domestic market. This is because it is very easy to sell here, as people can accept mobile internet transactions, after which they can sell to their foreign clients. This year QinqYu actively participated in jewellery exhibitions in China and has now begun to process jewellery for foreign jewellers as well.

And what about the e-commerce scene... do you have a presence on the online platform? Do you think it's the future of jewellery retail? What's your opinion?

QingYu took 4 years, before and after technical upgrades several times to build a successful jewellery system that shows member information, product information, order information, production stage and other links that are connected. This internet technology has allowed the factory to transform into a modern informative factory. Our system can establish a sub-station platform for different jewellery brands, and provide resources for online promotion. The future must be in a 2 line business model that emphasizes online information and off-line experience.

What is the demand currently for gold and gold jewellery in China right now? Is gold jewellery looked upon as an investment even now as in the past?

The overall jewellery consumption is on the rise in China. People are gradually becoming aware of buying jewellery as an investment and consumption concepts. However, due to the impact of the current economic environment, the jewellery industry is currently in a transitional and suspension period. The future prospects are still very clear and worth investing.

It is reported that luxury products, fancy overseas travel, high-end cars/ artwork, etc., are of more interest to Chinese millennials. Has it negatively affected the gold and diamond jewellery sales in the country? Your comments.

Jewellery consumption and investment is equally needed in the market. Other products and luxury goods are too difficult to replace the eternity and meaning of jewellery. Therefore, I think the jewellery industry will not be greatly affected or impacted.

Whats your opinion about DeBeers lab-grown diamond fashion jewellery company Lightbox Jewelry. Will the natural diamond jewellery demand be hit when the Lightbox jewellery is launched in China? Your thoughts?

De Beers is selling synthetic diamonds that will only cater to the low-end consumer market. But for the consumers who want to actually buy real diamond jewellery, it will not have any impact.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished






Five militants were gunned down in an encounter

Five militants were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, while a civilian was killed and 10 others injured during clashes with law enforcement personnel after the gun battle, officials said. Fresh exchange of firing between militants and security forces took place this morning at Kiloora in Shopian, where a militant was killed last night, they said.

"Four more terrorists have been killed in the operation at Kiloora in Shopian. One terrorist was killed last night," an army official said. All the five militants are locals and have been identified as Umer Nazir Malik, Waqar Ahmad Sheikh, Aijaz Ahmad Paul, Arshad Ahmad Khan and Arif Ahmad Mir, a police official said. Soon after the encounter ended, clashes broke out between protesters and security forces at several places in the district.

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Clashes broke out between protesters and security forces

A civilian was killed in a firing incident at Ganowpora, while two others sustained injuries, a police official said. He said Bilal Ahmad Khan was hit by a bullet after the funeral prayers of one of the militants, who was among the five ultras killed in the gun battle with security forces at Kiloora. Khan was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries. Local residents alleged that he was hit by bullets fired by the army personnel in response to stone-pelting by protestors.

A defence spokesman said the details of the incident were being ascertained and an official statement will be released soon. Wanted Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant Naveed Jatt made a dramatic appearance at the funeral of Sheikh at Malikgund in Shopian. Jatt, who escaped from police custody on February 6 while being taken to a hospital here, is the accused in the murder of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead outside his office at Press Enclave here on June 14.

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10 persons were injured in clashes between security forces and protestors

In another incident, at least 10 persons were injured in clashes between security forces and protestors in Shopian. Hundreds of protestors assembled near the encounter site in Kiloora and started pelting stones at the security forces, the police official said. The security forces fired pellets and live rounds in air to disperse the mob in the face of relentless stone pelting, he added. Four among the injured persons have been referred to a hospital here for specialised treatment, the official said.
Imran Khan

Imran Khan, who is set to become Pakistan's new Prime Minister, may take oath of the office on the country's Independence Day on August 14, a media report said today. Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in the July 25 elections, winning 116 National Assembly seats out of the contested 270 parliamentary constituencies. Earlier on July 30, Khan, 65, had expressed his desire to take the oath of Prime Minister on August 11, as his party announced that it had acquired enough seats in the lower house through coalition talks to form a majority government.

"It is my and caretaker prime minister retired Justice Nasirul Mulk's desire that the oath-taking of the new prime minister should take place on August 14," caretaker Law Minister Ali Zafar told Dawn yesterday. Unveiling a tentative schedule of the National Assembly formation, the minister said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was already on board as it was engaged in making necessary arrangements required to hold the prime minister's election on the desired date.

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Ali Zafar

Zafar said a fresh session of the assembly could be called on August on 11 or 12. "If it is held on August 11, the election of the prime minister can take place on Augst 14 and on the same day President Mamnoon Hussain can administer the oath to the new prime minister," he added. Zafar elaborated that if the National Assembly (NA) session was held on August 11, the same day the new members would be administered the oath.

He said that after printing of ballot papers for the elections of the NA speaker and deputy speaker, their elections could take place on August 13 and the next day the election of the prime minister could be held. However, if the National Assembly session was called on August 12, the election of the prime minister would be held on August 15, he added. "We wanted that the new prime minister should take his oath on Independence Day so that the new government can start its functioning with full national fervour and commitment to bring progress to the country," he said.

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President Mamnoon Hussain

Meanwhile, successful candidates of the July 25 general elections will have to submit returns of their election expenses today the deadline fixed by the ECP for filing of returns and a notification will be issued the following day. Three days will be given to independent candidates if they want to join any party. Similarly, three days will be spent on seats reserved for women and minorities. The caretaker law minister told the media that as per the Constitution, the first session of the National Assembly would have to be summoned within 21 days after the general election.

He said it was necessary to fulfil this obligation by August 15. After election, the newly-elected prime minister would take the oath and the job of the caretaker Prime Minister and his cabinet would be over and power would be transferred to the new government under constitutional provisions. The minister said the ECP was completing legal formalities, including consolidation of elections results, and collection of returns of election expenditures from the wining candidates.

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Imran may take oath as Pak PM on August 14

The ECP after giving time to independent candidates to join a political party or stay independent would issue parties position in the assembly, Zafar said, adding that after that the comisssion would issue a list of winning candidates on reserved seat for women and minorities.


This is the sermon I offered this morning at Rensselaerville Presbyterian Church. You can read other sermons in their summer sermon series here. This year's theme is "And still we rise."

In Hasidic tradition -- in the Jewish mystical-devotional tradition that arose in Eastern Europe in the late 1700s -- there is the concept of yeridah tzorech aliyah. "Descent for the sake of ascent." We experience distance from God in order to draw close. We fall in order to rise.

The term "fall" may have connotations here, in this Christian context, that I don't intend. I'm not talking about the Fall of Man, with capital letters, as I understand it to be interpreted in some Christian theologies. Judaism doesn't have a doctrine of original sin. I'm talking about something more like... falling down. Falling short. Falling away.

The paradigmatic example of descent for the sake of ascent is the narrative at the end of the book of Genesis that we sometimes call "the Joseph novella." We just heard a piece of that story this morning, so here's a recap for those who need it. Jacob had twelve sons, and his favored son was Joseph, for whom he made a coat of many colors. Joseph had dreams of stars bowing down to him, sheaves of wheat bowing down to him, and his dreams made his brothers angry, and as a result they threw him into a pit. He literally went down. And then he was sold into slavery in Egypt, and the verb used there is again he went down: in Hebrew one "goes down" into Egypt and "ascends" into the promised land.

In Egypt, he fell from favor with Potiphar and went down into Pharaoh's dungeon. And there he met the two servants of Pharaoh for whom he interpreted dreams, and he ascended to become Pharaoh's right-hand man.

And because of those things, he was in a position to rescue his family from famine, thereby setting in motion the rescue of what would become the entire Jewish people. Descent for the sake of ascent.

His descendants would become slaves to a Pharaoh in Egypt for 400 years. Finally our hardship was too much to bear, and we cried out to God. Torah tells us that God heard our cries and remembered us and brought us forth from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Because we were low and we cried out, God heard us and lifted us out of there: descent for the sake of ascent.

Coming forth from slavery was the first step toward Jewish peoplehood; receiving Torah at Sinai, and entering into covenant with God, was the event that formed us as a people. Our enslavement led to our freedom which led to covenant and peoplehood: descent for the sake of ascent.

The summer season on the Jewish calendar mirrors this same trajectory. Just a few weeks ago we marked the day of communal mourning known as Tisha b'Av, the ninth day of the lunar month of Av, the lowest point in our year.

On Tisha b'Av, we remember the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem at the hands of Babylon in 586 BCE. We remember the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem at the hands of Rome in 70 CE. We remember the start of the Crusades, the expulsion from the Warsaw Ghetto, an incomprehensibly awful litany of communal tragedies that have all, somehow, against all odds, befallen us on or around that same calendar date. On Tisha b'Av we fast, we hear the book of Lamentations, we read poems of grief, we dive deep into the world's sorrow and suffering and brokenness.

And, Jewish tradition says that on Tisha b'Av the messiah will be born. Out of our deepest grief comes the spark of redemption. And every year Tisha b'Av is the springboard that launches us toward the Days of Awe, the Jewish new year and the Day of Atonement, of at/one/ment. Authentic spiritual life demands that we sit both with life's brokenness and life's wholeness. A spirituality that's only "positive," only feel-good, isn't real and isn't whole. When we sit with what hurts, that's what enables us to rise. Descent for the sake of ascent.

The Hasidic master known as the Degel Machaneh Efraim teaches that ascent and descent are intimately connected. When a person falls away from God, the experience of distance from the Divine spurs that soul's yearning to return. Falling down is precisely the first step of rising up. Our mis-steps are precisely what spur us to course-correct and adjust our path. Descent for the sake of ascent.

Looking at the world around us, it's easy to feel that everything is falling apart. Migrant children torn from the arms of their parents and imprisoned in cages. Hate crimes on the rise. People of color killed by police who are supposed to be sworn to protect. Incidents of prejudice increasing: against religious minorities, and against transgender people, and against people of color. Our political system seems to be broken. International relations seem to be broken. There is brokenness everywhere we look.

Our work -- the spiritual work of this moment in time -- is twofold. One: we have to resist the temptation to paper over the brokenness with platitudes and pretty words, "God has a plan," or "everything's going to be okay." My theology does not include a God Who sits back and allows rights to be stripped away for the sake of some greater plan we don't have to try to understand. And two: we have to face the brokenness, even embrace the brokenness, and let it fuel us to bring repair. We have to make our descent be for the sake of ascent.

When we feel our distance from the divine Beloved, there's a yearning to draw near. Our hearts cry out, "I miss Your presence in my life, God, I want to come back to You." Or in the words of psalm 27, the psalm for this season on the Jewish calendar, "One thing I ask of You, God, this alone do I seek: that I might dwell in Your house all the days of my life!"

When we feel our distance from the world as it should be -- a world where no one goes hungry, where bigotry has vanished like morning fog, where every human being is uplifted and cherished as a reflection of the Infinite divine -- we yearn to bring repair. When we feel what's lacking, we ache to fill that void. Feeling how far we've fallen is precisely what spurs us to seek to rise. This is built into the very order of things. And that's where I find hope during these difficult days.

This is the work of spiritual life as I understand it. There are times that feel like a descent into the pit, a fall away from God, even imprisonment in Pharaoh's dungeon. This is true both on the small scale of every individual human life, and on the broader canvas of the nation or the world at large. But the thing about hitting bottom is, there's nowhere to go from there but up.

Our job is to inhabit every broken place, every spiritual exile, and let them fuel us to ascend closer to God and closer to the world as we know it should be. Then those who have sown in tears will reap in joy. Then those who went out weeping, carrying the seeds of the tomorrow in which they could barely find hope, will return in gladness bearing the abundant harvest of everything they need. Kein yehi ratzon: so may it be.
Downtown Berkeley on Sunday became, once again, the site of a conflict between right-wing protesters and counterprotesters, crushing the hopes of city officials for a mellow day.

For most of the afternoon, flocks of protesters surged along Berkeleys central streets, defying police officers attempts to corral them. Meanwhile, in Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, a small group of anti-Marxists sparred with those who came out to denounce them as white supremacists.

The afternoon ended with more than a dozen arrests, several small fires being set and a lot of screaming and slogan chanting  but by evening, the commotion was over.

The confrontation stemmed from an announcement earlier in the week from the Proud Boys and another right-wing group that they might stage a gathering Sunday at Civic Center Park, the site of previous clashes.

A Proud Boys posting on Twitter indicated that the gathering was canceled, but nonetheless, approximately 400 counterprotesters gathered in Ohlone Park at 11 a.m. and marched along downtown Berkeley streets, heading toward the location of the originally proposed rally.

Some of the marchers were dressed in black, the common uniform of antifa (anti-fascist) activists. They held up signs such as Hatefully targeting marginalized groups is not political discourse and chanted slogans in support of a host of leftist political positions.

Now Playing: Left and alt-right protesters gather in Berkeley for demonstrations Video: San Francisco Chronicle

We want to show them that hatred is not welcome here, said Levon Johnson of Berkeley, who came to protest right-wing groups.

The Berkeley Police Department had prepared for possible violence by setting up barriers in Civic Center Park and by closing surrounding streets to vehicle traffic. The city also banned items that could be used as weapons, as well as face-covering masks, from the protest.

Were going to do what we can to keep people safe, said Matthai Chakko, a city spokesman. Neither the conservative nor the opposing groups had obtained city permits.

By 12:30 p.m., several dozen right-wing demonstrators amassed at the marchers intended destination, wearing Make America Great caps and waving signs with slogans such as No to Marxism in America and Slave labor made America great.

With the group was Eddy Brock, 30, who said his parents were both immigrants from socialist countries, and he was there to protest communism and Marxism. He pointed at the police barriers, saying, All these barriers arent for the 30 to 40 patriots who showed up.

Arguments between the sides, not surprisingly, grew heated. Counterprotesters surrounded right-wing activists chanting, Nazi scum, well shut you down, Berkeley is an immigrant town. Film crews from the conservative media outlet InfoWars, flanked by bodyguards, prowled around the park in search of controversy.

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Around 1:45, a series of explosions erupted near the intersection of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue, several blocks from the park. According to Berkeley police spokesman Byron White, marchers threw fireworks at officers, who deployed handheld smoke canisters and fired rubber bullets in response.

In a statement Sunday evening, the department reported that officers arrested 20 protesters  mostly for possession of weapons in parks and on streets and sidewalks. Earlier in the day it posted photographs on its Twitter account of objects police confiscated, including rocks and hammers. They also reported that protesters started three dumpster fires, set one car on fire and vandalized an additional 20.

By 3 p.m., the marchers had largely dispersed and the smaller rally in Civic Center Park devolved into loud, but nonviolent, discussions between sides.

The Berkeley actions came on the heels of a rally organized by Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys on Saturday in Portland, Ore. There, activists on the right squared off with counterprotesters, occasionally engaging in scuffles. Police arrested four people, and a reporter was injured covering the event.

Created by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes in 2016, the Proud Boys adopt a somewhat coy relationship with white nationalism, saying they are Western culture chauvinists rather than racist but sharing members and actions with some white supremacist organizations. Its initiation rites include Fight Club-style beatings, and McInnes reportedly endorses violence as a political tactic. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Proud Boys as a hate group.

Michael Cabanatuan and Jonathan Kauffman are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, jkauffman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan, @jonkauffman
After Stanford University concluded that one of its students sexually assaulted a classmate, campus officials imposed what they called a very serious sanction: a suspension of two academic quarters.

The victim said it felt like a second assault.

Providing my rapist with a gracious invitation back to Stanford pending a brief period of reflection disrespects myself and the moral stature of Stanford as an institution, Sinead Talley wrote on Dec. 20, 2016, in her unsuccessful appeal. She wanted Stanford to expel the man she said had been her friend until he raped her while she was in a drunken stupor.

Stanford reported the assault in 2016 to campus police, as required by state law. But Talley chose not to pursue the case through the criminal justice system. Instead, like many college students who report sexual assault, she turned to her universitys internal justice system.

Now Talley is speaking out to accuse the world-renowned university of protecting students who commit sexual assault by downplaying the severity of their behavior and rarely expelling them.

The data appear to back her up: Stanford received reports of 84 campus rapes from 2014 to 2016, according to information the university provided to the U.S. Department of Education, which requires campuses to collect crime statistics under the Clery Act. Stanford told the federal agency it received 33 of the rape reports in 2016 alone.

Yet the university expelled no students for sexual assault in those years. Instead, it arranged for three students to leave voluntarily, including former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner in 2015-16, said spokesman E.J. Miranda. He said two students have been expelled for sexual assault, in 2001-02 and 2006-07.

Miranda said the university could not investigate all 84 reports of rape because some complainants never identified an assailant. Some who were identified couldnt be expelled because they werent students, he said.

But questions remain even after a closer look.

In a 2016-17 report by Stanford on sexual misconduct on campus, the university said it conducted 12 investigations into reports of nonconsensual intercourse, but lacked enough information to investigate another 12. The hearing panel found violations in four cases  against three students and a visiting researcher. Names are not included in the report, but one of those cases was Talleys.

Leah Millis / The Chronicle

In Talleys case, the panel deciding punishment did not expel the student because it found he didnt know she was incapacitated and didnt cause her to become incapacitated.

Yet in another case in the 2016-17 report, the hearing panel decided against expelling a student even though his offense met Stanfords threshold for expulsion, according to a footnote in the report. That is, the student committed sexual assault either by force, by incapacitating his victim, or by knowing that his victim was incapacitated and having sex with her anyway.

The panel determined that a three-quarter suspension was the appropriate sanction, the footnote said, without explanation.

Stanford has had tremendous reluctance to hold students accountable even when they are found responsible for the most serious violations. They just wont expel them. Instead, they give these laughably lenient penalties, said Michele Dauber, the Stanford law professor who led a successful recall campaign last spring against the judge widely perceived to have imposed a too-light sentence on Turner, the freshman swimmer convicted of sexual assault in 2015.

Dauber had not heard of Talleys situation until The Chronicle described it. But she and several current and former students familiar with Stanfords policies agreed with Talleys assessment that the university fails to adequately punish students who commit sexual assault by kicking them out of school.

The university defended itself.

We do not tolerate sexual assault at Stanford, Miranda said. We seek to carefully weigh the facts and treat all parties fairly through our adjudication process, including the investigation and imposed sanctions.

Talley said her experience shows that Stanford does tolerate sexual assault.

The Chronicle reviewed university records of the case, interviewed Talley and attempted many times to reach the other former student involved, without success. Stanford officials responded only to written questions relayed through Miranda.

The Chronicle is not naming the former student because he was not charged with a crime. The Chronicle does not typically name victims of sexual assault unless, like Talley, they wish to be identified.

Rush week was in full force at Stanford in April 2014 when a friend of Talleys accepted a bid from his favorite fraternity. He invited her to the celebration.

In a written account she gave to Stanford investigators, Talley said she felt exhausted on the night of the party and hadnt been sleeping well or eating enough for some time. She had a few drinks at the party. Her next memory was waking up the next morning naked and sore, aware that the student was in her room, and aware when he slipped out, according to the account, a long letter she wrote to the student two years later detailing her experience.

I didnt report what you did, Talley wrote. I refused to acknowledge that it had been rape for weeks afterward.

She blamed herself.

I made excuses for you, convinced myself that I could have consented in my blacked-out state, cursed myself for binge drinking, questioned whether I had given you the wrong idea. I held onto that shame and guilt, as though it was ever mine to carry, she wrote.

Then she learned something that changed her mind. The student had spread the news among their friends that theyd had a hook-up, Talley wrote.

She waited two years, then reported the assault to the university days before graduating in 2016.

My course load was strenuous, said Talley, who graduated with a degree in human biology. I didnt know any other way than to put it by the wayside.

Talley said her experience as an American Indian influenced her decision to report the assault to the university instead of law enforcement. As a Karuk person, Ive seen a lot of police violence. Ive seen the system fail, and I dont have a lot of trust.

Like all universities governed by Title IX, the federal civil rights law that outlaws sex discrimination on campuses, Stanford has a system for handling allegations of sexual misconduct, from harassment to assault. The system lets them investigate, hold hearings and mete out discipline. It doesnt have the force of law.

In December 2016, a three-member hearing panel  chosen from a pool of faculty, staff and graduate students  concluded unanimously, as required, that Talleys former friend had sexually assaulted her.

The preponderance of the evidence indicates that (he) committed sexual assault by virtue of (her) state of incapacitation, the panel wrote.

Talley asked that the student be expelled, noting that since I was drunk, I could not give consent.

In cases of intoxication, California criminal law says a rape has occurred if the person is prevented from resisting because he or she is drunk  and that the accused knew or reasonably should have known.

Stanfords policy in 2014, the year of Talleys assault, said that a person must consent to sexual intercourse  and that a drunk person cannot give consent.

The student argued in his written statement that he believed Talley had consented.

Sadly, I was intoxicated, too, so my judgment was impaired, he wrote in his defense. I had no idea that she was in a blackout. ... I thought I was having consensual sex.

The panel wrote: We believe a reasonable, sober person would have recognized (Talleys) incapacitation, her inability to understand the nature of the sexual situation, and thus her inability to give consent.

The panel agreed the sexual assault occurred but that the student did not know she was intoxicated and decided that expelling him was not appropriate.

Instead, it imposed a two-quarter suspension, with training in consent and the effects of alcohol.

It is our sincere hope that this very serious sanction will enable (him) to return to Stanford fully committed to maintaining the integrity and safety of the community, the panel wrote.

The students suspension was to begin after he completed another suspension currently in place, according to the 2016 record.

Miranda, Stanfords spokesman, declined to explain the other suspension but said it was not for sexual misconduct.

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He said the student never returned to Stanford.

The question of whether Stanford should expel students who sexually assault their classmates erupted on campus in spring 2014, when a student named Leah Francis organized rallies to protest the universitys handling of the issue. That spring, campus investigators determined that a student had sexually assaulted Francis in January. He was suspended briefly and allowed to earn a degree.

The Francis case energized protesters, who rallied on campus. An additional 7,000 people signed a petition urging the university to expel every student found responsible for sexual assault.

Leahs case shook Stanford, said Tessa Ormenyi, who graduated with Francis in 2014 and co-founded #StandWithLeah.

Soon another case shook the university  and the world  after Turner, the Stanford swimmer, sexually assaulted a woman outside a frat party in January 2015. This time, the anonymous victim, calling herself Emily Doe, brought criminal charges. At the sentencing hearing that June, Doe read aloud a letter shed written to Turner describing the depths to which his crime had affected her.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months in county jail.

Social media went wild, criticizing the sentence as a wrist slap. At graduation, several students carried signs condemning their school. Stanford protects rapists, read one. 150 years of rape culture, read another, referring to the age of the venerable university. The Turner case also prompted California lawmakers to expand the states definition of rape.

Dauber gathered nearly 100,000 signatures in support of a ballot measure to recall the judge. In June, Persky became the first California judge in 86 years to be voted out of office, with 60 percent of the vote against him.

Amid it all, Stanford convened a task force to study its response to sexual misconduct. Then, in February 2016, university officials enacted a policy making expulsion the expected sanction for sexual assault. But they did so only after narrowing the definition of sexual assault.

Under the new rules, anyone accused of having sex with an incapacitated person  someone too drunk to give consent, for example  must have caused the incapacitation or have knowingly taken advantage of an incapacitated person to be found responsible for sexual assault.

Those rules now make it nearly impossible for any Stanford student to be held responsible for sexual assault, said Emma Tsurkov, a doctoral student in sociology, who serves as the student governments representative on sexual violence.

The easy way to get out of it is for the (accused) person to say they didnt know the victim was incapacitated, she said.

In Talleys case, thats what her assailant told the panel that would decide his punishment.

When it declined to expel the student, Talley appealed.

The appeal officer offered a summary of the hearing panels reason for finding the student responsible for sexual assault in the first place. The panel found that Talley had consumed a large amount of alcohol and, given her diminutive stature, compounded by the lack of sleep and skipped meals, was unable to give consent. The panel further found that although (he) may not have known that (she) was incapacitated, a reasonably sober person would have known.

In rejecting Talleys request, the appeal officer said the panel had reasonably concluded that (he) neither induced nor knowingly took advantage of an incapacitated person.

Tsurkov called the panels decision troubling.

The fact that we do not expel people who commit sexual assault means we tolerate their presence in our community, she said. I dont think people walk around on campus contemplating rape. But in the moment, if they thought they could lose their place at Stanford  that they could get expelled  I think that could have a deterring effect.

Stanford signed an agreement with Talley in March to reimburse her for fees associated with the case, provide mental health counseling for five years, and pay her $10,000 for that purpose. It also agreed to hear her feedback about the universitys process.

At a recent visit to the San Francisco office of her lawyer, Michael Bien, Talley appeared disheartened.

To get to the end and have them say, Yeah, we unanimously agree, he definitely assaulted you  and that warrants zero action, was beyond stressful, she said.

The outcome is not disappointing, she added. Its criminal.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
When newly elected Mayor London Breed signed San Franciscos record $11 billion budget last week, she also ushered in a 3 percent pay bump for all city workers  meaning nearly 800 city executives will be making more than Californias governor.

New payroll figures provided by the city controllers office show that two dozen San Francisco managers earn a base pay of more than $300,000  Susan Ehrlich, the physician who heads San Francisco General Hospital, tops the list at $429,000 a year.

Breed, who just months ago drew a $121,448 salary as president of the Board of Supervisors, now earns $335,995  making her the highest-paid mayor in California. That easily eclipses Gov. Jerry Browns $195,806 salary or the $201,680 hell be getting starting in December.

Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Still, Breed is only the eighth highest paid San Francisco official  the new pay raises, for instance, bump up Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly to $359,000 a year and San Francisco International Airport Director Ivar Satero to $341,000.

Police Chief Bill Scott, meanwhile, will now make $332,774 and Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White $326,974.

Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2016

The citys list of those making more than the governor doesnt even include about 500 lower-level city workers who, according to city payroll records, made at least $200,000 in 2017 after overtime and other premium pay incentives were added in.

Or the citys retirement fund chief investment officer, William Coaker Jr., whose chart-topping $545,294 in pay in 2017 was based on commissions.

Its not rational, California Citizens Compensation Commission Chairman Tom Dalzell said of the imbalance between state and city salaries.

Overall, the median pay for most full-time city workers last year was $97,301, with overtime included. The median pay for most full-time executives last year, with overtime, was $148,470.

In all, San Francisco will spend $5 billion on employee salaries and benefits this fiscal year  about 45 percent of the total city budget.

Meanwhile, given the political realities at the state level, Dalzell said its unlikely Californias constitutional officers or legislators will see big pay increases anytime soon. That means that for the foreseeable future, the governor will continue to take home considerably less than hundreds of San Francisco police officers, firefighters and city bureaucrats. That group includes three sheriffs deputies who each took home nearly $350,000 last year, with their overtime alone totaling more than the governors salary.

Bike lash: The 10-speed techie who gained notoriety as the first San Francisco cyclist to be convicted of felony manslaughter after he sailed through a Castro district intersection and plowed into a 71-year-old man is now saying he was the victim of a malicious prosecution by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.

It was a TV felony, Chris Bucchere said in a phone interview, saying that Gascon was advancing his political career when he charged the software developer in the 2012 death of Sutchi Hui of San Bruno.

The reality is I failed as a cyclist my moral responsibility to keep everyone safe ... and Im terribly sorry about, Bucchere said. Still, he argues he was the unlucky victim of prosecutorial misconduct and bias, as well as a feeding frenzy by the media.

Courtesy Michael Jelks

Bucchere had been on a long ride on March 29, 2012, when prosecutors said he sped through several stop signs and ran a red light at Castro and Market streets, hitting Hui, who was walking with his wife.

Hours later, and days before Hui died, Bucchere posted on a blog that he was way too committed to stop at the intersection  then dedicated the post to his late helmet (that) died in heroic fashion.

Buccheres seeming cavalier attitude sparked outrage among many in the community who saw him as the archetype of the self-centered techie. But Bucchere said he was on painkillers and half out of my mind from his own head injury when he wrote the post.

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Anyway, he said, I never made a comparison between my dead helmet and the man I had killed  he was alive when I wrote that and expected him to recover from his injuries.

Bucchere was charged with felony manslaughter. He says the case took a turn when investigators from the D.A.s office retrieved surveillance video that showed the light turned red as he entered the intersection and it was too late for him to stop and avoid the crash.

The video was incredibly lucky and it definitely saved me from jail, but it couldnt stop Gascons vendetta against cyclists, Bucchere said.

A pretrial deal was struck in which Bucchere pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which allowed the D.A. to term it a felony but also called for the charge to be dropped to a misdemeanor after Bucchere completed 1,000 of community service.

Bucchere, who still works as a software developer and lives in Marin County, has made his case the subject of 10-week, self-produced series of podcasts and blogs, with the first installment debuting Sunday and available at www.medium.com/bikelash.

As for the reaction from Gascons office?

Bucchere blames his felony conviction on our office, the Matier & Ross column, the witnesses at the scene and the pedestrians on hand, but talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words, said D.A. spokesman Alex Bastian. His actions that day killed a beloved 71-year-old family man. If hes looking to cast blame, he should look in the mirror.

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
For decades, the district south of downtown San Francisco and alongside the bay was known as Rincon Hill, South Beach or South of Market. This spring, it was suddenly rebranded on Google Maps to a name few had heard: the East Cut.

The peculiar moniker immediately spread digitally, from hotel sites to dating apps to Uber, which all use Googles map data. The name soon spilled over into the physical world, too. Real estate listings beckoned prospective tenants to the East Cut. Even some news organizations referred to the vicinity by that term.

Its degrading to the reputation of our area, said Tad Bogdan, who has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years. In a survey of 271 neighbors that he organized recently, he said, 90 percent disliked the name.

The swift rebranding of the roughly 170-year-old district is just one example of how Google Maps has now become the primary arbiter of place names. With decisions made by a few Google cartographers, the identity of a city, town or neighborhood can be reshaped, illustrating the outsize influence that Silicon Valley increasingly has in the real world.

The Detroit neighborhood now regularly called Fishkorn (pronounced FISH-korn), but previously known as Fiskhorn (pronounced FISK-horn)? That was because of Google Maps. Midtown South Central in Manhattan? That was also given life by Google Maps.

Yet how Google arrives at its names in maps is often mysterious. The company declined to detail how some place names came about, though some appear to have resulted from mistakes by researchers, rebrandings by real estate agents  or just outright fiction.

In Los Angeles, Jeffrey Schneider, a longtime architect in the Silver Lake area, said he recently began calling the hill he lived on Silver Lake Heights in ads for his rental apartment downstairs, partly as a joke. Last year, Silver Lake Heights also appeared on Google Maps.

Now for every real estate listing in this neighborhood, they refer to it, he said. You see a name like that on a map and you believe it.

Before the internet era, neighborhood names developed via word-of-mouth, newspaper articles and physical maps that were released periodically. But Google Maps, which debuted in 2005, is updated continuously and delivered to more than 1 billion people on their devices. Google also feeds map data to thousands of websites and apps, magnifying its influence.

In May, more than 63 percent of people who accessed a map on a smartphone or tablet used Google Maps, versus 19.4 percent for Chinese internet giant Alibabas maps and 5.5 percent for Apple Maps, according to comScore, which tracks web traffic.

Google said it created its maps from third-party data, public sources, satellites and, often most important, users. People can submit changes, which are reviewed by Google employees. A Google spokeswoman declined further comment.

Yet some submissions are ruled upon by people with little local knowledge of a place, such as contractors in India, said one former Google Maps employee, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Other users with a history of accurate changes said their updates to maps take effect instantly.

Many of Googles decisions have far-reaching consequences, with the maps driving increased traffic to quiet neighborhoods and once almost provoking an international incident in 2010 after it misrepresented the boundary between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

In Detroit, some residents have been baffled by Googles map of their city, which is blanketed with neighborhood monikers like NW Goldberg, Fishkorn and the Eye. Those names have been on Google Maps since at least 2012.

Timothy Boscarino, a Detroit city planner, traced Googles use of those names to a map posted online around 2002 by a few locals. Google almost identically copied that maps neighborhoods and boundaries, he said  down to its typos. One result was that Google transposed the k and h for the district known as Fiskhorn, making it Fishkorn.

A former Detroit city planner, Arthur Mullen, said he created the 2002 map as a side project and was surprised his typos were now distributed widely. He said he used old books and his local knowledge to make the map, approximating boundaries at times and inserting names with tenuous connections to neighborhoods, hoping to draw feedback.

I shouldnt be making a mistake and 20 years later people are having to live with it, Mullen said.

Detroit officials recently canvassed the community to make an official map of neighborhoods. That exercise fixed some errors, like Fiskhorn (though Fishkorn remains on Google Maps). But for many districts where residents were unsure of the history, authorities relied largely on Google. The Eye and others are now part of that official map.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

In San Francisco, the East Cut name originated from a neighborhood nonprofit group that residents voted to create in 2015 to clean and secure the area. The nonprofit paid $68,000 to a brand experience design company to rebrand the district.

Andrew Robinson, executive director of the nonprofit, now called the East Cut Community Benefit District (and previously the Greater Rincon Hill Community Benefit District), said the groups board rejected names like Grand Narrows and Central Hub. Instead they chose the East Cut, partly because it referenced an 1869 construction project to cut through nearby Rincon Hill. The nonprofit then paid for streetlight banners and outfitted street cleaners with East Cut apparel.

But it was not until Google Maps adopted the name this spring that it got attention  and mockery.

The East Cut sounds like a 17 dollar sandwich, Menotti Minutillo, an Uber engineer who works on the neighborhoods border, tweeted in May.

Robinson said his team asked Google to add the East Cut to its maps. A Google spokeswoman said employees manually inserted the name after verifying it through public sources. The companys San Francisco offices are in the neighborhood, and one of the East Cut nonprofits board members is a Google employee.

Google Maps has also validated other little-known San Francisco neighborhoods. Balboa Hollow, a roughly 50-block district north of Golden Gate Park, trumpets on its website that it is a distinct neighborhood. Its proof? Google Maps.

Dont believe us? its website asks. Well, were on the internet; so we must be real.

Jack Nicas is a New York Times writer.
Daniel Yanisse and Jonathan Perichon were working at startup Deliv when they saw a gap in its business model  and that of other on-demand companies.

Deliv needed to hire gig workers fast to do its same-day deliveries for retailers. First it needed to vet them. But the background-check industry was archaic, slow and tedious, Yanisse said.

As engineers, the two realized that technology could automate screening. They started San Franciscos Checkr four years ago, automating background checks to make them faster, more accurate and more applicant-friendly. A process that used to take weeks can now be done in days by searching online records for criminal, sex-offense and motor-vehicle violations, and using software to analyze data. About two-thirds of the roughly 3,000 counties nationwide have records online. In the others, Checkr sends researchers to look up records at courthouses.

Rapidly growing on-demand companies were quick to sign up.

We became one of the pillars of hiring contractors fast in the gig economy, Yanisse said. That was the largest bottleneck for those markets.

Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Doordash, GrubHub and Instacart use Checkr to screen their workers. It does more than 1 million checks a month for 10,000-plus customers, specializing in criminal background checks and driving records. It vets workers when they are hired; for some companies, including Uber and Lyft, it reruns checks annually.

Now, Checkr will constantly search databases for criminal violations. We saw a big need to move from static background checks done when you get hired to more-dynamic checks that happen on a continuous basis, Yanisse said. Especially now, because you have a very mobile and flexible workforce thats constantly changing.

Uber is its first client to use the new system, called Continuous Check.

A traditional background check is just a point-in-time view, said Gus Fuldner, Uber vice president of safety and insurance. Its important to make sure drivers meet standards every day, not just when they sign up or hit their one-year rerun.

Fast, cheap background checks are key for on-demand companies, which tap a constantly churning pool of part-time contract workers.

If you rely on casual labor, people who are not full-time employees and not trained professionals, the economics dont work out unless youve got a rapid and relatively low-cost way to bring people on board reliably, said Arun Sundararajan, a New York University business professor who studies on-demand companies. Checkr is an essential part of what makes the sharing economy possible.

That perception has fueled explosive growth at the company. Its 230 employees are double the number a year ago, and its still hiring. Investors have poured about $150 million into Checkr, including $100 million in April from T. Rowe Price and others. With flexible workers of all types now representing about a third of the U.S. workforce, they see Checkr as an increasingly important tool. Plenty of competitors have sprung up that also seek to streamline vetting with technology, but Checkr has a preponderance of big-name gig-economy firms as its clients.

The company, which charges on a per-case basis, does not disclose financial details.

But gig-worker background checks have also become a flash point for controversy.

Critics say that some bad actors can slip through  and point to high-profile examples such as San Franciscos recent rideshare rapist case in which an undocumented man passed Lyfts background check. (Checkr was not the company that screened him.) News reports are full of accounts of Uber and Lyft drivers over the years with criminal backgrounds or serious motor-vehicle incidents. San Francisco and Los Angeles went after Uber and Lyft in 2014, saying they falsely touted their screening process as superior. Both companies paid fines to settle (Lyft paid $500,000 in 2014; Uber, which fought the allegations, paid $25 million in 2016) and agreed to tone down their claims.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Checkrs background checks are based on peoples names and Social Security numbers, not biometric data such as fingerprints. Uber and Lyft fiercely resist fingerprint screens, which are more costly and time-consuming  and also can discriminate against minorities, who tend to have disproportionately high arrest rates, according to advocates such as Berkeleys Greenlining Institute. Most cities require taxi companies to screen cabdrivers with fingerprint checks, a sore point for the taxi industry, which says that takes away the level playing field in its competition with Uber and Lyft.

I have a lot of ambivalence about background checks, said Veena Dubal, an associate law professor at UC Hastings who studied ride-hailing drivers. I hear anecdotes and read reports about people with criminal backgrounds who slip through  but on the other hand, so much work is unavailable to people with criminal records, why block them from this work unless they are actually dangerous?

Uber is eager to win passengers trust. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says that safety is its top priority for this year and beyond.

We believe that technology can make travel safer than ever before, Ubers Fuldner said. At the same time, the company tries to balance that with fairness. With Continual Checks, it will receive notices of arrests, but will take action only against drivers who were charged or convicted of crimes  not those who were just arrested, which can be influenced by police bias.

Continuous Check also allows candidates who previously were disqualified to resurface after enough time has passed from prior traffic violations, he said.

Its important to preserve safety without blocking people, Fuldner said.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
Gumps, a San Francisco luxury department store founded in 1861, filed for bankruptcy protection late Friday, another sign of the upheaval in the retail industry.

The company said it is seeking a buyer. It plans to liquidate merchandise to pay off lenders, with Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers handling sales.

The company and its affiliates reported $61 million in assets and $64 million in liabilities in the Nevada bankruptcy filings.

We will continue to seek a source of capital to enable this storied brand to continue to serve its devoted customers, Tony Lopez, Gumps chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Retailers are struggling with increased competition from online companies such as Amazon, as well as high rents and operational costs in urban centers, particularly the Bay Area. Dozens of retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past few years, including San Franciscos Gymboree, as well as Brookstone, Nine West Holdings and the Bon-Ton Stores.

Gumps has been navigating the overwhelmingly difficult retail environment that has affected many retailers, the company said.

2 1 of 2 Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Stephanie Wright Hession / Special to The Chronicle 2011 Show More Show Less



The Gumps store is at 135 Post St., near Union Square. Gumps has more than 100 employees, and the store occupies about 17,000 square feet, a spokesman said.

Other Union Square retailers have been downsizing. Macys sold its mens store building in 2016 and is seeking to sell its 240,000-square-foot historic I. Magnin building. Macys also closed its Stonestown Galleria store this year.

The Gump family founded the company and survived the 1906 earthquake, which destroyed its store. Merchandise includes mirrors, Asian rugs, porcelain and silks, according to the companys website.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Gumps expanded beyond its retail location with a catalog in the 1950s. Its online and catalog sales now account for more than 75 percent of total sales and more than 90 percent of sales are outside the Bay Area, the company said in May.

Three investment firms bought Gumps in 2005, and the company has added shareholders since then, according to the bankruptcy filings.

Bloomberg first reported the bankruptcy filing.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf
Exhausted firefighters battled wildfires that spanned the entire state over the weekend, with the most destructive inferno claiming the ninth victim of the deadly outbreak and managers of Yosemite announcing the indefinite closure of the heart of the park.

Jay Ayeta, 21, an apprentice lineman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., died Saturday while working to restore power near the Carr Fire in Redding, utility spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said Sunday.

His death came as smoke from the Ferguson Fire forced Yosemite National Park to shutter its glorious scenery. Tioga Road from Tioga Pass to White Wolf remains open. but Yosemite Valley is closed at the peak of summer tourist season.

It is just not safe for visitors and employees in the park, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said Sunday.

And as those blazes continue to churn, the Mendocino Complex roaring in Lake and Mendocino counties grew over the weekend into one of the largest blazes in California history.

Now Playing: California is burning up with 18 active wildfires across the state, keeping 15,000 firefighters busy trying to build containment lines. The extreme weather patterns and unpredictable winds fanning the flames have caused some to say that California needs a better emergency notification system. It's an issue Cal Fire addressed on Sunday. Video: KCRA

Ayeta is the seventh person to die in the Carr fire  two firefighters and four other people have been killed in the blaze. And two more firefighters have died battling the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite.

Crews in a remote area with dangerous terrain were performing restoration work when a crew member suffered an accident and a fatal injury in western Shasta County, said J.D. Guidi, also a utility spokesman. PG&E crews arrived shortly after the incident to ensure the area was safe for first responders and supported public agencies accordingly.

Guidi said PG&E is working with law enforcement to investigate the death.

The safety of our customers, employees, contractors and communities we serve is PG&Es top priority, Guidi said. Unfortunately, one member of the PG&E family has died and our thoughts are with those involved in the incident and their families.

The Carr Fire in Shasta County  which had burned 160,049 acres by Sunday evening  has razed 1,080 homes, 24 commercial buildings and 500 other structures, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday. A total of 1,229 structures continue to be threatened. Officials have not yet projected when it could be fully contained.

Elsewhere in Northern California, firefighters have been working to contain multiple other fires as high temperatures, high winds and low humidity persist throughout the region.

As the Ferguson Fire grew to nearly 90,000 acres Sunday with 38 percent containment, Yosemite managers decided to extend the parks closures indefinitely. Major portions of the park have been closed since July 25, and officials had originally hoped to reopen at least parts of the valley by Sunday.

Over the past 48 hours, fire has impacted all of the roads used to access Yosemite Valley, burning dead and downed trees that can become very explosive and fall without warning, Gediman said in a statement. There are also significant terrain hazards for firefighters.

The blaze, which has been burning for 23 days and grew from 81,699 acres Saturday to 89,633 acres Sunday, was 35 percent contained. As unfavorable weather conditions persist, Jim Mackensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said the fire is only expected to keep growing.

Its been a very, very challenging fire, Mackensen said. Ive been doing this over 40 years, and this is the most challenging.

Temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s this week and wont begin easing until Thursday, said Cindy Bean, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

A wildfire burning in Tuolumne County also grew dramatically Sunday and led to more evacuation orders, according to the Sacramento Bee.

In Mendocino and Lake counties, the River Fire and the Ranch Fire, which make up the Mendocino Complex, expanded to 266,982 acres by Sunday, according to Cal Fire. That makes it the fifth-largest wildfire in California history.

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

Fire crews gained ground on the River Fire, which is now 58 percent contained, but the larger Ranch Fire continued to grow, heading southeast.

It is a very large and dynamic incident, said Cal Fire incident commander Sean Kavanaugh. Were catching our breath a little bit today, which is good. Over on the River fire, were hoping to have that wrapped up in the next few days.

New mandatory evacuations were ordered over the weekend in Lake, Colusa and Glenn counties near the Indian Valley Reservoir and the Spring Valley area. More than 3,500 firefighters are battling the blaze and are expected to focus on protecting communities in the path of the Ranch Fire, Cal Fire officials said.

The Mendocino Complex fires have destroyed 68 homes and 62 other buildings, and 15,300 remain threatened. The cause of the fires is not known.

President Trump weighed in Sunday on the fires, not to offer sympathy but as an opportunity to criticize environmental regulations.

California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which arent allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized, the Tweet read in part.

Michael Cabanatuan and Trisha Thadani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan, @TrishaThadani
Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, was scanning a local newspaper one day in October 1978 when a small classified ad leaped off the page. It read:

Ku Klux Klan, For Information Contact, P.O. Box 4771, Security, Colorado 80230

An undercover officer assigned to the intelligence unit, Stallworth was surprised because the appeal was so blatant and there had been no known Klan activity in that area, a suburb of Colorado Springs near two main military bases, about 75 miles south of Denver.

Though he figured the ad for a bad joke, he wrote a brief reply saying he was a white man concerned about blacks taking over. He jotted down the units undercover phone number and address but  in what hed later realize was a mistake  gave his real name.

Two weeks later the phone rang. The caller introduced himself as a Klan organizer and asked Stallworth why he wanted to join. Satisfied with his answer, the man asked when they could meet. In a week, Stallworth said, thinking as he hung up, Now what am I going to do?

More Information Black Klansman A Memoir By Ron Stallworth (Flatiron Books; 208 pages; $17.99 paperback / 191 pages; $25.99 hardcover) See More Collapse

"Black Klansman is Stallworths fascinating memoir of an extraordinary inquiry into a recrudescent Knights of the Ku Klux Klan that styled itself as kinder and gentler but was potentially violent and politically aggressive.

The story is timely given the rise of the alt-right movement and the emboldened activities of white supremacists since the election of President Trump. First published in 2014, the book is being reissued as a companion to Spike Lees new feature film, BlacKkKlansman, released on the one-year anniversary of the Charlottesville, Va., conflict over Confederate statutes in which a woman was killed.

The book describes Stallworths investigative techniques, his cover being nearly blown, obstacles he encountered in his own department, and some unexpectedly comical moments. It interweaves relevant Klan history and his insights on prejudice.

Growing up, Stallworth had been subjected to the n word many times and came to understand it as a white persons assertion of inherent superiority.

He had planned to attend college and teach physical education. But in 1972, at age 19, he became a police cadet in Colorado Springs through a diversity program. His path was set.

Less than two years later, Stallworth was sworn in as a full-fledged officer. Yet he still experienced bias inside and outside the department. As he writes, he was too black for some whites, and too blue for some blacks. But Stallworth was proud of being both because, he writes, I could differentiate being a cop who was black and a black man in white America.

There was, however, the practical matter of how a black officer could infiltrate the Klan. Stallworth devised an ingenious plan: He would continue to be the voice, posing as a white man on phone, while a fellow white officer would be the face, portraying him in person.

A lieutenant rejected the scheme, arguing that Klansmen could tell they were talking to a black man. Stallworth replied, What does a black man talk like?  but got no answer. Undaunted, he went straight to the chief.

Working the phone, Stallworth deftly befriended the local Klan organizer, the state organizer, and even David Duke, the Grand Wizard himself.

In public, Duke donned a suit and tie and espoused code-worded bigotry and antigovernment sentiment. Privately, he was blunt. No, I can always tell when Im talking to a n, he said during one call. I can tell that youre a pure Aryan white man by the way you talk.

Duke also confided the Klans plan to use the political system to further its cause. Indeed, Duke would go on to serve briefly in the Louisiana state legislature and mount several failed political campaigns. In 2016, Duke, who had by then left the Klan, endorsed Trump, who was criticized for waffling on his disavowal of the nod.

At the Klan meetings, Stallworths partner wore a wire, transmitting everything to him in a nearby surveillance car.

Usually these were small groups, or dens, of local Klansmen, but sometimes members of other racist organizations joined in. As a recruiting device, they screened the 1915 film Birth of a Nation, which depicts the Klan as saving the South.

Stallworths operation succeeded brilliantly: It uncovered plots to burn crosses, hold hooded marches and organize a border watch to shoot Mexican laborers crossing the Rio Grande. It revealed plans to recruit members in prison, and a proposed merger with the survivalist group Posse Comitatus. It identified several military personnel in the Klan.

Indeed, Stallworths deception worked so well that the Klan officially admitted him (in the form of his partner) and pressured him to become a local organizer.

Events culminated in Dukes January 1979 visit to Colorado Springs, at which he presided over a nationalization ceremony for new members replete with candlelight, holy water and a prayer for true Whitemen. A march of 100 robed Klansmen, however, was cancelled partly due to a shortage of robes.

In a perverse twist, the police chief assigned Stallworth to be Dukes personal body guard during the visit. Amazingly, Duke never recognized his voice  and Stallworth even got Duke to pose for a photo with him.

But when Stallworth slipped his arm around Dukes shoulder just as the shutter clicked, it was too much for the Grand Wizard. He lunged for the camera, Stallworth threatened to arrest him for assaulting an officer, and he backed off. As Duke glowered, Stallworth reveled in the moment.

Seth Rosenfeld is a former San Francisco Chronicle staff writer and author of Subversives: The FBIs War on Student Radicals, and Reagans Rise to Power. Email: books@sfchronicle.com
Paul Tomita, 79, was only 4 years old when he departed the Minidoka prison camp for American Japanese in southern Idaho. It was 1943 and his parents had passed a lengthy clearance process to re-enter society.

Not charged with a crime but banned from returning to their Seattle home on the West Coast, which had been designated a military zone, the family was headed East with the promise of work.

The only thing left was to receive exit cards. Tomita had his mugshot snapped and his fingerprint taken. A forlorn-looking boy was ready to leave.

Tomita now takes a replica of the wallet-size card whenever he goes to Japanese American pilgrimages that are held at the original sites of confinement.

This year he has been to two: one at the Tule Lake confinement site in northeast California, where 400 pilgrims recently gathered to remember the human rights violations suffered by 18,000.

Two days later, he proceeded to the Minidoka pilgrimage in Idaho, where the National Park Service will officially open a new interpretive center next year.

At Minidoka, Tomita recalled living in Block 12-5-E, where his mother stuffed wet newspaper balls into knotholes to block the dust at night. Paul was asthmatic and medication was lacking.

It was futile, he said. When the paper dries, it falls out. But thats all mom could do.

At four pilgrimages this year, to Rohwer and Jerome in Arkansas; Tule Lake; Minidoka and Heart Mountain in Wyoming, more than 1,000 people traveled from 20 states to hear the stories of survivors and stand on hallowed ground.

A pilgrim to Arkansas, who was born at the Jerome camp, scooped up earth into a plastic bag to take home. Jerry Ishii, 75, a grape farmer from Fresno, said he didnt know what he would do with it.

Maybe put it in my grave, he said.

The pilgrims of all ages and backgrounds increasingly flock to some of the reddest parts of the nation, which is where 10 long-term concentration camps were thrown up by the government in 1942, in remote places in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

Guarded by armed sentries and surrounded by barbed wire, more than 120,000 innocent civilians were incarcerated without due process under Roosevelts presidential order for up to four years, between 1942 and 1946. Two-thirds were citizens, 40,000 were children.

Bay Area families were sent to the Tanforan racetrack, a preliminary detention site in San Bruno, and after several months there, the 8,000 inmates were put on trains to the Topaz facility in Utah.

Its not clear how assignments were determined by military authorities, but San Jose residents were shipped to Wyoming and Sacramento families were sent to Tule Lake. Marriages were hurried and students returned home so family members would not be separated to different camps.

Sam Mihara, a San Francisco native, was among those who were assigned to Heart Mountain instead of Utah. He was 9 years old when the Miharas were forced from their home on Sutter Street in Japantown.

At the camps pilgrimage last week, he stood on the hospital grounds where he told pilgrims about his father who became blind from glaucoma and his grandfather who died of cancer there.

Shig Yabu, also a San Francisco native who ended up in Wyoming, sat in a preserved barrack and related childhood memories of poking scorpions, being sprayed with DDT and having a horned toad and a magpie for pets.

The barracks housed multiple families, but there were no walls, only sheets hung up for a pretense of privacy, he said. A gallon can was used as a chamber pot at night for children who couldnt walk to the block latrine used by 200 people.

The pilgrimages usually run for two to three days and offer workshops, small discussion groups, open-mike sessions and opportunities to plan resistance strategies.

Boosted by social media, a new organization that shares pilgrimage information and the opening of museums and interpretive centers on the original sites, pilgrimages are gaining in popularity, especially with young descendants who bring art, activism and fresh energy to community history.

The time-honored pledge to never again allow the incarceration history to be repeated is being updated to Never again is now.

Presidential rhetoric that labels immigrants as animals and rapists and the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld an immigration ban that discriminates in the name of national security, has activated many pilgrims to discuss the historic parallels.

Dissent is in the DNA of pilgrims to Tule Lake. It became a maximum-security segregation center to punish those who protested the injustice of their incarceration in their answers on a loyalty questionnaire.

Tule Lake pilgrims this year launched the Japanese American Action Network and, after the traditional memorial service, hundreds of attendees, including many 80- and 90-year-olds, gathered in front of the former jail and roared mightily in protest against the administrations family separation policy.

The tragedy and trauma of the border crisis and the separation of families has been especially poignant for elderly survivors who were children in the early 1940s, and who sometimes say they either dont have memories or dont wish to talk about them.

An 87-year-old woman from Santa Barbara who was 11 when she was confined in Wyoming said that she hadnt told her children about this part of her life. Its like you dont tell them you were held at Alcatraz, you know.

Kurt Yokoyama Ikeda, 27, of Long Beach, attended three pilgrimages this year. His great-grandfather was picked up by the FBI soon after Pearl Harbor and wasnt seen for years after, something that his grandfather didnt talk about until right before he died.

If you are here with family, he said, share the story with them. Time is running out.

More Information Government-ordered exclusion Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942, led to the forced removal of American citizens and legal residents of Japanese descent from the West Coast to remote detention facilities for up to four years. 121,000 incarcerated, most of whom were American citizens. 10 concentration camps, operated by the War Relocation Authority. 16 short-term detention camps, typically at fairgrounds or racetracks 2 citizen isolation centers to house dissenters. 18 internment camps, operated by the Department of Justice or other federal agencies, housed 7,000 Japanese (as well as several thousand German and Italian) nationals. Sources: National Park Service; encyclopedia.densho.org; Wikimedia Commons. See More Collapse

Nancy Ukai, a Berkeley native, is the director of a digital history project, www.50objects.org, funded in part by the National Park Service. Twelve of her relatives were incarcerated at Tanforan and Topaz. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters.
Pretty much every Bay Area stage actor has a side hustle (or hustles) to stay afloat, even one who stars in a play at ACTs Geary Theater, as Denmo Ibrahim did last month with the companys remount of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the story of intersecting lives of Afghan women based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini.

But it would be inaccurate to call Ibrahims work outside the theater a side hustle. The actress is also the CEO of two separate but intertwined companies, the Hayes Valley day spa Earthbody, which employs 20, and the skin care line Omcali Sacred Skincare, which has been sold at Whole Foods.

Up next in her theater career, having already toured with Suns to Theatre Calgary and San Diegos Old Globe, she brings the show to Seattle Rep, after which she returns to the Bay Area next year to perform in Ayad Akhtars The Who and the What at Marin Theatre Company from Feb. 28 to March 24.

Ibrahim, 40, tends to keep her different professional lives separate, mainly because I think its hard for others to grasp, she says. And I dont know if its always important ... that they know those parts of me. But its not that theyre hidden. Its more that her CEO self is looking at the big picture all the time, while her actor self is looking down the rabbit hole. Its a totally different lens.

When she was growing up in Princeton, N.J., as the American daughter of Egyptian immigrants, there was this real feeling of becoming something,  she says. It doesnt really matter what it is, but you must become something. That was always really clear in my childhood.

But ambition in theater required, paradoxically, the melting away of ambition. The art form is the place and space that feels the most vulnerable for me, she says. In a world where I genuinely like to achieve things ... in theater I never feel that way. It feels like the undoing of something. When you have a live audience in front of you, you cant lie.

After moving to the Bay Area in 2003 to co-found the ensemble theater company Mugwumpin, Ibrahim realized, I had to figure out a job situation that would be conducive to the lifestyle I knew I needed and wanted. She takes a month off every year to go on a meditation retreat, but no employer would accommodate that kind of vacation time. What I had been doing was, I would get a job, and then I would quit, and Id go on my retreat, and then Id come back, and then Id find a new job, she says, adding, It was really tumultuous.

So she decided to acquire a skill, one she could take anywhere. Bodywork, which includes a variety of massages, wasnt a big stretch after having spent so many years studying the body as an actor.

More Information A Thousand Splendid Suns: Adapted by Ursula Rani Sarma from Khaled Hosseini. Directed by Carey Perloff. Oct. 5-Nov. 10. Seattle Rep's Bagley Wright Theatre, 155 Mercer St., Seattle. 206-443-2222. www.seattlerep.org 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

I hadnt really even considered compromising my needs for my retreat time to just have a job, which she attributes to her theater training. As an artist, you are constantly asking ... What do you want the space to be? ... When youre working in ensemble theater, what is the story you want to create? Youre always being asked, What do you want? What do you want?

To train in that vocabulary for years affected how I was in the world. I didnt assume that whatever I was handed was going to be good enough. I assume that my work in the world was to create my world, and thats actually what I did.

Bodywork didnt just afford a flexible schedule; turns out Ibrahim was really good at it. In six months time, I was fully booked a month in advance, with a waiting list  with no advertisement and no website. She started bodywork as a solo independent contractor in 2005. By 2007, she was training other bodyworkers in her own commercial space.

Ibrahim got into skin care because she wanted to give bodywork clients something they could take home. I started making small batches of skin care one by one, again, never really thinking of a plan. But soon, people were asking for them, and spas were calling. She had to streamline the situation. Omcali was born.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

If Ibrahim regards all three of her arenas  theater, bodywork and skin care  as passion projects, passion is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, everything you do feels like it can enrich each other, so in a sense, your life can actually be a mandala, and there is no division. Thats the good thing. The bad thing is, when you have passion for something, you can start a million little fires.

Ibrahim runs her businesses with her husband and fellow theater artist, Wesley Cabral, who managed day-to-day operations when she toured with A Thousand Splendid Suns.

In some ways, Ibrahims various lines of work support each other. I feel like the confidence that Ive developed naturally as a CEO of course comes with me as an actor. And performing and running a business both require vision and heart.

But they also conflict, and not just because each can take time away from the other. Because I am a leader, I like to take the reins, and sometimes I feel as an actor, that can actually not work in your favor, because traditional theater, American theater has a hierarchy: Theres a director. Theres a playwright. ... Theres an actor.

But when she gets used to not being in charge, for once, I love that, actually. I love being able to know that I just need to take care of my part.

Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicles theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak
If you've watched HGTV lately, you're probably already acquainted with the so-called "tiny homes movement."

It's certainly an appealing concept. At a time when American homes easily average over 2,000 square feet, most tiny homes clock in at less than 300. It's a way for retirees, millennials loaded down with student debt and people just looking to downsize to live more simply  and cheaply. In the Bay Area, where an average "fixer-upper" in San Francisco will set you back nearly $1 million, you can buy a tiny home for $50,000.

In some ways, the Bay Area is already the modern tiny home pioneer. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, the city of San Francisco built small "earthquake shacks" for displaced victims. You can still see a few of them in the city today and they occasionally go on the market.

Modern Bay Area tiny home enthusiasts may be interested to hear about a tiny home manufacturer in their own backyard (figuratively). Tiny Mountain Houses, located in Sacramento, is one of the region's most popular tiny home manufacturers (they've been featured on HGTV). They offer over a dozen different models.

"The country has become fascinated with smaller living and although not everyone wants to live in a tiny house on wheels, most people know what they are," Tiny Mountain Houses national marketing and sales director Nick Pereyra says.

Pereyra says the company finds that tiny homes are especially popular in high-rent locations like the Bay Area. But a modern tiny home is not always an easy thing to realize. Especially in the Bay Area, it's tough to find a spot to park your small abode, as the land has to be zoned for residences.

"Not all areas are allowing tiny houses on wheels to be lived in full time, which is a shame because they can present a huge solution for a lot of cities," Pereyra says. "I would say when people buy our homes they generally already have a place to park it."

Curious if you could downsize your life enough to fit it all in a tiny home? Check out a few different models of tiny homes in the gallery above.
MATARAM, Indonesia  A powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok on Sunday, killing at least 91 people and shaking neighboring Bali, one week after another quake on Lombok killed more than a dozen.

The latest quake damaged buildings as far away as Denpasar on Bali, including a department store and the airport terminal, where ceiling panels were shaken loose, authorities said.

Video showed screaming people running in panic from houses in Bali and vehicles rocking. On Lombok, soldiers and other rescuers carried injured people on stretchers and carpets to an evacuation center.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the toll had risen to 91 with hundreds of others injured. Thousands of homes were damaged and most people were killed by collapsing houses, he said.

A total of 65 of the deaths were in North Lombok district, nine in West Lombok district, four in the provincial capital Mataram and two each in Central Lombok and East Lombok districts, Nugroho said.

The quake, recorded at 7.0-magnitude by the U.S. Geological Survey, struck Sunday evening at a depth of 6 miles in the northern part of Lombok.

I was watching TV when I felt a big shake, said Harian, a Lombok woman who gave one name. The lamp was shaking, and people were shouting Get out. I ran out into the dark because the power cut off.

A tsunami warning was lifted after waves just 6 inches high were recorded in three villages, said Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of Indonesias Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

Frightened people poured out of their homes to move to higher ground, particularly in North Lombok and Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, said Iwan Asmara, a Lombok disaster official.

The Bali and Lombok airports continued operating Sunday night, according to the director general of civil aviation. There had been a half-hour evacuation at the Lombok airport following the quake because the electricity went off.

The island was already recovering from a 6.4-magnitude quake on July 29 that killed 16 people.

Like Bali, Lombok is known for pristine beaches and mountains. Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Ros Idin and Ali Kotarumalos are Associated Press writers.
In 2003, researchers digging in a mountain cave on the Indonesian island of Flores discovered astonishing fossils of a tiny, humanlike individual with a small, chimp-sized brain. They called the species Homo floresiensis.

These relatives of modern humans stood just over three feet tall. Several villages in the area, scientists noted, are inhabited by people whose average height is 4 feet 9 inches.

Was this the result of interbreeding long ago between taller modern humans and shorter Homo floresiensis? Fifteen years after the bones discovery, a study of the DNA of living people on Flores has delivered a verdict.

Its rare in science that you set about to answer a question and you get something of a definitive answer and its the end, said Richard E. Green, a geneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a co-author of the study, published Thursday in Science.

The answer is a clear enough no that Im done with it.

But as often happens in science, the answer to one question raises new ones. The study shows that at least twice in ancient history, humans and their relatives (known as hominins) arrived on Flores and then grew shorter.

And not just humans: Other research has shown that elephants also arrived on Flores twice, and both times the species evolved into dwarves. So what mysterious power does this island have to shrink the body?

When the fossils of Homo floresiensis first came to light, many researchers hoped they might still hold fragments of DNA. They were encouraged by the initial dating of the fossils  an estimated age of perhaps just 13,000 years.

DNA analysis might have settled the debate over how Homo floresiensis fits into the hominin family tree. Some researchers argued that the bones simply belonged to a modern human with a growth disorder.

Others argued that they belonged to a much more distant branch of the human tree, evolving from a taller hominin species called Homo erectus.

In 2007 Herawati Sudoyo, a geneticist at the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in Indonesia, brought samples of Homo floresiensis fossils to Green, then at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

Hard as he and his colleagues tried, they failed to get any definitive DNA from the fossils. We could never really make sense of it, said Green.

Years later, Green and his colleagues made two important discoveries. They found that humans and Neanderthals interbred; about 1 percent of the DNA of living non-Africans comes from those vanished hominins.

And researchers discovered a separate branch of hominins, known as the Denisovans. Denisovans and humans also interbred, with the result that living people in East Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific still carry some Denisovan DNA.

At a 2012 scientific conference, Green and Sudoyo got to talking about Homo floresiensis and realized they might not have to look for its DNA in fossils.

What if the ancestors of the people around the cave had interbred with the extinct hominins, inheriting genes for a pygmy body type?

In 2013, they organized a trip to Flores to visit a village called Rampasasa near the cave. With the consent of village elders, Sudoyo and Gludhug A. Purnomo, a research assistant, took saliva samples from 32 villagers.

As the researchers extracted DNA from the samples and analyzed it, other scientists were taking a new look at the Homo floresiensis fossils. They realized that the initial estimate of their age was wrong. Instead, the fossils are at least 60,000 years old.

That finding drastically narrowed the window during which modern humans might have shared Flores  and interbred  with Homo floresiensis.

Enlisted by Sudoyo, Dr. Serena Tucci, now a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, and her colleagues compared the DNA of the Rampasasa villagers to that of other living people around the world.

The researchers found that a very small percentage of the villagers DNA came from Neanderthals or Denisovans. A tiny portion could not be matched to humans, Neanderthals or Denisovans.

But these enigmatic pieces were not dramatically different from human DNA, as you would expect if they had come from Homo floresiensis. Tucci concluded that the Rampasasa villagers have no Homo floresiensis ancestry.

I wasnt disappointed, she said, because they are extremely interesting for other reasons.

Rampasasa villagers are not short because they descend partly from Homo floresiensis. Instead, their ancestors were taller humans.

But at some point after they came to Flores, they became very short  as did Homo floresiensis before them. And they are not the only mammals to have shrunk.

Those dwarf elephants on Flores, now extinct, were only as tall at the shoulder as a human. Judging from related species elsewhere in Southeast Asia, their ancestors were likely full sized.

Humans have evolved pygmy bodies on a few other islands, including a few in the Philippines and Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. Small populations have evolved short stature in rain forests in Africa, South America and elsewhere.

Dogs offer some intriguing clues to how a mammals body can so rapidly evolve. Changes to a single gene called IGF1 are largely responsible for the variations in size among dog breeds, from Great Danes to Chihuahuas.

But that is not what happened on Flores. The Rampasasa villagers carry variants of many genes known to reduce height. Natural selection favored old variants rather than new mutations.

This agrees with our own work on African pygmies, said Ryan Gutenkunst, a biologist at the University of Arizona. When there is selection on stature, the response is driven by variants in many genes, not just a single gene.

One leading hypothesis for the evolution of the pygmy body type is a shortage of food. A smaller body demands fewer calories and may offer a survival advantage.

Whatever the ecological factors are for island dwarfism are, they are present in spades on this island, Green said of Flores. Thats what makes it so fascinating.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Beshear Awards $10 million for new Vocational Ed. Center in Christian County
SANTA CRUZ (BCN)



A 24-year-old Santa Cruz man whom police described today as a "known Sureno gang participant" was arrested Friday night on suspicion of several firearm- and drug-related crimes, police said.



Clyde Lucio Ortega was arrested following during a vehicle stop at about 8:15 p.m. Friday near the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Front Street in Santa Cruz. Officers with the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team's Gang Task Force conducted the stop. Ortega was a passenger in the car, task force Cmdr. George Rivera said in a statement.



Officers found 3.4 grams of methamphetamine in Ortega's pocket, and a .44-caliber revolver was found in his backpack. That weapon had been reported stolen in San Mateo County, Rivera said.



Ortega, who remained in custody tonight, faces one count each of carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, being a street gang member carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a stolen loaded firearm, Possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.



Officers had a search warrant for Ortega's Santa Cruz home, but found no contraband there, Rivera said.









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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Thursday appointed Joaquin Torres to be the new director of the Office and Economic and Workforce Development.



Torres has served as the office's deputy director since 2013.



In a statement, Breed said she was "proud" to appoint Torres to the position.



"During his time with the OEWD he has successfully led numerous initiatives to create jobs, support small business, and strengthen commercial corridors in our neighborhoods. This is a critically important role for the economic future of San Francisco and I am confident that Joaquin's passion, energy, and strong community ties make him the right person for the job," she said.



"I am honored to served Mayor Breed, together with our extraordinary team, in this leadership role to support the ongoing economic vitality of San Francisco and our communities," Torres said in a statement.



During his time as deputy director of the OEWD, Torres led several initiatives to support women entrepreneurs, increase healthy food options in neighborhoods, and attract, retain, and stabilize business. Torres was also responsible for initiatives that support merchants impacted by construction and natural disasters, increase access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs and create community benefit and cultural districts.



Torres has also served as the president of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission for the past five years. He's credited with leading the oversight body during the $750 million rehabilitation of 3,400 public housing units.



Torres previously served as director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services under the late Mayor Ed Lee. Before that, Torres served under former Mayor Gavin Newsom as the liaison to the Latino and American Indian communities in Districts 9 and 11 of the city.



Torres is also a participant in the Government Alliance for Racial Equity program and serves as chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the American Conservatory Theatre.



Torres is a graduate of Stanford University and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.



The Office of Economic and Workforce Development is responsible for supporting the city's economy by promoting programs that attract and retain businesses, promote workforce and development, maximize long-term public benefits in a new development, strengthen small businesses, create international business opportunities in the city and facilitate the revitalization of the city's commercial corridors.



"Together with partners both public and private, I'm committed to strengthening the cultural and economic diversity of our neighborhoods and commercial corridors, supporting our small and growing businesses that contribute to their character, and creating equitable pathways for good paying jobs and housing opportunities so that all San Franciscans may realize their potential and benefit from the prosperity of our City."





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SAUSALITO (BCN)



A 47-year-old Sacramento woman was arrested in Sausalito on Saturday on suspicion of stealing a minivan from her roommate on Friday, according to Sausalito police.



Lynn McKinney was taken into custody by police after the city's license plate recognition system spotted a stolen vehicle entering the city limits around 12:20 p.m. Saturday.



Police located the vehicle, a 2012 Dodge Caravan, and detained McKinney and two other passengers during a traffic stop. After an initial investigation, police said McKinney allegedly stole the van from her Sacramento roommate without his permission.



McKinney was taken into custody on suspicion of vehicle theft, possession of stolen property, two no-bail warrants for burglary out of Marin County and a separate $2,500 burglary warrant. The two passengers were released without charges.



The city said since the cameras have been installed in May 2017, 19 stolen vehicle have been recovered and 25 suspects have been arrested.





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.
Brookstone, the ubiquitous seller of cool but largely unneeded things, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again and closing the 100 stores that remain in malls, including one location at The Shops at La Cantera.

Malls have suffered for years due to far-reaching shifts in the way that Americans shop for just about everything, which has diminished foot traffic at Brookstone. On Thursday, CEO Piau Phang Foo called the situation in malls "extremely challenging," and thanked employees who had staffed stores in those locations.
CHICO, Calif. - Regardless of the smoky skies in Chico, it didnt stop dozens of Chico residents from visiting the Chico Elks Lodge for the 15th annual Hot August Day Car Show Saturday afternoon.

More than 150 classic cars drove behind the lodge so they could be on full display.

Spectators could eat hamburgers, enter a raffle once they made a donation and just enjoy the smoky view.

Action News Now spoke to the organizer who says hes an advocate for the future.

We really want to try to encourage through our contributions and support for young people to go into the automotive industry. Because as a society we need automobile technicians and theres a real problem in that area, said Bruce Norlie, director of Sierra View Region of Vintage Chevrolet Club of America.

The donations made, also go to other charities such as the Butte County Sheriffs K9 Unit, the Chico Museum and much more.
Michael Schwab's timeless illustrations of the Golden Gate National Parks plastered the region from the late-1990s onward, providing an iconography for some of Northern California's most beloved natural assets.

Schwab is still at it. This week, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy released the 21st print in the series, of Ocean Beach.

ALSO READ: Corgi Con returns to Ocean Beach in all its sweet, stumpy glory

Rendered in Schwab's signature minimalist style, the print depicts the landmark most prominent at Ocean Beach  the waves, of course.

The artist describes his work best in a press release: "This new Ocean Beach design is meant to be simple and iconic. It's all about the beach. The water. The waves. Nature. Proud. Poetic."

The print is on sale now in park stores and online.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: The art of conservation with Michael Schwab

Begun in 1995 with a depiction of the Golden Gate Bridge, the series was conceived as a way to "unify" the GGNRA "under one brand identity, while still highlighting the individual beauty of each site," per the press release. Soon after the Bridge print, Schwab released his stylized depictions for other local landmarks, including Alcatraz, Fort Point, the Marin Headlands and Lands End.
Last Thursday evening, Erin Richart received the phone call that she and her family had been dreading. A friend who is a highway patrol officer had called to tell them that their neighborhood in Redding, CA, was gonedevoured by the deadly Carr wildfire.

"We thought our house had burned to the ground. I cried," says Richart, 37, a mother of two and a local real estate agent, who was safe at her mother's house. But a half-hour later, they got another call, this time from a firefighter friend. "He said, 'Im at your house, and I think we can save it.'"

The firefighters cut down all the trees and brush around the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home the couple had built five years ago. Anything flammable, like their lawn furniture, was thrown into their pool. That spared their home from the fire, which at times has burned so hot it's created a blazing cyclone effect called a "firenado."

Richart is one of the lucky ones. As of Wednesday morning, six people had been killed and 1,018 homes and 12 commercial buildings had been destroyed in the Carr fire. An additional 181 residences and six commercial structures had been damaged, and 2,546 more structures were threatened. More than 115,000 acres had burned, and the flames were only 35% contained. Redding, about 160 miles north of the state capital, Sacramento, sits just south of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, where the fire began.

To Californians, it has become an all-too-familiar story of devastation and loss. Over the past few years, the state has suffered through increasingly destructive fires claiming lives, reducing entire communities to ash. Last year, 46 lives were lost to wildfires and nearly 12,000 structures were destroyed, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. The Carr fire in Redding, which began on July 23, is already the seventh most destructive wildfire in the state's history.

And it's not over yet.

This large-scale destruction won't just have consequences for the lives and livelihoods of local residents. It will also affect the housing markets of these affected areas in some unexpected ways. Property values will have plummeted in some areas and will likely take years to recover.

But in a macabre twist, other parts of the region might get a substantial boost.

How do wildfires affect an area's overall property values?

With all of those displaced residents in immediate need of roofs over their heads, prices are expected to soar for homes and rentals in those parts of the Redding region that were untouched by the fire's fury. Prices are likely to rise about 10% to 25%, real estate appraisers say. Redding's housing market is mostly made up of three- to four-bedroom, single-family houses and two- to four-unit, low-rise apartment buildings.

"Youve got all these families who will need to find a place to live," says Orell Anderson, a real estate appraiser at Strategic Property Analytics in Laguna Beach, CA. "There won't be any vacancies."

Meanwhile, homes that were miraculously spared in areas that were burned are likely to see price drops of 25% to 50%, he says. That's because no one wants the view outside of their window to be the scorched earth and rubble where other homes once stood. Plus, those communities are likely to have lost many of the amenities that made them popular with buyers, such as shared facilities and landscaping.

Richart, the real estate agent whose home was saved, is already seeing prices go up. One home builder has boosted the prices of all of his new-construction homes by $10,000, she says. Meanwhile, she saw one rental house previously listed at $2,500 a month jacked up to $3,200 after the fires started.

"We're seeing some things like that that people are in an outrage over," says Richart, who works at Properties by Merit, a real estate firm. In addition, a lot of homes are going off the market.

"Weve seen a lot of listings withdrawn or canceled either because they burned down or because theyre going to be [repurposed] for rentals instead," she says. "A lot of people are renting to family or friends."

It typically takes a minimum of two years for a housing market affected by a natural disaster to go back to normal, Anderson says. But it could take up to a decade.

Another factor in how quickly the area recovers is how much money homeowners are able to sink into reconstruction. One big difference between the Carr fire and the ones that tore through California's wine country of Sonoma and Napa Counties in October and Los Angeles in December is that Redding isn't nearly as wealthy.

The median household income was just $44,573 in 2016 and the median home list price was $299,000, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau and realtor.com data. Meanwhile, in Sonoma County's city of Santa Rosa, which wildfires ripped through last fall, the median household income was $62,705 and the median home list price was $635,000. In Los Angeles, it was $51,538 and $900,000, respectively.

And the recovery could be hijacked if there is another fire, which could permanently depress property values.

"People will forget" about a natural disaster after a few years, says Anderson. But "the second or third time, that's the killer. People will think it's a fire area."

Just how wildfire-prone is California?

Over the past few years, California's wildfire season has been growing longer, inspiring some scientists to say the "season" is now the entire year.

More than 2 million households in almost 13.7 million housing units in Californiaabout 15% of the state's totalare at high or extreme risk of wildfire, according to a 2018 wildfire risk analysis by Verisk Analytics, an insurance, natural resources, and financial services data analytics company based in Jersey City, NJ.

Last year, 1,266,224 acres burned in the state, according to Verisk. From October through December alone, there were about $12 billion in insurance claims, according to the California Department of Insurance.

"Unfortunately, this is a continuation of what we saw late last year. We have a situation where were seeing dry natural vegetation combined with very hot temperatures," Tom Jeffery, a senior hazard scientist at real estate data firm CoreLogic, says. "This year it's even worse. You have 100-degree temperatures day after day. ... It certainly amplifies the ability of that fire to burn further."

Combine that with the rugged and steep terrain of the Redding area, and it makes these blazes that much harder to contain.

"Fires do occur in this area, but usually they're not this big, this intense, and this fast-moving," Jeffery says. "I would not be surprised if we see fires similar to this [elsewhere]."

The post Will California's Latest Deadly Wildfire Devastate Home Pricesor Give Them a Boost? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
CARACAS, Venezuela  Drones armed with explosives detonated near President Nicolas Maduro in an apparent assassination attempt that took place while he was delivering a speech to hundreds of soldiers being broadcast live on television, officials said.

Caught by surprise mid-speech, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced after hearing the sound of an explosion in the air.

This was an attempt to kill me, he said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. Today they attempted to assassinate me.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the incident took place as Maduro was celebrating the National Guards 81st anniversary. The visibly shaken head of state said he saw a flying device that exploded before his eyes.

Within seconds, Maduro said he heard a second explosion and pandemonium ensued. Bodyguards escorted Maduro out of the event, and television footage shows uniformed soldiers standing in formation quickly scattering from the scene.

Maduro said the far right, working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible. Some of the material authors of the apparent attack have been detained.

Venezuelas government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations. Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

A previously unknown group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target. The claim could not be independently verified.

Scott Smith and Christine Armario are Associated Press writers.
GLENN COUNTY, Calif. - Residents of Elk Creek are receiving a phone alert asking them to be on an advisory evacuation.



According to the Glenn County Sheriffs Office, residents of Elk Creek, as well as residents south of Road 308 and west of Road 306 need to prepare to evacuate as of Saturday night.



The Mendocino Complex-Fire consists of two fires burning in both Mendocino and Lake Counties.



This is a developing story check back
TEHRAN  Iran acquired five new commercial aircraft on Sunday, a day before the U.S. begins restoring sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

The arrival of the ATR72-600 airplanes at Tehrans Mehrabad International Airport represented perhaps the last benefits Iran will see under the nuclear deal after President Trump withdrew from it in May. Economic woes are sparking sporadic protests across the country.

The rhetoric between the U.S. and Iran remains heated, despite Trump tweeting last week that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard on Sunday acknowledged conducting recent naval exercises near the crucial Strait of Hormuz after renewing threats to cut off the waterway to oil traders.

Irans state-run IRNA news agency reported the arrival of the five ATR72-600 airplanes, which are twin-engine turboprops used for short-distance regional flights. Their arrival means state carrier Iran Air has received 13 of the 20 it ordered from the French-Italian manufacturer in April 2017.

ATR, jointly owned by European consortium Airbus and Italys Leonardo, has been pushing U.S. officials to allow it to finish its delivery of aircraft to Iran. The U.S. Treasury must approve the sale of airplanes whose components are at least 10 percent American-made, like the AT72-600. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The nuclear deal lifted international sanctions in return for Iran limiting its nuclear program and allowing regular inspections. U.N. inspectors said Iran was complying with the deal, but Trump said the agreement did not go far enough. He has called for a new accord that would include a radical transformation of Irans policies, including its military support for the Syrian government and regional militant groups, two issues not covered by the 2015 deal.

Iran has treated its people very poorly, and thats led to terror. Theyre the worlds largest state sponsor of terror. Thats what America is trying to get Iran to stop doing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Metro TV in Jakarta.

Trump was more blunt in a tweet he posted Saturday, writing: Iran, and its economy, is going very bad, and fast! I will meet, or not meet, it doesnt matter  it is up to them!

Iran had hoped the lifting of sanctions would allow it to replace its aging commercial airline fleet, but the U.S. withdrawal has halted billion-dollar deals struck with Airbus and Boeing. European countries, along with Russia and China, remain committed to the nuclear deal, but European companies are unlikely to risk U.S. sanctions to do business with Iran.

Amir Vahdat and Jon Gambrell are Associated Press writers.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- The NYPD is asking the public's assistance identifying three individuals sought for questioning in connection with an alleged assault on a Brooklyn-bound bus.

A female suspect reportedly attacked a 21-year-old woman riding the bus, causing cuts and bruises to the victim's face and neck area, according to an NYPD spokesman.

Images of a female and two males sought for questioning were posted Friday to the 122nd Precinct's Twitter page.

The males were not mentioned in the criminal complaint as causing physical harm to any passengers, police said.

WANTEDThe following individuals are wanted in connection with an assault that occurred on a Brooklyn bound S53 bus on July 4 @ approx 1:30p - please call #CrimeStoppers at #800577TIPS with any info regarding the incident or pictured individuals. pic.twitter.com/dcvyySsHNI  NYPD 122nd Precinct (@NYPD122Pct) August 4, 2018

Police said the female suspect boarded the bus at about 1:30 p.m. on July 4, somewhere along the East Shore route, headed toward the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The reason for the altercation remains uncertain.
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After a year of unmitigated disaster, is it any wonder that the Commonwealth Banks full year result will be such a rookie effort this year.

New broom Matt Comyn and fill-in chief financial officer Alan Docherty will both make their debuts for the biggest results of the year, but it didnt have to be this way.

CBA CEO Matt Comyn. Credit:Louie Douvis

CBD is told that Rob Jesudason offered to hang around to deliver this years results when handing in his resignation in May this year.

An extremely unimpressed Comyn told Jesudason to clear his desk immediately.
However, the business has faced challenges. "The whole of the 2000s was a disaster with 9/11 and then the Bali bombing," Manchester says. "They helped to make us resilient as each of those take several months to recover from. What was very bad was bird flu and swine flu as, at that time, we were basically operating in south-east Asia. So we realised to be a secure and sustainable company we needed to be offering products all around the world." Intrepid's shortlived partnership with multinational Tui was another misstep. "Basically the difference was we are a very entrepreneurial organisation and we are always thinking about what we are going to be doing over the next several years whereas, as a listed company, Tui was just thinking about the profits it is going to make in the next quarter," Manchester says. "Culturally it didnt work. After 4 years together, we mutually agreed it wasn't working and we needed to separate and so we did that."

Manchester said during the period of Intrepid's partnership with Tui, its growth "flatlined" but as soon as Manchester and Wade regained control it took off again. "We were spending $1 million a year reporting to Tui when probably two or three people would have been reading those reports," Manchester says. "You immediately stop that and it's money you can put into growth." Intrepid has achieved B Corp certification. Credit:Joe Armao Locking in their mission Now Manchester and Wade want to ensure their legacy, and so they've signed Intrepid up to B Corp certification.

"We are always thinking about what happens in the long run because Daryl and I wont be here forever," Manchester says. "You've always got that risk that if we are not there, a new chief executive might come in and completely change the direction of the company and the B Corp certification makes that much harder. It locks in our mission." The certification process took over 100 hours to complete but Manchester says it gives Intrepid an advantage in the war for talent and helps with employee engagement. "Our people are just so enthusiastic about it," he says. Intrepid has launched an employee share ownership scheme and about 23 employees own shares in the company. "Purpose beyond profit is a very significant thing for us and B Corp encourages us to enshrine that and to create a new goal around purpose," Manchester says.

Intrepid has launched a 1 2 3 policy which delivers 1 per cent of turnover for purpose, 2 per cent of staff time for volunteering and 3 per cent of shareholding to the Intrepid Foundation, which has raised $6 million to date from travellers and the business. Fastest growing region Loading Intrepid signing up is a coup for B Corp as the largest Australian business so far to adopt the certification. Andrea De Almeida, the head of B Corp for Australia and New Zealand, says Australia is the fastest growing region for B Corps outside the US, with close to 250 certified B Corporations.

People want to buy from businesses they believe in and trust and B Corp certification is the most powerful way to build this credibility and trust, she says. Given the declining levels of trust in business, its no wonder there has been a huge surge in interest from businesses wanting to join a movement of leaders who are living and breathing a new way of doing business. De Almeida says, as a B Corp, Intrepid will be able to positively influence how the travel industry affects the environment and communities. "Having an iconic Australian company like Intrepid leading the way to create a new and inclusive way of doing business in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, where they are the countries first ever B Corps, also cannot be underestimated," she says. For Manchester, the B Corp accreditation will help maintain the business started all those years ago on a backpacking trip. "Think long term, as thats the only way of succeeding and making better decisions instead of thinking of this quarter or this year," he says.
Airbnb's head of public policy Brent Thomas believes technology should be used to connect humans instead of replacing them in the hospitality industry.

While the hotel industry has started using robots to displace humans and has argued against significant wages growth for workers, Airbnb says it wants to promote human contact along with fair pay and conditions.

"I don't accept this idea that you embrace technology and the future and therefore leave workers and minimum wage and standards behind," Mr Thomas said.

Airbnb head of policy, Brent Thomas

"Australians are concerned that disruption will mean the end of the fair go and the erosion of gains of workers and the trade unions."
The $2.6 trillion superannuation sector is set for a grilling over funds' governance and relationships with financial advisers when the Hayne royal commission resumes on Monday.

Seven "retail" funds, the for-profit funds run by the banks and insurers, and seven not-for-profit funds have been called to give evidence over the next two weeks.

The seven retail funds include AMP, whose reputation took a hammering when the royal commission heard earlier that the wealth manager had repeatedly misled the corporate regulator and put the interests of shareholders ahead of customers.

Australias largest super fund, the industry fund AustralianSuper, with more than 2 million members, will also appear.
A man has been awarded several hundred thousand dollars in damages after being seriously burnt while working on an underground petrol tank in Canberra's north.

Phillip Raymond D'Arcy suffered burns to 33 per cent of his body when a fire started inside an underground petrol tank that he was re-lining with fibreglass on September 11, 2012.

The incident happened at the Caltex petrol station in Kaleen, when Mr D'Arcy was 44.

Mr D'Arcy successfully sued his then-employer, Fuel-Sys Installations, for damages in an ACT Supreme Court trial, but Justice John Burns found that Caltex, the other defendant, was not liable.

Justice Burns ruled that Fuel-Sys was liable for $376,600.67 in damages, covering the money Mr D'Arcy will lose in the future as a result of his injuries, and income tax he is entitled to recover on workers' compensation receipts.
An Australian woman who flew to Bali for her honeymoon says she was detained for nearly 24 hours after being accused of being a journalist, and has now been deported back to Sydney.

Belinda Lopez, a student at Macquarie University, said she was refused entry to the country on Friday night after landing there for her honeymoon with plans to visit the Papua province.

Australian woman Belinda Lopez says she was detained in Bali for nearly 24 hours after landing there for her honeymoon. Credit:Belinda Lopez

"Immigration asked me if I was a journalist. Two staff members kept asking me if I had 'done something wrong to Indonesia'."

She said she worked for the Jakarta Globe and the Jakarta Post nine years ago and has made podcasts for the ABC since, but is currently a PhD student at Macquarie University.
Sacramento, CA -- California Gov. Jerry Brown has announced the president has approved his request.

Saturday, Brown called on President Donald Trump to help the state deal with the Carr Fire.

Inspecting the fire-damaged neighborhoods of Redding on Saturday, the governor also said California needs a statewide emergency alert system.

The declaration helps fire victims with unemployment assistance, food aid and legal and mental health counseling among other federal programs.

The declaration also makes counties and cities eligible for federal financial assistance and help with repairing the billions of dollars of damage done to infrastructure.

More immediately, the declaration will enable federal agencies to help battle the 17 major fires burning throughout the state.
A petit teenage skater who was swung to the ground by a police officer after calling him a dog has won a six-figure payout from the NSW government.

A District Court judge awarded the now-21-year-old man $124,000 after ruling he was assaulted and wrongly arrested by police while waiting to be picked up by a friends sister following a Blue Mountains house party on April 14, 2014.

The youth was 17 and "moderately affected" by alcohol at the time he told Constable Russell Budin to f--- off dog, c--- when he and his friends were approached by police while at a bench outside a Glenbrook bakery late at night.

The skater told the court Constable Budin, now a Senior Constable, grabbed him by the front of the shirt and swung him around before he hit the ground heavily.

In his lengthy August 3 judgment, Judge Garry Neilson said Constable Budin was insulted by this personal and professional slight and overreacted by arresting the diminutive teen, who looked about 12 or 13 at the time.
Police have closed two city-bound lanes in Sydney's North Shore after a motorcycle crash that left two people seriously injured on Sunday night.

Initial reports said a male rider and a woman fell from a motorbike after it lost control and crashed into a safety barrier about 5:30pm on Roseville Bridge on Warringah Road.

Both patients were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in a serious condition after the male sustained head injuries and fractures, while the female passenger was also treated for fractures.

No other vehicles are thought to have been involved in the incident.

Police are not sure how soon they will be able to open the two lanes, which feed traffic from the Northern Beaches into Chatswood.
University of Queensland professor in human geography Jonathan Corcoran said dockless bike-share schemes, such as ReddyGo and Obike, are prone to vandalism and being strewn around the place, which created the public perception that the bikes littered public space. It has demonstrated the world is perhaps not quite ready for dockless stations, he said. The councils public and active transport chairman Adrian Schrinner said dockless schemes were explored as an option for Brisbane but were not pursued for several reasons, including some business models including selling on users data. [Docked bikes] are certainly a more orderly scheme, Cr Schrinner said. People will know where stations are, the bikes are lined up in an orderly fashion, they are not getting vandalised like they were in some cities that had the dockless bikes.

Dockless bike-share scheme Mobike began operating on the Gold Coast in early 2018. What is the reason for CityCycles recent growth? Dr Corcoran said the key to a successful bike share scheme was the bikes being in the right location and having a good system for people to access them. Cr Schrinner said a change to the memberships as well as the visibility of the bikes contributed to the recent increase in usage.

Its now a more streamlined process [to hire a bike], you can tap and go at the machine, he said. CityCycle is also now more visible around the city as more people use it. That in itself drives more people to give it a go. Will CityCycle ever be economical? After operating for seven years the bike scheme had cost ratepayers almost $13 million.

From its launch to June 30, 2017, CityCycle cost, in total, about $27.6 million and generated about $14.7 million, leaving the scheme $12.85 million in the red. Council budgeted net expenses of $472,000 for its CityCycle partnership in the 2018-19 budget. Cr Schrinner said making a profit was not the fundamental reason for bringing a bike-share scheme to Brisbane. Its essentially a public service, he said. Obviously the cost of providing it is subsidised in part by the advertising JCDecaux does and that helps keep the cost down.

Our aim with this is to actually have a more active and healthy Brisbane to help reduce traffic congestion, not to make a profit. What does the future of CityCycle look like? Dr Corcoran called for more data to be collected about the existing scheme. There is still more untapped potential there, he said. Its trying to understand what are those barriers. Is it that we could do a little bit better in terms of protected bikeways ... or is it something to do with the sign-up scheme that could be improved again.

Answering those sort of questions and also getting some GPS traces, how do people use these bikes? What routes do they use around Brisbane and can we use that information to upgrade some spaces. Loading Dr Corcoran said suburban trials of the scheme would be useful, including connecting homes to key transport hubs. It would be an interesting case to test, he said. The critical thing to its expansion would be to ensure it links to the existing core rather than starting up a little satellite.
Brisbane is about to welcome a selection of new high-end retailers with a shopping centre renovation enticing the tenants to open up shop.

Camilla, Dior, Aje and Scanlan and Theodore will open stand-alone retail stores in the Brisbane CBD in 2018.

Design images submitted as part of the development application for the QueensPlaza refurbishment. Credit:Blight Rayner Architects

A $36 million renovation of QueensPlaza is underway, which includes the remodelling of level one, including two new restaurants.

Development application submitted to the council revealed the plans for the tenancy fit-outs for the new tenants.
A nest-predatory bird species has been spotted in a north Brisbane underground car park by a local terrestrial ecologist.

An active pied currawong nest of two adults and three nestlings was identified by Graham Fulton and his young daughter, at the Aspley shopping centre late last year.

A pied currawong nest seen in an Aspley shopping centre car park. Credit:Graham Fulton

Mr Fulton, who is a PhD student with the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, witnessed the two adult birds feeding the three young nestlings atop a six-metre-high copper pipe in the car park.

The bird species are known to mainly nest in forests and rural woodlands and were only regarded as seasonal migrants to urban areas.
It's finally happening  the controversial, hilarious musical take on organised religion, The Book of Mormon, is coming to Brisbane.

After a highly successful run in Sydney, the musical will pack up its bags and move north to Queensland, bringing its irreverent, often darkly offensive take on Mormonism, religion and even theatre itself.

A teasing photo posted on The Book of Mormon official website on Monday promised that "good things will come to those who waitlist", showing a bus poster with one of Brisbane's Meriton towers in the background.

The show will begin performances at the Lyric Theatre at QPAC on March 16, 2019.
After years spent fighting multinationals, a team of scientists has finally secured access to an old mine under Stawell. There, a kilometre underground, they will hunt for dark matter.

Stakes are high. Nobel Prizes could be won under this city of 6000.

But this is a story with more twists and turns than an old mineshaft.

In 2016, when the mine's new owners decided to close it down, it looked like it would never get off (or under) the ground.
Former Office of Police Integrity director Michael Strong is expected to become Victoria's next Public Interest Monitor, responsible for preventing law enforcement agencies from abusing covert and coercive powers, such as phone-tapping.

Michael Strong, when he was OPI director in 2010. Credit:Justin McManus

The likely appointment of Mr Strong to the powerful watchdog role could reignite tensions with the Liberal Party, which shut down the Office of Police Integrity in 2012 and denied Mr Strong a role with the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission established by the former Baillieu government.

The enmity of the relationship was laid bare in a leaked audio recording in 2013 of former Premier Ted Baillieu's chief of staff, Tony Nutt, who accused the OPI of acting like the "Stasi".

Privacy advocates are also expected to be concerned about Mr Strong's suitability for the role, when the former OPI, under his watch, was accused of abusing its powers, including the widespread use of phone taps and coercive questioning.
Now Jonathan Holloway, the artistic director who helped bring The Giants to Perth, is looking to replicate that event's success with another project - and this time he's looking north.

Three years on, the performance by French street theatre company Royal De Luxe remains a high point of success for WA's multi-billion dollar arts sector, which is always seeking new ways to connect its creative work with audiences.

The Giants was one of the largest arts events ever staged in Perth - and it's still talked about.

"What the Giants proved was that there was a a great appetite for art in WA for art - that people had an emotional connection to a public art work is instrumental," Mr Holloway said.

"The spectacle of it was one thing, but the story it told was the key, using local elements that people responded to. That's what the success of The Giants was, it was people connecting to something that reflected where they came from."

This theme is being carried through to the Pilbara Creative and Cultural Forum to be held in the mining town of Newman, about 1,186 kilometres north of Perth - a creative event driven by FORM, the WA arts organisation that's behind the silo trail in the Wheatbelt and the Field of Light that's coming to Albany.

The goal of the festival in Newman is to "offer a rigorous and comprehensive discussion around the importance of arts and culture for a thriving and vibrant Pilbara." In other words, according to Mr Holloway, to "appreciate what we physically have here, and to explore what we are, and then find ways to play with it."

"The Pilbara and Newman are places like nowhere else on earth, and what we want to do is have a forum where we start with questions like what can we do here? What's it all for? What could this place be ready for?
The first Perth venue has jumped aboard the Parma with a Farmer initiative to help eastern states farmers who have been crippled by drought and are struggling to keep their animals alive.

The Woodbridge Hotel will be donating $1 from every parmagiana sold on its special $25 parmy and pint night this Wednesday to support Buy a Bale.

Eating a parma: surely the world's best way to make a difference. Credit:Eddie Jim

Buy a Bale, run by Rural Aid, is supplying emergency hay to New South Wales and Queensland families struggling to keep cattle, sheep and horses alive through one of the worst droughts in living history.

Once productive paddocks are now dust bowls, and what feed can be sourced must be trucked from interstate at a cost of thousands of dollars per month, money farmers dont have.
A high-powered coalition of business, energy and agricultural groups have laid down the gauntlet to Labor state governments, demanding they pass the National Energy Guarantee this week or voters will pay the price.

The Labor led cabinets of Victoria and the ACT are set to debate their position on the contentious policy on Monday, days before Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg calls on them to sign up before it heads back to the Coalition party room.

The ultimatum from the Business Council of Australia, National Farmers Federation, Australian Energy Council and three other lobby groups warns "households cannot afford the costs of yet another cycle of political sparring, indecision and inaction".

Minister for Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Modelling released by the Kerry Schott-chaired Energy Security Board last week forecast households will save $550 a year on their power bills from 2020-21 to 2029-30, including $150 each year as a direct result of the NEG after years of soaring power prices.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown or, it might be observed, the top hat.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prepares for a jolting resumption of parliament this coming week. Credit:Brook Mitchell

Apologies to Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 2 but Malcolm Turnbull finds himself in circumstances that invite Shakespearian comparisons, beset, as he is, by rebellion from within and without having eliminated his predecessor, as did Henry in the case of Richard II.

As Turnbull prepares for a jolting resumption of parliament this coming week and a Labor leader buoyed by electoral success, he will find himself in a street-fight, not his preferred terrain of courtroom advocacy.

That fight is vastly complicated by an insurgency on his own backbench and on the airwaves over leadership and other issues like climate change and coal  glorious coal. Turnbull supporters might dismiss the klaxon call of Alan Jones but a revolt by conservative commentators tears at the base. And not just the base.
Cairo: The South Sudanese government on Sunday signed a final peace deal and power-sharing agreement with the country's main rebel group, according to the foreign minister of neighbouring Sudan, which has helped broker the agreement.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar shake hands during peace talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in June. Credit:AP

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir attended the signing ceremony in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Several other African leaders also witnessed the ceremony, including the presidents of Uganda, Kenya and Djibouti.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said on Friday he believed the deal would hold because it was not forced upon the parties like previous accords.
An Australian man's house in Lombok has collapsed after a magnitude-7 earthquake hit the Indonesia's tourist island of Lombok.

Tweeting from Australia, Diane Burns said her son, daughter-in-law and grandson fled up a mountain to wait out tsunami warnings after their home "collapsed" and their car was damaged.

Burns said her family was safe and was waiting for the all-clear to return to what's left of their home at Senggigi in north-west Lombok.

Other Australians have told of running for their lives, including Sydney man Jon-Paul Kennedy who was asleep in his mum's villa when it collapsed around him.
Qasbayar: Kashmir's war, a territorial dispute between India and neighbouring Pakistan, has smouldered for decades. Now it is collapsing into itself. The violence is becoming smaller, more intimate and harder to escape.

Years ago, Pakistan pushed thousands of militants across the border as a proxy army to wreak havoc in the Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir. Now, the resistance inside the Indian areas is overwhelmingly homegrown.

Officer Ashiq Tak, centre, with his bodyguards outside his office in Shopian, India, in the state of Kashmir. As the commanding officer of a tactical police unit in southern Kashmir, he is one of hundreds of thousands fighting a tiny but dedicated insurgency. Credit:New York Times

The conflict today is probably driven less by geopolitics than by internal Indian politics, which have increasingly taken an anti-Muslim direction. Most of the fighters are young men from quiet villages, who draw support from a population deeply resentful of India's governing party and years of occupation.

Kashmir sits on the frontier of India and Pakistan, and both countries have spilled rivers of blood over it. Three times, they have gone to war, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict. It is one of Asia's most dangerous flash points, where 1 million troops have squared off along the disputed border. Both sides now wield nuclear arms. And the two sides are divided by religion, with Kashmir stuck in the middle.
The Indonesian Navy ship will sail from Surabaya to Lombok with medical supplies and personnel on board. Credit:TNI The epicentre of the quake was the northern slope of Mount Rinjani, near where the previous quake struck a week ago. The area continued to be rattled by aftershocks. Indonesia's BMKG (the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency) issued a tsunami warning soon afterwards, but that warning was lifted about an hour and 45 minutes after the quake hit, at 8.30pm local time. There were also reports of blackouts and of mobile phone networks going down in northern Lombok, near the epicentre of the quake, which has slowed down the flow of information on the number of injuries and on damage estimates.

Agus Hendra Sanjaya, a spokesman for Mataram Search and Rescue, said foreigners were among those taken to hospital. "We believe many people are still under the debris. So far 61 people have been evacuated to hospitals - 12 foreigners and 49 Indonesians." According to BMKG, 20 aftershocks were recorded up to 20.40pm local time. The earthquake was felt in Mataram (the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province) and Bima, and lesser shakes were felt in Denpasar, Kuta, Karangasam (in Bali) and in parts of East Java. A man walks inside a church where debris has fallen after the earthquake in Bali. Credit:AP Najmul Akhyar, the chief government official in the North Lombok regency, said people needed blankets and tents, and that lights had gone out in North Lombok.

'Pretty lucky': Dutton Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who is in Lombok for a regional counter-terrorism meeting, told Fairfax Media the quake "was powerful enough to put us on the floor". Dutton and his delegation, along with his New Zealand counterpart, have since left their hotel and are standing by to be evacuated to Bali, where the quake's effects are thought to be less severe. "We were up on the 12th floor, the lights went out and we were able to evacuate," Dutton said. "I think we were pretty lucky in the end.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was on the island of Lombok when a powerful quake hit. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "Emergency services responded really well. They were able to evacuate us to safe ground and we are very grateful. There have been no reports of any local injures that we are aware of but we are anxiously awaiting further advice on that." The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said the Bali Process meeting on people smuggling in Denpasar, which Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is due to attend, will go ahead. Bishop has arrived in Bali, and said consular staff are being sent to Lombok to assess the damage and assist Australians who might need help. People took to social media to sound warnings, ask for prayers and share pictures of the damage to buildings.

Footage of damage to local businesses in Bali quickly emerged, too. Australian tourist Sarah Lucy Rice, who is in holiday in Canggu, Bali, told Fairfax Media that she and her friends were eating dinner when they felt the ground begin to shake. "I had one foot on the ground and one foot on a chair and shaking began to increase. Then we realised the earth was moving. Across the road, at a massage parlour, we saw people run out onto the street in towels and sarongs, and that's when we moved," she said.

"We stood in the middle of the road and watched the light posts shaking. It went for quite a while, increasing and peaking and then petering out again." Indonesian soldiers tend to a woman injured in the earthquake at a makeshift hospital in Lombok. Credit:AP At the Matahari shopping centre in Denpasar, staff had a major clean-up job ahead of them after roof tiles were shaken down onto the street below after the earthquake hit. One member of staff at the Matahari shopping centre received a minor injury while trying to rush out of the building.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told KompasTV that the quake strongly jolted Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, and may have caused damage there. Damage to Matahari shopping centre in Denpasar. Credit:Amilia Rosa Indonesia's minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, former General Wiranto, said the regional counter-terrorism summit had been postponed following the earthquake. "All delegates who will participate are safe. And due to the quake we decided to postpone the sub-regional meeting on counter-terrorism and let delegates go back to their countries," Wiranto said. Australian actress Teresa Palmer is among a number of celebrities holidaying on Bali who tweeted about the quake.

US model and television presenter Chrissy Teigen posted a series of brief updates on her Twitter profile. The host of Lip Sync Battle initially wrote: "Oh my god. Bali. Trembling. So long," before adding "Phewwwwww," indicating that the tremors had stopped. Teigen, 32, is with her husband, singer John Legend, and their two young children, Luna and Miles. The former Sports Illustrated cover star revealed the house in which they are staying is elevated from the ground, which added to the terrifying experience. Teigen wrote: "Oh man. We are on stilts. It felt like a ride. 15 solid seconds of 'holy shit this is happening."
"I agree," Ri responded. "There are many productive conversations to be had." Yet minutes later, and after Pompeo had left the conference for meetings in nearby Indonesia, Ri took the Trump administration to task for its insistent demands. Loading "What is alarming," Ri said, "is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old - far from its leader's intention." The North Korean leadership prefers to focus on Trump's vaguely worded requirements, rather than the detailed and specific criteria set out by US diplomats and experienced negotiators trying to put the Trump-Kim commitment into concrete, verifiable terms.

Trump's one-on-one meeting with Kim, also held in Singapore, in June, was the first sit-down of an incumbent US president and a North Korean leader, affording the young Kim a long-desired global recognition. The US, in exchange, has received little. North Korea did agree to revive a repatriation program and last week, as a good-faith gesture, returned the possible remains of some US soldiers killed in the 1950s-era Korean War. Many more soldiers remain unaccounted for. Loading Yet North Korea's nuclear disarmament is the primary goal, and still elusive. For decades, Pyongyang has found ways to wiggle out of requirements that the US and the international community have imposed on North Korea as part of earlier, failed agreements on nuclear disarmament. Trump thinks he has found a new formula through his personal diplomacy with Kim, yet his lack of specificity has allowed Pyongyang even more leeway.

Pompeo acknowledged to journalists travelling with him to Singapore, as well as to Indonesia's capital of Jakarta and to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, that there was a "ways to go" in pushing North Korea toward denuclearisation. Trump, by contrast, has continued to claim significant progress, even success, in his public statements and Twitter posts. US officials say that, far from content with North Korea's behaviour, they are "concerned" about recent intelligence reports that seem to show new construction at the country's nuclear facilities. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, greets North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho at the 25th ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat in Singapore on Saturday. Credit:AP "If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation," Pompeo said. A fundamental problem, say experts and former negotiators, is that the two governments don't even agree on the meaning of the word "denuclearisation".

The US insists on a complete, "final" and verifiable removal of North Korea's nuclear weapons and production facilities. But North Korea defines denuclearisation as the removal of nuclear power through the Korean peninsula - including the longstanding US military presence in South Korea, Japan and other parts of the region. The conference in Singapore was hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes more than two dozen countries from the region as well as "partner" countries including the US, Russia, Iran and several European states. Many of those have been involved in the US-led efforts to force North Korea to rein in its nuclear ambitions. For Pompeo, the conference presented an opportunity to rally Asian support in reinforcing the international sanctions against North Korea that had succeeded in crippling its economy and coaxing it toward negotiations. But many nations - including, critically, China - were already relaxing the sanctions after Trump's Singapore meeting with Kim, and the president's premature pronouncement there that it was no longer necessary to speak of "maximum pressure". Pompeo insisted to reporters that the sanctions regime continues to have a significant impact and remains largely in place. Yet the secretary of state, at the forum, criticised the commitment of other countries.
"The idea that I hate all women is ridiculous and stupid," he groans. "We are an inclusive organisation who employ a number of women, too. But while the opposition run on emotion, we run on facts. You'd think most people with an IQ of over 60 could understand the basic concepts of fairness and equality, wouldn't you? And yet it's amazing how many academics struggle with them." The #MeToo movement has led to allegations against dozens of famous men, including (top row) broadcaster Bill O'Reilly, US Senate candidate Roy Moore, US Senator Al Franken, broadcaster Matt Lauer and (bottom row) actor Kevin Spacey, conductor James Levine, broadcaster Charlie Rose and film producer Harvey Weinstein. Credit:AP Perhaps because intellectual arguments would get them nowhere, the NCFM has been using the legal system to make a larger point, and successfully suing a number of businesses and organisations offering either women-only gatherings or discounts to women. One of the key players at the NCFM, Rich Allison - a former marine corps captain who has been a plaintiff in 13 lawsuits - has been waging war against organisations such as the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre, which was offering a "diversity scholarship" to female recipients, and Ladies Get Paid, a career development company for women, which had the temerity to turn him away from one of their gatherings in a San Diego bar. "I believe in social justice and fairness," says Allison, who cites the day he saw a 2015 Superbowl T-Mobile advert, in which comedian Sarah Silverman hands a couple their newborn baby and says "Sorry, it's a boy," as his tipping point.

"They'd never allow that ad with a girl." True. But isn't it a sad world when ladies' night has to be banned? "Well, California eliminated all men's clubs a while ago," Allison says. "And I do think what we're doing is effective. The suits are getting people to focus." Behind almost all of these lawsuits is local lawyer Alfred G Rava. Formerly the NCFM's secretary, he has filed some 300 cases in total - a rate of about one a month for the past three years. Rava's first Unruh Civil Rights Act sex discrimination lawsuit was the result of a night out in 2002, when he was required to pay $US10 ($13) to enter a bar where women were allowed in free. Rava found out that ladies' nights had been illegal in California since at least 1985, and proceeded to sue. The legal way isn't necessarily the best or indeed the only way to fight for men's rights, insists Crouch, "but it's certainly true that we can affect change more rapidly through litigation than through legislation". The NCFM president - who was once in a relationship "with a woman who would get violent" - says this as someone who has tried to work with the state on projects such as setting up a program for abused men. "I was told - and this is a direct quote - 'It will be a cold day in hell before our commission or any other agency gives you a dollar for abused men'." Unlike #MeToo, male celebrities are not rushing to give the NCFM injections of cash, laughs Crouch. "Although there does seem to be a pushback going on. Which is not to say that #MeToo hasn't had so much legitimacy, because it absolutely does. But unfortunately it has also brought more attention to false allegations. And false allegations hurt everybody, men and women. We need to be talking about that more."

It does seem like companies are not overly inclined to fight for their male employees. "They're just rolling over, panicked that their stock prices are going to take a dive - as though it doesn't matter where the truth lies. But now, when a woman accuses someone of status, I think people are beginning to ask, 'Really?'" Harvey Weinstein is escorted in handcuffs to a courtroom in New York, on July 9, 2018. Credit:AP Harvey Weinstein being outed as a Hollywood-style villain hasn't been helpful, agrees Crouch. "He's not representative of a normal man in so many ways, from his apparent talent and his wealth to the appalling way he treated women. If all those accusations are true, which I doubt, by the way, then he is absolutely horrific. But we never talk about the women who position themselves around people like that with the hope of exploiting them in order to obtain career advancement. We also never talk about the women who jump into bed with a man for that same reason, and then turn around and blame them for something." Crouch isn't entirely right in that respect: after all, here we are, doing just that. And William C Cook - who has spent years researching and writing about men who have been sexually abused, stalked, controlled and coerced by women - believes the conversations we're having now will eventually lead to a greater understanding between the sexes. Both men and women engage in sexually coercive tactics. The styles may vary but the substance does not. Harry Crouch, National Coalition for Men
PHILIPSBURG:--- After one month in office, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic & Telecommunication (TEATT) Stuart Johnson says he remains focused on ensuring that St. Maarten's Airport is restored to full function.

Johnson's statement came on the heels of comments by opposition Member of Parliament for the National Alliance, MP Egbert Jurendy Doran, regarding a rescheduled Central Committee meeting in Parliament, to discuss the reconstruction of Princess Juliana International Airport PJIA.

That Central Committee meeting in Parliament to discuss PJIA was initially requested on November 24, 2017, when Melissa Arrindell-Doncher was Tourism Minister and shareholder representative of the PJIA. Former Minister Arrindell-Doncher did not appear in parliament. Since then the members of parliament have allowed more than eight months to pass before again calling this meeting. This is an unexplained lapse by opposition MPs to wait almost one year after hurricane Irma devastated the island and left the airport in ruins, to react. The question must be asked, where was the urgency to address the issue of the Airport during the months when nothing was being done at the airport and no answers on its future were given?

In June 2018, my predecessor Minister Cornelius De Weever attended the first round of the Central Committee meeting on PJIA. Since then MP Doran took a lengthy parliament vacation, despite the challenges the airport faces, and has now returned well rested and seemingly ready to play politics by grandstanding about the airport. To be clear, several developments have taken place during the period I have been in office to safeguard the interest of the PJIA and prevent its bond holders from calling in those bonds.

Meanwhile the Government of St. Maarten, as the shareholder for the PJIA, is taking all necessary measures to address pressing issues affecting the rebuilding of the airport considering the critical role PJIA will play in the sustainable redevelopment of St. Maarten. It is unfortunate that MP Doran opted to begin grandstanding in the media just, days after parliament returned from recess.

Considering the precarious situation at the Airport, and its importance to the destinations revitalization, which will lead to the return of jobs for our people, all efforts from the Legislative branch to support the Executive branch of Government, at this critical time in our recovery stage post Irma, should be forthcoming, in the interest of moving the country forward. Serving the people of St. Maarten is a fulltime job. Johnson said.

Since coming into office on June 25th, Minister Johnson continues doing vital work to rebuild the tourism product, including addressing the current state of affairs at the PJIA. He has been in constant dialogue with the various stakeholders with the primary goal of finding amicable solutions to the pressing issues affecting St. Maarten's economic recovery.

The meeting in Parliament initially set for Friday, August 3rd, was rescheduled because of conflicting bookings for meetings which Johnson must attend.

"I have nothing to hide and no reason to avoid going to Parliament. I did not go on recess for the past weeks. Instead, I have been meeting and continue to meet with key stakeholders and the community at large, to see this country restored to its full potential," Johnson said.

Johnson added, "if the modus operandi of members of parliament is to grandstand, politic or try to belittle Ministers on the floor of parliament rather than comprehending the gravity of the situation St. Maarten is faced with, especially at PJIA, then our country is in serious trouble."

Every member of Parliament can request information on government owned companies whether through the minister or by calling the Board and Management of those companies to parliament. During parliaments month-long break, much work has been done where the PJIA is concerned, including the process to remove the members of the Supervisory Board of the PJIA Holding Company to protect the interest of the Airport and Country St. Maarten.

Members of parliament also have the responsibility to seek legislation that will propel St. Maarten into a prosperous future and curtail some of the legal challenges this country faces in its effort to provide real solutions.

Johnson said, "If the MP wanted a more daring headline then it ought to have been one stating that new legislation is being sought for approval in Parliament on any matter relating to providing job security for the people of this country or putting the roofs back over their heads and food on their table."

As Minister with responsibility for the Airport I look forward to a fruitful discussion in Parliament on the subject of the airport considering its importance to future investments and the economic stability of St. Maarten as a tourism destination.

"I am available at anytime to meet with MP Doran or any other MP in the national interest of moving our country forward, including PJIA," Johnson concluded.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Joint Legal Defense Team of Mr. Francesco Corallo took notice of the press release and statements of the Public Prosecutors Office of August 3rd, 2018, about Francesco, and wishes to point out the following facts:

 While awaiting a decision on the extradition request of Italy, Francesco was held in detention in the police cells in Philipsburg for 246 days;

 On the day of his actual extradition, he was escorted by heavily armed members of the Sint Maarten Arrest Team, blindfolded, ankle- and handcuffed and delivered as such to the Italian authorities. This, whilst the local authorities knew very well that the Italian Court had by then already revoked the Italian detention order for Francesco;

 The European Court of Human Rights is expected to render a judgement shortly on the (il)legality of this detention and treatment of Francesco;

 Upon his arrival in Italy, Francesco was immediately released by the Italian authorities. He went home from the airport in a taxi, with the only obligation to report daily to a nearby police station within a fixed time-period of the day. Francesco has not been incarcerated, nor placed under house arrest, in Italy;

 The daily-reporting obligation was terminated last February, his passport returned and there are absolutely no restrictions on Francescos freedom;

 Francesco was extradited to Italy to be prosecuted for suspicion of committing the following crimes1:

- Involvement in a criminal association to:

- Embezzle taxes;

- Fraudulently endanger the recovery possibilities for tax debts.

 Preliminary hearings were recently conducted and the case was sent to trial. The first main hearing is scheduled for November 30th, 2018, in Italy;

 The Presiding Justice of the preliminary hearings stated by verdict dated July 16th, 2018, that although the Prosecutor presented over 500.000 pages in documents, it still has a long way to go to explain, show and prove why the described activities were illegal.2

Francesco maintains his innocence and the Joint Legal Defense Team confirms that all taxes and payments due to the Italian state have been paid, in conformity with the Italian legislation.

The accusations levied against Francesco lack both factual and judicial merit and we are therefore confident that Francesco will be fully acquitted.
PHILIPSBURG:--- After almost 11 consistent months of disaster relief activities, K1 Britannia Foundation is rounding off their Irma-focused activities. Since the day of Hurricane Irma on September 6th, 2017, the foundation has been busy with immediate, mid and long-term relief.

Immediate Relief:

Forty-eight (48) hours prior to the passing of hurricane Irma, realizing her imminent threat but unsure of what to expect, K1 called upon its volunteers who had indicated interest in assisting in disaster situations to be prepared in case they were needed in the relief efforts. Within 3 hours of Irmas passing, volunteers and the Coast Guard met as planned and quickly realized initiative had to be taken.

After being made aware after the hurricane that there was no emergency food or water for shelters, places of refuge that had taken in vulnerable people, and care institutions, K1 managed to within 24 hours secure enough supplies with the security of the Koninklijke Marechaussee and Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard to sustain roughly 2,000+ people in the above mentioned institutions as well as aid workers and law enforcement personnel.

Bregje Boetekees, Operations Manager at White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation expressed gratitude to the foundation stating I want to call out what a wonderful organization K1 is  filled with people who truly care for others. I know many of the helpers that came out from K1, they themselves had losses and had to endure a hard time after Irma, but nobody hesitated to put on their boots and put their shoulders under the load for something that was completely disorganized and in disarray and with the energy and the impact that they did. That is amazing and I know that there are thousands and thousands of people on St. Maarten who received help only because of K1 and for that we are very grateful.

From that first day forward for the next 5 weeks, the foundation, as a consistent team of 20-40 volunteers worked tirelessly alongside the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard, Dutch Marines, Dutch UNDAC, international relief organizations, and government, specifically ESF 7  VSA to help the people of St. Maarten.

The foundation became known as the main reliable source of volunteers for relief initiatives and took on the responsibility of leading volunteer efforts in the areas of first response and rapid assessment of all places of refuge and care institutions on Dutch Sint Maarten; set up and management of shelters; mass distribution of relief goods; amongst other relief activities.

K1 alongside key partners like the Dutch Marines and the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard held a total of 23 mass and mini distributions through which over 21,000 persons were assisted with food, water and supplies. Once the mass distributions were finished, over 400 food and water packages with the help of Prime Distributors were made to assist the elderly, soup kitchens and hard-hit neighborhoods.

Deputy Director of Key Partner, Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard Eugene Middelhof said K1 is well organized and have proven their ability to ensure that the ones that are in need of assistance are taken care of. Their intentions are genuine and their results speak for themselves.

Volunteers set up multiple shelters by cleaning and sanitizing them as well as managed 4 emergency shelters for 48 hours prior, during and post Hurricane Maria.

After hurricane Maria, K1 also sent a team of volunteers to Dominica. Some of the ways they assisted were in the set-up of tents to be used as temporary classrooms while schools were being repaired, assessment of shelters with the International Organization for Migration, trauma counseling, assisting with food distribution, etc.

Locally, K1s volunteers were on call for ESF 7 during the weeks and months after hurricane Irma, assisting in responding to the myriad of needs and challenges that presented themselves during those challenging times.

K1 Britannia is dynamic, attentive to the needs of the people, very much out there in terms of consistency and making sure that persons are helped in whichever way possible. Ive not seen such as a strong and continuous action of young people in a long time, they have not stopped for one single minute, it has been an ongoing effort. No matter how often they are called, they are always ready to work, and they have worked in my view even longer than Ive worked, in terms of the amount of hours being put in right after the storm. I think the organization shows the resilience of this community, it is embedded in these people, and with this type of continuous efforts and determination, I think we will bounce back sooner than we anticipated said Ms. Joy Arnell, Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor (VSA) and ESF 7.

Over 20 local organizations and shelters who help vulnerable groups such as foster children, elderly, sick, mentally ill, at-risk youth, those made homeless through Irma, etc were adopted by K1 Britannia and they visited each of these places immediately after Irma to see what was needed as far as food and water, supplies, medical help, etc. Each organization was consistently supplied with food, water, hygiene and baby supplies, etc. until they were able to get back on their feet  for some places this was from immediately after Irma until the end of January. This help enabled these organizations and institutions to stay functional throughout this difficult period where those they cared for needed their help more than ever.

The focus of the foundation has always been helping one of the most vulnerable groups of youth on the island, children under protective custody, foster children. Court of Guardianship director Mrs. Richelda Rodriguez  Emmanuel said In the aftermath of Irma, K1 proved their dedication and reliability in caring for the youth of St. Maarten. Within the first 72 hours of the passing of the hurricane K1 conducted rapid assessments and first response to the group foster homes and acted to meet their needs. In the weeks that followed, they provided food, water, clothing, blankets, furniture, and other necessities to these institutions and to the SJIB for over 90 minors under protective custody measure.

Lack of electricity and food supplies hampered many persons from providing hot meals for themselves in the weeks immediately after Irma. So with the help of a volunteer chef, 400 hot meals were distributed to needy neighborhoods, the elderly, afternoon school programs, foster homes, etc.

Mid Term Relief:

From December onwards, the focus was on procuring the material help these institutions needed, as most had suffered damages and needed new equipment, furniture, and other materials. The local community organizations and needy families received material help such as 100+ couches, 300+ chairs, 500+ pillows, 10s0+ comforters, office furniture etc.

Some six organizations catering to children received construction assistance, done by local youth along with international volunteer contractors. Helping these community organizations was a way to reach some of the most vulnerable in the community. International donations were also facilitated through the foundation to help some of the community organization rebuild.

Targeting the children on the island, over 25 primary, high and afternoon school programs received water, milk, food supplies, 35,000+ high energy biscuits, hygiene products, can liners, blankets etc. for the needy students and the school.

The St. Maarten Early Childhood Development Association (SECDA), responsible for 20+ daycares also received assistance such as hundreds of baby food packages, 700+ bottles of milk, 5500+ liters of water, food, blankets, hygiene products and more.

As a way to bring tourism back to the island and help reestablish the positive image of St. Maarten, the foundation has connected over 50 international volunteers since Irma who wanted to help with a local need and have been an invaluable help to K1s relief and rebuilding programs. The plans are to turn this into a permanent international volunteer program.

Long Term Plans:

Priya and her team truly seem to care and do the right thing under difficult circumstances with no time for own agendas. A property that Dutch Marines wish to relate to! If in the (unfortunate) event the island needs our help again, we look forward to closely working with the K1 Britannia Foundation again!  Andries Broersma  Major, The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps (RNLMC).

K1 Britannia Foundation is soon to announce their long term plans in collaboration with key partners for ongoing disaster relief and preparedness both for St Maarten and the Caribbean region, as after Irma it has been decided that disaster relief will remain one of strong focuses of the foundation.

For more information about K1 Britannia Foundation and to see a day-by-day journal of the first 28 days after Irma, and weekly updates afterwards of Irma and Maria relief activities visit their website www.k1britanniafoundation.org. A documentary covering the foundations experiences post-Irma is soon to be released.

The foundation can be contacted via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by sending a message to their Facebook www.facebook.com/k1sxm.
An Open Source Rover example, built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: In this image, the rover shows off its ability to roll over a pile of rocks.

Students and enthusiasts can now build their own Martian rovers, thanks to a new NASA project.

Rovers like Curiosity and Opportunity have allowed scientists to learn about the Red Planet in an up-close and personal way. Now, builders of all backgrounds can learn the skills it takes to create these rovers using plans and instructions from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Open Source Rover project, according to a statement published on Tuesday (July 31).

Open Source Rover is a "scaled down version of Curiosity," according to agency officials, and the project includes several features, like six-wheel steering and "rocker-bogie suspension." JPL published this design on the development platform GitHub. Instructions for building your own Open Source Rover are available for download here on the platform. [Mars Looks Super Creepy Thanks to a Massive Dust Storm]

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this shot of the 2-inch-deep (5 centimeters) hole the rover drilled in a target called "Duluth" on May 20, 2018. This was the first rock sample captured by the drill since October 2016. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

This project is a successor to an earlier educational rover model called "ROV-E," which received positive responses in schools and museums, NASA said. The Open Source Rover offers a more affordable, less complicated model, and according to agency officials, people can assemble the new model with off-the-shelf parts for about $2,500.

"While the OSR [Open Source Rover] instructions are quite detailed, they still allow the builder the option of making their own design choices," JPL officials said. "For example, builders can decide what controllers to use, weigh the trade-offs of adding USB cameras or solar panels and even attach science payloads. The baseline design of OSR  will allow users to choose how they want to customize and add to their rover, touching on multiple hardware and software principles along the way."

JPL is home to the Mars Science Laboratory (which manages Curiosity) and is based in Pasadena, California.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
WASHINGTON  Commercial space vehicles designed to fly satellites into orbit could be used by the military one day to move cargo around the world.

"It's certainly in the cards and available to the military to develop over the next decade," said Dan Hart, CEO of Virgin Orbit in Long Beach, California  a spinoff of suborbital spaceflight company Virgin Galactic.

The company has hosted a number of Air Force leaders at its factory, including the commander of Air Mobility Command Air Force Gen. Carlton Everhart. [Now Boarding: The Top 10 Private Spaceships]

Everhart mentioned his recent visits to Virgin Orbit and SpaceX during a defense writers breakfast on Thursday, where he voiced enthusiasm about the possibilities of applying commercial space technology to military logistics.

As the head of Air Force transportation, Everhart is especially interested in the idea of moving supplies using space vehicles, and how that could transform military logistics. "He was on our factory floor, he was incredibly engaged with engineers and technicians. The conversation was bouncing back and forth and you could see the energy," Hart told SpaceNews. "We had a similar experience with Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and other leaders."

Virgin Orbit modified a Boeing 747 to carry a two-stage expendable rocket to fly payloads into low earth orbit.

Point to point travel using suborbital flight has been talked about for years, Hart said. "There's no barrier to that." If the military wanted to transport cargo across the globe, the technology is available to do that, but a lot of planning and engineering would be required.

"We do have technology in launch, re-entry systems and landers that show we can transport high value cargo and land it safely," said Hart. A container coming from space could reenter the atmosphere using parachutes or gliding, like the military X-37 spaceplane does. "Some of those details would have to be worked out," Hart said.

Space launch providers today are focused on putting up military and commercial payloads into space. The transportation of military cargo falls into the category of efforts that are further into the future. Launch would be the easy part. Other areas, like re-entry and recovery, would require the government to invest more time and money if it wants to transport cargo across the planet.

If a viable plan is developed, the potential benefits are significant, Hart said. "It would be urgency of delivery, if you needed a critical part, medical device or donor organ delivered across the globe in 90 minutes or even quicker."

If the military is serious about this, it will have to focus on mission design. "There's a fair amount of advanced engineering they would have to do," Hart said. He compared space-based cargo transportation to intercepting enemy ballistic missiles. "You'd have to operate much the way missile defense systems operate today. You don't have a clear idea of where you're going to go but you've done a lot of upfront engineering so you have trajectories that are pre-planned that can get you there."

A typical space mission takes weeks or months to plan and conduct design reviews. "That is usually how space launch works," Hart said. But if a system were engineered like missile defense, "a threat can pop up anywhere and the system automatically knows how to fly to it," he said. "You'd have to do some development to automate the flight design. That is an engineering, not a technology problem."

There is nothing particularly new about moving cargo in and out of space. "We have done a lot of that work as a country," said Hart. "A lot of work has been done on thermal insulation, on trajectories, on how to fly from space to Earth."

Another option for the military would be to "preposition" cargo at spaceports for fast crisis response. "The easiest way would be to have it packaged within fairings. Then all you need to do is connect the fairing on to the rocket and go."

Expectations of a growing military business is why Virgin Orbit created a subsidiary called Vox Space to focus on the government market. The company's LauncherOne first military mission is scheduled in 2019  the DoD Space Test Program overseen by the Air Force Space and Missile System Center.

Hart said the military is seeking space capabilities that are similar to what the commercial world wants: "A responsive system with flexibility. That's driving the commercial world. The military is driven by exactly the same forces right now."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Boumerdes (Algeria), August 4, 2018 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, on Saturday attended the opening of the 9th edition of the Polisario Front and Sahrawi state executives in the University of Mohamed Bougherra in Boumerdes, Algeria, with the participation of 400 delegates alongside representatives of Algerian civil society and international figures active in defending the right of peoples to self-determination.



The opening ceremony of the Summer University, which will last until 15 August, under the theme "The 45th anniversary of the foundation of the Polisario Front and outbreak of the armed struggle, commitment and persistence for independence and freedom," attended also by Algerian political parties and human rights organizations as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited to Algeria.



President of the Summer University, Khatri Addouh, stressed in his opening speech that the event was "an opportunity to consolidate fraternal ties and solidarity between the Sahrawi and Algerian peoples and benefit from the Algerian experience in various fields."



For his part, Saeed Ayachi, head of the Algerian National Committee of Solidarity with the Sahrawi people, reiterated Algeria's firm position on the Sahrawi just issue, stressing that this position stems from the principles of the glorious November Revolution. (SPS)



062/SPS/TRA
STAMFORD  Ted Jankowski was working with the New York City Fire Department when the Twin Towers collapsed during the 9/11 attacks. In the days and weeks that followed, he saw an outpouring of volunteers drawn to lower Manhattan to help exhausted first responders trying to deal with the tragedy.

The problem was the city didnt know if any of them could be trusted.

You had a lot of volunteers that showed up from all over the nation, said Jankowski, who spent 23 years with the FDNY before becoming Stamfords director of public safety, health and welfare in 2012. The problem is they werent credentialed and they werent organized.

Cue MRC  the Medical Reserve Corps. Created in response to the attacks in New York, MRC organizes medical and public health professionals to serve as volunteers in case of disaster. They complement CERT  the community emergency response team  which also takes volunteers in times of disaster and trains them in a number of response skills.

Volunteers are the backbone of emergency services, said Jennifer Calder, the citys director of health. We saw nationwide how critical volunteers were to helping our city respond to a major disaster because certainly first responders become overwhelmed. A lot of this grew out of 9/11.

Both organizations have come to Stamford within the past decade. But starting in September, the organizations will combine as the Stamford Citizen Services Corps. By doing so and certifying volunteers for both organizations, Stamford Citizen Services Corps will be eligible for more state aid and more training for a higher skilled staff of volunteers.

Stamford residents have likely dealt with CERT volunteers in a range of weather-inflicted circumstances  they could be spotted everywhere from running evacuation shelters for 700 people from the South End during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 to handing out water bottles at Stamford High Schools graduation during a heat wave a few years ago.

We have the best emergency responders in the area, said Chris Munger, a former Marine and FBI employee who coordinates the CERT team in Stamford. Our police are fantastic, our fire are fantastic and we have one of the best EMS groups in the state. Our job as CERT members and the MRC, in major instances where they are overworked, we step in to help them out as much as we can. Were not there to replace them by any means.

In addition, there will be an increased effort to recruit volunteers by certifying all members who go through the citys Public Safety Academy. So far, the city has held two sessions with about 30 members each who learn about different emergency services in Stamford, along with some CERT curriculum.

Now, participants will have the option to be sworn in as both CERT and MRC volunteers at the end of their academy.

Residents interested in participating do no need a medical background. According to Barbara Stein, co-chairwoman of the Stamford MRC, the organization needs people to help out in a wide array of crisis tasks, whether as a greeter, a psychologist, or helping direct people during the citys popular wintertime flu-shot clinics.

What the MRC can do is triage the people and sign them up, register them, said Stein, who worked in health care policy for 30 years. People are volunteering from all different backgrounds as (clinically heavy) as physicians and nurses, but people with office skills, people with corporate skills, retired fire, police, EMTs. We need all types of people.

erin.kayata

@stamfordadvocate.com
Lawyers: Warnings foresaw berserk chimpanzee

An out-of-control chimpanzee that mauled a Stamford woman in 2009 escaped from his cage five months earlier, prompting his owner to request he be shot with a tranquilizer gun, legal papers show.

Marcella Leone, owner of a private zoo in Greenwich, testified in a deposition that Sandra Herold, owner of Travis the chimpanzee, called to tell her he needed to be restrained, according to The Hartford Courant.

Nobody got hurt in that incident. But lawyers for Charla Nash, who was blinded in the attack and has had several surgeries including a face transplant, say the 2008 phone message was one of several warnings ignored by state officials. Police fatally shot the chimpanzee during the attack.

10 years ago

UConn warns students of Trump perils

UConn-Stamford administrators have closed the main entrance to protect students and faculty after a 4x4 from the Trump Parc luxury high-rise construction site across the street crashed through the roof of a postal truck.

Saturday's incident, which caused no injuries, was the fourth in a series of construction mishaps since May at the Broad Street and Washington Boulevard site.

The University of Connecticut at Stamford previously had recommended that students and faculty not use the main entrance. Alternate entrances include ones on Broad Street across from Target, on Franklin Street and on Washington Boulevard.

The precaution, applauded by Ben Barnes, the city's director of operations, raises questions about whether the city is doing enough to protect pedestrians near the site.

Tuesday morning, Barnes dismissed the idea of closing streets surrounding Trump Parc to pedestrians.

"I don't see why we should do that at this point," he said, adding that the recent accidents affected cars not people.

15 years ago

Census: Area seniors flocking to Florida

Fairfield County offers a bevy of amenities, but apparently its older residents dont think those perks can match Floridas hot days, wraparound beaches and housing costs.

Thats what data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau seem to show. The Census Bureau released four reports on domestic migration patterns between 1995 and 2000 and one that looks at migration within the United States of people age 65 or older.

Among Connecticut counties, Fairfield County had the most of people age 65 or older move out of state. Fairfield County lost 38.9 people age 65 or older for every 1,000 residents, for a net number of 4,695 moving out of state. The second highest was Hartford County, which lost 22.8 people age 65 or over per 1,000 residents.

Their destination, it seems, was usually the Sunshine State.

erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2265; @erin_kayata
There is a disturbing trend in American policy where a powerful few use government to benefit themselves at the expense of the many. The most recent example is Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchins proposal to implement a $100 billion tax cut that would primarily benefit the 0.1 percent of earners, including himself. Simultaneously, there are proposals to impose punitive work requirements on SNAP and Medicaid recipients, hurting mostly children, the elderly and the disabled.

This pattern extends to state policy. The American Federation of Teachers reports that more than half the states invested less in public education in 2016 than they did in 2008, even as most of these states enacted tax cuts during that period. The poorest districts are the hardest hit, as they cannot recoup lost state funding with local revenue.

Scholars Jamila Michener and Sally Nuamah have found that when government is unresponsive to the most underserved, e.g., erecting barriers for Medicaid recipients or closing public schools over community objections, those communities disengage from political participation. When government serves the privileged few, democracy also suffers.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos views her role in government as advancing the interests of the few. While accelerating privatization of public schools by expanding charters and vouchers, she has declared: we should be funding and investing in students ... not in institutions, not in systems. She commodifies education, likening it to Uber, cellphones and Blockbuster video. DeVos prioritizes parents fundamental right to choose over equity.

As the political theorist Benjamin Barber noted, private choice cannot be a surrogate for the public good. (A)ggregating our private choices  yields an inegalitarian and highly segmented society in which the least advantaged are further disadvantaged. Indeed, school choice has accelerated segregation and the diversion of funds from public schools. Charters and vouchers also often exclude the neediest, leaving public schools to serve them with fewer resources.

Barber also observed that choice is an illusion: the real power... is in the determination of what is on the menu. Owing to the policy decisions of the powerful, parents in needy districts do not have the choice of a well-funded public school. As law professor Osamudia James has written, school choice merely glorifies the limited and less-desirable choices of people of color.

Current education policy undermines the vision in Brown v. Board of Education of public education as a public good essential to democracy. The Brown Court declared that education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments ... It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities ... It is the very foundation of good citizenship. The Court understood that segregation impeded the aim of a cohesive society. Thus, even if the conditions were the same in segregated schools, separate could never be equal.

Two cases decided last week reaffirm the vision of public schools as essential to the survival of our democracy and provide a road map for a needed redirection of education policy nationwide.

In New Mexico, a judge ruled that the state underfunds its schools in violation of that states constitution, with particular harm inflicted on English Language Learners, Native American students, poor students, and students with disabilities. The court ordered the state to adequately fund schools so they can serve all children. It also affirmed the connection between equal educational opportunity and democracy, quoting late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan: education has a fundamental role in maintaining the fabric of our society. We cannot ignore the significant social costs borne by our Nation when selected groups are denied the means to absorb the values and skills upon which our social order rests.

Similarly, Minnesotas highest court confirmed educations public purpose. Parents and children in Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the state, charging that segregation in their school districts deprived children of a constitutionally adequate education. They pointed to several factors contributing to segregation, including the creation of charter schools and the exemption of charters from desegregation plans. The Minnesota Supreme Court denied the states motion to dismiss and allowed the case to go forward. As the court noted, Minnesotas constitution declared that a uniform system of public education is vital to (t)he stability of a republican form of government. The court concluded that It is self-evident that a segregated system of public schools is not general, uniform, thorough, or efficient.

These courts ruled that exclusionary education policy perpetuates inequality and is inconsistent with the goals of public education. For our democracy to thrive, education must remain a public good.

Wendy Lecker is a columnist for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and is senior attorney at the Education Law Center
https://www.aish.com/f/mom/Treating-Everyone-Fairly-Despite-our-Differing-Viewpoints.html

Americans can learn a lot from Israeli doctors.

We were once very rude to a guest. We argued and argued with her, outraged and indignant. Until we realized that she had a point, an important point, a point we've never forgotten (which still doesn't make up for our bad behavior!).

She represented one of the hospitals in Jerusalem and we were discussing the fact that Israeli hospitals are often called upon to treat not only the victim of a terrorist attack but the terrorist as well. In fact, in a situation of triage with limited resources, if the attacker is more seriously wounded, his treatment may take precedence over the Jew he injured.

We couldn't believe this position and argued vehemently against it, putting our guest in an uncomfortable, defensive position. But she held her ground and taught us a lesson that resonates to this day.

In the heat of the moment, in life and death situations, we don't want doctors making decisions based on personal politics, ethics or feelings. We want all patients treated equally and fairly. What if the doctor didn't like Jews from Yemen or Ethiopia? Or people who voted for Likud or for Labor? What if he didn't like the religious or the non-religious?

We don't want the physician's personal (and possibly arbitrary or capricious) opinion determining who is entitled to medical care.

Looking at the political divide in America today, at the hostility and rancor, I suggest we adopt a similar position - for situations that seem to be of lesser importance (or even if you think they're of equal or greater import!). We don't want race, religion or sexual orientation to determine who gets to eat in a particular restaurant. Nor should ones politics be a determining factor.

Because it's a slippery slope. It's not desirable (or even legal) that our personal preferences, political or otherwise, affect who gets to rent in my building or buy the house next door, who gets the available position in my company, the next promotion or the coveted freshman spot at an Ivy.

The list is endless - who gets non-profit status, who gets audited by the IRS, or targeted by ambitious prosecutors.

We won't want individual whims or political goals to decide who gets waited on, who gets an appointment with their preferred doctor, who goes to the best hospital. What about firefighters? It's absurd to imagine they should only rescue those of similar political stripe. What about the police?

There would be no stopping - and the deterioration of society and civility would be at hand. So I suggest we pull it back and put it all in perspective.
T he pound has had a rough few years. The currency has been fighting an uphill battle with the Euro ever since the Brexit vote came back in 2016 and has since hit a two-year low against the dollar and Euro as the government insists the UK is prepared to leave the EU without a deal.

So what does this mean for your travels?

We spoke to Steve Nowottny from MoneySavingExpert.com, who shared some tips on the best ways to make your pound stretch further this summer.

Should you opt to be charged in pounds or local currency?

When paying on a card or withdrawing cash from an ATM overseas, youll often be asked if you want the transaction to be in pounds or the local currency. As a general rule, never pay in pounds  its almost always best to opt for the local currency, as otherwise the overseas retailer or bank will do the conversion and rates are generally awful.

Where is the best place to get travel money from?

As a general rule, never exchange cash at the airport as rates are usually dire. Its much better to compare rates before you go  even if you have left it to the last minute, at least order in advance online to pick up at the airport, which will normally ensure a better rate.

How can you decide what travel credit card to take?

The easiest and cheapest way to spend abroad is often on a specialist overseas credit or debit card. Unlike most credit or debit cards which add a non-sterling exchange fee of around 3 per cent, these dont. If opting for a credit card though always make sure you repay in full.

Whatever you do dont just assume your normal debit card will be OK to spend on, without checking the charges. Some not only add 3 per cent to the exchange rate and charge cash withdrawal fees  they also add charges every time you use them overseas, so a 5 glass of wine could cost 6.40 a time.

Our top picks to take with you on holiday are Starling, Monzo, Halifaxs clarity card or Barclays travel credit card.

Where your pound will go the furthest

Turkey

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Exchange rate: 1GBP = 6.77 Turkish lira

In context: a street food meal will cost around 4.

Nowottny says Turkey has been a popular good-value destination this year thanks to the pound's strength against the lira. A haven for Instagram lovers and culture seekers, Turkey has proven to be a hot spot for Brits fond of a bargain this summer.

South Africa

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Exchange rate: 1GBP = 17.22 South African Rand

In context: a mid-range three-course meal for two will cost around 26.

Before Brexit, you could buy R24.5 for a pound. Alas those golden days have passed, but South Africa is still a cheap country to visit. While there make sure you visit Kruger National Park, hike Table Mountain and learn how to surf (but watch out for the Great Whites).

Mexico

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Exchange rate: 1GBP = 23.18 Mexican Peso

In context: a pint of beer will cost around 1.

Whether you visit the tourist havens of Tulum and Cancun or the towns along Mexico's forgotten coast , you'll be sure to find a bargain wherever you go. For delicious, authentic Mexican food, be sure to hit up street stalls where you can often get two tacos for 1.

Indonesia

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Exchange rate: 1GBP = 17,076.55 Indonesian Rupiah

In context: you can stay in resorts or boutique properties for 45 per night.

Bali is the must-visit destination for 2019 and for good reason. The pound is strong against the Indonesian Rupiah which means you can stay in five-star resorts for as little as 45 per night. Food is cheap and cheerful, and there are a number of beaches and tropical forests to explore.

New Zealand

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Exchange rate: 1GBP = 1.84 New Zealand Dollar

In context: a meal at a cafe will cost around 5.

For Brits that travel to New Zealand, their money effectively doubles. So if you take 500 with you as spending money, this will get you around $920 NZD to spend which will be all you need. The best way to see New Zealand is by road tripping around the country so you don't miss all the spectacular sights around every corner.

Malaysia

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Exchange rate: 1 GBP = 5.02 Malaysian Ringgit

In context: a five-star hotel room will cost you around 95.

Southeast Asia is a great area to explore when you are looking to get more for your money. Malaysia is no exception. Be sure to get a picture of the Blue Mansion in Georgetown and go hiking through Penang National Park to catch a glimpse of the monkeys on Monkey Beach.

Chile

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Exchange rate: 1 GBP = 848.93 Chilean Peso

In context: a fine dining main meal will cost around 16.

The cheapest way to travel around Chile is by bus - and you'll want to continue moving along the country as there are so many sights to see. From the towering Chilean Andes to the vast national parks and myriad of colourful towns, it's like the best of Europe all in one South American country.

Morocco

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Exchange rate: 1 GBP = 11.69 Moroccan Dirham

In context: a room in a fancy riad will cost around 83 per night.

This North African country is easily accessible from Europe, which is why it has seen a dramatic increase in tourist popularity over the past decade. Accommodation, food and drink is cheap and if you're really looking to save money, visit in late autumn when the weather is still warm but the crowds have died down.

Thailand

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Exchange rate: 1 GBP = 37.50 Thai Baht

In context: a street food meal will cost around 1 - 2.

Thailand has long been the go-to backpacking destination for many Brits on their gap years - and the main allure is how cheap it is. Grab a pad thai from a street vendor for less than 1 and head up north where prices are far cheaper than in Bangkok and the tourist-heavy islands of Koh Phi Phi and Koh Tao.

Dominican Republic

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Exchange rate: 1 GBP = 62.12 Dominican Peso

In context: a beach front resort will cost around 132.

While there are a number of all-inclusive resorts on this Caribbean Island that will tempt you never to leave, if you do go out an explore be sure to check out Los Haitises National Park for Mangrove forests and Samana Bay for whale watching. The best time to visit is between December and May when you won't be caught by the hurricane season.

Mozambique

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Exchange rate: 1 GBP = 74.99 Mozambican Metical

In context: a local meal will cost around 3.

Explore Mozambique's picturesque islands all year round by snorkelling, kayaking or diving. If you're a keen diver, make sure you head there in October when 50-strong congregations of whale sharks head to the area.

Poland

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Exchange rate: 1 GBP = 4.69 Polish zoty

In context: a five-star hotel will cost around 50 per night.
A man believed to be in his 30s has been pulled from the River Thames alive and police are desperate to identify him.

Police said the man, who has two distinctive tattoos on his left hand and lower right leg, was found in the river near Putney Embankment.

The force have released photos of the man in hospital in the hopes it will identify him.

Police were called at about 7.20pm to reports of a man in the river on Saturday night.

Assisted by members of the public and Londons Air Ambulance, the man was removed from the water and airlifted to hospital where he is now in a critical but stable condition.

He had no identification on him, police said, and because of his poor state of health the police are looking to trace his family as soon as possible.

Police said the man has two distinctive tattoos / Metropolitan Police

Detective Sergeant Samantha Batchelor, South West Command Unit Missing Persons Unit, said: "We have exhausted all our lines of enquiry to identify this man and we are hoping with the release of his image a friend or family member will be able to come forward tell us who he is."

Reports from eye witnesses suggest the incident was not suspicious and the unknown man may have injured himself after entering a part of the river he thought was shallow.

He has been described as a white male, dark in complexion, of medium build with short hair.

The man also has a recognisable leg tattoo / Metropolitan Police

He has two distinctive tattoos on his left hand and one on his lower right leg that are faded black in colour.

He had been wearing a camouflage t-shirt with white writing on it with "Now or never, no regrets, past/present/future" on it, grey tracksuit bottoms with black rims around the pockets, blue plimsolls with white soles and a white and green Dunlop shoulder bag.
F irefighters are currently battling a grass fire on Hounslow Heath.

According to the London Fire Brigade, 50 firefighters are battling the blaze after being called to the scene at around 6pm on Sunday evening.

Approximately three acres of grass and shrubland is alight.

An earlier grass fire in Feltham has been extinguished, a spokesperson for London Fire Brigade said.

On Twitter, South Western Railway confirmed that there have been some delays to its services due to flames near the line.

Video footage shows the flames approaching the tracks of the railway route heading towards London.

Witnesses reported seeing the flames from as far as Heathrow.

Hounslow Police confirmed via Twitter that a response team was at Hounslow Heath assisting London Fire Brigade with the large grass fire.

London Fire Brigade were also called to a grass fire in Upminster on Sunday evening with two fire engines attending.

More than 225 firefighters battles the enormous blaze which erupted on shrubland.

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: "During the hot weather we are attending a large number of grass fires across London.
A new United Synagogue cemetery serving the Jewish community in north and north west London has been praised for its "dignified" and "sympathetically constructed" space.

Bushey Cemetery, which is shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the country's best new building, was designed with natural features using materials from its greenbelt location in Hertfordshire.

The project, an extension to an existing cemetery in Bushey, Hertfordshire, was designed around the process of the Jewish funeral, featuring elements including biodegradable "rammed earth" walls constructed with soil from the site they were built on.

Designed by architects Waugh Thistleton, the additional 16-acre plot will provide thousands more burial spaces for the Jewish community over the coming decades and includes two new prayer halls and a series of service buildings.

It marks the first new consecration of a United Synagogue burial site in the UK in 50 years.

The buildings are designed around the process of Jewish burial / Lewis Khan

The cemetery was last month selected for one of architecture's top accolades, with judges impressed by the use of rammed earth in the construction of the main prayer hall building.

The structure - a natural mix of compressed soil excavated on site, lime stone and sand - echoes the return to the earth by the departed.

Under Jewish law, you cannot build over a burial site once it reaches full capacity, so the buildings will one day be demolished.

But architects have designed the structure to be biodegradable, so all materials can be eventually returned to the Earth

The rammed-earth wall of one of the ceremonial rooms / Lewis Khan

Andrew Waugh, director at Waugh Thistleton, told the Standard: "When the cemetery is full, these buildings will be at the end of their life, but when they are demolished they will go back into the ground.

"It's a building with an understanding of its life time."

He added: "It's symbolic of life and our relationship with the Earth. And it's very sustainable - it uses one tenth of the cement as a concrete building."

The RIBA Sterling judges commented: "The fact that the rammed earth walls of the prayer hall will return to the earth once the cemetery is full and has to be extended again, is a poetic response to the programme for the cemetery and the traditions of the Jewish faith.

An additional 16 acres of land has been created for burials / Lewis Khan

The main ceremonial space was also clad internally in English oak, creating a calm environment accentuated with indirect lighting, so as not to distract the congregation from the service.

Meanwhile all the buildings are designed around the process of burial.

Structures are built with a slight slope to the east, to signify the movement of the Jewish burial service from west to east.

Mourners enter through a west-facing door then follow the coffin eastward to the burial.

"These are buildings that work with the physical and emotional process of burial," Mr Waugh said.

Rabbi Ivan Binstock, of St John's Wood United Synagogue, said the cemetery is "very sympathetically constructed" and designed in a way to meet the needs of all those using it.

He said: "It's been designed very sensitively and I feel that those of us that use it will feel it's a very appropriate place.

"The fact that is has been constructed in this way will be an extra form of support [to people]."

A high portico links the two prayer buildings / Lewis Khan

The cemetery will conduct its first funeral later this year after a consecration service was held at the site in May.

The Rabbi added: "Dealing with bereavement can be very raw. The environment can be very important for helping people to feel supported and appreciated.

"[Bushey New Cemetery] is a place which is dignified.

"We talk a lot about the 'dignity of the dead'. We try and ensure that we are going to be able to maintain that for the dead and those visiting.

"This will certainly fulfil that."

The first funeral will be conducted at the site later this year / Lewis Khan

Lali Virdee, Property Director, United Synagogue, said: The United Synagogue supports its members throughout every stage of their life and eventually death.

This project was commissioned in order to preserve one of the most basic tenets of Judaism which includes maintaining cemeteries in perpetuity, whilst creating a fitting resting place where family and friends can have a meaningful and fitting experience.

Working with Waugh Thistleton over a number of years, we have together produced just this experience.

We congratulate them on their nomination for the prestigious Sterling Prize.

Bushey Cemetery was created in collaboration with engineers Elliott Wood and landscape architects J & L Gibbons.

It is shortlisted alongside Lord Fosters 1 billion Bloomberg HQ building in central London, and four others for the RIBA Sterling Prize.
L abour deputy leader Tom Watson has said his party needs to take a long, hard look at ourselves."

Mr Watson warned that Labour faces being lost in a vortex of eternal shame unless it addressed the concerns of the Jewish community over anti-Semitism.

His comments were made in the Observer following attempts by Jeremy Corbyn to build bridges with the Jewish community.

Mr Watson demanded that the Labour leader bring an end to disciplinary action against two of his most prominent critics - MP Ian Austin and Dame Margaret Hodge.

Dame Hodge confronted Mr Corbyn in Parliament over his response to the row.

Margaret Hodge confronted the Labour leader in the Commons / PA Archive/PA Images

"I think it is very important that we all work to de-escalate this disagreement, and I think it starts with dropping the investigations into Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin," Mr Watson said.

"I have frequently had very difficult conversations with both Margaret and Ian but what I understand is that your critics are not your enemies. On an issue that is so dear to them, I think people are very, very concerned that these investigations should be dropped quickly."

And he said Labour should fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct.

Mr Corbyn has stopped short of that, insisting that Labour had fully adopted the wording of the definition and had captured "the essence" of its illustrative examples, with seven of the 11 incorporated entirely.

Ian Austin was one of Jeremy Corbyn's most outspoken critics / Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament

He acknowledged that the Jewish community "should have been consulted more extensively" in drawing up the code, and its development had been re-opened to allow the input of Jewish organisations.

He insisted the differences were "very small" and amount to "half of one example out of 11" in relation to criticism of Israel.

But Mr Watson told the Observer: "We should deal with this swiftly and move on. We can't have this dragging on throughout the summer.

"I have made no secret of the fact that ... we should adopt the full IHRA definition and should do it without delay."

Jeremy Corbyn insisted he would root out anti-Semites (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) / Getty Images

In a Guardian article, Mr Corbyn insisted he will root out anti-Semites from Labour and acknowledged mistakes in the way the party had handled the crisis.

But the Jewish Labour Movement said trust had broken down with the party leadership, while the Campaign Against Antisemitism lashed out at Mr Corbyn's failure to apologise for his own conduct.

Mr Corbyn said: "No one can, or should, try to dismiss or belittle the concerns expressed by so many Jewish people and organisations about what has been happening in the party I am proud to lead."

Mr Watson pictured with Jeremy Corbyn / EPA

But after three leading Jewish newspapers jointly published a scathing leader column about Mr Corbyn's party, the Labour leader rejected their "overheated rhetoric".

However, he acknowledged there was a "real problem that Labour is working to overcome" and stressed that if he became prime minister he would "take whatever measures necessary" to guarantee the security of the Jewish community.

Campaign Against Antisemitism chairman Gideon Falter said: "There is no acknowledgement of his own role in this crisis. There is no apology for his anti-Semitic activity in the past, but he has hypocritically condemned as anti-Semitic behaviour that he himself has been guilty of.

"He has again preached to Jews that he is right to have rewritten the international definition of anti-Semitism."

The Jewish Labour Movement also rejected Mr Corbyn's article.

A spokesman said: "There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words."

Political opponents seized upon similarities between Mr Corbyn's article and an earlier response to allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour which was published in April.

Tory deputy chairman James Cleverly said it was a "cut and paste job".
R evellers enjoying Brighton Pride celebrations were left stranded for hours as they tried to make their way home.

Commuters reported chaotic scenes as they left Brighton, after approximately 300,000 people attended the annual event.

One traveller claimed it had taken over three hours to get to London from Brighton and was stuck at Crawley train station while stranded passengers made their way onto the train.

While another traveller alleged her 14-year-old daughter fainted between London Bridge and East Croydon.

Southern Rail tweeted Brighton station may have had to be closed because of overcrowding as scores of people descended on the station.

Shortly after, the railway company said crowd control measures had to be put in place because of overcrowding concerns.

It added: The safety of our passengers is of the utmost importance.

Local coastguard teams were also brought in to help ease the crowds, the Brighton Argus reports.

A police spokeswoman told the paper: Coastguards have provided extra teams due to the large number of people in the city.

We, alongside partner agencies, want to ensure people are as safe as possible when the sea could be involved

"There is a potential that people will go down to the beach so they've got more coasttguard teams coming down just in case."

In a statement, Brighton Council said many opted to sleep on the beach, as the journey home was looking to take so long.

The local authority said: Many people decided not to travel and went to the beach instead, the numbers were added to by others leaving the PVP (Pride Village Party) and also heading to the seafront. This led to overcrowding in some areas and an increase in calls to emergency services.

We have been working with the ambulance service (SECAmb) and HM Coastguard to find a way to reduce the numbers of people on the beach for the safety of all.

The council was also forced to make the Brighton Centre available as a refuge for stranded Pride-goers, with reports of thousands flocking to it.

These reports, the council added, were untrue.

A statement read: The venue has been open for a few hours overnight and will be used by the coastguard and SECAamb as well as to provide support to people our partners have asked us to help.

Reports that 4,000 Pride goers are currently at the Brighton Centre are untrue. While the Brighton Centre has capacity for many thousands of people, we have only received six people at the venue.

We are not expecting the numbers to rise significantly from this point but we are ready to help further if needed.

Sussex Police said, in a statement, that number of revellers fell ill after taking a pill called Rolex.

The event was attended by thousands / Getty Images

It said: We have had reports of a number of people vomiting and feeling ill at Pride after having taken a pill called Rolex.

Please do not take this, it could make you seriously ill. Please look after yourself and your friends. Our advice is not to take any drugs.

The force added that a number of arrests were made following celebrations.

Thousands of people travelled from far and wide to attend the event today and the overwhelming majority of people who have come to Pride have been excellent.

However, officers have made a number of arrests today for a variety of offences, which can be expected at such a large event, it said.
T he death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit the Indonesian tourist islands of Lombok and Bali has risen to 98 and could climb further, officials have said.

Pictures showed tourists packed on a beach waiting to evacuate the Gili Islands, just off Lombok, as it emerged 200 people are seriously injured, thousands of homes damaged, and 20,000 people are taking cover in emergency shelters.

Most of the casualties were in Lombok, which had suffered an earlier deadly earthquake just days ago on July 29, while two people died in Bali.

The British Government is sending consular staff to the earthquake-shattered island after hundreds of tourists were left stranded.

A visitor from London, 28-year-old James Kelsall of Woodford Green, described scenes of terror and chaos after he was caught up in the disaster.

7.0 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia 1 /24 7.0 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia AP People recover a motorcycle from a damaged home near a mosque after a strong earthquake in Gunungsari, West Lombok, Indonesia Reuters Chief Water Police of Lombok Dewa Wijaya takes a picture in front of hundreds of people attempting to leave the Gili Islands after an earthquake Gili Trawangan, in Lombok, Indonesia Reuters Reuters Rescuers evacuate residents from smaller islands after an earthquake struck in North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia EPA Patients are evacuated outside to the Mataram City hospital parking lot after the quake struck Reuters Foreign tourists carry their belongings on the beach as they leave Gili Trawangan island after an earthquake hit Lombok island in Pamenang, Indonesia REUTERS A damaged home is seen following a strong earthquake in Pemenang, North Lombok, Indonesia Reuters Foreign tourists and hotel staff stand on the street after being evacuated in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Images Patients are seen outside a hospital Reuters Indonesian soldiers tend to a woman injured in the earthquake at a makeshift hospital in Lombok AP A policeman examines debris that fell and crushed parked motorbikes Reuters People clean up debris after the 7.0 magnitude quake struck on Sunday Reuters A motorcycle is seen on the ground of a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Images Foreign tourists stand on the street afer being evacuated from their hotel in Bali's capital Denpasar AFP/Getty Images Bikes are seen covered in debris in Denpasar after a major earthquake rocked the neighbouring island of Lombok AFP/Getty Images A person is evacuated to the parking lot outside the Mataram City hospital with other patient Reuters A temple is seen partially collapsed in Badung in Bali island AFP/Getty Images A Balinese temple is seen partially collapsed AFP/Getty Images Workers cleanup parts of a shopping mall building which collapsed after an earthquake, in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia EPA Parts of a shopping mall building collapsed after an earthquake was felt in Denpasar, Bali EPA People crowd on the shore as they attempt to leave the Gili Islands after an earthquake Gili Trawangan, in Lombok, Indonesia Reuters A damaged home is seen following a strong earthquake in Pemenang, North Lombok, Indonesia Reuters Reuters

He and his partner Helen became stranded on the tiny island of Gili Trawangan when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck.

Speaking from a beach as he awaited evacuation, the teacher told reporters: "There were lots of injuries and pain on the island from buildings that had collapsed onto people.

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"The most terrifying part was the tsunami warning that followed. All the locals were frantically running and screaming, putting on life jackets.

"We followed them up to higher ground, which was a steep, uneven climb to the top of a hill in darkness."

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a news conference that damage was "massive" in the north of Lombok.

Thousands of buildings, such as this one in Lombok, were damaged / Reuters

Some areas still hadn't been reached, while rescuers were hampered by collapsed bridges, electricity blackouts and damaged roads blocked with debris.

The quake, measured at a magnitude of 7.0 by Indonesian authorities and 6.9 by the US Geological Survey, struck early Sunday evening at a depth of 10.5 kilometres (6 miles) in the northern part of Lombok.

The epicentre was recorded in the northern part of Lombok / Reuters

Video footage showed screaming people running in panic from houses in a Bali neighbourhood and vehicles rocking.

On Lombok, soldiers and other rescuers carried injured people on stretchers and carpets to evacuation centres.

"People panicked and scattered on the streets, and buildings and houses that had been damaged by the previous earthquake had become more damaged and collapsed," Mr Sutopo said.

The quake triggered a tsunami warning and frightened people poured out of their homes to move to higher ground, particularly in North Lombok and Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province.

Patients were treated outdoors in Mataram, Lombok / Reuters

The warning was lifted on Sunday after only small waves were recorded.

On Gili Trawangan, one of three popular vacation islands near Lombok, thousands of tourists and locals spent the night on a hill fearing a tsunami, said British visitor Saffron Amis.

"There was a lot of screaming and crying, particularly from the locals," said Ms Amis, from Brighton.

Dozens killed after quake hits Indonesian tourist island

"We spoke to a lot of them and they were panicking about their family in Lombok. It was just a lot of panic because no one knew what was happening."

Thousands of people are now trying to get off the island, she said, describing the mood as both sombre and panicked.

Mr Sutopo said there were no fatalities among the local and foreign tourists and a joint search and rescue team had deployed three ships to evacuate people.

Model Chrissy Teigen, who was in Bali with singer-husband John Legend and their two children, live tweeted the shaking.

"Bali. Trembling. So long," Ms Teigen tweeted to her 10.6 million followers.

Like Bali, Lombok is known for pristine beaches and mountains. Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
T he president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro has survived an assassination attempt in which drones armed with explosives detonated while he was delivering a speech.

Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were targeted in the attack while he delivered a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas.

The pair looked up at the sky from the stage as a crowd of hundreds of massed troops ran for their lives after hearing the sound of an explosion pierce the air.

Pictures showed some members of the crowd bloodied after the blast and ensuing stampede.

Explosion rocks speech by Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro

Mr Maduro said "everything points" to a right-wing plot that early investigations suggest is linked to Colombia, he said later in a speech.

Survived attack: the president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro / EPA

He said several plotters had been arrested. But Colombia has dismissed the suggestions any of its citizens are responsible as 'baseless,' saying the blast was from a gas explosion.

He was giving a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard which was being broadcast live on television when the explosion occurred.

Security personnel surround Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro with bulletproof shields / AP

"This was an attempt to kill me," the 55-year-old said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. "Today they attempted to assassinate me."

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the incident took place shortly after 5.30pm as Mr Maduro was celebrating the National Guard's 81st anniversary.

Venezuelan troops during Mr Maduro's speech / EPA

The visibly shaken head of state said he saw a "flying device" that exploded before his eyes, and thought it might be a pyrotechnics display in honour of the event.

Within seconds, Mr Maduro said he heard a second explosion and pandemonium ensued.

Armed police stand guard after an explosion targeted President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas / EPA

Bodyguards escorted the Venezuelan leader out of the event behind bulletproof screens and television footage showed uniformed soldiers standing in formation quickly scattering from the scene.

He said the "far right" working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible.

An injured soldier following the blast / AP

Some of the "material authors" of the apparent attack have been detained he said, adding: "The investigation will get to the bottom of this."

Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Mr Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.

Security forces check a building after an explosion was heard during a ceremony attended by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro / AFP/Getty Images

He has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the run.

Troops on parade before the explosion / AFP/Getty Images

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Mr Maduro, but rather the military's entire high command on stage with the president.

The Venezuela's military high command were being targeted along with the president / AFP/Getty Images

Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Mr Saab, adding that he would give more details on Monday.

"We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela," he said.

Firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the government's version of events.

Three local authorities said there had been a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near Mr Maduro's speech where smoke could be seen streaming out of a window. They provided no further details on how they had reached that conclusion.

A Colombian official with the president's office described Mr Maduro's claims that Santos was involved in the attack as baseless.

Adding to the confusion, a little known group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target.

"We showed that they are vulnerable," the group said in a tweet. "It was not successful today, but it is just a matter of time."

David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said the incident did not appear to be a staged attack by Mr Maduro's government for political gain.

The "amateurish" attack prompted embarrassing images of Maduro cut off mid-sentence with droves of soldiers running away in fear, making the president appear vulnerable, Mr Smilde said.

"He will use it to concentrate power," he said. "Whoever did this, he'll use it to further restrict liberty and purge the government and armed forces."
https://www.aish.com/jw/me/Critics-of-Nation-State-Law-Misunderstand-Israels-Constitutional-System.html

The new law isnt meant to be read in isolation, but in concert with other Basic Laws enshrining Israels democratic system and fundamental human rights.

Israels new nation-state law has elicited a storm of criticism since it passed on July 19. Some of this criticism is justified; a law that manages to unite virtually the entire Druze community against it, despite this communitys longstanding support for Israel as a Jewish state in principle, clearly wasnt drafted with sufficient care, as even the heads of two parties that backed the law (Jewish Homes Naftali Bennett and Kulanus Moshe Kahlon) now admit. Nevertheless, much of the criticism stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of Israels constitutional system.

Israel doesnt have a constitution. What it has is a series of Basic Laws to which the Supreme Court unilaterally accorded constitutional status. Many people, myself included, disagree with that decision, inter alia because constitutional legislation should reflect a broad consensus, whereas many Basic Laws were approved by only narrow majorities or even minorities of the Knesset. Nevertheless, both sides in this dispute agree on one thing: Each Basic Law is merely one article in Israels constitution or constitution-to-be. They cannot be read in isolation, but only as part of a greater whole.

Consequently, its ridiculous to claim that the nation-state law undermines democracy, equality or minority rights merely because those terms dont appear in it, given that several other Basic Laws already address these issues. The new law doesnt supersede the earlier ones; its meant to be read in concert with them.

Several Basic Laws, including those on the Knesset, the government and the judiciary, detail the mechanisms of Israeli democracy and enshrine fundamental democratic principles like free elections and judicial independence. There are also two Basic Laws on human rights, both of which explicitly define Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Of these human rights laws, the more important is the 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. It includes general protections like There shall be no violation of the life, body or dignity of any person as such and All persons are entitled to protection of their life, body and dignity, as well as specific protections for liberty, property and privacy. Though the law doesnt mention equality or minority rights, the courts have consistently interpreted it as barring discrimination on the eminently reasonable grounds that discrimination fundamentally violates a persons dignity (the one exception, which all legal systems make, is if discrimination has pertinent cause, like barring pedophiles from teaching).

Thus to argue that the nation-state law is undemocratic because it doesnt mention equality or minority rights is like arguing that the U.S. Constitution is undemocratic because Articles I and II confer broad powers on the legislature and executive without mentioning the protections enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Everyone understands that the Constitutions provisions on governmental power arent supposed to be read in isolation, but in concert with the first 10 amendments, so theres no need to reiterate those rights in every other article. Similarly, the nation-state law isnt meant to be read in isolation, but only in concert with other Basic Laws enshrining Israels democratic system and basic human rights. Thus theres no reason for it to reiterate protections already found in those other laws.

Nor are any of the laws specific provisions undemocratic. For instance, the provision stating that The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people doesnt deprive Arabs of individual rights within Israel, nor does it bar the possibility of Palestinian self-determination in the West Bank and Gaza, which arent part of the State of Israel. The only thing it prohibits is an Arab state within Israels borders, which is problematic only if you favor replacing Israel with another Arab state.

As for the provision making Hebrew the states only official language, many other democracies also have a single official language despite having large minorities with different mother tongues. For instance, 17 percent of Americas population is Hispanic, only slightly less than the 21 percent of Israels population thats Arab, yet Spanish isnt an official language in America, and few people would argue that this makes America undemocratic.

Indeed, Israels new law goes much farther than many other democracies in guaranteeing minority language rights, thanks to one provision according Arabic special status and another stating that nothing in the law undermines the status enjoyed by the Arabic language in practice before this Basic Law came into effect. The latter provision actually preserves Arabics status as an official language de facto. It may have been stupid not to preserve it de jure as well, but stupid isnt the same as undemocratic.

All of the above explains why even the heads of the Israel Democracy Institute  a left-leaning organization usually harshly critical of the current government  said at a media briefing this week that the law doesnt change anything practically, wont change how the country is run, and is merely symbolic and educational.

The law was meant to solve a specific constitutional problem: The courts have frequently interpreted the Jewish half of Jewish and democratic at a level of abstraction so high that it becomes identical to the states democratic nature, as former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak famously said. Yet no definition of Jewish can be complete without recognizing that Judaism has particularist, as well as universal, aspects because its the religion of a particular people with a particular history, culture and traditions. By emphasizing some of those particularist aspects, the law is supposed to restore the intended balance between the Jewish and democratic components of Israels identity. But it doesnt eliminate those democratic components, which are enshrined in numerous other Basic Laws, nor was it intended to do so.

Im skeptical that the law will achieve its intended purpose, but I see no good reason why it shouldnt exist in principle. Israel isnt just a generic Western democracy; its also the worlds only Jewish state. And its constitution-in-the-making should reflect both halves of its complex identity.

Evelyn Gordon is a journalist and commentator living in Israel.
Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) expresses its regret and strongly condemns and anti-Semitic gestures, with respect to the foul play committed on the 'Elie Wiesel' Memorial House in Sighetu Marmatiei of the Peace Nobel Prize Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

According to a press release sent on Saturday, MAE condemns any behavioural or language misconduct which promotes intolerance and xenophobia.

"Throughout the entire period when it held the Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Romania carried out all efforts so that such discourse be combated in any context. The Foreign Affairs Ministry reiterates that the promotion of diversity, respect for the other, the equality of the citizens towards the others in relation to the rights, fundamental freedoms and obligations represent essential principles for the development of a democratic society," reads the MAE press release.MAE reaffirms its commitment to further contribute, through the instruments at the disposal of diplomacy, to consolidating legislative and institutional mechanism, capable of preventing and sanctioning anti-Semitism, as well as any other manifestation of racism, xenophobia, racial discrimination and intolerance, the source further mentions.Police officers with the Maramures County Police Inspectorate have kicked off on Saturday an investigation into the incident that occurred the previous evening, when the front walls of the "Elie Wiesel" Memorial House in the County of Sighetu Marmatiei were vandalised with three, red-sprayed, anti-Semitic messages.According to a press release of the Maramures County Police Inspectorate, an investigation is currently underway in view of identifying the perpetrators and prosecuting them. There are surveillance cameras in the area where the Memorial House is and the footage will be analysed by the police officers who already have a pool of suspects.Moreover, the head of the Maramuresc County Council, Gabriel Zetea, stated that the institution he represents condemns such anti-Semitic manifestations and shows full availability to support the authorities with anything they might need for the culprits to be identified and punished for their deeds.The above mentioned release reminds that the Romanian-born American Jewish writer and philosopher Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize for Peace Laureate, was awarded the Honorary Citizen distinction (posthumously) of the Maramures County, based on the Maramures County Council Decision no. 179 of 29 September 2016.
Police officers with the Maramures County Police Inspectorate have kicked off on Saturday an investigation into the incident that occurred the previous evening, when the front walls of the "Elie Wiesel" Memorial House in the County of Sighetu Marmatiei were vandalised with three, red-sprayed, anti-Semitic messages.

According to a press release of the Maramures County Police Inspectorate, an investigation is currently underway in view of identifying the perpetrators and prosecuting them. There are surveillance cameras in the area where the Memorial House is and the footage will be analysed by the police officers who already have a pool of suspects.

Moreover, the head of the Maramuresc County Council, Gabriel Zetea, stated that the institution he represents condemns such anti-Semitic manifestations and shows full availability to support the authorities with anything they might need for the culprits to be identified and punished for their deeds.The above mentioned release reminds that the Romanian-born American Jewish writer and philosopher Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize for Peace Laureate, was awarded the Honorary Citizen distinction (posthumously) of the Maramures County, based on the Maramures County Council Decision no. 179 of 29 September 2016.
Romanian Navy Day will be marked, for the first time, in seven cities and towns in the country - Constanta, Galati, Mangalia, Tulcea, Braila, Bucharest and Cernavoda, Romania's Navy Staff (SMFN) announced on Thursday in a press release.

Thousands of marines, tens of vessels and numerous military aircraft will participate in the events.

The manifestations dedicated to the Romanian Naval Day will kick off on Sunday, 5 August, in Galati, in Romania's biggest river and maritime port and the events organised by the Romanian Naval Forces will continue in Constanta, Mangalia, Tulcea, Braila, Bucuresti and Cernavoda until Wednesday, 15 August, when the greatest naval show is scheduled in Constanta.Marine Education Day will be marked on Monday, as of 18:00 hrs, on the boardwalk in front of the Fleet Command in Constanta, where the representatives of the military naval educational institutions will present the educational offers of "Mircea cel Batran" Naval Academy, "Admiral Ion Murgescu" Naval Petty Officers School, "Vice-Admiral Constantin Balescu" Naval Training School and, as a first, those of "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Military College. The public present will also enjoy, for two hours, the music of the Navy band.Military divers will be present on Tuesday, on the Sea's Resources Day, 10:00 hrs to 18:00 hrs, in the Tomis Port, in Constanta, where they will organise diving workshops for 60 participants, selected following a contest organised 3 to 5 August, on the Romanian Naval Forces' Facebook official page (www.facebook.com/ForteleNavaleRomane). In the evening, 18:00 hrs to 20:00 hers, the representatives of the Maritime Hydrographic Directorate and the Diving Center will present on the promenade in front of Navy Command an exhibition of combat equipment and weapons.The visitors will be able to step aboard the vessels of the River Flotilla docked in the Cernavoda Port, starting 16:00 hrs, on Open Day and the Navy Band will perform in the town's Central Square, 17'00 hrs to 19:00 hrs.Saturday is Open Doors Day in military ports. Tens of vessels and boats, warfare and military equipment are awaiting for visitors in Constanta (09:00 hrs - 18;00 hrs), in Mangalia and Tulcea (10:00 hrs-13;)) hrs) and the public in Braila will be able to visit military vessels docked in the area of Danube promenade (Moara Violattos), 10:00 hrs to 13:00 hrs. The Romanian Marine National Museum in Constanta, the entrance is free of charge between 09:00 hrs- 17:00 hrs, on Saturday, 11 August and Wednesday 15 August.Mangalia Military Circle will host on Saturday, 11 August, a special event, titles "140 years - Homage to Not Forgetting". The representatives of the Reserve officers and sergeants' union of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Shabla Unit will hand over to the representatives of Reserve and retired Servicemen Association in Romania, an urn with soil from the Plevna, Grivita and Pordim battlefields, where thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian servicemen sacrificed their lives throughout 1877-1878, important aspects of the Independence War being brought to the public's attention.River military vessels will participate on 12 August, 09:00 hrs to 13:00 hrs in Open Doors Day in Galati, on the municipality's promenade, and on the same day in Bucharest, in King Mihai I Park (Herastrau park), 15:00 hrs to 18:00 hrs, a Navy Band concert will take place.The general rehearsals for the the greatest naval show in Romania will take place, concomitantly, on Monday 13 August, 10;00 hrs - 12.30 hrs, in Constanta, Mangalia, Braila and Tulcea. Thousands of marines, tens of vessels and military aircraft will syncronise their actions, in order to present to the public the show on 15 August.Still on Monday, as of 08:00 hrs, a military ceremony for the decoration of "Ovidius" Naval Forces Support Battalion with the Navy Staff Battle Flag, followed by the awarding of military medals and distinctions on behalf of the National Defence Ministry.Just as every year, on Thanksgiving Day, marines will participate on Tuesday, 14 August in a military and religious ceremony organised in honour of the military heroes at the Sailors Monument on the Constanta seafront, starting at 10:00 hrs.The Romanian Naval Forces exercise 18, the year;s greatest naval show is scheduled for Wednesday, 15 August, between 10:00 and 12.30 hrs, in Constanta, Mangalia, Braila and Tulcea. The specific activities will continue, 13:00 - 15:00 hrs in the Tomis Port, Constanta where marines will organise traditional seafaring games and competitions. The day will end with a performance of the Navy Band, on Constanta's promenade, starting 20:00 hrs and there will be a torchlight retreat parade of the marines, 21:00 hrs to 23:00 hrs, in Constanta and Mangalia.The Romanian Navy Day was organised for the first time in 1902, in Constanta, on 15 August, when Romanians are feasting one of Christianity's greatest holidays, the Dormition of the Mother of God, the protector of sailors, and in 2009, this day was declared national holiday.
It is sometimes said that laughter is the best medicine, and in these days of unhinged demonic tomfoolery in the White House it is advisable to laugh rather than weep. The unintentional humour generated by some recent events connected with US military spending is as good a tonic as we might expect from any announcements in Washington.

Ten days before the US House of Representatives approved the National Defense Authorization Act that is to cost the countrys taxpayers 716 billion dollars next year, once it goes through the Senate, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) produced a report stating that US taxpayers had lost some $15.5 billion over 11 years  but says even that figure is likely only a portion of the total waste, fraud, abuse, and failed efforts. Looking further down the money drain, he noted that we have reported for years that almost $7.3 billion spent by the United States in Afghanistan on counternarcotics programs appears to have done very little to stem the production and exportation of illicit drugs.

But 22 billion dollars of US taxpayers money wasted in Afghanistan is only a drop in the bucket where overall expenditure is concerned, and nobody knows what will be revealed when the first-ever audit of the Pentagons financial shenanigans is produced in November.

We should reflect on the fact that on September 10, 2001, the day before the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, the then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, director of the Iraq War catastrophe, admitted that According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions, which, as CBS News pointed out, is $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. Naturally, the Washington Establishment leapt to defend the Defense Department, with one pundit pointing out that "The money is not missing, just not tracked up to expected accounting standards, which had at least the merit of giving us all another laugh, albeit a rather hollow one.

The farcical pantomime has continued, and two years ago Reuters reported that The Defense Departments Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up.

Simply made them up.  These are the people who, according to the Defense Department in its budget statement, are responsible for implementing the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy goals to: Protect the American people, the Homeland, and the American way of life; Promote American prosperity; Preserve peace through strength; and Advance American influence. Exactly how they can promote American prosperity by making wrongful adjustments involving trillions of dollars of taxpayers money is not explained.

Yet someone must be making money. After all, the trillions of dollars must go somewhere. So who benefits directly from the vast sums spent on military equipment?

This is where the Pentagons military budget for 2019 becomes most interesting, because tracking the money trail reveals some intriguing byways in the maze of expenditure. One of these leads to the patriotic Republican Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas who declared on July 26 that the National Defense Authorization Act (the money, in other words) takes a major step toward rebuilding our military . . . and better preparing this nation for the national security challenges of today and tomorrow. The bill takes actions directly related to the aggressive behaviour of Russia and China. It also leads to actions directly related to the financial and political circumstances of Representative Mac Thornberry and very many other politicians.

Congressman Thornberry is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and is therefore a most influential person. In the 2018 election cycle his Campaign Committee received several generous donations aimed at furthering his political career, and it is hardly coincidental that the most substantial of these came from defence industries BAE Systems ($27,750), General Atomics ($25,650), Raytheon Co ($16,800) and Northrop Grumman ($16,000).

Then there is Democrat Joe Courtney of Connecticut, who heads the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee. Mr Courtneys patriotic fervour led him to declare on July 26 that my committee has heard the relentless drumbeat of anxiety and concern about the looming shortfall in our attack submarine fleet. Without timely action by Congress, the Trump administration, and the Navy, the fleet will fall to just 42 submarines within the next decade. At that reduced capacity, our military commanders will be left without the undersea capabilities they have made clear that they desperately need.

US Navy attack submarines are built in Groton, Connecticut, the Congressional District of Mr Courtney who is co-chairman of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus. The yard is owned by General Dynamics Electric Boat which local media indicates will reportedly grow its workforce by nearly 1,900 by 2034, and undertake capital investments of greater than $800 million over the next 17 years.

In the 2017-2018 election cycle Representative Courtney has so far received $35,150 from General Dynamics, and $12,000 from Northrop Grumman.

Then theres the Republican Representative Rob Wittman who declared on July 24 that As Chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee I am proud of [the National Defense Authorization Act] as I believe it provides the authorities and resources for our men and women of the Armed Forces to do the job we've asked them to do. This conference report provides the right capabilities to support our warfighters, including the 13 ships I have been fighting for that would support the Navy and reach our national policy of 355 ships. He is much admired by the Shipbuilders Council of America which presented him with its Maritime Leadership Award for exceptional leadership, dedication and support to the shipbuilding and repair industry.

So its no surprise that so far in the current election season Congressman Wittman has received $24,150 from Huntington Ingalls Industries, which describes itself as an American Fortune 500 shipbuilding company formed on March 31, 2011 as a spin-off of Northrop Grumman. It is the largest military shipbuilder in the United States, with its main shipyard located in Newport News, which is in the neighbouring Congressional District to that of Mr Wittman whose other military production bounty included $19,500 from Northrop Grumman, $15,200 from General Dynamics, and $12,000 from Lockheed Martin. It obviously pays to make such pronouncements as we must now provide the funding necessary to ensure we can defeat our adversaries and keep America safe.

These representatives of the American people may believe, or have persuaded themselves to think they believe, that the military posture of the United States and its vastly increased military budget will have the effect of reversing the erosion of the US military advantage in relation to China and Russia even if they do not  cannot  ever acknowledge that, as recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russias military spending in constant 2016 US dollars was $69.2 billion in 2016 and $55.3 billion in 2017  a real-terms annual decrease of 20 per cent.

No matter what might be claimed by the Pentagon, Congress and the US media there is simply no possibility that Russia could present a military threat to the United States or any NATO country.

The hundreds of billions of dollars being spent and about to be spent on weapons by Washington do result in expansion of the Pentagons already enormous arsenal  but the beneficiaries, the profit-makers, are the manufacturers of weapons, who make sure the contracts keep coming by paying off Members of Congress and Senators who will obediently vote for ever further expansion of a bulging cornucopia of weaponry.

If a US legislator receives an election campaign contribution of $19,500 from arms manufacturer Northrop Grumman it is unlikely that he or she is going to even consider voting against purchase of a weapon made by Northrop Grumman, which so far this election season has given $4,653,398 to candidates and their action committees.

The beneficiaries of the Trump-inspired and Congress-embraced surge in US spending on weapons are largely those Senators and Members of the House of Representatives who are prepared to vote for massive increases in military expenditure because that is a sure way to campaign contributions and re-election. Literally hundreds of candidates take money from the military-industrial complex.

In other words, theyre a bunch of humbugs who spout patriotic garbage and rake in the money so that they can stay in power. The problem is that their support for the surge in US military spending helps to increase tension and confrontation around the world.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, the famous French diplomat who served as foreign minister for Napoleon, said The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence.

Moscow realized that the US would continue its efforts to strangle Russia economically to make countermeasures inevitable. The Russian government expedited the occurrence by taking steps to lessen the dependence on Washington, including selling off US treasury bills. The ability to foresee the worst scenario and take timely measures to prevent it pays off.

The recent events show Moscow did the right thing at the right time. Just a few months ago, it got rid of US dollars to increase gold reserves. It has taken measures to become almost immune to Western sanctions with no fiscal deficit, a solid current account balance, and very little debt.

On August 2, a bill was introduced in the US Senate to impose crushing sanctions on Moscow to include restrictions on new Russian sovereign debt transactions, energy and oil projects and Russian uranium imports, and new sanctions on political figures and businessmen. One package follows another to no avail as the country is well prepared for it with no soft underbelly left. There are more steps planned over Russias alleged violations of sanctions against North Korea. The vicious circle is unstoppable but the impact has been minimized.

The US has recently imposed sanctions of Turkish top officials. The well-calculated move not only damaged the bilateral relationship but also made the Turkish lira plunge to an all-time low. The currency has fallen by over 40 percent since 2016.

Meanwhile, the US is preparing new sanctions to hit its NATO ally, including what the administration calls large sanctions or designation packages to assault Turkeys economy dependent on foreign investments. With foreign capital gone, the country will not be able to shoulder its large current-account deficit. It needs roughly $200 million a day in foreign financing to plug it. The sanctions could also bring down the banking system.

In late July, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the Turkey International Financial Institutions Act. The legislation directs the US executive of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to oppose future loans, except those for humanitarian purposes, to Turkey by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the EBRD until the administration certifies to Congress that Turkey is no longer arbitrarily detaining or denying freedom of movement to United States citizens or locally employed staff members of the U.S. mission to Turkey. If the bill becomes law, and there is each and every reason to believe it will go through without a hitch as lawmakers strongly support it, itll deliver a really heavy blow on Turkey. In 2017 alone, the EBRD invested 1.6 billion in 51 projects. The country is near the top of the pile for a debt and currency crisis.

Washington believes the policy of sanctions works. It sets Iran as an example, where protests are on the rise having reached Tehran, the capital. The frustration over the countrys economic performance is the main cause of public dissatisfaction with the government.

On Aug. 7, sanctions will be re-imposed on Irans purchase of US currency, its trade in gold and precious metals, its dealings with metals, coal and industrial-related software. The measures will also affect US imports of Iranian carpets and foodstuffs and on certain related financial transactions. According to Reuters, Irans oil exports could fall by as much as two-thirds by the end of the year.

The US State Department said on its Persian-language Twitter account: While it is ultimately up to the #peopleofIran to determine their countrys path, #America supports the voice of the Iranian people, which has been ignored for a long time. Thats the pattern. Incite protests first to interfere into internal affairs second. And Russia, whose meddling into the 2016 election has never been proven despite all the probes conducted by so many agencies and both houses of Congress, is subject to sanctions while the US keeps on pontificating about non-interference, the need to comply with international law and other things it, itself, has nothing to do with. And it stubbornly refuses to look at the mirror.

It all goes to show the wisdom of taking a page out of Russias book. The world is going through changes and the nations have to adapt to new reality.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (the Baltic States that were long part of Russia) are the easternmost members of NATO as well as the smallest. All three have adopted similar defense plans, based on the mobilization of the entire population to keep the Russians fighting for as long as possible until the rest of NATO can show up and force the Russians out. Each of the three Baltic States has a slightly different approach to dealing with the Russian threat but together are recognized as leaders in developing innovative defense policies to deal with the Russian military threat. This is important because Russia has been resourceful in developing new techniques for attacking and subduing neighbors. Russia has been doing this for centuries and the neighbors are well aware of it. The Baltic States, however, have developed defensive plans that seek to use some of the clever Russian plans against the Russians.

Most active in this approach is Estonia, which is the easternmost NATO nation and the Baltic state that is ethnically related to Finland, not the other Slavic nations of East Europe. Estonia and Finland speak a similar language and share many cultural characteristics, which has led to some different approaches to wrangling Russians. Until the early 20th century there were serious discussions of Estonia becoming part of Finland but that has faded. The main problem is that Estonia and Finland are separated by a narrow portion of the Baltic Sea. While still major trading partners and frequently providing welcome visitors for each other, Estonia is isolated on the south shore of the Baltic and thus more vulnerable to foreign occupation. Nevertheless, the Estonians and Finns share many of the same attitudes about national defense, which means how to keep the Russians out.

The Finns defeated the massive Soviet Army in 1940 and the Russians never forgot that. After World War II Russia decided not to try to make Finland one of its satellite states as was the case in most of East Europe. Note that Russian took over these East European government not so much with military occupation but with political and media manipulation (assisted by a little violence) to get a pro-Russia government elected, after which there were no more elections. There were no Russian troops based in Finland during the Cold War and both nations left each other alone. The Russians had decided that, while they could invade and conquer Finland, it was not worth the price militarily, politically, diplomatically and so on.

Now, with membership in NATO, Estonia sees an opportunity to do the same thing; scare Russia into staying out. Estonian defense policy is based on organizing the country for total resistance to any invasion. Everyone fights and keeps fighting as long as NATO reinforcements are on the way. Thus while military planners agree that it is possible for Russian forces to overrun Estonia in s few days the Estonians point out that overrunning and defeating are two different things. Moreover, nearly half the population lives in the capital (Tallinn) which is an ancient port city and 87 kilometers to the north, across the Baltic, is its Finnish counterpart, Helsinki. The Estonians are well aware of Russian developments in EW (Electronic Warfare) and Internet hacking. That is one reason why Estonia has created one of the best Internet and communications security capabilities in Europe. Estonia may be small but they know what is important. If the Russians come their bad behavior will be captured and broadcast (one way or another) as close to 24/7 as the Estonians can manage. Russia does not like its bad behavior exposed like that because even a lot of Russians dont approve of that sort of thing. Broadcast the lies live and the lies lose their power.

The Estonian military forces reflect the total war attitude. The voluntary Eesti Kaitseliit (Estonian Defense League) has 15,000 active members and another 10,000 inactive (in peacetime). The military is based on the same model used by Israel, Switzerland and Sweden; conscription for a short period and then decades in the trained and armed reserves. Thus there are only 6,500 full-time Estonian troops but 60,000 in the reserves. The Defense League force concentrate on training for irregular warfare and spend more time at it than the average reservist. In wartime, the Defense League and reservists would work closely together to keep the invaders busy and off guard. The biggest problem facing any invader is that fact that nearly half the Estonians live in the capital and its suburbs. The Defense League and reservists understand that Tallinn must become, for as long as needed and at whatever cost, another Stalingrad with the Russians being the German invaders. Stalingrad remains a big deal in Russian military history, the city on the Volga River that tied down the invading, and seemingly unstoppable Germans for months until a counterattack inflicted a major defeat in early 1943 that led to a German retreat and ended with Russian troops taking Berlin two years later.

The lesson learned in World War II was to avoid fighting inside cities as much as possible. If you cant take a city quickly, surround it and pass it by. The Russians cant do that to Tallinn and the Estonians are taking advantage of that. The Estonians are also capitalizing on the crazy Finns reputation. In the past, the Estonians have proved a stubborn as their Finnish cousins up north but never had the numbers and territorial depth that enabled the Finns to defeat the Russians in 1940. Now, as a NATO member, Estonia has depth, in the form of NATO reinforcement and time is on the side of the Estonians because if Tallinn turns into a Stalingrad type battle the Russians have lost. The Russians know this and discuss it openly in their military journals. If the Russians have a solution they are keeping their own troops in the dark. That usually means the Russians are stymied, as long as the Estonians maintain their determination for total war and Stalingrad on the Baltic.

NATO is very familiar with urban warfare and has been for a long time and appreciates what the Russians would be up against in Tallinn. NATO has long considered MOUT (Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain) a major issue even after the end of Cold War and after the post-2001 fighting. In the future, there would be more fighting in urban areas (buildings and streets). The importance of MOUT was noted back during the 1980s when it was realized that a war with the Soviet Union in Europe would involve a lot more fighting in built-up (urban) areas than in the open. That was discovered when a staff study revealed that West Germany was rapidly urbanizing and the construction was largely cement and steel, creating structures that made better bunkers for defenders. Fortunately, NATO was preparing to play defense against an expected Russian invasion. About the same time, Russian planners noted the same urbanization trends in West Europe and realized that there was nothing similar in Russian occupied East Europe, which made the Russians more vulnerable to a NATO offensive. What was discovered after 2010 was that these two trends merged with a lot of the most difficult combat taking place in urban areas. Moreover, a lot (if not most) of the growth in urbanization took place in areas that were most likely to be future combat zones.

About the same time the U.S. Army Center for Lessons Learned (CALL) was established so U.S. commanders use it to determine what works in combat and what doesn't based on past (decades or last week) experience. This is more important than ever in the 21st century, where urban combat and counter-insurgency conflicts dominate, and new technologies appear at a rapid rate. In urban warfare and counter-insurgency, the potential for mistakes to be made is exponentially larger than in conventional, large-scale warfare.

Another major problem with urban warfare has been having a decent place to train for it. The U.S. Army and Marines began building and have built training areas for this, at great expense. What drives the cost up is the need to install equipment so you can video most of the action, the better to critique the troops after they are "killed." And special building materials are used to allow the use of low power training bullets and practice hand grenades. While having these facilities is great for the units that can be brought in, there is still the hassle of shipping infantry units to them.

One solution to the problem is portable urban combat trainers. Called "Mobile MOUT." Shipping containers were converted to modules that can be endlessly reconfigured for training. The containers are 2.44 meter (8-feet) wide by 2.75 meter (9-feet) high by 6.1 meter (20-feet long) and have movable walls that allow quick reconfiguration for whatever MOUT training is desired. The containers can also be joined side-by-side, or stacked to create multi-story buildings. There are also reconfigurable stairways (open or enclosed), allowing the troops to learn to deal with the tricky business of fighting up and down stairwells.

The containers can be covered with brick, stucco, cinderblock or other facades to enhance realism. Plywood interior lining is realistic and enables the use of short-range (low power) training ammunition for live-fire scenarios. You can do a lot of training with just one or two containers, or build your own little town with up to 30 or 40 buildings composed of 100 or more containers. All the containers come equipped with cameras, microphones, motion detectors, smoke and smell generators. Everything is recorded in a digital format, both video and audio, for the after action critique. For this, two containers can be put together, with one providing a control room in the rear and the other a 30-seat theater, featuring 61-inch displays, in front. The first two of these MOUT training containers were sent to Afghanistan by 2003. There was a lot of MOUT operations in Afghanistan, as Special Forces or infantry stage raids on compounds suspected of harboring Taliban or al Qaeda fighters. Each MOUT training container costs about $140,000 (if you buy a 15 container set).

As expected after 2001 there came a lot of combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan which made it obvious the importance of realistic MOUT training. As a result, additional training areas are being built all over the United States. One of the first ones was a U.S. Army urban warfare center in Alaska that covered 480 hectares (1,200 acres). Over 24 buildings were built initially, enough to allow an infantry battalion to practice street fighting and clearing buildings of hostiles. Nearby, a live fire range is being built, so that a company at a time can train with live ammunition. Down south in San Diego, the U.S. Marine Corps built a similar MOUT center.

As a result of all this, both the Army and Marines have developed new tactics for MOUT battles, and needed the specialized training areas to teach the troops how it's done, and to work on improving current tactics, and maintaining skills. One thing that was learned going into Afghanistan, was that you can't have too much practice when it comes to MOUT. It's a tricky business, with ample opportunity for getting ambushed, and for friendly fire losses. You must have well thought out, and combat proven, drills, and the troops must be well practiced in their use.

This led the Marines to spend $15 million on expanding its MOUT facilities at Camp Lejune, North Carolina. The expansion area will contain 75 buildings, most of them constructed to allow for repeated urban warfare training. Some of the buildings will be for training staff or trainee support. The new facility was ready by late 2009. The Army and Marines spent several hundred million dollars over five years, to construct these urban training areas. Even in Afghanistan, a lot of the fighting gets done in, or around, buildings. To get troops ready for this kind of combat, you need training areas that mimic the urban terrain that will be encountered in the battle zone.

It turns out that with the revived emphasis on fighting modern combat forces and using MOUT combat experience will prove invaluable for defending as well as attacking. The American solution is not to fight in the city like the Germans and Russians did in Stalingrad. Even during World War II, the Americans realized they had the firepower (bombers and artillery) to level any city that refused to surrender. This was how ISIL was driven out of Mosul and Raqqa. Even when forced into a MOUT situation the Americans developed weapons (tanks specially equipped for MOUT) and heavy use of smart bombs and guided missiles. The Russians learned the same lesson in Chechnya. In the early 1990s, they attempted to take the capital city (Grozny, or dread in English) and failed because the Chechens went full Estonian on them. The Russians came back in 1999 and took Grozny after they turned the city into a pile of rubble. That took months and the Chechens could not expect NATO or anyone else to reinforce them. The Estonians noted this with great interest, as did Chechnya southern neighbor Georgia. While independent after the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, Georgia got into a border dispute with Russia that resulted in a brief Russian incursion in 2008. The Russians were described as overrunning the country in a few days. The Russians did not. They occupied the bits of Georgia they wanted and did not advance on the Georgian capital which the Russians knew would be stubbornly defended by crazy Georgians. Josef Stalin was a Georgian and was still a national hero in Georgia not because he ruled the Soviet Union for three decades but because he got so many Russians killed.

Russian military planners are also well aware that NATO countries have a lot more practical experience in MOUT and can afford to build realistic MOUT training facilities. Estonia has access to all this, as well as unofficial assistance from its non-NATO neighbors (especially Finland, but also Sweden). That unofficial aid will be most valuable getting the video evidence of Russian activities out to the world. Its not just vampires that cannot operate in daylight (although in East Europe there are legends of a type of vampire that can, so there you are).
So far this year most of the violence has not been from Islamic terror attacks but because of clashes involving tribal groups who sometimes proclaim their violence Islamic terrorist related but most of the time it is not. Since the start of the year, nearly 300 have died from this violence with many of the victims unarmed bystanders. There have been about a hundred of these clashes so far, most of them in central Mali (Mopti region) where the pastoral Fulani clash with the sedentary Bambara and Dogon who tend to be farmers. Further north it is one Tuareg clan versus another or Islamic terrorists, especially an ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) faction called ISGS (Islamic State in the Greater Sahara) The ISGS is considered a major threat for the local Tuareg because ISGS, in an effort to intimidate the Tuareg into cooperating (or at least not interfering) with the Islamic terrorists have killed dozens of unarmed Tuareg in the last few months. This is all about survival for ISGS. Islamic terrorists, even the most extreme ones like ISIL need cash because it is simply more efficient to purchase many items (like weapons, ammo, information and sanctuary in areas controlled by local tribes. Northeast Mali (near Gao and the Niger border) is where ISGS operates. As a result, the violence is escalating there but is still infrequent and much of it is Islamic terrorists raiding villages for supplies. This ISIL franchise is frequently encountered in northeastern Mali on both sides of the Niger border. The ISGS personnel frequently clash with pro-government Tuareg militias and usually lose. Its not that these ISGS men are not fanatic enough but that the Tuareg know the area well and have lots of experience in irregular warfare. Since March 2018 ISGS has taken very heavy losses as the Tuareg militias worked with a special French counterterrorism operation that included troops from Mali and Niger and spent enough time searching to find several ISGS camps and forcing the Islamic terrorists to fight. So far ISGS has lost over a hundred dead and captured but groups like ISGS dont surrender but fight harder until they are crushed. ISGS is still up there but in much-reduced circumstances.

The Tuareg clans also battle each other over various issues, many of them ancient feuds but also over how to handle the peace deal with the government that ended the 2012-13 war in the north to destroy an Islamic terrorist/Tuareg separatist government.

Most of the Islamic terrorists in Mali belong to AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) or JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems). In Mali and neighboring states, most of the Islamic terrorists are not ISIL and are largely united. AQIM concentrates on its fundraising operations (mostly smuggling) while most of the Islamic terrorist activity is the work of JNIM, which was formed in early 2017. In part JNIM was a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from JNIM members (AQIM factions, Ansar Dine, FLM and al Mourabitoun). Another reason for the merger was to make it easier to pool resources (including information and advice) and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the area. This reduces friction and destructive feuding. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences. As a result of this cooperation, there are now connections (supplying information, personnel, supplies) between Islamic terrorists in central Mali and those in the north. These links werent that common before JNIM was formed.

July 29, 2018: In the north (Kidal) Islamic terrorists fired ten mortar shells at various targets in the city, including polling places and military bases. No one was killed but normal activities were suspended for hours near areas where shells fell. Since the presidential election is being held today the shelling was apparently meant to disrupt that. The Islamic terrorist violence (mostly in the north) did manage to keep about one out of every 220 voting stations closed. One in seven were closed temporarily because of violence. The vote was completed successfully although the turnout was lower than expected. Voting hasnt brought in honest and effective leaders in the past and most voters are not optimistic.

July 28, 2018: In central Mali, there were more clashes between tribal (Fulani, Bambara and Dogon) militias leaving at least 17 dead. Over the last few months, more than fifty have died in this militia violence.

July 25, 2018: In the north (Timbuktu) hundreds of Arab residents, many of them armed, demonstrated to protest the continuing Islamic terrorist violence which was making it difficult to do business. Arabs dominate the small business community in the city.

July 24, 2018: In central Mali, Islamic terrorists shelled Ambodedjo airport outside Sevare but caused little damage and no casualties.

July 23, 2018: The EU (European) has agreed to pay for repairs to the G5 headquarters in Sevare, a city on the Niger River in central Mali where Islamic terrorists attacked a G5 international counterterrorism force regional headquarters on June 29 and heavily damaged the headquarters and base it was in. The organizers of the G5 force are having problems with the Mali contingent, which was in charge of base security. The Mali military has long been a problem because these soldiers were seen, by most Malians, as thugs in uniform rather than a trained, disciplined and effective military force. The problems with the Mali military have always been at the center of whatever national crises developed. This was acknowledged in the wake of the 2012-13 Islamic terrorism crises in the Tuareg north. After that, despite efforts (foreign cash and trainers) to train a new generation of Mali officers and troops the army was still unreliable. The army did show some improvement but not enough to make a major difference. Thus the Mali contingent of the G5 force has problems and makes the entire G5 force look bad and undeserving of long-term support.

Trying to persuade donor countries to make a long-term commitment to paying for the G5 force requires examples of G5 success. Donors and supporters earlier responded to calls for money to get G5 going. The G5 force now has over half a billion dollars in aid pledges but few long-term aid commitments. The reason for that is donors want to see how well the G5 force does over time. This is particularly true of the Mali contingent. The G5 troops are supposed to be among the best each nation has but African nations vary quite a lot in the quality of their soldiers. The other four G5 nations provide much more effective troops. A lot of this has to do with corruption and Mali is worse than the other G5 nations in that respect, especially in the military. It was corruption in the military that triggered the separatists and Islamic terrorist violence in the north and the attempted coup by the military when Mali lost control of the north in 2012.

Mali troops are still considered poorly trained and led by inadequate (and often corrupt) officers. Mali leaders say they can fix this but they have been saying that about the military and the government in general since 2012 and there has not been a lot of progress. As a result in central and northern Mali French troops and foreign peacekeepers are less likely to be attacked than Mali soldiers. Worse, it is the Mali troops who are most often assigned to guard aid convoys. This gives locals more of an incentive to attack these convoys. Many of the attacks on aid convoys are by bandits or local tribesmen looking for an easy way to make some money. Mali soldiers guarding a convoy not only indicates less dangerous convoy security but also an opportunity to strike back at the hated Mali military.

The regional G5 Sahel Joint Force was seen as a better peacekeeping solution because the five Sahel nations (Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad) involved would contribute troops best able to deal with Islamic terrorism throughout the Sahel. G5 just began operations in early 2018 but so far G5 has demonstrated the ability to get organized but not to make a difference in Mali, the most troublesome Sahel nation at the moment. The Mali contingent of the G5 is considered the least capable and the losses from the June 29th attack seem to bear that out. Outside of Mali G5 has been more effective, especially in Burkina Faso and Niger.

The idea for the G5 force has been around since 2015 but it was only by the end of 2016 that the countries involved agreed on the details. This included who would provide what in terms of the 5,000 soldiers and police needed and where they would be based. The G5 force will be stationed in three operational areas along with troops familiar with local conditions. Thus Sahel East would consist of troops from Chad and Niger. Sahel Central would be staffed by troops from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso while Sahel West would mainly use troops from Mali and Mauritania. Some of the G5 force was operational by the end of 2017 and by early 2018 the G5 force has already taken part in several counter-terror operations, one of them in the area where the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet. A successful G5 Force would enable France to shrink and eventually disband the force of 4,000 French troops it has deployed in the Sahel since 2013 and reduce the 13,000 strong UN peacekeeper force in Mali. The recent appearance of ISIL in the area and the October 2017 attack on American Special Forces troops in Niger was related to building the G5 Force. The peacekeepers in Mali are mainly African and mainly stationed in the north and, increasingly central Mali where there is more Islamic terror group activity, not all of it violent. Most of the recent Islamic terrorist violence has been in Mali.

July 20, 2018: In the north Islamic terrorists ambushed an army convoy but were pursued, losing 11 dead. One soldier was killed and several wounded. In the northeast, near the Niger border, unidentified armed men attacked a Tuareg village and killed twenty people.

July 19, 2018: Three British CH-47 helicopters arrived, along with 90 troops to operate and maintain them, to support counter-terror operations in the north.

July 18, 2018: In central Mali and across the border in Burkina Faso, the army and G5 forces there completed a ten-day operation that captured sixty Islamic terrorists and destroyed several bases. In April a similar eight-day counter-terror operation sealed the Mali border and over a hundred suspected Islamic terrorists on the Burkina Faso side of the frontier were arrested. Some of those arrested were known Islamic terrorists and in other locations explosives and weapons were seized.

July 15, 2018: In the northeast ISIL gunmen attacked a Tuareg village near the Niger border and killed 14 civilians.

July 11, 2018: Three years after placing the order for six Brazilian A-29 Super Tucano aircraft the Mali Air Force received the four Mali could afford. Budget problems reduced the size of the order. The A-29 was seen as an essential purchase because in 2015 Mali has no flyable combat aircraft. The Super Tucano is a single engine turbo-prop trainer/attack aircraft that is used by over a dozen nations, including many in Africa. This aircraft carries two internal 12.7mm (.50 caliber) machine-guns and can carry up to 1.5 tons of bombs and rockets. It can stay in the air for 6.5 hours at a time. It is rugged, easy to maintain, and cheap. You pay $15-20 million for each Super Tucano, depending on how much training, spare parts, and support equipment you get with them. Mali purchased some 20mm autocannon pods for its a-29s.

July 10, 2018: Algeria expelled another 355 illegal(from Niger) migrants and sent them back to Niger. Algeria has an agreement with Niger to return the illegals, via trucks or busses, to the Niger capital where Niger officials take over. Most 0ther sub-Saharan nations refuse to take their illegal migrants back from Algeria so Algeria takes these illegals to the Mali or Niger border, gives then supplies of water and points them in the direction of the nearest town across the border. Soldiers remain at the release point for a day or so because the illegals were told they would be shot on sight if they tried to double back into Algeria. European media found out about this practice (which was no secret in Algeria and the nations the illegals were forced to return to) and accused Algeria of murder because some of the illegals sent back died along the way. Algeria told the UN that if they wanted to help they could set up aid stations in Niger and Mali near the Algerian border. Whether the UN does that or not Algeria made it clear it would continue the return policy because most of the illegals made it home and reported that Algeria was not a good choice if you were seeking to migrate illegally. Many of these illegals are headed for Europe but will often remain in Algeria if they must to raise more money to pay the people smugglers to get them into Europe.
Tauranga pro Kieran Muir was hoping to make a move up the leaderboard on day three of the Fiji International at Natadola Bay.

He did that with a two-under round of 70 to finish in 1-over and give himself a chance to make some serious money on the final day if he can get his putter running hot.

But the undoubted highlight of his third round was a rare hole in one at the 164 metre par three which he aced with a sweetly hit eighth iron.

Remarkably, it was the third hole in one at the second hole in the tournament so far, with one yesterday and another by Thailands Thitiphun Chuayprakong just 15 minutes before Muir struck.

Muirs perfectly struck shot flew straight into the cup to give the spectators behind the green a thrill.

It was a slam dunk, which is great, says Muir.

I had some birdies that got away from me but then I had a couple of putts towards the end where I had to hole putts for par which I did. It was a much better day and I putted really good today, which was nice.

Muir started the day 14 shots behind the leader Ben Campbell and made up five shots in his third round.

He is after a bigger move on the final round.

If I play well it is all about momentum. If you come away for a week and are working on something in particular and that comes off, you then build momentum from there, you are meeting objectives and building towards a goal.

You cant always control what is happening around you but it is nice to play well to keep momentum for Order of Merit. It gives you confidence going into the next one.

Another Tauranga-based pro Mark Brown relished the opportunity to play with four-time Major winner Ernie Els.

Brown outshone his illustrious playing partner with two birdies in his opening three holes and finished with a solid 71 to be inside the top 20 at 1-under.

Four-time Major winner Ernie Els shot 69 to be right in the mix at 5-under and a serious threat in Sundays final round.

Overnight leader Ben Campbell had a tough day, shooting 77 to slip from the lead but he is still just two off the pace set by Indian Gaganjeet Bhullar.
Click the image above to watch the video

A new fine art print gallery has opened in Tauranga featuring limited edition prints, reproductions, clothing, handmade shoes, ceramics and paintings.

Nick Eggleston, Jackie Knotts, Stella Clark and Carol Bisset have joined forces to set up Imprint Gallery on Market Street at the Tauranga Historic Village. Each of the four artists are also members of the Incubator Creative Hub group of artists, with their own studio spaces at the village.

The two-room shop has been transformed into an airy and light gallery space, where the public will also find the talented artists at work.

Nick Eggleston, a popular artist at The Incubator, and an art teacher for over 20 years, is well-known for his watercolour paintings. At Imprint he will also be making shoes with embossed cowhide, and teaching others the art of being a cordwainer.

Im a print maker and have a lot of lino cuts, says Jackie Knotts, and we were looking for a place to display work.

Carol Bisset has taught art in Australia and NZ for over 30 years, with degrees in fine art and art education.

Nick Eggleston and Jackie Knotts.

We had been talking about extending prints, says Carol. Theyre not readily available in most gallery spaces. Ive been doing dry-point printing with Jackie Knotts, so its been discussed for a while. This was an opportunity to put those prints out, and also include the people who attend that group, and extend it to other people. Its not just fine art printing, but printing in many forms, such as on material.

Stella Clark is doing woodcuts.

In this gallery Ive got prints for sale, says Stella, and Ive also printed onto shirts.

The gallery will be open on Tuesdays from 10am to 3pm; Saturdays from 10am to 1pm; and on the Bethlehem Te Puna Lions village market days which are held on the first and third Sunday of each month, from 9am to 1pm.

These artists have come together in a space thats inspirational and its great to see in Tauranga, says artist Kristian Lomath, who also has a studio at The Incubator. We all need an outlet. An artist is only going to blossom if theyve got an outlet to share their work with the public.

The artists have been observing the growing numbers of people visiting the village, especially on weekends.

I think with Blair, the new manager on board, and the way the village is going, its definitely got so much potential, and its happening now, says Kristian. Its great. Were loving the change. Were seeing the change, were here every day. This is a fantastic venue for this new gallery.

Charli Crocker with Stella Clarks painted art shirt.
The search is on for the best young Kiwi filmmakers in Aotearoa with the return of the International Youth Silent Film Festival New Zealand Nationals 2018.

Young filmmakers, aged 20 and under, have just month left to get their entries in for this years New Zealand competition, with submissions closing promptly at midnight on Saturday September 1.

The IYSFF is a global competition which challenges filmmakers from across the United States of America, Australia, The United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand to create a three-minute silent film set to one of 10 musical scores composed especially for the festival.

After submissions close on September 1, a panel of jurors will then select The Top 10-15 silent films to be celebrated at the red-carpet IYSFF NZ National Awards Final at Baycourt Community & Arts Centre in Tauranga on Wednesday October 17.

The selected films will all be screened at the final, with each featuring musical accompaniment from the IYSFFs composer Nathan Avakian who will travel to Tauranga from New York, USA, to perform the films soundtracks live on Baycourts Mighty 1926 Wurlitzer Theatre Organ.

Not only are there cash prizes across 10 category awards up for grabs, the Top Three films will also represent Aotearoa at the IYSFF Global Awards 2019 to be held in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Since the IYSFFs New Zealand debut at Baycourt in 2016 we have witnessed the competition get bigger, better and bolder each and every year, says IYSFF NZ marketing coordinator David Tauranga.

The IYSFF NZ team was absolutely amazed by the quality and craftsmanship of last years entries, so we cannot wait to see what our young Kiwi filmmakers have to offer in 2018.

Another exciting prospect for the IYSFF NZ team is the possibility of another Kiwi film winning higher honours in the international competition, like Otago brothers Benaiah and Thomas Dunn whose silent film The Chase won second place and a cash prize of USD $1500 at the IYSFF Global Awards 2018 back in June.

The international recognition capped off a winning run for the Middlemarch brothers after The Chase won second overall at last years IYSFF NZ National Awards Final, three Best Of category awards for Cinematography, Production Design, and Shot, and a total of $2250 in cash prizes.

The IYSFF NZ team is so incredibly proud of Benaiah and Thomas, they are the first Kiwis to win higher honours at the Global Awards and every accolade they get for The Chase is well deserved because its a brilliant piece of filmmaking.

We know that somewhere out there in Aotearoa there are inspired young filmmakers who are just as talented as the Dunn brothers, and who knows, maybe 2019 will be the year a Kiwi wins the entire international competition.

Also representing New Zealand at the 2018 Global Awards is IYSFF 2017 NZ Regional winning film Tonight by Taurangas Tina Jeong, and third-place winner The Smile Shop by Rose McMahon and Samuel Edwards of Western Bay of Plenty.

The IYSFF NZ Nationals 2018 is delivered by Baycourt Community & Arts Centre in association with Bay of Plenty Film, and this years major media partner The Breeze Tauranga.

For rules, soundtracks, or to make a submission visit the IYSFFs website at www.makesilentfilm.com or for more information about the IYSFF NZ National 2018 competition visit www.facebook.com/groups/IYSFFNZ

Second-place winners, Benaiah and Thomas Dunn with The Chase actor Jack McAtamney.

Third-place winners Samuel Edwards and Rose McMahon with Bay of Plenty CEO and last years celebrity juror Anton Steel.


CAMDEN, N.Y. -- An Oneida County man was arrested driving a lawn mower Friday with a .37 percent blood alcohol content in the Town of Camden, according to New York State Police.

Daniel L. Felker, 50, of Camden, was charged with aggravated DWI and other vehicle and traffic violations, police said. When troopers arrived to a call, they found Felker and gave him a breathalyzer, police said. He had been driving his lawn mower erratically in the roadway, police said.

Felker is set to appear in Town of Camden Court on August 27 at 7 p.m., police said.
SENECA FALLS, N.Y. -- Seneca Falls police say they arrested the mother of a 2-year-old after the child accidentally fell from a second-story window this weekend.

Jackie L. Mitson, 32, of Seneca Falls, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

Officers say Mitson's 2-year-old child accidentally fell from a second-floor window Saturday at her home in the town of Seneca Falls.

A LifeNet helicopter airlifted the toddler to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Officers say the child was treated for a concussion and released from the hospital.

Mitson was issued an appearance ticket. If convicted, endangering the welfare of a child carries up to a one-year jail sentence in New York state.

Mitson is scheduled to answer the charge at 9 a.m. Aug. 23 in Seneca Falls Town Court.
Portland, Ore. - Portland's police chief on Sunday acknowledged allegations of injuries suffered a day earlier as officers cleared streets and fired various crowd-control munitions near crowds of protesters.

Chief Danielle Outlaw said any complaints would be forwarded to the Office of Independent Police Review.

"This morning I learned of allegations of injury as a result of law enforcement action," Outlaw said in a statement. "I take all force applications by members seriously and I have directed the Professional Standards Division to begin the intake process regarding these allegations to determine if force was used and if so, was within our policy and training guidelines."

Reports of injuries appeared on social media during and after the demonstrations. Some were widely shared, but could not be independently confirmed.

The police bureau said Saturday that three people were treated by Portland Fire medics, and one was taken by ambulance to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury. None of those injuries were the result of police actions, police spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley said.

Police officers are required to write reports after using force, the bureau said, and the bureau said it reviews those reports to determine if the actions were within its policies.

The statement said complaints about officer conduct could be sent directly to the Office of Independent Police Review for investigation through an online form or by calling (503) 823-0146.

Police were stationed in large numbers in downtown Portland on Saturday in anticipation of a face-off between the right-wing group Patriot Prayer and groups of counter-protesters. Police lined Southwest Naito Parkway in an effort to keep the groups separated.

Around 2 p.m., officers ordered a group of counter-protesters near the intersection of Southwest Naito Parkway and Southwest Columbia Street to disperse. When the group didn't immediately leave, police fired dozens of flash-bang grenades other crowd-control munitions. Officers rushed toward the crowd, shoving some protesters out of the street.

Police said protesters had thrown a "chemical agent" and other objects at officers.

An object thrown at police after the dispersal order was given hit Eder Campuzano, a reporter from The Oregonian/OregonLive, in the head. He was bloodied, but is doing fine.

The runup to the demonstration took on an ominous tone after Gibson moved it to Tom McCall Waterfront Park, where those with permits to carry concealed weapons could legally arm themselves. Gibson also encouraged his supporters, who were legally able, to bring guns to the protest.

Throughout the day, Portland police released images of weapons collected from both sides, including knives, sticks, shields and fireworks. Unlike past demonstrations, however, Saturday's dueling events never turned into the melee that many had predicted.

The bureau said earlier it had made four arrests during Saturday's events:

Robert J. Majure, 27, on suspicion of harassment and resist arrest;

Tracy L Molina, 45, on suspicion of second-degree disorderly conduct and attempted assault on a public safety officer;

Tristan I. Rominemann, 28, on suspicion of interfering with a police officer, second-degree disorderly conduct and harassment;

and Joseph C. Evans, 34, on suspicion of recklessly endangering another person and unlawful use of a weapon.

Oregonian reporters Kale Williams, Eder Campuzano, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Anna Spoerre, Hannah Boufford and Jim Ryan contributed to this post.

-- Elliot Njus
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Central New Yorkers should plan ahead for another hot day Monday.

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for the region, starting around lunchtime.

The heat advisory begins at 11 a.m. and continues until 9 p.m. Monday for Onondaga, Madison, Oneida, southern Cayuga, Yates and Seneca counties.

By noon, the heat advisory expands to include northern Cayuga, Oswego, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, Monroe, Niagara and Wayne counties. For these counties, the heat advisory is set to end at 6 p.m.

"A heat advisory means that a period of hot temperatures is expected," according to National Weather Service meteorologists. "The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will combine to create a situation in which heat illnesses are possible. Drink plenty of fluids. Stay in an air-conditioned room. Stay out of the sun. And check in on relatives and neighbors."

Temperatures are expected to reach the low 90s in Central New York, but it will feel like it's in the mid- to high 90s with the heat index.

"Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening," according to the weather service's alert. "Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear light weight and loose fitting clothing when possible and drink plenty of water."

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also recommends workers drink water, instead of soda; wear sunscreen; and schedule frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments.

"Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location," the according to the weather service. "Heat stroke is an emergency. Call 911."

After Monday, temperatures are expected to remain in the 80s for the rest of the week.

Here's this week's forecast for Syracuse:

Monday: Hot and humid, with a high of 93 and a low around 73. Heat index values as high as 97.

Tuesday: Partly sunny with a 60 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms during the day. High near 89; low around 69.

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms during the day. High near 83; low around 65.

Thursday: Mostly sunny. High near 85; low around 65.

Friday: Mostly sunny with 30 percent chance of rain. High near 83; low around 64.

Saturday: Partly sunny with a 30 percent chance of rain. High near 82; low of 64.

Sunday: A 30 percent chance of rain, with a high near 84.
In brief: Using drones for illegal activities is nothing new, but this weekend may have seen UAVs used in an attempted crime on a whole different level. Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, said he survived an alleged assassination attempt when drones carrying explosives detonated near him as he gave a speech.

Weve heard reports of commercial UAVs helping to deliver drugs to prisoners, survey potential robbery locations, spy on people, and even disrupt an FBI hostage raid, but this could be the first time theyve been used in an assassination attempt on a countrys leader.

#Ahora la cadena nacional del presidente Nicolas Maduro fue interrumpida. El audio del mandatario fue cortado y luego se observo a militares corriendo de forma desordenada. pic.twitter.com/S14NDGDeXi  Efecto Cocuyo (@EfectoCocuyo) 4 August 2018

Maduro was speaking at a military event in Caracas on August 4 when the apparent attack took place. Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said one of the explosives went off near the president, though he was unhurt. Seven National Guard soldiers are reported to have been injured.

The event was being shown live on national television. The audio was cut off at the time of the explosion, followed by footage of soldiers running away. Images on social media show Maduro being protected by black bulletproof panels.

Maduro has often been criticized for policies that undermine democracy and violate human rights. Falling oil prices have pushed Venezuela into the middle of an economic crisis, and the Presidents recent re-election brought claims of fraudulent polling. Rodriguez claimed Venezuela's right-wing opposition was behind the attack. "After losing the vote, they failed again," he said.

Maduro, however, said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was responsible, a claim the Colombian government has called absurd. He also alleged that elements within the US were part of "a right-wing plot" to kill him.

Maduro said initial investigations indicated that several of those intellectually responsible and the financiers of this attack live in the United States, in the state of Florida. He called on Donald Trump to fight these terrorist groups.

A group called Soldiers in T-shirts used social media to claim responsibility for the drone attack, though it has offered no evidence. It claims the UAVs were shot down before reaching Maduro.

If this really was a drone attacksome authorities claim it was a gas tank explosionit could mark the start of a practice where non-military UAVs are used in assassination attempts on high-profile targets.

Images: Xinhua via AP
In brief: There are plenty of traditional ways to discourage would-be burglars from breaking into your home: dogs, leaving on the TV and lights, motion sensors, etc. But theres a new method thats a lot cheaper, assuming you own the right hardware: An Amazon Alexa skill.

For owners of Alexa-enabled speakers such as the Echo, Hippo Insurances Away Mode could help protect properties without the need to spend a fortune on security equipment. Essentially, the skill plays lengthy audio conversations, making it sound as if people are at home.

The audio samples last between 47 and 72 minutes, so theyre not going to help those going on week-long vacations. But you can cycle through all the tracks, meaning you can have several hours of conversations playing.

There are seven clips available, which were created by half a dozen comedy writers from Saturday Night Live, its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and UCB. They include A Stay At Home Mom Who Just Cant Deal Anymore, Two Average Guys Brainstorm Whats Unique About Themselves So They Can Start a Podcast About It, and Emergency PTA Meeting To Discuss Memes, Fidget Spinners, and Other Teen Fads.

As you can probably guess from the tracks titles and the writers behind them, the skill is quite tongue-in-cheek. Its meant to encourage people to reassess their home security, while bringing San Francisco-based Hippo Insurance some publicity.

Although Hippo doesnt intend for the skill to be relied on as a serious piece of home security, Jim Bueermann, a retired police chief and the current president of the Police Foundation, told USA Today: Theoretically its a good idea. If this thing mimics real conversation, its much more likely to trick the burglar into believing somebody is home.

If you own an Alexa speaker, you can try it out for free here.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela and the Carter Center of the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to guarantee the impartiality and objectivity of the... | Read More
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FILE - In this June 18, 2018, file photo, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., listens during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kennedy, who just returned from a congressional trip to Russia warned against trusting President Vladimir Putin, saying that dealing with the Russian government is like "dealing with the mafia." Kennedy, recently went with other GOP senators to see first-hand the Russian economy and meet with government officials. But the meetings, ahead of President Donald Trump's planned summit with Putin on July 16, turned "cantankerous" at times, he said. He described Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as a "bully."(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) ORG XMIT: WX111
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Demonstrators crashed the stage at progressive conference Netroots Nation to demand more people of color in leadership roles within the organization, and to involve people from frontline communities to create the programming, from whats being taught in workshops and panels to the kinds of candidates who get considerable stage time in front of a national audience.

Throughout this years conference in New Orleans, organizers highlighted the predominance of people of color among its stages and panels, many of which addressed the dominance of white people in progressive groups and how activists can prevent the white savior mentality.

But protesters pointed to the conferences undercurrent of people of color essentially being asked to volunteer their time to teach white progressives how to support the work already being done by people of color in communities of color, while emerging progressive groups often are reinventing the wheel of activism from a position of white comfort, unwilling to make a sacrifice.

In 2015, Black Lives Matter activists crashed U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders appearance at that years conference, and in 2017, protesters chanted trust black women over a speech from Georgia's then-gubernatorial candidate Stacey Evans. Washington Post politics writer Dave Wiegel asked who would get the bumrush this year (Twitter voted for U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris).

Democrats challenge 'politics of division' and liberal establishment at Netroots Nation In the months leading up to 2018 midterm elections, progressives are putting their weight behind candidates in crucial elections across the U.

Demonstrators criticized the conference for forcing panelists to compete with one another, stuffing important discussions into competitive schedules and neglecting communities outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, particularly the large black working class of hospitality workers accommodating the conference attendees and their barrier to entry. What does it mean to be progressive when youre not actually living out your values? asked New Orleans organizer Tabitha Mustafa.

Demonstrators called out white allies who refused to be accomplices, putting the future of the progressive left on the lives of people in the countrys most vulnerable communities.

Mustafa also demanded Netroots ensure that the candidates who appear on its stages actually support us, and that anyone who comes on this stage actually represents all of the values, not some of the values, Mustafa said.

Mustafa specifically called out Mayor LaToya Cantrell  whose name often appeared in candidates speeches celebrating the momentum of local progressive elections, particularly for black women. The moment highlighted an uncomfortable disconnect with Netroots and not only the states Democratic leadership, but also the at-odds spectrum of the left and Democrats courting the progressive vote. Meanwhile, Netroots organizers hailed the conference for pulling off its biggest one yet in a red state.

Many panelists and activists dont align Cantrells win and time in office with the platforms championed among organizers at Netroots  from afar, pundits and political watchers have viewed Cantrells election as the citys first black woman mayor, and the citys post-Hurricane Katrina recovery, as lessons in the power of grassroots organizing around progressive candidates.

After condemning the identity politics label, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris in her Netroots speech contrasted Ruby Bridges school desegregation walk to Cantrells ascent, as well as Katrinas exposure of institutionalized racism to the city coming back to life, and New Orleans role as the largest port of enslaved people to the elections of both her and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker to the U.S. Senate.

Others put Cantrell in the same breath as Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, who pledged to make Jackson the most radical city on the planet, and Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin, who, in his Netroots address, challenged white supremacy, voter roll purges, and the imprisonment of immigrant children. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the ascent of candidates like Lumumba, as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, adding, You see it here in LaToya Cantrell right here in New Orleans.

Even Netroots own panels and trainings were digging into the citys rampant inequalities, from entrenched disparities in charter schools to expanded surveillance networks criminalizing the citys black and immigrant communities, to the guise of public-private partnerships priming private development and gentrification using public funds.

Cantrells own Netroots address focused on racial and economic justice  though she didnt mention the billing crisis at the Sewerage & Water Board making headlines amid the agencys own turbulent spending and infrastructure failures, nor her pledge to work with Jim Crow-era monument supporters upon taking office despite pushback from black organizers.

At Netroots, Mustafa participated in a panel with constitutional rights advocates about law enforcement surveillance in black communities and the scope of its impact. (Surveillance is not a threat; its an action, Mustafa said.) On the stage Aug. 4, Mustafa pointed to the Convention Centers aid in funding the citys real-time surveillance network, which has Cantrells support. Mustafa asked whether the crowd even knew about it.

Whenever you hear a candidate speak, we want you to demand theyre speaking on racial justice issues, said YahNe Ndgo. If they're not speaking in a way that's honoring racial justice, walk the f out.

Ocasio-Cortez appeared immediately after demonstrators left and affirmed their time on the stage, adding that the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.

The New York congressional candidate and democratic socialist delivered a message to Democrats and linked the party of the New Deal and Civil Rights Act to its possibilities in embracing a progressive future: Its time for us to come home.

When working people know were fighting for them the most, they will fight for us, too, she said. There is nothing radical about moral clarity ... There is some debate here, and thats all right; we can embrace that. Discourse is not discord. Family can argue and thats all right because we come out healthier on the other end.

Cantrell calls for economic, racial justice to standing ovation in keynote address Ahead of 2018's midterm elections, progressive organizers are convening in New Orleans with a focus on local campaigns  and on lessons learne
For years, as electric vehicle sales lagged in Louisiana compared with other states, so too has the availability of public, fast-charging stations for them.

Thats starting to change. Electrify America, a Volkswagen subsidiary born out of the automakers infamous emissions-rigging scandal, is set to bring three DC fast-charging electric vehicle stations to Louisiana, and Clean Fuels Louisiana is pushing for more than a dozen additional ones throughout the state in an effort to have one available every 50 miles along each interstate.

Ann Vail, executive director of Louisiana Clean Fuels, said the nonprofit is working on a master plan for electric vehicle infrastructure, aimed at landing a federal designation called an Alternative Fuel Corridor. If successful, she said it will boost Louisianas market for electric vehicles and make them a more viable option for customers.

Its hard to get dealers to sell these in Louisiana, she said. Were hoping once we get this corridor designation, well get dealers to sell more electric vehicles.

Dozens of charging stations exist throughout the state, including in downtown Baton Rouge, in New Orleans and at retail centers like Tanger Outlets, Whole Foods and hotels.

But there are different levels to the charging stations. Most of the existing stations are level-two chargers, which can take hours to charge a vehicle. Most electric car owners have level-one chargers at home, which will generally charge a car overnight.

So-called DC fast-charging stations, however, are in short supply. Only seven exist in Louisiana, and six of those are exclusively for Tesla vehicles, according to federal data. Those are in Slidell, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Shreveport and Monroe. The only nonbranded fast station in the state, offering public charging to all electric vehicles, is in New Orleans.

But Electrify America, as part of a 39-state, $300 million effort to deploy 2,000 electric vehicle chargers, is installing three public, fast-charging stations in the state.

One, in Breaux Bridge, is complete, according to the contractor. Another in Sulphur will be finished by the fall, Electrify America spokesman Mike Moran said. The firm is in real estate discussions for another, yet-to-be announced location.

Eddie Haynes, owner of JEH Solar, said Electrify America hired his firm to install the Breaux Bridge charging station. That location, at a Walmart on Rees Street, features six dispensers capable of charging 12 cars at a time.

One question people always have about electric vehicles is, Where do you charge them?  said Simon Mahan, founder of Bayou Electric Vehicles, an electric vehicle group based in Lafayette. For most (electric vehicle) owners, charging at home with an existing electric socket will work, but having dedicated charge stations available publicly will make charging more convenient.

For the Acadiana region, there are no public electric vehicle charging stations, Mahan said, which makes the Electrify America station particularly valuable. The closest stations are in Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, making long-distance traveling more difficult for Lafayette electric car owners  especially those with cars that have shorter ranges.

Consumers who buy electric vehicles can take advantage of a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 and a state tax credit of up to $2,500, or 10 percent of the cost, whichever is less. Both tax credit programs are nonrefundable, meaning buyers have to have the corresponding amount of tax burden to get the full benefit.

Louisiana, which has some of the lowest gasoline prices in the country, has relatively few electric vehicles registered. At last count, Vail said there were about 2,000 electric cars registered in Louisiana. A map from the U.S. Department of Energy using 2016 data shows Louisiana had one of the lowest rates of electric vehicles per 10,000 residents. States along the West Coast, along with Colorado and Georgia, had the highest rates of use.

Vail said one of the issues is getting dealerships to stock the cars.

A bunch of different carmakers are starting to push electric vehicles, she said. In the next year or two, were going to see more in the dealerships, on the showroom floors.

Louisiana Clean Fuels hopes to persuade the state Department of Environmental Quality to spend a portion of the money it is getting from the VW emissions settlement on electric car infrastructure. Vail said she also hopes to attract businesses, like Electrify America, and persuade municipalities to embrace the technology.

Ultimately, though, more offices need to get electric car chargers, Vail said, so owners can charge their cars during the day.

The key is going to be getting these at peoples places of work, she said. Thats going to be the biggest driver of adoption.
Jayden Hanly, 25, used to order takeaway from food delivery service, Menulog, at least once a month as a treat. But as his average monthly share of the cost of food delivery rose to $100 - $200 to his home in Ryde, he's scaled back.

Harry Brown (left), Jayden Hanly (centre) and Cassie Sloan (right) enjoying a delivered meal on a night in. Credit:Roger Stonehouse

"It has dropped off since I started because it is so expensive. And I have to get better at learning to cook," said Mr Hanly.

Mr Hanly likes the convenience of food delivery, but the cost of the service is rising and businesses are passing on these costs to consumers, finds a report by industry analysts at IBISWorld

In the wake of the news that the smallest of the food delivery companies Foodora will quit the Australian market on August 20, IBISWorld analyst Andrew Ledovskikh said the future was anything but rosy for the rest of the sector.
Were at it again. Every time education or healthcare pops up in the news, its almost always people arguing about money and how much of it theyre getting. Rarely is it people discussing how the billions were already spending could be used more effectively.

Theres nothing the media love more than a fight. And when it comes to government spending, theres never a shortage of interest groups demanding more or predicting death and destruction if their fundings cut.

Now Gonski is back in the news, but its people still arguing the toss about David Gonski's first report on needs-based funding, not Gonski 2.0 on how we can improve a school system thats failing far too many of its students.

David Gonski has been tasked with reviewing school funding as well as improving student outcomes. Credit:Nick Moir

Inevitably, the latest fight is sectarian. The Catholics are trying to extract special deals from both Labor and the Coalition before the election, while the largely Protestant independent sector is threatening to arc up if the Catholics succeed.
It is clear that further reform is required as the scourge of domestic violence continues to affect the lives of countless Australians.

Victoria Police says it has started an assessment of how to implement reviews of family-violence related homicides, but we need to be proactive about urgent reform for the future.

The most dangerous place for women and children in Australia is their own home.

A domestic violence disclosure scheme is being trialled in NSW, and a similar pilot is due to start in South Australia in October. The schemes are based on Clares Law, which was introduced in England and Wales in 2014 after the murder of British woman Clare Wood, who was unaware of her partner's violent criminal past. Scotland and New Zealand followed suit the following year.

In the first 12 months of Clares law, there were 3760 applications for disclosure of a partners violent past, of which 1335 were granted. The scheme has been considered successful.
The old Olympia milk bar - a landmark on Parramatta Road at Stanmore - has kept sadly declining since it closed late last year.

The sign out front is full of gaps: "SNACK_, SMOKES, S_E_ _S," it reads. The window is partly boarded up. The awning is black with dirt.

The rundown exterior of the Olympia milk bar. Credit:Jessica Hromas

But anyone passing who has a moment to pay attention might see a figure moving in the shadows at the back of the shop. If they ever dropped in for a milkshake, tea or a quick meal after a movie when the Olympia was open, they will recognise him.

Eight months after its last customer, elderly owner Nicholas Fotiou still spends his days - apron on as though ready for work - at the Greek milk bar that has been his life.
Our political leaders are doing God and its about time.

Malcolm Turnbull, Bill Shorten and Penny Wong, among others, have been discussing their religious beliefs in a new book on faith without the usual deer-in-headlights reaction that occurs whenever a politician spots a godless and cynical journalist looking for a gotcha moment.

The heavens above Sydney. Credit:Tanya Lake

Given our ongoing collective moral panic about religion-driven collective moral panics, its a surprising change from the usual "nothing to see here" default. Or to borrow former British prime minister Tony Blair's eloquent phrase, Australian politicians dont "do God".

This is good advice given what usually happens to any politician who does. In Australia the media gets very agitated about political leaders who show any signs of personal spiritual belief or the vaguest hint of god-botherer sensibility. Heart-on-sleeve Catholic Tony Abbott gets mocked as the "mad monk" and back in the good old days they hyperventilated when then-popular Kevin Rudd was spotted reading scripture rather than economic policies on a plane.




AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank

Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War

The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool

She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold

In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners

By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him

But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63

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AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum

OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World

COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground

ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words

BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance

A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum

OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008

HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground

BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum

WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground

FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World

POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day

FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance

YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum

THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground

OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies:

WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama

PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words

TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day

THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies

AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance

CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida

SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World

PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground

VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day

REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies

FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum

SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies

ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008

AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World

STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special

SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum

TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt.  Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground

IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008

CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies

WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto

DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance

I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE]
Listening to the growing hysteria surrounding predicted population increase in Australia, you would think our country is heading for disaster. Yes, urbanisation is happening rapidly across the world and in Australia.

The United Nations predicts that more than 68 per cent of the worlds population will live within an urban area by 2050 with 43 megacities of more than 10 million inhabitants.

Population growth is not the enemy. The real issue of concern is the need for long-term planning. Credit:Josh Robenstone

However, the current debate about Australias population growth needs to be refocused. Population growth is not the enemy. The real issue of concern is the need for long-term planning to make sure that all residents are provided with services and infrastructure needed to promote healthy and liveable communities.

Recent research by our Healthy Liveable Cities team at RMIT supports the thinking of demographer Liz Allen, who has suggested that quality of life should be the centre of the population growth argument and is trying hard to increase understanding about its benefits, particularly with an ageing population and a shrinking income taxpayer base.
A police officer was taken to hospital after a cop car crashed into a house in Melbourne's west on Sunday night.

The police officers were responding to reports of a fire in Hoppers Crossing when the driver lost control of the vehicle, veered off the road and slammed into the front of the Palm Street house about 8pm.

Emergency services were called to the scene and one police officer was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The other police officer in the car was not injured.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the two male occupants of the house were not injured.

The small fire was contained to the garage and was extinguished.
Sky News Australia is under fire for hosting a controversial far-right figure  infamous for wanting to hang a picture of Adolf Hitler in every Australian classroom  on Sunday night.

United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell was invited onto the 24-hour news channel as a guest of former Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles for a one-on-one studio interview.

Within hours of the interview, Sky News issued an apology on social media and deleted the video on its online platforms, sparking an accusation from Cottrell the network had 'caved to Leftist abuse'.
I'll have that: C.J. Dobson, centre, lent her Gorman jacket to Marcella van Blaricum, left, via clothes sharing website Tumnus. Jacqui, right, is next in line to borrow it. Credit:Meredith O'Shea

You consider yourself an anti-waste warrior, using recycled toilet paper, and taking cloth bags to the supermarket.

But would you share your clothes with strangers?

A pop-up stall of the free fashion-sharing service Tumnus was a hit amid the tool sharing, cloth period pads and reusable coffee pods being spruiked at the inaugural Zero Waste Festival at Brunswick Town Hall on Sunday.

Clothes-sharing disciples say its wasteful for that dress they wore once to the races to sit idle in their wardrobe. Or theyre looking for a hot skirt to spice up their work wear.
Teenagers today are less likely to expect to go to university or TAFE than they did 15 years ago. Back in 2003, according to the Australian Council for Educational Research, 63 per cent of teens were planning to go to university and 8 per cent to TAFE. Their most recent survey results reveal that now, only 54 per cent of teens are aiming for university study, and 3 per cent for TAFE.

Teenagers can see that in our current economy, getting a tertiary education is risky.

Its startling, but it makes sense. Teenagers can see that in our current economy, getting a tertiary education is risky. It puts you in debt, you cant earn as much while youre studying, and it no longer guarantees you a job thats commensurate with the skills and knowledge youve gained.

Looking back, as someone who was a teenager in 2003, the expectations we had for our futures hadnt factored in the global financial crisis, nor the fact that Australia hasnt created many technical or professional services jobs. We thought that to get a good job, all you had to do was work hard in school, get good marks and go to uni. The formula hasnt worked for us.

Its discouraging to watch my friends  bright, talented people  face rejection after rejection, and to hear them wonder if the reason for that rejection is that they did something wrong, or werent good enough. In reality, the issues arent personal but structural.
Ms Banerji was caught off-guard by the appeals tribunal's blasting of the Immigration Department decision to dismiss her, which deputy president Humphries and Dr Hughson described as an Orwellian move resembling "thoughtcrime" in the dystopian novel 1984. Loading Previous court battles had lowered her hopes of success at the appeals tribunal. Federal Circuit Court judge Warwick Neville in 2013 rejected Ms Banerji's application for a stay on her dismissal, in a decision thought likely to curtail bureaucrats' use of social media. Judge Neville found Australians had no ''unfettered implied right (or freedom) of political expression'', and she was later sacked for using Twitter to post anonymous but critical tweets about Australia's immigration detention policies. Her tweets, sent between about January and July 2012, also criticised the government, the then-minister, and Ms Banerji's senior manager.

The dismissal still hurts Ms Banerji, who was unable to work in the Australian Public Service afterwards. She said colleagues abandoned her, and that she had to sell her unit as mortgage payments grew unmanageable. Depression and anxiety followed her sacking, the tribunal found. "It drives a stake through you. It means everything you've believed in and worked hard for is just trashed," Ms Banerji said of her dismissal. "It makes you feel ashamed and the internal conflict is ghastly because on the one hand you believe or want to believe or do believe that you've done nothing wrong and yet all these things externally are coming at you telling you that you've done something terribly wrong and you're being punished for it." Ms Banerji approached her lawyer, Canberra-based Allan Anforth, believing her dismissal was unlawful by trespassing on her freedom of speech. Today she says the AAT decision agreeing with that - and finding the government's workplace insurer Comcare owed her compensation - initially made her feel worse. "Psychologically, the AAT decision had an unsusual effect," she said.

"Right up until that point, there was always doubt in my mind that I could've been wrong, that I had done something wrong. "But when the AAT said that I hadn't, that kind of made me feel worse for a while. For a while I kind of got over it but the immediate thing was, 'oh, I've been right all along, they were wrong all along' and the harm was real all along." Comcare lost the appeals tribunal case, despite arguing it didn't owe compensation because the Immigration Department took reasonable administrative action by dismissing Ms Banerji. The federal government is appealing the tribunal's decision, saying the Australian Public Service laws the department dismissed her under were reasonably designed to uphold public confidence in the bureacuracy and keep it impartial, apolitical and professional in serving ministers. The Attorney-General's Department did not comment for this article although has previously said the case would influence how the government administered the Public Service Act across the public sector. The Immigration Department (renamed Home Affairs in December) said it did not comment on individual employment matters or cases before the courts.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has sent the federal government's appeal to the High Court. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Court documents show the government is arguing the appeals tribunal was right to find public service laws restricting officials from making political statements were reasonably appropriate for "open" comments, but that it erred in finding a distinction between these and "anonymous" comments not found in the statute. The tribunal wrongly construed the legislation as laws trying to prevent anonymous expressions of opinion, regardless of the circumstances the opinion was expressed, the government says. Its lawyers will also argue the tribunal failed to consider whether there was any alternative measure that would have also upheld the public service's impartiality and professionalism. Ms Banerji was working in the then-Department of Immigration and Citizenship, under the Gillard government, when she directed criticisms at Australia's asylum seeker policy under her pseudonym @LaLegale. "Where states fail to offer legal asylum to refugees, that state fails," she said, among other tweets. She exhorted then-opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison and then-Labor government Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare to read the international convention on refugees.

"DIAC doesnt see the steps: 1. Is Oz first place of asylum? 2. Is person security cleared? 3. Is person risk persecution? #getitright," she posted. In its findings, the appeals tribunal said Ms Banerji appeared to have taken care not to have used information which could only have been in her possession as an Immigration employee. Loading She said her tweets were meant to explain Australia's role as a signatory to the Refugee Convention, and to point out it was shirking the responsibilities this created. "It was always about the law, it was always about the legal provisions," she said.

Ms Banerji said the points she made were even more important for Australia than for asylum seekers. "It's Australia's integrity that's at stake here, Australia's legal and moral integrity." Asked if her tweets undermined the department's ability to serve ministers in an impartial, apolitical way, Ms Banerji said the cynic in her believed the Gillard government had done enough to trash its own reputation and that the department had afforded her tweets more power than they really held. "That's the kind of question that really doesn't have an answer, because you could take it from so many points of view," she said. Ms Banerji said she had been committed to her department and always respected public servants.

Her lawyers want the federal government to pay her court costs regardless of the outcome, which they said would let them find a senior counsel experienced in High Court cases and equipped to argue her cause against the government's legal team. The five-year battle with the government has at times left her exhausted but Ms Banerji says she would wake up after feeling dejected the night before and regather the motivation to fight on. "I suppose if there's ever a story to be told, it's about the effect of litigation on a person which can actually be worse than the original insult, and have broader consequences," she said. "People have said to me I'm brave. It's not really brave because at lots of points in the process you feel as though you can't go on or you don't want to go on," she said. Later she says, "You get caught up and you keep on going", a comment that needs unpacking. Ms Banerji is aware what the High Court's decision on her case could mean for the federal government's 152,000 employees, and her lawyer Mr Anforth says it could also affect free speech for private sector and state government workers.

Since her dismissal the Coalition last year released a new social media policy limiting what public servants can say on forums like Facebook and Twitter, a move described as draconian by Labor and unreasonable by the Community and Public Sector Union. Ms Banerji said she wished public servants would get on board with her cause. "But the political atmosphere is not one that encourages that kind of participation. "It's a Damoclean sword hanging over public servants' head, and if they have children they have to pay school fees for, they're not going to take a risk to make public commentary about government if it means that they're going to get the sack next week." The Australian Human Rights Commission is also aware of the case's potential meaning, and intends to enter it making submissions about human rights issues it raises, including the right to freedom of expression and the right to participate in public affairs, while not representing Ms Banerji.
More than $100 billion worth of new roads, rail lines, hospitals, skyscrapers, prisons, wind farms and other infrastructure is being built or planned in Victoria as the states surge in the delivery of major projects gathers pace.

A spike in investment by governments and businesses in new projects in Victoria has pushed the value of what is being built or planned to a new high-water mark of $106.2 billion, a report by Deloitte Access Economics has revealed.

Victorias infrastructure boom outpaced all other states in the three months to June, Deloitte said, as the list of projects in development or under consideration grew by $18.5 billion.

The value of Victoria's major projects pipeline exceeds $100 billion. Credit:Jesse Marlow

The jump in investment by government and the private sector went against the national trend.
The national energy guarantee will force energy retailers to meet reliability and emissions reduction targets. Credit:MICHELE MOSSOP

Premier Daniel Andrews has signalled Victoria could yet deny the Turnbull government a deal on the emissions blueprint it hopes will end more than a decade of energy wars in Australia.

The Andrews government is expected to decide if Victoria will sign up to the National Energy Guarantee at a cabinet meeting on Monday, and Mr Andrews showed no signs of backing down from his ultimatum that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must first pull the doubters on his backbench into line.

There is significant doubt that the Prime Minister can even get through his own party room the reforms that he would like us to sign up to, Mr Andrews said.

Those reforms in some part at least see the state of Victoria and other states ceding to the Commonwealth the authority to set renewable energy targets."
Rideshare giant Uber has not provided any usage data to inform the state governments $120 million four year taxi plate buyback scheme, the Department of Transport has confirmed.

The state government has instead relied on third party reports and national surveys from Roy Morgan research and Deloitte Access Economics to develop the scheme, which will be funded with a 10 per cent levy on all on-demand transport fares.

Uber did not provide the state government any usage data. Credit:AP

The scheme will allow the state government to purchase taxi plates back from owners after their value was diluted by the introduction of rideshare technologies like Uber and Ola into the transport sector.

The lack of usage data from Uber has drawn criticism from shadow transport minister Liza Harvey, who said it was foolhardy to implement the new tax without proper consultation to best understand the impact of the tax and its expected revenue.
Washington: In November 2016, Michigan-born martial artist and action film star Steven Seagal visited Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to receive an unusual gift: his very own Russian passport. Seagal's grandmother was born in Vladivostok, and the actor and Putin share a passion for martial arts. But Seagal has faced some criticism for his bromance with the controversial Russian leader: He has praised Putin's annexation of Crimea, for example, and last year, Kiev banned him from entering Ukraine for five years, claiming he has "committed socially dangerous actions" that could threaten their security. Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US actor Steven Seagal in the Kremlin in Moscow on November 25, 2016. Credit:AP

But on Saturday, Russia honoured Seagal again, this time with a position as a special envoy to the United States. In a Facebook post on Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Seagal has been appointed to a new role, which will apparently be unpaid. His responsibility will be to "facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges". In 2015, BuzzFeed News reported that two years earlier, Putin had suggested to then-President Barack Obama that he could make Seagal the honorary Russian consul to California and Arizona. "Our reaction was, 'You've got to be kidding,' " a US official told BuzzFeed, referring to the offer. Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a Russian passport for US actor Steven Seagal during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow. Credit:AP Russia isn't the only country offering overtures to Seagal. In 2016, Serbian state media reported that the government had offered Seagal citizenship for offering to open a martial arts academy in Belgrade.
Sanaa: Heavy fighting in Yemen's port province of Hodeida between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels has killed at least 80 people on both sides over the weekend, Yemeni officials and witnesses said.

A Yemeni man walks among the rubble of a petrol station after it was hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa in late May. Credit:AP

Government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have been advancing in the area in recent weeks as they battle Iran-allied rebels known as Houthis. The fighting has escalated as government forces try to retake the port city of Hodeida, the main entry point for food in a country teetering on the brink of famine.

The officials said forces backed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition have been trying to seize the rebel-held district of ad-Durayhimi south of Hodeida city and at least 100 have been wounded over a 24-hour period.
The Anola and District Museum is giving the public a laundry list of reasons to check out its latest feature exhibit.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/8/2018 (1179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Anola and District Museum is giving the public a laundry list of reasons to check out its latest feature exhibit.

"Lessons in Laundry" offers museum-goers a trip back in time to discoveror rememberhow the perennial household task has evolved over the past century, moving from the riverbank to the front porch to the kitchen to the mechanical room.

"Now we think of laundry as such a chore, and we dont realize the chore that it once was," said museum board member Colleen Kruchak.

The exhibit was conceived when a fellow board member, Susanne Wastle, had a conversation with an older relative about how the job of washing clothes and linens has changed since pioneer times.

To illustrate the historical shifts, Kruchak and Wastle have assembled an assortment of artifacts, all sourced from the RM of Springfield. There are glass washboards and wooden wash tubs, plus gas and electric wringer-washers.

Smaller items were collected too: sock stretchers, flat irons, agitator paddles, and an assortment of laundry soaps, including a box of the popular Oxydol brand of washing powder.

But as Kruchak explained, the items werent the only thing donated. Along with them came an outpouring of memories, prompting the addition of a text component to relay local stories of laundry loads from decades past.

Older rotary machines, for instance, included a fixed roller that "mangled" or manually pressed water out of clothing and linens by sandwiching them between spring-tensioned rollers.

Kruchaks grandmother, Verna, recalled her grandparents stirring clothes with a wooden paddle and adding boiling water from the kettle. A chemical agent called "bluing" was sometimes stirred into the final rinse to whiten any yellowed collars or cuffs.

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However, Kruchak said the rationale behind some bygone methods escapes her, such as a winter routine in which clothes were washed inside the house, set outside to freeze, and then brought in to thaw by the fire.

Of course, it was the advent of electricity that paved the way for todays push-button ease. Warren Kruchak, the museums president and Colleens father, said Anola was added to the electrical grid in the 1940s, while outlying areas were serviced up to a decade later.

That meant some rural residents were still wheeling their gas-powered wringer-washers out onto the porch while their town-dwelling counterparts could order a shiny electric model from the Eatons catalogue.

Colleen Kruchak said she hopes the exhibit, housed in the museums blacksmith shop, one of five heritage outbuildings on the grounds, imparts "an appreciation for the work that people used to do," and shines a light on labour that traditionally fell to women.

"One husband noticed how hard his wife was working, and so built a washing machine for her," she noted.

The Anola and District Museum is open Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. through Oct. 7, or by appointment. Admission is $2, and additional donations are accepted.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. Photo: ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images

For ten years, a woman who is now believed to be a Russian spy was working inside of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. CNN reported on Thursday evening that the woman was employed by the U.S. Secret Service, and during a recent security check, it was revealed that she was regularly having unauthorized meetings with FSB, the Russian intelligence agency.

The Guardian reported that an unnamed source within the intelligence community claimed that the U.S. Secret Service was trying to quietly fire the woman to hide any possible security breaches. The woman was reportedly dismissed from her duties last summer, after the unauthorized meetings with FSB agents were discovered in January 2017.

At no time, in any US Secret Service office, have FSNs [Foreign Service Nationals] been provided or placed in a position to obtain national security information, read a statement released by the Secret Service. The Guardians report contradicts this claim, with an unnamed source claiming that she had access to the most damaging database, which is the US Secret Service official mail system.

At this time, the identity and job title of the woman have not been revealed. In the United States, another woman was recently alleged to be a spy for the Russian state. Maria Butina was charged last month with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation. No word yet if this new accused Russian spy also has a Vladimir Putin phone case.
Local media reports say that at least 41 people were shot in Chicago in a 24-hour-period from 11 a.m. Saturday to Sunday morning, leaving at least three dead. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

25 People Shot in Under 3 Hours in Chicago: Reports

Local media reports say that at least 41 people were shot in Chicago in a 24-hour-period over the weekend, leaving at least three dead. And on Sunday, Aug. 5, at least 25 people were shot in just under three hours.

The 41 shootings took place from 11 a.m. Saturday to Sunday morning. ABC7 in Chicago, meanwhile, noted that between Friday night and Sunday, 57 people have been shot across the city, leaving six dead in all.

CHICAGO: Over 20+ people were shot during my overnight shift this Saturday, August 4, 2018. One of the most violent #Overnights I've seen in a long time. Multiple mass shootings covered by the CN news team. Now on @CapturedNews #OverNightBreakingNews#BREAKINGNEWS pic.twitter.com/89fkDWPZC0  CapturedNews Shooter (@CNshooter) August 5, 2018

The Chicago Tribune, in describing the weekend carnage, reported on Aug. 5 that four were shot in the 1600 block of South Avers in the Lawndale neighborhood, eight were shot in the 1300 block of West 76th Street in Gresham, six were shot in Lawndale later on, four more were shot in West Humboldt Park, and three were shot in West Garfield Park. Two men were also shot in the 6800 block of Wood Street.

Sixteen of the victims were teenagers, according to the Tribune, and a dozen of them were aged 17 or younger.

If they [the shooters] shoot you they dont even run, a man told the Chicago Tribune about the shooting. They just walk away, they aint trying to run.

Related to Chicago Gang Conflicts

Police Patrol Chief Fred Waller said in a news conference Sunday that the shootings once again show the devastating effects that illegal guns have in our communities, USA Today reported.

We know that some of these incidents were targeted and are related to gang conflicts in those areas, he also said, ABC7 reported.

City of Big Shootings: 30 shot since midnight in Chicago; 48 this weekend; 6 dead. Many were mass shootings; as usual many victims are teenagers. #hotweather @ABC7Chicago #ITeam https://t.co/UmJiDuS6qv pic.twitter.com/t2ZRFT4xJy  ChuckGoudie (@ChuckGoudieABC7) August 5, 2018

Waller also suggested that the heat is a factor, as it brings crowds of people out into the streets, particularly after violence has occurred. He said the police department is working hard to prevent crime.

We can never measure what we prevent, he said. And its not just about being hot. Sometimes its about the culture, about feeling like there are no repercussions.

Police confirmed to ABC7 that there was a trauma lockdown at Stroger Hospital, and only immediate family members can visit victims. But a Stroger Hospital spokesperson denied the claim.

Over the past 24 hours, Strogers trauma unit received an unusually high volume of patients. At no time did Stroger go on bypass or lockdown its trauma unit, the spokeswoman told the station. We are asking the families of trauma patients to limit visitation at this time to immediate family members only so staff may focus on patient care. 
The coal-fired Morgantown Generating Station in Newburg, Maryland, in this file photo. The United States has decreased carbon emissions more than any other country over the last year but legislators keep talking about a carbon tax. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

A Carbon Tax Is Still a Bad Idea

It doesn't matter who proposes it

For the second time since the last U.S. election, theres a growing effort to impose a carbon tax on Americans. Surprisingly, this effort is being led not by the environmentalist left, but by conservative organizations and a small group of Republican legislators.

The timing is certainly interesting, given that the United States this year posted the largest year-over-year decline in greenhouse gas emissions of any advanced economy, according to the International Energy Agencys annual survey of global carbon greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsand has now seen emissions fall for three consecutive years.

Unimpressed with the decline, a coalitionfeaturing some scholars at the American Enterprise Institute (where there is a vigorous internal debate over carbon taxes) and the R Street Instituterecently argued that conservatives and free-market advocates should embrace carbon taxes if these taxes are used to replace existing regulations. These groups arent the first to make that case.

One Tax for Another

When the Climate Leadership Councilwhich includes veterans of past Republican administrations such as former Secretary of State James Baker, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and economist Greg Mankiwsought last year to convince the newly sworn-in President Donald Trump of the wisdom of a carbon tax, similar arguments were made.

Its worth noting how so much of the free-market case for the tax has evolved over the years. It moved from a Pigouvian externality tax to reduce GHG to desirable levels to various versions of Look at all the stuff we can do with the revenue from a carbon tax.

First, there were calls for trading the carbon tax for the corporate income tax or other distortionary taxes. Then came the calls for trading the tax for lower regulations. Then there was the case for using the revenue for more spending on conservative pet programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The latest proposal comes from Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who introduced a bill in July that would replace the gasoline tax with a carbon tax. It is notable as it happened in the tailwind of House Republicans overwhelmingly passing a nonbinding measure calling a carbon tax detrimental to the United States.

Curbelos proposal isnt unique in that it, too, would trade in one tax for another. It shares another characteristic with the other free-market proposals, one much less flattering. None of the proposals, whether taxes or regulations or subsidies, pretend to make any measurable difference on temperature reduction, which one would think is the primary goal.

Writing about the Curbelo plan, AEIs Benjamin Zycher noted, If we apply the EPA climate model to those emission cuts, the predicted temperature reduction at the end of the century would be 31 one-thousandths of one degree.

Tax as a Price

Now, assuming that an environmental policy is the goal, I can see why some free-market advocates might potentially find these carbon-tax proposals tempting. Among the range of typical political responses to real or perceived negative externalities, putting a price on them can seem like a market-friendly solution. In the absence of an owner of the atmosphere, the role of pricing carbon-emission externalities falls on the government.

Unfortunately, while these free-market advocates are fast to point to emission externalities, they are slow to recognize the externalities imposed by government interventions, the many risks outlined by public-choice economists, and, hence, the important limitations to their approach.

The standard argument for the tax is that it is more efficient than the regulatory approach because it allows emitters to choose least-cost tools to achieve their mandated reductions. There are problems with this standard textbook argument. For instance, it assumes that the emissions-reduction goal is exogenousthat is, that it is unaffected by the policy tools used to achieve it.

More importantly, there is a real knowledge problem in government that makes it practically difficult for legislators to determine the optimal GHG price. Then, there is the fact that politicians are always revenue-hungry. It means that, even if they actually knew the optimal price for carbon emissions, they would have very strong incentives to jack up that tax rate well above the optimal price, making it counterproductive economically (and, by the way, also environmentally).

Also, what happens if the tax is targeting the wrong thing? What happens if the tax doesnt yield the expected environmental results or is overly costly? Carbon-tax advocates dont seem to ask themselves these questions.

As Zycher wrote to me, Beware of economists pretending to be politicians. The purported efficiency of a carbon tax is based upon the multiple assumptions that Congress will choose  and that such policies can be adjusted easily in the face of interest-group pressures to preserve them.  Merely to state such premises is to refute them.

Piling Tax on Tax

Finally, raise your hand if you truly believe that swapping out regulationsor the gasoline tax, the corporate income tax, or other ill-advised policiesfor a carbon tax will ever happen. Anyone? And raise your hand if you know of a way to make sure future Congresses wont simply reinstate the old taxes, if by some miracle the trade were to be successfully executed today. Does this sound credible?

To understand the unicorn that the dream of a revenue-neutral carbon tax represents, just look at what progressives say on the issue. Consider David Roberts at Vox, who argues that a carbon tax would need to be pretty damn high to impact emissions, and that its irksome that the focus is on revenue-neutral proposals in which all the revenue is returned, none left for government spending.

Environmental groups similarly opposed a 2016 carbon-tax initiative in the state of Washington because the revenue would have been used to reduce other taxes instead of to grow government. These guys at least have the merit of being either more realistic or honest.

The bottom line is that right-leaning carbon-tax advocates are pushing a compromise that the other side doesnt want and wouldnt find satisfactory. With this reality in mind, it is worth asking: With proposals that show no prospects of significant environmental improvements and carry the risks of massive economic downsides, why should we implement it at all?

Veronique de Rugy, Ph.D., is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She has testified numerous times in front of Congress on the effects of fiscal stimulus, debt, deficits, and regulation on the economy. Previously, de Rugy has been a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, and a research fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. This article was first published by AIER.org

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Bolton: No Disconnect Between Trump and Administration Officials

National security adviser John Bolton said on Aug. 5 that any alleged disconnect between President Donald Trump and officials in his administration is a false narrative promoted by the media.

Bolton made the comments in response to a question about an apparent difference between the comments made by senior administration officials at the White House on July 2 and the presidents own rhetoric at a rally shortly after.

I know that there is this narrative in the press that there is a disjunction between the president and the rest of his administration, Bolton said on Fox News Sunday.

Bolton then likened the media to a group of birds sitting on a telephone wire.

One would fly off, and then they would all fly off, and thats what this narrative I think is all about.

Bolton was presented with a clip of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen saying that our democracy itself is in the crosshairs of foreign-influence efforts, specifically those from Russia.

The clip was juxtaposed with a pair of quotes from a subsequent rally, where Trump said he had a great meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that his administrations agenda is being hindered by the Russian hoax.

Bolton explained that by Russian hoax, Trump referred to another false media narrative which suggests, without evidence, that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to unfairly win the 2016 presidential election. While the collusion allegation has been the subject of investigations by the FBI, Congress, and the media for over a year, no evidence of collusion has surfaced.

The media has often conflated collusion with meddling, without drawing a clear distinction between the two. While there is no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russia, plenty has been found regarding Russian meddling. Special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted more than two dozen Russians for meddling in the election. Those indictments mention nothing about collusion.

Trump has publicly acknowledged that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and categorically denies the collusion allegations. Bolton and Nielsen were among the five top administration officials who affirmed the same during the White House briefing with reporters on July 2.

The president knew exactly what was going to be said at that meeting on Thursday, Bolton said, referencing the press conference where Nielsen made her comments. Hes the one that directed it be held.

The officials described a clear threat of Russian and foreign-influence attempts ahead of the 2018 midterm elections and what the Trump administration is doing to address it.

He felt it was important that the American people hear it directly from the people responsible for election security at the federal level, hear what they were up to.

According to Bolton, Russia tops the list of countries working to interfere in the 2018 elections. Compared with 2016, Russian activity is down this year, he said. He also warned of a broader effort by Russia and other foreign actors that goes beyond the specifics of any particular election.

I think thats troubling, too, and something we need more focus on, Bolton said.

Trump regularly criticizes a number of mainstream media outlets that continue to push the Russia-collusion narrative. He is also unhappy about Muellers continuing investigation of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mueller took over the FBIs investigation into the Trump campaign last year. Trumps frustration with the probe stems, in part, from his belief that the agent who led the FBI probe showed extreme bias and spoke of stopping Trump from becoming president. The same agent, Peter Strzok, briefly worked on the Mueller investigation before text messages revealed some disparaging comments and he was removed.

The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know its TRUE, Trump wrote on Twitter on Aug. 5. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!
A tourist was reportedly bitten by a giant eel while vacationing in Hawaii, she told local news outlets. (Mstroeck at the English language Wikipedia viaCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Eel Bites Tourist Vacationing in Hawaii: There Was Blood Everywhere

A tourist was reportedly bitten by a giant eel while vacationing in Hawaii, she told local news outlets.

I knew immediately that it was something bad, and it wasnt just like a fish nibble, so I pulled my foot into the air and there was blood everywhere, Porter, of Maryland, told KHON-TV on Aug. 2. My feet were dangling down and I was there for hours, so I was completely surprised that all of a sudden something attacked my foot, she added.

Porter limped to the shore to look at the wound, and a lifeguard told her that it seemed to be consistent with an eel bite.

The International Shark File in Florida confirmed to KHON-TV that it wasnt a shark bite, but it was probably caused by an eel.

Waikiki Aquarium director Andrew Rossiter, meanwhile, said that if it is indeed an eel bite, its quite unusual.

I think the beach she was at, I dont think theres big rocky areas over there, so its very unusual, very mysterious, he said.

Rossiter suspects that it was a moray eel.

How fast are they? Just like that, he added, snapping his fingers to describe the eel. [Theyre] incredibly rapid and even a diver will tell you to stay away from them in the water because they can come out and ping you in the blink of an eye.

According to the FishBase website, there are approximately 200 species of moray eel.
New Mexico Officials: Remote Compound Searched, 11 Children Removed

Law enforcement officers searching a rural northern New Mexico compound for a missing 3-year-old boy didnt locate him but found 11 other children in filthy conditions and with hardly any food, a sheriff said Saturday.

The children, ranging in age from 1 to 15 were removed from the compound in the small community of Amalia, New Mexico, and turned over to state child-welfare workers, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said.

Two males from Georgia are in custody after sheriffs officials executed a search warrant at the makeshift residence, according to the sheriffs office in a news release on Aug. 4.

The children were turned over to the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department, officials said, adding it was done for their health and safety, the sheriffs office said. Three women believed to be the childrens mothers were also detained yesterday while investigators continue to sort out details of the case, the office added.

11 emaciated children are rescued from a filthy and heavily armed compound https://t.co/yQM32ndRFa pic.twitter.com/RbkKG2WXxC  CNN (@CNN) August 5, 2018

Hogrefe said officials were initially searching for Lucas Morten and others, including 39-year-old Siraj Wahhaj, who was wanted for child abduction, and 3-year-old AG Wahhaj, a child that was abducted.

But then he said a message was forwarded to his office from a Georgia detective that officials believed came from the compound. We are starving and need food and water, the message said, Hogrefe was quoted as saying in the sheriffs department news release.

I began working on a search warrant right after I got that intercepted message  it had to be a search warrant and a tactical approach for our own safety because we had learned the occupants were most likely heavily armed and considered extremist of the Muslim belief. We also knew from the layout of the compound they would have an advantage if we didnt deploy tactfully and quickly, he elaborated.

HOUSE OF HORRORS: 11 kids rescued from filthy NM compound; 'Third-world country refugees' https://t.co/eaQ1I35R7b  DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) August 5, 2018

There were no injuries during the search, the sheriff said. But Wahhaj and Morten initially refused to follow commands. Wahhaj was armed with a rifle and four handguns, Hogrefe said.

There was little food in the compound, which consisted of a small travel trailer buried in the ground and covered by plastic with no water, plumbing, or electricity, he said.

The only food we saw were a few potatoes and a box of rice in the filthy trailer, the sheriff said.

The adults and children appeared like refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing, the sheriff said. We all gave the kids our water and what snacks we had  it was the saddest living conditions and poverty I have seen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
California Postal Worker Rescues 16-Year-Old Girl From Sex Traffickers

A postal worker from Sacramento, California, is being credited with rescuing a 16-year-old girl who had become a victim of sex trafficking.

Ivan Crisostomo was working his usual route on June 8, when he heard something out of the ordinary.

I hear this crying, this desperate crying, he told FOX40. Thats when he saw Crystal Allen, who was sobbing in someones front yard.

I saw her hiding behind this kind of bush, kind of tree, he said.

The father of four soon realized the girl had just escaped from sex traffickers.

Human trafficking is a hidden but epidemic global problem in which women, and particularly children, are frequent targets.

She started to point to her arm, saying: They were putting things in me. They were putting things in me. They are coming to get me,' Crisostomo recalled.

The teenagers mother, Stacey, told WYMT her daughter was lured to Sacramento by someone she thought was a friend.

Luring potential victims through the internet is a common tactic used by traffickers. In May, another 16-year-old girl, named Armoni Chambers, was lured online by someone she thought was her boyfriend. She was rescued from traffickers nearly six weeks later.

Of the more than 25,000 runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2016, 1 in 7 likely were victims of child sex trafficking. Perhaps more disturbing is that 88 percent of these children were in the care of social services or foster care when they went missing.

Allen said she saw an opening to escape while in a local neighborhood, adding that she was in the car with her captors while they were planning a crime.

They told me that they were taking me somewhere to hurt me and I kind of just thought Id grow the balls and jump out the car, she told FOX40. She was able to grab the phone of one of her captors when she escaped.

Allen said she had been drugged, tortured, and abused for three months before she made the jump.

I just cried all the time and prayed that Id get to see my mom again, Allen said.

Crisostomo stayed by the teens side and let her sit in his postal truck until sheriffs deputies arrived. Deputies from the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department praised him for his actions.

The area where she was found is notoriously a high-crime area, said Deputy Latoya Buford. Lots of drugs, prostitution, and gangs in that area. So, Ivan standing by with her really provided comfort, safety, and security until officers arrived.

In the United States, there were 88,089 active missing-persons records, as of Dec. 31, 2017, according to The National Crime Information Center. In more than 36 percent of those cases32,121the person was under the age of 18, while more than 46 percent, or 41,089, were under the age of 21.

Crisostomo and Allen were able meet each other again at a reunion on Aug. 2.

Ivan himself is a hero for saving me, Allen said. Even though he doesnt think it.

As of Aug. 5, police were not able to identify any of Allens alleged captors. The department wasnt able to respond to a request for comment by press time.
A man accused of kicking a seagull that tried to eat his cheeseburger at a New Hampshire beach has been fined $124.(Alvaro Barrientos/AP)

Red Alerts for Portugal, Spain Amid Smothering Heat Wave

BARCELONA, SpainResidents and tourists in Portugal and Spain stayed in the shade or flocked to the beach Aug. 4 as southern Europe sweltered in a heat wave that has produced near-record temperatures and threatens to stick around for days to come.

The extremely high temperatures, caused by an influx of hot air from Africa, were also carrying loads of dust from the Sahara Desert.

Portugal issued red health alerts for extreme heat for more than half the country on Saturday, Aug. 4, with thermometers approaching 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The countrys highest ever recorded temperature was 117.3 F in 2003.

Spain also issued warnings of extreme heat for its southern areas, with temperatures expected to reach 113 F in the cities of Seville, Huelva, Badajoz, and Cordoba. Spains all-time record of 116.42F was set in Cordoba in July 2017.

In southern Portugal, the town of Evora was almost at a standstill Saturday as only a few foreign tourists dared to venture out to take photographs of the Roman ruins called Dianas Temple.

Oh its terrible, said tourist Paul Snell. Were from Canada and never felt heat like this before. Were just drenched with water. Yeah, I need to hydrate constantly.

Francisca Serrano, a souvenir seller, added, we are used to high temperatures, but it seems the air doesnt flow and that makes it difficult to breathe.

Across the Iberian Peninsula in Barcelona, where the stifling air barely stirred during the night, Spaniards scurried to the beach with families and friends, along with swarms of sweating tourists.

Those who couldnt make it to the sea drank cold beverages under large umbrellas in city squares. Others doused their faces and necks in public water fountains, or simply pulled down the shutters and stayed at home.

Health officials issued reminders about the dangers that extreme heat can pose, especially for the elderly and the young.

The rest of Spain, including the normally wet and temperate northwestern region of Galicia, was also punished by the sun and heat.

The heat wave hit Aug. 3, breaking local temperature records at eight places in Portugal. It also played a part in the deaths of two men, one in Barcelona and the other in the southern Spanish region of Murcia, according to Spanish authorities.

The hot, dry conditions have led to several wildfires in Portugal.

Nearly 700 firefighters and 10 water-dumping aircraft are fighting the biggest outbreak, which has burned 2,470 acres near the town of Monchique in the southern Algarve region.

Its a very serious situation of extreme heat, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.

The World Meteorological Organization says continental Europes heat record is 118.4 F, set in Greece in 1977.

Forecasts indicate that the hot air from Africa, which turned parts of the sky a dark yellow hue because of the dust it carried, will not abate until early next week.

The torrid weather has been felt across Europe, as far north as Sweden and Britain, whose weather service said July was the countrys third-warmest month in more than a century.

The French energy company EDF said Aug. 4 that it has halted a fourth nuclear reactor, this time one at the countrys oldest nuclear plant at Fessenheim in eastern France.

Since Aug. 2, four French nuclear reactors in three power plants near the Rhine and the Rhone Rivers, including Fessenheim, have had to be temporarily shut down. EDF said the decision was made to avoid overheating the rivers.

Nuclear power plants use water from the rivers to cool down the temperatures of their reactors before sending the water back into the rivers. Rivers that are unusually warm can experience mass fish die-offs, which has happened in Germany in the past week.

By Joseph Wilson
Trump Campaigns in Ohio Special Election

LEWIS CENTER, OhioPresident Donald Trump hosted a rally to help pull Republican candidate Troy Balderson across the finish line in the special election for Ohios 12th congressional district.

Recently, tightening polls in what has been a safe Republican seat have given this election national prominence, as Democrats hopeand Republicans fearthat the seat may flip into Democratic hands. Such a result would be taken as a harbinger of a wave election that Democrats hope will deliver them control of the House of Representatives.

Before a boisterous and very enthusiastic crowd filling the gym at Olentangy Orange High School, Trump introduced Balderson as an intelligent, hard worker, who would fight for Ohio.

Balderson leveled a series of verbal blows against the opponent he dubbed Dishonest Danny OConnor, referring to a recent gaffe OConnor made regarding whether he supports House minority leader Nancy Pelosi.

Dishonest Danny OConnor supports open borders and sanctuary cities, he said, adding that OConnor will fight against the policies that are turning our country around.

Special Election

The election for this congressional seat will be held on Aug. 7 because incumbent Pat Tiberi resigned in order to lead the Ohio Business Roundtable. Whoever wins will have to face his opponent again in the general election on Nov. 6.

The 12th district would seem to be the definition of a safe Republican district. A Democrat has not won here since 1980, and in 2016, Tiberi won reelection in a landslide, carrying 66 percent of the vote.

The race has been lightly polled. Two polls in June showed Balderson with a 10-point lead over OConnor, but a poll by Monmouth University released on Aug. 1 showed that that lead had shrunk to one point, 4443.

No matter who wins the special election, the vote in Delaware County will be key.

In rural and blue-collar areas of the district, Trump won 70 percent of the vote in 2016. But he didnt do as well in the suburban and exurban areas, such as Delaware County.

This county has voted Republican consistently since 1916, but the recent trend has seen the vote for Republicans diminishing, as the area has become more suburban.

Both candidates hold elective office in the district. Balderson represents the state Senates 20th district, which overlaps the 12th congressional district; OConnor is the recorder for Franklin County. Balderson grew up in the 12th Districts Zanesville; OConnor identifies himself as from rural Ohio.

Turnout will be key. At a July 30 rally for Balderson, Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly told the audience the date of the special election and asked the crowd to repeat it back to him.

The Democratic base will not need to be reminded of the date. Democrat fervor to vote in this election cycle has helped the Party show surprising strength in other special elections this year.

Kim Bood, Morrow County clerk of courts, has campaigned for Balderson and sized up his chances: Hes got a tough fight, but we think he can do it. And we are going to help all the way.

With reporting by Charlotte Cuthbertson.
Trumps H-1B Visa Policy Helps American Tech Workers

Companies have been showing an increasing preference for hiring Americans since President Donald Trump imposed heavier scrutiny on visas that are heavily used to hire foreign tech workers.

While some companies say they need more of the visas to make up for a shortage of American talent, data suggests the visas have been abused to displace American workers. In April 2017, Trump issued an executive order to buy American and hire American.

In response, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began cracking down on fraud and abuse in the H-1B visa program.

H-1Bs allow U.S. companies to hire up to 85,000 foreign workers a year for up to six years and then sponsor them for permanent residency. Eligible workers can be hired generally for any job that requires at least a bachelors degree. Most who have used the visa are computer workers.

The H-1B visa program should help U.S. companies recruit highly skilled foreign nationals when there is a shortage of qualified workers in the country, USCIS stated on its website. Yet, too many American workers who are as qualified, willing, and deserving to work in these fields have been ignored or unfairly disadvantaged.

The agency has made it clear it will go after cheaters and protect the economic interests of U.S. workers. It seems to have taken aim at companies providing technology outsourcing, such as Cognizant Corp., HCL Technologies Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Wipro Ltd., IBMs India unit, and Accenture.

American Dream Outsourced

Outsourcing companies have been the dominant users of H-1B visas, with the top 15 of them scooping more than 1 in 4 approved applications in fiscal year 2017. These companies obtain such a high proportion due to the sheer number of applications they make, since USCIS picks applications by lottery, until the 85,000 cap is met.

These companies bring in tens of thousands of foreigners every year (usually from India) to more cheaply manage technology, such as computer systems, for American businesses. The businesses sometimes, in turn, fire local tech workers.

Sometimes, H-1B workers are 40 percent cheaper than Americans, and as an additional bonus to employers, H-1B workers are unlikely to complain about substandard wages and working conditions, wrote Ron Hira, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute.

Because of a loophole in immigration law, American workers have little recourse.

In 2015, Walt Disney Co. outsourced its computer operations in Orlando to Cognizant and HCL America, laying off 250 American tech workers as a result.

Some of those who were laid off took Disney and its contractors to court for breaking immigration laws, because H-1B sponsors have to certify that the foreign hires will not adversely affect the working conditions of workers with similar jobs. The petitioners argued they were adversely affected because they had to train the people who were replacing them for lower pay.

The judge tossed out the case, saying Cognizant and HCL hadnt lied in the H-1B paperwork because it wasnt their employees who were affected, but Disneys, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Trump Steps In

The president said hes not against bringing in top talent from overseas, but not at the expense of Americans.

Right now, H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery, and thats wrong. Instead, they should be given to the most-skilled and highest-paid applicants, and they should never, ever be used to replace Americans, Trump said last year.

In April 2017, USCIS suspended fast-track, two-week processing for H-1B petitions, making applicants wait six months to confirm approval. The fast track was restored in October.

USCIS also switched random checks on H-1B employers to targeted checks on those who have a high ratio of H-1B hires, have hard-to-validate business credentials, or bring in people on H-1Bs who then work at other companies sites.

In February, it announced that companies that sent H-1B workers to a third-party worksite may be asked for detailed documentation to ensure a legitimate employer-employee relationship.

And in March, USCIS issued a policy memo that makes it harder for H-1B applicants to increase their chances by having multiple companies sponsor them separately for the same job. Typically, around 200,000 applicants vie for the 85,000 visas.

It seems companies have noticed Trumps scrutiny, sponsoring 7 percent fewer initial H-1B applications in fiscal year 2017 than the year before.

Forty-seven percent of US companies plan to or are willing to hire international talent in 2018, down from 55 percent that had such plans in 2017, the Graduate Management Admission Councils report said, based on a 2018 survey of more than 600 American companies.

Moreover, companies gave their fresh H-1B hires a nearly 6.2 percent average pay raise in 2017the biggest since 2009which relaxes the H-1Bs downward pressure on American tech wages.

STEM Shortage?

Some companies and immigration advocates say America needs more H-1Bs.

The U.S. university system is not currently pumping out enough qualified science, technology, engineering, and math degree students. Our economy needs these talents, said Jason Finkelman, an immigration attorney from Austin, Texas.

The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are expected to need almost 2.3 million new qualified workers between 2016 and 2026, according to a 2017 report by the Congressional Research Service (based on 2016 data).

Almost all STEM jobs required a bachelors degree or less, according to a 2017 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 5 percent required a doctorate or a professional degree and almost none required a masters degree.

During the 20162026 period, American universities are expected to award almost 4.5 million bachelors degrees in STEM to American citizens or permanent residents, based on National Science Foundation 2015 data, and assuming similar trends in growth of interest in these fields of study as from 2009 to 2015.

Foreign students on temporary visas represented less than 10 percent of the math and computer science bachelors degrees in 2015. But they dominated the graduate programs, accounting for nearly 4 in 5 computer science full-time graduate students, according to a 2017 report by the National Foundation for American Policy.

The reason may have to do more with immigration than with academics.

From Degree to Green Card

In the current booming job market, with more jobs openings than people officially unemployed, American students in lucrative STEM fields have a good chance of landing a job of interest with a bachelors degree. Instead of a graduate degree, which often means swelling their student debt and delaying paychecks, the candidates may opt to have more years of experience on their resume.

Foreign students, on the other hand, are incentivized to enter graduate programs, because 20,000 H1-B visas are reserved each year for graduates of U.S. masters programs.

The students are incentivized to stay for a doctoral degree as well because published papers beef up their immigration case. If an employer sponsors them for a green card, immigration laws will give them priority for proof of exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business.

Many of the students never reach the green card goal, but that doesnt stop colleges from profiting off their tuition fees.

A 2017 report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) think tank accused 55 colleges with more than 100 campuses nationwide of being visa mills, with as many as 95 percent of their students being foreigners on temporary visas.

Foreign students in STEM fields can obtain work authorization as on-the-job training for up to three years after graduation under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. The program also gives employers a 7.65 percent tax break.

David North, a fellow at CIS and author of the report, said around 40,000 foreign students are attached to the 55 schools, with an estimated turnover of 20,000 per year as new students arrive and old ones depart.

Many of those departing are either going into illegal status or will do so after a period in the OPT program, the report states.

USCIS tightened the rules for STEM OPT eligibility in January, imposing conditions to ensure its actually on-to-job training and not just the hiring of foreigners as cheaper labor.

While foreign students are scrambling to find out if the H-1B visa-to-citizenship pipeline still holds, American STEM workers can expect higher salaries and demand for their skills.
We all know the definition of gifted children: they are our children and grandchildren.

Giftedness is often in the eye of the beholder, which is why research shows that some groups have fewer children identified as gifted than others  children from minority racial or ethnic groups, English language learners, children in poverty, and special education students. Academics call these groups under-represented.

But Project SPARK at Brookside and Kendall elementary schools, part of a federal grant for gifted education run by researchers from the University of Connecticut, seeks to change that dynamic. By training teachers to better identify children with advanced potential for learning and by offering challenging summer programs, a more diverse cadre of children will be primed to enter the Academically Talented program in third grade.

Project SPARK (Supporting and Promoting Advanced Readiness in Kids) has been at Brookside for four years now.

Our school has shifted its thinking on what AT students look like and what gifts they can bring to the class, said Principal Sandra Faioes.

Some of these children brought impressive gifts to the three-week summer program at Brookside.

Two kindergarten children read the instructions from their worksheet aloud: Draw a line under the triangular prisms. Draw a building using them all.

In a first-grade class, children were counting backwards by 5s from 100. Teacher Mackenzie Merati asked them if they could do it from 200. One boy confidently said, If we can count forwards to it, we can do it backwards.

In a second-grade class, teacher Audra Good was discussing one students equation. Can we change Nadias equation of 37=35+2 around? The children said yes because of the commutative property of addition that they learned about the previous day. I learned that term in high school.

In each of these classes, the overwhelming majority of children were from under-represented groups.

UConn Research Associate Kelly Kearney said Project SPARK has two main goals: increase gifted identification in under-represented populations and increase student readiness for gifted programs.

To achieve the first goal, K-2 Brookside teachers were trained to look for kids with advanced potential. During the academic school year, UConn researchers conducted lessons in their classrooms. Project SPARK Director Catherine Little said the lessons were not necessarily different from what teachers do regularly, but the teachers could really observe the childrens responses. We encouraged them to watch for signs of advanced potential, she said.

Teachers used the gifted behavior rating scale to look for behaviors like having an exceptional memory and intense focus, applying abstract concepts, being highly creative or inventive, being flexible in their thinking, or having great curiosity and initiative. Based on the teachers and researchers observations, children were recommended for the summer program.

Merati said many of the children she recommended were not just the typical bright student. Ive recommended kids who are really creative and come up with interesting solutions, she said. Some are not that great at math, but they come up with out-of-the-box ideas. Thats evidence that they are thinking deeply.

A number of kindergarten teacher Christina Malizias summer students were in her class during the school year. Its great to work with them to see how far I can push their thinking, she said.

To meet the second goal of the program  increase readiness for gifted education  SPARK classes offer a challenging, engaging math curriculum that expects children to act like practicing mathematicians.

The students are really engaged even though we do math the whole time, Merati said. There are lots of games that are fun, creative and interactive. For example, the previous day the children were given a series of cards, and they had to choose which three matched. The choices were hard. In fact, when the teacher showed me the cards, I had to stop and think for quite a while.

But the children chose the three, and then they had to defend their choices.

Thats what mathematicians do, Merati said. They always have to defend their ideas.

Typically, the children talk about solutions, and then they write about why their solutions worked.

The children are learning to agree or disagree with an idea and explain why, Malizia said. I love to see them explaining with words. We can really dig deeply, but we keep it fun and kid-friendly. Her students get letters from a frog astronaut every week asking for help. They are excited about getting the letters, she said. After all, they are still just 5 years old.

The program, Little said, has had good results. Based on math achievement tests administered in the fall and spring, children who participate in the summer programs see a bump in math achievement. Children who attend the summer program for more than one year show even greater growth.

Some of these K-2 children have been in the program for one year; some for three. Faioes said its still too early to see the full impact of the program on AT enrollment since children enter that program in third grade, but she expects to see change. We have a more holistic way of identifying students early and targeting them to keep them moving forward, she said.

The grant that funds SPARK expires after next year. Little said she is talking with the district about keeping it going after the grant is over.

Norwalk has been an excellent partner, the UConn professor said, and we look forward to future opportunities.

Roz McCarthy is a former Norwalk school board member and public schools employee. Look for her Chalk Talk column the first Sunday of every month. Email her at rozmcc2@gmail.com.
Robert L. Martin, a combat pilot who said he flew "63 and a half" missions during World War II as part of the barrier-breaking Tuskegee Airmen, was shot down over German-occupied territory on the 64th and spent five weeks trying to return to Allied lines with the help of Josip Broz Tito's anti-fascist Yugoslav partisans, died July 26 at a senior living center in Olympia Fields, Illinois. He was 99.

The cause was pneumonia, said his daughter, Gabrielle Martin.

Martin, known as "Fox," grew up in Iowa and became entranced by airplanes when he attended an air show as a 13-year-old Boy Scout. He persuaded his father to let him take a ride on a Ford Trimotor.

"And the pilot, after starting the engine, buckled me in, he touched me with a wire and shocked me, and he said, 'You're going to be a pilot,' " he remembered in a video interview for the Experimental Aircraft Association, a Wisconsin-based international association promoting recreational flying. During college, Martin completed a civilian pilot-training program, joking that for a small fee "you could get silver wings and get all the girls."

War was raging when he graduated from Iowa State University. He joined the Army Air Forces and trained at the segregated military complex in Tuskegee, Alabama, in January 1944. With the rank of lieutenant, he immediately set sail for Italy and was attached to the 100th Fighter Squadron, which helped provide cover for Allied bombers on missions over targets in Europe.

On March 3, 1945, he was one of 24 Tuskegee Airmen who climbed into their single-seat P-51 Mustang fighters from their base in Ramitelli, Italy, to conduct a rail-strafing mission in parts of Slovenia and Austria. Two pilots did not return - Martin and Alphonso Simmons.

"We flew over this airfield where there was no opposition," Martin said in 2008 at Chicago's Pritzker Military Museum & Library, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We saw two airplanes parked a little bit off the field, and we said, 'We'll get more credit for destroying two airplanes than shooting up a railroad train.' We went in to shoot up these planes."

Martin and Simmons were hit by antiaircraft fire. Simmons was killed.

"I said, 'I'm not going to fry, I'm going to get out of here,' " he recalled in the Pritzker talk. "I got up high enough to bail out and my beautiful parachute opened and knocked me out - cut my chin open and floated me down to earth."

He was spotted by members of Tito's partisan forces, which controlled swaths of Yugoslav territory; Tito became Yugoslavia's postwar Communist strongman. Taken to a farmhouse, Mr. Martin was greeted by one of Tito's men as a "warrior on the side of the Allies," he told the Experimental Aircraft Association. "The guy fried me an egg and gave me a glass of grappa when he found I was hungry, and just told me to sit and wait."

On March 10, he was taken to Topusko, Croatia, where he met with an Allied mission manned by British soldiers that helped downed Allied airmen. Because Topusko had natural hot springs, Mr. Martin said, it was the ideal place for recovery.

"They could take a bath in the natural hot spring bath house, get rid of all the lice and dirt and whatever, and they had clean uniforms, shoes, food to feed them, whiskey, candy, books, a safe house, there was meat and flour and all types of foodstuffs dropped in by parachute to help these downed Allied airmen," he said to the Experimental Aircraft Association.

After a month, he was airlifted to Bari, Italy, and weeks later he celebrated V-E Day in Naples. He soon embarked on a ship for home.

Robert Leander Martin was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on Feb. 9, 1919. His mother, a homemaker, died shortly after he was born. His father was a foot doctor.

He graduated from Iowa State University in 1942 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. After his military discharge in September 1945 at the rank of captain, he became an electrical engineer with the city of Chicago. He retired in 1988.

His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart and seven awards of the Air Medal. He was among the recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal at a 2007 ceremony honoring the Tuskegee Airmen.

Survivors include his wife of 68 years, the former Odette Ewell, of Chicago; four children, Gabrielle Martin of Denver, Noelle Martin of Chicago, Dominique Martin of Olympia Fields and Robert Martin Jr. of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania; a sister; and two grandchildren.
NORWALK  A large group of young people were caught trespassing at the old YMCA property Saturday night.

Lt. Terry Blake said an officer found the group at the West Avenue property. The youth were turned over to their parents and guardians, Blake said.

The Norwalk YMCA closed in 2012. The next year, Norwalk Hospital purchased the building for $4.6 million.

Two men were arrested in November 2017 after police said they broke into the building with camera equipment.
STEVE OBSITNIK, R: I think Im the only candidate who has lived in four ZIP codes around the state. I grew up in Stamford, I live in Westport now. Ive lived in Enfield and Windsor ... If its the area codes of 203 or 860 or if its the public universities that dont really talk to the private universities who dont talk to the Fortune 500 companies that are still here, we are a siloed state. We are a state with gaps. We have an achievement gap, a skills gaps and we have an income gap. So the silos have created these gaps. Communications does not flow well across those silos. ... People are thirsting for leadership across these silos right now. ... It comes back to a favorite quote of mine that We may all be in the gutter together, but a few of us are looking up to the stars. ... We have the bones in the state, but what were missing is the tone and the leadership.

NED LAMONT, D: Im not Pollyannaish, I know whats going on, but you also need somebody who is a champion for the state. So after the GE deal, I saw how important it was to have people with technology skills bringing our work force into the 21st century ... When we finally got (Infosys President) Ravi Kumar up to Hartford, I didnt want him to meet the politicians, I wanted him to meet the business community. And I wanted them to say why they were in Connecticut and give people some confidence. And we had Stanley Black & Decker and we had Hartford Health. We had insurance guys, as well as universities; they sold the State of Connecticut. They said, Were here because we want to be here, not because we are stuck here. Were here because we love the quality of life.  ... That doom and gloom and all those TV ads, that doesnt help get us where weve got to be. You need somebody who is a champion for the state.

DAVID STEMERMAN, R: When I go to diners, I introduce myself... and ask a simple basic question: How do you think were doing here in Connecticut? And I get one of two answers. Either they look down at their feet, they look back at me and say, Not so good, or they start laughing and say Cmon, youre not really asking me that question. We all know how bad it is. And so I say, Why do you say that? and they say, My neighbors are leaving, my kids are leaving, Im thinking of leaving. I cant count the number of people who have said to me, Within the next five years if this doesnt change, Im going to leave the state. I say, Why is that? They say, I love this state and this is where I want to stay; this is my home; this is where my family is, but I cannot afford to live here anymore. The taxes are too high. The cost of living is too high. I cant find a job. My kids cant find a job. Im literally being driven out of my home. ... What people want is they want their government to treat them with respect. ... Their view is spending is being abused.

JOE GANIM, D: I talked to a lot of people outside of my city and saw a lot of people unsatisfied with the challenges theyre facing in their lives, whether they are school teachers facing challenges in the classroom, especially in our urban centers. People who are out of jobs. People that felt it was too costly to live here or think things they want to see in Connecticut are not being addressed. ... Everybody thinks whatever were paying in taxes is more than enough or too much. ... As governor Im committed to fixing the mess, dealing with it, and then communicating as you go through what youre going to do and why. Im not hearing a lot of people saying Hey, this is booming for me. ... They feel theres been a failure on the part of state government that kind of let them down, and as a municipal leader I feel the same way. I feel theyve let down cities and towns in varying degrees.

MARK BOUGHTON, R: One of the things weve talked a lot about out on the trail is we dont know a lot about who we are. And from 50,000-foot level, weve never had an identity. If you go to Massachusetts, you sense some pride and ownership of Massachusetts. If youre a New Yorker, youre a New Yorker, but Connecticut people, weve struggled to figure out that were not just that place between New York and Boston. Part of that is weve been somewhat transient. ... I think part of the challenge for the next governor will be to plant that seed of who we are. We are an incredibly diverse state. Danbury is one of the most diverse communities not just in the state but in the United States of America. ... We can develop that sense of place for Connecticut. ... Part of our marketing niche has to be that we have to have an identity so people go, Oh youre from Connecticut. Its not just the Constitution State, we understand what youre about.

TIM HERBST, R: My parents were teachers. I came from a very middle class beginning. A household where you needed to have two-income parents to be able to afford to have the opportunity to live in a great town, go to a great school system and afford to send their kids to college. ... When I went to college, and I got out of Trinity in 2002, I started to see the shift in the state. ... Probably about a quarter of my graduated high school class lives in Florida or South Carolina. ... When I look back to 2007, when I graduated from law school right before the Great Recession really hit, its staggering to me that our real estate losses have not recovered ...because of the fiscal volatility in the State of Connecticut: high property taxes, which I think have an adverse impact on property values, the high cost of living. It has a cyclical effect. I look back on my life and I remember the Connecticut we once had.

BOB STEFANOWSKI, R: People used to be proud of this state. We had a vibrant economy before the state income tax. I would point out in 1991 we were the fastest-growing state in the nation. I think people are still proud of Connecticut but theyre frustrated. To me it goes back to leadership. ... This is going to take a while, but you need to start to do some things so people see that theres hope and theres a person in that corner office that actually has common sense and is going to fight for the right solution. ... That starts to build a virtuous cycle where people start to feel better about it. Most of the people I talk to who leave Connecticut... dont want to leave. They like it here. Theyre not leaving because they dont want to be close to their grandkids. Theyre leaving because they cant afford to be here. The other thing I have a better appreciation for having run for governor is how diverse the state is. It is really a benefit. ... There are some great people out there.
The three Republican candidates for lieutenant governor met in their first debate Wednesday night on NBC Connecticut.

Endorsed candidate state Sen. Joe Markley, Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson and New Britain mayor Erin Stewart showed their distinct personalities in the debate, which was mostly cordial until the closing statements.

Senator Markley, however, has a voting record with some very difficult votes that are going to be very difficult and likely risk the Republicans being able to win in November, Stevenson said, then turning to attack Stewart for being too liberal.

Ive won consistently in areas where Im not supposed to win, Stewart said.

Markley defended his no vote on a yes means yes college campus sexual assault bill, and said he is unabashedly pro-life. Both Markley and Stewart said they would support legislation requiring parental notification for teenagers to get an abortion. Stevenson, a mother of four daughters, said she would like to add her experience to the discussion if it were to take place.

I dont think any discussion is an unhealthy discussion, Markley said. I think that we have to be frank about what we believe and I think we have to be respectful of peoples opinions and I think as a party, we have to be open to a complete range of ideology.

A second debate featuring the Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor will take place at 8:30 p.m. Thursday night and will air live on NBC Connecticuts Facebook page and website. NBC political reporter Max Reiss will moderate as he did Wednesday.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
Plenty of people have dreamed of buying a private island. Not many expected it to bear the name of the 45th president.

But that's exactly what Trump Island has been up against; since it was first listed more than a year and a half ago, the San Juan island the name has become a bit of a sticking point.

There's more to the listing of course -- after all, when an actual private island goes up for sale, there's a lot more to consider than the usual real estate machinations. The name just makes it stand out a little extra.

The truth is it has no relation to Donald J., or any of his family, historical or otherwise. While his grandfather did have a brief stint in Seattle after he immigrated to the states, the name could predate his arrival.

RELATED: Trump family local legacy: Not as seedy as once thought?

"The name has been used since at least the mid-1870s as determined by the Washington State Board of Geographic Names in 1976," Kevin Loftus, executive director of the San Juan Historical Museum, told the Washington Post last year.

So how do you handle a unique sale like this? Well you remember the whole package, for starters: There is, after all, the secluded 29-acre island, with a luxurious home spanning more than 7,000 square feet.

As one might imagine, the process to buy an estate of this caliber is different than usual, even in a market as ferocious as Seattle.

Background

For starters, there's the vetting. In order to even see the island you have to be checked out for whether or not you'd actually be able to make the purchase, should you like what you see.

"With other homes you never have to go through the seller as far as vetting them and really getting their background and checking them out before they view a home," Leigh Zwicker, the Windermere broker said.

Which is easier than you'd think: The only way to get to the island is by boat, seaplane, or the private water taxi, who will always check in with the island's caretaker (another point for how high-end this sale feels).

Power

Another key factor to consider in the realm of island buying is utilities; while you may have your pick of islands to buy, either locally or globally, the process of setting up electricity, plumbing, and other utilities is not an easy -- or cheap -- one.

"Most islands out there, unless they're Orcas, or properties that are on islands that have electricity and all those good things -- this didn't have anything when the seller bought the property," Zwicker said. "It's a really unique property in the San Juan Islands compared to what else is out there."

RELATED: Come sail away on this rockin' $1.2M houseboat in Seattle

In this case the home and its separate -- built in 2000 after the now-seller bought the island as a raw piece of land -- comes with the full nine: Runoff from the roof that gets collected and desalinized, submarine batteries to power the island, and so on.

"It's a private island, it has all these details that are essential to the functioning of the island; it's a property that's very unique to anything else that's out there. It's not just a house being hauled up on a piece of property," Zwicker said.

Structure

Which is another point that's important to consider when buying a private island, of course: The actual house you're buying. In this case Zwicker describes the house as "quite a beautiful piece of property," that had "amazing forethought in the planning process."

The whole thing was done locally -- designed by a Seattle architect and built by a Lopez Island contractor -- and was even more cumbersome than one might imagine, since the dock was the last thing to get built.

But get built it did, complete with wine cellar, wet bar, three fireplaces, a boat house, a barn, a green house, and separate caretaker home.

RELATED: Seattle tops report where it pays to move farther out

And for those who like their estates secluded, Trump Island delivers (even more than the "private" part of the island might suggest).

"The way it's designed, you can't see the house when you're down on the water, because of the trees," Zwicker said. "But when you're sitting up on the patio you can see the water; so it's like you don't even know it's there."

Market

After more than 18 months on the market, Zwicker is close to closing a contract on Trump Island.

That's certainly longer than most things stay on the market in the state, where we've been notoriously and historically low on housing supply for a long time. But the market works differently for luxury listings, who cater to a different base than the usual market.

"Seattle may seem expensive from a Seattle perspective, but it's deemed a relative value when compared to other West Coast, gateway cities," Dean Jones, principal and owner of Realogics Sotheby's International Realty, said in an interview with SeattlePI last year. "If you compare the ratio (of median household incomes for our region over median prices of homes), and you were to take that same ratio to Vancouver, San Francisco or Orange County, we're a relative bargain  some would even suggest globally undervalued."

Zwicker agrees, noting that there have been tremendous efforts in marketing this property.

"It's all global these days, especially luxury listings like this," Zwicker said. "It's on a Chinese website through Windermere, it's on a luxury website, it's been advertised on 'Private Islands' which is part of HGTV...Architectural Digest.

"In the end it works out," she continued. "It's a beautiful property."

You can click through the slideshow to see the details of 1 Trump Island. It's currently listed for $8,750,000; the full listing is here.
Henna losing its allure

TUNISIA: In and around the Tunisian coastal city of Gabes, henna has long been a key driver of the economy  so much so that the plant is known as red gold.

cultureeconomics

By AFP

Sunday 5 August 2018, 02:30PM

A bride shows her henna painted hands, the day before her wedding in Gabes town, in southeastern Tunisia. Photo: Mourad Mjaied / AFP

But a water crisis and changing consumer habits are making farmers think twice about planting henna shrubs, despite their coveted leaves that have for centuries been ground down to paint nails, tint hair and ink temporary tattoos, especially for weddings.

Gabes is dying because of the lack of water, says farmer Houcine Akrout, as he digs intricate channels around his green plants to maximise water flow in the early morning sunlight.

Akrout is hard at work, because the local water supply will today run from a canal onto his land  a rare thing nowadays, due to government rationing.

Urbanisation and rapidly rising demand for water from industry and agriculture have put immense pressure on Tunisias water reserves, according to the World Bank.

And a 2016 study of Tunisias water services funded by Swedens government found that losses from the irrigation network reach 40 to 50%.

For farmers like Akrout, that means waiting 15 to 20 days for access to the water supply.

It's very long for the henna plant which needs lots of water, he says.

The situation is so bad he has uprooted most of his henna shrubs and replaced them with pomegranate trees  a much less thirsty species.

Henna does not make me any money, he says. It isnt profitable any more and I need to live and support my family.

When it comes, the water supply costs 2.8 dinars (B36.59) per hour.

In mid-summer, the wait can reach up to 40 days, admits Amel Ghiloufi, head of the regions plants department at the agriculture ministry.

And pollution of the water supply from a chemical plant has seen farmers abandon land in the oasis on the Mediterranean coast in recent decades.

The water crisis is having a dramatic impact on henna output.

Only 645 tons of the plant were harvested in the Gabes region in 2016/17  down 20% from the previous season, Ghiloufi says.

But other factors, including a labour shortage, are also driving the long-term decline.

And its not only supply side pressures that undermine the market  demand for local henna is also falling, as people opt for foreign alternatives.

Over the centuries, henna leaves have been dried and reduced to a fine powder before being mixed with water, to create the paste coveted by people in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

The paste is used to colour hair, palms of hands, arms and feet with simple patterns that last for a month or so.

But the process can be messy and people dont always want to keep the art work for that long.

So imports of a treated version of henna from Sudan, Yemen and India are increasingly popular, with added chemicals limiting penetration of the skin and making it easy to wash from hands.

Ahead of weddings, the ready-to-use dye is handed out in decorated boxes to guests at bachelorette parties.

The processed imported versions are taking over from the local product.

And while once popular as a grandmothers remedy for anything from migraines to skin problems, younger people are more sceptical of hennas healing powers.

But for Ghiloufi the only way to revive the sector is to break new ground, by promoting hennas natural benefits and diversifying into new markets.

In the capital Tunis, shampoos based on the plant have begun to find their way into health stores.

Only a few entrepreneurs sell Tunisian henna abroad  and they do so without state support  so exports are minimal, despite the good quality produced by Gabes farmers, says Ghiloufi.

In Jara, the main tourist market in the centre of Gabes, huge stalls overflow with henna and incense  but the streets are empty.

Traders complain that the trickle of tourists is not enough to compensate for locals disinterest.

Henna is sold all the year round. Our market was always full of clients who come from all over Tunisia! says 85-year-old Hassen Mrabet, who has been growing and selling henna for half a century.

Now sales are limited to the wedding season in July and August, he adds.

Another trader bemoans the rising popularity of other beauty products and treatments, as lifestyles change.

New forms of dye and manicures have replaced henna today, according to 49-year-old Ismail.

Tunisians have changed their habits and turned their backs on their traditions; henna is out of fashion.
Hong Hongs buskers take a final bow

HONG KONG: The rumbustious street performers who have long claimed one of Hong Kongs busiest shopping districts as their informal stage took their final bow last Sunday night (July 29) after local authorities caved to noise complaints over their legendary cacophony.

culture

By AFP

Sunday 5 August 2018, 11:30AM

A juggler performs a headstand in front of crowds at the pedestrian zone of Sai Yeung Choi St South in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. Photo: Philip Fong / AFP

Under the glow of Mong Koks famous neon signs, buskers have been entertaining crowds  and irking neighbours  for nearly two decades in Sai Yeung Choi St South, an area which has been regularly closed to traffic to make way for pedestrians and performers since 2000.

Over the years, a motley line-up including an acrobat in his sixties performing stunts to Michael Jackson and karaoke bands surrounded by fans clapping along on plastic stools gave ear-splitting shows to tinny music blasted from amplifiers.

Drawing cheers and consternation equally, the street performers have received 320 noise complaints in just the first half of the year, according to police, with local media reporting 1,200 complaints last year.

The pedestrian zone will be fully abolished and reopen to traffic starting on August 4.

But while some will be relieved that the plug is being pulled, others fear authorities are killing off the citys vibrant street culture with over-regulation.

Just next to the freestyle performance area, official attempts in 2016 to remove unlicensed hawkers triggered some of the citys worst clashes for decades as protesters used the occasion to express their anger towards Hong Kongs dwindling autonomy.

Ahead of the shutdown of the busking zone, bands in glittery outfits, elderly men and women dancing the cha-cha, and singing aunties from mainland China  who have joined the pack over the years to the displeasure of some locals  came out over the weekend.

The pedestrianised strips last days have also attracted higher-profile entertainers like actor Bobby Yip, who visited last Saturday (July 28) and was instantly recognisable with his blunt bowl-cut hair.

This is like a nightclub for ordinary people... I hope the government will support this street culture, Yip told local newspaper Apple Daily.

But residents and shopkeepers nearby say the constant cacophony has given them a headache, at times literally.

It does create trouble in our daily lives, including disturbing my sons study, Gabriel Wai, who lives in the area, told the South China Morning Post.

The local district council passed a motion in May to scrap the zone.

Wi-Fi Band, who have performed in the area for the last few years, say the group might relocate to Causeway Bays Times Square or Tsim Sha Tsui  also busy commercial districts thronged with tourists and shoppers.

Drummer Miss Cheng from the band told local news site HK01 she was sad about the busker communitys dissolution as performers could get more interactive with the audience in Mong Kok.

Perhaps we would only bring guitars (over there), because transportation is less convenient, plus you cant be as loud, she said of the new locations.
Phoenix to be raised this week, says national Marine Chief

PHUKET: The Director-General of the Marine Department, Jirut Wisanjit, announced today that the major operation to raise the sunken tour boat Phoenix off the seabed will be carried out this week.

tourismmarinedisastersdeathChinesetransport

By The Phuket News

Sunday 5 August 2018, 01:25PM

A crane will be used to lift the Phoenix gradually. Photo: PR Dept

Large buoys are ready to be used in raising the Phoenix. Photo: PR Dept

Large buoys are ready to be used in raising the Phoenix. Photo: PR Dept

Director-General of the Marine Department, Jirut Wisanjit, announced the news at the Phuket Deep Sea Port today (Aug 5). Photo: PR Dept

Speaking at the Phuket Deep Sea Port this morning (Aug 5), Mr Jirut said that plans to raise the Phoenix, which lies at a depth of 45 metres some 1.5 nautical miles off Koh Hei (Coral Island), were underway after the owner failed to organise its own efforts.

Preparations are now 80-90% complete, and we plan to recover the Phoenix within this coming week, he said.

The Phoenix capsized and sank in a storm on July 5 with 89 tourists on board, of those 47 Chinese tourists died.

Mr Jirut explained that the Marine Department on July 11 ordered the owner of the Phoenix  26-year-old Phuket resident Woralak Rerkchaikarn - to recover the boat from the bottom of the bay, giving 20 days to complete the recovery.

With the deadline passing on July 31 and no action taken to recover the Phoenix, the Marine Department will do it and order the boat owner to pay for the cost of the recovery, Mr Jirut said.

The cost is about B10 million, for which we have which hired a private company to carry out the salvage, he added.

Mr Jirut explained that over the past three days a team of about 20 divers have been installing the necessary equipment underwater in order to raise the boat and to inspect the condition of the stricken vessel.

Now, sand has entered into about 10% of the hull. The ship's rear end has extensive impact damage. The depth of water is about 45 meters, which is a very deep water level. This is a difficult operation which requires skilled divers, he said, adding that coral reefs in the area complicated the task even further.

About 80-90% of the equipment needed has already been installed underwater, and we expect to compete this today, Mr Jirut said.

The next task is to prepare the equipment that will be used to raise the boat. There are three main types of equipment: large buoys with a combined capacity of 10,000 litres will be used to lift the boat and a sling to lift it tied to a boat with a crane to lift it up gradually.

We plan to have everything in place and to raise the boat by next weekend, Mr Jirut said.

The Phoenix will be taken to Rattanachai Shipyard in Rassada, on the east side of Phuket Town, where investigators and experts will have 30 days to inspect it, he added.
Victor Lytvinenko is thumbing through emails on his iPhone trying to find the one that best shows the damage the global trade war has already done to his little, decade-old American jeans company.

The 37-year-old  dressed in a black t-shirt, rolled-up blue jeans and a pair of Stan Smiths  eventually looks up after finding the message. Its from a customer in Scotland whos apologizing for cancelling an order worth tens of thousands of dollars. The reason? The shop owner balked at paying an additional 25 per cent tariff the European Union slapped on American-made jeans in June as part of its response to U.S. President Donald Trumps duties on steel and aluminum.

Weve already lost two accounts, said Lytvinenko, who co-founded Raleigh Denim Workshop with his wife, Sarah Yarborough, in 2008. That hurts.

Lytvinenko was in Manhattan in late July for an apparel trade show. The annual trip was usually a fun excuse to catch up with customers or play ping pong over beers with friends also trying to earn a living making clothes in the U.S. But this year was different. The talk was very much about how American-made jeans  of all things  had been pulled into the trade spat.

Its the latest gut punch for an industry that had already declined into a shell of what it once was. In the past year, two of the last-standing major denim mills closed, including the biggest: Cone Denims facility in Greensboro, North Carolina, that many firms say was the last to make high-end denim fabric in the U.S. on a large scale. Increases in Californias minimum wage also helped drive several apparel factories in Los Angeles to shutter or move to Mexico, adding to a tumultuous year for an industry thats been just hanging on.

On top of that, free-trade agreements had been pushing blue jean-making overseas for two decades, and now the remaining manufacturers cant believe the irony of getting hit by a return to protectionism. Major brands, like Levi Strauss & Co., had already largely bailed, shifting almost all of their production to Asia or Mexico. Whats left is mostly small businesses surviving by pitching craftsmanship and Americana in the premium end of the market with jeans priced at $200 or more.

Read more:

Pricey jean manufacturers going bankrupt

Fashion labels count on blue jean comeback amid battle with yoga pants

Wait, whats a tariff? Everything you need to know about Trumps trade bombshell, starting with the basics

Its another blow, said Roy Slaper, who runs jeans-maker Roy Denim in Oakland, California. The tariffs dont make sense economically because U.S. production is such a microscopic part of the global market, he said. The U.S. shipped just $31 million worth of jeans to the EU last year, or about 16 per cent of the industrys total global exports. But politically, I can see why. Nothing is more American than jeans.

American blue jeans were born in San Francisco in the 1870s, and became a symbol of the frontier with Levis Strauss making the first pairs for miners working in the California gold rush. By the 1960s, they had evolved into a fashion emblem of cool and rebellion after pop icons such as actor James Dean wore them. The EU no doubt had symbolism on its mind  it placed duties on bourbon, too.

They should put a tariff on hot dogs and apple pie, as well, said Slaper, who has been making jeans for a decade. I get it.

Europe had already been a difficult market for American-made brands because it protected its apparel and textile industries. The EU had 12 per cent duties on jeans in place, meaning that with the additional tariff, importers are now on the hook for 37 per cent.

It is a slap in the face, for companies dedicated to American manufacturing, said Scott Morrison, the founder of New York-based premium denim company 3x1. With two decades in the industry, hes one of the few to survive the great migration overseas. So far, the company has been sharing the cost of the tariff with a European distributor and avoided raising prices, but we are not sure if its sustainable for a small business like ours, Morrison said.

The production of blue jeans is a testament to how global trade has evolved. The cotton can come from the U.S. and be made into denim in Pakistan. The cutting and sewing then might take place in Indonesia and finished off with buttons and zippers from China.

But making jeans still requires more labour than other clothing because of all the sewing and finishing touches such as making them look distressed. And while moving production to lower-cost markets has reduced prices for consumers, its also given big companies even more advantages. Larger firms have the money and expertise to adjust their supply chains. Their clout also gives them leverage to pressure suppliers to take on cost increases. If they dont oblige, production can be moved.

Thats what happened in L.A., with minimum wage hikes convincing some brands to source from Mexico  where labour is much cheaper, according to Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association.

The issue is its so difficult to make it here, said Metchek, who has been in the apparel business for more than 50 years. Los Angeles used to be this cluster of denim, but not anymore.

Of course, moving to Mexico is so advantageous because jeans can be shipped into the U.S. without any duties under the North American Free Trade Agreement. But NAFTA is also what helps make Canada, a member of the pact, the industrys biggest export market at more than three times the size of the EU at $108 million last year.

There are other bright spots, too. A new denim mill is being built in Louisiana. Plus, Denimburg in Edinburg, Texas  a large mill thats just a few years old  is witnessing increased demand for made-in-America fabrics from brands like Calvin Klein.

We are seeing some signs that there are opportunities for a small revival, said Mike Brown, who is commercial director for Denimburg and has been in the industry for four decades. But its never going to be as big as it once was.

Back at Raleigh Denim, which makes jeans at a 7,000 square-foot factory in the downtown of North Carolinas capital city, Lytvinenko is still worried about the tariffs because some European customers arent responding to emails about their next round of orders.

Weve been viewing Europe as a huge market opportunity, he said. Its a huge bummer because weve been growing every year, creating manufacturing jobs and building great products here in North Carolina. This hurts our prospects.
EDMONTONSouthwest of Edmonton, a group of eight people had to call for assistance after their canoe capsized and two people were exposed to the water of the North Saskatchewan River.

RCMP said around 8 p.m., the Rocky Mountain House detachment responded to the call and were able to contact the group stranded on the east side of the river.

Two rescue boats were dispatched after multiple rescue crews responded.

The group was reached, and the two injured canoers were brought back across the river and treated by EMS. The other six people were not injured.

RCMP said they want to remind people about the dangers of the back countrys natural hazards during this time of year.

Read more about:
DUNCAN, B.C.Justin Trudeau mingled with hundreds of friendly people at two family-focused events on Vancouver Island, but the prime minister was also reminded of the strong opposition his government faces over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

At an outdoor news conference Saturday at the Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan, B.C., Trudeau acknowledged there are people opposed to the governments decision to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan, however, he said it wont stop the project or Liberal plans to fight climate change.

There are people out there who think there is still a choice to be made between whats good for the environment and whats good for the economy. I dont, he said. I know the only way to build a strong economy, moving forward, is by protecting the environment, and ensuring we are protecting the environment for future generations is a deep priority of mine. Always has been.

In May, Trudeaus Liberal government announced its decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs from Alberta to the B.C. coast, and related infrastructure for $4.5 billion. It could also spend billions more to build the controversial expansion.

We know we have to put in place a strong plan to fight climate change, said Trudeau. There are people on the other side of the political spectrum who dont like that.

Read more:

Despite jail time for protester, pipeline protests and arrests continue in Burnaby

Trans Mountain spill would put struggling Fraser River salmon at risk

70-year-old sentenced to week in jail for blocking Kinder Morgan gates

The prime minister shook a lot of hands and posed for countless selfies, but some placard carrying protesters at the gates of the forestry centre let him know the pipeline issue will continue to dog him, with one even calling him an oil pimp.

Trudeau also made comments about North Korea, reacting to reports from the United Nations that the country has made few moves to halt its nuclear weapons program.

We must see a denuclearized North Korea, he told reporters. North Korea continues to be a concern, not just for regional security but global stability. We need to continue to put pressure on the North Korean regime.

Earlier in the day, Trudeau made a surprise visit to the Duncan Farmers Market, which quickly attracted a crowd of people around him, with many posing for selfies.

The local band playing at the market stopped its regular set and played O Canada, with Trudeau later singing with the crowd.

The prime minister wrapped up his Saturday tour with a visit to the Richmond Night Market, where he received enthusiastic applause from the hundreds of people who gathered near a stage to hear his remarks.

Trudeau was joined on stage by Steveston-Richmond East MP Joe Peschisolido, the MP for Delta Carla Quatrough, and Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan.

He reminded the crowd that Saturday was Canada Food Day, and he noted that all the delicacies being served up at the market were made in Canada.

Just like this night market, we come together and we share, and celebrate, and bring our families to know that our differences make us stronger as individuals, as communities, and as a country, Trudeau told them.

August 5, 2018  Correction: A previous version had an incorrect name for the Minister of National Defence

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Police west of Toronto are looking for a man accused of assaulting two children at a public pool in Mississauga, Ont.

Peel Regional Police say the alleged incident happened on June 8 at the Mississauga Valley Community Centre.

They say the man was in the pool area when he allegedly assaulted an 11-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.

Investigators say neither child was injured in the incident.

Police say the man is described as being in his mid-50s with short grey hair.

Theyre asking anyone who may have seen the man or witnessed the incident to come forward.

Read more about:
PORTLANDSmall scuffles broke out Saturday as police in Portland, Oregon, deployed flash bang devices and other means to disperse hundreds of right-wing and self-described anti-Fascist protesters.

Just before 2 p.m., police in riot gear ordered people to leave an area downtown, saying demonstrators had thrown rocks and bottles at officers.

Get out of the street, police announced via loudspeaker.

There were arrests and some injuries, but it wasnt immediately clear how many. A reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive was bloodied when he was struck by a projectile. Eder Campuzano said later on Twitter he was okay.

Demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, gathered around midday in a riverfront park.

Hundreds of demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with opposition messages such as Alt right scum not welcome in Portland. Some chanted Nazis go home.

Officers stood in the middle of the four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated.

The counter-protesters were made up of a coalition of labour unions, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists and other groups. They included people dressed as clowns and a brass band blaring music.

The rally organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fist fights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture.

This time, Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside U.S. District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters could carry concealed weapons as they demonstrate.

Gibson disputed the groups classification by some as a hate group.

Were here to promote freedom and God. Thats it, Gibson told Portland TV station KGW while walking with demonstrators. Our country is getting soft.

Protesters saw a significant police presence that included bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints. In a statement, police said weapons may be seized if there is a violation of law and added that it is illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person has a valid Oregon concealed handgun license.

Among the things police confiscated were long sticks and homemade shields.

Gibsons insistence on bringing his supporters repeatedly to this blue city has crystallized a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in many other cities around the U.S. West, including Berkeley, California, that have drawn violent reactions.

But the Portland events have taken on outsized significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathizer was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defence of two young black women  one in a hijab  whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017.

A coalition of community organizations and a group representing more than 50 tribes warned of the potential for even greater violence than previous rallies if participants carry guns. It called on officials to denounce what it called the racist and sexist violence of Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys and protect the city.

Gibson, who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, said in a live video on Facebook earlier this week that he wont stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can express their right-wing views without interference.

Self-described anti-fascists  or antifa  have been organizing anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys in the streets.

Organizers say that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs.

Patriot Prayer is continuing to commit violence in our city, and their events are becoming more and more violent, said Effie Baum of Pop Mob, a coalition of community groups organizing the counter-demonstration. Leaving them a small group to attack in the streets is only going to allow them to perpetuate their violence.

Dueling protests a month ago ended with Portland police declaring a riot and arresting four people. A similar Patriot Prayer event on June 4 devolved into fist fights and assaults by both sides as police struggled to keep the groups apart.
SAN FRANCISCOTwin wildfires fuelled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather continued to grow Saturday in Northern California, destroying 55 homes and forcing thousands of residents to flee their neighbourhoods.

California fire officials said Saturday that the two fires about 161 kilometres north grew to almost 648 square kilometres. The two fires cover an area larger than the wildfire that damaged parts of Redding, California last week and continue to grow.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials said that fire was started two weeks ago by sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailers flat tire.

The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 56 kph that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flames.

This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach, the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco.

Read More:

Displaced by the California wildfires, evacuees work and wait amid uncertainty

More than 1,000 homes torched in California wildfires

Number of people ordered to flee California fires hits 15K

As a precaution, new evacuations were called Friday for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where the week-old twin fires are threatening about 9,000 homes.

The dual fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27 per cent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated.

The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake but it looks like theres dicey weather on the way, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said.

However, some days-old evacuations were lifted Friday in an area near Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft have been battling an immense blaze about 160 kilometres south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fires southeastern flank were reopened to residents.

The so-called Carr Fire was 41 per cent contained after killing six people and incinerating 1,067 homes.

Gov. Jerry Brown was scheduled to visit the fire area in Shasta County on Saturday.

The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber.

The blaze burned so furiously on July 26 that it created a fire whirl. The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 230 km per hour, which rivalled some of the most destructive Midwest tornadoes, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the blaze had blackened nearly 533 square kilometres.

In the Sierra Nevada, firefighters achieved 41 per cent containment of a forest fire that has shut down Yosemite Valley and other adjacent portions of Yosemite National Park at what is normally the height of summer tourism.

The fire had reached into remote areas of the countrys third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemites popular Valley region were ordered to leave Friday because of inaccessible roads.

The blaze has killed two firefighters.

A new report says the first firefighter, a California bulldozer operator, nearly slipped off a steep mountain trail three times before his vehicle finally rolled into a ravine and fatally crushed him. Each earlier slip alone qualified as a near miss warning that the century-old mining trail could collapse, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protections preliminary report.

Braden Varney, 36, was working alone overnight July 14 fighting the wildfire while his assistant went to get a new hydraulic hose. Varneys radio wasnt communicating with headquarters, so his assistant relayed messages  until they lost contact.

The report says the death of the 10-year veteran highlights the need for better risk assessment, communication and supervision.
Robert L. Martin, a combat pilot who said he flew 63 and a half missions during Second World War as part of the barrier-breaking Tuskegee Airmen, was shot down over German-occupied territory on the 64th and spent five weeks trying to return to Allied lines with the help of Josip Broz Titos anti-fascist Yugoslav partisans, died July 26 at a senior living centre in Olympia Fields, Illinois. He was 99.

The cause was pneumonia, said his daughter, Gabrielle Martin.

Martin, known as Fox, grew up in Iowa and became entranced by airplanes when he attended an air show as a 13-year-old Boy Scout. He persuaded his father to let him take a ride on a Ford Trimotor.

And the pilot, after starting the engine, buckled me in, he touched me with a wire and shocked me, and he said, Youre going to be a pilot, he remembered in a video interview for the Experimental Aircraft Association, a Wisconsin-based international association promoting recreational flying. During college, Martin completed a civilian pilot-training program, joking that for a small fee you could get silver wings and get all the girls.

War was raging when he graduated from Iowa State University. He joined the Army Air Forces and trained at the segregated military complex in Tuskegee, Alabama, in January 1944. With the rank of lieutenant, he immediately set sail for Italy and was attached to the 100th Fighter Squadron, which helped provide cover for Allied bombers on missions over targets in Europe.

On March 3, 1945, he was one of 24 Tuskegee Airmen who climbed into their single-seat P-51 Mustang fighters from their base in Ramitelli, Italy, to conduct a rail-strafing mission in parts of Slovenia and Austria. Two pilots did not return  Martin and Alphonso Simmons.

We flew over this airfield where there was no opposition, Martin said in 2008 at Chicagos Pritzker Military Museum & Library, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. We saw two airplanes parked a little bit off the field, and we said, Well get more credit for destroying two airplanes than shooting up a railroad train. We went in to shoot up these planes.

Martin and Simmons were hit by anti-aircraft fire. Simmons was killed.

I said, Im not going to fry, Im going to get out of here, he recalled in the Pritzker talk. I got up high enough to bail out and my beautiful parachute opened and knocked me out  cut my chin open and floated me down to earth.

He was spotted by members of Titos partisan forces, which controlled swaths of Yugoslav territory; Tito became Yugoslavias postwar Communist strongman. Taken to a farmhouse, Mr. Martin was greeted by one of Titos men as a warrior on the side of the Allies, he told the Experimental Aircraft Association. The guy fried me an egg and gave me a glass of grappa when he found I was hungry, and just told me to sit and wait.

On March 10, he was taken to Topusko, Croatia, where he met with an Allied mission manned by British soldiers that helped downed Allied airmen. Because Topusko had natural hot springs, Mr. Martin said, it was the ideal place for recovery.

They could take a bath in the natural hot spring bath house, get rid of all the lice and dirt and whatever, and they had clean uniforms, shoes, food to feed them, whiskey, candy, books, a safe house, there was meat and flour and all types of foodstuffs dropped in by parachute to help these downed Allied airmen, he said to the Experimental Aircraft Association.

After a month, he was airlifted to Bari, Italy, and weeks later he celebrated V-E Day in Naples. He soon embarked on a ship for home.

Robert Leander Martin was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on Feb. 9, 1919. His mother, a homemaker, died shortly after he was born. His father was a foot doctor.

He graduated from Iowa State University in 1942 with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering. After his military discharge in September 1945 at the rank of captain, he became an electrical engineer with the city of Chicago. He retired in 1988.

His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart and seven awards of the Air Medal. He was among the recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal at a 2007 ceremony honouring the Tuskegee Airmen.

Survivors include his wife of 68 years, the former Odette Ewell, of Chicago; four children, Gabrielle Martin of Denver, Noelle Martin of Chicago, Dominique Martin of Olympia Fields and Robert Martin Jr. of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania; a sister; and two grandchildren.
KABULThree Czech service members were killed early Sunday during a Taliban suicide attack in Afghanistan, the Czech military said.

The overnight attack took place near the Bagram military base in the province of Parwan, the countrys armed forces said.

It identified the service members as Staff. Sgt. Martin Marcin, 36, Cpl. Kamil Benes, 28 and Cpl. Patrik Stepanek, 25.

The military said their families were informed and the soldiers bodies would be transported home on Wednesday. Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar offered his condolences.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis joined him, calling the three the heroes who were fighting against the terrorists so far from their home.

I appreciate what they have done for our country, Babis added.

Thirteen Czech soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2002.

The Czechs recently approved a plan to deploy 390 soldiers in Afghanistan through 2020, up from the current 230, as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

NATO formally concluded its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but some 16,000 U.S. and other NATO soldiers are providing support and training to Afghan troops and carrying out counterterrorism missions.

Last month, the Taliban struck a NATO convoy with a suicide car bomb in the eastern Logar province. The attack killed two civilians and damaged a NATO vehicle.

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BRIDGEWATER, N.J.President Donald Trump on Sunday appeared to change his story about a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that is pivotal to the special counsels investigation, tweeting that his son met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer to collect information about his political opponent.

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower, Trump wrote. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics  and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!

That is a far different explanation than Trump gave 13 months ago, when a statement dictated by the president but released under the name of Donald Trump Jr., read: We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago.

The misdirection came amid a series of searing tweets sent from his New Jersey golf club, in which he tore into two of his favourite targets, the news media and Robert Muellers ongoing investigation into possible links between the presidents campaign and Russia. Trump unleashed particular fury at reports that he was anxious about the Trump Tower meeting attended by Donald Trump Jr. and other senior campaign officials.

Trumps critics immediately pounced on the new story, the latest of several versions of events about a meeting for which emails were discovered between the presidents eldest son and an intermediary from the Russian government offering damaging information about Trumps opponent, Hillary Clinton. Betraying no surprise or misgivings about the offer from a hostile foreign power, Trump Jr. replied: If its what you say I love it especially later in the summer.

Sundays tweet was Trumps clearest statement yet on the purpose of the meeting, which has become a focal point of Muellers investigation even as the president and his lawyers try to downplay its significance and pummel the Mueller probe with attacks. On Sunday, Trump again suggested without evidence that Mueller was biased against him, declaring, This is the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country.

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Trump Jr: Cant recall discussing Russia probe with father

Trump Jr. says he was open to Russian info on Clinton to determine her fitness

Trump Jr. facing scrutiny over Russia responds with defiance: Keep coming at me guys!!!

And as Trump and his allies have tried to discredit the probe, a new talking point has emerged: that even if that meeting was held to collect damaging information, none was provided and collusion  Trumps go-to description of what Mueller is investigating  never occurred.

The question is what law, statute or rule or regulation has been violated, and nobody has pointed to one, said Jay Sekulow, one of Trumps attorneys, on ABCs This Week.

But legal experts have pointed out several possible criminal charges, including conspiracy against the United States and aiding and abetting a conspiracy. And despite Trumps public Twitter denial, the president has expressed worry that his son may face legal exposure even as he believes he did nothing wrong, according to three people close to the White House familiar with the presidents thinking but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Sekulow acknowledged that the public explanation for the meeting has changed but insisted that the White House has been very clear with the special counsels office. He said he was not aware of Trump Jr. facing any legal exposure.

I dont represent Don Jr., Sekulow said, but I will tell you I have no knowledge at all of Don Jr. being told that hes a target of any investigation, and I have no knowledge of him being interviewed by the special counsel.

Democrats hammered away at the presidents admission.

The Russians offered damaging info on your opponent. Your campaign accepted. And the Russians delivered, tweeted Rep. Adam Schiff, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. You then misled the country about the purpose of the Trump Tower meeting when it became public. Now you say you didnt know in advance. None of this is normal or credible.

Trumps days of private anger spilled out into public with the Twitter outburst, which comes at a perilous time for the president.

A decision about whether he sits for an interview with Mueller may also occur in the coming weeks, according to another one of his attorneys, Rudy Giuliani. Trump has seethed against what he feels are trumped-up charges against his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, whose trial began last week and provided a visible reminder of Muellers work.

And he raged against the medias obsession with his links to Russia and the status of Michael Cohen, his former fixer, who is under federal investigation in New York. Cohen has indicated that he would tell prosecutors that Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting ahead of time.

Despite a show of force from his national security team this week as a warning against future Russian election meddling, Trump again deemed the matter a hoax this week. And at a trio of rallies, he escalated his already vitriolic rhetoric toward the media, savaging the press for unflattering coverage and, he feels, bias.

The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know its TRUE, Trump tweeted Sunday. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!

The fusillade of tweets came from Bedminster, Trumps golf course, where he is ensconced in a property that bears his name at every turn and is less checked in by staffers. It was at the New Jersey golf club where a brooding Trump has unleashed other inflammatory attacks and where, in spring 2017, he made the final decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, the move that triggered the Russia probe.

Trump was joined for his Saturday rally in Ohio by former White House communications director Hope Hicks, who departed the administration earlier this year. Her unannounced presence raised some eyebrows as Hicks has been interviewed by Mueller and was part of the team of staffers that helped draft the original statement on the Trump Tower meeting.

Multiple White House officials have been interviewed while still working at the White House and have remained in contact with the president.

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VANCOUVERMore than 150 firefighters and support staff from New Zealand, Mexico and Australia are coming to B.C. to help battle the 446 fires raging across the province.

They will join the 65 personnel from Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan who are due to arrive in the province by next week.

Kyla Fraser, fire information officer at the B.C. Wildfire Service, said that B.C. is currently at a fire preparedness level of four out of a five-point scale, indicating a need for more support.

What that means is that we're seeing a lot of fire starts and a heightened level of fire activity, and we need to reach out of province for additional resources, she said.

She said that the additional personnel, who also came to B.C. to lend their support during last years fire season, will also allow the provinces firefighters some much-needed rest.

This is not only to combat fires we are seeing right now, but to look into the future and keep up our capacity. We want to make sure our own firefighters are well-rested, so this extra help is very much appreciated.

Four additional water-skimming aircraft from Quebec will also be arriving in the province next week.

The international support teams will arrive at a central location in southern B.C. and then be dispersed to fires across the province based on immediate need. They will join some 2,200 firefighters, support staff and contractors already engaged in fighting the fires in BC.

B.C. is part of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), which manages the sharing of firefighting resources in Canada and internationally.

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VANCOUVERSeventeen-year olds Kennedy Bergstrom and Sydney Nagata stepped off a chartered bus in downtown Vancouver Sunday morning, decked out in rainbow-coloured attire.

Little did they know, one hour later, they would meet the Prime Minister of Canada.

Bergstrom and Nagata, who grew up in Merritt, a B.C. town of about 7,000 people, were about to march in front of tens of thousands at Vancouvers 40th annual Pride Parade.

It was also the young couples three-year anniversary.

I cant believe it, Im on the verge of tears, said Nagata.

The couple had been dating for three years and yet never felt comfortable holding hands in public  until now.

Just a few months ago, LGBTQ students at Merritt Secondary School had received death threats after leading a bid to paint a rainbow-coloured sidewalk near Merritt Secondary School.

French teacher and Pride Club sponsor Kati Spencer had helped students from the Pride Club and the Merritt Aboriginal Youth Voice Group co-ordinate the proposal.

The towns mayor and council voted against the idea.

That story garnered attention from communities across B.C. who were astonished the students had their idea turned down.

Vancouver resident Astrid O. Lalonde was one of those people. She raised $2,000 in half an hour and sought permission from the Vancouver Pride Society to give the students a spot at the annual parade.

That outpouring of generosity was in sharp contrast to the reality Bergstrom, Nagata, and other members of the LGBTQ community live in Merritt.

This is really big, especially growing up in our town and it being such a taboo. It has such a stigma. You bring up any word in the LGBTQ vocabulary and people gasp at you, said Bergstrom.

Lalonde said she wants young people in the LGBTQ community across B.C. to know they are not alone.

You have a big community  you will see them, while you walk in the parade today, she told Nagata and Bergman as she helped prepare the group for their walk toward the parades starting point in Downtown Vancouver.

The youth were ecstatic as they put the finishing touches on their colourful outfits, complete with face-paint and rainbow coloured socks.

We would never wear this in Merritt, said Sarah Grund, pointing to her rainbow-coloured tutu. She founded the Pride Club at Merritt Secondary just a few years ago.

This is a dream come true.

Moments later, they bumped into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was also in Vancouver to march in the Pride Parade.

They posed for a photo and gave Trudeau a Merritt Pride sticker.

Its one of hundreds they have already handed out since March.

Weve seen Merritt Pride stickers on so many vehicles along the coast and it just makes my heart jump out of my chest, said Bergstrom.

They are so supportive of us and they dont even know who we are.

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PLAINVIEW  A 7-year-old child drowned early Friday after being found unresponsive in Plainviews Lake Catatoga, according to Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl.

At approximately 7:31 a.m. Friday, Macoupin County sheriffs deputies, along with Dunns Ambulance and Gillespie-Benld Ambulance, responded to the 1200 block of Apache Lane in Plainview regarding a possible drowning.

On arrival, deputies observed family members performing CPR on a 7-year-old child who was found unresponsive in Lake Catatoga, according to Kahl. The deputies immediately took over performing CPR until they were relieved by responding paramedics.

Paramedics transported the child to Carlinville Area Hospital to continue treatment. After more than an hour of CPR by medical staff, they were able to regain a pulse. Survival Flight Air Medical responded to Carlinville Area Hospital, and the 7-year-old was airlifted to St Johns Hospital in Springfield, Illinois.

The child was pronounced dead later that day around 5:15 p.m. at St Johns Hospital.

The Macoupin County Sheriffs Office, along with Illinois State Police Crime Scene Division, DCFS and the Sangamon County Coroners Office is conducting an investigation.
EDWARDSVILLE  The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Centers Veterans Upward Bound Program will host a fair for career and training opportunities for veterans in the region.

VetMATCH Career Fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9 at the SIUE East St. Louis Center (ESLC), 601 James R. Thompson Blvd., Building D in East St. Louis.

Veterans will be able to explore career options for higher wages, look into additional free eligible resources and learn about free training, certification and apprenticeship programs, said Johanna Wharton, director of Workforce Development and Strategic Partnerships. They will also be able to learn about free training, certification and apprenticeship programs.

The SIUE East St. Louis Center has been working with dozens of area employers and education partners to identify high-growth high-paying careers throughout the region, said ESLC Executive Director Jesse Dixon. Our newly-launched Veterans Upward Bound program will connect veterans from both sides of the river to these transformative career pathways.

Also during the career fair, veterans will be able to interview with employers and meet with representatives from local community colleges, colleges and universities. The event will include a live broadcast from iHeartRadio, free food and incentives for enrolling in Veterans Upward Bound.

For more information, contact Jeremy Bailey, Veterans Upward Bound coordinator, at (618) 847-6297 or jerbail@siue.edu.

Veterans Upward Bound assists with vocational/technical and other post-secondary educational options including: Inspiring veterans to seek higher education; Preparing veterans to obtain higher education; Assisting veterans to succeed in higher education.

Veterans Upward Bound is a TRIO grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Nandita Das says she chose Nawazuddin Siddiqui to portray the title role in Manto as he has a lot of similarities with legendary Urdu author-writer.

Nandita said she always had Nawaz in mind while writing Manto, based on the life of Saadat Hasan Manto, whose work continues to remain relevant to this day.

"He has many traits that are similar to Manto a deep sensitivity and intensity, anger, and a dry sense of humour. These innate qualities in Nawaz helped him transition into Manto on screen quite effortlessly," Nandita said in a statement.

She said she needed an actor who could portray many contradictory emotions as Manto was a complex character.

"For instance , he was a person with moral courage, but was also scared of going to jail, confident but vulnerable, deeply sensitive yet very angry. You will know Nawaz's range when you see 'Manto'," she added.

Nawazuddin, who has been receiving rave reviews for his performance in "Sacred Games", will be seen next in "Rome Rome Mein" to be directed by Tannishtha Chatterjee, in Debamitra Hassan's "Motichoor Chaknachoor", a fun story on an unlikely couple and "Thackeray", a biopic based on the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.
Years after music legend John Lennon was shot dead in Manhattan, the wife of his assassin admitted that she knew about her husband's murder plot.

As per the New York Post, Gloria Hiroko Chapman, wife of killer Mark Chapman told The Daily Mirror that her husband revealed the plot after returning to Hawaii from New York, two months before shooting Lennon.

"He came home scared, telling me that to make a name for himself he had planned to kill Lennon. But he said my love had saved him, "said Hiroko.

However, she had no clue that her husband was on a murder mission when he returned to New York two months later.

Chapman also lied to his wife about getting rid of his gun.

"He said he threw the gun into the ocean, and I believed him," Hiroko added.

After the murder, Hiroko said her life changed dramatically.

She said, "I was now Mrs Mark David Chapman, the wife of a murderer, and not just any murderer, but one whose victim was known and loved by millions around the world."

On December 8, 1980, Chapman fired five times at Lennon, hitting him four times in the back, and later sat down on a nearby curb reading a novel until he was arrested by the police.
Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. provides various financial products and services primarily in Italy. It operates through Banca dei Territori, IMI Corporate & Investment Banking, International Subsidiary Banks, Asset Management, Private Banking, and Insurance segments. The company offers lending and deposit products; corporate, investment banking, and public finance services; industrial credit, factoring, and leasing services; asset management solutions; life and non-life insurance products; and bancassurance and pension fund, and fiduciary services. It also provides consumer credit, e-money, and payment systems; wealth management and private banking services. The company serves individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, non-profit entities, corporates and financial institutions, private clients and high net worth individuals, institutional counterparties, and other customers. The company is headquartered in Turin, Italy.

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Wall Street analysts have given Hertz Global 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 Hertz Global wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
KAZ Minerals PLC, together with its subsidiaries, engages in mining and processing copper and other metals primarily in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. It operates through Bozshakol, Aktogay, East Region and Bozymchak, and Mining Projects segments. The company operates the Aktogay and Bozshakol open pit copper mines in the east region and Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan; three underground mines in the east region of Kazakhstan; and the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan. It also develops greenfield metal deposits; operates Koksay deposit in Kazakhstan, and the Baimskaya licence area in the Chukotka region of Russia; and produces and sells various by-products, such as gold, silver, molybdenum, and zinc. In addition, the company supplies and distributes heat, water, and electricity; and offers construction, project management, financing, management, sales and logistics, and repairs and maintenance services. The company was formerly known as Kazakhmys PLC and changed its name to KAZ Minerals PLC in October 2014. KAZ Minerals PLC was founded in 1930 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

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Singapore

Asia's top diplomats pressed North Korea on Saturday to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns that it's proceeding with its programs.

North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, however, hit the United States in an Asian security forum in Singapore for certain "alarming" moves, including "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" the North.

Those moves, Ri told fellow ministers, could make an agreement with the Trump administration, including the North's commitment to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, "face difficulties."

China and Southeast Asian nations also faced calls in the Singapore meetings to rapidly conclude an effective nonaggression pact that can help fend off possible clashes in the disputed South China Sea. Both sides have announced an agreement on an initial draft of a regional "code of conduct" that they regarded as a milestone after 16 years of sporadic talks.

Alarm over rising trade protectionism, which Asian governments warn could stymie economic growth, dominated the meetings too, with Japan calling for the swift conclusion of a 16-nation Asian free trade agreement that does not include the United States.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the rapprochement between North Korea and the United States, along with completion of a negotiating draft of the code of conduct for the South China Sea, are breakthroughs. But he added that "like any other breakthrough in diplomatic negotiations, they may lead to something great, they may lead to nothing."

"Now the hard work is really on the details," Cayetano told reporters before walking into daylong meetings between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their partners the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.

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ASEAN foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, urged the U.S. and North Korea "as well as concerned parties to continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," according to a draft communique they were to issue after their meetings Saturday, which was seen by The Associated Press.

In the communique, they would "note"  often a diplomatic subtlety for a reminder  the "stated commitment" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name, "to complete denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests during this period."

A summary of a new report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea, which was sent to the Security Council Friday night and obtained by the AP at the United Nations, said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missiles programs and continues to defy the sanctions resolutions.

The North was also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions, the report said.
Saratoga County's primary season is quiet, except for one race, the Republican battle for district attorney between incumbent Karen Heggen and her challenger, Saratoga Springs defense attorney Gerard Amedio.

The winner of the primary will be the county's top prosecutor because there is no Democrat running for district attorney.

It's a tough road for Amedio. Heggen has the unanimous backing of the county Republicans.

Even the Saratoga Springs committee, which first endorsed Amedio, joined other towns in the county in their support of Heggen.

Carl Zeilman, chair of the county committee, said she got the endorsement because she has "the experience, skills and has shown to be a leader."

Heggen also has deep roots in the county, she is a Malta native who is involved with community organizations.

The underdog Amedio, from Colonie, is a former Rensselaer police officer who was swept up in high-profile trial in 2000 during his 16 years with the department. The owner and operator of his own Saratoga Springs law firm has never been a prosecutor.

Amedio also is stymied by less financial backing. Period summaries with the New York State Board of Elections show that Heggen has $43,665 to spend while Amedio's campaign is $524 in the red. Still Amedio got the signatures, more than the 1,000 needed to get him on the primary ballot.

This past week, each candidate presented their case to the Times Union on why they believe they should be the county's next district attorney.

Heggen, the county's first female district attorney, took over the job in September 2014 after James Murphy III stepped down to become a judge. As Murphy's first assistant in the office, the top post when to her by law.

This is her first campaign for the four-year seat.

"I love my job and want to keep it," she said. "I've done this my entire life. This is the culmination of my 25-year career. This is an honor and privilege in keeping our community safe and desirable place to live. We are a jewel in upstate New York and I'm proud of our partnership with law enforcement and my staff. I don't do this alone."

Heggen said that she sees her job as seeking justice, not just prosecutions. However, she likes to tout her office's conviction rate of 95 percent for felonies. She said she also sees the job as one that "seeks to balance the interest of the crime victim, the interest of public safety and the interest of the defendant. That's as a whole is what sets me apart from my competitor."

Amedio argues that it is his varied background, which also includes being a level 3 spin instructor and a longshoreman, makes him a better choice.

"I believe my training as a police officer and defense attorney gives me the necessary tools," Amedio said. "As a police officer, I was able to determine how people commit crimes. As a defense attorney, I was able to determine why they commit crimes. That's important because if you don't understand that, they will continue to commit crimes."

If elected to the office, Amedio said he would like to enroll more defendants in drug court, an alternative court for addicts who commit crimes but are getting treatment. He believes Heggen has diminished the number of defendants who have entered that court, which he believes helps many to turn their lives around.

He would also like to start a mental health court and a veterans court. Like drug court, if the defendant is seeking help for their problems and not facing additional legal problems, then they can get lighter sentences or stay out of jail completely.

"There are a lot of bad people out there," Amedio said. "But there are also a lot of good people who make poor choices."

Zeilman has said that Amedio's past shows that defense attorney has made some of his own bad choices. In addition to two bankruptcies, one in 1997 and another the following year, Amedio applied for permanent disability with the state in 2002 even though a state doctor said Amedio's complaints of pain had "no objective correlation" to a fall on ice that he took as a police officer.

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As for the bankruptcies, he said they were necessary as part of getting a divorce. With the disability claim, which was rejected by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office, Amedio said he has spent years "to get his body back in shape" and that he is "proud of his recovery."

Amedio was disciplined, as reported by the Troy Record, while on the police force. The suspension was connected to the trial of police officer Kenneth A. Kannes who was convicted of vehicular manslaughter when he crashed his unmarked police vehicle on I-90, killing his partner Mark Goca. Kannes family felt that Amedio was withholding evidence that could have exonerated Kannes, the newspaper reported.

Amedio said that he wasn't intentionally holding back evidence. He said he forgot he had a floppy disc and cassette tape of the surveillance work that Kannes and Goca were doing on the night of the crash.

"I testified against Kannes," Amedio said. "He was highly intoxicated on the night of the crash. I saw him at the hospital because I was called in as the police union president. He was in there screaming for Mark's wife Paula. After that the police department became a hostile work environment. I was told you have to help the cop who is alive. But someone was killed that night. I did the right thing and people didn't like that."

He also mentioned that in the same year as the crash, he was named Police Officer of the Year and was honored with the Mark Goca Memorial Award for Leadership.

Heggen's list of honors includes Saratoga County Volunteer Fire Police Association Award, New York State Senate Woman of Distinction Award, Clifton Park Republican Committee Chairman's Award and Women of Influence in Saratoga Today.

She also said that she has come under her $4 million budget since she has been in office and will continue to run the office of 35 in "a fiscally prudent manner."

"I'm proud of the work I have done and the partnerships I have formed with Sheriff (Michael) Zurlo, the New York State Police, the Saratoga Center for the Family and others," Heggen said. "I work collaboratively."

Amedio said he thinks his management style would produce a work environment conducive to good results for all.

Still, he admits that the race against Heggen is not easy because he has not gotten the town or county endorsements. While Heggen met with every Republican committee in the county, Amedio didn't, saying "the fix was in."

In the end, Amedio said his goal is to seek fairness and truth. Heggen said hers is to continue to make a difference. They do agree on one thing: Being a district attorney is a way to keep the streets and homes of Saratoga County safe, something they both aspire to do.
ALBANY  On the 14th anniversary of the arrests of two Albany men, who would later be convicted on terrorism charges, the Muslim Solidarity Committee held its annual rally on Saturday at the Central Avenue mosque that was targeted in the 2004 FBI sting operation.

For a decade and a half, a tight-knit coalition of activists, faith groups, and civic organizations have been calling for the release of Yassin Muhiddin Aref, a Kurdish refugee and former imam of Masjid As-Salam mosque, and Mohammed M. Hossain, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh and pizzeria owner, who they say are innocent.

Both men were sentenced to 15 years in prison, but their attorneys and supporters say they were entrapped by an undercover FBI informant, who exploited the immigrants' naivete, luring them into a fake money laundering scheme.

Supporters carried signs and marched from the Central Avenue mosque to the First Unitarian Universalist Society on Washington Avenue, chanting "What do we want? Freedom for Aref and Hossain" and "Muslim busting is disgusting."

The protest follows bittersweet news that Aref would be released in October and deported back to Kurdistan, where his wife and four children will travel to meet him. Hossain is expected to complete his sentence in two years.

"I'm happy that Yasin will finally be getting out, but it is unfortunate that he will be deported. It has caused a huge strain on his family, because his family is American," said Lynne Jackson, one of the organizers of the event.

Mosque president Shamshad Ahmad described being awakened in the middle of the night on August 4, 2004 by federal agents with a warrant to search the mosque, only to learn later that two key community members had been arrested.

While the 2004 FBI operation was a "textbook example" of the surveillance and entrapment of Muslim immigrants throughout the nation after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the support mosque goers experienced from the larger Albany community was exceptional, he said.

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"Muslims throughout the nation are very scared and feet unsafe and in many parts of the country people didn't know what to do... so they isolated themselves and disassociated from the victims," Ahmed said. "We got a lot of encouragement from the non-Muslim community here and they stood behind us and it gave us very much courage and we followed it up very strongly."

Saturday's march was followed by dinner and the performance by Project Salaam of a play "To Catch a Muslim," a satirical look at the Aref-Hossain investigation and trial and its aftermath.

Special guest Tarik Shah, who was ensnared in a similar sting operation in New York City in 2005, spoke about his own case, which was featured in the 2015 documentary film "(T)ERROR." An internationally acclaimed jazz bassist, Shah spent 13 years in prison and now lives in Albany.

Some supporters wrote postcards to Aref and Hossain.
Barcelona, Spain

Residents and tourists in Portugal and Spain stayed in the shade or flocked to the beach Saturday as southern Europe sweltered in a heat wave that has produced near-record temperatures and threatens to stick around for days to come.

The extremely high temperatures, caused by an influx of hot air from Africa, were also carrying loads of dust from the Sahara Desert.

Portugal issued red health alerts for extreme heat for more than half the country on Saturday, with thermometers approaching 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The country's highest ever recorded temperature was 117.3 F in 2003.

Spain also issued warnings of extreme heat for its southern areas, with temperatures expected to reach 113 F in the cities of Seville, Huelva, Badajoz and Cordoba. Spain's all-time record of 116.42 F was set in Cordoba in July 2017.

In southern Portugal, the town of Evora was almost at a standstill Saturday as only a few foreign tourists dared to venture out to take photographs of the Roman ruins called Diana's Temple.

"Oh it's terrible," said tourist Paul Snell. "We're from Canada and never felt heat like this before. We're just drenched with water. Yeah, I need to hydrate constantly."

Francisca Serrano, a souvenir seller, added "we are used to high temperatures, but it seems the air doesn't flow and that makes it difficult to breathe."

Across the Iberian Peninsula in Barcelona, where the stifling air barely stirred during the night, Spaniards scurried to the beach with families and friends, along with swarms of sweating tourists.

Those who couldn't make it to the sea drank cold beverages under large umbrellas in city squares. Others doused their faces and necks in public water fountains, or simply pulled down the shutters and stayed at home.

Health officials issued reminders about the dangers that extreme heat can pose, especially for the elderly and the young.

The rest of Spain, including the normally wet and temperate northwestern region of Galicia, was also punished by the sun and heat. The heat wave hit Friday, breaking local temperature records at eight places in Portugal. It also played a part in the deaths of two men, one in Barcelona and the other in the southern Spanish region of Murcia, according to Spanish authorities.

The hot, dry conditions have led to several wildfires in Portugal.

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Nearly 700 firefighters and 10 water-dumping aircraft are fighting the biggest outbreak, which has burned 2,470 acres near the town of Monchique in the southern Algarve region.

"It's a very serious situation of extreme heat," Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.

The World Meteorological Organization says continental Europe's heat record is 118.4 degrees Fahrenheit, set in Greece in 1977.

Forecasts indicate that the hot air from Africa, which turned parts of the sky a dark yellow hue because of the dust it carried, will not abate until early next week.

The torrid weather has been felt across Europe, as far north as Sweden and Britain, whose weather service said July was the country's third-warmest month in more than a century.

The French energy company EDF said Saturday that it has halted a fourth nuclear reactor, this time one at the country's oldest nuclear plant at Fessenheim in eastern France.

Since Thursday, four French nuclear reactors in three power plants near the Rhine and the Rhone rivers, including Fessenheim, had to be temporarily shut down. EDF said the decision was made to avoid overheating the rivers.

Nuclear power plants use water from the rivers to cool down reactors before sending the water back into the rivers.
A Rensselaer County assistant district attorney resigned Sunday after being charged with driving while intoxicated.

District Attorney Joel Abelove said in a statement that Guilderland police charged Seamus Donnelly.

Abelove did not provide details on the incident, including where in Guilderland it happened or when it happened. Abelove said he learned of the incident on Saturday.

Guilderland police told the Times Union Sunday they did not have details readily available about the arrest.

The resignation is one of a series of problems continuing to face Abelove's office.

He said in Sunday's statement that Donnelly's departure would be a strain on his staff.

A Times Union examination of the DA's office in December found that hundreds of felony cases were never presented to a grand jury, and nearly 40 percent were dismissed when they were returned to local municipal courts as a result of the inaction.

Abelove has since said that his office has started using an electronic tracking system to keep a better handle on the office's caseload.

On Thursday, a state Supreme Court justice released the alleged mastermind of a double homicide after the Rensselaer County district attorney's office could not compile the evidence needed to corroborate testimony by an accomplice who linked him to the 2016 killings.

Abelove himself was indicted by a grand jury on perjury and official misconduct charges for his alleged botched handling of the fatal Troy police shooting of a Watervliet man in April 2016. The charges were handed down by a grand jury convened by then state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office.

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In June, acting state Supreme Court Justice Jonathan D. Nichols of Columbia County threw out the charges, saying the state attorney general's office had exceeded its investigatory authority under state executive law and did not have the statutory jurisdiction to prosecute Abelove on charges of felony perjury.

In the statement Sunday about Donnelly's arrest, Abelove said he has no tolerance for drinking and driving.

I must ensure that those who are charged with holding people responsible for drinking and driving do not undermine that mission, Abelove said in the statement.

His salary with the district attorneys office was $63,750. He could not be reached for comment Sunday.

(A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Seamus Donnelly ran for city council in Troy. There are two people with the same name.)
ALBANY  The 18-year-old son of a former Albany imam convicted of money laundering in an FBI sting has filed a petition in U.S. District Court to force federal immigration authorities to rule on his request for citizenship.

The petition filed this week by Kotcher Muhiddin says that more than 120 days have elapsed since he underwent an exam and interview on April 2 at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, and that his naturalization application has been unnecessarily delayed  just as it was for his siblings.

His attorneys, Kathy E. Manley and Barbara Weiner, contend that as a result of the conviction of Muhiddin's father, Yassin M. Aref, the application "may linger indefinitely" in the government's Controlled Application and Review Resolution Program (CARRP).

Muhiddin was two months old when his family entered the U.S. as Kurdish refugees. He and his sister, Alaa, and brother, Raiber, were all born in a Syrian refugee camp where their parents had gone to escape persecution in Iraq.

Aref, who is from northern Iraq, and Mohammed M. Hossain, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh, were found guilty by a federal jury in Albany in October 2006 on charges they participated in a scheme to launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile.

The weapon was to be used in the assassination of a Pakistani diplomat in New York City. The plot was not real and had been concocted by the FBI, which enlisted a Pakistani informant with a criminal background to lure the men into the scheme. Aref and Hossain were both sentenced to 15-year prison terms. Aref is scheduled to be released in October; Hossain's release date is August 2020.

Muhiddin's petition indicates his father will be deported when he is released from prison. The family, including Aref's wife, Zuhur Jalal, are scheduled to reunite in northern Iraq but the three children, all adults, plan to return to Albany.

The attorneys for Muhiddin said that years-long delays had plagued the efforts of his siblings to obtain their citizenship, and that documents released under the Freedom of Information Act confirmed their applications had languished in the review resolution program. The attorneys noted that Muhiddin was 2 years old when his application for adjustment of his citizenship was filed.

"Clearly he could not have been, himself, considered a national security threat," the attorneys wrote in the petition. "Obviously, he and his siblings were swept into CARRP because they are the children of Yassin Aref, arrested and convicted in the 2006 federal sting operation."

The convictions of Aref and Hossain galvanized the community and brought harsh criticism on the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in a case that hinged largely on the cooperation of a controversial informant, Shahed "Malik" Hussain.

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Manley and Weiner wrote in the petition that the documents on Alaa and Kotcher Muhiddin showed that federal authorities had checked a box indicating they were both "Known or Suspected Terrorist" on their CARRP documentation. That made them automatically considered a national security concern, and they allege the same designation may have been given to their brother in his pending application.

"Small children at the time, it is obvious that they received this designation under CARRP as 'known or suspected terrorists' solely based on the identity of their father," the petition states. They said the secretive system does not allow anyone to know their application has been flagged, and there is no mechanism to challenge it.

Kotcher, who will turn 19 later this month, has been a permanent resident of the United States since October 1999 and is studying for his general equivalency diploma. He has never been arrested and "is a person of good moral character," his lawyers state.

Attorneys for Aref and Hossain argued unsuccessfully in appeals that the men had been entrapped and had no predisposition to take part in a missile attack or money laundering before the FBI sent their informant in. They said the investigation was fatally flawed by language barriers, faulty government intelligence and an overzealous FBI counterterrorism task force in Albany.

Justice Department prosecutors countered that evidence at the trial was sufficient to prove that Hossain and Aref continued doing business with the FBI's informant even after learning he was involved in the sale of a missile launcher to terrorists.

Aref served as spiritual leader of a Central Avenue mosque and was the investigation's primary target. He was acquitted on 20 of the 30 counts he faced, but convicted of key charges that included money laundering and conspiracy to support terrorism.




Troy police are looking for a person who jumped from the Congress Street Bridge early Sunday morning.

The Troy Fire Department, Watervliet police and New York State Police are helping with the search. As of Sunday evening, the person had not been found.
In the commentary "Time for New York to get moving on offshore wind projects," July 31, Joe Martens proves the necessity for offshore wind to fulfill Gov. Andrew Cuomo's goal of producing 50 percent of the state's energy from renewable sources by 2030.

But climate change is now affecting us so rapidly and dramatically (just think of this summer's floods, fires and droughts) that Martens' calm column sounds like a parent mildly telling a child, "It's time to get moving," when the house is on fire. I'm not alone in thinking it is past time for some capital letters and exclamation points. The New York Energy Research and Development Authority needs to instill its work with a sense of urgency.
Saratoga Springs

Impressive. Bizarre. Weird. Wet.

All those words describe what happened before, during and after the 91st running of the Whitney Stakes in front of a season-high 40,306 at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday afternoon.

Those who came out on a steamy summer day to watch two powerful New York-breds run in the Grade I, $1.2 million race saw a marvelous show put on by Diversify, who won the 11/8-mile race by 31/2 lengths.

There was also a powerful performance by Mother Nature, who came onto the scene just before the Whitney was set to be run. With the eight horses in the paddock waiting to be saddled, thick, grey clouds began to roll in the distance beyond the top of the stretch. Storm clouds.

Rain, which had saturated the Spa on Friday into Saturday -- dumping 2.3 inches of water on the grounds and forcing the New York Racing Association to postpone the final two races on the 11-race card -- made an unscheduled return trip. It rained hard Saturday when the horses should have been running on what had been a fast track for most of the day.

There was also flashes of lightning and claps of thunder which sent everyone -- including 92-year-old Marylou Whitney, who presented the Whitney trophy to the winner, and her husband John Hendrickson -- seeking cover. For the Whitneys, that meant in the comfort of the Trustees' Room. For everyone else, it meant wherever it was dry.

For the horses, jockeys, trainers and owners, they were stuck in the paddock. A national television audience that had tuned to NBCSN to watch the Whitney had to wait, too.

Post time was originally scheduled for 5:46 p.m. and then was upped to 5:49. Then the weather poured its guts out at the Spa. And everyone waited. And waited. And waited some more.

The biggest problem was the lightning. The New York Racing Association was not going to allow the horses to be sent to the track until the lightning was out of the area. At 6:30, 41 minutes late, the Whitney was finally ready to go.

"It was irritating," said Rick Violette, the trainer of Diversify, who is the third New York-bred to win the Whitney. "I thought it was unfair for the horses to be under tack for an hour, but you can't control the weather. The poor horses ... to be there for that long a time, you never know how they are going to preform."

The only thing that make it tolerable was that all the horses had to go through the same thing and no one was going to have an advantage. All of the horses seemed to handle the weather quarantine, if you will, with ease.

Once the rain left the area, the horses got onto the track and the sun began to peek out from behind white, fluffy clouds that suddenly appeared.

When the gates opened, the race was over quickly. Diversify and jockey Irad Ortiz broke sharply out of the gate, and got to the lead. When no one followed the 5-year-old speed ball, it was game over.

"He did everything right for me," said Ortiz, who leads the jockey standings with 18 wins. "He proved he could keep going. Only nice horses can do that."

With Diversify loping along on the sloppy track, Ortiz became a passenger and only had to go to work when his main rival, defending New York-bred Horse of the Year Mind Your Biscuits, made a bid as he barreled into the stretch running five wide.

For a brief second, it looked like Mind Your Biscuits, the 3-1 second choice, might make a race out of it, but Diversify spurted ahead and won going away in a time of 1:49.62.

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"I thought I had a chance to beat him," Mind Your Biscuits jockey Joel Rosario said with a shrug. "But (Diversify) had another gear."

Chad Summers, Mind Your Biscuits trainer, admitted he got a little excited watching the brave run put in by his horse. He watched in a box seat across from the finish line, but that anticipation of a win quickly dissipated.

"I thought Diversify might get just a little tired," Summers said. "But he kept going. We just let him get a little too loose. We were afraid of that. We were too far back and (Diversify) had too much left."

Violette decided on Tuesday, the day of the Whitney draw, that he would run Diversify in the race. He was originally going to wait for the Woodward at the end of the meet but changed his mind because his horse was doing so well. At first, Violette wanted to give him more time after he had won the Suburban in a career-best performance on July 7.

"We are supposed to pay attention to the horse and let them make the decisions," said Violette, 65, who called this win his biggest ever at the Spa. "Sometimes we don't pay attention. This time, we did."

When Diversify and Ortiz were led into the winner's circle, the clouds that had been so ominous in the Spa sky had been replaced by a rainbow.

Third place in the race went to Discreet Lover, who had been dismissed at odds of 38-1, the second-longest price on the board.

Diversify, who has won 10 of 15 career starts, paid $5.20, $3.30 and $2.80.

twilkin@timesunion.com  518-454-5415  @tjwilkin
Saratoga Springs

A well-timed run up the middle of the main track got Separationofpowers home in the 93rd running of the Grade I, $500,000 Test Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday.

The 3-year-old filly trained by Chad Brown closed from three lengths back after a half-mile and edged Mia Mischief in a photo. Kelly's Humor finished third in the seven-furlong sprint.

"It was a thrilling stretch run," Brown said. "I'm just so proud of my filly, how she showed so much heart to come out on top there."

Brown said that Separationofpowers had been injured in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and then was injured again when she stumbled out of the gate in the Grade III Victory Ride on June 6 at Belmont Park.

"I wasn't sure I'd make the Test with her," Brown said. "Then she came around a couple weeks later, started breezing again, got to feel her health again, and we came back (today) with a beautiful clean break and a good run."

The win was the meet-leading 16th for Brown, who leads Steve Asmussen (10 wins), Bill Mott (9) and Todd Pletcher (8).

Mia Mischief and Classy Act broke out to an early lead down the backstretch, while Separationofpowers, under Jose Ortiz, hung back and waited to make a move three-wide on the turn for home. Classy Act didn't have any run left as the horses hit the stretch. Ortiz's mount challenged Mia Mischief from the middle of the track and was able to get up in the final strides.

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"She broke clean today and she had a huge chance to win the race," Ortiz said. "I tried to keep her clean, have a clean trip into the turn."

"I just rode her like the best horse and I'm glad everything worked out."

De La Rose Stakes: Either way the photo turned out, Chad Brown had a winner. Uni, ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr., got up in the final stride of the one-mile route on the inner turf to edge Precieuse, ridden by Javier Castellano, to give the Mechanicville native a 1-2 finish in the ungraded $100,000 race.

Notebook: Patch, the one-eyed, well-loved horse who ran in the 2017 Kentucky Derby and took third in last year's Belmont Stakes, is entered in Sunday's Alydar Stakes. Outplay, the winner of last year's Curlin Stakes, is also in that race, in which they'll be trying to take down 7-5 morning line favorite Timeline, a Chad Brown trainee. ... Eric Guillot, the trainer of Southern Phantom, indicated the white-faced horse by Bodemeister out of Out for Revenge, will run on Aug. 11 with a new rider. Manny Franco will be up, as Joel Rosario, who rode Southern Phantom in his first start, will be riding at Arlington Park in Chicago. ...Two races were postponed from Saturday's card after overnight rains soaked the turf courses at Saratoga. The Grade III, $200,000 Waya Stakes, a 1-mile route on the turf for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, will be run Aug. 12. The ungraded, $100,000 Lure Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile route for 4-year-olds and up, will be run Saturday.
Farm Safety Live organisers, FRS Training, HSA and FBD Insurance are delighted to announce that the event, now in its fifth year, will be officially opened by Mairead McGuinness, MEP and first vice-president of the European Parliament, at Tullamore Show on Sunday, August 12, at 11am.

The organisers want all to go home from the show smarter and with at least one farm safety tip to apply on their home farm.

Each year the farm safety event brings something different and this year the focus is on giving smarter tips through the live and interactive demonstrations concentrated around the home farm that can be brought home and smartly implemented.

The four areas this year will be centred around Livestock Handling, Quad Bike Operation, Working From Heights, Tractor and PTO Operation.

Regrettably the overall fatality statistics have not been improving with the main culprits stemming from machinery, tractors, vehicles and livestock, with the young and elderly proving to be the main victims.

Ms McGuinness said the number of accidents on farms resulting in deaths and serious injury in Ireland was unacceptably high,

Reports of farm accidents involving children, men and women are all too frequent. What lies behind each statistic is a farming family devastated and left to live with the aftermath on the very family farm where the accident took place, she said.

The MEP said that we had to do better and address in a holistic way this scourge of the countryside

I believe that initiatives to improve safety should be part of the next CAP. Farm accidents are not unique to Ireland - the issue is an EU wide problem and we need to learn what is working in other EU member states, said Ms McGuinness.

There was a need to wake up to the reality that farms were places of work and like all workplaces with machinery (and additionally farming animals), safety routines and awareness and training were necessary, she said.

Farmers must put their health and well-being to the fore and stop and think when undertaking a task on the farm and ask what might go wrong, especially when working alone. I commend all associated with highlighting this critically important issue at the forthcoming Tullamore Show, she said.

Pat Griffin, senior inspector for agriculture, HSA said: The fatality and injury stats prove that there is a real problem with how safety is viewed on Irish farms. Safety and health on every farm needs to become integrated into every job and become just how we do things and not an add on or afterthought.

smarter farming

Mr Griffin said that there was much talk about smarter farming and the HSA was calling on all farm families who come to the Tullamore show to go away smarter and with safety tips that they can apply at home to improve safety on their farm.

He urged prople to give priority to advance planning; operator training; managing and controlling machinery and animal movement; maintenance programme, and physical and mental health.

Jim Dockery, training manager, FRS Training said: We realise that farmers, and, in particular, their young and older family members, may not actually see the dangers as they go about working or helping out on their home farms each day. This is why each year I see people watching the demonstrations with great interest and see the penny dropping through their facial expressions. They are learning something new that they are not currently doing and we want each person to take at least one tip home and action it. We want each person to go away smarter and hence safer.

Ciaran Roche, risk manager, FBD Insurance said: Farmers everywhere can join with us to prevent accidents and hopefully save lives by attending events such as Farm Safety Live and by following our Farm Protect initiative.

He said that changing our usual way of doing things can be challenging, but because farming was a tough and demanding occupation with plenty of workplace hazards, it was time to stop taking risks and prevent any unnecessary heartache.

For more information and videos on the Farm Safety Live event and to win tickets to Tullamore Show visit, like and share www.facebook.com/farmsafetylive
Roxie Hammill How bad was November 8, 2016, at the Johnson County Election Office? Very bad. Flop sweat, reporters-pounding-on-the-door-to-get-answers bad. Ronnie Metsker remembers it well. It was his first big election, less than a year after he became commissioner of the office.
BBC:

Pope Francis declares death penalty inadmissible in all cases

Kansas City Catholics Embrace Pope's Rejection Of Capital Punishment Catholics in and around Kansas City said for the most part they support Pope Francis' declaration Thursday, in which he officially changed Catholic doctrine to say the death penalty is wrong in all cases. This is a departure for the church, which has historically accepted the death penalty for the most heinous crimes.

A question of faith, morals and public policy confronts people of faith in Kansas City on the sordid topic of the death penalty.Background . . .Meanwhile, realists among us reject the notion that the declaration will make life harder on Catholic lawmakers. Instead it'll probably only offer yet another opportunity for the electorate to witness politicos engaging in even more hypocrisy and contradictions regarding shameless protestations regarding values that never match up with sketchy voting records.Read more:
African nations need to mobilize their continents resources to finance development, and ease the way for small business to trade, UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said on 2 August 2018.

Speaking at the African Leadership Forum 2018 alongside host nation Rwandas President Paul Kagame and the former head of state of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Dr. Kituyi, took stock of the steep challenges posed by the current climate in international trade.

Today, were living in a very hostile environment, with rising levels of protectionism, he said at the two-day forum in the Rwandan capital Kigali, the focus of which is how to finance Africas transformation to sustainable development.

Projected sources of development finance are drying up, he warned.

The annual forum is organized by former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapas office and the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development, also known as the UONGOZI Institute.

Finance is a key issue for the delivery of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the core of which are 17 global goals that seek to alleviate poverty and rein in inequalities while protecting the planet and its people. Achieving the targets means going beyond international assistance, trade and investment to leverage resources within national boundaries.

The global dynamics are such that every region of the world will have to dig inside itself to find the resourcefulness to adjust, to grow. Nobodys going to grow Africa other than Africans, Dr. Kituyi said.

Illicit financial flows

He highlighted the continent's "collective responsibility to mobilize its own resources, including by tackling illicit financial flows  a catch-all term for tax evasion, capital flight, trade mispricing, drug trafficking, money laundering and other manoeuvres that rob the continent of billions each year.

The money drained out of Africa through illicit financial flows has become a matter of major concern because of the scale and negative effects on social and economic development on the continent, where the majority of the world's least developed countries are located.

UN estimates put the annual loss at around $50 billion. To put this amount in perspective, it's roughly double the official development assistance that Africa receives, and also outweighs the $42 billion that the continent received in foreign direct investment in 2017, according to the latest edition of UNCTADs World Investment Report.

The estimate may well fall short of reality because accurate data doesn't exist for all transactions and for all African countries, leading UNCTAD and its partner organizations to launch the Better Data, Better Lives statistics project earlier this year.

Rules made for big business

Dr. Kituyi also said it was vital for African nations to do more for the small businesses that are the foundation of the continents economy, particularly the small-scale operations in border zones.

He cited his own experience working on the nexus between politics and economics in Kenya, where he was first elected to parliament in 1992 and served as minister of trade and industry from 2002 to 2007.

A man from Nairobi with a container drives through and takes merchandise to Uganda or Rwanda and its called regional trade. A woman at the border between Uganda and Kenya with 20 kilograms of maize, trying to sell on the other side of the border, is called a smuggler, he recalled.

And it is still the case today, he said.

The rules are made for the convenience of big business. The small-scale border communities [] are not seen as part of the equation of regional trade. Theyre smugglers. They are an inconvenience. I am not asking for anybody to organize the informal sector. I am saying they are the main drivers of our enterprise. Give them an address to so that they receive electricity. Give them the physical convenience and security so that they can absorb technology and innovate their production processes.

UNCTAD spotlighted the role of women cross-border traders in Africa earlier this year in its Borderline project.

The power of e-commerce

Dr. Kituyi also highlighted the burgeoning importance of e-commerce for Africa, saying, If we are talking about financing sustainable development we cannot wish away the critical role of the digital economy.

Last month, Dr. Kituyi took part in African Union talks on crafting an e-commerce strategy for the continent, which came after the landmark adoption in March of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

E-commerce will be in focus at a high-level event next week in South Africa, where Dr. Kituyi will join President Cyril Ramaphosa and Jack Ma, the founder and head of China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba, who serves as a special adviser to UNCTAD on young entrepreneurs and small business.

In December, UNCTAD will organize its first-ever Africa E-Commerce Week in December in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, building on the success of its global editions in Geneva.
President Kagame on 2 August 2018 joined a panel discussion on Financing Africas Transformation for Sustainable Development alongside former Presidents Benjamin Mkapa of the United Republic of Tanzania and Hassan Mohamed of the Federal Republic of Somalia, as well as Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The President who was attending the African Leadership Forum also delivered a keynote address. The forum, which brings together former Heads of State, heads of regional organizations, government and business leaders, runs from 2-3 August 2018.

Discussions at the forum focus on the prospects of increased, improved and effective financing for Africas transformation.

In his remarks, President Kagame highlighted that Africa can finance the biggest part of its development agenda. African leaders have to take responsibility for the misallocation of Africas resources and take steps to correct it, he added.

The forum is organized by the Office of the Former President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa in conjunction with the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development, UONGOZI Institute.

Other former Heads of State attending the forum include former Presidents Armando Guebuza and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Mohamed Moncef Marzouki of Tunisia, and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria.

Remarks by President Kagame at the African Leadership Forum

A good morning to you, and welcome here to Rwanda. It is our pleasure to have you here.

I am very pleased to join you, for the fifth edition of the African Leadership Forum. I would like to thank President Mkapa, and the Uongozi Institute for affording us the opportunity to host and have this forum convened in Rwanda.

I also wish to say a word of special thanks to the former Heads of State for taking the time to be here. Excellencies, it is an honour to host you and you are most welcome.

This years very pertinent topic, is financing Africas transformation. Africa can finance its own development, at least a big part of it. There is no doubt about it. We know this because Africa finances other peoples development, and always has.

The value of illicit financial flows, evaded taxes, and commodity extraction greatly exceeds that of foreign aid, as a matter of fact. But we have to take responsibility for the misallocation of Africas resources and take steps to correct that.

I would rather argue, that we need to mobilise the right mindsets, rather than more funding. After all, in Africa, we have everything we need, in real terms. Whatever is lacking, we have the means to acquire. And yet, we remain mentally married to the idea that nothing can get moving, without external finance.

We are even begging for things we already have. That is absolutely a failure of mindset.

So, how do we reach a turning point?

First, through accountability. Take domestic tax collection. Once again, this is not only about technical capabilities, but much more about building the trust that public funds will be spent on the right things. This is the foundation of good politics, that is effective and citizen-focused.

Second, through regional integration. Working together across our continent. The success of the financial reform of the African Union, adopted in 2016, shows that Africa has the will and ability to fund common priorities. So we should build on this.

Contributions to the Peace Fund have never been higher, the African Union budget has been reduced, while Member State contributions have become more stable.

The entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area is set to significantly increase trade within Africa, and consequently improve tax collection.

These are very important developments, which show real momentum toward African unity. This lays the basis for more effective public-private partnerships, as well. In critical fields, such as renewable energy, private sector investors require big, multi-country markets to be viable.

We gain immeasurably by trading with each other, and lose so much, when we dont.

Once again, technical explanations are inadequate. These are political problems, and mindset issues Earlier, the moderator talked about mental emancipation. Absolutely this has to do with the mindset issues.

For example, railways and roads are undeniably important. Yet, even where rail is not an obstacle, we dont trade. You find citizens sneaking through forests, across borders, to do business with each other, because the politics is so toxic. There may even be a nice, new road built to facilitate commerce, but people avoid it, for the same reasons.These are choices that get made every day, not by our words, but through our actions, that keep too many of our people poor and dependent.

The third way to reach a turning point, is to continue making it easier for African businesses to grow, and create jobs for young people. This is about improving the regulatory climate for enterprise and trade, on the one hand. It also means building deeper capital markets, and lowering the high cost of sending remittances. But it is also about changing the mindset of our youth from one of dependence and poverty reduction, to one of prosperity and wealth creation.

In my view, the definition of illicit flows should be expanded to include the habit of importing things, that we already have right here in our countries, and our region. Certainly, even if the definition of illicit doesnt include this, it is wrong, there is no doubt about it. Later on, I may have you time to tell the story that lies behind this point. We have to be mindful of the huge financial losses our continent incurs, as a result.

Young Africans are going to have to make these necessary changes. To really lead, at the level of new attitudes and norms in Africa. These are the changes that have to be looked at. To see the value that lies all around us. To behave like people who know our continent has a future. To change the world, rather than waiting for it to change us.

Why should we be willing to give up, and succumb at the outset? No. We should try and give it a fight. Its worth it. Each of us can make a difference. Everyone has the option to strive to do his or her work with excellence, and a good heart.

Let me conclude here and say thank you very much for your kind attention, and I look forward to our further discussion.
editorial@tribune.com

Chandigarh, August 4

A local court granted interim bail to an accused in the bitcoin ponzi scam case to perform last rites of his father.

Rajesh Jain, a resident of Rajasthan, along with Sanchit, was arrested in Pune on May 24. They were stated to be agents of bitcoin ponzi king Amit Bhardwaj, who too was arrested in Pune.

The court on Friday granted Rajesh an interim bail till August 10 to perform the last rites of his father and directed him to surrender then. The accused was granted interim bail after he furnished bail bonds of Rs 50,000. Rajesh assured the court that he would surrender by August 10.

Earlier, the court had rejected his bail plea to attend his brothers wedding. TNS
editorial@tribune.com

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 4

City residents and tourists may soon find themselves bowled over by fascinating wicket gates and captivating fences that would not keep the countryside charm away. For, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the UT Administration to consider the feasibility of raising fences from the debris of brick walls in government houses across the city.

Good fences make good neighbours. But it may soon make the city look all the more charming, if the High Courts suggestions find a favour with the Administration. As far as the boundary walls are concerned, the UT Administration may consider substituting brick walls with attractive fencing with wicket gates, which may add to beautification of the sectors, Justice Rajiv Narain Raina of the High Court asserted.

The suggestion came with a rider. The fencing has to be cheap, durable and long lasting requiring minimum repair, Justice Raina directed, while giving the Administration time till month end to respond to the proposal.

In the good old days, Chandigarh was easily differentiable from other cities not just because of its planned architecture, but also due to essentially low boundary walls and uniform design of its gates.

But over the years, Chandigarh saw changes in the building by-laws and structural design. As residents expanded their boundaries to experiment with new designs and construction styles, the gates lost their homogeny and the walls witnessed a raise in its height.

The High Court order will apparently bring back the consistency and the past charm once the UT Administration gives its nod.

Justice Raina also observed that several UT departments were involved in carrying out construction and repair works, but coordination among the different wings appeared insufficient for carrying out the task. As such, there was a need for a centralised command, to which all other agencies would report.

The High Court has already directed the Chandigarh Administration to immediately start renovation of 471 vacant houses, including 218 houses unfit for allotment.

The Bench, on a previous date of hearing, had also directed the sending of all the interim orders previously passed by the court together to the newly added respondent UNESCO for their easy and ready access and to acquaint them with the subject matter so that the organization is not startled with the summons from court.

The Bench during the course of hearing was told that Chandigarh employees opting for government accommodation have the choice of checking its condition online, with photographs of houses up for allotment being provided online.
editorial@tribune.com

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 4

A peaceful town of Himachal Pradesh, Chail, which was established by the ancestors of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, has apparently become a favourite place for Mohali Mayor and Akali leader Kulwant Singh and his squad to strategise their political moves against Congress councillors in the local Municipal Corporation.

In their latest two-day visit to Chail, Kulwant Singh, along with Akali and BJP councillors, is said to have strategised against Senior Deputy Mayor Rishabh Jain of Congress, who is a close associate of Cabinet Minister and Mohali MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu.

Soon a no-confidence motion against Jain would be brought in the MC House meeting, said Paramjit Singh Kahlon, a senior Akali councillor while returning from Chail on Saturday.

A BJP councillor would replace Jain as the senior deputy mayor, he claimed.

Kahlon said almost all Akali and BJP councillors were present at Chail. We camped there for two days, he said.

This was the fourth visit of the area by Kulwant and his squad. Kulwant, who had fought the Mohali MC election after forming his Azad Group, had taken his groups elected councillors to the area immediately after the contest to avoid any poaching. Later, he and his supporters had gone there before the election to the posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor for obvious reasons.

When contacted, Kulwant Singh confirmed that he was on his way home from Himachal Pradesh. When asked the purpose of the visit, he quipped, We went there for enjoyment and rejuvenation.

Two-Thirds majority needed for removal

In the 50-member Mohali MC House, the Akali-BJP combine is the largest with 34 councillors while the Congress has 14 councillors and MLA Balbir Sidhu, who has the voting right. The remaining two members, deputy mayor Manjit Singh Sethi and Harminder Kaur Lang, are independents. To remove the senior deputy mayor from his/her post, two-thirds majority in the House is needed. As many as 34 votes are needed to remove Jain and we have the numbers, claimed the Akali-BJP councillors.

What they said...

I am least bothered if they are conspiring against me. I represent people and nobody can stop me from working for public welfare.  Rishabh Jain, senior deputy mayor, Mohali

We will see when they bring the no-confidence motion. It is our government in the state. Public welfare works will not stop due to petty politics.  Balbir Singh Sidhu, Cabinet Minister & Mohali MLA
editorial@tribune.com

Rajinder S Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, August 4

In a major blow to the premier investigation agency, the special CBI court on Saturday acquitted Sandeep Sharma, a partner in Shubham Hospital and Diagnostic Centre at Sector 20, Panchkula, and Jatinder Sharma, official valuer of the Bank of India, in a multi-crore bank scam after the prosecution failed to prove the allegations.

While acquitting them, Kapil Rathi, Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Haryana, said, This court is of the considered view that the evidence led by the CBI is highly insufficient and discrepant on the material aspects of the case. The prosecution/CBI has failed to prove its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt and so they are entitled to benefit of doubt.

they are acquitted of the charges framed against them under Sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468, 471 of the IPC.

Sandeep Sharmas counsel NK Bajaj said there were six accused initially. However, there was no prosecution sanction against three officials of Bank of India while Sandeeps wife Ranjana Sharma has already been declared a proclaimed offender. The court on Saturday acquitted the other two accused as there was no sufficient evidence, he added.

Ajay Kaushik, counsel of Jatinder Sharma, said the Judge stated that the CBI failed to prove that the accused had conspired together. His client Jatinder Sharma was only an approved valuer of the Bank of India, Sector 16, Panchkula, and had only given his valuation report on the basis of the title documents of flat number 216A and 217A submitted by the bank, he said.

Case Background
Sushma Ramachandran

Sushma Ramachandran

The debate over control of the e-commerce space has acquired a new dimension with the entry of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and its protest over the takeover of homegrown unicorn Flipkart by global retail giant Walmart. The Manch has come into the public eye in recent months after a fairly long hiatus by protesting various policies that do not conform with its concept of swadeshi economics. It has, for instance, contested the privatisation of the public sector Air India, as well as argued against any negotiations on investment facilitation at the World Trade Organisation. But it is on the Flipkart-Walmart deal as well as related issues on e-commerce that the Manch is making its presence felt, largely because it has support from the millions of small retailers that are worried about being wiped out by the huge discounts offered in online trade. Even the large domestic retailers and those planning to make an entry into e-commerce like Reliance are ranged on the side of the Manch as far as regulatory issues are concerned.

The Manch, a subsidiary of the Rashtriya Sewak Sangh (RSS), was last this vociferous many years ago when the issue of intellectual property rights and patents had become a contentious issue at the WTO. It has also over the years protested strongly over the entry of foreign investment, especially in the retail sector. It did not, however, get much traction during the Vajpayee government which had gone full steam on economic reforms, including incentives to foreign direct investment. Its concept of swadeshi economics is largely to oppose such investment and support domestic producers as well as the public sector.

It is not yet clear how far the Manch has influence in the present government but its complaint on the illegality of the Walmart-Flipkart deal is being treated with kid gloves. The Industry Ministry has decried any role in the issue while Niti Aayog has suggested that job creation should be the focus of the swadeshi approach.

It would not be fair, however, to merely dismiss the viewpoint of the Manch on all subjects. On investment facilitation, for example, it has rightly argued that Western countries use such issues to promote their own interests. It notes that there is no data to show that binding rules would promote foreign investment flows to India. Even in the case of the Walmart takeover, its suspicions over the impact of the deal are likely to be shared by many in the US. The retail giant has been severely criticised for predatory pricing leading to the closure of innumerable small retail outlets in that country. Similar concerns had delayed the opening up of the retail sector to foreign investment here.

The legality of the Walmart-Flipkart deal, on the other hand, is not likely to be an issue as this has been in the pipeline for quite some time. But it is no doubt dismaying even to an ordinary observer that the very desi entrepreneurs that took an amazing journey to bring Flipkart to the position of the biggest e-commerce company in the country should have to hand over control to a foreign partner. There has, unfortunately, been little option as the domestic company has to gear up to meet the challenge of the other global giant, Amazon. In other words, India has become yet another venue for the battle of the two retail behemoths. This is a war which has been under way in the U.S. for quite a while.

Even as the new entity is still being formed, the government has decided to step in to formulate an e-commerce policy. This may end up restricting both deep discounts and preventing single vendors from exceeding a specified share in the marketplace. Discussions are on with the industry to ensure that the new policy is fair to all. But it may not suit either Walmart or Amazon which are in a position to offer rock-bottom rates to consumers. The regulatory proposals are being supported not just by smaller e-commerce players but existing large retailers and potential entrants as even the brick and mortar chains are now doing online sales in a big way. The Manch is adding its voice to those of the domestic players as it favours more regulation of the e-commerce marketplace. It remains, of course, a champion of the millions of small retail shops.

The question is, should the government intervene in a sector that has been thriving till now largely due to a policy of benign neglect? Flipkart's creation by two young entrepreneurs and that of other startup ventures has been attributed largely to this hands off policy. Sadly, the entry of more organised e-retail players like Amazon and Walmart make some kind of regulations inevitable in order to ensure a level playing field. The Manch may not be in tune with the changing times on many issues but one can empathise with its focus on promoting local players. One can only hope that the government ensures that the new e-commerce policy remains benign enough to allow more new ventures to thrive rather than stifling innovation and entrepreneurship.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

London, August 5

The UK government on Sunday announced new plans to change the law for organ and tissue donation to address the urgent need for organs within Indian-origin communities in the country.

The proposed new system of consent for organ and tissue donation is expected to come into effect in England in 2020 as part of a drive to help black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people desperately waiting for a life-saving transplant.

Under the new presumed consent system, those who do not want to donate their organs will be able to record their decision on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) Organ Donor Register (ODR).

Organ donation is of course a deeply personal choice, and for many, their faith will play an important factor in their decision, said Jackie Doyle-Price, UKs Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health and Inequalities.

We want to make it much easier for people to record and share their decision with friends, families and to NHS staff so that they can be confident their wishes  whether or not they choose to donate  will always be respected, she said.

The announcement comes as a recent report called on the NHS to take more proactive action to address the high death rate among Indian-origin people in Britain due to low levels of organ donation within the community.

The Organ Donation: Breaking Taboos Amongst British BAME Communities report, commissioned by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, was aimed at studying the low levels of donation among BAME communities in the UK.

These communities are seen as generally less inclined to opt for organ donation, largely due to deeply-entrenched cultural and religious beliefs discouraging organ donation.

The governments latest initiative is well-intentioned but subsequently its success will depend on the degree and efficacy of engagement with the BAME populations, says report author Nishtha Chugh.

Death is a sensitive and highly emotive issue in South Asian cultures. And thats just one of the barriers to organ donation.

Unless the new programme sufficiently addresses these core issues surrounding beliefs and specific cultures, unless it aims at normalising and encouraging prior family conversations about organ donation in Indian or Pakistani families, the new programme will not succeed in producing the desired numbers the government so desperately wants to see in these ethnic minorities, added Chugh, a 2016 Churchill Fellow.

As part of her research, she uncovered evidence from a number of countries, including India, to show that it is possible to counter religious and cultural beliefs around organ donation.

India has seen a 10-fold increase in its organ donation consent rates over the last decade as a result of sustained public awareness programmes, policy initiatives, and multi-stakeholder collaboration, the findings reveal.

The NHS strategy to engage with BAME communities on organ donation is woefully inadequate. The focus has always been on awareness rather than behaviour change, Chugh said.

A substantial number of patients on the transplant list, and dying as a result of long waiting periods, are Indians and Pakistanis. Each person on dialysis costs the NHS more than 33,000 pounds a year. We can not only save on costs but also save lives, Chugh added.

According to NHS records, only 7 per cent of donors last year were from BAME backgrounds, with Indians accounting for just 1.9 per cent of the NHS ODR.

It found that 21 per cent of people who died on the organ donation waiting list in the UK last year were from a BAME background, compared with 15 per cent a decade ago. Family refusal continues to be the biggest obstacle to organ donation among the UKs Asian communities, the NHS noted.

Chughs research, which covered the US, Qatar and Israel besides India, found that ethnic minority communities in these countries have made significant gains in addressing their deeply ingrained taboos surrounding death rituals, increasing awareness about organ donation, and in most cases, consent rates.

Sustained public education campaigns and youth engagement are responsible for a higher number of registrations and consent rates in these countries.

The UK needs to think beyond opt-out. Its not a magic pill; and will not solve the core issues surrounding BAME consent rates, Chugh said.

Both India and the UK follow the opt-in system, whereby families decision to donate organs of their loved one after death is discretionary.

The UK government is now moving towards adopting legislation favouring the opt-out system to address the growing crisis in the country.

Incentive does not need to be a dirty word. Incentivising organ donation can correct the imbalance between takers and givers in a society, where a few weeks or months longer on the waiting list for organs can mean the difference between life and death, the report notes.

As a multi-ethnic country with complex social and cultural structures, India can offer a number of valuable lessons to the UK on how to address deeply-entrenched beliefs discouraging organ donation in the South Asian disapora, the author argues. PTI
JSPL bagged 20 per cent of Rs 2,500 crore global tender by Indian Railways to supply long rails.

Supplying rails to Indian Railways is like a "dream come true", Naveen Jindal, the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) which became the first private company to supply rails to the railways, said.

New Delhi: Supplying rails to Indian Railways is like a "dream come true", Naveen Jindal, the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) which became the first private company to supply rails to the railways, said.

Last week, JSPL bagged 20 per cent of Rs 2,500 crore global tender by Indian Railways to supply long rails. "It was a very emotional and proud moment. It was like a dream come true. A dream which we had seen some 20 years back. I had always dreamt of supplying rails to our national transporter," Jindal told PTI in an interview.

JSPL had set up a rail mill at its Raigarh plant in 2003 to become the second player after SAIL to produce rails in India. "Meanwhile, we kept on getting long rail orders from industry and were exporting to countries like Iran, Bangladesh and a few others. In India, we supplied for dedicated freight corridor. But our main aim was to supply to the Indian Railways. Domestic rail segment is something which we were trying for 15 years," he said.

Until now, under a Memorandum of Understanding, SAIL was exclusively supplying rails to the Railways from its Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh. JSPL operates a 1 million tonne per annum (MTPA) rail mill at its 3.6 MTPA steel plant at Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

When asked if he sees the Railways' order as an end to the SAIL's monopoly in rail segment in India, Jindal said, "SAIL can supply only up to a limit. "Railways was buying from SAIL all that it could produce. ... suppose, if Railways has a requirement of 15 lakh tonne (LT) and SAIL can make only 10 LT then you can see there is a shortage of 5 LT. To meet this shortage Railways floated a global tender."

While appreciating the government for recognising the potential of a private player for the order, Jindal said it is a kind of responsibility and JSPL is committed to and capable to fulfil the order.

The National Steel Policy (NSP) 2017 aims to raise the domestic steel making capacity to 300 MT while another policy - the Domestically Manufactured Iron and Steel Products (DMI&SP) Policy that makes it mandatory to give preference to locally produced steel in government procurement -- are remarkable steps taken by the Ministry of Steel, Jindal remarked.

The DMI&SP policy fulfils the spirit of 'Make in India', he said adding that they were already producing in India. When asked as to when the first consignment would be dispatched, he said the company aims to ship the first shipment on August 7, 2018, which is also the birth anniversary of his father Om Prakash Jindal, the founder of O P Jindal Group.

He claimed the order is to supply around 1 lakh tonnes of rails over a period of one year but JSPL can easily complete the entire demand within three months as it can produce 50,000 tonnes rail per month.

Jindal further said that they have no plans to raise the capacity of the rail mill as it was being run at 50 per cent capacity and looking at the demand coming from the Railways, they would first utilise the mill's whole capacity.

After facing supply issues from Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Indian Railways had invited tenders for procuring around 4.87 lakh metric tonnes of rails to meet the growing demand for the product.
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

The rich from developing countries can effortlessly circumvent the law of their land by purchasing a safe haven in another country, usually the West or countries under its security umbrella. Fugitives Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi were welcomed with open arms in the UK; absconder Mehul Choksi acquired citizenship in Antigua. This is not a new phenomenon. Neither are the double standards: the UK or the US armtwist or bully other countries into turning in fugitives from their laws but ignore the colour of money while sheltering runaway criminals from other nations. The roster is not confined to economic offenders; Canada and the UK have been generous to several rogue Indians who have been known to use foreign shores to mount subversive action against their motherland.

Countries often justify protection money for citizenship on flimsy grounds  apprehension of religious or ethnic persecution, political vendetta, perceived threat to life, possibility of death sentence or the bad conditions of Indian prisons. It is understandable that cash-strapped nations like Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and Malta allow direct citizenships to the loaded from across the world, but there is a need for moral benchmarking.

The Caribbean nation has justified its shelter to Choksi because there was no adverse information against him in a background check with the Indian authorities months before the multi-crore PNB scam was exposed. Now that Antigua knows that Choksi is an absconder, it should immediately revoke his citizenship. Hopefully, the UK would set the precedent by deporting Mallya and Nirav Modi. New Delhi has several questions to answer on the manner in which its fugitives are enconsced in other countries. But countries such as the UK and the US must not make a distinction between their fugitive and those from other nations.
editorial@tribune.com

New Delhi, August 4

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Delhi zonal unit, busted an Internet pharmacy and seized a huge quantity of psychotropic substances in Gurugram.

The unit received information that companies Zatak Softech and Pharma Glown were believed to be involved in the trafficking of psychotropic substances in the form of pharmaceutical formulations through Internet pharmacy based in Gurugram to the USA and other countries in Europe and sending these through parcels and couriers.

On August 2, an NCB team intercepted 44 parcels at the foreign post office, New Delhi, booked by Pharma Glow and destined for the USA, UK and Hungry on checking the parcels. White lose tablets, suspected to be psychotropic substances, were found concealed in some parcels. These parcels were declared as herbal medicines to mislead the law enforcement agencies.

On further checking the records, it was revealed that the company was regularly sending a huge number of parcels to foreign destinations.

It was revealed that both companies, Zatak Softech and Pharma Glow, were owned by Gurugram resident Amit Kumar.

Multiple NCB teams were constituted and search operations were conducted on various premises in four locations of the companies and its owner in Gurugram. During the search of his house and warehouse in Gurugram, eight parcels, containing psychotropic substances which were pending for dispatch to the USA, UK and Singapore, lose psychotropic tablets, packing materials, which were used to parcel the drugs and some incriminatory materials, were also recovered.

During the search operations, 17 fake seals of various government organisations and 22,410 tablets of various psychotropic substances were recovered from the foreign post office and various locations.  TNS
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, August 4

Farmers burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday to protest against the denotification of land acquired from 2004 onwards for Dadupur-Nalvi Irrigation Scheme.

The farmers under the banner of Dadupur-Nalvi Nehar (canal) Sangharsh Samiti have been sitting on dharna at the gate of the new grain market, Jagadhri, for the past 340 days.

They were demanding release of enhanced compensation for their land acquired for the Dadupur-Nalvi scheme.

The compensation had been enhanced by the Supreme Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The Supreme Court had recently passed an order directing the state government to deposit Rs 50 lakh per acre as compensation in the court of Additional District Judge, Jagadhri, Naresh Katyal, who is hearing the case.

After getting the news of the denotification of land, the farmers assembled at the dharna site and raised anti-government slogans. They also burnt the effigy of the Chief Minister on the national highway near the mini-secretariat.

Dadupur-Nalvi Nehar (canal) Sangharsh Samiti President Kashmir Singh Dhillon said they would challenge the notification in the High Court.

The notification is incomplete. Total land acquired for the project is not covered under the notification. The government wants to linger on the issue through this incomplete notification to avoid release of enhanced compensation to farmers. Therefore, we have decided to challenge the notification in the High Court demanding release of their enhanced compensation, said Dhillon.

Samiti member Arjun Sudhail alleged that the state government was anti-farmer. He said they would not bow down before the wrong policies of the government and continue their dharna until they get their enhanced compensation.

The canal is useful in recharging of the water table. Therefore, the government should release our enhanced compensation instead of closing this project, said Sudhail.

The Haryana Government had acquired 1,019 acres for the construction of the Dadupur-Nalvi Irrigation scheme in different years.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Karnal, august 5

In a state-level protest rally, scores of employees under the banner of PWD Mechanical Workers Union on Sunday announced to gherao the Haryana Assembly during the monsoon session on August 20 in support of their demands.

The protesters were demanding regularisation of the services of pump operators, equal pay for equal work, removal of discrepancies in the service rules, abolition of mandatory computer knowledge for promotion in the Irrigation Department.

Besides, they were also demanding filling of the vacant posts, removal of encroachments from the department land and quarters for its staff members.

A large number of employees on Sunday assembled in Sector 12 and hold a protest. Virender Singh, state president of the union, led the protest rally and accused the state government of not fulfilling its promises. He said in November last year, they were assured by the Principal Secretary to the CM that their demands would be fulfilled, but nothing had been done.

Virender said the union had served an ultimatum to the government. He said if their demands were not met at the earliest they would gherao the Haryana Assembly on August 20. They would also stage an indefinite dharna at the CMs camp office in Karnal.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Hisar, August 4

Setting the stage for confrontation with the government, the sarpanches of the entire state have announced to start indefinite dharnas in all district headquarters in support of their demands from Monday.

The Haryana Sarpanches Association, led by Satpal Singh of Jhajjar district, alleged that the autonomy of the sarpanches, which was a key element of the Panchayati Raj institutions, had got eroded in the last couple of years. They demanded that the state government should immediately fulfil their demands.

The sarpanch of Depal village of the district, Ashok Kumar, who presided over the meeting, said they had discussed various issues which were responsible for creating hurdles in the smooth functioning of the elected gram panchayats.

They opposed the state governments directions to purchase construction material from one agency, terming the directions as Tuglaki. The autonomy and the powers conferred to the sarpanches as per the Panchayati Raj Act have been diluted on the pretext of checking corruption. This is nothing but an attempt to scuttle the functioning and autonomy of the sarpanches who are elected after the freshly introduced provision like minimum education qualifications by the state government, Ashok Kumar said.

They demanded a fresh survey of the below the poverty line (BPL) people, as it has been around a decade when the previous survey was conducted in the state. A large number of eligible families are not included in the list, while there are many families which have become ineligible due to their improved economic status, the sarpanches added.

Manoj Sharma, sarpanch of Dhandur village, said they had also raised the issue of extending the Pradhan Mantri Avas Yojna to the rural segment on the lines of the urban areas. Besides, they demanded that the sarpanches should be given honorarium of Rs 30,000 and the panches Rs 5,000 each in view of their nature of job and responsibilities.

Some of the sarpanches also objected to their suspension, alleging that they were at the whims and fancies of ministers at times. There have been instances when ministers have suspended sarpanches due to extraneous reasons, sarpanches said.

Manoj Sharma said the sarpanches across the state would start dharna at the mini-secretariats in their respective districts from Monday (August 6). Their further strategy would be chalked later in view of the stand of the state government towards their demands, he added.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ambala, August 4

Health Minister Anil Vij on Saturday recommended the suspension of two doctors during a surprise visit to the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantonment.

Vij suspended the doctors for prescribing medicines to be purchased from outside the hospital.

He also ordered to charge-sheet a doctor and sought explanations from four doctors and a nurse.

Around 1.55 pm, Vij reached the hospital and started interacting with patients. He took OPD cards from patients to whom the doctors had prescribed medicines to be purchased from outside. He sought explanation from the Senior Medical Officer (SMO). After not getting any satisfactory reply, the minister ordered the suspension of Dr Gorav Singla and Dr Ashwini Mudgal of the orthopaedic department.

Dr Vinod Kamboj of the same department was ordered to be charge-sheeted under Rule 8 of the Haryana Civil Services. The minister sought explanations from Dr Kuldeep, psychology department, Dr Rita Kathwal, SMO, Indoor Patient Department, Dr Puja Sharma, general surgeon, Dr Rajesh Goyal, deputed in the emergency ward, and staff nurse Sunita. The minister said that further action would be taken against them after getting their replies.

The Health Minister also found that most of the doctors had left the hospital despite the fact that patients were still sitting in the OPD. He expressed his unhappiness and inquired about the absence of the doctors from SMO Satish Gupta.
editorial@tribune.com

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 5

Even after one year of its commissioning, the Rs 42-crore waste-to-energy plant at Bharyal has failed to generate green energy. Heaps of garbage at the site has made the lives of residents miserable.

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has also failed to redesign the landfill site.

Mayor Kusum Sadret, who visited the site recently, found that the plant was not being run properly.

Residents in the vicinity of the plant said the rainy season had added to their woes as the stink from the plant had made it difficult for them to breathe.

Interestingly, the functioning of the plant is also being monitored by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Sources said in a hurry to commission the plant, the company had procured old gas-generating equipment from Delhi in August last year, which had failed to function properly.

The garbage site has become a breeding ground for flies and mosquitoes. Commuters on the Shimla-Jubbarhatti airport route have a tough time crossing the stretch.

Sources said the target was to generate 1.5 MW of green energy from refuse-derived fuel (RDF) being generated in the plant everyday. During a recent inspection by representatives of the State Pollution Control Board, the latter also found that the plant was not being run properly. It served notices on the SMC and the company in this regard.

The SMC has been asked to redesign the landfill site to prevent leakages and breeding of flies and mosquitoes, said a senior environment engineer with the pollution control board.

Sources say since the company is now getting four gasification machines from Germany, it is selling the RDF to the Ambuja cement plant that uses it as a fuel in its plant.

The Mayor said the SMC had started the fumigation process to prevent the breeding of flies and mosquitoes. She added that the company had also been directed to run the plant properly.

MC project manager MP Singh said the process to redesign the landfill site was underway.  The company is expected to install new machines by December to produce green energy, he added.

The Bharyal plant
editorial@tribune.com

Shimla, August 5

Hindi writer Mridula Srivastava will present a research paper on technical terminology of Hindi towards globalisation in the 11th World Hindi Conference to be held in Mauritius from August 18 to 20. Her paper has been accepted by a high-level committee of the Ministry of External Affairs. She will represent the SJVN, where she is working as senior manager (official language).

Her first book of short stories titled Kaash Pandori na hoti was well acknowledged and appreciated in the literary circles. Her short stories have been published in the top literary magazines.  TNS
editorial@tribune.com

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 4

A day after thousands of fish were found dead in the Swan on the Punjab-Himachal border, the Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board (HPPCB) on Saturday swung into action and conducted surprise checks at various industrial units in Tahliwal and Mehatpur. The HPPCB authorities again blamed Punjab Alkalis and Chemicals Limited (PACL), a Punjab Government undertaking, for fish mortality.

SK Dhiman, Executive Engineer, HPPCB, countered the claim of the Punjab pollution board that no industrial effluent from the neighbouring state was released into the river. He said a drain from the PACL entered the Swan near Dayapur village. Fish had died beyond this point. There was no fish mortality on the Himachal side, the Executive Engineer of the HPPCB claimed.

Earlier also, the HPPCB authorities had blamed the PACL for contaminating underground water in Himachal villages which was denied by the PACL authorities.

Dhiman also said they had collected samples from the discharge points of the Himachal industry and sent these for testing. No concrete evidence had been found regarding the fish being killed from the industrial effluents released from the units in Himachal, he said.

However, residents of Santokhgarh, a town on the banks of the Swan, have a different story to tell.

Madan Lal, 82, of Santokhgarh, who takes his cattle for grazing, said the water turned black at points where the industrial waste from Tahliwal and Mehatpur areas was released into the Swan. Due to the release of industrial waste, I developed severe allergies in my feet. I have spent Rs 5,000 on medicine, but the problem still persists, Madan Lal said.

Mool Raj, another resident of Santokhgarh, runs his service station on the banks of the Swan in Santokhgarh. He said the river emanated a foul smell at night, making it difficult for them to sleep.

The SDO of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) Jatin Joshi on Friday claimed that since no industrial unit from Punjab was releasing effluents, the fish might have died due to the pollution caused by the industrial units in Himachal.

PACL denies charge, says no waste discharged

Punjab Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (PACL) authorities, however, denied that any toxic waste was discharged into the river by the company. PACL deputy general manager MPS Walia said it had been a zero-discharge plant for several years and not even a single drop of effluent was discharged from the unit as everything was consumed within the plant.
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Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, August 4

Sepoy Vijay Kumar, posted with the Armys 22 Rashtriya Rifles, who was killed in an encounter in Shopian district on Friday, was cremated with full state honours at his native village Makari in Bilaspur district on Saturday. The martyrs body reached his house at 3.30 pm. Villagers in large numbers gathered at the cremation ground to pay their last respects. The bravehearts wife and two sons (five and seven) were inconsolable.

The gunfight erupted at Drusoo Behrampora village when teams of the police, Armys 22 Rashtriya Rifles and CRPFs 92 and 172 battalions launched a cordon-and-search operation following inputs about the presence of militants on Thursday evening.

Vivek Bhatia, Deputy Commissioner, Bilaspur, who was present at the cremation, said the state government would extend all possible support to the soldiers family.

Earlier in Shimla, Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur paid tributes to the martyr, a press note stated.

In his message, the Governor prayed the almighty to give peace to the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family members to bear this irreparable loss.

The Chief Minister in his message said the gallant soldiers of the state always fought with bravery for the security of the nation. The country and the state would always remember the ultimate sacrifice of Sepoy Vijay Kumar, he added

Bikram Thakur, Industries Minister, Ram Lal Thakur, MLA, Naina Devi, and Satpal Satti, president, state BJP, were also present. With inputs from PTI

Guv, CM pay tributes
SBI led the pack in penalising its customers for not maintaining minimum account balance.

As many as 21 public sector banks and three major private sector lenders collected a whopping Rs 5,000 crore from customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance in their accounts in 2017-18, according to banking data.

New Delhi: As many as 21 public sector banks and three major private sector lenders collected a whopping Rs 5,000 crore from customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance in their accounts in 2017-18, according to banking data.

India's largest lender State Bank of India, which suffered a staggering net loss of Rs 6,547 crore during 2017-18, led the pack in penalising its customers for not maintaining minimum account balance.

The government-owned SBI, which re-introduced the penalty on deposits going below monthly average balance basis from April 2017, collected nearly half the amount raised by the 24 banks put together (Rs 4,989.55 crore).

But for the additional income of Rs 2,433.87 crore under this head, SBI's losses would have soared further.

After SBI, the largest amount of charges for not maintaining minimum balance during 2017-18 was collected by HDFC Bank. It charged its customers Rs 590.84 crore, which is lower than Rs 619.39 crore in 2016-17, the data revealed.

Axis Bank collected Rs 530.12 crore in the last fiscal while ICICI Bank charged Rs 317.6 crore.

SBI was charging the penalty on failure to maintain monthly average balance requirement till 2012 and again re-introduced it from April 1, 2017.

Following the criticism, SBI reduced charges with effect from October 1, 2017.

According to the RBI norms, banks are permitted to levy sevice/miscellaneous charges.

Customers opening accounts under Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) scheme as well as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna are not required to maintain any minimum balance.
singhking99@yahoo.com

Despite the Supreme Courts order to phase out some pesticides that are banned overseas, the Centre appears indecisive for reasons best known to it, while the states are hamstrung due to tweaking of rules, says Kavitha Kuruganti

The rejection of export consignments  basmati rice this time  due to excessive presence of pesticide residues is back in news. This has now become routine. According to an ICRIER study, there were 444 import refusal reports for basmati rice alone in the US between January 2014 and May 2017, mainly due to the presence of higher-than-approved levels of pesticide residues. If this is the case with export consignments from India, one wonders what the situation is with regard to residues in foods meant for domestic markets. There are obviously questions also on the health implications of such residues in our food and environment.

The government's Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at the National Level (MPRNL) data usually present a picture that is in stark contrast to independent studies. MPRNL reports that only around 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent of samples have been found with residues above Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs), which is significantly lower than what other studies are reporting. There is also an unresolved debate around MRLs  whether they are indicators of food safety or not  that our regulators sidestep neatly.

Meanwhile, the problem is not just with residues and chronic health impacts from such residues in our food as well as water. Acute poisoning due to exposure to pesticides is a matter of serious concern too, and this became a national debate last year when dozens of deaths and hundreds of hospitalisations were reported from Vidarbha. A Parliament reply on March 16, 2018 stated that in Punjab, 112 deaths were caused by inhalation of pesticides in 2015-16, 57 deaths in 2016-17 and 64 in 2017-18. This is an unacceptable violation of the fundamental right to life.

In India, pesticide usage is actually on the rise. The pesticide industry will of course present data to show per hectare usage disregarding the fact that unsafe usage practices as well as dangerous and more direct exposure pathways that make pesticides in our food and farming systems a matter of greater concern.

It is surprising that chemical pesticide consumption in India is still on the rise despite their ill effects on human health and the environment. However, consumer awareness is also on the rise. This gets reflected in their purchase behaviour as the organic food sector posts an impressive growth. Farming is, indeed, possible without the use of synthetic pesticides, which can actually be more profitable.

Adoption of ecological agriculture (organic or natural farming) brings down costs and indebtedness, increases profitability in farming, and even reduces farm suicides. We are yet to come across a single case of an organic farmer committing suicide in India due to agrarian distress. One laments the fact that no studies have been taken up by governments to figure out if there is any connection between pesticide usage (that too of OP pesticides which are consumed more in India), consequent nervous system impacts, depression/suicidal tendencies and unabated spate of farm suicides in certain pockets of the country.

It is worth noting that higher yields have been documented in many crops without the use of chemical pesticides. This is something that the ICAR's All India Network Project on Organic Farming vouches for, from multiple years and sites of trials of comparing organic with conventional farming. It is also not out of place that Malthusian scare-mongering is not a tactic that the pesticide industry and other proponents can deploy anymore, given that our problem seems to be of surpluses in production and not food scarcity.

What is worrisome is the fact that state governments are not empowered legally to prohibit (at least de facto) the sales and usage of pesticides in their jurisdictions. This appears to have happened due to some silent and devious tweaking of rules related to licensing authority that state governments had in the past. Punjab has also been thwarted in its attempt on this front with regard to 20 pesticides.

Meanwhile, the Centre has been dilly-dallying on a decision to ban and phase out, from India at least, some of those pesticides that have been banned elsewhere. Though the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to take a decision by June 2018 on this matter, no decision has been made. Farming is, indeed, possible without chemical fertilisers and our farmers, consumers and environment can only benefit from such agriculture. We now wait for the government to show its political will on this matter.

Banned globally, but registered in India

66 pesticides either banned/restricted in various countries

The Supreme Court has banned the use of Endusulfan

Fenitrothion is banned in India recently

Position of various legislations in India

The Insecticides Act of 1968: Archaic, still existent

Pesticide Management Bill 2008: Inconclusive

Pesticide Management Bill 2017: In the making

Anupam Verma Committee on 66 banned pesticides

Recommendation No of pesticides To continue

18 To review in 2018 27 To phase out by 2020 6 Completely ban 14 Subjudice 1

 The writer is a National Convener of Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA)
singhking99@yahoo.com

Punjab's loss is Jammu & Kashmir's gain. Exporters are preferring basmati of J&K because its farmers do not use pesticides and fungicides, and hence their produce commands premium, says Bhuwan Bhaskar

The soothing aroma of basmati has turned foul for thousands of farmers in Punjab. Recently, beginning of this week, the worst feared news for the exporters and farmers of the commodity came from Saudi Arabia that some containers of basmati rice having been exported primarily from Punjab, were rejected due to the presence of tricyclazole above the permissible limit.

In fact, it was just a predictable outcome after the Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) emulated the fungicide levels as per European Union standards, with traces of tricyclazole permitted not more than 0.01 mg in a kilogram of rice. Since January, Norway, Sweden, England and Finland have already rejected at least 30 containers of basmati.

Even though Indian agri exporters have a long list of stories of rejections due to the excessive use of pesticides and fungicides by farmers, it is unfortunate that the action to rectify the problem has largely been limited to efforts by exporters' associations and some farmers groups. In 2011-12, around 30 per cent of the total basmati exports to the US was rejected due to high pesticide content. And basmati is only one commodity. Products such as mangoes, table grapes, okra, peanuts, curry leaves, chillies, shrimps, prawns, and tamarind have faced rejections and even bans in markets such as the US, Vietnam, the EU, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Bhutan due to issues of the presence of higher-than-approved levels of chemical residues, and pest and bacterial infestation.

A recent study by the ICRIER has given startling facts in this context. "Indian agriculture produce faces more rejections in key export markets compared to products from other developing countries", says the report. According to the data published by the European Union Notification System for Plant Health Interceptions (EUROPHYT) portal, "Between 2005 and 31st May 2017, Indian exports faced 1,324 interceptions as compared to 452 for Brazil, 602 for China, 114 for Turkey and 922 for Vietnam." A majority of the interceptions for India were raised in 2012 and 2013, and these pertained to eggplant, mangoes, snake gourd, bitter gourd and arabi, among others. This led to a ban in the entry of mangoes and these vegetables.

In most cases, the ban gets lifted after sometime. But the damage, usually, is much deeper as many a time, exporters from some other competitive country capture the market by that time. Like in the case mentioned above, Indian exporters lost their market share in products such as eggplant to exporters from countries such as Kenya.

Even in the US, the FDA refused around 1,700 products between 2014 and May 2017. Primarily, these incidents hurt the exporters only. But ultimately, it is the farmer who pays the price. Because, once exporters from some other country capture a market, it becomes very difficult for Indian exporters to win it back.

The latest case of rejection of basmati rice has shown the same trend, albeit in another way. As rice farmers in Jammu and Kashmir don't use the fungicide tricyclazole, traders have started purchasing basmati from them giving hefty premium. And here is the lesson for Indian agriculture and policymakers. India is among the top 10 WTO member countries in the export of agriculture commodities. But, even after numerous incidents of refusal of Indian food products, there is hardly any institutional mechanism in place which regulates the usage of chemicals in cultivation. There are many chemicals which are banned even in countries like Africa, but are being used indiscriminately in Indian fields.

According to CSE, seven hazardous chemicals make around 30 per cent of the total usage of chemical in agriculture in India. These seven chemicals are banned in most of the countries in the world and are part of the list of 18 Class-I (classified as extremely/highly hazardous) chemicals. So, as long as the Central and state governments don't takeup this cause as a movement, there is little hope of change. The Modi government has, in fact, focussed on organic farming in a big way and has included it in one its core agriculture policies. But organic farming is more like a purist form of agriculture which should not be expected to provide thousands of tonnes of agri commodities for export purposes. Not in the near future, at least. Instead, the government should focus on MRL (maximum residual limit). With increasing levels of cancer due to food contamination in our own country, it is high time the government unleashes a war on unabated chemical usage in agriculture. It needs a massive awareness programme among farmers about the actual quantity of chemicals needed to be used in order to get optimum productivity along with MRL. Only then can Indian farmers tap the foreign markets in a big way, keeping pace with the ever-rising demand from quality-conscious food markets of the developed world.

 The writer is AVP in NCDEX. His views are personal
editorial@tribune.com

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, August 4

South Kashmir is on the edge after four more local militants were killed in an encounter that erupted at Kiloora village of Shopian district on Friday evening. A civilian was killed later when clashes broke out during the funeral of one militant.

With the killing of four militants, the toll in Shopian gunfight has risen to five as top militant commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) Umar Malik was gunned down on Friday evening.

A senior police official from Shopian said the militants were hiding in a house when the operation was launched.

They fired indiscriminately to escape, he said, adding that Umar Malik was killed in the initial gunfight.

The other four, he said, managed to sneak into a nearby orchard following which a cordon was laid.

They were killed this morning in the exchange of fire, the official said.

The slain four militants were identified as LeT commander Arshid Ahmad Khan; Waqar Aslam Sheikh and Aijaz Ahmad Paul of the Al-Badr. The fifth militant has been identified as Arif Mir of Yannar, Pahalgam.

As the gunfight resumed this morning, a large number people tried to march towards the gunfight site and threw stones at the forces to help militants escape. The security men used force to disperse the protesting youth, leaving at least 43 persons injured, officials said.

Militants, believed to be two or three in number, including wanted Pakistani ultra Naveed Jatt, appeared at the funeral of Malik and offered a gun salute.

Militants also appeared at the funeral of Arshid Khan at Ganawpora village of the district. The sources said as the militants were attending the funeral, the security forces cordoned off the area. It was here a protester was killed and another was injured critically when the security forces allegedly opened fire at stone-throwing youth.

The slain civilian has been identified as Bilal Ahmad Khan, a resident of Karlchek village in Pulwama district.

Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said the Army came under fire at Ganawpora. The Army came under fire from militants near Ganawpora orchards. The troops retaliated. In the cross-fire, one civilian unfortunately was injured, who later succumbed to the injury, the spokesman said.
uttara@tribuneindia.com

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Banihal (J&K), August 5

A cattle trader was killed and another injured when Army personnel allegedly opened fire on them in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, the police said.

Mohammad Rafiq Gujjar (28) and Shakeel Ahmad (30), both residents of Gool, were allegedly fired upon by soldiers of the 58 Rashtriya Rifles when they were leaving Kohli village around 4 am, a police official said. He said while Gujjar died on the spot, Ahmad was injured in the firing and was taken to a hospital. Both were cattle traders and had come to the village in connection with their business, the official said quoting preliminary investigation. Senior Ramban Superintendent of Police Mohan Lal confirmed the death of a civilian and injuries to another in the firing and said an FIR was registered at Dharmkund area of Gool in Ramban.

Investigation is on and a case is being lodged against Army personnel, he said. An

Army is believed to have told police they came under fire at around 3.45 am. Locals however said they heard gunshots at 11 pm.

Army statement

After an FIR was registered, the Army issued an official statement that read: On 05 August 2018, an operation was launched by Army based on specific intelligence inputs in Kohli area of Gool Tehsil, Ramban District, Jammu & Kashmir.

At 3:45 am the army patrol saw some suspicious activity. The suspected individuals were challenged by the army as per Standing Operating Procedure. On being challenged, the suspected individuals opened fire upon the army patrol. On this, the Army patrol retaliated the firing by suspects effectively. Further details are being ascertained.

 With PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Srinagar/New Delhi, August 5

India plans to invoke a 32-year-old Commonwealth pact to seek details from Pakistan about Mufti Waqas, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant who was mastermind behind the 2018 Sunjwan Army camp attack. Waqas was killed by security forces in March this year, according to officials.

The move is also expected to help India in making a fresh appeal to the United Nations to get the JeM and its chief Maulana Masood Azhar banned under the Security Council resolution 1267. China has blocked previous moves by India seeking a ban on the JeM and Azhar.

According to officials in the Union Home and External Affairs ministries, the relevant papers were being readied to send a request to Pakistan under the Commonwealth pact for international cooperation in criminal matters, under which Commonwealth nations are bound to provide mutual legal assistance on such issues, they said.

The agreement was originally adopted by Commonwealth law ministers at their meeting at Harare in Zimbabwe in 1986.

Citing the pact, India will seek details from Pakistan about Mufti Waqas, who was killed in an encounter in March this year with security forces at Awantipora in south Kashmir, the officials said.

The details include phone numbers called made by Waqas before and after the terror attack on the Army camp on February 10 in which six soldiers, one civilian and three terrorists were killed. Citing the amendments made to the Harare agreement during the meeting of law ministers in 2011 at Sydney in Australia, India will, if necessary, also seek details of the recording of statements of possible witnesses through video calls, they said.

In 2011, Commonwealth law ministers adopted amendments to the Harare pact envisaging cooperation in some new provisions that related to the interception of telecommunications and postal items, covert electronic surveillance, use of live video links in the course of investigations and judicial procedures and asset recovery.

Waqas, a Pakistani national who had infiltrated into the Kashmir valley in 2017, was the JeM operational commander. Besides being the mastermind of the Army camp attack, Waqas was also behind the suicide attack on a CRPF camp in south Kashmirs Lethpora on the intervening night of December 30 and December 31 last year.

According to the officials, he had even sent fidayeens or suicide bombers from Tral in south Kashmir to Jammu. It was then that the fidayeens had carried out their strike on the Army camp in Sunjwan.

Waqas is also suspected to be responsible for radicalising local boys Fardeen Khandey and Manzoor Baba. The two boys had carried out the suicide attack on the Lethpora CRPF camp in December last year.  PTI

The provision
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 4

Governor NN Vohra, continuing with his public outreach programmes, on Saturday visited the Doda district of the Jammu region to make a first-hand appraisal of the pace of developmental works in the hilly district where he also interacted with legislators from the area.

The Governor sought detailed feedback from the legislators regarding the developmental issues of the district, particularly those relating to roads, health, education, power and PHE sectors. They raised a number of problems relating to their respective constituencies and called for speedy execution for the completion of long-lingering projects and pending works in the district, in the larger public interest.

The Governor called upon all legislators to enlarge awareness about the vital importance of the forthcoming elections to municipalities and panchayats for the establishment of grass-roots democracy. The legislators unanimously welcomed the Governors decision to hold the long-pending elections and stated that Doda would provide an over 80 per cent turnout in both the polls.

In his meeting with provincial heads of all major departments and district officers, the Governor was briefed by Deputy Commissioner Simrandeep Singh on the progress of various developmental works in the district. Given the mountainous topography of the district and lack of dependable accessibility in some remote areas, the Governor sought specific details about the progress of schemes and projects in the road connectivity sector, particularly under the Central Roads Fund, NABARD and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana which are being executed in the district.

The Governor ordered the release of Rs 4 crore to be put at the disposal of the District Development Commissioner, Doda, for the execution of unfinished works within the set time frame. He ordered that another Rs 1 crore also be kept at the disposal of the commissioner as untied grant for developmental purposes.

The Governor called for coordinated collective efforts at every level to get the state back on course. He emphasised upon the officials to put in coordinated efforts to address various bottlenecks and execute the works within fixed timelines. He laid special emphasis on the construction of Government Medical College, Doda, and directed the agencies concerned to accelerate the pace of work and ensure its completion within the stipulated time frame.
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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 5

Governor NN Vohras efforts to strengthen democracy at the grass-roots level have paved the way for the urban local bodies elections, which will be conducted next month after more than a decade.

The urban local bodies elections for 78 municipal corporations, councils and committees will begin on September 7 and the process will be completed in a month.

The urban local bodies polls will be followed by the panchayat elections, which will be held between October and December. The dates for the two elections have been finalised following the efforts by the Governor, who is administering the state following the collapse of the PDP-BJP coalition in June.

Vohra, who is administering the state for the fourth time in his 10-year term in the state, has meticulously monitored the efforts to put the plan for the elections into action in the state.

The previous governments in the state had remained reluctant to hold the urban local bodies elections since the last such poll was held in 2005.

The law and order situation during the recent years had deteriorated so much that the parliamentary bypoll for the south Kashmirs Anantnag constituency was indefinitely postponed in April last year.

Several political parties, including the National Conference, which were anticipating elections, have already initiated outreach efforts and are organising party gatherings at the block, constituency and district levels to mobilise support for their parties.

Spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tahir Syeed said they welcomed the efforts aimed at decentralising the power in the state. The PDP conducted the last urban local bodies elections. We have always wanted democracy at the grass-roots level, he said.

The PDP spokesman said the atmosphere should be made conducive for the elections and the security of voters and candidates should be ensured.
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Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 4

In its 90-year history, the J&K High Court has got the first-ever woman Chief Justice and also a first woman judge.

The women power would be at display at the High Court in a few days when Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal takes oath as the new Chief Justice of the J&K High Court and senior lawyer Sindhu Sharma joins as a new judge.

The Central government on Friday evening notified the appointment of Justice Gita Mittal as the new J&K Chief Justice, and advocate Sindhu Sharma and judicial officer Rashid Ali Dar as new judges to the J&K High Court after the President issued their respective warrants of appointment.

In its 90 years of existence, the J&K High Court has had 107 judges and all of them have been men. Thus the appointment of Mittal and Sharma as judges marks an important milestone for the states judiciary.

It is a great honour that the J&K High Court is getting a woman Chief Justice and a woman judge. Their appointment is a fine example of the empowerment of women and a historic moment, said Moksha Kazmi, a senior HC lawyer, who also happens to be the batchmate of Sindhu Sharma. We have practiced together and I have found her a wonderful persons, Kazmi quipped.

Practised in Jammu

Before being elevated as a judge to the HC, Sindhu Sharma served as Assistant Solicitor General of India at Jammu Wing of the High Court

Born on October 10, 1972, she enrolled with the Bar at Jammu in 1996 doing LLB from Panjab University, practicing both at the District Courts and Jammu and High Court

Elevated to post
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar/Jammu, August 5

The Valley observed a shutdown on Sunday, a part of a two-day protest called by separatists over fears that Article 35A, which accords special status to the state, may be abrogated by the Supreme Court.

Petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A, barring people from outside J&K from acquiring immovable property in the state, are to be heard on Monday. The separatists perceive this as a well-planned assault on Kashmiri culture.

Even as roads in the Valley wore a deserted look, police and paramilitary personnel were deployed in strength and check posts set up to prevent protesters from gathering in large numbers. Shops, businesses, markets and transport services remained shut. A report from Jammu said rallies in favour of Article 35A were held in Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts.

The Article grants special privileges and rights to permanent residents of J&K. It debars non-residents from buying land/property, getting government job or voting in the Assembly polls. The fear that the law may be repealed or tinkered with has united various political parties and fiscal organisations in the state.

The state government has already written to the Registrar, Supreme Court, seeking adjournment of the hearing on account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat/urban local body and municipal elections.

Meanwhile, the Amarnath yatra has been suspended. No vehicle carrying pilgrims left Jammu on Sunday. More than 500 pilgrims are reportedly stranded in Jammu. They are likely to be allowed to proceed after Monday when the two-day strike ends.

The pilgrimage whichcommenced on June 28 is to conclude on August 26, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan.

Repeal will end J&Ks ties with country: Faesal

Srinagar: IAS officer Shah Faesal on Sunday said repealing of Article 35A of the Constitution would end J&Ks relationship with the rest of the country. Faesal, a 2010-batch IAS exam topper, is currently pursuing a mid-career masters programme in the US. I will compare Article 35A to a marriage-deed (nikahnama). You repeal it and the relationship is over. Nothing will remain to be discussed afterwards, he tweeted. PTI
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Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 4

The Kashmir valley is on the edge amid stern warnings and calls for protests over the uncertain fate of Article 35A as a petition seeking its repeal is up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday.

The fear that the law, which provides special status to the state and bars non-residents from purchasing property in the state, will be abrogated or tinkered has stoked threat of an agitation and united the parties and organisation across the political and economic spectrum.

The banners and posters warning against the abrogation of the law have come up across the region and have been posted on shop fronts, autorickshaws and cabs. You can kill us but not Article 35A, read one poster pasted on a cab in the city here.

The possibility of the repeal of the law has also trickled down the economically lower strata of the society, which fear the abrogation of Article 35A will mean everyone losing everything.

It is not a matter of a few people, it concerns us all, an autorickshaw driver in the city said. If they do anything with it, we have to be ready for a long protest, he said.

Article 35A grants special privileges and rights to the permanent residents of J&K and debars non-residents from buying land or property, getting government jobs, or voting in the state Assembly elections.

The law is at the centre of a brewing storm since a petition filed in the Supreme Court to seek its repeal is up for hearing on Monday. The separatist groups in the region have called for a two-day shutdown, which begins on Sunday, in support of the law.

Apart from separatist political groups, mainstream parties have also expressed strong resentment over the possibility of abrogation of Article 35A and on Saturday, two key mainstream groups  National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party  held protests in the region.

An assault on Article 35A is a direct assault on the states special status and wont be tolerated at any cost, Ali Mohammad Sagar of the National Conference said.

State to seek deferment of case today

New Delhi: Amid protests by the NC and PDP in favour of Article 35A , the J&K Government has requested the Supreme Court to defer the August 6 hearing on petitions challenging the controversial provision in view of the upcoming panchayat and urban local body polls in the state. In a letter written to the Supreme Court Registry, the state governments counsel M Shoeb Alam said he would be seeking adjournment of the case on Monday, on account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat elections. TNS
IPPB will have at least one branch in every district and focus on financial services in rural areas.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 21 will launch long-awaited India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) that will have at least one branch in every district and focus on financial services in rural areas, a senior official said.

"The Prime Minister has given time on August 21 to launch IPPB. Two branches of the bank are already operational. Rest of the 648 branches will be launched across country in every district," a senior official of the communications ministry told PTI.

IPPB will leverage reach of 1.55 lakh post office branches to provide banking and financial service to people in rural area.

"Government is trying to link all the 1.55 lakh post office branches with IPPB services by the end of this year," the official said.

This will create the country's largest banking network with direct presence at village level.

Last week, IPPB CEO Suresh Shetty said that IPPB will go live with 650 branches in addition to 3,250 access points co-located at post offices and around 11,000 postmen both in rural and urban area will provide doorstep banking services.

IPPB has permission to link around 17 crore postal savings bank (PSB) account with its account.

With IPPB in place, people in rural area will be able to avail digital banking and financial services, including money transfer, to any bank account either with help of mobile app or by visiting a post office.

IPPB was the third entity to receive payments bank permit after Airtel and Paytm. Payments banks can accept deposits up to Rs 1 lakh per account from individuals and small businesses.

The postal payment bank has permit to carry RTGS, NEFT, IMPS transaction that will enable IPPB customers to transfer and receive money from any bank account.

The payment bank will be used by government to distribute NREGA wages, subsidies, pension etc

The IPPB app which is expected to be launched on same day will enable customers to pay for services of around 100 firms including phone recharges and bill, electricity bill, DTH service, college fees etc that are present on Bharat Bill payments system of National Payments Corporation of India.
editorial@tribune.com

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 4

Questioning the version of the police, the family of Murfad Shah, who was killed by security personnel for forcibly entering the residence of former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah in Jammu, has demanded a high-level probe and access to CCTV footage of the incident.

Murfad Shah (26), son of Amzad Hussain Shah of the Chinore area, stormed the house of Farooq Abdullah, who has Z-plus security. Security personnel deployed at the residence of Farooq opened fire at the youth and killed him.

The family members of the youth protested outside the mortuary ward of the Government Medical College and Hospital against the state administration and security forces.

He has been killed under a conspiracy. He left for gym in a black T-shirt but his body is in white shirt, which does not have bullet marks. Security personnel inside Farooq Abdullahs residence are hiding something, said a family member of Murfad.

We want full CCTV footage of the incident. They are telling lies that there is no CCTV camera at Farooqs residence. We want a high-level inquiry into the incident, he added.
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Leo DiCaprio and Jessica Biel in talks to reboot The Facts of Life

Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessica Biel are currently working towards bringing back the American TV series 'The Facts of Life'.

Both stars, are in early talks with Sony Pictures, as it owns the distribution rights of the TV series, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

It is one of the longest-running series in America with more than 200 episodes engulfed in nine seasons.

The 1980s TV series revolved around how a woman, played by Charlotte Rae, becomes a housemother at a boarding school in New York to a group of girls.

This announcement comes at a time when ABC's Roseanne is also being rebooted. ANI
Rakesh Kochhar

Rakesh Kochhar

MONSOON has been in full swing. Rivers are in spate and there is waterlogging everywhere. But something is missing. There is no croaking of frogs to break the monotony of silence when the rain stops. There are no hopping frogs when you open the door to step out! Frogs and earthworms have been an integral part of monsoon for decades, possibly centuries. Most people older than those in the second decade of their lives would recollect the fun of chasing the ubiquitous frog at home or in school. But something has changed.

I was struck by the absence of the croaking of frogs when I ventured out after a downpour last week. My wife confirmed that the encounters with the jumping jacks are a thing of the past. It has been five-six years that the frogs have vanished, just like sparrows. I talked to some children in the neighbourhood and they wondered what I was discussing!

Intrigued, I googled. Way back in 1991, John Gilhen of Nova Scotia Museum, US, had written an article, Where have all the frogs gone? He attributed the disappearance to rapid urbanisation and development with new roads, highways and sprawling townships. However, he found out that away from populated areas, into wilder areas, there were still plenty of frogs. Perhaps the same is the case in India. While we do not see sparrows in urban areas anymore, you will sight them easily in the open spaces of Himachal Pradesh.

Another reason for the disappearance of frogs, environmental experts say, is a fungal infection. Chytrid fungus, which infects skin cells of frogs, is responsible for the wiping out of entire populations. Infections can wipe out 50 per cent of the amphibians in an area within six months. Other reasons are loss of habitat, introduction of invasive species and pollution. One wonders if the radiation of mobile towers is also responsible.

The disappearance of frogs is a worldwide phenomenon. At the Kerala Science Congress earlier this year, a delegate from Delhi University said the shrinking rate of frogs worldwide was 74 per cent, but in India it was 80 per cent. He suggested measures should be taken to prevent the extinction of amphibians.

Frogs have been an important part of our ecosystem, playing a vital role by controlling pests and linking the terrestrial and aquatic foodchain. Frogs feed on mosquitoes and pests and provide food for fish, mammals and birds. It has been suggested that there is a link between the dwindling numbers of frogs and the increase in incidence of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue.

Amphibians are environmental indicators because of their sensitivity towards small changes in environment, according to an article in Scientific American. Looking at the impending ecological disaster, we must act now. Indeed, there is an organisation, Save the Frogs which needs all our support.
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

The Indian Army is faced with bovine battle as it struggles to hand over some 22,000 cows it owns. The Army is spending Rs 300 crore a year on their upkeep  feed, manpower, salaries and day-to-day expenses.

In July last year, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) ordered the closure of 39 military farms across the country. Started in 1889 by the British, such farms are redundant as the milk supply is no more dependent on them.

The farms sit on 20,000 acres of prime defence land that is now needed for new projects like upcoming ground-based missile storage, aviation, new raisings and even housing for jawans.

The cows should have been handed over a year ago, but there was no interest at auctions. The MoD, in last week of June, issued instructions to give away the cows at a nominal rate of Rs 1,000 each to central and government units besides cooperatives.

The Army originally had 25,000 cows, of which 2,700 were given away. Some 22,000 cattle head still remain and are being looked after by the Army. After the fixation of a nominal cost, the Army has received applications to take away 11,000 more cattle head, sources have confirmed. The cost of transportation is to be borne by the purchaser.

A large number of these cows are of high-yield variety Frieswal developed by cross-breeding the Holstein Friesian cow of the Netherlands with the Sahiwal of India.

As per the MoD plan, 12 of the 39 British-era military farms were to close by August 15, 2017, and the remaining by the end of October 2017.

These farms, when running full steam, met 14 per cent of about 210 million litres of annual milk supply needed by 1.3 million-strong Army. The rest is now procured through various cooperative milk supply schemes run across the country.

The white revolution of the 1970s changed the dynamics of milk availability. On December 28, 2017, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told a parliamentary consultative committee that India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world since last 15 years. Milk production, which was around 17-22 million tonnes in the 1960s, has increased to 163.7 million tonnes in 2016-17.

The original decision to close down the military farms was taken in 2013 after a meeting of the Army Commanders. While 29 farms were to shut shop between 2013 and 2015, the remaining 10 had to follow suit by 2017.

The farms are spread in places like Ambala, Jalandhar, Pathankot, Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil, Udhampur, Meerut, Ranikhet, Ahmednagar, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Secunderabad, Mhow, Jhansi, Dimapur, Guwahati, Jorhat, Panagarh, Kolkata, Agra, Allahabad, Lucknow and Kanpur, among others.

British legacy
uttara@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, August 5

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) never gave any clean chit report on fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to Antigua's citizenship-for-investment authority, a senior official said on Monday.

The regulator is continuing with its probe into alleged violation of capital market regulations by Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi duo and their associates including some brokers in connection with two listed firmsPNB and Gitanjali Gems, the official added.

The regulator will now also consider sending the notices for Choksi to Antigua as the absconding businessman and Gitanjali Gems promoter has been granted a citizenship there, the official said.

Last week, an Antiguan media report quoted the Caribbean country's Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) as saying that Choksi was granted citizenship there last year after a background check on him got 'no adverse report' from Indian authorities, including police, passport office and Sebi.

As per the report, the CIU received documentation of two instances in which the SEBI, in 2014 and 2017, opened investigations on a corporate entity owned by Choksi.

It further said the CIU requested updates on the status of the investigations and received documentary confirmation, issued by the Sebi, stating that in one case, the matter had been satisfactorily closed, and indicating in the other that there was not sufficient evidence to pursue the case further.

Reacting to this, SEBI issued a statement on Friday denying the claims.

"SEBI has neither received any request from the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) of Antigua for updates on any investigation nor provided any such information to CIU," the regulator said.

Explaining further, the regulatory official on Sunday said Sebi is in an advanced stage of probe against fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Choksi for suspected trading and disclosure related issues in the matter of over Rs 14,000 crore fraud at state-run PNB and it may soon issue the orders.

The regulator is probing alleged fraudulent trading, corporate governance related violations, insider trading and disclosure related issues in the case of Punjab National Bank and Gitanjali Gems.

The markets watchdog, in May, issued a warning letter to PNB as well for delaying disclosures to stock exchanges about the fraudulent transactions allegedly carried out by absconding Modi and Gitanjali Group of companies.

PNB was defrauded allegedly by the diamond trader and his associates by fraudulent use of letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (LoC) in connivance with certain bank officials.

The regulator has analysed the stock market trade details of all entities associated with Modi and Choksi, who has already been under scanner for various cases including a brokerage default incident.

Incidentally, in July 2013, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in consultation with Sebi had debarred Gitanjali Gems chief and main promoter Choksi, among others, from trading, for securities market violations relating to trading in his company.

Further, they are also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

As per SEBI's warning letter, there were delays of 1-6 days by PNB in making disclosures to the stock exchanges pertaining to the filing of complaints with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and CBI. This delay in informing the stock exchanges is a violation of the listing regulations.

Under these norms, companies need to inform stock exchanges about any price sensitive information in a timely manner.

SEBI's communication refers to various disclosures made by PNB to stock exchanges during February and March this year regarding certain fraudulent transactions with respect to Modi group, Gitanjali group and others, and referring of the same to law enforcement agencies. PTI
uttara@tribuneindia.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, August 5

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party that had contested the seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections together from Maharashtra are preparing to give up a number of seats from their "quotas" to

several smaller parties in the 2019 elections.



NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who is putting together an anti-BJP alliance in Maharashtra, has already got the green signal from Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati at a meeting late last month. Per the deal, the two Congress parties will accommodate BSP in Vidarbha and some other places where the BSP has built up some influence. The Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana headed by Raju Shetti too has been brought within the fold of the secular coalition, according to sources here. In addition to these four parties, other outfits like the Peasants and Workers Party and the Communist Party of India are likely to be part of the alliance, according to sources here.



"The arrangement between our parties are for both the Lok Sabha and assembly elections," says a senior Congress leader. While parliamentary elections are due by May next year, the term of Maharashtra's Assembly expires in October. The feeling among opposition parties in Maharashtra is that elections to both will be held together next year.

There are 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra. The Congress and the NCP had contested 26 and 22 Lok Sabha seats, respectively, in 2014 but their alliance broke down on the eve of the assembly elections.



Congress party president Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary in charge of Maharashtra Mallikarjun Kharge and senior NCP leaders like Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel and representatives of the smaller parties will sit together to thrash out a seat-sharing arrangements for both

Lok Sabha and assembly segments in the coming weeks.



"Both the Congress and the NCP will have to give up seats from their quotas to accommodate smaller parties," says a Congress party leader.

However, what goes unsaid is the role of the Shiv Sena, which is threatening to contest future elections on its own. Both the Congress and the NCP say on the record that they will not be aligning with the Shiv Sena. The buzz on the ground is that some friendly fights would be in the offing to embarrass the BJP. The Shiv Sena had allied with

the BJP for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but went alone for the assembly elections though both saffron parties formed an uneasy coalition after the elections.
editorial@tribune.com

Prateek Chauhan & Amarjit Thind

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Chandigarh, August 4

An email received by a woman in Delhi was couched in casual and polite language, but the message was an old-fashioned extortion threat: Pay up or face the consequences. It was a threat to make public a video of her intimate moments that the blackmailer claimed to have created by gaining access to computer.

Threats through the digital medium continue to come up in ever-changing forms, even as the recipient can never be sure whether the blackmailer really has the ability to carry out the threat or is just bluffing. In this latest email-based threat  which is believed to have been received by many people  the extortionist e-mailed the woman: I have a video clip of you and your contact list, adding that it was a list of her office colleagues. The threat suggests that it is a video of her in a moment that could be embarrassing for her family to see. It claims that using malware, control of the womans computer camera and all that she browsed was gained, which was used to film her.

The blackmailer then goes on to make the offer to leave her once and for all if she pays up $200 in Bitcoins. The mail contains a Bitcoin wallet address to which the fund has to be transferred, giving the victim five days to do it.

This victim, however, has decided not to be intimidated by the blackmail, and spoke out on Twitter: I was going through my spam folder & saw this blackmailing email. In this case, the info is so vague that its obvs a scam. But listen women: even if someone DOES have a sex video of you & is blackmailing you - that is illegal. You are NOT at fault. The police CAN help you (sic).

There are other women, too, who have reacted similarly, though the police have as yet received no formal complaint. In a separate case, the Delhi Police Cyber Cell had recently registered a complaint from a woman alleging somebody had created a fake social media account in her name, and was uploading her photos with obscene messages on that account and sending friend requests with her morphed images to those on her genuine accounts friends list.

Investigation revealed that the social media account had a friend list of 353, all women. The complainant was also approached through various other social media accounts, also having large friend lists, all of them female. The victim blocked these accounts, but again got friend requests from yet more accounts. If she accepted any of the friend requests, she realised it was from the same person who was creating fake accounts.

A police officer dealing with such crimes said: With Internet penetration touching record levels in the country, it is impossible for even the law enforcement agencies to hazard a guess on the magnitude of the problem. There is simply too much going on.

The Delhi Police Cyber Cell, dealing with the fake social media accounts case, said they had not received any complaint regarding the latest extortion seeking payment in Bitcoins. Cases registered with the cell relate to hacking of social media platform/e-mails. In some cases, these have been tracked to people either from Africa or Eastern Europe, the police officer said.

We have received three or four complaints where a persons social media account has been hacked and he/she is being blackmailed. These are being probed, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy said. Gulshan Rai, Cyber Security Adviser to the Government, was of the opinion that it was up to the social media networking platforms to take corrective action.

A senior official with the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) said: People have been warned not to click on spam. If they continue to do so, they will be in trouble.

Real or spam?
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

New Delhi, August 5

India has handed over a request to Antigua for extradition of bank fraud fugitive Mehul Choksi who has obtained citizenship of the Caribbean nation.

Official sources said a team from India was sent to Antigua few days ago to pursue the authorities there to extradite Choksi.

The team met the Foreign Ministry officials of the island nation on Saturday and handed over the request to extradite Choksi to India, an official source said.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the $2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi.

He is wanted in India by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate probing the fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country.

As per reports, Antiguan authorities cleared his citizenship in November 2017 after India did not give any adverse report to stall his application. Choksi had fled India on January 4 this year and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15.

The CBI had sent its request to the Ministry of External Affairs for extradition of Choksi.

Choksis application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper the Daily Observer reported, citing a statement from the Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda (CIU).

It said the police clearance certificate (PCC) from the Regional Passport Office in Mumbai said there was no adverse information against Choksi which would render him ineligible for grant of travel facilities, including visa for Antigua and Barbuda.

When asked about the PCC to Choksi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs had said it was given on the basis of a clear police verification report (PVR) available on his passport.  PTI

Antigua cleared his citizenship in November 17
uttara@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, August 5

Under fire from the opposition over the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, the Janta Dal (United) asserted on Sunday that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would not resign and said it was ready for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into it.

Rejecting the demand for Kumar's resignation, senior JD(U) leader KC TYagi slammed opposition leaders including Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attending the RJD-organised protest in Jantar Mantar here on Sunday.

It was a "friendship day" of parties seeking "political mileage" from the "unfortunate and shameful" incident in the state, he said.

"How can rape of young girls which has shamed us could be an issue for opposition parties to unite against the NDA government and the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar and demand his resignation. This politics over hapless victims in Bihar is the most unfortunate thing," Tyagi said in a press conference here.

Tyagi asserted that despite the opposition's demand, Kumar would never step down as the chief minister of Bihar and challenged them to unseat him in the Assembly.

"Nitish is a sensitive person and felt ashamed over the incident which the opposition parties are trying to use to hit at his conscience so that he steps down. But, he will never step down, we will not let him do so," he said.

Tyagi also alleged that the resignation demand was aimed at "helping" sand mining and bootlegging that have been effectively checked by the state government.

Tyagi criticised Rahul Gandhi, saying his joining the RJD protest at Jantar Mantar was "unfortunate".

"I also condemn Sitaram Yechury and D Raja who have forgotten the killings of JNU president Chandra Shekhar and Purnia MLA Ajit Sarkar and joined the protest organised by RJD," he said.

The JD (U) Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson of the party said that Nitish Kumar had written to the Patna High Court for monitoring the probe into the case and asserted that the party was ready for such a probe by even a Supreme Court-monitored panel.

He asserted that the Bihar government acted against the accused swiftly and, as per the wish of RJD and other opposition parties, sought a CBI probe into the incident.

"Still, they are using this incident to spread lies and conspiracy theories for political purpose and to help sand and liquor mafia who have been effectively controlled by the Nitish government in the state," he said.

He charged that the opposition parties wanted "anarchy" and "jungle raj" back in Bihar by replacing JD (U) and Nitish Kumar.

Tyagi also demanded that all shelter homes for juveniles in the country be probed under a monitoring committee of the apex court. PTI
Taking a dig at the CWC members over allegations of corruption they face, he said it is corruption wali committee.

New Delhi: Describing Congress Working Committee (CWC) as corruption wali committee (committee of corruption), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said every act of corruption in India is linked to the Congress which is peddling lies and misleading people against the Modi government. The ruling party also dismissed alleged irregularities in Rafale fighter jets price, saying that the Congress is spreading lies on the issue as it is frustrated over the absence of any middlemen in the deal.

The Congress has a hard connection with corruption. Wherever corruption happens in India, it goes to 10 Janpath. 10 Janpath is the permanent address of corruption in India and every act of corruption leads to the Gandhi family, said BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, referring to the official residence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

On the Rafale issue, the BJP leader said that the Congress president Rahul Gandhi told Parliament during the no-trust motion that the French president said something in his ears and within hours the French government issued a statement exposing his lies. Can there be anything more humiliating than this, Mr Patra said.

He also accused the Congress of playing vote bank politics on the controversy surrounding Assams National Register of Citizens (NRC) and said that the party was only interested in having a national register of illegal immigrants.

He said while the Opposition party did not allow BJP national president and Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah to speak on the NRC issue in the Upper House, it deliberated upon it in the CWC meeting.

Taking a dig at the CWC members over allegations of corruption they face, he said it is corruption wali committee.

Countering the Congress claim of the Modi governments complicity and connivance in allowing bank scan accused Mehul Choksi to flee from the country and getting him citizenship of Antigua, Mr Patra pointed to an interview given by Choksis Antiguan lawyer David Dorsett where he had reportedly said that Choksi was being targeted as he had a loose connection with the Congress.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

The controversy surrounding the elevation of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph to the Supreme Court is refusing to die down.

After the government cleared Justice Joseph's elevation along with that of Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa High Court Chief Justice Vineet Saran, it has been alleged that his "seniority" has been undermined as the warrant of appointment signed by the President put Justice Joseph at number three i.e. after the two other judges.

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was likely to administer oath of office to the three judges on Tuesday.

Sources said some senior judges of the Supreme Court were upset at undermining of "seniority" of Justice Joseph whose name was originally recommended by the top court Collegium on January 10 along with that of senior advocate Indu Malhotra.

As the government returned Justice Joseph's file to the Collegium for reconsideration in April, Justice Malhotra went on to take oath of office. The government had cited seniority and regional representation as grounds for returning his name.

A three-judge Bench headed by CJI Misra had rejected a plea by senior advocate Indira Jaising who wanted the warrant of appointment issued by the President for Justice Malhotra's appointment to be stayed. She had questioned the government's power to split the recommendation made by the Collegium.

"How can we stay the warrant of appointment issued by the President?" the CJI had asked.

The Collegium had failed to reiterate his name thrice despite "in principle" agreement. Finally, when Justice Joseph's name was reiterated last month, the names of Justice Banerjee and Justice Sharan we're also sent simultaneously.

While issuing the warrant of appointment, the government put Justice Joseph at number three, which undermines his chances of becoming a member of the top court's Collegium and possibly CJI.

Sources said some members of the Bar might raise it on Monday before the CJI as they felt it amounted to undermining not just the seniority of a judge, but also the Independence of the judiciary.

Seven months after the Supreme Court Collegium recommended his elevation, the Centre had finally cleared the appointment of Justice Joseph as a judge of the top court earlier this week along with that of Justice Banerjee and Justice Saran.

The development was viewed as a sign of improvement in relations between the judiciary and the executive which have been at loggerheads over Justice Joseph's elevation.

Justice Joseph - who struck down the President's rule in Uttarakhand in 2016, has been hitting national headlines as some senior Supreme Court judges raised the issue of his elevation with the CJI and the media.

Once these three judges take oath, strength of the Supreme Court would rise to 25 against the sanctioned strength of 31 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.

An earlier move to transfer Justice Joseph to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court on health grounds remained pending with the government as it didn't act on the Collegium's recommendation.
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

The JD-U on Sunday firmly stood behind Bihar Chief Minister and party president Nitish Kumar in the face of growing chorus of demand for his resignation over the rape of minors in Muzaffarpur shelter home.

It signaled its burning of any remote possibility of a bridge with the Congress

on account of its president Rahul Gandhis participation in the RJDs protest against Kumar in the national capital on Saturday.

Brazening out on the demand for Kumars resignation, JD-U national spokesperson KC Tyagi said: The Chief Minister will not resign. He added that the state government had already accepted the Oppositions demand to hand over the shelter home case to the CBI for investigation.

With regard Gandhi, Tyagi said the JD-U had tried to impress upon him not to attend the anti-Kumar show organised by former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is the son of RJD president Lalu Yadav.

Rahul Gandhi did not heed, and we will now treat him in the same category as the RJD, Tyagi said.

Flaunting of opposition party leaders presence to extend support to Tejashwi Yadav as their unity against Kumar, who is an ally of the BJP, did not go down well with the JD-U.

The forum was used to project a prime ministerial candidate this is a disgrace that opposition leaders used the occasion to promote their political interest in the garb of fighting for justice of victimised girls, Tyagi said.

Soon after the JD-U defended Kumar, CPIs D Raja, who attended the protest, said Nitish Kumars position as Chief Minister had become untenable, and added it was up to his (Kumars) constitutional morality what steps he took in the matter.
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Lucknow, August 5

Questioning Congress president Rahul Gandhis silence on the National Register of Citizens, BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday asked the Opposition to clarify its stand on the issue of illegal immigrants.

Using the renaming ceremony of Mughalsarai Junction as Deen Dayal Uphadyay Junction to target the Opposition over NRC, Shah pointed out that NRC had been brought on the orders of the apex court.

I would like to ask the SP, BSP and the Congress to clear their stand on whether they want illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to stay here or evict them, asked Shah.

Bua-Babua and Rahul baba cannot defeat the BJP even if they join hands for the elections. The BJP and its governments have worked for the people and the people will return us to power, claimed Shah.

Former BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha in a tweet attacked Shah. The Mughalsarai station renaming function was an official one arranged at the government cost. Did it behove Amit Shah to ask for votes for the BJP at this function? The finest values of our democracy are being destroyed one by one, nobody even notices, much less worry (sic), pointed out Sinha.  TNS
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 5

It does not seem all is well in the UPs Yadav clan as differences between Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav have again come out in the open.

After lying low for months, Shivpal has asserted that while he had no misgivings about talking to SP president Akhilesh Yadav, he hardly engaged with nephew Akhilesh, making it clear that the old wounds had far from healed.

Trouble in the SP had started in September 2016 when then national president Mulayam Singh Yadav replaced son Akhilesh as the state unit chief with his brother Shivpal. In retaliation, Akhilesh had removed uncle Shivpal and his aides from the Cabinet and called an emergency national meeting on January 1, 2017. At the meeting, Akhilesh was elected the national president in place of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is now a mentor to the party.

Uncle Shivpal was left high and dry after being removed from all party posts.

Now, Akhilesh Yadavs sister-in-law Aparna Yadav (wife of Mulayams younger son Prateek Yadav) has also given a statement contradicting the partys official stand on the Assams National Registrar of Citizens. Aparna said: There is no problem with legal immigrants. Problem arises when people start entering the country unlawfully. I think Mamata ji should not have made a statement supporting illegal immigrants. Its an issue of national security.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Patna, August 5

The Bihar government has suspended six officials of a state child protection unit in the wake of the Oppositions demand to take stringent actions against the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district, authorities said on Sunday.

The states Social Welfare Department suspended the six Assistant Directors of the unit on grounds that they did not act despite being informed over the ill treatment meted out to children at shelter homes.

The officers were from Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Bhojpur districts.

The CBI is currently investigating case.

The horror came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.  IANS
editorial@tribune.com

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, August 5

The state governments offer of job for one member each of two families of Behbal Kalan police firing victims has come as a surprise to many, as the family members have already been given jobs by the then SAD-BJP government in January 2016.

Prabhdeep Singh (24), son of victim Krishan Bhagwan Singh, and Jagdeep Singh (25), younger brother of deceased Gurjit Singh, are working as senior laboratory attendant at Government High School, Behbal Kalan, and Romana Albel Singh Wala, respectively, since January 2016.

Their services were regularised in January this year and both are now drawing a salary of Rs 30,000 per month.

During his visit to the village on November 17, 2015, the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had announced jobs for the affected families.

While the family members have denied to comment on the recent job offer, radical Sikh group leaders, who have been on a protest dharna at Bargari since June 1, said the announcement of the state government to hand over the case to the CBI, jobs to the kin of deceased and hike in the compensation amount was an attempt to divert the peoples attention from the main issue.

Baljit Singh Daduwal, parallel jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib, said after around three years of the incident and probe by two judicial commissions, instead of taking any concrete action against the guilty, the government was trying to further delay the matter.

Family wants guilty cops arrested

Moga: Sukhraj Singh, the elder son of Krishan Bhagwan Singh who was killed in the police firing at Behbal Kalan, has demanded that the accused police officials be arrested and produced before court for trial.

Talking to The Tribune, he said, I reject the CBI inquiry and demand timely justice from the state government, he said. He alleged that almost three years had passed, but the state government was still not willing to arrest police officials allegedly involved in the firing incident.

Though he has welcomed the enhancement of compensation from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore, he said money could not heal their wounds. He said his family was yet to receive the compensation money. Sukhraj said the top cops of the Punjab Police whose names have figured in the judicial commissions report must be arrested. TNS
editorial@tribune.com

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 4

The Union Government is non-committal on waiving (complete or partial) Rs 31,000 crore legacy food credit loan of Punjab even as Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal have been claiming that the loan is being settled by the Centre.

Union Food and Public Distribution Minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who was here on Saturday, washed his hands off the issue by saying that there were too many legal issues involved. This is a very old case and several governments, both at the Centre and the state, have changed hands since the food credit bill of Punjab came in dispute and remained unsettled. The matter is being deliberated between the PM, Union Finance Minister and the Punjab CM. I cannot say if the loan would be waived or not, he said.

State Food and Supply Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said the minister told him that there were legal issues involved in reworking the settlement. The issues have been raised several times, but there is no concrete decision. Hopefully, a settlement could be worked out after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley resumes office , he said.

Capt Amarinder has taken up the issue with the Centre on several occasions.
editorial@tribune.com

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 5

Teacher unions under the banner of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha took out a protest rally against the state government here on Sunday. They were angry over the delay in fixing their meeting with CM Capt Amarinder Singh.The protesters alleged that the Education Minister had backtracked from their demands that included regularisation of services of volunteers and service-providing teachers on full pay scales. They were also demanding the revocation of the suspension of five teachers, who were suspended after a protest in Amritsar.

The protest march started from two entry points of the city to reach the CMs house. Teachers from 11 districts in the Malwa region gathered at Parmeshwar Dwar Gurdwara near Sheikhupura village on the Patiala-Sangrur road, while teachers from 11 districts of the Doaba and Majha regions gathered at the Patiala Grain Market on the Sirhind road. Both factions marched towards the CM residence, but the police diverted their march.

Later, both factions gathered in front of Thapar University where they staged a sit-in for an hour. People had to face a lot of inconvenience as most of the entry points of the city were not only barricaded but also shut during the protest.

The Chief Minister had held talks with the members of the union at his residence on April 28. But their major demands were put on hold due to the Shahkot bypolls. Subsequently, their meeting was scheduled for June 4, but it was postponed to later dates.

However, the protesting teachers called off the stir after they were assured of a meeting with the Chief Minister scheduled for August 13. Davinder Singh Poonia, state convener of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha, said, Regularisation of contractual teachers will be our top priority. We are hopeful that our demands will be considered by the CM.
editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Abohar, August 5

Cotton plants spread over four acres reportedly got damaged after spraying of an insecticide for three days in Katehra village, about 18 km from Abohar. Upset over the loss, the contract farmer has threatened to end his life if action is not taken against the insecticide manufacturer in question.

Farmer Aad Lal had reportedly taken a loan from a private financier to cultivate 10 acres and sow cotton seeds on 4 acres of it. In his complaint submitted to the Chief Agricultural Officer on July 31, he said he purchased an insecticide manufactured by a leading company from a retailer based in Jhumian Wali, and it was reportedly sprayed on his crop on July 27 under the supervision of a representative of the company. On July 30, he spotted that the crop leaves were turning yellow.

On August 1, Agriculture Development Officer Rajinder Verma and Sub-Inspector Amandeep Singh inspected the fields and confirmed that cotton leaves had lost their green colour. Something might have gone wrong following the spray, the team reportedly observed.

At a meeting in the village on Sunday, farmers Ajit Jyani, Indraj Bhakar, BR Nirania and ex-member of gram panchayat Gokal Ram demanded an inquiry into the episode and urged the state government to arrange compensation for the affected farmer.

Compensation sought

At a meeting in the village on Sunday, farmers Ajit Jyani, Indraj Bhakar, BR Nirania and ex-member of gram panchayat Gokal Ram demanded an inquiry into the episode and urged the state government to arrange compensation for the affected farmer.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, August 4

AAP deputy leader in the Vidhan Sabha and Jagraon MLA Sarbjit Kaur Manuke along with Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema on Saturday accused party rebel leader Sukhpal Khaira and his group members of running a defamatory campaign on social media against her. Both announced to take legal action against Khaira and his supporters.

Insulting words along with my tampered photos are being posted on social media by activists at the Khairas behest. They are pressuring me to support him, alleged Manuke.

She said: Khaira is anti-Dalit and he is openly speaking against the community. Cheema is not acceptable to him because he is a Dalit.

Cheema said all six MLAs, who attended the Khairas convention, were in touch with senior AAP leaders. All these MLAs claimed that they were misguided by Khaira. I will take all of them along. But for running a derogatory campaign against Manuke, Khaira will have to face legal action, he said.

Chandigarh: The AAP women wing has demanded an apology from those who used derogatory words against party MLAs Sarabjit Kaur Manuke and Rupinder Kaur Ruby.
In major security breach, mentally-ill man drives vehicle into heavily fortified residence.

Srinagar: A 25-year-old man was shot dead by security personnel on Saturday as he allegedly tried to forcibly enter former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullahs home at Bhatindi in Jammu.

Syed Murfad Shah, a resident of Chinore locality in the outskirts of Jammu, drove his black XUV into the heavily fortified residence of Mr Abdullah before being shot dead by a sentry of Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) E/38 Battalion, the officials said.

The National Conference on Saturday night sought a probe by National Investigating Agency (NIA) into what it alleged was security breach at the residence of its president Farooq Abdullah at Bhatindi.

As Dr. Farooq Abdullah is a central government categorized protectee, the Government of India should carry out its independent and impartial inquiry by a team deputed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, party spokesman Madan Mantoo said in a statement issued in Jammu.

Expressing grave concern over the incident, the party has said the probe must cover all the aspects, including how a car was able to gain entry into the supposedly high secured residence with minimum cosmetic damage, considering the strength of the main gate. The security lapse is needed to be probed expeditiously so that the truth must come to fore, the spokesperson said.

DGP Shesh Paul Vaid said that preliminary investigations have revealed that Shah was suffering from mental illness. Im told some medical prescription have been found in the car he was driving which indicates towards his facing some psychological issues. But this is a matter of investigation, he told this newspaper.

However, Shahs dozens of relatives, friends, neighbours and other acquaintances staged protests demanding an inquiry into the incident. On hearing about the incident, his father and other family members reached the spot and demanded a probe into the incident, witnesses said.

Later when the body was taken to Government Medical College hospital for a post-mortem, about 200 acquaintances of the deceased, originally hailing from Mendhar tehsil of frontier district of Poonch, assembled there. They tried to prevent doctors from performing an autopsy for several hours and asked why an innocent unarmed person was killed.

While the post-mortem of the deceased was underway at the hospital, another large group of protesters blocked the main road at Chinore along the Jammu-Bantalab road. The angry crowd burnt tyres and raised slogans against the CRPF and the national TV channels for misleading reporting, the witnesses said. Senior police and civil administration officials rushed to the spot to persuade the protesters to end the blockade.

IG (Jammu range) S.D. Singh Jamwal told reporters that Shah gate-crashed into the house of Mr Abdullah, had a scuffle with CRPF personnel and attempted to snatch a rifle from an officer before he was killed.

He said the youth was alone in the vehicle and unarmed. We are trying to ascertain how he managed to reach the house without being challenged, he said.

The officer said that the intruder drove his XUV through the gate of Mr Abdullahs residence around 9.30 am. He added that after entering the premises he caused some damage to the articles over there.

A three-time chief minister, Mr Abdullah is currently the president of NC and a member of Lok Sabha representing Srinagar constituency. He is provided with the highest Z Plus category security. He was not present in his private home at Bhatindi when the incident took place, the officials said.

Soon after the incident took place, his son and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah, who is also a former chief minister, tweeted, I am aware of the incident that took place at the residence my father & I share in Bhatindi, Jammu. Details are sketchy at the moment. Initial reports suggest an intruder was able to gain entry through the front door & in to the upper lobby of the house.

In another tweet, he said, Further details are awaited as the security personnel carry out the anti-sabotage checks & ascertain the background of the person who was able to force his way in to the house.

Pertinently, in 2009 on similar lines forces shot dead a deaf and dumb man outside the then Cm Omar Abdullahs residen-ce along Srinagars high-security Gupkar Road.
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, in a clandestine operation code-named Express, is funding and promoting the Sikh Referendum 2020 campaign. Security agencies have intercepted digital, particularly social media, chatter to make this conclusive claim.

Referendum posters were put up prominently at Pakistani gurdwaras  Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib  during the pilgrimage of Sikh jathas. A prominent Sikh radical leader based in Germany, known to be an ISI operative, is linked to these 2020 campaigners.

Another strong ally of the 2020 organisers is Paramjit Singh Pamma, involved in the murder of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat chief Rulda Singh and other terror incidents. The security agencies believe he is funded by the ISI.

The people of Punjab have rejected those who spread hate, violence and propagate the secessionist agenda. We are keeping a close track of their activities, especially during the August 12 gathering in London, where Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) plans to make a case for secessionism. Punjab Police are capable of dealing with the fringe elements. Since a lot of the propaganda happens online, the security agencies are also monitoring social media platforms and immediate action (FIRs and arresting supporters) is being taken, said Punjab Police chief Suresh Arora.

Though the Sikh Referendum 2020 was conceptualised by SFJ, a US-based advocacy group, in June 2014, the ISI is learnt to have lapped up the opportunity in 2015, and has since been supporting the movement.

For the security agencies, the support by Kashmiri freedom-seeking groups to SFJ and the referendum is the biggest indicator of ISI role.

Indian security agencies have now established a link between SFJ, radicals in Germany, UK and Canada, even gangsters operating in Punjab, and the ISI by tracking online activities of the prime proponents of the movement.

Sources in the security agencies say the ISI has earmarked a dedicated budget for the launch and implementation of Operation Express. The Pakistan agency is promoting the dissemination of information about the referendum and is also learnt to be identifying agents of interest in various countries to propagate the idea of an independent Sikh state.

Alarmed at the sequence of events, wherein posters supporting Referendum 2020 have been put up in several parts of Punjab, activation of sleeper cells, distribution of secessionist paraphernalia at large religious congregations and radicalisation of the youth, the Punjab Police, too, are keeping a watchful eye.

But what is baffling the security agencies is the highly sophisticated online campaign. WhatsApp groups have been created to push the idea of online voting for all Sikhs residing in 20 countries in 2020. There are Facebook posts highlighting the meetings of various proponents of the movement and online retailing outlets for secessionist paraphernalia (flags, posters, t-shirts, key chains, etc). So, the security agencies are closely monitoring radical leaders in Punjab propagating this concept of online voting.

Apart from WhatsApp, social media app Telegram is being used extensively for exchanging messages between people here and their handlers abroad. These messages are highly encrypted and self-destruct after being read. The campaign is being run from foreign soil, so agencies can do little other than monitor it.

What all has happened on ground
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 4

In more trouble for Jalandhar Diocese bishop Franco Mulakkal, the complainant nuns cousin and her husband reportedly did not give any statement against the nun during their interrogation by a Kerala Police team in Delhi.

In November 2016, the cousin had alleged the nun had sexual relations with her husband. The couple, who stay in Delhi, reportedly told the police that the woman lodged the complaint in the church as she had some misunderstandings with the nun. This change of stance by the nuns cousin during her interrogation somehow weakens the counter-complaint filed by the bishop against the nun in the case.

The bishop had been maintaining that the nun lodged the complaint as he had given consent for an inquiry into the allegations levelled by her cousin. Kottayam district police chief Hari Sankar confirmed the couple did not give any statement against the nun. The six-member Kerala Police team, led by DSP Vaikom K Subhash, is currently in Delhi to meet Vatican representatives. The team will also visit Jalandhar.

The bishop, meanwhile, today celebrated five years of his bishophood with 96 priests from across the Diocese attending a feast in Jalandhar. Regarding the changed stances of nuns cousin, Jalandhar Diocese PRO Father Peter said, She might not have shared anything as she has already lodged a complaint with the church.
editorial@tribune.com

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 5

Two teenagers were crushed to death under a train while they were reportedly posing for a selfie on a railway track at Doraha on Sunday morning.

The victims had gone to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Katana Sahib. The incident took place when they were on their way back home.

The deceased have been identified as Yuvraj Singh (15) and Gaurav Kumar (15), both residents of Rampur village, near Sahnewal. Their friend, who was accompanying them and escaped unhurt, is yet to be identified. Yuvraj was a student of Class VII. His father is based in Dubai. Gaurav, a Class VIII student, was the son of a tailor in the village.

Avtar Singh, ASI, Doraha police station, said the incident took place around 11.30 am when the three friends were taking a selfie on the rail track on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana section. The boy, who was taking the selfie, managed to save his life by jumping off the track, while the other two could not move and were crushed under the train. We are yet to identify the boy who was having the mobile phone, the ASI said.

Raghuvinder Singh, ASI, GRP, said around 11.45 am, he got a call from the driver of a train heading towards Amritsar from Chandigarh. He told me that he blew horn repeatedly, but boys did not pay heed and got crushed. The incident took place on the railway bridge where pedestrians are not allowed, he said.

Mobile mania

March 2018: Samba resident Ajay Kumar (18) slips from hilltop and falls into gorge while clicking a selfie with his friends near Mata Bala Sundari shrine in Jammu and Kashmir. Sustains head injuries. Declared dead at a hospital in Jammu

Sept 2017: Abohar resident Gaurav (21) slips and drowns while taking a selfie on the banks of a canal. His body was recovered from the canal near Tootanwali village in Fazilka district

July 2017: Two Gurdaspur girls feared drowned in a canal while clicking selfies. However, it came to light the next day that they had run away from home in search of big bucks. Lovepreet Kaur (21) and Nisha (18) had returned home later after selling their mobile phone to pay for the return fare from New Delhi to Amritsar
editorial@tribune.com

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 4

A fortnight after his murder, local BJP worker Jagdeep Singh alias Rinkal was cremated by his family on Saturday.

The family members relented after the police secured the arrest warrants of Congress councillor Gurdeep Singh Neetu and seven others allegedly involved in the crime.

Ashwani Kapur, DCP, said two of Rinkals relatives had given a fresh statement to the police, alleging that Neetu had threatened the victim with dire consequences.

Earlier, we had no grounds to arrest Neetu despite his name figuring in the FIR. Now, he is wanted by the police. Once we arrest him, the statement of Rinkals family will be corroborated on the basis of the interrogation of Neetu and the others, Kapur said.

Rinkal was murdered in his house on July 19 by a group of assailants. The councillors son, Sunny, was arrested a day after the murder. A post-mortem examination was conducted on July 28.

Meanwhile, the vehicle that ferried Rinkals body from his house in Amarpura to the cremation ground at Gau Ghat carried posters showing a picture of Congress MP Ravneet Bittu with party councillor Neetu. Protesters alleged that the ruling party was shielding the accused.

Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) MLA Simarjit Singh Bains, SAD leaders Hira Singh Gabria and Ranjit Dhillon, BJP leaders Gurdev Debi, Ravinder Arora and Yash Chaudhary were present during the cremation. They accused the Congress of going soft on the accused. No Congress leader visited the cremation ground.
FS Aijazuddin

FS Aijazuddin

Imran Khan may not be the prime minister every Pakistani voted for or wanted. He is certainly the chief executive Pakistan needs.

Until August 11, when he will be sworn in by the now you see him, now you dont President Mamnoon Hussain, Imran Khan is PM-elect. He is yet to wear the hollow crown kicked within his reach by obliging fate. He still has time to spend with his cronies, exchanging stories of the death of kings; how some have been deposed; some slain in war, some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed.

The Pakistani general elections held on July 25 have a Shakespearian ring about them: conspiracies, intrigues, assassinations, defeats, and finally victory assured to the hero. There has been a drama played out in three consecutive acts  five years of Zardaris PPP, followed by five years of Nawaz Sharifs PML-N, and now, a performance by Imran Khans PTI.

Whatever insinuations of impropriety his detractors may secrete against Imran Khan, one has continuously eluded them  financial impropriety. Everyone knows that Imran Khan has little experience of governance beyond establishing a fine cancer hospital in Lahore, a nascent Namal College in Mianwali, and remote control stewardship of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

His skills lay in using his name as a magnet to attract funds. Only the late Sattar Edhi (Pakistans Mother Teresa equivalent) had comparable skills. Edhi raised money for the orphan and the dead. Imran Khans charity extends to the sick, the illiterate, and now the 200 million downtrodden, bankrupt compatriots.

Will Imran Khans allure still work?

Some indicators are positive. Can it be accidental that China last week publicly poured $2 billion to grout Pakistans sinking forex reserves? Or that Imran Khan (once as anti-CPEC as Theresa May was once anti-Brexit) referred in his victory speech to China offering a huge opportunity through CPEC to use it and drive investment into Pakistan?

In that speech, Imran Khans also asserted provocatively that the relationship with the US has hitherto been one way. Stung, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded by warning the IMF against providing a handout to Pakistan to bail out Chinese bondholders or China itself.

Chief executives in countries where democracy functions (if not flourishes), usually bring experience in national governance and parliamentary practice. Imran Khan has neither. He will be an adult student in both.

Former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson once dismissed his predecessor Anthony Eden with this devastating remark: Eden had an expensive education: first Eton, and then Suez.

Imran Khan had an expensive education  at Aitchison College, Lahore, regarded as Pakistans Eton College. Eton has produced 19 British PMs. Imran Khan will be Pakistans 19th elected PM. Shakespeare could have made a saga out of this.

How will Imran Khan choose his team? He will be constrained by three Cs. His acolytes will want to be rewarded for their Constancy. His parliamentary partners will want the spoils that accrue from a Coalition. But above all, Imran Khan will search for self-less Competence. And that may prove to be the most challenging demand to satisfy.

Imran Khan has finally realised the prescient dream his wife Bushra Bibi had. He has reached the top of what Disraeli described as the greasy pole. He has until 2023 to perfect his balance. And after that, which fourth C should he expect? Shakespeares King Henry VI had the answer: My crown is in my heart, not on my head; not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, nor to be seen: my crown is called Content, a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.

 The writer is a Pak-based historian
Jupinderjit Singh

Jupinderjit Singh

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) jumped into the political arena of the country with a promise to cleanse politics. In Punjab, the party is left to sanitise itself. From a political revolution, built on the promise of swaraj (self-rule), AAP seems more of a totalitarian party. It is centralised, dictatorial and demands complete subservience, or shows the door to a rebel. The state leaders have contributed towards the downfall with their own selfish ambitions.

The downside has been as remarkable as the rise was six years ago. It rose like a phoenix from what seemed to be a stinking dump of scam-ridden, caste-based politics of other parties, but is itself fast disintegrating.

Nothing better proves the state of the party than the way it has functioned in Punjab. It appointed six state conveners in as many years. Some were banished and, barring one or two, were rarely seen with the party members again. The first was Harjot Bains, then Prof Sumail Singh Sidhu, Suchha Singh Chhotepur, Gurpreet Ghuggi, and MP Bhagwant Mann. Co-convener Dr Balbir Singh now runs the show.

It also introduced three leaders of opposition in the 16 months of action as the principal opposition party in Punjab Assembly. The alliance partner Lok Insaf Party(LIP) is no longer a friend. Every leader, especially convener, took along a chunk of volunteers with him, thus further weakening and defragmenting the party piece by piece.

Political analyst Pramod Kumar, director, Institute for Development and Communication, says, the disintegration of the party was always writing on the wall, AAP never had an ideology. It emerged from an anti-corruption movement, but that is not an ideology. It has a bleak future now.

Whats worse is that the national leadership has not taken any significant initiative to address the grievances of Punjab AAP. Chander Suta Dogra, an ex-journalist and member of the AAP manifesto committee, says, The partys crisis deepened because no one tried to find a middle-ground, which is essential for the success of any political party.

Dhilpreet Singh, an NRI from the UK, joined AAP hoping for reforms. He too has left disenchanted. They talked about swaraj. I soon realised that AAP strictly adhered to the hierarchy culture. Decisions came from the top, just like other parties. There was no room for diversity of opinion. Anybody who objected was asked to leave.

The party and Punjab

Punjab invested the maximum trust in Kejriwal. The mandate proved it as well. It voted into power four MPs of the 13 parliamentary seats in the 2014 General Election with a vote share of 24.4 per cent. They led 34 of the total 117 Assembly seats. However, within four years, it could manage only 20 Assembly seats with a vote share of about 24 per cent in the 2017 Assembly election.

The party did not learn lessons despite the debacle. It lost the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-poll and Shahkot Assembly by-poll in the state, with its candidates losing the security deposit. Now a rebel group, led by Khaira, has announced a parallel faction in the state.

Khaira: From a leader to a rebel

Candidates like Sukhpal Khaira, who came from the Congress, were a misfit in the party and AAP should have been ready for their subsequent actions, insists Dogra. Nazar Singh Mansahia, the Mansa MLA, and others supporting Khaira, counter-argue that the Delhi leadership needs only yes-men and Khaira is not the one.

The tumbling top

The founder of the party is ironically called the destroyer of the party in Punjab.It is Arvinds way or the highway, as one leader put it. Prof. Ronki Ram, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, in a recent research paper on AAP as the third alternative, writes, The partys slogan of lok-niti versus rajniti forged a bond between it and the restive electorates of Punjab. However, AAP viewed Punjab merely as a stepping-stone to its national ambitions.

There are rumours of AAP forming an alliance at the national level, and Punjab seems to serve as a playground for Arvinds rookie party, adds Pramod.

The state versus Delhi lobby

When it came to nominating members for the Rajya Sabha, the party could not choose a single Sikh or a Punjabi. Also, Punjabis have poor representation in the political affairs committee of AAP. The discrimination has hurt Punjabis, confesses a Delhi AAP leader.

Prof Ronki Ram terms it a divide and conquer policy. This policy dictated the Delhi team's efforts in Punjab and led to groupism. The Delhi team monitored every level of the party structure. Additionally, the zonal booth coordinators operated as Trojan horses of the Delhi team.

Apology to Majithia

Several Punjab leaders were infuriated when Arvind Kejriwal submitted an apology to Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia for wrongly accusing him of drugs smuggling. Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann resigned from the post of state convener. The alliance partner, Lok Insaf Party, snapped ties and ousted Leader of Opposition (LoP) Khaira questioned why the Punjab leaders werent taken into confidence.

The Khalistan blunder

Less than a week before the 2017 Assembly polls, Kejriwal stayed at the residence of former Khalistan Commando Force militant Gurinder Singh, sending a wrong message to the state. The result was a mass shift of votes, including those of Sikhs, towards the Congress. Some leaders have recently issued statements in favour of Sikh referendum 2020. Pramod says, AAP hastily lapped up anything that came its way. It failed to realise that Punjab has always been a multi-cultural state. It is still making the same mistakes.

Autonomy for Punjab AAP?

Chander Suta Dogra feels the idea of calling a volunteers convention by the Khaira group is not appropriate, Are they a separate group? This whole demand for state autonomy is absurd. After all, these MLAs have been elected because of the AAP movement.

Nazar Singh, AAP MLA from Mansa, holds an opposite view. He says that Punjabis have preferred a state leader who can take on Delhi when the question of statehood warrants it. Take Capt Amarinder Singh for example. His rule sets a precedent of a functional autonomy within the Indian National Congress. He has taken a stand against the dictates of the national leadership, and people have acknowledged it. Pramod Kumar, political analyst, views the convention as a proof of potential for a third front. It will, however, depend on several permutations and combinations. The most important being who would offer a stable and development-oriented alternative?
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 5

Ganga conservation crusader Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand has once again rejected Union Minister Uma Bhartis plea to end his stir, saying he wont do the same until his demand for passing the draft of Ganga Protection Act was met.

Union Minister Uma Bharti met him in Haridwar, appealing to him to end the stir. She assured Swami Sanand that the Union Government was serious towards Ganga conservation and the matter would be taken up in the next session of Parliament. She also expressed concern over his deteriorating health.

Bharti had earlier written a letter to Swami Samand to end his stir. This time, she went to meet him in person. However, he remained adamant.

Though I respect Bharti, I cannot go back on my pledge to save the Ganga. I wont call off my stir until the Ganga Protection Act becomes a reality, Swami Sanand said.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari too had earlier appealed to him to end the stir, but that too didnt help. The octogenarian, known as Prof GD Aggarwal, has been on a fast for more than a month now. He was shifted to the All-Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, when his health condition deteriorated. Though, he is fine now, he has returned to Matra Sadan, Haridwar, to continue with the fast.

Bharti disclosed that she had come to meet Swami Sanand on the request of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. She asserted that she was hopeful that Ganga Protection Act would come into existence in October-November in the next session of Parliament. She reminded that a consortium of IITs had already given a report on the Ganga.

Meanwhile, eminent environmentalist from Andhra Pradesh Sagardhara has announced to come to Haridwar and sit on a dharna in support of Swami Sanand.
sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 5

Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prakash Pant has assured the agitating state government employees of sympathetic consideration of their demand for salary and other perks at par with the Central government employees.

Talking to mediapersons shortly after holding talks with a delegation of state government employees association, Prakash Pant held that the state government employees demand would be taken up for consideration in earnest. After that all the suggestions would put before the Cabinet. He apprised that the facility of U- health card as per the concerns raised by the employees will also be done at the earliest.

The finance minister said that it had also been agreed upon in the meeting that an early decision would be taken on the issues such as option of place of posting of their choice be given to the employees in their last year of their service before retirement.

Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, Secretary Finance Amit Negi and state government employees associations convener Naveen Kandpal were prominent present during the meeting.
shalender@tribune.com

Geneva, August 5

Twenty persons died after a vintage World War II aircraft crashed into a Swiss mountainside at the weekend, police said today.

The police have the sad certainty that the 20 persons aboard perished, police spokeswoman Anita Senti told a news conference.

There were 11 men and nine women aboard, including an Austrian couple and their son, she said.

The Junker JU52 HB-HOT aircraft, built in Germany in 1939 and now a collectors item, crashed into Piz Segnas, a 3,000-metre peak in the east of the country on Saturday. The crash occurred at 2,540 metres on the mountains western flank, Senti said.

According to German-language newspaper Blick, the flight had taken off from Ticino in the south of the country and had been due to land at the Duebendorf military airfield near Zurich on Saturday afternoon. The 20 Minutes newspaper quoted a witness who was on the mountainside at the time of the crash.

The aircraft belongs to JU-Air, a company with links to the Swiss air force, the ATS news agency reported.

JU-Air said on its website that it was deeply saddened and its thoughts were with the passengers, the crew and families and friends of the victims.

JU-Air says it runs a small fleet of four Junker planes, all built in 1939, which are for hire. Its pilots are ex-military and professional pilots, all of them volunteers.  AFP
Meanwhile, sources said AICC president Rahul Gandhi was most likely to visit MP to launch poll campaign for his party in the first week of September.

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath and Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh at a joint meeting of AICC and state Congress representatives in Bhopal. (Photo: PTI)

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Saturday virtually admitted that the party was yet to be visible on the ground even though the Assembly polls in the state are barely four months away.

Congress (leaders and workers) must come out (of their houses) and hit the ground. Unless they come to the ground, the party cannot win the elections, he said while addressing the delegates of All India Congress Committee (AICC) and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) here.

Mr Nath, who has been facing charges of confining himself in the Congress headquarters here without bothering to tour the state to galvanise the party workers and woo the voters since he took charge of MP unit of Congress on May one this year, said his ongoing exercise of interacting with representatives of people of different castes would be over in three to four days.

I will launch a state-wide campaign for the party after 3-4 days after completing the exercise of meeting representatives of people of different castes, he told the gathering, party sources quoting him told this newspaper.

Mr Nath said it was imperative to meet representatives of people from all sections of society and not confine the interactions to only a few societies to win elections.

He also dropped hints that the party would ann-ounce candidates in arou-nd 130 out of 230 Assembly constituencies in MP by September 15 this year.

Meanwhile, sources said AICC president Rahul Gandhi was most likely to visit MP to launch poll campaign for his party in the first week of September.

He is scheduled to blow the poll bugle after paying a visit to Omkareswar temple in Neemad and stage road shows in a bus in 20 Assembly constituencies in the region in the first phase of his poll campaigning in the state.

His scheduled visit to MP would be finalised in the coming week, sources said.
shalender@tribune.com

Kabul, August 5

A suicide bomber killed three Czech soldiers who were on a NATO foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, an attack claimed by the Taliban.

One US and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, the NATO Resolute Support mission said in a statement.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis paid tribute to the heroes who fought against terrorism so far from home and who were killed by a suicide attacker.

I respect what they did for our country. I am sending my deepest condolences to their families, he tweeted.

Eastern Afghanistan, where US Special Forces units have regularly been deployed against militants, remains one of the deadliest areas since the US military ended its main combat operation against the Taliban in 2014.  Reuters
shalender@tribune.com

Mataram, August 5

A major earthquake rocked Indonesia's resort islands of Bali and Lombok on Sunday killing at least 32 persons, injuring dozens and damaged buildings, officials said. The seven-magnitude tremor struck just 10 km underground, according to the US Geological Survey.

It was followed by two light to moderate secondary quakes and nearly two dozen aftershocks. The latest data we have 19 persons are dead at Tanjung Hospital (North Lombok), Agus Hendra Sanjaya, Mataram search and rescue spokesman, said.

Among the dead are a one-year-old and a 72-year-old, he said, adding that at least 52 people were injured. Officials issued a tsunami warning after the quake, but it was later cancelled. Seawater up to 13 cm deep poured into two villages, Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, told local TV.

The quake caused light damage as far away as the Javanese city of Bandung, some 955 km from Mataram, but was felt strongly on the neighbouring resort island of Bali.

The tremor came a week after a shallow 6.4-magnitude quake hit Lombok, killing 17 persons and damaging hundreds of buildings. It triggered landslides that briefly trapped trekkers on popular mountain hiking routes.  Agencies
editorial@tribune.com

Washington, August 4

India has become the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea to get the Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) status after the US issued a federal notification to this effect, paving the way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi, particularly in civil space and defence sectors.

India is the 37th country to be designated the STA-1 status by the United States.

The notification gains significance as the Trump Administration made an exception for India, which is yet to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Traditionally, the US has placed only those countries in the STA-1 list who are members of the four export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG) and the NSG.

In its federal notification, the Trump Administration notes that India is a member of three of the four multilateral export regimes. Mainly because of the political opposition from China, Indias membership application has been pending before NSG, which takes decisions by consensus. By placing India in the STA-1 list, the United States has acknowledged that for all practical purposes, India adheres to the export control regimes of the NSG.

This exception for New Delhi is intended to send a strong political message to China and the world, taking into account that Americas closest ally Israel is yet to be given this status, primarily because it is not a member of these multilateral export control regimes. This action befits Indias status as a Major Defence Partner and recognises the countrys membership in three of the four export control regimes  the MTCR, WA and AG, the federal notification said.

To date, with the effective support of the US, India has been admitted to three of the four multilateral export control regimes  the MTCR on June 27, 2016; the Wassenaar Arrangement on December 7, 2017, and the Australia Group on January 19, 2018. These memberships, important to the two countries global strategic partnership, are enhanced by the US recognition of India as a Major Defence Partner in the India-US Joint Statement of June 7, 2016. India so far was listed in STA-2 category along with Albania, Hong Kong, Israel, Malta, Singapore, South Africa and Taiwan.  PTI

Inching closer to full NSG membership
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Moscow, August 4

Moscow on Saturday said 18 persons were killed when a helicopter crashed on its way to an oil station in northern Siberia in the early hours of the morning.

The Russian Transport Ministry said the Mi-8 helicopter carrying three crew members and 15 passengers crashed when it collided with machinery carried by another helicopter soon after take-off.

It added that the second helicopter landed safely and that the accident took place in normal weather conditions. The first take-off was carried out by a Mi-8 with an external cargo suspension without passengers on board, the second take-off was performed with passengers who were workers on shifts at the oil station, the ministry said.

The countrys Investigative Committee said it opened a criminal investigation into the crash.  AFP
shalender@tribune.com

DUBAI, August 5

Saudi Arabia has agreed to admit an Iranian diplomat to head an office representing Iranian interests in the kingdom, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported, in a rare move after the rivals broke off relations in 2016.

An informed diplomatic source said Sunday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to grant a visa to the head ... of Irans interests section, IRNA reported. Observers saw this ... as a positive diplomatic step in Tehran-Riyadh relations. The office is expected to be set up within the Swiss diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia, based on an agreement signed in 2017.

There was no immediate official Saudi reaction to the Iranian report. Riyadh severed diplomatic relations after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia in January 2016.  Reuters
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Hi. We are returning to Vietnam, for more of a beach and relax holiday rather than the tour we did last visit.

What beaches would you recommend in the south please? And how do you reach them from HCMC?

We loved Hoi An. Our usual holiday from Australia is Bali, where we get to meet the locals and try out local foods, and explore the culture. That is the type of holiday we enjoy, as well as swimming and snorkelling or surfing.

Please can I have any information on what to look up, so we can plan a holiday late March next year? Thank you in advance for any information.
>>I'm probably staying for a few hours at the capsule hotel at the airport just for the experience, since it would be too early to check-in in any hotel in Tokyo anyway.<<

Rather than to do squash yourself from economy class (plane) to economy class (accommodation), leave the capsule hotel for some other time, and go to somewhere like Niwa no Yu at Toshimaen for bath, relaxation, and some sleep, before checking in at a proper hotel.

>>some minshuku-style inn<<

There aren't really minshukus in Tokyo and other big cities; they are B&Bs in the countryside. I think a budget ryokan like Sawanoya or budget business chain hotels should work for you in Tokyo.

Most hotels in Tokyo are not inconvenient for transport (check with Google Map first though), and most areas around the stations have nightlife in terms of izakayas and bars. You might pick somewhere like Meguro, Ebisu, Asakusa, or Asakusabashi for less expensive accommodation and a sort of local feel.

On Kyoto >>More for the historical / traditional flavor than for the nightlife this time.<<

You might consider a temple stay if you like in Kyoto; Kyoto has its own nightlife around Kawaramachi between Sanjo and Shijo, although that is also sort of traditional and could be recommended.

>>It is my understanding that by then the typhoon season should be over, and the risk of getting bad weather should be relatively low.<<

Yes, typhoon hits less in October, but it can. Also, October could be the last chance to enjoy marine activities - Okinawa is not a tropical island. You can probably/hopefully swim. If you are talking about the island of Okinawa, it is rather large, and you need to take transportation to the beaches unless you are staying at a hotel located on a beach. Whether you need to rent a car or not depends on where you intend to go (and if there is a lot of talk going on about renting a car, perhaps it's because a) there is need for a car to go to the outreaches, b) some of them are Americans, and cars are part of their life).

>>is a Japan rail Pass really convenient in my case?<<

It isn't, at all.

Edited: 3 years ago
However, in a tactical move, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and AAP chief Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal did not share the stage at the event.

New Delhi: It was another show of strength for a United Opposition on Saturday as parties  including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Trina-mul Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Left and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)  came together to protest against the rape of minor girls in a Bihar shelter home. However, in a tactical move, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and AAP chief Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal did not share the stage at the event.

Mr Kejriwal, who addressed the gathering, left before Mr Gandhi arrived and took his place on the dais. It might be recalled that the two parties are chief rivals in capitals politics, but have been urged by other parties to come together for the sake of Opposi-tion unity.

The Delhi chief minister interestingly referred to the Delhi gang rape case in his speech, which was a major protest before the UPA lost power in 2014.

Mr Gandhi, on the other hand, took a direct swipe at chief minister Nitish Kumar and said: If Nitish Kumar is ashamed of the Muzaffarpur rape incident, he should immediately take action against those involved.

We stand with the women of India, girls and their families who suffered in Muzaffarpur, Mr Gandhi said addressing the gathering Jantar Mantar in the capital.

Other prominent leaders who joined the protest included Communist Party of Indias D. Raja, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav besides RJD leader Tejashvi Yadav himself.

Mr Yadav has been targeting Mr Kumar over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzzafarpur and had held a bandh in Bihar earlier this week.

In Delhi on Saturday, Mr Tejashwi Yadav levelled allegations Mr Kumar, who faced criticism over maintaining silence for days after the shelter home was exposed. He hinted that there has been an effort to shield the accused.

Even after the report of Child Commission was out no action was taken. An FIR was lodged two months after Tata Institute report came out and in that too name of prime accused Brajesh Thakur was missing somehow. Brajesh has been a close aide of Nitish Ji, Mr Tejashwi Yadav said.
Hi I really need your help!

We are travelling from New Zealand to Toyko and then Osaka in late sept/early october and wish to vist USJ on weds 3rd Oct.

We will be staying at a hotel right next door and check into this hotel the day before weds 3rd October.

Purchasing express pass tickets seems to be an absolute failure so far. The Park Front Hotel, can only sell the studio pass tickets and we have to risk buying express pass tickets the day before or at USJ on the days itself, but they have told us we should purchase them prior, from the USJ website,as they always sell out.

This is IMPOSSIBLE from New Zealand. There are no authorised sellers from NZ and the closest is an Aust company, who sells holdays packages only.

I cannot buy these tickets from the USJ website itself in the english version, as the english version refers me to the authorised sellers - which arent in NZ.

My husband is currently in Japan for work and I thought he might be able to have a Japanese speaking person, help purchase the tickets for us on the USJ website Japanese langauage version, but hes been told, that since we do not have a Japanese symbol name, we cannot buy the tickets and indicated that this is done on purpose, so Japanese people have first preference for the express tickets over tourists.

Does anyone have any other ideas, which are authorised in order to buy these tickets in advance, which wont be null or void at the USJ gates? I have one child whos a desperately mad Harry Potter fan, who doesnt want to miss out.

HELP PLEASE, thanks
1. There are 02:00 hour late night buses departing from Haneda Airport International Terminal to various places within Central Tokyo (Ginza, Tokyo Station, Akihabara, Asakusa, Shinjuku, Higashi-Shinjuku, Ikebukuro):

See pages 40 and 43 on this E-booklet inside the circles:

2. Book a hotel near the airport. There are plenty of hotels in Anamori Inari area, like Hotel JAL City, Hotel Mystays Haneda, Toyoko Inn, etc. You might expand your search to Kamata which has dozens of hotels.

3. Find an empty seat and sleep for a while until the first trains and bus (many people on flights arriving at awkward hours do this; Haneda Airport could be the safest place on earth to do this although you'd be watched over by guards and cameras).

4. There is at least a currency exchange, shower room, a couple of cafes open throughout the night, if you don't feel like taking the bus, don't want to book a hotel, don't want to take a nap at the airport.

5. You can always take a taxi to your desired hotel within Central Tokyo - and that might make the driver quite happy, but it could end up being prohibitively expensive.

Edited: 3 years ago
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Hello,

Thoughts on the following itinerary-Looks like this:

Day 1 arrive from Osaka in Kanazawa after Himeji: overnight in Kanazawa

Day 2 explore Kanazawa and night in Kanazawa

Day 3: early head to Shirakawago for few hours and then head to Takayama overnight in Takayama

Day 4 Explore Takayama old town and then afternoon head out to Shinotaka Ropeway and stay at onsen in Okuhida

Day 5 Explore Kamakuchi then head to Matsumoto for castle and then head to Tokyo

Does this makes sense or would you re-arrange it better?

Feedback and suggestions welcome.

Please advise and thanks.
As you said, it is our crazy New Year Holidays from Dec. 29 to Jan. 3, when many people return to their home town to cerebrate the New Year with their parents, relatives or friends. Until last October, foreign visitors were not allowed to book the seats of Tokaido Shinkansen online in advance. But, now JR Tokai (JR Central in English) and JR West introduced a new smartphone App. which can be used to book the seats of Tokaido Sanyo Shinkansen as follows.

It can be used only in the U.S.A., Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand. I assume that not so many Japanese will move on Jan.1, but still you should reserve your seats using this App., although it cannot be combined with the JR Pass. The seats can be booked online from exactly 10am Japan Time one month before, but according to my colleague, the seats of Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto on Dec. 29-31 are fully booked in @10-15 min. If she used the non-reserved seats, not only they had to stand all the way, but they were also packed like sardines in the can and could not even go to the toilets in the train FOR HOURS!!

She stopped using this CRAZY Shinkansen and now use air flights instead, which can be booked 3 months before.

Therefore, I recommend you to book your seats online at exactly 10am Japan Time(18:00 SF time) 1 month before using the App. Alternatively, fly from Narita or Haneda Airport to Osaka Airport, or fly to Kansai Airport (KIX) directly from San Francisco.
My family and I are going to Japan during spring season. There are so many places in Tokyo that I want to visit including Shibuya, Akihabara, and Shinjuku. I've never been to Japan before so my knowledge of Tokyo and its areas is zero. We're planning on staying in Japan for a week and I really want to visit all of the popular spots of Tokyo. I will be listing my questions down below and I would really appreciate it if anyone can help a beginner tourist out :D

1. Can someone please explain the lay out of Tokyo? (areas, districts)

I know that Tokyo is Japan's biggest and busiest city but that's all I know. (I did some research but seriously all I need is a small summary of Japan's cities and districts)

2. Is it possible to explore Tokyo on foot?

My main goal is to visit the following places: Shibuya, Akihabara, and Shinjuku. Let's say our hotel is in Shibuya and we want to visit Shinjuku. Is it possible to go there on foot or is it NECESSARY to travel by train?

3. Any helpful IOS apps that can help guide us around Tokyo?

We won't be having a tour guide with us so we're on our own. It'd be nice to have an app that tells us the popular spots to see in Tokyo (parks, temples, etc.) and how to get there.

4. Any accurate apps that can translate English to Japanese?

Though I am taking Japanese classes my Japanese is still rusty so having an app that can translate some sentences for us would be really helpful.
I wouldn't look at it as being charged for the trip back to San Jose by the all inclusive lodges. It isn't like a private transfer, it is shared transportation included in a package. You have to consider this from the lodge's point of view.

I think the Tortuguero packages are some of the best bargains in Costa Rica tourism. They are in a very remote place. Yet, they offer lodging, all meals, transport, and tours for a very low price. The only way that they can keep the prices this low is by utilizing the Economies of Scale. They bundle it all together and offer it as one product.

Their buses are shuttling folks back and forth on a daily basis. So it is running if you choose to ride on it or not. It is part of the package. Just like you may choose not to do an included tour. That tour will still run if your seat is taken or not. So they won't offer a discount if you choose not to participate. The service is still being provided.

That all being said. You are not doing the AI thing. So you still need to arrange transportation to SJ / Tortuguero / Arenal.

Rather than taking a shot in the dark, ask your hotel who they recommend. I promise you that they have an arrangement with a company that they trust, that they can recommend with confidence. Someone who will show up, and get you to the dock on time. That same company could also show up at the dock when you depart Tortuguero and transfer you to Arenal.

We regularly have our transportation company pick up folks from a restaurant on the main highway near Guapiles, on their way out of Tortuguero. That is where the lodge stops for lunch, before continuing on to San Jose. That price of $220.00 ($55.00 X 4) for the trip to Arenal sounds a tad high, but not crazy.

We pay less than that. But that is from the highway, not the dock. Figure that going to the dock from the highway requires another 30 to 45 minutes drive each way. Plus waiting time for the driver. So this adds two hours to his day, before you even head to Arenal.

Check with the hotel. You can probably work out an acceptable deal with the company they use when you offer them both legs. And again, they do it all the time. So you are not trying to reinvent the wheel. Simple.

I hope this helps. Let me know if I can offer any further advice.

Warm Regards,

Pat Hewitt

Costa Rica Travel Exchange

- Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind -
I'm considering an April 2019 trip to surprise my wife with a BSB concert. Unless something changes, April 2019 will be the last of their Vegas shows. Right now I'm not sure how long we'll take. We've been to Vegas before, and we did some road trips to Death Valley and Rachael because neither of us are huge gamblers, party types. I have some questions about the concert, hotel pools, and area hiking. I know April weather is usually at least warm, but who knows for sure. I'm hoping for a mix of comfortable warmer weather in the morning for hiking, and maybe warm/hot enough to enjoy a nice hotel pool in the late afternoon or evening.

For the concert, I've done my research on the venue. Most folks say it is a good show. Any suggestions on where to sit would be great. The different in price is only $60 for certain areas/seats, which isn't a deal breaker if we would be closer to the stage. If anyone has specific section and row numbers, that'd be great.

During this trip I might try to get out and do a half-day or 3/4ths day hike. My wife may or may not go with me. I'm considering the Frenchman Mountain Trail as I really enjoy panoramic views. Any other suggestions for hiking? I'm an early riser so I'd likely be leaving early and would really like to limit my time to somewhat shorter trails so I can get back around noon or a little after.

Since we might have some decent pool temps and my wife like laying out, I'm also wanting to get a place with a decent pool, or a place where we can walk to and pay (if needed) to chill out at a pool. Most of the popular pools like Wet Republic and Bare I know of because of all the big name DJs they have. Are these music parties all day? Are there days where things are more relaxed? Looking for some places that have lots of chairs to layout in and/or reasonable small cabana rentals.

We are both in-shape and have no problem walking to Planet Hollywood for the concert. I'd like to at least stay within walking distance (say around a mile one way) so we wouldn't have to rely on any sort of public transportation. Price range that I'm seeing is $170ish. We can afford something a bit more if it is really worth it.

Thanks for any suggestions.
For Monday, when you are visiting downtown, you might also want to take a look at the Oculus.

For Tuesday, if you decide to go to Central Park, there are many museums around such at the MET, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Design and the MOMA.

I would also suggest a visit at the top of Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock) for an amazing view of the City and Central Park. If you want to visit another park, I would suggest Bryant Park and the Library with a stop at Grand Central Terminal.
Im doing a solo trip to New York for my birthday in October. Ill be there the 8th-11th. Does my plan make sense so far? Ive never been to New York before, so Ive been doing a lot of research since I basically only have a day & a half.

Day 1 (Monday)

Arrive Newark 1:10. Take airtrain to Manhattan. Either walk or subway to hotel (EconoLodge Times Square), depending on weather. Guessing it will be between 3&4 by the time I get to the hotel. Spend the evening at Times Square or see if I can get last minutes tickets for something (its Monday, so theres not many shows playing.)

Day 2 (Tuesday)

Take subway to Brooklyn & walk back across the Brooklyn bridge. Also want to take the Staten Island Ferry for the Statue of Liberty & do the 9/11 Memorial (just the memorial, not the museum.) What is the best order to do these in? I have tickets for Frozen for that evening.

Day 3 (Wednesday)

I really only have the morning this day. Thinking of doing the Radio City Music Hall tour or the Rockefeller Center tour. I have tickets for Waitress at 2pm & Mean Girls in the evening, so Ill be finding someplace for dinner & possibly going back to the hotel for a little while between the shows.

Day 4 (Thursday)

Depart Newark at 1:50pm, so dont really have time for anything that morning if I want to give myself enough time to get the train back to the airport.

Which day would make more sense to check out Central Park? Things that would be a bonus to check out, but not the end of the world if I dont make it (gives me an excuse to come back): Strand Bookstore, St. Patricks Cathedral, New York Public Library, Chelsea Market, American Museum of Natural History, & Federal Hall. Would it be possible to easily combine any of these with my tentative plans?

Would you recommend doing any tours to try to see as much as possible? Ive already decided against hop on/hop off bus & city pass since I dont think it will be worth it for the little time Im there.

Does anyone have any good, gluten free/dairy free dining suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
Newly-appointed Justice Banerjee will have a tenure of a little over four years in the apex court.

Justice Indira Banerjee started out as a lawyer on July 5, 1985 and practised in the Calcutta High Court. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: For the first time in 68 years, the Supreme Court will have three sitting woman judges following the elevation of Madras high court chief justice Indira Banerjee to the top court. The other sitting woman Supreme Court judges are Justices R. Bhanumathi and Indu Malhotra.

Apart from chief justice Banerjee, chief justices of Uttarakhand and Orissa high courts  K.M. Joseph and Naveen Sharan  were also elevated to the Supreme Court on Saturday, taking the total number of judges in the apex court to 25. There would still be six vacancies in the top court.

On Friday night, the law ministry notified the appointment of the three chief justices ending the eight-month-long suspense on the elevation of Justice Joseph, whose name was reiterated by the collegium last month.

Justice Joseph had struck down the imposition of Presidents rule in Uttarakhand in 2016 after the dismissal of a Congress government led by Harish Rawat.

An earlier recommendation of the collegium to transfer Justice Joseph to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana high court on health grounds was kept pending by the government for a long time

Justice Josephs name was recommended for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court by the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on January 10.

On April 30, the government had returned the recommendation for reconsideration on the grounds that he lacked seniority.

The executive had also pointed out that several high courts remained unrepresented in the top court and Justice Josephs elevation would be against the principle of regional representation. His parent high court is the Kerala high court.

Newly-appointed Justice Banerjee will have a tenure of a little over four years in the apex court.

In its 68-year history, the apex court has had seven women judges with the first one being Justice Fatima Beevi, followed by Justices Sujatha Manohar, Ruma Pal, Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana Desai, R. Bhanumathi and Indu Malhotra. Mostly only one-woman judge had served the institution at a particular point of time.

It was in 2011 during the tenure of former CJI Balakrishnan that the strength of judges of the apex court was increased from 25 to 31 to provide for appointment of at least two women judges. As a result Justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Ranjana Desai served during the same point of time. Now after seven years, the apex court will have three women judges serving at the same point of time.

Despite Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad requesting the apex court collegium to consider giving representation to communities which are not represented, the Supreme Court is yet to have a Scheduled Caste judge after CJI K.G. Balakrishnan retired in 2010.

So far, there have been only two Scheduled Caste judges in the top court. The first was Justice K. Ramaswami who joined in 1989 and served till 1994, followed by CJI Balakrishnan who joined the top court in 2000.
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What are the Must-See's and Must-Do's?

How Do I Ride the Subway (UPDATED)?

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Where to Eat in NYC

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Which Area Should I Stay In?

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Public restrooms/toilets. Where do you go when you GOTTA GO?

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been gone a while back for help from my experts

been gone a while back for help from my experts

It's been a long time since I've logged in to Trip. I need some advice on a summer 2019 trip I'm trying to plan to New York.

We came a almost 5 years ago for my daughter's 16th bday. We LOVED it!! Being our first trip we were all about Times Square. This time we're coming back for my daughter's 21st and I'd like a different type of experience.

I want to visit more of the neighborhoods this trip but there are still some touristy things I want to do. I hurt my leg last trip so I didn't get to go with everyone else to Empire, the 911 Memorial wasn't complete when we came, didn't get to visit a museum, and i have to do the touristy Today show thing. Lol. So, I guess i need to be close to a subway station.

What area should we stay in that is convenient(maybe even still walkable) to Times Square and Broadway, but closer to trendy bars and clubs that the youngsters can enjoy and nice but reasonable restaurants for me.

I'm also looking for places to stay that can get me in a good location for all i want to do that may also have suites that sleep at least 5.So far I've only looked at Best Western and Kimberly.

I don't really have a set budget yet. I'm not trying to spend a $1000 a night but I'm not looking for something dirt cheap either. However, I am thinking about treating my niece to a trip as well and the Yotel seems like it would really fit her.Can you tell me a little bit about that place and the surrounding area?

I'm thinking of coming in May or June....any advantage to one over the other?

Thanks for the input.
Feb 5 days in New York with my daughter who is 25.

Feb 5 days in New York with my daughter who is 25.

My daughter and I are flying to New York in Feb 2019 as her special 25th birthday and I want to cram as much in as possible, so PLEASE PLEASE can super tips would be greatly appreciated?

We def want to visit a cool bar with panoramic views, a city tour with a local if at all recommended? I have been before but not for a long time so would love any tips at all?

Thank you in advance, we are staying in Manhattan.
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- A customer who had gone to the family shop to buy sugar bumped into the lifeless body

- Kibet until his death was a form one student at Getarwet Secondary School

- Residents blamed the insecurity on the laxity of the police officers

The rising cases of insecurity in Getarwet village in Kericho county saw police officers use teargas to disperse protesting residents after lifeless body of a form one student was found murdered.

A customer who had gone to the family shop to buy sugar bumped into the lifeless body of Elias Kibet in his room behind the shop on the morning of Saturday, August 4.

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READ ALSO: Kericho teacher found killed in bedroom, wifes eyes gorged out

The rising cases of insecurity in Getarwet village in Kericho county saw police officers and residents engage protest. Photo: Nation.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Malava primary school teacher kills children, sets himself on fire after quarrel with wife

Kibet until his death was a form one student at Getarwet Secondary School.

The boy's mother Alice Ngeno received the sad news in the morning.

"A client had gone to the shop to buy sugar, but he found it still closed. When he went behind the shop where my son sleeps, he returned screaming," she said.

Residents barricaded Kericho-Litein road to protest the untimely death coming just barely two weeks after a teacher and wife were killed by unknown individuals.

READ ALSO: 3-year-old pupil found dead at PCEA school in Nairobi under unclear circumstances

Some who spoke to media blamed the insecurity on the laxity of the police officers.

"We have had enough of insecurity in this regard. The death of this young boy is a wake-up call that we surely do not have security and that we should take law into our own hands," said Geoffrey Rono, a resident.

Other reports indicated police set free suspects held in connection to the gruesome of the teacher and wife for lack of evidence.

READ ALSO: Nakuru residents storm burial of baby who died after parents refused to take him to hospital

Preliminary sources told TUKO.co.ke the man who was a teacher at Cheborge secondary school and his wife were attacked around 1 am in the dawn of Saturday, July 21, 2018.

Witnesses reported the body of the teacher was found with deep wounds suspected to have been inflicted by a knife while the woman was hit with blunt objects.

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- The fatal head-on collision left 26 others badly injured with one in critical condition

- The youngsters were traveling to Mwingi from an educational tour in Mombasa

- Bodies of the deceased were taken to Mwingi Level IV Hospital

- Some of those who were badly injured in the crash were referred to Kenyatta Hospital

At least 10 children have been confirmed dead and 26 others badly injured in a road accident involving a school bus and a truck.

The fatal road crash happened along Mwingi-Garissa Road at Kanginga near Tyaa River in Kitui County on the night of Saturday, August 4.

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READ ALSO: 8 seriously injured after bus overturns at notorious Sachangwan blackspot

The youngsters had gone for an education tour in Mombasa and were now on their way back home when their school bus collided with a truck and rolled into a river.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: The tragedy of the school-boy who was killed by school bus takes another turn

According to Kitui OCPD Muthuri Mwongera, bodies of the young victims were moved to Mwingi Level IV Hospital together with those injured in the crash.

Related reports seen by TUKO.co.ke on Sunday morning indicated the school bus belonging to St Gabriel Academy was traveling from Mombasa when it collided head-on with an oncoming truck.

READ ALSO: Contractor begins work on the killer Salgaa stretch, motorists advised to use alternative routes

The bus reportedly rolled several times and plunged into Tyaa River, killing eight of the pupils on the spot.

Some of the victims had serious fractures and were transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) for advanced treatment.

READ ALSO: Kampuni ya Unga wa Dola yamsaka jamaa aliyeonekana amebeba shungi la ugali begani

The youngsters had gone for an education tour in Mombasa and were now on their way back home.

In a related incident in Kisumu, a girl died and eight others sustained serious injuries in a road accident along the Nairobi-Kisumu highway.

Body of the deceased girl was moved to Awasi Mission Hospital.

Those injured in the Nairobi-Kisumu road crash were also taken to the Awasi Mission Hospital and others, including an eight-month old baby, referred to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital.

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- Politicians from Nandi and Uasin Gishu warned Keter not to show his face in the region until he apologises to Ruto

- Keter had viciously attacked Ruto saying the DP was not fit to be the next president of Kenya

- The vocal MP who recently won case challenging his poll victory, accused Ruto of stealing to enrich himself

- It is understood the remarks, captured in a viral clip, infuriated DP Ruto's allies in the Rift Valley

Vocal Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter is now a man under siege in his own backyard following bold and scathing attack he unleashed against Deputy President William Ruto's 2022 presidential ambition.

A section of Rift Valley politicians, mostly drawn from Ruto's home county, Uasin Gishu, and Nandi region, demanded that Keter publicly apologises to Ruto for mudslinging his name and undermining the presumed Jubilee party's 2022 flag-bearer.

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READ ALSO: If Ruto becomes president, Kenyans will think all Kalenjins are thieves - Alfred Keter

Nandi Hills Member of Parliament ahd accused the Deputy President William Ruto (R) of being irredeemably corrupt and therefore not fit to be president of Kenya.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: I use Moses Kuria's chopper to fly around - DP William Ruto

In a fiery joint statement issued by Uasin Gishu County Assembly Majority leader Josphat Lowoi and which was seen by TUKO.co.ke on Sunday, August 5, the Rift Valley leaders made it clear they would not allow Keter to continue undermining Ruto's presidential ambition.

We are not taking kindly the endless attacks on Ruto by the Nandi Hills MP. He will not be allowed to hold rallies or speak negatively against the Deputy President. We will stop him, Lowoi warned following angry demonstrations in Nandi on Friday, August 3, against Keter.

Angry protests on Friday, August 3, following remarks by Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter who accused Deputy President William Ruto of being a thief.Photo: Nation.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: William Ruto is intelligent but surrounded by fools and greedy people - Alfred Keter

Some 100 MCAs from Uasin Gishu allegedly convened a private meeting in Eldoret town to discuss Keter's recent public pronouncements which they considered disrespectful to the DP.

TUKO.co.ke understands it was during the Eldoret meeting that a decision was made not to allow Keter to hold any more political rallies in the region until he apologised to Ruto.

READ ALSO: Two Jubilee MPs risk losing seats for campaigning for William Ruto's 2022 presidential bid

Keter on July 21 poured cold water on Ruto's 2022 presidential bid claiming the DP was a notorious thief and therefore cannot be trusted with leadership.

The Nandi Hills MP, whose August 8 election victory was on July 10 upheld by the Court of Appeal, vowed to criss-cross the country to warn Kenyans against electing Ruto in 2022 because in his view the DP was irredeemably corrupt.

"My prayer is for you (Ruto) not to be the president because if you become one, other Kenyan tribes will hate us the Kalenjin saying we are thieves," he said.

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- Wachira claims he sold Uhuru chewing gum but the president never paid him

- The incident allegedly took place in September 2017

- Uhuru was touring Burma after his election win was nullified

- The hawker now wishes to meet Uhuru so he can settle the KSh 40 debt

A Nairobi based hawker is crying foul over an alleged KSh 40 debt which is owed to him by none other than President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Dennis Wachira, a chewing gum vendor operating around the Burma market, said meeting with the President did him more curses than favors in the long run.

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Wachira claims Uhuru has his KSh 40 debt

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Mombasa man sentenced to death for withdrawing KSh 26k from dead woman's Mpesa

In an interview with NTV, Wachira flashed back to September 2017 when he had the rare privilege of meeting the president.

Wachira is aggrieved over a KSh 40 debt owed to him by the president

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kiambu missing child found with father who wanted to save the baby from mums irresponsibility

Uhuru, as TUKO.co.ke reported, was in Burma for a brief rally after hius August 8 election win was nullified for a rematch by the Supreme court.

It was then that he allegedly had a brief interaction with Wachira, who ended up selling the president chewing gum worth KSh 40.

Uhuru was in Burma in September 2017 for a brief rally after his election win was nullified

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: If you called me here, you have to listen to me - Granny tells NTV's Amina on live TV

While many would melt at the chance of meeting or even having brief verbal niceties with the Head-of-State, Wachira says the meeting proved to be a curse in disguise.

Not only does he claim the president did not pay him his KSh 40, he further said his business has since gone significantly lower because most of his customers and associates say he should be well off after meeting Uhuru.

Dennis Wachira claims his business has singnficantly gone down since his run-in with the president. Photo: NTV

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kiambu missing child found with father who wanted to save the baby from mums irresponsibility

I met with Uhuru Kenyatta and I sold him chewing gum. From there I never saw him again, he alleged.

Wachira's only demand at the moment is to meet with the president once again so he could settle his KSh 40 debt.

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- Uhuru stated Kenya lost future leaders in the fatal accident

- The pupils died while travelling back to Mwingi from an educational tour in Mombasa

- Their bus was involved in a head-on collision with a truck at Mwingi-Garissa Road

Uhuru has sent out a message of condolence to the family and friends of victims who were killed in fatal car crash involving a school bus and a truck.

TUKO.co.ke understands the fatal accident took place along Mwingi-Garissa Road at Kanginga near Tyaa River in Kitui County on the night of Saturday, August 4.

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READ ALSO: 8 children returning home from school trip perish in accident along Mwingi-Garissa Road

READ ALSO: Nairobi hawker demands KSh 40 debt from Uhuru Kenyatta

In a Facebook post seen by TUKO.co.ke on Sunday, August 5, the president said it was unfortunate that children who were the future of the nation had to die that way.

It is indeed sad and unfortunate that we lost those we look forward to secure the future of our great nation, Uhuru said.

READ ALSO: 8 seriously injured after bus overturns at notorious Sachangwan blackspot

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu together with Philip Etale and Deputy President William Ruto also joined in to mourn the death of the pupils, stating the accident left parents and the Catholic fraternity in great pain.

"My heartfelt message of condolence to the parents of St Gabriel Primary School Mwingi. The loss of lives of young children in a road accident at Kanginga near Tyaa River has left parents, the entire Catholic fraternity, the people of Mwingi and the entire County in great pain," she wrote.

Earlier reports by TUKO.co.ke indicate the eight pupils were among 50 people travelling back to Mwingi from a Mombasa excursion.

Their school bus was involved in a head-on collision with a truck at around 11pm on that fateful Saturday.

Reports further indicate the bus driver lost control thus plunging into a river bed.

Six lucky children had already been dropped off at their respective homes before the fatal car crash.

32 injured others who were injured were rushed to Mwingi Level Four Hospital where they are currently recuperating.

TUKO.co.ke understands six pupils are still in critical condition while 26 are stable.

Some who sustained serious injuries were transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) for specialised treatment.

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- Kangema MP Muturi Kigano had accused Muranga Senator Irungu Kangata of blocking other leaders from accessing the DP

- Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro claimed the media misreported on the development

- Kangata said the leaders were united and no one was fighting for Ruto's attention

Central Kenya leaders have dismissed reports depicting supremacy battles playing between them terming it as unfounded and a mere creations of the media.

TUKO.co.ke understands that during Deputy President William Rutos visit to Murang'a County on Friday, August 3, Kangema MP Muturi Kigano accused Muranga Senator Irungu Kangata of blocking other leaders from accessing the DP.

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READ ALSO: Murang'a leaders root for Governor Mwangi Wa Iria to be Ruto's running mate in 2022

Central Kenya leaders have dismissed media reports claiming they are fighting for the attention of DP William Ruto (Pictured). Photo: William Ruto/Facebook

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: DP William Ruto donates over KSh 30 million in 6 months in Muranga alone

Led by Kiharu legislator Ndindi Nyoro, the leaders claimed the media had blown the incident out of imaginable proportions beside also giving it the prominence it never deserved.

No one is fighting for the attention of DP Ruto. We are not competing against one another but our work is founded on complementing each other, said Nyoro.

READ ALSO: Alfred Keter banned from holding political rallies in Rift Valley for calling DP Ruto thief

A report by TUKO.co.ke had that during the DPs visit, Kigumo MP Jamleck Kamau made a surprise move when he rooted for Muranga Governor Mwangi wa Iria as their bet who will run as Rutos running mate come 2022.

His sentiment was echoed by Senator Kangata and this has since stirred curiosity on how the leaders are scrambling for the DP in a move to align themselves strategically before the 2022 general election.

READ ALSO: Governor Amason Kingi warns ODM party against plot to punish rebel coast MPs

Senator Kangata dismissed the narrative that he had monopolised the DP stating that he was a close friend to him and therefore more accessible.

I have not personalised DP Ruto, in fact, I have even told him to try and be accessible to other leaders. There is no infighting between Central leaders and no one is fighting for the DPs attention, stated Kangata who also doubles up as Senate Deputy Chief Whip.

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Shah once again questioned the silence of Mr Gandhi on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) aimed at identifying illegal migrants.

BJP president Amit Shah with railway minister Piyush Goyal (left) and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath during the inauguration of a new train at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya station (previously known as Mughalsarai railway station) in Uttar Pradesh. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow/Chandauli: Looking to woo dalit voters, BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday dared Congress president Rahul Gandhi to make public his partys stand on the amended OBC bill before it is taken up for passage in the Rajya Sabha.

He said if the Congress does not help in the bills passage in the House it would get exposed as a party disinterested in welfare of the backward communities.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, commonly known as the OBC bill, was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 2 and will now go to the Rajya Sabha for passage.

The proposed legislation seeks to grant the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) a constitutional status on a par with the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Mr Shah, who was in Chandauli to attend a function on renaming Mughalsarai junction in Uttar Pradesh after RSS stalwart Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, said, The Modi government has got the OBC bill passed in the Lok Sabha. This will go to the Rajya Sabha. Will (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi clarify before the country whether his party will help in the passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha or not. This will make it clear whether the Congress is really for the welfare of the backward communities.

Speaking at a separate function in Varanasi, Mr Shah once again questioned the silence of Mr Gandhi on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) aimed at identifying illegal migrants.

Accusing the Congress of playing vote bank politics, Mr Shah said that the Congress must tell people about its stand on the issue of illegal immigrants and decide if it wants to keep intruders here or not.

The NRC is for taking out Bangladeshis from Assam. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee says NRC should not happen, Congress says the same. I ask Rahul Gandhi  should NRC happen or not? He does not reply, the BJP chief said.

The NRC was initiated by the UPA under the Manmohan Singh government to fulfil the commitment made in the Assam Accord of 1985. However, the manner in which this exercise has been undertaken by the BJP governments at the Centre and in Assam, under a Supreme Court direction, has been criticised by the Congress.

The BJP president also hit out at Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for their silence on the NRC issue.

Today I would like to ask the SP, the BSP and the Congress whether they want the infiltrators to stay in the country or they should be driven out. I know the answer of the people of Uttar Pradesh. The answer is that not even a single infiltrator should be allowed to stay in India, he said.

Mr Shah also lashed out at the Opposition and said that no matter how hard these parties try, they would not be able to defeat the Modi government in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Even if bua (BSP chief Mayawati), bhatija (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) and Rahul join hands, our tally of seats (in Lok Sabha from UP) will be 74 instead of 73 now and will not be 72, he said.

In 2014, the saffron party had bagged 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state and two went to its ally Apna Dal, taking the NDA tally to 73.

Mr Shah asked the audience at the meeting if they would vote for the BJP and the crowd responded in affirmative.

Mr Shah also lauded the Yogi Adityanath government for taking the benefits of welfare schemes to the doorsteps of the poor. He said that huge investments are coming to Uttar Pradesh mainly because of the good governance of the Yogi government.

Minutes after Mr Shah delivered his speech, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha slammed the BJP chief for seeking votes in a government-sponsored function.

The Mughalsarai station renaming function was an official one arranged at government cost. Did it behove Amit Shah to ask for votes for BJP at this function? The finest values of our democracy are being destroyed one by one, nobody even notices, much less worry, he tweeted.

The BJP government has renamed the Mughalsarai railway station after Upadhyaya as a mark of respect to the RSS leader who was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the station in February 1968.
The towns of Uganda were painted red as the son to South Africa's President officially said 'I Do' to the love of his life in a colourful wedding.

Andile Ramaphosa and daughter to former Uganda's Prime Minister, Bridget Birungi, brought Uganda to a standstill when all roads led to their posh ceremony held at Kololo suburb.

READ ALSO: Hilarious video of boy praying for sister to stop wetting bed will leave you in stitches

READ ALSO: CS Raychelle Omamo encourages school girls to embrace curvaceous bodies, big behinds

You guessed it right if you suggested the country's President Yoweri Museveni was in attendance. The leader was even reported to be the host with the most!

The couple rocked beautiful African attire and most of the guests also embraced their heritage as they stepped out in captivating clothes.

READ ALSO: Nairobi hawker demands KSh 40 debt from Uhuru Kenyatta

Andile and Bridget have been together for a decade and they met in Beijing while Ramaphosa's son was working and his lady was pursuing her engineering degree.

Initially, the family of the bride was strongly opposed to the dowry paid by Ramaphosa's representatives stating it was dehumanising.

According to Bridget's family, the resources used by her family to raise the beauty were not in any way supposed to be equated to a mere animal.

The groom was also fined one goat by his in-laws for impregnating their daughter before marriage.

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.

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- Ekuru Aukot claims NASA made some frantic efforts to have him derail the October 2017 repeat poll

- He revealed that Raila personally reached out to him to boycott the poll

- Raila had initially already sworn off the repeat election on grounds the IEBC was incompetent

- However, his withdrawal guaranteed Uhuru a landslide victory since Ekuru Aukot was also a contender

Former presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot has come forward with some interesting revelations against Raila Odinga and his NASA co-principals regarding the October 2017 repeat poll.

The Thirdway Alliance party leader, in a sensation revelation alleged that Raila and company frantically tried to reach out to him to also quit the repeat poll.

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Ekuru Aukot claims he was persuaded to boycott the repeat poll

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Thank you for boycotting election and let Uhuru be the product of a fraud - Raila Odinga

According to reports from Nation, Aukot claimed that Raila actively persuaded him to quit the repeat poll in a bid to cripple the presidential race which would have seen President Uhuru Kenyatta as the only candidate.

As reported by TUKO.co.ke, Raila, despite scoring big against Uhuru by having the Supreme court nullify the August poll, still wouldnt compete in the rematch which was slated for October 21.

Raila and his NASA brigade boycotted the repeat poll on grounds that electoral body IEBC were largely incapable of conducting a free and fair process.

NASA co principals allegedly tried to talk Aukot out of participating in the repeat poll

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Possible scenario of what would happen if Raila or Uhuru pulled out of the fresh election

There was still a major loophole in Railas plans to have no repeat poll taking place as the presence of both Aukot and Uhuru in the ballot meant the election would still be able to take place.

But Aukot claimed he was nearly persuaded out of the race by an insistent Raila who was reportedly keen on seeing no election take place on the scheduled date.

Raila Odinga lobbied me not to participate in the election under the understanding that if I boycotted like he had done, it would cause a constitutional crisis because, according to him, Mr Kenyatta would not have competed against himself, Aukot was quoted by Nation.

Raila attempted to persuade Ekuru not to participate in the October 2017 repeat poll

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Presidential candidate goes to court after he was knocked out of repeat elections

Aukot had initially launched an appeal in court as he had been blocked from participating in the repeat poll.

NASA co principals Kalonzo and Wetangula allegedly also made efforts to deny Uhuru a legitimate win by trying to persuade Aukot to withdraw his petition to render the Jubilee party leader a lone contestant.

Kalonzo and Wetangula also made their own efforts to convince Aukot to abandon his bid.

Source: Twitter

READ ALSO: Except Raila, Uhuru, Ruto and my wife, I fear no one else - Aden Duale

I explained to them that if Uhuru fails to get a challenger, he would be declared the winner as it happened to Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwah, among others. There was a precedent but these people thought that they were going to pocket and control me, he went on.

Despite pressure from NASA's end, Ekuru still went ahead to face Uhuru who would go on to win the repeat poll in a landslide.

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Ukraine authorities plan to create an interdepartmental body to consolidate claims against Russia for compensation of damage over the Kremlin's aggression in Donbas and Crimea annexation. Experts consider the move to be timely, although warning that hearings in international courts will be lengthy, while Russia will not pay off its debts voluntarily, so Ukraine needs to be strategically prepared for foreclosures.

In Ukraine, an interdepartmental coordinating body is to be set up soon to shape up claims against Russia for compensation of damage inflicted through the aggression in Donbas and annexation of Crimea. President Poroshenko has made a corresponding request to the Cabinet of Ministers.

"Every day, Russia's ongoing armed aggression causes new immeasurable human suffering on Ukrainian land, infrastructure is being ruined, enterprises and economic potential of Donbas and Crimea are being destroyed," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on August 1. "Therefore, we must not hesitate for a moment, and prepare Ukraine's consolidated claim against Russia to compensate for the damage done."

Why Ukraine needs a separate structure to control claims against Russia

The creation of an interdepartmental body is envisaged by the "reintegration" law passed by the Verkhovna Rada on January 18, 2018, where Russia's actions in the occupied Ukrainian territories are recognized as illegal and in breach of international humanitarian law. Therefore, the responsibility for the moral and material damage caused to the State of Ukraine, individuals and legal entities, is laid on the Russian Federation.

Experts consider the creation of the new agency as the right step to ensure Ukraine's quality action in court against Russia. However, this will not resolve the problem in general, while forcing the aggressor state to actually pay for the damage done will be a headache for Ukraine.

According to Kostyantyn Likarchuk, a partner at the international law firm Kinstellar, an interdepartmental body is necessary, as today, the process of filing lawsuits against Russia is disorganized - several state agencies, in particular, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, and representatives of state corporations are all engaged in it.

"Coordination would not be superfluous, especially given that the first decisions of international courts are emerging. It's about tens, hundreds of billions of dollars. The damage inflicted is huge. As far as I know, the preliminary stage of the litigations - the issue of jurisdiction - is already being completed. The main stage - the consideration of claims  will take at least 3 years. And Russia will pay everything if we consistently engage in recovery issues," the expert believes.

Expert in international law Vitaly Vlasiuk shares his colleague's opinion, but at the same time, specifies a number of details: "The idea to create a single body is correct, indeed. If it consolidates all claims of Ukraine in international courts, the Hague Tribunal, and all lawyers dealing with them, then this is a big plus, really. But we need to understand that this step will not win our cases. For each of the lawsuits, there's their own jurisdiction and expertise. But in general, a single body that will handle these cases and bring together experts from the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, state companies that filed lawsuits against Russia, is a very sensible idea that will at least ensure quality coordination of all processes."

According to him, litigations in international jurisdictions are very lengthy and one shouldn't expect the verdicts will be 100% pro-Ukraine.

"Waiting for court rulings will take a long time. And these ruling won't be 100% pro-Ukrainian because no court will ever recognize the rightness of only one party. Exceptions are very rare. Even if one party is 100% right, it doesn't mean it will see 100% of its claims satisfied. It is for this reason that tactics and strategy are always carefully calculated. If the court says that Crimea is Ukrainian, it does not mean that Russia will return it. But this will put an end to international legal fluctuations. After all, today, a number of countries allow themselves claiming that they are not sure of Crimea belonging to Ukraine. After the court decision in our favor, no country and no politician will allow themselves such statements," Vlasiuk stressed.

In his opinion, there most likely be no practical result in the form of voluntary payment by the Russian Federation of damages caused to Ukraine. Besides, Russia, by adopting a law on non-acceptance of decisions of foreign courts, does not recognize the fact of proceedings at the level of international judiciary. At the same time, Ukraine will still be able to get some part of the awarded reparation. And the very appeal to the court is a positive signal for the West, bearing huge risks for Russia.

"They will be forced to pay damages in a number of lawsuits following the example of the Stockholm case of Naftogaz against Gazprom, where the latter didn't want to pay whatever the court told them to. But recovering losses in international public disputes related to Crimea and Donbas still raises big questions. Nevertheless, Ukraine's appeal to the courts is a correct step, a civilized one. The West supports us in all our endeavors connected with resolving the dispute with Russia in courts. And Western support is key for us. These are great advantages for our reputation, at the same time, great problems for the reputation of the Russian Federation. All our appeals with the courts are aimed at showing the Western world Ukraine's readiness to solve all problems in a civilized way and at the same time to be guided by the norms of international law. This is a huge positive signal for the West, including for investors," Vlasiuk said.

Professor of Political Science at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, research director at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation Oleksiy Haran shares the same opinion: "The creation of an interdepartmental body on Ukraine's claims to Russia is a necessary step to consolidate our legal action policy against the Russian Federation. Of course, Russia will be refusing to comply with court decisions, which is the aggressor's position. But when rulings of international courts have been handed down, then, one way or another, they will have to reckon with this. Moreover, any Russian property could be arrested abroad in pursuance of court decisions, as in the case of Naftogaz in the Stockholm Arbitration. Russia has already begun to maneuver in this situation, offering a peaceful agreement, new terms of contracts, or other options. In any case, litigation is an effective method of pressure on the Russian Federation."

Senior lawyer at Evris law firm, Maksym Zamihovsky, has a somewhat different view. He believes that to assess the decision to create such a single body, there is too little information about its functions and authority at the moment.

"Perhaps the establishment of an agency with its own staff, structure and budget is somewhat premature, since an interdepartmental consolidated group, where all information could flow from profile agencies, could also cope with the tasks set, given proper organization of work. Also, everything will depend on the tasks that will be put before the new agency. After all, in addition to collecting and analyzing huge amounts of factual data, it is necessary to perform economic evaluation of lost companies and sometimes entire industries, justify the amount of profits lost for the country's economy resulting from the loss of assets, while confirming their conclusions by convincing calculations. In addition, it would be great to use the existing international experience in resolving such disputes, and adjust the calculations with an eye to the approaches of international courts in assessing the evidence base," the expert said.

At the same time, like his colleagues, he does not rule out that the consideration of claims in international courts will be a long and painstaking process. And the duration will depend on the tactics of both parties. He also agrees it will not be easy to collect reparations from Russia.

"As the experience of YUKOS and other international processes with the participation of the Russian Federation shows, Russia simply denies the competence of the court to consider a dispute against a sovereign state. And the recovery directly from the state is the most difficult aspect of the whole dispute. The basic assets belong to separate legal entities - corporations, organizations, which are not responsible for the debts of the state, even if it is their founder. Therefore, following the decisions of international courts, there will be no less intense litigation about the possibility of collecting damages and the source of their repayment," Zamihovsky emphasized.

What lawsuits will be covered by new agency

Since 2014, Ukraine has filed many suits against the Russian Federation with various international courts.

Five lawsuits have been filed with the European Court of Human Rights regarding Russia's violations of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Occupied Ukrainian Territories. On June 26, 2018, the ECHR granted the official Kyiv's petition of October 2016 and merged four lawsuits into two proceedings - on Crimea and Donbas, and a separate case of the removal of children from Donbas to Russia.

This step by the ECHR is a serious problem for Russian representatives, who will now find it much harder to seek the suspension of consideration of individual cases. Meanwhile, in March 2018, the Russian Federation said that they were studying the possibility of denouncing the European Convention on Human Rights and ending cooperation with the ECHR.

The state-owned Naftogaz of Ukraine filed a lawsuit with the International Tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague against Russia for seizing assets in the occupied Crimea: land and transport infrastructure, in particular, the peninsula's gas transmission system with the Hlibovsky underground gas storage, in which, at the moment of the annexation, there was 600 million cubic meters of gas; 90 offshore gas and oil wells; eight offshore fixed platforms; eight conductor blocks; 70 km-long offshore gas pipelines; 31 vessels, of which four are drilling platforms. The total amount of claims is about $8 billion. The court's decision is expected before the end of 2018. "As early as this year, we can win up to $8 billion. But then there will be another question of how we collect this money," said Naftogaz CCO Yuriy Vitrenko.

In 2016, Ukraine also filed a lawsuit against Russia with the International Court of Justice regarding the Convention on the Law of the Sea. It accommodates such fundamental issues as the use of the sea, violation of environmental safety, and seizure of objects of cultural heritage. The amount of compensation to be paid by Russia will be determined by the International Tribunal of the United Nations. According to experts, it will be significant.

In 2018 Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia with the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in connection with the violation by the Russian Federation of Ukraine's sovereign rights in the Black and Azov Seas and the Kerch Strait. The amount of the claim has not been disclosed.

The war between Ukraine and Russia is also ongoing at the economic front. Both sides filed suits with the World Trade Organization, which is designed to regulate disputes in international trade. In total, there are four Ukrainian-Russian cases in the WTO. In two of them, decisions have already been taken, and they were not in Ukraine's favor. Two more disputes remain pending. The amounts of claims have not been voiced.

In 2014, Ukraine also sued the International Criminal Court (The Hague Tribunal) for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the east of Ukraine and in Crimea. According to the preliminary report of the Tribunal, the situation in Crimea and Sevastopol was recognized as equivalent to the international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Russia replied that they would not contest the findings, since they did not recognize the ICC jurisdiction.

In 2017, Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia with the International Court of Justice, accusing the Russian Federation of supporting terrorism in the east of Ukraine and discrimination against ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in the occupied Crimea. The court found the evidence base imperfect, that is, did not recognize Russia's financing of terrorism in Donbas, but obliged the Russian Federation to ensure the right of Crimeans to receive education in the Ukrainian language, as well as the right of the Crimean Tatars to represent their interests in the Mejlis. However, Russia is not fulfilling the court ruling. Ukraine, for its part, has submitted new evidence to the court. There is no final decision of the Tribunal yet.

As for the total amount of damage caused by Russia as a result of the annexation of Crimea and occupation of Donbas, the June study on the price of the Kremlin aggression in Ukraine in the material dimension by the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center estimates it at $100 billion. The assessment was carried out according to the principle of the share of lost GDP being multiplied by four. According to Eurasia Center, Donbas was the source of 10% of Ukraine's GDP, Crimea  the source of 3.7%. The IMF estimated Ukraine's GDP in the pre-crisis year of 2013 at $179.6 billion. Thus, the total value of the assets of Crimea and Donbas amounted to 13.7% of this amount, multiplied by four, or $98.4 billion.

Without taking into account the future size of the reparation to be paid, which Russia will undoubtedly obliged to do by international courts, the main thing is the condemnation of the aggressor's actions at the global level based on international law. This will entail the support of our country on a global scale and the complete isolation of the Russian Federation.

Nana Chornaya

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The expert recalled a showing moment in Putin's biography associated with Ukraine.

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has always harbored prejudice toward the Ukrainians, that's according to a security expert, foreign intelligence veteran, Lieutenant-General Vasyl Bohdan.

"If we talk about Vladimir Putin, I consider him a personal enemy," Bohdan told Apostrophe.

According to the expert, back in the Soviet times, they were both practically simultaneously employed by the KGB, to work in the intelligence department.

Officers who dealt on the job directly with the future Russian president recalled his petty character and a negative attitude toward the Ukrainians.

Read alsoPutin may escalate Donbas ahead of UA elections - expert

"Even back then, they paid attention to his pettiness, him snitching on his colleagues when the latter allowed themselves some minor expressions of liberty or certain statements, or violated internal discipline. These things were immediately spotted by their bosses, and all there was a hint that it was because of Comrade Putin," he said.

"They also noted another point: [Putin had] a prejudiced, to a certain extent, attitude toward people from Ukraine, so this was already observed back in the day," said the expert.
According to the Patriarch, once UOC is granted the tomos, all bishops of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, and the Moscow Patriarchate, who addressed the Ecumenical Patriarch with a request for autocephaly, should gather for the Unification Council.

The Holy Synod in Constantinople will take a decision to create a united local church in Ukraine will be taken in late summer or September, as stated by the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine Filaret.

According to the Patriarch, once UOC is granted the tomos, all bishops of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, and the Moscow Patriarchate, who addressed the Ecumenical Patriarch with a request for autocephaly, should gather for the Unification Council, TV Channel 5 reports.

There, the head of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church is to be elected.

"We hope that in late August or early September, the meeting of the Holy Synod will decide on the provision of Tomos. That is, we will have to hold the Unification Council. By "we" I mean the bishops who appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch. These bishops at the Unification Council have to choose a single leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Filaret said.

Read also"This is disinformation": Filaret on alleged plans to "seize temples" once autocephaly granted to Ukraine church

Earlier, Patriarch Filaret called statements about the "seizure of temples" and possibility of "war" for autocephaly an example of lies and disinformation that are part of a hybrid war being waged against Ukraine.

Filaret noted that under Ukrainian law, all temples and property belong to the communities - either on the basis of ownership rights, or on the rights of use, or rent.

Filaret assured that there would be no violence after Tomos, and property will belong to the communities, as it does now.

In addition, he assured that the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra will be Ukrainian, but he does not know, when exactly.

"Perhaps several months after Tomos, or perhaps several years later For us this is of no fundamental importance - because we believe that what the Ukrainian Church is doing is right, and if truth is on our side, God will help us promote it peacefully and voluntarily, without any violence," Filaret said.

He added that no one would go for "seizing the Lavra."

"For more than four years, we have repeatedly stated that appeals to 'go for the Lavra' is a provocation that plays in favor of the Kremlin," Filaret said.

Read alsoEcumenical Patriarch: Constantinople never recognized Moscow's church authority over Ukraine

As reported, on April 17 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko convened leaders of parliamentary factions and stated that he would appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to proclaim the independence of the Ukrainian local autocephalous church.

On April 19, the Verkhovna Rada voted for the resolution on the president's appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to provide a tomos on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

On April 22, Poroshenko announced that the Ecumenical Patriarchate was initiating procedures necessary to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Later, the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC-MP published a statement calling an address by the President and the Verkhovna Rada to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew an abuse of authority.

The question of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church could be considered at the meeting of the Patriarchate of Constantinople as early as September.
Top officials sent their greetings to Air Force war pilots.

Ukraine's Air Force on the first Sunday of August celebrates its professional holiday.

"Thanks to your diligent selfless service, the Air Force is a powerful element of Ukraine's Armed Forces, capable of successfully performing tasks to protect the country's airspace," President Petro Poroshenko said in a greeting address.

"I believe that your high professional skills combined with powerful weapons and military equipment will continue to be a powerful guarantor of our state's defense capability," Poroshenko said, wishing the Air Force pilots clear skies, successful flights, and victories.

In turn, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman noted that since the beginning of the Russian armed aggression in Crimea and Donbas, the Air Force "has been performing extremely important tasks in armed confrontation with the enemy both in the air and on the ground."

Read alsoUkraine on Aug 2 commemorates paratroopers killed in battles

The prime minister stressed that the introduction of NATO standards, joint military exercises with the Alliance, modernization of equipment, upgrade of weaponry, and introduction of modern technical and military standards direct the development of the Air Force toward the best world models.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, stressed: "The skills of Ukrainian pilots are known and recognized far beyond Ukraine. Exemplary performance of transportation, peacekeeping tasks and demo flights at international exhibitions are all in the list of success stories our military pilots who have earned respect in many countries," Turchynov's congratulatory address reads.

The NSDC secretary has added that the state is making every effort to update and modernize aviation equipment taking into account today's requirements and challenges to Ukraine's national security.
Militants shelled Ukrainian troops near Shyrokyne.

Over the past day, militants violated the ceasefire 33 times, including one time from heavy weapons. A Ukrainian soldier was killed in action as occupation forces opened fire two times on the positions of the Joint Forces, the JFO press service says.

"Russian occupation opened fired aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms, and in certain directions  from weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles," reads the Sunday morning summary by the press center of the Joint Forces.

Defenders of Krymske, Novozvanivka, Troyitske, Novoluhanske, Maryinka, Avdiyivka, Novotroyitske, Opytne, Chermalyk, Hnutove, Lebedynsky, Pavlopil, Vodiene, and Shyrokyne  all came under fire, according to the JFO Staff.

Read alsoJFO: Ukraine reports 36 enemy attacks in last day

The militants shelled Ukrainian positions near Shyrokyne from 82-mm mortars.

As reported, on Saturday, as a result of the enemy shelling in the outskirts of Maryinka, two policemen were injured, who patrolled residential areas.

On Sunday, Russian occupation forces opened fire on the JF positions near Novozvanivka and Shyrokyne two times.

According to Ukraine's military intelligence, two occupiers were killed in action and another one was wounded.
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Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here on Saturday lauded the Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) plan for decreasing taxes on energy supply facilities, agriculture sector and saving state-owned companies from political interference.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2018 ) :Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here on Saturday lauded the Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) plan for decreasing taxes on energy supply facilities, agriculture sector and saving state-owned companies from political interference.

The move will make businesses more competitive with regional countries resulting in enhanced exports and employment opportunities, said senior vice president of FPCCI, Sohail Hussain.

The plan of PTI's economic managers to insulate state-owned enterprises from political interference will help Pakistan save billions of Dollars, he added.

He said that the bleeding state-owned corporations continue to inflict losses to the tune of trillions of rupees which add to the budget deficit.

Malik Sohail said that strong incentives will help recover the agricultural sector which must include reduced power tariff for tube wells, adding that reduction in power tariff will reduce the cost of doing business for farmers while will provide relief to masses.

It will also help exporters to compete with the rivals in the international market.

Fertiliser prices should also be reduced to boost agricultural production, he added.

The new government has decided to bring more transparency to more than 60 billion Dollar Belt and Road infrastructure projects in Pakistan which is a welcome move, he observed.

It has also promised transformation of governance, strengthening the federation, revitalizing economic growth, revolutionizing social services, ensuring the country's national security and uplift of agriculture sector during the first 100 days in power.

He urged the incoming government to announce a complete set of reforms without any delay to boost economy and confidence of investors.
In view of the rising tensions and the shutdown call, the authorities also temporarily suspended the annual Amarnath Yatra from Jammu on Sunday.

Srinagar: Life in the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu regions Chenab valley came to a standstill as a 48-hour-long shutdown began on Sunday morning over the onslaught against Article 35A of the Constitution, which guarantees special rights and privileges to the permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir.

The call for the strike had been issued by an alliance of key separatist leaders and endorsed by several political, social, religious and trade outfits, including the Kashmir Bar Council and civil society groups.

A three-member Supreme Court bench is scheduled to resume hearing a petition seeking removal of Article 35A on Monday. The petition filed in 2014 by an NGO We the Citizens, believed to be an RSS think tank, challenges 35A on the grounds that it was not added to the Constitution by an amendment under Article 368 and that it was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately.

In view of the rising tensions and the shutdown call, the authorities also temporarily suspended the annual Amarnath Yatra from Jammu on Sunday. Officials said though that while no pilgrim was allowed to move towards the Valley from the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu on Sunday, those already at the base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam began their journey through the rugged hills towards the 3,888-metres cave-shrine in the Kashmir Himalayas.

It was the 39th day of the two-month pilgrimage when 1,529 devotees paid obeisance at Amarnath, raising the number of visitors this year to 272,815, a Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) spokesman said.

The officials said special checkposts had been set up along the Jammu-Srinagar highway in Udhampur and Ramban areas to ensure the movement of pilgrims doesnt take place as a precautionary measure. They added the yatra from Jammu will remain suspended on Monday as well.

Shops and other businesses were shut in the Kashmir Valley and all public and private transport were off the roads on Sunday. The authorities had announced suspension of rail services between Baramulla in the Valley and Banihal town of Jammus Ramban district for two days  August 5 and 6. The officials said there had been overwhelming response to the strike across Kashmir. They also added that the situation was peaceful and no major incident of violence was reported from anywhere.

Director-general of police Shesh Paul Vaid said: The situation is being closely monitored. Every step required to maintain law and order will be taken. Official sources said Union home ministry officials stayed in touch with the authorities in Srinagar all through Sunday for up-to-the-minute reports.

A group of traders and civil society activists staged a protest sit-in at Lal Chowk, the historic central square of Srinagar, to renew their pledge to defend Article 35A with our blood. The Valley has over the past six days seen a series of protests and rallies against any tinkering with Article 35A and Article 370, which guarantees special status to J&K in the Indian Union. Various parties, including the National Conference, the Peoples Democratic Party, the Congress and the CPI(M), have joined the chorus by holding rallies in support of continuing Article 35A. They warned of serious repercussions for the state and the rest of India if Article 35A or Article 370 was fiddled with.

The J&K government on Friday moved an application in the Supreme Court seeking adjournment of hearing in view of a possible law and order situation and citing the coming panchayat and urban local body elections in the state. Official sources said that the intelligence agencies had warned that there could be a revolt in the J&K police ranks and a massive unrest in the state if the court passes an adverse order on Article 35A on Monday.

Governor N.N. Vohra is learnt to have earlier written to home minister Rajnath Singh, saying the issue of Article 35A should not be dealt with till a popular government had been formed. J&K has been under Governors Rule since June 20 after the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government collapsed as the BJP walked out of its alliance with the PDP.
BOGOTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Aug, 2018) The Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, recently held a ceremony honouring the UAE Ambassador to Colombia, Mohammed Issa Qattam Al Za'abi, with the Grand Cross of the Order of San Carlos for his outstanding role in promoting bilateral relations between the two countries since the opening of the UAE Embassy in Bogota in 2013.

The minister said that during his mission in Colombia, the ambassador had distinguished himself with personal and professional qualities and devoted his efforts to support all initiatives related to the promotion and strengthening of relations between Colombia and the UAE.

In turn, Al Za'abi thanked the Colombian government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the decision of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon of Colombia to grant him the Order.
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AUSTRIA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Aug, 2018) The OPEC Fund for International Development, OFID, has signed public sector loan agreements with Cote dIvoire and Malawi to help boost socio-economic development and living standards.

The agreements, totaling US$34 million, were signed by OFID Director-General Suleiman J Al-Herbish, Ambassador of Cote dIvoire to Austria, Roger A Kacou, and Ambassador of Malawi to Germany, Michael B Kamphambe Nkhoma.

Malawis US$15 million loan will co-finance the Karonga Town Water Supply Project, which aims to expand the capacity of potable water supplies in Malawis northern region, where demand is outpacing supply. An estimated 184,000 residents will be able to enjoy improved health and livelihoods. The project is also being financed by the Malawian government and the Arab Bank for Economic Development for Africa.

Al-Herbish said the loan represented OFIDs third involvement in helping strengthen the countrys water sector, which supports the governments 2016-2022 Growth and Development Strategy with the view to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth and infrastructure development.

Ambassador Nkhoma expressed his thanks and appreciation to OFID for its support of Malawis water and sanitation sector.

A US$19 million loan to Cote dIvoire will help fund the Agricultural Value Chains Development Programme with the overall objective of stimulating economic growth and reducing poverty. This will be achieved through the repair and installation of rice and mango processing/packaging systems, upgrading of rural roads, development of farmland and institutional strengthening, and improving producers linkages with export and urban markets, among other works.

In turn, living conditions and incomes will improve for around 180,000 people. The government of Cote dIvoire and the International Fund for Agricultural Development are also co-financing the programme.

Al-Herbish said the project would help extremely vulnerable households presently coping with food insecurity and reiterated OFIDs continued interest in strengthening its cooperation with his country.

Ambassador Kacou thanked the Director-General and expressed his "deep gratitude" on behalf of the Ivorian people for OFIDs "efforts and constant commitment" to supporting his countrys socio-economic growth and development.
The UAE is marking the centenary of the birth of its founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and Sharjah was seen dedicating a panel in its cultural programme for the Sqo Paulo International Book Fair, to celebrate the truly remarkable life and achievements of the UAEs greatest visionary.

SAO PAULO, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Aug, 2018) The UAE is marking the centenary of the birth of its founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and Sharjah was seen dedicating a panel in its cultural programme for the Sqo Paulo International Book Fair, to celebrate the truly remarkable life and achievements of the UAEs greatest visionary.

Titled Year of Zayed, the panel shed light on the fact that the prosperity, harmony and modern development that today characterises the UAE is due to the long-term vision and formative role played by the UAEs founding father.

Moderated by Khalid bin Qiqa, the panel comprised Dr. Hamad bin Sarai, Professor of Old History at the United Arab Emirates University; Saeed Hamdan, Director of Program Management in the National Library Sector at the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi. The two researchers highlighted late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was an immediate advocate for closer cooperation between all Gulf states, and primarily responsible for uniting the seven emirates and establishing the Union.

Dr. Sarai underscored that the Founder of UAE is one of the most influential Arab and Muslim role models whose early reforms in education, healthcare, public housing and other areas of community development based on the principles of inclusion and sustainability, and his persistent efforts in these field for over a decade, are an example for the region. Bin Sarai pointed out that they were, and still are sublime, authentic, persuasive, thorough and simple.

Hamad bin Sarai emphasised that Sheikh Zayed succeeded in instilling noble values and tolerant ethics into the future Emirati generations, through the tools of education and careful upbringing.

Of the many words of the Late Sheikh Zayed the professor quoted, some of the most notable were: "I prefer to get tired and have only a few hours of rest so that I can make sure that our national achievements are perfect."

For his part, Saeed Hamdan, Director of Programme Management in the National Library Sector at the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, shared reflections on the address of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah; for being selected the Cultural Personality of the Year at the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.

"The address of the Ruler of Sharjah on Sheikh Zayed was essential, as he said: we all love Sheikh Zayed, but we have to ask ourselves what we have done for him? Sheikh Zayed sought hard work, leadership, excellence and all forms of benevolence."

Hamdan underlined that the selection of Sharjah as Guest of Honour at the 25th edition of the Sao Paulo International Book Fair is a culmination of the emirates on-going actions in the past 50 years during which His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan Al Qasimi has strongly believed in cultural development and succeeded in promoting Emirati culture around the world.

Director of Programme Management in the National Library Sector emphasised that the presence of late Sheikh Zayed in collective Emirati memory was a key intellectual and creative subject that was addressed by dozens of Emirati and Arab authors. The Arabic library has more than 150 titles on Sheikh Zayed, covering his humanitarian efforts, biography, development plans and politics. The titles also comprise panegyrics, written verse and poetry collections in high praise of his personality and noble values.
(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Aug, 2018) KHARTOUM, 5th August 2018 (WAM) - Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed, Sudanese Minister of Interior, received here on Sunday Hamad Al Junaibi, UAE Ambassador to Khartoum, and discussed bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest.

The Sudanese minister praised the progress attained by the UAE, especially in information technology and the know-how. He also referred to the continuous cooperation between his ministry and the relevant authorities in the UAE.
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Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sindh Amjad Javed Saleemi Saturday said that police given great sacrifices for the restoration of peace in Karachi.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2018 ) :Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sindh Amjad Javed Saleemi Saturday said that police given great sacrifices for the restoration of peace in Karachi.

Speaking as a chief guest at a ceremony held at Nishan-e-Pakistan monument, Sea View, here in connection with Police Martyrs Day, he said that the commemoration of the day is aimed at paying tribute to those police personnel who laid down their lives for the country.

He said that commitment and courage of the martyrs of police force is an asset of the Sindh Police, adding that those nations which do not remember their martyrs have no future.

Amjad Javed Saleemi said that there is special focus on the education and health of martyrs' family, as it is our top priority to resolve their problems. He also met with police martyrs' families.

Beside the families of martyred police personnel, Additional IG Karachi, DIGs East, West, South, SSPs and people from various walks of life participated in the ceremony. Fateha also offered for the martyrs.
BEIJING, Aug. 5 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Aug, 2018 ) :China's National Health Commission has launched a project to screen for congenital heart defects (CHD) among newborns in 24 provincial-level regions, including Shanghai and Hebei, to lower the country's neonatal mortality rate.

The screening, given to newborns within six to 72 hours after birth, is expected to help better identify and treat babies with CHD.

If babies receive necessary diagnosis and treatment at an earlier time, it can lead to fewer newborn and infant deaths as well as a better prognosis for newborns with CHD, said Qin Geng, an official with the commission, who added that birth defects remain a prominent problem in China.

With a relatively high morbidity rate among all birth defects, CHD is one of the main causes of infant deaths in China.

China had an infant mortality of 6.8 per 1,000 last year, a 34-percent drop from that of 2012, and it plans to reduce the figure to five per 1,000 by 2030.
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RABAT, Aug. 5 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Aug, 2018 ) :The unemployment rate in Morocco only slightly dropped to 9.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018, down from 9.3 percent a year ago, the official planning commission said Saturday.

The unemployment rate in urban areas was down from 14 percent to 13.7 percent, while it decreased from 3.2 percent to 3 percent in rural areas, according to a note by the High Commission for Planning.

The decrease in unemployment came in disproportion with the active job creation between the second quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of this year, during which some 117,000 new jobs were created, compared to only 74,000 jobs a year earlier.

Unemployment remains high among women and urban youth, particularly college graduates, HCP said.

The Moroccan government has vowed to reduce the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent by 2021.

On Wednesday, King Mohammed VI of Morocco sacked Mohamed Boussaid as minister for the economy and finance, three days after he urged a national action to tackle social and economic problems including meager investments.
Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a painful and debilitating clinical entity which is challenging to diagnose and even more difficult to treat. Unfortunately, none of the existing oral and intravesical medications have been established as effective and therefore relevant research is ongoing. Areas covered: In this review, the authors present established and emerging treatment options for IC/BPS in terms of medication and minimal invasive procedures. Both American and European Urological Association Guidelines recommend multimodal behavioral techniques alongside oral (e.g. amitriptyline and pentosan polysulfate sodium) or minimally invasive treatments (e.g. dimethyl sulfoxide, botulinum toxin, chondroitin sulfate, triamcinolone, hyaluronic acid, and lidocaine). Novel treatment modalities include immunomodulating drugs, stem cell therapy, nerve growth factor, and ASP6294. Expert opinion: IC/BPS is still a pathophysiological enigma with multifactorial etiopathogenesis that may be controlled but not completely cured. Patient-tailored phenotype-directed multimodal therapy is the most promising treatment strategy. Combined phenotypic categorization with specific biomarkers could help toward better treatment.

Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy. 2018 Aug 03 [Epub ahead of print]

Athanasios E Dellis, Athanasios G Papatsoris

a 2nd Department of Surgery, Aretaieion Academic Hospital, School of Medicine , National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , Athens , Greece., c 2nd Department of Urology, Sismanogleion General Hospital, School of Medicine , National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , Athens , Greece.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30074829
Aparna Yadav has supported the NRC draft list and has said that Ms Banerjee should not support the presence of illegal migrants in Assam.

Lucknow: Fissures within the Samajwadi clan keep emerging from time to time, even though its leaders insist that all is now well within the family. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has so far been supporting West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the ongoing controversy over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, but his sister-in-law Aparna Yadav has given a statement that is bound to embarrass the party.

Aparna Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadavs younger daughter-in-law, has supported the NRC draft list and has said that Ms Banerjee should not support the presence of illegal migrants in Assam. There is no problem with lawful immigrants. The problem arises because of those who come into the country illegally. I think Mamataji should not have made a statement supporting illegal immigrants. She should ponder upon it, its a national security matter, Ms Aparna Yadav told PTI. She supported the stand taken by the BJP on the illegal immigrants issue, that is certainly not going to be welcomed in the party which is now preparing to battle the BJP over the issue.

In another development that points to the divisions within the family, senior SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav told reporters in Unnao that while he had no qualms about talking to party chief Akhilesh Yadav, he did not have any dialogue with his nephew (Akhilesh). This clearly indicates that the relationship between uncle and nephew is far from being normal.

On Sunday, meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav separately visited the Janeshwar Misra Park to pay tribute to the late socialist leader. Speaking there, Mr Akhilesh Yadav attacked the Yogi Adityanath government for having targeted him over the bungalow issue, and said: I have information that some people went into my official bungalow after I had vacated it and they carried hammers and sickles with them. Now I am being blamed for the damage done to the bungalow. I will give a reward of `11 lakhs to anyone who reveals the name of the person who is responsible for the damage caused to the bungalow, he said.

However, no senior SP leader supported Mr Yadavs claims on the controversy over his official bungalow.
A week after Cambodias general election, which the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) won in a landslide victory after it banned its main opposition, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono called the poll disappointing.

Japan, which provides funding and technical support for Cambodias National Election Committee (NEC), had remained silent in the aftermath of the election. Japan sent election monitors to Cambodian elections in 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008, but did not do so this year.

Japanese television station NHK reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed concerns about how Cambodias election was conducted in a meeting with his counterpart, Prak Sokhonn, in Singapore on Saturday.

I told Mr. Prak Sokhonn that the results were disappointing in many ways as many of the ballots were judged invalid, although Japan had given its support to ensure that the polls would reflect the will of the voters, Kono said, according to the NHK report.

He also urged the Cambodian government to further democratize its political process by creating an environment for holding dialogues with opposition parties, according to NHK.

Prak Sokhonn responded that his country had carried out a democratic election, according to the report.

Phay Siphan, a Cambodian government spokesman, defended the election as an event that strengthened democracy, benefitted Cambodia and was conducted according to Cambodian values.

This is the choice for Cambodian democracy, not for any foreigners to decide, he told VOA Khmer.

Siphan accused the Japanese foreign minister of criticizing the election only for the sake of geopolitics.

[T]hey want to grab Cambodia for geopolitics and want Cambodia to become those countries puppet, he said.

Ahead of the election, Cambodians who live in Japan, the US and EU countries had protested the conduct of the government in the lead-up to the poll, urging those governments not to recognize the election.

Threats and intimidation of people who supported the opposition or did not want to vote were widely reported, including the threat of withholding state services if people did not vote, despite the fact that it is legal to boycott an election.

The CPP-dominated National Election Committee reported voter turnout at 82 percent, but a large number of voters spoiled their ballots.

Most Western democracies condemned the election, questioning the legitimacy of the results due to the absence of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was banned in November.

The US said on Monday that the election was neither free nor fair and failed to represent the will of the Cambodian people. The US repeated calls for the Cambodian government to take tangible actions to promote national reconciliation by allowing independent media and civil society organizations to fulfill their vital roles unhindered, immediately releasing Kem Sokha and other political prisoners, and ending the ban on the political opposition.

The EU said the election lacked genuine electoral competition and the absence of an inclusive political process mean that the 29 July election is not representative of the democratic will of the Cambodian electorate and therefore its outcome lacks credibility.

Separately, Australia said it had serious concerns over how the election had been conducted and was disappointed that Cambodian people have been unable to choose their representatives.

However, China has endorsed the election results.

Geng Shuang, Chinas foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters early this week that the parliamentary election was Cambodia's internal affairs and a major event in the political life of Cambodians.
Join moderator Michael Warren of the Weekly Standard for a round table discussion of the weeks top stories with Tom DeFrank from the National Journal and Emily Tamkin for Buzzfeed News. Topping the headlines  Trumps invitation to Iran for direct talks falls flat, North Korea continues building missiles even as Pyongyang fulfills its commitment to send some remains of US soldiers back to the United States, the Paul Manafort trial begins and Facebook discloses more evidence of information warfare ahead of the 2018 midterm elections on its platform.
Music Time in Africa is VOAs longest running English language program. Since 1965, this award-winning program has featured pan African music that spans all genres and generations. Ethnomusicologist and Host Heather Maxwell keeps you up to date on whats happening in African music with exclusive interviews, cultural information, and of course, great music -- including rare recordings from the Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music.
United Nations aid agencies are renewing appeals to Yemen's warring parties to spare the Port of Hodeidah, warning attacks against the vital lifeline would be catastrophic.

The United Nations warns that Yemen, where the world's worst humanitarian crisis is unfolding, would suffer even more if the vital Port of Hodeidah were attacked and ceased to operate.



More than three years of civil war have destroyed the country's economy, forced more than two million people to flee their homes and made 22 million people or 75 percent of the population dependent upon international aid for their survival.



Around 80 percent of Yemen's food and medicine is imported through the Port of Hodeidah. Jens Laerke is Spokesman for the U.N. Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA. He said fuel and other essential humanitarian relief also arrive via the port.



"OCHA warns that sustained hostilities in Hodeidah city, interruptions to the port operations, which are critical for vital imports of food and fuel or a siege of the city would be catastrophic. There is no contingency plan that can effectively protect civilians from the humanitarian consequences if the conflict escalates further. The response capacity of international organizations on the ground would quickly be overwhelmed," he said.



To further complicate matters, the World Health Organization warns the country may be on the brink of another major cholera epidemic. WHO emergency response chief, Peter Salama told VOA essential medications needed to fight this fatal disease are imported through the Port of Hodeidah.



"So, for humanitarian perspective, but also for commercial perspective, the Al Hodeidah port is absolutely central to the survival of the civilian population in Yemen.So, any attacks on that port are something that would lead to catastrophic consequences," he said.



The United Nations reports more than 28,000 Yemenis either have been killed or injured since March 2015. That was when Saudi Arabia began bombing Houthi rebels in support of the government. The U.N. attributes the majority of the 9,500 civilian deaths to airstrikes.
Bangladesh authorities have shut down mobile internet across swathes of the country, officials and local media said Sunday, as the authorities try to quell massive student protests that have spiraled into violence.

For the last week students have brought parts of the capital, Dhaka, to a standstill with a protest against poor road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhakas Jigatala neighborhood with more than 100 people injured.

Tear gas, rubber bullets

Witnesses said police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and that alleged pro-government activists attacked youngsters, including some of those rushing to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The countrys highest circulated newspaper Prothom Alo said 3G and 4G internet services have been shut down for 24 hours since late Saturday, shortly after the violence broke out.

Social media has been filled with comments from Bangladeshis unable to access the internet via their phones, although wireless and wired networks appear to be unhindered.

Jahirul Haq, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), told AFP they received a decision from the government. But he did not clarify what was the government order was. He said he would comment further on the situation later Sunday.

A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government.

The move may be an attempt to try and limit the ability of students to mobilize or spread growing online outrage over how the government has handled the protests, hours after police and unidentified men wielding sticks and stones clashed with students.

Photos vs. denials

Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by the ruling party activists have flooded the social media, prompting renewed outrage.

Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, sporting injuries consistent with rubber bullets.

The ruling Awami League party has also denied allegations its cadres beat students up.

Bangladeshs transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment.

Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year.

But their pleas have had little effect.
The Workers Party in Brazil named jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday as its nominee for the countrys top job in Octobers election.

Delegates of the left-leaning party confirmed da Silva, who served two terms as Brazils president between 2003 and 2010, with enthusiastic approval at a convention in Sao Paulo.

The former president is likely to be barred by Brazils electoral court, though.

Since April, the former president has been jailed on a corruption conviction, but he denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted.

Da Silva leads polls for the office by a large margin, and surveys show voters would lend their support to another Workers Party candidate if he cannot participate.

The party is not expected to name his running mate until Monday.

In a recorded message to the convention, da Silva said it is those that sentenced me that are jailed in a lie.

Brazil needs to restore its democracy, find itself and be happy again, he said. They might lock me up, shut me up, but I will keep my faith in the Brazilian people.

Other candidates

Meanwhile, other candidates criticized da Silva and his party.

It pains my heart, but I dont expect anything from them now, said left-leaning presidential hopeful Ciro Gomes, of the Democratic Labor Party.

Conservative Geraldo Alckmin, who was named by the Social Democracy Party as its presidential nominee Saturday, cast blame for the countrys 13 million unemployed.

It was the lies and the radicalism that created the chain of events that is the tragic heritage of the Workers Party, he said.

Workers Party chairwoman Gleisi Hoffmann, who is trying to lure other left-leaning parties to the ticket, addressed supporters at the convention after two fringe parties endorsed da Silvas run.

They tried to exclude Lula from the political discussion, she said. There is no political discussion in Brazil without Lula and the Workers Party.

Centrist Marina Silva was also nominated by the Rede party on Saturday.

Polling third, Silva will bid for the presidency for a third time. But this time her campaign isnt nearly as structured as in previous opportunities.

We are here maybe in a much harder situation, but we trust that this time our position will beat the establishment, she said at the convention of her Rede party.
Sun Wenguang, a retired professor from the Shandong province of northeastern China, who was apparently detained by Chinese authorities during a live-telephone interview with VOA last week, has been moved from a military-run hotel where he was held to an undisclosed location, hotel personnel told Voice of Americas Mandarin Service Sunday morning.

On Thursday, sources told VOA Mandarin that the 84-year-old professor was being detained at Yanzi Mountain Villa at Jinan Military Region, a military-linked hotel and reception center in Jinan, eastern China.

He had been taken away during a live telephone interview on the VOA Mandarin television show Issues & Opinions Wednesday morning as he was criticizing Chinas foreign aid and diplomatic strategy in Africa. During the interview, Sun told VOA that authorities were breaking into his house in an attempt to prevent him from speaking out against the government.

After a VOA reporter checked into the hotel in Jinan Saturday, he and an assistant began a surveillance of the professors room for signs of movement. The shades remain closed. On Sunday morning, a VOA reporter knocked on the room door. There was no answer.

In interviews with sources at the reception desk on the first floor, the VOA reporter learned that authorities had moved the professor to another location two days earlier.

No information on detention

Chinese authorities have disclosed no information about why the professor was detained. VOA tried to reach the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China for comment, but the mobile phone open to the public was turned off, and the landline was not answered.

The Public Security Department of Shandong University and the Shanda Road Police Station of Jinans Public Security Bureau were also contacted. Neither would comment.

The arrest of Sun has come at a sensitive time when the rule of Chinese leader Xi Jinping is being seriously challenged.

Observers say that has led to the security apparatus swift action in crushing the countrys rising anti-government sentiments, which they see as a threat to the Communist Partys regime.

After his enforced disappearance, rights activists at home and abroad are demanding that China immediately release Sun for fear he may face physical torture, criminal charges or both.

They also are urging the international society to call for a systemic change of Chinas political and legal framework, in which they say the state is continuing to abuse its power and crack down on dissidents.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has expressed concern about the professor. Chinese authorities are increasingly aggressive and brazen in their efforts to stifle free speech and other basic rights. We are deeply concerned for Professor Wenguang Suns safety and well-being, and urge his immediate and unconditional release," he said in a statement sent to VOA.

Nodes of independence in China

Its absolutely part of the attempts under Xi Jinping to find every little node of independence in society and crush it, said Michael Caster, co-founder of Safeguard Defenders. Suns arrest has to do with the political situation in mainland China, including the image of Xi Jinping recently also being challenged by [those] both inside and outside [the] establishment.

That may also [pose] a security concern to Chinese authorities, said Richard Tsoi, vice chairman of Hong Kong Alliance.

Caster added that Sun makes an obvious target under Chinas intensified crackdown on dissidents since he has had a long track record of being critical of the state and is a signatory of Charter 08, a manifesto drafted by the late Chinese Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo to advocate reforms that would result in a separation of powers, a new constitution and legislative democracy in China.

Speaking out

Critics have been emboldened by a recent vaccine scandal in China, a trade spat with the United States, and economic headwinds, and are openly questioning Xis sweeping control. This includes Xu Zhangrun, a law professor from Tsinghua University, who has delivered what was believed to be the fiercest denunciation yet of Xi from a Chinese academic.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Xu challenged political taboos at a time when the voice of Chinese intellectuals is dying out.

Xu urged the Chinese government to overturn its condemnation of the pro-democracy Tiananmen protests in 1989, calling on Chinese lawmakers to reverse the vote that abolished a two-term limit on Xis presidency.

Many are keeping an eye on how authorities will deal with Xu once he returns to China from Japan or whether he will encourage others to speak out.

Relentless harassment

Before Xu, Sun has long been outspoken, which has made him a target of constant harassment by the communist government.

Earlier this year, Shandong Universitys Communist party chapter ruled to cut Suns retirement pension by almost half for what it said were his subversive remarks, and it further threatened to eliminate altogether his pension if he continued to talk to foreign media.

Sun had been under intense scrutiny for some time, and security officers had staked out his apartment, keeping a tab on all of his movement.

Rights activists are concerned about what may be coming next for Sun.

The legal system in China is serving purely to the will of the party, and so if they decide to conjugate some charges against him, then they will. Or theyll hold him for an indefinite period of time, Caster said.

He said Sun may share a fate similar to that of his one-time defender and legal counsel, Wang Quanzhang. Wang vanished more than three years ago and has not been heard from since, although he reportedly was seen in the Tianjin No. 1 Detention Center by a former colleague. Wangs wife has said reports are that her husband is alive in a decent physical and mental state.

Sun also may be forced into making a televised confession. A report from Safeguard Defenders concludes the state has grown heavily reliant on illegal forced confessions by detainees to denounce rights activists and dissidents for both a domestic and international audience.

False charges

In addition, Sun could face charges of colluding with a foreign power, according to Hunan-based rights activist Ou Biaofeng.

As a minimum, [he will be given] a warning or [put under] house arrest. Or the authorities may make up some false charges against him, for example, collusion with foreign hostile forces, Ou said, calling authorities in China barbaric, ridiculous and evil in suppressing the true voice of its citizens.

International rights groups, including Reporter Without Borders (RSF), have joined hands to throw support behind Sun and demand his immediate release.

The professor is known for his assertive public interventions against censorship and propaganda. RSF demands his immediate release and stresses that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are explicitly written the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, its statement read.

China may be richer, [but certainly not freer.] The regime has intensified its suppression on rights crusaders and dissidents by having lawyers arrested and using technologies to launch a full-scale surveillance on the publics freedom of speech online or offline. China has gone overboard, said Chiu Ee-ling, secretary-general of Taiwan Association for Human Rights.

VOAs Mandarin Service and Michael Bowman contributed to this report.
At least six people were killed and 13 others were wounded in two bombings in Somalia on Sunday, ambulance services and officials said.



The deadliest blast occurred in the capital, Mogadishu, where at four people were killed in a car bombing outside a coffee shop on the capital's busiest road.



Dr Abdulkadir Abdirahman Aden of the Mogadishu ambulance services told VOA Somali that they have evacuated the dead bodies. Officials believe the car was driven by a suicide bomber.



The blast caused huge damage to the coffee shop and nearby buildings, according to the witnesses. No one claimed responsibility for the blast



Earlier in the day, two people were killed and four others were wounded after a suicide car bomb exploded near a military vehicle in Afgoye. Deputy Governor of Lower Shabelle region Ali Nur Mohamed told VOA Somali that all victims were government soldiers.



The suicide bomber chased the pickup truck transporting the soldiers but detonated when it was unable to catch up with, officials said.



The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility of the attack in Afgoye, 30 km west of Mogadishu.



Meanwhile, the Somali government said two militants killed in a shootout with security forces were responsible for the assassination of a young business entrepreneur in Mogadishu on Tuesday.



The killing of the business entrepreneur Mohamed Mohamoud Sheikh Ali led to public protests in Mogadishu by activists and youth members who demanded accountability.


NATOs Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan announced Sunday three of its soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a combined, dismounted patrol with local forces.

An American service member and two Afghan National Army soldiers were also injured in the blast, the mission said.

My thoughts and prayers, along with those of all of the 41-contributing Resolute Support nations, are with the families and friends of our fallen and wounded service members, and our injured Afghan brothers and their families, said U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, who commands the non-combatant mission and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The Resolute Support mission later confirmed the slain soldiers were from the Czech Republic.

Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history, and further strengthen our resolve, said Nicholson.

The NATO mission did not say where the attack took place. Afghan officials said the suicide bombing occurred in Parwan province, nearly 60 kilometers north of the capital, Kabul.

Taliban claims

Just hours before NATO's announcement, the Taliban claimed it carried out a "tactical blast" against an American military convoy in Charikar, the capital city of Parwan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the attack killed or wounded eight U.S. soldiers, though insurgent claims are often inflated.

The province houses the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, known as Bagram Air Base, located 11 kilometers southeast of Charikar.

US forces deployed to Farah

Sundays attack came on a day when the Afghan Defense Ministry confirmed U.S. military trainers and advisers have been deployed to restive western Farah province, which borders Iran. The is the first deployment of American personnel in the region in recent months.

Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told VOA American personnel will train and advise Afghan officers, including those in troubled districts, under the command of the Resolute Support mission,

The Taliban has recently made battlefield gains in the Afghan province, allegedly with covert assistance from Tehran, charges Iranian officials reject.

Farah is located along the route of an international gas pipeline that aims to connect Central Asia to South Asia via Afghanistan.

Fighting in eastern Paktia Province

Separately on Sunday, Afghan security officials said Taliban insurgents attacked several police outposts in a remote district of eastern Paktia province, killing eight Afghan troops.

The ensuing ongoing clashes also killed more than 20 assailants, they said.

Meanwhile, Islamic State has taken responsibility for Fridays gun-and-suicide bomb raid on a Shiite mosque in Paktia's capital, Gardez.



Police and hospital officials said the attack in the city killed 35 worshipers and injured more than 90 others.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has wrapped up his Southeast Asia tour.

Before leaving Sunday to return to Washington, he met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, telling him the U.S. values its ties with Indonesia, one of the worlds largest democracies.

Saturday, the top U.S. diplomat met with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi. The secretary and the foreign minister discussed bilateral cooperation and multilateral engagement on regional security challenges, including North Korea and counterterrorism, as well as other foreign policy issues of mutual interest.

North Korea

Pompeo arrived in Jakarta Saturday from Singapore, where there were mixed messages on relations between the U.S. and North Korea amid talks over de-nuclearization. On the plane to Jakarta, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Hu approached each other during the family photo session and shook hands.

Pompeo said, We should talk again soon, to which North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Hu responded, I agree. There are many productive conversations to be had.

After that, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim delivered to Ri a letter from President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The contents of the letter were not disclosed.

A senior U.S. administration official said the brief encounter between Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart was not surprising.

This is to be expected. Much of the intervention was positive and thats an improvement from the past. Were building a relationship with North Korea after years of difficult relations, the official said.

Pyongyang statement

Pompeo left the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to head to his final stop in Jakarta. After he left the room, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri delivered a statement saying his country is committed to adhering to the agreements made between Trump and Kim at the Singapore summit in June. But he called the U.S. attitude on urging other countries to keep up the sanctions on North Korea alarming and said it was not what Trump wants.

Ris remarks followed the release of a United Nations report warning that North Korea has found ways to navigate around the sanctions. The report said North Korea has had a massive increase of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions.

The report also documented violations of a ban on North Korean exports, including coal, iron and seafood, all of which generate millions of dollars of revenue for Pyongyang. There also are indications the North is continuing to build rockets, and concerns the nation has not been clear about when and how it will disarm.

Sanctions taken seriously

Pompeo said the U.S. is taking any infringement of the sanctions very seriously.

We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers, Pompeo said.

If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation of U.N. sanctions, he said.

Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on a Russian bank for helping North Korea avoid U.N. Security Council actions intended to restrain Pyongyangs nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The agency said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank expedited a significant transaction with an individual who the U.S. blacklisted for being involved in North Koreas weapons development programs.

Treasury said the Russian bank conducted the transaction for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based head of North Koreas Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), Pyongyangs primary foreign exchange bank. Hans deputy, Ri Jong Won, who also is based in Moscow, also was targeted by the sanctions.

The department said both Han and Ri should be expelled from Russia under U.N. resolutions designed to pressure North Korea for its weapons programs. And Treasury targeted what it said were two FTB front companies, China-based Dandong Zhongsheng Industry & Trade Co. Ltd. and Korea Ungum Corporation.

Reuters journalists

Before leaving the ASEAN summit in Singapore, Pompeo met with Myanmar Foreign Minister Kyaw Tin and called for the immediate release of two Reuters journalists detained in the Southeast Asian country.

State Department spokesperson Nauert told VOA that Pompeo raised the issue during a sideline meeting and added that the U.S. is very concerned about their detention. The journalists were charged with possessing documents linked to security operations against Rohingya militants in Myanmars northern Rakhine state.

Additionally, Pompeo also met Saturday with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

He signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapores Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan for the U.S.-Singapore Third Country Training Program, which supports community-building efforts among the 10 ASEAN member states.

Tariff threats

Pompeo met Friday with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore. The two men did not speak to the press after the meeting, but shortly thereafter China warned it would impose new tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods if the Trump administration follows through with its latest trade threats.

The Commerce Ministry said the proposed tariffs of 5 percent to 25 percent on more than 5,200 U.S. goods are restrained, and maintained it has the right to take retaliatory action in the escalating trade war between the worlds two largest economies.

On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Minister told reporters the U.S. needed to calm down and consider its own consumers, responding to threats by the Trump administration to raise its proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from the initially planned 10 percent to 25 percent.

The U.S. says it wants China to stop stealing U.S. corporate secrets and stop subsidizing Chinese companies with cheap loans that give them an unfair advantage.
What New Delhi had essentially said was that there was nothing incriminating against Choksi at that particular time since the scam surfaced later.

News agency reports on Sunday cited sources saying that a team from India was sent to Antigua few days back to pursue the authorities there to extradite Choksi.

New Delhi: India has handed over a request to Antigua for extradition of Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam-accused Mehul Choksi who had obtained citizenship of the Caribbean nation. Indian government sources had recently said New Delhi was sending an extradition request on Choksi to Antigua.

News agency reports on Sunday cited sources saying that a team from India was sent to Antigua few days back to pursue the authorities there to extradite Choksi. The team met the Foreign Ministry officials of the island nation on Saturday and handed over the request to extradite Choksi to India, sources were quoted as saying.

The tiny Caribbean nation had on Friday claimed it was told by Indian agencies that there was no adverse information against PNB scam accused Choksi when it did a background check on the fugitive billionaire before granting him citizenship in 2017, according to a local media report there.

But India had swiftly set the record straight late on Friday evening, saying that the Police Clearance Certificate was issued to Choksi by the Mumbai passport office, for Antigua and Barbuda on March 16, 2017 since at that time there was a clear Police Verification Report available on his passport.

What New Delhi had essentially said was that there was nothing incriminating against Choksi at that particular time since the scam surfaced later. The opposition parties have also been targeting the government over the matter.

It may be recalled that the Indian government has also asked the United Kingdom for extradition of another PNB scam-accused jeweller Nirav Modi. The Indian government had informed Parliament last week that two Red Corner Notices have been issued against Modi by the Interpol.

CBI sources had earlier said the agency has cited three grounds on the basis of which Choksi and Modi can be extradited to India to face trial.

They said the agency has underlined the principle of reciprocity where fugitives can be exchanged between two countries as and when required, principle of dual criminality which states that the alleged charge on the fugitive should be an offence in both countries, and the United Nations Convention against Corruption to which both Antigua and India are signatories.
South Sudan's warring parties signed a peace deal on Sunday in the latest attempt to end the country's five-year civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President and rebel opposition leader, Riek Machar signed the agreement, said Sudan's state news agency, SUNA.



As part of the deal, Kiir will remain president and Machar will return to the country as the First Vice President, one of five vice presidents. There will be an eight month pre-transitional period led by Kiir, followed by a three year transitional period. The government will include 20 ministers from Kiir's party, nine from Machar's and six from other groups, said the agreement.



This is the latest of several attempts at peace agreements and cease-fires since war broke out in 2013. The first peace agreement fell apart in July 2016 when fighting erupted in the capital Juba and Machar fled the country on foot. He's since been under house arrest in South Africa.



South Sudan's government insists this time things will be different between the two leaders and Machar has "learned the hard way'' and has promised to work with Kiir because he doesn't want to go back to South Africa, said government spokesman, Michael Makuei, at a press conference in Juba last week. Upon his return, Machar's troops are to go to cantonment sites for training to be unified with the government army, he said.



At least one South Sudan expert is calling the deal "a high-risk model" for trying to end the conflict.



"In 2013, Riek competed to replace Kiir and Kiir violently expelled him. In 2016, Riek competed to replace Kiir and Kiir violently expelled him. Both events led to large-scale atrocities. This peace deal sets up the exact same scenario for the third time,'' said Alan Boswell a South Sudan conflict analyst. ``When it fails, it fails explosively."



Multiple cease-fires have been signed in recent years, all of which have been violated within hours of being implemented. The international community's patience has been waning with the young nation and last month the U.N. Security Council imposed an arms embargo.



In July South Sudan's parliament extended the government's mandate until 2021, angering the opposition, which said the government was "playing games" at the negotiating table.

Feelings in the nation remain mixed. "Of course peace will come, because we're tired of war," said Juba resident Santino Deng.



Some rights groups applaud the deal, but cautioning that it's only a first step.



"To prevent a return to war, the agreement must ensure that overwhelming power is not concentrated in a few hands," said Brian Adeba, deputy director of policy at the Enough Project, a Washington-based advocacy group.



Edmund Yakani, executive director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a local rights group called the deal a positive development, but said he's not fully convinced.



"The challenge is the will the political leaders and we are expecting them to take primary responsibility for making peace happen in South Sudan,'' he said.


A vehicle carrying the U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat was the subject of a late-night attack in the capital Dhaka, on Saturday as she was leaving a farewell dinner for the chief of a nongovernmental organization.

A statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka said the official vehicle transporting the Ambassador was "attacked by a group of armed adult men, some on motorcycles in the Mohammadpur area," adding that the Ambassador and her security team "departed the area unharmed."

"We can confirm there was a protest near an event the Ambassador was attending this evening. The Ambassador left unharmed and has returned home safely," the statement said.

The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka expressed its appreciation to police for their "quick and professional response following the incident."

On Sunday, a State Department spokesman released a statement, saying, "There were no injuries to the ambassador, her drivers, or security staff. However, two security vehicles sustained some damage."

Bernicat was attending a dinner for Badiul Alam Majumder, vice president of human rights group The Hunger Project, and also its Bangladesh country director.

Former Bangladeshi foreign minister Kamal Hossain is also believed to have attended the dinner.

Thousands of students have been protesting traffic conditions in Dhaka over the past week, but it is still unclear whether Saturday's attack on the U.S. ambassador was related to those protests.
Ethiopian soldiers have taken control of major highways, government buildings and the airport in the eastern Somali region after violence in the capital of Jigjiga left at least 29 people dead.



Fighting broke out Friday after an apparent rift between local authorities and the central Ethiopian government.



It is unclear exactly what led to the violence. A senior official with the region's Somali People's Democratic Party, Khadar Abdi Ismail, tells VOA the federal forces are responsible for the deaths.



He blames the violence on what he calls public anger over "the illegal entry of the dangerously armed troops" into the city. Ismail says non-Somali ethnic communities were targeted, shops looted, buildings burned and at least one church destroyed.



Ethiopia's military has vowed to take the "necessary measures ... to restore order in the Ethiopian Somali regional state."



The government recently accused regional officials of carrying out human rights abuses



The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia is urging Americans in the region to shelter in place and pay attention to local news reports for updates on the situation.



There are several thousand regional paramilitary fighters known as the Liyu police, a force created in 2007 primarily to quell the rebellion of the Ogaden National Liberation Front. Liyu police have been accused of committing brutality and torture against supporters of ONLF.



Ethiopia's Somali region was the first area visited by new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed after he was selected by the ruling party last April



At the time of the visit, Ahmed was trying to ease tensions between the ethnic Somali and Oromo communities, which have been engaged in deadly tit-for-tat attacks that have claimed the lives of dozens of people.

Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
In an interview done before the announcement of the elections, Jonga Kandemiri of VOA's Studio 7 Zimbabwe Service spoke with Secretary General Pascoe Ekemu Chakanetsa of the Zimbabwe Industrial Revolution Worker's Federation, about the elections and his role as an observer. #voazimvotes
Free state museum openings could be Rome's final Domenica al Museo.

Italy's state-run museums and archaeological sites are open free of charge on 5 August, in what could be the final installment of the monthly Domenica al Museo.

Italy's new culture minister Alberto Bonisoli announced recently that he is scrapping the popular initiative, which involves the free opening of state museums on the first Sunday of each month.

Since its launch in Juy 2014 #Domenicalmuseo has attracted 12 million visitors to Italy's museums, registering 3.5 million visitors in 2017 alone.

Separately, Rome's municipal-run museums are also free on 5 August - for residents of the capital - for information see Musei in Comune website.

Rome recently introduced the 5 MIC card granting the city's residents unlimited access to municipal museums for one year.

Full details of Domenica al Museo can be found on the Beni Culturali website while for comprehensive list of Rome's museums consult Wanted in Rome website. See also related feature article about the ongoing changes in Rome museums.
KC Tyagi accused the Opposition of using the Muzaffarpur incident to spread lies and conspiracy theories for political gains.

New Delhi: Under fire from the Opposition over the alleged abuse of minor girls at a state-funded shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur district, the ruling Janata Dal (United) asserted on Sunday that chief minister Nitish Kumar would not resign.

Senior party leader K.C. Tyagi said that the state government has already ordered a CBI inquiry into the case and is also ready for a Supreme Court-monitored probe.

Slamming the Opposition parties, Mr Tyagi said, How can rape of young girls, which has shamed us, could be an issue for Opposition parties to unite against the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar and demand his resignation. This politics over hapless victims in Bihar is the most unfortunate thing.

He was referring to the RJD-led Opposition protest in Delhi on Saturday against the alleged rapes of minor girls in Muzaffarpur shelter home that was funded by the Bihar government.

The JD(U) leader said, Nitish Kumar is a sensitive person and felt ashamed over the incident which the Opposition parties are trying to use to hit at his conscience so that he steps down. But, he will never step down, we will not let him do so.

Mr Tyagi also slammed Opposition leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, for attending the RJD-headed protest in Delhi and described his presence at the agitation as unfortunate.

It was a friendship day of parties seeking political mileage from the unfortunate and shameful incident in the state, he said.

The JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP said, I also condemn Sitaram Yechury and D. Raja who have forgotten the killings of JNU president Chandra Shekhar and Purnia MLA Ajit Sarkar and joined the protest organised by the RJD.

Goons had killed Shekhar, a CPI-ML activist, in 1997 and Sarkar of the CPI-M in 1998 while Lalu Prasad Yadav, founder of the RJD, and his wife were in the chief ministers post in Bihar, respectively.

Mr Tyagi accused the Opposition of using the Muzaffarpur incident to spread lies and conspiracy theories for political gains and to help sand and liquor mafia who have been effectively checked by the Nitish government.

Mr Tyagi also said that the Opposition parties want anarchy and jungle raj back in Bihar by replacing the JD(U) government led by Nitish Kumar.

He also demanded that all shelter homes for juveniles in the country should be probed under a monitoring committee of the apex court

The JD(U) spokesperson said that Nitish Kumar had written to the Patna high court for monitoring the probe into the Muzaffarpur case and asserted that the party was ready for such a probe by even a Supreme Court-monitored panel.
Late last month, the Defense Department released a long-awaited request for proposals for what it is calling the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), in which it specified that the contract would have a ceiling of $10 billion over the course of a decade, an opportunity that officials have indicated would account for about 16 percent of the departments overall cloud migration work. The Defense Department also indicated it would use just one company for the contract  a decision that has sparked sharp divisions among the handful of firms vying for the contract.
There is no evidence that the Chinese government is financing an advertising campaign in the United States to convince U.S. politicians that Trumps approach is wrong. U.S. business and farm groups, which do extensive business with China, have complained for months about Trumps strategy, but there are no signs that the Chinese government is paying for a campaign in the United States.
 Then have a parent or guardian fill out the form at wapo.st/summerofkidspost2018 and attach your photo. Or they can mail it to KidsPost, The Washington Post, 1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. List the full name, age and hometown of everyone in the photo. We also need your parents phone number and email address. We would love for you to tell us what made the trip memorable.
To be sure, the picture isnt entirely bleak: Nonprofit news organizations spring up, relying on grants and membership; organizations such as Report for America help fill the gaps at shrunken news organizations; and in Denver, a new outfit called Civil is funding an alternative to the decimated Post with the digital Colorado Sun, and hopes to produce many more like it. Some regional papers have been bought by well-meaning philanthropists.
We can find middle ground if we work together and see past what we assume about each other, he said. People look at me and they think they know all about who I am and what I believe. But they would probably never guess that my parents came here illegally from Guatemala, my sister is married to a black woman, I personally disagree with the Muslim Ban  theres a lot you can learn when you just talk to people, Guzman said.
A number of other intriguing items didn't sell.

BOSTON: Is JFK losing his star power?

It's probably too early to tell, but 55 years after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, an auction of some of the most iconic items associated with the Kennedy White House fell well short of the pre-sale hype.

A rocking chair JFK used to meet with world leaders in the Oval Office sold for $50,000, and a collection of pens he used to establish the Peace Corps and sign a landmark nuclear treaty sold for $60,000 at Friday's auction on Cape Cod, not far from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

But a number of other intriguing items didn't sell, including Kennedy's last pencil doodles before his assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, and a tie clip in the shape of the PT-109 torpedo boat Kennedy commanded during World War II.

Other items that didn't get the minimum bid included a charcoal drawing done as a study for the slain president's official White House portrait; handwritten notes he jotted about Vietnam around 1953; his letter opener and crystal ashtray; and his personal stereo and Jackie Gleason records. "About half of it sold," Josh Eldred, president of Eldred's auction gallery in East Dennis, told The Associated Press. Buyers' identities were not disclosed.

Even though the auction is over, buyers can still make offers, he said, adding that he's confident the best of the memorabilia eventually will sell.

JFK's worn, upholstered oak rocking chair had been expected to sell for up to $70,000. JFK often was photographed sitting in it while meeting with world leaders. The former president's doctors urged him to use rockers to ease his chronic back pain.

The pens that sold were used not only to sign the Peace Corps into existence but the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - an accord that helped steer the planet away from nuclear warfare a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink.

A few oddball items also were sold Friday: JFK's prized if garish silk scarf, decorated with bronze Democrat donkeys and blue stars, and a creased and stained 1961 inaugural ball invitation that JFK sent to Frank Sinatra, each fetched $800.

His doodles of sailboats sold for $7,000. But his scribbles on Texas hotel stationery the day before the nation's 35th president was shot didn't sell. "It may have been one of the last things he put on paper," auction house vice president Bill Bourne said. "In fact, it probably was."
Changing the name of the department would require an act of the state legislature. Melanie Wenger, director of the county office of intergovernmental relations, said the chairs of the county delegation would have to introduce the legislation, and a public hearing would be held on it in Rockville. The legislation would be considered in Annapolis next year.
We need new leadership, said Brown, who moved to Prince Georges in 1988 from Texas and was endorsed during the primary by several unions and the grass-roots groups Our Revolution and Progressive Maryland. There have been improvements from the outside, but when you follow the laws, you see that little has changed.
Analysts say Democrats have more to worry about than turnout. The party, they say, must make sure voters are casting ballots for Democrats in an election with at least two competitive county executive races and as many as seven seats up for grabs in the state Senate. Losing too many of those seats could cost Democrats a veto-proof majority in the chamber.
Dr. Jorgensen was born in Kenosha, Wis. In the 1950s, he worked as a teacher ambassador in Hiroshima, Japan, for the Committee for a Free Asia, which later became the Asia Foundation research organization. He was also a high school and college teacher in Berkeley, Calif., before working from 1966 to 1980 at what is now the Department of Education. He was director of alumni relations at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., from 1980 to 1985, when he returned to Washington. He moved to California in 2014 and wrote several volumes of memoirs.
Money is a responsibility when you have that kind of wealth. Ive tried to do right by it. Perhaps the greatest opportunity came with the ownership of these newspapers, Mr. Lenfest said in 2016 when he donated the Philadelphia Inquirer and its sister publications to a newly created nonprofit. What would this city be without the Inquirer and Daily News?
Here was someone I could ask about something thats always bugged me: Whats up with those little birds you see in the surf? When a wave recedes, they scurry across the wet sand, probing for a meal. Then when the water starts to come back in, they nip away as if afraid to get their feet wet.
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The Capitol Police  who are also responsible for patrolling the Virginia statehouse  were alerted to the presence of the paint about 6 a.m. Saturday, when a cleaning crew was called to remove it, Macenka said. The statue was free of paint by about 4 p.m. Saturday.
Minutes later, police said the two alleged robbers fired on Harrell, who was hiding behind a trash can, suspecting that he had a gun. Harrell was struck in the head and died at the scene.
No casualties were reported, but several documents pertaining to the licence department were gutted.

Eight fire fighting engines and two water tankers were rushed to the spot. (Reresentational image/ANI Twitter)

Mumbai: Hundreds of documents and other items were destroyed in a fire at the Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Mumbai on Sunday, but no one was injured, an official said.

Fire-fighters took nearly three hours to douse the blaze that erupted at the RTO in Tardeo area of south Mumbai early this morning, he said.

The blaze destroyed the electric wiring, licence and other documents, furniture, computers, printers and other items in 15 to 20 cabins on the RTO's ground floor, the fire brigade cell of the city civic body said in a statement.

"No casualties were reported in the mishap. However, several documents pertaining to the licence department were gutted," a fire brigade official said.

The fire brigade control room received the information about the blaze at the RTO at 5:20 am, he said.

Eight fire fighting engines and two water tankers were rushed to the spot.

The fire was extinguished around 8:10 am, he said.

An investigation was on to ascertain the cause of the fire, the official said, adding that RTO officials were assessing the loss incurred due to the blaze.
This didnt mean that he disliked me. (I think.) Rather, he explained that every visit to the oncology clinic was a reminder that he had once had cancer. Besides, he lived more than an hour away and he trusted his primary-care physician to review his scans. And it was very possible that his lung cancer would never return. He would be happy to never have to come back to see me.
A new report out of Pennsylvania, which has the nations most robust system for monitoring patient-safety events, treats mix-ups involving end-of-life documents as medical errors  a novel approach. It found that in 2016, Pennsylvania health-care facilities reported nearly 100 events relating to patients code status  their wish to be resuscitated or not, should their hearts stop beating and they stop breathing. In 29 cases, patients were resuscitated against their wishes. In two cases, patients werent resuscitated despite making it clear they wanted this to happen.
Iran detains top bank official in fraud crackdown: The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported that authorities have detained the deputy chief of the Central Bank of Iran as part of a crackdown on financial fraud. The report quotes Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, a judicial spokesman, as saying that Ahmad Araghchi was dismissed from his position before being taken to prison. The report did not elaborate on the allegations against him. The administration has already replaced the central bank governor and taken other steps to shore up the plummeting rial, the Iranian currency.
The Intercept, which broke the story, said that a small team of Google workers has been engineering an Android search app for China that would blacklist websites and search terms to satisfy Chinas strict censorship. Chinas control of news, messages and information is vast and ranges from instructions to news media about what to report, to pressure on academic journals and book publishers about what to print, to surveillance of social media for posts that might touch third-rail topics prohibited by the party, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Chinas Great Firewall is a mammoth cordon around its digital universe that is a nanny to hundreds of millions of users, letting them access only content approved by the state. Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter and news sites such as the BBC and the New York Times are blocked. China is also actively demanding that companies that do business there follow its laws and regulations, which are often aimed at repressing free speech, free association and other rights, while permitting the state unparalleled surveillance.
The court has also long stated that efforts to ban speech before it occurs, as state lawyers are effectively trying to achieve by having the dissemination of the blueprints blocked, are nearly impossible to sustain. (Think of the famous case, recently depicted in the movie The Post, in which the government lost its bid to prohibit the publication of the Pentagon Papers.) While the punishment of speech after it occurs might be acceptable in some circumstances, the government has no business effectively granting licenses as to what can or cannot be said.
Protecting heads of state from drone attacks will be even more complex, so varied are the leaders schedules and public appearances. Not only can preprogrammed drones swoop in from almost any direction, but they can also be used by anyone with the means to buy them. Worse, threats from the sky used to be exclusively the domain of nation-states. That has changed in the past two weeks. Now, a far broader and more elusive menace has emerged and must be addressed.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray alleged that the government is adding fuel to tensions arising from caste and religious politics.

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has slammed the Narendra Modi-led Union government for restoring the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Pr-evention of Atrocities) Act and nullifying the judgment of the Supreme Court under the pressure from the dalit vote bank.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray alleged in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana that the government is adding fuel to tensions arising from caste and religious politics.

The Union government restored the provisions of the Atrocity Act, which were diluted by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had directed that a superintendent of police-rank officer would verify the complaint and then an FIR would be registered against the accused to avoid the misuse of Act. But because of dalit anger across the country, the Union government restored the earlier provisions.

Mr Thackeray slammed the Modi government by comparing the decision with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis alleged role in the Shah Bano case. The Congress government under the former Prime Minister passed an Act nullifying a Supreme Court order on Triple Talaq in the wake of nationwide anger from the Muslim community.

Mr Thackeray alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power after adding fuel to the Ram Mandir issue. Now, instead of building the temple, they are saying they will abide by the courts orders and left the job to the courts. Then why have they restored provisions of Atrocities Act overruling the Supreme Court? The Bharatiya Janata Party is taking advantage by creating a divide between castes and religions.
The most recent victims are two womens rights activists, Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah, both apparently detained for their outspoken advocacy. Ms. Badawi was a recipient of the 2012 International Women of Courage Award from the State Department. The citation described her as a powerful voice advocating for womens suffrage and against the guardianship system, under which women cannot marry, work or travel without the permission of a guardian or male relative. The citation added, In a landmark case, Badawi was the first woman to sue her father for abusing the guardian system and preventing her from marrying the suitor of her choice. She is also the first woman to file a lawsuit against the government demanding the right for women to vote, and launched an online campaign to encourage other women to file similar suits. The efforts of activists like Badawi helped encourage a royal decree allowing women to vote and run for office in future municipal elections.
The presidents attorneys at first denied Trumps involvement in drafting the response to the Times, but months later, in a letter intended to explain why Mueller should not interview Trump, they agreed that the president had, in fact, been the author of the statement. They described the statement, which had not mentioned that the Russian lawyer was expected to bring damaging information about Clinton, as short but accurate.
My thoughts and prayers, along with those of all of the 41 Resolute Support nations, are with the families and friends of our fallen and wounded service members, and our injured Afghan brothers and their families, said U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander.
Accused killed her for refusing his friendship proposal post break-up.

Mumbai: A 20-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Thane on Saturday morning after she refused to befriend the accused. The accused had been harassing the girl for over a month stating that he loved her. After the girl turned down his proposal, the accused started intimidating her and threatened to kill her if she refused to consider him as her friend. She was hacked to death in broad daylight along the Eastern Express Highway after she did not toe his line.

The officials said that the incident took place at around 11.15 am near the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) in Louis Wadi area when Prachi Jhade, (20) a second year BCom student of Bedekar College was attacked.

The accused fled from the spot after he intercepted the girl and attacked her with a knife multiple times, said Sukhada Narkar, Thane police spokesperson.

The investigations revealed that the accused, Aakash Pawar, (20) was arrested in the afternoon by the Bhiwandi police from Narpoli area where he stayed. Pawar allegedly had an affair with the deceased, who stayed in Kopri area. Following the break-up he allegedly started harassing Jhade.

Jhade had subsequently lodged a complaint with the Kapurbawdi police station two months ago.

The police had summoned Pawar and got a written bond from him stating he would stay away from the girl. The same however did not deter him from stopping the harassment.

On Saturday too, Pawar followed Jhade and intercepted her at Louis Wadi. He said that if not boyfriend, both could at least be friends and by burying the hatchet on the occasion of the friendship day. She however turned down his request, following which an enraged Pawar stabbed her.

He stabbed her in stomach and later on her neck killing her instantly. Locals rushed her to civil hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. Based on the past complaint and history of the duo, the police suspected Pawars involvement.

The Napoli police station detained Pawar from his residence soon after and it came to the fore that he had murdered Jhade. A case of murder and stalking has been registered against Pawar and further investigation is underway.
Stacey Barrass was within months of personal bankruptcy after a relationship break-up left her with about $100,000 in debts.

The single mother of three boys, the oldest aged 16, says she had, and still has, a large mortgage and had to take drastic measures in order not to lose her home.

Barrass, 47, received some budgeting advice and tips on how to negotiate with her bank from a neighbour, who is a friend and also a financial adviser.

"I negotiated with the bank to consolidate my credit card debts into the home loan and under the bank's financial hardship provisions and I was able to extend the loan term and reduce the repayments," Barrass says.
Veteran St Kilda homelessness support worker Billi Clarke is not one to mince her words.

There is no doubt, she says, that the Gatwick Hotel  billed by Channel Nines hit reality renovation show The Block as Australias most notorious hellhole  was a shithole.

Homelessness support workers including SJ Finn and Billi Clarke outside the Gatwick, where they will gather on Sunday to protest the increase of homelessness in St Kilda since the former boarding house was sold. Credit:Daniel Pockett

We are not saying it should have stayed the way it was, she says of the seedy, violence-plagued former St Kilda boarding house, which housed some of Melbournes most vulnerable people when no one else would take them in.

But as Melbourne becomes more gentrified and boarding houses like the Gatwick close down, Ms Clarke and other community sector workers worry about the ripple effects felt in the local area and on the homeless.
Police have charged two people, including a teenager, after officers were called to reports a man was on fire near Mandurah on Saturday evening.

It will be alleged the 15 year old boy caused the burns injuries the man. Credit:The-age

Mandurah detectives have charged a 15-year old boy and a 37-year-old man over the incident in Dudley Park.

Police will allege about 6:40pm they were called to a disturbance on Durras Place.

"Information provided at the time was that a man was on fire," police said in a statement.
Every cop has one or two cases in their career which they can't forget, and for WA Police Senior Constable Jen Robinson it is the case of a man with no name.

On March 7, 1998 the man was killed when he was hit by a train between the Burswood and Victoria Park stations.

He has become known in some circles as 'John Doe' because his real name and true identity has never been established, despite 20 years of painstaking work by investigators stretching across the globe.

A composite image of what the man is believed to have looked like. Credit:WA Police

Senior Constable Robinson was among those who worked on the case when she was attached to the coronial inquiry unit.
A traditional role of applying and gathering intelligence had been displaced by a lust for kill counts. Troop Captain Andrew Hastie, now a Liberal MP, who deployed briefly on a familiarisation exercise for that 2012 rotation, caught a glimpse of blood in the eye of a mission that was "grasping for operational clarity in a fog of strategic ambiguity". Black-ops rockstars Identifying the moment it went wrong is a principal task for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF), now investigating allegations of a slew of unlawful killings by members of Australias Special Forces. Many insiders believe a key reason things may have gone off the rails is "tier 1 envy".

Across the global network of Special Forces units is a spread of skill sets and specialisations. The US ranks units such as the Navys Seal Team Six, and the Armys Delta Force, as "tier 1". While the designation relates to resourcing and tasking rather than status, the black-ops rockstars tend to get the cool missions - such as hunting down Osama bin Laden - and thus the envy. A notch down along the Joint Special Operations Command pecking order, tier 2 operators such as the US Armys Green Berets are tasked with a role closer to that described in the opening paragraphs. Working closely with locals to improve self-defence capability, they share principles that are also part of SASRs repertoire. Loading But over time  and there was a lot of it in Afghanistan  operators appeared to show more interest in direct action than in hiding out unobserved, reporting local patterns of life. Because of inter-operability, exchange of personnel and the fact Australia deployed the third-largest Special Operations Task Group to Afghanistan after the Americans and British, Australians were exposed to significant influence from their "cousins".

In terms of personal fitness, training and patrolling nous, the Australians compared well. But in the global special operations pool, we are minnows. The US has more special forces personnel than Australia has men and women in uniform. US tier 1 Special Forces, with its superstructure of command, intelligence, assault boats, helicopters and autonomy, are in a whole other league  one senior defence sources say we might have sensibly avoided. While Seal Team Six got the sexy jobs, they also drew fire and over time it became clear that maximum power with minimum oversight produces moral cost. In 2015, The New York Times published an extensive investigation of the Seals, detailing the evolution in Afghanistan of a "kill fest" in which the victims were too often unarmed civilians. Seals were using customised weapons such as tomahawks and practises such as "canoeing" (splitting open a victims skull). There was similar reputational blight in Britain, with their famed SAS (on which Australias SASR is modelled) accused of planting weapons and unlawful killing. Taliban fighters in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, in June. Credit:AP

Close observers see a gradual rise among some of a rampant warrior ethos over the 13 years of the Australian mission. Hearts were hardened by a series of factors, not the least their own mounting casualty count. On the battlefield, Afghan militants blended in with local farmers. When Taliban commanders were caught, they frequently bribed their way clear of a dysfunctional and corrupt justice system. Strategic oversight wobbled in the hands of a coalition of 50 nations. Beyond the myriad approaches of different nations, objectives drifted between killing off al-Qaeda, building a democratic Afghanistan and arresting a burgeoning Taliban insurgency. Australian Special Operations commanders also brought different approaches to their four to six-month rotations. In 2009, one leadership group emphasised intelligence and policing strategies to separate the militants from the farmers. The bloodless removal of Taliban commanders from the valleys was deeply appreciated by long-suffering locals, but not so much by many Special Forces soldiers trained and poised for battle. Loading The following year, by contrast, there was fighting aplenty, including the famous Chenartu-Tizak action. As a feat of arms, it was remarkable. Outnumbered Australians confronted an enemy arrayed defensively and in superior numbers, completely destroying them while sustaining minimal casualties.

But "clear, hold, build" was the counterinsurgency mantra and only the first box had been ticked. The Taliban soon seeped back in. The episode also generated dissent within the ranks  and not only between long-term special forces rivals, SASR and the Commandos. While the fighting produced a Victoria Cross and the first Australian Army battle honour since Vietnam, within SASR they dont really commemorate "Tizak Day". A divide developed among brothers in arms, in part over the dispensation of honours and awards. Another legacy was a growing challenge to the habit of having gunfights in an environment where it was long understood that the shot not fired is more important than the one that is. In the pre-deployment training for a 2011 rotation, one SASR officer took care to demonstrate the importance of killing the enemy rather than those they were sent to protect. The Afghanistan arithmetic was simple  kill one innocent farmer and you generate 10 more Taliban. The officer understood that armed foreigners arriving, sometimes in the dead of night, would be terrifying. He knew a farmer "moving tactically" might just as easily be fleeing to safety. So language training in simple directions was introduced with the objective of limiting confusion and saving lives.

Then in the following year, during more pre-deployment scenario training, an SASR patrol commander was heard ordering a newer soldier to execute manacled detainees. 'Compassionate psychopaths' In jest, Special Forces personnel are sometimes described as compassionate psychopaths. The "Killer Angel" characteristics of being able to apply lethal force without hesitation - but also to know when it is not necessary - are not found in ordinary mortals. Special Forces candidates endure rigorous psychological examination, with the few who gain entry further exposed to millions of dollars' worth of punishing training. In the last years of the war, as the coalition struggled to navigate its way out, Australias Special Operations Task Group became able to call on Blackhawks and Apaches from the USs 101st Aviation "Expect No Mercy" regiment and the 82nd Aviation regiment "Wolfpack". US special forces rush a wounded Afghan soldier to a helicopter of the 101st Aviation brigade in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province in December 2010. Credit:New York Times

The vulnerability of helicopters to ground attack adjusted rules of engagement. An Afghan armed only with a two-way radio could order a grenadier into position to bring down an aircraft, with a single projectile killing 15 men. Landing zones became kill zones, with any fighting-aged males hanging around to be considered combatants. At Australias Camp Russell, operators were now turning up having already completed six or eight rotations. T-shirts were commonly stamped with gunslinger, Spartan and "Professional Infidel" iconography. That Australian Special Forces were overused in a conflict that had dragged on for too long now seems undeniable. One Army psychologist told me: "We want them controllable and reintegrate-able. But what happens if they become an attack dog you cant control?" I dont want to know all the details of what has gone on. I just want you guys to keep us safe. Sky News host Ross Cameron As Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Hart and Major Tom McDermott note in Armouring Against Atrocity: Small units within the military are easily seen as primary groups and groups are inherently less moral than individuals.

When the group is virtuous there is often a positive outcome; however, where the group norms

are shifted and the behaviour is atrocious, individuals in the group are often unable to apply the

brake. So how will the public react if revelations of war crimes are proved? Judging on responses so far, condemnation and forgiveness run neck-and-neck. On Sky TV, former SASR Lieutenant-Colonel Riccardo Bosi began his recent commentary with a quote, which is alternatively attributed to Sir Winston Churchill and George Orwell: "We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men are ready to deliver punishment to those who would do us harm." One of the interviewers, Ross Cameron, added: I dont want to know all the details of what has gone on. I just want you guys to keep us safe. The argument that the public be denied a vote on what our special forces get up to has some formal endorsement. Clandestine operations against terrorist cells remain secret because there is no logic in signalling intentions or capability to the enemy.

But Afghanistan was hardly a secret war. A massive database of intelligence gathered demonstrates many enemies killed were cruel and oppressive, but many others were farmers defending their homeland. In the course of this work, many special forces veterans have given confidential interviews. The overwhelming majority make no excuses for any small teams that went rogue. Soldiers fight principally for one another. Unethical conduct in Afghanistan made a tough job harder. Recklessness with the rules further embittered the Afghan locals and effectively betrayed the Australian mission, its soldiers and their mates. These soldiers also expect no excuses from the public. They hold to a proud heritage which honours toughness and decency. As one decorated SASR veteran put it: We are not Viking raiders or Genghis Khans marauders. We are Australian soldiers.
Its not your typical love story, but, despite all odds, it was meant to be. They met in college and their friendship evolved into what is referred to by todays modern lingo as BFFs.

Her name is Elizabeth. His is Andrew. She grew up in Westport, he in a Philadelphia suburb. As luck would have it, they both chose to matriculate at the same university.

Time passed. Elizabeth graduated, leaving Andrew  a mere sophomore  behind. Their friendship continued via phone and emails, and long distance became de rigueur, as they inevitably disappeared into the vast unknown future of their respective lives. Elizabeth eventually married and has two children, Andrew (hmm) and Caroline. Andrew graduated, married a French woman, moved to France, and has children Alice and Mathis. Their lives moved on, and years passed.

Allow me to digress: Elizabeth is my daughter. Back in the 1980s, when I first met Andrew, I was immediately drawn to him. This would be the man I would choose for my daughter ... as if I even had a choice in such decisions.

Hes terrific, I told Liz.

Oh, Mom, were best friends, came her retort.

A good start, I thought.

And, hes a sophomore. Im a senior.

Ah, the younger man, older woman syndrome. How utterly delicious.

But because daughters rarely heed their mothers advice on such matters, the subject was quickly dropped, and the two BFFs continued exploring their friendship.

Long distance is a crafty intruder. Endless amounts of determination, planning and frequent flier miles are required for sporadic moments of time-limited gratification. But according to the quote by Henri J.M. Nouwen to which Elizabeth and Andrew subscribe: How lucky I am to have someone special to miss.

Similarly, I, a woman who has survived the loss of a husband, and knows the longing of distance, I, too, am no stranger to the swollen emotions of separation and aborted physical continuity.

More years passed. Elizabeth and Andrew found themselves alone once more: two single parents in two different countries, until serendipity swooped in and another door opened. And, as it was bound to happen, the love story took flight.

Fast forward to 2014, when my granddaughter, Caroline, was invited to enroll in a high school exchange program in France. Andrew offered to be Carolines French Connection should any needs arise, and the correspondence, once again, accelerated. Time  the great equalizer  stepped in to settle the matter. Ironically, and adding more intrigue to this scenario, Elizabeth was offered a job with a company headquartered in New York and Paris. She found herself a regular commuter between the two cities, and suddenly, geographically undesirable became geographically accessible as Elizabeth and Andrews friendship blossomed into Une Affaire du Coeur. (Thank you, Caroline.)

A few weeks ago, on July 14  Bastille Day  the two BFFs, Elizabeth and Andrew, were married, the culmination of their unrelenting journey on a path well-traveled, thus merging past with present, and proving, once again, the old adage: Love knows no boundaries.

And so, to my daughter Elizabeth and to my new son-in-law Andrew  along with the resounding joy of Andrew and Caroline, and Alice and Mathis, I wrote this column in honor of you, and your unwavering devotion to a love affair so dearly won.

And, as it with every great love story that begins with once upon a time, the perfect ending is required. It is then, with deep satisfaction  knowing I was right all along  and with my fervent blessing, I offer you both the best of all possible endings: And they lived happily ever after.

Westporter Judith Marks-White shares her humorous views monthly in the Westport News. She can be reached via email at joodth@snet.net or at judithmarks-white.com.
On July 24, Nalasopara crime branch constables killed Joginder Rana, a wanted in several cases of theft.

Mumbai: A petition has been filed in the Bombay high court, seeking a CBI inquiry into the alleged fake encounter that took place recently in Nalasopara. According to the petitioner, Surendra Rana, his brother Joginder Rana was killed in a fake encounter.

Surendra stated that despite repeated complaints to the police, no one took cognisance of the same and hence, he had no other option but to file a petition.

On July 24, Nalasopara crime branch constables killed Joginder Rana, a wanted in several cases of theft.

The police, at the time of the encounter, alleged that Joginder was shot dead by the police in self-defence after he attacked police personnel.

According to the petition, constables Manoj Sakpal and Mangesh Chavan who are attached to the Nalasopara crime branch, killed Joginder.

Joginder used to drive a tourist vehicle for his livelihood. No complaint was registered against him.

On July 23, the petitioner received a call that his brother had been killed in an encounter and that his body had been taken to the Vasai-Virar municipal hospital.

The petitioner was told that his brother was killed in an alleged quarrel with senior police officers. The petitioner also visited the spot where he was told his brother was eating vada pav with his friend, Sachin.

Both police constables started demanding money from him and when he refused to cough up the amount, they forced him to run, chased him and pumped bullets in his chest.

The petitioner alleged that the police had destroyed the evidence and had even got shop owners to delete the incriminating CCTV footage.

The petitioner sought that the accused constables be booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.
HARTFORD  Before a crowd of more than 100 supporters, Martin Luther King III endorsed Democrat Shawn Wooden for state treasurer at a rally Saturday outside Woodens campaign headquarters in Hartford.

He truly is the best and brightest  not the best and brightest African American, but the best that any community has to offer, King said.

King and Wooden share a mutual friend, Wooden said. A human rights advocate, King is the oldest child of Martin Luther King Jr. He lives in Georgia, and is active on labor issues around the country.

Wooden received Kings backing while standing among other candidates endorsed by the Democratic party for state office: gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont, lieutenant governor candidate Susan Bysiewicz and attorney general candidate William Tong. U.S. Rep. John Larson, who represents Connecticuts 1st Congressional District, including Hartford, and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin both shared their hearty support for Wooden in speeches.

When was the last time you saw a turnout like this for a treasurer candidate? Bronin asked the crowd.

Hartfords former city council president, Wooden received the support with emotion.

Today is extremely special to me, he said, with his sons at his side.

In his speech, King criticized Woodens primary opponent, Democrat Dita Bhargava, a former investment manager who worked at Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse and Citigroup, among other firms.

Wooden is the only candidate who has put Main Street ahead of Wall Street, King said. I imagine his opponent was very good at helping rich folk get richer. Thats not what public service is about.

He also accused Bhargava of questioning Woodens character and making false claims about Woodens experience.

Bhargava responded by defending her words.

It just boggles my mind why when a woman speaks the truth  the truth you could easily find in the Hartford Courant or in the Wall Street Journal  it is seen on negative campaigning, she said. I am simply pointing out the facts.

She highlighted an instance in which Wooden, a pension investment attorney for Day Pitney, was involved in advising the New Jersey pension fund to invest in one of the worlds largest hedge funds, BlackRock, an investment that underperformed and was criticized by New Jersey officials and union leaders.

That was a bad investment, and he collected millions of dollars in fees on it from Wall Street, Bhargava said. I did my job and I did the best I could.

Wooden said it was utterly false that his firm made millions from the investment.

Ive spent years fighting to protect the retirement security of working families and serving the public, he wrote in a statement. In stark contrast, my opponent has bounced from one Wall Street trading firm to another, including some that contributed to the Great Recession of 2008 that devastated the retirement savings of millions of people. I am disappointed that my opponent has decided to run a campaign of desperation instead of telling voters how she will make their lives better.

King spent Saturday meeting with Connecticut National Association for the Advancement of Colored People leaders in Hartford and with clergy in Bloomfield.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination. King worked on a tobacco field in Simsbury for a summer in the 1940s and returned to Connecticut several times throughout his life as a civil rights leader.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
What a brave, savage writer David Ireland is! There are moments in this play that are so shockingly provocative, so laugh-out-loud funny while simultaneously curl-into-a-ball-and cringe-worrying that I found my mouth was actually open. He can't go there, I thought. And then he did.

Your attitude towards it will depend on how well you tolerate conversations about rape delivered with a kind of Grand Guignol glee and a climax as bloody as any Tarantino film, but with the key difference that the woman is not the victim. Critics will be divided and not just because they are referred to, in another passage of rising hysteria, as "Fucking animals". I loved it, relishing its exhilarating wave of taboo-breaking wildness.

The set up is relatively simple. An English theatre director, Leigh, is sitting in his living room with a famous American actor Jay, waiting for the arrival of a playwright Ruth, who has written a play about Northern Ireland in which Jay has been signed to star. From the off, the mood is nervous. Jay, wonderfully incarnated in a performance of raging energy by Darrell D'Silva is a monstrous puffed-up poltroon of a man, vain and full of entitlement. He has a view on everything, but generally, despite his self-proclaimed feminism and generally right-on-ness, his opinions are as bombastic and repellent as his personality.

Leigh is out of his comfort zone, desperate not to offend his ticket-selling star. There is a wonderful conversation in which he confuses Alec and James Baldwin; another in which Jay insists that the Bechdel who invented the Bechdel test is a man. Then they have an unsettling conversation about rape in which Jay asks Leigh who he would rape  if he had to, at gunpoint, to stop a nuclear explosion.

It is mad and profoundly disturbing, not least because in Gareth Nicholls's fast-paced and tightly controlled production, it is played for laughs. But it is only when Ruth arrives, that full mayhem breaks out, since it emerges that Jay has confused Northern Ireland with the South, and that the part he has agreed to play is one that undermines his romantic notions of his own Catholic background. The look on the faces of Leigh and Ruth when they realise he thinks the Fenians he is required to attack in the script are the British is a joy to behold.

Robert Jack is superb as the weasly, ambitious Leigh, hiding behind his supposed liberal values but desperate to be a success. His rising panic as he realises that his chance to be director of the National Theatre is slipping away in one disastrous encounter is perfectly conveyed. In the more difficult part of Ruth, holding the ring in the shifting balances of power, Lucianne McEvoy is equally fine, conveying the resourcefulness and fierce determination of the writer who sees herself as British not Irish, but never letting her slide into caricature.

The tightness of Belfast-born Ireland's writing, and the superb timing of the direction and playing, mean that the jokes come thick and fast. It's as brash and broad in outline as a cartoon or a Jacobean tragedy  and requires you to suspend your knowledge of how Twitter works for hits denouement to land. But underneath, the tone and the themes are as dark and sticky as the thickest treacle, asking serious questions about masculinity, political and gender assumptions, colonialism, history and the British attitude to Ulster that nag in the mind even as you pick your jaw up off the floor.

Whispering beneath it all is the question of what theatre itself is for, what constitutes honest writing, what can and can't be said. Are artists only allowed to think in one way or can they think in many? In that way Ireland is able to have his cake and eat it too. I found it thrilling.
This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and Folkloramas pre-festival media blitz steamed ahead as normal. The Caboto Centres atrium buzzed with people nibbling festive doughnuts, squeezed by stands of TV cameras.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Florence Okwudili is surrounded by members of the Umunna Igbo Association Dancers in her basement where the group rehearses.

The festivals pavilion ambassadors, resplendent in their cultures attire, breezed through the room in blooms of colour. The Asham Stompers dance squad, stars of a brand-new Metis Pavilion, whirled through a Red River Jig.

When it came time for speeches, Mayor Brian Bowman rose to his feet. He shuffled his papers at the podium, joked that he hoped the media didnt see. Then, he said something that, in this world, was a little unexpected.

With forces around the world trying to divide people, he mused, we need Folklorama more than ever before.

There was a heartbeat of surprised quiet, then a burst of vigorous applause. Bowman went on.

"The forces who try to divide people, usually try to do so by spreading misinformation and fear," he said, and pointed to Folkloramas 43 pavilions as an antidote to that process, a festival to reaffirm what unites cultures.

"There are some pretty common themes," he continued. "A focus on family and community, making a living, happiness, and pride in ones culture. There are so many more things that make us similar, than divide us."

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Folklorama chairman Sid Ritter (left), and Aidan OBrien (centre), president of the Community Folk Art Council of Winnipeg, present Lt.-Gov. Bud Jobin with his Folklorama passport on the lawn of Government House in 1980.

It was not a radical sentiment. Yet here, in the heart of Folklorama, even that reference to divisive politics was unexpected. Since its inception, the festival has been staunchly non-political; its supporters usually follow suit.

This time, perhaps, someone needed to say it. Bowmans comments arrived at a pivotal moment: all across Canada and the United States and Europe, a battle is churning. It is about refugees and about immigration.

It is also, from its most extreme edges, about the future of multiculturalism, and ethnic diversity itself.

In the United States, a man gets elected president while pledging to clamp down on immigration and deport refugees already legally arrived in the country. In Canada, far-right agitators Tweet abuse to Muslim reporters.

On social media, videos of racist abuse and harassment spread like wildfire. The incidents flow in from every corner of North America: at a restaurant in Lethbridge. A ferry dock in Toronto. A supermarket in London, Ont.

Words give way to violence. In 2017, a man in Quebec murders six people at a mosque. In Kansas, a man opens fire on two Indian men eating dinner at a restaurant, killing one; witnesses hear him yelling "get out of my country."

Those incidents are just a handful of many. And it has always been there, this hatred; yet lately, it seems more open, more concerted, more emboldened by the victories of politicians touting hardline anti-immigration policies.

In the wake of last months mass shooting in Torontos Danforth neighbourhood, Imam Tawhidi Tweeted that "multiculturalism," "diversity" and "inclusion" are the "three words that have destroyed Western civilization."

Now, those troubles have hit Folklorama, too. Just one week before the festivals kickoff, a Canadian Nationalist Party speaker held a meeting at the same Provencher Boulevard venue which usually hosts the Belgian Pavilion.

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Folkloramas Cari-Cana pavilion features well-known calypso dances such as the flaming limbo.

Only three people showed up, and the meeting was disrupted by local anti-racist activists. But outside, a Belgian Club board member complained to activists about how only "visible minorities" can get jobs with the government.

The Belgian Club soon announced the board member had been asked to resign. Days later, the pavilion itself announced it was voluntarily withdrawing from Folklorama, saying it was time to "pause, reflect and step back" for this year.

Each of these threads weaves into a larger message, pushed by agitators and extremists the world over. The message is simple, its ramifications brutal and stark: suspect your neighbour. Close the doors. Build the wall.

Through this storm, Folklorama sails along, now in its 49th year and showing no signs of slowing. On the surface, nothing about it has changed: the dances, the songs, the steam tables laden with hearty stews remain the same.

But still, this moment in history begs to bring the matter to closer attention. What does it mean to hold a multicultural festival, in an era when the value of multiculturalism itself seems ever more under assault?

To understand the spirit of it all, maybe one has to go back to the very beginning.

If youd told Sid Ritter in 1970 that hed still be part of Folklorama today, he wouldnt have believed you. The event was organized for Manitobas centennial; it was supposed to last just a week, not well into the next millennium.

That first festival, it was a labour of love. The city chipped in $15,000 to start it up, and organizers worked mostly after-hours. It looked a little different than todays Folklorama: there was a beauty contest, a casino-themed venue.

DAVE BONNER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Emily Abriam and Jerry Baquiran perform a traditional Filipino candle dance in 1971.

Yet even then, the familiar shape of the festival was clearly visible. Twenty-two pavilions set up in humble community spaces across the city; a $1 "passport" was good for free bus rides and discounted admission.

Days before kickoff, the Free Press ran a feature brightly announcing the festivities.

"If you do nothing else this summer, you must visit Rome or Athens or perhaps something a little more unusual like Seoul, Korea," it read. "There can be no excuses such as no money, no time or I dont speak the language."

Winnipeggers, as it turned out, needed little convincing. People flocked to the pavilions "by the busload," the Free Press reported; line-ups stretched down the block. By the time it was over, attendance had surged past 70,000.

At the first Israel Pavilion, Ritter  who later served as Folkloramas president in 1981  was amazed by the enthusiasm. He stood outside and listened as attendees chatted about where theyd been, what theyd seen.

And they were also impressed by how the event seemed to smooth lurking frictions. The Second World War was relatively fresh in living memory; some Winnipeggers initially balked at the German Pavilion. But it too was a hit.

What organizers realized, in that moment, is just how hungry Winnipeggers were for a space where asking questions wasnt only permissible, but encouraged. Folklorama provided that space, in a way little else did.

"Generally speaking, people are curious," Ritter says. "They want to know. And if you encourage them to find out, and to ask, and to go and to see and to look, they all of a sudden get a much more integrated community."

The timing was perfect. In 1970, Canada was in the midst of a major transformation. The nation had recently overhauled its immigration system, cutting restrictions against non-Europeans and opening itself to refugees.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Can-can dancers make a grand entrance at the France pavilion in 1987 by walking on table tops.

Before 1970, around 1 in 10 immigrants were non-white; over the next decade, that figure rose to nearly half.

This new ethnic diversity took on a sort of momentum. Multicultural festivals sprouted across Canada; in 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau rose in the House of Commons, and announced a new multicultural policy for the young nation.

Folklorama tapped into that energy. To be clear, this was no utopian time: xenophobia and racism were alive and well in the 1970s. But there was, Ritter says, a sense of excitement in exploring the countrys growing diversity.

"As far as this community is concerned, I think we played a big role in promoting that," he says. "People were no longer afraid to invite people to come to their community. They were so proud to show what they were all about."

The years turned. Some of the other multicultural festivals founded in the same era eventually fell away, but Winnipegs only grew stronger; in recent years, attendance consistently hovered somewhere above 400,000.

One survey found that 43 per cent of Manitobans plan to attend in 2018; nearly a third say they went last year.

"We always encouraged to show who you are, tell who you are, dont hide who you are," Ritter says. "It seemed to be working. And its still working today."

Folklorama is, today, one of the most familiar rituals of a Winnipeg summer. Several generations of families have now grown up with its rhythms, helped out at pavilions, and brought their own kids to soak in its infinite colours.

Meanwhile, the festival hasnt changed so much from the origin spirit of its era. But has it changed us?

PAUL DELESKE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Rumanian Briuletul Dancers from Edmonton perform at the Folklorama opening concert in 1980.

Usually, Florence Okwudili is an avid news-watcher, but there have been days, as of late, when even she has to turn away. The headlines have been so bad, she says, sipping coffee at a Tim Hortons on a windy afternoon.

Sometimes, when she hears news about conflict and tensions, her thoughts flash back to Folklorama.

"I listen to the news a lot," she says. "You hear about all these (issues around) diversity of religion, tribes, languages they dont know that all of those diversities can be managed together, by things like this."

And Folklorama has been an essential part of Okwudilis Canadian experience. She discovered the festival not long after moving to Canada from Nigeria in 2000; her first thought, when she encountered it, was simply "wow."

Now, shes in her 13th year as co-ordinator of Folkloramas Africa Pavilion. Her children grew up dancing there. This year, her grandchildren will be dancing for the first time. She often reflects on what Folklorama taught them.

After all, she muses, her kids didnt grow up the way she did, where "everywhere I look is Nigerian." Their world is one of diverse friendships, and creating fusions: Folklorama, she thinks, taught them how to build those bridges.

"How do they really mix up these cultures without feeling inferior or superior, but learning that something binds us together?" she says. "Through their culture. Cultures might be different, but the more different is the more exciting."

In her view, Folklorama has become a home, of sorts, to newcomers and their descendants. Each year, Okwudili brings newcomers to the Africa Pavilion; each year, she watches their eyes grow wide with delight and surprise.

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Honorary Greek consul Michael Mercury and Mary Kelekis (seated, right) get the royal treatment at the Greek pavilion in 1971 from youngsters dressed in traditional Greek outfits.

"The unseen benefits, the impact of Folklorama, for refugees and immigrants it gives you that feeling of, this is your home. You are not here alone," Okwudili says. "Thats something politics does not provide for people."

Does this sense of being anchored spread through Winnipeg as a whole? One of Folkloramas central planks is that every pavilion is equal: everyone who comes can see themselves in it, celebrated as both different and same.

In truth, relatively little research has been done into the broader effect of multicultural festivals. Academics have explored how they build self-esteem amongst participants, and seem to build bonds across a community itself.

From her vantage, Okwudili is convinced that Folklorama can create wider change. She sees it in the youth.

"They learn to admire other people, it doesnt matter where they come from," she says. "And they are open to learning more and more. So I do see the Folkorama family being that block to build a stronger community."

Now, that message may be especially critical, even if Folklorama does not directly address rising tensions.

Folklorama was never radical. Its political disengagement is, depending on your position, comforting or frustrating, hopeful or hopelessly naive. Folkloramas multiculturalism is always sunny, unbothered by the tensions of the day.

That non-political commitment serves noble aims: for one thing, it ensures that geopolitical conflicts dont cause rifts between pavilions, or rend the festival itself. But it also stops it from taking a stance on key human issues.

Still, maybe there is another way of looking at the festivals political impact  one that is not said, but felt.

Folklorama changes very slowly. But it does change, largely as a result of new cultural communities entering the fold. New pavilions are embraced by waves of enthusiasm; they are often led by youth, and bustle with energy.

Consider the South Sudanese pavilion, one of Folkloramas newest. This year, it is co-ordinated by two 23-year-old women. Elsa Kaka is a law student, who volunteers with a justice non-profit; Akech Mayoum is in nursing school.

These young women are the future of Canada, and the future of Folklorama too: "I like organizing things," Kaka says brightly. Like Okwudilis kids, they grew up around the festival, and imagine their own kids doing the same.

When Kaka looks at the divisive rhetoric screaming in the headlines today, she sees a lot of things: a lack of education. Loud voices. Hateful ideologies that have always bubbled close to the surface, bursting through.

She also sees a chance to counteract those messages, to strengthen the places where fractures start.

"If we look at it as an opportunity to really learn about the importance of diversity, and multiculturalism, and really loving your neighbour, if we look at it from that perspective, then were in a great time," Kaka says.

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And maybe that is the heart of Folklorama, the role it can play. If the festival is officially non-political, it is also indivisible from its vision of community: the world it creates is renewed by diversity, never threatened by it.

These days, maybe, loving that vision can be a political act too. And standing up to be counted amongst the myriad cultures, to be seen and be heard and welcome questions, is part of reaffirming that core conviction.

Maybe it can serve as an antidote to divisive forces. Or maybe, it just gives a blueprint for how to push back.

"Even now that politics is getting more and more terrible, every culture sees Folklorama as an opportunity to display that aspect of their country that is welcoming, that is friendly, that is not all you are hearing," Okwudili says.

"This is us. Folklorama provides that opportunity to show that. And thats why it keeps growing."

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
The Manipur case is a cause celebre in such matters and it is very important that it is quickly concluded and justice rendered.

The booking of an Army officer in a case of suspected extra-judicial killing in Manipur by the CBI is a painful reminder of what could happen at times even in the most disciplined of forces. This tells us that however tardy the system may be in acting on charges against Army personnel, action must be taken regardless of how rare it is that the armed forces are questioned when they are forced to be in operation in civilian areas due to militancy. There is none too exalted to be above the law. And in this particular case it does appear the circumstances surrounding the death of a schoolboy were too suspicious for the Armys account to be taken at face value. When a teenager and his friend are pulled out of a house and brutally treated in a nearby field in the full view of relatives it would appear that the particular set of forces under the officers command had abandoned all tenets of training and service in the Army.

The Armys role in containing terrorism and defusing militant plots against the nation is unenviable. While certain use of force in such situations is a given, such brutal behaviour against young people without any criminal antecedents amounts to a clear transgression of all rules of conduct even in extremely trying circumstances. The fact that this case comes up nine years after the event is a pointer to how our system works. It would appear logical that a quick pressing of charges and thorough investigation by law enforcement before presenting the case before the judiciary would help not only bring justice but also serve as a warning to all that boundaries of disciplined behaviour are never crossed. The Manipur case is a cause celebre in such matters and it is very important that it is quickly concluded and justice rendered.
Reports The State Bar researches critical issues affecting the community. Here you will find credible, evidence-based reports on how the public interacts with the legal system. Reports

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GTT Communications, Inc. provides cloud networking services to multinational enterprises, carriers, and government customers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers wide area networking, such as software-defined wide area networking, multiprotocol label switching, and virtual private LAN service; high bandwidth-Internet connectivity and IP transit, as well as broadband and wireless Internet access services; managed equipment and security services; and unified communication services consisting of session initiation protocol trunking, cloud unified communication service, and traditional analog voice. It also provides transport services, such as Ethernet services that enable to design network equipment; and video transport services to support broadcast quality transmission of live events, sports entertainment, and news to media and entertainment industry. In addition, the company offers infrastructure services enabling transport of high volume data between data centers, enterprise office locations, and media hubs; wavelength services to deliver scalable high-performance optical connectivity; colocation, turnkey, duct, and dark fiber services; advanced solutions, including security, hybrid cloud, database, and application management Its IP network consists of approximately 600 points of presence. GTT Communications, Inc. markets its products and services through a network of direct sales force and indirect sales channels. The company was formerly known as Global Telecom & Technology, Inc. and changed its name to GTT Communications, Inc. in January 2014. GTT Communications, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.

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National Fuel Gas Co. is a holding company, which engages in the production, gathering, transportation, distribution, and marketing of natural gas. It operates through the following segments: Exploration and Production, Pipeline and Storage, Gathering, and Utility. The Exploration and Production segment handles the exploration for and the development of natural gas and oil reserves in California and in the Appalachian region of the United States. The Pipeline and Storage segment transports and stores natural gas for utilities, natural gas marketers, exploration and production companies, and pipeline companies in the northeastern United States markets. The Gathering segment builds, owns, and operates natural gas processing and pipeline gathering facilities in the Appalachian region. The Utility segment sells natural gas to retail customers and provides natural gas transportation services in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1820 and is headquartered in Williamsville, NY.

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ConocoPhillips engages in the exploration, production, transportation and marketing of crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and liquefied natural gas on a worldwide basis. It operates through the following geographical segments: Alaska; Lower 48; Canada; Europe, Middle East and North Africa; Asia Pacific; and Other International. The Alaska segment primarily explores for produces, transports and markets crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Lower 48 segment consists of operations in the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment is comprised of oil sands development in the Athabasca Region of northeastern Alberta and a liquids-rich unconventional play in western Canada. The Europe, Middle East and North Africa segment consists of operations and exploration activities in Norway, the United Kingdom and Libya. The Asia Pacific segment has explorations and product operations in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. The Other International segment handles exploration activities in Columbia and Argentina. The company was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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Unum Group is engaged in providing financial protection benefits. It operates through the following segments: Unum US, Unum International, Colonial Life, Closed Block and Corporate. The Unum US segment comprises of group long-term and short-term disability insurance, group life and accidental death and dismemberment products, and supplemental and voluntary lines of business. The Unum International segment engages in the operations of UK business, which includes insurance for group long-term disability, group life, and supplemental lines of business that include dental, individual disability, and critical illness products; Poland business primarily includes insurance for individual and group life with accident and health riders. The Colonial Life segment includes insurance for accident, sickness, disability products, life products, and cancer and critical illness products. The Closed Block segment consists of individual disability, group and individual long-term care, and other insurance products no longer actively marketed. The Corporate segment refers to investment income on corporate assets and other corporate income and expenses not allocated to a line of business; and interest

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27 minutes ago

The Top 3 Stocks to Buy for November

These 3 Stocks Could Be in for a Big November As we head into the month of November, many investors are trying to digest some of the latest earnings releases from the biggest names in the market and want to determine if an end-of-year rally is on the cards.

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The following companies are subsidiares of World Fuel Services: AHT Services LLC, ANY-G B.V., ANY-G Services B.V., AVCARD Holding Company (BVI) Ltd., AVCARD Services (BVI) Ltd., Advance Petroleum LLC, Air Petro Corp., Alta Fuels Llc, Alta Transportation LLC, Altitude Ventures Holding Inc., Amelia Holding AB, Amsterdam Software B.V., Ascent Aviation Group Inc., Associated Petroleum Products, Associated Petroleum Products Inc, Avinode AB, Avinode Aktiebolag, Avinode Group AB, Avinode Inc., Baseops International Inc., Bergen Energi AB, Bunkerfuels, CarterEnergy Corporation, Casa Petro S.R.L., Chrome Club Inc., Colt Aviation Holdings LLC, Colt International, Colt International Europe SARL, Colt International LLC, Colt International das Americas Servicos de Aviacao Ltda., Colt Risk Management Services LLC, Ecuacentair Cia. Ltda., Energie-Tankdienstgesellschaft Bremen mbH, Falmouth Oil Services Limited, Falmouth Petroleum Limited, Gib Oil Limited, Hellenic Aviation Fuel Company S.A., Henty Oil Limited, Henty Shipping Services Limited, Indianhead Oil, JCP Brazil LLC, K T M Inc., KTM Inc, Kinect Consulting LLC, Kinect Energy AS, Kinect Energy Denmark A/S, Kinect Energy France Sarl, Kinect Energy Germany GmbH, Kinect Energy Green Services AS, Kinect Energy Hungary Kft, Kinect Energy Inc., Kinect Energy Markets AS, Kinect Energy Netherlands B.V., Kinect Energy Pty Limited, Kinect Energy Spot AS, Kinect Energy Sweden AB, Kinect Energy UK Limited, LFO Holdings Limited, Lakeside Oil Company Inc, Linton Fuel Oils Limited, MH Aviation Services (Pty) Ltd., MS Europe B.V., MS Lebanon LLC., MS Technology Solutions Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, MSTS Consorzio, MSTS Holding LLC, MSTS Payments LLC, Marine Energy, Multi Service Aero B.V., Multi Service Comercio S. de R.L. de C.V., Multi Service Egypt, Multi Service Holding B.V., Multi Service Middle East FZ-LLC, Multi Service Pre Paid Solutions B.V., Multi Service Private Label B.V., Multi Service Pty Limited, Multi Service Singapore PTE. LTD., Multi Service Technology Solutions, Multi Service Technology Solutions Inc., Multi Service Technology Solutions Inc. / Jordan LLC, Multi Service US Holding LLC, NCS Fuel IQ Limited, NCS UK Holding Co. Limited, NCS US Inc., Nature Port Reception Facilities Limited, Nordic Camp Supply ApS, Nordic Camp Supply B.V., Nordic Camp Supply Estonia OU, Norse Bunker AS, Oil Shipping (Bunkering) B.V., Oil Shipping Korea Limited, Orchard (Holdings) UK Limited, Orchard Energy Limited, PAPCO Inc., PAX Distribution LLC, PT Oil Shipping Trans Indonesia, PT Servicios de Guatemala Limitada, Papco, PayNode AB, Pester Marketing Company, Petro Air Corp, PetroServicios de Costa Rica S.R.L., Petromundo Internacional S.R.L., Redline Oil Services Limited, Resource Recovery of America Inc., SchedAero Inc., Schedaero AB, Servicios Auxiliares de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios Ecuatorianos de Energia-Secsa CIA. LTDA, Servicios WFSE Ecuador C.L., Servicios de Combustible Atlanticos S.R.L, Shell Oil Gibraltar, South Minnesota Lubes, TGS Petroleum Inc, TM Hawkins Brazil LLC, Tamlyn Shipping Limited, Tank and Marine Engineering Limited, Texor Petroleum Company, The Hiller Group Incorporated, The Lubricant Company Limited, Tobras Distribuidora de Combustiveis Ltda., Tramp Group Limited, Tramp Holdings Limited, Tramp Oil & Marine (Argentina) S.R.L., Tramp Oil & Marine (Chile) Limitada, Tramp Oil & Marine Limited, Tramp Oil (Brasil) Ltda., Tramp Oil Germany GmbH, Tramp Oil-Schiffahrts-und Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co., Trans-Tec Mundial S.R.L., U.S. Energy Engineering Inc., U.S. Energy Services Inc., UVair fuel business, WF Lubricants S.L., WFL (UK) II Limited, WFL (UK) Limited, WFL Mozambique LDA, WFS & J Company Limited, WFS (Guam) Limited, WFS Agencia de Naves Limitada, WFS Commercial Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., WFS Danish Holding Company I ApS, WFS Danish Holding Partnership K/S, WFS UK Holding Company II Limited, WFS UK Holding Company III Limited, WFS UK Holding Partnership II LP, WFS UK Holding Partnership III LP, WFS UK Holding Partnership LP, WFS US Holding Company I LLC, WFS US Holding Company II LLC, WFS US Holding Company III LLC, WFS US Holding Company IV LLC, WFS US Holding Company IX LLC, WFS US Holding Company V LLC, WFS US Holding Company VI LLC, WFS US Holding Company VII LLC, WFS US Holding Company VIII LLC, WFS US Holding Company X LLC, Watson Petroleum, Western Aviation Products LLC, Western Petroleum Company, Wilhelmsen Marine Fuels (WMF), World Fuel CX LLC, World Fuel Capital Limited, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company I, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company III, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company IV, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company V, World Fuel Commodities Services (Ireland) Limited, World Fuel Gas and Power Limited, World Fuel PG Trading Limited, World Fuel Services (Australia) Pty Ltd, World Fuel Services (Bahamas) LLC, World Fuel Services (Costa Rica) Limitada, World Fuel Services (Denmark) ApS, World Fuel Services (Hong Kong) Limited, World Fuel Services (KG) LLC, World Fuel Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., World Fuel Services (New Zealand) Limited, World Fuel Services (Panama) Limited Liability Company Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, World Fuel Services (Singapore) II Pte. Ltd., World Fuel Services (Singapore) Pte Ltd, World Fuel Services (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, World Fuel Services (Taiwan) Limited, World Fuel Services (Uruguay) S.A., World Fuel Services Argentina S.R.L., World Fuel Services Aviation Limited, World Fuel Services Belgium BVBA, World Fuel Services CZ s.r.o., World Fuel Services Canada ULC, World Fuel Services Chile Limitada, World Fuel Services Company LLC, World Fuel Services Corporate Aviation Support Services Inc., World Fuel Services Europe Ltd., World Fuel Services European Holding Company I Ltd., World Fuel Services Finance Company S.a.r.L., World Fuel Services France SAS, World Fuel Services Inc., World Fuel Services International (Panama) LLC, World Fuel Services Italy S.r.L., World Fuel Services Japan G.K., World Fuel Services Kenya Limited, World Fuel Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., World Fuel Services Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited, World Fuel Services Peru S.R.L., World Fuel Services Private Limited, World Fuel Services Regulatory Holdings LLC, World Fuel Services Trading DMCC, World Fuel Services Turkey Petrol Urunleri Dagitim Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, World Fuel Singapore Holding Company I Pte Ltd, World Fuel Singapore Holding Company II Pte Ltd, and Yacht Fuel Services Limited.
Pablo Larrain is back. Two years after his Jacqueline Kennedy biopic Jackie scored an Oscar nomination for Natalie Portman while his Neruda was the Chilean submission for best foreign language film, Larrain is getting behind the camera again for a secret project that came together just a few weeks ago.

With his next American project, The True American, pushed into 2019, Larrain has begun production on Ema, an original story co-written by Neruda screenwriter Guillermo Calderon and New York-based playwright Alejandro Moreno. The movie stars Gael Garcia Bernal, who previously worked with Larrain on No and Neruda, opposite newcomer Mariana Di Girolamo. Seeing an opening in his schedule, Larrain and his co-writers conceived of the project earlier this summer and plan to continue writing it throughout the six-week shoot, which commences Monday at the Chilean seaport of Valparaiso.

Read More: Why Pablo Larrains Films Deserve Your Attention

In Ema, Bernal plays the choreographer for a local dance company, while Di Girolamo  making her feature debut  plays his wife, a schoolteacher. The cast also includes Paola Yanini and Santiago Cabrera. The couple deals with the aftermath of an adoption that goes awry as their household falls apart. Larrain said the story would find several characters expressing themselves through contemporary dance, including reggaeton, but the movie was not a musical. I think this is a melodrama, which Ive never done before, where peoples affections for others are essential to the story, said Larrain. Theres a lot of music and a lot of scenes where people are basically sharing their feelings.

Larrain has been developing the dance scenes with local choreographer Jose Vidal, and plans to shoot throughout Valparaisos hilly streets, basing the scenes on real-life street dancers. Its a way to transmit a message  it could be a political message, or a religious message, or a kind of vandalism, he said. Instead of yelling, they go out and dance. Theyre expressing themselves by leaving a trace on the city. Its very visual.

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Larrain conceived of the story as a meditation on family life. I just want to put in crisis the idea of what a family really is nowadays, he said. I think that idea has changed in a way thats unique and surprising. Theres a new understanding of the family dynamic that I would like to deal with as a reflection of the contemporary world.

Bernal joins the cast only weeks after wrapping Chicuarotes, his first feature-length directing effort since 2007s Deficit, and has yet to read the script. Hes not alone: Following a template Larrain established with his 2015 beachside thriller The Club, the filmmaker plans to share scenes with his actors the day before each shoot, so even they dont know the entirety of the story until production wraps. Its a great environment, Larrain said. When we decided to make it, we were very happy and excited.

Larrain said he was relieved to return to his home country for a new project. I personally feel that Im lucky to make movies in different languages, places, and circumstances, he said. When you have the chance to work in a different industry the size of Americas, its nice to come back home to make a movie that might be smaller, but you never lose your integrity, or the feeling that you cant protect the elements that really matter.

Larrain is producing the movie with his brother and longtime collaborator, Juan De Dios Larrain, out of their Fabula Films banner. The company recently produced Sebastian Lelios A Fantastic Woman, which won the Oscar for best foreign language film in February, and theyre currently in post-production on Lelios remake of Gloria, starring Julianne Moore.

Since early 2017, Larrain has been attached to direct The True American, an adaptation of Anand Giridharadas nonfiction tome about a Bangladeshi Air Force officer shot by an American terrorist hellbent on killing Muslims after 9/11. Earlier this year, Amy Adams was attached to the project, while studios vying for the project including Amazon and Annapurna. Now, the movie is moving forward as an independent production with a cast that has yet to be announced, but Larrain hopes to begin production by early 2019. That gives him plenty of time to finish Ema, though he wasnt sure about the specific timeline for its release.

There are many sequences with a lot of people and multiple cameras, so it wont be easy to cut, he said. Im not in a rush.

If all goes according to plan, Larrain will complete both Ema and The True American next year, following a pattern similar to 2016, when Jackie and Neruda opened in the U.S. just a few weeks apart. Larrain said this was not by design. I say to myself, Why does it have to come together like this? he said. Id like to have single children, but they keep coming out as a twins. However, he stressed that the two projects have little to do with each other. The only thing that these movies have in common is that they were both made by cameras, so you have to protect them as separate pieces, he said.

Needless to say, he was happy to continue balancing English and Chilean productions. While Fabula opened offices in Los Angeles last year, the Larrains continue to shuffle back and forth. Its exciting that my brother and I can keep working in different circumstances with different people to deliver material to the world that feels dangerous and beautiful, the director said.

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Melania Trump not 'taking sides' in war of words between Trump, LeBron James originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Melania Trump praised LeBron James after President Trump took a shot at him on Twitter -- but the first lady is not "taking sides" in the escalating war of words between the basketball legend and her husband, a senior White House official said.

Through a spokeswoman Saturday, Melania Trump said James was "working to do good things on behalf of our next generation."

"Just as she always has, the First Lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today," the first laday's communications director, Stephanie Grisham, said in the statement. "As you know, Mrs. Trump has traveled the country and world talking to children about their well-being, healthy living, and the importance of responsible online behavior with her Be Best initiative.

"Her platform centers around visiting organizations, hospitals and schools, and she would be open to visiting the I Promise School in Akron," the statement continued, referring to the school James opened last week for so-called at-risk elementary children.

The statement came a day after President Trump took a swipe at James, saying it was hard to make "LeBron look smart."

The president also got a final dig in at James, saying "I like Mike," a reference to all-time great Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan.

The tweet came in response to an interview James conducted with CNN host Don Lemon, a frequent punching bag for the president. James spoke to Lemon from the public, non-charter school he opened for at-risk kids in Akron, called the I Promise school. Every student receives free tuition, as well as free food, uniform and even a free bike.

But the senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the first lady's remarks shouldn't be interpreted as her picking James over her husband.

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"That wasn't her taking sides -- that was her office stick to what she is focused on, which is using Be Best for what it's intended -- to help children," the official said.

The tit-for-tat between President Trump and one of the greatest basketball players of all time drew in other players, too, most of them to defend James.

CNN took to Twitter to Saturday morning, referencing Melania Trump and suggesting that she decided the first couple's TV viewing Friday night.

Sounds like @FLOTUS had the remote last night. ?? We hope you both saw the incredible work of @KingJames. #BeBesthttps://t.co/3Ok0z9Z6Ro  CNN Communications (@CNNPR) August 4, 2018

Jordan, meanwhile, responded to the president's tweet through a spokesperson.

"I support LJ," he said. "Hes doing an amazing job for his community.

Lemon, too, responded via Twitter, using the first lady's iniative against her husband.

"Who's the real dummy?" he tweeted. "A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages. #BeBest."

Whos the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest https://t.co/XO50qVksnR  Don Lemon (@donlemon) August 4, 2018

Lemon's interview with James only made direct mention of Trump at the end of the hour-long interview. Lemon asked James if he had any aspirations of running for office. He responded, "I don't think so," until Lemon brought up Trump as a possible opponent.

"If someone tried to recruit a LeBron to run for president, they said, 'Listen, they've got no one, if you don't run, Trump's going to win,' would you run?" Lemon asked.

"Well, in that case, I may," James said.

Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James speaks as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens during a campaign stop at Cleveland Public Hall in Cleveland, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016. (AP)

(MORE: LeBron James opens school for at-risk students)

At the end of the interview, Lemon asked if James, "What would you say to the president if he were sitting right here?"

The future NBA Hall of Famer responded, "I would never sit across from him." He followed that up to say he would sit across from Barack Obama.

James has been outspoken in his dislike for Trump in the past. He unleashed a tweet following the racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August saying, "Hate has always existed in America. Yes we know that but Donald Trump just made it fashionable again! Statues has nothing to do with us now!"

Hate has always existed in America. Yes we know that but Donald Trump just made it fashionable again! Statues has nothing to do with us now!  LeBron James (@KingJames) August 15, 2017

He also called him a "so-called president" in the wake of the Charlottesville violence.

James also said he wouldn't attend a ceremony at the White House if his team had won the NBA Finals. (In the end, the Golden State Warriors won, and they won't be attending either.)

The basketball player appeared at a rally for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign in his home state of Ohio, a critical swing state during the election that Trump ended up carrying.

That campaign appearance probably turned the tide, as Trump didn't always feel so strongly against James. In 2013, he congratulated James on winning Athlete of the Year at the ESPYs and "a great guy."

Congratulations to @KingJames on winning Athlete of the Year in last nights @ESPYS. LeBron is also a great guy!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2013

James opted out of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this offseason and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

ABC News' Wil Cruz contributed to this report.
Imagine traveling from New York City to Milan in less time than a typical morning commute. Oh waitElon Musk not only has imagined it, he believes he knows just how to make it happen. Speaking to the International Astronautical Congress last year about the new multipurpose Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) spacecraft and using it to travel to the Moon or Mars, the SpaceX CEO ended his presentation by introducing another use for the rocket that could revolutionize travel a bit closer to home.

As it turns out, the BFRwith the lowest launch cost of any rocket in useisnt just handy for taking people to space hotels. It could also transport passengers to any place on Earth in less than an hour, with most journeys taking half that. After launching, the BFR would exit Earths atmosphere while reaching a maximum speed of about 16,777 mph. Beyond the atmosphere, theres no weather or friction to cause turbulence, so the ride would be silky smooth. Upon return, the craft would use its two sea-level engines to set down gracefully on a landing pad. The BFR has about 8,826 square feet of pressurized space (even more than the main deck of an Airbus A380) that could be used to accommodate a large of passengers. In fact, in the Mars rocket configuration, the space is large enough to hold 40 cabins, large common areas, storage, a galley, and a solar storm shelter.

How much could it speed up travel? A flight from LA to New York takes about five and a half hours, but with the BFR, it can be completed in 25 minutes. Rocketing from London to Hong Kongusually a nearly 12-hour flightwould take 34 minutes.

SpaceX is adopting the BFR for all future missions, so building them at scale could lower their price enough to make Earth-to-Earth travel feasible. However, while SpaceX wants to send a BFR to Mars by 2022, there is no schedule (yet) for global rocket flights. So for the time being, this concept (like most space-bound vacations) remains a dream.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump is seeing steels mills spring up where they aren't and cleaner air than his government is tracking in its records.

Over the past week, his comment that people need photo IDs to shop in stores displayed a misunderstanding of the marketplace obvious to any average shopper with cash or a credit card.

A sampling of comments by Trump and his officials, spanning NATO, the Russia investigation, environmental matters and more:

CLEAN AIR

TRUMP, on air quality in the U.S.: "It's the best it's ever been."  Pennsylvania rally Thursday.

THE FACTS: Not true, going by the key measure of air quality. The EPA's air quality index shows a worsening since 2014, the best year as measured by the number of days with bad air.

For that index, 35 cities reported unhealthy air for a total of 599 days in 2014. That went up to 729 days in 2017, the worst year since 2012 (1,297 days). The index measures ozone and soot.

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JOBS

TRUMP: "U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants."  remarks Thursday at the Pennsylvania rally. On Tuesday: "Thanks to our tariffs, our steel workers are back on the job, American steel mills are back open for business ... U.S. Steel just announced that they're building six new steel mills."  Florida rally.

THE FACTS: No, U.S. Steel has not announced six, or seven, new steel mills. A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based company, Meghan Cox, declined to comment on Trump's claim, only making clear that any "operational changes" such as the opening of new mills would be "publicly announced" and "made available on our website" if it occurred.

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AUTO SAFETY

EPA, citing potential benefits from freezing Obama-era mileage standards: "Increased vehicle affordability leading to increased driving of newer, safer, more efficient and cleaner vehicles. ... Over 12,000 fewer crash fatalities over the lifetimes of all vehicles built through model year 2029. Up to 1,000 lives saved annually."  information sheet released Thursday.

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THE FACTS: The claimed safety benefits are unverifiable and probably overstated.

While newer vehicles are safer due to better engineering and safety features such as more air bags, automatic emergency braking and blind spot detection, auto safety experts say the difference between vehicles made 10 years ago and now isn't that big and the number of lives saved can't really be calculated.

Decade-old vehicles have anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control that stop drivers from losing control, two major safety advances.

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EPA assistant administrator Bill Wehrum: "We'll leave the standards at a place where we're not imposing undue costs on manufacturers."  news briefing Thursday.

THE FACTS: Insulating U.S. manufacturers is not easy to do. Even if the U.S. freezes its mileage requirements, the European Union, China, Japan and other nations will continue to increase theirs, which already are more stringent. Because most automakers sell vehicles worldwide, they'll have to develop new technology such as electric cars anyway to satisfy other markets. The U.S. may not get the new technology as quickly as elsewhere.

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VOTER ID

TRUMP: "We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections, which is why the time has come for voter ID like everything else. If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out, you want to buy anything, you need ID, you need your picture."  remarks Tuesday.

THE FACTS: As shoppers know, no photo is required to purchase items at retail stores with cash or to make routine purchases with credit or debit cards.

Identifications are required to purchase limited items such as alcohol, cigarettes or cold medicine and in rapidly declining situations in which a customer opts to pay with a personal check.

According to the National Grocers Association's most recent data, the use of checks as a percentage of total transactions dropped from 33 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2015, due in part to the popularity of debit cards, which use PIN codes. The group's members are independent food retailers, family-owned or privately held, both large and small.

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WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: "He's not saying every time he went in; he said when you go to the grocery store."  press briefing Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Actually, Trump did claim, erroneously, that photo IDs are required whenever "you want to buy anything," not only in limited cases.

Asked when Trump last bought groceries, Sanders responded, "I'm not sure. I'm not sure why that matters, either."

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NATO

TRUMP: "I went to NATO. And NATO was essentially going out of business 'cause people weren't paying and it was going down, down, down." On NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: "He said we couldn't collect money until President Trump came along. And he said last year we collected $44 billion. And this year the money is pouring in. ... So the bottom line is the NATO countries are now paying a lot more money."  news conference Monday with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

THE FACTS: Countries don't pay to be in NATO and don't owe the organization anything other than contributions to a largely administrative fund that Trump is not talking about. Member countries are not in debt to NATO. Money is "not pouring in" now. Collections have not increased, as he asserted.

Trump's actual beef is with how much NATO countries spend on their own military budgets.

The Trump administration is not the first to push countries in NATO to spend more on their own armed forces to lessen their dependence on the U.S. In fact, it was in 2014, during the Obama administration, that NATO members agreed to move "toward" spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their own defense by 2024.

The somewhat-vague commitment was made as a response to Russia's actions in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea. No one expected all allies would immediately move to 2 percent; the increases were to be gradual.

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VETERANS

TRUMP: "We passed the biggest VA reform in half a century, Veteran's Choice. If our veterans can't get the care they need from the VA, they will have the right to go see a private doctor."  remarks Tuesday in Tampa.

THE FACTS: Trump's suggestion that veterans can get care immediately under the private-sector Veterans Choice program and without restriction is misleading.

Before veterans have the right to see a private doctor, they must meet certain criteria first, such as whether they face an "excessive burden" in receiving care at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center. Under the current Choice guidelines, veterans also must wait at least 30 days for an appointment at a VA facility before they are eligible to receive care from a private doctor.

TRUMP: "And I used to say before I really was well-versed on the veteran situation in health care, I used to say all the time, 'Why don't they just let the folks go to a doctor?' They'd wait in line for 7 days, 9 days, 14 days, 21 days ... I said, 'Why don't they just let them go see a local private doctor, pay the bill and take care of it?' And it's turned out to be something that the veterans love. And it's passed. It's passed."  remarks Tuesday.

THE FACTS: It's not clear if veterans love the current Choice program, judging by the wait times. Despite the Choice program's guarantee of providing appointments within 30 days, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office found that veterans actually waited an average of 51 to 64 days to receive care. A newly expanded Choice program will take at least a year to be implemented.

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RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

TRUMP: "Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!"  tweet Tuesday.

TRUMP LAWYER RUDY GIULIANI: "I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. ... Collusion is not a crime."  remarks Monday on Fox News.

THE FACTS: It is correct to say election collusion isn't a precise legal term. The U.S. code mostly uses the term "collusion" in antitrust laws to address crimes like price fixing. As it relates to Russia and U.S. elections, the term can be seen as shorthand for plenty of violations of specific laws on the books.

For instance, there could be legal violations if Trump's presidential campaign is found to have collaborated with Moscow, including a conspiracy to defraud the United States. There are also laws against election fraud, computer hacking, wire fraud and falsifying records, if those apply.

So far, special counsel Robert Mueller has accused the Russians of hacking into Democrats' computers and stealing emails, as well as trying to stoke U.S. tensions before the 2016 election using social media.

Mueller might decide, for example, that a crime was committed if he finds evidence that an American was involved in the hack of Democrats, either by soliciting it or paying someone to do it.

As well, a conspiracy to defraud the United States can be used to refer to any two people using "deceit, craft, or trickery" to interfere with governmental functions, such as an election.

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Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



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Associated Press writers Tom Krisher in Detroit and Chloe Kim, Anne Flaherty, Ellen Knickmeyer and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

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Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
Macedonian soldiers fire an anti-aircraft missile with the Russian-made Igla ground-to-air launcher, supervised by a Slovenian military instructor, during a live fire exercise on September 12, 2008 at the Krivolak training ground, some 120 km (75 miles) s

James Jay Carafano

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Why has America overlooked the geopolitical opportunities made possible by forging a stronger relationship with the Western Balkans?

How to Build a Better Balkans

The flag was raised in 1918 to mark the fourth year of the Great War. And President Woodrow Wilson had chosen the Serbian flag to honor the great sacrifices made by the Serbian people.

While the goal of Brnabics visit might have been to remind Washington of historic linkages between the two countries, her trip was also a remembrance of where the war started.

And it wasnt the only one.

In the 1990s, the United States was involved in two terrible conflicts in the Western Balkans.

Still, the Serbian Prime Minister came to America to deliver more than a history lesson. Her call on the U.S. capital sent a signal that Belgrade knows that the Western Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania) is back on the list of places Washington cares about.

In part, Americas renewed interest reflects a wish that Balkans wars remain a thing of the past. Equally important, the United States hopes the Balkans future will be as a net contributor to peace and prosperity in the transatlantic community.

Complaints that the United States is disengaging from Europe and indifferent to the fate of the region are just plain wrong headed. On the other hand, Washington could do much more than wishful thinking to transform the Western Balkans from backwater to a bedrock of progress.

The United States should be leading to redefine balkanization. Instead of representing fragmentation and division, the region ought to stand as example of integration and affluence.

Balkans Breaking Bad

A little over a year from now there will be another anniversary: twenty years from the end of the last Balkan war. While the region has suffered no open conflict during that period, the Western Balkans remains a troubled place, often cited as the most fragile part of Europe. Nearly two decades after war, this isnt peace, claimed one human-rights activist. The Albanian and Serb question is not closed in the Balkans; its Israel and Palestine in Europe.

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The state of the Western Balkans states makes many nervous. In an age of anxiety across Europe, it is not helpful if its shakiest parts start shaking.

Troubles in the Balkans refuse to fade away for two reasons: money and geography.

The economies of the region lag the rest of Europe. The good news is that makes for bargain vacation destinations. The bad news is that the Balkans are a place where a little money buys a lot of influence. And buying influence there is worth the bargain basement prices.

Sandwiched between the Adriatic and the Black Sea, the Balkans are the crossroads between North and South and East and West. Few parts of Europe have more active external actors. In addition to the United States and European Union, major players there include Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey and China. In addition, the regions immediate neighborsincluding Greece, Austria and Croatiahave their own interests to look after.

How money and influence are peddled also matters. Chief among the concerns are active measures by the Russians to thwart integration in the EU, forestall NATO enlargement and ensure Russian energy dominance.

Weighted down by twin burdens of lackluster economies and external meddling, the Western Balkans teeter under two lingering but debilitating challenges. One is security. The other is the anemic job and wealth creation.

On the security front, the region lives under the constant shadow of unresolved conflicts which, even if not threatening to break out into open war, create divisive relations that undermine stability and regional integration. The future of Bosnia-Herzegovina is the most troubling concern. Moscow knows that the easiest way to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from entering the transatlantic community is by exploiting internal ethnic and religious divisions between the Bosniak, Croat, and Serb populations inside the country, writes security analyst Daniel Kochis.

The other persisting irritant is the unresolved final status agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. Serbia . . . has not recognized the nations independence, notes Kochis, Kosovo continues to be blocked from membership in the United Nations by Chinese and Russian vetoes. . . . [Further,] Russias Ambassador to Serbia wrote in an editorial that Russia supports Serbia in preventing attempts to create an artificial pseudo-state of Kosovo.

The second great vulnerability of the region is lack of economic development and integration.

As a region scores on the 2018 Heritage Index of Economic Freedom are mediocre. Further, disparities in the region are disquieting. Economically, Serbia is outpacing its neighbors in economic performance. That creates imbalances that could be further destabilizing.

Countervailing influences to address these challenges have achieved a degree of stasis, but arent reducing the threatslike a palliative that just keeps the cancer from growing but doesnt shrink the tumor.

At one time, many believed that joining the EU would solve all these challenges. That is true no more. The path to EU membership has proven glacially slow. Further, EU engagement with the region suffered an embarrassing setback at the recent London conference which, by most accounts, accomplished next to nothing.

An additional challenge is that, unless the region implements reforms that would actually liberalize the economy (thereby spurring growth and job creation), entry into the EU would just encourage population and capital flight to other parts of Europe. And, of course, membership would subject Balkan countries to a new set of contentious political issues, such as the European debate over refugees, migration and borders.

America First and the Balkans

The United States should and does know that treading water between the Adriatic and Black Seas is not good enough. A prosperous and peaceful Westerns Balkans fits U.S. strategy like a Taylor Swift jumpsuit.

A strong transatlantic partnership is a key component of the U.S. National Security Strategy. The last development the United States wants to see is Europe unhinged by Balkans trouble, as it was in the 1990s. U.S. officials including the vice president and the secretaries of state and defense have already expressed strong interest in America playing a stronger role in the region. A recent speech by the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs is particularly clear on this point.

Whats more, the United States would actually like a stronger Europe. At the root of Trumps scuffle over EU tariffs is his goal of sparking greater trade liberalization and growth. Likewise, the Trump tantrum at the NATO summit in Brussels was to press for more European defense investment to make the alliance stronger. Least of all does the United States want to see the Balkans backtrack.

In fact, the Western Balkans could play a pivotal in Americas vision for a stronger transatlantic community. An integrated and prosperous region could help build the backbone of a stronger Europe. In addition to the security provided by NATO and the cohesion of the European community, the United States could help foster a string of bilateral relationships that becomes a powerful engine of economic growth, a corridor to ensure free-market energy independence, and a real confidence-builder for European security.

These bilateral relations would not supplant the EU or NATO. Rather, they would provide a foundation of strong, self-confident nation-states that would make these alliances stronger. From the United States and Canada to Iceland, Great Britain, and the Nordic, Baltic and Central European states runs a potentially powerful path for economic activity, but that course has to anchor in a stable Southern Europe in the lands between the Adriatic and Black Seas.

Who needs the burdens of European Commission bureaucracy, the pernicious influence of Putins meddling, the chimeric but illusory and corruptive promises of the Chinas Belt and Road, or buckets of Middle East cash? An informal, cooperative effort at North-South integration among free nations promises to deliver far more to the region.

Five Point Plan

Wanting a better Balkans and building a better Balkans are two different things. In the end, the United States has to deliver. The elements are already there in U.S. strategy, but Washington has to move out. In the end, the United States must actively promote a balance of regional security, economic growth and responsible governance across the Western Balkans and the surrounding countries. This is the best antidote to both the internal struggles in the region and the malicious influence of external actors.

Energy

It is not enough for the United States to cheerlead for a North-South energy corridor. Washington has to help make it happen. The United States has to continue to stridently oppose Nord Stream II and provide strong support for the Three Seas Initiative.

The administration should also encourage private investment in the floating LNG terminal in Croatia and help Kosovo modernize its coal industry and build a modern coal-powered energy plant. Moreover, Washington should support the development of nuclear power in the region and the development of a Southern gas corridor not dependent on Russia.

Economic Investment

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, USAID and the Millennium Corporation are all active in the region. What the region really needs, however, is private U.S. investment.

Governance

Pouring investment into the Western Balkans wont make it a better place without responsible governance. The administration has largely put an end to previous White House policy of promoting and imposing progressive social policies on the region and interfering unnecessarily in the domestic politics of sovereign nation states. These activities were more destabilizing than helpful in engaging with the regions largely conservative societies. Thats a good start, but it is not enough. The United States must now focus constructively on the elements of governance that affect economic freedomincluding combating corruption, strengthening rule of law, and reducing public sector employment, taxation and debt.

Security

Washington needs to continue to walk two paths in the Balkans at the same timeNATO enlargement (in particular, the United States must continue to actively support the accession of Macedonia to NATO) and fostering bilateral-security cooperation with the United States and Balkan nations and their neighbors. The United States should, for example, provide all possible cooperation and support to help Kosovo develop a recognized armed forces.

Strategy

The United States has to continue to implement a global strategy that presses strategic competitorsincluding Russia, Iran and Chinato end destabilizing foreign policies that injure U.S. interests. Putting pressure on these competitors will help take pressure off the Western Balkans.

Finally, America first does not mean America alone. The United States and the EU ought to have common cause. Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Austria, Germany and Greece ought to be working closely with the United States. The states of the Gulf Cooperation Council ought to see an opportunity to partner in a constructive manner. Turkey ought to recognize that this path forward is better for Ankaras security and economic interests. Ultimately, even Russia and China would find that a free, stable and prosperous Western Balkans gives them a better return as a place to make an honest buck than as an impoverished market within their sphere of influence.

A Heritage Foundation vice president, James Jay Carafano oversees the think tanks research on issues of national security and foreign relations.

Image: Macedonian soldiers fire an anti-aircraft missile with the Russian-made Igla ground-to-air launcher, supervised by a Slovenian military instructor, during a live fire exercise on September 12, 2008 at the Krivolak training ground, some 120 km (75 miles) southeast of Skopje. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski (MACEDONIA)

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Sebastien Roblin

Security, Europe

The Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E is the top Russian air-superiority fighter in service today, and represents the pinnacle of fourth-generation jet fighter design. It will remain so until Russia succeeds in bringing its fifth-generation PAK-FA stealth fighter into production.

Who Care About Russia's Stealth Fighter: The Su-35 Is the Plane the Air Force Should Fear

The maneuverability of the Su-35 makes it an unsurpassed dogfighter. However, future aerial clashes using the latest missiles (R-77s, Meteors, AIM-120s) could potentially take place over enormous ranges, while even short-range combat may involve all-aspect missiles like the AIM-9X and R-74 that dont require pointing the aircraft at the target. Nonetheless, the Su-35s speed (which contributes to a missiles velocity) and large load-carrying abilities mean it can hold its own in beyond-visual-range combat. Meanwhile, the Flanker-Es agility and electronic countermeasures may help it evade opposing missiles.

The Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E is the top Russian air-superiority fighter in service today, and represents the pinnacle of fourth-generation jet fighter design. It will remain so until Russia succeeds in bringing its fifth-generation PAK-FA stealth fighter into production.

Distinguished by its unrivaled maneuverability, most of the Su-35s electronics and weapons capabilities have caught up with those of Western equivalents, like the F-15 Eagle. But while it may be a deadly adversary to F-15s, Eurofighters and Rafales, the big question mark remains how effectively it can contend with fifth-generation stealth fighters such as the F-22 and F-35.

History

The Su-35 is an evolution of the Su-27 Flanker, a late Cold War design intended to match the F-15 in concept: a heavy twin-engine multirole fighter combining excellent speed and weapons loadout with dogfighting agility.

An Su-27 stunned the audience of the Paris Air Show in 1989 when it demonstrated Pugachevs Cobra, a maneuver in which the fighter rears its nose up to 120-degree verticalbut continues to soar forward along the planes original attitude.

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Widely exported, the Flanker has yet to clash with Western fighters, but did see air-to-air combat in Ethiopian service during a border war with Eritrea, scoring four kills against MiG-29s for no loss. It has also been employed on ground attack missions.

The development history of the Su-35 is a bit complicated. An upgraded Flanker with canards (additional small wings on the forward fuselage) called the Su-35 first appeared way back in 1989, but is not the same plane as the current model; only fifteen were produced. Another upgraded Flanker, the two-seat Su-30, has been produced in significant quantities, and its variants exported to nearly a dozen countries.

The current model in question, without canards, is properly called the Su-35S and is the most advanced type of the Flanker family. It began development in 2003 under the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO), a subcontractor of Sukhoi. The first prototypes rolled out in 2007 and production began in 2009.

Airframe and Engines

The Flanker family of aircraft is supermaneuverablemeaning it is engineered to perform controlled maneuvers that are impossible through regular aerodynamic mechanisms. In the Su-35, this is in part achieved through use of thrust-vectoring engines: the nozzles of its Saturn AL-41F1S turbofans can independently point in different directions in flight to assist the aircraft in rolling and yawing. Only one operational Western fighter, the F-22 Raptor, has similar technology.

This also allows the Su-35 to achieve very high angles-of-attackin other words, the plane can be moving in one direction while its nose is pointed in another. A high angle of attack allows an aircraft to more easily train its weapons on an evading target and execute tight maneuvers.

Such maneuvers may be useful for evading missiles or dogfighting at close rangesthough they leave any aircraft in a low-energy state.

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The Flanker-E can achieve a maximum speed of Mach 2.25 at high altitude (equal to the F-22 and faster than the F-35 or F-16) and has excellent acceleration. However, contrary to initial reports, it appears it may not be able to supercruiseperform sustained supersonic flight without using afterburnerswhile loaded for combat. Its service ceiling is sixty thousand feet, on par with F-15s and F-22s, and ten thousand feet higher than Super Hornets, Rafales and F-35s.

The Su-35 has expanded fuel capacity, giving it a range of 2,200 miles on internal fuel, or 2,800 miles with two external fuel tanks. Both the lighter titanium airframe and the engines have significantly longer life expectancies than their predecessors, at six thousand and 4,500 flight hours, respectively. (For comparison, the F-22 and F-35 are rated at eight thousand hours).

The Flanker airframe is not particularly stealthy. However, adjustments to the engine inlets and canopy, and the use of radar-absorbent material, supposedly halve the Su-35s radar cross-section; one article claims it may be down to between one and three meters. This could reduce the range it can be detected and targeted, but the Su-35 is still not a stealth fighter.

Weaponry

The Su-35 has twelve to fourteen weapons hardpoints, giving it an excellent loadout compared to the eight hardpoints on the F-15C and F-22, or the four internally stowed missiles on the F-35.

At long range, the Su-35 can use K-77M radar-guided missiles (known by NATO as the AA-12 Adder), which are claimed to have range of over 120 miles.

For shorter-range engagements, the R-74 (NATO designation: AA-11 Archer) infrared-guided missile is capable of targeting off boresightsimply by looking through a helmet-mounted optical sight, the pilot can target an enemy plane up sixty degrees away from where his plane is pointed. The R-74 has a range of over twenty-five miles, and also uses thrust-vectoring technology.

The medium-range R-27 missile and the extra long-range R-37 (aka the AA-13 Arrow, for use against AWACs, EW and tanker aircraft) complete the Su-35s air-to-air missile selection.

Additionally, the Su-35 is armed with a thirty-millimeter cannon with 150 rounds for strafing or dogfighting.

The Flanker-E can also carry up to seventeen thousand pounds of air-to-ground munitions. Historically, Russia has made only limited use of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) compared to Western air forces. However, the capability for large-scale use of such weapons is there, if doctrine and munition stocks accommodate it.

Sensors and Avionics

The Su-35s most critical improvements over its predecessors may be in hardware. It is equipped with a powerful L175M Khibiny electronic countermeasure system intended to distort radar waves and misdirect hostile missiles. This could significantly degrade attempts to target and hit the Flanker-E.

The Su-35s IRBIS-E passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar is hoped to provide better performance against stealth aircraft. It is claimed to able to track up to thirty airborne targets with a Radar-cross section of three meters up to 250 miles awayand targets with cross-sections as small 0.1 meters over fifty miles away. However, PESA radars are easier to detect and to jam than the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars now used by Western fighters. The IRBIS also has an air-to ground mode that can designate up to four surface targets at time for PGMs.

Supplementing the radar is an OLS-35 targeting system that includes an Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) system said to have a fifty-mile rangepotentially a significant threat to stealth fighters.

More mundane but vital systemssuch as pilot multi-function displays and fly-by-wire avionicshave also been significantly updated.

Operational Units and Future Customers

Currently, the Russian Air Force operates only forty-eight Su-35s. Another fifty were ordered in January 2016, and will be produced at a rate of ten per year. Four Su-35s were deployed to Syria this January after a Russian Su-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16. Prominently armed with air-to-air missiles, the Su-35s were intended to send a message that the Russians could pose an aerial threat if attacked.

China has ordered twenty-four Su-35s at a cost of $2 billion, but is thought unlikely to purchase more. Beijings interest is believed to lie mostly in copying the Su-35s thrust-vector engines for use in its own designs. The Chinese PLAAF already operates the Shenyang J-11, a copy of the Su-27.

Attempts to market the Su-35 abroad, especially to India and Brazil, have mostly foundered. Recently, however, Indonesia has indicated it wishes to purchase eight this year, though the contract signing has been repeatedly delayed. Algeria is reportedly considering acquiring ten for $900 million. Egypt, Venezuela and Vietnam are also potential customers.

Cost estimates for the Su-35 have run between $40 million and $65 million; however, the exports contracts have been at prices above $80 million per unit.

Against the Fifth Generation

The Su-35 is at least equalif not superiorto the very best Western fourth-generation fighters. The big question, is how well can it perform against a fifth-generation stealth plane such as the F-22 or F-35?

The maneuverability of the Su-35 makes it an unsurpassed dogfighter. However, future aerial clashes using the latest missiles (R-77s, Meteors, AIM-120s) could potentially take place over enormous ranges, while even short-range combat may involve all-aspect missiles like the AIM-9X and R-74 that dont require pointing the aircraft at the target. Nonetheless, the Su-35s speed (which contributes to a missiles velocity) and large load-carrying abilities mean it can hold its own in beyond-visual-range combat. Meanwhile, the Flanker-Es agility and electronic countermeasures may help it evade opposing missiles.

The more serious issue, though, is that we dont know how effective stealth technology will be against a high-tech opponent. An F-35 stealth fighter that gets in a short-range duel with a Flanker-E will be in big troublebut how good a chance does the faster, more-maneuverable Russian fighter have of detecting that F-35 and getting close to it in the first place?

As the U.S. Air Force would have it, stealth fighters will be able to unleash a hail of missiles up to one hundred miles away without the enemy having any way to return fire until they close to a (short) distance, where visual and IR scanning come into play. Proponents of the Russian fighter argue that it will be able to rely upon ground-based low-bandwidth radars, and on-board IRST sensors and PESA radar, to detect stealth planes. Keep in mind, however, that the former two technologies are imprecise and cant be used to target weapons in most cases.

Both parties obviously have huge economic and political incentives to advance their claims. While it is worthwhile examining the technical merits of these schools of thought in detail, the question will likely only be resolved by testing under combat conditions. Furthermore, other factors such as supporting assets, mission profile, pilot training and numbers play a large a role in determining the outcomes of aerial engagements.

The Su-35 may be the best jet-age dogfighter ever made and a capable missile delivery platformbut whether that will suffice for an air-superiority fighter in the era of stealth technology remains to be seen.

Sebastien Roblin holds a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

Image: Creative Commons.

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By Alan Baldwin LONDON (Reuters) - Cincinnati schoolteacher Bryce Carlson set a record for the fastest solo unsupported west-east row across the North Atlantic ocean on Saturday and also became the first U.S. citizen to complete the feat. The 37-year-old landed at the port of St Mary's in the Scilly Isles, off the coast of south-west England, some 38 days six hours and 49 minutes after he set off from St John's in Newfoundland. The previous record for the solo west-east crossing was 53 days eight hours and 26 minutes set by Canadian Laval St. Germain in 2016, according to the Ocean Rowing Society. (www.oceanrowing.com) St Germain rowed a slightly longer route from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Brest in France. Asked how he was feeling as he came ashore in front of a crowd of onlookers after rowing some 2,300 nautical miles through major storms and several capsizes, Carlson replied: "A little wobbly". Speaking to Reuters later by telephone from a nearby restaurant, where he ordered cod wrapped in prosciutto as his first proper meal after endless dehydrated rations, Carlson spoke of his achievement. "I think the effort of the last month and a half has to some extent numbed me a little bit. So I think its going to sink in in waves," he said. Carlson's 20-foot boat 'Lucille' was equipped with plenty of technology and electronic equipment to help keep him on a relatively straight course and fully informed about weather conditions. But there were still plenty of hair-raising moments out on the vast ocean. FEAR FACTOR "The boat capsized over a dozen times," he said. "The first one was the most terrifying. I had inadvertently left an air vent in the boat open and so as the boat went upside down water started pouring in. "So you're in this really stormy environment, boat goes upside down, I wake up on the ceiling," added the American. The water also got behind the electrical panel, which meant connections eventually became corroded and the equipment less reliable. On the plus side were all those moments where Carlson faced immense challenges and came out on top. "Hurricane Chris came barrelling down on me. I'm looking at the wave height, and the wind strength at its worst, and I have no idea whether the boat and I are going to be able to withstand that," he said. "Getting through, just the relief of finding enough whatever or getting lucky enough. That's an elating moment. Facing down some massive uncertainty, with a pretty high fear factor, and coming out the other side. That's pretty fabulous." Carlson, who has a PhD in biological anthropology and a history of endurance feats including ultramarathons, rowed for about 12 hours a day, generally from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m, with rests and meal breaks. He also had some suitably-themed books for those moments when he was confined to the cabin by bad weather. Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea' was an easy read but Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' remained a work in progress. "I wanted to take some literature that would help me think about the environment I was in," he explained. "Boy, Melville is long in the mouth...I just didn't have the energy to try and make sense of what he was saying." Asked what was his next project, Carlson did not hesitate. "I think from here I go to being a regular guy, for a while," he said. "This project has consumed me for the last two to three years and I know that has knock-on effects to all those around me. "I'm looking forward to resting, to being a better partner, to being a better friend, being a more mentally and emotionally attentive teacher and coach. That's my focus right now." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar / Ian Ransom)
The Daily Beast

DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo foreign female tourists were caught in a crossfire between rival crime groups and shot to death last Thursday in the high-end resort town of Tulum, Mexico. Three other people were also wounded when the firefight broke out in the popular restaurant, La Malquerida, not far from the beach. Of the two women who were killed, one was from Germany and the other India.They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got caught in an exchange of gunfire betwee
Zachary Keck

Security, Middle East

Here is the whole story.

How Israel Built Nuclear Weapons

Ben-Gurion had major reservations about involving Israel in the scheme. These were overcome when France agreed to provide Israel with a small research reactor similar to the EL-3 reactor France had built at Saclay. Of course, the Suez invasion quickly went awry with both the United States and Soviet Union threatening Israel, France and Britain in different ways to get them to withdraw. France was unable to protect Israel from the superpowers threats. Before agreeing to withdraw, however, Israel demanded that Paris sweeten the nuclear cooperation. France agreed to provide Israel with a much larger plutonium-producing reactor at Dimona, natural uranium to fuel the reactor, and a reprocessing plantbasically everything Israel would need to use the plant to produce plutonium for a bomb except for heavy water.

Although Israel doesnt officially acknowledge it, it is well understood that the country possesses a nuclear weapon arsenal (although the exact number of warheads are in dispute). It is similarly well understood that the United States opposed Israels nuclear weapons program during the John F. Kennedy and, to a lesser extent, Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. One part of the history that is less well known is that much of the funding for Israels nuclear weapons program came from private Americans in an effort that was spearheaded by, Abraham Feinberg, a prominent American who served as an unofficial advisor to both President Kennedy and President Johnson.

Israels interest in nuclear weapons basically dates back to the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. The countrys founding leader, David Ben-Gurion, was haunted both by the Holocaust and the unremitting hostility Israel faced from its much larger Arab neighbors. Ben-Gurion viewed nuclear weapons as a last resort option for ensuring the survival of the Jewish state in case its enemies ever used their much larger populations and economies to build conventionally superior militaries.The problem Ben-Gurion and his closest advisors faced was that their young, poor, and relatively unsophisticated country didnt possess the necessary technological and material resources to support an indigenous nuclear weapons program. Israels best hope of acquiring nuclear weapons came from finding a foreign patron. Fortunately for Israel, contemporary circumstances created conditions for it to obtain this support.

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Specifically, during the mid-1950s Frances control over Algeriawhich it considered part of France and not just another colonywas increasingly contested by a domestic insurgency that was receiving substantial support from the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. Paris responded by eliciting Israels help in providing intelligence on the Algerian situation in return for French conventional weaponry. The opportunity to transform this into nuclear cooperation presented itself in 1956 when Paris asked Israel to provide France and Britain with a pretext to intervene militarily in what became the Suez Canal crisis.

Ben-Gurion had major reservations about involving Israel in the scheme. These were overcome when France agreed to provide Israel with a small research reactor similar to the EL-3 reactor France had built at Saclay. Of course, the Suez invasion quickly went awry with both the United States and Soviet Union threatening Israel, France and Britain in different ways to get them to withdraw. France was unable to protect Israel from the superpowers threats. Before agreeing to withdraw, however, Israel demanded that Paris sweeten the nuclear cooperation. France agreed to provide Israel with a much larger plutonium-producing reactor at Dimona, natural uranium to fuel the reactor, and a reprocessing plantbasically everything Israel would need to use the plant to produce plutonium for a bomb except for heavy water.

This was a major coupno country before or since has provided another state with such an extensive amount of the technology required to build a nuclear bomb. Still, it was only half the battle. Ben-Gurion still had to come up with the funds necessary to pay for the nuclear deal for France. How much the Dimona nuclear facilities cost to build is not known, but Israel likely paid France at least $80 million to $100 million in 1960 dollars. That was a massive amount of money for Israel at the time. Furthermore, Ben-Gurion worried that if he diverted defense funds for the nuclear project he invite opposition from the military, which was struggling to field a conventional army that could defeat Israels Arab enemies.

Instead, the Israeli prime minister decided to create a private fund to finance the deal with France. As documented by Michael Karpin in his excellent history of the Israels nuclear program, The Bomb in the Basement, Ben-Gurion directed his staff simply to call Abe, referring to Abe Feinberg. Feinberg was a prominent New York businessman, philanthropist and Jewish American leader with close ties to the Democratic Party. Before Americas entry into World War II, Feinberg had raised money to help European Jews emigrate to Palestine. After the war ended, helike Ben-Gurionwent to Europe to view the Holocaust concentration camps. He also helped smuggle Holocaust survivors into Palestine at a time when the British had created blockades to prevent illegal Jewish immigration. During this time, he forged lasting bonds with many of the men who would later become senior leaders of the state of Israel. Upon returning back to the United States, he helped lobby President Harry Truman to recognize the Jewish state once it declared its independence. In return, Feinberg helped raise money for Trumans reelection campaign.

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Thus, it was natural that in October 1958 Ben-Gurion would turn to Feinberg to help raise the funds necessary for the Dimona deal. In fact, this wasnt the first time Ben-Gurion would turn to American Jewish leaders to raise money for Israels causes. Foreseeing there would soon be a war of independence, Ben-Gurion went to New York in 1945 to raise funds to purchase armaments for the Jews in Palestine. This mission was a success. According to Karpin: In the secret papers of the state-in-the-making the seventeen American millionaires were given the code name the Sonneborn Institute, after their host. In the coming years, its members would contribute millions of dollars to buy munitions, machinery, hospital equipment and medicines, and ships to carry refugees to Palestine.

Feinberg was one of the seventeen millionaires that comprised the Sonneborn Institute. In 1958, Feinberg turned to many of the same members of the Sonneborn Institute, as well as many other Jewish leaders in North America and Europe, in order to raise the money for the Dimona nuclear project after Ben-Gurions appeal in 1958. He was widely successful: again, according to Karpin, The secret fund-raising campaign began at the end of 1958, and continued for two years. Some twenty-five millionaires contributed a total of about $40 million dollars.

How important was Feinbergs mission to the success of the Israeli nuclear project? According to Karpin:

If Ben-Gurion had not been sure that Feinberg could raise the millions needed for the project from world Jewry, it is doubtful that he would have undertaken the deal with France. Israel of the 1950s and 60s could never have paid for the advanced technology, erected the Dimona reactor, and built a nuclear deterrent out of its own resources.

This was not the end of Feinbergs involvement in U.S.-Israeli relations, however. In fact, after the Democrats retook the White House in the 1960 election, Feinberg became an unofficial advisor to both JFK and LBJ. For instance, in 1961 Feinberg led the effort to persuade Ben-Gurion to allow American inspections of the Dimona reactor.

Zachary Keck (@ZacharyKeck) is a former managing editor of The National Interest.

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CAIRO (Reuters) - Italy praised Egypt on Sunday for its "excellent cooperation" in an investigation into the 2016 death of an Italian student whose killing threatened to severely damage relations with Europe. Giulio Regeni disappeared on Jan. 25, 2016 while doing postgraduate research on Egyptian trade unions. His body was discovered on Feb. 3 and Egyptian investigators found signs of extensive torture. Intelligence and security sources told Reuters in 2016 that police had arrested Regeni outside a Cairo metro station on Jan. 25 of that year and then transferred him to a compound run by Homeland Security. Egyptian officials have denied any involvement and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said last month that Egypt was determined to conclude a joint investigation and bring Regeni's killers to justice. In a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo on Sunday, Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi expressed confidence in the ongoing investigation. "We appreciate the excellent cooperation that we have seen between the judiciaries of both countries and we are confident that justice will come to light on this painful issue," Moavero Milanesi said in comments broadcast on state television in Arabic translation. "I was pleased to hear from the Egyptian minister of the strong will on the part of the Egyptian government to achieve concrete results from the judicial investigations," he said. Egyptian and Italian investigators have been working together to retrieve CCTV recordings from Cairo metro stations. They said in June they had found gaps in the footage and were trying to discover the cause. Italy is an important trade partner for Egypt, with 4.75 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in trade per year according to Egypt's foreign ministry. Italian oil major Eni is among Egypt's top foreign investors. Though no new agreements were announced, Moavero Milanesi spoke of the countries' cooperation on migration, an issue that has dominated Italian politics since hundreds of thousands of migrants landed on Italy's shores in recent years, helping bring Italy's anti-establishment government to power in June. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Mike Collett-White)
A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Lombok Sunday, sending people running from their homes and triggering a tsunami alert, just a week after a quake killed 17 people on the holiday island.

The latest tremor had a magnitude of seven and struck just 10 km underground according to the US Geological Survey.

It was followed by two light to moderate secondary quakes and nearly two dozen aftershocks.

Despite reports of damage in Lombok and neighbouring islands, no information on casualties was available hours after the quake hit.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, said many buildings were thought to have been affected in Lombok's main city of Mataram.

"They are mostly buildings with weak construction material," Nugroho said.

Residents in Mataram described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling out of buildings.

"Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking," Iman, who like many Indonesians has one name, told AFP.

The electricity was knocked out in several parts of the city and patients were evacuated from the main hospital, witnesses and officials said.

Pictures showed patients lying on their beds outside the clinic while doctors in blue scrubs attended to them.

Singapores Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was in Lombok for a security conference when the earthquake struck, described on Facebook how his hotel room on the 10th floor shook violently.

"Walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up," he said.

- Airport operations normal -

Officials issued a tsunami warning, which was later cancelled.

Seawater entered two villages as high as 10 cm and 13 cm (4-5 inches), Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, told local TV.

The quake caused light damage as far away as the Javanese city of Bandung, some 955 km from Mataram, but was felt strongly on the neighbouring resort island of Bali.

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People could be heard screaming as locals and tourists ran onto the road.

Agung Widodo, a resident of Bali's main town of Denpasar, said he felt two strong tremors.

"The first one lasted quite a while, the second one was only about 2-5 seconds. The first one was the bigger one," he told AFP.

Balis international airport suffered damage inside the terminal but the runway was unaffected and operations had returned to normal, disaster agency officials said.

Facilities at Lomboks main airport were also unaffected, although passengers were briefly evacuated from the main terminal.

Early reports suggest the quake wrecked buildings in several districts across Bali.

The tremor came a week after a shallow 6.4-magnitude quake hit Lombok, killing 17 people and damaging hundreds of buildings.

It triggered landslides that briefly trapped trekkers on popular mountain hiking routes.

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
Members of a mortar company of the 92nd Division pass the ammunition and heave it over at the Germans in an almost endless stream near Massa, Italy. This company is credited with liquidating several machine gun nests. Wikimedia Commons

Daniel L. Davis

History, Europe

The final chapter of a three-part series.

The Most Heroic and Horrific Battle of World War II for the Texas 36th Infantry Division.

Editor's Note: You can read Part I and Part II here.

Almost immediately upon return to Texas after the war, the survivors of the Rapido disaster from the 36th Infantry Division met in Brownsville, Texas to discuss their need for justice. In their view, Gen. Mark Clark, the wartime commander of the 5th Army in Italy, had caused the unnecessary death and wounding of thousands of Texans from the 36th by his poor decisions at the Rapido.

Eventually they decided they would draft a resolution among themselves which termed the battle of the Rapido River which would go down in history as one of the colossal blunders of the Second World War. Through the Texas state Senate, they petitioned the U.S. Congress to investigate the matter to gain justice for their losses and ensure no future commander would make such grievous mistakes. The hearings were held before the House Committee on Military Affairs on March 18, 1946.

Wartime commander of the 36th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Fred L. Walker, was to be the first witness to testify. Clark had defended his actions, claiming that Churchills desire to land a large force at Anzio and theater commander Gen. Sir Herald Alexanders order for Clark to press an attack from the south required him to make tough choices. In his postwar memoirs, Clark wrote that the 36th Division was a fine outfit that performed a critical role at the Rapido. I salute them for their charge and courage, he continued, but as for myself, I can only say that under the same circumstances I would have to do it over again. That certainty is part of what motivated Walker to testify.

The men of the 36th did not complain about Alexanders orders to Clark. In fact, Walker said he felt the directive was a proper one from a strategical point of view. The problem, he said, is that poor judgment was used in the selection of the point of attack and in the manner in which the directive of General Alexander was applied tactically. I do not recall of ever having read in military history where a frontal attack across an unfordable river in the face of an organized position along the opposite shore has ever been successful.

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While it is wholly understandable that Clark was under pressure to get the attack carried out on time because of its impact on the landings scheduled for Anzio, Walker added, it does no good whatsoever to continue the attack on time if the likelihood of failure is almost guaranteed. This was the key point Clark failed to graspbecause it was not the only option Clark was presented for complying with Alexanders orders.

Walker had pointed out to Clark five times that there was another location, barely a mile and a half further up the river, where a crossing was very much possible, even with the other negative factors at play. In that area, Walker explained, tanks could follow infantry effectively. That was the areas where I recommended to General Clark and General Keyes that the attack across the Rapido be made . . . As a matter of fact, later on, the troops of the Thirty-fourth Division made a successful attack in that area.

During World War I, Walker had won the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership defending on a river bank against an attacking force and knew, intimately, the factors that would lead to either success or failure. His warnings of failure prior to the attack on the Rapido River in January 1944 were borne out, in precise detail. Further, he suggested an alternative location to make the attack that would still have accomplished the higher commanders strategic intentwhich was later also proved, in intimate detail, to have been correct.

During the congressional hearings of March 1946 Walker and three other veterans of the 36th Division explained these critical points as members of the House and Senate listened. In his closing remarks Walker explained why he felt it important to examine the military disaster:

Gentlemen, this is the way I see this thing. I believe that military commanders in high places have a responsibility to the relatives and friends of the men who are serving under them, as well as to the men themselves, and I feel that they should be capable of using good tactical judgment in order that they may reduce losses and at the same time accomplish the results desired. I feel that an investigation of incidents such as this attack that you are now discussing, by your committee, would serve to alert commandeers in the future that they will be called before a court of judgment, you may call it, and with the feeling that they may have to answer for their acts. They will be a little more cautious, a little more considerate, and a little more capable. Clark, however, was never called to testify. Eisenhower felt it wasnt necessary. Secretary of Army (then called Secretary of War) Robert Patterson conducted an investigation of his own and eventually concluded that it is my conclusion that the action was a necessary one and that General Clark exercised sound judgment in planning it and ordering (the attack on the Rapido). While the casualties are to be greatly regretted, he continued, the heroic action and sacrifices of the Thirty-sixth Division undoubtedly drew the Germans away from our landings at Anzio during the critical hours of the first foothold, thus contributing in major degree to minimizing the casualties in that undertaking and to the firm establishment of the Anzio beachhead.

His statements were unambiguously wrong. Clarks actions clearly did not represent sound judgment, and most assuredly the attacks had not the slightest effects on the Germans and thus no impactpositive or negativeon the Anzio operation.

But the War Department was in no mood to punish one of its senior commanders. They were tired of war and wanted to end the whole messy affair. Justice for the men of the 36th whose lives had been sacrificed for no purpose, for the survivors who had to live with the knowledge of the truth, and the family members of the fallen who would suffer the rest of their lives were given little consideration.

The Congress inaction and the secretarys white-washing of the matter would be one final wound inflicted on the survivors of the most heroic, horrific battle of World War II for the Texas 36th Infantry Division.

Daniel L. Davis is a retired U.S. Army colonel who served multiple tours in Afghanistan. He is a senior fellow with Defense Priorities. Follow him on Twitter @DanielLDavis1.

Image: Members of a mortar company of the 92nd Division pass the ammunition and heave it over at the Germans in an almost endless stream near Massa, Italy. This company is credited with liquidating several machine gun nests. Wikimedia Commons

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Portland (AFP) - Activists hurled rocks and bottles during a rally in the US city of Portland, Oregon organized by two far-right groups that drew a counter protests, said police, which ordered demonstrators to leave not long after the marches got under way.

Police in the western state of Oregon's largest city had maintained a heavy presence during the dueling demonstrations, which had raised fears of a replay of last year's "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Virginia that ended in bloodshed.

The projectiles were thrown at officers, said police, who ordered those in the area to "immediately disperse" -- warning "failure to comply with this order may subject you to arrest or citation, and may subject you to the use of riot control agents or impact weapons."

Footage of the rallies that drew hundreds showed plumes of smoke rising in the city of about 640,000 people. Portland police later said "protest officers seized firework mortars," while some activists on the left accused police of shooting "stun grenades."

Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, right-wing groups linked to violence at a previous Portland rally, were marching in the city's Tom McCall Waterfront Park in support of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who is running as a Republican for the US Senate.

A group called Popular Mobilization had also organized a counter-demonstration at the park, accompanied by a marching band and protesters in clown costumes.

Meanwhile, on another counter-demonstration's Facebook page, organizers of that event said they "make no apologies for the use of force in keeping our communities safe from the scourge of right-wing violence."

- 'Serious threat' -

Following the police order on Saturday to disperse, Portland's branch of the Democratic Socialists of America pinned blame on officers, saying on Twitter that "a little bit before 2 PM all seemed normal in the crowd."

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"Then without warning, the cops shot stun grenades into the anti-fascist crowd and started forcing people to disperse," the organization said, pointing to Portland's police as "the ones who escalated and created a dangerous situation."

On Friday, the city's mayor Ted Wheeler had voiced concern "that individuals are posting publicly their intent to act out violently," saying "we don't want this here."

Police had warned protesters to leave their guns at home even though holders of valid Oregon concealed-handgun licenses are permitted to carry their weapons at the park.

They had said officers would screen people for weapons at entrances to the park, and explosive-sniffing dogs were also to be brought in.

"The potent combination of bigotry and violence on the streets of Portland poses a serious threat to community safety, and particularly to residents who are people of color, women and LGBTQ," said a statement from the Western States Center, signed by around 40 activist groups.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group that monitors extremism, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have appeared together at several rallies in the Pacific Northwest since 2017.

A rally on June 30 was declared a riot and shut down by police after marchers and counter-protesters clashed, leaving several people injured.
By Jack Kim and David Brunnstrom SINGAPORE (Reuters) - North Korea and the United States on Saturday sparred over an agreement reached at a landmark summit in June for the Asian country to end its nuclear program, as Washington called for maintaining sanctions pressure against Pyongyang, which in turn said it was alarmed by U.S. intentions. The discord at a regional forum in Singapore was the latest reminder of the difficulties that have long impaired efforts to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, despite commitments made at an unprecedented summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the city state less than two months ago. "The DPRK stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the DPRK-U.S. Joint Statement in a responsible and good-faith manner," North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the ASEAN Regional Forum, using his country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "What is alarming however is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," he said. Ri made the statement after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had left the Singapore conference center for Indonesia having pressed Southeast Asian nations to maintain sanctions on North Korea until it gives up a nuclear weapons program that now threatens the United States. At the June 12 summit, Kim, who is seeking relief from tough sanctions, committed to work towards denuclearisation, but North Korea has offered no details on how it might go about this. Pompeo suggested on Friday that continued work on weapons programs by North Korea was inconsistent with Kim's commitment to denuclearize. On Saturday, he nevertheless said he was optimistic a North Korean denuclearisation could be achieved although it "would take some time." Ri said North Korea had made goodwill gestures, including a moratorium on nuclear tests and rocket launches and the dismantling of a nuclear test ground. "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of the war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean peninsula," he said. On Saturday, Pompeo said Washington took very seriously any relaxation of U.N. sanctions, calling out Russia for possibly violating a U.N. resolution by issuing work visas to North Korean workers. WARNING TO MOSCOW "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow," he said. "We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea." Russia has denied a report by the Wall Street Journal that said Moscow was allowing thousands of fresh North Korean laborers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N sanctions. Russia's ambassador to North Korea also denied Moscow was flouting U.N. restrictions on oil supplies to North Korea. According to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Friday, North Korea has not stopped nuclear and missile programs in violation of United Nations sanctions. Although Pompeo has been leading U.S. negotiating efforts with North Korea, he had no formal meeting with Ri in Singapore. However, at a group photo session on Saturday, he walked up to the North Korean and shook hands and exchanged words and smiles. He told Ri: "We should talk again soon," the State Department said. "I agree, there are many productive conversations to be had," Ri replied, according to the State Department. Pompeo later tweeted that it had been "a quick, polite exchange" and there had been the opportunity to deliver a letter for Kim Jong Un from Trump. U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim handed Ri the letter, which the State Department said was in return for one from Kim to Trump that the White House said was received on Wednesday. The State Department has not said what is in Trump's letter to Kim. Trump posted a note on Twitter on Thursday thanking Kim for returning the remains of U.S. soldiers from the Korean War and saying he looked forward to seeing Kim again "soon", although the White House said no second meeting was currently planned. It is not the first time since the summit that North Korea has appeared to offer a more negative impression of the progress of talks with the United States that Washington. Following a trip to Pyongyang in July, Pompeo spoke of progress, but as soon as he had left the country North Korea accused him of "gangster-like" diplomacy, casting doubts about the future of the discussions. Even so, Trump has continued to hail progress, emphasizing the halt in bomb and missile tests and North Korea's return of purported American war remains. A senior State Department official sought to play down Ri's statement, saying it was to be expected. "Much of the intervention was positive and thats an improvement from the past," the official said. "Were building a relationship with North Korea after years of difficult relations. Since U.S. talks with North Korea resumed this year, Pompeo has primarily engaged with Kim Yong Chol, a top North Korean party official and former spy agency chief, not Ri. Pompeo told a Senate committee hearing on July 25 that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs in spite of its denuclearisation pledge. On Monday, a senior U.S. official said U.S. spy satellites had detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the countrys first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. (Additional reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Nick Macfie and James Dalgleish)
BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP)  The reward for the safe return of a missing University of Iowa student has ballooned to $260,000.

Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa said Sunday that relatives of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts believe she's alive but has potentially been kidnapped. Spokesman Greg Willey says the family hopes the reward money will lead to her return.

Tibbetts went missing on July 18 from her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa.

Investigators are being tight-lipped about the case, saying holding back basic details may help solve it. That includes saying whether they believe Tibbetts returned home from a jog the evening she went missing.

Willey says Crime Stoppers will protect the anonymity of tipsters who call in or submit tips online . He says the organization has shared more than 200 anonymous tips with law enforcement since Monday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on a Russian bank it said had facilitated a transaction with a person blacklisted by Washington for involvement with North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The move comes as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presses Southeast Asian countries during meetings in Singapore to maintain sanctions to pressure Pyongyang, which is in talks with the United States about dismantling its nuclear program. Sanctions by the United States and the United Nations Security Council, which include a ban on exports of coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood from North Korea, and caps on imports of oil and refined petroleum products, are aimed at choking off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The U.S. Treasury Department said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank had conducted "a significant transaction" for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank. "The United States will continue to enforce UN and U.S. sanctions and shut down illicit revenue streams to North Korea," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. The Treasury also added Ri Jong Won, the Moscow-based deputy representative of FTB, and said both Ri and Han should be expelled from Russia under U.N. resolutions meant to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear program. It also designated what it said were two FTB front companies, China-based Dandong Zhongsheng Industry & Trade Co Ltd and Korea Ungum Corporation, which is based in North Korea. The United States has kept up its pressure campaign on North Korea even as U.S. President Donald Trump has pursued talks with the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, to denuclearize. Questions have arisen over Pyongyang's commitment to give up its nuclear program after U.S. spy satellite material detected renewed activity at the factory that produced North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. In a letter to Trump on Friday, Republican senators Cory Gardner, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Dan Sullivan urged the administration to tighten sanctions. "Mr President, we believe that the time to ramp up maximum pressure against North Korea is now, if we are to peacefully achieve the goal of the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the near future," the senators wrote. Russia on Friday denied a Wall Street Journal report that it was allowing thousands of new North Korean laborers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N. sanctions. (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Tim Ahmann and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and James Dalgleish)
(Photo: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

PORTLAND, Ore.  Police did a good job on Saturday preventing what could have been the most violent far-right rally since last years deadly Unite the Right gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia  all they had to do was protect the proto-fascists who came to town, and use riot control weapons, flash-bang grenades and chemical irritants against anti-fascist counter-protesters.

For hours, dozens of officers in full riot gear stood across a closed section of Naito Parkway along the Willamette River, keeping the two sides apart. On one side of the parkway, in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, stood hundreds of out-of-towners belonging to the Proud Boys  a punch-drunk far-right group of self-described Western chauvinists dressed in helmets and body armor  and those aligned with Patriot Prayer and its leader Joey Gibson, a Republican Senate candidate from Washington state who has held a series of increasingly violent rallies in the Pacific Northwest since 2017.

Both groups have deep ties to white supremacists.

So its noon in #portland and right now police are keeping the two sides separated. Hundreds of Anti-fascist counter-protesters with a brass band look across the street at Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer. More PBs and PP on their way. #AllOutPDX pic.twitter.com/m3cIokJxKx  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 4, 2018

On the other side of the parkway stood hundreds of counter-protesters belonging to a broad coalition of local anti-fascist, anti-racist and social justice groups. They had a clear message: This is our city. Get out.

We remember Charlottesville! they chanted.

Referring to the 32-year-old counter-protester at last Augusts gathering who was run down by a car, they yelled, You got Heather Heyer killed!

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They chanted the names of Ricky Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, two men allegedly killed by a white supremacist named Jeremy Christian last year in Portland when they tried to stop Christian from threatening two black teenage girls. (The month before the murders, Christian had attended a Patriot Prayer rally.)

The counter-protesters held signs detailing the assaults and other crimes allegedly committed by Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer members in the Portland area.

And yet, when police decided the standoff was too tense for comfort, they targeted the local anti-fascists. As officers lobbed flash-bang grenades at them  ear-piercing explosives that temporarily disorient the senses  Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer members cheered on the cops, claiming victory against the violent leftists theyd come expecting to fight themselves.

One police flash-bang canister reportedly pierced an anti-fascists helmet, cutting into his head. Im certain he would be dead if he wasnt wearing a helmet, 39-year-old Jenny Nickolaus, an anti-fascist demonstrator and friend of the victim, told HuffPost. The trauma nurse said as much.

CW: very graphic.



My comrade was shot in the back of the head by @PortlandPolice today. He was hit with the very first flash bang the cops shot. Make no mistake this was an act of aggression and there will be hell to pay @tedwheeler #defendpdx #AllOutPDX pic.twitter.com/oSHqhpyzfC  Dimestore Guevara (@wherestherevolt) August 5, 2018

Portland Police Sgt. Chris Burley told HuffPost he was not aware of anyone that received medical treatment for injuries suffered by actions of law enforcement today. If someone reported being injured by police action today we would like to speak with them.

A woman also was hit by a flash-bang grenade, her boyfriend told The Willamette Week, leaving her with cuts and a possible arm fracture. Eder Campuzano, a reporter from The Oregonian, went to the hospital after being struck in the head by an object thrown by counter-protesters.

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(Photo: Bob Strong / Reuters)

(Photo: Christopher Mathias HuffPost)

This is Americas modern free speech rally in the era of President Donald Trump. Trollish far-right leaders, like Gibson, plan a battle royale disguised as a celebration of the First Amendment. People come decked out with weapons and armor to fight anti-fascists, and one of two things happens: The two sides beat the living snot out of one another en masse, or police break it up.

At the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the former happened, ending with a neo-Nazi allegedly driving a car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters, killing Heyer and injuring 19 others.

On June 30 in Portland, the city declared a riot after police let Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys brawl with anti-fascists in the streets. Some half a dozen people were sent to the hospital after the days chaos, one with a brain hemorrhage.

There were fears that Saturdays rally would be even worse. But this time police successfully kept the sides separated  yet as they have at other Patriot Prayer gatherings, they targeted counter-protesters with their weapons and defended those aligned with white supremacy.

Police launched a violent attack on the left that was unprovoked in an attempt to allow Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys to go on their march, said Effie Baum, spokesperson for Popular Mobilization, a coalition of anti-racist and anti-fascist groups formed for todays counter-demonstration.

When people say there was no violence today between the right and left, there was absolutely violence, and it was perpetrated by the police on the left.

Here's riot cops in Portland rushing and hitting me, @DonovanFarley, and others on the sidewalk. I don't know why they did this. #AllOutPDX #DefendPDX pic.twitter.com/mra0fanen0  doug brown (@dougbrown8) August 4, 2018

After I took this video an anti-fascist was hit with some kind of projectile shot by cops. He seems fine. Cat and mouse game between cops and anti-fascists in Portland right now. pic.twitter.com/Fxk12pgbQO  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 4, 2018

At about 2 p.m., cops warned anti-fascist demonstrators that they needed to move west, away from the parkway, or face arrest and impact weapons.

The reason for this initial order was confusing. The police claimed they spotted anti-fascists with weapons, but HuffPost saw Patriot Prayer members and Proud Boys armed with weapons as well (and police confiscated some of them).

The police claimed that the anti-fascists were blocking traffic  but in order to protest against Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, there was, at times, nowhere else to stand but in the road. HuffPost did not witness anti-fascist protesters provoke or attack police before the initial dispersal order.

The anti-fascists didnt budge. And police launched their attack.

A cat-and-mouse game ensued throughout downtown Portland, with cops chasing after anti-fascists from corner to corner, demanding each time that they disperse or face arrest. More flash-bangs. More tear gas. A handful of anti-fascists then started to hurl rocks and water bottles at the riot police.

The groups involved in the protests escalated in behavior and threw projectiles, including rocks, smoke bombs, firework mortars, unknown chemical agents, bottles, items from a slingshot, and other projectiles at officers and protesters, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.

Police also claimed that, at one point, they learned multiple police vehicles, possibly with officers inside them, were trapped in a group of protesters who were throwing an unknown chemical agent as well as other projectiles at officers.

Police ultimately found no officers inside the vehicles, but did say three police vehicles sustained some damages.

(Photo: Portland Police Bureau)

Police said they arrested four people on a slew of charges that included resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, attempted assault, harassment, assault on an officer and unlawful use of a weapon (a slingshot).

Baum said four Popular Mobilization counter-protesters were arrested.

As cops chased anti-fascists through the streets, Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys were also on the move, marching west from the river into downtown. (A couple had been injured, having reportedly walked through a throng of anti-fascists, and had cuts on their heads.) They were flanked by police in riot gear, who never engaged them despite demanding that they disperse several times.

A few people on Patriot Prayer side were pulled from across the street, bleeding from their ears and eyes pic.twitter.com/WlUhYsHkep  Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) August 4, 2018

The Patriot Prayer and Proud Boy demonstrators eventually ran into the anti-fascists, and cops rushed to keep the two sides separated. Police then declared the days demonstration a civil disturbance and ordered both sides to disperse or face arrest and the use of riot control agents and impact weapons.

Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys made their way back to the waterfront park, where they cooled off in a fountain and celebrated what they claimed was a victory.

Tusitala Tiny Toese, a Proud Boy and Patriot Prayer member implicated in the May assault of an anti-Trump person in the Portland area, donned a Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong T-shirt, referring to the far-right fascist Chilean dictator who murdered tortured or detained some 40,000 of his own people.

Make communists afraid of rotary aircraft again, read the back of Toeses shirt, referring to the penchant of forces loyal to Augusto Pinochet of throwing political rivals out of helicopters. (Toeses shirt was made by a white nationalist clothing company called Right Wing Death Squads.)

Asked by HuffPost how he thought Saturdays rally went, Toese described it as awesome and beautiful. The Portland police, he said, did their job.

Forgot to post this earlier: I asked Proud Boy/Patriot Prayer member Tusitala Tiny Toese about his PINOCHET WAS RIGHT t-shirt.



Didnt Pinochet kill like 35,000 people? I asked him.



Arent they all communists? he responded. #AllOutPDX pic.twitter.com/dzVcYIgHaV  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 5, 2018

Today was a victory for America! he later told a group of his cheering supporters.

Later, journalist Brendan OConnor reported on Twitter that some Proud Boys sprayed bear mace at a group of anti-fascists as they drove out of Portland.

Anti-fascists across America have long accused police of siding with, and protecting, white supremacists and fascists. Earlier this year in Newnan, Georgia, heavily militarized police charged at anti-fascists demonstrating against a neo-Nazi rally, pointing guns in their faces.

Proud Boys in a truck just sprayed bear mace at antifa blocking their way, leaving a street full of coughing, tearing people behind pic.twitter.com/nt6uEYREAK  Brendan O'Connor (@_grendan) August 4, 2018

We expected state repression, Baum said.

Still, Baum added, it was the anti-fascists who were actually victorious. The left, Baum said, is often marred by divisions between more militant black bloc anti-fascists and more liberal, non-violent protesters.

Saturday saw a very unified anti-fascist opposition of some 1,500 people that quite literally almost made me cry, Baum said.

By Baums count, they outnumbered Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys by four to one.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Chilean dictator Pinochet murdered an estimated 40,000 of his countrymen. Pinochet murdered, tortured or detained that number.

America does not do a good job of tracking incidents of hate and bias. We need your help to create a database of such incidents across the country, so we all know whats going on. Tell us your story.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Natan Eshel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former bureau chief, has suggested Druze Israelis protesting the Nationality Law should instead join their brethren in Syria.

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"After going forward with it, not a single word must be changed in the Nationality Law. Those who don't like itthere's a large Druze community in Syria, they're welcome to establish the state of 'Druzia' there," Eshel was quoted as saying by journalist Amnon Abramovich.

Eshel also reportedly told different officials that "Bibi wants the Druze to not have a problem, and the Druze want Bibi to not be here," using the prime minister's nickname.

Natan Eshel (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The Prime Minister's Office was quick to distance itself from Eshel. "This kind of statement contradicts the prime minister's views and his work for the Druze sect. It's ridiculous to try and attribute (this position) to him," the PMO said.

Eshel said in response, "Without addressing your questionI am not the prime minister's spokesperson, and I say things only on my own behalf and at my own discretion."

Over 90,000 people protested the Nationality Law at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, calling to change the legislation. Some 2,000 more protested in Arab towns and cities across the country.

On Thursday, an attempt at reconciliation between the prime minister and Druze leaders failed when Netanyahu cut the meeting short after one of the Druze leaders, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad, called Israel an "apartheid state" in a Facebook post.
Natan Said, 71, who was carjacked by armed Palestinians to Qalqilya on Saturday, recounted the terrifying ordeal on Saturday, saying "I thought they were going to kill me."

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Said, a resident of Holon, was on his way from the Samaria area of the West Bank to Kfar Saba on his own when he felt something hit the back part of his vehicle, not far from the Palestinian village of Nabi Ilyas.

He said he saw the two Palestinians in a blue Toyota even before they stopped him.

Natan Said

"They must have followed me. I stopped on the side of the road to see what had happened, and before I knew it, one of the Palestinians opened the door and pressed a gun to my temple," he told Ynet.

"It's a very unpleasant feeling when you see a gun pressed against your temple, and you don't know if it's loaded or not, and you can't do anything about it," Said added.

"He told me 'Take me to the entrance to Qalqilya, and you're free to go.' We went to Qalqilya, where he told me to turn left to an orchard, and another Palestinian pulled me out of the car. They got into the car, left me in the middle of the road, and drove away," Said continued.

He immediately called the police to report the theft. "I told them I was carjacked, and that two Palestinians had threatened me. I didn't know how to explain to them where I was, but I told them to turn to the Ituran company as I have a tracking device in my car," he explained.

He said the police operator on the line tried to calm him down when "three jeeps of the Palestinian security services, which must have gotten an order to get there, showed up. Then additional jeeps arrived to locate the carjackers as well."

Said noted he was treated "very well. They brought me something to drink and coffee, and made sure to calm me down."

Later he was informed his car had been found and he was taken to it. "The Palestinian police questioned me and accompanied me out of Qalqilya, where the Israeli police and the army were waiting for me, and they took me to be questioned at the Ariel police station," he said. "I definitely thought they might kill me, but God be blessed I got out of it."

Last February, two IDF soldiers accidentally entered Jenin in their military jeep and were accosted by Palestinian youth, who attacked them and their vehicle with stones. One of their weapons was stolen as well.

Palestinian police helped rescue them from the mob, and the soldiers were taken to the Jalameh checkpoint in coordination with the Civil Administration.
Forty former ambassadors and senior diplomats came out against the Nationality Law on Saturday as over 90,000 Druze and others opposing the legislation held a mass rally at Rabin Square.

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"During our years of service for the State of Israel, we could always look world nations in the eye and tell them with an honest heart that Israel, being the only democracy in the Middle East, is indeed a proud Jewish state, but one run in the spirit of Israel's prophets and upholding equality between its different components, including by maintaining Arabic as an official language alongside Hebrew," the diplomats wrote in a public statement.

The diplomats include four former directors general of the Foreign MinistryNissim Ben Shitrit, Alon Liel, Rafi Barak and Reuven Merhavand two deputy directorsPinchas Avivi and Ran Curiel.

(Photo: Gil Yohanan)

"Being proud of the right we were given to represent the State of Israel, defend it publicly, promote its interests, its security and our government's policy, and act to advance science, the economy and culture in Israel, we express our protest against the legislation that excludes the minorities among usArabs, Muslims, Druze, Christians, Circassians and others," they wrote.

"We're proud that it was our duty to serve our country alongside Druze, Christian and Muslim ambassadors and diplomats, and bring Israel's pluralistic and complex message to the world. We support our brothers and sisters the Israeli diplomats from these sects and share their pain," the diplomats added.

"Equality comes from our Declaration of Independence, which is the constitutive document of our independence in our land. The declaration, and none other," the diplomats wrote. "We're embarrassed today and pained by what has happened to our good and beautiful country, and call to remedy the damages of this latest legislation."

The former deputy director of North America, Baruch Bina, who also served as Israel's ambassador to Norway, said the idea for the public statement arose during a meeting of Foreign Ministry veterans in Tel Aviv, who felt that "we cannot stand idly by while our colleagues in the Foreign MinistryDruze, Christians and Muslimsare hurt by the law."

Others who signed the public statement include former Israel Broadcasting Authority CEO Aryeh Mekel, who also served as an ambassador to Greece; former deputy director of North America and ambassador to Germany Yoram Ben-Ze'ev; former ambassador to Portugal and Italy Ehud Gol; former deputy director of administration and ambassador to Chile Yossi Regev; Ofer Bavly, who served as the consul-general in Miami; former Finland ambassador Avi Granot; former MK Colette Avital, who served as deputy director of Western Europe and consul-general in New York; former deputy director of communications and ambassadror to the Czech Republic and Geneva Yaakov Levy; former ambassador to France Daniel Shek; former deputy director of Latin America and ambassador to Argentina Dorit Shavit; former ambassador to Chile Rafael Eldad; deputy director of communications and ambassador to Denmark Arthur Avnon; and many others.
BEIRUT - Islamic State in Syria has executed one of a number of hostages taken from Syria's government-held city of Sweida in an attack last week, local media and a war monitor said on Sunday.

Dozens of people were killed on July 25 in coordinated assaults by Islamic State militants who overran villages and staged multiple suicide attacks inside Sweida city, killing more than 200 people, many of them civilians.

Suwayda24 and Sweida News Network online news outlets said images circulated by Islamic State showed Muhannad Dhouqan Abu Ammar, 19, had been executed by the group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also reported the killing of Abu Ammar, said more than 30 people had been kidnapped during the July 25 attack.

The Sweida area, in southwestern Syria, is mostly inhabited by people from the Druze sect. There have been negotiations between Druze authorities and Islamic State for the hostages' release.
CAIRO - Egypt's security forces have killed at least 52 suspected militants in recent days in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, the military said Sunday.

Another 49 suspected militants have been arrested. The Egyptian army also destroyed 26 hideouts and weapons depots, and dismantled 64 explosive devices.

The military said airstrikes destroyed 32 vehicles containing weapons and ammunition in the Western Desert and in the south.

It wasn't possible to independently confirm the claims as access to the northern Sinai is heavily restricted.
Zehava Shaul, whose son Oron Shaul was killed in Gaza and captured by Hamas, said Sunday she lost faith in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he called her and her late husband Herzl "liars."

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"Some two months before my husband's death, we met with Prime Minister Netanyahu who yelled at us and hurled accusations at us. He called us liars," Shaul said. "Until that meeting, Herzl had full confidence in the system and believed the promises made by the prime minister. This meeting was the straw that broke the camel's back."

"Before he died, Herzl left me with his willto no longer believe the promises and do whatever we can to bring Oron home."

Zehava Shaul (Photo: Alex Gamburg)

Herzl Shaul lost his battle to cancer two years ago. His wife said "the longing and the uncertainty about the fate of his son, as well as the crisis of trust in the Israeli government" exacerbated to his illness.

The Prime Minister's Office denied Shaul's claims, saying "Prime Minister Netanyahu has never yelled at bereaved families or hurled accusations at them, the same is true for the Shaul family. The prime minister will continue making every effort until the sons return home."



Shaul made her claims at a joint press conference on Sunday morning with the families of fallen IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, whose fate was similar to that of Shaul, and the family of Jumaa Ibrahim Abu-Ghanima, who is believed to be alive and in Hamas hands after entering Gaza of his own accord.

Ofek and Zehava Shaul, Leah and Simcha Goldin (Photo: Alex Gamburg)

After the press conference at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem, the families marched toward the Prime Minister's Office along with some 30 protesters and demanded to meet with Netanyahu amid reports a ceasefire deal with Hamas is imminent.

The protesters blocked the car of Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan, and shouted "Corrupted, go home!"

Later, the families plan to protest outside the Prime Minister's Residence while the Security Cabinet meets to discuss the deal, which reportedly does not include any guarantees on the return of the remains of the soldiers and the missing Israelis.





Leah and Simcha Goldin (Photo: Alex Gamburg)

Zehava Shaul vowed "to do whatever is in my power, despite my problematic health, to bring Oron home," and called on the government not to negotiate with Hamas or sign any agreement with "a lowly and cruel organization that kidnapped Oron and Hadar, our best sons and soldiers, who were protecting the homeland."

She also called on Israeli citizens to "join the moral struggle and aid us in preventing the Israeli government from signing a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that does not include the precondition of returning the sons home."

"Don't let the Israeli government abandon our sons in the hands of the enemy. This is a final window of opportunity for us. We must not miss it," she pleaded.

In his first comments to the media since his brother was killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Ofek Shaul asserted that "the government must stand its ground. The Cabinet members must demand that my brother, Oron, and Hadar and Avera Mengistu and Hisham (al-Sayed) will be part of the agreement."

"It cannot be that an agreement is reached with Hamas on some topics, while on the other hand they can't reach an agreement or put pressure in order to return the MIAs and POWs. Perhaps they simply don't put enough effort into it," Ofek added.

Ofek Shaul (Photo: Alex Gamburg)

Oron Shaul's aunt Chaya Namimi read out a message in Arabic directed at Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. "I was born in Egypt. I am the daughter of Egypt. Please, we ask you to help us," she began.

"For four years, Oron Shaul, Hadar Goldin and other Israelis are being held by Hamas. The State of Israel has done nothing to return the children to their mothers. Oron's father died at the age of 53 because of sorrow over his son. President Sisi, we expect you to do all you can, and for Israel to do the same, Inshallah. Return the children to their mothers. God is with you, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts," she said.

Dr. Simacha Goldin, whose son Hadar was also killed and captured during Operation Protective Edge, accused Netanyahu of speaking "hollow words behind which there is nothing" when saying the State of Israel is doing all in its power to return his son's body for burial.

"Now there are new expressions'a broad framework,' 'a broad agreement'it's all media spins. The truth is, there is no German mediator, there is no Qatari channel, there is no Egyptian intelligence man working on returning the soldiers and civilians. They don't exist because the prime minister of Israel has become a senior partner in this 'buy off agreement,'" he charged.

Dr. Goldin went on to clarify that "We are not against negotiations on prisoner exchange deals, but there is no negotiation, there was no negotiation, and there won't be any. How do I know this? Because on Thursday I spoke to the coordinator (for POWs and MIAs) Yaron Blum, and he himself doesn't know anything about negotiations to return my son, Zehava's son, and others."

Simcha Goldin (Photo: Alex Gamburg)

"The agreement with Hamas has begun," he said. "The Israeli public must understand that the prime minister has no commitment to the values of the IDF or the alliance between the government and the soldiers' families. There is only the spin."

Goldin said he too lost his trust in Netanyahu "when he signed an agreement with (Turkish President) Erdogan, which humiliated the naval commandos" who stormed the Mavi Marmara boat while it was trying to breach the Gaza blockade in 2010, killing 10 Turkish activists on board who assaulted them.

Netanyahu, Goldin said, "decided at the last moment to remove the precondition from the agreement about returning the soldiers, despite making a commitment to include it." Since Turkish had influence with Hamas, the families believed at the time that the reconciliation agreement with Ankara should be tied to the return of their sons.

Hadar's mother Leah Goldin urged the prime minister, "Learn from (US President) Trump. Before the talks, before the agreements, he forced the North Korean leader to return the American MIAs and POWs home."

Leah Goldin (Photo: Alex Gamburg)

"There's no agreement without a return. There's no reconstruction (of Gaza) without Oron, Hadar, Hisham and Avera's return first," she stressed. "Agreements signed on ice, in the heat of the Middle East, we've seen in the Turkish accord two years ago and in Cairo four years ago. We won't have this betrayal of the values of Israeli society."

Leah Goldin also asserted that "this agreement is being cooked up and engineered by Netanyahu personally, and the soldiers and civilians are not part of it."
DUBAI - Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed on Sunday it had held war games in the Gulf over the past several days, saying they were aimed at "confronting possible threats" by enemies, the state news state news agency IRNA reported.

"This exercise was conducted with the aim of controlling and safeguarding the safety of the international waterway and within the framework of the program of the Guards' annual military exercises," Guards spokesman Ramezan Sharif said, according to IRNA.

Sharif "expressed satisfaction over the successful conduct of the Guards naval exercise, emphasising the need to maintain and enhance defence readiness and the security of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and to confront threats and potential adventurous acts of enemies," IRNA said.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved Sunday a bill proposal by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked imposing fines on customers of prostitutes.

According to the bill proposal, the initial fine will stand at NIS 1,500, while the fine for a repeat offense within a three-year period will stand at NIS 3,000.

Those who receive the fine could either pay it, request to have it canceled or request trial.

However, if convicted, the defendant would have to pay a fine of up to NIS 75,300.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Sunday morning that the controversial Nationality Law will not hurt the civil rights of any Israeli citizen, and promised to strengthen the State of Israel's bond with the Druze community.

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Over 90,000 Druze and others opposing the Nationality Law flooded Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for the "Rally for Equality," calling on Netanyahu to nix the legislation or amend it.

"The laws of the state enshrined in Basic Law only individual rights, with no constitutional balance for our national character," Netanyahu explained at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting. "We passed the Nationality Law to ensure the State of Israel would be not just democratic, but also the nation state of the Jewish peopleand theirs alone."

Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The prime minister asserted this was needed "not just for our generation, but for the generations to come. Without the Nationality Law, we cannot guarantee the future of Israel as a Jewish nation state."

Listing what he said were the legislation's advantages, Netanyahu said the Nationality Law "first and foremost fortifies the law of return and raises it to another level. This law of course grants automatic right to Jewsand only themto make aliyah and receive citizenship.

"The Nationality Law prevents, for example, the exploitation of the family reunification clause under which very, very many Palestinians have been absorbed into the country since the Oslo agreement, and this law helps prevent the continued uncontrolled entry into Israel of Palestinians. It could be that this law will also be able to assist us in blocking the future entry of labor migrants."

Druze protesters at Rabin Square (Photo: AP)

Seeking to assuage the minority groups feeling discriminated against by the law, the prime minister stressed that "The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people. Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Individual rights are anchored in many laws including Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. Nobody has harmedand nobody intends to harmthese individual rights."

"The deep bond between the Druze community and our commitment to it are also essential," he added. "Therefore, today we will establish a special ministerial committee to advance this bond and this commitment and at the same time will appreciate those of all religions and all ethnic communities who serve in the IDF and the security forces."
Israel will not allow Iran to establish an army in Syria, Construction Minister Yoav Galant said Sunday in the wake of the assassination of a Syrian missile scientist.

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"There's a war raging in Syria, a lot of sides are involved and there are a lot of interests. There have already been 600,000 deaths, apparently there's another one," said Galant, a former IDF major general and a member of the Security Cabinet.

He noted he had read "the description in the paper" of Dr. Aziz Asber, the scientist who was killed in a car bomb outside his home in Hama, adding, "he sounds like not a positive person to me."

Minister Yoav Galant (Photo: Avi Bahari)

Repeating government line, Galant said Israel's interest is "to not allow the establishment of an Iranian army in Syria, and of course not allow for another front, Hezbollah II, in the Golan Heights. We won't allow Syrian territory to become a springboard for game-changing weapons."

Galant also questioned the Russians' ability to keep the Iranians away from the Syria-Israel border. "We know how (the Iranians) took over Lebanon using Hezbollah in the early 1980sthrough processes of instructors, trainers, humanitarian aid and so on. The method is similar, and therefore we will not allow anything of the kind," he said.

"But we have a great advantage herewe will demand the Syrians to take responsibility. There's a Syrian army and separation agreements from 1974 that need to be kept. There will be no Iranian presence in Syria, and if there iswe'll demand answers from the Syrian government as well," Galant explained.

Turning his sights to the south, Galant explained Israel has pushed Hamas into a corner, essentially forcing it to seek a ceasefire agreement.

Hamas leaders meet in Gaza (Photo: EPA)

"Since Operation Cast Lead about a decade ago, we've been shutting down all of its options: the sea is blocked; Sinai is closing down; the tunnels are being blocked, and by the end of 2019 I estimate there will be no more attack tunnels in the direction of Israel; the rockets are being thwarted by Iron Domemost of them anyway; and they are now using terrorism in the form of incendiary balloons and Palestinian blood being spilled on the border, which is meant to prompt international outcry. We're shutting down all of these things," he elaborated.

"This distress is leading Hamas to recalculate its moves, and if we get quiet as a result of thatboth with regards to terrorism and with regards to our soldiers in captivity, even if they're not alivewe certainly need to adopt such a thing, because our interest is not to fight Gaza," Galant said.

Nevertheless, Galant questioned the ceasefire agreement's ability to last very long. "Since, unfortunately, when you live in this area where many elementsincluding Hamas and Hezbollahdon't recognize our right to exist here, the achievement that determines the political results is the military achievement. Meaning, the lower you knock the enemy in the battle field, the longer period of quiet you get in the political arena," he opined.

He insisted the Israeli government does not negotiate with Hamas, a terror organization. "Talking is one thing and passing messages through a third party is another. These are things that have happened and continue to happen all the time everywhere. We have to recognize the fact Hamas is the ruler in the Gaza Strip, even if we don't like it," he said.
The arrival of the Hamas delegation to the Gaza Strip was accompanied by quite a few difficulties, as it includes quite a few individuals that Israel would completely veto their presence in the area on any other day.

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In addition to Saleh al-Arouri, the founder of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank and a mastermind of violent attacks against Israelis in the past, the delegation also included Mahed Obeid, who replaced al-Arouri as the head of Hamas in the West Bank and was put in charge of directing terror attacks against Israelis from the territories; Mousa Doudin, who handles the matter of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel; and Hamas leader abroad Maher Salah, who is also in charge of the organization's finances.

When the delegation arrived at the Rafah border crossing in a long convoy, Egyptian authorities prepared an unpleasant reception for them. Egyptian security personnel conducted thorough searches of the delegation's many vehicles, including going through the senior Hamas officials' personal belongings. The Egyptians also made sure each official coming into the strip was on a list of authorized personnel, to ensure Hamas does not try to bring any unwanted elements into Gaza.

Hamas leadership at Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's grave

The Egyptian authorities were likely looking for cash money they suspected Hamas might try to smuggle in by taking advantage of this opportunity. Some in the Gaza Strip believe this was also an Egyptian message to the Hamas leadership not to turn down the ceasefire proposal. But it appears the main reason for the search is the Israeli demand to prevent unwanted elements from entering the strip as well as to stop the transfer of money meant for Hamas's military wing.

The Hamas discussions over the weekend were conducted under the cover of secrecy, with Hamas imposing strict compartmentalization on the talks. All mobile phones were left out of the room and, unusually, so were the Hamas leaders' personal bodyguardsall in an effort to prevent any leaks of what was said.

Hamas leaders meet in Gaza (Photo: EPA)

In additional to the terror group's political leadership, the discussions also included representatives of Hamas's military wing.

The Hamas officials discussed three main issues: the Egyptian proposal to re-implement the reconciliation agreement with Fatah, the arrangement proposed by UN Envoy Nickolay Mladenov for a ceasefire with Israel in return for a significant easing of the Gaza blockade, and the option of including a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas as part of the deal.

Hamas avoided bringing the other Palestinian factions in the strip in on the talks. To stave off possible dissent, a briefing by Hamas official Husam Badran was scheduled for the other factions, to keep them apprised of the talks. But they will not be asked for their opinion on the matter, nor will their positions be taken into account.

Hamas delegation at the Gaza border protests

The umbrella agreement is supposed to include several basic principles. In the first stage, the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah will be restarted. Following this or in tandem, a truce will come into effect with Israel.

This in turn would lead to the permanent opening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, with the Rafah crossing also including the entry of goods in addition to people.

The final stage would entail a long-term ceasefire with Israel and a prisoner exchange deal.

Saleh al-Arouri and Ismail Haniyeh meet in Gaza (Photo: EPA)

At present, it appears the main obstacle is internal, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas feeling entirely left out of the dialogue, which mostly takes place between Hamas and Israel under the auspices of Egypt and UN Envoy Mladenov.

Therefore, Fatah has begun submitting different reservations to the Egyptians about the reconciliation plan. To add fuel to the fire, Fatah warned Hamas not to sign an agreement with Israel, as it would come at the expense of Palestinian unity. Hamas officials responded that those who have security coordination with Israel have no right to talk about the Gaza Strip's sacrifice.

It is still unclear how Egypt would deal with the obstacle set by Fatah. At the moment, the escalation between the two warring Palestinian factions is only increasing. Fatah and Hamas delegations were due to meet in Cairo on Saturday under the auspices of Egyptian intelligence to discuss the final version of the reconciliation plan, but the meeting was canceled.
Two soldiers from the elite Maglan Special Forces unit were injured during training over the past two weeks, the IDF said Sunday.

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One was seriously injured on Wednesday during training, while another was moderately hurt during Krav Maga training the week before.

GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan appointed a team headed by Brig. Gen. Itai Virob to examine commanders' conduct in the unit, while another team appointed by GOC Army Headquarters Maj. Gen. Kobi Barak will investigate the earlier incident in which a soldier was moderately hurt during Krav Maga training.

Maglan unit training (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Office)

Meanwhile, the IDF decided to halt some of the unit's training sessions and give the soldiers safety briefings.

In May 2017, a 20-year-old Maglan soldier was lightly-to-moderately hurt during a training exercise near Mahanayim Airport in northen Israel.

A preliminary investigation found that the unit's soldiers were conducting parachuting training in the area, and apparently due to human error, the soldier deviated from the range in which he was supposed to land, landed in a nearby area and slammed into a concrete wall.
DUBAI - Saudi Arabia has agreed to admit an Iranian diplomat to head an office representing Iranian interests in the kingdom, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, in a rare move after the two rivals broke relations in 2016.

"An informed diplomatic source said Sunday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to grant a visa to the head ... of Iran's interests section," IRNA reported. "Observers saw this... as a positive diplomatic step in the Tehran-Riyadh relations."

The office is expected to be set up within the Swiss diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia, based on an agreement signed in 2017.
A female IDF soldier reported to the police Sunday that her employer, a 50-year-old Nahariya restaurant owner, has taken her military weapon from her bag and left.

After an initial investigation, police said this was likely not a security-related incident.
Former Shandong University physics professor has criticized China's foreign investment policy and Xi Jinping's claim to be president for life. Sun is a signatory of Charter 08, the manifesto for China's social and political reform.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Sun Wenguang, a retired academic, often a critic of government policy, was arrested by the police while giving an interview to the Voice of America (Voa) channel in his city of Jinan. His last words were: "I have my freedom of speech!". Then the broadcast was stopped.

The arrest happened three days ago and since then nobody knows what has happened to him.

Sun, 84, was a professor of physics at Shandong University. Recently he had written an open letter to President Xi Jinping, criticizing his decision to distribute money, aid, loans abroad, instead of focusing on the poverty present in China. The interview with VOA was precisely on the subject of Beijing's foreign investments.

VOA has spread the interview in Chinese via Twitter. In it you hear voices in the background and then that of Prof. Sun who says: "Here they are again: seven, eight of them". Then, addressing the newcomers [the policemen], he says: "What, did I say anything wrong? Listen to what I say, is it wrong?"

He goes on again to explain his criticism of China's foreign investments: "People [in China] are poor. Let's not throw our money in Africa. Throwing money like this is of no good to our country."

At a certain point, Prof. Sun shouts: "What are you doing? It's illegal for you to come to my home. I have my freedom of speech."

The line then abruptly goes dead.

Sun Wenguang spent more than 10 years in prison at various times from 1960 to 1980, for criticizing Mao Zedong. He is also one of the signatories, along with Liu Xiaobo, of the Charter 08 manifesto for China's political and social reform.

In 2009, he was beaten while visiting the tomb of Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party secretary who was expelled for opposing the Tiananmen massacre.

In recent months, in his open letter to Xi, he had criticized the change in the Chinese constitution that allows the president to hold his office for life.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ine Marie Eriksen Sreide, in his Jerusalem office on Sunday.

The two discussed bilateral and regional issues, talked about the situation in Gaza, and agreed to expand cooperation in high-tech systems, with an emphasis on digital health services.

They also discussed Norway's GRM system used to ensure that projects in Gaza serve their purpose and not Hamas's goals.

It should be noted that last week Norway protested against Israel's takeover of a ship that tried to enter Gaza carrying a Norwegian flag.
DUBAI - Iran has arrested seven people including a former deputy central bank governor and five foreign exchange dealers for alleged economic crimes, the judiciary said on Sunday as the country prepares to face a return of US sanctions.

"The foreign exchange deputy of the central bank ..., who recently I heard has been deposed, has been detained," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told state television.

Ejei did not name the official but he appeared to be referring to Ahmad Araghchi, who some media reports had said was dismissed as deputy central bank governor after a wide public outcry and street protests over a rapid fall of Iran's currency.

The rial currency has lost about half of its value since April because of a weak economy and heavy demand for dollars among Iranians who fear the effects of crippling US sanctions.

The central bank last week blamed "enemies" for the fall of the currency and a rapid rise in the prices of gold coins and the judiciary said 29 people had been arrested on charges that carry the death penalty.
The Ministerial committee for Legislation approved Sunday a bill submitted by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to impose fines on prostitution customers.

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A task team headed by Emi Palmor, Director General of the Ministry of Justice, will be established to oversee the implementation of decisions made by the committee for fighting prostitution.

The Knesset will vote on the bill in its next session. If the bill passes into law, paying for prostitutes will soon become illegal.





(Photo: Nir Cohen)

According to the bill, a client of prostitution will be fined NIS 1,500. Repeat offenders within three years will be fined NIS 3,000. Defendants could dispute the fine and go to trial. The court, however, will have the option of raising the fine up to NIS 75,300.

Today, the government explicitly declared that the state is taking responsibility for the 14,000 women and men involved in prostitution, said Attorney Nitzan Kahane, a member of the Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution.

The ministers also voted to set aside funds for the rehabilitation of prostitutes.

Kahane noted that MKs Zehava Gal-On, Shuli Mualem and Aliza Lavi were involved in the effort to approve the proposal. "We congratulate the government and Ministers Shaked and Erdan who led the move, and urge them to complete the legislative process and enact resolutions as soon as possible," she said.

In discussions regarding the bill, the justice minister said that prostitution would be addressed by a joint program of the Ministries of Justice, Welfare, Education and Health.

The joint program will deal with two main issues: expanding the healthcare options provided to both prostitutes and their clients, and raising public awareness.

The rehabilitation programs will include treatment, employment and economic programs, locating and prevention of prostitution, setting up crisis apartments for the use of prostitutes, establishing rehabilitation centers and sex clinics designated for certain targeted populations.

The mission to raise public awareness will deal with the characteristics, risk factors, and harm involved in the prostitution industry.

A compulsory curriculum for the school system will be developed, educators will be trained to locate and identify minors at risk of exploitation and abuse of prostitution, and soldiers and students will learn about the harm caused by prostitution.

In addition, campaigns concerning the damages involved in the prostitution industry will be launched, assistance content will be published, and professionals in vocations with a potential connection to prostitution will undergo mandatory training.
On the face of it, we have a fascinating situation: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his (important? Maybe not) trip to Colombia, and made a point of explaining that he decided to stay in Israel to deal with matters related to Gaza.

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Meanwhile, a delegation of senior Hamas figures, led by Saleh al-Arouri, the great villain who was involved in the murder and abduction of three Israeli youthsGil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrachin 2014, arrived in Gaza.

Israel's Security Cabinet (Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO)



This is the first time that al-Arouri visits Gaza. According to foreign reports, Israel has vowed not to assassinate him.

The situation took an unexpected turn when the Hamas leadership held a rather casual meeting in Cairo and then headed to the Gaza Strip to have a broader forum, walk around Gaza, and make decisions in the field.

Hamas's spokesman holding a picture of a terrorist

On the way, the delegation visited the border with Israel and took photographs holding a picture of the 17-year-old terrorist who stabbed Yotam Ovadia to death in the settlement of Adam.

What is fascinating about the story is that Israel, just like Hamas, wants Egypt to mediate the cease-fire arrangement. Note that we are talking about a cease-fire deal with Gaza alone, the arrangement does not include the West Bank.

Our eyes, then, are set to the strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his associates will follow the developments as well and burst with anger.

Mladenov with PM Netanyahu (Photo: Gov. Press Office)

If things go as planned, an Egyptian-brokered agreement between Israel and Hamas will eventually be reached, with the involvement of United Nations representative Nickolay Mladenov and Qatar's envoy Muhammad al-Imadi.

The latter has recently stated: "We are working on preventing the next confrontation in Gaza... and in order to rehabilitate Gaza, we have to talk to Israel."

Notice he does not mean engaging in direct dialogue with Israel, and does not say who will do the talking.

What does the ceasefire agreement entail? A five-year truce (with the option to extend it further), cessation of hostilities between Gaza and Israel, removal of economic barriers from the Gaza Strip, bringing donors to the Gaza Strip to fund water, electricity, the construction of infrastructure, and the renovation of houses destroyed in IAF bombings. Next, the construction of a sea port for Gaza in Ismailia, Egypt, and an airport for the strip in Sinai. The final stage of the agreement includes the exchange of prisoners, captives, and missing persons (both sides are not satisfied with this plan).

Hamas's delegation to the Gaza Strip

It is important to emphasize what is missing from the agreement: the connection between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is not mentioned, as if they were two separate entities. The Palestinian Authority, if it wishes, can establish relations with Jordan, and Gaza can gradually establish close ties with Egypt. The ties will be so close that they will (barely) have need for the Kerem Shalom border crossing for transferring goods to Gaza.

You may ask, correctly, why was it so important to bring al-Arouri? Apparently the reason lies in the Egyptian-Israeli demand to immediately stop Hamas's digging of cross-border tunnels and the transfer of weapons to Gaza through smuggling tunnels.

Ismail Haniyeh is indeed the head of Hamas' political bureau, but he has become too soft. His deputy, al-Arouri, who has been living in Lebanon for the past couple of years, and walking freely in the Middle East and Africa, is very cunning. His commitment, not Haniyeh's, is crucial.

Ismail Haniyeh and al-Arouri (: EPA)

On one hand, nothing has been set in stone yet. On the other hand, al-Arouri would not have come to Gaza had it not been for a serious affair, and Israel would certainly would not have promised not to assassinate him.

We should not forget that al-Arouri can still leave (for the fourth time this year) Lebanon, move to Tehran, and ask the Iranians to be more involved in funding and supplying arms to Gaza.

Al-Arouri, as previously mentioned, is a very dangerous man with whom Israel has a long history. But, unfortunately, the more blood you have on your hands, the more important you are.

And yet everything is still open. It seems to me that there was no such precedent, at least not under Netanyahu's leadership, of a ceasefire agreement forged between Israel and Hamas's leadership.

Both sides are suspicious of each other, and even Egypt, which knows its way around these waters, is not free of suspicions.
Four municipalities were informed Sunday that Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has vetoed bylaws passed in their cities that would have formally legalized the opening of businesses on Saturdays, the Jewish day of rest.

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The four citiesHolon, Givatayim, Herzliya and Modiin-Maccabim-Reutjoin Rishon LeZion, which received a similar notice a month and a half ago. Rishon and Holon are petitioning the High Court to force Deri to approve their bylaws.

The Interior Ministry explained that Minister Deri rejected the proposals because the municipalities were unable to satisfactorily explain why it was necessary to open the businesses on Shabbat, as well as whose interests it serves.

Aryeh Deri (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Such a requirement is part of the Supermarkets Law , which was approved by the Knesset at the beginning of the year. It grants the interior minister veto power over municipal bylaws having to do with Shabbat observance in the public sphere.

A statement from Deri's office said he considers it a Jewish and social value to allow workers rest on Shabbat. In addition, the municipalities seeking to allow businesses to open on Shabbat did not prove that there was a need for it, as mandated by law.

It should be noted that the enforcement of businesses operating on Shabbat is under the sole authority of the municipalities. The Interior Ministry has no authority or ability to enforce this, the statement said.

In a letter written to the Modiin-Maccabim-Reut Municipality Interior Ministry Director-General Mordechai Cohen charged that the purpose of the bylaw was to legalize the operations of businesses which have been ignoring the law for years by opening their doors on Shabbat.

We are talking about legislation that encourages and promotes criminal behavior, thereby harming the rule of law. Its significance will be that those businesses will now be awarded with legalization after years of ignoring the law, Cohen accused.

Modiin Mayor Haim Bibas said in response that the Interior Ministry is engaging in cheap politics ahead of elections in order to gain votes. The minister does not have the authority to veto bylaws, definitely not that which have been enacted before the Knessets legislation (the Supermarkets Law) seven months ago.

Haim Bibas

According to Bibas, The law states that the minister has 60 days from the time the bylaw was approved to issue his objection, and he did not do that. Furthermore, several municipalities sought the ministers response to their legislation, after the 60 days, and they were ignored.

Therefore this is an attempt by the Interior Minister to use Shabbat for the purpose of political gains. We will appeal to the High Court in order to protect the citizens of Israel, Bibas said.

The local authorities petitioning the High Court stated that Deris actions are a gross interference in local affairs and a violation of democracy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon have given Aryeh Deri the keys to close businesses in Israel on Shabbat, said Uri Kedar, Chairman of Israel Hofsheet (Be Free Israel).

After choosing to harm various minority sectors of Israeli society, they have now declared war on the majority of the population, those that do not intend to observe Shabbat as it is observed in Bnei Brak, Kedar said.

Kedar also warned that if the Supermarkets Law is not changed, those responsible will pay a political price. He called on municipal officials to join in the struggle for a sane and free Israel.

Neemanei Torah VaAvodah (a religious Zionist movement) accused Deri of adding to the divisiveness between religious and secular Israelis with regards to Shabbat in the public sphere. They noted that since the Supermarkets Law was passed, not one store has , nor will be, closed. They called on local politicians to avoid getting bogged down in a civil war because of Deri and instead allow for a healthy dialogue on the matter of Shabbat in the public sphere.
Former Bernie Sanders adviser Simone Zimmerman tweeted that she was detained for 3 hours at the Sinai border crossing by Israeli authorities who questioned her about her political activities vis-a-vis the Palestinians.
The Security Cabinet discussed the proposed ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza for five hours on Sunday.

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During the meeting, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot briefed the ministers on the situation in the strip.

Israel's Security Cabinet (Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO)

While the ministers discussed the plan, they made no decisions on the matter and were not asked to approve it.

The plan, mediated by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov and Egyptian intelligence, is the first stage in the effort to reach a broader agreement between Hamas and Israel.

But there was not much optimism among the ministers. The chances of reaching a broader, long-term agreement with Hamas were very low, since there are too many obstacles on the way and it is doubtful the gaps can be bridged.

Hamas leaders meet in Gaza (Photo: EPA)

Hamas demands the release of high value prisoners in return for advancing negotiations for the release of civilians and the return of IDF soldiers' remains. Israel, meanwhile, objects to releasing high value prisoners, and conditions any broad agreement in a resolution to the issue of MIAs and POWs.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also hardening his positions. He remains intransigent to increasing the salaries of PA employees in Gaza and objects to the Egyptians' proposals, which makes it all the more difficult to resume Palestinian reconciliation.

If Abbas refuses to take civil control of the Gaza Strip, it's doubtful cash money could be brought into the strip to increase the residents' purchasing power.

Last month's situation assessment (Photo: Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Therefore, the stage that is most likely to succeed is the first one, the ceasefire: Hamas will commit to stopping the launching of incendiary balloons and kites, and Israel will agree to reopen the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

A complete ceasefire (by the Palestinians) will lead, on Israels part, to the reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing and renewal of permits given in respect to the fishing zones, said an Israeli official.

He added that "there is no broad agreement on the table that does not include a solution to the issue of returning our citizens and the bodies of our soldiers being held in the strip."

Hamas delegation at the Gaza border protests

Israeli officials estimate that such a ceasefire will not satisfy Hamas on the long term, and therefore the IDF prepares for the possibility of a limit round of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

"The IDF is prepared for any scenario," a statement from the Cabinet said Sunday following the meeting.
With the recent Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) report indicating a rise in housing stress, The Urban Taskforce underscored that this is not the time to slow down housing production.

The industry group said that the growth in housing stress in Sydney from about 10% in 2005-08 to 13% in 2013-16 requires a response from the housing market. In fact, home values have surged drastically in the last decade and have brought problems to the lowest 40% of income earners who spend more than 30% of their income on housing.

The deemed best way to counter this issue is to ensure that there are lots of new homes built at a range of affordability levels, but the recent actions of the New South Wales (NSW) governments seem to be doing the opposite.

Housing supply needs to be encouraged by councils and the state government but a number of recent decisions by the NSW Government in a pre-election environment will have the effect of reducing supply dramatically, the group said in a disclosure.

Some of the decisions being referred to were allowing 50 NSW councils to defer a terrace house code for a year and stoppage of planning proposals in Ryde for two years. In addition, the government also delayed the Planned Precincts on the Sydenham to Bankstown rail corridor.

Instead of regulating home prices in the city, The Urban Taskforce believed that the result of these back-downs from previous policy will be to slow down housing supply and therefore push home prices up again.

[We are] keen to assist with the provision of more affordable housing in line with the direction taken by the NSW Government agency Landcom. The Landcom approach uses the Affordable Rental Housing SEPP to provide a percentage of affordable homes for a ten year period. With a reasonable uplift in floor space, we believe that thousands of affordable rental apartments could be provided across Sydney, noted Urban Taskforce.

In the end, it was reiterated that Sydneys housing problems can only be solved in two ways. The first is when the NSW Government allots budget for affordable and social housing, and the second is if the private sector gets incentives to provide affordable housing.

Related stories:

How To Fix Australia's Broken Property Market

The Eight Month Home Loan Downturn
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - On Friday, July 27, 2018, Aaron Vasquez, 23, was arrested and charged in connection with a May 28, 2017 armed robbery of a fast food restaurant on 2972 North Alma School Road, Chandler, Arizona.

In May of 2018, the FBI became aware of and involved in investigating a series of ongoing armed robberies around the valley. Investigators believe that the same individual engaged in at least fifteen (15) armed robberies of various fast food restaurants between September 13, 2017 and July 19, 2018. The robberies, detailed in the complaint, took place in Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, and Tempe, Arizona. In each robbery, the individual utilized a similar handgun and was described with similar physical characteristics.

On July 27, 2018, the FBI and our partner law enforcement agencies executed search warrants in connection with the investigation. Items recovered, including clothes, were similar to items used in the various robberies.

Vasquez is charged with committing a violation of 18 U.S.C 1951 (Hobbs Act robbery) on May 28, 2018.

The investigation continues and additional charges may follow.

The FBI Violent Crimes Task Force would like to thank the Chandler Police Department, Mesa Police Department, Gilbert Police Department, and Tempe Police Department for the resources they contributed to this investigation.

This is another example of Arizona law enforcement agencies working together to protect our communities from violent crime, said Michael DeLeon, special agent in charge of the FBI Phoenix Field Office.

The suspect has been charged in a complaint, filed in federal court. A complaint is only an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for Arizona at http://www.azd.uscourts.gov/ or on PACER https://www.pacer.gov/

The FBI Violent Crimes Task Force is comprised of the Phoenix Police Department, Scottsdale Police Department, Maricopa County Sheriffs Office, and the FBI.
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Wednesday, Jason Allen Martinez, 37, of Parker, Arizona, and a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell to 77 months in prison, followed by a term of three years of supervised release. Martinez had previously pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon. Martinez was also sentenced to four months imprisonment in a 2010 supervised release matter, to run consecutive to the sentence imposed in the 2017 case. Martinez had previously admitted to violating his supervised release.

On Aug. 21, 2017, Martinez assaulted the victim, a former partner of his, by chasing her down in the vehicle he was driving and crashing into the rear end of the victims vehicle. Martinez continued to chase the victim after crashing into her vehicle and tried to force her off the road several times. The victim is a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the assault occurred on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Indian Reservation.

The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado River Indian Tribes Police Department. The prosecution was handled by Christina J. Reid-Moore, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix.

CASE NUMBER: CR-2017-01509-PHX-DGC and CR-2010-00131-PHX-DGC

RELEASE NUMBER: 2018-098_Martinez
Border News

Tucson, Arizona - Two teen sisters were apprehended for human smuggling by a Tucson Station Border Patrol agent on State Route 286 near Sasabe Sunday evening.

The agent observed a blue Chevrolet Cruze pull over to the side of the road and two visible passengers, the 18-year-old driver and her 16-year old sister exit the vehicle. As the agent approached, he observed subjects in the back seat attempting to conceal themselves with a blanket. The two adult males were found to be illegally present in the country.

While searching the rest of the vehicle, the agent found two more illegal aliens in the trunk. They claimed to have no knowledge of how to let themselves out. All four men, ages 18 to 31, had entered the country illegally. Three were from Guatemala, and one from Mexico. All were arrested for immigration violations and transported to the Tucson Station for processing.

The driver was placed under arrest for alien smuggling. Her sister was released to a legal guardian.

Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection welcomes assistance from the community. Citizens can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free. All calls will be answered and remain anonymous.
- Afia Pokua has reportedly criticized Wendy Shay for mentioning President Akufo Addos name in her song Uber Driver

- Afia Pokua is also angry at Shays visit to the Jubilee House to meet the President, calling it disrespectful

- Bullet has blasted Afia for such comments about Wendy

Ricky Nana Agyemang, popularly known as Bullet, and CEO of RuffTown Records has descended heavily on radio presenter Afia Pokua for allegedly disrespecting Wendy Shay.

Afia Pokua, also known as Vim Lady, was said to have called Wendy Shay names for mentioning President Akufo Addos name in her Uber Driver.

The Adom FM presenter also has problems with Wendy Shay visiting the president at the Jubilee House.

READ ALSO: Woman beaten by police takes delivery of two bedroom house from Midland

Left to her, Nana Addo is the first gentleman of the country and so it was not right for Wendy Shay to mention his name in her song.

Afia claimed that was disrespectful on the part of Wendy Shay.

But even before Wendy herself would respond to this attack, her abled manager, Bullet, has taken the 'bullet' for her to blast Afia Pokua.

Bullet described the Vim Lady as an old woman who was probably envious or jealous of Wendy Shay and her progress.

He also questioned whether Wendy is a foreigner who has no right to meet with the president.

READ ALSO: Professor Frimpong-Boateng rewarded by graduate whose life he saved at age 1

Bullet wrote: "[Afia] pokuaa vim lady of adom FM,is it envy or jealousy?is Wendy shay not a Ghanaian and doesn't she have the right as a Ghanaian to visit the president ?old women always want to bring young women who are doing something good down and it's very sad.Do you want to tell me musicians are not qualified to visit the president?

#supporttalents

#rufftownrecords

READ ALSO: Nadia Buari causes traffic with her bedroom on the internet

Meanwhile, Wendy Shay has disclosed in an earlier interview that she went to meet with President Akufo Addo to hand him a copy of Uber Driver.

Akufo Addo, according to Wendy Shay, described her as the new sensational artiste and urged her to carry on with her talent.

Bullet is also noted for always defending his artistes.

When Wendy Shay was trolled for wearing the same hair for three months, he came to her rescue, asking Ghanians to leave Wendy alone because that was her brand.

He later revealed that the alleged three-month old wig has earned Wendy Shay an ambassadorial deal.

READ ALSO: Fans disappointed in Becca for her worsening complexion in latest video

Ghana News 2018: John Mahamas Salary - Why Everyone Discusses It Now? | Yen.com.gh

READ ALSO: Tracy Sarkcess flaunts her wedding ring in latest photo

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Source: Yen
The Jaw-Dropping Sights Below an Oregon Coast Lighthouse

Published 08/04/2018 at 5:11 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff





(Florence, Oregon)  They call it the the most photographed lighthouse in the world. Just about in the very center of the Oregon coast, Florences Heceta Head Lighthouse is an ancient wonder that plays host to a lot of intriguing finds and adventures, with a huge array of beachy wonders that includes a funky cave.

While no one really knows what is the most frequently photographed lighthouse on this planet, theres little doubt this one is especially photogenic. Its often viewed from the overlooks a few miles south, around MP 179 and 178, where you can also peek down at a rugged wilderness of secret beaches inaccessible to Man, and the hordes of sea lions that have formed a colony in this area.

The park that allows access to the lighthouse is called Heceta Head State Scenic Viewpoint, formerly Devil's Elbow State Park until about the late 90s. Cutting through the state park is Cape Creek, and the southern side of that is still called Devils Elbow.

Interestingly, this was the site of a bad horror film made in this area in the 80s, which among other nearby locations featured this beach. Starring Patrick Duffy, Cry for the Strangers actually called this beach Devils Beach, with the premise being it was the site of an ancient native curse.

The beach itself is rather small and cove-like, with Cape Creek murmuring its way through it with calming beauty. From some angles, if you block the headland from view, the three sea stacks jutting out from the headland make the place easily mistaken for Oceanside, to the north.

An interesting note about the headland and those sea stacks is the first rock structure and the headland were actually connected. Somewhere in the early part of the century, state officials became concerned about the alarming frequency of people who got in trouble traipsing around this area between the first structure and the point. The area was eventually blasted with dynamite to disconnect the two structures and keep people from getting stranded and hurt.

Bounce around the tideline, close to the edge of the headland, and given the right tidal conditions, a fascinating cave becomes apparent. Its not very big, but intriguing. But most of all, if the tide is anywhere near it, you dont want to venture in as ocean waves frequently wash into the sea cave.

This famed Oregon coast lighthouse is often available for tours in the summer. Check the Oregon State Parks site for availability. MORE PHOTOS BELOW: Lodgings in Yachats - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours













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Photos of Whales Taken from Space: Hopefully Coming to the Oregon Coast Soon

Published 08/05/2018 at 4:11 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Portland, Oregon)  The images are unforgettable. Theyre surreal, wildly new, and engaging in a mesmerizing way when you discover they were taken of something on Earth by something not of this Earth. A few years back, these satellite images were released from a science research group out of Cambridge, England, but theres something incredibly relevant to the Oregon coast about them  perhaps even urgent.

Yes, whales photographed from space is a thing, and we on the Oregon coast can only hope it comes to this region soon. (Photos courtesy BAS).

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) released their findings on the subject a few years ago and wowed the world with photos of whales from far above, using high resolution tech that latched onto the blue wavelengths of life on Earth.

The satellite WorldView-2, launched October 2009, was used for this project.

It was really a proof of concept endeavor to some degree at the time, but its something that Oregon coast scientists could benefit from eventually.

Currently, theyre working on southern right whales in the seas off South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, all in the south Atlantic Ocean. Whaling there ceased in the 70s, and researchers are now using the technology to see if the species is still recovering from that, among other things.

Any plans to share this technology with those on the Oregon coast? Thats unknown.

There is much tagging done by the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport in various parts of the world, and certainly there are a multitude of eyes pointed at the coastline by volunteer groups  all looking at whales. Still, another method would be helpful.

Charlie Plybon, head of the Surfrider Foundation in Oregon, sees a lot of possible ways this kind of technology could assist researchers along the Oregon coast. Not just in counting the number of whales but knowing more about whale behaviors in this area under varied circumstances could prove vital.

Where they were moving, where they were spending time feeding, Plybon said. But I think especially with respect to some technologies, as in how whales behave around wave energy sites. There's already a lot of research going on about EMF or hydrophones, how what's emitted from them affects the whales.

Plybon added some areas around the Oregon coast are too remote to see whales very clearly or accurately from shore as well.

In the end, its the photographs that matter. Its like a photo essay of otherworldly beauty, taken by NASA-born robots in the sky. Thats what well leave you with here. Photos below:

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In the province of Jianxi, the authorities decide for a "zero tolerance" policy against those who decide to be buried. Everyone in China must be cremated. Funeral rituals also forbidden. The cult of the dead resists in rural areas. Burial is prohibited because it subtracts land from agriculture.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - In the southeastern rural areas of Jiangxi, the authorities have decided to implement a zero tolerance policy towards those who decide to be buried. Officials seized and destroyed hundreds of coffins and forced people to abandon funeral rituals.

Six months ago, the governor of the region decided to clamp down on the burial practices of the dead. The officials went to the villages of Ganzhou, Jian and Yichun, entered people's homes and confiscated all the coffins they found. The photos and videos testify to piles of hundreds of coffins piled up and destroyed by the bulldozers. Some seniors tried to fight back to retrieve their coffins.

In Yiyang County, a body that had been buried against cremation policies was exhumed in April. These facts sparked the indignation of the local and national media that defined the actions of "barbaric and unpopular" government officials. Until a few years ago, cremation in rural areas was not widespread and the authorities were turning a blind eye to the violations.

The Jiangxi government wants to make cremation mandatory as the only way to dispose of the remains of people in order to safeguard the arable land.

For the expropriations of the coffins the authorities have offered compensation of 2 thousand yuan (290 dollars). Making a coffin is very expensive, about 5,000 yuan, the compensation is not convenient for poor rural people.

A young man from the village of Jian says that on Sunday 29 July the officials took away his grandparents coffins: "They have been kept for more than 30 years. They were made by carpenters with the wood of our land ".

In rural China there is the tradition of custom made coffins. These are kept at home in the hope that they will bring longevity and luck.

Provincial Governor Liu Qi commented: "It was the intention of the government to introduce environmentally friendly funeral services, but it went astray and created resentment".

The Chinese agencies report that in 2014 at least six senior citizens of Anqing, in the southeastern province of Anhui, committed suicide after hearing about the government's plan to seize their coffins.
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CAMEROUN :: Death of Nigerian Asylum-Seekers in Cameroon Shocks UNHCR

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed shock over the tragic death of six Nigerian asylum-seekers, among them three children, who were killed in a blast in the far north of Cameroon.

In a statement issued by the agency, it said, This tragic incident is a disappointing testament of continuing forced returns (refoulements) of refugees and asylum-seekers from Cameroon, despite numerous appeals by UNHCR to the Cameroonian government to respect its obligations.

Speaking on the matter, the Director of UNHCRs Regional Bureau for Africa, Valentin Tapsoba, stated that, The forced return of refugees and asylum-seekers is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law to which the Cameroonian State is party.

Business Post reports that UNHCR learnt that on July 29, about 12 asylum-seekers were being forcibly returned to Banki, Nigeria, in a Cameroonian army truck which drove over an improvised explosive device that exploded.

Six Cameroonian soldiers and six other asylum-seekers were also injured in the incident, which took place in Homaka, Mayo Sava Division.

Over 800 Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers in Cameroon have been forcibly returned to Nigeria since the beginning of 2018.

UNHCR has once again called upon the government of Cameroon to refrain from carrying out further forced returns of Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers.

It also reminded Cameroon of its obligations under international law relating to the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers and the commitments it made by signing the Tripartite Agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees from Cameroon in March 2017.

UNHCR reiterates its appeal to authorities to provide Nigerian refugees with unhindered access to asylum and stands ready to support Cameroon to ensure all individuals seeking safety have access to efficient screening, registration and documentation procedures, the statement obtained by this newspaper disclosed.

Some 96,000 Nigerian refugees have sought safety in the Far North region of the country, with more than 8,000 new refugees registered since the beginning of 2018.

Cameroon currently hosts more than 367,000 refugees and asylum- seekers.
The sanctuary was built in 1908. Every year at least 2 million pilgrims arrive, both Christians and Muslims. "A meeting place between East and West".

Harissa (AsiaNews) - The shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, with the statue that dominates the entire coastline of the country from the summit of Harissa, begins tomorrow to celebrate her Jubilee. Opened in 1908, it celebrates 110 years.

The solemn opening mass will be celebrated tomorrow at 11 am in the great basilica. Then there will be a procession for the opening of the "holy door" of the sanctuary, which will remain open throughout the year, welcoming pilgrims.

The shrine of Harissa is the destination of many pilgrimages by Christians, but also by Muslims, who honor the Virgin Mary, mentioned in the Koran. Muslim women visit the shrine, light candles and offer flowers and money especially to ask for the grace of having a child.

Fr. Khalil Alwan, vice-rector of the sanctuary, in an interview with the Orient-Le Jour, affirms that the basilica "is a meeting place between East and West". Every year at least 2 million pilgrims arrive.

In 2016, with a solemn mass in Harissa, the Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai consecrated Lebanon and the Middle East to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (photo 3).
The National President of Cameroon Peoples Party, CPP, Edith Kahbang Walla, has said the Anglophone General Conference, dubbed AGC, convened by his Eminence, Archbishop Emeritus of the Metropolitan Diocese of Douala, Christian Cardinal Tumi, is a laudable initiative.

In a release signed by Kah Walla and on behalf of her party, states CPP is strongly in support of any initiative geared towards restoring peace in the conflict hit North West and South West regions of Cameroon.

The under fire President of CPP, said it is time to come together and stop the blood bath witnessed daily in the tow regions.

Full Release:

The CPP welcomes the initiative of a third All Anglophone Conference convened jointly by His Eminence Christian Cardinal Tumi, Reverend Babila George Fonchang, Imam Tukur Mohammed Adamu and Imam Alhadji Mohammed Aboubakar, the organization of which will be coordinated by Simon Munzu.

This conference is a good thing insofar as it reflects a willingness to dialogue in order to contribute to the resolution of the deep crisis that has now turned the Nord West and South West regions into a civil war zone. This decision to act, to face a critical and complex situation, to try to find a way out instead of giving in to the temptation of despair as we face the daily escalation of violence, is commendable.

On the one hand, it is initiated in a context where the population remains hostage of extreme violence, violence which creates a lot of misery, victims and enormous losses.

On the other hand, it is undoubtedly a beacon of hope for all who are thirsty for peace and a step toward peaceful resolution of this conflict whose causes go back to the mismanagement of our colonial heritage, the non-application of our various fundamental laws and persistent bad governance.

The CPP congratulates this initiative of dialogue between Cameroonians of the North West and South West regions, as a prelude to a national dialogue that includes all Cameroonians.

The CPP shares the urgent need to create conditions for a Dialogue. This means reaching a ceasefire, taking steps to ease the tensions and starting the long road to justice, truth and reconciliation.

The CPP encourages the promoters of this dialogue to persevere despite the obstacles. Criticisms will arise and they must be taken into account in order to succeed in this consultation. However, the conveners must forge on with determination. Those who want peace have to be more courageous and determined than those who in cynicism or despair feel at ease in chaos.

The CPP is convinced that this situation of profound crisis and civil war raises the question of rebuilding the nation in terms of its constitution, institutions, governance, wealth distribution and unity. The CPP is convinced that no tinkering, half-baked or superficial solution can stop the country's ongoing implosion.

The CPP, as proposed by the Stand Up For Cameroon movement of which it is a member, is convinced that only a democratic political transition will allow us to deal in depth with the fundamental problems that this critical situation has brought to the surface. The CPP, through its militants and sympathizers from all over the country, will contribute to any initiative whose goal is to accelerate the rebuilding of the nation of Cameroon for the good of all its sons and daughters.

Instead of complaining about darkness, let us light a candle!

Let us act together for a real national dialogue that is inclusive, participatory, sovereign, public and facilitated by Cameroonian

FOR CPP, EDITH KAH WALLA , NATIONAL PRESIDENT"
Close to 20 families affected by floods in Limbe, Fako Division in the South West region last week and which claimed lives and destroyed properties have been compensated.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, Emmanuel Engamba Ledoux in a release has stated the type of aide and the exact number of victims.

He disclosed that six people died as a result of the downpour which drowned one person while 5 others died in a mudslide.

Mr Ledoux said the assistance is coming after proper identification and relocation of the victims was done by the Ministry of Territorial Administration.

He also said the reliefs were ordered by same Ministry instructing that that FCFA 1 million be given to each of the deceased families (this concerns only 4 families whose corpses are yet to be buried), and FCFA 200.000 to each of the 12 displaced families.

Also, buckets, mattresses, blankets, cartons of soap, toothbrushes, and packets of toothpastes will be distributed to the victims.

Before extending a helping hand to the victims, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji Paul, dispatched an evaluation team to the area last week. The team led by South West Governor, Bernard Okalia Billai, went to worst hit areas where land slide caused many to die. They also visited families who were immediately temporary relocated for safety.

The floods last week was the deadliest since 2014 in the OPEC City of Limbe, it left many families homeless and destroyed properties of many denizens. In 2013 and 2014, several houses suffered from loss of propoerites and human lives due to heavy floods and mudslides. The cleaniest town in the South West region paradoxically has been a victim of poorly constructed drainage systems and the poor topography of the area. Warnings against the construction of houses on risky zones have fallen in deaf ears.
T

To the editor:

A police officer dies in Fort Myers, killed by another illegal alien thanks to Democrats, the open border policy, sanctuary cities and judges that dont care.

How many more American have to die before the Democrats like Bill Nelson and the rest of them in Washington put a stop to what is going on in our border states and our country?

Nelson has been in Washington forever and has done very little for this state  just look at our water problems as well as letting people in illegally in so the Democrats can get more votes. That is just a great policy for him and his party.

Dont you think its time for change with support for our President and stopping the mess we have on our borders?

And that goes for Republicans as well.

Lets stop the talks and take action .

Roy Spegele

Cape Coral
by Melani Manel Perera

About 8.7% of the population is disabled on the island; 57% are women. A document describes the violence suffered by women during the conflict. So far there has been no cause-effect study between the development of disability and civil war.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - Recognize our rights and the dignity of women. This is the appeal of dozens of Sri Lankan women disabled by the civil war that bloodied the island for about 30 years. Their testimony was collected in a report presented to the public on July 24th in Colombo.

President of the Association of Women with Disabilities (Akasa), Kamalawathi Narayanagedara, who was disabled because of polio, told AsiaNews: "We want to have a real recognition from society and the government because we are human beings like everyone else. I am very sorry for the women made disabled by the civil war (1983-2009), we should give them more attention ".

In Sri Lanka the numbers of people with physical and mental disabilities are very high: according to the 2012 census, at least 8.7% of the population is disabled; of this, 57% are women. The research carried out on the condition of the latter is called "Out of the Shadows: War-affected Women with Disabilities in Sri Lanka" and is done by the Law and Society Trust (Lst) and Western Sydney University. Three versions have been drawn up: in English, Sinhala and Braille, to allow reading also for the blind.

The report describes the violence suffered by women during the conflict in the provinces and border villages to the north and east of the country, where the Tamil Tigers guerrilla targeted especially women of Islamic faith. Because of those atrocities, many have been disabled with movement, sight and hearing problems. The study also finds that that women are the majority of disabled people in the districts of Kandy, Trincomalee and Puttalam, those where the fighting between the regular army and Tamil rebels has been more tightly controlled.

The study also highlights a serious shortcoming: the fact that there has never been a similar research linking disability to war. Recognizing that link of cause and effect, say the experts, would greatly contribute to the process of national reconciliation. On the contrary, we read in the text, "the National policy for reconciliation has never considered the condition of disabled women in the post-war scenario and also the government's attention has been inconsistent and inadequate". The report also stresses the difficulty of women in obtaining justice and access to the legal system, not only for the defense of their rights, but also from the point of view of architectural barriers that prevent wheelchair movements.
UPDATE AUGUST 5, 2014

The body of a missing Lumby man recovered from the Shuswap River has now been identified.

Kenneth Fisher, 69, slipped beneath the roaring waters of the Shuswap River after his car went over the edge on June 14, 2014.

Due to the dangerous river conditions, rescue crews were not able to recover his body, or the truck, until late July.

The BC Coroners Service has now confirmed that the man pulled from the river was Fisher.

According to the Coroner, Fisher was the driver and sole occupant of the pickup truck.

The truck was heading northbound downhill on Shuswap River Drive, a gravel road, when the vehicle left the road and rolled down an embankment into the Shuswap River.

The BC Coroners Service and RCMP Traffic Services continue to investigate this death and at this time have not released why or how the vehicle left the road.

JULY 31, 2014

The body of a missing Lumby man has now been recovered after he and the truck he was driving went into the Shuswap River in June.

At that time RCMP were unable to get to the vehicle because of dangerous rushing waters.

RCMP Spokesman Gord Molendyk says that South East District RCMP dive team were able to recover the man's 1994 Ford around 1 p.m. Thursday.

The driver was found inside the truck.

The family of the missing man have been notified and his body has been turned over to the BC Coroner.

The South East District RCMP Dive team are now expected to head to Revelstoke to help in the search for a missing Coldstream man.
The first woman in Denmark is fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported.

She indulged in a fight with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off. The police were called to a shopping center in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland to stop the fight.

"During the fight, her niqab came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again," Borchersen said. Police took a photograph of the woman wearing the niqab and obtained security camera footage from the shopping center of the incident.

The woman would receive a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156, 134 euros) in the post, and was told to either remove her veil or leave the public space. "She chose the latter," Borchersen said.

Also Read: This Australian woman marries herself in after a painful break-up
Portugal and Spain broke temperature records as a wave of heat from North Africa swept across the Iberian peninsula. According to the officials, the temperature might get worse over the weekend. Temperatures have reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) Friday in many inland areas of Portugal and are expected to reach at 47 C (116.6 F). A lot of Portugal sections are on red alert on the Civil Protection Agencys danger scale. On Thursday, the highest temperature was recorded, the heat began to rise, and it reached 45.2 C (113.4 F) near Abrantes, a town 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of the capital, Lisbon, the countrys weather agency IPMA said. In Portugals southern Alentejo province, streets were largely deserted. Some farmers chose to work during the night instead of in the heat of the day. Beaches around Lisbon, the capital, were packed. Also Read: For the first time, woman fined in Denmark for wearing full-face veil

Some 400 firefighters and five water-dropping aircraft, meanwhile, were battling a wildfire in southern Portugals Algarve region.

Portugal sees large wildfires every year, although unseasonably cool weather through the end of July has meant fewer blazes in 2018. The government says only about 15 percent of the 10-year average area has been charred so far this year.

Three men have died from heatstroke in Spain as Europe sweltered in a record heatwave on Friday, with temperatures hitting a scorching 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).

The World Meteorological Organization says continental Europes record is 48 C (118.4 F) in Greece in 1977.

Sweden was still under threat from wildfires, which in recent weeks have extended into the Arctic Circle.

Swedens Civil Contingencies Agency warned of a high risk for wildfires in central and southern Sweden this weekend because of the continuing dry weather and strong winds.

And over in Britain, an unusually long, torrid summer has taken its toll on the countrys flowers. The supermarket chain Morrisons has begun selling wonky flowers that have not developed properly.

The UKs Met Office weather service says July was the countrys third-warmest month in more than a century.

In Moscow, as temperatures rose to close to 30 C (86 F), city authorities announced they were opening hundreds of cool rooms where residents could rest amid air conditioning, with water dispensers and medical attendants.

Also Read: Viral: This makeup video transformation has crossed 9 million views; trick inside
As 15 August is about to arrive, security agencies including Delhi Police are on high alert to ensure that there is no security breach on India's 72nd Independence Day. According to an Intel reports by Delhi Police, it suggests that five terrorists are present in the national capital.

As per, intelligence inputs, the terrorists plan to attack two locations during Independence Day in Delhi.

Following which, Delhi Police and other security agencies are on their toes. The cops have been asked to ensure security at public places, especially bus stands, religious places, airports, and government offices.

According to a senior official of the Delhi Police special cell, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists are active in areas in and around Delhi and are planning an attack on Delhi. Delhi Police have taken these inputs very seriously and are on high alert.

According to a specific input shared by central intelligence agencies that alias Ismael, a former bodyguard of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhars brother Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, is in Delhi to organise a fidayeen attack here.
External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said that love and respect for Indian culture is visible everywhere in Uzbekistan.

Interacting with Uzbek Indologists, Hindi teachers and alumni of ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) and ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme), Swaraj said, "I have been fortunate to meet with those three types of people. Those who have left Uzbekistan for India for their studies through ICCR and ITEC programmes, those who are teaching Hindi and other subjects in Uzbekistan and those who might have never been to India, but love India."

She underlined that although both India and Uzbekistan had established diplomatic ties 25 years ago, the relations between the two nations were built on the foundation of centuries-old historical and cultural ties.

Swaraj stated that after India's independence, the successive governments in India, irrespective of whichever political parties they belonged to, maintained warm and cordial relations with the countries both before and after the Soviet era.

Stressing on people-to-people relations, Swaraj continued, "The love for our language Hindi and classical dances like Kathak and Bharatnatyam in Russia, Uzbekistan, and other neighbouring countries is very much visible."

She said that Bollywood films had made a huge contribution for facilitating closer people-to-people ties between India and Russia and other Central Asian nations.

Underscoring the popularity of late superstar Raj Kapoor in the region, Swaraj noted, "In Russia and Uzbekistan, even if the people knew or did not know the names of government leaders, they always knew Raj Kapoor, which is a household name in both countries."

Dwelling upon Kapoor's admiration, Swaraj recalled her visit to Moscow and said, "I was with a parliamentary goodwill delegation when someone approached me and pointed out to my saree and bindi and said - 'India, India'. I said yes! Then that person continued, 'Raj Kapoor's land' and quoted a line 'Mein Awara Hoon'. Never ever I have seen the popularity of any actor in any country."

Furthermore, the EAM lauded the performances of Uzbek girls at a Kathak event, adding that she was pleasantly surprised when they danced to a Hindi song.

Throwing light on the popularity of yoga in Uzbekistan, Swaraj also hailed the Uzbek girls for doing the 'Surya Namaskar Asana' to perfection at an event, which is considered to be a difficult exercise.

"India has a huge role to play in Uzbekistan in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Through Information Technology (IT), India and Uzbekistan can work together. Many Uzbek nationals favour India for medical treatment," she added.

Sushma also informed that Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev would be paying a visit to India in October.

Currently, Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. This is her first visit to the Central Asian countries as the External Affairs Minister.

In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the EAM held talks with the leadership of both countries, attended cultural programmes and interacted with the Indian communities residing in two nations.

After completing her engagements in Uzbekistan, Swaraj is expected to leave for India later in the day.

(ANI)
The motorcade of United States Ambassador to Bangladesh, Marcia Bernicat, was the subject of a late-night attack in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, on Saturday, as she was leaving a farewell dinner organised for the chief of a non-governmental organisation.

VOA's Bangla service reported that Bernicat was not harmed in the incident, but her driver was. However, the extent of the driver's injuries was not clear.

Bernicat was attending a dinner for Badiul Alam Majumder, vice president of the human rights group, 'The Hunger Project', and also its Bangladesh country director.

Former Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Kamal Hossain was also believed to have attended the dinner.

Thousands of students have been protesting on the traffic conditions in Dhaka over the past week, but it was not clear whether Saturday's attack on the US ambassador's motorcade was related to those protests.

(ANI)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused Colombia's far-right groups and outgoing president Juan Manuel Santos for what he called as an "attempt to assassinate him."

Hours after an explosive drone rocked a military ceremony, Maduro appeared on Venezuela's national television saying, "I'm alive and victorious," CNN reported.

The 55-year-old leader pinned the blame on American financers and planners for the 'drone attack.'

Furthermore, Maduro urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to tackle terrorist groups that plotted attacks in South America.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that many of those responsible for the attack, the financiers, and planners, live in the United States in the state of Florida. I hope the Trump administration is willing to fight terrorist groups that commit attacks in peaceful countries in our continent, in this case, Venezuela."

Venezuela has long pointed fingers at Colombia for plotting overthrows and far-right elements in Miami and Bogota for hatching a conspiracy to overthrow Maduro, as per the report.

Calling it a "big explosion," Maduro underlined that when he heard the first blast, he initially thought it was fireworks. But after a few seconds, there was a second blast.

Maduro further said that the investigation was in an advanced stage, adding that enough evidence was obtained by authorities.

The Venezuelan President was speaking at the celebration of the National Guard's 81st anniversary when the 'attack' occurred. Maduro and other government officials were evacuated immediately.

Meanwhile, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, took to Twitter called the incident a "terrorist attack against the president and the high military command blaming the opposition for the violence."

(ANI)
The bigman, upon seeing the massive work done to celebrate the visit, dishes out cash. Its typical Melanesian thinking  were doing this to show our appreciation of your visit, you must give us some money in return.

When word of a leaders impending visit reaches community leaders, they mobilise the people to do clean-ups and decorate the place. Pigs are slaughtered, mumus are made, a party is thrown in honour of the bigman.

PORT MORESBY - The way the Papua New Guinea government is preparing for APEC is no different to how village people prepare to welcome the bigmen, the leaders in their communities.

In the village, everything is fixed on the event. Once the event is over, the community goes back to where it was. Nothing changes.

It must be noted that only the places to be visited by the bigman that are given makeovers. The others are neglected. It all goes down to enticing the leader to donate money.

I call it bigman begging.

That Port Moresby is getting transformed for APEC at the expense of other centres and other projects shows this traditional rationale is not lost on our parliamentarians. They are reverting to that custom but on a much bigger scale.

The government has been proclaiming the benefits to be derived from APEC will justify its excessive spending on preparations in the nations capital. Only time will tell whether the sacrifices were worth it.

But as a nation, PNG should have to present everything about us to world leaders, not just glossed-over Port Moresby.

And thats where writing comes in. Social media platforms need to light up.

While the world leaders are looking at our skyscrapers, show them the squatters in the settlements,

While they drive in limousines on the smooth newly-tarmacked roads of the city, tell them we ride to town every day over crater-like potholes and in overcrowded PMVs.

While they savour the delicacies of the countrys finest chefs, remind them that our government is forcing many families to live on junk food.

And as they enjoy the Pacific sunshine, remind them of the child who just died because the government failed to provide immunisation.

Let them know Port Moresby is not PNG and what they see is a fraudulent veneer, forged to hide our governments mismanagement and incompetency.

World leaders need to know about the real PNG, not the sham that is fabricated in Port Moresby.

They need to know that if they are thinking of investing in our country, they need to know the reality of our economy.

If we take a nap during this time of APEC, the money might get lost in the pockets of a select few and make its way to Australia  like it always does.
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Barcelona announced Friday that they had reached an agreement with Bayern Munich to sign Chile midfielder Arturo Vidal in a deal reportedly worth 30 million euros ($35 million).

"FC Barcelona and FC Bayern Munich have reached an agreement for the transfer of player Arturo Vidal," said Barcelona on their website.

"The agreement is for the next three seasons and is pending the medical examination that the player will undertake over the course of the next few days.

"FC Barcelona will shortly inform everyone about the arrival of the player and the agenda of the presentation ceremony."

Vidal, 31, was whisked away from Bayern's pre-season training base on Friday morning with the club's director of sport Hasan Salihamidzic to finalise the details.

Vidal will reportedly earn around nine million euros per season with the Spanish giants.

His arrival will make up for the surprise departure of Brazilian midfielder Paulinho, who Barcelona loaned to Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande.

Barcelona had to move fast to sign Vidal as the player had also reportedly sparked interest from Inter Milan following the departure of their French midfielder Adrien Rabiot.

Temperamental on and off the pitch, Vidal's last season with Bayern was marked by injuries, including one to his knee which he picked up during training and which forced him to undergo surgery in April.

Vidal is the Barcelona's fourth signing since the end of the last season following the arrival of Brazilian forward Malcolm, Brazilian midfielder Arthur and French defender Clement Lenglet.

The Chilean international joined Bayern Munich in 2015 from Juventus, and won the Bundesliga title in each of his three seasons at the club.

German champions Bayern have been keen to trim their star-studded squad.

Having signed Germany international Leon Goretzka, 23, on a free transfer from Schalke, Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said earlier this week that they had too many midfielders.
It is difficult to ascertain how widespread such problems are, but watermen, seafood suppliers, lawmakers and environmental groups have all expressed concerns about crab fraud in recent years and whether enough is being done to stop it. A 2015 report by Oceana, an international nonprofit group focused on ocean conservation and advocacy, found that nearly 40 percent of crab cakes it tested that were labeled as local in area restaurants contained imported meat.
In July, "Parts Unknown" was honored with six Emmy nominations, including two for Bourdain himself. The awards will be handed out in September, and whether he wins or not, they provide further proof of how Bourdain forever changed the food world.
Debussys Nocturnes deals in gauzy textures and exquisite pastels, and Kalmar made the most of the indoor setting to emphasize the point. An aura of stillness and calm hovered over the opening Nuages (Clouds), thanks to Kalmars languorous way with rhythm and his evocations of light and half-light. Though some interpreters turn up the dial on Fetes (Festivals), Kalmar again opted for luxuriance of tone over mere volume (the mood briefly shattered, alas, by a technical smudge in the brass). The tour de force arrived with Sirenes (Sirens), the female voices of the Grant Park Chorus unfurling one ethereal legato line after another, with warmly cushioned support from the orchestra.
But he had left his parents' house in February after they had given him an ultimatum to attend their church, after years of disagreements related to his sexuality - Owen is gay - or move out, he told NBC News . And Georgetown's financial aid package for him had been calculated based on what his family was expected to contribute, leaving him with a $20,000 gap to pay the tuition for his first year.
Since the first women came forward with their stories, I have been gravely concerned about our churchs official response, and its ongoing approach to these painful issues, Carter wrote Sunday on his personal blog. After many frank conversations with our elders, it became clear that there is a fundamental difference in judgment between what I believe is necessary for Willow Creek to move in a positive direction, and what they think is best. That is not to say that I am right and they are wrong. But I must follow the path that I believe God has laid out for me to live with integrity, and that path now diverges from Willow Creek.
I think its the message that is most important. We have a message that is clearly centered on raising the standard for working people, where people who look at it like they looked at Bernie Sanders and say, Oh, thats different. Thats not what Im used to hearing from a politician. Thats someone who is authentic. Thats someone who sees root causes and isnt trying to play around the fringes, but who wants to dig up the root of this problem and kill it, LaRaviere said. If were effective at that message, well get more volunteers and well get the money we need to get our message across.
"My thoughts and prayers, along with those of all of the 41 Resolute Support nations, are with the families and friends of our fallen and wounded service members, and our injured Afghan brothers and their families," said U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander. "Their sacrifice on behalf of the Afghan people and our coalition will endure in both our hearts and history, and further strengthen our resolve."
"What's different today is that the scale of the liability in California from these fires has gotten so large that it is essentially bigger than the companies involved," said Michael Wara, a senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. "The fear is that if the utilities get pneumonia for the next 10 years, it really calls into question the state's ability to achieve its climate goals."
In addition to citing his credentials, some liberals have promoted Kavanaugh based on his personal kindness and intelligence. Yet even nice and smart people can have values that are radically out of step with the American public. Yes, Kavanaugh has mentored female lawyers and hired a diverse range of clerks, but it is a sad commentary on this presidents record of nominating shockingly unqualified candidates for office and what we have come to expect of men (and Republican men particularly) that these are seen as standout virtues. We are glad if Kavanaugh has not been discriminatory in his hiring practices. What his rulings would do to womens rights and to security and opportunity for people of color and immigrants is much more important.
So why is it that this method is so popular with the elite? Is it because it seems less cruel? I doubt it. It is probably because they can get by with it these days; murder is still considered unacceptable. There are two reactions toward character assassination in our culture: One group shrugs it off and accepts it as the price of power in the 21st century. The rest are appalled at such a blatant disregard for common decency.
But even with their expertise, they struggled to make a profit. Woerman, who told me hed almost immediately thrown his hat into the Stolp Island ring when Fitzpatrick approached him a year ago, seems to have truly grown to love and appreciate what downtown has to offer. And he graciously attributes much of the closing of Leland Legends to a need for continuous marketing and spreading himself too thin between this eatery and his other restaurants.
Firefighters responded to the scene in the 8400 block of South 88th Avenue just before 2 p.m. and found the blaze primarily in a third-floor corner apartment.
With good talent being hard to find and technology changing the workforce, companies are looking for just in time learning that incorporates AI because of the belief current information technology is not as robust, flexible and cost effective as it needs to be in the changing workforce. This same survey revealed 52 percent of the respondents already recognized their employees have significant skill deficiencies.
Michael Jackson (1984) by Andy Warhol, from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, a gift of Time magazine. [Photo by Jens Ziehe, courtesy of Neugerriemschneider]

A landmark exhibition explores the influence of Michael Jackson on some of the leading names in the contemporary art world

When Michael Jackson took the stage at the Motown 25 anniversary show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in 1983, he gave a baptismal performance of Billie Jean on live television in what would become his trademark look - the sequin-covered black jacket, rhinestone gloves, white socks and black Florsheim loafers. Something seismic shook the pop and dance world ever after.

Four minutes and five seconds into the song, Jackson "moonwalked" - and the world gasped in awe. The move, in which the dancer slides backward but appears to be walking forwards, marked the biggest musical moment in American pop culture since Elvis Presley graced the stage.

Michael Jackson would have been 60 years old on Aug 29; he died of cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009 at his Los Angeles home following a medication overdose administered by his personal physician. Nonetheless, almost a decade after his death, the King of Pop's legacy shows no signs of diminishing. His record sales, now in excess of one billion, continue to grow, his short films are still watched and his global fan base remains ever loyal.

But there's a little known aspect of the performer's history - Jackson has become the most depicted cultural figure in visual art by an extraordinary array of top artists since Andy Warhol first used his image in 1982. Despite Jackson's significance being so widely acknowledged in matters of music and music videos, dance, choreography and fashion, his singular impact on contemporary art is prodigious, and yet, an untold story.
The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) has said that its outstanding loans for the Belt and Road Initiative rose 37 percent from a year ago by the end of June this year.

Special loans, totaling 130 billion yuan (about 19 billion U.S. dollars), for projects discussed in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation last year, have all been clinched in agreements, according to the bank.

The policy bank said it had also increased financial support for manufacturing improvements, energy conservation and green finance.

Hu Xiaolian, chairman of the bank, said the bank would continue to maintain reasonable and moderate growth in business in the second half of the year, while deepening reform and defusing financial risks.

From 2014 to 2017, the bank issued loans of more than 930 billion yuan. By the end of March this year, outstanding loans lent by the bank to countries along the Belt and Road was more than 810 billion yuan, up 29.7 percent year on year.

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond ancient Silk Road trade routes, with industrial cooperation a crucial part.




Much progress has been made in Shanghai during the first half of this year by responding to the central government's call for further opening-up.







As the financial hub of China and one of the international financial centers, much emphasis has been put on strengthening Shanghai's financial power. In line with the financial opening-up policies announced by central bank governor Yi Gang in April, the municipal government of Shanghai quickly developed 32 detailed policies in this regard.





Local administrators have accelerated efforts to settle on opening-up projects in Shanghai. Up till now, the local administrators have submitted 23 financial opening-up projects to the State Council and central financial regulators, nine of which have obtained approval and started operation.





The yuan-denominated crude oil futures contracts, which were unveiled in Shanghai on March 26, have now become the largest of their kind in Asia and the third-largest all over the world. A total of 52 global clients have taken part in trading these contracts.





Data provided by the municipal bureau of statistics shows that newly signed contractual foreign investment in Shanghai surged 18.1 percent in the first six months to $21.5 billion, of which $8.6 billion has been paid in.





Major overseas investors have remained stable, with investment amounts into Shanghai from Hong Kong and Singapore up 22.2 percent and 35.6 percent respectively during the first half. Investment from European countries, which is lead by Germany and the Netherlands, rose 42.2 percent. Despite the ongoing China-US trade frictions, the investment from US companies into Shanghai only contracted slightly by 1.7 percent.





The total turnover of multinational companies increased by 10.3 percent, while their total tax payments went up by 13.1 percent. The total profits made by these multinational companies grew more significantly by 17.6 percent during the first half of this year.





Overseas companies have shown consistent interest in setting up their regional headquarters in Shanghai. A total of 17 regional headquarters of multinational companies were founded in the city in the first six months, seven of which are Asia-Pacific headquarters. That brings the total number of multinational companies with regional headquarters in Shanghai to 642.





Shanghais research and development capabilities have also been highlighted. An additional eight new R&D centers of multinational companies have settled down in the city in the first half, with the total number of such R&D centers amounting to 434. Among them, 57 are Asia-Pacific or even global R&D centers.








Todays guest blog is written by Jinnie Spiegler, Director of Curriculum at the Anti-Defamation League .

Last August, in a moment when many teachers were setting up their classrooms or enjoying their last days of summer break, Charlottesville happened.

On the weekend of August 11, 2017, in the largest and most violent gathering of white supremacists in decades , Unite the Right brought these groups together, including the alt-right, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan. Carrying torches, homemade shields, and Confederate flags and brandishing Nazi salutes, hundreds gathered to broadcast their viewpoints and ideology. After continued clashes, a car plowed into a crowd of peaceful counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring 19. Two troopers also died when a helicopter crashed while monitoring the chaos. Virginias governor declared a state of emergency.

It was a grim and challenging time for the country; that challenge was magnified for teachers who had just started the school year. At ADL, we heard from many teachers who were mired in confusion, fear, and doubt. Should I talk about Charlottesville? Can I address racism so early in the school year? Will my classroom explode with emotion? While many teachers generally feel responsible to talk with students about important societal happenings, there is also hesitancy and perceived danger. But Charlottesville could not be glossed over or ignored.

Immediately following the events of that weekend, both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) the two main unions representing U.S. educatorsmade strong statements denouncing what happened in Charlottesville and urging teachers to talk with their students about it and the underlying issues of race, hate, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism. Other national education organizations including NCSS, ASCD, NAEYC, NCTE and AERA also offered resources and made statements including the following:

We encourage all social studies teachers and teacher educators to equip our children and students with the tools to eradicate hate, fear, and violence in our democratic society. -NCSS

There is no apolitical classroom. English language arts teachers must examine the ways that racism has personally shaped their beliefs and must examine existing biases that feed systems of oppression. -NCTE

The recent events in Charlottesville not only make visible how white supremacy, racism, anti-Semitism, religious persecution, homophobia, and xenophobia continue to permeate our society, but also remind us of the critical importance of studying, analyzing, and broadly communicating about these patterns and structures. -AERA

Online education publications urged teachers to engage in classroom conversations about what happened in Charlottesville. Ten days after Unite the Right, I was part of a team along with colleagues at Facing History and Ourselves, Teaching Tolerance and EduColor to offer an AFT-sponsored webinar, When Hate is in the Headlines: Resources for K-12 Educators . More than 4,000 people participated, both live and on demand. This illustrated the deep and expansive interest in bringing these issues into the classroom. Specifically, teachers wanted to learn about the history of hate groups in our country, how to competently navigate these fraught discussions with students at different ages, whether they should talk about race in classrooms with predominately white students, how they should address white supremacy and the alt-right, and much more.

More than anything else, what we heard was: I want to say something. I want to do something. And I need help.

As the school year got underway, many teachers began to have these discussions. Meanwhile, we continued to see a steady stream of hate-inspired incidents take place around the country and, disturbingly, in K-12 schools and on college campuses. These reported incidents included: racial slurs, hung nooses, swastikas and other racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti scratched and painted on school grounds, images of Confederate flags and KKK references, white supremacist propaganda, vandalism, and physical attacks.

During the 2017-18 school yearthe school year proceeding Charlottesvillethe appearance of white supremacist propaganda on college campuses nearly doubled . This included the distribution of racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim fliers, stickers, banners and posters. We have seen similar incidents in K-12 schools across the country. Education Week and Pro Publica have partnered to collect these data in a more systematic way so they can be analyzed and used to explore solutions.

As we head into the one-year anniversary of the horrific events in Charlottesville, which intersects with the beginning of school, consider what you can do in your classroom this year. There are a variety of ways you can address these issues, even with our youngest children.

Using childrens and young adult literature is a powerful way to introduce and deepen students understanding of identity, race, racism, culture, civil rights history and peoples struggle to overcome injustice. Currents events are excellent openings to talk about whats happening in the world and help students grapple news events in the context of bias, discrimination, and social justice in social studies, English or advisory.

High school can be an especially appropriate time to discuss Charlottesville, the alt-right and white supremacy . Young people already know about these topics through their social media feeds, but they are not necessarily analyzing them with the rigor and critical thinking that classroom instruction can bring. Teaching moments (from racial jokes and stereotypes to xenophobia in the news to a hate incident in school) provide ripe opportunities to dig deeper into the background, motivations, impacts and solutions to issues.

And it is always important to leave young people of all ages with hope and optimism. One way to do this is to explore historical and current-day examples of activism, especially where young people have taken the lead , and engage them in a social action project of their own creation. Lastly, you can teach anti-bias education lessons throughout the school year so that the teaching moments can be integral to your classroom discussions and lessons.

As you plan to bring these topics into the classroom this year, use the considerations below. And remember to prepare yourself emotionally and engage in your own learning--these are complex topics and you dont have to have all the answers. Again, the implementation of these suggestions will vary by age level.



Promote a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment.

Consider and be sensitive to the racial, ethnic and religious composition of your classroom.

Accept discomfort and uncertainty, for both you and your students.

Create opportunities for students to express and share their feelings.

Be intentional in using accurate, inclusive language and terminology.

Connect the present to the past.

Take advantage of media (including social media) as a resource while also critically analyzing it.

Discuss structural racism and other forms of injustice.

Foster empathy.

Instill hope, allyship, advocacy and activism.

Helping young people grapple with the most important issues in our world today can be scary, but it can be incredibly fulfilling and transformative. Indeed, education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world (Nelson Mandela).

Photocredit: Shutterstock
The greatest strategic mistake by the United States in the opening decades of the 21st century has been to get stuck in unwinnable wars in the Middle East, a region with declining strategic importance relative to Asia.

At the time when a predecessor, George W. Bush, invaded Iraq, Donald Trump supported the war. Later, during the 2016 presidential campaign he pretended  loudly and without shame  that he had opposed the war. What would he do if he had a similar decision in front of him as president? We may well get to know sometime soon.

Trump unleashed his vitriol against Iran on July 22, threatening war in an all-caps screed on Twitter.

"To Iranian President Rouhani," he said. "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 practices "honor politics." Please take note that the cause of the Trump's outburst wasn't anything Iran had actually done vis-a-vis America, but rather words used by his Iranian counterpart Trump took as a "threat."

Rouhani had issued a boilerplate statement in response to Trump's previous provocations, declaring: "Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars." Sniping back and forth is nothing unusual in U.S.-Iranian relations and certainly nothing for the American leader to get angry about. However, Trump seems to have chosen to believe Rouhani's words were something the U.S. should "not stand for."

Were Trump's empty rhetoric the only thing on display, that would be worrisome enough for what it says about the mindset of the commander-in-chief of the largest military in the world. What is more concerning, however, is that Trump has been stoking the flames against Iran since he was elected, and his provocations have intensified of late.

On May 9, he made good on his pledge to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran. Now, he is warning other countries not to import Iranian oil, or else he will impose sanctions against them. Sanctioning a country that continues to comply with the nuclear deal  respected by all signatories except the United States  is an inherently provocative act.

Iran is already facing economic problems and unrest. Now, European companies, including France's largest oil producer, Total, are reluctantly pulling out of Iran in order to avoid problems. Is it any wonder that Trump's escalatory actions began shortly after neoconservative hardliner John Bolton became National Security Adviser in April?

A few weeks after Bolton took his post, he gave a speech to the MEK, a controversial anti-government group of exiles, in which he declared"before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!" [https://theintercept.com/2018/03/23/heres-john-bolton-promising-regime-change-iran-end-2018/]

Unsurprisingly, Trump's threat of sanctions has caused the price of oil to skyrocket. Since October 2017, when Trump first announced he was decertifying the Iranian nuclear deal, global crude prices have risen from US$50 to $69 a barrel as of July 29.

Some analysts estimate that anywhere from 170,000 to a million fewer barrels of Iranian oil will be on the market due to Trump's sanctions, decreasing total supply. The effects are being felt in the United States, too. Gasoline prices have risen by 11 percent since the start of the year.

The losses of European companies could be China's gains. If Total doesn't get a waiver from the U.S. administration, the 30 percent stake it has in a joint oil field venture with Chinese company CNPC will go to the latter.

America's leading airplane manufacturer and provider of over 140,000 national jobs, has announced it is canceling a $20 billion deal with Iran Air.

So, the U.S. and its remaining allies are getting hurt; however, what does the U.S. get out of increased conflict with Iran? Iran is not actually threatening America. (Words only damage Trump's ego, nothing else). Iran's actions in Syria, supporting the existing government, are no more provocative than what Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region are doing. Israel can handle itself against Iran, too, should a conflict ever come about.

The real reason Trump has ratcheted up tensions is that neoconservatives in American politics have long held grudges against Iran. Bolton was a young man when Iranian students took American embassy workers hostage after the revolution in 1979 and held them for 444 days. He served under Ronald Reagan, whom conservatives (misleadingly) credit for getting the hostages released.

The hostage crisis still carries such a weight in American politics that, in 2014, when Iran appointed as its ambassador to the UN a diplomat who had been involved in the event, the U.S. Congress voted to deny him a visa.

George W. Bush's vice president Dick Cheney tried to get him to bomb Iran during his second presidential term. Even Bush had enough wisdom to resist that idea. Now, Bolton and Trump might be able to finish the job.

Mitchell Blatt is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
 Flash

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday proposed three principles for the future development of the East Asia Summit (EAS).

Wang made the proposal in a speech at the 8th foreign ministers' meeting of the East Asia Summit during which he praised the EAS's positive contribution to regional peace, stability and development.

The first principle proposed by Wang is centering on East Asia. Wang said East Asia has already established a regional cooperation framework with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the center and EAS an important component.

In the future, EAS countries should uphold the spirit of mutual respect, consensus-building, openness and inclusiveness, continue to focus on the Asia-Pacific, East Asia and safeguard the central role of ASEAN in regional cooperation, he said.

The second principle is striking a balance between socio-economic development and politico-security cooperation. Wang said that development stands out to be the most important and prevailing concern for the countries in the region as well as the strongest driving force in the regional cooperation.

Politico-security cooperation should aim at providing a peaceful and stable environment for the development and forging a regional security framework which accords with the actual circumstances of the region and meets the needs of all parties, he added.

The third principle is coordinating strategic communication and pragmatic cooperation. While engaging in strategic communication on global and regional issues of common concern, all parties should make concerted efforts to push forward regional cooperation in vital areas, so as to provide solid support for EAS development, Wang added.
 Flash

A helicopter crash in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia killed all 18 people on board on Saturday, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said.

The accident took place at 9:48 local time (0248 GMT) when the helicopter crashed 180 km north of the town of Igarka in Turukhansky District, the ministry's Krasnoyarsk region branch said in a statement.

None of the 15 passengers and three crew members on board survived, the ministry said.

All the passengers were reportedly staff members of a subsidiary of the Russian state oil company Rosneft.

According to preliminary data, the helicopter belonging to Russia's UTair airline collided with the external cargo suspension of another helicopter that took off earlier, before it fell, collapsed and burnt, a statement published by Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said.

The helicopter with cargo carrying no passengers landed safely after the crew dropped the external suspension, it added.

The acting governor of the Krasnoyarsk region Alexander Uss declared August 6 the day of mourning for the victims of the plane crash, the regional government's spokeswoman Elena Ulyasheva said.

The head of the region has also instructed relevant government bodies to make arrangements to meet and accommodate the victims' relatives with necessary psychological and medical care, as well as to work on the issue of providing financial assistance to the families of the victims.

A task force was set up to establish the causes and conditions of the catastrophe, and the criminal investigators of Russia's Investigative Committee were sent to the scene, the committee said in a statement.

The investigators are checking the flight documentation, taking fuel samples and interrogating maintenance personnel, employees of the airline and witnesses of the crash, the committee said.

All possible causes of the crash are under consideration, including the possibility of a pilot error, but final conclusions can be reached only after the investigations and examinations, it added.

Both black boxes of the helicopter have been found, a source in regional emergency services was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying, adding that the recorders are in a satisfactory condition.

The flight data recorders will be sent to the Interstate Aviation Committee in Moscow for possible decoding, according to a source in law enforcement bodies.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry is sending over a group of An-74 and Be-200 aircraft and a total of 25 people from regional search and rescue centers to the site of the crash, according to the Krasnoyarsk region branch of the ministry.

Currently, a total of 75 people and 8 units of equipment, including 38 people from the Emergencies Ministry, are working at the scene of the crash to eliminate the consequences, it added.
 Flash

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro escaped unharmed from an attempted attack of explosive drones on Saturday.



The attack happened here during a speech given by Maduro to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the country's National Guard when the drones exploded near Maduro and his wife.

The live television transmission was then abruptly cut at 5:46 p.m. local time (2146 GMT).

Seven National Guard soldiers were injured and rushed to hospital, but the president was not hurt, according to Minister of Communication Jorge Rodriguez.

Maduro described the attack as an assassination attempt in a later televised address to the nation.

The leftist president blamed the attack on the far-right factions in Venezuela, the Colombian government and conspirators in the United States, saying they were responsible, according to his address.

Venezuela-Colombia relationship has been long strained by frictions between the two neighbouring South American countries, including border disputes and military concerns.

Maduro said in June that Venezuela's opposition camp "has the backing of a handful of traitors there in Bogota (the capital of Colombia)," adding that his country was "besieged by the northern empire" -- the United States.

However, Colombian Foreign Ministry on Sunday refuted Maduro's accusation, saying in a statement that "the claims that the Colombian leader could be responsible for a supposed assassination of the Venezuelan president sound absurd and lack basis."

In his nationally televised address, Maduro said that some of those involved in the attack have been arrested, whose identities are unknown yet, and the investigation is underway.

"I pledge to do justice," Maduro wrote in his twitter following the attack, adding that he is "more determined than ever" to "consolidate peace, tranquillity, development and prosperity."

The country's right-wing opposition groups have launched waves of protests in recent years designed to pressure the government to hold early presidential elections in a bid to oust Maduro, who took office in 2013 and now faces criticism for the flagging domestic economy.

Oil-producing Venezuela has been struggling with an acute economic crisis since crude oil prices crashed in the international market, affecting state coffers and government-run services, including electricity and water.
- T. S. Eliot

Thoughts After Lambeth

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."
A Chattanooga man charged with kidnapping and sexual assault in January has been arrested again - this time after a woman said he held a sawed-off shotgun to her head and made her drive him around.

Demetrius Bailey was charged with aggravated kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, assault and possession of drug paraphernalia after the incident last Monday.

Officers stopped Bailey on Jenkins Road because he was recognized as a suspect in an auto theft. He was last seen in a stolen Honda Accord.

At Jenkins Road, Bailey got out of a green Ford Fusion that had four other people in it. Bailey, while being questioned, told police that the driver might leave without him.

Officers said the female driver was making gestures toward them when no one else was looking. When the woman was pulled aside, she said she met Bailey earlier that day, then ran into him at the Speedway on 3rd Street. She said Bailey got out of a black SUV holding a gun and told her she was going to give him a ride.

She said she reluctantly gave him and two other individuals a ride. She said Bailey then made her drive them around.

In January, Bailey was taken into custody in a kidnapping and sexual assault case.

His bond was initially set at $1,251,000.

In that incident, police said at approximately 2 a.m. on a Sunday, Bailey was apprehended. Chattanooga Police officers (who were searching for the suspect throughout the night) observed the suspect's vehicle and attempted to initiate a traffic stop. The suspect did not stop, which resulted in a lengthy vehicle pursuit. At the conclusion of the pursuit, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office placed Bailey into custody with the assistance of the Chattanooga Police Department and the East Ridge Police Department.

On Friday at approximately 9 a.m., police responded to a report of a sexual assault.

Upon arrival, police made contact with the victim who advised he had been held at gunpoint on Tuesday of last week and held captive until he escaped Friday morning.

The victim said he left his house on Tuesday around 5 p.m. to go to a plasma center on Riverside Drive. He said he then drove to the Fast Stop at Wilcox and Dodson Avenue. He said as he was leaving he noticed a man struggling with some heavy bags so he offered him a ride.

He said the man, who said his name was Demetrius, asked if they could go to his brother's house to get some bags. He said the brother, named Zach, and a female got in the car with them and they started back toward the Fast Stop.

He said when they stopped at a gas station at 101 Glenwood Ave. that he saw a friend of his wife, who told him she had been trying to reach him and was worried about him. He said at that time he felt a force against his side and realized it was a gun. He said he still tried to make signals to the friend to try to alert her that he was in trouble. He said Demetrius told him to stay calm and do what he was told to do.

He was then told to drive to a house on 12th Street. He described it as having chicken wire around it. It was later identified at 2007 12th Ave. He was put into the basement of the house.

The man said he was forced to smoke an unknown drug from a clear pipe and to ingest multiple pills. He said he saw several others in the house and they all appeared to be drug users. He said there was a woman in a wheelchair with a blanket over her, and she did not appear to move during the 55 hours he was held captive.

He said he was repeatedly raped during the ordeal.

He said he was finally able to escape when Demetrius' attention was drawn by another person. He then called police.

Bailey was also charged with shoplifting at TJ Maxx at Hamilton Place on Dec. 20. Police said he walked out with three Calvin Klein bags worth $239.97. He fled in a black Dodge Challenger. The shoplifter was described as weighing 300 pounds. Police said Bailey is 6'3" and 315 pounds.

Police said Bailey on Saturday stole a Bose home stereo system from Cash America Pawn on E. 23rd Street. He left the store in a gray Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Police said the same day he stole two cases of beer and a tray of lighters from the Shell station on Gunbarrel Road.

Police said Bailey was driving that same pickup at the time of the pursuit. He fled on Highway 153, then eventually drove onto I-24 westbound. East Ridge Police successfully deployed spike strips to stop the vehicle. The pickup exited to Moore Road.

An officer who went up to the vehicle said Bailey grabbed his jacket and kicked him. He said Bailey then struck him several times in the face and chest with a closed fist. It was noticed that Bailey was armed with a knife. The officer said he struck Bailey with his closed fist. Bailey dropped the knife, but continued to try to kick the officer.

Warrants were sworn out by police for aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault.

Bailey got a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty on an aggravated robbery charge in 2001.
Imagine for a moment that you see a guy slowly reaching toward a scalding hot stove.

Everyone around screams: Dont touch it! Youll hurt yourself!

But the guy pays them no mind and places his palm flush upon the bright orange burner, only to scream in surprise and agony as his flesh begins to char.

Youd think this man was pretty stupid, right?

Like sell-your-car-for-gas-money stupid.

Well, we are this man. This entire state.

For the past eight years, we stood by as the state decimated its environmental and water-protection agencies and repealed checks on sustainable growth.

Every step, we were warned: Dont do it! Things will go bad!

But we paid them no mind. We watched as politicians shut down water-quality monitoring stations, stocked environmental boards with developers, slashed staff at the agencies that check for pollution and cut back on land-preservation programs.

Then we re-elected them.

And now our state is cloaked in gloppy blue-green algae that is shutting down businesses, killing animals and sending people to the hospital.

The headlines tell the story:

What the muck did we think was going to happen?

You cant treat your state like a toilet bowl and then get surprised when it backs up.

So when I watch politicians scurry to pollution sites with cameras in tow, acting shocked and outraged, they seem just as daft as that guy who cant figure out why his scalded hand hurts.

Who is most to blame? Well, some Democrats want to blame all Republicans . But thats not fair. Some Republicans have been enviro-champions, especially in the state senate.

It is, however, fair to blame Rick Scott.

This governor has undermined our natural resources for eight straight years. The data is trackable.

Under Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, the state opened 1,000 to 1,500 cases a year to crack down on bad environmental actors.

Under Rick Scott, the number is closer to 250.

PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) tracks the number of cases that Flas Dept. of Environmental Protection opens each year to study potential violations and pollution. The number has plummeted since Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011. (PEER)

There is little to no enforcement, said Jerry Phillips. To call it a major decline would be putting it lightly.

Phillips runs the Florida division of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the group that tracked the decline. The report concluded:  the impact of Governor Scotts policies has been to essentially eliminate serious environmental enforcement in Florida.

Hello, blue-green slop.

Phillips described the states Department of Environmental Protection as a shell of its former self.

But thats just the start. Scott also decimated the states growth-planning agency. He stocked water-management boards with industry insiders who profit off their positions. He shut down water-quality monitoring offices

Newspapers wrote about all this. I wrote about all this Everyone knew the burner was hot. So spare me the pearl-clutching.

Certainly, Scott didnt act alone. Others helped make this mess: Big Sugar, agribusinesses and developers. Local governments that allow cement to be poured where land is needed as a filter. Those of us who use fertilizer that foul the waterways. Weak-kneed politicians who allow septic systems to inject nitrogen into our groundwater supply when theyre working and far fouler substances in when they dont. And the GOP-led Legislature, which approved most everything Scott wanted.

But Scott led the way, often under the mantra of being  business-friendly .

When asked about the PEER report tracking his administrations slack enforcement, Scotts environmental department responded by touting a near-record high compliance rate of 96 percent among Florida businesses. In other words: Florida cracks down less on environmental problems because there are fewer problems to crack down upon.

Sure.

So if a beat cop walked a crime-infested part of town, making 20 arrests a week  only to be replaced by a newbie cop who made only five arrests a week  you shouldnt blame the new cop. Instead, you should believe most of the criminals just suddenly decided to turn into model citizens.

Sure.

To Politico, Scotts campaign also blamed election-year politics for PEERs unflattering report.

Except the group has been issuing annual reports since before Scott even took office. And what about all the blue-green glop? Was that PEERs creation too?

I do agree, though, that people are finally paying more attention  now that the glop is shutting down part of the state and that the guy partially responsible for the swampy mess wants voters to send him to Washingtons swamp next.

But sure, governor, blame it all on politics. Feel free to stand thigh-deep in the blue-green muck that smells like mold and death and is sending people to emergency rooms  and tell everyone what a bang-up job youve done with the environment.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
God's Answer to Wildfires

A Day of Repentance for California will be held in San Jose, Saturday, August 11

Pastor Jeffrey Daly Says God is Withholding the Rain Amid Raging Wildfires in California--but There is a Spiritual Solution

MIDDLETOWN, Calif., Aug. 4, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- The fires in California are a result of a seven year-drought. Following 2 Chronicles 7:13, God has done what He said He was going to do: He has withheld the rain, Pastor Jeffrey Daly says.

Governor Brown claims the fires are a result of "global warming." No, God is in charge; it's His "Global Warning."

God has withheld the rain because our state stands increasingly for wicked practices. It now may rank as the most wicked of our fifty states. Our legislature, governor, and courts place the stamp of authority on practices that are an abomination to the Lord such as: abortion, same sex marriage, pornography, greed, idolatry, mammon, rebellion, mind-destroying drugs, restrictions on religious freedom, euthanasia. The stench keeps rising.

Not using Holy Spirit fire, God sends His fire in the natural. Pastors and priests throughout California will be encouraged to hold repentance services, a "sacred assembly" in their communities on August 11. A 9AM to noon repentance service will be held at Four Square Church, 1470 McKinley Avenue, San Jose. Believers in Christ nationally, and in other nations, will also be invited to repent on August 11. Sincere repentance brings God's healing of a state and a nation.

www.dayofrepentance1.org For interviews, contact Pastor Jeffrey Daly at (707) 350-0659 or jdalylaw@aol.com

ABOUT NATIONAL DAY OF REPENTANCE

God's Word tells us to purify ourselves as His Bride through the privilege of Repentance. It's time to repent, personally and nationally. Unless we embrace a true repentant attitude, choosing His Purity instead of sin we will soon be ruled by tyranny. The Bible clearly states that our current disobedience leads to destruction and bondage. Repentance will return us to His Liberty that founded this nation.

"When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:13-14
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
For most of us, stumbling across a dollar or a half-eaten corn dog on the street would be a huge freaking deal. The people on this list farted their way into fortunes that even the yarn-spinnin'est hobo on the rails would find implausible.

6 A Jackson Pollock Worth $15 Million Turned Up In An Arizona Garage

When a Scottsdale, Arizona man was selling his house to move into a retirement home, he contacted an appraiser to assess the value of his most prized possession: a signed LA Lakers poster sitting in his garage. When the appraiser came to look at the poster, he estimated its worth at around $300, but he found also something considerably more interesting in the garage: a painting that looked an awful lot like a Jackson Pollock.

Even though the style seemed unmistakable -- Pollock is neck-and-neck with Monet in the famed "easy to point out from a distance to feel smart at a museum" art movement -- the likelihood of an authentic Pollock making its way to the Southwestern U.S. without anyone knowing seemed like a stupid plot twist for real life. The appraiser, Josh Levine, spent 18 months and tens of thousands of dollars investigating the painting's history.

Levine discovered that the owner had a half-sister named Jenifer Gordon Cosgriff, who'd been a New York socialite earlier in the century. After some digging, he managed to link Gordon Cosgriff to a specific showing where she could've reasonably acquired the painting. When Gordon Cosgriff had died, the Arizona man had collected her belongings and stored them in his garage for decades. Levine then had forensics experts analyze the physical painting itself, and they confirmed that it was likely one of Pollock's missing "gouaches" from 1945-1949, a specific style of painting that combined water with a binding agent.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 5)  A ceremony for the signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) will be held tomorrow, August 6, at the Malacanang Palace.

President Rodrigo Duterte, the first Philippine President who hails from the South, is set to lead the ceremonial signing. Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission are also expected to attend the historic event.

The BOL, now officially called the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (OLBARMM), is the result of decades-long peace negotiations between the rebel groups in Mindanao, mainly the government and the MILF.

READ: The Bangsamoro Organic Law: Everything you need to know

The OLBARMM paves the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) or the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, abolishing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Officials have earlier called the ARMM a failure, marred by corruption and mismanagement.

While BOL is set to provide the region autonomy to establish and run its own government, the law is primarily poised to end the perennial conflicts between the government and rebel groups, including the MILF.

Ahead of the ceremony, MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim took to social media to express his sentiments on the unprecedented event.

Murad said the BOL "recognizes the justness and legitimacy of the cause of the Bangsamoro people," on his Twitter account created just on August 3.

"This recognition is important as it acknowledges the historical fact and justified our struggle for freedom and justice," he said.

Murad added that the law restores the identity of Bangsamoro people.

"The Organic Law confers to us our distinct identity as Bangsamoros and acknowledges the same even as it allows other identities to co-exist with us," he said.

Murad vowed to make a government that is "inclusive" and "primarily based on justice and equality."

He also said that Cotabato City may become the capital of the BARMM if it wins the plebiscite.

The MILF chair called for support in attaining the goals set under the law.

"I ask that you participate in shaping the Bangsamoro Vision - a vision that goes beyond our individual, clan, party, organizations' interests," he said.

CNN Philippines' Robert Vergara and former Digital Producer Ver Marcelo contributed to this report.
Some of my best memories of being a little girl, and later a truculent teenager, are the weekly Saturday morning shopping trips I made with my mum to Binns in Middlesbrough town centre.

We bought my posh party frocks and Mum's evening outfits for her cruise-ship holidays. The dress I wore for my graduation came from there, as did a series of good winter coats, bought in August before all the best ones were snapped up.

The store  a grand building on the corner of Linthorpe Road  wasn't just any old shop, but a temple to local aspirations. When it was built in 1957, people flocked for miles to see its self-supporting elliptical staircase, and the excited evening paper described it as Teesside's answer to New York.

Amazon has made its founder Jeff Bezos unspeakably rich with a 115 billion fortune

Well, it was Middlesbrough, not Manhattan, but it was where everyone who coveted a little social status went for their wedding gowns, their smart suits, their cutlery and their dinner service. Even when you couldn't afford to buy something, you could nibble on a slice of gateau in the cafe, as Mum and I did, hoping to see and be seen.

Now, all those memories are about to disappear. The store, which became part of the ailing House of Fraser chain, is due to close next year, as is its counterpart in nearby Darlington.

Poor old Binns: it survived a Luftwaffe raid in 1942, but it is falling victim to the devastation that is engulfing the high street up and down the country. It's no coincidence to be mourning a shop with so many memories at the same time as a rampant Amazon, that online retailer extraordinaire, is running up huge revenues  and keeping most of them out of the grasp of the UK taxman.

The decline of the great British high street isn't a simplistic story. It's a mix of punitive taxation through business rates, high rental costs, takeovers by rapacious private equity operators and other owners who loaded firms with debt and, it must be said, a fair bit of plain incompetence.

House of Fraser's demise is in large part due to the fact it has been passed like a parcel from owner to owner and has been very badly run.

But the American marauders at Amazon are certainly not helping. The US company, currently worth a smidge under $890 billion, is hurtling towards a $1 trillion valuation. Wall Street experts expect its shares to rise by more than 15 per cent over the next year, which would push the online giant over the trillion-dollar line.

Marks & Spencer for instance, is thought to have paid 184 million in business rates last year while poor old House of Fraser has an estimated tab for 120 million. Amazon will say only that it pays 'tens of millions of pounds' (stock image)

The company has made its founder Jeff Bezos unspeakably rich with a 115 billion fortune, which begs the question of how it gets away with paying minimal sums in UK corporation tax and a fraction of the business rate burden of its high street rivals.

At this point, I have to make a confession. I adore Amazon  or at least I adore its speed, low prices and convenience. I'd even go so far as to describe myself as a low-level addict, but what I don't adore are its tiny tax bills and its secrecy.

It's hard to be definitive about Amazon's finances here because of the complexity and lack of disclosure that surround its operations.

Filings in the US reveal its UK sales were 8.74 billion last year, putting it in the same league as the John Lewis Partnership and Marks & Spencer. The difference is that it almost certainly pays far less in corporation tax and business rates.

What we do know is that one of its British subsidiaries, Amazon UK Services Ltd, which runs the logistics and customer services operations, had a corporation tax charge of just 4.5 million on profits of 72 million, or a rate of about six per cent.

That must annoy companies like the John Lewis Partnership, which paid nearly 30 million in corporation tax  more than six times as much  and at a significantly higher rate of 29 per cent of its profits.

This charge doesn't relate to Amazon's main retail oper-ations, which are conducted through a UK branch of a separate company, based in low-tax Luxembourg.

Digging reveals it made a 55 million payment to tax authorities in the UK, Spain, Italy, France and Germany, but we don't know how much of the money went into the Treasury coffers. The mystery surrounding Amazon's tax affairs here is galling, for rival retailers, consumers and taxpayers.

The UK is one of its most lucrative markets outside of its native America, yet it feels no obligation to be open and transparent with its customers over exactly how much  or how little  it is contributing to our schools, roads and hospitals.

Instead, anyone trying to make sense of its tax position is confronted with a labyrinthine corporate structure and a wall of silence. Amazon also refuses to reveal how much it pays in business rates since it does not have a nationwide chain of high street stores. However, its bills are certainly a fraction of other retailers'.

Marks & Spencer for instance, is thought to have paid 184 million in business rates last year while poor old House of Fraser has an estimated tab for 120 million. Amazon will say only that it pays 'tens of millions of pounds'.

Cheerleaders for Amazon say it has invested billions of pounds in this country, created tens of thousands of jobs and that it is not breaking the law. So what? Obeying the law is a minimum standard of corporate conduct  and what of the jobs it has destroyed as it has wreaked desolation on traditional shopping streets?

The company is stretching its tentacles into virtually every area of commercial life, not only menacing retailers but also broadcasters like ITV with its Prime Video service.

It is even making inroads into the public sector with its first procurement contract, a 600 million deal to supply public bodies in Yorkshire with a range of products from paperclips to bandages.

Demonising Amazon won't save our high streets. They need a package of measures, including an overhaul of business rates, cheaper car parking and better public transport.

There also should be a new online sales tax, to help even the field between internet retailers and traditional shops. The proceeds could be invested in revitalising town centres.

As an Amazon addict, I'd like to change my current love- hate relationship with the company to love-love. I want to shop without feeling guilty about condoning its furtive tax antics and the shuttering of old-style shops left in its wake.

It may be one of the most successful corporations the world has ever seen, but unless it starts caring more about society and less about low tax bills, Amazon is at risk of moral bankruptcy.
Why do you think police are now investigating the long-ago acts of British soldiers in Northern Ireland, while Patrick Magee, the multiple murderer who tried to do away with the British Cabinet in Brighton (killing five innocent persons and injuring another 31) is a free man? And why do you think our Government cannot stop this? I will tell you. It is because we surrendered to the IRA in 1998. The defeated must do as they are told.

If, like me, you opposed this at the time, you are entitled to complain. If you were gulled by talk of peace, when you must have known a price would be paid, then you cannot. You shrugged and let it go. And theres more to come.

Quite soon now, a large chunk of our national territory will pass under the rule of a foreign power, as a result of a violent attack on this country.

This sort of thing is not actually supposed to happen nowadays in civilised Western Europe, but we get round it by pretending it is not happening.

Police are investigating British soldiers in Northern Ireland, while Patrick Magee (pictured), the multiple murderer who tried to do away with the British Cabinet in Brighton, is a free man

You may have guessed that the place involved is Northern Ireland. Thanks to the Instrument of Surrender signed by the Blair Government in 1998 at Belfast, a referendum is all it will take to place this area under the control of the Irish Republic. A recent survey by Lucid Talk for the BBC showed 45 per cent would vote to stay British, and 42.1 per cent would vote to leave the UK. In my view, it is a matter of time before there is a majority to leave.

You may say that the transfer will therefore be democratic. But no such vote would ever have been considered if Britain had not given in to the IRA in 1998.

Look at what happened in this supposed festival of peace and love. Hundreds of IRA prisoners were freed. So were scores of equally disgusting gangsters from the Loyalist side, so as to look even-handed. An amnesty, in all but name, was given to any who had yet to be caught and convicted.

The only people who didnt benefit from this were those who prefer peaceful, lawful methods.

Thousands of British troops withdrew. Hugely expensive surveillance equipment in sensitive areas was dismantled and taken away for ever. The police Special Branch, a formidable weapon against the terrorists, was disbanded. IRA mouthpieces were allowed into mainstream politics on fat tax-funded salaries, and invited to Royal banquets. Sinn Fein, the IRA megaphone, was even allowed to raise funds abroad  so far more than 10 million from US businessmen and Hollywood poseurs. The Crown of St Edward, symbol of authority in our Kingdom, was stripped from police badges, while flying of the Union Flag was severely limited by law.

Meanwhile, it was pretended that the IRA had disarmed, but no visible, checkable proof of this was ever produced.

IRA bombings, including the worst single massacre of the whole Troubles, at Omagh, continued. These extended to the English mainland  including one in Ealing and another outside the then BBC TV Centre in 2001. But these were all conveniently accepted as being the work of so-called dissidents.

And here is a puzzle. Irish Republicanism is notorious for the viciousness of its internal conflicts. In the past its factions have gone to war with each other, or hanged each other, because they disagreed over the 1921 peace treaty with Britain.

But I can find no trace of any attempt by the Provisional IRA to destroy the alleged Real IRA (they must know who they are), which suggests to me that it is simply a cover used for deniable operations, when the British Government is being slow to make concessions.

And that might give you a clue as to why a 76-year-old former paratrooper is under police investigation for crimes allegedly committed in Londonderry in 1972, while all manner of IRA and UVF killers from the same era havent a care in the world, and probably live off money you pay in tax.

Are we really so much wiser than Dennis's dad?

Oh, for the lost world of the Beano, 80 years old this week, and come to that, the Dandy, the Beezer and the rest of them. How I used to look forward to their arrival at the newsagents each Saturday. How my parents disapproved of them, and urged me to read the worthy, educational Eagle instead.

Its partly a yearning for a whole range of lost things, from Corona soft drinks to Palm Toffee and Frys Five Boys chocolate, and also that now-vanished Saturday evening feeling, best in crisp autumn air, of release and freedom (a lot to do with the fact that so many people still worked on Saturday morning).

Oh, for the lost world of the Beano, 80 years old this week, and come to that, the Dandy, the Beezer and the rest of them

But Im still unable to persuade myself that the days when angry fathers pursued their errant children with slippers (or were supposed to do  mine never raised a hand to me despite multiple provocations) were so terribly wicked.

Nowadays Dennis the Menace would be drugged with Ritalin, a stone overweight from sugary drinks and welded to some sort of screen. Dads slipper and teachers cane may have been bad, but are we really sure that our descendants will look on us as good parents?

Scorned... by the Westminster Soviets

The Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people at a concert in May 2017, had been rescued from Libya in 2014 by the Royal Navy. Why?

Libya was in chaos because David Cameron had helped an Islamist rebellion there, one of the stupidest actions of any modern British politician.

So with that in mind, shouldnt the Government be a bit more careful about helping Islamist rebels in general, and about who else it welcomes into our borders? Apparently not. Last week I noted plans to bring into this country members of the so-called White Helmets, a controversial, supposedly humanitarian organisation that has operated for years in areas of Syria controlled by militant Islamist jihadis.

Bizarrely, even after the Libyan disaster, Britain has been helping these jihadis too.

I still have no idea why these White Helmets need to come to Britain. Like you, I do not really know who they are. On Monday I asked the Home Office how and where they will be vetted, where they will live, and who will support them.

They replied three days later with meaningless flannel, about an eighth of an inch short of an actual insult.

When I chided the press officer involved, saying that the British Government really owed some respect to the concerns of British citizens about this sort of thing, and was behaving like a Soviet ministry in the 1980s, he laughed.

I would name him, because I think this behaviour demonstrates the astonishing arrogance of modern government, which long ago ceased to understand who pays its wages.

But I have been begged not to do so as it would be unfair. I dont, as it happens, agree. But remember that laughter the next time you hear a Minister going on about how vigilant we are.

I will mention here, once again, the virtues of the Norway Option as a clean, easy route out of the EU. We dont need Frances permission to take it. We can just decide to follow it, take it down off the shelf, and plug it in. As the deadline approaches, I suspect many more people may notice this. Do not be dismayed. Norway (Ive been to look) is definitely outside the EU and does very well.

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Hot on the heels of wrongly telling his Chinese hosts that his wife was Japanese (rather than Chinese), tongue-tied Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt ruffled more diplomatic feathers last week in France.

In a radio interview, he repeatedly referred to lAngleterre  not le Royaume-Uni.

Someone needs to tell Little Englander Jeremy he represents the UK as a whole.

In a radio interview, Jeremy Hunt repeatedly referred to lAngleterre  not le Royaume-Uni, suggesting he represents just England and not the UK

At 80, Brexiteer ex-SDP leader Dr David Owen is as arrogant as ever. He sneers at pro-European Tory MP Anna Soubry: Whats her name? Sowerby? Thats it. Sourpuss. My family used to call Roy Jenkins Le Roi Jean Quinze. Thats how you deal with impossible people like Madame Sourpuss. Brexit would be a piece of cake if only there was a more charismatic PM than Theresa May at the helm, he drawls. Who can vain Dr Death possibly mean?

MPs are keen to know how Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom will approach her task of confronting Labour MP Keith Vaz over claims he told Commons clerk Jenny McCullough she was unfit to look after members because she wasnt a mother. Leadsom had to quit the 2016 Tory leadership race after suggesting Theresa May was unfit to be PM for the same reason.

The special powers of new girl Steph

Bosses of pro-Brexit think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs last week denied offering rich US donors access to Ministers to help them win lucrative deals when the UK leaves the EU. Perish the thought. Clearly, that has nothing to do with the fact that pro-Brexit IEA head of communications Stephanie Lis, has been appointed new special adviser to Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab.

After being prised out of the Foreign Secretarys grace-and-favour London mansion a month after he quit the job, it turns out Boris Johnson is not the only Boris who wont leave his pampered perch. Deputy Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle says it took him and his wife Cath hours to persuade their African Grey parrot Boris, above, out of his cage and into temporary lodgings while they were away on holiday.

Jez won't be rooted out

Given how Jeremy Corbyn loves his allotment, he was remarkably unruffled by claims from Barnet councillors that he was unworthy of a local plot after his failure to tackle anti-Semitism. Jeremys so well in with the local allotment holders association, hes sure his beloved leeks are safe, says Dogs mole. Its like Momentums grip over the Labour Party, only much, much tighter.

Serjeant at Arms Kamal El-Hajji faces the Westminster equivalent of a court martial in September. Colleagues of Kamal are gunning for him for publicly dismissing bullying allegations against Speaker John Bercow as a witch hunt. Much as wed all like to, its strictly verboten for senior staff to comment on MPs like that, says Dogs snout.
So you think it's hot in Blighty? Be thankful you're not in the Costa del Sol or the Algarve: the temperatures there have burst through the 40c (104f) mark and in Southern Portugal are expected to break the record of 47.4c (117.3f) set in 2003.

That was the year in which we, most unwisely, took our family summer holiday not in our customary Cornwall or the Isles of Scilly, but in Tuscany. It was all but impossible for our children to sleep in the infernal, sultry heat.

After a week we abandoned our villa and booked flights back to our home in Sussex. It was wonderful to return to the moderate heat of an English August: we vowed never again to holiday in the Southern European midsummer.

This, then, was the year of complete vindication. We have just spent a glorious time in the far southwest of Cornwall, near St Just. Pictured: Perranporth beach in Cornwall

Over the intervening 15 years, there have been times  on days when the rain never stopped  when I wondered if we had been too dogmatic: especially as I am a foodie and have deep respect for French and Italian cuisine. Not so much for the Cornish pasty.

This, then, was the year of complete vindication. We have just spent a glorious time in the far southwest of Cornwall, near St Just. The coves have never seemed so beautiful, the light which has entranced artists down the years never so magical.

Purgatory

And, unlike in the Nineties when we first visited westernmost Cornwall, there are now restaurants in the area which yield nothing in quality to the best, anywhere.

Two in particular provided fabulous lunches for our family last week: Ben's Cornish Kitchen in Marazion  whose breathtakingly brilliant cooking has attracted reviewers from far-distant London  and the Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar in Newlyn (the port at the heart of the Cornish fishing industry).

So it was with something approaching smugness that on the last day of our holiday I read out aloud to my wife from an article by a Guardian journalist, entitled 'The sheer hell that is heading off on holiday from Britain'.

The author, Patrick Collinson, described the purgatory of Stansted (hub of the infamous Ryanair) in August: 'The airport prefers to attract large rent from retailers rather than provide much seating to passengers, so as the flight delays piled up, so did the bedlam, as passengers fought for somewhere to rest, lying in aisles, grabbing any space possible, crying children in tow.

'Not until 11pm was there a single word of information on my own flight, scheduled for 8.20pm . . . those bound for Italy seemed to have it worst. They were boarded on Ryanair planes, supposedly ready to take off, only to sit on the tarmac for hour after hour . . . then we heard of the 'retrievals'  passengers ordered off planes, having spent three hours waiting for take-off.

'The 'retrieved' were usually cancelled, left to fester for days waiting for a rare available seat on other flights.' And all to arrive  eventually  in a 40c+ furnace.

Unlike in the Nineties when we first visited westernmost Cornwall, there are now restaurants in the area which yield nothing in quality to the best, anywhere. Pictured: Porthchapel beach near Porthcurno in Cornwall

Meanwhile we (I, my wife, our two daughters and the elder one's partner) had left home in East Sussex at 5.30am to avoid the worst of the traffic and got to our destination by lunchtime, in the air-conditioned comfort of our admittedly somewhat battered 14-year-old Land Rover Discovery. So it was with light hearts that we started the return journey, also at 5.30am, last Saturday.

Then, at 7am, as we barrelled down the A30  the so-called 'Pasty highway'  our car's information panel suddenly pinged and flashed up the ominous message 'transmission fault'.

Simultaneously the engine cut out and we came to a stop, somewhere near Bodmin. It was foggy  normal for that part of the county at that time in the morning  and the cars and lorries were traveling at speeds which made me think that at any moment one would crash into the back of us, even though we had put our hazard lights on.

We immediately rang the AA (of which we are both 'family members'). The first person we spoke to at one of its call centres didn't seem to appreciate the danger of the situation.

The second did, and contacted the Devon and Cornwall police, who rapidly arrived and towed our car to a safer spot by a minor road nearby. They then  in my presence  called the AA to give precise details of the stranded car's new resting place.

Excuses

But whoever the police spoke to at the AA did not pass this on to the 'garage recovery partners' sent to pick us up. For we were told the recovery truck would be with us in an hour, but it took two hours.

When the charming Cornishman from the local garage arrived, he said it was only because he had called his wife to say that the Land Rover wasn't at the location the AA had given him, and he had been driving round in circles, that she told him that she could see exactly such a car (with five people standing disconsolately outside it) from the field in which she happened to be feeding her horses.

So by 9.15am our rescuer had loaded on our conked out car and taken us to the nearest supermarket car park, where our elder daughter and her partner sensibly baled out, speedily booking a taxi to take them to the nearest railway station.

Having established that our car had multiple gearbox problems that were not readily fixable, the man from the garage took the rest of us and our car a few miles down the road to a spot where we would be picked up by a tow truck allegedly already arranged by the AA to be taken on to our final destination. He told us the AA assured him they'd be there with us within 20 minutes.

We waved him goodbye at 9.50am . . . and waited. At 10.23 we were called by an AA man who came up with an increasingly implausible series of excuses why no recovery vehicle either would, or could take us to our destination.

Then  and bear in mind that every time we rang up we got a different person from one of the organisation's many call centres  we were told a taxi would be sent to take us to Exeter (about 50 miles away) where we would be provided with a hire car.

It was not until 11.50 that the local taxi arrived and in the intervening period when I repeatedly inquired of the AA why it was that my elder daughter had managed to get a local taxi immediately but they couldn't do so within two hours, the person at the call centre equally repeatedly responded that she was using 'the system we have' and that, in effect, the system was saying 'no'.

Clobber

This was hard to explain to our younger daughter, who has Down's syndrome. Although she got the essential point, declaring the AA to be 'useless'. When I passed this thought on to the latest voice at the call centre, he responded: 'I don't appreciate being called useless.' (I was beginning to understand why, last year, the chairman of the AA was sacked after hitting one of his breakdown recovery service's managers: it seems to be that sort of organisation).

When the taxi finally arrived, we were told by our final AA interlocutor that we should leave our vehicle where it was, with the keys placed beneath the front wheel arch on the driver's side, or another hiding place we could vouchsafe to them  but that the car might not be picked up for another 48 hours.

And we had to agree that it was being left there entirely at our own risk (including any luggage we had to leave in it, since the hire car the AA had arranged in Exeter would not be big enough to contain all the holiday clobber that our Land Rover had been carrying).

So, as I write, I have no idea whether I will ever see our car (or its contents) again. We finally arrived home at 7.30pm  14 hours after we had set off. 'Almost enough time,' my wife observed, 'to fly to New York and back.'

Still, after a restorative drink or three, we agreed we would be driving back again to wonderful westernmost Cornwall this time next year. For all our experiences with the AA, I'd still rather break down on the A30 than endure the August horrors of Ryanair.
Reports of the attempted assassination of the Venezuelan president using a drone pose a grim question. Could Britain, where sophisticated drones are available from high street electronic stores or online for a few hundred pounds, be vulnerable to a similar attack, perhaps by a lone wolf terrorist?

In security circles, its for some time been a question of when rather than if we see a drone strike in a civilian environment, and this [incident in Venezuela] looks like having been the when, according to Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army officer and counter-terror expert.

Certainly, the expertise is out there. Last January, Harvard academic Vera Mironova discovered an extraordinary cache of documents in a captured Islamic State military workshop in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Written in Arabic and English, they revealed a programme to turn radio-controlled drones  the kind of easily available off-the-shelf gadget  into killing machines that could carry and drop hand grenades.

Reports of the attempted assassination of the Venezuelan president using a drone pose a grim question. Could Britain be vulnerable to a similar attack?

The discovery proved what military intelligence had been saying for months: that these so-called quad-copter drones were increasingly the jihadists battlefield weapons of choice. They were cheap, easy to use and capable of transporting a load of up to 4lb to a precise location several miles away with minimal risk to the operator.

Soon after Mironovas discovery, the Iraqi government revealed there had been at least 80 attacks in the previous two months, usually involving drones with a plastic tube allowing them to drop 40mm rifle grenades that can kill or injure within a 16ft radius.

A dozen Iraqi troops had been killed and 50 injured. Countless other IS drone strikes were observed being carried on civilian refugees during the battle for Mosul last year.

Similar devices have been reported in Afghanistan, where extremists used them to launch unsuccessful strikes on the New Kabul Compound, a military base occupied by US and UK forces.

In January, Russian bases in north-west Syria came under a swarm attack by 13 drones, simultaneously controlled using what appears to have been a GPS unit.

It is the growing frequency and sophistication of such attacks that have raised fears of similar tactics being used by terrorists far from major battlegrounds.

We know a lot of IS fighters have dissipated around the world, so the big concern is that they take what they have learnt with them and mount a drone attack in the West, said De Bretton-Gordon.

His biggest fear is that a sporting event or public gathering could be attacked by a drone carrying a substance such as chlorine gas. This may not kill many but the panic ensuing could be devastating, he said.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army officer and counter-terror expert, fears a sporting event or public gathering could be attacked by a drone carrying a substance such as chlorine gas. Pictured: An M600 drone of the kind said to have been used in Venezuela

Part of the problem the security forces face is a sort of arms race among largely Chinese manufacturers to produce ever more powerful and sophisticated devices at the lowest price.

Those most feared in security circles, according to De Bretton-Gordon, are the so-called $500 drones capable of flying several miles at heights that make them hard to shoot with firearms or other conventional weapons. Some even come equipped with anti-jamming systems to evade efforts to disrupt their control systems.

Using drones would be part of what IS call the weaponisation of everyday life, said David Dunn, an expert in security policy at Birmingham University who first drew attention to the risk of terrorists using drones in 2012. Weve seen it with knives, trucks and rental cars. Their tactic is to take whatever is at hand and use it to mount an attack.

Major public events are now protected with the help of military technology. When British and US troops at the New Kabul Compound came under drone attack last year, they defended themselves using AR-15 Drone Defenders.

These look like rifles but instead of firing bullets they send out radio waves that disrupt the signal controlling the drones so they drop to the ground. They have a range of more than 1,300ft and these and other devices could be used to create an electronic cordon around Twickenham, Wembley or other venues for big events.

Meanwhile, experts advise regulating the drone market, for example by banning anti-jamming technology or insisting that all new models come equipped with GPS systems that could halt them in the vicinity of high-risk target areas.

But that still leaves gaps in our defence. As the Salisbury Novichok attack shows us, its all very well policing a big event or a scheduled appearance by the royals, but that still leaves endless unexpected targets, said one source. A lot of people are working very hard to keep us safe, but nothing will ever keep us 100 per cent safe.
For many people, one of the most important parts of travelling is making sure they have gorgeous photos.

Unfortunately, if people are travelling alone it can be more difficult to capture that perfect snap.

To help, FEMAIL spoke to Michele Frolla from the Intrepid Guide, from Melbourne, who has made a career from travelling the globe solo.

'There are a couple of ways you can get a great photo of yourself, even if you're travelling alone,' the 33-year-old told Daily Mail Australia.

Michele Frolla from Intrepid Guide , 33, revealed how people can take the perfect travel snap

'There are a couple of ways you can get a great photo of yourself, even if you're travelling alone,' she said

Tell strangers the shot to aim for

While travelling, many people want to include themselves in the photo, but it can be difficult to do so without a travel companion.

Aside from using a tripod or a GoPro, Ms Frolla said people shouldn't be shy in asking people around them to take a photo of them.

But while you might think that asking someone else to take a photo is simple, in fact you have to be quite specific in order to get the shot you want:

'After you size them up to ensure they won't run off with your phone or camera, let them know exactly what kind of shot you want,' she said.

'Show them where to stand, how to hold the camera and what they should capture, don't be afraid to be specific.'

Aside from using a tripod or a GoPro when travelling, Ms Frolla said people shouldn't be shy asking people around them to take a photo of them

As an example, Ms Frolla said that in her experience people tend to either clip out the sky or ground entirely.

To avoid things like this from happening she said people should show the stranger what they should see through the viewfinder.

'It might be a bit pedantic but it will save you time and ensure you get the shot you want,' she added.

'After you size them up to ensure they won't run off with your phone or camera, let them know exactly what kind of shot you want,' she said

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Another way to make it easier for them is to set up the tripod and tell the person which button to press.

If carrying a tripod isn't an option she said people should give them the camera, align the shot they want whilst standing next to them and show them what should be included in the shot.

'If you spot someone carrying a decent camera pass by, ask them over someone who doesn't,' she said.

'They're already experienced eye for photography will make this whole process a lot easier.'

Ms Frolla said that in her experience people tend to either clip out the sky or ground entirely and to avoid things like this from happening she said people should show the stranger what they should see through the viewfinder.

To make it easier for them, Ms Frolla said people should set up the tripod and tell them which button to press

If carrying a tripod isn't an option she said people should give them the camera, align the shot they want whilst standing next to them and show them what should be included in the shot

Take photos at golden hour or blue hour

For the best light, Ms Frolla said people can't go wrong with taking shots at golden hour.

'This is the hour before sunset and the hour after sunrise. Why? Because there is enough light to illuminate a scene without causing harsh shadows in your photos,' she explained.

'For night time shots, it's all about blue hour. This is the hour after sunset and the hour before sunrise.

'When the sun goes down and the street lights come on and there is still details in the blue sky, this is the perfect time to capture a dreamy city skyline or landscape.'

For the best light, Ms Frolla said people can't go wrong with taking shots at golden hour

Include a dramatic backdrop

When it comes to travel photos, Ms Frolla said people should aim for a dramatic landscape for a background and a point of interest in the foreground, which is normally the person in the photo.

She personally likes to scale her photos by placing herself far into the distance and letting her surroundings dwarf the traveller.

'For a typical Instagram shot, place yourself in the foreground with your back or side facing the lens and look off into the distance,' she said.

'These shots performance especially well because people can imagine themselves in your shoes.'

When it comes to travel photos Ms Frolla said people should aim for a dramatic landscape for a background

'For a typical Instagram shot, place yourself in the foreground with your back or side facing the lens and look off into the distance,' she said

Plan to visit locations before tourists

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Unfortunately the downside of wanting to get a photo in tourist hotspots is the fact that it can be difficult to take a shot without anyone in it.

'If you don't want to be photobombed, then either plan to visit the location before tourists arrive, which is usually before or just after sunrise, or wait till there is a lull in the crowd and take the shot then,' Ms Frolla said.

'If you're not a morning person or have the patience to wait, try seeking out a different perspective of the location for a truly unique shot.'

She said that there are a variety of ways to capture the Colosseum or the Eiffel Tower without capturing crowds.

These tricks include getting up high, moving to the side, scouting the area and finding a fresh viewpoint.

'If you're a bit more advanced, keep your camera steady and over the course of 30 seconds or more, take a photo every time the crowd moves,' she said.

'Using the magic of Photoshop you can use Smart Objects to erase objects which move, in this case, the crowd.'

'If you don't want to be photobombed, then either plan to visit the location before tourists arrive,' Ms Frolla said

'If you're not a morning person or have the patience to wait, try seeking out a different perspective of the location,' she added

To get a good shot she recommended getting up high, moving to the side, scouting the area and finding a fresh viewpoint

Use an app to edit the photos

Ms Frolla said that although there are a variety of editing apps on the market, VSCO, Snapseed, and Adobe Lightroom are the most popular.

'VSCO is great to using and creating custom filters to help you maintain a consistent looks. Snapseed is best for adjusting levels and brightening on dark areas,' she said.

'The new version of the mobile Lightroom app is getting better with each release and is taking over the functionality of Snapseed.

'Lightroom will also allow you to use filters, erase and clone areas of a photos and even access and sync your photos to the Cloud.'

Ms Frolla said although there are a variety of editing apps on the market, VSCO, Snapseed, and Adobe Lightroom are the most popular

Take a tripod

Ms Frolla is a fan of making sure she packs at least one tripod for her trips overseas and usually takes one large one and another smaller GorillaPod which has bendy legs that wrap around poles and objects to stabilise it.

'Tripods are especially great for situations when there are few people around and you really want a shot of you with a stunning landscape,' she said.

To take the perfect photo she said people can do one of three things: set the timer and run into position, turn on the built-in Wi-Fi or download the camera's app from the app store and use their phone as a shutter remote.

Any of these options will allow people to take shots where they're further away from the camera.

'If you don't want to carry around a tripod, use a selfie stick with a long handle so you capture your surroundings. GoPros are great for this as they super wide lenses built in,' she said.
While diversity and inclusion are common buzzwords in 2018, few spheres have felt the impact of the 'individual revolution' as intensely as the world of fashion.

With expansive size ranges exploding across department stores and stretch marks and cellulite becoming ever more visible on billboards, one Australian brand is announcing to the world that they are most definitely on board.

To celebrate their new inclusive range from sizes four to 20, Showpo recently launched an exciting competition calling on women across Australia to prove why they should be the newest additions to their 'Girl Gang'.

With expansive size ranges exploding across department stores and stretch marks and cellulite becoming ever more visible on billboards, one Australian brand is announcing to the world that they are most definitely on board

The campaign is underpinned by Showpo's mission that the brand is for girls and women of every size, a message that has received a plethora of positive responses on social media.

One delighted fashionista described her excitement about the size expansion, remembering a time when the largest size offered by Showpo was a 10.

'Being curvier nothing you guys had fit meI was so sad,' she wrote.

'Still, I kept following your page and told myself if I ever got 'skinny enough' I would try your clothes again.

The campaign is underpinned by Showpo's mission that the brand is for girls and women of every size, a message that has received a plethora of positive responses on social media

Ten finalists will be flown to Sydney for a day-long workshop at 'Team Showpo Headquarters' on August 16th, after which three overall winners will be announced as the label's new inclusion ambassadors

'Thank you for expanding your range, allowing women of more than one body type into your brand  I can't wait to try out the new sizes!'.

'I absolutely love that you promote positive body images and celebrate every size and shapewe're all beautiful in our own way,' another user wrote.

Ten finalists will be flown to Sydney for a day-long workshop at 'Team Showpo Headquarters' on August 16, after which point three overall winners will be announced as the label's new inclusion ambassadors.

Entrants have the chance to win a year-long contract, as well as an international girls' trip to an undisclosed location to promote the essence of the business: being fun, confident and fashionable.

The campaign has received a plethora of positive responses on social media, with users praising the move to include a wide range of body shapes in the new collection

'This was no mean feat for a company that started as a pure retailer, with no experience in fashion,' said Jane Lu, Showpo CEO

The winners will feature in up to four photo shoots for Showpo's website and social platforms, host question and answer sessions on The Showpo Edit channel and receive a wardrobe from the label worth $1,000.

Showpo CEO and self proclaimed 'girl boss' Jane Lu took to Instagram to draw attention to the campaign, commenting that the move to total inclusion has been a long time coming for the brand.

'This was no mean feat for a company that started as a pure retailer, with no experience in fashion,' she said.

Ms Lu is also a regular on 'Thirty under 30' success lists, and co-runs female entrepreneur support group Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine

'From first dabbling in design four years ago... to having weekly new pieces online exclusively designed by us, working our butts off to find factories to design for a fuller size offering and now having ten pages of styles [available] up to size 20 - I am truly so proud!'.

Showpo wowed the digital fashion world by taking home four titles including Online Retailer Of The Year at the 2018 Australia Post Online Retail Industry Awards in June.

Ms Lu is also a regular on 'Thirty under 30' success lists, and runs female entrepreneur support group Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine with fellow business owner Gen George.
A couple with a dream of owning their own home reveal how building a tiny abode for just $13,000 has given them a leg up on the property ladder.

Cori Holmes, 28, and her husband Patrick Brunelle, 32, live in Dunedin, New Zealand and their home, one that measures 2.5m wide and 6m long, is no bigger than a parking space.

It's completely decked out with everything they need, including a double bed, a full-size shower, wood-burning stove, kitchen and solar panelling for electricity.

And best of all their home - which they own outright - only cost them NZD $15,000 (AUD $13,500), and they built it from scratch.

This tiny home measures 2.5m wide and 6m long and is no bigger than a parking space

American couple Cori Holmes (pictured left), 28, and her husband Patrick Brunelle, 32 (pictured right) built the miniature abode themselves

The American duo, who moved to New Zealand in 2014, said they'd only planned on spending a year in New Zealand, but because they liked their new lifestyle so much, they decided to stay.

Although they had some savings between them, the idea of building their own home appealed more than buying.

And Ms Holmes told FEMAIL, they were excited by the prospect of having a project.

'We didn't really know what we were in for but it was a project that we were more than happy to take on and we're very, very pleased with the results,' she said.

The couple built their home on a trailer because this would make it the most mobile option

After researching tiny living in all its forms including yurts and container homes, the couple settled on the idea of building a tiny house on wheels as this would be the most mobile option.

'We bought a tandem-axle trailer for $3,000 from TradeMe (an online auction site) and found a someone who owned a llama farm who let us rent some land so we could work on our home,' Ms Holmes said.

'It took us a year to build. Patrick was working full time and I was studying for my master's degree full time and working part-time as well.

The home (pictured during construction) took a year to build and the couple who were working and studying full-time found time to complete it on weekends

While neither had any experience with building, Ms Holmes' husband (pictured) is a welder by trade

'He worked on the house every weekend,' she continued. 'I would go and help him but he did the bulk of it. I was mostly the assistant - and the budgeter.'

Although neither had any experience with building previously, her husband, a welder, was able to use his expertise to modify the trailer.

Ms Holmes also said Mr Brunelle was able to draw on carpentry skills he'd developed from a summer spent framing mansions in New Hampshire.

A non-negotiable in the home was a full-sized functioning kitchen sink

Although the pair had a sense of what each liked and disliked, the first-time home builders admitted there was the potential for disagreements - especially over how to design their compact space.

'When you first start, you don't really know what some else's style is,' she said.

The numbers at a glance: * Trailer - $3,000 * Solar panels and batteries - $5,000 * Wood stove - $1,644 * Exterior wall cladding (new) - $737.00 * Custom-built crates (seating, with storage below) - $700.00 * Recycled double-glazed windows - $520.00 * Floor timber - $350.00 * Fridge - $300.00 Advertisement

'Luckily, when we found things for our home, such as the steel cladding we used for the interior, there weren't any big discussions and we were able to agree.'

They kept costs low by building themselves, they used recycled materials, much of it sourced from demolition yards following the Christchurch earthquake.

Also, in a bid to keep their home within mobile weight restrictions, details such as aluminium window frames were chosen over wooden. However, the roof is made from corrugated iron.

The open plan home boasts a 900mm-square shower, a double bed which fits between the trailer's walls and pulls out from a raised floor like a drawer, and a kitchen complete with a full-sized sink.

While the couple have a two-top burner and small bar fridge inside their home, they've also created an area outside that functions as a second kitchen.

'We have a covered area outside that we've fitted a full-sized fridge and a barbecue that allows us to make different meals.' Ms Holmes said.

The tiny home comes with a wood-burning stove which not only helps heat the space but also functions as an alternative cooktop

The pair, who now live on land owned by Ms Holmes' family and pay $100 a week to cover land taxes, also have a shipping container installed nearby.

This comes fitted with a composting toilet, a washing machine and acts as storage/workspace.

While the container itself is wired to on-grid electricity, solar power panels provide the couple with plenty of energy to power their tiny home.

There are three solar panels on the roof (two 260W panels and one 320W panel) and two 280 ampere-hour batteries power the lights and television and enable the owners to charge their computers.

LPG gas is used to run their outdoor barbecue and shower, and refilling the small canister costs $22.00 every three weeks.

An second outdoor cooking space comes with a sink, fridge and covered barbecue

Ms Holmes admits its taken a bit for her to adjust to tiny living, especially after having space to 'sprawl'.

'The biggest challenge has been adjusting to the size of the space,' she said.

The couple has done away with conveniences like microwaves, toasters and electric kettles, but say living this way has helped them to become more careful about what they buy and own.

Tiny living isn't a 'walk in the park' said Ms Holmes and recommends people try it out first before committing

While the pair are all too aware that tiny living has become popular in recent years, Ms Holmes said the reality is quite different from the fantasy.

'It's not a walk in the park. You see Instagrammers and You Tubers who live tiny but it's not that easy,' she said.

'If you want to choose that lifestyle, try it out before committing.

'A small space can feel claustrophobic but having plenty of space outside helps.'
Just four months ago they were caught on camera engaged in what looked like a rather tense exchange.

But it seems Queen Letizia of Spain, 45, and her mother-in-law Queen Sofia, 79, have put their differences aside after the pair enjoyed a family dinner on Saturday night.

The Spanish royals are enjoying their annual family holiday to Palma de Mallorca with Letizia's husband King Felipe of Spain, 50, and their children Princess Leonor, 12, and Infanta Sofia, 11.

The family's united front comes after a clip emerged in April filmed at the Palma Cathedral in Mallorca on Easter Sunday, which appeared to show a very awkward exchange between Letizia and Sofia.

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Queen Letizia of Spain, 45 (left), and her mother-in-law Queen Sofia, 79 (right), put on a united front at a family dinner in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August (pictured with Princes Leonor)

King Felipe of Spain walked into the restaurant accompanied by his younger daughter Infanta Sofia (pictured left) in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August

Also joining the group was King Felipe's older sister Infanta Elena, 54, and her children Felipe, 20, and Victoria de Marichalar y Borbon, 17.

Letizia exuded laid-back chic in a flowing white sleeveless top and wide legged striped trousers.

She appeared happy and relaxed in the company of her mother-in-law, who donned a stylish mosaic print kaftan and white linen trousers for their evening out.

They walked with Princess Leonor between them, who looked pretty in a pink lace dress with a drop waist.

Her sister matched in the same dress in white and both girls sported a pair of low wedges.

The royals are enjoying their annual family holiday and have flown out to Palma de Mallorca (pictured together outside the restaurant on 4 August)

Also joining the group was King Felipe's older sister Infanta Elena, 54, centre and her children Felipe, 20, and Victoria de Marichalar y Borbon, 17, left (pictured in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August)

And it seemed the family were all about co-ordination last night, as Infanta Elena looked similar to her sister-in-law in a pair of white legged striped trousers and a matching blue blouse.

Her daughter Victoria commanded attention in a flowing yellow tie dye skirt, black sandals and a baggy white blouse.

The men in the group, King Felipe and his namesake nephew, looked smart in button up shirts and casual trousers.

Queen Letizia, left, looked stylish in a sleeveless white blouse and wide legged striped trousers (pictured) as she joined her family in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August

The family recently hit headlines after a video emerged showing Queen Sofia standing outside a church with both arms wrapped around her granddaughters' shoulders, encouraging them to pose for pictures.

Letizia then joined the group and was seen trying to stroke eldest daughter Leonor's hair standing in front of the cameras, before Queen Sofia appeared to pull the little girl closer to her.

Leonor appeared to then push her grandmother's arm away, before King Felipe interjected.

Speaking out following the incident, Letizia's former co-worker Imma Aguilar told El circulo at the time: 'I think they are the images of a mother worried about the image of her daughters.

Infanta Elena (pictured right, on the night out in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August) is the older sister of King Felipe, and is third in line to the throne as the country uses the male preference system

At one point while leaving the restaurant Victoria planted a kiss on her mother Elena's cheek (pictured) in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August

'I talked to Queen Letizia a while ago, and she is worried and quite desolated by this situation; she is very committed to the care of her daughters, with the protection of their image, she worries who takes photos of them.

'She worries where they come from, who approaches them It's a very motherly reaction.'

The royal family traditionally spend their lengthy holiday at the palace, their official summer residence, on the Balearic island.

Over the years Letizia, a former newsreader, has worked hard to promote causes she is passionate about.

The family looked united four months after Letizia and Sofia (pictured in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August) appeared to have an awkward exchange at the Palma Cathedral in Mallorca on Easter Sunday

In April, Queen Sofia was seen standing outside the church with both arms wrapped around her granddaughters' shoulders, encouraging them to pose for pictures, pulling them away from her daughter-in-law (pictured: Sofia with Leonor in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August)

These include education, innovation, rare diseases, and particularly in nutrition, working closely with the UNs World Health and Food and Agriculture Organisations.

King Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 in favour of his 48-year-old son, now King Felipe VI.

Crown Prince Felipe ascended to the Spanish throne at the stroke of midnight, after his father King Juan Carlos tearfully signed his own abdication.

His wife, now Queen of Spain, is originally from Asturias in the north west of Spain.

The family appeared to be in high spirits as they left the restaurant on Saturday night (pictured in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August)

The couple married ten years ago at Cathedral Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena in Madrid.

The relationship began in November 2002. In 2003, just months after she had been promoted to the position of anchor on the national news channel, she quit her job and days later the royal engagement was announced.

When Prince Felipe of Asturias announced his engagement to then TV presenter Letizia Ortiz in 2003, it sent tongues wagging.

Letizia was a woman with more of a past than most princesses: a hugely impressive career, during which she reported on 9/11 and covered the Iraq War; and an ex-husband.

King Felipe, second left, looked smart dressed in a button up shirt and casual trousers as he chatted to daughter Sofia (pictured in Palma de Mallorca on 4 August)

On her big day the royal bride dazzled in an ivory gown with a 15-foot-long train and a sparkling platinum and diamond tiara, which her mother-in-law Queen Sofia wore for her wedding almost exactly 42 years previously.

She is the granddaughter of a taxi driver and the eldest daughter of Jesus Jose Ortiz Alvarez, a journalist, and first wife Maria de la Paloma Rocasolano Rodriguez, a nurse and hospital union representative from a working-class background.

She attended public high school and did a degree at the Complutense University of Madrid. She later gained an MA in Audiovisual Journalism at the Institute for Studies in Audiovisual Journalism.
A father has defended his decision to ban his children from taking medicine - including antibiotics, painkillers and even Calpol.

Richard Lanigan and his wife Janette have never given daughters Molly and Isabelle, 14, and Eloise, 11, medication and say their immune systems are better for it.

The couple, who live in south-west London, even kept one baby away from hospital when doctors told them she was likely to die from whooping cough - and believe the natural nutrients in Janette's breast milk kept her alive.

The girls never took part in their immunisation programme as babies and have never even had a Lemsip.

The only time the three children had vaccinations is when they were immunised before going holiday this summer.

Richard Lanigan and his wife Janette have never given daughters Molly and Isabelle, 14, and Eloise, 11, (pictured is Richard with his daughters)

Mr Lanigan's daughter Isabelle is pictured with chicken pox as an infant, but was not given medicine or pain killers to treat it. Her father claims it has made her stronger

Richard Lanigan (pictured with his wife and their three children) believes keeping calm when his children are ill can help cure them because 'anxiety gets passed on'

Mr Lanigan says avoiding modern medicine is the best thing to do because it maximises his girls' immune systems.

In fact, he is so against unnatural substances, he has never even allowed the trio to take popular children's remedies like Calpol - a paracetamol-based medicine used by millions of parents.

While Mr Lanigan concedes that his approach to health is controversial, he and Janette are certain it has made their children more capable of recovering from illness.

The twins and their sister have barely suffered any health problems - the only thing they have had are occasional colds, but they are rarely severe.

If Richard and Janette Lanigan's children ever had stomach problems when they were little they were given flat cola to settle them (pictured when they were younger)

Mr Laingan's twin daughters, Molly and Isabelle, pictured as babies when they were due their vaccines at 10 weeks, which they were never given

WHEN IS THE MMR VACCINE GIVEN? The NHS already offers the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to infants, who get their first dose at 13 months and a top-up before they turn five. It is also offered to anyone who hasn't already been given it. The first dose offers protection to the majority of patients, while the second dose helps to cover the remaining and increase the length it works. The NHS states a completed MMR vaccine works for around 20 years. However, the number of children getting the life-saving jab has declined in recent years, according to NHS immunisation figures. This means, in theory, potentially thousands of adults have not been given the MMR jab because of the reluctance of their parents. Currently, the MMR vaccination is advised for travel to the majority of Asia, Africa, India and South America. The Department of Health also recommends that students should have certain vaccinations prior to attending university, including MMR. Advertisement

And he says more parents should follow his lead.

The 61-year-old former chiropractor, who also has a son from a previous relationship, said: 'The evidence clearly demonstrates that you can strengthen children's immune systems by allowing them to play in the dirt when they are young and get infections.

'I strengthen my girls' immune systems by allowing them to get diseases.

'They have less time off than other kids at their school, but that's not because of one particular thing  it's a way of life.'

He claims exposure to infection was what nature intended, and at 5'8' his 14-year-old twins have grown into strong, tall, healthy teenagers because of it.

Mr Lanigan added: 'I look at my children and they deal with illness quite well.

'If you look at how we've evolved, humans became stronger by getting illnesses.

'The process of natural selection meant the strongest survived.

'If you rely on vaccinations and medication for optimal health, you're creating a weaker species.

'Eventually something like the Spanish flu will come along and wipe out millions.

'I could live with natural selection, even though it seems pretty harsh.'

When it comes to treating pain, the Lanigans reach for natural remedies and never take painkillers.

Substances like Anadin, Lemsip and other over-the-counter medicines are simply not kept in their kitchen cupboards.

Richard Lanigan pictured with Eloise, Isabelle and Molly (left to right) at his Spinal Clinic in South-West London. He shuns medicine, with the exception of some vaccines

Richard Lanigan, left, pictured with a friend in 1959 - four weeks after he contracted measles, which he says is now considered a dangerous disease

And he says more parents should consider his way of life to end up with healthier, more resilient children.

He said: 'Ice is the most effective anti-inflammatory and pain relief for my kids. You don't see them popping pills.

'But there's no money for the pharmaceutical industry in frozen water, so they encourage people to take drugs.'

The first time one of his daughters was given painkillers was after youngest daughter Eloise hit her head aged seven and was taken to A&E.

The Lanigans reach for natural remedies and never take painkillers when they become sick (pictured: the family on holiday in South Africa)

Mr Lanigan believes other parents should rethink their approach to medication (pictured at his workplace in London)

Two nurses had to pin her down to give her Calpol because she didn't know what it was and spat it out.

When asked whether she was allergic to any antibiotics, Mr Lanigan had to admit that he didn't know - because she'd never taken any.

He added: 'Nurses were looking at me like a new age freak  they couldn't believe that she had never had antibiotics by that age.'

Mr Lanigan says that with antibiotic resistance becoming an increasing issue, more people should rethink their approach to medication.

'We should be trying to optimise the immune system,' he added.

The first time one of Mr Lanigan's daughters was given painkillers was after youngest daughter Eloise (right, with her twin sisters and father) was taken to A&E after she hit her head

Richard Lanigan believes humans are a 'weaker species' for relying on vaccinations and medication. The family are pictured on holiday in South Africa

'I would never tell somebody to do what I do, but what doctors are doing by giving out antibiotics willy-nilly is interrupting an evolving species that has spent millions of years getting healthier.

'People go to the GP when their kids have the sniffles because it's free and it's advice  but our healthcare system has been taken over by the pharmaceutical industry.

'Antibiotics have been used to cure every type of disease, and now we have bacteria that are resistant to them.

'When it comes to illness it should be down to how that person's immune system handles it.

'If they're the weakest in the species, tough, that may have sad outcomes but should we compromise the wellbeing of many children for the few who can't have vaccines.'

Richard Lanigan says he would only take his children to A&E if they had serious injuries, like being hit by a bus (pictured in his office)

Instead of rushing to his GP when his daughters get sick, Mr Lanigan uses his own alternatives to treat them at home in Thames Ditton, Surrey.

If they had poorly tummies as kids, he would give them flat Coca Cola to settle it.

He says Coke is not a healthy option, but the acid kills bad tummy bacteria - and a night of sleep in his and Janette's bed usually sorted them out.

He said: 'I try and take the common sense approach to healthcare and think about how our bodies work.

'If my girls got hit by a bus, they'd be going to A&E  that's what emergency medicine is good at.

WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE NOT VACCINATED? The World Health Organisation recommends 95 per cent of people are vaccinated against measles to stop the infection spreading out of control. Recent data shows around 92 per cent of children are receiving the vaccine, but there have been periods  particularly in the 90s and early 2000s  during which levels of immunisation dropped. This means, in theory, potentially thousands of adults have not had the MMR jab because of the reluctance of their parents. One reason for vaccination levels dropping may be a scientific paper published by Andrew Wakefield in 1995, claiming the MMR jab causes autism and bowel disease. Mr Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, speculated that being injected with a 'dead' form of the measles virus via vaccination causes disruption to intestinal tissue, leading to both of the disorders. He published a further paper appearing to confirm his theory in 1998, and vaccinations plummeted in the UK, where rates went from being more than 90 per cent to below 70 per cent. The US was also affected. In 2004, Wakefield's theory was found to have been based on false evidence  it was retracted by the journal The Lancet in 2010, and he was banned from practising medicine in the UK three months later. The most recent NHS data shows 91.6 per cent of two-year-olds were given the jab between 2016 and 2017  much higher than the 80 per cent in 2003  but this is still lower than the recommended 95 per cent. Advertisement

'But they're not so good at healthcare. If they were, we wouldn't have the rise in autoimmune disorders and chronic illnesses like Type 2 Diabetes we're seeing.'

When Eloise was born in 2003, all three girls contracted whooping cough  but Mr Lanigan argues their response to the disease proves how strong their immune systems are.

He says he was told 75 per cent of those who contract the disease die, but even though he and his wife knew how infectious it was, they took the baby home.

And it was Janette's breast milk that gave her a fighting chance.

He admits: 'I'm fully aware that whooping cough can have horrible consequences in some predisposed children.

When Eloise was born in 2003, all three girls (pictured with their father and older brother) contracted whooping cough but their parents took them home, believing breast milk would cure it

'They could have put her in hospital but we kept her at home because the treatment they would have given her would make her vulnerable to infections like pneumonia.

'We were told that the chances were she was going to die, but if we didn't know that she had Whooping Cough, we wouldn't even have thought she had a cold.

'I suspect because she was so young and being breast-fed and healthy she responded better.'

Richard adds that keeping his older daughters calm throughout their illness helped their recovery.

'If you don't get anxious they actually get through it easier, because your anxiety gets passed on to the children,' he said.

Mr Lanigan says he is completely opposed to vaccinations (pictured with the twins and his youngest daughter when they were little)

Richard Lanigan follows the Child Health Guide: Holistic Pediatrics for Parents, which gives information about medications and vaccines (pictured holding the book)

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS OF MEASLES? Most people will recover from measles within one or two weeks, but sometimes complications can develop. People most at risk include teenagers and adults, babies younger than age one and children with weakened immune systems. Common complications include diarrhea and vomiting, middle-ear or eye infections, laryngitis, fits caused by a fever, and lung infections such as pneumonia, bronchitis and croup. About one in every 15 infected children will develop one of these. Less common complications include hepatitis, meningitis and a brain infection called encephalitis. Rare complications include serious eye disorders which can lead to vision loss, heart and nervous system problems, and a fatal brain infection called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis  this is very rare and only happens in one in every 25,000 cases. Having measles during pregnancy increases the risk of the baby having a low birth weight, premature birth, or stillbirth or miscarriage. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

'I used to take pictures of them when they had a spate of coughing and they'd get distracted by the camera and forget about the difficult they were having breathing and start breathing normally.'

And even more controversially, Mr Lanigan says he is completely opposed to vaccinations.

He even owns a website where he aims to encourage other parents to research the jabs thoroughly before committing to them, especially as there can be side effects.

He says most are not given the full picture in immunisation schedules and by health visitors.

In fact, none of his children have been given routine shots for things like measles, mumps and rubella or rotavirus.

By their age, the twins should have had around 10 vaccinations, including the six-in-one vaccine, which protects against diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, haemophilus influenzae and hepatitis b, as well as jabs for rotavirus, meningitis b, and the MMR for measles, mumps and rubella.

He questioned Britain's reliance on vaccinations after doing a masters in health promotion in 2004 - something that opened his eyes to the fact that parents are given very little information on the process.

He says the healthcare system should take its focus off immunisation and shift it more heavily to nutrition and exercise, especially as his daughters haven't had any shots and rarely get sick.

He said: 'I just don't believe children are healthier with vaccines.

'Lots of children like Eloise get exposed to whooping cough bacteria and never develop it.

On his website he encourages other parents to research the jabs thoroughly before committing to the (the girls are pictured with their older brother on holiday in Portgual)

He questioned Britain's reliance on vaccinations after doing a masters in health promotion in 2004 (pictured with his daughters in London)

'The medical profession needs to be thinking about why children develop severe adverse reactions to what were once normal childhood illnesses.'

He adds that there is a lot of pressure from the government and other parents to conform.

'Why do people want me to follow what they're doing?' he says.

'Because they're insecure about their own decisions.'

Despite steering clear of medicine as much as possible, Mr Lanigan says he is 'not anti-drugs. You definitely need them in some cases,' he says.

Richard says the healthcare system should take its focus off immunisation and shift it more heavily to nutrition and exercise (pictured in his clinic with his daughters)

Richard Lanigan believes some drugs are needed but not 'in excess' (pictured in his clinic with his daughters)

'But anything in excess damages health. I must be doing something right because it's unusual to have children who have never needed antibiotics.'

Mr Lanigan's own childhood experience of infections before all these vaccines is what influenced his decision not to vaccinate his daughters.

He was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2011 and says he used cannabis oil to cure it after being months to live.

'In 1959 there was a measles epidemic,with 60,000 cases in the first two months' he says.

'The advice from the British Medical Journal at the time was 'don't panic', because complications are extremely rare. Now it's described as a killer disease. That is not true unless your immune system is compromised or you live in the Third World.'

Richard Lanigan's father claims his three girls (pictured together in London) have rarely been ill thanks to his controversial parenting methods

Ultimately for Mr Lanigan, the right approach is to let his children lead natural lifestyles to achieve optimal health and wellbeing.

The twins recently had their first vaccinations - but only so they can volunteer in Africa and South America this summer and both made their own minds up now they are older.

'We all know that children who play in the dirt and go to playgroups have stronger immune systems and are less likely to develop autoimmune disorders,' he added.

'If my kids' bread dropped on the floor I'd pick it up and put it back in their mouths.

'The twins recently had vaccinations to go on a school trip  I let them make that decision.

'But if I had known that they would have to have the vaccinations to go on the trip I probably would've said no.'
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 5)  Employees of a telecommunications company are disappointed after the Court of Appeals (CA) blocked the Labor Department's regularization order.

Dan Joshua Nazario, a protest leader of displaced workers of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), said Saturday, "Galit kami sa desisyon na ito. Sobrang galit kami, bakit ganito ang desisyon ng Court of Appeals, pabor na naman. Kelan ba magiging pabor ang Court of Appeals sa manggagawa?"

[Translation: We are angry at this decision. We are very angry, why is the Court of Appeals' decision like this? When has the Court of Appeals ever been in favor or workers?]

In its ruling, the CA said only workers of contractors performing installation, repairs and maintenance services of PLDT lines should be considered regular employees.

The court maintained the workers of contractors engaged in janitorial, messengerial and clerical, information technology, call center agents, sales, and even medical and dental, and other professional services should remain as independent contractors.

Earlier, PLDT filed a petition before the CA, questioning the Labor Department's directive to regularize workers.

However, it failed to secure a hold order.

In July, the Labor Department reminded the telco to comply, and gave the company until the end of the month to regularize its workers.

However, the court coincidentally issued its ruling on July 31.

Workers are now vowing to stage mass demonstrations against PLDT and the court beginning next week.

"Sa DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment), dapat panagutan nila itong nangyari sa manggagawa. Imbes na regularisasyon, bakit natanggal kami sa aming trabaho? Dapat nila kaming ibalik. And kay Pangulong Duterte, dapat pangunahan niya itong regularisasyon namin dahil siya ang nangako na tatanggilin nya ang endo," Nazario said.

[Translation:The DOLE should own up to what happened to workers. Instead of regularization, why were we removed from our jobs? They should reinstate us. And to President Duterte, he should pay attention to our regularization because he promised to remove endo.]

"Endo" or "end of contract" is a highly contested form of contractualization widely practiced in the country -- workers are hired for not more than five months, so employers don't need to regularize them on the sixth month, as mandated by the Labor Code. It strips millions of workers of all the benefits granted by law to regular employees.

CNN Philippines tried getting Secretary Silvestre Bello's reaction on the court's ruling, however, he has not responded to any requests for comment.

In a press conference Thursday, Bello promised to provide assistance to the displaced workers through the agency's emergency employment program.

PLDT has also deferred from commenting, saying they would issue their statement next week upon clearance from the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The displaced workers plan to escalate their complaints before lawmakers in a Senate hearing on August 9.

CNN Philippines senior digital producer Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
She's currently enjoying a hiatus from official public duties during her summer break.

But the Queen made a rare public appearance on Sunday when she stepped out for a church service at Crathie Kirk near her Balmoral estate.

The monarch, 92, looked resplendent in a cream wide-brimmed hat adorned with roses and a blue jacket with eye-catching gold buttons.

She accessorised with pearl earrings and elegant pair of white gloves, which she wore on her hands clasped in her lap as she sped through the small Scottish village in a chauffeured vehicle.

The Queen, 92, was seen on her way to attend a church service at Crathie Kirk near her Balmoral estate today (pictured)

The Queen appeared to be in good spirits as she waved to waiting fans during the rare public outing.

She made the short journey with a companion, who was also wearing a blue ensemble teamed with an elegant hat.

The last time Her Majesty was spotted out and about was last Sunday when she attended last week's service at the church.

Crathie Church lies next door to Balmoral and the Queen is a regular presence at services during her annual holiday.

The monarch looked happy to smile and wave to waiting royal watchers as made the short journey

Charles and Camilla also have a home, Birkhall, on the Balmoral Estate and will no doubt be spending time with the monarch over the coming weeks.

Last year the Queen departed for Balmoral in mid July and did not end her annual Highland summer holiday until the first week in October.

Her Majesty's last public engagements were on 13th and 14th July, when she welcomed overseas visitors - most notably President Donald Trump - to Windsor castle.

The monarch greeted the US president and his wife Melania in the quadrangle of the royal residence ahead.

Her last public engagements were on 13th and 14th of July when she welcomed President Donald Trump to Windsor Castle (pictured with Trump and his wife Melania)

The Queen and President Trump inspected the Guard of Honour (pictured) before watching the military march past during the visit

A Guard of Honour, formed of the Coldstream Guards, gave a Royal Salute and the US national anthem was played as the US visitors arrived for the engagement.

The Queen and President Trump inspected the Guard of Honour before watching the military march past.

Mr and Mrs Trump then enjoyed a private teas with the Queen inside the castle.
Last month I had my first ever Botox injection. Wincing with anticipation, I tried not to stare into the mirror as the liquid flowed from syringe to skin and I had crossed that irreversible line from natural to done.

Plenty of people have Botox. But not me. I am 74, happily married, a mother of two very grown-up boys and a grandmother of three. Im also someone who had prided herself on resisting the siren call of the needle, while friends smoothed brows and tightened crows feet.

So why this sudden change of heart?

The answer is simple. While my body is in pretty good shape, thanks to Pilates and yoga, Id become increasingly aware that the face in the mirror resembled an Ordnance Survey map of lines.

Angela Neustatter had previously resisted the urge to get Botox, unlike many of her friends, but she decided to get it at 74

The wrinkles on my forehead seemed to have dug in and be pointing down like arrows. Under my eyes, fine lines were heading south at an alarming rate. Others went from nose to mouth, and down from the mouth as though dissecting my chin. It wasnt so much that I looked old, but that I looked weary and dreary and bad-tempered. I did not want that to be me. I shared the lament of Gypsy Rose Lee: I have everything I had 20 years ago, except now its all lower.

Yet I was also aware, alas, that I was a particularly old Botox first-timer. After all, women are often told to start the treatment in their 30s, in order to stop wrinkles from forming. In our 40s and 50s Botox is said to stop lines from becoming imprinted, and in ones 60s a few ccs of botulinum toxin can take the edge off an already deeply etched crevasse.

But what about the Botox virgin in her 70s? Very little is said about her. Is it simply too old to make a difference? Is there an age and stage when it is either unwise or totally pointless to go for a tweakment?

Angela was worried that the wrinkles on her forehead seemed to have dug in and be pointing down like arrows - prompting her to get Botox (pictured before )

Angela after

I ask Dr Tracy Mountford of The Cosmetic Skin Clinic, who Im very pleased to hear has clients in their 90s. If someone aims to look 30 years younger, I tell them I cant do it, she says. There are no medical reasons why older women shouldnt have treatments, but the effects are more subtle.

If skin has thinned a lot, I take that into account and do fillers slowly to achieve smooth results. The women I treat all say they are empowered by feeling they are the best versions of themselves.

In fact, I am joining an increasing number of baby boomers opting for a pepped-up face, with fillers to plump and improve skin, as well as Botox to freeze lines. (The difference between the two types of injectables is that Botox stops a muscle from moving, so is used to tackle issues caused by repeated muscle movement or tension, while fillers replace lost volume and stimulate collagen production.)

We are, according to research from The Pensions Advisory Service, even dipping into pension funds to pay for procedures. And while younger women opt for body treatments, over-55s tend to focus on the face.

She was worried about getting the treatment as the best age for Botox is 30, however she was reassured by Dr Tracy Mountford of The Cosmetic Skin Clinic (pictured is Angela getting the treatment from a Dr Sarah Tonks

That said, it does take me several weeks to pluck up the courage to ring Dr Sarah Tonks. A friend, who looks particularly good for her age, recommended her to me, and Dr Tonkss ten years of medical training and specialisation in cosmetic treatment inspire confidence. I also like her chatty down-to-earth manner.

She seems unfazed by my age  indeed 30 per cent of her clients are over 50, including an 80-year-old woman who looked fabulous after having fillers and is now a regular.

However, shes also quick to tell me that Im well past the optimum time to begin Botox. She advises starting in your mid-30s in order to stop frown lines from becoming deep and embedded, as mine have. She uses Botox in fine facial lines, crows feet and the forehead, yet insists I mustnt hope for a brow smooth enough to skate on, just a little softening.

Over 55s tend to focus on facial treatments and according to research from The Pensions Advisory Service, they are even dipping into pension funds to pay for procedure

What about risks? Being older, provided you are healthy and can heal well, is not a problem, Dr Tonks says. But although it is rare, anyone can get bruising, swelling, infection, hypersensitivity and in very rare cases, occlusion of a blood vessel (when filler, injected in a small facial artery, causes a blockage, so the filler has to be dissolved).

Botox can help with the forehead and fine lines, but fillers are often the most important part of what I use, as they re-inflate tissue where volume has been lost, Dr Tonks adds. This usually starts around the eyes, the front cheek, temple and so on.

It took Angela several weeks to pluck up the courage to ring Dr Sarah Tonks (pictured), who was recommended by a friend

She tells me this while drawing lines around the parts of my face where volume loss has led to drawn-in cheeks, hollowing under the eyes and deep lines at the side of my face.

She is preparing the places where she will inject hyaluronic acid, which hydrates and inflates tissue, and platelet rich plasma, which will minimise the appearance of under-eye wrinkles. Profhilo (a hyaluronic acid dermal filler that improves the skin  a bit like injectable moisturiser) will also be going into the rings around my neck.

She says I will need three sessions over three months, as I havent had treatment before. It will all cost 5,000. The Botox lasts for three to four months, while for the filler its about nine to 18 months. The plumping from fillers which bond with our natural collagen does not wholly disappear for about a year- and-a-half, and has a build-up effect.

If I want to keep up the look then I need to return every three to six months for Botox, and every nine to 18 months for fillers.

I am no fan of injections, but I am surprised by how little the procedure hurts. At the end of each four-minute session, the only signs that the needle has gone into my face many times are a couple of small bruises around the chin and a bit of swelling, which makes my face a bit chipmunk-ish.

I have not had Botox or substantial fillers before, but this is not the first time I have had cosmetic help.

In my early 40s, when I was juggling two riotous sons and a demanding job, while doing up a wreck of a house, my exhaustion levels were off the scale. It showed in my eyes, which seemed to slip into a sandwich of loose skin. I looked like a lizard. I was told cosmetic surgery was the only thing that would help, so I had skin removed from the top and bottom of my eyelids. It brought my eyes back into my face.

Angela shared how Dr Tonks seemed unfazed by her age  revealing that 30 per cent of her clients are over 50

In those days, feminists didnt admit to tampering with nature, but I use my eyes a lot to communicate and had stopped feeling confident in doing so.

I am well aware that wanting cosmetic procedures to remove the evidence of a life lived is a dangerous route to the overdone effect.

There are plenty of cautionary tales: Melanie Griffith, the Leslie Ash trout pout, or the plasticised look of Joan Rivers, who had the chutzpah to admit: Ive had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.

However, she advises starting treatment in your mid-30s in order to stop frown lines from becoming deep and embedded

Following the backlash I got after my eye-lift treatment, I also know that wanting to improve your looks  vanity, if you like  is often met with opprobrium. Why cant we accept ourselves? Dont we love the wrinkles and crinkles as trophies of all we have done? Why disguise the story of our lives?

In my own defence, whats the use in that when the story is too overlaid with markings to be read? I value what I have done with my life and dont aspire to the impossible dream of looking years younger than I am.

But nor do I love the idea of resembling a passion fruit in its shell, all wrinkles and deep lines  no matter how tasty the inside might be.

Its the desire to present ourselves as the best calling card possible, as top cosmetic dermatologist Dr Tapan Patel puts it. At his London PHI Clinic, he does non-surgical treatments with a far larger toolkit than we had a few years ago.

Dr Tonks said that the Botox lasts for three to four months, while the fillers last about nine to 18 months

He says he has loyal clients in their 80s, who are not trying to look radically different, but want a face that looks fresh and bright. Ageing is not a level playing field. Some age far earlier than others and they dont want to be disadvantaged.

This is surely the point. The human race has done what it can to enhance its appearance for millennia, but now there is more to it. We are likely to live decades longer than before, and it is a simple truth that looking like a Giles cartoon granny can get in the way of work and social opportunities and, well, being the person you want to be.

Ageism is real and it can be very difficult if your mind is as sharp as ever and your abilities are intact, but your face suggests otherwise. It may not be fair, but thats how it is.

Besides, why is getting Botox any more vain than sweating through a Pilates class five days a week, wearing make-up to flatter and disguise, or splashing out on a figure-shaping party dress?

Angela says that her husband and friends have given her new look their approval, with her Spanish daughter-in-law saying she didn't look a day over 50 (pictured before the procedure)

Whatever anyone else may say as I go public with my face, my husband likes the result and says my cheeks are as girlish as they were when he first met me (an exaggeration for sure, as I was 29 then!).

He even wondered whether he should have a bit of a fillip, too, but I squashed that one fast. Im not into competitive tweakments and, anyway, he is for ever being told how young he looks.

When I saw my friend, a beauty expert not unacquainted with the Botox needle herself, she gave a shriek of delight: Your skin looks really smooth and you now have a lovely curve to your cheek.

My glamourpuss Spanish daughter-in-law said I look no older than 50 and that she wanted to look just as I do when she is my age  but she only saw me on FaceTime.

Other friends didnt spot that Id had anything done, but several have told me how well I look and said my eyes seem brighter.

And, most importantly, I like the results. My face feels perkier, I feel more like smiling, and I find myself putting on silky summer dresses rather than my usual trousers and T-shirts. I feel as though a new confidence has been injected into me with the fillers and Botox  just in time for that 75th birthday.
While you might think that your daily scroll through carefully curated images of fitness personalities on Instagram is helping you to be healthier, a new study has revealed it might be doing the opposite.

Researchers at Griffith University have found that online fitness communities encouraging women to be fit rather than merely thin can harm women's health.

Mantras including 'exercise to be fit, not skinny', 'strong is the new skinny' and 'skinny is not sexy, health is' may seem to be beneficial for women, but they can in fact lead them to want to be thinner.

Researchers at Griffith University have found that online fitness communities encouraging women to be fit rather than merely thin can harm women's health (pictured: Kayla Itsines)

Lead author Laura Uhlmann and her fellow researchers found that fitspiration or 'fitspo' has more than 49 million images on the Internet (pictured: Kayla Itsines)

Lead author Laura Uhlmann and her fellow researchers found that fitspiration or 'fitspo' has more than 49 million images on the Internet.

Meanwhile, social media celebrity trainers including Kayla Itsines and Emily Skye earn millions of followers through selling their fit and healthy message.

'The desire for thinness in any form, is enough to elicit harmful outcomes, irrespective of any coexisting muscular body goals,' Dr Uhlmann reported in Body Image Journal.

'Despite popular opinion, internalising the fit-ideal may be damaging women's health.'

Meanwhile, social media celebrity trainers including Kayla Itsines and Emily Skye (pictured) earn millions of followers through selling their fit and healthy message

For the study, Dr Uhlmann and her team interviewed 356 women aged between 17 and 30.

They found that in spite of the healthy message being pushed, fitspos' messages did not lessen feelings of body dissatisfaction, and might lead to women wanting to lose weight.

This study follows research from last year, which found that a regular scroll of Instagram is not good for you.

This study follows research from last year, which found that a regular scroll of Instagram is not good for you, and leads women to be more likely to 'self-objectify' (pictured: Sophie Guidolin)

Researchers at Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales found that when women spend more than 30 minutes on Instagram each day, they were more likely to 'self-objectify'.

Not only this, but 30 minutes of Instagram also means you may be in danger of valuing your body for its appearance over its health and physical functions.

The study quizzed more than 350 women aged 18-25 in Australia and the US on their Instagram habits.

Sadly, those who compare their bodies with celebrities were the most likely to 'self-objectify' their bodies.
People from ethnic minority backgrounds have to work twice as hard and be twice as good as white people to achieve success, according to BBC Countryfile presenter Anita Rani.

Anita, 40, who has also hosted The One Show and Watchdog, makes the claim in an exclusive interview for todays You magazine, saying: As a non-white person you are always aware your experience is different to everyone elses  that you have to work twice as hard and be twice as good as a white person to be successful.

She says she never thought of herself as a role model but adds: The more people say to me Youve broken so many barriers as a brown-skinned woman on TV, the more I think, OK, Ill accept that. 

The presenter, whose next project is a forthcoming BBC2 programme about the Bollywood industry, met her husband, Bhupi Rehal, 38, a decade ago. Her parents, who moved to Britain from India in their 20s, had an arranged marriage but never put pressure on their daughter to follow suit. Anita jokes: Mum would always say, You can marry anyone you like as long as hes Indian! 

Funny and forthright, Countryfiles Anita Rani is one of TVs most wanted (and most loved) presenters. But her journey to primetime hasnt been a breeze. She tells Julia Llewellyn Smith about breaking barriers and the very personal reason why shes put motherhood on hold

Anita wears DRESS, Michael Michael Kors, from Selfridges. EARRINGS, Vicki Sarge

Anita Rani is perched on an armchair on a Soho rooftop on a glorious summers morning, munching an almond croissant and reflecting on the highlight of her year to date  being one of the BBCs presenting team for the royal wedding.

Anita presenting BBC Twos Bollywood: The Worlds Biggest Film Industry

I so lucked out being picked for that! she exclaims. Harry and Meghan smashed it  there was magic in the air that morning. I cried so much: at the gospel choir, and every time the cameras panned to [Meghans mother] Doria. The future king of England had just walked her daughter down the aisle and she held it together. What a moment for inclusivity! If an institution like the British royal family can put on a wedding that embraced so much diversity, then what excuse has anybody else got for not embracing it in their everyday lives.

Anita with Ore Oduba, covering the royal wedding for the BBC: I lucked out being picked for that; I cried so much!

She continues: I used to hate words like diversity and inclusivity, because they imply that brown-skinned people are outside, having to be brought in, and Ive always just felt normal. But now I love the fact Im living in an age where BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] issues are being discussed. Its not just racial identity but female politics, too. Finally, brown-skinned people and women can shout about things and others have to pay attention. So lets use those words.

Its hard to imagine a TV personality who embodies inclusiveness more than Anita, 40, who is every bit as fizzy and sharp-witted in person as she comes across on television. Diminutive and garrulous, she appears equally at home in wellies (in the enduringly popular Countryfile) and stilettos  as she demonstrated when she samba-ed to fourth place in 2015s Strictly Come Dancing. She presented last years One Love Manchester concert and the Last Night of the Proms, won the first series of The Great Sport Relief Bake Off and often hosts The One Show.

She has also reported from her parents native India, and was the subject of one of the most harrowing episodes of the family history show Who Do You Think You Are? Anita sobbed as she related how her Sikh female ancestors killed themselves or were killed by male relations during the Partition of India, rather than be slain or violated by the enemy. Now shes presenting a BBC two-part series, which she also co-produced, about one of Indias greatest exports: Bollywood.

Anita wears TOP, Stine Goya, from Fenwick. CULOTTES, Massimo Dutti. SHOES, Jimmy Choo

Anita was born and raised in Bradford after her parents moved here in their early 20s, but frequently visited relatives in India (she speaks fluent Punjabi) and later backpacked around the country. Like many British Asians, she grew up immersed in the vibrant images of the worlds largest film industry whose vast number of movies normally featured old-fashioned, boy-meets-girl love stories told through often surprisingly provocative song-and-dance numbers.

I had the idea for the series after Strictly, she says in her chirpy Yorkshire vowels. All the other contestants were going off to dance in the West End but Id always harboured this secret desire to dance in a Bollywood film. Even though Im really conflicted about its gyrating women and how hypersexualised they are.

The series contains plenty of fun footage of Anita in gorgeous costumes, gamely attempting to master intricate Bollywood dance routines to pulsating bhangra numbers. But its also packed with fascinating insights into how the traditional Indian values the industry portrayed are being challenged by a new generation of filmmakers.

Dad took me for my first half pint when I was 14 and taught me to play pool

Ive always had a love-hate relationship with Bollywood, Anita says. Theres so much dross; much of it is predictable and two-dimensional  the women always either played the simpering housewife, the distraught mother or the evil mother-in-law. But now these amazing new films are coming out from people whove grown up with the same culture as mine  watching Friends and Frasier and listening to drum and bass and hip-hop  and they want to tell their own stories.

One of the latest attempts to shake up the industry was a recent video that went viral featuring a hilarious spoof dance routine by Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut. In it, she sings about how she has to endure lower pay, objectification and being dubbed a diva, simply Cos I have a vagina. Anita hoots, I cant wait for that to go out on British TV. Indian parents will be grabbing the remote, saying [she adopts a perfect Indian accent] She said vagina! Indians in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai can be much more open-minded than their communities in the UK, who often seem trapped in the values of 1950s Britain because that is when they arrived here.

Compared with many of her peers, Anita and her younger brother received a relatively liberal, secular upbringing from their Hindu father and Sikh mother, who ran a clothing business and sent her to an all-girls private school with few Asian pupils. My parents are really cool, she says. My dad took me for my first half pint when I was 14 and taught me to play pool, which a lot of other Indian men of his generation found shocking.

BLOUSE, MSGM, from net-a-porter.com. TROUSERS, Emilia Wickstead, from Selfridges. MULES, Manolo Blahnik

The couple allowed Anita to reject the traditional Asian career trajectory of doctor/lawyer/pharmacist in favour of studying broadcasting at Leeds University, which led to her first television gig. Dad really would have loved to have been an RAF pilot and Mum wanted to be a particular Bollywood cabaret dancer called Helen, so though they would have been delighted if Id gone to Cambridge and become a barrister, they always wanted their children to have the things they were denied, including choosing their own career.

Although they had a successful arranged marriage, Anitas parents did not see the need for their children to follow such a traditional path. Though Mum would always say: You can marry anyone you like, as long as hes Indian! Anita laughs. It wasnt at all important to me where the person I married came from.

But then, ten years ago, when Anita attended a warehouse party in hip Hackney, East London (where she now lives), she was introduced by friends to Bhupi. Now 38, he is a technology director for a healthcare company, and  like her  second-generation Indian. When Mum heard Bhupis Indian name, she totally lost it, Anita says. From then on, she was determined wed be married. Id never really had any Asian mates before then, but I have to say the reason I fell in love with him is we are culturally very similar and theres something to be said for that.

Anita at her lavish 2010 wedding in Bradford: 'I call it my Punjabi sweat-fest!'

Bhupi proposed six months after they met and they had a three-day Indian wedding for 450 people in Bradford. I call it my Punjabi sweat-fest. It was incredible but it wasnt intimate; it was all about our families, while my non-Indian friends were doing very individual things like writing their own vows, she says. So next year were thinking of renewing our vows for our ten-year anniversary and making it very personal.

The couple enjoy a very contemporary marriage, with Anita often away for weeks filming. Bhupi knows how happy my job makes me, so we make it work, she says. At first his reaction was, Where are you going?, but now hes like, OK, bye! He has friends round for poker nights and watches terrible movies. He knows filming schedules are mental and that I dont need to call him all day, every day.

But it would be wrong to think that Anitas not family-oriented: shes devoted to her parents, now in their early 60s. Until last year, they lived in Bradford and my brother  whos just had a baby  and I were both in London, she says. I spoke to Mum and she said, Im feeling lonely and it broke my heart. She found them a house to buy in London and, within weeks, the couple had moved. Its wicked  we see so much more of them and Bhupis parents are in South London, so theyre also close by, but not too close. Mum wanted my key so she could pop round whenever she wanted, but I said, Nah, youre all right!

Im so lucky; 20 years ago my time would have been up at 40

Still, Anita continues, theres no doubt well look after them when theyre older. My husband and I have talked about it. Its ingrained in us; its part of Indian culture  though, again, things are changing. My grandparents didnt want to move in with Mum, and my parents are so independent they might not want to live with me. But caring for our parents is something we all need to think about. People think social care is paid for by the NHS, but its not so I think we could do a lot worse than instil in our kids from day one, youre going to look after me, mate. Ive done enough pieces for The One Show and Countryfile when you hear about people dying alone to know theres nothing sadder than lonely old people. For now, however, Anitas priority is work: I want my own series.

Shes never been a target of overt racism bar the odd mad tweet. But as a non-white person you are always aware your experience is different to everyone elses  that you have to work twice as hard and be twice as good as a white person to be successful. All our parents have told us that. So, although I never used to like being thought of as a role model, because I always thought of myself as being on my own trajectory, the more people say to me: Youve broken so many barriers as a brown-skinned woman on TV, the more I think, OK, Ill accept that.

On that basis, shes thrilled to be the Asian face in a dazzling band of female television presenters aged 40 plus. Im so lucky  20 years ago my time would have been up at 40, but now all the greats are in their 40s and 50s: Claudia, Tess, Davina. Alesha Dixons 39  Im obsessed with her. Anne Robinsons still going strong in her 70s  go Anne!

ANITA ADORES Look no creases! A post-shoot moment with the stylists steamer and a glass of fizz. Anita wears BLOUSE, MSGM, from net-a-porter.com. TROUSERS, Emilia Wickstead, from Selfridges. MULES, Manolo Blahnik Describe yourself in three words A right laugh. Last book you read Brit(ish) by [half-British, half-Ghanaian] Afua Hirsch. I interviewed her recently and shes really inspired me to think and talk more about identity politics. What makes you laugh? Dark things  Im quite Northern like that: The League of Gentleman, Inside Number Nine, and Matt Berry in Toast of London. On your bedside table Lots of books, Tiger Balm, a DAB radio and a foot cream. Last thing you do at night Give myself a foot massage (my mother taught me how to do that), listen to the radio, read. Favourite food Mums curry. What would surprise people about you? Im really into dance music  the 90s underground drum and bass scene. Motto Follow your passion  money will always come. Advertisement

Like nearly all married women in their 40s, Anita has had to endure intensely personal questioning about her plans for motherhood. Ive had all sorts of nonsense, she smiles. Someone said, A career is a career but there is a time in your life I was looking at her, thinking: What gives you the right? Another person  not even a family member  said: When are you going to make our Bhupi a father? Wow! Because I am the babymaker? Thats my job? Bhupi was fuming. Her immediate family have put on less pressure. Most have piped down a bit now, she continues. Mum was once like: Oh, you know, kids I said: Mum, its not like Ive been sitting around for the past ten years  Ive done so much with my career. And that was the end of the conversation.

Anita seems unfazed by doom-mongering statistics about womens chances of becoming pregnant after the age of 35. Women can have babies in their 40s, she says. I think if anyone sits in judgment over women having children older then they need to grasp the real world. Its wonderful that women can work as much as they want to and then have a kid later if they want to. I feel fit as anything, super-energetic, its all good.

She hopes her choice not to prioritise babies will help other members of her community. Theres still huge pressure on Asian girls to be wives and mothers, so now I think if I can show them they can do what they want, then thats a good thing. That resolve became even stronger after she filmed Who Do You Think You Are?

I recognised I come from a long line of women who had no choice about anything in their life  its terrifying, Anita says. By an accident of birth I find myself living in Britain in the 21st century and I am exercising my right to choose and Im having a bloody good time doing that.

Thats very clear  and life-affirming  to see.
Debenhams is limbering up to lure young shoppers by putting gyms in its stores and offering money off beauty products.

The department store will give up to 100 a year in incentives to shoppers who hit the treadmill regularly after joining forces with fitness operator Sweat, which will open gyms in its shops across Britain.

Sweat, which has five gyms, serves mostly female customers aged 18 to 33, and Debenhams, whose customers are mostly over 35, hopes the partnership will attract a younger generation.

Debenhams is limbering up to lure young shoppers by putting gyms in its stores and offering money off beauty products

Chief executive Sergio Bucher said: 'One of the great things about being a department store is that we've got high-quality space in great locations.

'If we can use this space flexibly and creatively, we can make Debenhams a genuine destination for shoppers, encouraging them to visit us more often and stay for longer when they do.'

Customers who sign up to Sweat gyms in stores will be enrolled on to the retailer's Beauty Club reward scheme, and get money off products based on how often they visit.

Debenhams is banking on its beauty business to boost sales and profits after it issued its third profit warning in a year in June.

Earnings were hit after it was forced into a price war with House of Fraser, which cut the cost of its lines to prop up sales.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has agreed to axe the controversial tampon tax on female hygiene products.

Australian women spend around $300million on sanitary products - tampons and pads - each year.

The tax is causing 'frustration and angst', and should have been removed a long time ago, Mr Morrison admitted to The Daily Telegraph.

'I can see it is a source of frustration and angst. Here is a straightforward practical opportunity to deal with it once and all,' he said.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has agreed to axe the controversial tampon tax on female hygiene products

'I think it's an anomaly that has been built into the system for a long time and the states have decided to hold onto the money instead of getting rid of it.'

Mr Morrison has written to state leaders to inform them the removal of the tax - a source of $30 million dollars of GST revenue each year - is on the agenda for a meeting to be held in September or October.

Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers combined in a parliamentary vote to take the 10 per cent tax off feminine hygiene products in June.

But Mr Morrison's stance is the first time a Federal Coalition Minister has agreed to scrap the 10 per cent tax.

The tax is causing 'frustration and angst', and should have been removed a long time ago, Mr Morrison (pictured) admitted

Finance Minister Kelly O'Dwyer is said to have influenced Mr Morrison's position on the issue, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Ms O'Dwyer told the publication 'millions of Australia will be happy to see this tax on sanitary products gone.

Labor has previously vowed to get rid of the tax if it wins Government in 2019.

The Party suggested applying the 10 per cent GST to 12 natural therapies including naturopathy.

'Because we are able to replace the money we believe we will be able to get the states and territories on board this time around,' Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek told the Nine Network
President Donald Trump wants a Space Force to ensure American dominance in the cosmos.

However the idea has gained little traction, particularly with Defense Chief Jim Mattis who says a separate military service would add burdensome bureaucracy and unwanted costs.

Next week the Pentagon intends to announce the results of a study that is expected to call for the creation of a US Space Command that would consolidate space warfighting forces and make other organizational changes, but won't create a separate force itself as only Congress has the power to do so.

Trump says he wants a Space Force and signed a Space Policy Directive in June, pictured above, where he directed the Pentagon to create an independent military service branch

But Defense Chief Jim Mattis says it would add burdensome bureaucracy and unwanted costs

Any legislative proposal to create a separate service would likely not be put on the table until next year.

Mattis has said in the past that he opposes creating a new branch of the military for space. After Trump debuted his Space Force ambitions, Mattis said such a venture would require 'a lot of detailed planning'.

Mattis and key Republicans in Washington including Senator James Inhofe are opposed to a separate Space Force, but open to creating a Space Command.

A command would coordinate the use of existing services such as operating military satellites.

Mattiss chief spokeswoman, Dana W. White, said on Friday that consolidating space functions will 'ensure we move at the speed of relevancy. Space is a joint warfighting domain that the US must dominate.'

Trump mentioned on Tuesday that he ordered for the Pentagon to begin the process of creating a Space Force as a new military branch. Prior he said a space force would be of 'separate but equal' service, but he skipped that phrase in his Tuesday announcement, opening up the possibility of a command.

On Friday, Trump hailed the news that NASA has named the astronauts who will ride the first commercial capsules into orbit next year.

'We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them. Exciting things happening. Space Force!'

Trumps focus has generated an unusual level of talk about space, but with little clarity.

'At the moment, there is no concrete proposal on the table for what a Space Force will look like or what it will do,' Brian Weeden, an Air Force veteran and director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation which promotes peaceful use of outer space, said.

'Its just sort of a notional concept,' he added.

Still Trump continues to push for one. The Pentagon is expected to call for the creation of a US Space Command instead next week that would consolidate space warfighting forces and coordinate the use of military satellites

He added that a Space Force would not defend US interests in space since by law a service recruits, trains, and equips troops but does not do combat.

That's why a Space Command is being considered as it would mean combat in space similar to how Central Command is the organization responsible for combat operations in the Middle East.

Why is a Space Force even necessary? The US is increasingly reliant on satellites that are difficult to protect in space. These satellites provide communications, navigation, intelligence and other services imperative to the military and economy.

Furthermore Russia and China are reportedly pursuing 'nondestructive and destructive' anti-satellite weapons for use during future war, according to US intelligence agencies.

Satellite development in the Air Force Space and Missle Systems Centers has also progressed at a sluggish pace, something a Space Force or Command could help with.

In March the Pentagon gave an interim report to Congress saying it was making changes to 'ensure that we are prepared for' potential conflicts in space, meaning making US satellites resilient to potential attacks from Russia or China.

However some experts are saying that creating a Space Force wouldn't be a solution to increasing US space defenses.

Deborah James, the civilian leader of the Air Force during Obama administration, said Monday that a Space Force could fail to boost space defenses as focus and money could be lost in other matters.

She pointed to the Air Force, which is the primary service responsible for military satellites, as an example, as it devotes little money and attention to space.

'If money is your issue, Space Force is not your answer,' she said.

'If the logic of creating a separate space service were applied broadly it would imply other radical changes such as creating a single nuclear service by combining management of the strategic nuclear weapons of the Air Force and Navy, which no one is considering,' she added.
A baby-faced thug is reportedly aiming to take the 'scalp of an Ibrahim' after recently walking free from prison.

Bilal Haouchar has been linked to at least three shootings and murders but managed to be released on a two-year good behaviour bond after the charges against him fell apart two months ago.

The 31-year-old, who helped cover up a daylight execution in 2012, is believed to be after his enemies including the Ibrahim family.

'He wants to shoot an Ibrahim,' a source told The Daily Telegraph.

Deemed one of the most dangerous men in Australia, Bilal Haouchar is after the 'scalp of an Ibrahim' after a decade of growing tensions after his brother lost an eye in a shooting

In tapes tendered to the New South Wales District Court, the Sydney-born Lebanese man was recorded saying: '(Michael Ibrahim) is the main one. Mick is the one I want to f***ing...'.

'Mick is the one I want... (but) Sam would be easier,' Haouchar reportedly said in recordings.

The homes of John Ibrahim and Haouchar were raided by police this week, with both handed firearm prohibitions.

Dozens of police used sniffer dogs to search Ibrahim's $8 million property at Dover Heights, in Sydney's ritzy eastern suburbs, during an all-day operation.

A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia detectives discovered a white substance during the raid, which will be forensically examined.

Officers also seized $65,000 in cash after breaking into Mr Ibrahim's safe.

Mr Ibrahim's lawyer Abbas Soukie issued a statement saying his client 'vigorously challenged' the order banning him from possessing guns.

Both the Ibrahim's (John right, Michael middle and Sam left) house and Haouchar's house were raided by police and were handed firearm prohibitions

The 31-year-old (brother who lost his eye in 2008 pictured) is thought to be a 'loose cannon' who is 'capable of anything' and has a 'reputation based on fear'

'It is our view that the firearm prohibition order constitutes an abuse of process and is entirely without merit,' he said.

The tensions between the two families reportedly grew after the 31-year-old's brother lost an eye in a drive-by shooting a decade ago.

Seven years later, Michael Ibrahim was shot in the shoulder in the Sydney CBD.

It is unknown who was behind the two shootings because no charges were ever laid.

Haouchar is described as a 'madman' and is reportedly a 'significant' player in the underworld.

The 31-year-old is thought to be a 'loose cannon' who is 'capable of anything' and has a 'reputation based on fear', a source told the publication.

Police raided John Ibrahim's $8million Dover Heights mansion (pictured) in Sydney's eastern suburbs after he reportedly claimed 'someone wanted him dead'

A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia detectives discovered a white substance during the raid, which will be forensically examined

Mr Ibrahim's lawyer Abbas Soukie issued a statement saying his client 'vigorously challenged' the order banning him from possessing guns (Dover Heights mansion raid left and right)

Haouchar, who is one of seven children, dropped out of a NSW high school at Year 10 reportedly to avoid domestic abuse at home.

The underworld figure, whose father died last year, had been charged over the murder of drug dealer Ali Eid and shooting of Mohammed Hannouf in November 2012 but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact.

He was sentenced and released from custody after spending three-and-a-half years on remand while accused of the murder.

The 31-year-old told associates he 'lives the fast life, bro' but also disclosed to a psychologist he was 'fed up' after not 'achieving anything in life'.
Friends and family of a female cyclist who lost a leg after a collision with a cement truck are raising money to support her recovery.

Sarah Doone, a technical operator for news network Al Jazeera, was injured in the crash on Old Street roundabout in Islington last Wednesday.

Friends hope to raise 25,000 through the GoFundMe page to cover her lost freelance wages, as well as adaptations needed in her flat to accommodate her life-altering injuries.

The funds, which so far have totalled more than 16,000, will also be used for treatment the NHS does not offer.

Sarah Doone, a freelance technical operator for news network Al Jazeera, lost her left leg after a collision with a cement truck

The crash happened on Old Street roundabout in Islington last Wednesday

Sharing the page on Twitter, Leah Borromeo wrote: 'My friend Sarah was the woman run over on her bicycle at Old Street roundabout the other week.

'Yosi at @briziair set up a crowdfund so she can get the best care money can provide. Donate what you can, when you can please.'

According to the GoFundMe page, Ms Doone lost her left leg after being airlifted to hospital but doctors managed to save her right leg.

Ms Doone's co-worker Charlotte Dewsnap told the Evening Standard: 'Sarah is inspiring. The way she's dealt with what's happened is amazing.

'I spoke with her today and you wouldn't have realised what's happened. She's upbeat and she will go on to lead a more extraordinary life. Nothing will get her down.'

Friends hope to raise 25,000 through the GoFundMe page to cover her lost freelance wages, as well as adaptations needed in her flat to accommodate her life-altering injuries (pictured: Old Street roundabout)

Fellow cyclists and freelancers have been donating to Ms Doone's fundraising page since it was shared on social media.

Catherine Lawson said: 'I don't know you, Sarah, but that's clearly my loss. Well done, you gritty girl, for handling this terrible accident so positively.'

Serge Cartwright added: 'Get well soon! From a fellow freelancer, news producer, cyclist who doesn't know Sarah but just wishes her a speedy recovery.'

Last week a London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: 'We were called at 3:30pm today to the junction of Old Street and City Road, EC1V to reports of a road traffic collision involving a cyclist.

'We sent an incident response officer, two single responders in cars and an ambulance crew to the scene. We also dispatched London's Air Ambulance by road.

'We treated a woman at the scene and took her as a priority to a major trauma centre by road.'

Click here to donate to Ms Doone's fundraising page.
The UK appears set to crash out of the European Union without a Brexit deal due to the 'intransigence' of the Brussels machine, Liam Fox has claimed.

The International Trade Secretary put the chances of a no-deal Brexit at '60-40' despite both sides saying they want to reach an agreement on the terms of the UK's departure from the bloc in March 2019.

This morning, Prime Minister Theresa May attended a church service with her husband Philip as she battles to see through her Chequers blueprint for Brexit.

Prominent Brexiteer Mr Fox said he believed the risk of a no-deal scenario had increased, pinning the blame on the European Commission and Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

'I think the intransigence of the commission is pushing us towards no deal,' he told the Sunday Times.

The UK appears set to crash out of the European Union without a Brexit deal due to the 'intransigence' of the Brussels machine, Liam Fox (pictured) has claimed

Theresa May and her husband Philip arrive for a church service near to her Maidenhead constituency this morning

'We have set out the basis in which a deal can happen but if the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic wellbeing of the people of Europe then it's a bureaucrats' Brexit  not a people's Brexit  then there is only going to be one outcome.'

He said Mr Barnier had dismissed the UK's proposals in the Chequers plan thrashed out by Theresa May and the Cabinet simply because 'we have never done it before'.

The Government has admitted its proposals are unprecedented, but Dr Fox said Mr Barnier's response 'makes the chance of no deal greater'.

The Prime Minister held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, cutting short her holiday to visit his summer retreat.

And ministers including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab have also engaged in diplomatic activity in Europe in recent days as the Government seeks to deal directly with individual governments in an effort to keep the Chequers plan alive.

In a sign that member states are being warned of the consequences of the failure to find a deal, Dr Fox said: 'It's up to the EU27 to determine whether they want the EU Commission's ideological purity to be maintained at the expense of their real economies.'

Meanwhile, former cabinet minister Priti Patel said Mrs May must ditch the Chequers plan, which would see a 'common rulebook' for goods with the EU  effectively tying the UK to terms set by Brussels.

Theresa May held Brexit talks with Emmanuel Macron at his summer retreat on Friday

Writing for the Telegraph website she said it did not meet the result of the referendum and 'will leave us half-in and half-out, still bound to EU regulations and constraints'.

Calling for a looser free trade deal with the EU she said the change would take 'political courage, the kind of courage that appears to have been lacking over the past two years'.

Labour former cabinet minister Lord Blunkett used a Sunday Telegraph article to reject claims that people who voted to Leave over immigration concerns were 'racist' and said the result would be the same if there was another referendum.

He argued that 'people believed our democracy and political system did not reflect their concerns and their cry for help' following the impact of the financial crash and austerity, in many places hitting communities still coping with the aftermath of deindustrialisation.

'To understand this, and why, if there were to be a second referendum now, I believe that the majority would still vote to leave, is critical if we are to get our democratic system back on track,' he said.
Mr Bolton was driving a silver 2012 Suzuki Grand Vitara Sport, registration 1DVO164

A desperate search is underway to locate a father and his three young daughters after they vanished from a camping trip.

Western Australia police hold concerns for the welfare of 32-year-old Jonathon David Bolton and his daughters Olivia, five, Layla, three, and Zara, one, after they never returned from a camping trip outside of Perth on Saturday.

The poor weather conditions posed a potential threat for the young family.

A desperate search is underway to locate a father and his three young daughters after they vanished from a camping trip

Police hold concerns for the welfare of 32-year-old Jonathon David Bolton and his daughters Olivia, five, Layla, three, and Zara, one, after they never returned from a camping trip outside of Perth on Saturday

Mr Bolton and his children were last seen leaving their home in Gosnells, a suburb of south east Perth, at approximately 1pm on Saturday, and have not been seen since.

Police have reason to believe he took his children to an unknown camping location off the Brookton Highway.

The highway itself runs through multiple state forests and parks, including Midgegooroo National Park, Helena National Park and the Jarrahdale State Forest.

He contacted his wife via text at 3pm, with an image of his children sitting around a camp fire making bread, Yahoo7 reported.

The concern comes as Western Australia has been ravished by wild weather, storms and torrential rain.

'We're not going to be able to do a proper search till daylight,' a WA Police spokesman said.

Mr Bolton was driving a silver 2012 Suzuki Grand Vitara Sport, registration 1DVO164.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mr Bolton and his three children is urged to call WA Police on 131 444.

Mr Bolton and his children were last seen leaving their home in Gosnells, a suburb of south east Perth, at approximately 1pm on Saturday, and have not been seen since
Rooms as small as parking spaces are being built in student accommodation buildings in a bid to boost the housing market.

Melbourne's residential market has hit saturation, and developers are now looking to the highly-demanding student accommodation market.

There has been a spike in the number of student buildings being developed around the city - with a combined 783 beds being opened in the first half of 2018.

In addition, buildings with another 9400 beds have either been approved or are currently in construction.

Rooms as small as parking spaces are being built in Melbourne (pictured) student accommodation buildings in a bid to boost the housing market

There are concerns that these cramped living spaces could be the 'ghettos of the future', with some developers wanting to build rooms as small as nine square metres.

Guidelines say that rooms must be at least 10.8 square metres, or 12.8 square metres if the room has a sink, the Herald Sun reports.

Melbourne City Council's planning chair, Nicholas Reece believes the guidelines need to be lifted to a better standard.

The small rooms could push international students out of the city, meaning their $9.1 billion contribution to the state economy would dramatically decrease.

'My message is clear: we're not signing off on substandard shoeboxes that will end up being the ghettos of the future,' Cr Reece said.

'We welcome the investment and the new development but we need to be careful and make sure it's done right.'

After residential towers began to spike in Melbourne, the Better Apartment guidelines were introduced to lift the standard of accommodation.

There are concerns that these cramped living spaces could be the 'ghettos of the future', with some developers wanting to build rooms as small as nine square metres

Unfortunately, the guidelines don't apply to student accommodation.

Melbourne City Council has plans to meet with university heads in October to discuss stricter guidelines.

Although there are a large number of beds becoming available in Melbourne, International Education Association of Australia boss Phil Honeywood, said the city is behind over Australian cities.

He said that Sydney has been aware of the need to provide appropriate liveable spaces for years.

'Some of these apartments are timebombs for the future of Melbourne's liveability,' Mr Honeywood said.
Transgender prisoners are demanding a delicates-only washing cycle for their lingerie and clothes.

The lags at HMP North Sea Camp, a 420-capacity open jail in Lincolnshire, have complained to jail chiefs that their delicates were being ruined in the prison laundry  which caters only for stronger wash cycles.

Lags at HMP North Sea Camp, a 420-capacity open jail in Lincolnshire, have complained to jail chiefs that their delicates were being ruined in the prison laundry

A report out last week by prison inspectors recommended investment to upgrade the washing facilities at the jail as one of the three washing machines available to inmates for personal laundry was always out of order.

It also pointed out that transgender inmates at North Sea camp, who are allowed 14 pairs of knickers and seven bras, were now demanding a delicates wash.

According to current Prison Service rules prisoners are told they may wash personal items such as underwear by hand in their rooms.

There are currently 125 transgender prisoners in British jails.
Paul Hollywood's wife has accused him of cheating with his 23-year-old lover - despite the Great British Bake Off star claiming their relationship only began after their marriage had ended.

Alexandra Hollywood plans to name Summer Monteys-Fullam in divorce papers over his 10million fortune.

The 54-year-old cookbook author is said to be 'furious' and disputes the fact that Summer and Paul's relationship only began after their marriage broke down.

A source told the Sun: 'Alex has filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery.

Paul Hollywood is pictured with his 23-year-old lover Summer Monteys-Fullam on holiday in Mauritius

Paul Hollywood's wife Alexandra, pictured together in 2015, has accused the Great British Bake Off star of cheating with his 23-year-old lover

Alexandra, pictured last year, plans to name Summer Monteys-Fullam in divorce papers over his 10million fortune

'She's fed up of the lies. For example, Summer's claim that the relationship started "way after the marriage ended".'

By naming Summer in the divorce papers, Paul could have to go into detail about his relationship with her in public.

Paul, 52, and Alexandra, who married in 1998 and have a 16-year-old son, announced their split in November and are said to have parted ways in early 2017.

The couple ended things days after a holiday to Venice in October. A few weeks later, Paul and Summer's relationship was first revealed.

On New Years Eve, Summer posted a message which read: 'I can only thank my amazing family and boyfriend. I have had my fun and I have had my troubles.

'But I can only take that as the path I was meant to lead. I can only thank the people that are close to me including my amazing boyfriend.

'You have turned me from a girl to a woman and to a house woman. I love you so much.'

Summer spoke for the first time of her love for the TV chef in an exclusive interview with MailOnline in May.

She insisted at the time: 'I came [into a relationship with Hollywood] way after his marriage ended.'

Asked if the age gap bothered her, she added: 'I'm fine and I'm enjoying life. I'm not upset I'm happy. Why should it [the age gap] bother me?'

She added that there had been a huge amount of interest in her since their romance had become public.

The former model was whisked off by Hollywood on a romantic 1,000-a-night holiday in Mauritius in April, having met last year at the star's local pub where he organised a party for his estranged wife Alexandra's birthday.

Alexandra and Paul previously separated in 2013 when the TV chef admitted his affair with Marcela Valladolid, his co-star on the US version of Bake Off.

The American spin-off was cancelled after just one series for having poor ratings.

The couple reconciled a few months later and he described the incident as 'the biggest mistake of my life' in an interview with BBC radio.

Speaking at the time, he told the BBC he 'was shocked about the whole thing kicking off the way it did... but I deserved it and I've taken it. It was my punishment.'


The Government is to press ahead with a radical plan to make almost everyone in England an organ donor unless they opt out.

Ministers say the move  dubbed Maxs Law after a nine-year-old who benefited from a heart transplant  will save hundreds of lives and result in 700 extra transplants a year.

Currently, people must opt in to give consent for their organs to be donated on their death. But from 2020, a new system of automatic consent  unless people opt out  will be introduced.

Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price said: By making these changes, we can save as many as 700 more lives every year'

Under-18s and people who lack the mental capacity to understand the changes will be excluded, as will anyone who has not lived in the UK for at least 12 months before their death.

Officials say the change, which follows a public consultation with 17,000 responses, reflects the views of the majority.

Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price said: By making these changes, we can save as many as 700 more lives every year.

The move follows the Governments decision earlier this year to back a Bill introduced by Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson to bring England into line with Wales which already has an opt-out system for consent.

Health chiefs say that three people who need a transplant die each day.

Kidney Care UK policy director Fiona Loud said the plans mean hope and a new future for 25,000 dialysis patients in England.

British Heart Foundation chief Simon Gillespie said it would give hope to those waiting for a transplant they so desperately need.
Chilling details have emerged of how a son allegedly pulled the trigger on his own mother moments after she offered him a meal and called him 'darling'.

More than 22 years on from the death of Queensland resident Dorothy Britton, it has been alleged her son Christopher Britton shot her in the head, Sunday Mail reported.

He allegedly entered his mother's Airlie Beach home, in the Whitsundays, pulled a gun from behind his back and shot her while she was 'knitting or doing some sort of patch-work' in March 1996.

More than 22 years on from the death of Queensland resident Dorothy Britton (pictured), it has been alleged her son Christopher Britton shot her in the head

Breakthrough information led to the June arrest of 51-year-old Britton after two decades investigating one of the state's most notorious cold cases.

Britton allegedly said 'the best thing' for his mother 'would be a bullet' in the days before his mother's murder.

In the following weeks, Britton allegedly told a friend, 'I shot her. I shot my mum'.

'Mum was knitting or doing some sort of patch- work and mum said something like 'G'day darling, there's food on the stove.'

'I took the gun out and shot her in the head,' Britton was alleged to have said.

He also allegedly described the scene as 'something that I will never forget'.

Britton's lawyer, Adam Magill, said his client 'vehemently denies' any involvement in the murder of Dorothy Britton, who was 48 when she was found dead in her room.

Breakthrough information led to the June arrest of 51-year-old Britton (pictured) after two decades investigating one of the state's most notorious cold cases

Detectives discovered her body in the home's master bedroom on March 7, with her believed to have been killed by a weapon capable of firing an 00/SG shotgun round.

It was alleged a shotgun kept at the home, which disappeared after the mother's death, would have fit that description.

The weapon was understood to be kept at the property to protect the family against crocodiles.

In an appeal earlier this year, police alleged Ms Britton knew her killer because they would have gotten past her fiercely loyal rottweiler, Bella, without raising an alarm.

Britton allegedly entered his mother's (pictured) home, pulled a gun from behind his back and shot her while she was 'knitting or doing some sort of patch-work' in March 1996

Detectives allege Ms Britton was last seen at an art class on March 6 at 9.30am - the morning before she was killed in her home.

She lived in the Airlie Beach home with her husband, Ian, who would be away from home for a week at a time for his mining job.

Detectives will allege Mr Britton was having an affair and had concerns his wife would destroy him financially if he filed for divorce.

He contacted a relative, on March 7 when he was oddly unable to reach his wife on the phone - the relative later made the gruesome find.

Britton's arrest came just weeks after one of Ms Britton's other sons made a desperate public appeal to solve the cold-case murder.

Adrian Britton (pictured) said he was desperate to know who shot his mother in March 1996, and said he believed his mum knew her killer

Adrian Britton said he was desperate to know who shot his mother in March 1996, and said he believed his mum knew her killer.

They also allege a person came forward in the 1990s saying a man at Airlie Beach told them 'If you have hassles with parents, do as I did, just blow them away like I did with my mother'.

Britton had moved to Port Neill in South Australia from Queensland when he was arrested from his home earlier this year.

Police urge anybody with information to contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form.
Capitol police are investigating after the monument of confederate general Robert E. Lee was vandalized with red spray paint over the weekend.

Authorities say the statue, located on famed Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia was defaced either late Friday night or early Saturday morning. The vandals used some type of high-pressure sprayer to cover parts of the statue's base with red paint.

The letters 'BLM', apparently in reference to Black Lives Matter, were also sprayed on the base.

The monument of Gen Robert E. Lee was vandalized with red paint over the weekend in Richmond, Virginia

The letters 'BLM' were also spray painted on the base of the statue. Capitol police are investigating the vandalism

Many residents in the area told NBC12 that they were shocked to see the monument defaced, while others said it came as no surprise to them.

'We believe very much that this is a national landmark. We believe it is a jewel for the city of Richmond,' Steve Nuckolls said, adding that he alerted police when he saw the graffiti.

'It's disheartening and frustrating that anyone would act like that,' he added.

Richmond resident Whitney Beck told the outlet that she wasn't shocked by the vandalism.

'How do we create the space where everyone can say what they want to say, and how do we do that safely?' Beck said.

'We don't fully understand the context of the people who put these monuments up. We don't fully understand where they were and what they were thinking,' she added. 'The history doesn't go away. It's still here, so there needs to be some sort of a compromise.'

Cleanup on the statue began on Saturday. It was defaced nearly a week before the one year anniversary of the deadly Charlottesville rally

White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' clash with counter-protesters as they enter Emancipation Park during the Unite the Right rally August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville

The vandalism comes nearly a week before the one year anniversary of the Unite the Right white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, which is planned this year on August 12 in DC.

Last year's event turned deadly when 20-year-old white nationalist James Alex Fields plowed his car into a group of counter-protesters killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

Fields has been charged with multiple federal hate crimes, including 28 counts of hate crime acts causing bodily injury and involving an attempt to kill and one count of racially motivated violent interference with a federally protected activity. He has not yet entered a plea.

He was previously charged in state court with first-degree murder, among other crimes. He will be tried for those charges in November.

DeAndre Harris, a black former special education instructional assistant, was also viciously attacked by a group of white supremacists in a parking garage next to the Charlottesville Police Department.

One of Harris' attackers, 23-year-old Jacob Scott Goodwin, was found guilty in May of malicious wounding. He's scheduled to be sentenced on August 23.

According to the Washington Post, Metro is considering providing separate trains for participants and counter-protesters. Board chairman Jack Evans said the move would be an effort to prevent violence between the two groups.

'We haven't made any decisions about anything,' Evans said. 'We're just trying to come up with potential solutions on how to keep everybody safe.'
Sir Vince Cable has held secret talks with a former aide to Tony Blair on the possibility of forming a new Lib-Lab alliance to counter Brexit  and Jeremy Corbyn.

The Lib Dem leader discussed the idea of a new political configuration over dinner last month with Philip Collins, a speechwriter for Mr Blair when he was Prime Minister.

In March, respected Times pundit Mr Collins, a fierce Labour critic of Jeremy Corbyn, said Labour and the Lib Dems shared much of the same history and ideology and their refusal to get together made no sense. It was time to tear down the wall of vanity that divided them, he suggested.

Sir Vince Cable has held secret talks with a former aide to Tony Blair on the possibility of forming a new Lib-Lab alliance to counter Brexit  and Jeremy Corbyn

The revelation comes amid growing speculation at Westminster that one or more new parties could be launched in the next year or two owing to deep splits in the main two parties. It also solves the mystery of why Sir Vince missed a vital Commons vote on Brexit in July.

The disclosure also comes ahead of a major cross-party, anti-Brexit rally in Bristol on Saturday, which the Lib Dem leader will address.

It was originally reported that Sir Vince attended a dinner where the creation of a new anti-Brexit party was discussed. At the time, Sir Vince said he had had confidential discussions but refused to give more details or say who he had been plotting with. The Mail on Sunday has established he met Mr Collins and other senior political figures and discussed a reconfiguration of British politics and the different groups fighting Brexit.

Sources suggested any new alliance would be very different from the famous Lib-Lab pact formed briefly in the late 1970s to prop up the Labour Government before it was ousted by Margaret Thatcher

Over the last year, Mr Collins has suggested several possible new political groupings, ranging from a Lib-Lab alliance to a breakaway moderate Labour Party, and Conservatives and Labour working together.

The prospect of a renewed Lib-Lab deal has seemed unlikely after Nick Cleggs Lib Dems joined David Camerons Coalition Government.

However, in his March article Mr Collins argued this could be overcome by the historic proximity of Labour and Liberal MPs  including more recently on issues such as the mansion tax, multiculturalism and globalisation.

He continued: For the most part, Lib Dems think of themselves as more on the Left than the Right.

If anything, these days the Lib Dems are more the Labour Party than Labour, he wrote.

The trend of British politics makes an alliance between Labour and the Lib Dems a rational proposition.

The Lib Dem leader discussed the idea of a new political configuration over dinner last month with Philip Collins, a speechwriter for Mr Blair when he was Prime Minister

The main problem was mutual hatred: There is nobody a Labour activist likes to disparage more than a Liberal Democrat. It is the most puzzling and tenacious antipathy in politics. The walls between parties are high and very few ever attempt to scale them. Rational co-operation will only ever happen once those walls are torn down.

He said cutting deals was second nature to the Liberal Democrats.

In April he set out key targets to ensure any new party would fly, adding revealingly: Those plotting a realignment in politics see the hurdles but are confident it can happen before the next General Election.

Mr Collins has urged moderate Labour MPs to have the guts to form a breakaway group before it is too late.

In December 2017, he appeared to be promoting a Lab-Con pact, writing that an assault was coming on the two-party system. He suggested the current political model was broken and the Labour Right and Conservative Left would eventually see that they belonged together.

He has not always been flattering about his dining companion Sir Vince.

A year ago Mr Collins said: Looking like losers can help Cables Lib Dems.

Sir Vince declined to comment last night.
The devastated children of a woman allegedly killed at the hands of her estranged husband have penned her a touching tribute on a white ribbon.

Samantha Fraser's children - Jemima, Rex and April - left a handwritten 'we love you' on a patchwork quilt being made in Ms Frasers memory, the Herald Sun reported.

Local members of the neighbourhood have vowed the beloved mother's death won't be in vain, lining the streets in white ribbons in a united stance against violence against women.

The White Ribbon Campaign was introduced to raise awareness in the fight against violence against women, and is a symbol of hope and unification for many.

Local members of the neighbourhood have vowed Samantha Fraser's death won't be in vain, lining the streets in white ribbon in a united stance against violence against women

The heartbroken community Samantha Fraser (pictured) who was allegedly killed by her ex-husband have vowed her death won't be in vain, as they aim to curb domestic violence deaths

The tribute is one of many, as heartbroken friends and family create memorials within the community

The body of the mother-of-three was discovered in her garage on Phillip Island, south of Melbourne, last Monday.

The 38-year-old's family and friends have since rallied around her children and vowed to improve services for domestic violence victims in the area.

This week, Ms Fraser's father Trevor met with Victoria's Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Natalie Hutchins.

As the meeting took place, locals from Phillip Island continued their calls for a women's refuge and increased training for police who deal with victim's complaints on the island, which sits 140km south-east of Melbourne.

Lack of regional support often forces victims in the area to travel hundreds of kilometres to seek support.

The 38-year-old's family and friends have since rallied around her children and vowed to improve services for domestic violence victims in the rural area of Phillip Island in Victoria

White ribbons are cropping up around the community to show support for Ms Fraser, who lost her life in an alleged case of domestic violence

However, Minister Hutchins said the government had so far built four of 19 'safety hubs' across the state, with the next set to be built 140km away at Morwell.

'(The safety hubs) provide these services that you're looking for (legal, psychological, and linked to police) in one spot,' she said.

Ms Fraser's ex-husband Adrian Basham, who had previously been questioned by detectives, was charged with one count of murder on Thursday morning.

The 41-year-old was also previously accused of repeatedly attacking Ms Fraser during their seven-year marriage, which ended in 2016.

This week, Ms Fraser's father Trevor met with Victoria's Minister for Prevention of Family Violence Natalie Hutchins in the search for justice and an improvement of services in the area

Ms Fraser's ex-husband Adrian Basham (pictured), who had previously been questioned by detectives, was charged with one count of murder on Thursday morning

Basham was meant to face court over nine assault charges after Ms Fraser reported him to police following their separation but the man was never kept in custody.

Police initially believed Ms Fraser, a respected psychologist, had committed suicide.

Authorities were alerted when Ms Fraser didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon.

A welfare check was conducted at her home on Seagrove Way, Cowes, where police found her dead.

Her death came as a shock to the local community, who were notified of the police investigation four days after her body was found.

Police initially believed Ms Fraser, a respected psychologist, had committed suicide, but authorities were alerted when Ms Fraser didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon

Ms Fraser has been described by friends, family and colleagues as a 'beautiful woman'.

'She was incredibly kind, nurturing and talented. Sam was articulate and passionate about everything she did,' a friend said.

Her father Trevor Fraser thanked hundreds of mourners who paid their respects at a vigil held in Cowes, Phillip Island, last week.

'There's really not much we can say at a time like this, [I'm] too emotional to have too much to say,' Mr Fraser said.

'She truly was a remarkable woman, a remarkable mother and a remarkable daughter. Thank you for standing up for Samantha.'

Preparations have begun to hold a funeral for Ms Fraser by the end of the week.

With over $60,000 currently raised for her three children, Bass Coast Shire Council will meet again during the week to discuss further fundraising events for the family.
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A pair of fast-growing wildfires in northern California expanded to more than two-thirds the size of sprawling Los Angeles, becoming the sixth-largest blaze in state history.

Eerie photographs show an orange glow hovering over a relentless blaze in Clearlake Oaks, the latest town to fall victim to the Ranch fire.

Resident Alex Schenck was seen desperately dousing flames with buckets of water in his backyard in an effort to save his home.

While Schenck's home was miraculously spared, many of his neighbors were not so lucky, although officials have yet to determine how many houses were destroyed.

The River and Ranch fires, known collectively as the Mendocino Complex, have taken over 299,000 acres north of San Francisco as of Saturday night. Fire officials have said it is considered 32 percent contained.

More than 20,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate their homes as the fire tears through communities in Mendocino, Lake and Colusa counties.

The Mendocino Complex wildfires in northern California have expanded to more than two-thirds the size of sprawling Los Angeles, officials say. Pictured: Alex Schenck fights to save his home near Clearlake Oaks on Saturday

More than 200,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate their homes as the River and Ranch fires tear through the state

An eerie image shows a deer running from fierce flames as the Ranch Fire tears down a neighborhood in Clearlake Oaks

The Mendocino Complex fires are said to be about 32 percent contained as firefighters continue to battle the blazes

Through last week, California fires had torched about 290,000 acres (117,300 hectares), more than double the five-year average over that same period, according to Cal Fire.

The Mendocino Complex fires cover an area 71 percent of the size of Los Angeles. They have forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 residents and destroyed more than 100 structures.

More evacuations were ordered on Saturday afternoon, but no estimate of people involved was released.

This year, California wildfires have burned more land earlier in the 'fire season' than usual, Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said during a news conference on Saturday.

'Fire season is really just beginning. What seems like we should be in the peak of fire season, historically, is really now the kind of conditions we're seeing really at the beginning,' Pimlott said.

California Governor Jerry Brown, who visited some of the burned areas on Saturday, said: 'This is part of a trend, the new normal, that we've got to deal with.'

The River and Ranch fires have grown to cover about 229,000 acres in northern California as of Saturday night

Schenck moves flaming pallets while fighting to save his home on New Long Valley Rd from the Ranch Fire on Saturday

The fire tore through Schenck's backyard but miraculously spared his house near Clearlake Oaks

Clearlake Oaks resident Lane Lawder hauls a water bucket through his yard to lend firefighters a hand in fighting the flames

A stone Buddha lawn statue stands under the fire's orange glow outside a home on New Long Valley Road

The Mendocino Complex fires have swelled to become larger than the deadly Carr Fire, about 100 miles to the northeast, which has killed at least six people and destroyed more than 1,500 structures.

The cause of the deadly Carr fire has been revealed as a flat tire on a towed trailer.

The rim of the flat tir threw off sparks from the asphalt along Highway 299 outside of Redding, California on July 23, igniting what would become the sixth-most destructive wildfire in state history, CNN reported.

Firefighters by Saturday night had managed to contain 41 percent of the Carr blaze, measured at 145,000 acres (58,680 hectares), and authorities were allowing some evacuees to return, Cal Fire said.

Both areas remained under a 'red flag warning' issued by the National Weather Service for strong winds, low relative humidity and temperatures topping 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), all conditions that can drive the growth of wildfires.

So far this year, US fires have burned 5 million acres (2 million hectares), much more than the 10-year average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Three men were given citations on Saturday for refusing to leave an area where firefighters wanted a tanker plane to make an air drop, causing the plane to be diverted, according to a post on the Lake County Sheriff Office's Facebook page. The men when contacted by deputies were watering their marijuana plants, the posting said.

A firefighter gathers water from a pool to help quash the out-of-control flames of the Ranch Fire near Clearlake Oaks
A teenage boy is in a critical condition after suffering a devastating spinal injury during a school rugby match.

Alexander Clark, a student at Brisbane's elite Nudgee College, was playing a schoolboy match when the incident occurred about 11am on Saturday.

The 15-year-old was rushed to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in a critical condition and underwent emergency surgery, the Courier Mail reported.

Alexander Clark, a student at Brisbane's elite Nudgee College, was playing in a 15Bs GPS match when the incident occurred about 11am on Saturday (image of rugby team)

Principal Peter Fullagar has asked students and the community to keep Alexander in their prayers (pictured)

Principal Peter Fullagar has asked students and the community to keep Alexander in their prayers.

'Alexander will be going into surgery this (Saturday) evening,' he said in a statement on Facebook.

'I will continue to update the community over the next 24 to 48 hours, as information becomes available.

'Please respect the family's request for privacy at this time. I ask that you please keep Alexander and his family in your thoughts and prayers.'

A Rugby Australia serious injury officer began an investigation into the incident and it is understood it was not caused by a scrum.

The incident comes two weeks after Connor Tweedy, 16, suffered a serious neck and spinal injury when a scrum collapsed during a high school match on July 21.

The Year 11 student at St Joseph's College Gregory Terrace, has been diagnosed with an incomplete spinal chord injury at the C4 and C5 vertebrae near the base of the neck.
Tributes are flowing for a sports-loving boy who tragically lost his life in a car crash.

Investigations are still underway after a Holden Commodore Sedan veered off the road and struck a pole in Shepparton, northern Victoria, on Saturday morning.

Daniel, 12 , was in the front passenger seat when the driver lost control of the car and slammed into a power pole.

The 'cheeky' boy with a 'devilish smile' was tragically killed on impact.

Daniel (pictured), 12, was killed on impact when the car he was travelling veered off the road and hit a pole

Just after 1am on Saturday, the Commodore was travelling west on Wanganui Road when it left the road and hit a pole.

Emergency services were called to the scene where they found the young boy dead.

There were two passengers in the back seat, a 14-year-old girl and ten-year-old boy who escaped with minor injuries.

The driver of the car, a 35-year-old Kialla man has been assisting police with their investigations.

Daniel's aunt, Jessie Pridmore, told the Herald Sun the 12-year-old's 'devilish smile' would be missed by many.

'Everyday I spent with you will be cherished and held tightly. I love you my beautiful nephew. You made the days full of mischief. I am still waiting for you to come home.' she said.

Tributes have been posted online since the young boy's death, with many saying he is being 'badly missed' by his family.

Tributes are flowing for Daniel (pictured) after he lost his life in the tragic car accident

Tributes have been posted online since the young boy's death, with many saying he is being 'badly missed' by his family

'Still in shock and disbelief that I was only looking and talking to him yesterday... totally unaware of what was about to happen now sitting here today watching hearts break all around me...' one family member posted.

Another spoke of the memories she shared with the young boy, 'Fly high up there ma cuz and party hard! We all love & miss you dearly. My heart goes out to every single one of your friends & family. I know you'll look down over us and keep us all in line.'

Police are urging anyone with information or dashcam footage to contact Crime Stoppers.
The Ku Klux Klan has been dropping off packets containing white supremacist propaganda and free Snickers bars in a recruitment campaign seemingly aimed at children in upstate New York.

Residents of several counties have expressed outrage over the group's targeting in recent months, claiming that the materials have been delivered right around the time that children are heading school.

Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered an investigation into the campaign and called for the state police Hate Crimes Task Force to kick off a 'public awareness campaign' to counter hate on Friday.

Residents in upstate New York claim that the KKK has been targeting children by dropping off packets containing white supremacist propaganda and free Snickers bars

Residents of Westmoreland, which was hit with the materials today, have said they are alarmed that the packets contain recruiting information and not just propaganda.

'They come between 4am and 6am in the morning so the candy bars and packets are at the end of the driveway when kids are getting on the school bus,' Denise Szarek, a member of the Westmoreland Board of Education, told Fox 13.

'The community they hit was a mobile home park so there were a lot of kids in the area, and they hit on some of the side roads, too.

'Our feeling was that the children [were] being targeted  at least the high school and middle school kids in that age group.'

Rod Klopanstein, president of the local historical society, said: 'The KKK is a terrorist organization, and even dropping off these materials itself is terrifying, especially when you find something like this in your driveway in the morning.

'It requires a response, and the only way to get through that fear is to stand up and come together. I think the worst part is that a lot of kids found it on the way to the bus in the morning.'

Szarek speculated that the materials were likely downloaded from the internet by a local resident.

'I mean, it really could be anyone. But I think we're naive if we think that KKK members aren't here, aren't present in our communities,' she said.

While the group's presence in the community is alarming, Klopfanstein said it does not reflect the community's feelings as a whole.

'We're a good town, we're good people, and when something like this happens, sometimes you have to make a statement to remind people that we won't have this here,' he said.

'Westmoreland stood up to this, and we stood with Rome [a nearby city] the first time they were faced with this. We are all in this together and ready to stand together to keep hate groups out of Central New York.'

Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered an investigation into the campaign on Friday and called for the state police Hate Crimes Task Force to kick off a 'public awareness campaign'

The flyers have been distributed in Oneida and other counties, according to the governor's office.

State police are now offering to assist local officials in blocking the KKK's campaign, sending teams to conduct educational outreach in affected communities.

The new task force is also planning to hold a town hall in Oneida county to discuss the issue.

In a news release Friday, Cuomo said: 'While President Trump and Republicans in Washington sow divisiveness and hate that is spreading like a cancer across the country, in New York we say not here, not now, not ever,' Cuomo said in a news release.

'New York has zero tolerance for intolerance.'

The governor's office has directed state residents who have experienced bias or discrimination and want to file a complaint to report those incidents to the Division of Human Rights toll-free hotline at (888) 392-3644.
The woman blacklisted by the Indonesian Government because it believed she was a journalist has boarded a plane home after 24 hours being detained at Bali airport.

Belinda Lopez, from Sydney, was held in an empty room at Denpasar airport after officials denied her entry on the suspicion she was working as a news reporter.

The 33-year-old's romantic honeymoon turned traumatising holiday from hell finally came to an end Saturday night, but not before a long and agonising wait.

Belinda Lopez (pictured) was blacklisted by the Indonesian Government because it believed she was a journalist - she has now boarded a plane home after 24 hours being detained

Ms Lopez, from Sydney, was held in an empty room (pictured) at Denpasar airport after officials denied her entry on the suspicion she was working as a news reporter

'Now out of that room and waiting to board. What an incredible bunch of communities I'm a part of, in Indonesia, Australia and beyond. Spirits lifted. Thank you,' the relieved newlywed wrote to Twitter ahead of her flight home.

The PhD student of Sydney's Macquarie University was studying the cultural experiences of migrants to Java, Indonesia.

Ms Lopez was left with no option but to set off on her honeymoon alone because her new husband's passport only had five months left on it, instead of the required six.

'Literally the biggest honeymoon fail update ever. I am going on my honeymoon to Indonesia by myself,' Ms Lopez wrote to Facebook.

'I'm sorry universe for mocking the honeymoon industrial complex for so long. Now, I pay.'

The 33-year-old's romantic honeymoon turned traumatising holiday from hell finally came to an end Saturday night, but not before a long and agonising wait (tweet from Saturday night)

Ms Lopez was left with no option but to set off on her honeymoon alone because her new husband's passport only have five months left on it, instead of six (newlyweds pictured)

A solo honeymoon soon became the least of her worries, when on arrival at Denpasar she was told her name had been blacklisted (Ms Lopez and husband Sebastien Leveque pictured)

A solo honeymoon soon became the least of her worries, when on arrival at Denpasar she was told her name had been blacklisted.

The former reporter said: 'This is not a joke: I'm blacklisted by the Indonesian government'

An ensuing Twitter thread of updates followed, with her becoming frustrated at being repetitively asked if she had 'done something wrong to Indonesia'.

'This is not a joke: I'm blacklisted by the Indonesian government,' she said on Friday.

Ms Lopez said she was forced to sit on a couch while being detained for 24 hours.

'This was meant to be a holiday from university, officially on leave. My honeymoon. But the immigration staff member kept asking if I was a journalist and if I'd 'done something bad to Indonesia,' she wrote.

Ms Lopez said she was 'devastated' by news of her deportation.

'It's the first place I moved to as an adult, have visited so many times since, to learn the language and to visit people who have become some of my best friends in the world,' she wrote.

Belinda took to Twitter to question why she has been blacklisted by the Indonesian government

Just a few days before her flight to Indonesia from Australia, Mz Lopez found out her newlywed husband Sebastien Leveque (pictured, left) would not be joining her

The newly wed (pictured) said she was forced to sit on a couch while being detained for close to 24 hours

Ms Lopez (pictured) took to Facebook to share her detainment updates. She said she was forced to sit on a couch and will be detained for close to 24 hours before being deported

Almost a decade ago Ms Lopez was an editor for a newspaper in Jakarta and has also produced a series of podcasts for the ABC.

A freelance journalism site says she won awards in 2012 and 2013 for reporting, including a report on juvenile incarceration in the United States.

Indonesia's police and military are frequently accused of human rights abuses in Papua.

A recent Amnesty International report documented 95 unlawful killings by security forces in Papua since 2008.

Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said it's not the first time a journalist has been prevented to entering Papua.

'Once again the Indonesian authorities are still restricting foreign journalists, or anyone suspected (of doing) journalism to enter Papua,' Mr Harsono told news.com.

Ms Lopez said she was refused a visa renewal two years ago in Papua because officials suspected she was a journalist.

Immigration Office spokesman Amran Aris said Indonesia's military had added Ms Lopez to a government blacklist as a 'covert journalist.'

'We only carry out the duties as her name is listed on the government's blacklist, so we have to refuse her entry,' Mr Aris told Associated Press.
A town's water supply has been shut off after a car plunged into a lake that provides water to 30,000 people.

There are concerns that a Mitsubishi ute that plunged into Mount Gambier's volcanic Blue Lake on Friday night, has been contaminating the water.

A 22-year-old man was driving near the South Australian volcanic crater when his car plunged down the cliff face and into the lake.

It's believed the man, who has not been named, was thrown from his vehicle as the car fell towards the water, and if it wasn't for the already open window he may have been doomed.

A town's water supply has been shut off after a car plunged into a lake that provides water to 30,000 people

'We were concerned that there could be come hydro or diesel contamination,' South Australia Water's Mark Gobbie said.

Blue Lake provides drinking water to 30,000 people in Mount Gambier, and testing is set to be done to confirm the water is 100 per cent safe, 9News reported.

'We want to just stress to people that the water is absolutely safe to drink, some people may notice a slight change in taste,' he said.

A statement released on Twitter said that Mount Gambier's drinking water supply will be sourced from the local borefield for the remainder of the weekend.

'Plans are being developed to remove the car from the lake, using a crane,' the statement read.

'This will need to be a carefully planned job, taking into consideration factors like local road closures and necessary permits and approvals. The car continues to pose no safety or other risks.'

The 22-year-old was driving a Mitsubishi ute near Mount Gambier's volcanic Blue Lake on Friday night when the car tore through a guard rail.

Once through the guard rail the car started to plunge hundreds of metres to the lake at the bottom, ABC News reported.

Police told ABC News it took several hours to retrieve the man from the slope into a rescue boat at the bottom.

Senior Constable Mick Abbott described the man's survival and rescue as a 'miracle'.

'From what I understand, speaking to the investigators at the scene, the driver's side window was actually down so he was actually thrown out of the car as he was going down this steep embankment  so he's actually quite lucky that happened,' he told ABC News.

General manager Mark Gobbie said efforts to retrieve the car were still underway, 'We're looking at whether we can actually float the vehicle, [but] unfortunately lifting with a crane is quite complex.'

General manager Mark Gobbie said efforts to retrieve the car were still underway.

'We're looking at whether we can actually float the vehicle, [but] unfortunately lifting with a crane is quite complex,' he told ABC News.

'Where the vehicle is at the moment it's actually trapped under some rocks as it's come down the embankment.'

The man was taken to a local hospital after the accident so police could check for any drugs or alcohol in his system.

The Blue Lake is widely considered one of the major tourist attractions in the Mount Gambier and is known as 'the gem of Mount Gambier's attractions'.

A 22-year-old man has been saved by an open window after his car plunged down a cliff face and into The Blue Lake in Mount Gambier

The lake fills the crate of an extinct volcano with conflicting dates n when it would have last erupted, ranging from 4,300 years ago to 28,000 years ago.

It contains 30,000 mega litres of water at its average capacity and the water retains a bright blue colour thanks to a natural cleaning process created by the limestone aquifer.

'These aquifers are separated by a layer of clay known as a confining bed,' a report on the lake states.

'The confining bed is a layer of clay which is saturated but has low permeability and cannot provide a usable yield of water.'

This is quite different from limestone which generally has a strong ability to supply water, allowing the groundwater to flow easily into and out of the lake.'
Russia has appointed action movie star Steven Seagal as a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States.

The Foreign Ministry announced the move Saturday on its Facebook page.

The statement reads that Seagal's portfolio in the unpaid position would be to 'facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges.'

Russia has appointed action movie star Steven Seagal as a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States (Pictured: November 25, 2016)

The Foreign Ministry announced the move Saturday on its Facebook page

Seagal is an accomplished martial artist  like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The actor, who was granted Russian citizenship in 2016, has vocally defended the Russian leader's policies, including Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and has criticized the U.S. government.

Putin personally presented a Russian passport to U.S. actor, saying he hoped it would serve as a symbol of how fractious ties between Moscow and Washington were starting to improve.

U.S.-Russia relations have plummeted in recent years with U.S. intelligence agencies accusing Moscow of interfering in Donald Trump's White House run, an allegation Russia denies

Since then, U.S.-Russia relations have only got worse however with U.S. intelligence agencies accusing Moscow of interfering in Donald Trump's White House run, an allegation Russia denies. The two countries are also at odds over Syria and Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry likened Seagal's new role to that of a U.N. goodwill ambassador and said that the actor would receive no salary.

'It's a case of people's diplomacy intersecting with traditional diplomacy,' the ministry said.

Seagal, who sometimes appears on Russian state TV to talk about his views and career, was cited by Kremlin-backed TV station RT as welcoming the appointment.

'I've always had a very strong desire to do all I can to help improve Russian-American relations,' RT cited Seagal as saying. 'I have worked tirelessly in this direction for many years unofficially and I am now very grateful for the opportunity to do the same thing officially.'

For more than a decade Seagal, who according to his own website is 66, has been a regular visitor to Russia. His movies, including such titles as 'Under Siege' and 'Sniper: Special Ops,' are popular with Russian audiences.

President Putin is also a fan of the kind of martial arts that Seagal often practiced in his Hollywood action movies.

Last year, Ukraine banned Seagal from entering the country for five years, citing national security reasons.
Donald Trump has once again offered to meet with Iranian leaders as the country braces for a new wave of harsh economic sanctions next week.

The president tweeted Saturday afternoon: 'Iran, and it's economy, is going very bad, and fast! I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter - it is up to them!'

The tweet echoed statements he made earlier in the week as the commander-in-chief pushes for a summit with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.

'No preconditions. If they want to meet, I'll meet. Whenever they want,' Trump said Monday during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, adding that a summit would be 'good for the country, good for them, good for us, and good for the world.'

The offer is a surprise olive branch from the president who last week issued a threat to the Middle Eastern powerhouse in an inflammatory tweet.

Scroll down for video

Donald Trump has once again offered to meet with Iranian leaders in a tweet on Saturday

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to hold a summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, all of which have been turned down

Tensions between the US and Iran have been mounting since Trump announced America's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal in May - resulting in the reinstatement of 'maximum pressure' sanctions this coming Tuesday.

Last month Iran's state-run news agency claimed the White House had asked on eight separate occasions for leader-to-leader meetings, with Rouhani rebuffing each request.

That report also quoted the Iranian president as saying that 'Iran is the mother of all peace' before warning Trump that 'war with Iran is the mother of all wars'.

Trump responded with an all-caps Twitter tirade threatening the 'consequences' awaiting Tehran for its chronic anti-US rhetoric.

On July 22 he tweeted: 'NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.'

The following week Trump surprised even his own national security team by saying he was ready to meet with Iranian leaders to sort out a new deal.

Trump made international waves with this allcaps tweet two Sundays ago, taunting Rouhani with threats of 'consequences the likes of which few throughout history have veer suffered before'

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on July 27 there was no policy that had been put in place with the goal of collapsing or changing the Iranian regime.

'We need them to change their behavior on a number of threats they can pose with their military, with their secret services, with their surrogates and with their proxies,' Mattis told Pentagon reporters.

Experts see a number of possible outcomes for the current US policy toward Iran.

Sanctions and diplomatic pressure could pile enough pressure on the regime that it comes to the negotiating table - something Trump has advocated for.

The financial crisis in Iran could worsen to the point that mass protests make it impossible for the regime to hold on to power - though economic pressures risk galvanizing growing anti-American sentiment and support for hardliners.

Or the regime could start to address what America calls its 'malign influence' in the region, including its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and threats to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies.

'I think [the Trump administration] would be pleased with any one of those end states,' Dubowitz said.
In the midst of a crippling drought, this was a brief happy moment.

Charity campaigner Edwina Robertson sat down at the piano inside the home of two farmers in the drought stricken region of central New South Wales.

Ms Robertson had taken a break from talking with the couple about the dire financial situation they were facing, when the telephone rang.

In an instant, their brief escape from the harsh reality of the drought came to an end.

The news on the other end of the line was heartbreaking - their brother-in-law, also a farmer, had taken his own life. The worst drought in a century had proved too much.

Photographer and charity campaigner Edwina Robertson (pictured) has shared a devastating story about the toll drought is taking on farmers. She posted a video taken just seconds before a family found out their farming relative had taken his own life

Sharing the heartbreaking story to the Facebook page of her charity One Bucket, Ms Robertson told how the two farmers had their lives turned upside down just seconds after the happy video was taken.

'Whilst I was sitting at the Pianola, the phone rang. She headed to the kitchen to grab it and within moments ran straight back into the lounge in tears,' Ms Robertson said.

'Panicked, I ran outside and across the driveway in bare feet to call for her husband.

'"What's happened?" he asked me.

'"I'm not too sure but I don't think it's good," I yelled as I saw him put his tools down and run towards the house.

'Are there tears?!'

'"Yes", I said, knowing full well that it was an emergency of some kind. In a moment everything had gone from laughter and happiness to complete chaos.

Ms Robertson broke down (pictured) as she told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of the true toll of the drought. 'I worry every day when I go to visit farming families that it's going to be hours too late, it's literally that bad,' she told Mr Turnbull

The true toll: A shattered farmer drags another dead sheep through the dust of his barren property

No rain in sight: A starving animal falls onto the dry ground on a central New South Wales farm

Eagles hack at the carcass of a sheep lying dead in a paddock after succumbing to the drought

'(Once back inside) among her tears she shared that his brother-in-law had just taken his own life.'

Ms Robertson wrote that the hardest part of all was hearing the shattered farmer say under his breath: 'I thought he was doing ok...'

After posting her story online, she shared it personally to Malcolm Turnbull who was visiting the during a visit to the area on Sunday.

Breaking down in tears as she told him of her experience, the prime minister hugged Ms Robertson in a touching moment.

A thirsty kangaroo drinks from a water tank located in a drought-effected paddock

A farmer drops hay for his cattle next to a dried-up creek in a drought-effected paddock near Gunnedah, in New South Wales

Starving cattle search desperately for green grass to eat in a dry paddock in rural Australia

'It's worse than anything you are seeing in the media, it's far worse,' she told the PM.

'It's dire. I worry every day when I go to visit farming families that it's going to be hours too late, it's literally that bad.'

The prime minister announced relief packages of up to $12,000 for drought affected farmers during his visit to the region on Sunday.

For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14
Donald Trump is fuming publicly and privately about Mueller's Russia probe and is growing concerned that his son, Donald Trump Jr, could become entangled in it, sources close to the president claim.

Trump has reportedly told several of his advisers and friends that he's worried the investigation could destroy the lives of 'innocent and decent people', namely his son.

Trump Jr has been under scrutiny by Mueller and his team for his alleged role in organizing a meeting in June 2016 at Trump Towers with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on his father's opponent Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr and his attorney have said that the lawyer did not provide damaging information on Clinton, and instead they discussed other matters. Trump Jr also insists that his father was not aware of the meeting before it happened.

Sources claim Donald Trump is reportedly worried that his son Donald Trump Jr (pictured) could become entangled in the Russia probe

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election

According to the Washington Post, a Trump adviser said the president does not think his son broke the law on purpose but fears he inadvertently may have wandered into legal jeopardy'.

On Saturday, CNN published a similar report claiming the president is worried Trump Jr might have exposure in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in Russia meddling in the election.

The outlet claims Trump's increasing concern is one of the reasons he keeps lashing out at Mueller on Twitter.

Sources said the president has been concerned for months that the probe could potentially hurt his family, and that's why he continues to attack Mueller.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at special counsel Mueller and the Russian probe on Twitter

Sources said his public attacks are because he doesn't want Mueller coming after his family

Earlier this week, Trump called the probe 'rigged witch hunt' and asked attorney general Jeff Sessions to end the investigation

Trump insists there was never a collusion calling it a 'total hoax' in a tweet on Wednesday

Earlier this week, Trump unleashed on Mueller and the investigation calling it a 'rigged witch hunt' that is staining our country.

Quoting lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Trump wrote: 'FBI Agent Peter Strzok (on the Mueller team) should have recused himself on day one. He was out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP. He needed an insurance policy. Those are illegal, improper goals, trying to influence the Election. He should never, ever been allowed to remain in the FBI while he himself was being investigated. This is a real issue.

It wont go into a Mueller Report because Mueller is going to protect these guys. Mueller has an interest in creating the illusion of objectivity around his investigation.'

Trump then added: 'This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'

Sources said Trump is also fuming about Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, who was jailed in June on charges of obstruction of justice and witness tampering

According to reports, Trump has been worried for months that his son being in 'legal jeopardy' over the investigation

'Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!' he continued.

Sources told both CNN and the Washington Post that Trump has also been fuming about Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, who is on trial for bank and tax fraud charges.

The Post reports that Trump feels bad for Manafort but doesn't want to be associated with the trial.

'He is completely outraged by the way Manafort has been treated, with the solitary confinement and all of that,' Giuliani said. 'Its obvious to him that theyre all but torturing Manafort in order to try to get him to flip.'
A child who plunged from a four metre high balcony at his home miraculously escaped serious harm.

His father, who fell simultaneously, is fighting for his life in hospital with injuries sustained to his head.

While the man, identified as 41-year-old Brad Lewis, was found unconscious outside their Pittwater Road home in Sydney's northern beaches on Saturday, his eight-year-old son, Oscar, walked away almost entirely unscathed.

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The man, identified as 41-year-old Brad Lewis (pictured with his wife, Suz), was found unconscious alongside eight-year-old Oscar outside their Pittwater Road home in Sydney's Northern Beaches on Saturday

The pair were treated at the scene by paramedics and a Careflight team, Daily Telegraph reported.

Oscar, the eldest of two boys to Mr Lewis and his wife Suz, was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital by car after being tended to by road medics.

He was taken as a precaution, only suffering minor injuries.

The pair were treated at the scene by paramedics and a Careflight team

Mr Lewis was flown to the Royal North Shore Hospital in a serious condition.

'CareFlight's specialist doctor and critical care paramedic treated the man at the scene for serious head injuries,' a CareFlight spokesman said.

The horrific incident unfolded at about 4pm and emergency services rushed to the scene after witnesses reported the fall.

Officers from Northern Beaches Police Area Command established a crime scene.

Investigations are continuing.

The man was found lying unconscious and the son was injured from the fall

Both were rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital, the man in a serious condition
Survival of Australian ski resorts as they battle against a warming climate may be in the hands of Indian and Chinese immigrants, experts believe.

There was a record of more than 2.2 million visitors to the country's snow fields last year, but few were found to make long-term financial investments in snow sports.

The trend sets current snow-lovers apart from Baby Boomers, who not only enjoyed deeper snow and longer seasons, but immersed themselves fully in snow culture, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Survival of Australian ski resorts as they battle against a warming climate may be in the hands of Indian and Chinese immigrants, experts believe

There was a record of more than 2.2 million visitors to the country's snow fields last year, but few were found to make long-term financial investments in snow sports

'Snow resorts are facing a triple threat: climate change, changing leisure patterns and declining participation from an ageing population,' University of Canberra researcher Dr Tracey Dickson said.

'So how do you get more people into resorts that have large infrastructure commitments?'

Chinese and Indian markets could hold the key to filling the seemingly fading interest of Australians in snow sports, Dr Dickson said.

Snow store Rhythm had already began looking at ways to boost the involvement of people of those nations now living in Australia who had a keen interest in snow.

For the past two snow seasons, owner Mick Klima has hired a Hindi speaker to transform tourists into avid skiers and snowboarders.

The amount of snow that's fallen on Australian fields has declined gradually over time (illustrated in graph)

Chinese and Indian markets could hold the key to filling the seemingly fading interest of Australians in snow sports, Dr Dickson said

'They usually come down in a big group and get one or two pairs of skis that they can all try and fit into and have a go on,' Mr Klima said.

'You have got to start somewhere.'

Chinese president Xi Jinping has also started looking towards the economical benefits of a population with snow skills ahead of the Winter Olympics in Chongli, north-west of Beijing in 2022.

Australia's ski resorts have this year enjoyed the heaviest snowfalls in 18 years as forecasters claim plummeting temperatures could mark the start of a seven-year 'mini ice age.'

Almost 30 years have passed since the Bureau of Meteorology recorded more than three metres of snow falling in the Australian alps due to climate change.

Up until the 1990s, snow fields would receive this amount of snow up to twice every 10 years.

Snow store Rhythm had already began looking at ways to boost the involvement of people of those nations now living in Australia who had a keen interest in snow
A driver attempted to sneakily disguise his run-down car as a New South Wales police vehicle by slapping on some paint.

An image captured in Marrickville in Sydney's inner-west shows a run-down Honda Integra, with paint down each side and a plank of wood sitting on top.

The bizarre image was posted to a Sydney thread on Reddit, with the caption 'Police release a new budget cruiser...Spotted in Marrickville.'

A driver attempted to sneakily disguise his run down car (pictured) as a police vehicle by slapping on some paint

There is patterned blue paint running down the side of the car with the word 'Police' noticeably hand-painted on the driver's door.

A plank of wood sitting on the car's roof - half painted red and half blue - appears to be an attempt to imitate siren lights.

Black paint has also been smeared across the back of the car, and the number-plates are missing.

Social media users found the image amusing, with one person commenting, 'I'm f**king dying at the level of effort they put into making the roof lights'.

'Ah yes that's the new Honda s**tbox model,' another user said.

Although many of the comments followed suit, some people pointed out the possible offence that could follow impersonating a police vehicle.

'Quite sure it's an offense to impersonate a police vehicle. I'm sure your post will ensure it gets a nice ticket quick snap,' someone commented.

The image, posted to Reddit, shows the run-down Honda Integra imitating a NSW Police vehicle

Another user replied to the comment saying that failure to display number plates is another offence.

Someone pointed out that police don't appreciate when the 'chequered pattern' is used without specifically writing 'police' on the vehicle.

In 2017, a man from Hawkesbury was issued a Field Court Attendance Notice for selling a Yamaha motorbike that displayed blue and white chequered banding.

'It is an offence to use or offer for sale a motor vehicle that displays Police insignia. It is an offence to wear clothing that displays a Police insignia,' NSW Police said.
A high school businessman who makes more money in a day than most adults do in a week has revealed one of the secrets to his financial success.

Jack Bloomfield is just 16, but has already made significant waves in the continuously growing industry of eCommerce.

The Year 11 student from Brisbane began his entrepreneurial ways aged 12, deigning a website that enabled users to design cards online before sending them in the post.

From that small time money spinner grew Jack's latest venture, one which is seeing him add an incredible $2,900-a-day to his bank account.

According to the teenager his success comes down to strict time management and a daily wake up time of 5.15am - plus not 'spending hours a day on his mobile phone'.

Jack Bloomfield (above) is just 16, but has already made significant waves in the continuously growing industry of eCommerce

The Year 11 student runs a series of websites including Best Bargain (pictured) - an rakes in an average of $2,900-a-day

Sounding more like a seasoned businessman than a highschool pupil, Jack explained to Daily Mail Australia just how different his daily life is to his classmates.

'As soon as I get home from school I'm straight into business, there's no watching TV or gaming on the Xbox,' he said.

'You see, I think the key is to optimise every minute of your day.

'People can spend one or two hours on their phones, but I try to spend every minute of every day maximising my time.

'At the end of every single day I go through and create a checklist for everything that I need to do the next day... it just helps me keep everything under control.

'I try to focus mostly on business, that is where my passion lies - I really love growing my business.'

Launching his parent company BloomVentures last year, Jack now runs a variety of eCommerce stores that sell everything from skincare products to novelty items.

It's a serious contrast to most of his classmates who work part-time jobs at fast food and retail outlets.

Jack, 16, doesn't have time for watching TV or playing Xbox, instead preferring to focus on his businesses and Year 11 studies

But what is also different about this teenager is his total disregard for sleep.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JACK BLOOMFIELD: 5.15am: Wake up. Do push ups and cardio routine. Get ready for school 5.30am: Read The Gratitude Effect by John De Martini 6am: Start work on online business 8.30am: Start school 3.05pm: Finish school 3.30pm: Afternoon sport 5pm: Do daily homework and study 6.30pm: Dinner 7pm: Work on business. Finish list of tasks 10pm:Sleep time Advertisement

A look at Jack's detailed daily timetable shows that he wakes up at 5.15am every day, almost three whole hours before the school bell rings.

He then goes off to class, before returning home and again working until 10pm.

Admitting his parents have at times questioned if he is spending too little time on his education, he says they support his dreams to forge a career in the United States' tech hub - Silicon Valley.

'It's questionable I guess - am I focusing too much on business or too much on my school work?' he said.

'I stick by the mantra that time management is key. I try to optimise every minute I've got.

'I think I'm proof that you don't have to be 40 or 50 to make money and you don't have to climb the corporate ladder to be successful.

'It's hard, don't get me wrong, but I really do think anyone can do it.'


Hundreds of kilograms of chemicals along with bomb-making instructions have been seized from a property.

Police seized the dangerous ingredients from a South Hobart address in Tasmania Friday night, with officers seen at the property wearing full-body protective gear.

A 28-year-old male was arrested and is assisting police in their inquiries.

There was no sign of religious or political material at the site where the potential explosives were found, according to Seven News.

Hundreds of kilos of chemicals along with bomb-making instructions have been seized from a property (detectives pictured at the property)

Police seized the dangerous ingredients from a South Hobart address in Tasmania Friday night, with officers seen at the property wearing full-body protective gear (pictured)

On Saturday, police issued a warning to residents in the area surrounding the property as they planned to safety detonate the chemicals.

'Nearby residents have been temporarily relocated until the scene is cleared as a precaution,' Detective Acting Inspector Darren Latham said.

'We'd like to let members of the public know there may be some activity in the area this afternoon, including loud noises, while police safely dispose of some chemicals in a nearby open paddock, but there's no cause for alarm.

'There is no threat to the community and members of the public are asked to avoid the area as a precaution.'
A terminally ill father who flew his family to Singapore to fulfill his five-year-old daughter's wish to swim with dolphins, ended in disaster after his illness took a turn for the worse leaving the family stranded in a Bali hospital.

Duncan Turner, 46, suffered a serious head injury from a fall last year, leaving him paralysed and facing months of repeated strokes and seizures learning to walk and talk again.

Unsure how long Duncan had to live and unable to find a dolphin-swimming operator in Australia able to accommodate the family, they booked a trip to Singapore.

Duncan Turner, 46, (right) flew his family to Singapore to fulfill his daughter's (left) wish to swim with dolphins, but has been left stranded in a Bali hospital due to his terminal illness

As the family headed home on a flight with a stopover in Bali, Duncan became unwell, losing consciousness and needing oxygen and an ambulance to hospital

His daughter Amelie, who was born premature at just 27 weeks and weighing 606 grams, is still extremely small for her age and was not tall enough to qualify for most Australian dolphin swimming experiences.

Duncan's pre-existing health conditions meant he didn't qualify for travel insurance but the couple thought the risk of travelling for five days in Singapore without it would be worth the life-time of memories created.

But during the bucket-list trip Duncan fell and badly injured his knee, confining him to a wheel chair.

As the family headed home on a flight with a stopover in Bali, Duncan became unwell, losing consciousness and needing oxygen and an ambulance to hospital.

The terminally ill father was taken by ambulance to a Bali emergency department and admitted to hospital for life-saving blood transfusions

'The family were just 30 minutes from their transit destination of Bali when Duncan took a severe turn and airline staff insisted he would not be fit to board their final leg flight to Perth,' Lynette, a family friend wrote on a GoFundMe page set up for the family.

'He was taken by ambulance to a Bali emergency department and admitted to hospital for life-saving blood transfusions,' she explained.

Duncan's partner Michelle went to the Australian Consulate for assistance, but they were unable to help with costs.

After three days in hospital at a cost of $2,470 a day and additional emergency costs of $1,300, the family were unable to continue to pay for the expensive hospital bills.

Duncan's pre-existing health conditions meant he didn't qualify for travel insurance but the couple thought the risk would be worth the life-time of memories created

Against medical advice, Duncan discharged himself from hospital and is now waiting out his recovery in Bali accommodation.

Amelie has returned to school in Perth after her grandmother flew her back while her parents wait to be well enough to travel home.

Medical bills now exceed ten thousand dollars and additional treatment or readmission to hospital is still a possibility.

The couple said they realised they took the risk of travelling without insurance cover but 'it was Duncan's wish,' Michelle told WA Today.

'He wanted Amelie to have these special memories. We decided to go. We thought it would be fine.'
A previously unseen drink-drive advert featuring comedy duo Morecambe and Wise has been unearthed after more than 50 years.

The 35mm footage utilises the humour of the comedy duo and has been described as an 'incredible comedy find' by the British Film Institute (BFI)

It is thought to be one of the earliest advertisements ever made on drink driving and dates back to the early sixties.

Eric Morecambe's son Gary told The Telegraph : 'I thought I'd seen every possible recording of Morecambe and Wise, so was both surprised and delighted.'

Eric Morecambe (left) is flinging things around his room looking for his keys so he can drive home from a party. Wise (right) tells him he should not drive

Eric Morecambe (left) at first does not understand why he can't drive home so Wise asks him what he will be doing at the party

Morecambe clocks on that he will be drinking at the party so it probably is not a clever move to drive home

In the film Morecambe is flinging things all around his room looking for his car keys when Wise enters the room and asks him 'What are you looking for?'

Morecambe replies he is looking for his car keys- to which an exasperated Wise says 'you can't do that.'

Wise adds: 'Do you know what you'll be doing at that party?'

Outlining the shape of a woman with his hands, Morecambe replies: 'Looking for a nice little blond.'

Wise adds: 'And what else?' Morecambe responds: 'Well, that all depends on the nice little blond, doesn't it?'

Wise adds: 'What else do you expect to be doing apart from looking at girls?'

Wise (right) explains to Morecambe that it is not 'wise' to be drinking and driving from a party

Morecambe finally understands not to drink and drive and then turns to the camera and delivers an important message

Morecambe eventually agrees to not drive from the party and then delivers a drink driving message before the following

Morecambe finally clocks on and gives Wise the thumbs up and brings an imaginary drink up to his lips.

He agrees that he will indeed be drinking, which prompts Wise to say: 'I knew you were wise.'

Morecambe quickly corrects him: 'No, I'm Morecambe. Aren't I?'

He then turns to the camera, to deliver the message: 'If you want to be wise, don't drive if you've been drinking.'

The film was found by Chris Perry, head of Kaleidoscope, who work alongside the BFI's Missing Believed Wiped campaign to find and preserve old film reel footage.

Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, pictured in 1969, were two of Britain's best loved comedians

He was searching through a number of crates before finding the rare footage among cigarette adverts.

He said: 'I knew straight away that it had to be important Having worked on various Morecambe and Wise documentaries over the last few years [I thought] Ive never seen this before. I went through all the processes of checking to make sure it was truly missing.'

It is not known if the advert was ever actually shown on TV.

The film will be screened on August 11 at the BFI Southbank as part of a celebration of Kaleidoscope's 30th anniversary.

Ernie Wise and Eric Morecambe were two of Britain's best loved comedians.

They made shows for both BBC and ITV and were filled with sketches and banter between the pair- who were friends for 44 years.

They also featured in a number of films in the 1960s.

A two-part documentary hosted by actor Martin Clunes last year shed a fresh light on the double act.

Eric Morecambe died aged 58 after coming off stage from a charity performance in Tewkesbury in 1984. Ernie soldiered on without him until his own death 15 years later.
A man has been taken to hospital after he was found strolling the busy streets of the Gold Coast naked.

Police attended Cavill Avenue in the heart of Surfers Paradise just before 3pm on Sunday afternoon after reports of a naked man walking along the popular holiday strip in front of shocked onlookers, which included tourists and families.

7 News footage shows the middle-aged man speaking with police before he was led away in handcuffs with nothing to cover him up.

Shocked onlookers watched on as the unclothed man was escorted through Surfers Paradise by police

The man was taken to hospital to be assessed.

A Queensland Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia the man was not arrested as he appeared to have mental health issues and that charges would be unlikely.

No further details were provided.

The man was led away in handcuffs and later transported to hospital to be assessed

Questions have been asked as to why police didn't cover up the man.

'How about the police covering him up rather than parading him through the streets still! Shame on you Queensland Police,' one woman commented on Facebook.
Stephen Mitchell raped and sexually vulnerable women. He was jailed for life in 2011 but has since been released

A rapist policeman has been freed from prison less than seven years after he was jailed for life for attacking up to 30 vulnerable women he had met on duty.

Stephen Mitchell raped and sexually abused heroin addicts and a disabled teenager by offering them help while in custody, then demanding sexual favours afterwards.

The former soldier was handed two life sentences at Newcastle Crown Court in 2011 and was told he would not be eligible for parole for at least seven and a half years.

But the 50-year-old has since been released and was seen enjoying life on the outside, riding a 500 bike, according to a report by the Sunday People.

Mitchell's victims and campaigners are outraged over his release, saying it was wrong Mitchell, who was deemed a 'high risk to women' by psychiatrists, was freed.

One victim told the Sunday People: 'It's wrong that he can get on with his life, when he has ruined so many others.'

Another added: 'I certainly didn't expect him to get out so quickly.

'I have never, ever heard of anyone getting parole first time around for such a serious offence, given the fact he was so manipulative and never admitted anything.

'He deliberately chose victims who were vulnerable and wouldn't be believed if they ever dared speak up.'

But the 50-year-old has since been released and was seen enjoying life on the outside, riding a 500 bike (pictured)

The former soldier was handed two life sentences at Newcastle Crown Court (file photo) in 2011 and told he would not be eligible for parole for at least seven and a half years

She continued: 'I honestly think he has used everything he learned in the Army and the police to help him get parole by just telling them what he knew they would want to hear. He knows exactly what he's doing.

'He managed to get away with what he was doing, despite being in the police, so he is very cunning.'

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called for the Parole Board to review its decision.

She said: 'We urgently need to know what the Parole Board's reasons were because to most people this really does not look like justice for victims.

'The Justice Secretary needs to tell us urgently what progress he has made since the decision on John Worboys to stop the same things happening all over again.'

Mitchell's victims and campaigners are outraged over his release, saying it was wrong Mitchell (pictured in 2010), who was deemed a 'high risk to women' by psychiatrists, was freed

RAPIST OFFICER STALKED VICTIM USING POLICE COMPUTER The ordeal of Mitchell's most frequent victim began in 1999 when she was caught with a friend trying to cash stolen cheques in Marks and Spencer. 'The first thing that struck me as odd was that he told my friend to **** off,' the 30-year-old graduate said. 'I was then handcuffed and taken in the back of a van with Mitchell. In my pocket I had an eighth of an ounce of heroin. I wasn't dealing. I just had a massive habit, but I was worried I would be done for dealing. 'When I got to the police station, I was put in a cell but Mitchell came in and gave me the heroin back. It was then that I realised he must be dodgy. Later, we were in an interview room  just me and him. He kept telling me not to get a solicitor, to just trust him. 'He kept saying, 'You help me and I'll help you. You'll never see me again'. Mitchell made her perform a sex act on him. There was no CCTV within the police station and without any proof it would simply have been her word against his. A year later Mitchell re-arrested her and took her to a field where he indecently assaulted her in the dark. He then began turning up at her house and finding reasons to arrest her and let her off with a caution  in return for sexual favours. He would also take her for a drive in his patrol car before forcing her to carry out sex acts on him. 'He kept telling me I was disgusting and he was doing me a favour because no other man would have me,' she said. When she tried to escape by moving house, Mitchell traced her through the police computer. And when she began to turn her life around and started studying for a degree he blackmailed her, threatening to arrest her for new offences unless she submitted to his demands. He forced her to give him the keys to her flat and in 2003 he raped her. 'He put my arms behind my back and handcuffed me,' she said. 'He pulled my shoulders back so hard, it felt like they were dislocated.' Advertisement

Mitchell, originally from Glasgow, raped and sexually abused vulnerable women during his reign of terror.

During a five-week trial, the PC claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy hatched by the criminal underworld, and labelled his accusers liars.

But after nearly a week of deliberation, a jury convicted him of raping two women and carrying out three further indecent assaults.

One of Mitchell's victims, a 19-year-old drug addict when he first struck, estimated she had been abused 100 times as he kept track of her using the police computer.

Yet his colleagues ignored a series of warnings about his behaviour  some of them from his own wife. They were unaware that he had already stood trial for sex offences before he was recruited to the force.

He was eventually sacked in 2007 for having 'consensual' sex with one of his victims, only to be reinstated on appeal eight months later.

And when he was finally stopped, a senior detective with Northumbria Police offered him 'a get out of jail free card' if he agreed to resign. He refused, opting to take his chances in court.

Mitchell  a tall, muscular former soldier  was found guilty of two rapes, three indecent assaults and six charges of misconduct in a public office, involving a total of seven women.

He was cleared of three further rape charges, two indecent assaults and counts of misconduct involving another nine women. But police suspect he attacked at least a further 14.

Brought up in a Glasgow tower block, Mitchell joined the 1st Battalion Queen's Own Highlanders in 1990 and a year later allegedly attempted to rape two male soldiers and sexually assault a third.

Military police questioned him but the case went no further after he claimed that it was nothing more than 'horseplay'.

In 1994 he quit the Army and moved to the North East to be with his girlfriend, Julie Arnold, a penfriend whom he married a year later.

In 1997, following a complaint from one of the alleged victims in the Army sex case, he stood trial in Edinburgh only for it to collapse when two witnesses refused to give evidence.

I've lost all faith in justice, said victim of abuse

A teacher was abused by Stephen Mitchell for years after she was caught trying to cash stolen cheques in Marks and Spencer.

At his 2010 trial she recalled how he targeted her when she became a heroin addict: I was handcuffed and taken in the back of a van with Mitchell. In my pocket I had an eighth of an ounce of heroin. I wasnt dealing.

I just had a massive habit, but I was worried I would be done for dealing.

When I got to the police station, I was put in a cell but Mitchell came in and gave me the heroin back.

It was then that I realised he must be dodgy. Later, we were in an interview room, just me and him. He kept telling me not to get a solicitor, to just trust him.

Mitchell made her perform a sex act on him. There was no CCTV in the police station and without any proof it would have simply been her word against his.

A year later Mitchell re-arrested her and took her to a field where he indecently assaulted her in the dark.

In 2000, the death of a friend from a heroin overdose shocked her into coming off the drug later that year.

But Mitchell tried to keep her hooked. Over the next four years he would turn up at her house, find reasons to arrest her and then let her off with a caution in return for sexual favours. He would take her out in his patrol car and force her to carry out sex acts on him. He abused her more than 100 times.

He kept telling me I was disgusting and he was doing me a favour because no other man would have me, she said. Sometimes he would bring me cigarettes and sweets. He would drive me home and then leave me.

He was a complete Jekyll and Hyde character and would change from being really nice to really horrible.

It is strange now but I blamed myself. I thought that it was all my own fault.

When she tried to escape by moving house, Mitchell traced her through the police computer. And when she began to turn her life around and started studying for a degree he blackmailed her, threatening to arrest her for new offences unless she submitted to his demands.

He forced her to give him the keys to her flat and in 2003 he raped her.

Eventually the victim managed to rebuild her life and became a teacher.

After his sentence, she said: I have lost all faith in the justice system. He should never have been a policeman, that was the only reason I met him. He should have been locked away for life.
Lily O'Connell (pictured), 23, thought she had the flu when she arrived to hospital but was diagnosed with the life-threatening Meningococcal disease

A 23-year-old woman thought she had the flu when she arrived to hospital but was shocked when doctors said she could've died in minutes.

Lily O'Connell, from Paddington in Sydney, was enjoying Christmas day with her family last December.

Yet that evening she was profusely vomiting and she got a strange rash on her face, SMH reports.

She was sent urgently to the Intensive Care Unit at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney where she was diagnosed with the W strain of Meningococcal.

Ms O'Connell said she could've died if she didn't get to the hospital when she did.

'I am just so lucky I lived three minutes away from the hospital because the doctors told me later that I was only about 30 minutes away from that being it for me,' Ms O'Connell told the SMH.

Lily O'Connell (pictured) said she could've died if she didn't get to the hospital when she did

Lily O'Connell (pictured, left) was enjoying Christmas day with her family last December until she fell very ill and was urgently rushed to hospital

What are symptoms of meningococcal? Fever

Lack of appetite

Leg pain

Unusual skin colour

Extreme tiredness

Vomiting and diarrhoea

Drowsiness

Convulsions, fits or twitching

Red-purple rash Source: Department of Health Advertisement

'If I'd waited any longer I probably wouldn't have made it,' she continued.

While Ms O'Connell is lucky to be alive, she still suffers from renal and adrenal failure.

Adrenal failure refers to the glands above the kidneys not producing enough of the hormones that control important functions such as blood pressure.

The disease destroyed her kidneys forcing her to now spend five hours on dialysis every alternate day.

'Luckily my sister is donating a kidney to me in two weeks time which is very exciting,' she told AAP.

While Ms O'Connell was vaccinated for Meningococcal in high school she only received the C strain.

Yet a new vaccine covers the four main strains of the deadly disease: ACWY.

The NSW government will be extending the free Meningococcal vaccines to high school students after more young Australians have contracted and died from the disease this year.

Ms O'Connell (pictured, left) is lucky to be alive but she still suffers from renal and adrenal failure. She has to spend five hours on dialysis every alternate day

What are the after-effects of Meningococcal? Headaches

Skin scarring

Limb deformity

Deafness in one or both ears

Ringing in the ears

Blurring and double vision

Aches and stiffness in the joints Source: Department of Health Advertisement

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Sunday that the government will be putting $3.6 million to roll out the ACWY vaccine to more students in years 10 and 11.

There are 13 different strains of Meningococcal yet four are the most common: A, B, C, W and Y.

In the last year there has been an outbreak of the W strain of Meningococcal.

From 2014-16 the number of people who was diagnosed with the W strain of Meningococcal quadrupled, with young Australians being the most at risk.

The number of Australians with Meningococcal W rose by 38.1 per cent in 2017, according to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.

Some Australian states like New South Wales and Tasmania are offering the ACWY vaccine for free to young people under the age of 21.

The ACWY vaccine costs between $38 and $120 per dose depending on the vaccine's brand and each doctor's consultation fee.

The number of Australians falling ill from Meningococcal W is on the rise with 38.1 being reported in 2017

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said Australians should be vigilant of the disease's symptoms and take the vaccine for preventative measures.

'If you experience symptoms including a sudden onset of fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, neck stiffness, joint pain or rash of red-purple spots, go straight to your nearest emergency department to seek help,' Dr Chant said.

Meningococcal survivor Lily O'Connell wants people to know that one Meningococcal vaccine doesn't cover all strains.

'I know it's expensive but it's a small price to pay,' Lily told the ABC.

'There's a gap between all the immunity in the community. Because of that gap, we are all vulnerable,' she said.
Sydney has experienced its hottest July on record, with the warm and dry conditions set to continue in the harbour city.

But Australia's south is in for wet and windy conditions over the next week courtesy of a series of low pressure systems.

Perth is expected to be lashed by rain, with heavy falls and hail possible on Thursday, while parts of South Australia will be battered by winds of up to 120km/h.

Most days this week will be above 20 degrees in Sydney, with the city climbing to a high of 26 degrees on Saturday.

Sydney experienced its warmest July on record - and the warm conditions are set to continue with most days this week set to be above 20 degrees

While it is still Winter in Sydney, many residents will flock to the beach over the next week, with the city climbing to a top of 26 degrees on Saturday

Over in South Australia, Tuesday and Wednesday are shaping up to be windy, with Kangaroo Island to be the hardest hit as wind gusts of 120km/h are expected.

Neptune Island is staring down winds of up to 90km/h, while the rest of the state's coast can expect winds of up to 95km/h. Wind gusts will peak in the evening.

Parts of Victoria will experience wind gusts of up to 100km/h as the system moves east.

Weatherzone senior meteorologist Jacob Cronje told Daily Mail Australia a strong cold front will bring showers to southern parts of the nation.

The front will push through southern Western Australia, southern South Australia, most of Victoria and also Tasmania by mid-week, he said.

South-west Western Australia will be impacted the most by the cold front, with isolated thunderstorms also possible.

Mr Cronje said most of the remainder of the country will be dry, with a majority of parts looking at warm days and cold nights.

'Inland parts of the country with the exception of the far south are going to have generally warm days well into the weekend,' he said.

Most parts of Sydney experienced less than 20 per cent of their typical July rainfall totals, the Bureau of Meteorology said

While Sydney experiences a record run of warm and dry conditions, parts of southern Australia are in for wet and windy conditions over the next week

The run of warm weather for Sydney comes as the city experienced a July which was warmer than normal, with New South Wales enduring a devastating drought.

'Mean daily maximum temperatures were the warmest on record for July for most sites across Greater Sydney,' the Bureau of Meteorology said in its July climate summary.

'Mean daily maximum temperatures ranged from 1.4 degrees above average at Lake Macquarie and Mount Boyce to 3.5 degrees warmer than average at Observatory Hill.

'Warm days persisted throughout most of the month, with Sydney Airport recording 16 days above 20 degrees, the most warm days on record, and well above the July average of four days.

As Sydney experienced its warmest July on record, NSW as a whole had its fifth-driest July on record. Pictured, a map which shows the maximum temperatures across the state in July

New South Wales had its driest July since 2002. Pictured, a map which shows rainfall across the state in July

Australia as a whole also experienced the warmest and driest July in 20 years

'Dry conditions were experienced across the region with most sites recording less than 20 per cent of their typical July totals.'

It was not just Sydney which was warm and dry but the rest of New South Wales which experienced unseasonable conditions.

About 99 per cent of the state is in drought.

'It was the fifth-driest July on record and driest since 2002 for New South Wales as a whole,' BOM's July climate summary said.

Meanwhile, storage levels at Sydney's Warragamba Dam have fallen bellow 70 per cent. This time last year the dam was sitting at almost 92 per cent.

In the last six-months, large areas of NSW have experienced their lowest rainfall on record, and most of the rest of the state isn't far behind.

Almost all of NSW has received less than 20 per cent of its usual rainfall since January, and Australia as a whole just experienced its warmest and driest July in 20 years.

From May 1 to July 31, NSW experienced 50-100 mm of rainfall while inland Australia only had 2-10mm of rainfall

The map shows which areas experienced their lowest rainfall on record compared to the highest on record

ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes heatwave expert Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick said Australians should be expecting extreme weather

There are now concerns a 'hot and deadly' summer is on the way.

ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes heatwave expert Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick told Weatherzone that Australians should be expecting extreme weather considering the dryness and warmth of the past few months.

'We are heading towards an El Nino summer, so we are more likely to have hotter and more extreme weather,' Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick said.

'We should certainly be worried.'

With such a dry and warm July and above-average temperatures expected, the chances of El Nino forming in spring is at 50 per cent - which is double the normal chance, according to Weatherzone.
A woman in her 20s has died after a hit-and-run crash in south London early this morning.

The victim was hit by the car on Clapham Road in Stockwell at approximately 4am.

Emergency services desperately tried to save the woman but she died at the scene.

The driver reportedly left the scene, leaving the woman with serious injuries.

A woman in her 20s has died after a hit-and-run crash on Clapham Road (pictured) in Stockwell, south London

Road closures are currently in place and motorists are advised to avoid the area.

Detective Sergeant Jose-Paulo Qureshi, who is leading the investigation, urged the driver and anyone with information to come forward.

'We are doing everything we can to trace the vehicle involved in what is now a fatal collision,' he said.

Road closures are currently in place and motorists are advised to avoid the area. Detectives have urged the driver or anyone with information to come forward

'A young woman has lost her life. I would urge the driver concerned to contact police at the earliest opportunity.

'Equally there are those who saw what happened in this busy part of Stockwell and we need them to call the witness line and give information.'

If you have information that could assist the investigation, please call the Serious Collision Investigation Unit on 020 8285 1574, quoting CAD 1429/05Aug, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Tomek Matuszewski, 34, says drunken louts gave him 90 to get the inking on his forehead in the Spanish resort of Benidorm

A homeless man has called for a British stag party to be jailed after he claims they paid him to have the groom's name tattooed on his head.

Tomek Matuszewski, 34, said the drunken louts gave him 90 to get the inking on his forehead, which reads 'Jamie Blake'.

He said it felt like he had won the lottery when he was handed the cash in the Spanish resort of Benidorm.

But he was horrified when he woke up the next day and looked in the mirror.

Now he is calling for the stag member, who he claims paid him to have the inking, and the tattoo artist to face justice.

He told The Daily Star: 'I'd like to see the culprit go to jail as well as the tattooist. I want justice and I hope karma will come back to them.'

Describing the moment he saw the blue scrawl across his forehead, he said: 'My reaction was: "what the f*** have I done?"'

The tattoo was also supposed to read 'North Shields NE28', but had to be aborted because Tomek was in too much pain.

He went back to the Costa Blanca holiday resort on Friday and went straight to Benidorm's Foreign Tourist Attention Centre to ask police to take action.

Mr Blake, 36, had recently moved to Benidorm and was holding the stag party despite recently separating from his partner. He has denied being in on the stunt.

Tomek is calling for the stag member, who he claims paid him to have the inking, and the tattoo artist to face justice

Tomek having the controversial tattoo inked on his forehead. It read: 'Jamie Blake' - the name of the groom, who denies being involved in the stunt

Tomek returned to the Costa Blanca holiday resort on Friday and reported the incident to police

Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne posted this tweet calling for the stag party to be named and shamed for their 'disgusting' behaviour

Since the story surfaced, a fundraising page has been set up for Polish-born Tomek by a woman in Benidorm to help raise funds to get the inking removed.

The GoFundMe page reads: 'We are raising fund to help Tomak have the tattooed removed from his face and receive medical help, he much needs.'

So far, nearly 4,000 euros (approximately 3,600) has been raised.

Outraged people have posted comments on the site, blasting the stag party for their alleged behaviour.

'Human beings are capable of such awful things,' wrote Anabel Silva in Spanish.

The tattoo had to be aborted because Tomek was in too much pain (pictured right:only the first two letters of the word 'north' were inked on under 'Jamie Blake')

Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne also waded into the debate, calling for the stag party to be named and shamed for their 'disgusting' behaviour.

Tomek has been touched by the support he has received and has pledged to use some of the money raised on the fundraising page to pay for rehab to tackle his drinking.

'For the first time in years I feel like good things are starting to happen for me, and that I might have a future,' he said.

To donate to the fundraising page, follow this link.
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All 20 people on board a vintage sightseeing plane were killed when the aircraft crashed into a mountainside in the Swiss Alps - hours after a family of four were killed when their small aircraft went down in a forest.

The Junkers Ju-52 plane went down on Saturday on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims, striking the mountain's western flank about 2,540 metres (8,330 feet) above sea level.

The mountainous area in south-eastern Switzerland is popular with hikers and skiers and includes a glacier.

Police said they have now determined that all 20 people on board the plane, including its three crew members, died. Eleven men and nine women were killed.

Twenty people have died after a sightseeing plane crashed on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims

The wreckage of the old-time propeller plane Ju-52 after it struck on the Piz Segnas mountain above the Swiss Alpine resort

Most of the victims - aged between 42 and 84 - were Swiss but they also included a couple and their son from Austria.

Earlier on Saturday, a small plane crashed in the Rengg mountain pass area in the canton of Nidwalden, killing two parents and their two children.

Both crashes were under investigation.

The plane in the latest crash was operated by Ju-Air, a Swiss company that offers tours with vintage former Swiss military aircraft.

Swiss officials said they are not aware of any distress call from the plane. They also expect the investigation into the cause of the crash to be 'relatively complex'.

Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, said the plane appears to have hit the ground near-vertically and at high speed in the crash.

Hours before the Ju-52 plane crashed, another small plane crashed in the Rengg mountain pass area in the canton of Nidwalden, killing two parents and their two children

Emergency services attend the scene of a Ju-52 aircraft which crashed on the Piz Segnas mountain in the Swiss Alps

Swiss Police said the plane struck the mountain's western flank about 2,540 metres (8,330 feet) above sea level

Ju-Air said on its website: 'We have the sad duty to announce that one of our Ju-52 aircraft had a accident today'

Police said on Twitter that five helicopters and a large rescue mission were deployed to the scene of the accident

Daniel Knecht, of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB), addresses the media during a press conference

Mr Knecht said the vintage plane presumably did not have the crash-resistant cockpit voice and data recorders that more modern aircraft have.

He said officials have essentially ruled out a collision with another aircraft or hitting an obstacle such as a wire.

He also said there is no indication of foul play or that the aircraft lost parts or broke up before the crash.

The plane was flying the passengers back from a two-day trip to Locarno in southern Switzerland to its base at Duebendorf, near Zurich.

Nearly 5,000 Ju-52 planes, a product of Germany's Junkers, were manufactured between 1932 and 1952.

Ju-Air's Ju-52 planes are former Swiss military aircraft, built in 1939, that were retired by the air force in 1981.

The Second World War Ju-52 plane were former Swiss military aircraft manufactured from 1932 and 1952 (file photo)

The old-time propeller plane crashed on the above the Swiss Alpine resort of Flims on Saturday. Pictured, a file photo shows the mountain

WHAT IS A JUNKERS JU-52 PLANE? The first plane to land at the old Beirut airport on January 1, 1946, was a Junkers Ju-52 operated by Compagnie Generale des Transports, which eventually changed its name to Air Liban Nearly 5,000 Ju-52 planes, a product of Germany's Junkers, were manufactured between 1932 and 1952. They were developed by German inventor Hugo Junkers, a pioneering engineer who is widely acknowledged as the father of civil aviation. Ju-Air's Ju-52 planes are all former Swiss military aircraft, built in 1939, that were retired by the air force in 1981. Junkers Ju-52 aircraft are known affectionately in German as 'Auntie Ju' planes. The trimotor transport aircraft were manufactured between 1931 and 1952 in Germany, where they were used by the military and for commercial purposes. Before the Nazis seized control of Junkers, they were used as a 17-seat airliner mainly by Lufthansa. But after, they flew with the Luftwaffe  the aerial branch of the Germany military forces during the Second World War  to transport both troops and cargo as well as briefly as a medium bomber. It could carry 18 fully equipped soldiers or 12 stretchers when used as an air ambulance. The Ju-52 continued to serve military and civilian air fleets into the 1980s. Advertisement

Based out of Duebendorf in canton Zurich, Ju-Air offers sightseeing, charter and adventure flights with its three midcentury Junkers Ju-52 aircraft, known affectionately in German as 'Auntie Ju' planes.

Ju-Air started operating flights with the old-timers in 1983, and the plane that crashed - with the registration HB-HOT - had been in service with the company since 1985.

The aircraft have three engines, one on the nose and one on each wing.

The company suspended flights until further notice after the crash.

On their website, they said: 'We have the sad duty to announce that one of our Ju-52 aircraft had a accident today.

'At the moment, no further information is available.'

Police said on Twitter that five helicopters and a large rescue mission were deployed to the scene of the accident.

The airspace above the crash site was closed by the country's Federal Office for Civil Aviation.

The Junkers Ju-52 model was the same as used by the German Air Force for military transport during the Second World War

JU-AIR said one of its Ju-52 airplanes (file photo), which seats 17 passengers along with two pilots, had crashed
These adult giraffes are literally 'neck and neck' as they engage in a feisty battle for dominance on the plains of Namibia.

The stunning photographs reveal the majestic mammals taking swings at each other by 'necking', a term used to describe how males establish social hierarchies by using their neck as a weapon.

Photographer Jason 'Owen' Kandume, originally from northern Namibia, but now living in the United States, captured the moment in a series of incredible images.

Getting it in the neck: The feisty males engage in 'necking' to establish their dominance

'If I want to take pictures of animals I make sure I'm where I need to be either early in the morning or late afternoon, which is the time animals in the wild tend to be most active,' he said.

'I have my own rules when I'm photographing animals. I keep my distance and use long lenses to ensure that I don't disturb them.

'I spend a maximum of ten minutes on each animal then I move on, or come back to it later.

'I know how most African animals behave and if I want to photograph them I mostly know where I'm likely to find them.'

Battle for dominance: The males swing their necks, which average 6ft long, against each other

Head to head: The giraffes display their battle for dominance on the plains of Namibia

The stunning images were taken by Namibia-born photographer Jason 'Owen' Kandume

Owen captured the incredible sight of these giraffes using a Canon 1DX Mark II camera

Owen revealed his interest in photography began as a hobby several years ago, before taking it up more seriously.

He explained: 'I had a friend with an expensive camera, so I decided to buy one myself and have never looked back since.

'I've had a passion for wildlife since I was a child. My father had a small black-and-white television when I was a kid and I was addicted to watching wildlife and nature shows on it, which is one of my strongest childhood memories.

'I don't consider my photos as unique but what is important to me is to show the art of nature in the hope of inspiring others to fall in love with these magnificent animals.'

The pictures were taken on a Canon 1DX Mark II camera, which can take 14 frames per second and is good for taking fast subjects.

Head to toe: One giraffe stretches his long neck to the sky, while his opponent looks down

Lean on me: The young adult males spar in an attempt to topple their opponent off balance

Kings of swing: The young males pound one another in a battle of strength using their necks

Owen added: 'I'd advise any budding wildlife photographers out there to know their subject, do some research, be safe and respect the subject you're shooting. Take as many shots as you can as there is no second chance in nature.'

Giraffes can be found across much of the African continent, usually inhabiting savannahs and woodlands.

They are herbivores and primarily eat leaves, fruits and flowers, which they browse for at heights that other species are unable to reach.

Giraffes are preyed on by lions, leopards, hyenas and wild dogs, living in herds of related females and their offspring, or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males.
Seventeen British teenagers were rushed to hospital after the group of friends say they drank toxic alcohol while on holiday in Greece.

The group of young men, all aged between 17 and 18, flew to the party town of Laganas in Zante to celebrate leaving their Northumberland high school in late July.

On their second night out, nearly all the boys became violently sick and were taken to hospital, despite some only having three drinks the entire night.

Seventeen British teenagers were rushed to hospital after the group of friends say they drank toxic alcohol while on holiday last month in Zante. Pictured: File photo of tourists on the island

Cole Brunton, 18, said he had methanol poisoning and told the Sun: 'It's inhuman. I know 100 per cent that we got ill because we were poisoned.

'I can't put into words how angry I feel that someone is prepared to put lives at risk to make a few quid.'

Cole said the group of friends went bar hopping, some ordering beer, others having spirits and some drinking cocktails.

By the third bar, some of the boys started to head back to their hotel because they were feeling unwell.

Cole said he returned to the hotel around midnight but awoke at 3am with hot and cold sweats, with a severe pain in his stomach.

The group of young men, all aged between 17 and 18, flew to the party town of Laganas in Zante to celebrate leaving their Northumberland high school in late July

Cole said: 'I was sick in the toilet in my room. My roommate had already been sick.

'I stepped out of the bedroom into the corridor and looked left and right. Everyone else was there, too, all being sick.'

He added: 'Our vomit was red and black. One of the lads was in bed and started having a fit, shaking uncontrollably.'

Cole said a hotel receptionist called two ambulances for the boys and once arriving at hospital, he was immediately put on a drip but he continued to vomit.

He said: 'I think the doctors knew it was methanol poisoning. The doctor told me we had all been very lucky.'

The boys' ordeal comes nearly two years after Hannah Powell, 22, (left and right) collapsed and was in hospital after her vodka and orange cocktails were laced with methanol, during a party holiday to Zakynthos

The boys' ordeal comes nearly two years after Hannah Powell, 22, collapsed and was in hospital after her vodka and orange cocktails were laced with methanol, during a party holiday to Zakynthos.

The deadly chemical left her registered blind, as well as causing a number of other medical issues.

Drinks adulterated with cheap spirit, often home-made, to cut costs have been a consistent problem in the southern Mediterranean.

Spiked drinks, or bombs, are served in some bars and clubs in Athens and resorts known for partying have had problems in the past.

Zakynthos is the third largest Ionian island. It is popular with families and young couples, but Laganas has become a draw for students and young people keen to have fun, indulging in drunkenness and wild parties.
The granddaughter of Labour legend Tony Benn has been branded 'a disgusting little Tory mouthpiece' and bombarded with online abuse after criticising Jeremy Corbyn's attempts to deal with the anti-Semitism crisis.

Emily Benn- who resigned as a Labour councillor for Croydon Council in 2016 to move to New York for a job with bank UBS- tweeted on Friday saying Jeremy Corbyn's attempt to address the concerns of the Jewish community in an article in The Guardian was 'utter rubbish'.

She added he had taken 'no responsibility' and there will be 'no change while he is leader.'

Following the tweet, Ms Benn , 28- who is currently a graduate research assistant at The John F.Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in the United States- received a number of shocking tweets.

The backlash against the former parliamentary candidate comes after Jeremy Corbyn's attempts to deal with the anti-Semitism crisis have been widely criticised.

Emily Benn with her grandfather Tony Benn at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth

In one tweet she was told: 'The great Tony Benn would have been ashamed to call this disgusting lying mouthpiece girl as his granddaughter.'

Ms Benn replies: 'Thank you so much for letting me know Mariam.

'I shall take your opinion on board.'

In another piece of abuse, Ray Ellis, who claims to be a a national officer with The Communications Union, CWU, says: 'Could probably power a medium sized town from the energy generated by your grandfather's rate of rotation in his grave.'

In a further tweet replying to someone else about Tony Benn: 'Possibly. He was much kinder than I am.

'But I have more than a hunch he would be horrified if he could see the vicious nonense (sic) Emily tweets, especially about his friend and ally Jeremy Corbyn.'

Ray Ellis later deleted the tweet and apologised.

Ray Ellis (pictured on Sky News) from the Communication Workers Union which is affiliated to The Labour Party, has since deleted the tweet and apologised

Emily Benn responds by tweeting: 'Hey @CWUnews- Just wondering if you think this is an appropriate way for your National Officer to behave?

'Attempting to use the memory of a dead relative to shame someone?

'It's 1. Rubbish, and therefore 2. I don't care, but- to me at least- seems lacking in basic decency.

The Twitter backlash typically focuses attacks on Ms Benn through her grandfather Tony Benn.

A number of the trolls make the strange and hurtful assumption they know the late Mr Benn better than his own granddaughter.



Today MP Ian Austin warned that the Labour Party could lose the next election if it does not deal with the anti-Semitism in the party.

Writing in The Mirror, he said: 'On Friday he wrote an article that made matters worse by completely failing to make the changes that are needed. Instead, he repeated some of the things that caused the problem.

'He needs to start listening and adopt the standard international definition of anti-Semitism and all its examples.

'He must respond properly to the reasonable requests made by the Jewish Leadership Council, Board of Deputies and Jewish Labour Movement and kick the racists out of our party.'

In the article described as 'utter rubbish' by Ms Benn, Mr Corbyn said: 'I do not for one moment accept that a Labour government would represent any kind of threat, let alone an ''existential threat'' to Jewish life in Britain, as three Jewish newspapers recently claimed.

'That is the kind of overheated rhetoric that can surface during emotional political debates.

'But I do acknowledge there is a real problem that Labour is working to overcome.

'People who dish out antisemitic poison need to understand: you do not do it in my name.'

Jeremy Corbyn sought to address the concerns of the Jewish community by insisting he wil root out anti-semites from Labour

The timing and content of the article has been widely criticised.

Gideon Falter, the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: 'We thought it was impossible for Jeremy Corbyn to make this worse but he has done.

'He's going to continue to tell British Jews that he knows best what anti-Semitism is.

'All parties have racists in them but Jeremy Corbyn has allowed it to run rampant which has emboldened those who are already in the party.

'There's no action that Jeremy Corbyn can take that will deal with this crisis. We believe that Jeremy Corbyn in government would have the same effect on anti-Semitism nationally that he has had in his party.

'Ever since Stephen Lawrence and the Macpherson report it has been the gold standard that minorities are best placed to define the racism against them.

'But Jeremy Corbyn has said that Jews, uniquely, can't be trusted to define anti-Semitism and that he knows best.'
A young girl with a rare genetic disorder has spent her eighth birthday in hospital while she undergoes life-saving treatment to correct her curved spine.

Maddy Luk, 8, was born with Diastrophic Dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder that affects her bone and cartilage development.

Maddy's mother Nicole Luk, from Sydney, found out the devastating news when she was about four months pregnant.

Maddy Luk (pictured), 8, was born with Diastrophic Dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder that affects her bone and cartilage development

Maddy spent her eighth birthday in hospital with bright balloons and an outer-space cake (pictured, right) while she undergoes life-saving treatment to correct her curved spine

Maddy's mother Nicole Luk told Daily Mail Australia she remembers the feeling of heartbreak when the doctors told her Maddy had a life-threatening genetic condition

Ms Luk told Daily Mail Australia she remembers the feeling of heartbreak when the doctors told her the news.

'I was virtually told there would be zero chance of a normal pregnancy,' Ms Luk said.

She was told that Maddy could suffer from dwarfism and life-changing physical disabilities.

Ms Luk, who was living in Hong Kong at the time, said she can't forget the day she was told that her baby had skeletal abnormalities whens she was 17 weeks pregnant.

At that point she decided to do some self-research of all types of skeletal problems when she came across Diastrophic Dysplasia before the doctors had even mentioned it.

'I actually came across the diagnosis of Diastrophic Dysplasia before a doctor even mentioned it to me. I came across this disorder and I was about 17 weeks pregnant with Maddy. And there was one image of her hand,' Ms Luk said.

Ms Luk said people with Diastrophic Dysplasia can have a very unusually shaped hand. She said she came across one image of a boy's hand who had the disorder online which shocked her.

Maddy was the first case of the rare genetic disorder ever diagnosed in Hong Kong

'But this image of this little boy's hand was exactly the same as the ultrasound picture. I thought that's it. She's got Diastrophic Dysplasia,' Ms Luk said.

A few days later it was confirmed and Maddy was the first case of the rare genetic disorder ever diagnosed in Hong Kong.

While the doctors offered Ms Luk and her husband the option to terminate, she said she didn't want to go down that route.

'We still had a lot of hope that there is a lot of life potential,' Ms Luk said.

Nicole Luk (pictured, right) with her three daughters. Her two youngest daughers, Maddy, 8, (pictured bottom left) and Briella (pictured, bottom right), 4, both have the rare genetic disorder Diastrophic Dysplasia

Three years later, Nicole learned her unborn daughter, Briella, now four, was also diagnosed with the rare genetic disorder.

The two girls have kyphoscoliosis which means they have an extremely curved spine.

Ms Luk said her daughters spines are curved sideways and bent forwards.

Both her daughters were admitted to The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney in April for a long nine-month procedure.

The sisters are undergoing a life-changing treatment called 'Halo Traction' to straighten their spines.

It involves a metal pin being drilled into their skull which then looks like a 'halo ring' around their head which then works to straighten their spine.

When asked how both daughters ended up undertaking the surgery at the same time, Ms Luk said there were a lot of 'unplanned delays' which is why Maddy is having her treatment now.

Yet the doctors said that it was perfectly safe for both Ms Luk's daughters to now undergo the back straightening procedure together.

The mother-of-three said both Maddy and Briella were born in Hong Kong and while the healthcare was very good, she said the system lacked the social support for families.

Ms Luk said she is very thankful for the nurses and doctors at the hospital as well as the support she's received from the Children's Medical Research Institute.

(Picutred) baby Maddy a few months after she was born in hospital in Hong Kong

 Slide me  Maddy's x-rays before her spinal correction in April and after in July (three months from starting treatment at hospital)

Briella, 4, was also diagnosed with Diastrophic Dysplasia - the same genetic disorder as her sister

While the girls' will no longer be able to grow, Ms Luk said she's thankful that her daughters can have their spines corrected.

She hopes both of them will soon be able to play and be active like others their age.

Ms Luk said after hospital Maddy and Briella will still be at risk of respiratory issues but she said most adults with the genetic disorder can live relatively 'normal lives.'

'There are people who live with Diastrophic Dysplasia into their '70s that we know of and hopefully my girls will be some of them.'

'We want to give them the best chance to live a long life,' she added.

The Luks (Pictured). Nicole Luk (pictured right) said: 'It is tiring but at the end of the day we have this one chance to do a great job at straightening their spine so if it takes six months or a year, we'll have to do that'

Ms Luk said after the Halo Traction the girls' will have a spinal fusion before they can leave hospital

And while she admits that she too has had her road blocks and desperately wants her girls' to come home, she remembers why it's all worth it.

'It is tiring but at the end of the day we have this one chance to do a great job at straightening their spine so if it takes six months or a year, we'll have to do that.

We don't have a choice because basically the spine they end up with is the spine they'll have for the rest of their life. So we need to know we have done everything we can do to give them the best chance with the best possible outcome.'

Ms Luk said after the Halo Traction the girls' will have a spinal fusion before they can leave hospital.

She hopes that her daughters will be able to come back home before Christmas.

Ms Luke hopes that her daughters will be able to come back home before Christmas

Ms Luk said she is also grateful for the support she's received by the Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI).

Maddy and Briella are now ambassadors for the institute's main fundraiser Jeans for Genes.

With the 25th anniversary of CMRI's Jeans for Genes Day on Friday, she hopes more people will help support medical research in rare conditions and cancers that affect children.

'We are investing in the next generation of kids so they will have better treatments and options in terms of health.

'For the kids already born or by the time it affects someone you know or a family member, it's too late. So you need to invest now so those treatments will be available for your kids' kids and grand kids,' Ms Luk concluded.




A battling farmer has slammed the government's response to the drought crippling eastern Australia, saying the proposed sum is not enough to ensure survival.

The response follows the announcement that affected farmers could receive lump-sum payments of up to $12,000 through the Farm Household Allowance.

But for Ashley Gamble, a dairy farmer from Toomwomba, Queensland, the relatively measly sum pales in comparison to the challenges the drought has brought.

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Embattled farmer Ashley Gamble has slammed the government's response to the drought saying it's 'not even enough for one load of grain' for his animals (pictured)

The response follows the announcement that affected farmers could receive lump-sum payments of up to $12,000 through the Farm Household Allowance

'To be honest, that's absolutely nothing. $12,000 doesn't even buy a load of grain,' he told Nine News.

And when asked to describe the severity of his situation, Mr Gamble said he lives in constant worry the farm will run out of feed for its stock.

'We just can't find any feed to feed them, there's just none around,' he told the program.

'We ring 200 to 300 people everyday and we get the same answers, they don't have none. They've sold it all.'

Mr Gamble previously admitted to Nine that he spends almost $400,000 per year on feed but is still losing $3000 each day.

But while hoards of farmers are facing the prospect of being driven from their land, the Prime Minister has urged the almost 20,000 farmers eligible for drought relief who are yet to claim welfare payments to contact a financial counsellor.

Malcolm Turnbull made the plea on Sunday after announcing extra cash payments of up to $12,000 for drought-stricken farmers through the allowance.

'Don't get half-baked advice from someone over the fence or from an accountant that might not know about it,' he told reporters in central NSW.

The government will give the Rural Financial Counselling Service an extra $5 million to provide more support for farmers, particularly those applying for the allowance for the first time

'Talk to people that know. They have the expertise and can tell you swiftly whether you qualify and guide you through the process.'

The government will give the Rural Financial Counselling Service an extra $5 million to provide more support for farmers, particularly those applying for the allowance for the first time.

As dry conditions put producers in precarious positions across large swathes of eastern Australia, the government estimates 19,000 people who could be eligible are yet to apply for help.

Now the government is set to fund an extra $190 million, bringing the total government funding to $576million towards drought-affected farmers and their families

But the application process has already come under fire, with arduous forms and requirements turning some farmers away from seeking support.

Previously, drought-stricken farmers had to apply for cashback subsidies and loans as forms of monetary relief, the Telegraph reports.

The Turnbull government will be giving out lump-sum payments to the drought-affected farmers

Now the government is set to hand an extra $190 million to those working the land, bringing the total of government funding to $576million towards drought-affected farmers and their families.

Families of drought-affected farmers will be the first to receive the payments of up to $6000.

Single farmers without families are also eligible to received up to $3,600.

The government is also setting money aside in a bid to cover the mental health of farmers.

$11.4 million dollars will cover remote counselling sessions for farmers who need the services over Skype.
New fears have been expressed about toxic dust causing a deadly disease that has been compared to asbestos.

Stonemasons across Australia have been struck down with the deadly lung disease, silicosis, which they contracted by cutting artificial stone products used for kitchen and bathroom benchtops.

Silicosis is an irreversible disease cause exposure to silica dust which becomes trapped in the lungs, causing deep scarring and impacting the ability to breathe.

The disease can take 10 to 15 years to develop, and often starts with a persistent cough that wont go away.

New fears have been expressed about toxic dust causing a deadly disease named 'the new asbestos'. Silicosis sufferer and former stonemason Anthony White is pictured.

Concerns have been raised about tradesmen not wearing masks and dust engulfing homes, news.com.au reported.

A whistle blower said breathing masks were 'rarely supplied' and complaints to managers were 'regularly ignored'.

'The installers have no bl*** regard for any other trades onsite and often the house is filled with this dust and stench,' he said.

Another Sydney man living next door to a building site complained to the publication about the 'ignorance and complacency' in the building industry.

'I took photos clearly showing the large circular saws cutting this, and the complete dust engulfment of our house,' he told the publication.

Readers have also expressed concerns to Daily Mail Australia about a lack of masks been warn by trade workers.

'Most tradies take no precautions regarding dust. Most employers won't buy respirators,' one reader commented.

'They know they are sucking down dust at the time - they laugh and don't care - then they fall sick.'

Readers have also expressed concerns to Daily Mail Australia about a lack of masks been warn by trade workers. A nodule in lung of a man suffering from silicosis.

Gold Coast stonemason Anthony White, 36, was diagnosed with silicosis last November after working in the field for more than 10 years.

Since he appeared on The Sunday Project, Mr White has spent the last few weeks in intensive care fighting a viral infection.

'We could have lost him but he's still fighting on and we are just taking it day by day at the moment,' his mum Dianne said in statement to Daily Mail Australia.

'We need some kind of change. We can't let this go on killing our young men. I don't care how we do it, with legislation or fines, it just needs to be done.'

Shine lawyers dust diseases expert Roger Singh has called for action and regulation before any more tradesmen succumb or die from the shocking disease.

'We are now speaking with stonemasons who tell us that despite the awareness that's been raised the dry cutting continues in their workplaces and wet cutting systems, and enforcement of proper face masks, that could prevent disease are not being installed,' Mr Singh said.

'We cannot let this continue. Australians deserve safe workplaces.'
John McDonnell has been dragged into Labour's anti-Semitism crisis after a hard-left group he chairs claimed a Jewish leader is a 'Trump fanatic' who made up claims of discrimination against Jews.

The shadow chancellor is president of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), who said Jonathan Arkush, the former president of the board of deputies, had 'welcomed Trump's election' and 'went on to praise Trump's decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.'

The LRC also accused The Jewish Chronicle of 'hysterical abuse' of Labour and a campaign to 'smear' Jeremy Corbyn.

On its website on Friday they also suggested Mr Arkush was one of a series of 'Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.' according to The Sunday Telegraph

John McDonnell delivering a speech at Labour's annual day conference on the economy at Imperial College in May 2018. Mr McDonnell has now become embroiled in the anti-semitism crisis in the Labour Party

The revelation about Mr McDonnell comes after Jeremy Corbyn attempted to reassure the Jewish community he was tackling anti-Semitism in the Labour Party in an article in The Guardian.

This followed a recording of Peter Willsman, a member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee ,saying he blamed Jewish 'Trump fanatics' for making up claims of anti-Semitism 'without any evidence at all'.

The LRC described this claim as 'factually inaccurate.'

Labour MP Ian Austin told the newspaper: 'The LBC's statement is a disgrace.

'They should be criticising the people responsible for racism, not the people complaining about it.

'I can't understand why the organisation's president John McDonnell hasn't demanded these disgraceful comments are immediately withdrawn, particularly given the comments he made earlier in the week.'

John McDonnell speaking outside Downing Street in June 2017. Labour MP Ian Austin has criticised Mr McDonnell for condemning the comments

A week ago Mr McDonnell was said to have demanded a climb down over the party's damaging stance which has seen the Labour leader branded an 'existential threat' to the UK's Jewish community.

Mr McDonnell was said to be particularly unhappy about disciplinary proceedings against Dame Margaret Hodge.

According to the Times, a senior shadow cabinet source said: 'We are not comfortable at all with the way Jeremy has handled this and don't know why we have got ourselves in this mess.

'Strong words have been said to him by people to Jeremy. Conversations have been held at the highest level.'

The latest scandal comes after Tom Watson said the Labour party faces 'eternal shame' unless anti-Semitism is dealt with in the party.
Donald Trump launched a furious attack against the press on Sunday morning, ramping up his rhetoric towards what he calls 'Fake News' to new levels.

Claiming he provides a 'great service' to America by pointing out the failings of the media, the president again labeled the free press the 'Enemy of the People' who 'cause great division and mistrust'.

'The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it's TRUE,' he wrote.

'I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust.'

'They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!'

Donald Trump launched a furious attack against the press on Sunday morning, ramping up his rhetoric towards what he calls 'Fake News' to new levels

Trump has frequently referred to the media as the 'enemy of the people', much to the dismay of many who feel he is endangering journalists' lives

He later hit out against a new story that claims the president is becoming increasingly worried that his son maybe become entangled in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation

Trump's long tirade against the media continued as he once again called the press 'fake news'

Trump has frequently referred to the media as the 'enemy of the people', much to the dismay of many who feel he is endangering journalists' lives.

His most recent attack comes less than two months after five journalists were killed at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.

But the president has only ramped up his criticism of the media as the press continues to report on Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

After once again calling the media the enemy of the people, Trump hit back at the press for a recent story that claims he is concerned Mueller's probe will ruin his son's life.

'Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower,' Trump tweeted.

'This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!'

'Why arent Mueller and the 17 Angry Democrats looking at the meetings concerning the Fake Dossier and all of the lying that went on in the FBI and DOJ?' Trump continued in a separate tweet.

'This is the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country. Fortunately, the facts are all coming out, and fast!'

Trump continued with yet another tweet calling the media 'fake news'.

'Too bad a large portion of the Media refuses to report the lies and corruption having to do with the Rigged Witch Hunt - but that is why we call them FAKE NEWS!' he ranted.

A Trump adviser told the Washington Post that Trump does not believe Donald Trump Jr broke the law on purpose, but fears he inadvertently may have wandered into 'legal jeopardy'

On Saturday it was reported that Trump was publicly and privately fuming about Mueller's Russia probe.

Trump reportedly told several of his advisers and friends that he's worried the investigation could destroy the lives of 'innocent and decent people', namely his son.

Trump Jr has been under scrutiny by Mueller and his team for his alleged role in organizing a meeting in June 2016 at Trump Towers with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on his father's opponent Hillary Clinton.

Trump's eldest son and his attorney have said that the lawyer did not provide damaging information on Clinton, and instead they discussed other matters.

Trump Jr also insists that his father was not aware of the meeting before it happened.

According to the Washington Post, a Trump adviser said the president does not think his son broke the law on purpose but fears he inadvertently may have wandered into 'legal jeopardy'.

On Saturday, CNN published a similar report claiming the president is worried Trump Jr might have exposure in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in Russia meddling in the election.

The outlet claims Trump's increasing concern is one of the reasons he keeps lashing out at Mueller on Twitter.

Sources said the president has been concerned for months that the probe could potentially hurt his family, and that's why he continues to attack Mueller.

The president has only ramped up his criticism of the media as news continues to surround Robert Mueller's Russia investigation

Earlier this week, Ivanka Trump expressed disagreement with her father's use of the phrase 'enemy of the people'.

'I have certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate,' Ivanka said on Thursday.

'So I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they sort of feel targeted.'

'But no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people.'

Trump later claimed on Twitter that he does not believe the 'media' is the 'enemy of the people', but rather the publications and networks that he has long claimed are 'fake news'.

Just hours after Ivanka's remarks, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders visibly upset journalists during a briefing when she complained about the physical dangers she has faced in her job.

Sanders spoke of her unprecedented need for Secret Service protection, and blamed the reporters in the room for causing it.

Challenging her directly, one reporter responded: 'Tell that to the five dead journalists in Maryland.'

Another journalist at the White House Thursday griped afterward: 'Shes going to get us killed!'

When a CNN correspondent asked Sanders if she would renounce Trump's use of the phrase 'enemy of the people' as his daughter did, she merely deflected the question.

Sarah Sanders complained Thursday about the hypothetical dangers she faces in her job defending President Donald Trump, ignoring the murders of five journalists in Maryland

The president first uncorked the controversial epithet less than a month into his presidency, tweeting that 'The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!'

Trump seems to be making a habit of launching anti-media tirades on Sundays.

Last week the president claimed that the media was 'driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome' and claimed it was journalists who put lives at risk.

Ivanka Trump disagreed with her father about his characterization of the press on Thursday, saying they are not the 'enemy of the people'

His tweets came after the Times' publisher, AG Sulzberger, revealed he met with Trump because he worried the president's anti-media rhetoric was putting journalists' lives in danger.

'When the media - driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome - reveals internal deliberations of our government, it puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk!' Trump tweeted on Sunday afternoon.

'Very unpatriotic! Freedom of the press also comes with a responsibility to report the news accurately.'

Trump then went on to claim that '90 percent' of the media coverage surrounding his administration 'is negative despite the tremendously positive results we are achieving'.

'It's no surprise that confidence in the media is at an all time low!' Trump continued. 'I will not allow out great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the dying newspaper industry.'

'No matter how much they try to distract and cover it up, our country is making great progress under my leadership and I will never stop fighting for the American people!'

'The failing New York Times and the Amazon Washington Post do nothing but write bad stories even on very positive achievements - and they will never change!' he wrote.

Last week the president claimed that the media was 'driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome' after he met with New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger (right)

His tirade came after New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger revealed he met with Trump because he worried the president's anti-media rhetoric was putting journalists' lives in danger

Trump's tirade took on a far different tone than he struck Sunday morning after revealing he had a 'very good and interesting meeting' with Sulzberger at the White House.

The president said he spent most of the time 'talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media'.

Trump then said it was 'sad' that Fake News, a term he coined, has 'morphed into the phrase "Enemy of the People"'.

Sulzberger said he told Trump directly that he 'thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous'.

'I told him that although the phrase "fake news" is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists "the enemy of the people,"' Sulzberg said in a statement.

'I made clear repeatedly that I was not asking for him to soften his attacks on The Times if he felt our coverage was unfair,' he continued.

'Instead, I implored him to reconsider his broader attacks on journalism, which I believe are dangerous and harmful to our country.'
David Ryan murdered Diana Lee then dumped her body in her garage and setting it on fire in Cheshire in August of 2012

A forensic linguist has revealed how a murderer was snared by sending texts from his victim's phone because of tiny differences in his punctuation.

John Olsson, a veteran of more than 300 investigations into crimes ranging from extortion to murder, helped nail David Ryan for the slaying of his lover Diana Lee.

Ryan had battered Ms Lee then mutilated the lower part of her body with a saw before dumping it in her garage and setting the Cheshire property on fire in August of 2012.

In a bid to bide himself time at the crime scene, Ryan used the wealthy businesswoman's mobile phone to send hoax text messages to her clients, telling them to stay away from the house.

Mr Olsson was able to help lock up Ryan for 34 years by proving he had sent the messages, pointing out the 'conman's' use of commas and unique spacing in sentences.

Ms Lee did not usually put spaces in between commas and used the punctuation mark to 'end sentences', Mr Olsson told the Sunday Times.

In a bid to bide himself time at the scene of the crime, Ryan used the wealthy businesswoman's (pictured) mobile phone to send hoax text messages to her clients

Mr Olsson pointed out that Ryan used two spaces after a question mark, while Ms Lee didn't, providing key evidence that Ryan was guilty. Pictured: A message Ryan sent pretending to be Ms Lee (top) and a text written by Ms Lee (bottom)

The expert also pointed out that Ryan used two spaces after a question mark, while Ms Lee didn't, providing key evidence that Ryan was guilty.

Mr Olsson is one of the leading experts in a still emerging field known as 'forensic linguistics'.

His skill lies in identifying a suspect's 'linguistic fingerprint' - the distinctive use of language which makes each person unique, whether it's through writing letters, emails or mobile phone texts.

Mr Olsson also helped with the case of Christopher Borgye, a French Ryanair flight steward who was murdered by Dominick Kocher with two accomplices in 2009.

Mr Olsson is one of the leading experts in a still emerging field known as 'forensic linguistics'

Father-of-three Kocher, from New Abbey in Dumfries, Scotland, planned the killing and was jailed for life with a minimum recommendation he serve 23 years.

Mr Borgye was buried under a shed and went unnoticed for four years, with Kocher occasionally writing to the victim's family in France.

He pretended to be Mr Borgye and made them believe he was on a long holiday.

Mr Olsson analysed the letters, postcards and emails Kocher had wrote, concluding the author was not a native French speaker - mixing up sentence structures and incorrectly spelling French words.

He then compared the fictitious writing to Kocher's own writing and found it was a match.
President Donald Trump is denying he's concerned about the infamous Trump Tower meeting attended by his son, claiming it was 'totally legal and done all the time in politics' and confirming it was held to get campaign dirt on his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton.

That contradicts the original explanation about the June 2016 meeting - held during the heart of presidential campaign - that it was about American adoptions of Russian children.

Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday morning that the June 2016 Trump Tower gathering attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort 'was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere.'

He added: 'I did not know about it.'

Donald Trump Jr., in the meantime, is not concerned as he knows he did nothing wrong, a source close to him told the DailyMail.com.

'Despite the media histrionics, Don isn't the least bit concerned. He knows he did nothing wrong,' the source said.

Explanations for the Trump Tower meeting, which has become a focal point of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election, have varied and the president's tweet seems to have offered yet another one.

It will inevitably lead to more questions about what the president knew and when he knew it. And why the original statement from Donald Trump Jr about the meeting said it was about Russian adoptions.

President Trump defended his son in a Twitter rant on Sunday morning

Trump pivoted from a defense of his son to an attack on the Russia investigation

The president also got in a shot at the media

The New York Times broke the news of the meeting a little more than a year ago, on July 8, 2017.

Donald Trump Jr. gave the newspaper a statement at the time that said the gathering was about an adoption program. His statement did not address whether the presidential campaign was discussed.

The Russian lawyer at the meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has led a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers and championed by financier Bill Browder, who Russian President Vladimir Putin named during the Helsinki press conference as someone Russians want to speak to in exchange for letting Mueller talk to Russian nationals.

The Magnitsky Act so enraged Putin he retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.

In his statement to The Times about the meeting, Donald Trump Jr. said: 'It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.'

He added: 'I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.'

On July 11, 2017, the existence of an email chain was reported. Those emails were about setting up the meeting and revealed that Veselnitskaya was said to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya attended the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting

Donald Trump Jr leaving Trump Tower in December 2016

In the email exchange, Trump Jr. was told via an intermediary that the 'high level' information he would be offered about Clinton was 'part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump' and would be 'highly useful for your father.'

Trump Jr. wrote back: 'If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer.'

The president's son posted the entire email exchange on Twitter after The New York Times informed him they had the emails and were going to publish them.

The emails were sent to Trump Jr via Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who represented Emin Agalarov, whose father, Aras Agalarov, is a major real estate developer close to Putin and who bought rights to the 2013 Miss Universe pageant that took place in Moscow and which Trump attended.

Trump Jr. went on Fox News at the time to defend his actions, saying: 'For me, this was opposition research. They had something, you know, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I'd been hearing about, probably underreported for years, not just during the campaign, so I think I wanted to hear it out.'

He also said the meeting went nowhere, calling it a 'wasted 20 minutes.'

Trump Jr. additionally told Fox News he did not tell his father about the meeting, saying, 'There was nothing to tell.'

He also gave another statement to the Times about the meeting, saying: 'I was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign. I was not told her name prior to the meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to attend, but told them nothing of the substance.'

He continued: 'After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information. She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act. It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting.'

On July 13, 2017, Trump defended his son and the meeting during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

'Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard where they have information and you take the information,' Trump said. 'In the case of Don, he listened, I guess they talked about, as I see it, they talked about adoption and some things. Adoption wasn't even a part of the campaign, but nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting, and honestly I think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people were doing.'

Donald Trump Jr posted his email exchange about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting on Twitter

Numerous White House aides and lawyers for the president aggressively denied at the time that Trump had been involved in drafting his son's statement on the meeting's purpose.

Jay Sekulow, one of the president's attorneys, said in 2017 that 'the president was not involved in the drafting of that statement.'

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now White House press secretary, said Trump 'certainly didn't dictate' the statement.

A few weeks later, however, on July 31, 2017, The Washington Post reported it was President Trump who personally dictated Trump Jr's original statement to The Times, writing that it was about adoption.

And Sekulow said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week' that 'I had bad information at that time and made a mistake in my statement' on who drafted the explanation of the meeting.

Adding to the questions about Russia's role in 2016, five days after the June meeting in Trump Tower, The Washington Post reported that hackers thought to be associated with the Russians had penetrated the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee and stolen internal records a few months earlier.

The next day, Guccifer 2.0, an online persona the U.S. government has concluded was Russian-controlled, released a first trove of DNC documents.

WikiLeaks dumped a much larger cache of internal DNC emails on July 22, 2016, as the Democratic National Convention opened, causing internal party dissension that led party chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign.

The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting has become a focal point in Mueller's investigation. And Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is reportedly prepared to tell the special counsel that Trump knew about the meeting ahead of time and approved it.

The special counsel also is examining whether Trump obstructed the investigation of Russia's role in the 2016 election. The events he is focusing on include the president's firing of FBI director James Comey and Trump's tweets, specifically the ones that have called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end the investigation.

Trump slammed reports about his concern about his son and the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

Donald Trump Jr. is said not to be worried about the meeting

Obama campaign aide Ben Rhodes said opposition meetings with foreign officials never happened

'Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!,' he wrote on Twitter Sunday morning.

Former Obama campaign aide and White House adviser Ben Rhodes said these kind of meetings are not typical.

'I worked on the Obama campaign and we would never, ever, have held a meeting with a foreign power to 'get information on an opponent.' It doesn't happen 'all the time in politics' - it's immoral, unpatriotic and part of a broader effort that was illegal,' he tweeted on Sunday.

Trump, meanwhile, pivoted to his favorite attack line on Mueller's probe of Russia's role in the 2016 election, calling it a 'witch hunt.'

'..Why aren't Mueller and the 17 Angry Democrats looking at the meetings concerning the Fake Dossier and all of the lying that went on in the FBI and DOJ? This is the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country. Fortunately, the facts are all coming out, and fast!,' he wrote.

Trump and his allies have used the unverified dossier written by former British spy Christopher Steele and the composition of Mueller's team to argue the investigation is tainted.

However, documents released last month related to the FBI's investigation of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page show federal agents used used other sources besides the Steele dossier to press for the warrant against Page. And Mueller is a registered Republican appointed by a Republican deputy attorney general to head the investigation.

The president got in one final attack in his twitter rant, slamming the media for their reports on the investigation.

'Too bad a large portion of the Media refuses to report the lies and corruption having to do with the Rigged Witch Hunt - but that is why we call them FAKE NEWS!,' he wrote.

Trump tends to call news stories he doesn't like 'fake news.'

The tweets on Sunday were the president's response to reports from Saturday that he was fuming publicly and privately about Mueller'sRussia probe and was getting concerned that his son, Donald Trump Jr, could become entangled in it.

One of the president's attorneys, Jay Sekulow, said Trump Jr has not been told he's a target of the investigation.

'I don't represent Don Jr., but I will tell you I have no knowledge at all of Don Jr. being told that he's a target of any investigation, and I have no knowledge of him being interviewed by the special counsel,' Sekulow said on ABC's 'This Week.'

Trump has reportedly told several of his advisers and friends that he's worried the investigation could destroy the lives of 'innocent and decent people', namely his son.

Trump Jr has been under scrutiny by Mueller and his team for his alleged role in organizing a meeting in June 2016 at Trump Towers with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on his father's opponent Hillary Clinton. Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort were also in attendance.

Trump Jr and his attorney have said that the lawyer did not provide damaging information on Clinton, and instead they discussed other matters. Trump Jr also insists that his father was not aware of the meeting before it happened.

Sources claim Donald Trump is reportedly worried that his son Donald Trump Jr (pictured) could become entangled in the Russia probe

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election

According to the Washington Post, a Trump adviser said the president does not think his son broke the law on purpose but fears he inadvertently may have wandered into legal jeopardy'.

On Saturday, CNN published a similar report claiming the president is worried Trump Jr might have exposure in Mueller's investigation in Russia meddling in the election.

The outlet claims Trump's increasing concern is one of the reasons he keeps lashing out at Mueller on Twitter.

Sources said the president has been concerned for months that the probe could potentially hurt his family, and that's why he continues to attack Mueller.

The president also has repeatedly denied he knew about the meeting. His denials increased after reports that his former personal attorney Michael Cohen is prepared to tell Mueller that the president knew about the meeting ahead of time and approved of it.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at special counsel Mueller and the Russian probe on Twitter

Sources said his public attacks are because he doesn't want Mueller coming after his family

Earlier this week, Trump called the probe 'rigged witch hunt' and asked attorney general Jeff Sessions to end the investigation

Trump insists there was never a collusion calling it a 'total hoax' in a tweet on Wednesday

Earlier this week, Trump unleashed on Mueller and the investigation calling it a 'rigged witch hunt' that is staining our country.

Quoting lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Trump wrote: 'FBI Agent Peter Strzok (on the Mueller team) should have recused himself on day one. He was out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP. He needed an insurance policy. Those are illegal, improper goals, trying to influence the Election. He should never, ever been allowed to remain in the FBI while he himself was being investigated. This is a real issue.

It won't go into a Mueller Report because Mueller is going to protect these guys. Mueller has an interest in creating the illusion of objectivity around his investigation.'

Trump then added: 'This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'

Sources said Trump is also fuming about Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, who was jailed in June on charges of obstruction of justice and witness tampering

According to reports, Trump has been worried for months that his son being in 'legal jeopardy' over the investigation

'Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!' he continued.

Sources told both CNN and the Washington Post that Trump has also been fuming about Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, who is on trial for bank and tax fraud charges.

The Post reports that Trump feels bad for Manafort but doesn't want to be associated with the trial.

'He is completely outraged by the way Manafort has been treated, with the solitary confinement and all of that,' Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told the newspaper. 'It's obvious to him that they're all but torturing Manafort in order to try to get him to flip.'
Sky News has been forced to back-pedal and issue a grovelling apology after hosting infamous far-right extremist Blair Cottrell on one of its programs.

The outrage followed an appearance by the former United Patriots Front leader for an in-studio interview with former politician turned-host Adam Giles.

Despite the initial invitation, just hours later, the controversial 24-hour news channel admitted it was 'wrong' to give the convicted criminal air-time.

'It was wrong to have Blair Cottrell on Sky News Australia,' the channel's News Director Greg Byrnes was credited with saying in a tweet.

Sky News has been forced to back-pedal and issue a grovelling apology after hosting infamous far-right extremist Blair Cottrell on one of its programs

Despite the initial invitation, just hours after the interview, the controversial 24-hour news channel admitted it was 'wrong' to give the convicted criminal air-time

'(Cottrell's) views do not reflect ours. The interview has been removed from repeat timeslots and online platforms.'

The chorus of regret was soon added to by other Sky News employees who agreed the decision to host Cottrell the wrong one.

'I have just arrived back in the country tonight to be met with the understandable outrage over this,' wrote Sky's Political Editor David Speers in response to the interview.

Similarly, presenter Janine Perrett added: 'Blair Cottrell should not be described as an activist but for what he truly is - a convicted criminal with a dangerous record.'

Cottrell has gained infamy in recent years for a string of Islamophobic behaviour.

Last year the 27-year-old was the among the first people to be found guilty, convicted and fined for a criminal offence under Victoria's racial vilification laws.

The conviction came after he and two others staged a mock beheading outside the City of Bendigo offices in protest against building a mosque in Bendigo, Victoria.

Cottrell has gained infamy in recent years for a string of Islamophobic behaviour and was the among the first people to be found guilty, convicted and fined for a criminal offence under Victoria's racial vilification laws

The chorus of regret was soon added to by other Sky News employees who agreed the decision to host Cottrell the wrong one

In the past, Cottrell has also expressed support for the hanging of a picture of Adolf Hitler in every Australian classroom

And after Sky News' retraction of support, Cottrell was quick to take aim at the news channel, claiming it had bowed to pressure from progressives

A video of the incident was uploaded online and showed red liquid spills onto the footpath when the dummy was beheaded.

In the past, Cottrell has also expressed support for the hanging of a picture of Adolf Hitler in every Australian classroom.

And after Sky News' retraction of support, Cottrell was quick to take aim at the news channel, claiming it had bowed to pressure from progressives.

'Lol so Sky News caved already to Lefist abuse,' he wrote on Twitter.

'I suppose my ideas are so irrefutable, that the only recourse is to silence me. How pathetic.'
Law enforcement searching a rural northern New Mexico compound for a missing three-year-old boy didn't find him but discovered 11 children malnourished and in filthy conditions.

The children ranging in age from one to 15 were removed from the compound in the small community of Amalia, New Mexico, and turned over to state child-welfare workers, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said.

'We all gave the kids our water and what snacks we had, it was the saddest living conditions and poverty I have seen,' Hogrefe said.

Two men were arrested during the search, one of which is 39-year-old Siraj Wahhaj, who was jailed on a Georgia warrant alleging child abduction for his non-custodial three-year-old son, AG Wahhal.

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The search for the three-year-old led authorities to this bizarre compound in remote New Mexico that consisted of a partially buried small travel trailer that was covered with a tarp

Friday, Siraj Wahhaj, 39 (left) was taken into custody on a Georgia warrant alleging child abduction for his three-year-old son, AG Wahhaj (right) who has been missing since early December

The malnourished children were living on the compound with no running water, no electricity with nothing more than a few potatoes and some rice to be found

During a raid of the property in a remote Amalia, New Mexico, in the search for the missing toddler, authorities found 11 other children ages one-through-15 in filthy, impoverished conditions. They were dressed in rags, malnourished and had no running water

The toddler, who suffers from seizures, developmental delay, wears braces on his legs, cannot walk, and requires daily medication, went to the park in Clayton County with his father in December and never returned.

The boy and his father were reportedly last seen involved in a car accident on I-65 in Alabama two-weeks after their disappearance.

Lucas Morton (pictured) was also arrested at the compound on suspicion of harboring a fugitive

According to police in Alabama, there were five additional children and two other adults were together in the vehicle that was registered to Lucas Morton, of Atlanta, according to CBS46.

Police in Alabama say they were told the group were headed to New Mexico for a camping trip.

On Friday authorities swarmed the compound in Amalia, which is 145 miles northeast of Albuquerque and in an isolated high-desert area near the New Mexico-Colorado border.

There they found a heavily armed Morton and Wahhaj, as well as the 11 children in deplorable, poverty stricken conditions.

Morton was arrested on the charge of suspicion of harboring a fugitive.

Three women were also on the compound, they were questioned but not arrested, as the investigation continues.

The Taos County Sheriff's Office brought in a special response team because they believed Wahhaj and Morton, were armed.

Hogrefe said authorities had conducted surveillance of the compound while looking for the missing boy before he decided Thursday to get a search warrant immediately after a Georgia investigator forwarded a message in which someone at the compound reportedly told another person that people at the compound were starving and needed water.

Hogrefe said while the search did not turn up the missing boy, investigators had reason to believe the boy had been at the compound fairly recently.

There were no injuries during the search, the sheriff said. But Wahhaj and Morton initially refused to follow commands and Wahhaj was armed with a rifle and four handguns, Hogrefe said.

There was little food in the compound, which consisted of a small travel trailer buried in the ground and covered by plastic with no water, plumbing and electricity, he said.

'The only food we saw were a few potatoes and a box of rice in the filthy trailer,' Hogrefe said.

'But what was most surprising, and heartbreaking, was when the team located a total of five adults and 11 children, that looked like third-world country refugees, not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing.'

Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said the children were living 'like third-world refugees'

Amalia is 145 miles northeast of Albuquerque and in an isolated high-desert area near the New Mexico-Colorado border

During a Facebook video the boy's mother starts crying, and says she misses her son and wants to find him desperately and that he needs his medications

The adults and children appeared like 'refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing,' the sheriff said.

Meanwhile the boy's desperate mother, Hakima Ramzi, has made impassioned pleas on Facebook for the safe return of AG. In the video she says she was married to Siraj for 15-years, and he was never abusive.

She also says she is not asking about Siraj, and then starts to cry and says she is missing her son and he needs his medications.

Ramzi's family created a GoFundMe page for the heart-broken mother that says: 'Hakima is in dire need of financial assistance to help pay for the legal fees and to assist in the investigation to find her son. If you can help her in any way, your support would be greatly appreciated. The monies collected will allow Hakima to work along with the authorities.'
Australian Defence Force personnel have been instructed to avoid terms like 'him' and 'her' in favour of more gender-neutral language.

A new LGBTI guide has recently been developed for the Australian Defence Force Academy, which trains future members of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The guide, aimed at ADFA staff, stresses the importance of being 'mindful of respectful and disrespectful behaviours or language in relation to LGBTI members'.

Staff have been told to consider 'avoiding stereotyping' and using 'the correct pronouns and preferred name of sex or gender diverse members wherever possible'.

The Australian Defence Force Academy has issued a LGBTI guide, stressing the importance of being 'mindful of respectful and disrespectful behaviours or language in relation to LGBTI members'

The guide also encourages the use 'gender neutral language when referring to relationships or gender identities' and 'the mental health and welfare of members'.

Staff are told to apologise to fellow personnel 'in the event they make a mistake'.

'All ADFA personnel need to appreciate that the deliberate use of non-inclusive language, exclusion and bullying due to gender diversity are some of the behaviours which can affect LGBTI members,' the guide says.

The guide warns that 'unacceptable behaviours' will not tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly to maintain a learning and working environment which is inclusive.

Brigadier Cheryl Pearce, Commandant ADFA, wrote it was her intent the guide would become a valuable resource for staff making decisions regarding LGBTI members.

The release of the guide last year reportedly sparked concerns of a move towards political correctness.

An information graphic which was included in the Australian Defence Force Academy Staff LGBTI Guide 2017

Defence sources told The Daily Telegraph a 'directive' was set to be issued requiring gender-neutral language to be used by staff.

But a spokesman for Defence said that was not the case.

'There will be no Defence directive on the use of gender neutral language,' he said.

The Australian Defence Force Academy is a partnership between the Australian Defence Force and the University of New South Wales, based in Canberra.

News of the guide comes a week after Australians reacted with outrage to a Navy tweet promoting gender equality and diversity in the workplace.

Royal Australian Navy personnel painted their fingernails to support Women and Leadership Australia's '100 days for change campaign'.

In a Twitter post, Defence Australia posted an image of a man wearing pink nail polish but people were quick to respond with anger to the post, suggesting Navy workers should be focused on keeping the country safe.
A Czech tourist was killed by a shark while swimming in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt.

The man died 20 kilometres north of Marsa Alam city as 'a result of an attack by a shark', city council chairman General Atef Wagdy said.

It is believed the man was staying in the resort town with his wife and children.

The health ministry is coordinating handing over the body to the Czech embassy, Wagdy said.

Local media reported on Friday that human remains were found on a beach in Marsa Alam.

A Czech tourist was killed by a shark in Egypt while holidaying with his wife and kids in Marsa Alam (file photo)

The environment ministry has set up a committee to investigate the death and will issue a report, Wagdy added.

Marsa Alam attracts divers who explore coral and other marine life, including fish and sharks.

'There is no problem in diving' around Marsa Alam, but people who swim on the surface in deep waters beyond the coral can be vulnerable to attack, Wagdy said.

In 2015, a shark killed a German tourist off Egypt's Red Sea coast, marking the first death in five years.

There were six recorded shark attacks in Egyptian waters in 2010, including a spate of five in five days unusually close to the shore that killed another German and injured four other foreign tourists in December that year.

Marsa Alam attracts divers who explore coral and other marine life, including fish and sharks (file photo)

The 2010 attacks forced the government to close off a stretch of beach in the Sharm el-Sheikh resort for a week.

In 2017, Egypt received 8.3 million visitors, a surge of 54 percent from 5.4 million in 2016.

The country's tourism industry had been dealt a devastating blow in 2015 when jihadists bombed a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 on board.

Before that, the industry had begun to recover from the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

Travel agencies, hotel managers and diving centres told AFP earlier this year that reservations have risen, especially in Red Sea destinations including Marsa Alam and Hurghada.
President Donald Trump is defending his tariffs after China threatened an additional $60 billion levied on American goods amid an escalating trade war between the two economic giants.

The president claims his tariffs are 'working big time' in helping pay down the debt, reducing taxes and aiding in trade deals.

'Tariffs are working big time. Every country on earth wants to take wealth out of the U.S., always to our detriment. I say, as they come,Tax them. If they don't want to be taxed, let them make or build the product in the U.S. In either event, it means jobs and great wealth.....,' he tweeted Sunday morning.

President Trump is defending his tariffs as working 'big time'

Trump tweeted his defense Sunday morning amid reports China is raising tariffs on U.S. goods

Trump claims the tariffs are helping pay down the debt, reducing taxes and aiding in trade deals

'..Because of Tariffs we will be able to start paying down large amounts of the $21 Trillion in debt that has been accumulated, much by the Obama Administration, while at the same time reducing taxes for our people. At minimum, we will make much better Trade Deals for our country!,' he added.

China on Friday threatened additional measures against the United States after Trump, earlier in the week, ordered his administration to consider more than doubling proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent.

The new tariffs would hit items from China like handbags and petroleum. A final decision on the tariffs isn't expected until September.

After talks between Washington and Beijing broke down in May, some see this as the Trump administration's way of forcing China back to the negotiating table.

Trump also took to twitter on Saturday to claim the tariffs are working and China is talking to the United States.

And he touted his tariffs at a rally outside Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday evening.

'We have really rebuilt China, and it's time that we rebuild our own country now,' Trump said.

If China carries through on its latest threat, it will be imposing some form of tariffs on nearly all of the $130 billion in goods it imports from the U.S.

The Chinese are unable to match U.S. tariffs on a dollar-per-dollar basis but Beijing can make it difficult for U.S. companies doing business in China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting in South Africa as a trade war escalates with the U.S.

The Trump administration believes their threat can get the Chinese back to the negotiation table

The trade war between the Unites States and China is escalating

The Chinese government calls its response 'rational.'

'The White House's extreme pressure and blackmail are already clear to the international community,' said a Chinese state television commentary, according to Reuters. 'Such methods of extreme blackmail will not bear fruit against China.'

China has either imposed or proposed tariffs on $110 billion in U.S. goods, representing the vast majority of its annual imports of American products. Last year, China imported about $130 billion in goods from the United States.

Trump has threatened tariffs on over $500 billion in Chinese goods, covering virtually all U.S. imports from China.

The back-and-forth trade war has Republicans on Capitol Hill concerned about the affect the tariffs could have on their home states. They are also concerned Trump's moves could wipe out their message on tax cuts, hurting them in the polls this November.
The propaganda organs of the Islamic State have called for biological attacks on the West, with one poster depicting San Francisco.

'We will make you fear the air you breath (sic),' reads the text above the San Francisco skyline, with a hooded figure in the foreground holding a device spewing green gas, in an image obtained by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

It follows the recent release of a video calling for lone wolf biological attacks, offering crude instructions to followers on how to concoct 'the most serious plague' from 'the feces and droppings of rats'.

An ISIS propaganda poster depicts the San Francisco skyline and promises biological attacks

'We invite you, oh Muwahid [monotheist] who lives between the Mushrikeen [idolaters] that you clean the dust of humiliation and to renew the fatal nightmare in the land of the devil worshipers with a silent destructive weapon,' the video urged, according to a transcript published by MEMRI.

Though biological warfare is typically associated with advanced and hard-to-obtain agents such as anthrax, the video offered more rudimentary options for aspiring ISIS fanatics.

The video advised that Hantavirus is sometimes found in rat droppings, and also suggested combing through human excrement to obtain Cholera and Typhoid bacteria.

'This is the expected punishment for the oppressive US policy,' the video's narrator says.

Fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces walk down a street in Raqa past destroyed vehicles and heavily damaged buildings in October, after expelling ISIS from the city

A 2016 West Point study found that while ISIS has long advertised its desire to obtain and use sophisticated biological weapons, the group faced 'significant practical challenges' in the endeavor, including the lack of sophisticated personnel and technology, and sufficiently reliable power grid in the territory it controlled.

'Biological weapons are very unlikely to be developed by the Islamic State as a mass casualty tool,' the report said.

'Western medical countermeasures and response capabilities were able to handle the 2001 anthrax attack and quickly contain Ebola in the United States in 2014. All this suggests the impact of a deliberate biological attack by the Islamic State in the West would be extremely limited.'

Since then, ISIS has lost significant ground in Syria, but they retain a presence in the east of the country and in the vast Badiya desert that sweeps through its south.

The Syrian government has been fighting in recent weeks to expel ISIS fighters from a patch in the neighboring province of Daraa.
A 10-year-old girl selling cookies on her street corner to buy school clothes was told to stop after her neighbors called the cops on three separate occasions.

Savannah Watters, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, says she dreams of being a professional baker and was testing out her skills by baking cookies with her mother and selling them on her street.

But her neighbors didn't seem to care for her sales, calling the cops to complain about increased traffic in the area.

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Savannah Watters, 10, was selling cookies at the end of her street for five weeks until she halted her sales following three complaints by neighbors

Savannah's business was successful, earning her $250 on one day, but the increased traffic bothered her neighbors in the quiet Cedar Falls, Iowa neighborhood

'No one had talked to me about anything, they just took it upon themselves and called 911. The police show up to talk to my daughter,' said Savannah's mother Kara Watters said to The Courier.

Savannah has been baking and selling her sweets for five weeks, for multiple hours each day. Everyday she'd filled up a cooler with her goods and head to the street corner to wait for customers.

The youngster's cookie business was a massive success, earning her $250 on one day, money she plans to use to buy school clothes.

'I enjoyed it a lot, so then I wanted to have a cookie shop with my mom cause its always been my dream to do that. I just wish that I couldve just kept staying there,' Savannah said.

But neighbors weren't pleased with the sudden influx of traffic from the busy street into their quiet lane, calling police on July 27, 30 and 31.

The first call said Savannah was selling without an adult present. The other two calls were concerned with cars switching from the 40mph street onto their 25mph drive.

Her concerned mother Kara Watters said: 'No one had talked to me about anything, they just took it upon themselves and called 911'

While Savannah may no longer be allowed to sell her sweets on the end of the street, she is still allowed to continue her business from her driveway

'We had her move a few feet back from the curve,' Cedar Falls Public Safety Director Jeff Olson said.

One of those neighbors, Melissa Winberg, said she called police because a cookie customer's car almost hit her daughter.

'Weve had too many people coming in that we dont know. My daughter was in our driveway riding her bike, and a car pulled in and almost hit her,' she said.

'We had three semis, a dump truck and four cars parked along the road. To be honest, if her mom wants to open a cookie shop, there are other ways of doing it than making her 10-year-old daughter sit on the corner for seven hours a day,' she added.

Savannah still has the option to sell cookies in her driveway and is still taking orders from customers she gave business cards to.

'Shes trying to figure out how she can keep it going. She just wants her customers to know,' her mother Kara said.
David Cameron has branded Michael Gove a 'lunatic' and blames him for defeat in the EU referendum rather than Boris Johnson.

According to the The Sunday Times, Mr Cameron will launch a blistering attack on the Environment Secretary in his memoirs, and will also blame him for ending his political career.

Two sources told the newspaper he plans to be 'very honest' in his forthcoming book and show his fury with Mr Gove- who Mr Cameron told friends is 'mad' and a 'lunatic.'

It is thought the decision to reveal his true feeling's about Mr Gove is designed to disrupt any ideas he has on the Conservative leadership.

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David Cameron, pictured in July 2016, has launched a scathing attack on Michael Gove, calling him a 'lunatic' and blaming him for defeat in the EU referendum

Environment Secretary Michael Gove speaking in the National Trust Theatre on the opening day of BBC Countryfile Live at Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock, in Oxfordshire. Mr Cameron has described him as 'mad'

Prime Minister David Cameron and Michael Gove taking a stroll at Conservative Party Conference in October 2011

One friend said: 'Cameron was really anti-Gove.

'He was asying he was a lunatic. He had not realised quite how mad Michael Gove was until that whole incident.

'He was saying he feels even more cross with Gove than Boris.

Relations between the two have been frosty after over Mr Gove's perceived treachery over not supporting Mr Cameron's Remain campaign during the EU referendum.

The two were close friend's and political allies, with their children even going to the same primary school in Kensington.

Mr Gove previously admitted saying Mr Cameron was entitled to feel 'upset..or worse', admitting Brexit had lost him some good friends.

Speaking in 2016 he said: 'On Mr Cameron, he said: I havent talked to him for a while and, I think  in fact I am pretty certain  he feels annoyed and let down, and thats a shame.

Understandably, given the leadership fallout, he felt hurt. But since then, hes been very civilised, actually.

I should either not have been so eager to back him in the first place and waited or, having backed him, even with doubts and concerns, I should have stuck with him it. The person most to blame is me.

Boris Johnson and David Cameron prior to the 2015 General Election. It it thought Mr Johnson and Mr Cameron are on semi-friendly terms

Despite his frosty feelings today Mr Gove, the former Prime Minister apparently has managed to bury the hatchet with Boris Johnson and thinks he would be a frontrunner to be future Conservative leader.

In March 2017 the pair were spotted having dinner in New York City and are thought to be on semi-friendly terms.

Mr Cameron had been due to publish his memoirs this Autumn but decided to delay until next year to avoid his comments undermining the key Brexit negotiations.

He has a 800,000 contract with William Collins, part of the HarperCollins group, to write an account of his time as Prime Minister.
The son of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden has married the daughter of the lead hijacker of the 9/11 attacks.

In an Interview with The Guardian, the family of the deceased al-Qaeda leader confirmed Hamza bin Laden's married to the daughter of Mohammed Atta.

Atta piloted American Airlines Flight 11, which was the first of the hijackings, into the North Tower of the World Trade Center- killing all 92 onboard and around 1,600 people, including emergency responders, in the tower.

Osama bin Laden's half-brothers told the newspaper that they believe the 29-year-old-son had ascended in rank within al-Qaeda as heir to the command and wants to avenge his father's death.

In May 2011, US Navy SEALs stormed a Pakistan compound where bin Laden was living with three of wives and shot him dead.

Hamza bin Laden (pictured at his wedding), the son of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden has married the daughter of the lead hijacker of the 9/11 attacks Mohammed Atta

Osama bin Laden's half-brothers said they believe the 29-year-old-son had ascended in rank within al-Qaeda as heir to the command and wants to avenge his father's death. In May 2011, US Navy SEALs stormed a Pakistan compound with bin Laden (pictured in undated photo, left and in 1997, right) was living with three of wives and shot him dead

In the interview with the Guardian, bin Laden's mother, Alia Ghanem, said her son was 'engaging' and 'pious' as a young boy but became brainwashed when he went to study at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

'The people at university changed him. He became a different man,' she told the newspaper.

'I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing, because he loved me so much.'

Atta (pictured, undated) piloted American Airlines Flight 11, which was the first of the hijackings, into the North Tower of the World Trade Center- killing all 92 onboard and around 1,600 people, including emergency responders, in the tower

His half-brothers, however, believe bin Laden his responsible for his own actions and set his own actions.

'It has been 17 years now [since 9/11] and she remains in denial about Osama,' one of his brother, Ahmad, told The Guardian.

'She loved him so much and refuses to blame him. Instead, she blames those around him. She only knows the good boy side, the side we all saw. She never got to know the jihadist side.'

Both brothers said that when he saw the images of the World Trade Center and Pentagon burning, they 'understood instinctively that it was there brother who was responsible for it'.

Hamza is currently believed to be in Afghanistan where he has become a member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization under its current leader, Ayman al-Zawah.

'We thought everyone was over this,' bin Laden's other brother, Hassan, told the Guardian.

'Then the next thing I knew, Hamza was saying: "I am going to avenge my father." I don't want to go through that again.

'If Hamza was in front of me now, I would tell him: "God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don't retake the steps of your father. You are entering horrible parts of your soul".'

Hamza has released several audio messages calling for attacks against Western nations and a wish to avenge his father's death. Pictured: Hamza, right, with alleged wreckage of an American helicopter in November 2001

The US State Department added Hamza to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list last year. Pictured: Hamza, center, with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in 2001

The US State Department added Hamza to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list last year.

Individuals on this list are 'foreign persons determined to have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States'.

Hazma has released several audio messages in which he calls for attacks against the West.

In the first audio message in August 2015, he told his followers to wage jihad against Western cities including Washington, DC; Paris; London and Tel Aviv.

One year later, in July 2016, he released an audio message title 'We Are All Osama' and vowed to attack the US due to American 'oppression of Muslim lands'.

He released a video in May 2017 and called for lone-wolf attacks against Jews and Westerners, particularly Americans
An extremely rare illness turned an 11-year-old boy into 'an old man overnight' and made him a target for cruel bullies who brand him an 'alien' and a 'freak,' his mother has said.

Shaun Tebbutt, from Wootton, Bedfordshire, was diagnosed with partial lipodystrophy after his third birthday, meaning his body has a problem making, storing and using fat.

Despite having a healthy appetite, the condition has left the youngster with sunken cheeks and looking older than his years.

Shaun Tebbutt (pictured) was diagnosed with partial lipodystrophy after his third birthday

The condition has left Shaun (pictured with his parents) with sunken cheeks and looking older than his years

'It was like I closed my eyes and my little boy had turned into an old man overnight, his mother Joanne told The Mirror.

'Suddenly he was more like a 70-year-old,' she said.

She said she asks doctors at every appointment if there is a cure for her son's condition  who say they hope that one day, there will be.

And his appearance has made him a target for bullies  who brand him an 'alien, skinny or freak,' his mother said.

Shaun is one of very few who didn't develop the condition at birth. It is also rare for it to only affect his upper body

Shaun (pictured before he got lipodystrophy) says the condition makes him 'unique'

And he said he worries about people staring stop him from doing things he loves, like swimming.

Despite this, the brave youngster says having lipodystrophy makes him 'unique.'

But he adds: 'I want people to realise I'm normal and they shouldn't judge others by the way they look.'

His parents  Joanne, 46, and Brian, 48  revealed they felt helpless as their son got thinner and thinner.

Shaun says his small frame means his skin hurts if the weather is too hot or too cold.

His parents say it's a mystery how he got lipodystrophy as no one in their family had ever had it

What is lipodystrophy? Lipodystrophy, also known as the 'Fat Redistribution Syndrome', refers to a number of disturbances in the way the body uses and distributes fat. Changes to the body can include fat accumulation with an increase in fat around the stomach or girth. Sometimes there is an increase in breast size in males and females. A small number of people have extra fat between the shoulder blades. The condition can also result in fat loss - with wasting of the face around the cheeks and temples and loss of fat from the arms, legs and buttocks, with veins becoming more prominent. Some people have a combination of fat accumulation and loss in different parts of the body. Research suggests that the emergence of these physical and metabolic changes may be associated with the length of time on combination therapy. There is no proven method of reversing these syndromes, but there are options that may help you minimise its impact. Source: NHS Advertisement

His parents also say it's a mystery how he got lipodystrophy as no one in their family had ever had it. Doctors believe it is due to a virus, but can't pinpoint the case.

But his parents say he has a positive personality and 'courage that helps all of us cope.'

Only 700 people have Shaun's condition in the UK.

It left doctors baffled at first, because is also one of very few who didn't develop the condition at birth. It is also rare for it to only affect his upper body.

People with lipodystrophy can have a lower life expectancy due to the risk of kidney problems and diabetes.
The man who robbed Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis in 2004 is now claiming he acted on orders from a notorious mob boss.

Darnell Riley is alleging in his new book, What Is Real: The Life and Crimes of Darnell Riley, that he only broke in to Francis' home because he was working for bookmakers under Genovese crime boss Matthew 'Matty'The Horse' Ianniello, who died in 2012.

'I was asked to rough him up,' Riley, who also goes by Riley Perez, told PageSix. 'I worked with guys, if they told you to do something, you dont ask questions.'

Darnell Riley (right) is alleging in his new book, What Is Real: The Life and Crimes of Darnell Riley, that he only broke in to Joe Francis' (left) home because he was working for a mob boss

Ianniello was convicted of rigging construction bids, skimming union dues and wringing protection money from bar owners, pornography peddlers and topless dancers, according to The New York Times.

He served only two sentences for his crimes: a nine-year term for racketeering and tax evasion and an 18-month sentence for his role in illegally controlling garbage-hauling companies in Connecticut.

Ianniello died in 2012 at his home in Old Westbury, on Long Island. He was 92.

Riley was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbing Francis and forcing him at gunpoint to pose for a demeaning videotape as part of an extortion attempt.

At the time, he pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted extortion as part of a deal with prosecutors who agreed to drop burglary, carjacking and kidnapping for ransom charges.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Kellogg sentenced him to 10 years and 8 months in state prison.

Francis, who has made a fortune selling raunchy videos of topless college girls partying, testified during a preliminary hearing in December that Riley broke into his home on January 22, 2004, pulled a gun and bound and gagged him.

He said Riley forced him to partially disrobe and make sexually humiliating comments about himself.

Riley claimed he was working for bookmakers under Genovese crime boss Matty 'The Horse' Ianniello (right), who died in 2012. Riley was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbing Francis in 2004

Police learned of the alleged crime from socialite Paris Hilton (pictured together in Los Angeles), Francis' former girlfriend. Hilton said she heard the incident discussed on the party circuit

Francis also testified that Riley threatened to distribute the video unless Francis paid him $300,000 to $500,000.

Police learned of the alleged crime from socialite Paris Hilton, Francis' former girlfriend.

Hilton said she heard the incident discussed on the party circuit.

'He was the victim. I was the perpetrator,' Riley said. 'Theres no vendetta. The book is not about exacting revenge.'

Riley will be attending a book signing at the Diesel bookstore in Los Angeles on August 14.

Girls Gone Wild started airing its late-night infomercials in 1997. Since 2008, the Girls Gone Wild products have been sold primarily through their website as streaming videos, downloads, and DVDs.

In 2013, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Francis is reportedly living in Mexico with Abbey Wilson and their three-year-old twin daughters.
A wheelchair-bound Michigan woman was turned away from a nail salon because of her shaky hands caused by her cerebral palsy.

Dejected, Angela Peters left the salon and was surprised to find Walmart cashier Ebony Harris, who offered to do her nails for her.

Harris saw Peters denied service on July 30 and decided to step in, taking her break to do the manicure herself.

Together the women picked out the perfect color then sat at a Subway restaurant table for the special pampering session.

Walmart cashier Ebony Harris (left) painted the nails of Angela Peters (right) after she was denied service at a Michigan nail salon due to her shaking hands caused by cerebral palsy

The good deed unfolded on July 30 when Harris (right) saw Peters (left) denied service at the salon connected to the Walmart she worked at, leading her to offer the manicure on her break

'I just wanted to make her day special. I didn't really want her day to be ruined. That's why I did it. And plus she's a sweetie,' Harris said to WJRT.

'And you know, she moved her hands a little bit and she kept saying she was sorry. And, I told her don't say that. I said you're fine,' she added.

Tasia Smith, who works at the Subway, snapped a photo of the sweet moment.

In the picture Peters is displayed beaming as Harris paints her nails a sparkling blue.

'I thought that was so nice of her and I already felt comfortable with her because, like I said, I shop at Walmart a lot,' Peters said on Harris' good deed.

Their post went viral with more than 3,000 shares and hundreds of praising comments.

The manicure was a hit with Peters saying 'Wow, these are amazing' following Harris' kind deed

'I just wanted to make her day special. I didn't really want her day to be ruined. That's why I did it. And plus she's a sweetie' Harris, right, said on the manicure

'Today, this sweet girl went into Burton Walmart's nail salon 'Da Vi nails' and they denied her service because 'she moves too much'.. Out of the kindness of the Walmart workers hearts they went and bought nail polish and came into my work to paint this sweet girls nails,' Smith wrote on July 30.

'They were so patient with her (which she did great, barely moved & was just so sweet).. Its an absolute shame that they denied her for some thing so little. They will not be getting any service from me ever again! Thank you to the Walmart workers for making this beautiful girls day!' she added.

Speaking on that post, Smith said: 'I just wanted to post it for awareness and appreciation, because people needed to know what was going on with the business and Ebony deserved all the appreciation she could get.'

As for Harris, she wants to clarify that her deed isn't an attempt to bad mouth the nail salon. Instead it's a lesson to treat all people with kindness, no matter what their differences may be.

After choosing the perfect color, the two sat down at a Subway also connected to the Walmart for the manicure, where Subway worker Tasia Smith snapped a photo of the duo

Smith's photo of the kindhearted deed has gone viral with more than 3,000 shares, Smith pictured center with Peters and Harris

'We're not trying to bash the nail salon. We're not trying to make them lose customers, make them look bad. But maybe spread awareness that no matter the person, who they are, what color they are, disability, whatever, they're people too,' she said.

'She's a girly girl. She's just like you, me, Tasia, my daughter, anybody. She wants to look pretty, you know, and so why can't she?' she added.

As for her manicure, Peters couldn't be more pleased with her freshly painted nails.

'I'm like wow. These are amazing!' she said adding 'I want to bring awareness to people' with the viral deed.

'Im making new friends at Walmart as well and they get to see my abilities too. So its awesome,' she said on the fame following her manicure to WNEM.

'I told her she's a blessing to us, to anybody, not just me. She makes me look at life and appreciate it much more than, you know, what I have been,' Harris said.
A psychiatrist assigned to delve into the psyche of the killer behind the Dark Knight massacre, says we will never know exactly why he pulled the trigger.

James Holmes, now 30, walked into the crowded midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises at a Colorado movie theater on July 20, 2012, where he opened fire and slaughtered 12 people, and wounded an additional 58.

Psychiatrist William H. Reid spent a total of 24 hours interviewing Holmes in prison, concluding that a one-of-a-kind vortex of his mental illness, his personality, and circumstances are what drove him to the shooting in Denver.

'A big part of it is, it's hidden in Holmes' mind, and he can't see it either,' Reid said, speaking on the findings in new book 'A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Theater Shootings'.

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Psychiatrist William H. Reid says the exact cause behind James Holmes' 2012 massacre cannot be exactly pinpointed, Holmes pictured right led out of a courtroom following his life in prison without parole sentencing on August 26, 2015

Reid was assigned by the court to assess Holmes, above, and concluded that a 'one-of-a-kind vortex of his mental illness, his personality, and circumstances' drove him to launch shooting

In a confessional videotaped interview, Holmes told Reid if given the chance, he might kill again.

When Reid asked if jail guards should be concerned, Holmes replied 'Um, I'd say so yeah.'

Holmes has been convicted of murder and was sentenced to life on parole for his Denver killing spree.

Reid was one of two court-appointed psychiatrists to evaluate Holmes' mental health before trial in 2014. He reviewed 80,000 to 85,000 pages of documents provided by prosecutors, the defense and law enforcement to assess Holmes.

He says that readers will want to know what led Holmes to commit mass murder, and they won't be happy with his conclusion.

Reid (left) was assigned to assess Holmes prior to his trial and said: 'A big part of [the cause] is, it's hidden in Holmes' mind, and he can't see it either', his book pictured right

'The answer - and this really is the answer, but it's not very satisfying - lies in an unimaginably detailed and complex confluence that we can't replicate because we can't see all of it,' he writes.

However, he's listed several factors of the 'vortex' that led Holmes to kill.

They include his mental illness and the way it influenced his behavior, the way Homes' personality shaped his awkward interactions with other people and influenced his view of the world, his struggles in neuroscience graduate school, and his break up with his girlfriend.

Other factors remain unknown 'because no one knows his entire social and genetic and biological life'.

Holmes has been convicted of murder and was sentenced to life on parole for his Denver killing spree, pictured above in court on June 3, 2013

Reid said that Holmes was mentally ill with schizophrenia at the time of the shooting. His mental illness compounded with his personality and circumstances such as a break up with his girlfriend and struggles in grad school, led him to open fire

Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the case, but Reid and the other court-appointed psychiatrist, Jeffrey L. Metzner, concluded he didn't meet Colorado's standard for insanity.

Holmes, pictured in 2012 mug, admitted he might kill again if given the chance

Reid said that Holmes was mentally ill at the time of the killings diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder - a severe form of schizophrenia.

Reid also found schizotypal personality, a related but less severe disorder.

Reid and Metzner said that despite Holmes' illness, he knew his elaborately planned ambush was illegal and morally wrong. They added he could still form criminal intent, all of which meant he was sane under state law and would sentenced on such a basis.

Reid said society will likely never have a comprehensive understanding of what led Holmes to commit murder.

'He's unique. The answers are not going to come, at least not in any of our lifetimes,' he said.

His book documents Holmes' relatively uneventful childhood through the murders, the trial, and Holmes' conviction and sentencing.

The horrific shooting took place at a midnight showing of the Dark Knight Rises on July 20, 2012 at this Century movie theater in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, Colorado

Police are seen investigating the suspect's car next to blood stains on the sidewalk

A makeshift memorial was erected at the shooting site following the massacre that killed 12 and wounded 58 by gunfire

The book also dismisses the rumors and speculations circulating about the case.

Holmes didn't after all lead his killing spree because he identified with the Joker in the Batman movies, his breakup alone didn't trigger his murder, and there was no evidence that his prescribed use of Zoloft was a factor in the massacre.

He also absolves Holmes' parents Arlene and Robert Holmes, who Reid says 'did nothing wrong'.

'I looked really carefully at all the evidence that I had. I just couldn't find anything wrong with their parenting,' he said.

After a ethical debate whether to write a book or not Reid decided to go forth with his writing saying he had no doctor-patient relationship with Holmes and hence no obligation of confidentiality. His role was to evaluate Holmes' mental health, not treat him.

At the end of the book, Reid pleas to make mental health a part of everyday health care rather than focusing only on crisis intervention.

'Figuring out James Holmes would probably not give us any reasonable predictive tools to say, "OK, if we find all of these 4 million characteristics in someone else, we're going to put a brand on their forehead and watch them closely", It's not feasible,' he said.
A mother-of-three who died after suffering significant injuries in Hartlepool has been named.

Kelly Franklin, 29, died following an incident on Oxford Road on Friday evening.

Officers were called just after 9pm to a report of a woman with significant injuries.

Ms Franklin was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives investigating her murder have said she died after suffering 'significant injuries' and that they believe she was the victim of a 'targeted attack'.

Kelly Franklin, 29, died following an incident on Oxford Road in Hartlepool on Friday evening

A 30-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of murder remain in custody, Cleveland Police said.

A spokesman said on Sunday: 'Following formal identification which took place today, police are now able to name a woman who was killed in Hartlepool on Friday evening as 29-year-old Kelly Franklin.

'Kelly, a mother of three young children from Hartlepool, sadly died after suffering significant injuries in an incident on Oxford Road near to Chaucer Avenue in the town.

'Specially trained officers are supporting Kelly's family and our thoughts remain with them at this extremely difficult time.'

A murder inquiry was launched following the death of a woman who suffered significant injuries in a 'targeted attack' in Hartlepool

The spokesman said detectives want to speak to anyone who was in the area of Oxford Road, near Chaucer Avenue, on Friday evening.

He said it is a route used by a lot of vehicles, including buses and taxis, and officers particularly want to speak anyone who may have dashcam footage.

Cleveland Police's Chief Supt Alastair Simpson said: 'Firstly, my thoughts and sympathies are with the family of the woman.

'Specially trained officers are supporting the family at this extremely difficult time.

'Residents in the local area will naturally be shocked by what has happened and I would like to reassure them that we have a dedicated team who are working tirelessly on this case and all the necessary specialist resources are being made available to them.

'There is a visible police presence in and around the area of the murder.

'Anyone in the local community who has concerns can approach any of these officers and speak to them about this incident.'

Anyone with information can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
Plastic bottles, carrier bags, food wrappers and drinks bottles were left scattered over the beach by revellers following Brighton Pride.

Litter pickers were out in full force today try and clear up the mounds of rubbish left very close to the sea.

While people try to enjoy the beach in the blazing sunshine a plethora of discarded bottles, wrappers and bags can been seen marring the picturesque stony beach.

The sheer amount of waste left behind has meant bins were left overflowing and rubbish piled up in bags around them.

It is thought more 300,000 people turned out for the annual Brighton Pride which was capped off by a remarkable performance from Britney Spears in Preston Park.

A litter picker tackles the enormous amount of rubbish left on the beach. People can be seen sitting in sun loungers enjoying the sun surrounded by garbage

A litter bin is overflowing with fast food containers, bottles, plastic bags and other general waste

People try to enjoy the beach in the background as they are surrounded by mounds of rubbish

Bottles and cans which previously contained alcohol can be seen perched on top of the bin. Somebody has even dumped a duvet near the bin

Plastic and carrier bags left on the beach can be harmful for the environment and can cause problems for wildlife.

Social media users seemed unimpressed with the mess left behind on the beach and were concerned it could harm the environment.

One user said: 'More rubbish and broken glass all over the beach. There is no planet B #cleanitup.'

Another said: '@PrideBrighton Perhaps you should pay for the clear up on #Brighton beach. Filth everywhere.'

One more said: 'They should just fence off the beach next year to prevent that happening again.

'All that trash is going to wash out to sea.'

In addition to the mess left behind there were chaotic scenes at Brighton train as enormous crowds tried to head back home last night.

Pictures on social media showed hundreds of people waiting to get onto the platforms.

Passengers reported big queues and confusion at the station, with some saying they were crushed.

Southern Rail said measures were put in place following concerns of overcrowding, having earlier warned that the station could be closed at short notice.

Revellers celebrating Brighton Pride had trouble getting home with one attendee describing the situation as a 'shambles'

Geraldine Carr, said she arrived at the station at 11.50pm hoping to catch a train back to London, and described the situation as a 'shambles', finally getting home at 5am.

The 38-year-old said: 'The queue was insane. When the barriers opened people were slowly being let in, but this of course led to people being pushed and shoved.

'I saw one woman have a panic attack and could not see any paramedics around to help. If a serious incident happened while we were waiting it would have been very serious.

'Eventually after an hour or so we got through the gates and were shoved into a train. This was chaotic as people were running.'

Britney Spears was the headline act at the country's biggest Pride festival, with organisers anticipating up to 100,000 fans would flood in to Preston Park to watch her show.
Dr Arvind Madan suggested family doctors are greedy and workshy using a fake profile

England's most senior GP has resigned after he was caught trolling medics online using a fake profile.

Dr Arvind Madan, the director of primary care at NHS England, suggested family doctors are greedy and workshy in anonymous posts on a GP forum.

His posts on the Pulse magazine's website, under the name Devil's Advocate, prompted dozens of angry replies.

Dr Madan stepped down today and 'apologised unreservedly' to anyone he offended using the profile, which he also used to praise his own work.

Announcing his resignation, the east London GP said it had sadly become clear he had 'lost the confidence' of some of his colleagues.

In one of the comments Dr Madan said: 'We can get 6 figure salaries for working 4 days a week, 45 weeks a year.

'Run that past the general public and see how much sympathy you get.'

In another comment, under an article about hundreds of GP surgeries closing over the past five years, Dr Madan said most businesses would be 'pleased to see a rationalisation of their markets'.

It added: 'Let's face it, there are probably too many small practices out there struggling to do everything you would want for your family in an era of modern general practice.'

Another read: 'Enough....we can get 6 figure salaries for working 4 days a week 45 weeks a year without on call....run that past the general public and see how much sympathy you get.'

In his resignation statement Dr Madan said: 'I am passionately committed to general practice and primary care in England. This is why I accepted a three year secondment from my GP practice to NHS England as Director of Primary Care and Deputy Medical Director.

'That secondment comes to an end later this year, but it is clear to me that, sadly, I have lost the confidence of some of my colleagues, and I have therefore decided to resign my NHS England position.

'As part of my attempts to challenge the negative views  and even conspiracy theories  held by a small but vocal minority in the profession I posted on an anonymous online forum used by GPs. It was never my intention to cause offence but rather to provoke a more balanced discussion about contentious issues acting as a devil's advocate.

'I wish to make it categorically clear that these comments are not a reflection of NHS England policy, and it is now clear to me that trying to move the debate on in this way is not compatible with my role as Director of Primary Care. Supporting general practice is too important an issue to allow it to be mired in unnecessary controversy.

'I would like to apologise unreservedly to those who have been upset, particularly in smaller practices.

Dr Madan's comments under a fake profile on the Pulse website prompted angry replies. Pictured: the headquarters of NHS England in Leeds

'In my 23 year career as a frontline GP I have worked in practices of all sizes and have always believed that smaller practices serve a particularly crucial role. I know they work tirelessly, alongside all primary care colleagues, to serve their patients and perform a role that goes well beyond being their doctor.

'GPs in smaller practices serve a particularly vital role as a point of constancy in the lives of often very vulnerable patients.

'They know their patients intimately, see families through times of great difficulty, and often hold their communities together. They are also essential to ensuring general practice services reach every inner-city neighbourhood and rural community in England.

What he wrote under 'Devil's Advocate' pseudonym June 12, 2018 [Responding to internet forum debate over GPs pay] Enough....we can get 6 figure salaries for working 4 days a week 45 weeks a year without on call....run that past the general public and see how much sympathy you get. May 30, 2018 [Following story that 450 GP surgeries had closed down in five years] Most businesses would be pleased to see a rationalisation of their markets, as it makes the remainder more viable. This happens in all markets. Lets face it, there are probably too many small practices out there struggling to do everything you would want for your family in an era of modern general practice. December 18, 2017 [Reacting to news that senior GPs pay had fallen by 4.3 per cent in 12 months] Is this reduction controlling for the fact that partners are also becoming more part-time so you would expect to see a drop in earnings per GP (NHS Digital statistics)? September 14, 2017 [Following reports that GPs average earnings had fallen by 1 per cent in a year] If GPs are becoming more part-time (which they are) is that taken into account e.g. working 10% less hours for flat pay is a pay rise... March 31, 2017 The thing that everyone forgets in defense [sic] of small practices is the variability and quality control. Yes there are some good / great practices out there.. and even then i might ask how do you know that?... but there are a lot of rubbish ones - no continuity of care - high prescribing - high referrals - poor access - reactive not pro-active - its the shame of our profession. Advertisement

'I also know that too many smaller practices are struggling, which is why I believe that working in collaboration with others in an integrated manner should form a key part of how we strengthen them and prevent practice closures.

'The main focus of my work at NHS England has been to help design and deliver the General Practice Forward View. I remain convinced that, as it unfolds, it will form the foundation for transformation.

'I am proud of what we achieved so far, and sorry that I am unable to help see it through. However, I have immense confidence in the inspirational individuals I have had the privilege to work with at NHS England, who are dedicated to supporting general practice, and wider primary care.'

Dr Sammy Batt-Rawden asked how it could be acceptable for such a high-profile figure 'to create burner accounts and pseudonyms to troll people that disagree with them?'.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it was 'only right' that Dr Madan stepped down.

BMA GP committee deputy chair Dr Mark Sanford-Wood said: 'We have today written to NHS England raising our concerns and demanding action after Dr Madan's damaging comments caused significant anger amongst the profession at a time when GPs require support from NHS England.

'It is only right that he has therefore done the right thing and offered his resignation.'
Nine people including two children were detained after immigration officers carried out a raid on a cockling operation in West Sussex on Sunday.

Pictures showed a haul of cockles being returned to the river after the immigration squad's bust in Shoreham-on-Sea.

Four people including the two minors were bailed while five men were detained pending their removal from the UK, MailOnline understands.

The raid was carried out on Sunday lunchtime when officers acting on intelligence found a group harvesting cockles.

An immigration raid in Shoreham on Sunday saw officers target a cockling operation

A haul of cockles was returned to the river after the immigration squad's bust

The raid was carried out on Sunday lunchtime with officers acting on intelligence

The officers were carrying out checks to find out whether the individuals had the right to live and work in the UK.

The Home Office advises employers to check their workers have the right to work in the UK by obtaining their original identity documents.

An employer of an illegal worker who has not carried out the correct checks faces a penalty of up to 20,000.

It is a criminal offence to employ someone who the employer knows or has reasonable cause to believe is an illegal worker.

Employers can face an unlimited fine, and up to five years in prison.

An immigration officer leads one of the suspects away after the raid in Shoreham
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An urban explorer stumbled upon a series of abandoned World War 2 tunnels which were used as a bunker control centre by British forces during the conflict.

The musty warren of offices, corridors and control rooms had been sealed away for over three decades. The site was used as a communications base for the railway during the war.

Warren Tepper, 32, from Hampshire, visited the site in Surrey, which was built into 300-year-old caves and made use of them as a natural fortification.

The rust-ridden location is large enough to hold 30 staff who would move between there and Waterloo, London, aiding the war effort. They kept the country's railways running on time throughout the war.

Warren explored, finding the unusual spot 'eerie' but 'cool'.

The area had until recently remained inaccessible. But construction works accidentally unearthed the hidden entrance, enabling Warren to explore and record his adventure for his YouTube Channel Warren Urbexing.

Now the entry point has been covered with a large metal gate to stop other explorers from entering the potentially dangerous premises.

Warren Tepper stumbled across the complex maze of underground corridors and control rooms before recording his discovery and posting it to his YouTube channel Warren Urbexing

Banks of switches appear rusted hanging from the walls after years sealed off from the world. The bunker was used in part as a base for British traffic control. The original site of the control room was in London. However, after the outbreak of war it had to be moved to a more remote location where Luftwaffe bombers would be unable to target it

Another shot shows the control room which was built deep into a series of caves first dug out 300 years ago. The base's location was chosen in order to use the thick rock as a defence against enemy forces

Many of the tunnels were sealed away for 30 years. However, recent building work lead to the network being uncovered once again. Since then vandals have entered and spray painted on some of the walls

Urban explorer Warren Tepper discovered the site and took a number of photos before posting a video to his YouTube site

A wooden door hangs off its hinges. Tepper said: 'It did feel very eerie walking around in the tunnels as you never know what you might find and who might come in while you are in the tunnels. The spiral staircase was a very interesting feature for the tunnels. Online people have all loved the tunnels, some have commented about the stairs and how unsafe they were'

Thick layers of rust coats a number of pipes jutting out of shaft in the dense network of tunnels

Tepper added: 'The air vents on the walls are normally the first things to be ripped off by vandals - they were cool. I liked the rust and how it made all the metal look on the spiral staircase, the phone switch board and all the old switches and fuse boxes. I still went up, they also mentioned about the battery station that would have been there in case of power loss.'

The space is designed to hold around 30 people at most, all of which would have had roles in traffic control

From this station personnel would have made calls across the UK, directing the train lines and making sure the country ran smoothly throughout the war
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President Donald Trump has issued a so-called Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for California, as the state battles 17 major wildfires that have raced across hundreds of square miles.

The declaration followed California Governor Jerry Brown's request for additional federal aid as he toured the fire-damaged neighborhoods of Redding on Saturday.

Brown, a Democrat, has clashed with Trump on immigration and environmental issues, but said that he was confident the President would support his hard-hit state.

'These kinds of horrible situations bring people together, regardless of the lesser kind of ideologies and partisan considerations,' Brown said.

A firefighter douses flames while battling the Ranch Fire on New Long Valley Road near Clearlake Oaks on Saturday

A firefighter gathers water from a pool while battling the Ranch Fire near Clearlake Oaks, California on Saturday

Firefighters ride in the back of a pickup truck while battling the Ranch Fire near Clearlake Oaks on Saturday

The map above shows the location and size of several of the major California wildfires as of 8am on Sunday

Trump had previously declared a state of emergency on July 28, freeing up federal funds to assist California.

The new 'major disater' declaration would help fire victims with unemployment assistance, food aid and legal and mental health counseling among other federal programs, and would also make counties and cities eligible for federal financial assistance and help with repairing the billions of dollars of damage done to infrastructure.

In all, the wildfires raging in the state have destroyed more than 1,000 homes, killed nine people  including four firefighters and shut down Yosemite National Park.

The death toll of the most destructive fire, the Carr Fire, rose to seven on Saturday, claiming the live of a power company lineman.

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. employee was doing restoration work in Shasta County when he suffered a fatal accident, the company said. The name of the deceased worker has not been publicly released.

The Carr Fire, about 162 miles north of Sacramento, had already taken the lives of a firefighter, a bulldozer operator, and four civilians.

On Saturday morning, officials said that the Carr Fire had surpassed 241 square miles, destroying 1,080 homes and 524 other structures. The fire is 41 per cent contained.

Meanwhile, the massive Mendocino Complex Fire has grown rapidly about 120 miles north of San Francisco, surpassing the Carr fire in size if not destructiveness.

Ventura County firefighters watch as a helicopter makes a drop on a hot spot of a wildfire in Scotts Valley on Friday

Ventura County firefighters including Caleb Amico, foreground, watch as a helicopter makes a drop on a hot spot of a wildfire in Scotts Valley near Lakeport on Thursday

The town Sheriff watches the wind swept flames from the River Fire as it again threatens the town of Lakeport, California

Firefighters work to keep flames from the River Fire from destroying a home as evening winds kick in on July 31 near Lakeport

Covering 398 square miles, the Mendocino Complex is now the fifth-largest fire in California history. The fire is a complex comprising two separate wildfires, the Ranch and River fires.

More than 20,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate their homes as the fire tears through communities in Mendocino, Lake and Colusa counties.

CalFire said on Saturday that the Mendocino Complex has destroyed 68 homes and 62 other structures. The fire is 33 per cent contained.

More evacuations were ordered on Saturday afternoon, but no estimate of people involved was released.

Officials said the Carr Fire was caused by sparks from the rim of a flat tire on a towed trailer. The cause of the Mendocino Complex remains under investigation.

Both areas remained under a 'red flag warning' issued by the National Weather Service for strong winds, low relative humidity and temperatures topping 90 degrees Fahrenheit, all conditions that can drive the growth of wildfires.

In Fresno on Saturday, hundreds of colleagues, family and friends attended a memorial service for an elite firefighter who died fighting the Ferguson Fire, which has forced the closure of Yosemite National Park.

Fresno firefighters watch as a fire truck procession from various agencies around the state caravans through downtown Fresno on Saturday. Captain Brian Hughes died while fighting the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park

Honor guard and pall bearers carry the coffin of Brian Hughes, a captain with the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots

A last bell ceremony is held for Brian Hughes, a captain with the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots who was killed by a falling tree while fighting the Ferguson Fire, during a memorial service at Valdez Hall in Fresno on Saturday

A 50-vehicle procession carrying the body Brian Hughes drove through the town before the memorial service, the Fresno Bee reported.

Hughes lived in nearby Squaw Valley with his fiancee Paige Miller, who is due to give birth to their first child in February.

The 33-year-old was killed on July 29 by a falling tree while battling the wildfire.

Hughes was National Park Service fire captain and the leader of an elite 'hotshot' crew responsible for fighting fires in rugged terrain.

He is one of four firefighters who have died in recent weeks while fighting wildfires.

A tanker plane under contract with Cal Fire approaches Lake Mendocino on Friday to skim the surface of the lake to refill

A 747 Global Airtanker makes a drop in front of advancing flames from a wildfire on Thursday in Lakeport

Wind swept flames from the Ranch Fire threaten the town of Nice near Upper Lake, California, on Friday

Through last week, California fires had torched about 290,000 acres, more than double the five-year average over that same period, according to Cal Fire.

This year, California wildfires have burned more land earlier in the 'fire season' than usual, said Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director, during a news conference on Saturday.

'Fire season is really just beginning. What seems like we should be in the peak of fire season, historically, is really now the kind of conditions we're seeing really at the beginning,' said Pimlott.

California Governor Jerry Brown, who visited some of the burned areas on Saturday, said, 'This is part of a trend, the new normal, that we've got to deal with.'

On Saturday, fire crews battling the Ranch fire in Nice, California were accosted by three men who refused to leave the area, police said.

Gary Thomas Wertheimer, Steven Marshall Bell, and Travis Steven Bell were arrested on Saturday after police said that they accosted fire crews and refused to leave an evacuation zone, forcing a tanker plane to divert three times

A tanker plane en route to battle the approaching blaze was forced to divert multiple times when the three men continued to refuse to leave, officials said.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the scene and arrested them for interfering with firefighters and unauthorized presence in an evacuation area.

Police identified the men as Gary Thomas Wertheimer, 41, of Nice, Steven Marshall Bell, 59, of Redwood Valley, and Travis Steven Bell, 29, of Nice.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office said the three gentlemen had refused to leave the evacuation zone because they were watering their marijuana plants.
Victims have spoken of their fury after it was revealed black cab rapist John Worboys plans to launch another appeal by claiming he has become a 'political prisoner'.

Worboys, 61, told a prison source at HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire that he plans to apply for legal aid to argue for his release from jail, reports theDaily Star.

The fresh appeal comes just months after the High Court reversed the decision by the Parole Board to release him after a crowdfunded appeal by two victims.

One of his victims said: 'It is horrendous news. I feel sick that he is appealing rather than admitting his guilt.

'He has no respect for his victims and it's obvious he still doesn't think he's done anything wrong.'

John Worboys will launch another appeal against the decision to keep him behind bars

The black cab rapist was convicted of attacks on 12 women in his 2009 trial but police believe he assaulted as many as 105

Last year the Parole Board ruled Worboys could be freed after finding he had learned 'not to hide negative thoughts and feelings' during 'positive' treatment with psychologists.

But the decision was reversed and the board's chairman forced to quit after two victims appealed against the decision in a highly-charged court showdown in March.

The victim added: 'Thankfully, the decision was overturned because it was evident that proper process had not been followed and this monster was still a danger to women.

'That was just a few months ago. Worboys still poses a massive danger to women and cannot be allowed to roam the streets and attack again.

'I have no doubt in my mind that if Worboys is released in a few months time, he will rape again.'

One of his victims said: 'I have no doubt in my mind that if Worboys is released in a few months time, he will rape again' (pictured: Worboys' taxi)

Worboys, from Rotherhithe in London, was convicted of attacks on 12 women at his 2009 trial but is suspected of having more than 100 victims.

At the time of his conviction, he was given an 'indeterminate' sentence  with a minimum term of eight years. It meant he could be kept in jail for as long as he posed a threat to the public.

When the Parole Board made its decision that Worboys could be freed, they only took into account his 19 convictions.

A prison source told the Daily Star: 'He says he has done his time and should be released. He believes there are murderers and terrorists who are freed or allowed on parole so he should be too.

'He thinks he is a political prisoner and being jailed is a breach of his human rights.'

Worboys spiked his victims by asking them to celebrate his win at the races with a glass of champagne laced with sedatives before raping them.
Corrie McKeague disappeared on a boozy night out in Suffolk in 2016 after it is believed he climbed into a wheelie bin to sleep

Corrie McKeague's mother has hit back at her son's father after he said the airman was 'no longer missing' and is 'somewhere in the waste disposal system'.

Nicola Urquhart, 48, criticised Martin McKeague, 49, and insisted 'we're still looking for Corrie'.

The 23-year-old disappeared on a boozy night out in Suffolk on September 24, 2016, after it is believed he climbed into a wheelie bin to sleep.

Ms Urquhart said today: 'We're still looking for Corrie. Corrie is missing.

'The police don't know. They cannot categorically state Corrie is in a particular area but they just can't get him.'

Police believe the Airforce Regiment gunner, who was based at RAF Honington, was scooped up by a bin lorry from a horseshoe-shaped storage area.

Officers last year sifted through more than 9,000 tonnes of rubbish at a landfill site at Milton, Cambridgeshire, but found no sign of his body.

Martin McKeague said in a lengthy Facebook statement on Monday: 'Corrie is no longer missing. What we mean by this is that after looking at all of the facts and evidence we now know what happened to our son.

'We are certain he is somewhere in the Suffolk waste disposal system, but his remains are essentially irretrievable.'

Mr McKeague went through the elements of the case, explaining why he was convinced his son's remains were in the waste disposal system.

Nicola Urquhart, 48, criticised Martin McKeague, 49, and insisted 'we're still looking for Corrie'

His father Martin McKeague (pictured together) said in a lengthy Facebook statement on Monday: 'Corrie is no longer missing. What we mean by this is that after looking at all of the facts and evidence we now know what happened to our son'

The father added: 'We are certain he is somewhere in the Suffolk waste disposal system, but his remains are essentially irretrievable'

Pictured: Police searching an area of a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, for missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague

Mr McKeague said the family felt Corrie was no longer missing but 'his body is irretrievable because the remaining waste disposal environments are either too toxic to search'

The father said police had visited the family in Scotland last October and this February to review the investigation in detail, and the evidence was 'thorough as it was compelling'.

Mr McKeague said: 'That evidence had already been reviewed by independent experts in other police forces, who concluded beyond any doubt that Corrie had ended up in the Suffolk waste disposal system.

'But unlike other missing persons investigations where they do not know where their loved one is or what happened to them, we do know what happened to Corrie and we have to accept that it is impossible to search those areas for him now.

'And accepting that conclusion has clearly not been easy for the McKeague family in Scotland, nor anyone else.'

Mr McKeague said the family felt Corrie was no longer missing but 'his body is irretrievable because the remaining waste disposal environments are either too toxic to search'.

He also said the size of the landfill is so large, it would take years to sift through.

Mr McKeague said: 'We still plan to hold a memorial for Corrie once this final stage of the process has been completed'

Suffolk Police announced last October that they would be extending the search at Milton landfill site in Cambridge (pictured) for missing Corrie

How has the search for Corrie unfolded? September 24, 2016 - Corrie McKeague goes missing after a night out in Bury St Edmunds September 26 - RAF Honington report disappearance to police October 4 - It is revealed that his mobile phone had been tracked moving 12 miles away to Barton Mills hours after he was last seen November 15 - Part of the A14 near Bury St Edmunds is closed while police carry out a roadside search January 2017 - Corrie's girlfriend April Oliver reveals she is pregnant February - A search begins at a landfill site in Milton, Cambridge, amid fears Corrie jumped into a bin March 1 - A man is arrested but later released without charge June - Corrie's daughter Ellie-Louise is born July - Search of Milton landfill site is ended by police October - Search is restarted at the dump as police focus on a new section of the site November - A report by specialist officers concluded Mr McKeague was 'most likely' at the landfill site December - Reward for information rises to 100,000. In the same month, the second search for him at the landfill site ends after police spent 137 days trawling through more than 7,000 tonnes of rubbish January, 2018 - It is announced that search has cost 1.6million so far March 26 - Police announce case has been passed on to cold case team Advertisement

'The father said no one else had been involved in Corrie's disappearance and that he accepted that Corrie was inside a bin which was carted off by a lorry.

He wrote: 'The Biffa bin that Corrie entered in the Horseshoe was the first on the route, with a recorded weight of 116kg; an unusually high number for this bin, which tells us our son was inside.

'Were explaining all of this to you because, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

'And the facts and evidence show Corrie didnt walk out or leave the Horseshoe in any way other than the back of that Biffa bin lorry.'

He added: 'This has been an unbelievable and horrific journey of grieve and acceptance for the McKeague family and we want to thank you all again for standing up and standing by us.

'We still plan to hold a memorial for Corrie once this final stage of the process has been completed.'

The statement was signed by Mr McKeague and Corrie's stepmother Trisha.

In April, police formally ended the active investigation and are transitioning it into a cold case file.

Corrie was last seen on CCTV at 3.25am on September 24 in 2016 as he walked into the refuse collection area in Bury St Edmunds.

He had previously been asleep in a shop doorway after leaving a nightclub.

Police quickly realised that the movement of his mobile phone signal matched that of the bin lorry which had picked up the contents of a Greggs bin.

The signal stopped when the lorry reached the Barton Mills area 14 miles away.

The rubbish was taken to a transfer station at Red Lodge. Records suggest it then went to the Milton landfill site.

The lorry was impounded, but no forensic clues linking it to Corrie were found. CCTV cameras also failed to capture images of him leaving the bin area on foot.

Bin lorry operator Biffa initially wrongly stated that records showed the wheelie bin behind Greggs had only contained around 11kgs of waste.

Officers repeatedly asked for the calculation to be checked and Biffa admitted last March that it had made a mistake and the bin contained more than 100kgs - enough to include a body.
Sajid Javid (pictured) has been accused of trying to 'buy the silence' of victims of the Windrush generation scandal

Labour has accused Sajid Javid's Home Office of trying to 'buy the silence' of victims of the Windrush generation scandal.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott accused the Government of trying to 'gag' Windrush generation victims paid compensation as a result of immigration blunders by imposing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

The Independent reported that an NDA had been used on at least one person and another had been approached to agree such a deal.

Mr Javid told MPs in July that a new compensation scheme for Windrush-era migrants would not involve gagging clauses.

'No one will be asked to sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement or anything like that,' he said.

But just days earlier - on July 13 - he had written to the Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) to say that payments had already been made through other routes in some cases and there could have been the use of an NDA.

'Where we consider that the department has erred, we will seek to reduce any further distress for the claimant by making an offer of compensation, rather than continue through a lengthy legal challenge,' he said.

'I can confirm that Windrush generation cases are sometimes addressed through this route.

'For clarity there has been one individual who has received compensation and we have sought to make contact proactively with another.

'Whilst there is no requirement, settlement offers are sometimes accompanied by confidentiality clauses, depending on individual circumstances.'

Ms Abbott said: 'The Windrush generation has been failed time and time again by this Government.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott (pictured) accused the Government of trying to 'gag' Windrush generation victims

'The Home Secretary promised to 'do right' by our fellow citizens from the Windrush generation yet it appears he has gone back on his word.

'The Home Office must not attempt to buy the silence of citizens who have been so shockingly wronged and had their rights so gravely infringed in return for compensation that they are entitled to.

'It is totally unacceptable for the Home Office to impose non-disclosure agreements and gag those who have suffered at the hands of the hostile environment in order to cover up the true scale of the Windrush scandal.

'The Home Office must compensate all those who have suffered without further delay and without any form of non-disclosure agreement.

'It is an insult that the Home Secretary has still failed to even confirm when the promised compensation scheme will be up and running after so many of our fellow citizens have been left destitute, in debt and jobless by the Government's hostile environment.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'The case referred to in the letter to the HASC predated the Windrush Compensation Scheme.

'There will be no requirement or need to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for any individual who receives compensation through this scheme, and the Home Secretary has already made clear his intention to take this different approach for the Windrush generation.'
Jean Pierre Ndossoka, 61, has been charged with capital murder after he allegedly fatally stabbed his two children in Houston on Saturday

A Texas man who confessed to fatally stabbing his two children has been hospitalized after police found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car.

Houston police say 61-year-old Jean Pierre Ndossoka was taken to a hospital in stable condition Sunday after authorities located him in Pasadena, just southeast of Houston.

Police say he's expected to survive, and court records indicate he's charged with capital murder.

Ndossoka's recently-estranged wife Sabine Ntongo had dropped their one-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son off at their father's apartment for visitation on Saturday.

Police say at around 3.30pm Ndossoka called her and told her he'd killed the children.

Ntongo called 911 and rushed over to Ndossoka's apartment in southwest Houston, where she found both children stabbed to death, lying on the bed.

Sabine Ntongo is comforted by family after she found the bodies of her two young children

Ndossoka is pictured with the eight-year-old son he has been accused of stabbing

Ntongo was in tears outside of the Houston home after finding her children stabbed to death.

Heartbreaking photos show the mother being comforted by family members.

The Houston Chronicle reports that she had been married to Ndossoka for six years before they separated recently.

Police put out a vehicle description and mounted a search for the 61-year-old who had fled the home.

It was not immediately clear how authorities located him.

Ndossoka is due to appear in court on Monday morning on capital murder charges.

If convicted he could face the death penalty.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is encouraging President Donald Trump to let the Russia investigation play out.

He argued Sunday it's in the president's best interest to let special counsel Robert Muller complete his Russian investigation and for 'all the truth to come out.'

'I believe it is in the best interests of the president and the United States of America and the American people for the investigation to run the course, for all the truth to come out,' Rubio said on 'Fox News Sunday.'

Sen. Marco Rubio is encouraging President Trump to let the Russia investigation play out

President Trump tweeted last week Attorney General Jeff Sessions should end the Russia probe

'I am comfortable in saying this: if there was evidence, strong evidence of collusion, I guarantee you it would have been leaked by now,' he added. 'But let's wait for the process to play out.'

His comments come after Trump tweeted last week that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should end the Mueller investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

Asked if he Trump should sit for an interview with Mueller and his team, Rubio said he wouldn't 'pre-judge' if the president declined to do so.

'There are plenty of people who are innocent whose lawyers would tell them not do sit down and answer questions from a prosecutor because there's all sorts of other problems involved in that,' said Rubio, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The president has expressed his eagerness to testify but his legal team has reservations. Mueller is investigating whether Trump obstructed his investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

Trump's team is trying to limit the scope of questions Mueller's team can ask of the president.

One of Trump's personal attorneys, Jay Sekulow, says if Mueller subpoenas the president, they will fight him all the way to the Supreme Court.

Last week, Trump ratcheted up his pressure on Sessions when he tweeted his attorney general 'should' put an end to Mueller's long-runningRussia probe.

'Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now,' the president tweeted. 'Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'

Marco Rubio and Donald Trump ran against one another in the 2016 Republican primary

Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining whether Trump obstructed the Russia investigation

The White House said Trump was not giving Sessions 'an order' with his tweet.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president thinks it's time for the probe to 'come to an end'  but was not instructing Sessions to end it.

'The president's stating his opinion. It's not an order,' she said last week when asked about his tweet at her daily briefing.

But amid calls from senior Republicans for Trump allow the independent probe to continue, Sanders would not state a specific date-certain when it must end  something prosecutors don't commit to in advance.

'We certainly think it should be completed. We'd like it to be completed sooner rather than later. It's gone on for an extensive amount of time. They've still come up with nothing in regards to the president. We'd like to see it come to a close,' she said.
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Donald Campbell's record-breaking speed boat Bluebird was gliding across the water this afternoon just a day after being floated for the first time in more than 50 years.

Bluebird spent 34 years beneath 150ft of water after Campbell, 45, was killed when it flipped and broke in half on Coniston Water on January 4, 1967.

Engineers fully restored the jet-powered boat after it was lifted from the water in 2001. Yesterday engineers floated Bluebird K7 for the first time as Campbell's daughter Gina looked on.

Today the machine completed a test run on Loch Fad on the Isle of Bute in Scotland - at a considerably lower speed than those seen in the 1960s.

Project manager Bill Smith said: 'It went very well - it worked first time out of the box.'

Record-breaking speed boat Bluebird was gliding across the water this afternoon just a day after being floated for the first time in more than 50 years

Bluebird spent 34 years beneath 150ft of water after its pilot, Donald Campbell, 45, was killed when it flipped and broke in half on Coniston Water on January 4, 1967

Today the machine completed a test run on Loch Fad on the Isle of Bute in Scotland - at a considerably lower speed than those seen in the 1960s

Gina Campbell posed with the restored Bluebird K7 yesterday before it took to the water for the first time in more than 50 years off

Project manager Bill Smith said: 'It went very well - it worked first time out of the box'

Bill Smith (pictured far right) restored the Bluebird K7 with a team of engineers. Ted Walsh (left) is the nominated lead driver

Donald Campbell (pictured) remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year

Scenes were tense yesterday as the team struggled to get the Bluebird K7 into the water at Loch Fad, but the renovated craft was afloat before 4pm.

The team hopes to make full displays in a fully-completed vessel within a year following yesterday and today's successful tests.

Having broken eight world speed records on water and land in the 1950s and 1960s, Campbell was attempting to break his own water speed record of 276mph when he was killed.

In the pictures Gina Campbell can be seen clutching Mr Whoppit, the teddy bear mascot of Mr Campbell.

Ms Campbell, who arrived at the lochside in a silver Range Rover with the registration K7 DAD, said yesterday: I cant help but fill up. Shes beautiful. Some people thought it best to leave the wreckage where it lay undisturbed, but I always knew this was the right thing to do. Its what my father wouldve wanted.

It was found floating free in the water after Campbell's world record attempt in 1967, and has been adopted by his daughter ever since.

On Friday Bill Smith spoke of his hopes in re-launching the vessel, he said: 'As long it doesnt fill up with water or sink, Ill be pleased. I cant get too emotional  Im looking at it from an engineering point of view.

We have never launched the boat before. Were up in Scotland for two weeks and we will learn how to launch it, how to fuel it, how to use the fire extinguishers and the radio. It will be driven once were happy and confident we can operate it safely.

The restoration project, involving 14 engineers, began with five years of taking Bluebird apart and cataloguing its parts. About 98 per cent of the original materials have been saved or melted down and welded back on to the boat in other forms.

Restoration engineer Bill Smith (centre) was all smiles after the first test of the iconic Bluebird went successfully

Pictured: the team make the first attempt at re-floating Donald Campbell's iconic Bluebird on the waters of Loch Fad on the Isle of Bute yesterday

Pilot Ted Walsh sits in the cockpit of the iconic Bluebird prior to it being floated on the waters of Loch Fad for the first time in more than fifty years

Donald Campbell was killed in Bluebird after attempting to beat his own world record. was killed when it flipped and broke in half on Coniston Water on January 4, 1967

Mr Smith, 51, the joint leader of the restoration project, said: We took it apart back down to the nuts and bolts, to every component part. Then every part has been cleaned, repaired and put back together. Its been completely without compromise, we wouldnt use the wrong material, we wouldnt use the wrong screw, we wouldnt use the wrong gauge. It is absolutely as it ought to be.

Campbell set a world water speed record of 276.33mph in Bluebird in at Lake Dumbleyung in Australia three years before his death. The current record is 318mph.

While Bluebirds engines will again be heard roaring soon, there will be no attempt to break any records.

Miss Campbell said: After 17 years of really hard work and dedication wouldnt it just be too sad and too silly if, by some dreadful fact, something went wrong?

Initially, Bluebird will simply be dropped by a cradle to float in the water. It will be driven once were happy and confident we can operate it safely, Mr Smith said.
A 16-year-old girl has reunited with the mailman who helped her escape from a three-month sex trafficking ordeal, publicly thanking the postal worker.

Teen Crystal Allen met with mailman Ivan Cristotomo on Thursday in Sacramento, California, where she spoke to the press and described her ordeal of kidnapping, drugging and abuse.

'They made it impossible. They had guard dogs and people that would watch us all the time and not let us leave. I was tied to chairs,' Crystal told KCRA.

Crystal, who lives in Placerville, ran away from a group home and was turned over to a pimp in Sacramento by the 'friend' she left with, her mother said.

Ivan Cristotomo (left) reunited with teen Crystal Allen (right) on Thursday at the Sacramento post office where he works, two months after helping save her from sex traffickers

Cristotomo and Crystal hug as she thanks him for rescuing her on June 8 on his mail route

What followed were three months of beatings, drugging and rape, the teen said.

'I just cried all the time and prayed that I'd get to see my mom again,' she said.

Finally, on June 8, Crystal said she saw an opportunity while in her alleged abductor's car, and jumped out, grabbing one of their phones.

Crisostomo came across the panicked teen as he was completing his mail route.

'I hear this crying, this desperate crying,' the postal worker told Fox 40. 'I saw her hiding behind this kind of bush, kind of tree.'

The father of four said he quickly realized that the girl was trying to escape from something horrible.

'She started to point to her arm, saying, 'They were putting things in me. They were putting things in me. They are coming to get me,'' Crisostomo said.

'They had guard dogs and people that would watch us all the time and not let us leave. I was tied to chairs,' Crystal said

Crisotomo, a father of four, said he quickly realized that the girl was trying to escape from something horrible when he found her crying and hiding behind a bush

Crisostomo helped Crystal call her mom, and then let her sit in his mail truck until sheriff's deputies arrived.

Police say that the neighborhood, Oak Park, is a notoriously high crime area, and that the mailcarrier may have prevented the girl from being further victimized by staying with her.

'What Ivan did was wonderful. He stepped up where a lot of people would've just continued driving down the road, and he made a huge positive impact on this young girl's life,' deputy David Cuneo told KPIX.

Crystal is currently living in a group home and undergoing intense therapy.

There has been no word of any suspects or arrests in the case.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a message from DailyMail.com on Sunday regarding the disposition of the investigation.
The first Guinness brewery in the US in more than 60 years has opened in Maryland but it won't be brewing its famous stout.

The Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House opened on Friday at 3pm in Relay, about 10 miles from Baltimore.

However, Guinness, whose slogan is 'My Goodness, My Guinness, will not be brewing pints of plain. Instead, the brewery will be the home of Guinness Blonde beer and other new Guinness beers created for the US market.

The exact number of beers on tap will vary, but there will typically be more than 15 beers available at one time.

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The first Guinness brewery in the US in more than 60 years, The Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House (pictured), opened in Relay, Maryland, on Friday

However, Guinness will not be brewing its famous stout. Instead, the brewery will be the home of Guinness Blonde beer and other new Guinness beers created for the US market. Pictured: Guinness beers featured at the Guinness brewery in Maryland

Guinness was established in Dublin in 1759 at St James's Gate and was first shipped to the US in October 1817 to South Carolina. Pictured: Guinness Brewmaster Peter Wiens and his team tap a ceremonial firkin in celebration of the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday

'I think Guinness stout is such an iconic stout, it has such strong links back to Dublin and back to Ireland, that it would feel wrong to take it away from Ireland and to brew it over here,' Peter Simpson, the head brewer at the Open Gate Brewery in Dublin, told NPR.

'So it is always going to still be brewed back in Dublin.'

In addition to the Guinness Blonde American Lager offered at the Maryland location, there will be also a cherry stout and a guava wheat beer.

The taproom will fit about 250 people with 92 taps and, on certain days there, will be specialized beers made on the premises. There will also be a 270-person restaurant opening in a few weeks.

The Diageo Beer Company invested about $90million in the facility. It will create about 200 full-time jobs.

According to NPR, the parent company hopes to attract about 300,000 visitors per year.

Guinness was established in Dublin in 1759 at St James's Gate and was first shipped to the US in October 1817 to South Carolina.

The company used to have a brewery in the US in Long Island City, New York, but it closed in 1954 due to Americans craving beers with a lighter flavor.

The company used to have a brewery in the US in Long Island City, New York, but it closed in 1954 due to Americans craving beers with a lighter flavor. Pictured: Beers offered at the Guinness brewery in Maryland

In addition to the Guinness Blonde American Lager offered at the Maryland location, there will be also a cherry stout and a guava wheat beer offered in the 250-person taproom

The new brewery was built on the site of the old Calvert Distillery, which brewed whisky and closed in 2015.

On Friday, Governor Larry Hogan cut a ceremonial ribbon and said he was excited about the new business the new Guinness location would bring to Maryland, NPR reported.

'I'm a strong advocate for new businesses, and as you can probably guess, as an Irishman - and maybe looking at the girth - I have enjoyed a few pints of Guinness in my time,' he said.

The brewery will offer free self-guided tours. Later this summer, it will have guided tours with beer tastings for $10.

Hours of operation are from 3pm to 9pm on weekdays and from noon to 9pm on weekends.
A 12-year-old Chinese girl who police said was kidnapped at a Washington DC airport has been found safe with her parents in New York.

The circumstances surrounding JinJing Ma had befuddled many after the girl disappeared from her Chinese tour group on Thursday.

And now it has been revealed that Ma's parents used a Chinese immigration consultant to get her on the tour.

The parents, who have been in the US for two years, allegedly were trying to get Ma into the US so she could live with them permanently.

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JinJing Ma, the 12-year-old Chinese girl who was reported missing by Washington DC police earlier this week, has been found safely with her parents (pictured together) in New York

Ma was reported missing from Ronald Reagan National Airport on Thursday after she left with an unknown woman, now revealed to be her mother (pictured right at the airport)

Ma was reported missing from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after she became separated from her tour group around 8.15am on Thursday.

After the tour participants were given their passports, Ma left her group and said she was going to the bathroom.

The tour, which was heading for a flight to California, reported her missing when she never returned.

It was then revealed that Ma had left the airport with an unknown woman, now revealed to be her mother, according to WJLA.

Authorities said Ma met with her mother, changed clothes, and then got into an SUV with a New York license plate. Her father then drove them to New York.

An Amber Alert was issued and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority released photos of Ma and the woman she was seen leaving the airport with.

Authorities said Ma met with her mother (pictured together at the airport) and changed clothes before leaving

They then got into a white car (pictured) with New York license plates that was being driven by Ma's father

On Friday morning police said they learned that Ma had been approached by a couple while her tour group was visiting the World Trade Center earlier that week.

It has since been revealed that the man and woman were her parents.

Ma's parents contacted the Demidchik Law Firm in New York after they saw their daughter's Amber Alert on television.

Anna Demidchik, their legal counselor, told CBS News that Ma's parents picked her up at the airport as a result of a 'misunderstanding'.

Demidchik said the FBI arrived at the law firm and met with Ma and her parents on Friday morning.

Authorities released images of a couple now known to be Ma's parents, who were allegedly trying to get Ma into the US so she could live with them permanently

Ma's parents contacted a New York law firm after they saw that an Amber Alert had been issued for their daughter

It appears the incident will not be treated as an abduction and the investigation is ongoing.

Demidchik said the girl, who had been living with relatives in China, is currently in the US on a visa issued for the tour group.

She will be staying with her parents, who had not seen her in at least two years.

Both Reagan Airport and the Washington Airports Authority issued statements revealing that Ma was safe.

'We are grateful that JinJing is safe and with family,' said Authority Police Chief David Huchler.

'Our goal was to locate her to ensure she was safe and unharmed, and we accomplished that goal.'
Charlotte Brown was hurled from a speedboat on the Thames and died from cold water immersion during a date

As she arrived at the Old Bailey, Roz Wickens felt a glimmer of tentative hope pierce the debilitating grief she had been living with ever since her daughter, Charlotte, died more than two-and-a-half years earlier.

The trial of the man charged with killing her was about to start  and Roz believed she might finally learn the truth of what had happened in Charlotte's final hours, giving some sort of closure to help her cope with her crippling loss.

The stricken look on her family liaison officer's face as he approached her outside the court was the first sign she might not get it, and his subsequent explanation one that Roz could scarcely have anticipated.

Jack Shepherd, 30, had been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence after taking 24-year-old Charlotte on his speedboat on their first date.

Drunk, he drove the vessel erratically along the Thames in the dark before handing control to Charlotte, who died when the boat hit an obstacle and capsized.

Now, rather than face justice, Roz learned he had gone on the run. And as she grappled with this devastating news, it became clear his decision to abscond was by no means the extent of his audacity.

After the court decided the trial should go ahead in his absence, Shepherd, a self-proclaimed Casanova who had bought his speedboat with the sole purpose of seducing women, kept in regular contact with his defence team.

The family of Charlotte Brown (from left) father Graham Brown, sister Katie and mum Roz Wickens arrive at the Old Bailey in London

Though in hiding, he sent messages to his solicitor which she replied to on her laptop from court, updating her client as she sat within spitting distance of the family whose lives he had destroyed.

'I was shocked and appalled,' says Roz, 53, a council careline operator. 'I kept thinking: 'Is this allowed?'

Charlotte's father Graham Brown, a civil servant, adds: 'We were looking at each other in disbelief. He seemed to be afforded more rights being absent than if he were there.'

Nonetheless, the evidence against him was such that last month, after a four-week trial, the website designer  who has married and fathered a child since Charlotte's death in December 2015  was convicted in his absence and sentenced to six years.

Web designer Jack Shepherd seen leaving the Old Bailey had absconded while out on bail

Today, with a warrant taken out for his arrest and a global manhunt under way to find him, Shepherd is still a free man  and Roz, Graham and their two elder daughters, Vicky, 31, and Katie, 29, are left floundering for answers.

Talking to the Mail from her home in Clacton, Essex, Roz's grief is palpable: 'No one can ever understand my anguish and heartache. We wanted Shepherd to be there, so he could see us grieving and get a measure of what he did.

'And we still don't know the truth. All we have is a tiny portion of his version of events from the witness statement that was played in court.

'I would ask him to find it in his heart to at least tell us what happened.'

In an age of smartphones and digital surveillance, and with Shepherd going so far as to telephone his solicitors for daily updates after being charged with manslaughter, how on earth has he managed to remain a fugitive?

Charlotte Brown  Charli to her friends  had met Shepherd on a dating website a month before their ill-fated date.

A sensible English Literature graduate, she had only ever had one serious boyfriend, says her mother, and was more interested in her promising new job as a business development consultant than pursuing an eventful love life.

Shepherd, meanwhile, despite his successful career and well-spoken demeanour, was a serial dater who, given that he is now married with a two-year-old child, had quite probably already got his wife pregnant by the time of his date with Charlotte.

He lived on a houseboat on the Thames in West London, where his Fletcher Arrowflyte GTO speedboat, bought on Gumtree a few months earlier to 'pull women'  as he put it to police  was moored.

Before his date with Charlotte, he'd already taken some ten women out in it and had twice been stopped by marine police for exceeding the 12-knot limit and not wearing life jackets.

This was the speedboat used by Jack Shepherd which capsized on the river Thames in December 2015 leading to the death of Charlotte Brown

On December 8, 2015, he and Charlotte had dinner at a restaurant in The Shard, drinking two bottles of wine, before Shepherd suggested they take a taxi back to his home to go on a late-night ride on his speedboat.

He also bought more wine to drink on board.

Haunting video footage retrieved from Charlotte's smartphone shows the flickering lights of the capital reflected in the murky water as they sped along at twice the 12-knot limit. She can be heard shouting over the thrum of the engine, 'Oh my God, you're going so fast!'

Shepherd, who grew up in Devon, where his divorced parents still live, said that after he tore past the Houses of Parliament, he handed control of the 14ft boat to Charlotte.

It's a claim accepted in court, but one Roz, now divorced from Graham and married to Mark, 57, an ambulance serviceman, disputes.

'I think Shepherd made that up to throw the scent off himself,' she says.

'I just don't think Charlotte would have agreed to drive the boat. She'd never even been on the back of a motorbike, let alone in a speedboat, and she wasn't the type to take that sort of risk.'

Roz stresses, too, that her daughter wasn't anywhere near as intoxicated as Shepherd, who has said he has no recollection of the boat capsizing: 'Messages she wrote to her sister that evening were coherent. It was he who was completely drunk.'

At 11.45 pm, the boat hit a submerged log shortly before Wandsworth Bridge and capsized, flinging both of them into the water.

After Shepherd shouted for help, the police marine unit found him clinging to the upturned boat, but it wasn't until 12.10 am that rescuers located Charlotte.

She was rushed to St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London, but never regained consciousness. She was pronounced dead of cold-water immersion at 1.55 am on December 9.

Still drunk, Shepherd was not able even to give police his date's name. Roz says: 'Apparently he was still slurring his words for hours afterwards, and police had to find out who she was from photographs on his Facebook page.'

ROZ learned of her daughter's death at 10.45 am, when two officers turned up at her door. 'Being told was horrendous,' she says, her voice dropping.

'I struggled to take in what had happened, and fainted when I went to the hospital to identify her body. It's something I still have flashbacks about.'

Treated at first as a witness rather than a suspect, Shepherd tearfully admitted to police that neither he nor Charlotte had been wearing life jackets, that he did not tell Charlotte where the jackets were kept and 'did not even ask if she could swim'.

When we learned Shepherd had been drinking and speeding but that no offences had been committed, we felt utter disbelief

Not long after, Shepherd moved from his houseboat into a West London flat with the girl he had got pregnant  a childhood sweetheart whom he married a month after Charlotte's death. The couple later moved to Wales, where his wife has relatives.

Shepherd's efforts to distance himself, literally and figuratively, from the tragedy were perhaps an attempt to block out his involvement in Charlotte's death.

Nonetheless, he admitted suffering 'nightmares and flashbacks', and he struggled to find work because of his association with the case.

Charlotte's father, meanwhile, grew increasingly convinced his daughter's demise was more than an accident.

'When we learned Shepherd had been drinking and speeding but that no offences had been committed, we felt utter disbelief,' he says.

On the waterways, there is no equivalent charge to dangerous driving. Due to the complexities of the case, the investigation was passed from Wandsworth CID to Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command.

It wasn't until last September that Shepherd was charged with Charlotte's death. He denied manslaughter by gross negligence and was given unconditional bail.

But in March this year, after attending three preliminary hearings, his defiance appeared to buckle and he disappeared. His website and Facebook account were deleted, his phone disconnected and even contact with his mother severed.

However, Shepherd remained in communication with his lawyers and apparently told them in mid-May that he was not planning to attend his trial.

The Crown Prosecution Service learned this only a week before Shepherd was due before the Old Bailey  and Charlotte's distraught parents knew nothing until July 2  the morning the trial started.

'We were devastated,' says Graham. 'Part of the healing process is to understand what has happened. He robbed us of that.'

Roz says that from the start of the trial, she noticed Shepherd's solicitor typing at her laptop in court, but assumed she was taking notes. It was the third week before police told her that she had in fact been conversing with her client.

'I was flabbergasted,' says Roz. 'Our family liaison officer, Gavin Seeley, told us that this contact had compromised the trial and we weren't allowed in the court for a few hours while the judge decided if it was acceptable.'

When the Mail invited Shepherd's solicitors to comment on the claim they had been sending messages to Shepherd from court, a spokesman said: 'I can confirm that we were in touch with the client throughout the trial process and we informed the court of this before the trial started.

'This was entirely legitimate and appropriate and in no way compromised proceedings. I cannot see how it can be suggested otherwise.'

Indeed, astonishing as it might sound, they have done nothing untoward. 'Advising a client to abscond would amount to professional misconduct,' says Andrew Katzen, a partner at criminal law firm Hickman & Rose.

'However, lawyers have professional duties of confidentiality to clients which prevent them revealing a client's whereabouts in circumstances where the client wants this information to remain secret.'

As the trial continued, a portrait grew of Shepherd as a self-serving miscreant. His boat, the jury heard, exhibited 'general deterioration', a 'poorly maintained' kill cord to stop the vessel in the event of emergency, and faulty steering.

Witness Amy Warner, whom Shepherd had met through a dating app, revealed she had been uncomfortable in Shepherd's boat because of the speed at which he drove it, and that she had asked him to 'slow down'.

Even Shepherd's legal team struggled to paint him as a respectable member of society.

'Part of his team's defence was that he had a two-year-old child to look after,' says Roz. 'We can't be sure that his wife was already pregnant when Charlotte died, but it seems highly likely.'

Shepherd's barrister, Stephen Vullo QC, said 'cowardice' meant Shepherd simply couldn't face seeing Charlotte's family from the dock  an excuse that Roz finds hard to swallow.

'He had already seen us at earlier hearings so it doesn't make sense,' she says.

'Before sentencing, his defence handed the judge a four-page letter from him. We weren't allowed to see the letter but I suspect it said something to the effect of: 'Please don't give me a bad sentence because I'm already suffering.'

If that was the case, the judge wasn't swayed, declaring that Shepherd had a 'totally cavalier attitude to safety', that he 'should never have allowed Charlotte to drive the boat at any time' and 'must have known the river potentially contained hazards'.

Graham considers Shepherd's sentence 'fair and reasonable'.

Our beautiful daughter's life has been taken by the actions of a selfish, negligent man

Roz, determined her daughter should not have died in vain, is lobbying the Government for the introduction of 'Charlotte's Law', which would force pleasure boats to be subject to approved safety measures.

The family posted a petition on the Government website at the weekend calling for the introduction of speed and drink-drive limits, compulsory wearing of life jackets, safety training and vessel safety standards on waterways.

'The police want this legislation introduced because the waterways aren't policeable,' she says. 'There are minimal bylaws and manslaughter through gross negligence  and nothing in between.'

She says she has yet to hear a shred of remorse from Shepherd. 'The police are in contact with his mum and his wife, who has said she had a phone call from him the day before the trial but hasn't spoken to him since. That's all we know.'

Even now that he is a convicted man, his solicitors are not obliged to disclose information that might lead to his capture.

'A lawyer's obligation to maintain confidentiality will almost always override any sense of civic duty in assisting the police,' says Katzen.

How long Shepherd will manage to stay hidden remains to be seen.

Graham Brown beseeches anyone with information that could lead to his capture to contact the police. 'Our beautiful daughter's life has been taken by the actions of a selfish, negligent man,' he says.

'Jack Shepherd needs to be brought back to justice and atone for what he has done.'

The family's petition to change the law can be viewed here
Police are baffled after a drive-by fireworks attack on a crowded bar patio.

One person was injured after suspects threw fireworks from a moving SUV onto the outdoor patio if the Rankin Vault Cocktail Lounge in Asheville, North Carolina at 1.28am on Wednesday.

Police said the injury was non-life-threatening. The victim has not been publicly named.

Cops appealed to the public for information in the bizarre case, posting a surveillance video of the attack.

The attack occurred on this patio in Asheville, North Carolina early on Wednesday

Unsuspecting patrons enjoy their drinks as a small object trailing sparks whizzes overhead

A light colored four-door SUV passes the bar heading north on Rankin Avenue

It shows unsuspecting patrons of the cocktail bar enjoying their drinks as a small object trailing sparks whizzes overhead.

A light colored four-door SUV passes the bar heading north on Rankin Avenue.

Police believe the suspect vehicle may be a Kia Sorento or a similar type of SUV.

A glow is seen emanating from near the entrance to the bar as the patrons outside turn to see what the disturbance is.

Suddenly, the firework goes off in a shower of sparks and smoke, creating a commotion on the patio.

A glow is seen emanating from near the entrance to the bar as the patrons look on

The firework goes off in a shower of sparks and smoke, creating a commotion on the patio

Patrons were seen fleeing the area in terror, unsure of what had just happened

Patrons were seen fleeing the area in terror, unsure of what had just happened.

'We were all in shock,' Shana Loconsole, who was smoking on the patio when the happened, told WLOS.

'Then the firework, or the mortar, came out the window' of the SUV, she recalled.

Loconsole said that the woman who was injured in the attack was 'gushing blood'.

'I mean, I'm still really shook up,' Loconsole said. 'It took me a whole day to kind of recover. [Wednesday], I spent the whole day thinking about that woman.'

Anyone with information about the attack is urged to contact Asheville-Buncombe Crime Stoppers anonymously at 828-255-5050 for a cash reward.
A British Airways worker has accused the airline of sexism after he was sacked for having a 'man bun'.

Sid Ouared, 26, claims his contract was terminated after bosses demanded he cut his locks because it breached uniform policy.

The former Heathrow customer service worker said one of his bosses even pulled him aside and told him: 'Your hair is like a girl's hair.'

Sid Ouared, 26, from London, has accused British Airways of sexism after he was fired two weeks into his job for having a man bun

The former customer service worker at Heathrow airport was told by BA bosses to cut his hair, put it in a turban or turn it into dreadlocks- none of which he wanted to do

He said: 'They basically said, 'cut it, put it in a turban like a Sikh, or turn it into dreadlocks like a Rastafarian'. I am not any of those things and I can't believe that they would make me wear my hair like something that I am not.'

The Londoner, who had his contract terminated last month after just two weeks in the job, criticised British Airways for being 'stuck in the 1970s'.

He claims he suffered discrimination for having a hairstyle deemed appropriate for women but unsuitable for men.

The airline told Mr Ouared's hairstyle breached company policy which only allows men to wear their hair in a ponytail with dreadlocks however women are allowed many different styles

He was told he was not allowed to wear his hair in a man bun because 'only women can have their hair in a bun'

Mr Ouared, whose role included checking in luggage, said: 'I was told I can't have my hair in a bun because only women can have their hair in a bun.

'So because I'm not a female, I wasn't permitted to have my hair in that style. It was absolute sexism. I was even told by a member of management at BA, 'your hair is like a girl's hair'.

'Thousands of women who work for BA and who worked alongside me had their hair exactly like mine. Yet I'm discriminated against for it.'

Celebrities including Orlando Bloom (left) and Leonardo DiCaprio (right) have worn their hair in a stylish man bun

Stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom have had man buns, and Mr Ouared said his hairstyle was not raised during the 'long' recruitment process.

He even tried to compromise by tucking his hair under his collar to make it less noticeable.

BA's uniform policy says ponytails for men 'are only permitted to secure dreadlocks'. Women, however, are allowed a number of styles, including a bun, ponytail or single plait.

An employment law expert says that dress codes must be applied equally to both men and women

Emma O'Leary, an employment law expert at ELAS, said dress codes must be applied equally to men and women.

She said: 'The company would need to justify why a man could not have long hair and be tied back in the same way that a woman can.'

A British Airways spokesman said: 'We don't comment on individual cases.'
Members of the Ku Klux Klan-affiliated hate group, Unite the Right, may receive special accommodations from Washington, D.C.'s Metro for their rally next weekend.

According to ABC7 DC, Metro's union, ATU Local 689, have been told that the hate group will be provided three private Metro rail cars as well as a police escort that will stop at the Foggy Bottom Metro Station on August 11 and 12.

The group is expected to march through the streets of D.C. before arriving at Lafayette Park for a rally.

The ATU confirms that they 'have been informed and are encouraged to follow safety protocol in the presence of this hate group if the rumored special accommodations General Manager Paul Wiedefeld plans to give are true.'

The union's president, Jackie Jeter, said in a statement 'Local 689 is proud to provide transit to everyone for the many events we have in D.C. including the March of Life, the Women's March and Black Lives Matters.'

Protestors and white nationalists fight each other outside of Emancipation park at the Unite the Right rally on August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The group is holding a rally on the one-year anniversary of the violent clashes in DC on August 12 and 13 next week

According to a report the city's Metro is considering allotting the group three private cars with a police escort, which will stop at the Foggy Bottom station (left). The group is expected to march through DC and finalize with a rally at Lafayette Park (right)

'We draw the line at giving special accommodation to hate groups and hate speech, especially considering that the courts granted Metro the ability to deny ads on buses and trains that are 'issue-oriented,' we find it hypocritical for Mr. Wiedefeld to make these unprecedented special accommodations for a hate group.'

Following the allegations that Unite the Right is definitively receiving special transit accommodations devoted just to them, Metro released a statement regarding the security plans that have not-yet been set in stone.

'As we do for all events of this nature, Metro is working collaboratively with law enforcement to ensure safe travel for our customers and employees. Transit Police are engaged in ongoing discussions with MPD, the lead agency for the Aug. 12 event, as well as Virginia State Police and others as to how to keep everyone safe on that day. While details of the plan are security sensitive at this stage, I can tell you that it has *not* been finalized.'

Meanwhile ATU Local 689 says more than 80 per cent of their members are people of color.

The rally is expected to mark the organization's one-year anniversary since their deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A scene from Charlottsville, August 12, 2017: White nationalists stand ready to fight ANTIFA and protestors at the steps of Emancipation park during the Unite the Right Rally

White nationalists punch a protester in his head behind Emancipation park during the Unite the Right Rally on August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville. About 400 Unite the Right members are expected to march through DC, with an unknown amount of counter-protestors

That rally saw a man who was linked to the group ram his car into a group of people killing one woman, and injuring several others.

Organizers wanted to return to the scene of last year's bloody protests in Virgina, but were denied permits.

The D.C. rally is expected to draw around 400 marchers near the White House, with an unknown amount of counter protesters.

The National Park Service approved organizer Jason Kessler's application for an Aug. 12 'white civil rights' rally at Lafayette Square, near the White House, but it is unclear if an official permit has been granted as of yet.
A deranged man wreaked havoc at a Manhattan restaurant when he jumped out of the kitchen's freezer and tried to attack employees with a knife shouting 'Away, Satan! Away', cops say.

The unidentified man led his outburst at Sarabeth's Restaurant's on the Upper West Side where he somehow emerged from the walk-in freezer Sunday morning around 11am.

After the 54-year-old shocked the employees and charged at them with a knife, he was wrestled to the floor.

He lost consciousnesses then suffered a heart attack in the scuffle, according to the Times.

Officers from the New York Police Department said a man, who jumped out of a restaurant freezer in Manhattan and tried to attack employees with a knife, has died. Officers are seen entering the restaurant on Sunday

The unidentified man was inside the freezer at Sarabeth's Restaurant (pictured) on the Upper West Side and jumped out yelling 'Away, Satan! Away'

Employees of the business told officers that the 54-year-old man jumped out of the walk-in freezer Sunday morning around 11am

According to ABC 7, when the workers opened the door during the restaurant's brunch hour, the man began fighting with the frightened employees until they were able to finally restrain him.

Police said the man suffered a medical emergency, later confirmed to be cardiac arrest, and he was rushed to St Luke's Hospital.

The man, who was from Arizona, was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

The man 'made statements consistent with him being mentally unstable,' cops said to West Wide Rag.

It's still unclear how the man ended up in the freezer.

No one inside the restaurant was hurt during the incident. Following the attack, the restaurant closed, but they were still accepting delivery orders.

When the workers opened the door, the man began fighting with the frightened employees until they were able to finally restrain him

Police said the man suffered a heart attack. He was rushed to St Luke's Hospital where he died
A pair of stunning identical twins have opted to lead identical lives after choosing to dress the exact same - and they even work together as air hostesses.

Not only is it hard to tell Anna and Laura Perry apart but they also enjoy the exact same food, clothes, car, and even opt to work the same shifts at work.

The 23-year-olds spend every minute of every day together and they wouldn't have it any other way.

A pair of stunning identical twins have opted to lead identical lives after choosing to dress the exact same - and they even work together as air hostesses

Laura and Anna - who are also best friends - enjoy dressing the exact same for work, and although there are slight physical differences between them, they claim passengers at Virgin Atlantic are always left baffled and think they're 'seeing double'.

The twins, from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, said: 'We rarely do anything without each other and we are definitely identical in every single way.

'When we both decided to apply to work for Virgin Atlantic we both said we wouldn't accept the job unless the other twin got the role too.

The twins, from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, said: 'We rarely do anything without each other and we are definitely identical in every single way'

Laura and Anna - who are also best friends - enjoy dressing the exact same for work, and although there are slight physical differences between them, they claim passengers at Virgin Atlantic are always left baffled and think they're 'seeing double'

'Being air hostesses together is a dream come true and people are always asking us if they're seeing double which is funny.

'They will say things like 'I swear I just saw you down the end of the plane, how did you get here so quick.'

'It's amazing being able to share everything together as we're best friends and enjoy exactly the same things.

'We chose to dress the same most of the day as we love being identical twins and being approached by strangers who are baffled by our similarities.

'We even love the same food and interests so you'll often find us snacking on the same things and shopping together.'

Anna and Laura - who still live in their family home despite flying from Heathrow Airport each week - will swap shifts with other members of Virgin Atlantic crew to ensure they're on the same flights.

Anna and Laura - who still live in their family home in Birmingham despite flying from Heathrow Airport each week - will swap shifts with other members of Virgin Atlantic crew to ensure they're on the same flights

Anna and Laura Perry as children in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham

Anna said: 'We love flying together as we're able to travel the world with each other and share the most amazing experiences.

'We love visiting San Francisco and seeing all the sights on our days off.

'Me and Laura are basically the exact same person and when wearing our uniforms it's crazy how many people approach us about being twins.

'We love all of the attention being identical twins brings and we feel so lucky to have our dream job together too.

Anna and Laura said they 'love' all the attention they get when they're out together

The pair have recently started documented their identical lives and adventures on social media after being inspired by other sets of twins

'Growing up we've always been very similar and although we can tell physical differences between us, most people can't.'

The pair have recently started documented their identical lives and adventures on social media.

Anna said: 'We noticed other twins on Instagram setting up pages about their identical lives so we decided to do the same.

'It was only recently set up but the main purpose of it is so we can look back on our travels together.

Before landing the plum job at Richard Branson's airline, the twins worked for Thomas Cook - and would often confuse passengers midair

The pair have travelled all over the world together while working for Virgin, including the US which they love

'We've been to some amazing locations in the past two years with Virgin, a lot of them tend to be US based.

'We're both having the time of our lives and it's even more special being able to share it all with Laura.

'If anyone doesn't understand why we enjoy dressing and leading the same lives we just say 'it's a twin thing.'

'We're both having the time of our lives and it's even more special being able to share it all with Laura' Anna said

Once they left school at 16, they went on to study travel and tourism together at college and then promptly got matching jobs on the front desk of a hotel

Before landing the plum job at Richard Branson's airline, the twins worked for Thomas Cook - and would often confuse passengers midair.

As children their mum dressed them the same and they shared the same group of friends at the same schools.

Once they left school at 16, they went on to study travel and tourism together at college and then promptly got matching jobs on the front desk of a hotel.

But their dream was always to work as air stewardesses together and their wish was finally granted when a hotel customer turned out to be a recruiter.

Anna and Laura Perry, 23, at Universal Studios in California

The pair at Hollywood Hills in California in matching leggings and a crop top
The worst airline for punctuality was yesterday named as Wizz Air  with planes taking off an average of 23 minutes late.

The Hungarian firm blamed factors including bad winter weather as it came bottom in a table of the 44 busiest airlines operating from the UK in 2017.

Norwegian Air Shuttle (21.7 minutes) was the second worst followed by Vueling Airlines and Thomas Cook Airlines (both 21.1 minutes).

The worst airline for punctuality was yesterday named as Wizz Air  with planes taking off an average of 23 minutes late

Scandinavian Airlines was the most punctual, with jets typically taking off seven minutes behind schedule. Aer Lingus (nine minutes) was the second best followed by Air France (ten minutes), according to an analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data.

The average delay across all flights was 15 minutes.

The table features the 44 airlines with at least 2,000 scheduled flights from the UK last year.

The ten most delayed companies Wizz Air, 22.9mins Norwegian Air Shuttle, 21.7mins =Vueling Airlines, 21.1mins =Thomas Cook Airlines, 21.1mins BMI Regional, 21mins Aurigny Air Services, 20.1mins Norwegian Air International, 19.3mins =Eurowings, 19.2mins =Turkish Airlines, 19.2mins Air Portugal, 19.1mins Advertisement

Average delay figures take into account every flight that operated, including those that were on time. Cancelled services were excluded.

BA was ninth best in the punctuality table with delays averaging 11 minutes and 30 seconds. Virgin Atlantic was 18th (13.3 minutes), Ryanair 24th (15.6 minutes) and EasyJet 33rd (18.2 minutes).

A Wizz Air spokesman said: A number of issues specific to the UK, including airport infrastructure, airspace congestion and slot restrictions contribute to a significantly worse on-time performance of our UK routes compared to the rest of our network.

She claimed disruption was also caused by particularly severe winter weather last year and added that the airline is taking measures to improve punctuality, such as basing eight aircraft in the UK to reduce exposure to inbound delays. Norwegian Air Shuttles UK flights mainly consist of short-haul services from Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Its average delay of 21.7 minutes does not take into account most of Norwegians long-haul flights from the UK, which are operated by a British subsidiary. A Norwegian spokesman said frequent air traffic control strikes across Europe and adverse weather invariably impact punctuality and are beyond the control of airlines.

He added: We do everything possible to ensure that flights operate to allow passengers to reach their destination as soon as possible. Norwegian is committed to keep improving punctuality.

Norwegian Air Shuttle (21.7 minutes) was the second worst followed by Vueling Airlines and Thomas Cook Airlines (both 21.1 minutes)

The CAA said punctuality clearly matters to airline passengers and it publishes the performance of carriers to allow people to make informed choices about which airline to fly with. Passengers on delayed flights from UK airports are entitled to assistance and compensation depending on the cause and length of disruption.

When flights are delayed for more than two hours, airlines have to provide free access to phone calls or emails, meals and refreshments, as well as hotel accommodation if an overnight stay is required.

Passengers can also claim compensation when flights are delayed over three hours unless there are extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather or a security alert. Payouts range from 223 to 535.

Rory Boland, of Which? Travel, advised delayed passengers to make sure you make a claim for the compensation that you are entitled to. He added: Airlines now need to do the right thing and introduce automatic compensation. Passengers should not have to jump through hoops to claim back the money they are owed.

Airline association BAR UK said delays were extremely costly to companies, which were working to minimise disruption.
Britain's exports around the world boomed to a record 616 billion last year, official figures have revealed.

Ministers last night heralded the growth surge, which shows the trade deficit is narrowing, as a vote of confidence in the country ahead of Brexit.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said Britain was continuing to defy expectations two years on from the referendum vote to leave the EU.

Figures show that 55 per cent of exports in 2017 were to countries outside of the EU and have seen growth in recent years

The figures showed that 55 per cent of exports in 2017 were to countries outside the European Union, with the US representing almost a fifth of sales.

Overall exports of goods rose by 13 per cent to 339billion, while services increased by 7 per cent to 277billion.

The total trade deficit  the difference between UK exports and imports  narrowed by 5billion to 25.8billion.

The US remained the UKs top export market, buying over 112billion worth of goods and services in 2017, an increase of 8 per cent on the year before.

Other top markets included Germany, France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Exports to Germany totalled 56.8billion last year  the second highest figure after the US. For France the total was 40.4billion, the Netherlands 39billion and Ireland 34billion.

British exports to China jumped to 22billion, a 29 per cent rise from 2016. It is now the UKs sixth largest export market, accounting for 3.6 per cent of sales last year compared with less than 1 per cent in 1999.

Trade with India also increased, with the UK exporting 6.7billion there in 2017, up nearly a fifth from 5.7billion in 2016.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox (pictured) said Britain was continuing to defy expectations two years on from the referendum vote to leave the EU

The fastest growing export market for the UK since 2010 was Oman, with sales in goods and services rising 354 per cent to 3billion.

This was followed by Macedonia, which grew by 318 per cent to 1billion and then Kazakhstan which was up by 210 per cent to 2billion.

Dr Fox, who has just returned from a nine-day trip around the world to boost trade, said: British goods remain in global demand as exports to non-EU countries continue to grow.

It shows the confidence the world has in our goods and is important as 90 per cent of [growth in] global trade will come from outside EU.

As an international economic department, we have a dynamic and experienced team who will negotiate free trade deals and make a success of Brexit.

Were also supporting UK businesses in exporting more and talking to international businesses on why we should be the top destination for investment.

The International Trade Secretary began his latest mission in Washington a fortnight ago, before flying to San Francisco and then Tokyo.

Liam Fox met with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and described their meeting as the 'most positive' he has had in his latest mission

He said the talks in Japan were among the most positive he has had. While there he met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the countrys economy minister Toshimitsu Motegi and local business leaders.

Brexit supporters last night said the latest trade statistics should be another nail in the Project Fear coffin.

Remainers had claimed that exports would suffer if the UK backed leaving the EU.

Tory MP Anne Main said: This is really encouraging news and highlights the confidence countries all across the world have in our markets and goods.

The overwhelming majority of future growth will come from outside the EU.

We should grasp the opportunity of Brexit and expand our trade with the rest of the world.

This is another nail in the Project Fear coffin which should have been dead and buried a long time ago. The International Monetary Fund has said that 90 per cent of growth in the next decade will be outside the EU.
One-year-old William Mead (pictured with mother Melissa) died from the condition in Treliske Hospital, near Truro in Cornwall after GPs and other staff missed the warning signs

A text message warning system which alerts doctors to cases of sepsis is revolutionising the fight against the killer disease.

Pioneered by a leading teaching hospital, the system has led to a seven-fold increase in the number of patients getting life-saving drugs.

The alerts have proved so successful during a two-year pilot that NHS bosses plan to expand the system to other hospitals.

Only last Friday new figures showed the number of patients dying from 'silent killer' sepsis in English hospitals had jumped by a third in two years. Researchers blamed over-crowded wards and staffing shortages, but NHS officials insisted the rise was mostly down to better classification.

Sepsis occurs when the body over-reacts to an everyday infection or virus. It is commonly triggered by a skin infection, chest infection, pneumonia or the flu.

The illness is notoriously difficult to diagnose and patients' risk of death significantly increases for every hour they are not given antibiotics.

The alert system developed by Cambridge University Hospitals works by constantly analysing patients' observations, as recorded by staff on handheld devices. These include temperature, pulse, blood pressure and level of consciousness which are taken at various stages as patients are assessed in A&E.

If the observations suggest a patient might have sepsis, a text-message warning appears on the hand-held device of the doctor or nurse looking after them.

Doctors at Cambridge University say the system is undoubtedly saving lives. They are now working alongside NHS England to roll it out in other hospitals.

There are 250,000 cases of sepsis in the UK each year and it claims 44,000 lives, meaning one in six patients will die. The Mail has been campaigning to improve the care of patients with sepsis since 2016, following the tragic case of one-year-old William Mead.

He died from the condition in Treliske Hospital, near Truro in Cornwall after GPs and other staff missed the warning signs.

Sepsis occurs when the body over-reacts to an everyday infection or virus. It is commonly triggered by a skin infection, chest infection, pneumonia or the flu (stock image)

His mother Melissa Mead praised the alert system's potential to save lives. 'If you've got a seven-fold increase in patients receiving antibiotics within an hour, that speaks volumes,' she said. 'It's a wonderful thing. The blueprint has been written by clinicians and people on the front-line and they know what works.'

The only way for doctors to diagnose sepsis is to closely monitor patients' breathing, temperature, blood pressure, blood oxygen and alertness.

But many patients who go to A&E are seen by different doctors and nurses who take different measurements. This means no one health professional is looking at all the measurements together, and checking to see if they have worsened.

Cambridge University Hospitals Trust introduced the system in the A&E unit of its main hospital Addenbrookes in August 2016. In July 2015, only 11 per cent of patients with possible sepsis were given antibiotics within an hour of arriving at A&E.

This had increased to 76 per cent by August 2016. Since then the figure has ranged from 72 to 86 per cent.

Dr Sian Coggle, an infectious diseases consultant who is the trust's clinical lead for sepsis, said: 'It's not just lives saved, it's the whole morbidity associated with severe sepsis. It's going to intensive care and then it having a much bigger impact on somebody's life.'

Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust charity, said: 'It's fantastic that Addenbrookes are building a system that draws clinicians' attention to the warning signs of sepsis according to accepted national scoring systems.'

Symptoms of sepsis include a high or low body temperature, chills and shivering, rapid breathing and a fast heartbeat. Children under five may also have blue or mottled skin and be difficult to wake.

Without antibiotics and other treatment, sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and death.

A patient is 8 per cent more likely to die if they wait more than one hour before being given antibiotics after arriving in A&E. If they wait more than three hours, their risk of death goes up by 24 per cent.

Professor Tony Young, of NHS England, said: 'We are working harder than ever to spread the learning from cutting-edge local solutions further across the NHS.'

Figures compiled by Imperial College London showed sepsis was the cause of 15,722 deaths either in hospital or within 30 days of discharge, between April 2016 and April 2017. Thousands of other patients die in the community, in their own homes or care homes.
The cost to dismantle the USS Enterprise will top $1 billion without Congressional action on the matter, a new report warns.

The Government Accountability Office issued the report on Thursday, saying Congressional oversight is needed to resolve conflicting nuclear regulatory jurisdiction in the matter.

The Navy's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Enterprise was commissioned in 1961, and built at a cost of $3.9 billion, in current dollars.

The Enterprise was the first and only Enterprise-class carrier ever built, and the longest naval vessel ever constructed the world. The carrier sailed more than 1 million miles over 51 years of service.

The Enterprise was the first and only Enterprise-class carrier ever built, and the longest naval vessel ever constructed the world. It is seen above in 2011

Since she was decommissioned last year, the Enterprise has been awaiting strip-down and dismantling at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington state.

Now, the GAO warns that the 'unprecedented' undertaking of dismantling and disposing of the ship could cost between $1 billion and $1.55 billion.

Under the current plan, the work on the ship's nuclear components, including the eight nuclear reactors that powered the carrier, is to be carried out by Navy workers at the Puget Sound Shipyard, with the non-nuclear components handled by a private contractor.

The GAO estimates that private contractors could do the entire job, including the nuclear components, at a cost of $750 million to $1.4 billion.

The Enterprise is seen prior to decommissioning at Naval Station Norfolk. The cost to dismantle the carrier is set to top $1 billion without Congressional action

However, a disagreement exists between the Naval Reactors office and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as to which department would oversee the fully commercial scenario, according to the GAO.

'Naval Reactors officials assert that NRC's regulatory authority should apply to the full commercial option. NRC disagrees with this position,' the GAO report says.

The watchdog agency urged Congress to exercise its oversight and require Naval Reactors to work with NRC to break the deadlock.

Under the partial-privatization plan, nuclear waste from the ship was set for disposal at the Department of Energys Hanford low-level radioactive waste disposal site in the state of Washington.

Under the fully commercial plan, it is unclear from the GAO report where any nuclear waste from the ship would ultimately be disposed.
Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg has revealed her daughter India is branded with Nxivm leader Keith Raniere's initials.

Oxenberg has spent the past year trying to bring down the cult in hopes of getting her 27-year-old daughter away from the organization, leader Keith Raniere and his right-hand woman Allison Mack.

In an interview with Megyn Kelly, set to air Monday night on Dateline, the actress discussed the moment she learned her daughter had been branded with the initials of Raniere and Mack.

'I was horrified,' Oxenberg said in a clip from the interview.

Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg has revealed in an interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly that her daughter India is branded with Nxivm leader Keith Raniere's initials

When asked if her daughter had ever been branded with the marking that 'slaves' were forced to have in the cult's secret organization known as DOS, Oxenberg said: 'Yeah she did'.

'She did and I said, "are you aware of what you're branded with?" And she said, "some Latin symbol".

'So it's very possible she was told it was a Latin symbol because a lot of the girls were not told it was Keith's  and possibly Allison's  initials.'

Oxenberg added: 'She said it was character building.'

Kelly then asked Oxenberg what it was like to see that symbol branded on her child.

'As the mother of a daughter, I can't imagine. You look at their beautiful skin, their beautiful bodies that you've tried to raise in a way that wont be corrupted and to think some man put his brand on there. What does that do to you?' Kelly asked.

Oxenberg simply stated that she was 'horrified.'

Oxenberg has spent the past year trying to bring down the cult in hopes of getting her daughter India (above in 2007) away from Nxivm, leader Keith Raniere and Allison Mack

The Dynasty star says her 27-year-old daughter India was branded with Keith Raniere and Allison Mack's initials. Pictured above is the branding on one of the women

She admitted to feeling 'horrendous guilt' at having introduced her daughter to the cult in the first place.

Oxenberg had initially taken India to a meeting for a Nxivm motivational course back in 2011 after her daughter wanted to try her hand at being an entrepreneur.

While she ended up distancing her from the group, India became immersed and eventually moved to the group's headquarters.

'I brought her in. And that's why I feel responsible for getting her out... At first I felt horrendous guilt that I had participated in bringing my daughter into an organization that was this deviant and dangerous,' she said.

'Then I started to educate myself... I spoke to numerous experts and they said, "Would you stop blaming yourself? These cults are well-oiled machines. India never stood a chance."'

Oxenberg has spent the past year trying to bring down the cult in hopes of getting her 27-year-old daughter away from the organization and leader Keith Raniere (above)

Raniere and Allison Mack (above leaving court last month) are accused of coercing Nxivm followers into becoming slaves to senior members

The interview with Oxenberg, which airs at 10 pm on NBC this Monday, will also include the first interview with Raniere's attorney, Marc Agnifilo.

Raniere was arrested in Mexico this year and taken to the US to face charges that he, along with an adherent, Smallville actress Allison Mack, coerced followers into becoming slaves to senior members.

Prosecutors said Mack 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.

Despite criticism for years by ex-followers who called NXIVM a cult and a pyramid scheme, the organization's 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, Bronfman's sister Sara, and a son of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Raniere and Mack have pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking charges.
A trendy pub on Sydney's northern beaches has pork rolls on the menu for $17, while in the city's south-west the same dish costs just $3.

The outrageously-priced pork banh mi rolls are sold by The Newport, which was acquired by millionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes for $50million in 2015.

Locals from Cabramatta, home to Australia's largest Vietnamese community, took to social media to mock the overpriced pork rolls.

A trendy pub on Sydney's northern beaches has pork rolls on the menu for $17, while in the city's south-west the same dish costs just $3 (pictured)

The Newport is owned by Justin Hemmes (pictured, right, with ex-girlfriend Kate Fowler) who bought it in 2015

The outrageously-priced pork banh mi rolls are sold by The Newport (pictured), which was acquired by millionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes for $50million in 2015

'Who would pay $17 for a pork roll!?' asked the Cabramatta community Facebook page.

'If you're charging me $17 for a pork roll, it better be coming from some super tender suckling pig that gets daily massages and has never once rolled in a puddle of mud!'

A comparison on the price gap sparked debate online, with some users suggesting high rents on the northern beaches could be to blame.

Others disagreed, and said rents in Cabramatta were no lower than in other parts of Sydney.

Most were simply dumbstruck by how expensive the Newport pork rolls were, with many saying a $17 banh mi needed to include something else to be worth it.

'It better have truffles and the pate better be foie gras,' said one user.

'Aw hell naw $17 better be a gourmet baguette with French duck pate for that much!' said another.

'Banh mi better clear my skin make me rich if I'm paying $17,' laughed someone else.

Locals from Cabramatta, home to Australia's largest Vietnamese community, took to social media to mock the overpriced pork rolls
Sir Ian McKellen has apologised to theatre-goers after a leg injury forced him to pull out of a performance of King Lear.

The actor, 79, was due to star in a matinee of Shakespeares play on Saturday but hurt himself as he ran to catch the train there.

Instead he sat and chatted to the audience at the Duke of Yorks Theatre in London  and tried out a few new routines.

Sir Ian McKellen has apologised to theatre-goers after a leg injury forced him to pull out of a performance of King Lear

Sir Ian said on Twitter: At the underground station I galloped up 45 steps to catch the train above. Once on it, I skipped along the carriage and my left leg gave way.

A strained calf muscle was diagnosed and was painfully pummelled back into life. With a walking stick, I managed the evening performance but not the afternoon one.

Instead I chatted on stage to the audience while they waited for their money back and I tried out a few new routines and some old ones  a bit of Gandalf and a couple of Shakespeare speeches.

He added that scenes including kneeling in the rain-storm and carrying Cordelias corpse would have been impossible. Tomorrows performance will go ahead as planned.
Families on standard variable energy tariffs are effectively overpaying by 4billion a year, a damning study found.

The figure, far higher than previous official estimates, reveals the rip-off tariffs are around 350 a year more expensive than the cheapest deals.

A 2016 investigation by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) suggested households and businesses were overpaying by 1.4billion annually because they were on the expensive SVTs.

Families on standard variable energy tariffs are effectively overpaying by 4billion a year, a damning study found

That finding triggered a promise by Theresa May to impose a cap on the SVT  which is expected to cut these bills by around 100 a year when it comes into effect later this year.

However, a new study based on official figures compiled by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) suggests the scale of the annual over payment has climbed to 4billion.

The report was commissioned by the small energy firm Bulb, which argues that even after the cap is imposed millions of struggling households will continue to pay too much to stay warm this winter.

A 2016 investigation by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) suggested households and businesses were overpaying by 1.4billion annually because they were on the expensive SVTs

The concerns come after all the Big Six energy firms have put up prices  some of them twice  in recent months, which has effectively negated the benefits of the Governments price cap.

Bulb said: Over 12million  44 per cent  of households in the UK are on expensive standard variable tariffs with the Big Six, overpaying by an average of 350 on their electricity and gas bill each year.

It said the scale of the rip-off on the SVT compared to the cheapest deals available varies according to region.

Its analysis found: Households in the South East and the East of England are among those who are overpaying the most. On average they could save 379 per household on their bills if they shopped around and switched to a cheaper energy supplier.

Hayden Wood, co-founder of Bulb, whose electricity comes from renewable sources such as wind power, said: More and more people across the country are realising that they are overpaying on their energy bills, and switching away from the Big Six to cheaper suppliers.

The Big Six energy firms  British Gas, SSE, EDF, Npower, E.on and Scottish Power  have rejected the rip-off claims

Switching supplier only takes a few minutes, and as these figures show there are immediate savings to be made.

The Big Six energy firms  British Gas, SSE, EDF, Npower, E.on and Scottish Power  have rejected the rip-off claims.

They have blamed recent price hikes on increases in the wholesale price of gas and electricity  coupled with levies applied to customer bills as a result of government policies to support a switch to green energy, help poor customers and install smart meters.

The average bill has now reached 1,200 a year following the price rises.

E.on has partly blamed a plan to cut 500 jobs on the decision to cap SVTs, which will hit company profits.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, argues the original claim from the CMA that customers on SVTs were being overcharged by 1.4billion a year between 2012 and 2015 were based on a faulty analysis of industry figures.

It said the figure was more than the combined annual profits of the major suppliers over this period.

Energy UK, which represents suppliers, said there is good evidence that more people are now shopping around and switching away from SVTs to cheaper fixed rate tariffs.
A n America's Next Top Model contestant who's been imprisoned for the past five years has been released from custody.

Renee Alway, who appeared on the fashion-geared reality series in 2007, was paroled Wednesday from the California Institution for Women in Chino, California, authorities told TMZ Friday.

The 32-year-old Michigan native was initially arrested in Palm Springs, California in June of 2013 in connection with felony burglary, vehicle theft and possessing a firearm as a felon.

Out: America's Next Top Model contestant Renee Alway, 32, was released from prison Wednesday after five years in custody, TMZ reported

The 5ft10 Alway was sentenced to 12 years in prison in December of 2014 after pleading guilty to various criminal charges, and also ordered to pay $58,679.58 in damages to her victims.

Alway pleaded guilty to to four felony burglary counts, as well as vehicle theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Alway also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of identity theft for various crimes in Palm Springs in June 2013, News Channel 3 reported.

Fall from grace: The model was seen in this promotional shot from the series in 2007

In court: Alway was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2014 after pleading guilty to various criminal charges

Alway was dismissed of more than a dozen other counts under a plea agreement, evading charges for resisting an officer, possession of a controlled substance, and receiving stolen property.

The ANTM finalist was arrested on June 28 in 2013 for investigation of burglary, fraud, narcotics possession, committing a felony while on bail and other charges, the Palm Springs Police Department said in a statement at the time of the arrest.

Officers responding to a report of a suspicious woman walking around a neighborhood spotted a condominium with an open back door, police said.

Neighbors told officers the residents were out of the country and Alway was found hiding in the garage allegedly armed with a gun, police said. Authorities believed an armed man also was in the condo and the SWAT team was called in for the ensuing six-hour standoff.

When Alway appeared before a judge in 2013, she shaved her head for her court appearance in Palm Springs, where she was given a drug evaluation.

Her sister told TMZ after the 2013 court appearance that her sister wanted to 'start over' and that's why she chose to shave her head.
The writer of Victoria, Daisy Goodwin (pictured) has revealed that Albert will survive the upcoming third series

Students of history know that the hit ITV costume drama Victoria will eventually have to tackle the tragedy of Prince Alberts early death.

But fans can breathe a sigh of relief  for Albert will survive the forthcoming third series, the shows writer has revealed.

Daisy Goodwin told the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles: We can safely say were not going to lose Albert in this series.

This means the third series starring former Doctor Who actress Jenna Coleman and her real-life partner Tom Hughes will end before Alberts death at the age of 42 in 1861.

It will begin in 1848 when it was feared the rise of radical movements might spell the end of the monarchy. The drama will also continue to focus on the couples mutual attraction.

Goodwin said: Victoria just fancied the pants off him.
She's the Hollywood actress who co-founded Natural cosmetics brand, Onda Beauty with business partners, Larissa Thomson and Sarah Bryden-Brown.

And on Friday, Naomi Watts, 49, looked every inch the natural beauty as she hosted her very own Onda Beauty event in the Hamptons, Long Island.

Naomi showcased her toned arms and glowing visage in a pleated white frock as she took to the stage at Hamptons Magazine And Lladro's celebration of Onda Beauty.

What's her secret? Age-defying Naomi Watts, 49, shows off her toned arms and youthful visage in a pleated white frock as she hosts Onda Beauty event in the Hamptons

The silk maxi frock perfectly accentuated the blonde star's statuesque figure and fell beautifully over her lithe frame.

The beauty entrepreneur could have fooled fans into thinking she was a local from the affluent coastal town as she effortlessly floated around the venue in the dreamy polka-dot printed ensemble, punctuated with darling peplum frills.

She included a number of seaside chic highlights including Espadrille Wedges, bright nail polish and fine jewellery.

Shining star: The two-time Oscar nominee easily defied her 49 years as she showcased her naturally iridescent skin with a minimal makeup palette

The two-time Oscar nominee easily defied her 49 years as she showcased her naturally iridescent skin with a minimal makeup palette.

Naomi sported a healthy glow in a light slick of dewy foundation, a lashing of black mascara and a pop of pink lipstick.

Later the screen siren was spotted cosying up to guest, Kate Stirling, who continued the spotty theme in a blue polka-dot wrap dress.

At one point she was all smiles as she enthusiastically held up the Lladro gift box at the Scarpetta beach venue.

Hamptons style: Later the screen siren was spotted cosying up to guest, Kate Stirling, who continued the spotty theme in a blue polka-dot wrap dress

Onda Beauty recently opened up a new store in Sag harbor, in the town of East Hampton and Southhampton.

Naomi who founded the beauty brand with her school friends Sarah and Larissa recently told Vogue Magazine how the trio launched the business.

'I put her (Larrissa) and Sarah together, who I also went to school with, and we found each other again in New York where she was working on startup companies. So we all became partners, and it just naturally fell into place,' she said in June 2018.

The Hollywood star also dished on her inspiration behind the clean beauty brand.

'I get a lot of stuff sent to me that brands like me to try, and as I've gotten older, my skin's gotten more sensitive. I've been trying all of these things that are too harsh, and I react too much,' she explained.

Natural beauty: At one point Naomi was all smiles as she enthusiastically held up the Lladro gift box at the Scarpetta beach venue

'I think if natural foods feel good in your body, then why wouldn't you do the same thing topically? Skin is the biggest organ in your body, so we look for products with a gentleness, the right smell, and these same nourishing qualities,' she told Vogue.

Naomi recently revealed the secret behind her youthful complexion, admitting that she constantly tries new products.

'I like to shock my skin into things. I don't want my skin to get FOMO,' she told Into The Gloss.

'I also think that skin care is a bit like working out. You have to change it up every so often,' she added.

Details: Naomi hosted the Hamptons Magazine And Lladro celebration of Onda Beauty, who she co-founded with business partners, Larissa Thomson and Sarah Bryden-Brown
She's set to embark on a quest to find love as she signs up for the latest series of Celebs Go Dating.

And Chloe Sims put on a typically sizzling display as she attended the Brighton & Hove Pride Festival on Saturday afternoon.

The TOWIE star, 35, flaunted her buxom assets in an incredibly low-cut bodysuit as she puffed on a vape pen at the star-studded event.

All eyes on her: Chloe Sims put on a typically sizzling display as she attended the Brighton & Hove Pride Festival on Saturday afternoon

Upping the sex appeal, the TV personality tied in her look with a pair of racy fishnet trousers, which accentuated her surgically-enhanced derriere.

The reality star maintained her style savvy ways as she finished her all-black look with circular-framed sunglasses.

Chloe complemented her chiseled facial features with matte foundation and faint pink lipstick, while her ombre tresses cascaded down her back.

With performances from superstar Britney Spears, Answerphone hitmaker Ella Eyre and Eternal's Louise Redknapp, organisers of the event are anticipating up to 300,000 revellers to soak up the sun at Pride until Sunday.

Striking appearance: The TOWIE star, 35, flaunted her buxom assets in an incredibly low-cut bodysuit, as she puffed on a vape pen at the star-studded event

The annual march has made its way from Hove Lawns, along the seafront and through to Preston Park where tonight's performances will take place.

The star's appearance come after it was revealed she had flown to Marbella back in February to undergo a Brazilian bum lift, in a bid to boost her confidence.

Chloe, who had the procedure carried out by Dr Aslani, is said to be 'delighted' with the results of her newly-pert posterior, having recently flaunted the results of her bum-reshaping surgery out and about in Essex.

Looking good: Upping the sex appeal, the TV personality tied in her look with a pair of racy fishnet trousers, which accentuated her surgically-enhanced derriere

Chloe has battled with insecurities about her derriere for years, undergoing a Brazilian butt lift back in 2012.

At the time, she told Now Magazine: 'Even before I was in The Only Way Is Essex I was surrounded by gorgeous girls with hourglass figures. Mine felt unsexy and boyish in comparison.

'I tried everything possible to overcome my body insecurities. I wore certain clothes to make my bum look bigger and even wore knickers with chicken fillet-type padding.

Iconic event: Organisers are anticipating up to 300,000 revellers to soak up the sun at Pride until Sunday

'I always had my bum in mind when I was buying clothes. Id hate it most whenever I went on holiday and had to get into a bikini.

'It always looked awful, like a flat "granny" bum. With age and gravity it only got worse. By the time I turned 30 Id ended up with a droopy bottom.'

The surgery removes unwanted fat from one part of the body and reuses it to reshape the bum.
Teen Mom 2's Jenelle Evans made strong remarks against her ex Nathan Griffith on Friday, claiming he doesn't care about their four-year-old son Kaiser and doesn't call the boy on the phone.

Her accusations came Friday after Nathan, 30, entered legal filings July 24 for full custody of their son, People reported.

Griffith filed for full custody after Evans was seen on the MTV series brandishing a firearm in an instance of road rage.

Fit parents: Teen Mom 2's Jenelle Evans made strong remarks against her ex Nathan Griffith, 30, (R) on Friday, claiming he doesn't care about their four-year-old son Kaiser and doesn't call the boy on the phone

'If youre so "concerned" about your son why havent you call him to see how hes been lately?' said the 26-year-old reality star after Nathan asked the court to give her secondary custody in a modification to their current arrangement. 'Oh yeah, you dont care. Silly me, I forgot.'

The Oak Island, North Carolina native continued, 'Oh wait, youve never called him. That would be giving you credit you dont deserve.'

Griffith said in court docs that Evans - who also has an eight-year-old son named Jace and a one-year-old daughter named Ensley - has 'drug dependency and substance abuse issues' along with her husband, David Eason.

Holding nothing back: Evans fired off fiery salvos at her ex via social media

Summer lovin': Evans was snapped with her husband Eason this week in a post she shared to Instagram

Griffith, a fitness fanatic, told the court Jenelle 'has been rehab two to three times' but has never completed treatment.

He said Jenelle has frequently found herself 'in criminal trouble, being arrested in excess of 20 times,' calling Eason a 'violent person who is a danger to the minor child.'

Evans flew off the handle during an episode of Teen Mom 2 last month when she followed a man to his home and pulled a gun after a freeway altercation.

Frightening: Jenelle Evans provoked a serious road rage incident during this week's episode of Teen Mom 2

The other motorist, Robert Robinson Jr., told TMZ he was also carrying a gun for self-defense and that while he was ready to 'shoot to kill,' he restrained himself after noticing Evans' eight-year-old son Jace was in the car.

In the incident, things escalated after he tried to get around her and cut her car off. Evans 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.

Evans was on the phone with Eason, who warned her, 'You don't follow a grown man to his f***ing house.'

Jace then recounted events to grandma Barbara, saying, 'He slammed into us and then mommy just points a gun at the guy and then he said 'You better not f***ing shoot.'''

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

Big no-no: Afterwards husband David Eason reprimanded her saying: 'You don't follow a grown man to his f***ing house'

Nathan told TMZ in the wake of the incident that the MTV broadcast exposed an 'unstable environment' and 'hectic situation' unsuitable for kids.

'Overall, I provide a stable and peaceful environment and even footage shows that Im constantly trying to take Kaiser out of a hostile situation,' he said. 'I am afraid that if she carries a loaded weapon inside a vehicle and she keeps it that accessible, without a lock on it - thats very dangerous to be around children.'

Teen Mom 2 airs on MTV Monday evenings at 9/8c.
It's known as one of the most notorious buildings in Melbourne, with it being the scene of grisly murders, drug deaths and stabbings.

And now, The Block host Scott Cam has responded to questions about whether there were any ghosts while filming at The Gatwick Hotel, in St Kilda.

Appearing on Weekend Today on Sunday, the 55-year-old first mentioned that former glamorous hotel had become a 'den of iniquity.'

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'There was a young girl in a white dress going from one room to the next': The Block's Scott Cam responds to questions about seeing ghosts while filming at infamous Gatwick Hotel

'[It was an] iconic hotel from the twenties and thirties, it was a flash place to go back then,' he began.

'[Its] fallen into disrepair, drug issues, mental health issues there.'

The conversation turned to ghostly encounters, with Today presenter Jayne Azzopardi asking whether there was any supernatural activity during filming.

Spooky! This season, the block will tackle rundown Gatwick Hotel, which has been the scene of grisly murders, drug deaths and stabbings in the past

In a serious tone, Scott answered: 'One dusky night there was an 11-year-old girl in a white dress going from one room to the next.'

It didn't take long, however, for the show's anchors to realise Scott was just joking which drew laughter.

'He is good,' co-host Alison Langdon said.

It isn't the first time ghosts has been mentioned about the hotel, with The Block's Shelly Craft recently weighing in.

'I'm sure there were more than ghosts in that building!' Shelley Craft (right) revealed she was a little spooked out during filming. Pictured: Shelley with co-host Scott Cam (centre) and Alice Stolz (left)

Speaking to Stellar magazine in July, the 42-year-old said: 'I'm sure there were more than ghosts in that building. It was super creepy.'

'I can't say I saw any ghosts but I certainly felt that this building had some history. When they started bringing up the carpets, it was something out of a horror movie.

She added: 'But that's the thing when you're renovating an old place, it's always when the carpet comes up that the truth comes out.'

Checkered past! Channel Nine purchased the building for $10 million, with the property serving as a half-way house for addicts and ex-convicts before the sale

Prior to Channel Nine's $10 million acquisition of the building, the property served as a half-way house and was home to drug addicts and ex-convicts.

In June, Scott once again spoke to Today about the iconic property and explained it's dark past.

'It was very famous in the thirties and fell into disrepair... we've bought it back to its former glory.'

'It was a boarding house. It housed a different type of person I suppose, there was a few murders, a few deaths... some colourful characters that lived there,' he added.
She recently kicked her Love Island boyfriend Grant Crapp to the curb.

And on Saturday, Tayla Damir certainly looked single and ready to mingle as she stepped out in a racy ensemble for Hayu's season 15 premiere of Keeping Up With The Kardashian in Sydney.

Daring to bare, the 21-year-old ditched her underwear and poured her curves into a high-cut fuschia frock.

Forgot your underwear? Love Island Australia's Tayla Damir barely covers her modesty as she risks a wardrobe malfunction in a VERY high-cut dress

The former radio host came dangerously close to suffering an X-rated wardrobe malfunction in the racy ensemble, which left little to the imagination.

'Serious KimmyK vibes last night for the @hayuau Keeeping Up With the Kardashian season 15 premiere,' she wrote on Instagram.

The brunette bombshell was joined by her Love Island co-stars Millie Fuller and Amelia Marni, who were noticeably more covered up than the raunchy Tayla.

Dare to bare! The former radio host came dangerously close to suffering an X-rated wardrobe malfunction in the racy ensemble, which left very little to the imagination

Since leaving the Love Island villa, Tayla has been making the most of her newfound fame.

In addition to amassing an enviable social media following, the model is also cashing in with appearances, including an upcoming meet-and-greet event.

'So excited to see you all,' Tayla said on Friday during a promotional video which prompts fans to purchase the exclusive $99 VIP tickets.

'Serious KimmyK vibes last night for the @hayuau Keeeping Up With the Kardashian season 15 premiere,' she wrote on Instagram

Girl power! The 21-year-old was joined by her Love Island co-stars Millie Fuller and Amelia Marni, who were noticeably more covered up than the raunchy Tayla

The stunner will headline the social-media influencer event by Neon Model Management on August 18 at Paddington Town Hall.

The VIP passes will give ticket-holders the chance to rub shoulders and take selfies with the brunette, as well as other invited influencers and reality stars.

Other social media stars to be included on the panel discussion and meet and greets are Gabby Epstein, Hawk Reece, and The Sunday Chapter's Angela.

Australia's Kim? Tayla posed next to a cardboard cutout of Kim Kardashian

The event, which only lasts two hours, includes a Q&A session that promises insider tips and tricks to mimic the womens' success online.

While there are general admission tickets for $49, only the pricier VIP tickets will ensure a chat with the recently-single Tayla.

The VIP option also includes a goodie bag with products from Quay, Boohoo, Wanted Shoes and The Daily Edited, estimated to be worth $800.
They are two-of the most popular comedian-turned-actors in the business.

And Tiffany Haddish and Tracy Morgan continued to combine their talents on the New York Set of The Original O.G. on Saturday.

The Girls Trip star, 38, looked gorgeous in a pair of wide-leg flower print trousers of green, blue and black.

At work: Tiffany Haddish got to work filming on the Brooklyn set of The Last O.G. on Saturday

She paired them with a plunging blue sleeveless top, furry blue slides and a cute brown box purse.

Morgan meanwhile wore a grey short-sleeve hooded top, jeans and Adidas trainers.

In the TBS comedy, Morgan plays ex-con TRay Barker who returns home to Brooklyn following his release from jail to find his ex-wife Shay, played by Tiffany Haddish, is raising their children with her new white husband Josh

On Saturday Tiffany wasn't seen with her on screen ex, but she did pose with her on-screen hubby, played by Ryan Gaul.

Co-stars: Tracy Morgan was however pictured with Allen Maldonado who plays his best mate Bobby

Couple: Tiffany posed with her on-screen hubby, played by Ryan Gaul

Fab: She looked gorgeous in a pair of wide-leg flower print trousers of green, blue and black

Tiffany also posed with a paparazzo via an Instagram selfie.

'Me and paparazzi Steve on the set of #thelastogtbs #sheready #haddish #tiffanyhaddish #stevesands,' she captioned the shot.

Tracy was however pictured with Allen Maldonado who plays his best mate Bobby; Maldonado also plays Bobby's own deceased older brother Clyde.

Back at ya: Tiffany also posed with a paparazzo via an Instagram selfie

In April, it was announced that the The Real O.G. would be renewed for a second season.

In the June 2014, Morgan was traveling in a limousine with other comedians when their vehicle was struck by a Walmart tractor-trailer, killing his friend James McNair.

Morgan sustained a traumatic brain injury that left him in a coma for two weeks, as well as multiple bone fractures.

After extensive physical and cognitive therapy, he made a triumphant return to Saturday Night Live on October 17, 2015.
Love Island stars Dom Thomas and Shelby Mills have announced their split.

In separate Instagram posts on Saturday, the genetically-blessed pair told fans they are 'no longer together,' weeks after leaving the show.

The news came after fans slammed Shelby's best-friend Cassidy McGill for straddling the hunk in a racy Instagram video.

'We are no longer together': Love Island Australia's Shelby Mills, 24, announces SPLIT from Dom Thomas, 26, after fans slam Cassidy McGill for straddling the hunk in a racy video

'...Please know that Dom & I are no longer together, nor were we ever 'official',' Shelby, 24, wrote.

'We were purely just seeing how things went outside the villa. We still talk every day.. but him living in Sydney and me living on the Gold Coast just isn't working with our busy lives at the moment.

She added: 'We honestly wish the best for each other and who knows what will happen in the future!'

Criticism: It comes after fans slammed Cassidy (right) for her 'inappropriate' night out with Dom in Melbourne this week. In the clip, the busty blonde flashed her cleavage in a satin blue jumpsuit and straddled Dom, who couldn't contain his excitement

Project manager Dom said his split from Shelby was mutual.

'We have decided that we are best off as friends. This is something we had both recently discussed and agreed upon and is not a sudden decision,' he wrote.

It comes after fans slammed Cassidy for her 'inappropriate' night out with Dom in Melbourne this week.

Still friends: Project manager Dom said his split from Shelby was mutual

In the clip, the busty blonde flashed her cleavage in a satin blue jumpsuit and straddled Dom, who couldn't contain his excitement.

Fans slammed the racy video in the comments section.

'That's so rude! She did it with Grant and Tayla and now she's dong it with Dom and Shelby. And now they are no longer together!' one fan wrote.

Another comment read: '... Omg :( but isn't she shelby's friend wtf.'

Moving on: Shelby insisted she is not upset about the video and asked fans to leave Cassidy alone

'Exactly, Cassidy would be going psycho if her love interest was doing that with another person,' one fan added.

Shelby insisted she is not upset about the video and asked fans to leave Cassidy alone.

'REAL TALK: So everyone has been blowing up about Cass & Dom and how it's inappropriate,' she wrote.

'Firstly - Cass is one of my best friends and despite everything that happened on the show, is a genuine good chick who does not have a bad bone in her body.'
She plays a woman who was mistakenly sent a heavenly afterlife in the critically-acclaimed comedy series The Good Place.

And Kristen Bell looked absolutely divine in her flowing white satin dress Saturday at the TCA Awards in Los Angeles, where she put on a heavenly display in her angelic ensemble.

Blonde hair slicked back into a sophisticated bun, the actress, 38, was the picture of chic style as she enjoyed a night out on the town.

Heavenly: Kristen Bell looked absolutely divine in her flowing white satin dress Saturday, putting on a heavenly display at the TCA Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday

Glossy red lipstick swiped across her pout, Kristen wowed as she put on a very glamorous appearance at the star-studded event.

Kristen highlighted her striking blue eyes with mascara, gold eye shadow, and a dewy tint of blush upon her strong cheekbones.

The actress reunited with her co-stars, Jameela Jamil and D'Arcy Carden, who both dazzled at the ceremony.

Jameela looked gorgeous in a black and white lace dress with heels, while D'Arcy kept it classy in a black dress with nude heels.

Simply chic: Blonde hair slicked back into a sophisticated bun, the actress, 38, was the picture of chic style as she enjoyed a night out on the town

Hello gorgeous! Kristen highlighted her striking blue eyes with mascara, gold eye shadow, and a dewy tint of blush upon her strong cheekbones

Night out! The actress reunited with her co-stars, Jameela Jamil and D'Arcy Carden, who both dazzled at the ceremony

The actresses all star in the hit comedy series The Good Place, which follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen), a deceased Arizona woman who was mistakenly sent to a heaven-like realm called the Good Place.

She attempts to make amends in order to rightfully earn a place at the utopia.

Since debuting in 2016, The Good Place has been a hit with critics and fans alike, and on Saturday was awarded the prize for Outstanding Achievement In Comedy at the TCA Awards.

Let's get together: The Good Place star Manny Jacinto teamed up with his co-stars for the big night

It's an honor: Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Rita Morena enjoyed the night with her daughter Fernanda Luisa Gordon

Man of style! Ricky Martin looked suave and sharp in his all-black look

The Good Place was also nominated for - but lost out on - Program Of The Year and an award for star Ted Danson for Individual Achievement In Comedy.

Ted looked sharp in his midnight black suit as he mingled with the stars.

This year The Americans was the recipient of the TCA Award for Program Of The Year.

Hugs! Judith Light embraced her American Crime Story co-star Finn Wittrock

Suits them! Finn, Martin, Edgar Ramirez, and Darren Criss sharpened up as they showed their support for their American Crime Story drama

Having a laugh! Darren appeared to be in stitches as he chatted with Edgar

Good times: The actors embraced Judith, who flashed a silly smile

The cult classic series about Soviet KGB officers living undercover in America also won Outstanding Achievement In Drama, and Individual Achievement in Drama.

Rachel Brosnahan was honored with Individual Achievement In Comedy for her role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisal, while Outstanding Achievement In News and Information went to Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

Queer Eye received the honor for Outstanding Achievement In Reality, Sesame Street won Outstanding Achievement In Youth Programming, and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver was awarded Outstanding Achievement In Sketch/Variety Shows.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story received Outstanding Achievement In Movie Or Miniseries.

Rita Moreno was the Lifetime Achievement Honoree.

Work it! Justina Machada wowed in a curve-clinging black number with red peep toe heels

Look who's here! TV producer Norman Lear enjoyed a night out, looking sharp in his black suit and sky blue top
She's the first-class flight attendant who will compete alongside her pilot fiance, Hans Baumgartner on the 14th season of The Block this year.

And hours before the premiere of the Nine Network reality TV juggernaut, Confidential has revealed contestant Courtney Brown, 34, once enjoyed a successful modelling career in the noughties.

Speaking to the publication on Sunday, the WA beauty confirmed her former model status but conceded: 'It's not something that I tell people.'

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'It's not something that I tell people': The Block's Courtney Brown, 34, (right) reveals she once worked as an international model. Pictured with fiance Hans (left)

'I'm reluctant to talk about my modelling days because of how people can perceive you  like people have already perceived us in a certain way just being a pilot and a flight attendant,' she explained.

The former beauty queen told the publication her modelling past can often sneak up on her partner too.

'He's a little bit shocked, people saying, ''Oh I remember you from Miss Universe in 2009,'' and he's like, ''What Miss Universe, who are you?'' He knew I did modelling and loved I had travelled so much with it,' she said.

The brunette stunner revealed she forged a strong bond with many successful models during her tenure, namely David Jones ambassador, Jessica Gomes, 33.

'He's a little bit shocked': The former beauty queen told the publication her modelling past can often sneak up on her partner too. Pictured Courtney Brown (left) and Hans Baumgartner (right) competing on The Block 2018

While comparisons may form between Courtney and The Block winner and bikini model, Elyse Knowles, she insists she has no plans to kick-start her catwalk career.

Courtney was discovered after she was chosen as a finalist in both the Dolly and Girlfriend magazine model searches.

She has since gone on to feature in campaigns for Portmans alongside Miranda Kerr and has strut down some of the world's most elite runways in Milan, Hong Kong and London, according to Confidential.

Here we go! Meet the cast of The Block's new season who beat out 45,000 other hopefuls

From the cockpit to the construction zone! Handsome pilot Hans Baum will compete with his girlfriend, first-class flight attendant Courtney Brown

Makeover: The teams will be working hard to refurbish Melbourne's famed Gatwick Hotel

Courtney and Hans, a flight attendant and pilot from WA beat out 45,000 other hopefuls for a spot on the renovation show and believe their 'perfectionist' ways will take them far in the competition.

This season, The Block's contestants will be renovating Melbourne's notorious Gatwick Hotel, a grungy St Kilda property that was once known as a refuge for the city's down and out.

Speaking to Woman's Day last week, host Scott Cam says the pressure got to some of the competitors right from the beginning.

'This series, right from the get-go, I have had to talk a few people down from the ledge, which was unusual because that normally doesn't happen until week five, but this time it happened straight away,' Scott told the publication.

The Block will return on Sunday night at 7pm on Channel Nine.
He was crowed Australia's newest MasterChef after nabbing the reality show's top spot last week.

And it appears MasterChef Australia winner Sashi Cheliah, 39, good fortune has continued, after the star was reunited with his lost dog Jess this weekend.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Sashi shared a photo of himself proudly posing with his adorable pooch, who he had lost earlier that day.

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'I got my baby girl back': MasterChef winner Sashi Cheliah has been reunited with his beloved pet dog after she went missing this Sunday

'Hi guys...got my baby girl back,' a grinning Sashi wrote in the caption.

Clearly in high spirits, the prison guard went on to thank South Australian pet service Lost Pets of Adelaide.

Earlier that day, the reality TV star took to his social media accounts in an attempt to find the loved puppy.

Puppy love: The MasterChef winner sent out an alert on his social media accounts 'Hi everyone I lost my pet dog Jess today in Condon Drive Lightsview,' after she went missing

'Hi everyone I lost my pet dog Jess today in Condon Drive Lightsview,' he started, under a separate close-up snap of his pet.

It comes after Sashi revealed he struggled to keep his win on MasterChef a secret, with the finale filmed months before it aired.

'It was very hard keeping it under wraps,' he revealed on The Project, on Wednesday night.

'It was very hard keeping it under wraps!' The Masterchef champion winner admitted keeping his win a secret was tough - especially for his young children during an appearance on The Project last Wednesday night

And Sashi claimed it was especially tough for his his sons, Marcus, 10 and Ryan, 12, - who were both present for his spectacular win - to keep quiet

'Particularly with the kids there, there were so excited,' the chef told show panelists Waleed Aly and Tommy Little

'They had keeping it under wrap for a long period and they couldn't say anything, it was hard.'

'I'm still pinching myself!' Sashi admitted to Project panelists Tommy Little (centre) and Waleed Aly (right) he still can't believe his success on the show

Victorious after earning points 93 out of 100, a record on the Network Ten cooking juggernaut, Sashi admitted he still can't believe his success.

'I'm still pinching myself,' he laughed, 'I still keep asking myself, 'Did I really win?'

He trained and worked for the counter-terrorism and riot squad during his time with the island nation's special forces

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Sashi said: 'Coming from an elite background really helped me to be focused and have the endurance to stay strong throughout the Grand Finale cook.'
The niece of billionaire Jame Packer, Francesca Packer-Barham is believed to have suffered a 'very bad fall' from a quad bike over one month ago.

The eldest grandchild of late media tycoon Kerry Packer took a tumble off a 'four-wheel vehicle during a joyride around luxury property Ellerston in the Hunter Valley' according to this week's Sun-Herald.

It is understood the 23-year-old brunette heiress was forced to delay her travel plans to London due to the injuries sustained in the fall.

James Packer's niece Francesca Packer-Barham, 23, (pictured) suffered 'very bad fall off quad bike during joyride around luxury property in the Hunter Valley'

In the wake of Francesca's recovery, an insider told the publication she has been spotted 'hitting the shops' in Sydney.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Francesca Packer-Barham for comment.

Francesca is currently visiting Australia but relocated to London in 2017 to study a $50,000-a-year interior design course at the prestigious Inchbald School of Design in Chelsea.

Having previously begun a psychology degree at Sydney University, Francesca has expressed little interest at joining her uncle James in the casino world.

'Very bad fall': The eldest grandchild of the late media tycoon, Kerry Packer took a tumble off a 'four-wheel vehicle during a joyride around luxury property Ellerston in the Hunter Valley over one month ago,' according to the PS section of The Sun-Herald

Ouch! It is understood the brunette heiress was forced to 'delay' her travel plans to London due to her injuries

Francesca is passionate about charity work, said to be the driving force behind the setting up of a $200 million National Philanthropic Fund, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The budding entrepreneur will also inherit a slice of her mother Gretel Packer's $739 million fortune alongside her brothers Benjamin and William.

Making her own mark: Francesca has expressed little interest at joining her uncle James in the casino world. The brunette is said to be the driving force behind the setting up of a $200 million National Philanthropic Fund, The Sydney Morning Herald reported

An avid Instagrammer, the heiress told Fairfax Media in 2016 that she believes her grandfather Kerry, who died in 2005, would have been a fan of social media.

'He loved TV because you got to see it - it was in front of your face - which is Instagram. Everything is online, everything is at the touch of your finger,' Francesca said.

'Maybe the privacy and over-sharing, he'd be a little bit, "Woah, what is going on there?" but I think that's how most people would react who haven't experienced the level of openness that my generation seems to find very, very exciting.'

Fortune: The budding entrepreneur will also inherit a slice of her mother Gretel Packer's $739 million fortune alongside her brothers Benjamin and William
Once known as a 'festering fleappit', St Kilda's notorious Gatwick Hotel has undergone a complete makeover as part of The Block's upcoming season.

And while many fans are eagerly awaiting the show's season premiere this week, others have raised questions about how the hotel's transformation has affected Melbourne's homelessness problem.

Speaking The Age this weekend, social workers have expressed concerns about the fate of many vulnerable people who can no-longer rely on The Gatwick as a temporary home.

'Eight people who used to live in the Gatwick now sleep in the 7-Eleven': The Block has raised questions about Melbourne homelessness problem (Pictured: The Block host Scott Cam)

'I have never seen so many people sleeping on the street in my life and I have been in the sector for 42 years,' veteran St Kilda homelessness support worker Billi Clarke told the publication.

While Ms Clarke insisted that The Gatwick was a 's**thole' and shouldn't have stayed the way it was, ' she did admit she worries about the trend of boarding houses closing down as Melbourne become more gentrified.

After Channel Nine producers bought The Gatwick in 2017, St Kilda Community Housing was tasked with finding alternative accommodation for residents.

Homelessness debate: Speaking The Age this weekend, social workers have expressed concerns about the fate of many vulnerable people who can no-longer rely on The Gatwick as a temporary home

'Eight people who used to live in the Gatwick now sleep in the 7-Eleven opposite where they used to live': After Channel Nine producers bought The Gatwick in 2017, St Kilda Community Housing was tasked with finding alternative accommodation for residents

According to Ms Clarke, some residents have been unable to afford their new homing and have instead returned to St Kilda because homelessness serves are concentrated in the area.

'Eight people who used to live in the Gatwick now sleep in the 7-Eleven opposite where they used to live,' a homelessness support worker Donna told the publication.

The Gatwick Hotel was once known as a 'festering fleapit' - a cheap St Kilda rooming house that was a refuge for Melbourne's down and out.

Before the makeover: The Gatwick Hotel was once known as a 'festering fleapit' - a cheap St Kilda rooming house that was a refuge for Melbourne's down and out

Before the makeover, The Gatwick stood run down and derelict, covered in dirt and grime.

Graffiti was visible on parts of the exterior, as crumbling paint gave away the age of the 80-year-old building.

Now, however, The Gatwick stands stunning in the gentrified suburb, complete with a fresh coating of white and blue paint.
She's been showing her support for her boyfriend Travis Scott as he releases his brand new studio album, Astroworld.

And Kylie Jenner was every bit the proud girlfriend as she continued drumming up interest in her boyfriend's latest project.

The reality star, 20, happily recorded her boyfriend's concert on Saturday, taking to Snapchat to share with fans the huge crowd that had gathered for his show.

Out of this world! Kylie Jenner was every bit the proud girlfriend as she continued drumming up interest in her boyfriend's latest project, Astroworld

'ASTROWORLD!' Kylie wrote in the frame of the video, which showed Travis' enthusiastic fans amassed in front of the stage during his performance.

The crowd even appeared to be cheering for Kylie after noticing her on a balcony overlooking the stage.

Kylie also made sure to share a slew of glammed up videos of herself, laying in bed as she wore a funky crop top.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star looked gorgeous with her elegantly curled lashes, lip gloss, and blush.

Work: The new mom showed off her torso as she laid on her bed

Proud of him! The reality star, 20, happily recorded her boyfriend's concert on Saturday, taking to Snapchat to share with fans the huge crowd that had gathered for his show

Apart from sharing her makeup routine on the app, her friend Jordyn Woods also made an appearance.

Meanwhile, Travis addressed a edit made to his album artwork for Astroworld that sparked controversy earlier this week.

The cover of the recording is centered around an enormous gold rendering of his head, flanked by a number of scantily-clad models.

Making music! 'ASTROWORLD!' Kylie wrote in the frame of the video, which showed Travis' enthusiastic fans amassed in front of the stage during his performance

Glammed up: Jenner showed off her perfectly made up complexion, complete with glossy lips

On the original album cover, iconic trans model Amanda Lepore, 50, was seen on the left side donning skimpy lingerie while leaned forward, but in a subsequent shot the Houston-based rapper, 26, posted to his social media page Wednesday, she was no longer in the photograph.

'It was great being part of [LaChapelle's] incredible photograph of [Travis Scott's] album cover but Im curious why Im not on the picture [Scott] posted,' Lepore wrote on Instagram. 'A girl cant help it ... Too distracting for the eyes ... Upstaged everyone in the photograph ... Oh well.'

Lepore said she still loves both the artist and the Antidote performer in spite of the issue.

BFFs! Jenner's gal pal Jordyn Woods made a brief appearance on her Saturday snaps

Glammed up! Jenner also showed off her makeup routine, applying a shade of pink nude lipstick to her pout

LaChapelle, according to TMZ, made clear that the editing of the photo was not a reflection of Lepore's work, adding that she 'just upstaged every one' and 'knows the T.'

LaChapelle, according to the outlet, said that the call to remove Lepore from the artwork had 'nothing to do with hating.'

The omission caused a backlash via Twitter, as some defended the artistic decision, while others said it reeked of transphobia.

'I have nothing but respect for the LGBTQ community': Meanwhile, Travis addressed the uproar surrounding a controversial edit made to his album artwork for Astroworld (above edited image)

Original: The image originally featured Amanda Lepore at the far left corner

Travis addressed it all on Instagram, thanking David and Amanda for their contribution, and insisting he had been raised to be inclusive.

'Thank you David Lachappelle and Amanda Lepore and everyone that came out to make all the covers and the vision come to life!!! ASTROWORLD IS ABOUT LOVE AND EXPRESSION NOT HATE!

'This is very important for me to speak up about: Growing up I've been taught to accept everyone, not to cast people away but bring them in your home! I have nothing but respect for the LGBTQ community.

'I want to use my voice to make it clear that everyone on this planet is as equal and f**king awesome to the next. Me and Lachappelle set out too create images that i grew up watching him create for years that inspire me today. Yo Amanda you did upstage everyone even me.

'And I can't wait for everyone to see the booklet that me and Dave put together that includes all these images. thank you for being apart of it. Sorry for the misunderstanding Love you guys and THANK YOU ALL!!! EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO ASTROWORLD!'
Love Island's Megan Barton-Hanson has spoken out about female empowerment, after candidly discussing her past career on an X-rated site.

Taking to her Instagram on Sunday, the glamour model, 24, voiced her support for 'all women and their choices', after reports emerged alleging she earned money as an 'escort.'

Megan's Love Island boyfriend Wes Nelson meanwhile headed to Mallorca without the blonde this weekend for a booze-fuelled pool party at the famously raucous BH Mallorca Hotel.

His glamour model girlfriend, 24, remained inLondon to enjoy a swanky dinner with co-star Samira Mighty, after suddenly calling off her string of nightclub PAs due to 'personal reasons'.

Speaking out: Love Island's Megan Barton-Hanson has spoken out about female empowerment, after candidly discussing her past career on an X-rated site

Girl power: Taking to her Instagram on Sunday, the glamour model, 24, voiced her support for 'all women and their choices', after reports emerged alleging she earned money as an 'escort'

The blonde beauty has forged a career as a glamour model - but was recently hit by claims she lived a life of luxury by dating 'Sugar Daddies', while working as an escort.

After discussing her X-rated past as a stripper and webcam model, Megan spoke out about female empowerment in a fierce social media post posted on her Instagram page on Sunday.

T|he model voiced her support for 'all women and their choices', and slammed those who have previously judged her in a lengthy and passionate message to fans.

She wrote: 'Today I really feel that I need to address some of the stories out there about me on behalf of women in general.

'I support all women, regardless of the choices they make about what they do with their bodies.

Stepping out: Megan enjoyed a swanky dinner with co-star Samira Mighty on Saturday, after suddenly calling off her nightclub PAs due to 'personal reasons'

'My dad always told me unless youve walked in someones shoes then don't judge them.'

Paying tribute to those who have supported her since leaving the Love Island villa, she went on: 'Thank you to all of the amazing women that have and continue to follow my journey. Your messages of support mean so much to me.

'I wont allow stories like these to stop me from be a free thinking, confident, independent young woman striving to make a better life for myself and my family.

'Im off to the final Love Island Aftersun. Cant wait to reunite with all the gang. Love to you all and have a great Sunday. Meg'

She followed up her passionate post with the hashtags: '#womenempowerment #girlpower #womenunited'

Love Island star Wes Nelson jetted to Mallorca for a pool party on Saturday without girlfriend Megan - hours after she cancelled her upcoming public appearances

According to The Sun, Megan enjoyed a number of dates with rich, older men prior to her time in the Love Island villa.

Megan reportedly dated older man - in his 50s - for a longer period of time, who lavished with expensive gifts, including a 30,000 Range Rover.

An insider told the publication: 'This was down to one older guy in particular, in his 50s, that she was with for a while.

'She also had dates and flings with other older guys who you could describe as Sugar Daddies. They loved having Megan on their arm and would do anything for her.

Main man: Wes hosted the party at the famous BH Mallorca - where he was treated to his own VIP cabana, complete with a bucket full of straight spirits as well as pitchers of cocktail

Megan's boyfriend Wes meanwhile proved his jet-set lifestyle by flying to Mallorca for just one afternoon, to host a wild pool party on Saturday.

Taking to his Instagram, he first shared a clip of his luxurious hotel room for fans, before heading to the pool area - where he was treated to his own VIP cabana, complete with a bucket full of straight spirits as well as pitchers of cocktail.

Throwing himself into proceedings, Wes was then seen getting up onstage to chat with the swimwear-clad crowds, who excitedly danced and cheered at his presence in subsequent posts.

Feeling good: Throwing himself into proceedings, Wes was then seen getting up onstage to chat with the swimwear-clad crowds, who excitedly danced and cheered at his presence

Only staying for the party, the hunk revealed his return to London four hours later, and made his way to a nightclub in Tamworth for his second booking of the day.

Wes' fleeting visit back to the island came just hours after girlfriend Megan cancelled all of her upcoming nightclub appearances due to 'personal reasons'.

The glamour model was due to kick off a string of PAs starting with Lourenzos Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland on Saturday, but cancelled the booking - with club managers saying the rest of the dates have been scrapped.

A statement posted on the venue's Facebook page read: 'Management cancellation: Megan Barton.

Next up: Only staying for the party, the hunk revealed his return to London four hours later

No sign of stopping: Wes then made his way to a nightclub in Tamworth for his second booking of the day

'Unfortunately Love Island star Megan Barton has decided to CANCEL ALL personal appearances due to personal reasons.

'Lourenzos sincerely apologise to everyone who was excited about meeting Megan on Saturday 4th August but unfortunately the situation is out with our control.

'The good news is that JACK FOWLER will 100% be here next Saturday. Lourenzos HQ.'

MailOnline has contacted Megan's representatives for further comment.

Confirmed: Megan was due to kick off a string of PAs starting with Lourenzos Dunfermline in Scotland on Saturday, but cancelled - with the remaining dates also being scrapped

Staying strong: Hours after the news was announced, the Southend native was seen heading on a night out with Love Island co-star Samira Mighty in London

Bombshell: Looking as glamorous as ever amid the controversy, the blonde slipped into a nude mini dress and saucy thigh-high boots as she arrived in Mayfair for dinner

Hours after the news was announced, the Southend native was seen heading on a night out with Love Island co-star Samira Mighty in London.

Looking as glamorous as ever amid the controversy, the blonde bombshell slipped into a nude mini dress and saucy thigh-high boots as she arrived in Mayfair for dinner with the West End performer.

Megan's cancellation no doubt disappointed many of her fans, having been one of the bombshells on the ITV2 series.

Hitting headlines: Megan (above) has forged a career as a glamour model - but was recently hit by claims she lived a life of luxury by dating 'Sugar Daddies', while working as an escort

'They would do anything for her': Megan allegedly enjoyed 'dates and flings' with older guys who lavished her with expensive gifts, including a 30,000 Range Rover

Taking the next step: While she lived the high life in London before her time on the show, the blonde has now moved in with new boyfriend Wes in her native Southend

Exciting: Wes shared a video of the milestone moment to his Instagram on Thursday

While she lived the high life in London before her time on the show, the blonde has now moved in with new boyfriend Wes in her native Southend.

On Thursday - just two days after leaving the villa - the nuclear design engineer took to his Instagram story to share a clip of Megan arriving back at her plush flat, which he captioned: 'Moving into Megs GAFFFFAAAA!' (sic)

The pair met and fell for each other on Love Island, and placed in fourth during the live final, behind Josh Denzel and Kaz Crossley, Laura Anderson and Paul Knops, and winner Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer.

Megan and Wes were embroiled in one of the most dramatic love triangles of the series, having fallen for each other while he was coupled up with co-star Laura.

Ditching the air hostess to pursue romance with Megan, things then went awry when the boys were moved to Casa Amor, and the model proceeded to fall for Alex Miller.

Love is in the air: The pair met and fell for each other on Love Island, and placed in fourth during the live final

However, after vowing to win her back, Wes soon turned Megan's head once again, and they have remained strong ever since.

While she reached the final due to her romance with Wes, Megan received much scrutiny during her time on Love Island - with viewers branding her 'two-faced' and 'snakey' on multiple occasions.

Speaking on the Love Island reunion show, which airs on Sunday night, the model says she 'knew' she wasn't going to be popular due to career of choice.

She explains: 'I knew I wouldn't be one of the favourites due to my glamour girl past. It was hard when I was always in the bottom few couples or when you heard what the public thought of me in the tasks.'

Backlash: While she reached the final with Wes, Megan received much scrutiny during her time on Love Island - and was branded 'two-faced' by viewers for 'stealing' him from Laura Anderson

However, Megan goes on to admit she is delighted with how much the show has 'changed' her life, and is thankful people have been welcoming since she returned to the UK.

She goes on: 'The response since I got out has been incredible though.It's so cliched and I feel cringey actually saying it but Love Island really has changed my life.

'In the outside world I wouldn't have thought I deserved Wes. I would have run a mile because I thought he was too good for me but you can't do that in the villa. I really did find love.

'My perceptions of girl friendships have completely changed too. Before I was in a group who b****ed so I pulled myself away but I've realised I'm a girly girl.'

Honest: Speaking on the Love Island reunion show, which airs on Sunday night, the model says she 'knew' she wasn't going to be popular due to her 'glamour model past'

Although she isn't 'proud' of her past - having revealed on the show she once worked as a stripper - she adds that she no regrets because she 'made a lot of money'.

'I didn't do porn... I've done some things in the past I'm not proud of but I'm not a bad person,' she continues.

'I don't regret doing webcam. It is in the past, it is what it is. I understand it's not the job you would want your daughter doing but after dancing it is an easy progression.

'I did it, made a lot of money and then stopped. I came from a background of not having much money so I thought money would make me happy.

'I got loads of money and was still unhappy and that's when I realised love makes you happy. That's one of the reasons I entered 'Love Island'.'
She's been enjoying a luxury holiday in the Maldives with her beau Josh Barker.

And on Friday, Elyse Knowles, 25, took to Instagram to post a video expressing her holiday joy by performing a surprising dance for her legions of fans.

The new Myer ambassador looked simply sensational in a khaki swimsuit while busting out her moves amid a stunning beach backdrop in the Maldives.

She's got it! The Block's Elyse Knowles showed off her moves and flawless figure in a khaki swimsuit on Friday, while on her lavish holiday in the Maldives

Elyse was filmed looking out into the picturesque distance before breaking out an unexpected dance known as 'flossing'.

Initially brought to light by a fan performing the funky move at Katy Perry's concert last year, the dance quickly became a viral sensation online.

'I'm so good at flossing,' Elyse exclaimed during her attempt.

Surprise! Elyse was filmed looking out into the picturesque distance before breaking out an unexpected dance known as 'flossing'

'I'm so good at flossing,' Elyse exclaimed during her attempt at the viral dance move

But Elyse was also good at rocking the perfect vacation ensemble, pairing a swimsuit with denim shorts in a light wash, frayed at the edges.

She accessorised the minimalist look with black sunglasses, a nude wide-brim hat and a tan crossbody bag adorned with retro fringed-detailing.

Elyse's signature blonde tresses were kept away from her face, styled in beachy waves and she opted to go barefoot.

Chic: Elyse rocked the perfect vacation ensemble, pairing a swimsuit with denim shorts in a light wash, frayed at the edges

The former Miss Universe tapped into her humorous side by captioning the post: 'Acting serious for about two seconds'.

In the last couple of weeks, Elyse has been documenting her luxurious getaway on Instagram after she was announced as the newest celebrity ambassador for iconic department store Myer.

Previously named as a face of Myer beauty, Elyse revealed 'she had been 'working for this moment since [she] was 16,' while speaking to The Sunday Telegraph.

'I knew from then I wanted to be part of the family.'

'Acting serious for about two seconds,' she captioned the lighthearted video showing her humorous side
California is in the middle of a summer heatwave.

And the ever-chic Jessica Alba beat the heat in style on Saturday as she hit the shops in West Hollywood in a flowing maxi dress.

The mother of three, actress and business owner looked gorgeous in the printed number as she headed to an arts and crafts store.

Always chic: Jessica Alba beat the heat in style on Saturday as she hit the shops in West Hollywood in a flowing maxi dress

Jessica, 37, showed some skin and her tan with the maxi's plunging neckline, while the nipped in waist highlighted the star's stunning figure.

She teamed the ankle-length dress with a pair of platform sandals, while keeping cool with a pair of statement shades.

The actress slicked back her locks into a chic up do, which also showed off her hoop earrings.

Stunning: The mother of three, actress and business owner looked gorgeous in the printed number as she headed to an arts and crafts store

Jessica was no doubt headed to the art store to pick up supplies for her three children, Honor, 10, Haven, seven, and son Hayes, seven months, whom she shares with her husband Cash Warren.

The doting mum kept her Instagram followers up to date with family life during the summer break, as she shared a cute snap of little Hayes enjoying his 'morning exercise' in a bouncer earlier on Saturday.

Eldest daughter Honor meanwhile had fun at camp as her mother proudly snapped a pic of her lookalike girl holding up a certificate for coding and engineering, before sharing a selfie with Honor and her cousin.

Bouncing babe: The doting mum kept her Instagram followers up to date with family life, as she shared a cute snap of little Hayes enjoying his 'morning exercise' in a bouncer on Saturday

Proud: Eldest daughter Honor meanwhile had fun at camp as her mother proudly snapped a pic of her lookalike girl holding up a certificate for coding and engineering

Jessica recently revealed that her eldest daughter is helping out with the parental duties as much as she can, since the arrival of Hayes seven months ago.

She explained to E! News: 'I feel like I just didn't have enough time in the day with two and I still feel that way, but I feel like we giggle a lot more.

'Haven I don't trust walking with him around 'cause she is 7, but Honor can throw him on her hip and like walk around and, like do things.

'The kids are really into him and it's teaching them how to nurture in a way and take care of a little person. They realize that he needs so much.'

'It's different when you have an American Girl doll and you can like throw her in the corner and keep it moving. You can't do that with a real baby.'
He's been making headlines across the nation trying to get in contact with ex-girlfriend Tayla Damir, 21, after his 'secret girlfriend' scandal.

And following the finale of Love Island Australia, winner Grant Crapp, 23, may be getting too caught up in the post-villa spotlight.

Speaking to Cosmopolitan on Friday, former Love Island contestants Mark O'Dare, 26 and Eden Dally, 25 discussed how Grant has recently 'changed' his behaviour.

Is it a load of Crapp? Love Island stars claim that winner Grant 'has changed' since split with Tayla Damir and revealed that he still follows his 'secret girlfriend' on Instagram

Mark said that Grant has 'changed a lot in the last week', and claimed 'he doesn't want to go anywhere without his agent'.

Eden, who placed second in the show alongside Erin Barnett, complained to the publication: 'Grant had a girlfriend the whole time and still won the whole show'.

After many vehement denials that he had a secret girlfriend on the outside, Grant admitted the truth on live radio last month.

He confessed to dating a brunette named Lucy Cartwright but downplayed how serious the relationship was before he headed to Spain.

VIP! Former Love Island contestant Mark O'Dare (R), 26 said that Grant has 'changed a lot in the last week,' and claimed 'he doesn't want to go anywhere without his agent'

Admission: After denying accusations of a 'secret girlfriend', Grant finally confessed last month to dating a brunette named Lucy Cartwright (pictured) but downplayed how serious the relationship was

He has since made public attempts to get in touch with Tayla, with one of the most recent being a pre-recorded grovelling voice message he left behind during an appearance on KIIS FM Kyle and Jackie O show last week.

Despite Grant's apologies, Mark revealed that his co-star still follows the 'secret girlfriend' on Instagram and expressed disappointment in Grant as a friend.

'I'm his mate, he could have told me he had a girlfriend!' he exclaimed.

Taken for granted: After many vehement denials that he had a secret girlfriend on the outside, Grant admitted the truth on live radio last month and has since made attempts to get back in touch with Tayla (pictured)

Grant's agent, Max Markson, confirmed Grant's plans consist of trying to land a spot on Ex on the Beach and working on a 'Grant Crapp calendar', in addition to a James Bond-themed poster over the next few months.

'I think he'd be a perfect fit for Ex On The Beach, especially since the split,' Max previously told Daily Mail Australia.

'Maybe Tayla could appear on the show too - he really does miss her.'

Grant also recently received his blue tick approval from Instagram, solidifying his high-profile status.

To celebrate the milestone, the Canberra electrician received a 'blue tick' cake decorated by his mother for his birthday.
Their father, Joe Jackson, tragically passed away aged 89 after a secret battle with cancer at the end of June.

And a month on from the tragedy, his sons Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Marlon seemed determined to honour the patriarch's memory as they performed together as The Jacksons on Saturday.

Donning matching embellished jackets, the legendary soul group put on an energetic show for fans at the music festival, Rewind North, in Macclesfield, Cheshire.

In memory: The Jacksons paid tribute to their late father Joe as they hit the stage for an energetic performance... one month after he died of cancer aged 89

The group, which Joe formed in the 1960s, paid tribute to their father as they took to the stage to perform their greatest hits.

The brothers proved they were as in sync as ever as they performed a series of expertly-timed dance moves.

The show comes after Joe died in hospital on June 27, after battling cancer for some time.

He had suffered poor health in recent years, suffering a stroke and three heart attacks in 2015.

Group effort: Jermaine (pictured), Tito, Jackie and Marlon seemed determined to honour the patriarch's memory as they performed together at the Rewind North festival in Cheshire on Saturday

Taking centre-stage: Donning matching embellished jackets, the iconic band put on an energetic show for fans. Left, Marlon, 61, and right, Jackie, 67

Tragedy: Their father, Joe Jackson, tragically passed away aged 89 after a secret battle with cancer at the end of June (pictured with his daughter Janet in 2000)

Jackson's wife Katherine, who he lived separately from, is reported to have been at his side at the time of his death.

His daughter Janet, 52, addressed his death onstage during a performance at New Orleans' Essence Fest in early July.

'Quite honest, it was really hard for me,' an emotional Janet admitted.

'I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to move forward, if I should cancel this festival or cancel the entire tour.'

Honour: The group, which Joe formed in the 1960s, paid tribute to their father as they took to the stage to perform their greatest hits

Still got it! The brothers proved they were as in sync as ever as they performed a series of expertly-timed dance moves

Icons: Jackson began working on the music careers of his children in the 1960s when he put together the Jackson 5 group in the family's home city of Gary, Indiana

Taj Jackson, Joe's grandson, said the hearts of the 'entire family' are in pain. The sonl of Tito tweeted: 'Disgusted by some of the comments I'm reading about my grandpa Joe by those who didn't even know him.

'Joe was loved by our ENTIRE family and our hearts are in pain. Let us grieve without the nastiness. #ripthehawk.'

Jackson began working on the music careers of his children in the 1960s when he put together the Jackson 5 group in the family's home city of Gary, Indiana.

Patriarch: As the group's manager, he oversaw their rigorous rehearsals and booked performances for them at talent shows and small venues (pictured, Tito)

Paving the way: He helped secured the band's first record deal and they went on to enjoy success with hits ABC, I Want You Back and Rockin' Robin among many others

As the group's manager, he oversaw their rigorous rehearsals and booked performances for them at talent shows and small venues.

He helped secured the band's first record deal and they went on to enjoy success with hits ABC, I Want You Back and Rockin' Robin among many others.

Jackson's children also enjoyed successful solo careers. His son Michael's album Thriller is the world's best-selling album with estimated sales of more than 60 million copies.

Giving it their all: Jermaine and Marlon looked utterly at home as they belted out their killer vocals onstage
Lady Gaga has apologised for referring to Zombie Boy's death as a suicide, after his family insisted it was an accident.

Rick Genest, 32, was tragically found dead on Wednesday after falling from the balcony at rear of his apartment in Montreal, Canada.

The musician, who chose the model as the star of her Born This Way video, paid heartfelt tribute to him on Twitter earlier this week - but has now apologised for 'speaking too soon' and calling his death a suicide without evidence.

Sorry: Lady Gaga has apologised for referring to Zombie Boy's death as a suicide, after his family insisted it was an accident

Speaking out: The musician, who chose the model to star in her Born This Way video (above), paid tribute to him on Twitter earlier this week - but has now apologised for 'speaking too soon'

The Edge of Glory hitmaker originally wrote on Twitter: 'The suicide of friend Rick Genest, Zombie Boy is beyond devastating.

'We have to work harder to change the culture, bring Mental Health to the forefront and erase the stigma that we can't talk about it. If you are suffering, call a friend or family today. We must save each other.'

However, the model's family came forward on Saturday to reject the police's claims that he jumped - leading the musician to apologise for her words.

Taking it back: Sharing snaps of the model to her Twitter, Gaga apologised for her 'unjust conclusion' and sent her 'deepest condolences' to his family

Deleting her first Tweet, Gaga shared another image of the model on Sunday, alongside the caption: 'Out of respect for Rick's family, Rick & his legacy I apologize if I spoke too soon as there was no witnesses or evidence to support any conclusion for the cause of his death.

'I in no way meant to draw an unjust conclusion. My deepest condolences to his entire family and friends.'

Clearly devastated, she shared a second photo of herself and Rick from the music video, with the words: 'The art we made was sacred to me and I was emotional.

RIP: Zombie Boy, real name Rick Genest, fell from the balcony at the rear of his home in Plateau-Mont-Royal on Wednesday, after telling his girlfriend he was 'going for a cigarette'

'He was an incredible artist and his art and heart will live on. Rest In Peace you beautiful soul.'

Her apology comes after the model's family insisted there were too many 'inconsistencies' for his death to be ruled a suicide, and slammed the 'disappointing' conclusions people had drawn about his passing.

Rick fell from the balcony at the rear of his home in Plateau-Mont-Royal on Wednesday, after telling his girlfriend he was 'going for a cigarette'.

When he did not return, she went outside to check and found him lying on the floor at the foot of the building. Medics could not revive him and he died at around 5pm.

Not true: The model's family insisted there were too many 'inconsistencies' for his death to be ruled a suicide, and revealed his balcony had been 'very dangerous' with 'very small rails'

His manager Karim Leduc, said in a statement: 'For us, the family and close entourage, we feel there's too many inconsistencies around his death to rule it as a suicide, and for people to jump to conclusions that rapidly was disappointing.

'The balcony from which he fell on the third floor was a very dangerous balcony. Just three weeks ago, I visited that balcony with him and was on it with him smoking a cigarette, as well.

'It's a balcony that has very small rails/guards -- an emergency/fire escape balcony - and he was leaning his back towards it like sitting on the ledge of the rail, and he fell from his backside onto the floor.'

He acknowledged that Genest had not left a suicide note and had plans in his diary this week.

'He's not someone who would do that': His manager also acknowledged that Genest had not left a suicide note and had plans in his diary this week

Leduc also revealed he had received a 'beautiful' Facebook message from Genest on Wednesday morning 'saying he appreciated our relationship'.

He added: 'He's not someone who, we feel, would commit suicide; he's not someone who would do something like that because he's very thoughtful of others.'

The model became known as Zombie Boy for his numerous tattoos depicting the inside of his body - including the inking of a brain all over his skull.

Genest walked for Mugler during the Paris and New York City Fashion Weeks in 2011, and went on to appear in magazines such as GQ, Vanity Fair and Vogue Hommes.
Love Island's Megan Barton-Hanson has spoken out about female empowerment, after candidly discussing her past career on an X-rated site.

Taking to her Instagram on Sunday, the glamour model, 24, voiced her support for 'all women and their choices', and slammed those who have previously judged her in a lengthy and passionate post.

Megan's message comes amid claims she dated 'Sugar Daddies' during her time as an 'escort', and just one day after she confessed to making 'loads of money' from nude webcam work.

'I support all women': Love Island's Megan Barton-Hanson, 24, has spoken out about female empowerment, after candidly discussing her past career on an X-rated site

After hitting headlines with her past, the blonde set the record straight by sharing a powerful quote for her followers, which read: 'It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.'

She shared the image with a lengthy caption, which voiced her support for women of all walks of life, and slammed those who belittle females and their bodies online.

She wrote: 'Today I really feel that I need to address some of the stories out there about me on behalf of women in general.

Honest: Her message comes amid claims she dated 'Sugar Daddies' during her time as an 'escort', and just one day after she confessed to making 'loads of money' from webcam work

'I support all women, regardless of the choices they make about what they do with their bodies.

'My dad always told me unless youve walked in someones shoes then don't judge them.'

Paying tribute to those who have supported her since leaving the Love Island villa, she went on: 'Thank you to all of the amazing women that have and continue to follow my journey. Your messages of support mean so much to me.

'I wont allow stories like these to stop me from be a free thinking, confident, independent young woman striving to make a better life for myself and my family.

Girl power: Taking to her Instagram on Sunday, the model slammed those who have previously judged her in a lengthy post, shared beside an inspiring quote (above)

Supportive: Megan's boyfriend Wes then shared a screen shot of her post to his own Instagram story, captioned: 'She's incredible', followed by a love heart emoji

'Im off to the final Love Island Aftersun. Cant wait to reunite with all the gang. Love to you all and have a great Sunday. Meg'

She followed up her passionate post with the hashtags: '#womenempowerment #girlpower #womenunited'

The message comes after Megan spoke about her 'porn' past, and admitted to making 'loads of money' from webcam work.

Speaking on the Love Island reunion show, which airs on Sunday, Megan affirmed she doesn't 'regret' her past - having revealed on the ITV2 show that she once worked as a stripper.

'I don't regret doing it': The message comes after Megan spoke about her 'porn' past, and admitted to making 'loads of money' from webcam work as well as modelling (above in 2017)

'I didn't do porn... I've done some things in the past I'm not proud of but I'm not a bad person,' she said.

'I don't regret doing webcam. It is in the past, it is what it is. I understand it's not the job you would want your daughter doing but after dancing it is an easy progression.

'I did it, made a lot of money and then stopped. I came from a background of not having much money so I thought money would make me happy.

'I got loads of money and was still unhappy and that's when I realised love makes you happy. That's one of the reasons I entered Love Island.'

'They would do anything for her': It was also claimed on Saturday that she lived a life of luxury prior to the reality show (above), by working as an escort and dating 'Sugar Daddies'

It was also claimed on Saturday that she lived a life of luxury prior to the reality show, by working as an escort and dating 'Sugar Daddies'.

According to The Sun, the blonde worked as a glamour model before heading to Mallorca for the series, and reportedly lived the high life following dates with wealthy, older men.

The publication revealed that Megan dated an older man - in his 50s - for a long stretch of time, who lavished her with expensive gifts, including a 30,000 Range Rover.

The paper reported that while the former stripper was dating her 'Sugar Daddies', she was living in a luxury apartment in London's swanky St Katherine's Dock and filled her wardrobe with designer goods.

High life: Reports claim that while Megan was dating her 'Sugar Daddies', she was living in a luxury apartment in London's St Katherine's Dock and filled her wardrobe with designer goods

Of her previous dates and lavish treats, an insider told the publication: 'This was down to one older guy in particular, in his 50s, that she was with for a while.

'She also had dates and flings with other older guys who you could describe as Sugar Daddies. They loved having Megan on their arm and would do anything for her.'

The Essex stunner reportedly led quite the glamorous lifestyle after meeting one man in particular, and he would often lavish her with cash and gifts.

MailOnline have contacted Megan's representatives for comment.

Stunning: The Essex stunner reportedly led quite the glamorous lifestyle after meeting one man in particular, and he would often lavish her with cash and gifts

It was revealed earlier this week that Megan and new boyfriend Wes Nelson had moved in together - just days after leaving the Love Island villa.

The nuclear design engineer, 20, took to Instagram on Wednesday to document the beauty's first meeting with his family, and reveal the pair were going to have a 'nosey' at a potential flat the following day, with Wes moving into Megan's flat.

The good-looking duo declared they would like to live together in Megan's native Southend during their time on the ITV2 show, which came to an end on Monday night.

The couple placed in fourth overall, behind Josh Denzel and Kaz Crossley, Laura Anderson and Paul Knops, and winner Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer.

Stronger than ever: It was revealed earlier this week that Megan and new boyfriend Wes Nelson had moved in together - just days after leaving the Love Island villa

Speaking to The Sun upon her return, Megan admitted she is now willing to give up her career in glamour modelling, after falling for Wes and finding fame on the show.

Megan and Wes were embroiled in one of the most dramatic love triangles of the series, having fallen for each other while he was coupled up with co-star Laura.

Ditching the air hostess to pursue romance with Megan, things then went awry when the boys were moved to Casa Amor, and the model proceeded to fall for Alex Miller.

However, after vowing to win her back, Wes soon turned Megan's head once again, and they have remained strong ever since.
Geoffrey Edelsten's rollercoaster romance with Gabi Grecko, 29 saw them tie the knot in 2015, separate five months later and rekindle the flame late last year.

And after splitting their time between Los Angeles and New York, the millionaire medic, 75, wants the couple to take the next step and put down roots in his native Australia, according to this week's Sun-Herald.

But before they can feather their nest at his Melbourne penthouse, Geoffrey is flying to New York to 'sort out' the American aspiring rapper's Australian visa.

Visa run! Millionaire medic Geoffrey Edelsten, 75, is desperate to 'sort out' Australian immigration papers for former escort wife Gabi Grecko, 29 so they can relocate from the US to his native Melbourne permanently

According to a report in the publication on Sunday, the aging tycoon and his busty bride will also be scoping out synagogues in the Big Apple to find the perfect one for their upcoming vow renewals.

But the publication claims the ceremony is being delayed because Gabi is 'still undergoing her conversion to Judaism.'

The couple first got married in 2015 at a Melbourne registry office but split acrimoniously five months later.

Busty bride: After splitting their time between Los Angeles and New York, the millionaire medic, 75, wants him and Gabi (pictured) to take the next step and put down roots in his native Australia

Believed to have reconciled over the Christmas period, Gabi denied reports they had divorced in the interim, telling fans during a Q&A on Instagram in June that, 'we're still married. Just to let you know!'

Meanwhile on Friday, the headline-grabber paid tribute to her father, celebrity hairdresser Michael Grecko.

She marked the anniversary of his death with a moving Instagram post.

In the touching tribute, the rapper revealed that her father hobnobbed with the Hollywood elite, with one of his high-profile clients being the late Joan Rivers.

Gabi wrote: 'You can see where I got the hair from, my dad, Celebrity hair dresser Michael Grecko Rip 1957-2000 miss you every day'

Gabi wrote: 'You can see where I got the hair from, my dad, Celebrity hair dresser (pre-internet and MySpace) Michael Grecko Rip 1957-2000 miss you every day and Rip Joan Rivers one of his first clients'.

In the series of images shared along with the post, Michael can be seen posing with Joan Rivers and showing off a mane of amazing long, black hair.

Another image shows his hairdressing certificate, and a bottle of what appears to be his own brand of shampoo

Over the collection of photos Gabi wrote: 'RIP dad' in pink neon font.
She's currently pregnant with her third child.

But not even the baby on board was enough to stop Carrie Bickmore experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and greet the Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas.

The Hit Network presenter, 37, was joined by co-host Tommy Little, 33, for the whirlwind work trip - but 'would not recommend' Sin City for anybody else pregnant.

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Larger than life bump! Pregnant Carrie Bickmore hit Las Vegas with the Backstreet Boys and Tommy Little during a whirlwind work trip

'Well that was fun,' Carrie captioned her snap alongside Tommy and Backstreet Boys members AJ McLean, Howie D, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell.

She added: '48 hours in Vegas to see the Backstreet Boys perform on the World Famous Rooftop. Wouldn't recommend Vegas while pregnant - but still loads of fun.'

Where as Vegas may not be the most pregnant-friendly of places, Carrie still had the time of her life, posting: '25 years in the biz these boys and such a thrill to see them in such an intimate gig.'

Bumping along: The Hit Network presenter, pictured with co-host Tommy, revealed she 'wouldn't recommend' Sin City while pregnant

Backstreet's back: The duo joined 60 competition winners from Australia at Las Vegas's iconic World Famous Rooftop for the exclusive performance

Joining Carrie and Tommy for the exclusive performance were 60 lucky Hit Network competition winners.

The listeners, from across the whole of Australia, won their way to America, and flew over especially for the performance.

They were then treated to seven tracks from the best-selling boy band.

Nick and the group sang Larger Than Life, As Long As You Love Me, I Want It That Way, Everybody, Backstreet's Back, Don't Go Breaking My Heart and Quit Playing Games.

Money can't buy: The best-selling boy band sang seven of their greatest hits for the lucky fans

Before flying over to Las Vegas, Carrie enjoy a brief family break in Hawaii.

The trip proved even more special for the TV and radio star for an unexpected reason other than soaking up some sun with her children.

'It was the first week I haven't felt sick in months,' she joked on Instagram.

They want it that way: Carrie and Tommy got into the spirit of things during the VIP gig

Biggest fan? Tommy appeared to be auditioning for sixth member while singing along

After announcing her baby news in June, Carrie revealed she'd been suffering from non-stop morning sickness while live on-air with Tommy.

'I didn't even think I had the energy to work out - to even get my head around what was happening,' she said.

'[Being] hungry made me feel sick, eating has made me feel sick, being awake has made me feel sick, sleeping has made me feel sick, coffee has made me feel sick, everything has made me feel sick.'
She is one of the best known actresses in the industry, but Blake Lively proved she can be a fan girl herself on Sunday.

The Gossip Girl star, 30, shared a hilarious throwback snap to her Instagram on Saturday, which saw her dress up as Baby Spice to attend a Spice Girls concert in her youth.

However, while the photo delighted her followers, Blake was sent into a spin herself when Emma Bunton - the real Baby Spice - commented that she looked 'cute' underneath.

Oh my god! Blake Lively proved to be the ultimate fan girl on Sunday, when Spice Girl Emma Bunton commented on her Instagram post

Memory lane: The Gossip Girl star, 30, shared a hilarious throwback snap to her Instagram on Saturday, which saw her dress up as Baby Spice to attend a Spice Girls concert in her youth

The pop star, 42, wrote in response to the photo: 'So cute! You're rocking those pigtails @blakelively'

Clearly overwhelmed as a Spice Girls devotee, Blake immediately commented back: 'I'm officially dead', followed by numerous skull emojis.

Proving to be the ultimate fan girl, she then added hilariously: 'Forever bowing down to you. I cannot believe you know who I am. This will never be normal.'

Catching attention: However, Blake was sent into a spin herself when Emma Bunton - the real Baby Spice - commented that she looked 'cute' underneath

Can't believe it: Blake shared a hilarious comment that claimed she is 'dead' and 'bowing down' to the pop star in response to Emma

Blake shared the sweet snap on Saturday, which saw her dress up as the Spice Girl for their concert in her home town twenty years ago.

The young actress clearly embodied the pop star in a blue mini dress and towering platforms, as well as Emma's trademark bunches, as she posed with a pal for the camera.

She captioned the throwback image: 'Pretending to be someone else... since 1997.

'Thanks @briaaamadrid for the photo of us at the Spice Girls concert. Sorry, not sorry I tricked you into thinking I was @emmaleebunton.'

Spice Girls: Emma Bunton, or Baby Spice, was known for wearing her hair in pigtails and sporting platform shoes

Throwback: Lively remembers the concert as if it were yesterday. '@briaaamadrid thanks for the pic and flashback. I was so happy that someone thought I was Baby Spice. I remember this!! I still tell people this story,' she wrote on Instagram

Blake found the shot on Madrid's page, where she joked she had actually believed the actress to be Emma at the time, in her young age.

'Found a picture when I was five at my first concert. #SpiceGirls and took a picture with a girl dressed up as Baby Spice who I just realized now was @blakelively,' Madrid tweeted.

Clearly delighted, Blake responded: '@briaaamadrid thanks for the pic and flashback.

'I was so happy that someone thought I was Baby Spice. I remember this!! I still tell people this story!'

In an interview with Marie Claire back in 2012, Lively talked about her 'obsession' with the girl group. 'When I was a child I probably should have been medicated about my obsession with the Spice Girls,' she said. 'I had the buffalo shoes and a union jack dress' (Photo taken 2017)

In an interview with Marie Claire back in 2012, Lively talked about her 'obsession' with the girl group.

'When I was a child I probably should have been medicated about my obsession with the Spice Girls,' she said. 'I had the buffalo shoes, a customized Baby Spice necklace when I say custom made it was made out of plastic from the local mall and a union jack dress.'

Following her rise to fame, Blake eventually met the Spice Girls while having dinner in London.

'I got to hang out with The Spice Girls. It was my lifelong dream. That's it now. I can quit,' she told the magazine.
He recently revealed the stresses of taking their three young children to a restaurant for dinner.

And James Corden certainly stuck to his word on Saturday, as he enjoyed a romantic dinner with his wife Julia Carey - while the kids stayed at home.

The Late Late Show host, 39, cut a relaxed figure as he arrived at swanky sushi restaurant Nobu in Malibu, hand-in-hand with his wife.

It takes two: James Corden enjoyed a romantic dinner with his wife Julia Carey on Saturday, after admitting dining out with their three children is 'not worth it'

James kept things casual for dinner in a navy polo shirt and jeans, despite the upmarket venue.

His wife Julia however upped the glamour in a stylish monochrome dress, formed of a striped bodice and clashing zig-zag skirt and adorned with a glittering waist belt.

The blonde perfectly offset her look with chic scalloped pumps, and tied the ensemble together with a sleek leather clutch bag, as she made her way into the restaurant with her husband.

Love is in the air: The Late Late Show host, 39, cut a relaxed figure as he arrived at swanky sushi restaurant Nobu in Malibu, hand-in-hand with his wife

Low-key: James kept things casual for dinner in a navy polo shirt and jeans, despite the upmarket venue

The pair looked as loved-up as ever as they headed inside hand-in-hand - having previoulsy revealed that taking their kids out to eat is 'not worth it'.

The comedian told the Sunday Mirror earlier this year: With two it was like we had two really, really great pets, and now it feels like weve bought a zoo. Im exhausted. It is so difficult with three children.'

He continued: 'We went to a little food place at the end of our street in LA and we looked like we were fleeing the country. I had a daughter, a backpack, a bag and then a bag on the wrist and the stroller, another child.

Glamorous: His wife Julia however upped the glamour in a stylish monochrome dress, formed of a striped bodice and clashing zig-zag skirt and adorned with a glittering waist belt

Finishing touches: Julia offset her look with chic scalloped pumps, and tied the ensemble together with a sleek leather clutch bag, as she made her way into the restaurant with James

Difficult: James previously revealed it was 'very difficult' to eat out with three kids, and claimed the food is 'not worth' the stress

'My wifes got another bag and our son. I was like this is not worth it, the food is not that good in this place, this is not worth weve got a fridge.'

James and Julia married 2012, and went on to welcome Max, six, Carey, three, and baby daughter Charlotte, born in December.

While the couple are British, the family currently reside in LA, where they relocated for James' hosting role on the Late Late Show.

Happy family: James and Julia married 2012, and went on to welcome Max, six, Carey, three, and baby daughter Charlotte, born in December

The actor has since hit the big time in the States, and has reportedly agreed to another four years of the chat show in a 15million deal.

Talking on ITV's Lorraine last year, James said he owes all of his success to Julia - who agreed to make the move stateside at a chaotic time.

He said: 'All credit to my wife, who agreed to move when our daughter [Carey] was five weeks old and our son [Max] was three.

'It was a massive undertaking. I work so hard in the week and then at the weekend, you click your fingers and it's like you are in the South Of France.'
Teresa Palmer has live-tweeted her terror after experiencing the huge earthquake that struck the island of Lombok on Sunday.

The Australia actress, 32, is currently holidaying on the nearby island of Bali, which was also shook by the 7.0-magnitude quake, with her two children and husband.

She described the incident as 'violent' as the family's tree-house accommodation became 'scarily' unstable as the quake first hit while their kids were sleeping.

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'It was VIOLENT': Taking to Twitter, Australian actress Teresa Palmer revealed she and her family are caught up in Bali earthquake terror as she shares her 'very scary' experience on social media

Teresa initially wrote: 'Woah! Anyone else feel that earthquake in Bali? Hope everyone is okay. Staying in a treehouse and we were SWAYING!'

As other locals shared their experience of the earthquake, Teresa added: 'Stay safe everyone. Never felt anything so strong before, very scary.'

She added: 'We felt it here in Ubud and it was VIOLENT. We are staying in a tree house and it was swaying like crazy. Very scary. Stay safe everyone.'

Authorities said the quake struck the island of Lombok where a 6.4-magnitude killed 14 people last week.

'Anyone else feel that?' Teresa started her Twitter spree with some uncertainty while asking her followers if any of them had also felt the earthquake

Danger: Teresa urged her followers to 'stay safe' as reports started to emerge of the 7.0-magnitude quake that had struck the nearby island of Lombok

Scary situation: The Aussie actress described the quake and aftershock as 'VIOLENT'

Teresa was just one day into her luxury break when the quake struck.

Despite the star explaining how children Bodhi Rain, four, and Forest Sage, one, both slept through the terror, Teresa and husband Mark Webber experienced it all.

Earlier in the day, Teresa wrote on Instagram: 'Day 1 of our Bali Adventure.'

'Kicking it off at the amazing Zest Ubud vegan restaurant. Chill loungey vibes with the crew, eating fantastic plant-based food.'

Near miss: Twitter user Bali_Chris shared images of the heavy damage the quake caused at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport - which is approx 35km from where Teresa is staying

Deadly path: Authorities said the quake struck the island of Lombok where a 6.4-magnitude killed 14 people last week

Start of the trip: 'Day 1 of our Bali Adventure,' Teresa captioned this Instagram snap 10 hours before Bali shook as the earthquake hit nearby Lombok

Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency said the earthquake struck at a depth of 15km, prompting a tsunami warning.

Over an hour later the tsunami warning was lifted.

Twitter user Bali_Chris shared images of the heavy damage the quake caused at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport - which is approx 35km from where Teresa is staying.

'Strongest quake we've felt in the 13 years. Much stronger than the last one in Lombok that we felt in Bali.'

Be careful: Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency said the earthquake struck at a depth of 15km prompting a tsunami warning - but this was lifted one hour later

Chrissy Teigen, who is currently on vacation in Bali with husband John Legend and their two children, also live-tweeted the quake.

The model and prolific tweeter, 32, jumped on social media as a magnitude 7.0 earthquake and aftershocks rocked the holiday home she is staying in.

Chrissy told her 10.6m followers the island was experiencing aftershocks after the initial tremor and she walked outside naked holding her newborn son.

Live-tweeting from the scene, Chrissy wrote: 'MASSIVE earthquake, oh my god.

As the aftershocks appeared to calm down, the model then tweeted a relieved:'phewwwww', before explaining the build of her holiday home added to her terror.
Karl Stefanovic's endorsement for a Barrier Reef charity went awry on Sunday when he was accused of lacking journalistic principles.

The drama began when 43-year-old Today show host Tweeted his support for The Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

He wrote: 'The @GBRFoundation deserves and will use every cent in its arsenal to save the reef.

Plug problems: Karl Stefanovic's endorsement for a Barrier Reef charity went awry on Sunday when he was accused of lacking journalistic principles after it was revealed that the charity is a sponsor of the Today show, where Karl works. Karl is pictured on the Today show

'Ive no doubt their research into reef DNA and conservation is the key. Lets give them supporting space to prove it.'

Twitter users were quick to point out that there may be a conflict of interest in Karl's plug, with some pointing out that the GBR foundation was a sponsor for the Today show's We Love Australia trip last year.

Most vocal was journalist Hugh Riminton, who Tweeted to the TV host to question his 'principles'.

Outspoken: Most vocal was journalist Hugh Riminton, who Tweeted the TV host to question his 'principles'. He wrote: 'Dear Karl, might it have been appropriate to mention that @GBRFoundation has been a Today show event sponsor?'

Karl replied: 'To my knowledge no foundation funds have ever been used in a Today Show OB. Thanks for checking. Long live the reef'

Hugh addressed the TV star directly, writing: 'Dear Karl, might it have been appropriate to mention that @GBRFoundation has been a TODAY show event sponsor? There is some strength in old principles.'

Karl replied: 'Dear Hugh. There is some strength in old journalistic principles as well. To my knowledge no foundation funds have ever been used in a Today Show OB. Thanks for checking. Long live the reef.'

Several Twitter users then pointed out that Karl was incorrect in his assumption that the foundation had not been a Today show sponsor.

Issues? Several Twitter users pointed out that GBR foundation was a sponsor for the Today show's We Love Australia trip last year. Karl is pictured on the Today show alongside co-host Georgie Gardner

The TV personality shut down the conversation, Tweeting that his only true concern was for saving the Great Barrier Reef.

He pleaded: 'I come from Cairns. The Great Barrier Reef is home for millions of fish, turtles and wildlife; its one of the great natural wonders of the world.

'Millions rely on it for tourism. Politics should have no place in its waters. God we need to save it. We are running out of time'.
She plays Evelyn in the upcoming fantasy comedy flick Christopher Robin.

And Hayley Atwell was sure to command attention as she arrived on the red carpet for the European premiere of the soon-to-be hit film in London on Sunday alongside her on-screen husband Ewan McGregor.

The actress, 35, flaunted her enviable figure in a striking embellished ankle-grazer which featured daring sheer chiffon panels on the side that drew attention to her slender pins.

Striking: Hayley Atwell was sure to command attention as she arrived on the red carpet for the European premiere of the soon-to-be hit film in London on Sunday alongside her on-screen husband Ewan McGregor

Red carpet ready: Scottish star Ewan looked dapper for the red carpet event in a grey and black ensemble

The British beauty's show-stopping ensemble featured intricate sequin detailing in a hue of pink and purple that framed the look.

Boasting leather straps, the designer garment featured a bardot silhouette across the shoulders which accentuated her petite figure.

Hayley let her dress do the talking and kept her accessories to a minimum, simply sporting a pair of eye-catching diamond earrings with tanzanite stones by Ara Vartanian.

The film star demurely flashed a hint of skin with her sequin-detailed sheer panels as she walked up the grey carpet. The daring side slits began above her hips and feel to her calves.

Dazzling: The actress, 35, flaunted her enviable figure in a striking embellished ankle-grazer which featured daring sheer chiffon panels on the side that drew attention to her slender pins

Glamour: The British beauty's show-stopping ensemble featured intricate sequin detailing in a hue of pink and purple that framed the look

Design: Boasting leather straps, the designer garment featured a bardot silhouette across the shoulders which accentuated her petite figure

Continuing her dazzling display, she slicked her blonde locks off her face into a sleek Hollywood wave and worked a dramatic smokey eye.

Meanwhile, Hayley's co-star Ewan, 47, looked equally stylish for the cinematic event as he donned a grey blazer and black suit pants with a matching T-shirt.

While the A-listers lit up the carpet, other UK stars attended the film premiere including Lydia Bright, as well Love Island stars Eyal Booker and Laura Crane.

Christopher Robin tells the tale of the little boy from the Winnie The Pooh series, who is now grown-up and has lost all sense of imagination.

Eye-catching: Hayley let her dress do the talking and kept her accessories to a minimum, simply sporting a pair of eye-catching diamond earrings with tanzanite stones by Ara Vartanian

Picture perfect: Hayley posed with voice actor Jim Cummings, who voices Winnie the Pooh and Tigger

Handsome: Meanwhile, Hayley's co-star Ewan, 47, looked equally stylish for the cinematic event as he donned a grey blazer and black suit pants with a matching T-shirt

His old friends from the Hundred Acre Wood come back into Christopher's life to help him rediscover his sense of adventure and imagination.

The film stars Ewan McGregor in the titular role, alongside Hayley as his wife Evelyn, and Mark Gatiss as Giles Winslow, Christopher's boss. It will hit theatres on August 3 in the US.

Speaking about her role on Christopher Robin on Good Morning America recently, Hayley shared that she felt she had been 'doing this film for years'.

Stars: Other of the film star's Sophie Okonedo (L), who voices Kanga, and Mark Gatiss, who plays Giles Winslow, walked the carpet

Styled: Mark (L) and Ian Hallard looked stylish in their blue and white hued ensembles

Stepping out: Director Marc Forster arrived to the premiere in a black suit alongside Bronte Carmichael, who plays Christopher's daughter Madeline

'I feel like we all know these characters really well... My grandparents' generation, parents generation, mine, and also children today have this affinity with Winnie-the-Pooh because theyre such classic tales.

'So I felt like Ive been doing the film for years in a way, I felt very comfortable with them.

'Until you get there on set and youre working with these amazing stuffed animals and you see on screen the attention to detail, you can see the hairs moving and facial expressions that seem so human.'

Further discussing how much A. A. Milne's characters mean to us, she added that the public understand their personalities.

Love: Love Island star Laura Crane put on an eye-popping display in her plunging floral Topshop dress

Walk this way: She teamed the look with a strappy sandal

Posing up a storm: Eyal Booker, who recently celebrated his 23rd birthday, attended the premiere

Pin-credible: Lydia Bright looked chic at the premiere as she brought her God daughter Summer Rose

Loved-up: Storm and Ronan Keating arrived together to the event

Work it: Storm looked incredible in a pair of peach shorts and sheer floral blouse

Wonder in white: Ashley James dazzled in her scanty bardot mini dress at the showbiz bash

Pop of colour: The CBB alum paired her dazzling look with a blush pink box clutch and nude stilettos heels

Beauty: Ashley swept her blonde tresses up into a chic braid and highlighted her natural beauty with glossy pink make-up

'I think we all resonate with [them], sometimes we have an Eeyore day, sometimes we're a little more kind of vulnerable like Piglet, but I think from the whole experience Pooh's top guy.

'He says hes a bearer of a very little brain but in fact hes a bearer of a very big heart.

'Ive read the script, I've filmed it, and yet when I watched it for the first time last week by myself in a cinema room... I was crying through the opening credits because without being too sentimental it's just very innocent, it's very sweet.

'Its so much about friendships and cherishing the people in your lives.'

Chic: Chessie King (L) and Olivia Cox arrived in style

Hotly anticipated: The film stars Ewan in the titular role, alongside Hayley as his wife Evelyn, and Mark Gatiss as Giles Winslow, Christopher's boss. It will hit theatres on August 3 in the US

Hit the town: Ewan continued to cut a stylish figure as he arrived at the star-studded after-party at Soho House, London

A-List hunk: Ewan had all eyes on him as she got out of his car and approached the swanky venue for the showbiz bash

Long night! Ewan looked tired later on as he was driven home from the after party

Pals: The star was joined by a blonde friend in the backseat of his car
The A-List cast of the Men In Black spin-off descended on London earlier this month.

And filming for the anticipated sci-fi flick turned the streets of the capital into an battle field as Ludgate Hill became the focus of the production on Sunday.

The apocalyptic scenes saw cars overturned with giant concrete slabs lifted from the ground, indicating the film will feature an intense destruction of the City.

Intense: Men In Black spin-off filming took over the streets of London as cars are overturned and roads destroyed for apocalyptic scenes in Ludgate Hill on Sunday

Several suited actors leapt into fight mode as they dashed across the street with their alien-fighting weapons in hand.

Two unidentified cast members were also seen standing in the epicenter of the destruction in the highly dramatic scenes.

In other shots, vehicles crash-landed over other cars while huge debris littered the damaged streets.

Star-studded: None of the cast - which includes Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth (both pictured) - were in attendance during filming for the dramatic scenes

High drama: Several suited actors leapt into fight mode as they dashed across the street with their alien-fighting weapons in hand

Two unidentified cast members were also seen standing in the epicenter of the destruction in the highly dramatic scenes

Rising from the ashes: The two suspicious looking characters rose up from the debris

Hold you fire! Some actors took their place as they in the bustling street with their weapons

Bricks and concrete could be seen scattered across the cars and streets, indicating a huge explosion from above.

None of the cast - which includes Tessa Thompson and Emma Thompson - were in attendance during filming for the dramatic scenes.

Late last month, Australian hunk Chris Hemsworth, 34, was spotted suited-and-booted in the signature MIB black tie and white collared shirt for the first day of filming in London.

Armed and ready: One suited and booted actor stood waiting for his cue

High octane: An overturned car got the Hollywood treatment with plume of smoke covering the vehicle

Trademark look: Clearly members of the MIB, two actors waiting to kick off the action once more with their futuristic weapons

Chris was initially linked to the Men In Black film back in February when speculation grew that he would be joining the franchise following his Thor: Ragnarok success.

Also confirmed to be joining the cast is Chris Thor co-star Tessa Thompson, who also starred in the last season of Westworld, as his alien-fighting partner, as well as Kumail Nanjiani and Rafe Spall.

The first three films followed leading men Will Smith, 49, and Tommy Lee Jones, 71, as characters K and J, who are members of a secret organization, known as the Men in Black, and protected Earth from intergalactic bad guys.

Iconic look: MIB were a fictional secret organization, known as the Men in Black, and protected Earth from intergalactic bad guys

Ready to roll: One actor took an aggressive stance as they prepared for filming to start

However it is believed that rather than taking over those roles in the upcoming movie, Chris will be given a new character to get his teeth into.

Chris previously told Variety: 'We're developing the script now. We're basically trying to put a lot of humour in to it like the previous ones.

'These are obviously some big, big shoes to fill, so we're working our butts off on it to make something pretty epic and fun.

Catastrophic! Cars were left derelict in the street covered in dust and debris

Unrest: In the apocalyptic streets, cars were overturned with giant concrete slabs lifted from the ground, indicating the film will feature an intense destruction of the City

Caution! In other shots, vehicles crushed other cars underneath while huge debris littered the damaged streets

'They're trying to change up the locations, make it feel unique and different to the last ones as well...

'So I think you might even see some different countries, maybe. Some different cities than you've seen in the previous Men In Black movies."

Director F. Gary Gray is onboard to direct the film as Sony develop the reboot which is set for release in June 2019.

Havoc: Bricks and concrete could be seen scattered across the cars and streets, indicating a huge explosion from above

Huge damage: The Men In Black car could be seen waiting in the wings around the debris

Hollywood epic: Director F. Gary Gray is onboard to direct the film as Sony develop the reboot which is set for release in June 2019

Sharp: Australian hunk Chris Hemsworth, 34, was spotted suited-and-booted in the signature MIB black tie and white collared shirt for the first day of filming in London earlier this month

Suited and booted: Chris was initially linked to the Men In Black film back in February when speculation grew that he would be joining the franchise following his Thor: Ragnarok success

Fan favourite: The first three films followed leading men Will Smith, 49, and Tommy Lee Jones, 71, as characters K and J, members of a secret organisation who hunted extra-terrestrials
She's reported to have spent 25,000 on surgery.

And Love Island star Megan Barton Hanson has now revealed exactly what procedures she's had, including two boob jobs.

The blonde beauty, 24, took part in a joint interview with OK! Magazine with her Love Island beau Wes Nelson, 20, in which she opened up on her changing looks, admitting: 'Ive had two boob jobs, a nose job, veneers and lip fillers.'

Changing looks: Love Island star Megan Barton Hanson has revealed exactly what cosmetic surgery she's had in a candid interview with OK! Magazine alongside beau Wes Nelson

She went on: 'I had my first boob job when I was 19 but I rushed into it, so I had them redone a few years later to make them look more natural. I dont think the amount Ive had done is excessive and I didnt do it because I was deeply insecure.'

Comparing her surgery to a 'spray tan' and 'getting your hair done', the bombshell added: 'The only thing I really didnt like about myself before the surgery was my nose. I dont think theres anything wrong with enhancing your looks.'

Elsewhere in the candid interview Megan and Wes have defended their decision to have sex during their time in the villa as they admit 'they couldn't help themselves'.

Speaking out: Megan - who has reportedly spent 25,000 on surgery - shared details on her extensive procedures admitting: 'Ive had two boob jobs, a nose job, veneers and lip fillers'

The glamour model and nuclear design engineer confessed they were aware the cameras were around, but still managed to have 'a healthy amount' of sex.

When asked about how many times they got hot and heavy under the sheets, hunky Wes said: Lets just say it was a healthy amount!'

Megan quipped: It felt like we were having sex more than the other couples but I think thats because we were so open about it.'

Steamy: In an interview with OK! magazine, the glamour model, 24, and nuclear design engineer, 20, confessed they were aware the cameras were around

The Southend native continued: 'People said they forgot the cameras were there but we never did, especially when we were having sex, but we couldnt help ourselves.'

It was recently reported that the Staffordshire brainbox moved into his girlfriend's apartment, but Wes explained that their living condition is only temporary.

'Ive started spending time at Megans place but I havent moved in properly yet. Life has been so busy since leaving the villa and its showing no signs of slowing down, so weve not had time to really think about it but itll happen soon', Wes said.

In the sizzling shoot, Megan slipped her buxom features into a plunging red swimsuit, while Wes went shirtless to display his muscular physique.

Ooh la la: When asked about how many times they got hot and heavy under the sheets, hunky Wes said: Lets just say it was a healthy amount!'

Turning up the heat: Megan quipped: It felt like we were having sex more than the other couples but I think thats because we were so open about it'

The video vixen swept her tresses into a loosely tousled bun to reveal her stunning visage, which was enhanced with glowing make-up.

The pair's interview comes after Megan was hit with claims she was an escort who lived a life of luxury while dating Sugar Daddies, The Sun reported.

The blonde beauty worked as a glamour model before heading to Mallorca for the ITV summer reality show, and reportedly lived the high life following dates with rich older men.

Exciting: It was recently reported that the Staffordshire brainbox moved into his girlfriend's apartment, but Wes explained that their living condition is temporary at the moment

The publication also stated that Megan dated an older man - in his 50s - for a long time, and he lavished her with expensive gifts, including a 30,000 Range Rover.

Out now: The latest edition of OK! magazine is available now

The paper reported that while the former stripper was dating her 'Sugar Daddies', she was living in a luxury apartment in London's swanky St Katherine's Dock and filled her wardrobe with designer goods.

Of her previous dates and lavish treats, an insider told the publication: 'This was down to one older guy in particular, in his 50s, that she was with for a while.

'She also had dates and flings with other older guys who you could describe as Sugar Daddies. They loved having Megan on their arm and would do anything for her.'

The Essex stunner reportedly led quite the glamorous lifestyle after meeting one man in particular, and he would often lavish her with cash and gifts.

MailOnline have contacted Megan's representatives for comment.

Megan and Wes were placed in fourth overall, behind Josh Denzel and Kaz Crossley, Laura Anderson and Paul Knops, and winners Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer.
They've recently returned from a romantic Greek honeymoon following their lavish wedding in June.

And Mille Mackintosh had her newlywed glow on full display as she enjoyed the Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire with new husband Hugo Taylor, 32, on Sunday - and took Instagram to show off her sun-drenched trip.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 29, looked sensational as she flaunted her enviable figure in a skimpy leopard print bralette and shimmering mini-skirt.

Fun in the sun! Millie Mackintosh, 29, looked super smitten with new husband Hugo Taylor as they soaked up the sun at Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire on Sunday

Clearly in full festival mode, Millie elongated her slender pins in tan and metallic pointed boots while posing with glittering make-up.

The reality TV star swept up her glossy blonde locks into a chic top knot up'do and accessoriesed with shimmering gold necklaces.

Millie couldn't keep her hands off her model beau throughout the sun-kissed event, and shared a passionate smooch with Hugo in front of a floral display.

Loved up: Millie couldn't keep her hands off her model beau throughout the sun-kissed event, and shared a passionate smooch with Hugo in front of a floral display

Sparkly! Clearly in full festival mode, Millie elongated her slender pins in tan and metallic pointed boots while posing with glittering make-up

Hugo cut a stylish figure in a sharp white shirt and khaki shorts for the summer festival before the cute couple headed out with their second wardrobe change of the day.

Millie opted for a more demure look as she slipped into a glamorous white Seraphina summer dress, which was cinched in at the waist and cascaded down to the floor.

The fashionista paired her billowing dress with classic gladiator sandals, and shielded her eyes from the sunshine with a simple wide-rimmed hat.

All that glitters: The reality TV star swept up her glossy blonde locks into a chic top knot up'do and accessoriesed with shimmering gold necklaces

Stunner: The former Made In Chelsea star looked sensational as she flaunted her enviable figure in a skimpy leopard print bralette and shimmering mini-skirt

Toting her belongings in a wicker hand bag, Millie looked totally smitten with Hugo as they strolled hand-in-hand through the sun-drenched field in another loved-up snap.

Hugo and Millie were joined by fellow MIC star Rosie Fortescue for the glamorous afternoon, and even made sure to catch a selfie with one of the festival's horses.

Millie has a lot to smile about as she recently returned from her romantic Greek honeymoon to the islands of Crete and Kefalonia, after tying the knot with Hugo.

Stylish: Toting her belongings in a wicker hand bag, Millie looked totally smitten with Hugo as they strolled hand-in-hand through the sun-drenched field in another loved-up snap

Horsing around: Hugo and Millie were joined by fellow MIC star Rosie Fortescue for the glamorous afternoon, and even made sure to catch a selfie with one of the festival's horses

The newlywed lovebirds started off their Grecian adventure at the Elounda Peninsula All Suite Hotel in Crete, before travelling to Kefalonia for the second part of their break at the F Zeen Retreat.

Millie and Hugo said their vows at his uncle's country estate, Whithurst Park, in West Sussex on June 22, with the bride wowing in a wedding dress with detachable sleeves by designer Kate Halfpenny.

The couple dated in 2011 while on Made In Chelsea, but split when it emerged Hugo had cheated on her with her friend Rosie Fortescue, who attended the wedding alongside a bevy of their other co-stars including Caggie Dunlop and Jamie Laing.

Cute couple! Millie has a lot to smile about as she recently returned from her romantic Greek honeymoon to the islands of Crete and Kefalonia, after tying the knot with Hugo

But they reunited in May 2016 shortly after Millie's split from first husband, rapper Professor Green.

Millie was married to the musician, real name Stephen Manderson, 34, for two-and-a-half years.

The couple announced their split in February 2016 and finalised their divorce in May 2016, the same week that Millie went public with Hugo.
She's been a staple of the big screen for almost forty years.

And Meg Ryan enjoyed some much-deserved down time from tinsel town as she soaked up the sun in Portofino, Italy with a pal on Sunday.

The A-List star, 56, ditched the Hollywood glamour for a classic black T-shirt embellished with a white star, which she paired with loose fitting white slacks.

Chilled out: Meg Ryan opts for comfort with a casual T-shirt and slacks as she enjoys some retail therapy in Portofino, Italy on Sunday

Meg sauntered around the Italian village in a pair of monochrome sneakers as she indulged in some retail therapy.

The When Harry Met Sally star let her signature blonde tresses fall in her naturally straight style and concealed her eyes from the sunshine in chic black shades.

Meg enhanced her natural beauty with only a hint of neutral make-up as she meandered through the local shops in search of some Italian treats.

Laid back: Meg sauntered around the Italian village in a pair of monochrome sneakers as she indulged in some retail therapy

On the move: The When Harry Met Sally star let her signature blonde tresses fall in her naturally straight style and concealed her eyes from the sunshine in chic black shades

Her chilled out trip comes after her former husband Dennis Quaid discussed his time with the actress, telling Today's Megyn Kelly that it was the 'most successful relationship of my life'.

He went on to say that although he was initially the more famous out of the two, Meg soon became a big star.

'I have to admit it, I did feel like I disappeared. I didn't think I was that small, but I was', he confided.

Casual: Meg enhanced her natural beauty with only a hint of neutral make-up as she meandered through the local shops in search of some Italian treats

Calming: In June, Meg talked about her daily ritual, called 'The Turnout.' It was inspired by the act of taking horses out of their stalls to graze in a field

Taking a break: Meg Ryan recently confided in pal Gwyneth Paltrow about her decision to 'quit' acting

In June, Meg talked about her daily ritual, called 'The Turnout.' It was inspired by the act of taking horses out of their stalls to graze in a field.

'They have their head, they can think, they have this time to imagine their day or whatever,' the three-time Golden Globe nominee explained - according to People.

'We'll take pictures of like the crossword puzzle, the computer, the cup of coffee, the drawings, the thing, and all the ways that you're in that part of your brain that imagines your day or your life and giving it actual time and space in the morning.'

The Connecticut-born 'imagineer' always makes time to do the turnout 'even if it has to be at, like, 6:30 to 8:30, I do it every day now.'

Calling it a day: The actress joined Gwyneth at her annual Los Angeles In Goop Health Summit last month, telling her she felt she was being 'very reactive instead of proactive'

Changing it up: Explained Meg as reported by E!: 'I didn't really aim to be an actor, I was a journalism major at school, and a curious person, and I wanted to go back out into the world'

Being selective: While Meg is still acting - she has a role in an upcoming TV series - she only takes on very occasional projects, with gaps from the screen of up to four years

Meg Ryan recently confided in pal Gwyneth Paltrow about her decision to 'quit' acting.

The actress joined Gwyneth at her annual Los Angeles In Goop Health Summit last month, telling her she felt she was being 'very reactive instead of proactive.'

Explained Meg as reported by E: 'I didn't really aim to be an actor, I was a journalism major at school, and a curious person, and I wanted to go back out into the world and figure out who I wasamin relationship to other things and other people and other environments.'

Doting: In addition to her actor son Jack Quaid, 26, Meg is the single mother of adopted 13-year-old daughter Daisy Ryan

Palling around: Meg's friend looked equally stylish in her mustard yellow sun dress

On the trot: Meg looked totally chilled out as she wandered through the village

Searching: The actress appeared to pick up a couple of treats during her stay

While Meg is still acting - she has a role in an upcoming TV series - she only takes on very occasional projects, with gaps from the screen of up to four years.

She explained: 'I never wanted to be an actress. The whole idea of being a famous person... I felt like a witness to, I didnt feel exactly in it, and I think that was a really good thing. I felt like a student of it in a way, or that I was watching it in an anthropological way.'

In addition to her actor son Jack Quaid, 26, Meg is the single mother of adopted 13-year-old daughter Daisy Ryan.

She said there were positive and negative parts to being a single mom.

She said: 'I know I'm really her reference, for better and worse, and I'm glad she has other influences. One thing that is nice is you don't get overruled.'

Treating herself: Meg toted a Frugone 1885 gift bag around, no doubt filled with the brand's luxury items

Looking out: Meg stayed close to her friend as they meandered through the cobbles
Just call her the Comeback Countess.

Three days after leaving rehab for the second time this year, Luann de Lesseps spoke to the DailyMail.com at her sold-out cabaret show about her 'rough year'  which included getting arrested for drunkenly attacking a cop and being sued by her children.

However, she insisted the relationship with her children Noel and Victoria is fine and blamed the lawsuit on her first ex-husband Count Alexandre de Lesseps.

Luann made a spectacular comeback at The Paramount in Long Island, New York on Saturday, August 4, performing her show 'Countess and Friends', and was completely candid with the audience about her struggles, in between belting out her hits Girl Code and Money Can't Buy You Class.

Comeback queen: Luann looked happy and healthy at her sold-out cabaret show in Long Island, New York on August 4

Family affair: Luann de Lesseps spoke about a recent lawsuit brought by her children Noel and Victoria (pictured) and her ex-husband concerning their trust as outlined in her divorce

Second husband: Despite separating last year after just seven months of marriage, Luann said she still texts her ex Tom D'Agostino and admitted he was great in bed

Trouble: Luann told the Daily Mail the lawsuit was nothing to do with her children and blamed it on her first husband Count Alexandre de Lesseps who she was married to for 16 years

She referenced her children several times throughout the show and when asked about the lawsuit afterwards, she placed the blame solely on the Count.

'I still have a good relationship with my family. I'm going to see my children this weekend. The lawsuit is my ex-husband's brain child, certainly not my children's. So I'm dealing with him. It's a personal family issue that's going to be solved very quickly.'

The lawsuit concerns a breach in the former couple's divorce, with allegations the reality star did not uphold her end of the deal, signed in 2009, that concerned creating a trust fund for her children from the proceeds of the sale of the couple's former $8million home.

In court documents, it was claimed the Real Housewives of New York star purchased a $3.1million Sag Harbor estate in 2013 with the money and failed to establish the trust fund. The suit asks the court to order Luann to establish the trust and give the children a half interest in the Sag Harbor home.

The 53-year-old looked spectacular onstage as she changed into four different outfits, showing off her yoga-toned body and admitting to the crowd rehab had done wonders for her figure.

Performance: Luann de Lesseps read out extracts from her 'diary' which included her arrest, rehab and the infamous Mexico vacation when she fell into a bush

Comeback: The Countess wowed the crowd with her hits Girl Code and Money Can't Buy Class and looked spectacular after admitting rehab was great for her figure

Backstage after the show, she also spoke candidly about her second ex-husband Tom D'Agostino, who she separated from one year ago after just seven months of marriage. After admitting he was great in bed, she told the DailyMail.com they still text.

'He texted me to see if I was ok. We have an amicable relationship, kind of. But we don't see each other.' When asked if he was dating anyone right now she said no.

Speaking about her own dating life, she denied she was in a relationship with her agent Richard Super and said she is 'single and dating'.

Candid: Looking stunning in a bedazzled jumpsuit, the Real Housewives of New York star took questions from her adoring fans in the audience and revealed she was single but dating

Star: The 53-year-old's cabaret show in Long Island, New York, was sold out to an adoring crowd after she left rehab for the second time just days ago

During the show, Luann poked fun at her recent stint in rehab, which she left just days ago for the second time, saying she enjoyed it so much she went back. She then launched into a rendition of Amy Winehouse's song of the same name.

But she got serious about her troubles after the show, saying she had been on 'a highway to hell' before she got arrested on Christmas eve in Florida last year.

'Getting arrested stopped me in my tracks. I wasn't well. I didn't deal with the emotional part of divorcing Tom. I thought it was behind me. I thought if I moved really fast I wouldn't feel the pain. But I was really drinking to numb the pain, self medicating.'

Luann checked into rehab for the first time after she was arrested in Palm Beach and charged with disorderly intoxication, battery on an officer, resisting arrest with violence and threatening a public servant. She struck a plea deal to avoid jail time and agreed to go to rehab a second time after falling off the wagon in July.

Because of this, she missed the RHONY Season 10 reunion taping. At the time, cast member and friend Bethenny Frankel spoke to People magazine about her decision to go back.

'This weekend, Luann was surrounded by her girlfriends and decided  with their support  that in light of recent circumstances, it is the healthiest choice for her not to attend Tuesdays reunion taping so that she can continue in her healing process.

'Luann is now surrounded by a core group of people who truly have her best interests at heart and who are working to make sure she gets the help she needs.'

She added: 'Recent additional family stress was a catalyst to her taking a break,' referencing the lawsuit with her ex husband and children.

Luann will be performing her cabaret show at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey on August 24 and said she is already working on a new one as well as a single with Jake Spears of Scissor Sisters fame.
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Tom Hanks appeared in full relaxation mode as he joined his wife Rita Wilson for a yacht ride in Cala del Rio Capri, Italy on Saturday afternoon.

The screen star - who rang his 62nd birthday last month - was still in a celebratory mood as he relished on David Getten's Rising Sun superyacht, worth $200 million.

Meanwhile, youthful-looking Rita, 61, showcased her physique in a form-fitting swimming top and black briefs as she cooled down with a soothing shower on deck.

Cooling off: Tom Hanks (left) appeared in full relaxation mode as he joined his wife Rita Wilson (right) for a yacht ride in Cala del Rio Capri, Italy on Saturday afternoon

The Toy Story star went shirtless as he opted for just a pair of navy swim shorts during his sunny day out on the picturesque island.

Injecting a hint of pazzazz into his look, the Cast Away actor sported an array of silver jewellery on his wrist, featuring a sleek watch with chain bangles.

Tom donned a clingy swimwear top emblazoned with the name of the yacht as he enjoyed a swim in the sea, shortly before he took delight in a relaxing al fresco shower.

High spirits: The screen star - who rang his 62nd birthday last month - was still in a celebratory mood as he relished on David Getten's Rising Sun superyacht, worth $200 million

Loving life: The Toy Story star went shirtless as he opted for just a pair of navy swim shorts during his sunny day out on the picturesque island

All in the details: Injecting a hint of pazzazz into his look, the Cast Away actor donned an array of silver jewellery on his wrist, featuring a sleek watch with chain bangles

Sleepless in Seattle actress Rita displayed her slender frame in a plunging black swimsuit, tied in with a gold pendant necklace.

Exhibiting her naturally radiant complexion, the Runaway Bride star went make-up free and wore drenched locks.

The couple appeared to be in good company as they were joined by American investment banker and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and his wife Laura.

Cosy: The couple appeared to be in good company as they were joined by American investment banker and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein (second from top right) and his wife Laura (top right)

Relaxing: Tom sported a clingy swimwear top emblazoned with the name of the yacht as he enjoyed a swim in the sea, shortly before he took delight in a relaxing al fresco shower

Yacht owner David, 75, who is a billionaire, has been known to throw quite the vacation trip, with Rita ringing in her birthday back in 2016.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, the business magnate shared a snap of his close pals on his massive watercraft, featuring the likes of Oprah, Bradley Cooper and real estate investor Steven Roth.

The boat has hosted a number of guests as well, including Dasha Zhukova and her boyfriend Stavros Niarchos, Wendi Deng and Princess Beatrice have all been seen on the yacht in the past year.

Wow-factor! Meanwhile, youthful-looking Rita, 61, showcased her physique in a form-fitting swimming top and black briefs as she cooled down with a soothing shower on deck

Glowing: Exhibiting her naturally radiant complexion, the Runaway Bride star went make-up free and sported drenched locks

With the couple celebrating their 30th year anniversary in April, the popular 2 Dope Queens podcast re-posted a 2017 interview with Hanks, in which he revealed that he is still attracted to his wife and thinks she's 'smokin hot.'

The Forrest Gump actor continued: 'I gotta say, sometimes I look at that lady in the morning looking all tousled and warm from bed in her sweats and her hair all piled up on her head... [sucks on teeth] smokin' hot.'

He also revealed that his attraction to Wilson was immediate when they first met: 'Right from the get-go I thought that there was something crazy-great about her.'

Heading back up: Investment banker Lloyd emerged out of the sea as Tom continued to enjoy his swim

Boarding: The pals ended their swim as they hopped on the stairs to shower

With so many favorite Hollywood couples calling it quits nowadays, Hanks and Wilson continue to be the exception.

The couple first met in 1981 on the set of Bosom Buddies, and tied the knot in 1988. They have since shut down every divorce rumor that has come their way.

In an interview with Extra, the producer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding said, 'At a certain point you have to call them out on their lies. Our marriage is really sacred to us.'

The actress, who was raised Greek Orthodox, is famously credited with being a driving force to getting Nia Vardalos' hit 2002 flick My Big Fat Greek Wedding to the big screen.

Loved-up: With Tom and Rita celebrating their 30th year anniversary in April, the popular 2 Dope Queens podcast re-posted a 2017 interview with Hanks, in which he revealed that he is still attracted to his wife and thinks she's 'smokin hot'

Sweet: Tom also revealed that his attraction to Wilson was immediate when they first met: 'Right from the get-go I thought that there was something crazy-great about her'

True love: With so many favorite Hollywood couples calling it quits nowadays, Hanks and Wilson continue to be the exception

'Tom and Rita insisted on it to being Greek all the way,' Nia told Filmcritic.com of their input at the time.

'In fact, there was a scene where a character was wearing jeans and supposedly the family had just gotten back from church.

'Tom knew that no Greek Orthodox practitioner wears jeans to church, so he astutely made the appropriate changes that everyone else missed.'

Rita and Tom also served as executive producers on Mamma Mia, the ABBA-based musical starring Meryl Streep, which was shot in Greece.
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Kendall Jenner's dog is alleged to have bitten a small child at the Beverly Glen Deli in Los Angeles this Sunday.

A little girl was sitting with her mother near Kendall at the alfresco part of the restaurant when the dog bit the tyke, TMZ reports.

The dog's teeth did not obviously break the skin, so the mother brought her daughter inside the deli, where employees treated the bite with ice.

Upon emerging back outside, the mother purportedly saw that Kendall and her beau Ben Simmons, with whom she had been sitting on the patio, had vanished.

A source close to Kendall disputes the version of events, telling DailyMail.com: 'Once she knew the little girl was ok, she got up while her friend paid the bill. No one vanished. The dog did not make contact with the little girl. The dog didnt bite her. No Police or EMT came to the scene.'

'cute but she'll rip your face off': Kendall Jenner's Doberman allegedly bit a small child at the Beverly Glen Deli in Los Angeles this Sunday, TMZ reports

Apparently, Ben and Kendall squared away their Beverly Glen Deli bill before their departure but had not provided any contact information to the little girl's mother.

Insiders claim that the mother proceeded to dial 911, and though no paramedics were needed, the police did turn up, taking a report.

The site of: A little girl was sitting with her mother near Kendall at the alfresco part of the restaurant when the dog bit the tyke, TMZ reports

Inside view: The dog's teeth did not obviously break the skin, so the mother brought her daughter inside the deli, where employees treated the bite with ice

Animal Control has now reportedly been given the case of Kendall's dog, who is said to have been wearing a harness at the time of the incident.

This Memorial Day, Kendall had posted an Instagram snapshot of herself modeling a bikini as she lounged on a deck chair beside her pooch.

In the caption, the elder sister of Kylie Jenner quipped to her more than 90 million Instagram followers that the dog is 'cute but shell rip your face off'.

Patio seating: Upon emerging back outside, the mother purportedly saw that Kendall and her beau Ben Simmons, with whom she had been sitting on the patio, had vanished

Kendall's dog is not the first Doberman Pinscher to find herself a part of the internationally notorious Kardashian-Jenner clan.

The late Robert Kardashian, who was on the legal team that secured O.J. Simpson's still controversial acquittal of double murder, had a Doberman called Sarkis.

Robert was the first ex-husband of Kendall's mother Kris Jenner and the father of Kris' three eldest of five daughters - Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian.
Last week Tracey Jewel claimed she was left 'stranded' in Berlin after boyfriend Patrick Kedemos ended their relationship during their loved-up European cruise.

And in an interview with Woman's Day, the Married At First Sight shed more light on the debacle, explaining why he German police were called during the trip.

She also spoke about her 'dire financial situation'.

'I was reliant on him': MAFS' Tracey Jewel, 35, revealed her dire financial situation, and why German police were called, after a series of 'heated arguments' with ex Patrick Kedemos (both pictured) on their European cruise

'He put me in a position where I was financially reliant on him and that just led to arguments,' she explained, revealing that Patrick previously loaned her $20,000 during the course of their relationship.

The former reality star told the publication that just four days into their holiday, cracks began to show.

'I just wanted to go home, but I was stuck because I had no money,' she recalled.

Sick and tired of the arguments, the mother-of-one said she informed the hotel they were staying at, who called the police and filed a report on her behalf, the following morning.

After Patrick covered the cost of the holiday, Tracey admitted that after much pleading, the Perth businessman finally agreed to pay for her return flight home.

Dire times: After the pair had a falling-out on their vacation, Tracey admitted to Woman's Day on Monday, that she was financially reliant on Patrick, and had no funds for a return flight home

Meanwhile, Patrick told Woman's Day that Tracey 'was never emotionally available' and that their arguments were that intense, that after a police report was filed, he left without speaking to his former girlfriend.

Patrick said he transferred funds for her trip home 'just to get rid of her'.

'In the end, I transferred another $2,000 just to get rid of her,' he said.

Her side: 'He put me in a position where I was financially reliant on him and that just led to arguments,' Tracey told the publication

Daily Mail Australia first reported the couple's split last week.

A source close to Tracy said: 'The cruise was too much too soon for both of them.

'Things reached breaking point on Saturday night when they had an almighty row -with Tracey moving into a separate hotel room to calm down,' they explained.

'Patrick officially ended things and Tracey was then left to arrange her own return travel back home to Australia alone after they split.

'But she hadn't taken any money with her on the trip and was left stranded. The last friends heard she'd filed a complaint with the police and was waiting for the Australian embassy to open on Monday so she could figure out what to do.'

His side: Meanwhile Perth businessman Patrick told Woman's Day that in the end, he 'transferred another $2,000 just to get rid of her'

Tracey and Patrick previously dated before she starred on Married At First Sight.

After ending things with TV 'husband' Dean Wells during the show's finale in March, Tracey then went on to have a whirlwind relationship with co-star Sean Thomsen.

She later reconnected with former flame Patrick after she split from Sean in May, and confirmed their romantic reunion during a joint interview with WHO.

'We've always been in each other's lives since we met and we are very happy to come back to each other,' Patrick told the publication.

Tracey also gushed: 'When you do [Married At First Sight], you can get confused with what is real-life and what isn't. I know Patrick is real but I couldn't say the same for Sean and Dean'.
Love Island winner Grant Crapp begged for TV girlfriend Tayla Damir to take him back two weeks ago, after confirming he had a secret girlfriend outside the villa.

And on Monday, Grant revealed he was back with his Canberra-based ex Lucy Cartwright in a four-page loved-up magazine spread for NW Magazine.

The shirtless hunk, 23, put on a very amorous display with the brunette in the article, adding: 'Me and Tayla are finished and I'm back with Lucy... We've picked up right where we left off.'

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'Me and Tayla(L) are finished and I'm back with Lucy(R)': Love Island winner Grant Crapp has rekindled a relationship with his secret ex-girlfriend after he failed to win Damir back after split

Grant claimed only after everything fell apart did he realise he valued Lucy more than a friend, rekindling their relationship via a phone call amid the scandal.

'When I was perusing things with Tayla, I wasn't thinking about her (Lucy) too much, because that was where my heart was,' Grant claimed of his romantic intentions.

Meanwhile, Lucy told the publication she held no hard feelings for the reality star and 'was never going to get in the way of that (Tayla and Grant) or try to interfere.'

Awkward! In the loved-up spread, Grant (L) claimed he didn't think about Lucy that much while in the villa, as he was busy falling in love with Tayla (R) (Pictured with co-star Millie Fuller)

Busted! While the show was airing, fans claimed on social media that the Canberra electrician was in a committed relationship with a woman before he left for Spain

While the show was airing, fans claimed on social media that the Canberra electrician was in a committed relationship with a woman before he left for Spain.

Grant denied the rumours were true during a game on the show, and continued to downplay having a secret girlfriend outside of the villa when he left the show.



However, Tayla eventually found out the truth and decided to break up with the tattooed tradesman.

While the pair claim they're yet to make their relationship 'official', Grant will call her everyday while he's travelling for promotional purposes and hopes it blooms in time.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Tayla Damir for comment.

'I was never going to get in the way of that (Tayla and Grant) or try to interfere': Lucy (pictured) claimed she didn't have any hard feelings towards Grant, and was happy to hear from the hunk after his split with the brunette reality star

Heartbroken: Tayla eventually found out the truth behind Grant's deceptive relationship and decided to break up with the tattooed tradesman two weeks after the show ended

It comes only two weeks after Grant made a public plea on Instagram and via a recorded message on KIIS FM to win Tayla back amid the scandal.

Despite his woeful pleas, Tayla was not impressed with Grant's method of communication.

'He's had numerous opportunities where he could've contacted me, and he just keeps choosing to do almost publicity stunts to try and get in contact with me,' she told Kyle and Jackie O.

Tayla has now moved to Sydney and has insisted she's 'choosing to be strong, empowered and ready to focus on all the positives life has to offer.'

'Choosing to be strong, empowered': Tayla has moved to Sydney since the break up and hoped to move on with her life without Grant

While Grant and Lucy's story appears as a blossoming romance within the magazine pages, it's conflicting with a previous statement by his management.

Over the weekend, his agent, Max Markson, confirmed Grant's future plans consist of trying to land a spot on Ex on the Beach and working on a 'Grant Crapp calendar', in addition to a James Bond-themed poster over the next few months.

Ex on the Beach is another dating reality series.
Australian world No.1 Stephanie Gilmore heads a three-strong Australian contingent in the quarter-finals of the US Open of Surfing.

The six-times world champion Gilmore, world No.8 Sally Fitzgibbons and world No.9 Nikki Van Dijk are into the last eight of the World Surf League event in California after Saturday's third-round action.

Gilmore - who won her first-round heat on Friday to progress directly to round three - scored 11.46 to finish second behind countrywoman Van Dijk, who had a two-wave score on 13.54, with Malia Manuel eliminated.

"Oh yeah, I'm not afraid of the world title show," Van Dijk told worldsurfleague.com.

"I'm just doing my own thing but if I can rustle up the action I'm more than happy to do so."

Gilmore leads American Peterson by 2,145 points with just three events remaining after this week at Huntington Beach.

Fitzgibbons - who like Van Dijk survived a sudden-death round two heat - powered her way to a score of 13.60 and victory over world No.2 Lakey Peterson and Hawaiian Coco Ho.

"Whether you're matching up against a top seed or the lower ones, all the battles are so close," Fitzgibbons, the 2011 US Open of Surfing winner, told worldsurfleague.com.

"You have to bring your best surfing."

The world title race appears a two-woman race between Gilmore and Peterson after Tatiana Weston-Webb missed out on the quarter-finals.

The Brazilian world No.3 could not match 2009 event champion Courtney Conlogue and Caroline Marks.

Frenchwoman Johanne Defay and Hawaiian Carissa Moore progressed at the expense of Pauline Ado in the first third-round heat.

In the quarter-finals, Gilmore will commence proceedings against world No.4 Defay.

Van Dijk will face Moore while Fitzgibbons and Marks will chase a place in the final four.

Conlogue and Peterson will round out the last-eight action.
Victoria Police says it will do a comprehensive review of family violence-related murders.

Coroner Sara Hinchey last week called on police to review such cases when there was a known history of incidents between a victim and perpetrator, following her findings into the 2011 death of 60-year-old Joy Rowley.

"In anticipation of the recommendations, Victoria Police had already commenced assessing how to implement systemic reviews of family-violence related homicides," the force said in a statement.

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The Business Council of Australia has called on Australia to end a decade of dysfunction on energy policy by backing the Turnbull government's plan to cut power prices.

BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott made the plea to state and territory governments ahead of Friday's meeting with federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg.

She said Australia was seen globally as a "nation of ditherers" for failing to have a coherent energy policy.

"We need to end this decade of dysfunction and get on and do something," Ms Westacott told Sky News on Sunday.

"The people we've got to remember are the people who are going to get a power bill in the next month or so that they can't pay."

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews wants the federal government to prove it can win support within the coalition partyroom before agreeing to back the national energy guarantee.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott is among a group of backbenchers critical of the plan, with the rogue MPs pushing for new government investment in coal-fired power generation.

"I think we're right to say we want the prime minister to demonstrate he's got the numbers in his own show before we start signing anything," Mr Andrews told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

He said the reforms would see Victoria and other states partially give up authority to set renewable energy targets.

Ms Westacott took aim at arguments from rogue backbenchers hinting at opposing the plan, as well as green groups agitating for more dramatic emission reduction commitments.

"You end up doing nothing because you can't please all those extremes of the debate," she said.

Energy Security Board, the guarantee's designer, released modelling last week showing households could save up to $550 a year on power bills under the plan.

The ESB forecast the amount of coal in the energy generation mix falling from 75 per cent to 60 per cent over the next 11 years, while renewables will grow from 17 per cent to 36 per cent.
They say it took a while to happen but the Queensland government has welcomed a federal drought assistance package for farmers.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the $190 million relief package to help farmers and their communities fight one of the worst droughts of the past century.

Queensland cabinet minister Kate Jones told reporters the package will be welcome relief for those in the state battling the drought and the announcement is an example of the Turnbull Government "finally listening to the needs of Australia".
By July and August 1918, Australian forces on the Western Front were at their peak. They were seasoned, well-equipped soldiers with effective leaders at every level, supported by tanks, aircraft and especially artillery.

Improvements in technology allowed the big guns to deliver devastating barrages on enemy positions without warning, to create moving barrages behind which the infantry followed, and to strike distant German guns using the new technique of sound ranging.

Soldiers, given free rein, developed their own tactics, such as "peaceful penetration", with small groups infiltrating German positions, taking prisoners and even seizing sections of territory, all without big attacks or significant casualties.

With success came growing confidence. Australian War Memorial senior historian Ashley Ekins said the soldiers began to realise they might actually survive. In the darkest days of 1917, few could have been so optimistic.

"Men know that providing they practise the skills and battle procedures they have learned and follow the plan, there is far better chance of survival," he said.

"But it still must have seemed to many soldiers by late 1918 that this war was going to go on forever.

"No one knew the war was going to be over before the end of 1918."

German forces appeared far from defeated. In March, the German offensive rolled over allied forces, seizing in hours and days territory fought over for months at stupendous cost in 1916 and 1917.

Though fought to a standstill and having been steadily pushed back, the Germans tried again with a major attack against the French on July 15, their final major offensive on the Western Front.

That was checked and French and US forces counter-attacked on July 18, leading into the famous "Hundred Days" in which successive allied attacks brought the war to an end.

The Battle of Amiens on August 8 was the opening act of the 100 days, with Australian troops in a leading role.

Following the success at Hamel on July 4, Australian commander Lieutenant General Sir John Monash proposed an attack east of the city of Amiens. Others were thinking along similar lines and British commander-in-chief Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig gave the go-ahead on July 19.

Because of Australian achievements at Hamel and subsequent operations, two Australian divisions would spearhead the attack, with British and Canadian divisions on each flank.

Amiens was akin to Hamel, though on a vastly larger scale - 2,000 guns, all 552 tanks of the British Tanks Corps, cavalry and aircraft, including the Australian Flying Corps No 3 Squadron.

At 4.20am on August 8, the guns opened fire and tanks and soldiers moved off into the morning fog along a 13.5-kilometre front.

Lumbering tanks crushed thick belts of barbed wire, allowing easy passage for following infantry. Working in co-operation with the soldiers, the tanks obliterated any German strong-points that had survived the artillery.

Progress was immediate and spectacular, with the Australian 2nd and 3rd Divisions and Canadian Corps overrunning the German frontline by mid-morning.

To maintain momentum, the Australian 4th and 5th Divisions passed through the 2nd and 3rd Divisions - a difficult process performed flawlessly in the heat of battle - and pressed forward.

The British Corps on the left flank hadn't maintained quite the same progress, with less experienced troops and facing more difficult terrain. But by the end of the day, all had reached their final objectives, the so-called Blue Line, advancing the front by 13 kilometres.

German forces had suffered a shattering blow, with 27,000 casualties, including 16,000 prisoners, half taken by the advancing Australians.

The Germans acknowledged this spectacular reverse.

General Erich Ludendorff famously described it as 'the black day of the German army in this war". The official German history described it as their greatest defeat since the start of the war.

General Henry Rawlinson, commander of the British Fourth Army, declared this as fine a feat of arms as any the war could produce, saying the Canadians had done splendidly and the Aussies even better.

On August 12, Monash was knighted by King George V in recognition of his achievements.

By WWI standards, casualties were modest for the result attained but were still substantial - around 9,000 including 2,000 Australian dead and wounded.

The offensive continued on ensuing days against stiffening resistance but didn't match the success of August 8.

Only some 155 of more than 400 tanks remained serviceable and their crews were exhausted. Artillery and supply trains struggled to keep up with the advance.

Attacks were mounted hurriedly on limited information without the detailed planning of Hamel and Amiens and with limited or no tank or artillery support.

In little remembered actions at Lihons, Etinehem and Proyart, casualties were substantial. Official correspondent Charles Bean observed that these were a classic example of how not to follow up a great attack.
More Australians are struggling with the cost of living and having to dip into their short-term savings to get by, a report says.

The Household Financial Comfort Report asked 1500 people to rate their household comfort for the first half of 2018, showing short-term cash savings to be the biggest area of decline.

Living expenses were cited as the biggest reason for having to use short-term savings, the survey, compiled by super-fund owned bank ME, found.

In the past year, 17 per cent of households could not always pay their utilities bills on time, 19 per cent sought financial help from family or friends and 15 per cent pawned or sold something to buy necessities, the findings showed.

"Australians generally can dip into their savings to get by," consulting economist for ME Jeff Oughton said.

"However some households may get to a point where there's no more savings to draw from.

"Currently, around a quarter of Australian households have less than $1000 in cash savings."

The report said the worst-affected demographic was young singles and couples under 30 with no kids.

This group reported falls across all areas of comfort, including in their ability to handle a financial emergency.

Meanwhile, 'baby boomers' continued to report the highest financial comfort of all generations.
NSW residents are being urged to vaccinate against meningococcal as cases are expected to rise with the warmer weather in spring.

In a bid to immunise the community against a particularly virulent strain of the disease, the NSW government announced on Sunday an additional $3.6 million to roll out the vaccine out to more students in year 10 and 11.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the vaccination program targeted older high school students as they were particularly vulnerable to the disease.

The government has invested $17 million into the program since 2017 and has vaccinated more than 200,000 students against multiple strains of meningococcal including the less common and more deadly W strain.

The W strain became a concern for the state's health authorities after diagnoses quadrupled between 2014 and 2016.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said adolescents were being targeted by the program because schools were an effective way to immunise high numbers of an at-risk group.

The vaccine is available for purchase for the wider community with Dr Chant urging people to remain vigilant for symptoms as spring usually brings an increase in meningococcal cases.

"If you experience symptoms including a sudden onset of fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, neck stiffness, joint pain or rash of red-purple spots, go straight to your nearest emergency department to seek help," Dr Chant said.

"Acting quickly can save your life."
One of Australia's biggest mining conferences, which is about to get under way, has attracted its second-largest throng of delegates.

The organisers of Diggers and Dealers say 2,300 mining executives, investors, analysts and media from across the world are registered to attend the event this week, now in its 27th year, in the historic WA outback town of Kalgoorlie.

It's the highest head count since 2012 when there were 2,400 attendees.

As usual, hotels and motels are packed to the rafters, and savvy residents have upped sticks for the three-day talk-fest and rented out their homes for thousands of dollars.

As conference-goers wearing their distinctive lanyards converge on the wide, gold rush-era streets, conference caterers and local watering holes are prepared, having bolstered their staff numbers with fly-in, fly-out workers.

The keynote address on Monday will be delivered by Jose Manuel Barroso, the former prime minister of Portugal and ex-president of the European Commission who is currently chairman of Goldman Sachs International.

Gold companies feature heavily in the line-up but battery minerals and metals stocks are expected to gain the most attention.

Deloitte WA assurance and advisory partner Dave Andrews says the share prices of companies involved in rare earths and battery metals, particularly nickel, cobalt and copper, have gained momentum in 2017-18 amid excitement about battery storage demand, the expanding electric vehicle market, renewables, and the insatiable appetite for consumer technology.
It's been four months since a man was hit in the head with a shovel while camping near Victoria's Great Ocean Road, with police releasing two face-fit images to help track down the culprits.

The Ferntree Gully man set up camp off Holy Water Track in Glenaire, about 6.30pm on April 1, when an unknown man and woman in a silver four-wheel-drive ute set-up near him before they got into an argument later in the evening.

Police say the 45-year-old man was hit in the head with shovel before he got in his car and drove away before crashing into an embankment, and was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police want to speak with a man, in his early 30s, 173cm tall, thin build with an Italian accent and a distinctive regular facial twitch, including blinking of his eyes.

A woman, in her late 20s or early 30s, 162cm tall, with long brown hair and olive complexion wearing black leggings, a red jacket and light coloured beanie is also in police sights.
Apple has made history as the first private-sector company to surpass $1 trillion in market value

Silicon Valley giants have become a gargantuan force on Wall Street, as demonstrated by Apple recently topping $1 trillion in stock-market valuation.

But should we fear that a new tech bubble is ready to burst?

Here are some questions and answers about the sector:

- What does the tech sector represent on Wall Street? -

Apple ended the formal trading week worth a history-making $1 trillion.

Meanwhile, four other tech firms rounded out a list of the five most valuable companies based on share prices.

Amazon was worth $889 billion; Google-parent Alphabet was valued at $856 billion; Microsoft weighed in at $828 billion, and Facebook was valued at $513 billion.

Together, these companies account for about 20 percent of US GDP, and more than Germany's GDP.

Combined, the tech stocks account for more than 25 percent of the value of the Standard & Poor's 500, the index that includes the 500 largest companies listed in the United States.

- Is this market domination troubling? -

Walmart, struggling to compete against the vast reach of tech titan Amazon, recently entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft

At the end of 1999, a few months before the infamous dot.com internet bubble burst, the five biggest companies on the stock market (Microsoft, General Electric, Cisco, Walmart and Intel) accounted for 15.5 percent of US GDP, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould recalled in a note.

"Anyone who owned those stocks at the market top suffered some serious portfolio pain," Mould said.

"They lost money on those five names for the next decade."

He made it clear he was not predicting market woes for "FAANG" stocks -- those of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.

"However, it does warn against the dangers of blindly assuming that what is working now will work forever and that paying any price for a stock will be rewarded," Mould said.

Nate Thooft of Manulife Asset Management told AFP that there was "no shortage of arguments" on why shares in those companies would continue to do well, but he saw wisdom in reducing "exposure a bit" to reduce risk.

- What is different from the bubble 20 years ago? -

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, now the richest man in modern history, has a winning record of 'disrupting' new markets, but his company appears to be the exception

Investors at that time hurled money at just about any startup with a website, even if it wasn't clear exactly how a given company was going to make money.

"Most of those companies had no earnings, a lot of them had no sales; they were still selling at huge valuation levels," said Tower Bridge Advisors portfolio manager Maris Ogg.

"Everyone was anticipating what the internet and the tech would do. They were about 20 years too early."

Since the dot.com crash, venture capitalists have shied away from startups that don't have convincing plans to become profitable.

The crash also gave rise to "a lot of healthy skepticism" about big tech companies, according to Ogg.

There is also a renewed focus on the ratio between share price and company profit, a key investing consideration that was neglected in the early 2000s.

Amazon appears to be an exception, but it has a winning record of taking on new markets, and spending heavily up front to "disrupt" the status quo in the long run.

- What are the main risks threatening the sector? -

Tech titans such as Google and Facebook have become such formidable forces that they are prime targets for regulation or fines, which could slow growth or hurt profits.

Maris said investors should be mindful to routinely rebalance their portfolios to avoid them becoming too heavy with fast-growing tech firm shares. After all, any internet firm can be eclipsed by a young startup.

"Every technology company remains vulnerable to being disrupted by a slightly more clever version of itself," BlackRock Global Allocation Team portfolio manager Russ Koesterich said in a blog post.

For example, he noted, at the time of the financial crisis Nokia had a 45 percent share of the smartphone market, the iPhone was just a year old and Facebook was a baby.

"The overall sector continues to be extraordinarily profitable, and, despite rumors to the contrary, reasonably valued," Koesterich said.
A man holds a newspaper in Tehran

A wave of US sanctions kicks in against Iran on Tuesday, cementing Washington's hard line against Tehran after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear pact.

Already facing broad economic fallout as their currency implodes, Iranians are wondering how the next phase of the crisis in US relations will play out -- and what, exactly, America's long-term strategy is toward their country.

At least for now, the US is fixated on bringing as much diplomatic and economic pressure to Iran as possible -- though it is not clear where things are headed, or if there is an increased risk of conflict.

The US walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and is bringing back "maximum pressure" sanctions for most sectors on August 6, and the energy sector on November 4.

As of 0401 GMT Tuesday, the Iran government can no longer buy US banknotes and broad sanctions will be slapped on Iranian industries, including its rug exports.

Asked Sunday if Tehran would be able to evade the measures, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed the United States would "enforce the sanctions," saying heaping pressure on Tehran was meant to "push back against Iranian malign activity."

"This is just about Iranians' dissatisfaction with their own government, and the President is pretty clear, we want the Iranian people to have a strong voice in who their leadership will be," he told reporters.

- Room for dialogue? -

After months of fierce rhetoric, Trump surprised observers last week when he offered to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani "any time" -- and without preconditions.

The dramatic about-face, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly tamped down, came just days after the enigmatic US president and Rouhani traded barbs.

Trump at one point unleashed a Twitter tirade in which he blasted, using all caps, Rouhani's "DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE."

He was responding to a July 22 warning from Rouhani that the US should not "play with the lion's tail" and warned that any conflict with Iran would be the "mother of all wars."

Trump's offer for dialogue came after Pompeo seemed to suggest support for a change in Iran leadership, telling an audience of Iranian expats in California that the regime had been a "nightmare".

And John Bolton, the president's national security advisor, is a well-known Iran hawk who has advocated for regime change.

"For Bolton and others, pressure is an end in and of itself," Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, told AFP.

For the administration, "if it leads to a wholesale capitulation fine, if it leads to regime change, even better," she added.

- Under pressure -

Trump's pressure campaign appears to have had some results.

For instance, US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf.

US President Donald Trump signs a document reinstating sanctions against Iran after announcing the US withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear deal

But this year, to the surprise of some military officials, there have been no such incidents.

If Iran senses "American steel they back down, if they perceive American mush they push forward -- and right now they perceive steel," said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank that lobbied for a renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal.

Dubowitz, who noted that Iran has tested fewer missiles of late, said Trump's rhetoric and position on Iran actually lowers the risk of escalation toward conflict.

"He's assuming that if he talks tough, that will bolster the credibility of American military power," Dubowitz told AFP.

Both Trump and Rouhani are due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month.

It's not inconceivable a meeting on the sidelines could occur then -- Tehran will be looking anxiously to a November deadline for oil buyers to stop purchasing Iranian crude.

Over the weekend Trump once again floated the idea of meeting, tweeting "I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter -- it is up to them!"

"Iran, and its economy, is going very bad, and fast!" he said in the same missive.

- 'Malign influence' -

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on July 27 there was no policy that had been put in place with the goal of collapsing or changing the Iranian regime.

"We need them to change their behavior on a number of threats they can pose with their military, with their secret services, with their surrogates and with their proxies," Mattis told Pentagon reporters.

Experts see a number of possible outcomes for the current US policy toward Iran.

Sanctions and diplomatic pressure could pile enough pressure on the regime that it comes to the negotiating table -- something Trump has advocated for.

The financial crisis in Iran could worsen to the point that mass protests make it impossible for the regime to hold on to power -- though economic pressures risk galvanizing growing anti-American sentiment and support for hardliners.

Or the regime could start to address what America calls its "malign influence" in the region, including its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and threats to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies.

"I think (the Trump administration) would be pleased with any one of those end states," Dubowitz said.
CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, seen here in a file picture from 2010, has been accused of sexual misconduct but remains on the job pending an investigation

Once upon a time recently, mere allegations of sexual misconduct spelled instant career death. Powerful men fell like dominos. But radio silence has met harassment accusations against the CEO of CBS.

The US television corporation lost $2 billion in market value after six women accused Leslie Moonves in The New Yorker. The board appointed lawyers to investigate, but the 68-year-old has been neither sacked nor suspended.

His second wife, CBS host Julie Chen, has stood by his side and several female CBS executives have publicly championed his good character and leadership.

Stephen Colbert, the CBS late-night comic who has been scathing toward similar scandals, has also been circumspect.

"Everybody believes in accountability until it's their guy. And, make no mistake, Les Moonves is my guy," Colbert told his show. "I like working for him, but accountability is meaningless unless it's for everybody."

CBS News fired anchor Charlie Rose one day after misconduct accusations went public. New York's state attorney general Eric Schneiderman resigned within hours of a New Yorker report accusing him of physically assaulting women.

"It is highly surprising that the board, given the level of detail and the level of corroboration, didn't at least suspend Moonves temporarily," Rich Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG told online TV program Cheddar.

"I think there were times when we saw a hanging party formed too quickly but this is not one of these times," Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, told AFP.

He blamed the inertia on the corporation's large and elderly board -- average age 74 -- rather than a cultural shift suggesting that #MeToo revolutionary fervor may be ceding ground to a more measured, due process.

It comes with the Redstone family, which controls CBS, and the Moonves-chaired board locked in a legal battle for control over a proposed merger with Viacom that the CEO opposes and Shari Redstone supports.

"They think that they're showing courage by circling the wagons but in fact they're revealing cowardice -- if not a cult-like support for a person over the interests of the shareholders," said Sonnenfeld.

- 'This is different' -

Questions have also been asked about why CBS only appointed outside lawyers -- five days after the article came out -- when Pulitzer-winning reporter Ronan Farrow said the corporation knew for months that it was coming.

Prominent defense lawyer Lisa Bloom said she suspected a "wrist slap outcome" given the two high-powered New York law firms hired to investigate.

"These are the types of firms we fight on behalf of harassment victims every day," she tweeted. "They attack victims and defend perps and corporate inaction."

Moonves last week expressed "regret" for unwanted advances "decades ago" but denied that he had ever "misused his position" to sabotage anyone's career.

He blazed through the company's second quarter earnings on a conference call, as investors kowtowed to a company directive that questions be limited only to the results and the elephant in the room was ignored.

"No one expected Les to get into sexual harassment allegations and what did or didn't happen X number of years ago. But I do think that investors were owed questions like: 'what is the succession plan?'" said Greenfield.

Since joining CBS in 1995, Moonves has transformed the corporation into the most watched television network in the country and one of the media industry's best-performing businesses.

Advertisers, at least for now, remain on board. One suggestion is that, however lauded Moonves may be, he is not a household name and so the allegations get less oxygen than those against the likes of Kevin Spacey.

"Most of the #MeToo/Time's Up cases have revolved around figures that are more in the public eye," said Matt Ragas, associate professor of public relations and advertising at DePaul University in Chicago. "This is different," he said.

"One example or case doesn't make a trend, and this one is still playing out. So I don't know that this represents a turning point," Ragas added.

But on one point Sonnenfeld was firm: "His current situation is unsustainable," he told AFP.
Little "robot waiters" deliver food to patrons in this Shanghai restaurant

The little robotic waiter wheels up to the table, raises its glass lid to reveal a steaming plate of local Shanghai-style crayfish and announces in low, mechanical tones, "Enjoy your meal."

The futuristic restaurant concept is the latest initiative in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's push to modernise service and retail in a country where robotics and artificial intelligence are increasingly being integrated into commerce.

Raising efficiency and lowering labour costs are the objectives at Alibaba's "Robot.He" diners, where waiters have been replaced by robots about the size of microwave ovens, which roll around the dining room on table-high runways.

"In Shanghai, a waiter costs up to 10,000 yuan ($1,500) per month. That's hundreds of thousands in cost every year. And two shifts of people are needed," said Cao Haitao, the Alibaba product manager who developed the concept.

"But we don't need two shifts for robots and they are on duty every day."

The futuristic restaurant is the latest push by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba into robotics

The diners are attached to Alibaba's new Hema chain of semi-automated supermarkets, where grocery shoppers fill their "carts" on a mobile app and have the merchandise brought to them at checkout via conveyor tracks on the ceiling, or delivered straight to their homes.

Alibaba now has 57 Hema markets in 13 Chinese cities, all of which will eventually feature the robotic restaurants.

Industry experts say they serve more as showcases of Alibaba's tech prowess than a serious business model in a country where labour costs are relatively low.

But the restaurants also typify the rapid adoption of new technologies in a country where the government is increasingly using facial-recognition technology to police streets and identify law-breakers.

- Automation nation -

With digital payments via mobile phone already now rivalling cash for many purchases, growing numbers of pharmacies, bookstores and other retailers have dispensed with cashiers, allowing customers to order and pay for their desired merchandise, which is often handed over by a robot.

Alibaba's e-commerce rival JD.com has announced plans to open 1,000 restaurants by 2020 in which food will be prepared and served by robots.

JD.com and others are also working to incorporate airborne drones into their delivery networks.

The movement could help companies reduce costs as growth rates in China's e-commerce boom begin to plateau.

"Before, everyone was all going for rapid expansion. Now the growth is gone and everyone has to focus on improving their operations," said Jason Ding, a China retail expert with Bain & Company.

"Operation is all about cutting costs and providing better service. So these automated machine technologies, in the right place, can play a role there."

At Robot.He, customers book tables and order entrees via apps, and the diner's novelty often draws long queues.

Ma Yiwen, 33, brought nearly a dozen colleagues with her.

"We are all foodies and we use our lunch time to try good food near our office. The idea of a robot delivering food to our table is very innovative so we wanted to see it ourselves," she said.

The restaurant says automation helps keep costs down, an additional lure for 20-year-old customer Ma Shenpeng, who comes once a week.

"Normally for two to three people, a meal costs about 300-400 yuan, but here, all this table of food is just over 100 yuan," he said.

Chinese AI advocates predict robots will someday perform a range of mundane duties as living standards rise, from delivery to sweeping floors and providing companionship, particularly as China's labour force has shrunk due to the recently relaxed one-child population control policy.

But it's a delicate issue for Chinese policy-makers due to the potential for human job losses, and the government is in the midst of a long-term push to develop the country's services industry partly as a job creator, as manufacturing increasingly becomes mechanized.

Wang Hesheng, a robotics professor at Shanghai's Jiaotong University, said the cost of robots remains too high for widespread consumer use and that many companies were merely jumping on the government's high-tech bandwagon.

But robotics could spread if China labour costs continue to grow, he said.

"Maybe when labour costs rise higher and higher, robots will balance out with humans," he said.
Dairy owner Abdulkadir Mohamed Salad says livestock is one of Somalia's chief economic resources, but tonnes of powdered milk are still imported every year

Starting a dairy in Mogadishu was not an obvious choice: Islamist bombs go off with startling regularity, electricity is patchy and expensive and most Somalis don't even drink fresh cow's milk.

But Abdulkadir Mohamed Salad, 40, who spent most of his life as a refugee in Britain where he worked for a dairy, is convinced the business can work in his home country, where cattle abound yet tonnes of powdered milk are imported every year.

"It is very difficult to invest in a hostile environment like Somalia in the first place and secondly, people here know very little about the dairy business," Salad told AFP at his small factory, where a stainless steel machine pumped milk into blue sachets.

As a result of unsanitary handling of milk in the past, many in the country believe that cow's milk is dangerous for their health and prefer to drink camel milk or powdered milk.

Salad left his country shortly after the fall of president Siad Barre's military regime in 1991 which plunged Somalia into civil war and anarchy, destroying state institutions and the economy.

He worked as a taxi driver before getting a job at a dairy in Leicester. His wife and three children remained behind in the United Kingdom as he returned to try and start a business in his home country.

- Wasted resources -

As a result of unsanitary handling of milk in the past, many Somalians believe that cow's milk is dangerous for their health and prefer to drink camel milk or powdered milk.

Surprised by the amount of cattle in the country, and the fact that aside from a few farmers selling raw, untreated milk, there was no proper factory treating the product, he and two colleagues decided to set up their own, called Irman Dairy, in 2017.

"Livestock is one of the economic resources of Somalia ... but tonnes of powdered milk are imported every year while our resources are wasted here, and few are benefiting," said Salad.

Located in southern Mogadishu, Irman has to contend with the constant security challenges in the capital, which affects both production and distribution.

The city is hit by regular car and suicide bombings by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab Islamist group which has been fighting to overthrow the government for over a decade.

Sometimes their small distribution van, brightly painted with a giant cow on the side, returns without having delivered anything, due to road closures when there is an attack or security concerns.

"There are days when we don't start the factory because of the security situation in town, this affects our business since we have staff and need to pay their salaries and other administration costs," said Salad.

"The production capacity of our factory is 10,000 litres per day, but we can only produce 2,000 litres a day currently because of constraints, including the lack of a market," he said.

The factory's owners have on several occasions considered throwing in the towel, especially because of the high cost of electricity.

However, this problem was solved when the company received a donation of a solar energy system under a US-funded project to encourage entrepreneurship.

"We are very lucky that we got the solar system to run the factory now, otherwise we could have closed it down because energy is big issue here," said Salad.

- 'I really like it' -

Irman Dairy distributes to various supermarkets in Mogadishu, selling each 500-millilitre sachet of milk for one dollar

Irman distributes to various supermarkets in the city, selling each 500-millilitre sachet of milk for one dollar.

"Some members in my family think fresh cow milk is not good for your health and they instead consume powdered milk," said Abdirahman Ali, who was buying a sachet at a local supermarket.

"But for the past few months I have been using the milk produced by Irman Dairy and I really like it, now my whole family has grown to like it."

Sayid Ali, who owns a supermarket in Mogadishu said he was happy to finally have locally produced milk on his shelves.

"We used to sell milk from various brands imported from outside the country but now we also have Irman Dairy produced locally, the number of people who are interested is also increasing," he said.

Despite being one of the most dangerous capitals in the world, new businesses have been popping up all over Mogadishu in recent years with both local traders and members of the diaspora opening supermarkets and small factories.

Most commodities are imported.

"The government needs to encourage local production otherwise there will not be local investors like the Irman Dairy, my family is now using this fresh milk which I know is coming from our local cows," said Omar Ahmed, a Somali politician.
Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila was meant to step down at the end of 2016 at the end of his second mandate but he has stayed in office

The Democratic Republic of Congo was headed Sunday into a crucial week, with President Joseph Kabila set to declare whether he will run again in elections as one key challenger returned home and another was banned.

The DRC was thrown into a crisis nearly two years ago when Kabila refused to step down.

And it has been further roiled by the return of former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, freshly acquitted of war-crimes convictions in The Hague, who flew back to Kinshasa for a brief visit to lodge his candidacy for the December 23 elections. He is due to head back to Europe this week.

Another key rival is Moise Katumbi, a powerful former governor of mineral-rich Katanga province -- who has been living in self-imposed exile after falling out with Kabila.

But his supporters are incensed after authorities twice barred him from returning, and said he could be arrested if he sets foot in the country.

"Katumbi tried to come back, no-one can criticise him for doing what he needed to do, we are now waiting to see what happens on Wednesday," said a diplomatic source in Kinshasa who doesn't believe Kabila will reveal his plans by the set deadline.

"Katumbi is seen as the main challenger because he is from the east of the country, like Kabila, and can galvanise support there," said Georges Kapiamba, human rights lawyer and president of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice.

He said the 53-year-old would likely join forces with another major political player, Felix Tshisekedi, 55 -- an alliance that would pose a hefty threat to Kabila or his chosen successor.

The DRC is one of the world's most volatile countries and worries about the elections run deep, with many observers fearing it could spiral once more into bloodshed.

The vast country has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

In the space of one generation, it was gripped by two wars that sucked in countries from around the region.

Many provinces are already in the grip of armed conflict and millions have had to flee their homes, many flocking to Uganda, Tanzania, Angola and Zambia.

A regional summit has been scheduled for mid-August, and the DRC elections are likely to dominate the agenda.

Last month, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, warned of "numerous violations of human rights norms and principles" in the DRC, raising "serious doubts about the credibility of the country's long-delayed elections".

The level of anxiety today is "the worst in 20 years", said the head of a political NGO who has lived in the DRC for two decades.

- Kabila fears -

Kabila, who took the helm in 2001 from his assassinated father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, was meant to step down at the end of 2016 at the end of his second mandate.

But he has stayed in office, invoking a constitutional clause to stay in power until a successor is elected, and provoking protests that have been suppressed with deadly fire.

As Wednesday's midnight deadline looms, there are growing fears Kabila, 47, could claim he has only completed one term under a revised constitution and run again.

To do so would "heighten the risk of large-scale violence and instability, with potentially devastating consequences across the region", said Ida Sawyer, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

But Congolese political analyst Jean-Claude Mputu said it was "still possible he could choose a successor. He knows his (own) candidacy would be the end of a seemingly legitimate electoral process".

The international community, in particular the United States, has been calling on Kabila to step aside.

Kabila recently postponed a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres but this week made a visit to Angola, a country with which he is traditionally allied, to confer with President Joao Lourenco.

- Split opposition -

Whether it is Kabila or his hand-picked successor who runs, the opposition will have to unite as December approaches -- a task that will require challengers to overcome policy or personal differences and rally their supporters to a compromise.

"This election will be highly competitive," said Paul Fagan, director of the Human Rights and Democracy programs for the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University.

"If there are several high-profile candidates like Jean-Pierre Bemba, Moise Katumbi, Felix Tshisekedi, Vital Kamerhe and Joseph Kabila, then that bodes well for Kabila or his chosen successor since it's a winner-take-all situation. Several opposition candidates will split the vote."

In a recent poll conducted by CRG/BERCI, Katumbi and Tshisekedi tied at 19 percent of votes nationwide. Bemba polled at 17 percent and Kabila was at 9 percent.

Overshadowing the vote is a widespread distrust of the electoral process in a country where contested results have led to political deadlock or violence.

Nearly two-thirds of voters -- 62 percent -- do not trust the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) to conduct free and fair elections.

There are also significant logistical and security challenges with organising the elections.

But "there's little MONUSCO can do in this situation except refuse to participate in electoral preparations," which would be a last-ditch option, said Fagan, referring to the world's largest UN peacekeeping operation.

Registration by August 8 is only the first step for presidential hopefuls.

CENI will then have to validate each candidate, before a definitive list is scheduled to be published on September 19.
A man reads a newspaper with a picture of US President Donald Trump on the front page, in the Iranian capital Tehran

US President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran and reimpose a raft of sanctions will hit European businesses working in Iran.

Here is an overview of how firms stand to be affected when the sanctions kick in Monday:

- Auto -

French automakers Renault and PSA have taken different approaches publicly.

PSA, behind the Peugeot, Citroen and Opel brands, said in June it was preparing to suspend activities in the Islamic republic, its chief foreign market by volume, noting those units account for "less than one percent of sales".

The group, which is Europe's second biggest carmaker, last year sold more than 445,000 vehicles in Iran, making the country one of its biggest markets outside France.

Renault says it intends to keep up activities in Iran albeit scaling them back. On July 16, the automaker announced a 10.3 percent drop in sales in Iran to 61,354 units.

Germany's Daimler was teaming up with two Iranian firms to assemble Mercedes-Benz trucks.

Volkswagen also said last year it would seek to resume sales in Iran for the first time in 17 years, yet the scale of its US activities could force the jettisoning of those plans.

German firms' business with Iran was a modest $2.6 billion of 2016 exports rising to 3.0 billion last year.

Italy is Iran's main European trading partner -- but Germany is still the bloc's biggest exporter to Tehran.

- Aviation -

Aviation saw beefy contracts drawn up following the nuclear accord as Iran targets modernisation of an ageing fleet.

Airbus booked deals for 100 jets although to date only three have been delivered after having US licences bestowed upon them -- a necessity given some parts are US-made.

The potential loss of business in Iran would not weigh overly heavily on Airbus as overall orders on its books at the end of June stood at 7,168 planes.

Franco-Italian planemaker ATR was fretting on the fate of 20 planes earmarked for Iranian delivery -- though Iran Air said Saturday five ATR-72600 aircraft would arrive Sunday, creeping under the deadline to add to eight already delivered.

- Oil -

French energy giant Total has moved away from a contract to develop an offshore gas field at South Pars in what would have been the first project of its kind since the 2015 nuclear deal.

Because Total's investment in the field had barely just begun, the company is avoiding incurring significant losses on a $5 billion project which Iran says Chinese group CNPC will now take up.

After a 30 percent jump in 2016 in exports of Italian-made goods to Iran, Italian exports grew 12.5 percent last year to 1.7 billion euros, according to official data.

But energy giant Eni has held back on returning to Iran, preferring to wait on the impact of the latest sanctions.

Britain's BP, which started life as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, has no presence in Iran. Although Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell signed a deal in 2016 to explore possible investments it does not currently have any operations on the ground.

- Railways and shipbuilding -

Italy stands to lose out in these sectors with national railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato Italiano having signed a deal to build a high-speed line linking Qom to Arak in northern Iran.

Shipmaker Fincantieri, engineering firm Maire Tecnimont and gas boiler maker Immergas has also signed a string of deals with Iran which now are also threatened.

- Tourism -

British Airways and German carrier Lufthansa face having to stop only recently resumed direct flights to Tehran or face losing Transatlantic business.

The dilemma applies to French hotel chain AccorHotels, which opened an establishment in Iran in 2015, as well as to Emirati group Rotana Hotels, which has designs on its own Iranian operation.

Spain's Melia Hotels International chain, which signed a 2016 deal to run a five star hotel in Iran, the Gran Melia Ghoo, says the establishment is under construction and that discussion of its future is "premature."

- Industry -

Siemens returned to Iran in 2016 seeking to sell gas turbines and generators for electricity stations and has won a contract to sell compressors for a natural gas processor.

"The mega contracts hoped for when sanctions were lifted were never realised," KPMG advisor Kaveh Taghizadeh was recently quoted as saying in Stern magazine.

"Siemens will continue to ensure it remains in strict compliance with relevant international export control restrictions and all other applicable laws and regulations, including US secondary sanctions," Siemens spokesman Yashar Azad told AFP.

He added Siemens "will take appropriate actions to align its business with the changing multilateral framework regarding Iran."

French industrial gas group Air Liquide says it will "cease all commercial activity" in the country although a spokesperson says the firm has "no investments" there.

- Pharmaceuticals -

Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, in Iran for over a decade, remains operating "in full compliance with international regulations", a spokesman said, while adding "it is still too early to comment on the potential impact" of sanctions.

- Banks -

Germany's big banks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, stayed clear of Iran after the US fined them hugely in 2015 for violating previous sanctions. Regional banks Helaba and DZ Bank pulled out of Iran after the US announced it was reimposing sanctions.
On July 25, IS carried out a series of attacks in Sweida's provincial capital and several villages that killed more than 250 people, mostly civilians

The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida last month, a Syrian news website and a monitor said Sunday.

IS killed the 19-year-old male student on Thursday after kidnapping more than 30 people, mostly women and children, from a village in Sweida during a deadly rampage last week, the head of the Sweida24 news website Nour Radwan told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, which was seen by AFP, showing a young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a rocky landscape, wearing a black T-shirt with his hands tied behind his back.

The video could not be independently verified.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said it was the first execution since the kidnappings.

On July 25, IS carried out a series of attacks in Sweida's provincial capital and several villages that killed more than 250 people, mostly civilians.

It was the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and the secretive Druze religious minority that populates it.

During the attack the jihadists abducted 36 Druze women and children from a village in Sweida's east, the Observatory said at the time.

Four women had since escaped while two had died, leaving 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, according to the Observatory.

At the time, another 17 men were unaccounted for but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadists over their release.

Sweida had until last week largely remained isolated from Syria's seven-year conflict.

Druze, which made up three percent of Syria's population before 2011, are considered Muslim but IS see them as heretics.
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows coffins lined up during a mass funeral for the victims of the July 25, 2018 suicide attacks claimed by the Islamic State group that hit the southern city of Sweida

The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida last week, a journalist in the area and a monitor said Sunday.

IS killed the 19-year-old male student on Thursday after kidnapping more than 30 people, mostly women and children, from a village in Sweida during a deadly rampage last week, the head of the Sweida24 news website Nour Radwan told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan, who was speaking from Sweida, said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, which was seen by AFP, showing a young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a rocky landscape.

He is wearing a black T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, and his hands are tied behind his back.

The video could not be independently verified.

IS has not claimed the kidnappings and did not publish the video on their usual channels.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the young man's execution was the first since the kidnappings.

The execution came "after the failure of talks between IS and regime forces over the transfer of IS fighters from the southwest of Daraa province to the Badiya" desert, said the Observatory.

It also follows the execution of 50 IS fighters and civilians in Daraa province earlier this week at the hands of rebels, the monitor said.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said Syrian regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadists over the release of those abducted in Sweida.

IS jihadists have lost much of the territory they once controlled in Syria after overruning large swathes of it in 2014, but they retain a presence in the east of the country and in the vast Badiya desert that sweeps through its south.

- 'Failure of talks' -

IS fighters once held a southwestern patch of the neighbouring province of Daraa, but regime forces have in recent weeks ousted them from all of the towns and villages there.

Syria's state media have said regime troops are pursuing the last remaining jihadists who fled to nearby valleys.

In areas it has retaken from rebels and jihadists in recent years, the Russia-backed regime has sometimes negotiated to take back control of land in exchange for the transfer of fighters to other parts of Syria.

On July 25, IS carried out a series of attacks in Sweida's provincial capital and several villages that killed more than 250 people, mostly civilians.

It was the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and the secretive Druze religious minority that populates it.

During the attack the jihadists abducted 36 Druze women and children from a village in Sweida's east, the Observatory said at the time.

Four women had since escaped while two had died, leaving 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, according to the Observatory.

At the time, another 17 men were unaccounted for but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

Local sources say the families of the abductees have been sent photos and videos of their loved ones via Whatsapp.

Sweida had until last week largely remained isolated from Syria's seven-year conflict.

Druze, which made up three percent of Syria's population before 2011, are considered Muslim but IS sees them as heretics.
The FCCHK has hosted an array of speakers from across the political spectrum over the decades

Hong Kong's leader joined mainland China Sunday in urging the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club to cancel a planned speech by a Hong Kong independence advocate whose party is threatened with a ban.

"We respect the international media and respect the Foreign Correspondents' Club's activities in Hong Kong," said Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, expressing "regret" at the planned event.

"I hope our friends in the FCC will also respect that the Hong Kong SAR is an inseparable part of the People's Republic of China," she said, noting that its historic club building was government-owned.

Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region of China, enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland under a handover agreement signed by Britain and China.

But concern is growing that these freedoms including freedom of speech are being eroded by an increasingly assertive China.

The FCC is due to host a talk by Andy Chan, convenor of the tiny pro-independence Hong Kong National Party, on August 14. Authorities formally applied last month to ban the party.

It was the first time such a ban has been sought since Britain handed over Hong Kong in 1997 and was the latest move to stifle calls for the city's independence, which have infuriated China even though they attract little support.

- Freedom of speech -

China's foreign ministry recently requested a meeting with the FCC and asked for the event with Chan to be cancelled, a source told AFP.

In a statement issued Friday the ministry said: "We resolutely oppose any external forces providing a platform for 'Hong Kong independence' elements to spread fallacies."

The talk is part of a "club lunch" tradition which has seen an array of speakers, including Chinese officials, speak to members and the media.

The club said it had no plans to scrap Chan's talk.

"We stand for freedom of the press, we stand for freedom of information... we are very keen to hear everybody speak from all sides of the political debate," FCC vice president Victor Mallet told AFP.

"We of course have often had Chinese officials and others making their case at the club, but also their opponents. And this applies to every country, not just China," Mallet added.

Hong Kong's former leader Leung Chun-ying -- whose administration faced down major youth-led democracy protests in 2014 -- weighed in on Facebook, saying that discussion of Hong Kong independence "is an absolute and clear red line".

In a separate post addressed to Mallet, Leung wrote: "We ought to be gravely concerned if this is the policy of your Club because before long you will invite advocates for Taiwan independence to speak publicly at your Club."

Perched on the slopes of downtown Central and housed in a colonial-era building, the FCC has served as a venue for debates and media gatherings since its arrival in the city in 1949.

Hong Kong police last month sought to ban Chna's party -- which promotes the city's independence from China but only has a core membership of around a dozen people -- citing it as a national security threat.

The city's security chief had said he was considering the police's request while the party was given a few weeks to make representations.
DRC opposition leader Moise Katumbi who has been blocked from returning home to submit his candidacy for December presidential elections

Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi, repeatedly blocked from returning home to contest presidential polls, will try every avenue to get through, his spokesman said Sunday.

On Friday and Saturday, Katumbi was refused entry from Zambia as he tried to get home before a deadline Wednesday to submit his candidacy for presidential polls due December 23.

"It is a violation of the constitution, of the Saint-Sylvestre accord and of two UN Security Council resolutions," Katumbi spokesman Olivier Kamitatu told AFP.

He is going to take his case "to every forum" possible, Kamitatu added.

The 2016 Saint-Sylvestre agreement negotiated with the opposition allowed President Joseph Kabila to remain in office beyond the end of his second and officially last mandate on December 20 of that year in return for his agreeing to the holding of new, credible elections.

Katumbi's French lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti said Friday that he would take his client's case "to the UN human rights committee to register this new violation of the fundamental rights of Moise Katumbi and this violation of the democratic process."

Spokesman Kamitatu said Katumbi on Sunday was some 150 kilometres (95 miles) from the DRC border which he had tried to cross on Friday and Saturday from the Zambian town of Kasumbalesa.

A fresh return attempt "might be part of the strategy," Kamitatu added without elaborating.

Katumbi, 53, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said.

He has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with President Joseph Kabila who has ruled DRC for 17 years.

"The regime forbids me from landing and barricades the border... My crime? Wanting to enter my country and file my candidacy," Katumbi wrote on Twitter.

"By trying to block me, they want to remove from Congolese their right to real elections. I will fight," he added.

Another rival of Kabila, former warlord and ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, returned home this week. He officially launched his bid for the presidency on Thursday.

The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 -- and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict.

Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest.

He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution.

Kabila has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the December 23 vote.
NATO's emblem at Resolute Support headquarters in the Afghan capital Kabul

A suicide bombing claimed by the Taliban killed three Czech soldiers on patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the deadliest assault on NATO troops for many months.

"Three Resolute Support service members were killed by a suicide bomber during a combined, dismounted patrol with Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan," NATO's Resolute Support mission said in a statement.

In Prague, the military said the dead soldiers were Czech.

A US member of the patrol and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, NATO added.

The attack by a lone bomber on foot happened at 6am in the city of Charikar in Parwan province 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Kabul, said provincial governor's spokesman Wahida Shahkar.

The Taliban in a statement claimed responsibility, saying they killed or wounded eight American soldiers in a "tactical explosion".

The Czech army said in a statement that three of its soldiers, a staff sergeant and two corporals, were killed in the explosion.

"The tragic death of our three soldiers has struck me deeply, and I wish to express my deepest condolences to their families," said Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar.

Thirteen Czech soldiers have now been killed in Afghanistan.

The NATO force largely ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 and pulled out the bulk of its troops. A 16,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

Of these, the US accounts for 13,000 soldiers, about 2,000 of whom are assigned to anti-terror combat missions.

Last month a US soldier was killed and two others wounded in an "apparent insider attack" in southern Afghanistan.

Casualties among the NATO force have fallen dramatically since most were withdrawn from combat. But the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) group have recently stepped up their attacks against government and civilian targets.

On Friday two suicide bombers dressed as women struck a Shiite mosque in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, while it was crowded with worshippers for weekly prayers. Thirty-five were killed and more than 90 wounded.

The burqa-clad attackers shot at the mosque's security guards before opening fire on worshippers and then detonating their explosives.

Last month an IS suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar.

Both attacks were claimed by IS, which is trying to make inroads in Afghanistan.
Tens of thousands of Israeli Druze and supporters stage a rally to protest against the Jewish nation-state law in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv

Israel's new Jewish nation-state law has drawn tens of thousands of protesters out onto the streets, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains defiant over the legislation which could still bring political benefits.

Saturday night's protest in Tel Aviv organised by Israel's Druze minority, who say the law will legalise discrimination, was also attended by a range of former security chiefs and opposition politicians.

It was the latest sign of outrage over the law, which declares Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people while omitting any reference to equality or the country's democratic nature.

But despite the protests, many analysts say Netanyahu could still gain from it politically ahead of elections that could come anytime from late this year to the end of 2019.

The veteran and politically savvy premier is seen by analysts as having pushed for the law to shore up his political base and fend off far-right challengers.

It is a playbook he has used in the past, including during the 2015 elections when Netanyahu warned about Arab voters "going to the polls in droves", they say.

He now heads what is regarded as the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

"Netanyahu wants to try already now to dictate how the elections are going to be framed," said Anshel Pfeffer, a journalist with Israeli newspaper Haaretz and author of the new book "Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu."

"Which is a large part of what he was doing with the nation-state law: trying to already set the tone for the election campaign even before it's officially begun."

- 'A terrible law' -

Polls have shown so far that a majority of Jewish Israelis support the law, but many are concerned over what it will mean for the country's democracy.

There is also a deep well of sympathy for the 130,000-strong Druze community, who serve in the police and military unlike other Arab Israelis.

Israel's parliament will hold a special hearing on the law on Wednesday.

Netanyahu says there are other laws on the books that guarantee equality for non-Jews and define Israel as democratic.

But Amir Fuchs of the respected Israel Democracy Institute think-tank, who participated in committee meetings on the legislation as an invited expert, said that was not completely true.

Israel's basic laws -- a de facto constitution -- do include references to the country as "Jewish and democratic", but there is no specific right to equality apart from the 1948 declaration of independence, he said.

Court challenges have been filed against the nation-state law, and it will now be up to judges to decide whether to limit its interpretation.

Fuchs said he agrees, like virtually all Jewish Israelis, that the country is the nation-state of the Jewish people, but believes the law could cause real harm to minorities.

"I think that for minorities in Israel, this is a terrible law which changes the definition of Israel," he said.

- 'Under the rug' -

The legislation was passed in the middle of the night on July 19 and now forms part of Israel's basic laws.

It speaks of Israel as the historic homeland of the Jews and says they have a "unique" right to self-determination there.

The law defines the establishment of Jewish communities as being in the national interest and makes Hebrew the sole official language.

Arabic, previously considered an official language, is granted only special status.

Arab citizens make up some 17.5 percent of Israel's more than eight-million population.

Netanyahu has held a series of meetings with Druze leaders in a bid to win them over and propose a compromise.

There have been suggestions that a separate law would be crafted addressing the status of the Druze in Israel.

On Sunday, Netanyahu announced he was forming a ministerial committee to look at the issue, while again defending the legislation, saying it could help keep Palestinians from relocating inside Israel under family reunification laws.

But Druze leaders have so far stuck to their demand that the law be amended or annulled.

If Netanyahu hoped to cast opponents of the law as unpatriotic leftists, the opposition by the Druze -- respected for their military service -- has put a dent in such plans, some analysts say.

"One way or the other, the rally that was led last night by the Druze community, which demanded equality for all minorities in Israel, made it clear that this problem could not be swept under the rug," Moshe Cohen wrote in the paper Maariv.
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows coffins lined up during a mass funeral for the victims of the July 25, 2018 suicide attacks claimed by the Islamic State group that hit the southern city of Sweida

The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida last week, a journalist in the area and a monitor said Sunday.

The killing prompted an offer from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to exchange captured jihadists for the remaining Druze civilians.

IS went on a rampage in Sweida on July 25, killing more than 250 people -- mostly civilians - in the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and its Druze religious minority.

The jihadists also kidnapped more than 30 people, most of them women and children, from a village in the province, which had previously remained largely isolated from Syria's seven-year civil war.

On Thursday, IS killed a 19-year-old male student who was among the hostages, the head of the Sweida24 news website Nour Radwan told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan, who was speaking from Sweida, said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, seen by AFP, showing a bearded young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a landscape of grey rocks.

He is wearing a black T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, and his hands are tied behind his back.

The video could not be independently verified.

IS has not claimed the kidnappings and did not publish the video on its usual channels.

- 'Failure of talks' -

IS jihadists have lost much of the territory they once controlled in Syria after overrunning large swathes of it in 2014, but they retain a presence in the east of the country and in the country's vast Badiya desert.

The regime has been fighting in recent weeks to expel IS fighters from a patch of the neighbouring province of Daraa.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the young man's execution was the first since the kidnappings.

The execution came "after the failure of talks between IS and regime forces over the transfer of IS fighters from the southwest of Daraa province to the Badiya" desert, the Observatory said.

It also follows the execution of 50 IS fighters and civilians in Daraa province earlier in the week at the hands of rebels, according to the monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Stepping in with an offer on Sunday, the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, told AFP that it was "fully prepared" to exchange jihadists for the Sweida civilians.

"We assure our people in the town of Sweida and the families of the hostages that we are fully prepared for any exchange with Daesh," SDF spokesman Redur Khalil told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"This initiative does not replace Russia's mediation," he said.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said Syrian regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadists over the release of those abducted in Sweida.

- 'Red lines' -

The Druze, who made up three percent of Syria's population before its war broke out in 2011, follow a secretive faith seen as an offshoot of Islam -- but IS sees them as heretics.

Syria expert Khattar Abu Diab said that the kidnappings in Sweida marked a turning point for the minority.

"For this ancestral community, the abduction of women oversteps all red lines," he said.

"Their reaction will depend on the outcome of negotiations but if all the hostages were killed", the Druze could directly intervene to expel IS from the desert, he said.

Regime forces have in recent weeks ousted IS from all of the towns and villages in the Yarmuk Basin in the northwest of Daraa province.

Syria's state media have said regime troops are pursuing the last remaining jihadists who fled to nearby valleys.

In areas it has retaken from rebels and jihadists in recent years, the Russia-backed regime has sometimes negotiated to take back control of land in exchange for the transfer of fighters to other parts of Syria.

During the July 25 attack in Sweida, the jihadists abducted 36 Druze women and children from a village in Sweida's east, the Observatory said at the time.

Four women had since escaped while two had died, leaving 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, according to the Observatory.

At the time, another 17 men were unaccounted for, but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

Local sources say the abductees' families have been sent photos and videos of their loved ones via WhatsApp.

The Sweida killing is the first such execution of a kidnapped civilian by IS since the jihadists overran the town of Al-Qaryatain in central Syria for several weeks in October last year, the Observatory said.
Altar boys prepare themselves ahead of Sunday Mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Harare

Clergymen led prayers for peace as Zimbabweans went to church for the first Sunday service since this week's historic elections, marred by deadly violence and fraud claims.

"Zimbabwe right now needs peace, it needs unity. Zimbabwe is known for peace, it's a peace-loving nation," said worshipper Emmanuel Masvikeni, 46.

"People dying to prop up the politicians... is not justified," Masvikeni told AFP in front of the imposing carved stone facade of Harare's Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral.

Parishioners pray at the entrance of the Sacred Heart Church, before their clergymen led prayers for peace

"I was quite disturbed, taken aback and very worried," he said of Wednesday's unrest.

Religious leaders in the Christian-majority country called for calm after troops in central Harare opened fire on demonstrators protesting alleged electoral fraud, killing six.

Inside Sacred Heart, worshippers bathed in the light of the green stained-glass windows sang songs of praise in the local Shona language while dancing in the aisles.

In the pews, young men in new Converse sneakers rubbed shoulders with pensioners in blazers and bright patterned dresses.

'It is the church that encourages unity among us citizens'

"It is the church that encourages unity among us citizens of the country -- despite their affiliations," said accounting student Clemence Matare, 24.

The sermon, delivered to several hundred tightly-packed worshippers, was on the theme of peace-making and moving on from the past.

"What I heard today was; let God bring peace, let God bring stability to the country of Zimbabwe," said church-goer Patricia Gladys Thompson, a 54-year-old accountant.

"I'm very much optimistic the leadership will change and Zimbabwe will change for the better."

The crackdown on protesters sparked international condemnation

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been declared winner of Zimbabwe's first elections since autocrat Robert Mugabe was ousted by the military last year.

He has insisted the elections were free and fair, vowing to turn a page on 37 years of iron-fisted rule under Mugabe and revive the shattered economy.

The post-election crackdown sparked international condemnation, and Mnangagwa has pledged an independent investigation.
Iraqis chant slogans during a protest in the southern city of Basra on August 5, 2018

Protesters flooded the streets of southern Iraq again on Sunday, nearly a month into a wave of unrest over corruption and decaying public services, AFP correspondents said.

In oil-rich Basra, the southern port city where the protests broke out on July 8, tribal chiefs and Shiite religious leaders joined several hundred demonstrators in front of the provincial headquarters.

Security forces were deployed en masse as demonstrators railed against chronic power cuts, water shortages and endemic unemployment, along with state incompetence and foreign interference.

While there were no clashes over the weekend, fourteen people have been killed since the unrest flared, including at least one person shot dead by security forces.

In Samawa, further west, protestors have been staging a sit-in for more than a week, condemning the misappropriation of billions of dollars from the state budget over recent years.

Daily demonstrations have continued despite government pledges to pump billions of dollars into oil-rich but neglected south.

But the initially large protests have dwindled, apparently weakened by numerous arrests and a heavy security presence.

Anti-corruption rallies have also hit Baghdad's central Tahrir Square, but they too have waned to just a few dozen protestors.

Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi on July 29 sacked Electricity Minister Qassem al-Fahdawi, whose departure had been demanded by demonstrators.

Fahdawi's dismissal came amid political tensions as Iraq awaits the results of a partial recount of May 12 elections.
Mali opposition candidate Soumaila Cisse has called first-round election results "neither sincere, nor credible" and "a fraud"

The three main opposition candidates in Mali's presidential election announced Sunday they were

mounting a legal challenge in the country's constitutional court alleging "ballot box-stuffing" and other irregularities, after incumbent Ibrahim Boubacar Keita took the lead in the first round of the vote last month.

Keita won 41.42 percent of votes in the July 29 presidential poll in the sprawling west African nation, easily ahead of the second place rival Soumaila Cisse with 17.8 percent. They will face off in a runoff vote next Sunday.

"Soumaila Cisse filed last night (Saturday) around 20 submissions to the constitutional court for ballot box-stuffing, violations of the electoral law and other irregularities," a spokesman for the candidate told AFP.

"The ballot box-stuffing explains IBK's tallies in the north and centre" of the country, the spokesman added, using Keita's initials.

He said a motion had also been filed seeking the "recusal of six of the court's judges on suspicion of bias, including its president" Manassa Danioko.

Third-placed Aliou Boubacar Diallo, who won 7.95 percent of the July 19 vote, has also filed a complaint to the constitutional court "concerning the results and the vote tallying," his spokesman Cheick Diallo told AFP.

And in fourth place with 7.46 percent in the first round, Cheick Modibo Diarra -- former transitional prime minister in 2012 -- has also appealed to the highest court about the "reports of irregularities", according to a statement from his political group.

The nine-judge constitutional court must officially announce the results of the first round by Wednesday to kick off campaigning for the run-off vote -- which Keita is heavily favoured to win -- on August 12.

When questioned by AFP, the court's secretary-general Mamadou Magassouba said he could not confirm receipt of submissions because such "requests come in confidentiality".

He also declined to comment on allegations of bias in the court.

Cisse, 68, whom Keita defeated in a 2013 run-off vote, has called the latest vote results "neither sincere nor credible" and "a fraud".

Violence disrupted the first-round election in several areas beset by ethnic and jihadist unrest despite the deployment of 30,000 security personnel.

Suspicions of electoral fraud have been fuelled by the fact that the ministry of territorial administration has released provisional results only on the national level.

The government "has no intention of publishing (results) in detail, bureau by bureau", a source close to the ministry said, despite demands from the opposition and international observers for "transparency".

The international community, including the UN mission in the country (MINUSMA) and French forces present in the country, have put high hopes in the poll which could revive a peace agreement signed in 2015 between the government, government-allied groups and former rebels.

Mali, considered a linchpin state in the troubled Sahel region, is one of the world's poorest countries, with most people living on less than $2 a day.
Iranian men holding dollar notes in Tehran on April 10, 2018

The Iranian central bank's top foreign exchange official has been arrested, the judiciary said Sunday, a day after he was sacked.

Ahmad Araghchi, who was a vice-governor at the bank in charge of forex, was arrested along with several other unnamed individuals including a government official and four currency speculators, said judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeie in a statement, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

Araghchi, the nephew of deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, was fired by the new governor of the central bank on Saturday, apparently over his handling of the currency crisis.

Iran's rial has lost more than half its value since April, in part over fears of renewed sanctions by the United States.

An ill-judged attempt to fix the value of the rial in April triggered widespread black-market speculation and accusations of rampant corruption by those with access to cheaper government currency rates.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir signs a power-sharing deal with his bitter rival Riek Machar in neighbouring Sudan's capital Khartoum on August 5, 2018

South Sudanese arch-foes signed a final power-sharing deal on Sunday, aimed at ending a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions in the world's youngest country.

President Salva Kiir and his bitter rival Riek Machar were in neighbouring Sudan to sign the deal, under which the rebel leader is set to return to a unity government as the first of five vice presidents, an AFP correspondent there reported.

The deal, which paves the way to a final peace accord, was signed in the presence of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his counterparts from Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, along with foreign diplomats.

Once a final peace deal is signed, the foes will have three months to form a transitional government which will then hold power for three years.

The talks come as part of a regional push aimed at achieving peace in South Sudan, which plunged into a devastating conflict just two years after its independence from Sudan.

South Sudan's nearly five-year conflict began after Kiir accused his then-vice president Machar of plotting a coup against him in 2013.

Kiir and Machar's factions have already agreed on a permanent ceasefire and withdrawing of their forces from civilian areas, in talks mediated by Khartoum in series of dialogues hosted by Bashir.

The power-sharing deal lays out a plan for a 35-minister transitional government including 20 Kiir allies and nine backers of Machar, along with representatives of other rebel factions.

- Challenges ahead -

Washington has been sceptical about the success of the latest peace initiative, given the fiery enmity between Kiir and Machar.

Last month the White House warned that "a narrow agreement between elites" would not solve the problems plaguing South Sudan."

"In fact, such an agreement may sow the seeds of another cycle of conflict," it said.

But on Sunday the top US envoy to Khartoum said the United States still backed the process.

"We are supporting any initiative to bring peace to South Sudan and we hope this process will continue comprehensively," US Charge D'affaires in Khartoum, Steven Koutsis, told reporters after Sunday's deal was signed.

A similar peace deal was signed in 2015 but fell apart a year later in a deadly battle that saw Machar flee into exile.

Kiir vowed Friday that the latest peace bid will "not collapse".

But he highlighted several challenges going forward, especially in accommodating a bloated government.

"They need security, they need vehicles, they need houses... five vice presidents, this is a very big responsibility to manage," he said.

"I need to get for them their transport, and one person needs a motorcade of maybe five vehicles. Where will I get this?"

"There are so many things need to be done," he added.

South Sudan's war dashed the optimism that accompanied independence from Sudan in 2011.

The new country plunged into civil war, including fighting within the national army, fuelled by the deep enmity between Kiir and Machar.

The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced some four million people and left the oil-rich country's economy in ruins.

With the country's agricultural sector severely disrupted, seven million South Sudanese -- more than half of the population -- will need food aid in 2018, the United Nations says.
"We have always been in support of the (UN) special envoy (to Yemen), we are going to continue to do so," Emirati Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashemi told reporters in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi

The United Arab Emirates, the main partner in a Saudi-led military coalition intervening in Yemen, said Sunday it backs UN-brokered talks in Geneva between the country's warring sides.

The United Nations envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, on Thursday told the Security Council that "a political solution" to end the war in Yemen was "available" and that the warring sides would be invited to talks on September 6 in Geneva.

"We have always been in support of the special envoy, we are going to continue to do so," Emirati Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashemi told reporters in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.

UN-brokered negotiations on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government.

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading a military campaign to restore Yemen's internationally recognised government to power and push back the Shiite Huthi rebels, who hold the capital Sanaa.

The war in the impoverished country has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Griffiths told the Security Council that he was "still trying" to negotiate a deal to avoid a full-blown battle for Hodeida, the Red Sea port city that is a key entry point for humanitarian aid.

But he added that resolving the crisis over Hodeida would have to be part of a "comprehensive political settlement" between the rebels and the government.

At least 55 civilians were killed Thursday in a series of explosions that rocked rebel-held Hodeida, the Red Cross said.

Griffiths said he was concerned that "Hodeida could be a flashpoint" that could derail the push for talks in September and urged the council to support de-escalation in the port city.
US President Donald Trump waves upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on August 4, 2018

US President Donald Trump admitted Sunday that his son met with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in 2016 "to get information on an opponent" but defended it as "totally legal."

It was Trump's most direct acknowledgement that the motive for the June 2016 meeting was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival for the presidency.

As he has in the past, Trump insisted in a tweet that he did not know at the time about the meeting between his son Donald Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with links to the Kremlin.

"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"

The meeting has come under intense scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with a Russian effort to sway the 2016 election in the Republican's favor.

The president's tweet about the meeting was one in a thread in which he reiterated criticism of Mueller, calling his probe "the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country" peppered with "lies and corruption."

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump has been brooding in private about whether his son unintentionally put himself in legal jeopardy by meeting with Veselnitskaya.

Trump called the Post report "a complete fabrication."

- Illegal meeting? -

The Trump Tower meeting was arranged by British music promoter, Rob Goldstone, who told Donald Jr that he had "information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father."

Young Trump responded "I love it" when first offered the "dirt" on Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

News of the meeting, which Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and top campaign official Paul Manafort also attended, broke in July 2017.

Donald Jr initially said in a statement to The New York Times that the meeting was "primarily" about American adoptions of Russian children.

He later admitted he accepted the meeting with Veselnitskaya in hopes of obtaining damaging information on Clinton, but said nothing came of it.

The Post had reported that the statement to The Times was dictated by the president, though at the time Trump's lawyers denied his involvement.

They later reversed course in a memo to Mueller and said Trump was indeed behind the statement that omitted the prospect of collecting dirt on Clinton.

Lawyers described the statement as "short but accurate," according to The Post.

Asked on Sunday why he had denied the president's involvement, one of Trump's lawyers Jay Sekulow told ABC that "I had bad information at that point."

"I made a mistake in my statement," he said. "That happens when you have cases like this."

The president's lawyers argue that the meeting, in and of itself, violated no laws.

"The question is how will it be illegal?" Sekulow said Sunday.

"What law, statute, rule or regulation has been violated?"
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The bishop of Pittsburgh's Roman Catholic diocese said on Saturday he will release the names of any members of his clergy who are accused in a state grand jury report of sexual misconduct with a minor.

In a letter being read at all Masses this weekend, Bishop David Zubik said he will go public with the names once the grand jury report has been released. His announcement came days after the Harrisburg Diocese identified 71 priests and other members of the church who had been accused of child sex abuse.

The state Supreme Court disclosed recently that the grand jury had identified more than 300 "predator priests" in the six dioceses that were investigated: Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton. Together, those dioceses minister to more than 1.7 million Catholics.

Previous investigations found widespread sexual abuse by priests in the state's two other dioceses: Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown.

The release of the nearly 900-page report has been held up by challenges by some priests and former priests. The court ruled that a version with some names blacked out can be made public within days. The Erie Diocese released its own findings on clergy abuse in April.

Zubik, who has been bishop for 11 years, called the grand jury report "a sad and tragic description of events that occurred within the Church" and said his diocese has not tried to block it.

In releasing the names, Zubik said, "It is my hope that doing so will further strengthen the trust that you, the faithful, have placed in our diocese and in the ministry of our priests and deacons."

He said he has met many times with victims of sexual abuse and their families and "witnessed the lasting damage that abuse has caused in their lives." He said he and the diocese staff continue "to support their emotional and spiritual care to help repair the harm they suffered."

The bishop noted that the grand jury investigation spanned 70 years. But he said almost all of the reported incidents of abuse in the Pittsburgh diocese happened before 1990.

"For over 30 years," he said, "the Diocese of Pittsburgh has had policies in place to respond quickly and compassionately when victims of abuse have come forward."

He said such "rigorous policies" as training programs and background checks are used for anyone who is employed by the church or who seeks to volunteer in a parish or a school.

"These steps have made a difference and continue to do so," he said.

Zubic said he is concerned that parishioners' faith may be tested by the grand jury's findings and asked them to "stay close to God in prayer" and to pray for "the vast majority of priests and deacons who bear the shame and the pain of the worst deeds of their peers."
CAMBRIDGE, Vt. (AP) - Vermont State Police say a 22-year-old man who was struck by a motorcycle has suffered critical injuries.

Authorities say 68-year-old Jean Louis Mondou, of Quebec, Canada, lost control of his motorcycle while making a sharp left turn around 12:40 p.m. Saturday in Cambridge. He struck Pierre Chenel, who was walking along the side of the road. Chenel, of France, who is a student in Montreal, Quebec, suffered head injuries. He's in the hospital in critical but stable condition.

Mondou suffered minor injuries.

An investigation is continuing.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Former New Mexico governor and unsuccessful presidential candidate Gary Johnson received a formal invitation Saturday to run for the U.S. Senate under the Libertarian Party banner.

The central committee of New Mexico's Libertarian Party offered Johnson the party's nomination as a replacement to State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn, who abandoned his Senate bid earlier in the week.

Johnson has two weeks to decide whether to accept. He said in a statement Saturday that he was giving serious consideration to the offer.

FILE - In this May 18, 2016 file photo, Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson speaks with legislators at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. Former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Johnson is considering jumping into the race for U.S. Senate in New Mexico as the current Libertarian candidate prepares to drops out, Johnson consultant Ron Nielson told The Associated Press on Friday, July 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

"A major factor is, simply, whether I can win," he said. "If I run, it will be with the intention to win, and give our state a strong, independent voice in Washington."

Johnson would compete against incumbent Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich and Republican Mick Rich, a construction contractor and newcomer to politics.

In 2016, Johnson won 9 percent of the vote in New Mexico as the Libertarian presidential candidate, while Hillary Clinton carried the state.

Johnson was twice elected governor as a Republican in 1994 and 1998. He hued to a small-government philosophy and advocated for legalized marijuana when it still was taboo in mainstream politics.

Johnson represents the Libertarian Party's best chance to date at winning its first Senate seat, state party Chairman Chris Luchini said.

Rich said Friday that his "commitment is stronger than ever" to his campaign.
MADRID (AP) - Even in his grave, the 20th-century dictator who ruled Spain with an iron fist keeps dividing the country.

Spain's new center-left government says removing the embalmed body of Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves aimed at coming to terms with the country's troubled history.

Critics of the government and Franco's descendants are pushing back, vowing to preserve the memory of a regime they claim should be credited for "modernizing Spain."

In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, a woman makes the fascist salute as she has her picture taken in front of the eagle escutcheon of the former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco regime at the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial, outside Madrid. Spain's new government says that removing late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

Banning the foundation that preserves the legacy of Franco is precisely what should be done instead, says Fernando Martinez, the official appointed to oversee the government's efforts to unearth and identify the 114,000-or-so victims of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Franco, who died in 1975.

"Exhuming the body of the dictator will begin healing the wounds of this country. But that task will only be completed when the last ditch with a mass grave in this country has been opened," Martinez told The Associated Press, speaking at the Ministry of Justice in Madrid, where his new Directorate General for Historic Memory is being formed.

Martinez says creating an up-to-date census of anonymous burials in ditches across the country will be among the most pressing tasks for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's new government. Other moves include re-opening an office to help victims' relatives - an office closed under Spain's previous conservative government - setting up a new system for reparation payments and turning Franco's current burial place into a museum against fascism.

"We are going to accelerate and make up for lost time, it's a question of democratic dignity," says Martinez, who was appointed in July after Sanchez ousted conservative Mariano Rajoy with a no-confidence vote in June.

Three U.N-sponsored missions to Spain since 2013 had criticized authorities for lacking a national plan to search for missing people, for poor coordination on exhumations and for outdated maps of graves. They also raised concerns about the inaction of Spanish courts in prosecuting some of the period's darkest crimes.

But a panel of U.N. rights experts just recently praised the authorities' move for "placing the right to truth at the top of the political agenda" by leading the efforts to search for those disappeared as well as for vowing to create a Truth Commission to investigate crimes that occurred under Franco up until his death.

"This decision represents a fundamental step toward the realization of the right to truth for all victims of serious human rights violations," the rapporteurs wrote.

The government wants to adopt the changes by amending the 2007 Historic Memory Law, which fell short of addressing the demands of survivors and victims' relatives when Rajoy's conservative government eliminated its budgets for exhumations and reparations.

Emilio Silva, president of the Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory, or ARMH, says the new government should use its executive powers to remove Franco from the Valley of the Fallen - a macabre mausoleum 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Madrid. He also wants the government to dig up all the graves of Franco's victims, rather than kicking off a grand political showdown between conservative and progressive voices in parliament.

"They fear a legal backlash," Silva said of the government. But he called digging up unmarked graves and compensating the relatives of identified victims "very basic, human things. There shouldn't be any need to discuss them."

With a towering 150-meter (500-foot) tall cross that can be seen from miles away, the somber neoclassic-style mausoleum and basilica of the Valley of the Fallen were built by Franco as a tribute to the dead during his so-called "glorious crusade" in overthrowing Spain's democratic government.

Some 34,000 people from both sides of the fratricidal war are buried at the site, most of them never identified, along with the remains of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the fascist Spanish Falange party. Franco's tomb, a simple granite slate with only his name engraved, presides over the altar of the basilica. Fresh flowers are always on display.

Public events supporting the Franco regime were outlawed in 2007, but the grandiose site remains a popular pilgrimage destination for those nostalgic for the dictatorship.

Activists say the whole place exudes a totalitarian air and is an insult to the memory of the victims. They are also angry at the decrepit state of the remains, with water leaks that have turned the crypts into "piles of bones," according to an expert's assessment in 2011.

Martinez says the projected revision of the law will include a proposal to remove symbols celebrating the dictatorship and will rebrand the Valley into a monument for reconciliation and a museum that tells about the abuses during its construction, including the use of political prisoners as forced laborers.

But the government, which failed to exhume Franco by July as promised, is facing a myriad of obstacles, including its weak position in parliament.

Hundreds of people nostalgic for Francoism have staged protests at the Valley, and conservative parties are accusing Sanchez's administration of reopening a chapter they consider closed instead of focusing on 21st-century problems.

Meanwhile, descendants of Franco's family are refusing to cooperate with authorities, mounting a legal case against plans to exhume the dictator and refusing to take his remains to the family sepulchral vault in Galicia. With their refusal, authorities are faced with the dilemma of what to do with Franco's remains.

Digging Franco up, Martinez said, aims to "consolidate our democracy," which was peacefully instituted in the late 70s upon the death of the dictator.

Martinez refused to venture a date for the Franco exhumation. But even if it succeeds, Sanchez's government will face the politically sensitive task of outlawing the National Francisco Franco Foundation, which up to 2003 was receiving public funding for safeguarding documents from the 1939-1975 regime.

The Franco Foundation did not respond to AP's requests for comment, but in recent statements online, officials said any attempt to ban them would be against Spain's Constitution, which protects freedom of speech. Its president, retired Gen. Juan Chicharro, wrote that the foundation must defend itself from "the staggered outlawing of everyone who doesn't bend to the totalitarian demands" of the Spanish left.

ARMH's Silva said "banning the foundation does not limit their freedom to express their ideas," it just restricts their access to public funding.

Martinez believes the issue is not about free speech but about protecting Spain's democracy.

"Every foundation justifying Francoism has no space in democracy, the same way it wouldn't by supporting fascism or a Nazi ideology, because these are ideologies that go against democratic values and liberties," he said. "Those of us in favor of democracy have a mandate to defend democracy."

In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, people stand around the tomb of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco inside the basilica at the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial, outside Madrid. Spain's new government says that removing late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

EDS NOTE: SPANISH LAW REQUIRES THAT THE FACES OF MINORS ARE MASKED IN PUBLICATIONS WITHIN SPAIN. In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, people stand around the tomb of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco inside the basilica at the the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial, outside Madrid. Spain's new government says that removing late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, people look at the tomb of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco inside the basilica at the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial outside Madrid, Friday, July 13, 2018. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

EDS NOTE: SPANISH LAW REQUIRES THAT THE FACES OF MINORS ARE MASKED IN PUBLICATIONS WITHIN SPAIN. In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, people visit one of the chapels inside the basilica at the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial, outside Madrid. Spain's new government says that removing late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, a man poses with a pre-constitutional Spanish flag of the former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco era at the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial, outside Madrid. Spain's new government says that removing late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, people take pictures at the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial, outside Madrid. Spain's new government says that removing late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

In this photo taken on Friday, July 13, 2018, a visitor kneels at the tomb of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Spanish right-wing movement La Falange, inside the basilica at the Valley of the Fallen monument near El Escorial, outside Madrid. Spain's new government says that removing late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves to come to terms with the country's troubled 20th century history. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)
LONDON (AP) - A high school science teacher from Cincinnati, Ohio, has rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean, setting a record for a west-to-east crossing.

Bryce Carlson arrived at St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, off England's southwestern tip, late Saturday - 38 days, six hours and 49 minutes after setting out from St. John's, Newfoundland.

The 37-year-old athlete was applauded by relatives and well-wishers as he stepped onto the quay at St. Mary's Harbour after rowing more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) in his 20-foot (6-meter) boat, Lucille.

In this Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018 photo provided by Bryce Carlson Adventures, Bryce Carlson poses for a photo after completing his solo unsupported row across the Atlantic, at St Mary's Harbour, Isle of Scilly, England. A high school science teacher from Cincinnati, Ohio, has rowed solo across the Atlantic, setting a record for a west-to-east crossing. Carlson arrived at St. Mary's in the Scilly Isles, off England's southwestern tip, late Saturday _ 38 days, six hours and 49 minutes after setting out from St. John's, Newfoundland. (Bryce Carlson Adventures via AP)

Carlson capsized several times and endured high waves and the remnants of a hurricane during his journey.

"I feel like I had a lot of luck along the way, and a lot of help," Carlson said. "Help from my friends, my family, the community - from some higher power, I don't know."

The Ocean Rowing Society listed Carlson's time on its website Sunday as the fastest for a west-to-east unsupported solo row. The previous record was 53 days, eight hours and 26 minutes.

Carlson also is the first American to complete the feat, according to the society.
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - Croatia on Sunday celebrated a 1995 military offensive in which its troops retook territory held by rebel Serbs, while Serbia's president compared the attack known as Operation Storm to the policies of Nazi Germany.

Top officials attended a ceremony in the former rebel stronghold of Knin to mark the victory's anniversary, hailing the offensive as a flawless military action that ended Croatia's war for independence and reunited its lands.

U.S. and Israeli military envoys were among the guests attending the event, while Israeli jets joined Croat air forces in a fly-by, Croatia's defense ministry said.

FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 5, 1995 file photo, Croatian soldiers celebrate their victory after retaking the town of Dubica, on the northern Bosnian border. Croatia on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018 celebrated a victorious 1995 military offensive in which it retook lands held by rebel Serbs, while Serbia's president compared the operation to the policies of Nazi Germany. (AP Photo/Robert Belosevic, File)

"(Storm) has become a textbook successful military operation," Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said. "It was the time of total unity of the Croatian people and Croatian soldiers."

Meanwhile, neighboring Serbia mourned the hundreds of victims who were killed during the August 1995 attack. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused Croatia late Saturday of intentionally expelling Serbs from the country because of their ethnicity.

Vucic's comments whipped up tensions between two main Balkan rivals whose conflicting views illustrate the persistent divisions stemming from the 1991-95 war.

The war in Croatia erupted when the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. Minority Serbs in Croatia, backed by Serbia, took up arms and formed their own self-declared state, rejecting the split from the Serb-led Yugoslav federation and expelling hundreds of thousands of Croats from their homes.

More than 10,000 people were killed and many Croatian towns were devastated in the years that followed before Croatia reclaimed control of the Serb-held lands. The Croat blitz sent 200,000 minority Serbs fleeing the country in miles-long columns of tractors, cars and horse-driven carts.

In his remarks on Operation Storm, Vucic, who was an extreme Serb nationalist during the war, evoked the fate of Anne Frank, the Jewish diarist who died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The teenage Holocaust victim was persecuted for the same reason as the Croatian Serbs, the Serbian president said.

"The intent was the same. Hitler wanted a world without Jews; Croatia and its policy wanted a Croatia without Serbs," Vucic told thousands at a commemoration event in northern Serbia.

Croatian officials rejected Vucic's analogy.

"This is really too much," Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic was quoted as saying by Croatian public broadcaster HRT.

Croatian Defense Minister Damir Krsticevic also responded.

"We didn't start the war. We defended ourselves and later liberated Croatia," Krsticevic said.

The liberal Index news portal described the Serbian president's statement as "scandalous" and asked if Vucic should be barred from entering Croatia.

Vucic has said he wants to boost cooperation with other Balkan nations and lead Serbia toward membership in the European Union, but he also has been increasing military and other ties with Russia.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) - The Latest on Europe's heat wave (all times local):

12:50 p.m.

France's health minister says only about 4 percent of the visits to hospital emergency rooms across the country are linked to the current heat wave, which the government considers a relatively low level.

People sunbathe on a beach during a hot summer day in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Minister Agnes Buzyn, visiting the Necker pediatric hospital in Paris on Sunday, said 18 out of 650 emergency services in France were considered "under tension" due to more patients and a lack of staff, especially in the northeast, where this week's high temperatures are more unusual.

She says "I think that our society is starting adapting to the heat wave."

But Buzyn warned against carrying small babies in wrap carriers - which tends to keep them warm- and to watch out so that children under six don't drown in private swimming pools.

The heat mwave in France is expected to last until Thursday, with temperatures peaking on Tuesday. Four nuclear reactors have already been temporarily closed in France due to the high heat.

___

11:30 a.m.

Lisbon has broken a 37-year-old record to notch its hottest temperature ever as an unrelenting wave of heat bakes Portugal and neighboring Spain.

Portugal's weather service said the capital reached 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, surpassing the city's previous record of 43 C (109.4 F) set in 1981.

The day's hottest temperature of 46.8 C (116.2 F) was recorded at Alvega in the center of Portugal. The country's highest temperature on record is 47.4 C (117.3 F) from 2003.

The hot, dusty conditions across the Iberian Peninsula are the result of a mass of hot air from Africa.

Sunday's forecast calls for temperatures to dip slightly while remaining extremely high.

People sunbathe on a beach during a hot summer day in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A man sleeps near to a beach during a hot summer day in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

People cool of with water from a fountain during a hot summer day, in the basque city of Vitoria, northern Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo / Alvaro Barrientos)

People cool off with water from a fountain during a hot summer day, in the basque city of Vitoria, northern Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

A dog cools off in the sea, in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

People cool off in a fountain during a hot summer day, in the basque city of Vitoria, northern Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

People cool off in a fountain during a hot summer day, in the basque city of Vitoria, northern Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo / Alvaro Barrientos)

People stand next to a fountain during a hot summer day in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Hot air from Africa is bringing a heat wave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that could peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in Spain and Portugal. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
TOKYO (AP) - Best-selling Japanese author Haruki Murakami, hosting a special radio show featuring some of his favorite songs he runs to, says writing novels is about rhythm, as in music and running.

"Murakami Radio," a pre-recorded show broadcast Sunday night, featured as its themes two crucial elements of his life as a novelist: running and music. During the 55-minute show, Murakami played nine numbers he enjoys running to - rock and jazz - selected from thousands of titles stored on several iPods, while sharing stories behind the songs and talking about running and writing.

A perennial contender for the Nobel literature prize, Murakami said he initially had no intention of becoming a writer. After finishing university, he was running a jazz bar in Tokyo and music was his thing, and that's where his style comes from, he said.

In this undated black and white photo provided by Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co., Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami poses at its radio station in Tokyo. Japanese best-selling author Haruki Murakami has hosted a radio show featuring some of his favorite songs for jogging and says writing novels to him is about rhythm, as in music and running. (Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co. via AP)

"Rather than learning storytelling technique from someone, I've taken a musical approach, while being very conscious about rhythms, harmony and improvisation," the 69-year-old Murakami said on the radio. "It's like writing as I dance, even though I don't actually dance. For me, writing tends to be a very physical process, and that's my style. If you think my books are easy to read, perhaps we have something in common musically."

A native of Kyoto, Murakami has precise memories of when he decided to become a writer: at around 1:30 p.m. on April 1, 1978, while attending a baseball game at Tokyo's Jingu Stadium - home to the underdog Japanese baseball team the Yakult Swallows, his favorite - where he saw an American named Dave Hilton hit a double, he wrote in his 2007 memoir, "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running."

Murakami's first novel, "Hear the Wind Sing," came out in 1979. His 1987 romantic novel "Norwegian Wood" was his first best-seller, establishing him as a young literary star. Recent best-sellers include "1Q84," ''Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" and his latest novel, "Killing Commandatore." Music serves as important motifs in his stories, and he has also written books on the topic.

Murakami started running soon after becoming a novelist, initially to lose weight he had gained from long hours of sitting and writing. He has since become a serious runner, completing more than 30 marathons.

He said he runs to keep up his physical strength. "When you write, your physical ability is extremely important," he said. "You sit all day and keep writing, so it takes a lot of energy, even though many people don't seem to believe me."

Rock music is his usual choice for running to keep a steady pace, he said, recommending "songs that you can sing along to, ideally those that give you courage."

Protagonists in Murakami's stories are often troubled young men seeking their self-identity in grim, dark or fantastical settings. But Murakami was upbeat and humorous during Sunday's program as in his short stories and essays, including his 2001 essay collection titled "Murakami Radio."

The publicity-shy Murakami said jokingly that sometimes he regrets not having a pen name. "Once I had a skin problem and went to a dermatology and venereology clinic, then a receptionist called out 'Murakami-san.' It was so embarrassing," he said.

Ahead of Sunday's show, Murakami said in a message released through Tokyo FM that he's collected so many records and CDs, he felt it would be more fun to share some of them than to keep the pleasure to himself. He has seven iPods storing 1,000 to 2,000 titles each, from which he chose the songs for Sunday's show.

Delighted fans' messages flooded social networks. "I have goose bumps ... Haruki Murakami really exists!" tweeted one fan.

"He has a nice voice," another tweet said. Some fans gathered at a book cafe to listen to the show together.

Murakami opened the show with Donald Fagen's "Madison Times," originally composed by jazz pianist Ray Bryant. He then played "Heigh-Ho/Whistle While You Work/Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, one of Murakami's favorite groups and one mentioned in his debut novel.

Other songs played: "DB Blues" by King Pleasure, "Sky Pilot" by Eric Burdon and the Animals, "What a Wonderful World" by Joey Ramone, "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" by George Harrison, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Ben Sidran, "Love Train" by Hall & Oates and "Light My Fire" by the Doors.

Murakami took a few questions he selected from more than 2,000 submitted in advance, including some from abroad, though Sunday's program was for domestic listeners only. Asked what music he would request for his own funeral, Murakami said none: "I would rather go quietly." Asked to choose between life without a cat or music, he didn't answer, saying he would regret it either way.

While seeking privacy, Murakami has spoken out on various issues, including nuclear energy, global peace and, most recently, the executions of 13 Japanese cultists for a Tokyo subway gassing and other crimes.

___

Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

Find her work at https://www.apnews.com/search/mari%20yamaguchi
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) - In a coffee shop at the edge of a working-class Minneapolis suburb, not far from the high school Ilhan Omar attended in the years after she immigrated to the U.S., some two dozen people crowded around a table to hear her make the case for sending her to Congress.

"There is a clear and dangerous crossroads to where our country finds itself," Omar told the group. "You can see the politics of fear and scarcity that's led us to the current administration we have."

Rep. Keith Ellison's decision to leave Congress to run for attorney general back home in Minnesota set off a scramble for his Minneapolis-area congressional seat, which has been a Democratic lock for more than half a century. It's a race with echoes of the recent primary upset in New York, in which Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old self-described democratic socialist, defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats.

FILE - In this June 5, 2018, file photo, State Rep. Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to a state legislature, files to run for the 5th district congressional seat that U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison is vacating to run for Minnesota attorney general, at the Minnesota Secretary of State's office in St. Paul, Minn. The race has pitted Omar, a rising star in the Democratic Party, against older, more established Democrats, echoing similar races nationwide as a younger generation heads to Washington. (Lacey Young/Minnesota Public Radio via AP, File)

Though the Minnesota race has no incumbent, Omar is hoping to harness the energy that Ocasio-Cortez tapped to defeat five other candidates in the Aug. 14 primary, including the state's first Latina lawmaker, state Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, and Margaret Anderson Kelliher, a former state House speaker who spent a decade as a powerbroker in Minnesota politics.

Omar broke into elected office by unseating a 22-term Democratic incumbent in 2016 while en route to becoming the nation's first Somali-American state lawmaker. With one term under her belt in the Minnesota House, she's touting her background - "I myself would have been part of the travel ban," she says - to persuade voters that for her, the fight against President Donald Trump would be personal.

Her message will be tested against Kelliher, who has played up her political battles with then-Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty as proof that she, too, would make an effective Trump foil.

Torres Ray, who emigrated from Colombia more than 30 years ago, says she's also well-suited to stand up to the president's policies, pointing to her tenure in state Senate and experience on immigration issues. She has called Trump's immigration policies "inhumane" and was arrested in June along with several other protesters who locked themselves in cages to protest the administration's family separation immigration policy, which Trump lifted in the face of widespread criticism.

The Minneapolis area has been trending more liberal since long before Trump, said Brian Melendez, a former chairman of the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He noted Ellison's 2006 victory to become the first Muslim elected to Congress, as well as a raft of very liberal candidates who have won city offices and Omar's 2016 primary victory.

Like many other Democratic primaries around the country, the race for Ellison's House seat is testing what kind of political experience matters most for Democratic voters who hope to rein in the Trump administration, which has emerged as the central focus in the race.

Devan Steward, 25, said he supports Omar but worries about her limited experience.

"I'm not the kind of person who thinks experience makes or breaks a candidate, but I'd prefer her to have another term or two under her belt," he said.

Freshman state lawmakers in the minority, as Democrats are in Minnesota, have little chance to rack up accomplishments. Omar cited funding she's netted for projects in her district, including money for a Somali museum and $5 million to help respond to a 2017 measles outbreak that largely affected the Somali community.

But both Omar and Torres Ray face a formidable rival in Kelliher.

Just the second woman to serve as Minnesota's House speaker, Kelliher has been largely out of the public eye for eight years. She's currently head of a nonprofit that promotes technology education, training and jobs.

Since entering the race, Kelliher has worked to remind voters of her skirmishes with Pawlenty. During a visit to a Minneapolis senior living home, she drew nods of recollection from a group of about 50 people when she talked about overcoming a Pawlenty veto to pass a gas tax hike to fund infrastructure improvements after the deadly 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis.

She discounted any parallel between her congressional race and Ocasio-Cortez's victory in New York over longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in an interview afterward.

"Joe Crowley was an out-of-touch incumbent. This is an open seat," she said. "There's a lot of energy in this race, and there's going to be over 100,000 people who vote and only 25,000 people voted there."

The heart of the race, she said, "is going to be who is most effective standing up to the Trump administration right now, and who can deliver on behalf of the issues."

Omar, who escaped Somalia as a child and grew up in a Kenya refugee camp before settling in the U.S., said she's ready to do that.

"For so long, so many of us felt you needed permission to get involved politically and that you needed an invitation," Omar said. "I think we are at a moment that we've been building up that's part of a movement that says if you want things done, you have to do them yourself."

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Follow Youssef Rddad on Twitter: https://twitter.com/youssefrddad
MONACA, Pennsylvania (AP) - The United States is on pace to add about 2.6 million jobs this year under President Donald Trump's watch. Yet the bulk of the hiring has occurred in bastions of Democratic voters rather than in the Republican counties that put Trump in the White House.

On average for the year-ended this May, 58.5 percent of the job gains were in counties that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to an Associated Press analysis of monthly government jobs data by county.

Despite an otherwise robust national economy, the analysis shows that a striking number of Trump counties are losing jobs. The AP found that 35.4 percent of Trump counties have shed jobs in the past year, compared with just 19.2 percent of Clinton counties.

In this April 30, 2018 photo, Chip Kohser, the Beaver county Republican chairman, stands overlooking the construction of a chemical plant on the banks of the Ohio River near Beaver, Pa., that will help convert natural gas into plastic, creating hundreds of jobs in an area that has seen population dwindle since the collapse in the 1980's of the steel industry. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The jobs data shows an economy that is as fractured as the political landscape ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. As more money pools in such corporate hubs as Houston, San Francisco or Seattle, prosperity spills over less and less to smaller towns and cities in America's interior. That would seem to undercut what Trump sees as a central accomplishment of his administration - job creation for middle class and blue-collar workers in towns far removed from bustling urban centers.

Job growth in Trump's economy is still concentrated in the same general places as it was toward the end of Barack Obama's presidency - when roughly 58.7 percent of the average annual job gains were in Democratic counties.

Yet the lack of transformative job growth in Trump areas hasn't seemed to erode his support among Republicans, while hiring in Democratic areas have done little to improve his standing with those voters. For Trump's core supporters, cultural issues such as gun rights, immigration and loyalty to the president have become dominant priorities.

Trump has pointed with pride at a strengthening national economy in hopes that voters will reward the Republican Party by preserving its majorities in the House and Senate this year. The government reported the fastest quarterly economic growth since 2014 and the unemployment rate is a healthy 3.9 percent. At a Pennsylvania rally on Thursday, the president declared, "Our economy is soaring. Our jobs are booming."

But other issues preoccupy the minds of the party faithful in Trump strongholds such as Beaver County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh.

Chip Kohser, the county Republican chairman and the bristle-bearded founder of a farm share company, said his party members are rallying around their staunch opposition to gun control.

"Our No. 1 motivating factor," he said, "is Second Amendment issues."

Kohser, 41, drives a white pickup truck, smokes cigars and views America as being jaggedly splintered along ideological lines that make it hard to find common ground. Democratic calls for stricter gun control in the aftermath of mass shootings, he said, are fueling more zeal among his Republican volunteers than are the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that Trump signed into law last year.

Since May 2017, Beaver County has lost 191 jobs. With the warmer summer weather, hiring is now on an upswing. But employers have fewer job applicants available as the labor force has shrunk by roughly 1,000 workers in the past 12 months, the result of decades of population loss that hit former steel towns such as Aliquippa, Beaver Falls and Midland.

The tax cuts haven't stopped the outflow of people. Chatting over eggs, bacon and home fries, Kohser estimated that the tax cuts have added perhaps $1,200 to his annual household income and roughly the same to many others in the area - not likely enough on its own to rejuvenate the local economy.

The United States is full of places like Beaver County. They are areas where the currently robust national economy and job market obscure long-standing woes that generations of politicians have struggled to reverse. There are the long-shuttered factories, stagnant incomes and the departure of college-educated workers to cities and surrounding suburbs.

Many of those forgotten men and women might cheer the president for slapping tariffs on imported goods to defend U.S. factory jobs or his vow to build a wall on the Mexican border to block illegal immigration. But for struggling communities waiting for jobs to be restored, Trump's tax cuts - which were skewed toward corporations and wealthy individuals - have yet to deliver.

During the past year, the healthiest job gains have been in counties containing such vibrant cities as Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Seattle, all of them places that have favored Democrats.

Texas, which Trump won handily, reflects the geographic split in the economy. Within that state, Clinton - not Trump - won the counties that have accounted for bulk of that state's job growth.

Though public opinion surveys suggest that the economy gives an advantage to Trump and the Republicans, the economy no longer packs as big a punch with the electorate.

When the Pew Research Center asked voters in June to identify the nation's most pressing issue, more of them chose immigration, race, political gridlock or Trump himself than the economy. The proportion of people who said the economy was their top priority fell to its lowest level in more than eight years.

Sixty percent of Americans told Pew that they see their midterm vote as an act of either supporting the president (26 percent) or opposing him (34 percent). That is the highest combined number since Pew began asking such a question in 2006.

And 68 percent said that control of Congress would influence how they vote, the highest level in two decades.

Despite greater income inequality, separate research suggests the economy isn't the only source of America's growing cultural divide.

Since the 1970s, Americans have also moved further apart on matters of "political ideology," according to research published in June by University of Chicago economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica. Their work found that conservatives and liberals have become more sharply split on such issues as confidence in the government and social institutions, religious participation and stances on marriage, sex and abortion.

In Pennsylvania, many Democrats see the choices made by Trump as putting democracy itself at risk. Their fears stem in part from his administration's initial policy of separating refugee children from their parents and his seemingly deferential relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation interfered in the 2016 election, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

"What I'm hearing daily is fear amongst people as to whether their democracy is slipping away from them," said Nancy Mills, the Pennsylvania Democratic chairwoman. "I'm really hearing that more than anything else."

She then added, "This situation at the border was really a wake-up call and frightening."

Trump has described his crackdown on undocumented immigrants, refugees and his efforts to limit legal immigration as positive for the country. Yet the economic growth he promised would revitalize Beaver County may depend on its ability to attract immigrants as it did a century ago when the steel mills brought Germans, Italians and Eastern Europeans workers to the area.

Beaver County never fully recovered from the steel mill closures in the 1980s that caused the unemployment rate to spike at nearly 30 percent.

Many young workers with college degrees migrated east for Pittsburgh's technology and medical care jobs. The result of this population flight is that Beaver County is rapidly aging, with a median age of 44.8 years old, compared with 37.7 nationwide and 32.9 in Pittsburgh.

If the area weren't suffering from a dwindling population, employers say they would have more workers to hire and the county would have job gains rather than losses. Local business groups see the possibility of a vibrant future because the county sits atop a massive reserve of natural gas. On the banks of the Ohio River, an army of cranes are building a chemical plant that helps to convert the natural gas into plastic - a source of hundreds of jobs.

Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus recently sat in the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce's wood-paneled conference room as local business owners recounted their difficulties in finding workers. A local cafe struggled to hire bakers who could start the ovens at 3 a.m. The shopping mall manager found that higher pay did little to attract better job applicants.

A congressman since 2013, Rothfus bears the calm, bespectacled manner of a professor. He faces a tough re-election battle in Pennsylvania's newly created 17th District against Democrat Conor Lamb, who won a special election House victory earlier this year. Both Rothfus and Lamb's current districts were redrawn this year by court order.

Sitting outside a cafe before the chamber meeting, Rothfus said there was a clear path for generating job growth: Immigrants.

"You look at areas of the country that are really thriving - there's a significant immigrant population," he said. "We need to do a better job of attracting immigrants here. This place was built on immigrants."

But Rothfus has also been outspoken on the importance of tighter border security. A few weeks after the chamber meeting, he voted for a bill that, had it passed, would have imposed tougher border measures and likely curbed legal immigration.

When asked if voters would make their choice this November based on the health of the economy, Rothfus said, emphatically, yes. His belief is that the tax cuts and pullback on regulations by Trump would help give him an edge.

"I think you look at the choice we have: Do we want to have more government and higher taxes or more jobs and higher wages?" he said. "That's a pretty compelling argument."

As of now, Beaver County is still waiting on the job surge.

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AP data journalist Larry Fenn contributed to this report.

FILE - In this May 1, 2018 file photo, Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus sits outside a coffee shop in downtown Beaver, Pa. A congressman since 2013, Rothfus faces a tough re-election battle in Pennsylvania's newly created 17th District against Democrat Conor Lamb, who won a special election House victory earlier this year. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

In this May 1, 2018 file photo Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus sits outside a coffee shop in downtown Beaver, Pa. A congressman since 2013, Rothfus faces a tough re-election battle in Pennsylvania's newly created 17th District against Democrat Conor Lamb, who won a special election House victory earlier this year. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
LONDON (AP) - British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn vowed Sunday to rebuild trust with the Jewish community as he tried to calm a storm over alleged anti-Semitism in the left-of-center opposition party.

Claims of anti-Jewish prejudice within Labour have grown since Corbyn, 69, a longtime critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, was elected leader in 2015. Jewish groups have accused him of failing to expel party members who express anti-Semitic views.

The dispute recently boiled over again after the party proposed adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that differed from the one approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

FILE - In this file photo dated Monday, April 23, 2018, Britain's opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, after a Memorial Service to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London. The president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl Tweeted Thursday Aug. 2, 2018, that Corbyn must make an "abject apology" to British Jews for allowing anti-Semitism to fester in the left-of-center party. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE)

Corbyn, a member of Parliament since 1983, said in a video released by the party that there was "a real problem of anti-Semitism that Labour is working to overcome."

"Driving anti-Semitism out of the party for good and working with the Jewish community to rebuild trust are vital priorities," he said.

Corbyn's critics said he needed to back up his words with action. Gideon Falter of the Campaign Against Antisemitism said the "contradictory, hypocritical, insincere" video statement was devoid of any promises of action.

The video was released after Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson, said the party faced "eternal shame and embarrassment" if it did not confront the problem.
CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Tribune has left its longtime home but the newspaper's iconic sign will remain when the landmark building is turned into condominiums.

The Chicago Tribune reports that its parent company, Tronc, and the real estate firms that are developing Tribune Tower have agreed to settle a lawsuit that had put the fate of the sign in jeopardy.

The paper reports that the 8-foot-tall letters that spell "Chicago Tribune" will be removed later this year during the construction project to turn Tribune Tower into condominiums.

FILE - In this April 12, 2006 file photo, flags wave near the Chicago Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago. The Chicago Tribune has left its longtime home but the newspaper's iconic sign will remain when the landmark building is turned into condominiums. The Chicago Tribune reports that its parent company, Tronc, and the real estate firms that are developing Tribune Tower have agreed to settle a lawsuit that had put the fate of the sign in jeopardy. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

The letters will be put back in early 2020 when the renovation is completed.

The newspaper moved its offices from the 93-year-old neo-Gothic Tower several weeks ago to a nearby high-rise.

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Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com
ANNAPOLIS JUNCTION, Md. (AP) - More than a dozen people have been injured after a school bus carrying musicians from New York to the nation's capital overturned off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

A fire department spokesman said some of the injuries are serious but none are life-threatening.

The Anne Arundel County Fire Department says the accident occurred Sunday morning in the parkway's southbound lanes near the exit for State Route 32 in Annapolis Junction.

According to the fire department, 14 people were injured. Of those, three people who suffered serious injuries were taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Nine were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, and two with minor injuries were not hospitalized.

News outlets report that the musicians on the bus were adults, not students.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - "Murphy Brown" will weigh in on the MeToo movement when the series starring Candice Bergen returns to a very different world in September, the show's creator said Sunday.

The 13-episode reboot reunites Bergen as a sharp-tongued investigative journalist and TV anchor with most of the original cast from the CBS show's initial 10-year run that ended in 1998 - before the internet and the rise of 24-hour cable news took hold. Once again, scripts will be inspired by current events, including the fourth episode entitled "(Hashtag) MurphyToo."

Executive producer and writer Diane English told a TV critics' meeting the episode was developed months ago and inspired by the movement against workplace sexual harassment and assault that first gained momentum last fall.

Candice Bergen attends the "Murphy Brown" panel during the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at the the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

"It's a powerful movement," she said. "We wanted to do it justice."

English said the show's writing staff, comprised of men and women of different ages who are gay and straight, spent days discussing what she calls "a complicated issue."

"We came at it from so many different angles. Just the conversations we had in there, the perspectives that people have from their own particular prism," English said. "I don't think there's probably a woman out here that hasn't had an experience with misogyny and misconduct."

However, English is not one of them. She says she never experienced any kind of sexual misconduct or misogyny at CBS, where CEO Leslie Moonves is under investigation for such behavior.

English said everyone on "Murphy Brown" takes the allegations against Moonves and other network employees raised in a recent New Yorker magazine article "extremely seriously" and fully supports the investigation.

"I'm focusing the show really through the prism of the press," English said. "The First Amendment and the free press is under attack like I've never seen before. The press is not the enemy of the people."

The series debuts Sept. 27.
WASHINGTON (AP) - As the Trump administration readies to re-impose sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord, America's European allies fear greater regional instability.

President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the landmark agreement, signed by the U.S. and five other world powers, remains one of the most consequential foreign policy decisions of his presidency.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran will be rigorously enforced and remain in place until the Iranian government radically changes course. While calling sanctions an important pillar in U.S. policy toward Iran, he said the administration is open to looking beyond sanctions but that would "require enormous change" from Tehran.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, unseen, during their meeting at Merdeka palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018. (Beawiharta/Pool Photo via AP)

"We're hopeful that we can find a way to move forward but it's going to require enormous change on the part of the Iranian regime," Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane on his way home from a three-nation trip to South East Asia. "They've got to behave like a normal country. That's the ask. It's pretty simple."

Pompeo called the Iranian leadership "bad actors" and said Trump is intent on getting them to "behave like a normal country."

Many U.S. allies believe that such language is code for regime change, according to two European diplomats involved in negotiations with the Trump administration over how sanctions would be re-imposed.

The sanctions that go back into effect on Monday cover Iranian trade in automobiles and metals, including gold. The U.S. also has banned imports of Iranian products such as carpets and pistachios and revoked licenses that allowed Iran to purchase U.S. and European aircraft. Iran acquired five new European commercial planes on Sunday before the sales were cut off.

The last and most significant sanctions - those on Iran's oil sector and central bank - will be restored on Nov. 4. Iranian oil sales are a crucial source of hard currency.

The nuclear deal lifted international sanctions in exchange for Iran agreeing to restrictions on its nuclear program. U.N. inspectors said Iran was complying with the deal, but Trump argued that it didn't do enough to curb Iran's malign activity in the region. Trump administration officials also argued that because the U.S. lifted sanctions against Iran as part of the agreement, it in effect stripped Washington of one of its most powerful tools to penalize Tehran.

European countries say they remain committed to the agreement, seeing it as the surest way to safeguard their national security.

"The problem is: What next?" one of the European diplomats said, referring to concerns that the U.S. is eyeing regime change as the sanctions' end goal. Both diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to brief the media on ongoing negotiations.

If the re-imposed sanctions caused the government in Tehran to collapse, Iran would likely devolve into civil war like what unfolded in Syria or radicals would assume power, the diplomat said.

A deepening of Iran's economic crisis could also lead to an influx of refugees and migrants into Europe like that seen on the heels of the Syrian conflict.

Pompeo noted that the U.S. has long designated Iran as the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism and that Iran cannot expect to be treated as an equal in the international community until it halts such activities.

"Perhaps that will be the path the Iranians choose to go down," he said Sunday. "But there's no evidence today of a change in their behavior."

In the meantime, he said, "we're going to enforce the sanctions."

Supporters of the Iran agreement have long argued that the U.S. departure would alienate European allies who partnered with the U.S. in the negotiations.

We "remain firmly committed to ensuring (the deal) is upheld and we continue to abide by our commitments," the second European diplomat said. "If we cannot fulfill these, this risks Iran deciding that it no longer has to abide by the restrictions."

Iran's economy was plunged into a downward spiral following Trump's announcement that the United States was scrapping the nuclear deal. The downturn has sparked waves of protests across Iran.

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Lee reported from aboard a U.S. military aircraft.
Peering through low cloud cover, rescuers aboard a military aircraft on Sunday were attempting to find a sightseeing plane that crashed with the pilot and four passengers aboard a day earlier in Alaska, high on a mountain ridge in Denali National Park and Preserve.

The pilot reported on his satellite phone Saturday that there were injuries, but authorities couldn't get details before the satellite connection dropped.

The de Havilland Beaver plane went down around 6pm and is believed to have crashed near the summit of 10,900-foot-high Thunder Mountain, park spokeswoman Katherine Belcher said.

There was still no word on the conditions of the pilot and passengers.

Thunder Mountain (above) is a knife-edge ridge rising about 3,000 feet above two glaciers, 14 miles southwest of the summit of Denali, North America's highest peak.

The tourists, whose identities and nationalities have not been released, and pilot had to spend the night on the mountain.

'There's definitely low cloud cover,' Belcher said in a telephone interview.

'We're waiting for an update from the HC-130 crew that's up in the air.'

Thunder Mountain is a knife-edge ridge rising about 3,000 feet above two glaciers, 14 miles southwest of the summit of Denali, North America's highest peak.

The plane was reportedly carrying sleeping bags, a stove, a pot, food and first-aid kit, Belcher said in a statement.

An Air Guard HC-130 was flying over coordinates that came from the plane's emergency locator transmitter and were offered by the pilot, said Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead of the Alaska National Guard.

The plane's ELT beacon alerted the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center around 6pm Saturday.

'Searchers don't have eyes on aircraft yet because of cloud cover between them and the aircraft,' Olmstead said Sunday.

A de Havilland Beaver plane (like the one seen in the stock photo above) carrying five people is believed to have crashed near the summit of Thunder Mountain

An Air Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter with a rescue crew, a National Park Service helicopter and another plane owned by the private tour company, K2 Aviation, that operates the downed plane can help with the search, Olmstead said.

K2 Aviation said it has canceled flight tours for now.

'The entire K2 family sends their thoughts and prayers to the families of our guests and the pilot involved in the incident,' the company said in a statement.

'Search efforts continue and K2 Aviation is cooperating fully with the Alaska State Troopers, the National Park Service, Alaska Air National Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and other authorities involved.'

The company, based in Talkeetna, Alaska, offers glacier landings.

'The glaciers found in Denali National Park are like no others in the world. Beneath the towering mountain peaks, you'll understand why these immense ice fields attract people from all over the globe,' K2 Aviation says on its website.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the U.S. and Iran as re-imposition of sanctions nears (all times local):

7:30 p.m.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran will be rigorously enforced and remain in place until the Iranian government radically changes course.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, unseen, during their meeting at Merdeka palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018. (Beawiharta/Pool Photo via AP)

Speaking to reporters aboard his plane on his way home from Asia, Pompeo says Monday's re-imposition of sanctions is an important pillar in U.S. policy toward Iran. He says the Trump administration is open to moving forward with Tehran but that would "require enormous change on the part of the Iranian regime."

Pompeo calls the Iranian leadership "bad actors" and says President Donald Trump is intent on getting them to "behave like a normal country."

___

4:30 p.m.

As the Trump administration readies to re-impose sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord, America's European allies fear greater regional instability.

President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the landmark agreement, signed by the U.S. and five other world powers, remains one of the most consequential foreign policy decisions of his presidency.

Trump administration officials say the sanctions are being restored starting Monday in an effort to change the Iranian regime's behavior.

But many U.S. allies believe that language is code for regime change. That's according to two European diplomats involved in negotiations with the Trump administration over how sanctions would be re-imposed.
Explosions heard at a military event in Venezuela were an attempted attack on president Nicolas Maduro, the countrys government said.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said several drone-like devices with explosives detonated near the president.

He said Mr Maduro is safe and unharmed but that seven people were injured.

Venezuelas president Nicolas Maduro was subject of an attempted attack (Ariana Cubillos/AP)

State television showed Mr Maduro abruptly cutting short a speech and hundreds of soldiers scattering.

Mr Maduro spoke on Saturday in the capital Caracas during a celebration of the National Guards 81st anniversary.

He was standing next to his wife Cilia Flores and several high ranking military officials for the event broadcast on radio and television.

Firefighters near the scene are disputing the governments version of events.

Three officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the incident was actually a gas tank explosion inside an apartment.

Smoke could be seen coming out of a building window at the site of the incident.
Small scuffles broke out on Saturday as police in Portland, Oregon, deployed flash bang devices and other means to disperse hundreds of right-wing and self-described anti-fascist protesters.

There were four arrests and officers seized multiple weapons throughout the day, the Portland Police Bureau said.

Demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, had gathered at about noon in a riverfront park.

Hundreds of demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with opposition messages such as: Alt right scum not welcome in Portland.

Police push protesters back with tear gas and flash-bang grenades (AP Photo/John Rudoff)

Some chanted Nazis go home as officers stood in the middle of the four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated.

The counter-protesters were made up of a coalition of labour unions, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists and other groups. They included people dressed as clowns and a brass band blaring music.

The rally organised by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to hospital with a skull fracture.

This time, Mr Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside US District Court to a waterfront park so that some of his Oregon supporters could carry concealed weapons as they demonstrated.

Mr Gibson disputed the groups classification by some as a hate group.

Portland police keep Patriot Prayer affiliates separate from antifa protesters (AP Photo/John Rudoff)

Were here to promote freedom and God. Thats it, he told Portland TV station KGW while walking with demonstrators. Our country is getting soft.

Protesters saw a significant police presence that included bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints.

In a statement, police said weapons would be seized if there was a violation of law and added that it was illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person had a valid Oregon concealed handgun licence.

Among the things police confiscated were long sticks and homemade shields.

Just before 2pm, police in riot gear ordered people to leave an area downtown, saying demonstrators had thrown rocks and bottles at officers.

Rally organiser Joey Gibson (Mark Graves /The Oregonian via AP)

Get out of the street, police announced via loudspeaker.

The Portland events have taken on out-sized significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathiser was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defence of two young black women  one in a hijab  whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017.

A coalition of community organisations and a group representing more than 50 tribes warned of the potential for even greater violence than previous rallies if participants carried guns. It called on officials to denounce what it called the racist and sexist violence of Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys and protect the city.

Self-described anti-fascists  or antifa  have been organising anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys in the streets.

Organisers say that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro dodged an apparent assassination attempt when drones armed with explosives detonated while he was delivering a speech, officials said.

Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced on Saturday after hearing the sound of an explosion pierce the air.

He was giving a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas which was being broadcast live on television when the incident occurred.

This was an attempt to kill me, the 55-year-old said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. Today they attempted to assassinate me.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the incident took place shortly after 5.30pm as Mr Maduro was celebrating the National Guards 81st anniversary.

The visibly shaken head of state said he saw a flying device that exploded before his eyes, and thought it might be a pyrotechnics display in honour of the event.

Venezuelas government said several explosions heard at a military event were an attempted attack on President Maduro (AP)

Within seconds, Mr Maduro said he heard a second explosion and pandemonium ensued.

Bodyguards escorted the Venezuelan leader out of the event and television footage showed uniformed soldiers standing in formation quickly scattering from the scene.

He said the far right working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible.

Some of the material authors of the apparent attack have been detained he said, adding: The investigation will get to the bottom of this.

Venezuelas government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Mr Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.

He has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

A couple walks away from the venue where the government said that a drone armed with explosives detonated near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (Fernando Llano/AP)

In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the run.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Mr Maduro, but rather the militarys entire high command on stage with the president.

Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Mr Saab, adding that he would give more details on Monday.

We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela, he said.

Firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the governments version of events.

Three local authorities said there had been a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near Mr Maduros speech where smoke could be seen streaming out of a window. They provided no further details on how they had reached that conclusion.

A Colombian official with the presidents office described Mr Maduros claims that Santos was involved in the attack as baseless.

Adding to the confusion, a little known group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target.

We showed that they are vulnerable, the group said in a tweet. It was not successful today, but it is just a matter of time.

David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said the incident did not appear to be a staged attack by Mr Maduros government for political gain.

The amateurish attack prompted embarrassing images of Maduro cut off mid-sentence with droves of soldiers running away in fear, making the president appear vulnerable, Mr Smilde said.

He will use it to concentrate power, he said. Whoever did this, hell use it to further restrict liberty and purge the government and armed forces.
There was no let-up to the soaring temperatures on Sunday, with the mercury expected to top 30C in parts of the UK.

Walking among sunflowers at Vine House Farm near Spalding, Lincolnshire (Joe Giddens/PA)

A busy Woolacombe Beach in North Devon (Ben Birchall/PA)

Sunbathers seek out a space on the beach (Ben Birchall/PA)

The perfect day for a dip in the sea (Ben Birchall/PA)

A paddleboarder heads away from the crowds (Ben Birchall/PA)

People enjoyed the sun at Carsington Water in Derbyshire (Danny Lawson/PA)

Fantastic weather for a family bike ride (Danny Lawson/PA)

And also good for some leisurely sailing (Danny Lawson/PA)

Or perhaps just a leisurely stroll (Danny Lawson/PA)

These guys took a laid back approach to kayaking (Joe Giddens/PA)
Opposition leaders in Venezuela have warned that the government might use an apparent assassination attempt against President Nicolas Maduro as an excuse to crack down on legitimate dissent.

Mr Maduro was delivering a televised speech on Saturday evening to hundreds of soldiers when he and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced after hearing the sound of an explosion.

Nearby residents said they saw a drone crash into a building and explode about two blocks away from where Mr Maduro was speaking.

This was an attempt to kill me, he said later in an impassioned retelling of the event. Today, they attempted to assassinate me.

Mr Maduro said the far right working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible. Some of the material authors of the apparent attack have been detained, he said.

The investigation will get to the bottom of this, no matter who falls, he said.

A Colombian official with the presidents office described Mr Maduros accusation that Mr Santos was involved as baseless.

Venezuelan forces occupy Bolivar Avenue where the government said that a drone armed with explosives detonated (Fernando Llano/AP)

The Broad Front opposition alliance accused the government of leaping to the assumption the explosions were an assassination attempt and of making irresponsible accusations without any proof.

We warn that this confused event could be used as an excuse to repress the constitutional rights of the people to continue protesting for the defence of their rights, the group said.

Venezuelas government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Mr Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote criticised by dozens of nations.

Mr Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

Some of the material authors of the apparent attack have been detained he said, adding: The investigation will get to the bottom of this.

Venezuelas government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Mr Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.

He has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

A couple walks away from the venue where the government said that a drone armed with explosives detonated near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (Fernando Llano/AP)

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the incident took place shortly after 5.30pm on Saturday as Mr Maduro was celebrating the National Guards 81st anniversary.

The visibly shaken head of state said he saw a flying device that exploded before his eyes. He thought it might be a pyrotechnics display in honour of the event.

Within seconds, Mr Maduro said he heard a second explosion and pandemonium broke out. Bodyguards escorted him from the event and TV footage showed uniformed soldiers in formation quickly scattering from the scene.

Witnesses confirmed seeing at least one drone that appeared to be linked to an explosion.

One showed a mobile phone video of a drone hovering over a residential street two blocks away and then crashing into a building.

Police arrested the drone pilot, the witness said. Crime scene investigators combed the building for evidence.

Another resident apparently saw the same drone. Mairum Gonzalez said she heard a thundering explosion and ran in terror to her fifth-floor balcony.

It was so strong the building shook, she said. I said Oh, my God, what happened? It terrified me.

US President Donald Trumps national security adviser John Bolton said that he can state unequivocally that there was no US government involvement in this at all.

At one point on Saturday, Mr Maduro asked Nr Trump to arrest the terrorists.

Apparently in response, Mr Bolton said, If the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of US criminal law, well take a serious look at it.

In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the run.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Mr Maduro but the militarys entire high command on stage with the president.

Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Mr Saab.

We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela, he said.
Labours difficulties over anti-Semitism deepened as deputy leader Tom Watson faced a campaign to oust him for speaking out over the partys handling of the row.

Thousands of Twitter users mounted a #ResignWatson campaign aimed at Mr Watson following his warning that Labour faced a vortex of eternal shame unless it got to grips with the issue.

Meanwhile, Jewish groups rebuffed Jeremy Corbyns latest attempt to draw a line under the row despite the Labour leader apologising for the hurt caused by the situation.

Jeremy Corbyn supporters have targeted Tom Watson in an online campaign (Danny Lawson/PA)

Mr Watson broke ranks with his leader by calling for an end to disciplinary action against Ian Austin and Dame Margaret Hodge  MPs who have criticised Mr Corbyn  and the adoption in full of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition and examples of anti-Semitism.

That provoked a furious and occasionally abusive online campaign aimed at Mr Watson but the senior MP received support from a number of parliamentary colleagues.

Mr Watson said: It sometimes feels like people have been calling for me to stand down from day one but I never, ever thought Id be facing demands to #resignwatson for standing up for people who are facing prejudice and hate.

It sometimes feels like people have been calling for me to stand down from day one but I never, ever thought Id be facing demands to #resignwatson for standing up for people who are facing prejudice and hate.  Tom Watson (@tom_watson) August 5, 2018

Former foreign secretary David Miliband was among those backing Mr Watson, saying he had recognised the gravity of Labours situation.

In a sideswipe at Mr Corbyn, the former MP said: Power reveals. In this case it has revealed myopia and sectarianism at the top, betraying Labours history and failing the needs of the country.

Imagine demanding the resignation of our Deputy Leader because hes called for meaningful action against racism. The absolute state of the #resignWatson cesspit and those who swim in it. https://t.co/1TWPL2ETgf  Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) August 5, 2018

Wes Streeting, a prominent critic of Mr Corbyn, said the situation was a cesspit, writing: Imagine demanding the resignation of our deputy leader because hes called for meaningful action against racism.

There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We must drive it out of our movement for good. pic.twitter.com/V1voY75yz4  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 5, 2018

Mr Corbyn had sought to defuse the row with a video message insisting he was working to drive anti-Semitism out of the party.

He said: I am sorry for the hurt that has been caused to many Jewish people. We have been too slow in processing disciplinary cases of, mostly, online anti-Semitic abuse by party members.

We are acting to speed this process up.

People who hold anti-Semitic views have no place in the Labour Party. They may be few  the number of cases over the past three years represents less than 0.1% of Labours membership of more than half-a-million  but one is too many.

Our party must never be a home for such people and never will be. People who use anti-Semitic poison need to understand: you do not do it in my name or the name of my party. You are not our supporters.

And anyone who denies that this has surfaced within our party is clearly actually wrong and contributing to the problem.

But his message failed to win over Jewish groups.

In a joint message, Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Jonathan Goldstein, the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, accused Mr Corbyn of failing to acknowledge his own problematic history.

Until Corbyn can honestly and fully own up to the problematic nature of some of his own past actions, he will struggle to lead the cultural change that is needed to clear the decks of a loud minority within Labour who behave in this way, they said.

In a New Statesman article they said the leaders office had asked whether it would be insensitive to release a statement on Friday afternoon, when Jews would be preparing to observe the Sabbath.

We said it would be an act of tremendous bad faith. He clearly ignored us.

Read our Chief Executive @KarenPollock100's comment on the latest in the Labour antisemitism row. pic.twitter.com/jvA6acXmRu  H.E.T. (@HolocaustUK) August 5, 2018

The Holocaust Educational Trusts chief executive, Karen Pollock, also highlighted Mr Corbyns past actions, including in 2010 presiding over an event comparing Israel to the Nazis, in 2011 supporting a change from Holocaust Memorial Day to genocide awareness day, and in 2012 chairing an event where a speaker referred to victims of the Holocaust as now being the torturers'.

She said: To do it once is a mistake, twice perhaps careless, but multiple times? Deliberate. It seems to me that Jeremy Corbyn is a serial offender.

Prominent Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour: We are looking for action  what is the leadership of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn actually going to do?

If you listen very closely to the words in the video and read the piece that was released on Friday evening there isnt anything different that the Labour Party, at the moment, is going to do to ameliorate what is a very, very, very serious situation.

She added: You only have to look online today to see the bile and the filth that is being said still in the Labour Partys and in Jeremy Corbyns name.
Stockpiling parts to mitigate the impact of a no-deal Brexit would cost Bombardiers Belfast business up to 30 million, the plane maker has warned.

Michael Ryan, the head of the firms Northern Ireland operation, warned that spending such a sum to store goods is not how we can afford to run a business and is cash that I dont have.

There are fears that the movement of goods could be disrupted by long queues at ports if the UK is unable to reach an agreement with the European Union over Brexit.

The company uses hundreds of components which are modified throughout its supply chain (Niall Carson/PA)

Mr Ryan said his Belfast plant operates a just in time supply policy to avoid the expense of stocking excess materials.

The company uses hundreds of components which are modified throughout its supply chain, crossing between the UK and the rest of the EU on multiple occasions.

There were 1,755 such shipments in 2016.

Asked about the implications of a no-deal Brexit, Mr Ryan told the Press Association: Our customers are expecting of us  the only solution to not having some sort of a deal will be to stockpile parts.

That will cost us about 25-30 million to hold a number of months worth of material to avoid stopping our lines.

Thats money that should be being put into new product development, R and D (research and development), to allow us to keep doing business in the future, instead of managing a consequence or an uncertainty or frankly a lack of agreement.

Its cash that I dont have.

Around 4,000 people are employed at Bombardiers Belfast operation.

The factory makes wings for the Airbus A220, which was known as the CSeries until Airbus took a majority stake in the aircraft programme amid concerns about the models feasibility.

Bombardier is in the middle of a five-year turnaround plan to improve its finances.

What we do not have is another 25-30 million to be sitting in a store somewhere either managing an issue which has happened or because we werent able to get clarity on what might happen, Mr Ryan said.

Thats not how we can afford to run a business.

Mr Ryan said the firm will begin arrangements to stockpile goods by the end of the year if it believes that will be necessary after Brexit in March next year.

He believes such a scenario would be a short-term issue, adding: I dont expect it to destroy our future going forward.
Investigators kept top brass in the dark for days about issues arising from the mysterious death of a Russian whistle-blower, confidential police documents reveal.

When news finally broke that multi-millionaire Alexander Perepilichnyy had died on British soil, Surrey Police set about stemming the tide with bland and simple statements.

But the case had already sparked interest in Westminster, including from Surrey MPs Philip Hammond, then-defence secretary, and Dominic Raab.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is said to have taken an interest in the `impact of Mr Perepilichnyys death in 2012 (PA)

Mr Perepilichnyy collapsed and died while out jogging near his home in Weybridge, Surrey, on November 10 2012.

At the time, he had been helping prominent Kremlin critic Bill Browders firm Hermitage Capital Management to uncover a 230 million US dollar (150 million) fraud, the Old Bailey has heard.

Coroner Nicholas Hilliard QC has been examining whether Mr Perepilichnyy died of natural causes or could have been poisoned.

Giving evidence last year, Detective Superintendent Ian Pollard insisted there had been no evidence of third party involvement.

But Mr Browder, who describes himself as Mr Putins number one enemy, criticised the investigation, citing a horrible lack of response to a letter in 2012 which highlighted the possible link to organised crime and urged police to investigate Mr Perepilichnyys death as a potential murder.

He said: When we learned about it, we got in touch with the police on 17 November with a letter from our law firmalerting them to the fact that he was a whistle-blower who had been co-operating with authorities and exposing Russian organised crime.

And we asked them to investigate his death as a potential murder and asked them to as quickly as possible secure the evidence and look for toxicology tests, based on the murder by poison of Alexander Litvinenko. The police didnt respond.

Following a request from media and Hermitage, Mr Hilliard released two pages of minutes from a meeting on the investigation on December 10 2012.

The Operational Daphne Gold Group meeting was chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney.

Olivia Pinkney being decorated with the Queens Police Medal on May 20 2016 (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Ms Pinkney told the gathering there were three missed opportunities to alert senior management to concerns surrounding Mr Perepilichnyys death.

Under the heading organisational learning, she noted: There are three areas where it appears the opportunity was missed to raise this death as a concern/issue to Senior Management within Surrey Police.

She cited the letter of November 17, referral to Special Branch and a phone inquiry from The Independent, which broke the story on November 27 2012.

The article led several newspapers, Sky and the BBC to follow up on the story, the minutes stated.

Journalists had asked when the result of toxicology tests would be complete and if South East Counter Terrorism were involved.

On the response to media inquiries, Mr Pollard advised on the need to keep it bland and simple and continue to use the line that this is an ongoing investigation hence we cannot say much.

Ms Pinkney said the senior investigating officer should work with the press officer on the lines and make it a non issue.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond was kept in the loop as local Surrey MP (PA)

She told the meeting that she had offered to update Weybridge MP Mr Hammond by email, telling him it was still unexplained and under investigation.

On the subject of national and political context, she said that ambient interest remains but Home Office official Richard Riley was helping to keep a sense of perspective within central Government.

Asked if there was any international interest, Nicola Burress, of Corporate Communications, said there was speculation regarding names on the Magnitsky list.

The list is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who represented Mr Browders company and died after being detained while investigating alleged fraud involving powerful Russians.

According to the partial minutes, Mr Pollard had said Esher and Walton MP Mr Raab is coming at this from the angle of impact of Russian (sic).

On the need to keep the meeting under wraps, Ms Pinkney instructed: Gold Group minutes to be confidential and not emailed unless a non confidential version can also be produced.

Mr Hilliard is expected to hear closing submissions from the interested parties in the inquest at a hearing in September.
Iranaimadhu Airfield in the Kilinochchi District would be developed into a Domestic Airport as a part of the plan drawn by the Government to develop all areas from Point Pedro to Dondra, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said during the weekend.

He said this at the opening of several buildings belonging to the Faculties of the Jaffna University in Kilinochchi on Saturday.

Developing the Iranaimadhu Domestic Airport and the Kankesanthurai Port is among the main focus of the Government when it comes to the development of the North, the Prime Minister said.

He said an industrial zone would also be set up in Kankesanthurai and lands would be allocated for it soon.

He said plans were afoot to construct the Mannar-Vavuniya-Trincomalee Road.

The Prime Minister reiterated that coconut would be planted in the North and in the East as many trees would have to be felled in Gampaha and Kurunegala Districts.

The Government will also look at the industrial development in the North, he added.

Premier Wickremesinghe said the Government would also look at developing the Education Sector in the North.

There is a University in Jaffna which is of high standards before the conflict. We hope to bring this high standard back, he said.

Minister of Higher Education Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said his Ministry was also making a special focus to develop higher education in the North, just like the other areas.

He said the Government will also focus on providing hostel facilities to the University of Jaffna. (Yohan Perera and Sithum Chathuranga)
The Rs. 43 mn rehabilitation of the Ran Viyana of the Sri Dalada Maligawa or the canopy over the Sacred Tooth Relic is now nearing completion to be opened before the Kandy Esala Maha Perahera.

The work is handled by the State Engineering Corporation.

The work was entrusted on a contract signed between the District Secretary H.M.P. Hitisekera and the State Engineering Corporation.

Even in the midst of heavy rain, work was continued to meet the deadlines, especially before Kandy Esala Perahera. Further the workers have to stop work on the Viyana during the periods of service as the Ranvana is right in line with the Golden Karanduwa, where rests the Sacred Tooth Relic.

The Renovation is the result of a massive donation by the President Maithripala Sirisena at the request of the Mahanayakes of Asgiri, Malwatte and also Diyawadana Nilame as the lay custodians.

"Renovation is the result of a massive donation by the President Maithripala Sirisena"



The Gold Canopy or the Ran Viyana was the grant of President Ranasinghe Premadasa, where a controversy arose as it is built over the oldest wattle and daub building known Vadihististanaya or the place where resides the Sacred Tooth Relic, but the Diyawadana Nilame Neranjan Wijeyratne and the Mahanayakes saw nothing wrong in building a canopy over the oldest building of the Maligawa Complex, When the work commended then they pointed out that it would be rather grant protection for the old building and would also ward off the moneys who gather over this old building., disturbing the tiles.

"The Rs. 43 mn rehabilitation of the Ran Viyana of the Sri Dalada Maligawa is now nearing completion"



However, it was again the State Engineering Corporation who undertook this massive undertaking, taking care not to disturb the foundations of either the new building or the old building which stands today. In the recent period the present Diyawadana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela had it renovated with gold strips. But, it needed a repair and the custodians had to call on

the President for this purpose.

President Maithripala Sirisena magnanimously gave an outright donation for this purpose and now the work is been carried out.
A surging wall of water caught the island nation of Sri Lanka unaware on December 26, 2004. Even though the giant mass of water eventually receded, it left a trail of tragedy and devastation. One thing was certain: Sri Lanka needed better preparation for natural disasters. In the following year, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) was established. Its officials have since witnessed many calamities and disasters to overwhelm this island. The Daily Mirror in conversation with the DMCs Deputy Director for Early Warning Pradeep Kodippili, discussed shortcomings, challenges, capabilities and potential in terms of disaster management and risk reduction in Sri Lanka.

Excerpts :

Pix by Samantha Perera

PROFILE

Pradeep Kodippili was educated at Kalutara Vidyalaya and the University of Ruhuna where he obtained his BSc special degree in Agriculture. He was employed overseas for seven years in the field of agriculture. Upon returning to Sri Lanka in 2007 he joined the Disaster Management Centre. Kodippili went on to study for his masters degree in Disaster Management in which he obtained a special merit first class degree from the University of Colombo. He has been involved with the disaster management sector for 11 years.



Can you explain the history and functions of the DMC?

The Tsunami was the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka and we were ignorant of such a possibility. As a result, we lost 35,000 lives. The Tsunami reached Ampara at 8.30 am and reached Hambantota by 9.15 am. We had a 45-minute window to warn the public and get them to higher ground. The people in Hambantota had no idea of what was happening. These were the circumstances which prompted the establishment of the Disaster Management Centre (DMC).

At its inception, facilities for the DMC were minimal. There was no properly developed early warning system. There were only three early warning towers and telephones for communication in all the 25 Districts. In spite of the limited facilities, we carried out our operations, even during the war, in areas such as Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu. The DMC gradually developed, especially with the establishment of the Early Warning System (EWS) in 2004. Today we have 77 early warning towers around the island under this system.

"The perception of the people plays a significant role. There is no point in receiving the warning if you dont react appropriately"



How does the emergency response system operate?

DMCs prime responsibility is to save the lives of the people. Once we receive the technical data, our responsibility is to disseminate this information to the ground level from the top and to save the public.

The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) coordinates all response agencies during a disaster to minimise the adverse effects of disasters and is manned by at least 20 persons every hour. There are three units comprising the tri-forces and one police unit in addition to civilians. It is a 24 hour and 365-day operation which is connected to other international organisations and agencies which issue disaster warnings. The Meteorological Department, the Irrigation Department, the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO), the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), the Geological Survey & Mines Bureau (GSMB) are also linked with the DMC throughout the day.

We also have the emergency response committee which is a body involved in every emergency operation in the country. We meet with these stakeholders every three months, especially before the monsoon seasons to discuss future plans and operations. NGOs and INGOs too collaborate with us.

The greatest strength for disaster management in Sri Lanka is the National Council. It is represented by the President as the Chairman, The Premier as the Vice Chairman; there are almost 20 stakeholder ministries, 9 Chief Ministers and the Disaster Ministry Secretary. This coalition makes it easier to arrive at decisions and conclusions.



Doesnt its involvement complicate matters relating to disaster management?

The national council is represented by the opposition leader and opposition MPs. Rather than a political entity, the national council is a body established to ensure security and safety of the public. I have observed that every possible factor to develop the disaster management process is deliberated here, without which I believe the disaster management sector would not have developed over these past 12 years since 2005.

"I myself am a victim of the 2004 Tsunami and spent almost three months in a hospital undergoing treatment."



Are there any shortcomings you have observed in issuing disaster warnings?

There are major shortcomings I have observed on part of the public, for instance when they dont heed evacuation warnings. The EWS by design can be activated at any given time but it is important that we receive the technical data at the proper time as well. For instance, if there is an imminent storm, the technical data should be made available by the Met

department accordingly.



Does the DMC receive such data on time?

There have been many developments over the years. But I believe that there should be more. For instance, if there is a threat of a landslide, the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) would alert the area of a possible landslide. But they are still in the process of developing their capabilities to identify the exact location of the imminent landslide. The focus should be on the all-important window before the impact of a natural or manmade disaster, where response teams can engage to effectively minimise damage to lives and property.

Disaster management, early warning and emergency operations are processes which should be developed over time. However, I expect more support from the ground level. In other words, the support we receive from the villages should improve in order to strengthen the national level operations. For example, if we alert a certain village of a forthcoming disaster and if the message is not carried out to the villagers in time, our efforts serve no purpose. Therefore the channels of information should be developed.

"People usually dont rely on a single early warning system. When an early warning is received through several channels, people are likely to attribute more credibility to the threat"



The DMC has created a self-evaluation method in the case of landslides, while there is also a method of spreading awareness and information through the Police and the tri-forces. The 77 warning towers for storms and tsunami alerts operate in all three languages. VHF/HF communication networks are linked over the 25 districts. A system of information dissemination within the district has also been created. Even though these systems are in place, I believe that they need continuous improvement.



What are the weaknesses you observe on the ground level?

During the 2016 and 2017 floods, we received data from the Irrigation Department as well as the ground level network. Accordingly, we issued evacuation warnings. In the case of the 2017 floods, we had issued the evacuation warning before 8 pm. There was sufficient time for evacuation as heavy rains lashed out only in the early hours of the following morning between 3 and 4 am.

Many residents told us that they evacuated as soon as they heard the Police warnings. Almost 78,000 people saved their lives. However, about 14,000 people were trapped. They felt that they were unable to leave their homes and properties. Some sought refuge in upper storeys of various buildings despite calls for evacuation.

Therefore the perception of the people plays a significant role. There is no point in receiving the warning if you dont react appropriately.

In response to these shortcomings, we have identified the most vulnerable areas and trained residents on how to face similar disaster situations. Evacuation routes and points have also been demarcated and shared with them. If this knowledge we have provided them with is not used at the appropriate time, our functions and purpose here are futile.



What other shortcomings have you observed?

In other countries, we have observed that disaster situations are imprinted in both memory and history. The experiences of one generation are passed on to the next. However, in Sri Lanka, the next generation may not have a clue of what a Tsunami is. We conduct awareness and training sessions all over the island and have noticed that the participation of youth is inadequate. In contrast, awareness projects carried out in schools have been very successful; children are keen to learn about this subject. However, the youth beyond the school age group is very reluctant to participate in any disaster management related activity. The over 30 age group up to 50 years of age are the most likely to participate in disaster management related exercises. As this age group is frequently occupied, there is no transfer or sharing of knowledge. This is a persistent issue.

I myself am a victim of the 2004 Tsunami and spent almost three months in a hospital undergoing treatment. Even today, I share my experiences and knowledge, not only with my children and family but those around me as well. Likewise, the knowledge transfer mechanism needs to evolve further in Sri Lanka.

Youth reluctant to participate in disaster management efforts Need a system to alert residents in areas prone to inundation Need to effectively enforce existing laws to make climate change adaptation a success



Which areas have the DMC focused on improving?

We have given more priority during this time for training exercises. Samurdhi officers, Grama Niladhari officers and social workers are being trained at present in a district level. Our objective is to mould them as Trainer of Trainers in villages where they can assemble residents and work with each villager. This has been completed in 16 districts thus far.

The Apadawata Pera Sudanama (Preparation before the disaster) disaster prevention programme was launched recently by Minister Duminda Dissanayake. It involves the accumulation of data in every district. This collection aims to mitigate future disasters through adequate preparation.

In Malwatu Oya, a 12 km stretch that has been blocked, is being cleared before the approaching monsoons in order to prevent inundation, which has hampered lives of many residents in this area. This will ensure that when the spill gates of the Rajangana Reservoir are opened, the residents will be protected if the water passes through without any blockades.



How would you evaluate Sri Lankas disaster risk reduction capabilities?

Disaster Risk Reduction is a very costly exercise. But prevention of disasters saves us a much heavier cost of lives, property, public funds and ultimately the funds used for compensation of victims. The overall objective of drills and awareness programmes is to acclimatize civilians to disaster management processes. Annually almost 300 drills are conducted. During a national drill, all 77 towers were activated at once and more than 20,000 people were evacuated in one day. We have also participated in an international drill with 28 countries in 2016 November. Some lessons on disaster management have also been included in the syllabuses for school children.



How strong is the DMC in terms of technology?

Disaster warnings must first be issued from the designated technological authorities and departments which overlook specific areas. Once we receive their information, our units are activated and we initiate the process of issuing warnings.

Every early warning tower is equipped with self- solar power generators. We rely on VHF and satellite technology. Satellite technology is however expensive, but human lives are more precious, therefore we utilise this technology. When disasters strike, mobile networks are not reliable. Even though our connections have been prioritised I dont trust that mobile phones are a good medium to communicate in instances of disasters. Therefore we rely on the VHF/HF technology. Our transmission stations in Pidurutalagala, Gonagala, Laggala, Kokkavil and two way communication systems in our mobile units ensure that messages are carried out through our frequencies whenever needed. The SMS and Cell Broadcast messaging systems are utilised to alert the key communicators including media. There is also the mobile application called DEWN: Disaster Early Warning Network. The app is designed to alert the public to any disaster and is free to download.

Disaster-related experiences should be shared in order to transfer knowledge In other countries, we have observed that disaster situations are imprinted in both memory and history Data being collected from every area to facilitate disaster risk reduction



What improvements do you propose?

DMC, NBRO, Irrigation Department, the National Disaster Relief Services Centre and the Met Department are all concerned with disaster management. It is important that these entities function under one ministry. I would, however, propose that more disaster management related organisation such as the GSMB and NARA function under one authority or parent body.

We have provided all districts in the coastal belt with warning towers. Similarly, if there was a system to warn residents along the rivers, especially to warn the settlements prone to inundation, it would be a great service. Discussions are underway to establish such a system, together with the Moratuwa.

People usually dont rely on a single early warning system. When an early warning is received through several channels, people are likely to attribute more credibility to the threat. Therefore it is imperative that we have not just one or two alternatives but 7 or 8 alternate warning systems in place, especially in disaster-prone areas.



How do you view Sri Lankas progress in terms of climate change adaption?

Climate change undoubtedly affects every part of the world. Intensified rains and heavy winds occur more frequently. Human practices are a major contributor to climate change, be it carbon dioxide emissions or deforestation. It is my belief that climate change is worsened by the actions of the Sri Lankan public. Regulations to curb negative effects, therefore, must be in place. For instance, the settlements in river banks have caused major devastation. Deforestation is another severe issue. Forest fires caused by humans are reported too frequently every year. Climate change is a major problem for islands of the world. Sri Lanka needs to effectively enforce the existing laws and regulations in order to make climate change adaptation a success.
The registration of SAITM students at the KDU would start today amidst strict regulations that those who failed to pay the course-fee by Monday would not be enrolled for the MBBS degree.

The new condition had shattered the dreams of top three students, with the top A/L results to join the University over financial constraints.

It was learned that at least three, including two female students, who have the highest A/L results among the SAITM students, had to give up their enrollment at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) due to financial difficulties.

Among the top results, there are students with 2As and 1 B, 2As and 1C, 1A and 2Bs and learned that most of the scholarship holders are having a Z-Score over 1.7.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, parents of the scholarship holders said the with the Government decided to cancel the scholarships their children had faced a severe inconvenience.

There is no way that we can find Rs. 1.3 million per annum as course fee. We have written to President Maithripala Sirisena to provide us with a relief, a parent said.

Our children received scholarships as they have good A/L results. Their time has been wasted and we are helpless as parents, the parent told the Daily Mirror.

The parents said their children were going through a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety because of the new condition.

They said that their children accepted the scholarship at SAITM solely because of their interest in studying medicine and there was no political intervention behind the scholarships.

According to the parents, the majority of scholarship holders were with high A/L results and their parents were low-income receivers.

They said that the authorities had neglected them stating the scholarships were based on political intervention and refused to grant any relief.

We assured that the students with top results would have no political connections and were granted the scholarship based on their talent. Our children have to suffer because of the tug-o-war between the two Governments, a parent said.

They said that the SAITM degree was advertised as the University Grants Commission (UGC) approved one, and as such, the Government was responsible for their childrens education.

We beg President and relevant Ministers to not to play with our childrens lives. If the SAITM degree was affordable to us then our children wouldnt be selected for the scholarship scheme. Without checking our financial background, it was inhumane to just reject our children at KDU, they stressed.

The Students Action Committee of SAITM in a letter had informed the injustice faced by the scholarship holders and said it would stage protests outside the Presidential Secretariat this week.

We will even resort to fast unto death if our children were rejected today, a disturbed parent said. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
One of the most profound strategies that have been adopted by social conscious corporations is the triple bottom line a.k.a TBL accounting framework that covers the social (people), environmental (planet) and economic (profit) Some also call it the PPP framework. This article is written from a perspective beyond the accounting standard. In fact, it discusses very little of the accounting standards of the TBL process. The article and its arguments are based on social awareness that the business world can and must engage to deliver the commitments to make the planet a better place for all its peoples, societies and communities.



What does this mean to the global business fraternity? Lets look at the 3 Ps and address them individually to get a better understanding of the triple bottom-line process from a socially conscious perspective. When organizations believe and want to practise the 3Ps, they have some fundamental obligations ahead of them. primarily, what is expected of the triple bottom-line process is for organizations to be transparent, accountable, responsible and to be respectful in their businesses and in their actions.



Social equity

This is the principle in the TBL process that belongs to the multiple stakeholders or People that the business deals with directly and indirectly. As businesses deal with many people, its focus must be on its employees who drive the business forward, its customers who make sure profits are accrued to the business and its suppliers and the supply chain that makes the products and services of the business. This tripartite structure in most businesses forms the first P, that People are of its primary importance in the triple bottom-line process. I use the word stakeholders as opposed to the old paradigm thought that shareholders come first in the growth and journey of a business enterprise. Shareholders are confined to those who share profits of the organization in many ways such as dividends. The social equity of stakeholders takes a more holistic view of the engagement of people beyond shareholders and shareholder value in the enterprise.

"The most affected sectors by way of livelihood in many nations including Sri Lanka are the agriculture and fishery industries"



The holistic and inclusive nature in engaging with people in an equitable way is to look at the human capital of the enterprise with utmost respect and responsibility. In the TBL process companies or enterprises dont want to jeopardize their businesses with the wrong business motives such as its supply chain employing under-aged persons or child labour or using modern slavery and exploitative methods to get work done. Many years ago, the Sri Lanka apparel industry launched a campaign titled Garments without Guilt. There have been similar campaigns elsewhere.



There are other aspects of the TBL in that its People pillar requires a brief explanation. One such thing is fair trading. Enterprises whose supply chain has a direct, indirect or outsourced supply, materials and even personnel, the enterprise has an obligation to ensure that its trading policies are very fair to the entire supply chain in both the input and output of its products and services. Enterprises that are conscious of this factor will go to the extent of creating ethical trading policies to its wider business constituencies.



Nature equity

Our lives and businesses are all aligned to nature or the planet we serve and live in. It is commonsense that if we dont protect the planet or the environment, we will only continue the destruction at the cost of unplanned development and greed for profit.

Already, there is colossal waste that is washed away and absorbed in to the environment and the planet is in very serious peril. If, products we manufacture contaminate the water and the air we breathe, we are not doing justice to the planet and to lives. We must realise that it is not only the unwillingness of political rulers and ill-conceived environmental policies that are responsible for the destructions of the planet. Large corporations are equally to take responsibility.



Almost all countries face some form of climate related destruction. In Sri Lanka we are faced with floods, drought, sea erosion, and landslides. These destructions recur every year at greater intensity. Every year there is loss of life. The most affected sectors by way of livelihood is the agriculture and fisheries sectors.

"TBL does not engage employing under-aged persons, child labour or modern slavery to get their work done"



In dealing with the TBL process, the Planet is the second important pillar that enterprises must maintain an acceptable ecological footprint or the carbon footprint in their businesses and fulfil their eco capital in the TBL process. In fact, the time is now for entities to commit to a carbon footprint and practise it with diligence and improve on it every year. We must be mindful that enterprises that harm the ecosystem for profit are also harming the very lives of people who are their consumers. It is an extremely short-lived strategy.



The new global community is very active and mindful and have formed groups and communication channels and blogs through digital social media space in spreading the good news and the bad news alike. This has led to instant 24x7 activism in the global media in a rapidly evolving inter and intra connected world. Companies and their brands can be exposed to a large global constituency in an instant. Global brands, companies and enterprises must be mindful of this.



Economic equity

All businesses and enterprises for their continuation in the geographies they function will rely on profits for their sustenance and growth. In the traditional sense profits were linked to shareholder value and dividends. The planet or the environment was of secondary importance. Organizations have had ethical standards mostly in accounting practices and to some extent in their manufacturing policies. These practices and policies have changed as markets have expanded, consumers have evolved to embrace brands, product and service categories differently, the media landscape has changed dramatically, and competition has reached a new level. In this backdrop enterprises have either fine-tuned their industry policies and strategies to meet the new wave or are continuing to rely on the old paradigm. Either way, we have witnessed destruction of humanity and the destruction of standards for the sake of profits.



The good news is that there is a global community emerging that is not only watching but acting against those who are responsible for the many forms of destruction in global business. There is a global community of activists that are telling corporate and businesses where they go wrong. The global community has formed strong lobby groups to bring new change to the world with intentions of making it a better place for humanity.

"Enterprises that harm the ecosystem for profit are also harming the very lives of people who are their consumers"



Consumer forces are beginning to realise and question brands and services beyond the customer service and brand experience. They want to know the DNA of the brand. More customers are willing to drop brands if their makeup is questionable and have violated certain fundamental principles and that have affected the social and natural equities or people and the planet.



We hear stories coming out of the cotton industry, the Palmolive industry, the cocoa industry, the mining industry, apparel industry, the petroleum industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the processed food industry, agro-chemical industry, bottled water industry, food industry etc where ethical practices are violated either through the supply chain or the product not living up to universal standards or the people working for these industries directly or indirectly being not given decent working rights and living wages. Stakeholders that include customers are demanding that corporate and business entities embrace transparency and accountability in their business offerings to the world.



Concluding thoughts

The time is now for organizations to visit or revisit their corporate vision, mission, goals and objectives and the strategic plans on the lines of the TBL process with a lens on social awareness and what it means to people, the planet and profits.

It must not use the social capital framework as a disguise to cover the ills of the corporate entity concerned. Sometimes we see corporate social responsibility programs designed to cover up the ills of the corporate entity. These bogus strategies can be smelled from a mile away.



It means being responsible and accountable for your business to be run on ethical grounds including complying with tax regimes. It means that believing that profit at any cost is not and should not be the only thing. It means that people who come together to make and nurture a business throughout the entire supply chain are part of the company landscape that must be recognised beyond wages alone.

Companies must remove themselves from the belief that employment especially to the lower ranks is a favour to such cadre. Supporting their workers to reach their economic fundamentals is one thing. It must not be done at the cost of not recognizing and respecting the social fundamentals of the worker.



My parting comment is that every business deals with people. We have choices. Either we choose to profit at any cost or choose to take a more humane approach to the business. Profits must remain a goal in any entity. It is how one approaches to make profits is what matters. The humane approach of understanding people is without a doubt a smart way to address business.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he has survived an assassination attempt involving explosive drones.

Mr Maduro was speaking at an military event in Caracas when the alleged attack occurred.

Live footage of Mr Maduro's speech shows the president suddenly looking upwards - startled - and dozens of soldiers running away.

Mr Maduro has blamed Colombia for the attack - something denied by Bogota as a "baseless" accusation.

Seven soldiers were injured, and several people were later arrested, the Venezuelan authorities said.

Two drones loaded with explosives went off near the president's stand, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said.

Mr Maduro later said in a national address: "A flying object exploded near me, a big explosion. Seconds later there was a second explosion."

Photos on social media showed bodyguards protecting Mr Maduro with bulletproof shields after the alleged attack.

Mr Maduro accused neighbouring Colombia and elements within the US of instigating "a right-wing plot" to kill him.

He added that he had "no doubt" Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was "behind this attack".

The Venezuelan leader, who has previously accused the US of plotting against him, provided no evidence to back his claim.

The Colombian government has denied any involvement, saying there is "no basis" to Mr Maduro's allegations.

Meanwhile, Mr Rodriguez accused Venezuela's right-wing opposition of carrying out the attack.

"After losing the vote, they failed again," Mr Rodriguez said.

He was referring to May's presidential elections, where Mr Maduro was re-elected for another six-year term.(BBC)
Doctors caring for three-time Formula 1 world champion and Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda have said that they are satisfied with his condition.

The 69-year-old had been absent from recent Grand Prix events, which was most unusual for him. It had been put down to a 'severe summer 'flu'.

However it was revealed that Lauda had undergone a lung transplant on Thursday at the AKH hospital in Vienna after falling ill while on holiday on Ibiza. After being flown back on his private jet, Lauda was subsequently diagnosed with serious lung disease.

The hospital's Doctor Walter Klepetko told Austrian broadcaster ORF that Lauda's recover was going according to plan after the major surgery.

Everything is currently going very well and we are very satisfied, confirmed the hospitals head of thoracic surgery.

Considering the not very easy circumstances we are very, very happy with the developments."

The hospital performs around 120 lung transplants a year, and the usual recovery time is between two and three weeks. However, Klepetko said that it was likely to be "a longer time" in Lauda's case due to his age.

The surgeon confirmed that Lauda's medical history was unlikely to have been a factor in Lauda's illness.

The Austrian had been involved in a huge accident at the Nurburgring in 1976 which saw him suffer lung damage from inhaling toxic burning gases as well as significant external scarring to his head and neck.

One can absolutely assume that lung transplantation is not a late consequence of the fire accident, Klepetko insisted.

Lauda underwent his latest procedure 42 years to the day after his surgery for that crash. On that occasion his recovery defied expectations and he raced at Monza just six weeks later, so let's hope for a similar sensationally and speedy recovery this time.

The news of Lauda's surgery had broken just as teams went on their mandatory two-week summer shutdown. It naturally left a cloud over the forthcoming holiday at Brixworth.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff used social media to send his best wishes to the team's iconic chairman.

"Although we should enjoy the start of our summer holidays this evening, none of us at Mercedes will pretend that we feel happy," Wolff wrote on the team's official Twitter page.

"Our thoughts are rather with Niki, Birgit and the Lauda family.

"The world knows Niki as an F1 legend with incredible power and resilience," he continued. "For all of us at Mercedes he is our chairman, our mentor and our friend.

"We have missed him by our side in Hockenheim and Hungary, and cant wait to have him back with us.

The recovery he faces is not a race, but Im sure he will soon be telling every nurse and doctor that he has had enough of hospital.

"We wish him a safe and speedy recovery  in that order  and send all our positive energy to him and his family.

"I miss you my friend," he added.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
The Faribault County Sheriffs Office continues to investigate a case of a woman from Texas reporting being assaulted near the eastbound rest area on I-90 near Blue Earth.

The report came in at 4:12 p.m. on Friday, July 27. As of Thursday, Aug. 2, there were no new developments or arrests made in the case.

The 43-year-old woman from Corpus Christi, Texas, stated she had been walking on the trail south of the rest stop (towards the city of Blue Earth) when she encountered an unknown male who attempted to grab her, according to a report last Monday from the Faribault County Sheriffs Office.

The woman was able to fight off the male and return to the rest area and call 911, according to the information. Deputies from the sheriffs department were manning their booth at the Faribault County Fair and were able to quickly respond to the call, but were not able to locate the suspect. The male was described as 5-feet-11 or 6-feet tall with a muscular build. He had numerous tattoos with one being a scorpion on his right forearm.

The area was searched by the K-9 unit and from the air by the Minnesota State Patrol helicopter.

Sheriff Mike Gormley reported that evidence at the scene, including DNA was collected and is being evaluated as the Faribault County Sheriffs Office continues investigating the incident. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the sheriffs office.

The Faribault County Sheriffs Office was assisted by the Blue Earth, Fairmont and Winnebago police departments and the Minnesota State Patrol.
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Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis wont be attending Aug. 14s book signing at the Diesel bookstore in Los Angeles.

What Is Real: The Life and Crimes of Darnell Riley is the story of the man who broke into Francis home in 2004, filmed a humiliating blackmail video and arranged for payment so that the video didnt go viral.

Riley, who says his real name is Riley Perez, was arrested the following year after Paris Hilton discovered he was responsible. He pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted extortion, and in exchange charges for burglary, kidnapping for ransom and carjacking were dropped. He served nine years in California prisons, partly with Charles Manson.

The motive wasnt money, said Riley, who claims he worked for bookmakers under legendary Genovese crime boss Matty The Horse Ianniello, who died in 2012.

I was asked to rough him up, Riley told me. I worked with guys, if they told you to do something, you dont ask questions.

Riley says he has no beef with Francis, who has been living in Mexico with Abbey Wilson and their twin 3-year-old daughters.

He was the victim. I was the perpetrator, Riley said. Theres no vendetta. The book is not about exacting revenge.

Francis had no comment, but a friend wondered, What about the Son of Sam law? Why is this violent [man] allowed to profit from his crimes?

This article originally appeared in Page Six.
This job listing might provide sweet relief to Nutella fans.

The spread is manufactured by Ferrero  which is hiring 60 sensory judges to try food items in a part-time capacity at its main offices in Alba, Italy, The Local reported last month.

The job listing, posted in Italian, says that Ferreros research company Soremartec Italia Srl is looking for people interested in learning how to taste cocoa, hazelnut and other semi-finished sweet products.

MILLERCOORS HELPS CELEBRATE LOYAL FANS 100TH BIRTHDAY

The recruits would undergo a three-month training program that would include developing their taste and smell senses, before just 40 people are placed in two tasting panels, The Local explains.

Those interested dont need any prior experience, with the Italian company seeking regular consumers, according to the news outlet.

Other requirements reportedly include knowing how to operate a computer and not being allergic to anything.

The job wouldnt take up much of the work week, either.

Travel + Leisure explains that the selected candidates would be hired to work on a long-term basis for two days every week for two hours when the training program wraps up.
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The media didnt even need Hillary Clinton this past week to denounce President Trump and his supporters as deplorables once more.

Trump supporters were depicted as deranged and being fed venom by the president on an almost daily basis.

Washington Post columnist and former Republican Jennifer Rubin said the president is a desperate man, completely out of control and completely unhinged.

The latest episode escalated when President Trump spoke to supporters at a rally in Tampa, Fla. CNNs Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta, a constant Trump critic, was heckled by the crowd. Boos and chants of CNN sucks reverberated across the Internet.

Acosta even claimed he felt like we werent in America anymore. Apparently, CNNs America only has free press, not free speech.

Journalists couldnt decide who they were angrier at  President Trump or his supporters  so they went after both, with Acosta as their standard-bearer.

The ever-aggrieved CNN correspondent then took his complaints to the White House press room. There he hectored press secretary Sarah Sanders about President Trumps view that many in the media are the enemy of the people.

Acosta noted how Sanders didnt respond to a previous question the way he wanted. He whined that she did not say that the press is not the enemy of the people. This extended the life of the story and ensured Acosta was in the center ring for the circus that followed.

Is Acosta auditioning for his own CNN opinion show?

Fair to say that Acosta didnt like Sanders response. Sanders listed numerous problems with the media and how they have raised the level of vitriol in the U.S. She added that, as far as I know, I am the first press secretary in the history of the United States thats required Secret Service protection.

The Times might consider changing its motto from "All the news that's fit to print" to Do as we say, not as we do.

None of that mattered. Media reaction to being booed devolved into journalists defending journalists.

Politico writer Marc Caputo mocked the crowd at the presidents rally as having a full set of teeth only if you put them all together. He also called them garbage people before he had to apologize.

Meet The Press and MSNBC host Chuck Todd went off the deep end, comparing the crowd booing CNN to the deadly white supremacist attack in Charlottesville, Va.

And this kind of unfocused visceral anger at the other side of really neutral people like folks in the press corps, it can lead to this, he warned, before showing video of the attack that killed Heather Heyer in Chartlottesville.

Really neutral.

CNN political analyst April Ryan went so far as to claim that Jim Acosta's life, in my opinion, was in jeopardy that night. Even though Acosta was also asked for autographs at the event.

Meanwhile, The View panelist Sunny Hostin described President Trump as a dictator. Dictators attack the press routinely and were seeing it in this country, she said.

NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell even went on Comedy Central and compared President Trump to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin for talking about the press as enemy of the people. You know, this is something that we first heard from Josef Stalin, she said.

2. A Blatant Double Standard on Racism: The New York Times turned a blind eye to anti-white racism when it named tech writer Sarah Jeong, who was born in South Korea, to its editorial board. Controversy followed immediately when the Asian-American writers old tweets surfaced. Like a good liberal, she had blasted out numerous tweets attacking white people. Many of them had curse words in them directed at whites.

Jeong called to #CancelWhitePeople, asked if they are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins and referred to them as Dumb--- f------- white people.

In one tweet she commented: White people have stopped breeding. youll all go extinct soon. that was my plan all along.

Naturally, the Times stood by her, arguing that: For a period of time she responded to that harassment (she said she was receiving online) by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers.

Jeong referred to it as counter-trolling. Among the many other targets for her hate, she also attacked men, police (a--holes we should talk about banning) and people at the Times.

Andrew Sullivan skewered both Jeong and the Times, writing for New York magazine : Another indicator that these statements might be racist comes from replacing the word white with any other racial group. #cancelblackpeople probably wouldnt fly at the New York Times, would it? he asked.

Sullivan is right. The Times is obsessed with diversity. Building a diverse and inclusive workplace is essential to that mission, it claims on its official diversity page. According to Nexis, the newspaper used the word diversity 840 times this year in the first seven months. Only The Times isnt diverse, a point the paper is desperate to hide.

Fast Company wrote in March: The diversity of the New York Times leadership hasnt budged in years. In a nation where white people make up 60.7 percent of the population, they make up 72 percent of Times staff and 80 percent of its management.

The Times might consider changing its motto from "All the news that's fit to print" to Do as we say, not as we do.

3. That Free Speech Thing: The end of the week delivered a silly, pearl-clutching moment as professional journalists got upset over hats and T-shirts.

Journalisms Poynter Institute reported that : The Newseum is selling MAGA hats and 'fake news' T-shirts. The press reacted like someone had violated hallowed ground, similar to how history buffs reacted to plans that Disney wanted to build a theme park near a Civil War battlefield.

Except this was about hats and T-shirts.

Journalists from outlets like PBS, CNN and The Washington Post did their best version of a Twitter outrage mob.

Boston Globe Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Matt Viser complained: This t-shirt doesnt belong anywhere. It particularly doesnt belong at the @Newseum, a place that celebrates journalism and has the First Amendment etched in stone outside its building.

Vice News Editor-in-Chief Ryan McCarthy snarked : Looking forward to the Newseum's Enemy of the people onesie.

Washington Post journalist Karen Tumulty said: Next up: Air and Space museum selling coffee mugs that say the moon landing was a hoax.

And Washington Post Deputy Audience Editor Mark W. Smith responded like he was scolding a dog: This is bad, Newseum. Then he tried to sell followers some of the papers Democracy Dies in Darkness T-shirts. Because this is 2018.

CNN did extract a statement to toss to the mob from an unlucky Newseum spokesperson Friday: Fake news is a word that is in our popular culture now and this is intended to be a satirical rebuke and appears in our store with T-shirts that include a variety of other tounge-in-cheek (sic) sayings.

Of course the mob won soon after that. The cries of whiny journalists succeeded in banning speech that journalists didnt like from the Newseum. (Irony alert!)

Heres the official statement from the Newseum (note the obvious anti-Trump dig at the end.): The Newseum has removed the You Are Very Fake News t-shirts from the gift shop and online. We made a mistake and we apologize. A free press is an essential part of our democracy and journalists are not the enemy of the people.
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If you have been feeling unhappy lately, youre not alone.

According to a recent report on happiness conducted by The Harris Poll, only 1 in 3 Americans report being very happy. Another report, put together by Gallup and the health care data analytics firm Sharecare, confirms Americans are indeed feeling a decline in their sense of purpose, the strength of their relationships and their financial and physical health. In fact, both studies show that American unhappiness has been in decline over the past decade.

While there are a myriad factors that contribute to our unhappiness, I believe an ungrateful attitude plays a key role in bringing us closer to or taking us further away from happiness.

Did you know that simply being grateful can improve your physical and psychological health, help you make friends and even give you a better night sleep?

The reverse is also true. Having an ungrateful attitude can lead you on a downward path to unhappiness and an unhealthy emotional life. Here are five emotional diseases that come out of ungratefulness and eat away at your happiness:

Ingratitude

This downward trend all begins with ingratitude. The inability to say thank you is like a plague. It is a disease that takes away life. When ingratitude exists in your life, you are near falling off a cliff that is often impossible to find your way back up again. Ingratitude is the opposite of how God designed us to live. When we are ungrateful, we suffer from tunnel vision, focusing only on whats wrong and ignoring the many blessings we have.

Entitlement

The moment you begin thinking you are entitled to certain things, you are entering into dangerous territory. When ingratitude is tolerated in your life, soon you will slide down the slippery slope into an entitlement mentality.

This is so evident in our nation today. People think they are entitled to certain things and the government, the church or society as whole owes them. This entitlement mentality goes back to peoples view of God. We have to ask ourselves, does God owe us anything? The answer should be pretty clear.

Discontentedness

The more content you are, the more grateful you are. Sadly, ingratitude leads to feeling entitled, and this leads to falling into a land of discontentedness.

We see discontent people all the time. Discontent over the way they look. Discontent over where they live and what they drive. Discontent with their relationships. Discontent with their job, convinced they are entitled to more. Discontent people cast a palpable, negative mood wherever they go  and people dont want to be around them! Discontentedness points backward to one glaring reality: an ungrateful heart.

Criticism

If theres one thing that is not in short supply in America its critics. America is teeming with self-appointed pundits. Everyone has an opinion on everything, and  guess what?  its usually negative. People are critical of our nation, the military and our leaders. People are critical of our flag and what it stands for nationally and internationally. People are even critical of the Bible and the church.

Do you criticize constantly? Is sarcasm, which is nothing more than backhanded criticism, always near your lips? Being critical of other people and leaders of organizations and governments is nothing to be proud of. When you think you are the only one who is ever right, you are living in deception.

Cynicism

Ingratitude culminates in cynicism. Nowadays, people hold their cynicism up like a badge of honor, as if they were more enlightened or informed than others. What a sad commentary on our current culture. No matter how good the news might be, if you always find something wrong to complain about, then youre a cynic. Creating disbelief and casting continual suspicion creates division and damages our relationships and our ability to contribute to our community and our nation.

Ingratitude is a walking billboard of your unhealthy emotional condition. Conversely, when gratitude is your attitude, you are on your way to living fit emotionally. An ungrateful person repels other people. A grateful person is endearing to other people. There is something special and attractive about a person who overflows with gratitude.

Which one of these attitudes represents your life most of the time?

Is it gratitude or ingratitude? If you want a truthful answer, ask a few people you work with daily. Ask your spouse and your family. What would they say?

We must return to having hearts that are overflowing with gratitude. Gratitude to God for all He has done. Gratitude to others for what they have done for us. Gratitude that still values two of the most powerful words in the English language: Thank you!
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Americans are getting skin cancer  and sometimes dying from it  at an alarming rate, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration irresponsibly refuses to approve state-of-the-art sunscreens that could do a much better job protecting us from the suns cancer-causing rays.

The rest of the world has not been out snoozing in the sun. Since the 1990s, advanced new sunscreens have been widely sold in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia.

But Americans have access only to older generations of sunscreen that prevent sunburn  not the deeper damage that can cause skin cancer. Thats because the FDA stubbornly refuses to approve the sale of superior new sunscreens that can safeguard our health.

The delay in approving sunscreens that could prevent many skin cancers and save lives has to do with the complex and outmoded way the FDA approves new over-the-counter drugs, the category of medical products that includes sunscreens. It is long past time for the FDA to modernize and speed up its approval process.

What can be done if the FDA refuses? In a 2015 editorial, the Wall Street Journal posited that the only way to end the FDAs willful culture of control and delay is to strip the sunscreen police of all powers over the stuff. That would cause the bureaucrats to do a slow burn, so we like that idea.



Sun damage to skin is an extremely serious health problem. Skin cancer will strike one in five Americans over the course of their lives, and the rates of all types of skin cancer  including melanoma and keratinocyte cancers (basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma)  are increasing.

Melanomas are often deadly. Approximately 160,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with them annually, and one American dies every hour of every day  amounting to about 10,000 per year. In 2014, the U.S. surgeon general declared skin cancer a public health emergency  yet, even four years later, the FDA is not responding as if it were dealing with an emergency.

And unfortunately, skin cancer rates and deaths continue to rise  while mortality from almost every other cancer has been declining.

It is long past time for the FDA to modernize and speed up its approval process.

About 65 percent of melanomas and 90 percent of keratinocyte cancers worldwide are attributable to sun exposure, so prevention through avoidance of excessive ultraviolet radiation exposure is critical. But in an extraordinary exhibition of nonfeasance, the FDAs irresponsible unwillingness to approve state-of-the-art sunscreens is condemning many Americans to get skin cancers they could otherwise avoid.

The U.S. lags badly on sunscreen availability, with access only to outdated, ineffective products that perform poorly at protecting us. Astonishingly, the last time a new sunscreen ingredient was introduced in the United States was in 2002  when smartphones didnt exist and Donald Trump was a Democrat.

A little background is necessary to understand sun damage to skin and its prevention. There are two major wavelengths of ultraviolet light beaming down on us from the sun that are believed to damage the skin and lead to skin cancer as well as premature skin aging  types A and B, commonly referred to as UVA and UVB.

Most U.S. sunscreens are fairly effective against UVB light, which is what causes immediate sunburn. And a sunburn, of course, is noticeable after a short period of time. Its a signal your body gives you to get out of the sun before your burn worsens.

UVA light penetrates deeper into the skin and is in many ways more damaging  and this is the light that can cause cancer. And unlike UVB that causes sunburn, the more serious damage that can be caused by UVA is not something we notice. It can take many years  even decades  of exposure to UVA light to cause skin cancer.

U.S. sunscreens fail to provide adequate protection against cancer-causing UVA light. Americans are therefore being hit with a double whammy. Because sunscreens offer protection from sunburn caused by UVB light, many people stay in the sun longer, understandably thinking they are safe. As a result, they are exposed for a longer period of time to more harmful UVA light.

Most Americans mistakenly believe that they are getting state-of the-art skin protection from sunscreen. However, a sunscreen with SPF 50 bought in the United States allows three times as much ultraviolet light to enter the skin as sunscreens with the same SPF available abroad.

Inadequate sunscreen is not only killing Americans  it is also costing us a bundle in health care expenditures. In the era of rising health care costs, prevention is critical.

Allowing access to highly effective sunscreens would be much cheaper than paying for repeated costly and sometimes disfiguring removal of precancerous and cancerous lesions.

In a large, randomized prospective trial conducted in Australia  where state-of-the-art sunscreen is available  regular use of this advanced sunscreen significantly reduced the number of precancerous lesions, as well as non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancers that people suffered. In other words, the lack of cutting-edge sunscreen leads to more cutting of the skin by doctors treating people for skin cancer.

Another wrinkle in this story is that Americans are spending unprecedented amounts on products and procedures to inhibit or reverse skin aging, which is accelerated by sun damage. Skin aging and wrinkling are drastically reduced by the regular use of newer-generation sunscreens.

In fact, there is recent evidence that using the new and more effective sunscreens can even reverse some skin aging.

Measures to protect the skin from sun damage should also include avoidance of tanning, whether outdoors or in tanning facilities; reducing peak sunlight exposure  between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.  when possible; and wearing protective clothing and hats.

While the sun is 93 million miles from Earth, its rays have an impact on everything we do and make life possible on our planet. Its important that we respect the power of this star to do us harm and that we protect ourselves from its harmful ultraviolet light with the best sunscreens that have been developed. The Food and Drug Administration should let us get that protection.

Henry I. Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
President Trump on Saturday campaigned in Ohio for Republican state Sen. Troy Balderson ahead of a special House election next week, saying the Democratic opponent is controlled by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and favors open borders.

Running against the Trump-backed candidate is Democrat Danny OConnor. Earlier Saturday, the president described O'Connor in a tweet as a puppet for Pelosi, weak on Crime, Borders & your 2nd Amendment, with a goal of raising taxes.

Before welcoming Balderson onstage, Trump described him as really smart and a really hard worker who would fight for Ohio.

Balderson promised to fight alongside the president on a variety of issues, and dubbed his opponent Dishonest Danny OConnor.

Dishonest Danny OConnor wants to repeal those middle-class tax cuts. Dishonest Danny OConnor wants to take away your guns. Dishonest Danny supports open borders and sanctuary cities, Balderson argued. Dishonest Danny OConnor will fight against the policies that are turning our country around. And worst of all, Dishonest Danny OConnor will vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker.

PRESIDENT TRUMP TO HOLD RALLY IN OHIO AHEAD OF CRUCIAL SPECIAL ELECTION

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, also briefly took the stage during the rally at the request of the president, and was met with chants from the crowd supporting him for the House speakership.

Jordan, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, announced July 26 that he plans to mount an anti-establishment run for speaker, if Republicans keep control of the chamber.

Echoing Baldersons comments, Trump told the crowd that a vote for OConnor is a vote for open borders, which equals massive crime.

Before describing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as brave and fantastic for this country, Trump said that abolishing the agency has become a goal for Democrats.

A vote for Danny boy and the Democrats is a vote to let criminals and drugs pour into our country, Trump said. And to let MS-13 run wild in our communities. And you know what they do once theyre there.

TRUMP DEFENDS RUSSIA AND NORTH KOREA MEETINGS, ATTACKS OVERRATED BOB CASEY AT PENNSYLVANIA RALLY

The president went on to promise to protect our law enforcement" and cite what he believes is the need for more Republicans in Congress.

If you want to have a border, if you want to stop the radical Pelosi and Waters -- Maxine Waters -- agenda, theres only one choice in this election, Trump said. Thats vote for Troy Balderson.

Trump mentioned Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., earlier, asserting that she was a seriously low IQ person.

The presidents visit to Ohio was his third rally over the course of a week, following rallies in Florida and Pennsylvania in support of congressional candidates.

Fox News Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
At his rally in central Ohio on Saturday night, President Trump took aim at U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, criticizing the longtime member of the Senate Intelligence Committee for reportedly having a suspected Chinese spy on her staff in the past.

The leader of the Russia investigation, Dianne Feinstein, had a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years, Trump said about Californias senior U.S. senator, the Washington Times reported. And shes leading the Russian witch hunt. Isnt that something? And then she says to me, What did you know about this and that? Give me a break.

The leader of the Russia investigation, Dianne Feinstein, had a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years. And shes leading the Russian witch hunt. Isnt that something? And then she says to me, What did you know about this and that? Give me a break.  President Donald Trump, at a rally in Ohio on Saturday

The presidents remarks continued a feud that Trump had begun on Twitter on Friday night, when he reacted to reports of the Feinstein story.

Dianne is the person leading our Nation on Collusion with Russia (only done by Dems), the president tweeted. Will she now investigate herself?

Feinstein retaliated with a pair of tweets Saturday.

The FBI told me 5 years ago it had concerns that China was seeking to recruit an administrative member of my Calif staff (despite no access to sensitive information), Feinstein wrote in the first message. I took those concerns seriously, learned the facts and made sure the employee left my office immediately.

Compare that to your actions: attacking the FBI and refusing the advice of your national security team. SAD! I appreciated then and now the diligent work of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies and acted in the best interests of the country. Give it a try!

Earlier in the week, Politico and other outlets reported that Feinstein learned from the FBI about five years ago that a staffer in her San Francisco office was suspected of delivering political intelligence, though nothing top secret, to officials at the local Chinese Consulate.

Feinstein was said to have been mortified when she learned the news, according to Politico.

The FBI wasnt able to charge the individual, but Feinstein forced him to retire, a source told the San Francisco Chronicle.

In Ohio, Trump used the Feinstein story as an example that other countries besides Russia are engaged in espionage against the United States.

Not only China, its a lot of people, Trump said, according to the Washington Times. And weve got to stop it. Weve got to stop meddling, weve got to stop everybody from attacking us. But there are a lot. Russias there, Chinas there. Were doing well with North Korea, but theyre probably there [spying]. Weve got to stop everybody.

And I like Dianne Feinstein. But I dont like the fact that she had a Chinese spy driving her, and she didnt know it.

Earlier this year, Trump blasted sneaky Dianne Feinstein after the Democrat released the transcript of a congressional interview with the co-founder of Fusion GPS, the firm behind the anti-Trump dossier, claiming the move was possibly illegal.

The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace. Must have tough Primary! Trump tweeted in January.

Trumps visit Saturday to Lewis Center, Ohio, was mostly about supporting state Sen. Troy Balderson, a Republican looking to win a special election for a U.S. House seat this coming Tuesday.

Fox News Lukas Mikelionis and Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren fueled rumors that she might run for president in 2020 after delivering what sounded like a stump speech Friday. In it, she said shes not afraid to be the underdog.

Speaking at the Netroots Nation convention in New Orleans, the Massachusetts Democrat talked about the politics of division she said had been sowed by the Trump administration.

Frankly it might be the one thing that Donald Trump is really good at, that and kissing up to two-bit dictators, she said as she blew a kiss into the air.

Warren appeared to be stumping as she talked about unity and democracy.

I believe that together we can save democracy.  It wont be easy, she said. Were going to have to fight uphill. Me? Im going up that hill. And I hope you are, too.

Warren said separately, while speaking to Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond at Dillard University in New Orleans that Trumps presidency has caused her to reconsider her decision not to run in 2016.

Two words: Donald Trump, she said, before shifting to warn the audience that the November midterm vote is the immediate fight as Democrats try to break GOP control of Congress.

Warren, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, told the gathering at Netroots Nation that Ive never been afraid to be the underdog.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The United States had "no involvement" in the apparent drone assassination attempt of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday afternoon, National Security Adviser John Bolton told "Fox News Sunday."

Several dronelike devices armed with explosives reportedly detonated near Maduro during his appearance in the capital of Caracas, where he was giving a speech at a military event. Dramatic footage from the episode showed Maduro and those around him wincing as apparent explosions sounded, sending soldiers nearby scattering. Unverified amateur video from the event seemed to show at least one drone blowing up in mid-air.

Maduro claimed factions in Venezuela had worked with conspirators in Bogota and Miami to kill him, and said he hoped President Trump is "willing to fight the terrorist groups." Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the apparent attempted assassination targeted not only Maduro, but rather the military's entire high command on stage with the president.

But Bolton strongly denied the suggestion that the White House had anything to do with the effort.

"I can say unequivocally there was no U.S. government involvement in this at all," Bolton told host Chris Wallace. "If the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, well take a serious look at it, but in the meantime I think what we really should focus on is the corruption and oppression in the Maduro regime in Venezuela."

FLASHBACK: ROGUE POLICE OFFICER HIJACKS HELICOPTER, LOBS BOMBS AT GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS

Timothy Bean, the CEO of Fortem Technologies, which sells drone-detecting radar and counter-drones capable of taking down unmanned flying craft, told Fox News the Venezuela attack could have been attempted by a range of actors.

"Because of the ubiquitous nature of drones, it is not necessary for bad actors, like those who carried out the attack attempt in Venezuela, to have a great deal of funding and tech know how," Bean said. "The technology is very accessible, which is why the threat and underlying need for safety and security measures at this time are so paramount."

Bean added that the threat to heads of state is ongoing, saying, "Now, more than ever, there is a need for partnership between government and private sector technology leaders to put safeguards in place to protect sensitive airspace from drone threats in the future. This danger is not going away."

"This danger is not going away."  Fortem Technologies CEO Timothy Bean

Trump had reportedly asked aides at an Oval Office meeting last August whether the U.S. should invade Venezuela, as the socialist country's economic, legal, and political conditions countinued to unravel.

The suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom have since left the administration.

Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.

Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis. In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after more than six months on the lam.

Separately, Bolton defended President Trump's tweet earlier in the day, which accused "fake news" sources of potentially causing "war."

The national security adviser also backed the president's complaints about a "Russian hoax," saying Trump is attacking not the idea of Russian election meddling, but suggestions that his campaign was part of a broader conspiracy.

"I think what hes saying by the hoax is the idea that somehow the Russians directed and controlled his campaign or controlled his administration -- that there was some conspiracy that violated U.S. law," Bolton said.

Fox News' Jeffrey Rubin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A prominent Senate Republican had a simple, three-word response this week after Democratic colleague Cory Booker of New Jersey told a conference audience that he had cried tears of rage over rhetoric used by the Trump administration.

Get a grip, John Cornyn of Texas wrote in a retweet of a news story about Bookers remarks at the Netroots Nation Conference in New Orleans on Friday.

For Cornyn, it was a continuation of a theme he introduced last month, after Booker asserted that those not opposing Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court were "complicit in evil."

Said Cornyn at the time: "My advice to some of our friends across the aisle who are engaged in this kind of superheated rhetoric ... my advice is get a grip. Get a grip," the Washington Free Beacon reported.

"My advice to some of our friends across the aisle who are engaged in this kind of superheated rhetoric ... my advice is get a grip. Get a grip."  U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas

Besides Booker, other speakers at the New Orleans event included Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the Hill reported.

Political newcomers Cynthia Nixon and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, running for governor and a U.S. House seat, respectively, also were there, the report said.

But it was Booker who seemed to draw the most attention with his comments about the Trump administration and how, in his view, things have gone savagely wrong in America since Trump took office.

Im a big believer that if America, if this country hasnt broken your heart, then you dont love her enough. Because theres things that are savagely wrong in this country, Booker said, according to the Washington Times.

Booker also lamented for a Democratic Party that, in his view, seems "to have lost our way."

I think a lot about the Democratic Party nationally and how it seems that that connection to people  where they are, what their experiences are, their struggles, their hurts and their pain  how we seem to have lost our way, he said.

CORY BOOKER SAYS HE'S CRIED 'TEARS OF RAGE' OVER TRUMP RHETORIC, CLAIMS SOMETHING 'SAVAGELY WRONG' WITH US

Cornyn, meanwhile, has been focusing on other matters lately, such as supporting Kavanaugh's nomination.

Judge Kavanaugh is an exceptionally qualified jurist who will be a fair and impartial arbiter of the law and will not legislate from the bench, Cornyn said last month. Throughout his tenure, Judge Kavanaugh has served with a high moral standard and demonstrated a clear commitment to faithfully interpreting the Constitution.

Fox News Amy Lieu and Andrew OReilly contributed to this story.
Jason Kempin/TAS18/Getty Images for TASCanadian and American pop stars collided over the weekend, in Toronto and Australia.

Saturday night at Toronto's Rogers Arena, Taylor Swift brought none other than Canadian music legend Bryan Adams onstage for a duet of Bryan's signature hit "Summer of '69."



On Instagram, Taylor posted a video of the two singing together and wrote,"HONESTLY IT WAS JUST SO MUCH FUN...Bryan Adams is so cool!"

She added, "I didnt even know Bryan was gonna be in town until last night and I asked him completely last minute if he wanted to come sing!! Pretty evident from the videos (um yes Im posting another one) that Im FULLY LOSING IT with excitement, and I cant thank @bryanadams enough."

Bryan posted a photo of the two together, writing, "Sang with the gorgeous @taylorswift tonight in #toronto ...what a treat...Thanks Taylor!" You can watch fan-shot video of the duet on YouTube now.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the Queen of Canadian Pop, Celine Dion, dropped by Katy Perry's concert in Melbourne, Australia. Katy posted a photo of the two together backstage, writing, "CELINE DION SHOWED ME HOW TO DO THE FAMOUS ['MY HEART WILL GO ON'] CHEST SLAP AND I DID IT TO HER WHILE SINGING FIREWORK AND I BECAME A FIREWORK."

Celine also posted a photo of the two backstage, with the caption, "A 'California Girl' and a girl from Quebec meet in Australia! Youre the best Katy, thanks for the amazing show! Love you"

Taylor's Reputation tour continues Tuesday in Pittsburgh, while Katy's Witness tour plays Melbourne again Sunday night. Will the two join each other onstage before their tours are over, to demonstrate that they really have buried the hatchet? Stay tuned.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.




President Trump attorney Jay Sekulow on Sunday blamed "bad information" for erroneously denying that the president had a role in drafting his campaign's response to a key June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

Sekulow's comments came shortly after Trump tweeted earlier Sunday another acknowledgment that the meeting was "to get information on an opponent," which he characterized as "totally legal and done all the time in politics -- and it went nowhere." Trump last year said on Twitter that "most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!"

Donald Trump Jr., his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort were known to have attended the meeting with Kremlin-linked attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.

An initial July 2017 statement, dictated by President Trump and issued by Trump Jr. immediately after the meeting came to light, read in part: "We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago." The statement made no mention of Trump officials seeking damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

At first, Trump officials denied that the president had dictated the statement. "I wasn't involved in the statement drafting at all, nor was the president," Sekulow claimed in July 2017.

"I had bad information at that time and made a mistake in my statement," Sekulow said Sunday on ABC's "This Week. "In a situation like this, over time, facts develop. That's what investigations do."

Trump's lawyers have since acknowledged in a letter to Special Counsel Robert Mueller that the president dictated a short but accurate response to initial reports of the meeting.

Trump on Sunday repeated his previous claims that he did not know in advance about the meeting -- backing up Trump Jr., who told the Senate Judiciary Committee the same thing in September 2017 and would face potential criminal liability if he were lying.

Sekulow added that he has "no knowledge" of whether federal investigators are probing Trump Jr., even as critics charge that the secretive discussion might have run afoul of campaign finance law.

RUSSIAN LAWYER AT CENTER OF TRUMP TOWER MEETING HAD CLOSER TIES TO KREMLIN THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT

Manafort, one of the attendees at the Trump Tower meeting, is currently on trial for unrelated bank and tax fraud charges as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, and Sekulow said that to his knowledge, Trump Jr. is not the target of a federal probe stemming from the meeting.

"I don't represent Don Jr., but I will tell you I have no knowledge at all of Don Jr. being told that he's a target of any investigation, and I have no knowledge of him being interviewed by the special counsel," Sekulow said Sunday.

Some have argued that the Trump Tower meeting involved the illegal exchange of a "thing of value" with foreign nationals for campaign finance purposes, although the extent to which information sharing can legally constitute a "thing of value" is unsettled. Others have said the meeting could provide clues to a broader conspiracy by Trump officials with Russians.

"The question is what law, statute or rule or regulation has been violated and nobody has pointed to one," Sekulow said Sunday.

"I had bad information at that time and made a mistake in my statement."  Trump attorney Jay Sekulow

On July 11, 2017, Trump Jr. released what he said was the entire email chain of his conversations setting up the disputed meeting with the Russian attorney, showing what appeared to be an offer to provide information that would incriminate Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

Ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen has since reportedly claimed that President Trump knew in advance of that meeting, amid an ongoing spat in which Cohen has released a secret audio recording of his conversations with Trump.

Separately, Sekulow also touted the White House's efforts to secure the return of Pastor Andrew Brunson, who is currently in home detention in Turkey. First jailed in December 2016, Brunson faces a 35-year sentence if convicted on charges of espionage and "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member."

The U.S. this week announced sanctions against Turkey, which led Turkish officials to threaten freezing U.S. officials' assets.

"We need to see Andrew Brunson returned home," he said. "It would be good for Turkey, it would be good for the United States and our long-term relations with a NATO ally."
The U.S. on Monday will restore major sanctions against Iran that had been suspended under former President Barack Obama's 2015 nuclear deal, threatening to further unravel the Islamic country's already-struggling economy.

Thousands protested across Iran throughout the weekend, as soaring unemployment and poverty prompted demonstrators to torch police vehicles and burn tires. At least one person was shot and killed in the protests, with some shouting "Mullahs get lost!" and "Death to the dictator!" the Fars news agency reported.

Even more severe U.S. sanctions against Iran's banking and energy sectors are slated to go into effect in November, including restrictions on Iran's oil industry that could cut off a crucial source of hard currency. The sanctions that will be re-imposed Monday target Iranian trade in automobiles, gold and other key metals.

President Trump formally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, after lambasting it repeatedly as a "horrible" arrangement that enriched the anti-American Islamic state without adequately ensuring it would never produce nuclear weapons.

The White House has said its goal is a new accord that would include a radical transformation of Iran's policies, including its military support for the Syrian government and regional militant groups, two issues not covered by the 2015 deal.

Trump has identified apparent leverage: Iran's economy, which has rapidly deteriorated in recent months due in large part to uncertainty over the Iran deal. The Iranian rial has fallen to 99,000 to the U.S. dollar despite a government-imposed rate of 44,000.

The president highighted the country's struggles on Twitter this week, even as he reiterated that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

"Iran, and it's economy, is going very bad, and fast!" Trump wrote. "I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter - it is up to them!"

ANALYSIS: IRAN'S REJECTION OF TRUMP SUMMIT SHOWS REGIME'S CONTEMPT FOR COMPROMISE

Speaking on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has long criticized Obama's Iran deal, said Monday will be a "very important day -- and a day I didn't think would happen."

"Tomorrow is the day that, effectively, the Iran nuclear agreement of 2015 dies," he said. "This is one death I am not mourning because I thought it was a bad agreement. I thought we gave away a lot."

Lieberman added that Trump's bargaining position is sound, and that there could be a "second Iranian revolution" if hardliners there don't start negotiating with Trump to resolve the economic crisis.

"I give credit to President Trump on this one, for getting us out of the agreement," Lieberman said. "Hopefully it will bring the Iranians back to the negotiating table. ... The regime in Tehran has a lot of troubles. The economy is tanking."

Iran is negotiating with other world powers that are parties to the deal  China, Russia, Germany, France, Britain as well as the European Union  in a bid to salvage it with new incentives.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high. The country's powerful Revolutionary Guard on Sunday acknowledged conducting recent naval exercises near the crucial Strait of Hormuz after renewing threats to cut off the waterway to oil traders.

The nuclear deal lifted international sanctions in return for Iran limiting its nuclear program and allowing regular inspections. U.N. inspectors said Iran was complying with the deal.

IRAN DEPLOYS DOZENS OF BOATS IN APPARENT MILITARY 'SWARMING' EXERCISE AS TENSIONS MOUNT

Iran "has treated its people very poorly, and that's led to terror. They're the world's largest state sponsor of terror. That's what America is trying to get Iran to stop doing. That's the behavioral change that we're looking for from the Iranian regime," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Metro TV in Jakarta.

"The president has always said he is prepared to talk, but it's important that Iran has to be committed to changing its ways in order for those discussions to prove of any value," he added.

Iran acquired five new ATR72-600 commercial aircraft on Sunday, representing perhaps the last benefits it will see under the nuclear deal.

Iran had hoped the lifting of sanctions would allow it to replace its aging commercial airline fleet, but the U.S. withdrawal has halted billion-dollar deals struck with Airbus and Boeing. European countries, along with Russia and China, remain committed to the nuclear deal, but European companies are unlikely to risk U.S. sanctions to do business with Iran.

The U.S. has been pushing its allies to halt their import of Iranian oil ahead of the November deadline. Among the top importers of Iranian oil are China, India, Turkey and South Korea.

Rouhani has suggested Iran might block the Strait of Hormuz in response to a shutdown of its oil exports. The strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf is crucial to global energy supplies as about a third of all oil traded at sea passes through it.

Iran's navy and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard routinely conduct seaborne exercises in the Gulf and the strait. U.S. officials last week said Iran carried out a similar exercise, though Tehran did not immediately acknowledge it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Twitter is having trouble distinguishing between bots trying to meddle in U.S. politics and fervent supporters of President Trump who tweet very often.

The micro-blogging company  which has purged fake or suspicious accounts at a rate of 1 million per day for the past three months, including 70 million accounts in May and June alone  has come under fire along with Facebook for sweeping up ordinary and non-robotic accounts in their efforts to prevent Russian disinformation.

For instance, 70-year-old Nina Tomasieski spends up to 14 hours per day tweeting the praises of President Trump and his allies while her television is tuned to Fox News Channel.

Please get up, get out and vote for Troy Balderson. @POTUS is counting on you and so is all of America, a recent tweet said, imploring voters to support the man endorsed by Trump for Ohios District 12 special election on Tuesday.

Tomasieski, who lives in Tennessee, is part of a contingent of eager "Make America Great Again" supporters who enthusiastically tweet and retweet on behalf of the Trump administration and other Republican candidates across the U.S. at a rapid-fire pace.

Twitter has repeatedly and erroneously flagged her account and users like her for suspicious behavior  likely because of the frequency and relentlessness of their tweets.

Almost all of us are considered a bot, Tomasieski, who has more than 50,000 followers on Twitter, told the Associated Press.

Cynthia Smith has also been locked out of her account and shadow banned, which means her tweets were not as visible to other users.

Im a gal in Southern California, Smith said. I am no bot.

TWITTER SUSPENDED 70 MILLION FAKE OR MALICIOUS ACCOUNTS IN MAY AND JUNE

The actions have drawn criticism from conservatives, who have accused big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter of having a liberal bias and of censoring conservatives.

It also raises a question: Can the companies outsmart the ever-evolving tactics of American adversaries if they cant even be sure whos a robot and whos Nina?

Its going to take a really long time, I think years, before Twitter and Facebook and other platforms are able to deal with a lot of these issues, Timothy Carone, who teaches technology at Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business, said.

People are coming up with new ways to use the platforms faster than the companies can manage them, he added.

Twitter has acknowledged in the past that there will be some false positives in the process.

Our goal is to learn fast and make our processes and tools smarter, Twitter executives said in a blog post earlier this year.

Nevertheless, Tomasieski has learned some tricks to avoid trouble with Twitter. Shes careful not to exceed limits of roughly 100 tweets or retweets per hour. She doesnt use profanity and she tries to mix up her subjects to appear more human and less bot-like.

FACEBOOK CUTS OF 'HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS' OF APPS IN NEW REVIEW PROCESS

During a recent morning, Tomasieski retweeted messages showing clips from Trumps most recent rally, tweets in support of Troy Balderson in Ohios 12th District and a Fox Business clip about capitalism and socialism.

Tomasieski said the most important thing is helping President Trump, who she calls my guy.

There is as much enthusiasm today as there was when Trump was elected. Its very quiet, but its there. My job is to get them to the polls, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An 18-year-old Arkansas man was formally charged after attempting to steal a plane so he could fly it to a rap concert in another state last month.

Zemarcuis Devon Scott was discovered around 2:30 a.m. after airport security personnel contacted police about seeing a man jumping over the Texarkana Regional Airport fence, the Texarkana Gazette reported.

MAN ARRESTED FOR TRYING TO STEAL AN AIRPLANE

When police officers arrived, they found Scott sitting in the cockpit of an American Eagle twin-engine jet, the Gazette reported.

Police questioned Scotts lack of pilot training, to which the young man allegedly told authorities he did not believe there was much more to flying than pushing buttons and pulling levers, FOX8 reported.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Scott was formally charged with commercial burglary and attempted theft of property with a value greater than $25,000. The suspect is being held in the Miller County jail with bail set at $25,000.
A passenger on board an American Airlines flight says she was removed before takeoff because of the size of her cello  even though she had purchased a seat for the instrument, and claims American Airlines assured her husband she would be able to bring it on board.

I purchased two round trip tickets for her and her cello on Apr.2 on the phone directly from AA and told them specifically that one ticket is for the cello as cabin baggage. I was told it is abosolutely allowed and she won't have any problem, musician Jingjing Hus husband Jay Tang wrote on Facebook.

MUSICIANS OUTRAGED AFTER AIRLINE SEVERELY DAMAGES 17TH CENTURY INSTRUMENT

Hu, a music student at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago, had flown to Miami to perform in a music festival.

When I flew from Chicago to Miami, I didnt have any trouble with that, Hu told WMAQ. The flight crew even gave her a special strap to hold the instrument in place.

UNITED 'DESTROYED' CUSTOM WHEELCHAIR WORTH $42K, SAYS PASSENGER

The pricey instrument, which Hu says is worth $30,000, made it safely to Miami with her. However, when Hu boarded her return flight to Chicago on Thursday, airline crew members asked her to get off the plane, WBBM reported.

According to Hu, flight staff told her the cello was too big for the seat  though she insists it met seat size restrictions.

Federal regulations allow musicians to carry instruments like cellos in the cabin if passengers purchase a seat for the item.

AMERICAN AIRLINES APOLOGIZES TO PASSENGER FOR 'SHREDDED' SUITCASE, MISSING ITEMS

Though flight attendants insist Hu was removed because the aircraft was too small for the instrument, Tang writes on Facebook that he believes she was removed because the flight was overbooked.

Interestingly my wife was travelling with a friend, who remained on the plane. She told us that after my wife left, two other passengers came and sat in her and her cello's seats, he wrote.

They just kick off passengers when they oversell their tickets using FAA regulations as an excuse. I could have been told those regulations when purchasing the ticket. My wife could have been told those regulations when flying from Chicago to Miami, at check in counter in Miami International Airport, at the gate or even when boarding the plane. Yet they chose to kick her out last minute after she was seated and her cello safely secured. They even need law enforcement involved, Tang continued, referencing that his wife was escorted off the plane by law enforcement.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

American Airlines released a statement to Fox News, saying the incident was part of a miscommunication.

A passenger on flight 2457 from Miami to Chicago was traveling with her cello. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication about whether the cello she was traveling with met the requirements to fit onboard the particular aircraft she was flying, a Boeing 737. We rebooked our passenger on a flight the next morning on a larger aircraft, a Boeing 767. We provided her a hotel and meal accommodations for the inconvenience. We apologize for the misunderstanding and customer relations has reached out to her.
Police in riot gear were summoned to downtown Portland Saturday to keep a lid on clashes between hundreds of right-wing protesters and self-described anti-fascist counterprotesters.

Authorities patrolled the streets at midday advising demonstrators to get out. There were some arrests and reported injuries but it wasnt immediately clear how many of either occurred.

A reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive was bloodied when he was struck by a projectile, The Associated Press reported. Eder Campuzano said later on Twitter that he was "okay."

Protesters aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, met in a park at a rally organized by their group leader, Joey Gibson, but they were met by antifa protesters carrying signs saying, Nazis go home and Alt right scum not welcome in Portland.

Wire reports say police officers stood in the middle of the four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated.

Indeed, the police presence remained strong throughout the demonstrations, as bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled and weapons checkpoints were visible. At one point, authorities deployed flash bang devices to break up the feuding parties. Long sticks and homemade shields were confiscated, AP reported.

Saturdays rally was in stark contrast with two other rallies organized by Gibson this summer that ended in bloody fistfights and riots that sent one counterprotester to the hospital with a skull fracture.

Portland police had threatened to seize weapons after Gibson changed the venue for this latest event from a federal plaza outside U.S. District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters could carry concealed weapons as they demonstrated. It is illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person has a concealed handgun license.

Gibson's insistence on repeatedly bringing his supporters to this intensely blue city has stoked a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of striking political divisions. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in many other cities around the U.S. West, including Berkeley, Calif., another left-leaning community.

But the Portland events have taken on outsize significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathizer was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defense of two young black women  one in a hijab  on a light-rail train in May 2017.

Gibson, who is running a longshot campaign to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington State, said in a live video on Facebook earlier this week that he won't stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can press their right-wing views without interference.

Organizers say that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs.

"Patriot Prayer is continuing to commit violence in our city, and their events are becoming more and more violent," said Effie Baum of Pop Mob, a coalition of community groups organizing the counter-demonstration. "Leaving them a small group to attack in the streets is only going to allow them to perpetuate their violence."

Dueling protests a month ago ended with Portland police declaring a riot and arresting four people. A similar Patriot Prayer event on June 4 devolved into fistfights and assaults by both sides as police struggled to keep the groups apart.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Authorities hoping to end a monthslong search for a missing 3-year-old boy raided a New Mexico compound Friday to look for the toddler  but instead found 11 other children who were malnourished and living in filthy conditions, authorities said.

Taos County Sheriffs deputies stormed a makeshift compound in Amalia and removed the children, ranging from ages 1 to 15, and turned over to state child-welfare workers. Police were initially at the compound to look for Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj and a 39-year-old man, Siraj Wahhaj, accused of abducting the boy last December. Wahhaj was located on the property and arrested. The child that sparked the initial search was not found.

We did an extensive search for the missing child, our primary target, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said, according to the Albuquerque Journal. We certainly didnt want to leave that place and leave a child behind and Im confident we did not.

Another man, identified as Lucas Morton, was also taken into custody on suspicion of harboring a fugitive.

Three other women at the compound were also detained, but later released.

Hogrefe said authorities had conducted surveillance of the compound while looking for the missing boy before he decided Thursday to get a search warrant immediately after a Georgia investigator forwarded a message in which someone at the compound reportedly told another person that people at the compound were starving and needed water.

The message sent to a third party simply said in part, We are starving and need food and water,  Hogrefe said. I absolutely knew that we couldnt wait on another agency to step up and we had to go check this out as soon as possible.

When police arrived at the scene, Wahhaj was armed with an AR-15 rifle, five loaded 30-round magazines, and four loaded pistols, including one in his pocket, according to Hogrefe. Wahhaj and Morton refused to cooperate with authorities.

The sheriff described the living conditions as the ugliest looking, filthiest hes ever seen.

The only food we saw were a few potatoes and a box of rice in the filthy trailer, Hogrefe said in a news release. But what was most surprising, and heartbreaking was when the team located a total of five adults and 11 children that looked like third world country refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing.

Abdul-Ghanis mother reported in December her son missing after Wahhaj took the boy to the park in Clayton County, Ga., and didnt return for nine days, The Albuquerque Jounral reported. The mother said the 3-year-old suffers from a medical condition.

Wahhaj and the boy were last seen about two weeks after the child disappeared. The pair were involved in a car crash on I-65 in Alabama. Another five children and two adults were also with Wahhaj and the boy in a vehicle that was registered to Morton, CBS46 reported.

Authorities said on Saturday they believe the boy was at the compound in recent weeks, but could not get information from any of the five adults found on the property.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Colorado man got a new leash on life Saturday after he found a dog belonging to an Army soldier that ran away from his home two months ago.

David Powell was fostering two miniature Schnauzer puppies for Herman Haynie, who was going on his fifth tour to Iraq, when one of the dogs, named Lola, slipped through his fence in Denver.

It was rough, Powell told FOX31. Heres somebody that put their dogs into my care, so that they could go off to Iraq for us, and I lost his dog.

After hiring a pet detective, which lost the scent of Lola, he finally got good news on Saturday when a microchip company contacted him, saying the dog was found about 15 miles away.

I knew it was her, Powell said. It was just kind of those dark eyes and just the way she... her demeanor and stuff, like, thats Lola.

TEXAS WOMAN THROWS QUINCEANERA FOR HER DOG: 'SHE LOVED IT'

The Denver resident said hes regretted every time he had to email Haynie in Iraq saying hes still searching for Lola, but was happy to finally share good news.

He was ecstatic, Powell told FOX31 of Haynie's reaction. It was just by email but it still, it was such a huge relief for him. Since shes back, Ive gone along the fence and if theres any gaps, Im digging down and shoving rocks under the fence to make sure there are no more gaps. I cant go through that again. Its just too heart-wrenching.
A Pacific Gas & Electric company worker was killed Saturday while doing restoration work near the Carr Fire, becoming the seventh victim the wildfire has claimed since it began its path of devastation more than a week ago.

PG&Es Melissa Subbotin confirmed to Fox News that Jay Ayeta, who was an apprentice lineman with the utility company, was killed while working in Western Shasta County. Subbotin said Ayeta suffered a fatal accident linked to the Carr Fire, but did not provide details on the incident.

"We have learned of the tragic death of a PG&E employee, who was working in the area of the Carr fire today. The safety of our employees and our customers is PG&Es top priority. Our thoughts and prayers are with our fallen team member, his family and our extended team. We are working with law enforcement to investigate the circumstances of the incident, the company said in a statement to KCRA.

'FIRE TORNADO' REACHED 143 MPH AS IT CAUSED PATH OF DESTRUCTION IN SCORCHED CALIFORNIA

The fire continued to torch homes and buildings Sunday as thousands of firefighters battled the blaze. Two firefighters were among the seven people killed since the wildfire began. The Carr Fire, the sixth most destructive fire in California, was reported 41 percent contained Sunday morning.

The White House on Saturday approved Californias request for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for Shasta County.

This is part of a trend  a new normal  that weve got to deal with. Were dealing with it humanly, financially and governmentally, California Gov. Jerry Brown said. These kinds of horrible situations bring people together, regardless of the lesser kind of ideologies and partisan considerations.

The Carr Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes and forced more than 40,000 to evacuate, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A bloody weekend in Chicago saw at least 40 people shot, four fatally, officials said, in a city that earlier had touted its decreasing crime and violence numbers.

Some 15 of the 40 people shot were teenagers, according to the reports. Officials said 25 people were shot within 2 and a half hours Sunday. Investigators continued their search for some of the shooters.

Chicago Police Chief of Patrol Fred Waller at a news conference Sunday afternoon said: We know that some of these incidents were targeted, and are related to gang conflicts in those areas.

If they [the shooters] shoot you they dont even run, a man told the Chicago Tribune. They just walk away, they aint trying to run.

The shooting spree began around 11 a.m. Saturday when a 38-year-old man was shot in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, the Tribune reported. About an hour later, two men in their 40s and 50s were struck by bullets when they were caught in the crossfire between two people firing at each other from across the street.

The man in his 50s was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. Saturday, three men  ages 25, 26 and 22  were shot in separate incidents throughout Chicago. It was unclear if the shooters were captured.

CHICAGO PROTESTERS DEMANDING RAHM EMANUELS RESIGNATION MARCH TO WRIGLEY FIELD, CLOSING MAJOR ROADS

But the violence didnt stop there. By 1 a.m. Sunday another 18 people were shot. A 20-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound in the stomach when a passenger shot her in the stomach just after midnight in Logan Square.

About five miles away in Lawndale, two people got out of a vehicle, fired at a crowd of people at a block party and escaped, the Chicago Tribune reported. Police said four people were struck, including a 13-year-old and 17-year-old boy, along with a 17-year-old girl. A man, 25, was shot in the left leg.

An 18-year-old was shot multiple times around 12:20 p.m. in the same neighborhood.

Another eight people were shot around 12:40 a.m. when several shooters walked up to the group standing in a courtyard and began firing, police said. The youngest victim was 14 and the oldest was 35. The others shot were between 17 and 19 years old.

About 10 minutes later, four people were wounded in a drive-by shooting.

Two 26-year-old men were shot in separate incidents by 1:30 a.m. Sunday, and one of them died.

About an hour later, three women were caught in the crossfire while standing on a front porch while two groups of men were firing at each other.

Six people were wounded around 2:35 a.m. when two shooters approached a group standing on the sidewalk. Two boys, 11 and 14, were among the wounded.

CHICAGOS GUN VIOLENCE IS INTOLERABLE -- TRUMP SHOULD PROVIDE HELP

A 17-year-old girl was killed after she suffered a gunshot wound to her face.

Another boy, 14, was shot in the left leg around 2:50 a.m.

The last shooting reported before 6 a.m. left a man, 33, suffering from gunshot wounds on both legs.

The violence-filled weekend comes after Chicago Police Department reported a 10 percent decrease in shootings and murders during July. The number of shooting victims decreased to 332, compared to the 415 reported in July 2017.

The city that has been plagued by gun violence was on track to have fewer number of murders compared to last year, according to statistics released by police.

Fox News' Frank Miles contributed to this report.
A man convicted of raping a child escaped from a Kansas prison Saturday -- just three days after his arrival, authorities said.

The inmate, identified as Robert Terrell, 36, jumped a fence on the west side of the Winfield Correctional Facility around 8:50 p.m., according to a Facebook post by the Cowley County Emergency Communications department.

Terrell was described as being a white man with red hair, standing 5-foot-5 and weighing 154 pounds.

He was convicted of raping a child younger than 14 years old in 2002, the Wichita Eagle reported, citing records from the Kansas Department of Correction.

Winfield is about a three-hour drive south of Topeka.

Click here for more from the Wichita Eagle.
A Florida man was arrested on Saturday after police said he was captured on surveillance video attempting to rape a woman who was entering her New York City apartment.

Christopher Prusa, 34, faces a slew of charges including attempted rape, unlawful imprisonment and attempted assault.

On Friday, a 21-year-old woman was unlocking her apartment door in the Woodside section of Queens around 4 a.m. Friday when a man, believed to be Prusa, approached her from behind and grabbed her arms to pull her toward him.

The woman, who was not identified, was able to break free from the mans grips and ran from the area. The man also fled the area on foot.

Authorities put out the surveillance video on Saturday and arrested Prusa the next day. Police said Prusa lives in Port St. Lucia, Fla. Its unclear why the 34-year-old was in New York City.
Hurricane Hector roared through the Central Pacific on Sunday and is expected to pass near the Big Island of Hawaii, where a volcano continues to send lava into the sea.

The National Hurricane Center said in its 5 a.m. ET advisory that Hurricane Hector is a "strong" category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 mph and is moving west at 12 mph. The storm is located about 1,360 miles east of South Point, Hawaii, located on the Big Island.

"Interests in the Hawaiian Islands should monitor the progress of Hector," the NHC said.

Hector is expected to continue moving west and have a slight increase in speed over the next couple of days.

"Slow weakening is forecast during the next few days. However, Hector is expected to still be a major hurricane when it moves into the central Pacific basin," according to the NHC.

Hurricane-force winds expected up to 30 miles from the center of the storm, while tropical storm-force winds reach up to 105 miles from the center. Forecast models have Hector passing to the south of the Hawaiian islands between Wednesday and Thursday, according to KHON.

HOW AFRICAN DUST IS SUBDUING US HURRICANES

While there are no coastal watches or warnings in effect, the NHC said that people on the Hawaiian islands should keep an eye on the storm. On Friday, state officials warned residents and visitors to take precautions in case Hector gets closer to the island chain.

Hector is our first hurricane this year. We want to remind the public we are in the middle of the hurricane season and we urge people to take the weekend to prepare their homes and families for impacts that could be felt statewide, Tom Travis, the state's administrator of emergency management, said in a statement.

Officials urge that residents prepare an action plan if they need to shelter in place or evacuate their homes, and have an emergency kit with a minimum of 14 days of food, water and other supplies.

ROAD DAMAGE FROM EARTHQUAKES IS LATEST HAWAII VOLCANO PERIL

The hurricane's potential close pass of the Big Island comes as the state is still dealing with the ongoing issues from the eruption of the Kilauea volcano, which has been spewing lava since May 3. The United States Geological Survey said Saturday that the volcano is still sending large amounts of lava into the sea.

An estimated 700 homes have been destroyed by the volcano, more than 500 of those in just two days, and thousands of people have been displaced. One man was injured in the weeks after the eruption began, and another 23 people were hurt July 16 when lava entering the ocean exploded onto a tour boat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A manager of a New Hampshire inn -- accused of shoving a couple during a refund dispute -- insisted Saturday that she not a racist and plans to plead not guilty to racially motivated assault charges, reports said.

When the couple, identified as Mohamed Ghallami and Chahrazade Mounaji, of Massachusetts, arrived in April at the Covered Bridge Riverview Lodge in Jackson, N.H., they decided they didn't want to stay there and requested a refund on their reservation, the Conway Daily Sun reported.

But the manager, identified as Priscilla Protasowicki, 32, allegedly told them that refunds weren't possible, the report said.

"The woman then asked if we were from a communist country. She looked at my wife and said, 'Is that a hijab?' and asked 'Are you Muslim? Muslims aren't supposed to be here. Are you legal?" Ghallami said, according to an affidavit, MassLive.com reported.

"The woman then asked if we were from a communist country. She looked at my wife and said, 'Is that a hijab?' and asked 'Are you Muslim? Muslims aren't supposed to be here. Are you legal?'"  Mohamed Ghallami, involved in a dispute with a hotel manager

Protasowicki then allegedly pushed the patrons with her hands and was substantially motivated to commit the crime because of hostility towards the victim's religion, race, creed or national origin," the indictment said, according to the Daily Sun.

Protasowicki denies that account. She told the Union Leader of Manchester it was an absurd claim that she assaulted Mounaji. The innkeeper said she instead was the victim of an assault by Ghallami, whom she alleged grabbed her by the shirt.

Meanwhile, Protasowicki threatened last week to sue the town to remove its police chief, the Conway Daily Sun reported.

"Recently, he (Jackson police officer) had me arrested again for simple assault, after I legally defended myself against a couple of Arabian terrorists who came onto my property causing chaos," Protasowicki's complaint read in part, according to the Sun.

She was indicted July 20 on two misdemeanor counts of simple assault. Her charges are subject to increased penalties under the state's hate-crime law. She also faces civil rights violations.

Despite her indictment, she maintained the her inn is hospitable.

Weve always welcomed everyone, and we always will.  Priscilla Protasowicki, innkeeper

Weve always welcomed everyone, and we always will, said Protasowicki, according to the Union Leader.

Protasowicki was convicted of simple assault in an unrelated case, after a 2011 confrontation with a guest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An Iraqi immigrant who allegedly shot a Colorado cop Thursday during a shootout has been involved in a string of crimes for the past five years  yet avoided being deported, a report said.

Karrar Al Khammasi, 31, missed his Friday court appearance after he was hospitalized following a shootout with officers in Colorado Springs. Al Khammasi is accused of shooting Colorado Springs Officer Cem Duzel in the head early Thursday morning, leaving the cop in critical but stable condition as of Saturday.

Before Thursdays shooting, Al Khammasi was known to immigration enforcement officials due to his nine prior contacts with police, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

His first incident was in 2013, when he was charged with drunken driving. About a month later, Al Khammasi was charged with criminal extortion where investigators believe he threatened a man and his family and set a car on fire.

COLORADO SPRINGS POLICE OFFICER CRITICALLY INJURED IN SHOOTING, GUNMAN ALSO SHOT

Court records stated Al Khammasi was sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to first-degree trespassing of a dwelling in 2014. Al Khammasi was on an immigration hold that day.

His criminal history continued this year when Al Khammasi was arrested in January for allegedly possessing a stolen handgun. He posted $1,000 cash bail in February and was free until Thursdays shooting. His Friday court appearance was on the gun charge.

Its unclear, however, if or why Al Khammasi was not deported in the five years.

Al Khammasi was charged with attempted first-degree murder, possession of a weapon by a previous offender and felony menacing on Friday. He is being held without bond.
An Iowa girl selling cookies to buy school clothes led to three police calls in five days, reports said Friday.

Savannah Watters, 10, told Fox 17 Des Moines that her business in Cedar Falls was going really well until her neighbors called police.

"I wish that we could have known first, cause we didnt know anything. And its just hard to believe that they didn't come talk to my mom first, the girl said.

"I wish that we could have known first, cause we didnt know anything. And its just hard to believe that they didn't come talk to my mom first.  Savannah Watters, 10, cookie entrepreneur

A neighbor told the station that Savannah was risking the safety of children in the neighborhood with the traffic her cookie sale was causing.

"Well weve had a little girl thats been selling cookies and water for four weeks and the traffic is getting to the point that theyre using our driveway to turn around  which is fine  but they almost hit my daughter. I mean its just getting  its getting out of control, a neighbor said in a police call, according to the station.

Authorties told Savannah that she could continue selling cookies as long as she moved into her driveway.

Savannah told Fox 17 that her dream is to one day open up her own bakery.

I enjoyed it a lot, so then I wanted to have a cookie shop with my mom cause its always been my dream to do that, Savannah said, according to New York Post.

Savannahs mother was a professional baker and helped her daughter make the cookies, according to the Post.

To be honest, if her mom wants to open a cookie shop, there are other ways of doing it than making her 10-year-old daughter sit on the corner for seven hours a day, neighbor Melissa Winberg reportedly said.

Cedar Falls is about a two-hour drive northwest of Des Moines.
A 9-year-old North Carolina boy manning his lemonade stand Saturday was robbed at gunpoint by a teen who made off with just $17, officials said.

The boy was at his lemonade stand at a roundabout in St. Johns Forest development about 3 p.m. Saturday when a teenager wearing a camouflage hat walked up, pointed a gun at the childs stomach and demanded he hand over the money he'd earned, Union County police said. Philip Smith, the boys father, told FOX46 the cash amounted to about $17.

"Never had an incident like this, never thought this would happen," Smith told the news station. "It's pretty low, despicable in my book, and I can't believe someone would stoop that low to steal money from him.

POLICE OFFICERS HELP OUT 9-YEAR-OLD'S LEMONADE STAND AFTER HE WAS ROBBED

Investigators discovered a camouflage hat, metal tin and a black BB gun in a wooded area near the scene of the crime.

"I think people are capable of a lot of things, but not robbing a child at a lemonade stand, that takes it to a new level," said Union County Sheriff's Office chief communications officer Tony Underwood.

Smith said his son has been selling lemonade in the neighborhood almost every weekend to help pay for a new lawnmower. Despite the scary incident, Smith said his son and his wife were back on the same street selling lemonade less than 24 hours after the robbery.

"We are being resilient and he came out here to sell some lemonade today just to be back at it and taking out time to process everything that happened," Smith said. "We kinda explained it to him that bad things do happen to good people and you never know when it's going to happen to you. You just gotta pray and be glad that he is safe.

Police did not identify a potential suspect and are asking neighbors to come forward with surveillance video that may have captured the incident.
The suspect linked to a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., was denied the therapeutic services needed for disabled students, according to a report released Friday.

In the year leading up to the Feb. 14 rampage that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, suspect Nikolas Cruz asked to return to a special education campus, but school officials fumbled his request, the Sun-Sentinel reported, citing an independent review commissioned by the Broward County public school system.

The consultant, the Collaborative Educational Network of Tallahassee, suggested that Cruz could have been offered more help in his final two years in high school leading up to the Valentines Day massacre, the report said.

Two-thirds of the 70-page report, titled Independent Review of NCs Education Record, was blacked out when released, but the contents became readable when copied and pasted to another document file.

The review identified two specific instances where school officials did not follow the requirements of Florida statute or federal laws that govern students with disabilities, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

School officials misstated Cruzs options when he was faced with removal from the Florida high school his junior, which led him to refuse special education services, according to the report.

When Cruz was asked to return to the therapeutic environment of Cross Creek School for special education students, the district did not follow through, the report said.

Upon entering the room and seeing the Cross Creek representatives, the student immediately became upset and verbally aggressive. He refused to sit at the table, angrily repeating that he would not go back to Cross Creek and that he wanted only to stay at Stoneman. He intended to graduate from the school, the report said, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

The consultants report revealed for the first time that Cruz himself requested to return to special education, but his request went nowhere, the Sentinel reported.

The review added that Cruz had no school counseling or other special education services in the 14 months leading up to the Feb. 14 rampage, in part because of the schools errors.

MUCH OF PARKLAND SUSPECT NIKOLAS CRUZ'S STATEMENT TO POLICE SHOULD BE MADE PUBLIC, JUDGE RULES

Three days after he was forced by the district to withdraw from Stoneman Douglas High, he purchased an AR-15 rifle. Then, a year after his ejection from the school, he returned for the mass shooting.

The district treated him like a general education student for his final two years, but even those students should have access to counseling and mental health services, the report said.

Other than the errors, the consultant found that the district largely followed the law in providing special education to the shooter starting when he was 3 years old, the paper reported.

PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTER NIKOLAS CRUZ WAS REFERRED TO DISCIPLINE PROGRAM, DESPITE OFFICIAL'S DENIALS

But Cruzs attorneys called the report a whitewash commissioned by the district to absolve it of responsibility for its handling of Cruzs psychological problems, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

I think that the report is an attempt by the school board to absolve itself of any liability or responsibility for all the missed opportunities that they had in this matter, said Gordon Weekes, the chief assistant public defender.

Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted.
A solo hiker from Seattle has been missing since Wednesday, and a massive search continued Saturday.

Experienced day hiker, Samantha "Sam" Sayers, 28, had left alone for a hike on the Vesper Peak trail at North Cascades in Washington state, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said.

But she hasn't been heard from since.

Kevin Dares, her boyfriend, and his siblings told the Seattle Times that they have spent nearly $5,000, stuffing 150 one-gallon plastic bags with survival items including snack bars, socks, a compass and lighter -- and planting them in the area in hopes that Sayers will find them.

Each bag comes with instructions, so if Sayers finds them, she can help the search volunteers find her.

"Lost person Sam Sayers. Tear off corner of this note and leave in bag so we can track you! Stay strong! We love you and everyone is looking for you," a note for each bag reads, according to the paper.

Sayers left at 8 a.m. Wednesday and was expected to check in with Dares by 6 p.m., Seattle's Q13 Fox reported.

Fifty volunteers from various search and rescue groups, three K-9 teams and Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team have joined in the massive search effort, the Times reported.

Sam's mother, Lisa Yax Sayers, is keeping hope alive with a post on Facebook.

"We aren't giving up hope and we need you to all stay strong with us," Lisa wrote. "(P)lease pray that it will be the day we get to hold our little girl in our arms."
Just hours after a San Francisco Bay Area community bid its final goodbyes to a woman who was fatally stabbed at a BART rail station last month, police identified a suspect in connection with the latest acts of violence at the same station.

Police said they're looking for Solomon Espinosa, 27, in connection with slashings of two men Friday night at the BART systems MacArthur station in Oakland.

Its the same station where Nia Wilson, 18, whose funeral drew some 200 mourners earlier in the day, had been fatally stabbed in an unrelated attack July 22 while waiting for a train with her sister.

Friday nights slashings followed an altercation aboard a Richmond-bound train at the station, the East Bay Times reported.

We dont know if it was random. We dont think they knew each other, BART spokeswoman Anna Duckworth told the newspaper.

The victims injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, the Bay Areas FOX 2 reported.

One sustained a cut to the arm and the second received a cut to his cheek, BART Deputy Police Chief Lance Haight told the East Bay Times.

Espinosa has a criminal record and is believed to be a transient, FOX 2 reported. BART surveillance cameras recorded the attacks, the report said.

Earlier in the day, friends and family filed ijnto Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland to remember Nia Wilson, whose stabbing death drew international attention.

Oh my God, shes really gone.  Mourner at funeral of Nia Wilson, 18.

Oh my God, shes really gone, one mourner sobbed as she approached Wilsons white casket, the East Bay Times reported.

The unprovoked attack against Wilson and her sister Latifa has garnered sympathy from around the world. Mourners on Friday remembered Wilson's loving nature, her musical talents and her aspirations to become a paramedic or join the military.

Wilson's sister, Latifa, broke down in tears as she read a poem about her sister.

"Baby girl, shine bright and big sister promise we're going to get justice for you," she said. "I love you."

"Baby girl, shine bright and big sister promise we're going to get justice for you. I love you."  Latifa Wilson, sister of stabbing victim Nia Wilson

John Cowell, a 27-year-old parolee, has been charged with murder and attempted murder in the July 22 stabbings.

Prosecutors say they are probing whether the incident was motivated by racial hate. Cowell is white, and the sisters are black.

Wilson's family plans to sue BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) for wrongful death for failing to provide adequate security in its stations and on its trains, where violent crime has soared, their attorney, Robert Arns, said.

California Department of Justice figures show violent crime rates have risen 69 percent in the BART system over the last decade, despite a decrease of 8 percent in California in the same time.

The agency has been beefing up its response to fare evasion and has installed 4,000 surveillance cameras, including on every train, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said. "We are thankful the suspect is in custody due in large part to our surveillance system," Trost said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Parts of Yosemite National Park will be closed "indefinitely" due to ongoing wildfires in and around the scenic valley, the National Park Service said Sunday.

The closures include Yosemite Valley, El Portal Road, Wawona Road, Big Oak Flat Road, Glacier Point, the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias, Wawona Campground, Crane Flat Campground and Tamarack Campground.

"Fire managers are continuously assessing conditions in the area and will work directly with and will immediately advise park managers as conditions change and it becomes safe to reopen," the National Park Service said in a statement.

As of Sunday, the Ferguson fire had burned 89,633 acres and was 38 percent contained. It is one of 18 major fires burning throughout the Golden State and its smoke has filled the Yosemite Valley, blocking views of El Capitan and Half Dome in addition to Yosemite Falls.

In talking to people, no one has ever seen the smoke this heavy, park spokesman Scott Gediman told the Los Angeles Times.

On Friday, evacuations were ordered due to "multiple hazards" along several roads in addition to power outages in Yosemite Valley. Two firefighters have died so far battling the blaze.

Ferguson Fire officials told FOX26 that all the power in Yosemite Valley was out, and there was no way for park employees to keep food or filter air due to the outages.

CARR FIRE CLAIMS 7TH DEATH IN CALIFORNIA AS FIREFIGHTERS BATTLE FIRESTORM

Most of the park's signature attractions in the valley have been obscured by a choking haze for days, although shifting winds means the pollution levels and visual clarity changes throughout the day, according to Pete Lahm, an air resource specialist for the U.S. Forest Service, which is running the Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program. Yosemite officials are referring visitors to the program's website to check pollution levels.

"The whole park at this juncture has been hammered in smoke," Lahm told the Associated press. "This area definitely has the highest levels (of air pollution) in the U.S. right now," he said, adding that other parts of Northern California and southern Oregon were also at unhealthy levels due to wildfires.

The Environmental Protection Agency's "Air Now" website on Friday recorded the Air Quality Index in Yosemite at a staggering 386, or "hazardous"  higher than the smog-choked city of Beijing, which had an "unhealthy" AQI of 119 at the same time.

Officials note that the AQI changes throughout the day and that the pollution from industrial dust, cars and emissions is different than wildfires burning through trees and grass but still unhealthy. On Sunday, the quality shifted back down to "unhealthy."

'FIRE TORNADO' REACHED 143 MPH AS IT CAUSED PATH OF DESTRUCTION IN SCORCHED CALIFORNIA

Not all of the park is closed; roughly the northern third of Yosemite has remained open. But officials say it is Yosemite's longest and most extensive closure since 1997, when floods shut the park for two months.

For visitors who wanted to enjoy the iconic sights during the busy summer vacation season, the closures have dealt a blow to any plans.

"I'm totally gutted we can't visit Yosemite," British tourist Caroline Lansell told the AP, who was on a summer vacation to California with her husband and two children.

Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Three NATO soldiers were killed early Sunday morning in a suicide attack for which the Taliban has claimed responsibility.

The attack occurred during a routine security patrol on foot outside a large U.S. air base in Afghanistan.

All three fatalities were from the Czech Republic, a member nation of both NATO and the international security force known as Resolute Support, said Lt. Gen. Ales Opata, chief of general staff of the Czech army.

One American service member and two Afghan soldiers were wounded in the blast.

Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history, and further strengthen our resolve.  U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander

The attack took place in Charikar District, Parwan province, about 40 miles north of Kabul, near Bagram Air Base, said Wahida Shahkar, a spokeswoman for the provincial governor in the Parwan province.

My thoughts and prayers, along with those of all of the 41-contributing Resolute Support nations, are with the families and friends of our fallen and wounded service members, and our injured Afghan brothers and their families, said U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander. Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history, and further strengthen our resolve.

The U.S. military said it would not release more details until the families of the fallen service members have been notified.

NATO formally concluded its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but thousands of forces are still providing support and training to Afghan troops, while carrying out counterterrorism missions.

Sunday's attack was similar to one that occurred near Bagram in December 2015, when six U.S. troops were killed by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle. Three others were injured in that attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Croatia on Sunday celebrated a victorious 1995 military offensive in which it retook lands held by rebel Serbs, while Serbia's president compared the operation to the policies of Nazi Germany.

The comments by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic have whipped up tensions between two main Balkan rivals whose conflicting views illustrate persistent divisions stemming from the 1991-95 war.

The war in Croatia erupted when the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. Minority Serbs in Croatia, backed by Serbia, took up arms and formed their own self-declared state, rejecting the split from the Serb-led Yugoslav federation and expelling hundreds of thousands of Croats from their homes.

More than 10,000 people were killed and many Croatian towns were devastated in the years that followed before Croatia in August 1995 took back control of the Serb-held lands. That blitz attack, dubbed Storm, sent 200,000 minority Serbs fleeing the country in miles-long columns of tractors, cars and horse-driven carts.

Croatia on Sunday hailed the offensive as a flawless military victory that reunited the country's territory and ended the war. Top officials attended a central ceremony in the former rebel stronghold of Knin that included a fly over by military jets.

U.S. and Israeli military envoys were among the guests attending the event, while Israeli jets took part in the fly by, Croatia's defense ministry said.

"(Storm) has become a textbook successful military operation," said Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. "It was the time of total unity of the Croatian people and Croatian soldiers."

Meanwhile, neighboring Serbia mourned the hundreds of victims who were killed during the 1995 attack.

Vucic, an extreme Serb nationalist during the war, accused Croatia late Saturday of intentionally expelling Serbs from the country because of their ethnicity. Vucic evoked the fate of Anne Frank, the world famous Jewish diarist who died in the Holocaust, saying she was persecuted for the same reason as the Croatian Serbs.

"The intent was the same. Hitler wanted a world without Jews; Croatia and its policy wanted a Croatia without Serbs," Vucic told thousands at a commemoration event in northern Serbia.

Vucic's strongly-worded comments have been rejected by Croatia. The liberal Index news portal described the Serbian president's statement as "scandalous" and asked if Vucic should be barred from entering Croatia.

Croatian Defense Minister Damir Krsticevic retorted that "we didn't start the war, we defended ourselves and later liberated Croatia."

Vucic has said he wants to boost cooperation with other Balkan nations and lead Serbia toward membership in the European Union, but he also has been increasing military and other ties with Russia.
A 28-year-old woman became the first person in Denmark to be fined under a new law which prohibits wearing garments that cover the face in public after an incident at a shopping center on Friday.

Danish news agency Ritzau reported that police were called to a shopping center in Horsholm, a city of 46,000 located north of Copenhagen, to confront a woman wearing a niqab garment covering her face.

After police were called, they found the woman had been illegally wearing a niqab in public and after she removed it issued a fine of 1,000 Danish kroner, or $156, Sky News reported.

Denmark's facial covering law went into effect on Wednesday, and brings the country in line with similar laws in France and Belgium that prohibit full-body burqas, as well the niqab  Muslim dress which only shows the eyes. Both are rare in Denmark.

DENMARK JOINS SOME EUROPEAN NATIONS IN BANNING BURQA, NIQAB

Justice Minister Soeren Pape Poulsen has previously said that it will be up to police officers to use their "common sense" when they see people violating the law.

The government has contended the law is not aimed at any religion and does not ban headscarves, turbans or the traditional Jewish skull cap.

DENMARK TO FORCE 'GHETTO' CHILDREN TO LEARN ABOUT DEMOCRACY, CHRISTMAS

The Danish law allows people to cover their face when there is a "recognizable purpose" like cold weather or complying with other legal requirements, such as using motorcycle helmets, according to the Associated Press

Anyone forcing a person to wear garments covering the face by using force or threats can be fined or face up to two years in prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Beijing has been beset with rumors in recent weeks that China's authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, is in trouble.

The leaders communist regime is facing a range of challenges  an ongoing trade war with the U.S., a slowing domestic economy and a public health scandal involving thousands of defective vaccines being given to children.

The Guardian reports that Xis name disappeared briefly from the cover of the Peoples Daily, replaced with stories about his deputy, Li Keqiang, and portraits of him were said to have been taken down after someone threw ink at his image.

A cryptic slogan also emerged online, according to the U.K. news site: No. 1 will rest while Ocean takes over the military, a reference to a rival politician taking power.

Still, Xi remains in power and mentions of him in the countrys state-run media are commonplace.

Such rumors may well lack credibility, but they do offer some indication that the disharmony within Chinas party elite is increasing, the Hong Kong political analyst Lee Yee wrote in the online journal China Heritage.

An essay published this week by a law professor at Tsinghua University thats made the rounds on social media offered the type of direct criticism of Chinas government that is rarely seen.

After 40 years of reform, overnight were back to the ancient regime, wrote Xu Zhangrun, calling for the return of term limits, abolished by Xi earlier this year, and the rehabilitation of those punished for the June pro-democracy protests crushed by the government.

The party is going to great lengths to create a new idol, and in the process it is offering up to the world an image of China as modern totalitarianism, he wrote.

As trade negotiations falter and China faces questions after the disappearance of a professor known for his critiques of the government, analysts say that Xis absolute hold on power could be showing signs of having limits.

His position is safe, Willy Lam, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation and adjunct professor at the Center for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the Guardian. Its just his authority has been dented to some extent. His authority has suffered.
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Italy's foreign minister said Sunday he was pleased to hear from Egyptian officials that they are committed to completing an investigation into the 2016 killing of an Italian graduate student in the capital Cairo with a "concrete result."

Enzo Moavero Milanesi arrived in Egypt on the first visit by a top Italian diplomat since the death of Giulio Regeni. His trip comes on the heels of a visit last month by Italian Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

Milanesi met with Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo. He said at a news conference with Shoukry that they discussed "important" topics including Libya, illegal migration and the controversial death of Regeni.

"I was pleased to hear from the minister and also the Egyptian government strong willingness to bring judicial inquiry to concrete result," he said of the Regeni case. "We are confident that justice will be brought in this really tragic and painful case."

Regeni, 28, was a Cambridge University doctoral student researching labor movements in Egypt when he was abducted on Jan. 25, 2016. His body was found along a roadside several days later bearing marks of extensive torture, of the kind that activists and rights groups say is widespread within Egyptian detention facilities.

The case roiled Cairo's relations with Rome, with Regeni's family and Italian media accusing Egyptian security forces of torturing and killing him. Italy withdrew its ambassador in April 2016, saying Egypt was not cooperating in an Italian investigation. An ambassador returned last September.

Egypt's security services have denied any involvement in Regeni's abduction or death.

"We have been working hard to overcome the challenge that (Egyptian-Italian) relations have faced," Shoukry said.

El-Sissi repeated a pledge to the Italian minister that Egypt would help bring Regeni's killers to justice, according to a statement by his office.

Since Regeni's body was found, the Egyptian government has suggested several alternative scenarios for his death.

It initially claimed Regeni was killed by gang members after security forces killed five members of a kidnapping crew in a raid and circulated photos of Regeni's ID cards officials said were found at the scene. That explanation was widely dismissed, including in the Italian media, which has closely followed the case.

The Egyptian president and his government routinely blame unnamed parties for the country's woes. Earlier this year, el-Sissi cast aside the gang killing theory and accused unnamed parties of killing Regeni in a failed plot to sabotage Egyptian-Italian relations.

Regeni's research would have drawn scrutiny from security agencies. He went missing in central Cairo when police were out in force to prevent protests on the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. His main contact in the unofficial street vendors' union later said he told police that Regeni was a spy.

Egyptian and Italian investigators have been working together to retrieve surveillance footage from the Cairo subway system as part of a joint investigation. They said in June that footage from the system on the day of Regeni's disappearance does not include images of him. However, there are gaps in the footage which need "further sophisticated examination," they said.

Egypt has been waging a fierce crackdown on dissent since the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013. Thousands of people, mainly Islamists, have been jailed as well as several prominent secular activists. Pro-government media routinely portray Egypt as the target of foreign conspiracies aimed at destabilizing the country.
Heavy fighting in Yemen's port province of Hodeida between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels has killed at least 80 people on both sides over the last two days, Yemeni officials and witnesses said Sunday.

Government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have been advancing in the area in recent weeks as they battle Iran-allied rebels known as Houthis. The fighting has escalated as government forces try to retake the port city of Hodeida, the main entry point for food in a country teetering on the brink of famine.

The officials said forces backed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition have been trying to seize the rebel-held district of ad-Durayhimi south of Hodeida city and at least 100 have been wounded over a 24-hour period.

The rebels have killed at least 30 Emirati-backed forces in an ambush in ad-Durayhimi, they said. Fighting has been ongoing in the district, about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) south of Hodeida International Airport, they said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, while the witnesses did so for fear of reprisal.

The Saudi-led coalition launched the campaign to retake Hodeida in June, with Emirati troops leading the force of government soldiers and irregular militia fighters backing Yemen's exiled government. Saudi Arabia has provided air support, with targeting guidance and refueling from the United States.

Hodeida, home to 600,000 people, is some 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the capital Sanaa. The campaign to take the city threatens to worsen Yemen's humanitarian situation as it is the main entry point for food, humanitarian aid and fuel supplies to the country.

Aid groups fear a protracted fight could force a shutdown of the port, potentially pushing millions into starvation. Some 70 percent of Yemen's food enters via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country's population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are at risk of starving.

The Houthis seized control of Sanaa in September 2014, and later pushed south toward the port city of Aden. The Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in March 2015 and has faced criticism for a campaign of airstrikes that has killed civilians and destroyed hospitals and markets.

The Houthis, meanwhile, have laid land mines, killing and wounding civilians. They have also targeted religious minorities and imprisoned opponents. The stalemated war has killed more than 10,000 people.

The war has left around two-thirds of Yemen's population of 27 million relying on aid, and over 8 million at risk of starving.
A research director at a military agency linked to Syria's chemical weapons program was assassinated, a newspaper close to the Syrian government reported Sunday.

The pro-government al-Watan newspaper reported on its website that Aziz Esber, of the Scientific Studies and Research Center, died in a blast targeting his car Saturday night, in Syria's Hama province.

It said Israel was suspected of carrying out the attack. There was no comment from Israeli or Syrian government officials.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syria war through local contacts, also reported Esber's death. It said he specialized in developing rocket systems at the center's Masyaf facility in Hama.

Esber's driver was also killed in the blast, according to al-Watan and the Observatory.

Western and Israeli intelligence agencies have long linked the SSRC to Syria's chemical weapons program.

In April, the U.S., Britain and France carried out joint airstrikes against the center's Damascus facilities in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by government forces near the capital.

Israel is believed to be behind airstrikes targeting the center's facilities in Masyaf last month and last September. Israel has been carrying out strikes inside Syria to prevent advanced weapons transfers to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview in June with Russia's state-controlled NTV television channel that his government got rid of all its chemical weapons in 2013 and that allegations of their use were a pretext for invasion by other countries.

A U.N. investigative body determined the government used the nerve agent sarin in an aerial attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 that killed about 100 people and affected about 200 others.

The U.S. leveled sanctions against 271 employees of the SSRC less than three weeks after the attack, saying the agency was responsible for "developing and producing non-conventional weapons and the means to deliver them." Esber was not on the list of targeted individuals.

The U.S. and its allies also blamed government forces for a sarin gas attack on the suburbs of Damascus in 2013 that killed around 1,000 people.

The U.S. government first leveled sanctions against the agency in 2005. France, the EU and the U.K. also have imposed sanctions on the SSRC.

Syria has been in a civil war since state security forces cracked down on demonstrations calling for Assad's ouster in 2011. At least 400,000 people have been killed and more than 11 million people displaced in the violence.

___

This story has been corrected to say research director was killed, not the general director.
Manuela "Mona" Rodriguez, of Long Beach was shot in the head by the safety officer, Eddie F. Gonzalez, on the afternoon of Sept. 27 about a block from Millikan High School, authorities said.
(TNS) - Patience is wearing thin in Greenbrier County, W. Va., where some people continue to live in marginally habitable structures more than 25 months after the deadly flood that claimed nearly two dozen lives and caused millions of dollars of property damage across West Virginia.Meanwhile, the states RISE program is in possession of nearly $150 million in HUD funding intended to assist low-income flood victims with their housing needs.To date, the amount spent on home placement, construction and rehabilitation totals $784,407.75, according to the man who earlier this summer took charge of the RISE program, Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard. An additional $583,000 has been obligated for payment of outstanding invoices, he added.But Hoyer indicated the flow of funding is about to surge.Next week, well announce several developments that will significantly accelerate the execution of funds related to housing, Hoyer told The Register-Herald on Friday.In a July 27 update on the program, Hoyer announced that he has been working with HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) on a pair of amendments in RISEs action plan. If approved, the first of those amendments would allow the program to replace doublewide mobile homes that were demolished in the flood. The second amendment would permit subgrant work on home rehabilitation and individual and community bridge replacements.In an emailed response to questions from The Register-Herald concerning the potential diversion of HUD funds from the programs original purpose, Hoyer said changes would not be immediate.Until we have completed a full assessment on the number of families that are eligible for HUD housing support, we will not be making any deviations from the current action plan, he said. Once we have identified those numbers, we will work with HUD to make appropriate adjustments.As set forward initially, the states action plan for flood recovery estimated that some 1,000 housing units would be needed statewide.Hoyer also deflected rumors of a rift between the state and Horne, LLP, while acknowledging that the relationship will not necessarily be long-term. Horne is a Mississippi-based consulting firm that was hired to assist with the RISE program when it was first assigned to the Commerce Department, prior to Hoyers involvement.The state plans to continue its relationship with Horne and will leverage Hornes expertise to help the state of West Virginia to develop the appropriate infrastructure to do such programs on its own in the future, Hoyer said in response to Register-Herald questions.Horne has been paid $250,925.97 out of CDBG-DR (Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery) funds, Hoyer noted.If Hoyers plan for doublewide mobile home replacements comes to pass, it will count as good news to Lawana Vest-Hughes and her husband, Stevie Hughes, who have been making do in cramped quarters since the flood  most recently a 1979 single-wide trailer.Only minutes after a Register-Herald photographer had left the retired couples trailer near Rupert this past Tuesday, Vest-Hughes received a long-awaited phone call from a representative from VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster). The caller advised Vest-Hughes that someone would be assessing her property by the end of the week for possible replacement of the doublewide the couple had lived in prior to the flood.Ive been way past frustrated, the 64-year-old Vest-Hughes said. I try to keep it all under control, but sometimes you just have to speak up.The retirees purchased their land, just off Anjean Road, in 2013. Theyd lived in the doublewide with their son for only three years when floodwaters washed away their comfortable nest in June 2016.We werent even in the flood zone before, but now we are, Vest-Hughes said, noting her husband and son were in their home when the water came rushing through.My husband told me that it looked like the ocean just broke through here, Vest-Hughes said.When Hughes woke his son from a nap that day amid the rising tide and told him they needed to get out of the house, the young man mumbled that hed get up in a few minutes. Hughes responded urgently, Son, you aint got a few minutes. Get up now!The doublewide didnt completely wash away in the flood, but when the family returned to their property after the water receded, they discovered their home was in ruins.The floors were buckled. The ceiling fell in. It was a mess, Vest-Hughes recalled. A couple of churches made sure we had food to eat and clothes on our backs. You dont know what youre supposed to do next.After spending a week in a tent, the family obtained a camper from some local church members and lived in it for the next seven months, while the wreckage of their former home was cleared away. Their son continued to live in the camper for a while after the couple bought the trailer in which they now live.Its nothing like what we had before, Vest-Hughes commented, but she added that many people are worse off than she and her husband are.I get frustrated for those who dont have anything and still dont have a place to live, she said. Theres still people that dont have homes.Vest-Hughes said that over the past several months shes been told by various agencies  including RISE and VOAD  that a brand new 2018 mobile home will soon take the place of her current living arrangements. But she remains skeptical.Its been very stressful and aggravating, she said. They tell you the same thing over and over and over again, and nothing ever gets done.Paula Brown shares Vest-Hughes frustration.The deputy director of Greenbrier County Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Brown has served as an advocate for many of the Greenbrier County applicants for assistance, including the Vest-Hughes family.Brown said at first she tried to work behind the scenes, refraining from airing her concerns in public. But when that strategy appeared to be getting no results, she began to share information with the media, in an effort to get the word out about the unaddressed needs in her county.We went to all of our U.S. senators and state legislators, Brown said. We didnt get anywhere. Its horrible.As recently as late July, Brown said she was given a list of 25 properties that had not yet been inspected on a cold case list compiled by the West Virginia National Guard, only to discover that 90 percent of the properties on the list are located in municipalities and, thus, have to be dealt with in the cities, not the county.Most of these homes were not even on our radar. Some were in areas with no flooding, Brown said.Greenbrier County Commissioner Lowell Rose is also dismayed by the states lack of progress in allocating available resources to help long-suffering flood victims.Theres a long list of houses in Greenbrier County (in need of assistance), Rose said.Recent figures shared by Brown indicate, as of July 27, the county had 150 active RISE cases, 31 cases deemed inactive/on hold and 12 active mobile homes, meaning they are active cases, but no mobile homes have yet been placed. The county has 11 rehabs and 10 reconstructions that have been approved.There will be a lot of paperwork for the county to complete, Rose noted, saying the commission may need to hire an outside contractor to help process the paperwork.We want to get as many applications processed as we can, he said.Municipal officials are somewhat more sanguine about the slow pace of the RISE process, although they are beginning to chafe at the lack of information flowing from Charleston.Information seems to be sketchy getting down to us on the RISE program, said White Sulphur Springs city manager Lloyd Haynes. We havent received any specifics.Haynes and his employees are currently gathering data about dilapidated structures that are under consideration for demolition by the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP).Inspections need to be done, he said. Some dwellings were inspected before and may have to be redone. We have received no update on that yet.Haynes pins a lot of hope on the countys ability to do some of the heavy lifting.I think well go through the county for inspections, he said. The county has been doing all of the coordinating. Were in close contact with them.Although he doesnt have an exact head count, Haynes said he knows many White Sulphur Springs residents are still waiting on assistance from HMGP, RISE and other programs.We havent seen any (RISE) workers at this point, he said. We are told that it is going to happen; its going to get back on track. But we havent seen any activity in White Sulphur.Rainelle is also waiting for RISE projects to break ground, also anticipating mounds of paperwork and also hoping that other entities will step in to conduct necessary inspections.Mayor Andrea Andy Pendleton has placed much of her faith in the nonprofit Appalachia Service Project (ASP), a Tennessee-based Christian ministry that has rebuilt and restored dozens of homes in Rainelle in the 25 months since the flood.Even though ASPs initial two-year commitment to rebuild Rainelle has concluded, the nonprofit still maintains an office in the tiny Greenbrier County town. ASP also was one of the construction firms prematurely awarded RISE contracts by the state Commerce Department. It is not clear whether that contract will stand, or if ASP will be awarded another contract, now that RISE has begun to once again move forward.ASPs local flood recovery coordinator did not return a phone message seeking comment for this story.Pendleton believes that ASP volunteers will soon resume construction in her town, although not necessarily with RISE funding. She is also confident that RISE will come through for Rainelle eventually and build rental units and reconstruct houses.She acknowledged there is currently no RISE construction under way in Rainelle, but said the West Virginia National Guard plans to demolish five severely flood-damaged downtown buildings on Main Street, as soon as funding for the tear-down is approved by the federal government, under HMGP.We see a light at the end of the tunnel, a doggedly optimistic Pendleton said. I feel better now that Gen. Hoyer has taken over.Email: talvey@register-herald.com2018 The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.)Visit The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.) at www.register-herald.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.




Haiti - FLASH BAC 2018 : Access to results BY STUDENT for 9 departments





The Ministry of National Education has just made available access to notes BY STUDENT of exams of Regular Bac (extra ordinaire) of the academic year 2017-2018 for 9 departments EXCEPT for the WEST department for the moment.



Regarding the Department of the West, the Ministry of Education informs us that it is "for soon..."



Like every year, you can access your results from the HaitiLibre website



NNew form of the Ministry of National Education for the results of the baccalaureate and to find the examination centers for the candidates ajourned : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25202-haiti-flash-adjourned-find-your-exam-center-+-all-bac-results.html



Congratulations to all admitted !



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Together we can resolve Hawaii's pension crisis

From Grassroot Institute, August 3, 2018

You've often seen me sign off with the words E hana kakou!

The premise behind that motto (which literally translates to Lets work together!) is that, despite our differences, we must work together to make a better Hawaii.

We may be from different islands, with different political views, backgrounds and agendas, but what unites us is the recognition that some of our problems can be solved only through cooperation.

And nowhere is that more true than in the case of Hawaiis public pension crisis.

Most informed Hawaii residents know that the states unfunded public pension liabilities pose a serious risk; the problem has been finding a practical, long-term solution.

This week, we at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii took a big step forward in E hana kakou by releasing our latest report,  How to Resolve Hawaiis Public Pension Debt Crisis .

It is a landmark report for several reasons, not just for Hawaii but also the nation.

One is that it is the first to compile and analyze the public pension plans of all 50 states. Our goal was to take a look at what works, what doesnt, and what might help Hawaii move out of its position as one of the nations worst sinkhole states when it comes to public pension debt.

But its in the solutions section that our new report really shines. While some think tanks present only one ideal answer to a public policy problem, our pension report looks at multiple potential solutions. Yes, we consider moving from a defined benefit to a defined contribution plan, but we dont stop there. We consider multiple possibilities, including keeping the defined benefit plan but modifying it so Hawaii doesnt plunge further into debt.

Part of the challenge is creating a new plan that will entice current employees to enroll in it by providing different benefits and incentives, such as shorter vesting periods, increased portability and higher funding ratios. Under the state Constitution, accrued benefits cannot be taken away, but we could craft a plan that would be more attractive to younger workers and still meet the needs of veteran employees.

The truth is that fixing Hawaiis public pension debt is going to require a broad view of the issue. There are multiple groups that will have to work together  including unions, policymakers, government workers and taxpayers  and we must find solutions that can garner their support.

We hope that this groundbreaking report will inject the spirit of E hana kakou into the public discourse and thus facilitate a successful resolution of Hawaiis public pension crisis.

E hana kakou! (Lets work together!)
John Franzoni attends his first School Committee meeting on Thursday.

Clarksburg Welcomes New Superintendent Franzoni

CLARKSBURG, Mass.  The School Committee welcomed new Superintendent John Franzoni at his first official meeting on Thursday.

"I would like to welcome the new superintendent with us today," Chairwoman Patricia Prenguber said.

Franzoni, who was principal of Brayton Elementary School in North Adams, was hired in June to replace retiring superintendent Jon Lev.

"It is good to be here," Franzoni said.

Franzoni went into his first report and said the school has secured the $500,000 for the emergency roof replacement from the state and Town Administrator Carl McKinney said they now need to prepare to go out to bid.

"It's all set ... we are ready to go so we need to design that and write up some specs," McKinney said. "The sooner the better."

He added that they may want to look at potentially setting up the new roof to hold solar panels.

"I don't think that we have the technical expertise to run a solar facility but there are a couple of revenue options that may be available," he said.

Franzoni added that they also plan to replace the school's boilers with $87,000 from the town's Green Communities Grant.

He added that they are also looking at other building improvements such as more secure glass for the front of the building and an improved public address system.

The school and town have been seeking alternative ways to make improvements to the 50-year-old building after town meeting emphatically rejected a $19 million renovation and addition project last year. The Massachusetts School Building Authority would have provided about $11 million of the cost but the tax impact for the remaining $7.7 million was more than most homeowners felt they could bear.

Franzoni was asked by Select Board Chairman Ronald Boucher if he has been in contact at all with the MSBA about possibly resubmitting an application.

Franzoni said he had a general conversation with MSBA officials and thought that it would be possible to submit a scaled-down design.

"They were very sympathetic to the needed repairs our building has and they said the information is still on file and it would not be a big deal to submit a revised proposal," he said. "They encouraged me to go back and talk to people in the town to see if this is something we want to revisit."

Boucher said he thought it was important to see the project -- that voters shot down twice -- through and perhaps try to "sell it the right way" to the town.

Prenguber said she that thought they did sell it the right way and perhaps a new proposal that cost less than the originally proposed $19 million project would be easier for the town to accept.

"We did do it the right way we thought when we went for it, but I am sure there are options now that we need to look at," she said.

Franzoni said he would gather more information and bring it up at a future School Committee meeting.

In Principal Tara Barnes' report, she said the first day of school will be Aug. 30 and faculty are busy getting the building ready.

"Now we are cleaning the building and getting ready for the first day of school," she said.

She added that the PTG is organizing an ice-cream social the Tuesday before the first day.

"We want to bring families here and have students visit their classrooms, so they can see where they are going," she said. "We want new students to connect with their classmates and teachers."

She said as of now the projected enrollment is 190 with the largest classroom size of 21.




iciHaiti - Petit-Goave : High tension with the new committee of the EDH





Last August 2, during an interview given to the microphone of Radio Preference FM of Petit-Goave, Molrith Desir Guy, Head of the Distribution Department of the Electricity of Haiti (EDH) office and former President of the local branch of the National union of the EDH, said to have complained to the Prosecutor of Petit-Goave against Gibsone Bazile an employee of the EDH and CEO of Radio Vision Plus for death threats and attempted assassination.



"Because a group of employees and I, had removed the decorations in protest against the installation ceremony of the new GoU's union committee of the EDH region that the National Executive Bureau (BEN) of the union Central of the EDH wanted to impose on us last July 20, Gibsone Bazile very pissed punched me with a punch and then unsheathed his revolver. I had to run away. Without the intervention of another employee, I would be, perhaps, already dead," declared Molrith Desir Guy adding "Despite the opposition of almost all employees of the EDH of Petit-Goave, Gibsone Bazile and the BEN members who came directly from Port-au-Prince installed a new provisional committee headed by Joseph Carrenand (contractual) and Laclotte Marquio (still another contractual) at the head of the union of the Goavienne region. We chanllege this committee, which is not representative. It is a BEN decision and there were no elections."



Gisbone Bazile is convened to the prosecutor's office of Petit-Goave to answer the complaint against him and explain the reasons that led him to threaten with his revolver Desir Molrith Guy on the courtyard of the local EDH on the street St.Paul.



IH/ iciHaiti / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goave)


















August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The key take away from the BRICS summit in Johannesburg is that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa  important Global South players  strongly condemn unilateralism and protectionism.

The Johannesburg Declaration is unmistakable: We recognize that the multilateral trading system is facing unprecedented challenges. We underscore the importance of an open world economy.

Closer examination of Chinese President Xi Jinpings speech unlocks some poignant details.

Xi, crucially, emphasizes delving further into our strategic partnership. That implies increased BRICS and Beyond BRICS multilateral trade, investment and economic and financial connectivity.

And that also implies reaching to the next level; It is important that we continue to pursue innovation-driven development and build the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR) to strengthen coordination on macroeconomic policies, find more complementarities in our development strategies, and reinforce the competitiveness of the BRICS countries, emerging market economies and developing countries.

If PartNIR sounds like the basis for an overall Global South platform, thats because it is.

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In a not too veiled allusion to the Trump administrations unilateral pullout from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), Xi called all parties to abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations and to settle disputes through dialogue and differences through consultation, adding that the BRICS are inevitably working for a new type of international relations.

Relations such as these certainly do not include a superpower unilaterally imposing an energy export blockade  an act of economic war  on an emerging market and key actor of the Global South.

Xi is keen to extol a network of closer partnerships. Thats where the concept of BRICS Plus fits in. China coined BRICS Plus last year at the Xiamen summit, it refers to closer integration between the five BRICS members and other emerging markets/developing nations.

Argentina, Turkey and Jamaica are guests of honor in Johannesburg. Xi sees BRICS Plus interacting with the UN, the G20 and other frameworks to amplify the margin of maneuver not only of emerging markets but the whole Global South. So how does Iran fit into this framework?

An absurd game of chicken

Immediately after President Trumps Tweet of Mass Destruction the rhetorical war between Washington and Tehran has skyrocketed to extremely dangerous levels.

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

Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force  and a true rock star in Iran  issued a blistering response to Trump: You may begin the war, but it is us who will end it.

The IRGC yields massive economic power in Iran and is in total symbiosis with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Its no secret the IRGC never trusted President Rouhanis strategy of relying on the JCPOA as the path to improve Irans economy. After the unilateral Trump administration pullout, the IRGC feels totally vindicated.

The mere threat of a US attack on Iran has engineered a rise in oil prices. US reliance on Middle East Oil is going down while fracking  boosted by higher prices  is ramping up. The threat of war increases with Tehran now overtly referring to its power to cripple global energy supplies literally overnight.

In parallel the Houthis, by forcing the Yemen-bombing House of Saud to stop oil shipments via the Bab al-Mandeb port, are configuring the Strait of Hormuz and scores of easily targeted pipelines as even more crucial to the flow of energy that makes the West tick. If there ever was a US attack on Iran, Persian Gulf analysts stress only Russia, Nigeria and Venezuela might be able to provide enough oil and gas to make up for lost supplies to the West. Thats not exactly what the Trump administration is looking for.

Iranian nuclear weapons was always a bogus issue. Tehran did not have them  and was not pursuing them. Yet now the highly volatile rhetorical war introduces the hair-raising possibility of Tehran perceiving there is a clear danger of a US nuclear attack or an attack whose purpose is to destroy the nations infrastructure. If cornered, theres no question the IRGC would buy nuclear weapons on the black market and use them to defend the nation.

This is the secret hidden in Soleimanis message. Besides, Russia could easily  and secretly  supply Iran with state-of-the-art defensive missiles and the most advanced offensive missiles.

This absurd game of chicken is absolutely unnecessary for Washington from an oil strategy point of view  apart from the intent to break a key node of Eurasia integration. Assuming the Trump administration is playing chess, its imperative to think 20 moves ahead if winning is on the cards.

If a US oil blockade on Iran is coming, Iran could answer with its own Strait of Hormuz blockade, producing economic turmoil for the West. If this leads to a massive depression, its unlikely the industrial-military-security complex will blame itself.

Theres no question that Russia and China  the two key BRICS players  will have Irans back. First theres Russias participation in Irans nuclear and aerospace industries and then the Russia-Iran collaboration in the Astana process to solve the Syria tragedy. With China, Iran as one of the countrys top energy suppliers and plays a crucial role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Russia and China have an outsize presence in the Iranian market and similar ambitions to bypass the US dollar and third-party US sanctions.

Beam me up, Global South

The true importance of the BRICS Johannesburg summit is how it is solidifying a Global South plan of action that would have Iran as one of its key nodes. Iran, although not named in an excellent analysis by Yaroslav Lissovolik at the Valdai Club, is the quintessential BRICS Plus nation.

Once again, BRICS Plus is all about constituting a unified platform of regional integration arrangements, going way beyond regional deals to reach other developing nations in a transcontinental scope.

This means a platform integrating the African Union (AU), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as well as the South Asian Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

Iran is a future member of the SCO and has already struck a deal with the EAEU. Its also an important node of the BRI and is a key member, along BRICS members India and Russia, of the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), essential for deeper Eurasia connectivity.

Lissovolik uses BEAMS as the acronym to designate the aggregation of regional integration groups, with BRICS Plus being a broader concept that incorporates other forms of BRICS interaction with developing economies.

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi has defined BRICS Plus and BEAMS as the most extensive platform for South-South cooperation with a global impact. The Global South now does have an integration road map. If it ever happened, an attack on Iran would be not only an attack on BRICS Plus and BEAMS but on the whole Global South

Pepe Escobar is correspondent-at-large at Asia Times

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Home Search ICH FBI Records Show Russian Dossier Author Deemed Not Suitable For Use as Source, Show Several FBI Payments in 2016 By Judicial Watch Documents Reveal Steele Was Admonished in February, 2016 August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - (Washington, DC)  Judicial Watch announced today the FBI turned over 70 pages of heavily redacted records about Christopher Steele, the former British spy, hired with Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee funds, who authored the infamous Dossier targeting President Trump during last years presidential campaign. The documents show that Steele was cut off as a Confidential Human Source (CHS) after he disclosed his relationship with the FBI to a third party. The documents show at least 11 FBI payments to Steele in 2016 and document that he was admonished for unknown reasons in February, 2016. The documents were turned over in response to Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records of communications and payments between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and his private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-00916)). Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The documents include a source closing communication that states that Steele (referred to as CHS or Confidential Human Source) is being closed because: CHS confirmed to an outside third party that CHS has a confidential relationship with the FBI. CHS was used as a source for an online article. In the article, CHS revealed CHS relationship with the FBI as well as information that CHS obtained and provided to FBI. On November 1, 2016, CHS confirmed all of this to the handling agent. At that time, handling agent advised CHS that the nature of the relationship between the FBI and CHS would change completely and that it was unlikely that the FBI would continue a relationship with the CHS. Additionally, handling agent advised that CHS was not to operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI. The documents also show that Steele was paid repeatedly by the FBI and was admonished for some unknown misconduct in February, 2016. The documents include: Fifteen (15) FD-1023, Source Reports. Thirteen (13) FD-209a, Contact Reports. Eleven (11) FD-794b, Payment Requests. (It appears Steele was paid money eleven of the thirteen times he met with the FBI and gave them information.) An Electronic Communication (EC) documenting that on February 2, 2016, Steele was admonished in accordance with the Justice Department guidelines and the FBI CHS Policy Manual. The documents were obtained as a result of a lawsuit was filed after the Department of Justice failed to respond to a March 8, 2017, FOIA request seeking: All records of communications between any official, employee, or representative of the FBI and Mr. Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer and the owner of the private firm Orbis Business Intelligence. All records related to the proposed, planned, or actual payment of any funds to Mr. Steele and/or Orbis Business Intelligence. All records produced in preparation for, during, or pursuant to any meetings or telephonic conversations between any official, employee, or representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr. Christopher Steele and/or any employee or representative of Orbis Business Intelligence. These new docs show that the shady, cash-based relationship the Obama FBI had with Clinton operative Christopher Steele, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. The anti-Trump Russia investigation had Christopher Steele at its center and his misconduct was no impediment to using information from his Russia intelligence collaborators to spy on the Trump team. The corruption and abuse is astonishing. Last week, a separate Judicial Watch lawsuit uncovered the FISA warrant documents used to justify spying on Carter Page. The warrants are controversial because the FISA court was never told that the key information justifying the requests came from a dossier that was created by Fusion GPS, a paid agent of the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. Fusion GPS hired Steele to create the Dossier and Steele is referenced repeatedly as Source #1 in the warrants. The initial Carter Page warrant was granted just weeks before the 2016 election. Steele and his minimally corroborated Clinton-DNC dossier was an essential part of the FBI and DOJs applications for surveillance warrants to spy on Page. This article was originally published by " Judicial Watch " - The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. ====== Note To ICH Community We have overcome the attack on our servers and are pleased to be able to update our website and newsletter. A big thank you to those who emailed and called with help and suggestions as to how to deal with hacking attacks. We are currently searching for a new comment system as we have run out of options on how to prevent the constant bickering and attacks by troll's, whose intention is to paint our website and newsletter as, anti-Semitic, anti-American, pro-Russian fake news. We can no longer afford to invest hours of our time each day, trying to have people behave in a manner befitting those who say they are concerned for others, while offering abuse and hostility to other ICH community members. When we have found such a comment system we will restore the comment function. We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. This would be a better use of out time than trying to prevent abuse of our comment system. Thank you for your continued support. Peace and joy Tom Feeley Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
Home Search ICH Jared Kushner's Cynical Deal of the Century Their hearts may be empty but their stomachs shall be filled. Their hopes may be dead but their bank accounts will be in the black By Robert Fisk August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Hindsight is unfair  but it might tell the truth. First, Donald Trump proclaims Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, thus depriving the Palestinians of their capital in the east of the city. The Palestinians are appalled. Mahmoud Abbas says he will no longer talk to the United States. So Trump rages that we pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect. It was only a tweet, but he means it. Those ungrateful Palestinian wretches! And he cuts $300m from Americas aid to the refugees, giving the oppressed and besieged and dispossessed Palestinians a mere $60m. Already the United Nations Relief and Works Agency  recipients of international aid for 5.3 million Palestinian refugees  is having to get rid of its employees, 113 of them in Gaza alone last week. Unrwa has been caring for the Palestinians since 1949, and already has a current deficit of $49m. Its 30,000 Palestinian doctors, nurses, teachers and other staff face unemployment. Starvation thus threatens even more of the tired, poor and huddled masses of Gaza. One 53-year-old father of six has just been told hes got no job after 32 years working for Unwra. But wait. Help is at hand. For did not Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the aforesaid Trump and giver of a future peace deal of the century to Palestinians and Israelis alike, promise a better life for the losing side? Why, he did indeed. Just a month ago. Let me quote: I believe that Palestinian people are less invested in the politicians talking points that they are in seeing how a deal will give them and their future generations new opportunities, more and better paying jobs and prospects for a better life. Ive remarked before that this is cash for peace instead of land for peace  dollars instead of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, an end to Jewish colonisation, a right of return, and so on. A truly Trumpian solution. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter But the playback of chronological events makes the deal even more cynical. First Trump gives Jerusalem to the Israelis. Then, when the Palestinians dare to complain, he cuts their humanitarian aid and drives them to despair. Then, courtesy of young Jared, Trump offers to shower them with money in the ultimate deal if they will just stop making these exorbitant, irrational, antisemitic, Nazi-like and racist demands for statehood, dignity and an end to colonisation. Their hearts may thus be empty but their stomachs shall be filled. Their hopes may be dead but their bank accounts will be in the black. Instead of all the gloom and violence fostered by their corrupt political leaders who can neither pay nor feed their people, the Palestinians can walk tall with new opportunities better-paying jobs and prospects for a better life. Yes, do watch the prospects bit. And with that much lolly floating around, there wont be any need for Unwra, will there? Because there will be no more poverty-stricken refugees. For the refugees will be well-off, if not rich, with all those better-paying jobs and prospects. Goodbye the middens of Gaza. Goodbye all threats to Israel. And since the same financial salvation will be available to the Palestinians of the West Bank, why should its inhabitants care any more about the campaign of Israeli land theft which engulfs them? Just remember the dog-day destitution of the summer of 2018 when even Unwra could no longer relieve their oppression. The equation is impossible to conceal. When the Palestinians objected to the destruction of their political aspirations  refused to talk peace in the obscene semantics of the Americans and Israelis  they would be quite deliberately impoverished. With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, Trump said, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them? More than half of Gazas 2 million population, with a 44 per cent unemployment rate, are dependent on Unwra. The Palestinian cause, in other words  and one Unwra staffer put it like this  must be replaced with a humanitarian cause. Peace will therefore be economic, rather than political. The Saudis and Emiratis and Egyptians are being hustled to share in this new Levantine bonanza. Electricity stations paid for by Abu Dhabi, Egyptian duty free shops in Raffah, Saudi shares in Palestinian firms; dreams, perhaps, but suitable for the masses. In some ways, its back to the old fantasy of a Dubai in the West Bank, a Singapore in Gaza, which Shimon Peres used to espouse and which even the lamentable John Kerry suggested. For who now remembers the forgotten Secretary of States $4bn economic plan for Palestine which he proposed at the World Economic Forum more than five years ago? The same old Abbas was then, too, being told he must restart negotiations with Israel, as Kerry waffled on about a ground-breaking plan to develop a healthy, sustainable, private sector-led Palestinian economy ... bigger, bolder and more ambitious than anything proposed since Oslo more than 20 years ago. But then at least Kerry was offering a Palestinian state in return for Abbass compliance. Nothing, however, is groundbreaking about the Trump deal of the century today, except the continued breaking of ground for new Jewish settlements, as we still must call them, on the hilltops of the West Bank. But I suppose if theyre less hungry, better fed, look forward to better jobs and prospects for the future and dont have the nightmare Unwra to watch over them, the Palestinians will be able to reflect how much worse off theyd be if they had their own state, borders, security, East Jerusalem and no more Israeli colonies on occupied Palestinian land. Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist. He has been Middle East correspondent intermittently since 1976 for various media; since 1989 he has been correspondent for The Independent, primarily based in Beirut. This article was originally published by "The Independent " - The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. ====== Trump and Allies Seek End to Refugee Status for Millions of Palestinians



In internal emails, Jared Kushner advocated a sincere effort to disrupt the U.N.s relief agency for Palestinians.



By Colum Lynch, Robbie Gramer August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trumps son-in-law and senior advisor, has quietly been trying to do away with the U.N. relief agency that has provided food and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades, according to internal emails obtained by Foreign Policy. His initiative is part of a broader push by the Trump administration and its allies in Congress to strip these Palestinians of their refugee status in the region and take their issue off the table in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to both American and Palestinian officials. At least two bills now making their way through Congress address the issue. Kushner, whom Trump has charged with solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been reluctant to speak publicly about any aspect of his Middle East diplomacy. A peace plan hes been working on with other U.S. officials for some 18 months has been one of Washingtons most closely held documents. But his position on the refugee issue and his animus toward the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is evident in internal emails written by Kushner and others earlier this year. It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA, Kushner wrote about the agency in one of those emails, dated Jan. 11 and addressed to several other senior officials, including Trumps Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt. This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesnt help peace, he wrote. The United States has helped fund UNRWA since it was formed in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians displaced from their homes following the establishment of the State of Israel and ensuing international war. Previous administrations have viewed the agency as a critical contributor to stability in the region. But many Israel supporters in the United States today see UNRWA as part of an international infrastructure that has artificially kept the refugee issue alive and kindled hopes among the exiled Palestinians that they might someday return homea possibility Israel flatly rules out. Critics of the agency point in particular to its policy of granting refugee status not just to those who fled Mandatory Palestine 70 years ago but to their descendants as wellaccounting that puts the refugee population at around 5 million , nearly one-third of whom live in camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza. By trying to unwind UNRWA, the Trump administration appears ready to reset the terms of the Palestinian refugee issue in Israels favoras it did on another key issue in December, when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital. In the same January email, Kushner wrote: Our goal cant be to keep things stable and as they are.  Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there. This article was originally published by " Foreign Policy " - ====== Note To ICH Community We are currently searching for a new comment system as we have run out of options on how to prevent the constant bickering and attacks by troll's, whose intention is to paint our website and newsletter as, anti-Semitic, anti-American, pro-Russian fake news. We can no longer afford to invest hours of our time each day, trying to have people behave in a manner befitting those who say they are concerned for others, while offering abuse and hostility to other ICH community members. When we have found such a comment system we will restore the comment function. We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. This would be a better use of out time than trying to prevent abuse of our comment system. Thank you for your continued support. Peace and joy Tom Feeley Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
By Eric London

August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Over 570 immigrant children remain in detention centers and foster facilities throughout the United States weeks or months after the government separated them from their parents this past spring.

Some 460 parents have already been deported without their children, many after being coerced into signing forms waiving their right to reunite with their sons or daughters. In many of these cases, the parents will never see their children again.

The government has deemed hundreds of parents ineligible to reunite with their children on the grounds that they have criminal records. This deliberate mass theft of children by the government is among the most shameful events in US history.

These crimes are being ignored by the corporate media. Since the beginning of August, the New York Times opinion page has featured eight op-ed pieces or editorial board statements relating to allegations of Trumps ties to Russia or the #MeToo hysteria, but none about the conditions facing immigrants. The Washington Post has published seven opinion pieces or editorial board statements about Russia and #MeToo, and none about immigrants.

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The children languishing in detention are living a nightmare. On Wednesday, the American Immigration Lawyers Association confirmed a report that a child died of a respiratory illness shortly after leaving an Obama-era family detention center in Dilley, Texas.

This week, reports revealed that guards at different Southwest Key immigrant foster/detention centers were arrested for raping and molesting detained children. One HIV-positive federal contractor forced oral sex and attempted to penetrate a number of boys detained at a facility in Mesa, Arizona. The victims were all unaccompanied children. In a separate case, a second federal contractor at a Southwest Key facility in Phoenix, Arizona slipped into childrens rooms and molested them.

According to a new study by Syracuse University, the Trump administration specifically targeted parents crossing the border with children for criminal prosecution at a higher rate than those without children. The Administration has not explained its rationale for prosecuting parents with children when that left so many other adults without children who were not being referred for prosecution, the Syracuse report said.

Susan B. Long, coordinator of Syracuse Universitys Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, told Buzzfeed News: It wasn't like [the prosecutions] were automatic; this was a conscious choice. She continued: We have yet to know the number of separations due to them being criminally prosecuted We looked really hard for things to suggest data is unreliable or make you doubt it. We were so shocked. The Border Patrol data indicated they referred only one parent, and there were lots of separations.

On Thursday, the Trump administration filed papers in court seeking to abdicate any responsibility for reuniting children with their parents. The Department of Justice said nonprofits and immigration attorneys should instead be responsible for locating parents.

Nonprofits should use volunteers to track parents and children, the court filings said. Plaintiffs counsel [the American Civil Liberties Union] should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others, together with the information that Defendants [the Department of Justice] have provided (or will soon provide), to establish contact with possible class members in foreign countries.

The filing continues: Plaintiffs counsel should ascertain whether each possible class member wishes to be reunified with his or her child, or whether he or she wishes to waive reunification. The ACLU would then be responsible for providing Defendants with a final, unequivocal, written confirmation of whether each possible class member wants to be reunified with his or her child.

This document should be introduced as evidence that the US government is committing crimes against humanity. The requirement that parents prove unequivocally that they wish to be reunited with their children is the type of malicious demand that could have been put forward by the Nazis.

Judge Dana Sabraw, who is overseeing the lawsuit, issued an order to compel the Trump administration to provide information about the separated children and their parents by August 10. Since the Trump administration has already flouted court-ordered deadlines, the order is little more than a suggestion.

Meanwhile, the administration is planning to drastically slash the total number of refugees it will accept in 2019. According to sources within the White House, the number of refugees seeking to escape imperialist war and persecution who are admitted could fall to 15,000 from its present annual level of 45,000.

Politico reported Thursday that Trumps fascist aide Stephen Miller is directing the intensification of the anti-immigrant campaign. Behind the scenes, Miller, 32, has been contacting every relevant Cabinet secretary to convey his interpretation of the presidents thoughts on the refugee cap in an effort to sway the decision, said a former White House official familiar with the discussions, the publication wrote.

Inside the country, the Miller cadre intends to make life more difficult for undocumented immigrants already living and working here, Politico continued. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said another Republican close to the White House, intends to continue with its increased focus on worksite enforcement.

This confirms the World Socialist Web Site warning in its July 26 Perspective that an intensification of workplace raids means the administration is fighting to divide growing social opposition in the working class along racial and national lines.

The Trump administrations attack on immigrants is bound up with the Republican Partys efforts to mobilize its fascistic base in advance of the 2018 midterm elections. According to a July 18 Gallup poll, the total percentage of Republicans who list immigration as the most important issue in the US increased from 17 percent before the administration implemented its zero tolerance family separation policy in May to 35 percent in July.

As a result of this increase, immigration has now overtaken dissatisfaction with government as the most important issue on voters minds as the election approaches.

Outside of this section of far-right Republicans, Americans overwhelmingly support family reunification and the provision of citizenship rights to undocumented people. But the Democratic Party, working in collaboration with the military-intelligence agencies, the Trump administration and the major tech corporations, has conducted an operation against left-wing, pro-immigrant and anti-fascist views on social media platforms like Facebook.

On Tuesday, Facebook announced that it had banned an event page for an Abolish ICE rally called by activists demanding the reunification of immigrant parents and children and the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Facebook cited an analysis by the Atlantic Council warning of accounts that are left of the political spectrum and sought to promote divisions and set Americans against one another.

No such censorship is needed for the corporate media, where the attack on immigrants has already been relegated to the back pages.

The corporations, the two major parties, the bourgeois press and the entire political establishment are guilty of horrific crimes against immigrants and are seeking to block opposition among workers and youth to these crimes. The only way to defend democratic rights and ensure that workers have the right to travel from country to country free of harassment is to break with the two parties of American capitalism and build a mass revolutionary socialist movement.

This article was originally published by "WSWS " -

Copyright  1998-2018 World Socialist Web Site -

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Washington Post Blames Iran For Trump's Unilateral Sanctions Against It By Moon Of Alabama August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Who is to blame for the Trump administration's revocation of the nuclear deal with Iran? Who is to blame for the sanctions the Trump administration is unilaterally imposing on Iran, parts of which go into effect today? According to Jason Rezaian, it is the Iranian government. Jason Rezaian was the Washington Post bureau chief in Tehran. In July 2014 he was arrested in Tehran for espionage and sentenced to prison. In a side deal to the nuclear agreement he was released in 2016 in exchange for Iranians held in the United States. Rezaian now writes a Global Opinion column for the Post. His latest is headlined: I lived in an Iran under sanctions. Heres what its like. I lived in Tehran then and reported extensively on the impact the sanctions had. If that experience is a predictor of what is about to hit the people of Iran, heres a preview of what ordinary Iranians can expect in the weeks and months ahead. He lists a number of issues that sanctions will cause: the rial will fall further, some medicines will be difficult to get, there will be other shortages, black markets will reappear, a few will profit from them: That small but not inconsequential segment of the population will see its wealth balloon as it did in 2012 and 2013. There will be a disproportionate number of the most expensive luxury cars on Earth sitting in Tehran's perpetual traffic. Sounds like London or New York to me. Indeed, as one commentator to that op-ed remarks: A lot in this article sounds like daily life for large numbers of Americans, as if there were sanctions on a large portion of the US population. Iran may see the lifting of those sanctions one day but those Americans most likely will not, partly because so many keep voting for their oppressors. Rezaian continues: Soon enough, well-connected officials and their families with access to the black markets will begin importing and selling goods at exorbitant prices, callously taking advantage of the misfortune that their cronies in government helped create. How, please, have the "cronies" in Iran's government "helped create" the new sanctions? Iran was fulfilling all is duties under the JCPOA agreement. It was solely Donald Trump who abrogated the UN endorsed deal despite the protests of all other signatories. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter While Rezaian pretends to be concerned about the Iranian people, he continues to put the blame on the wrong party: Maybe the regime in Tehran will quietly crumble tomorrow  wouldnt that be nice?  but more likely it will press forward, doing little to address the very legitimate concerns of its people just to defy Washington.

...

Just as Fidel Castros Cuba, Nicolas Maduros Venezuela and many other anti-U.S. regimes manage to limp along for years, Irans ruling class is similarly stubborn.

...

The general malaise of a society living under the perpetual darkness caused by being marked a pariah nation will only worsen. It is hard to discern on what planet Jason Rezaian lives. It must be the one where all nations and people bow to the unreasonable whims of some loudmouth in Washington DC. That is not planet Earth. Iran is not "stubborn". It demands its rights under the JCPOA. Iran is not a "pariah nation", the United States are. It was the U.S. that unilaterally abrogated the nuclear deal. Russia, Turkey, India, China and many others will not abide to unilateral U.S. sanctions on Iran. They will not bow to secondary sanctions if the U.S. tries to impose those. Trump "cronies" visited Asia and demanded that China and India, two of Iran's biggest oil customers, stop buying Iranian oil. Both countries said no. The Trump cronies then begged China and India to not increase their imports when, in November, those sanctions bite, when some of Iran's customers stop buying and when more Iranian oil comes to the market. Those talks happened some months ago and both countries asked for more time to think about the problem. China has now in principle agreed to the Trump request - but only after it made the necessary preparations: The U.S. has been unable to persuade China to cut Iranian oil imports, according to two officials familiar with the negotiations ... Beijing has, however, agreed not to ramp up purchases of Iranian crude, according to the officials, ...

...

China -- the worlds top crude buyer and Irans No. 1 customer -- has said previously that it opposed unilateral sanctions and lifted monthly oil imports from the country by 26 percent in July. It accounted for 35 percent the Iranian exports last month, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. India seems to have had the same idea: Indias monthly oil imports from Iran surged by about 30 percent to a record 768,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, as state refiners intake surged ahead of U.S. sanctions in November, preliminary tanker arrival data obtained by Reuters showed.

...

July volumes were about 85 percent higher than year ago shipments of about 415,000 bpd, the data showed. When in November the hard oil sanction against buyers of Iranian oil go into effect India and China will insist to keep their current volume flowing. Both have already increased their buys from Iran. They can now promise to Trump that they will not increase their imports from Iran because they already upped those by a very large amount. Iran exports between 2.2 to 2.8 million barrels per day. At least half of that will continue to flow to its two biggest customers. By that measure the sanctions already failed. Trump can not even use the jurisdiction over the U.S. dollar to stop these trades. The deals with India and China are made under bilateral contracts in local currencies and futures contracts than can now be bought and sold in Shanghai where they are denominated in yuan. In addition to the sanctions the Trump regime has launched a number of shady to outright brutal initiatives against Iran. It sent people to Europe to claim that Iran is behind some terror plots in Europe, and that this is enough reason to end the deal. But: "European officials, some skeptical that Iran is behind the plots, say the nuclear deal benefits the region." Still, some European leaders have no backbone and submit to U.S. pressure. A U.S.-Israeli joint operation was set up to increase internal pressure in Iran. It will try to influence protesters in Iran and to incite terrorism. This is likely an early sign of that initiative: A large shipment of weapons incl anti-aircraft guns, 7000 cannon projectiles, 73mm antitank cannons, other ammo found in east of #Iran. Kerman prosecutor gen. says they belonged to anti-government groups. Iran will not fold under pressure, it never folded. It was the Obama administration that wanted and needed the nuclear deal. It used Oman's good office to negotiated with Tehran. Trump may try to do the same (or may indeed already talk with Iran). But his administration made unreasonable demands that Iran can not and will not fulfill. Trump's offer of unconditional talks are not welcome: Every Iranian official I spoke to said there is no trust in this US establishment and that Iran needs practical proof before initiating any dialogue. The U.S. tried to isolate Iran from Russia and China when signing the JCPOA, in the hope that Tehran would accept to stand by the U.S. This was a wrong approach because Russia and China are well established and reliable partners and we certainly cant say the same for the U.S. Trump wants to sit down with us without conditions. We dont want to sit down with him unless he backs off. His style of pressure is not the way to attract Iran; on the contrary, it is the best way to push us far away. One thing is clear: we shall not negotiate away our missile production and capabilities and the support we offer our allies in the Middle East. If this is what he wants, he can stay where he is. It is Trump who will have to climb down and reinstate the JCPOA deal. Unless he does so Iran will not be willing to deal with him. The problem now is that the Zionists behind Trump will not allow him to do that. They will insist on pushing the issue towards a military conflict. It will be another one of those that the U.S. continues to lose. 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. ====== Note To ICH Community We are currently searching for a new comment system as we have run out of options on how to prevent the constant bickering and attacks by troll's, whose intention is to paint our website and newsletter as, anti-Semitic, anti-American, pro-Russian fake news. We can no longer afford to invest hours of our time each day, trying to have people behave in a manner befitting those who say they are concerned for others, while offering abuse and hostility to other ICH community members. When we have found such a comment system we will restore the comment function. We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. This would be a better use of out time than trying to prevent abuse of our comment system. Thank you for your continued support. Peace and joy
By Andre Vltchek

August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - It has been happening for quite some time, but no one has been paying much attention: Western academia, mainstream media, and the most visible propagandists, were trying to convince the world that 1) ideology has died, or at least became irrelevant 2) in case it did not die, the Left is actually hold your breathright-wing!

Especially the Left that is holding power, particularly in Asia and in Latin America, is being re-defined in London, Paris and Washington. The Western propaganda gurus are apparently rejuvenated, lately, as there are great budgets available to them, in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere. They are openly told to go after certain countries, particularly Russia, China and Iran.

This is an extremely complex but important development. You see, the West has been losing, and so has capitalism and especially imperialism, which is synonymous with neo-colonialism.

People all over the world had enough. Even certain groups inside the imperialist countries, have had enough.

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The main problem is that after decades, during which philosophy has been locked up, imprisoned, inside the decaying aulas of the toothless universities, most people have lost any idea what really disgusts them; what they are against, and what they desire.

Philosophy and such deep and essential topics like in what direction the world should be evolving, are not discussed at UNESCO meetings, anymore, as they are not debated by talk show hosts and public intellectuals, at least not in open.

Light pop music, horror movies, the promotion of selfish, often infantile values and desires, never really deeply satisfied the masses, but they damaged them, reducing peoples ability to think freely, to analyze and to make sober and well-informed conclusions.

-isms have been spat at, particularly the left-wing -isms. Increasingly, the left was smeared and then compared to the extreme right, even with fascism. In fact, pronouncing Communism and fascism in one breath, became tremendously well rewarded. In the West, thousands of thinkers and ideologues made a great living doing nothing else than that.

This essay has been inspired by an exchange with an Irish academic, who called, in his email to me, one of my publications (NEO  New Eastern Outlook), an extreme right-wing Russian nationalist magazine.

I exploded, wrote back, clarifying that NEO is a left-wing, internationalist magazine, and that the people who are running it have nothing to do with anything right-wing, whatsoever. But I soon realized that this was not about the evidence, but about something very different.

Bizarre and unpleasant exchange did not end there. The academic declared, after watching my film (which I describe as a poetic documentary) about North Korea (Faces of North Korea), that I am wrong and that the DPRK is not Communist, nor socialist.

I was supposed to participate in his book project, but I withdrew. My friend Eduardo Galeano used to say about such people: I dont know for whom he works, and he wouldnt tell.

Similar, confusing messages are coming from everywhere, whenever I go to Europe or North America, or whenever I tune in to their television or radio channels. Something twisted is being broadcast, day and night. Political reality gets extremely fuzzy. Great left-wing political leaders are called names: demagogues, populists, even worse. And those constant, insane Cold War propagandist comparisons of Stalin and Hitler (any logical comparisons never appear, like Hitler = Churchill, German Nazism = European colonialism, etc.).

The biggest problem is that a great majority of Western citizens have succumbed to this propaganda. They are not capable of questioning anything related to these issues, anymore, and were they to want to question, they dont even know where to search for the sources that could effectively challenge the official dogma.

They are indoctrinated, but they think that they are free. Not only that, they dont realize that they are deeply conditioned and brainwashed: they actually think that they are in a position to preach, obliged to enlighten others, instructing the world with what they have been taught. And so, they speak and write, get paid for it. They join the U.N., international cultural institutions and the NGOs, universities, and they continue spreading all those dogmas developed by the Western ideologues for one and the only purpose: to exploit and to control the world. They do not present these fabrications as theses, but as facts. Of course, there are no facts behind what they are preaching, as there is no hard evidence, but who would search for the evidence, and how? Even the Internet is not so easy to navigate, anymore, and Western bookstores are nowhere as diverse as those in China or Russia.

Back to the main issue: it is essential for the West to discredit socialism, Communism, and also all anti-imperialist movements that are now getting stronger all over the world.

In fact, many propagandists in London, Paris and Washington, are clearly realizing that the West and its control over the world, is almost finished. The more they are aware of this fact, the more aggressively they go after their adversaries (their jobs often depend on that control, and the privileges of their nation, of course, too).

Attacking socialists or Communists who are holding power in Asia or Latin America, is not enough, anymore.

Now the Empire is spreading pessimism, defeatism and dark nihilism, both at home and abroad (please read my latest book: Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism). All people are the same, it says. Sounds nice, but what it means is actually extremely sinister: All people are maniacal egotists like us, mass murderers like us, and of course, thieves!

Terms and definitions get all mixed up, confused. Nothing is defined precisely.

For instance, when the left-wing governor of Jakarta, Ahok, began cleaning the most polluted city on Earth, building public transportation, providing the poor with social housing, several Indonesian NGOs paid by the West, as well as countless individuals, began calling Ahok a right-winger, because he was evicting petite capitalist street vendors and thugs who were shamelessly blocking the few sidewalks that the turbo-capitalist Jakarta has in its possession. Thugs and street vendors, who flourished during the fascist, anti-Communist dictatorship, have been terrorizing the city and its mainly poor dwellers for decades. But the argument went: The Governor is against the little people.

There was actually a great danger that this deeply popular governor could make it to a much higher post, even the highest one in the country. That would be unacceptable, and the servile city planners, academics and civil society groups shamelessly teamed up against him. First, he was discredited (being called right-wing), then accused of insulting religion (Islam) and finally, thrown into prison. He is rotting there until now, for being a true socialist (a word that is even still illegal to pronounce in Indonesia, as it is being connected with Communism).

The Jakarta scenario is of course no exception. The same is happening in the Philippines. The West and its local lackeys are attacking, with the same twisted logic and zeal, countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, but especially China, Iran and Russia.

To call China by what it really is: Communist (with the Chinese characteristics) and presently the most successful country on Earth, would be totally unacceptable, anywhere in the West or its client states. That would greatly boost Chinas popularity. Why? Because even deep in the dark belly of the capitalist and imperialist beast  Europe and North America  the common people actually want something left-wing, something socialist, even Communist. They were told to hate it, to trash it publicly, and they do. But deep inside, many are still longing for it.

The Empire knows psychological warfare extremely well: to discredit China, it really has to be called capitalist. Or call it imperialist. Say it is like us. (Like us is definitely not good. The people on all continents hate us). Say that China is not helping African people by building infrastructure, hospitals and schools (although that is precisely what China is doing, if you ask Africans  something that no Western journo is bothering to do). Say that China is following its own interests, and that it is doing business (again, these days, a dirty word, except in a few Southeast Asian helplessly corrupt and servile client states).

The same is true when it comes to Russia. The foreign policy of Russia is clearly anti-imperialist. In many ways, it is still that good old Soviet foreign policy  internationalist, egalitarian, based on humanism. Present-day Russian diplomats are brilliant, soft-spoken philosophers. The West can never match them. Therefore, it smears them, their country and everything that it stands for. President Putin is portrayed as some right-wing strongman and lunatic, and Russia as a capitalist state. It is thorough nonsense, as Russia is in many ways, increasingly, similar to its close ally  China. Russia counts on a mixed economy with a great accent on social welfare, and it is a country that is ready to defend and protect those who are brutalized by Western neo-colonialism. It occupies nobody, overthrows no governments. It is increasingly a good, solid and compassionate country, but the more it is, the more demonized it gets. The better it behaves, the more it gets smeared, mostly by being called capitalist, right-wing, an oligarchy. Well, great propaganda barks for sure; the Western demagogues and intelligence officers certainly know their trade.

Syria, oh how is it being defined by the Western demagogues? How it is being defamed! It is never called by what it really has been for decades  a Pan-Arab socialist state! Its regime (a favorite British derogatory term, which I actually love to use against their own, British fascist, stale, passive-aggressive monarchy) is constantly branded as dictatorial. You will never hear expressions like socialist or internationalist. You know why? Because, let me repeat it again, these terms, deep inside, evoke sympathy in the ears of people worldwide, even in the hearts of some Westerners, subconsciously.

Socialist, serving the people  you may smear it, but that is what people really want, and wanted for decades and centuries. That is what they have fought for, were dying for; on the barricades. Some instincts are still there, in peoples hearts, or do you think that they were sacrificing their lives in order to be governed by individuals like Macron or May?

Therefore, the socialists, not some European pseudo-traitors-socialists, but true socialists and Communists, are constantly branded by the West as populists, demagogues and often, even as right-wingers.

This negative, nihilist, depressing propaganda blurs and confuses the people everywhere. It calls white, black, and black, white. It labels Communists as fascists, and then declares that both fascists and Communists are the same.

Now the people, at least those who are the most exposed to the Western mass media, are unable to commit themselves to anything, from political labels, to revolutionary ideals, and even to each other. They go by issues, arrogantly selfish (hundreds of millions of atomized centers of the universe) in both personal lives and in politics. In London or Paris, not to speak of New York City, those who are believed to be the most educated, are sadly the most conditioned, indoctrinated and feeble.

It is quite remarkable that in some parts of the world like Southeast Asia, the West has managed to create an absolutely bizarre West-lookalike-but-not-really-alike upper class, by injecting an idiotic type of education and cheap cultural values (I will address this issue soon, in my upcoming essay). The result is  obedient and soulless countries unable to create anything new and substantial.

All of this, just in order to prevent the world from following its instincts  from choosing socialism and Communism.

You see, the task of the Western regime is tremendous: to break, to pervert, the natural reflexes of human beings. Whenever people anywhere in the world have been given a true opportunity, they voted, or fought for, some type of socialism, or Communism.

Basically, all the countries of Latin America selected, democratically, left-wing governments. And they were overthrown by the West and by their lackeys. It is happening to this day. Millions have been dying in the process.

In Africa  precisely the same. It began with Patrice Lumumba and his murder, and it never stopped. Fascist monsters and mentally sick individuals were injected from abroad, and paid to govern.

Asia? Absolute horror: from the socialist Iran in 1950s to internationalist, Communist Indonesia before 1965, people wanted Communism and got murdered, raped and in the end, robbed of everything. By whom: by the West and its apparatchiks and local spooks from the colonial era. Countries that resisted and won, like China, and Vietnam, are now much better off than others.

They all wanted socialism, all over the world: The Middle East, too, and yes, Europe as well! It truly takes great discipline and continuous brainwashing, to forget that the US and UK intelligence services prevented Europeans in France, Italy and even West Germany, from voting in Communists after WWII. Nazis were employed to intimidate and to murder left-wing candidates. Then they were shipped to South America, where they either retired, or began collaborating with the fascist pro-Western regimes. I know it: I spoke, couple of decades ago, to those old beasts who were allowed to escape with their loot of gold teeth from the concentration camps  to Paraguay, Argentina, Chile.

Destroying the natural human longing for socialism is the main task of the Western regimes, be they constitutional monarchies or guided multi-party hoaxes.

The result is total global schizophrenia. Intuitively, people desire something, but they are told that it is wrong, and then they are ordered what to desire (unless they want to become unemployable).

It is the same with love and sex. We, men, are told that our bodies should be longing for certain types of women. Women are instructed what type of man to desire.

It is the same with jobs, or how people pass their free time: banging into mobile phones, playing degenerate video games, and studying some nonsense at university, just to get a diploma that certifies them as some good future servants of the regime.

What did they do to people, really? Adults, fathers and mothers, respected individuals are moving their fingers all over the phone monitors, playing infantile games and making babyish faces, while taking their own photographs at every corner. European intellectual cinema has collapsed, as well as literature. And everyone is grinning like idiots. And almost everyone is suicidal.

It is clearly a post-coup situation. It is abnormal.

Pathological. Almost nobody is happy. Everyone pretends to be happy.

You see, deep inside, people like to dream about a better world, they like to commit, even sacrifice themselves for another being, or for an ideal, or revolution.

This insanity, which the West has spread, just so its dear capitalism and neo-colonialism stays in control of the planet, will not last much longer.

Soon, people will realize that there is nothing more glorious than to build his or her country, to improve conditions all over the world, to clean up our environment, to love and to fully commit to that love.

Before that, however, the lies have to be exposed. White is white and black is black. War is war, peace is peace. Aggressors are aggressors and victims are victims.

The West has immobilized people all over the world with its filthy, depressing lies. It stares at humans, like a cobra stares at a tiny, poor mouse.

Soon, I am sure the world will rise and demand the truth! With the truth, the psychological balance will return. People will learn how to dream again. With dreams, the insanity that the West has been spreading will be confronted. Imperialism will shout, howl; it will try to bite everything that moves, but relatively quickly, it will lose all its power and, hopefully, kick the bucket. I believe in it. Millions are now, again, ready to fight for it.

***

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books are Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism , a revolutionary novel Aurora and a bestselling work of political non-fiction:  Exposing Lies Of The Empire . View his other books here . Watch Rwanda Gambit , his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky On Western Terrorism . Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter .

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
By Finian Cunningham

August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The apparent assassination of a highly regarded public figure has rocked Ethiopia to its core. Simegnew Bekele, the architect overseeing a prestigious hydroelectric project in Ethiopia, was shot dead last week in the capital Addis Ababa by an unknown attacker. Many people in the Horn of Africa country are now suspecting a foreign hand behind his brutal slaying.

Bekele (53) was a much-loved public figure. He was seen as embodying a vision for Ethiopias political independence and economic development. The hydroelectric dam he oversaw was his lifes work and he was revered by the wider population for his dedication.

Now what appears to be his cold-blooded murder has shocked the nation.

The killing comes amid concern that a newly appointed prime minister is part of a geopolitical shakeup of Ethiopia to bring the country under the geopolitical sway of Washington and its Arab regional clients, away from Ethiopias recent strategic alignment with China.

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In African security matters, Ethiopia may have been an ally of the United States for the past three decades. But in terms of its more important economic development, the country has relied on China.

Chinas growing stature in Africa  much to the chagrin of the US  has been largely prefigured by its close strategic partnership with Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is long seen as the spiritual and diplomatic leader of the 54 nations of the continent, proudly standing as being the one nation never historically colonized by European powers. Through its economic partnership with Beijing, Ethiopia was in many ways Chinas gateway to the rest of Africa.

Political Shift

The coming into office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali  by parliamentary selection  nearly four months ago has signaled a shift in the internal and international politics of Ethiopia. That change appears to be giving the US a greater role in the economic development of the country in a way that relegates Chinas erstwhile dominant role.

The murder of chief engineer Bekele last Thursday casts a foreboding shadow over the future of Ethiopia. It also casts a shadow over the new prime minister and his much-vaunted leadership.

Youthful premier Abiy Ahmed (41) has up to now won glowing praise in Western news media as a reformer. He has promised to open up key sectors of the economy to foreign capital and to broaden its multiparty democracy.

Since Ethiopias revolutionary war against the Derg dictatorship nearly 30 years ago, the country has been ruled by a coalition government largely dominated by the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). The Tigray are a minority ethnic group from the north of Ethiopia which led the revolutionary war against the despotic Derg regime.

Premier Ahmed was previously part of the ruling coalition government, having served as a minister, and in military intelligence. But he comes from the Oromo ethnic group, which is the most populous in Ethiopias nation of 100 million, comprising some 84 different ethnic groups. The Oromo are associated with supporting the former Derg regime.

For the past three decades there have been ongoing acrimonious tensions between the Oromo and Tigray people. Since Ahmed came to office, there are fears among the Tigray especially that he is stealthily rehabilitating remnants of the old regime. He has released hundreds of political prisoners in the name of reforms, but several of these figures are accused by the Tigray of having committed past acts of grave violence against the state.

Courted by Washington

Internationally, premier Abiy Ahmed has been courted by Washington. Upon gaining office, the US has gone out of its way to patronize the new leader, saying that the shift in Ethiopias politics heralds a closer partnership between the two countries.

What the US is seeking to do is oust China from its role as the pivotal foreign partner in Ethiopias development. Ethiopia has been the African model of Chinese-assisted development for the entire continent.

In recent years, it is China and its massive financial and technological investment that is the main driver for the continents prodigious potential, overtaking the Americans and Europeans as foreign players. Ethiopia, situated on the eastern Horn of Africa, has been a vital link to Chinas ambitions for integrating Africa into its global plans for reviving the ancient Silk Roads from Asia.

Since taking office, Abiy Ahmed has made some rather discordant public announcements. He has reportedly criticized flagship infrastructure projects overseen by China, such as the mammoth railway system linking the capital Addis Ababa to the neighboring coastal state of Djibouti.

Ethiopia has been landlocked since its 1998-2001 border war with Eritrea to its north. The recent opening of a rail line to Djibouti to the northeast of Ethiopia was seen as a breakthrough strategic link for access to the Red Sea and international trade. It was a vital corridor too for Chinas access to East Africa.

Premier Ahmed has also taken a strangely dim view of Ethiopias Grand Renaissance Dam project which aims to harness the water of the Blue Nile for hydroelectric power. Under construction for the past seven years, the dam was slated to begin production by the end of this decade.

The project was the innovation of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who was the leader of the revolutionary war against the Derg regime. Zenawi died in 2012 at the age of 57 from a rare brain illness. He was replaced by Haile Mariam Desalgn who resigned earlier this year, in March, over Oromo civil strife, paving the way for Abiy Ahmed.

Dam Delayed, Engineer Killed

The new prime minister made an unexpected announcement last month that the dams construction could be delayed by 10 years. That announcement caused much public consternation.

Shortly before his killing last week, the chief engineer Simegnew Bekele, who was appointed in 2011 to lead the project, also hinted in media interviews that his work was being undermined by certain government figures.

Prior to that, in early June, premier Ahmeds first overseas official visit was to Egypt where he was warmly greeted in Cairo by President al-Sisi.

Egypt has long protested the construction of Ethiopias dam out of apprehension that it would drastically reduce the flow of water to the Nile Valley, essential for Egyptian agriculture.

During his visit to Cairo, both leaders talked about a new beginning in friendly relations. It is believed that Ethiopias Ahmed privately gave al-Sisi concessions on the future of the Blue Nile dam. Subsequent talk about an unprecedented delay in the construction seems to be part of the concession.

Surprise Peace Initiative

The next major international development came last month, mid-July, when premier Ahmed finalized a sudden peace initiative with Eritrea. The two countries were gripped by a border war nearly two decades years ago. That conflict followed the overthrow of the Derg regime which resulted in the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia. Ethiopia became landlocked, cut off from the Red Sea.

The feting of Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki in Addis Ababa was hailed by international media as another sweeping progressive reform under premier Ahmed.

But many people in Ethiopia are not so approving, especially among the northern Tigray population who lost up to 150,000 people during the bitter three-year civil war with Eritrea. The Oromo prime minister is proposing to hand over disputed border lands to Eritrea as part of the peace settlement. That is being viewed as a betrayal by the Tigray.

Geopolitically, it is also suspected that the peace initiative with Eritrea is being driven by a US-led plan to carve out a new trading route for Ethiopia through Eritrea to the Red Sea. In that way, the importance of neighboring Djibouti and the Chinese-led trade route to East Africa would be sidelined.

US Move To Sideline China

The surprise peace opening between Ethiopia and Eritrea followed the visit to East Africa by former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March. During his trip, Tillerson made some provocative statements demeaning China as a partner to Africa. That was only three weeks before Abiy Ahmeds accession to power on April 2.

There then followed, according to Ethiopian sources, low-key visits by US State Department officials to Addis Ababa and the Eritrean capital, Asmara. The US contact with Asmara was particularly remarkable because for years Washington has been sanctioning and isolating Eritrea over alleged human rights abuses under its longtime leader Afwerki.

Eritreas tiny economy has largely subsisted in recent years under the patronage of the Gulf Arab states. As well as Washingtons bidding, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also played a behind-the-scenes role in facilitating the rapprochement between Eritrea and Ethiopia. A week after the peace deal was sealed in mid-July, the two leaders were afforded a congratulations ceremony in the UAE during which they were presented with ornate gold medallions by the Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

Two days later, on July 26, Ethiopians were shocked to hear that the chief engineer of the Grand Renaissance Dam was found dead in his car in the main public square of Addis Ababa. Simegnew Bekele had been shot behind his right ear at close range. A handgun was found in the car, with its engine still running. Few believe it was suicide.

Bekele was the public face of the dam project, which many Ethiopians were hoping would promote the development of their country. The engineer was highly regarded by the public for his dedication to the flagship project. He was widely seen as being free from corruption.

His death has raised concerns that the hydroelectric dam will be disrupted with long delay, or that the financing of it will be radically overhauled.

Political Assassination

There seems little doubt that the killing of the master-engineer was a political assassination. In the days before his fatal encounter, CCTV cameras were inexplicably disabled in the area. His personal security detail was also relieved from duty to accompany him.

On the morning of the shooting, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed flew to the US. In an unseemly response, Ahmed ignored a public outcry for him to return to the country on the appalling news of the engineers death. His absence from the high-profile funeral on July 29, which was mourned by the nation, was seen as unbecoming.

Moreover, Ahmeds perceived lack of civic duty has sparked widespread public anger especially among the Tigray people. For the past week, the country has witnessed mass demonstrations, with many people suspecting the new ruling faction around Ahmed of having sanctioned the murder of engineer Bekele.

During his US tour, the prime minister has been hosted by the large Ethiopian diaspora. Some of the rallies, including one on the day of Bekeles funeral in Addis Ababa last Sunday, have featured prominent members associated with the outcast Derg regime sharing the stage with Ahmed.

People in Ethiopia have been aggrieved by what they see as insensitive behavior by the prime minister in not immediately returning to the country to share in the nations sorrow over the renowned engineers death.

Greeted by Pence & IMFs Lagarde

While in the US over the past week, premier Ahmed also had a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, during which Pence talked effusively about future economic ties with Ethiopia.

Another engagement was with Christine Lagarde, the head of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF). Up to now, the IMF and Western finance capital have been kept at bay in Ethiopias development. Projects like the Grand Renaissance Dam have been either self-financed or have relied on China for investment. Lagarde, like Pence, hailed a new future of tighter partnership with Ethiopia.

With the killing of engineer Bekele, the $4 billion dam project in the northwestern region of Ethiopia near the border with Sudan has been thrown into disarray. The unprecedented delay in construction that premier Ahmed controversially announced last month now seems a certainty. If and when it goes ahead, the financing arrangement may require the IMF to step in. The involvement of Western capital is what the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi strenuously sought to avoid. His vision of independent financing was shared by the deceased engineer.

To sum up, Ethiopia appears to be undergoing a deep geopolitical realignment. However, the realignment seems to be going ahead without national consensus, albeit praised on the surface by Western media as reforms under the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The United States is assuming a greater role in the countrys economic future in place of China.

As a strategically important African nation  the African Unions headquarters are in Addis Ababa, built in 2012 by China with a $200 million grant  an increased influence of Washington in Ethiopia will have repercussions across the continent.

The apparent US-led rapprochement between Ethiopia and Eritrea is key to the intended ouster of Chinas foothold on the continent via the Djibouti port, where China last year opened up its first overseas military base.

This shifting geopolitical rearrangement also gives the US and the Gulf Arab states greater dominion over the Red Sea chokepoint in global trade, especially for seaborne oil. That may account for the US-backed Saudi war to control Yemen, which sits opposite to Eritrea astride the Red Sea on the Arabian Peninsula.

New Geopolitical Configuration

In this new geopolitical configuration, Ethiopia under Abiy Ahmed Ali appears to be moving away from its strategic partnership with China to align with the US and its Arab regional allies, Egypt and the Gulf oil sheikhdoms. Abiys Muslim heritage is thought to make him amenable to embrace Americas Arab client regimes.

The apparent assassination of engineer Simegnew Bekele is given significance by this strategic power play.

But this US-led orchestration against China, or as Washington would say great power competition, is unleashing dangerous political tensions within Ethiopia.

The federal Ethiopian state formed after the revolutionary war against the former Derg regime is severely straining because of premier Ahmeds perceived favor of sectarian interests under the guise of reforms. His premiership appears to be more weighted by Oromo political figures. Given the large Christian-Muslim composition of Ethiopia, there are also fears that the country could be incited into religious conflict.

There is simmering anger that the hallowed public figure of engineer Simegnew Bekele may have been a sacrificial victim in order to assist the US geopolitical power play.

Across Ethiopia there is growing trepidation about the future direction of the country. The dark days of political murder and sectarian persecution, which previously abated after the overthrow of the Derg regime, are haunting Ethiopia once again.

Poignantly, the murder of Simegnew Bekele, whose Christian name means hope in his native language, has grievously struck the countrys sense of nationhood and its once bright aspirations for independent development.

This article was originally published by "SCF " -

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
By James Petras

August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - For decades and longer, the United States and Europe lectured and encouraged countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia to welcome and accept foreign investment as the virtuous path to modernization, growth and prosperity.

With few notable exceptions western leaders and academics promoted unlimited flows of capital (and the outflows of profits). No section of the targeted economies was off-limits  agriculture, mining, manufacturers, utilities, transport and communication were to be modernized through US and European ownership and control.

Third World leaders, whether generals, bankers or landowners who abided by the open markets doctrine and invited foreign ownership, were praised, whether they were dictators or elected by hook or crook. Nationalism and nationalists were condemned as restricting the wheels of progress and blocking the March of History.

To be fair, the western regimes encouraged all countries to open their doors to capital flows  but of course only the imperial countries had the capital, technology and political power to do so.

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Economists preached the doctrine of specialization in comparative advantage: the West to invest, profit and dominate markets and the South to accept low wages, junior partnerships and dependent industries.

This system worked very well for the West as long as they were the dominant power and shaped the markets, flows of capital and the terms of exchange.

Nationalist leaders were condemned, sanctioned, ousted and demonized throughout the time of Anglo-American ascendancy.

Through time and efforts, Third World countries followed another path  through revolutions or reforms, through state direction and national entrepreneurs, they invested, innovated, borrowed and transformed their economies. Over time, some like China, began to successfully compete with Western powers for markets, minerals and technology.

Role Reversal: Imperial Washington Denounces China for Colonizing the Economy

As the US Empire failed to out- compete China, not only in overseas markets, but in sectors of the domestic economy, local manufacturers relocated to China and Mexico or went bankrupt or merged or were acquired by foreign capital  notably China.

Nationalism replaced neo-liberalism and globalism among sectors of the ruling class especially among political ideologies grouped around President Trump.

The nationalists forged a national pluto- populist alliance, linking Wall Street, backward sectors of the capitalist class with displaced and under and unemployed workers under the umbrella of protectionist rhetoric: massive business tax cuts and tariffs, quotas and taxes on European, Asian and North American competitors. Gone were Washington lectures on free markets and the virtues of globalization and multi-lateral trade agreements.

The new protectionism echoed the rhetoric of 18th and 19th century America and the Great Depresion era Smoot- Hawley tariff. Earlier the US claimed tariffs were necessary to protect and foster so-called infant industries; twenty-first century protectionism claims it is to protect national security from cross oceanic rival (China) and cross border (Canada, Mexico)- mortal military threats..

President Trump adopted the ideology of Third World national liberation governments to undermine its imperial competitors. Washington,s ersatz nationalist empire builders were abated by their media allies, who spilled tons of ink attacking imperial Chinas overseas investments as plundering Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Washington projected an image of the US surrounded by enemies everywhere, who were taking advantage of their privileged position in order to exploit a weak America.

President Trump reverted the nationalist slogans of Third World liberation into imperialist calls to Make Americas Empire Strong

Third World nationalism is an ideology to create domestic markets and industries in largely agro-mineral economies, through public-private investment and state ownership, oversight, regulation and subsidies.

Nationalism of declining empires is the ideology of authoritarian militarists and fascist regimes which no longer can compete in the market place.

Imperial countries in decline have several options.

They can adapt to the new realities by upgrading their economies , reducing overseas military commitments, reallocating budgets and investments and educating their labor force to productive activity. They can form partnerships with emerging competitors via power sharing, innovations, joint ventures and multi-lateral trade agreements. They can engage in trade wars, overseas military conquests or encircle emerging rivals through sanctions, tariffs and protectionist fiats.

Nostalgia for the past glory of unipolarity , economic supremacy and unquestioned ideological superiority, is a formula for losing wars and a Hobbesian world of all against the predator.

Conclusion

In the beginning a nationalist-populist revival can stimulate growth as rivals will appease the aggressor; the imperial classes will prosper through lower taxes; the deplorables may glory in the rhetoric of nationalism and expectation of great thing are coming.

But tax gains mean bigger debts; appeaser nations in the face of permanent losses of vital exports will retaliate .. and succumb to the protectionist contagion. Imperial globalists will turn into nationalists.

Nationalist will replace impotent neo-liberal social democrats. Workers will turn to nationalists to recover their lost workplace and neighborhood solidarity; nationalists will exploit downward mobility and appeal to images of past prosperity.

National plutocrats will turn to authoritarians who speak to popular grievances in order to deflect class antagonism. Nationalists will gain a popular audience in the face of a left that avoids , dismisses or rejects the shared values of local communities. Liberal and progressive support of overseas wars which increase the flow of immigrants , alienates the working and middle class taxpayers

The declining empire will not die early.

The nationalist revival can revive imperial last hurrah! The fear and loathing of being colonized is the driving force for the new imperial revival. The lies and hypocrisy accompanying the older imperial claims of conquest in the name of defending western values no long works.

A consequential opposition can only emerge if it links class and nationalist appeals to community values and social solidarity.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Home Search ICH Empire in Decline, Really? The American War Machine Continues to Grow



Everything the Trump Administration Does is Geared Toward Intimidation And War.



By Vijay Prashad August 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Last week, on July 26, the United States House of Representatives passed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which will then go on to the U.S. Senate and finally to the U.S. president. It is worthwhile to note that 139 Democrats, including the entire Democratic Party leadership, voted for this bill. This Act provides the U.S. government with $717 billion for a years military spending. This is $100 billion more than was spent last year (which is itself more than half of the annual Chinese military budget). No country spends money on its military like the United States. Its not long now before the annual U.S. military budget will cross the $1 trillion mark. In fact, many suggest that if the covert parts of the budgetfor the CIA, for military intelligence, for the National Security Agency and for the ongoing warsare added in, the $1 trillion threshold has already been crossed. Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire, recently told CNBC that the United States has wasted $14 trillion over the past 30 years in its many, many wars. A modest estimate suggests that the U.S. war on Afghanistanwhich is ongoing since 2001has itself cost over $1 trillion. After all this time and money, and after all the human suffering, it is now certain that the United States, Imran Khans government in Pakistan and the Chinese will seek a compromise with the Taliban. Mas statement about waste should be taken very seriously. A foreign policy that sows disorder and chaos, which increases human suffering, is a wasteregardless of the benefits it might produce for the arms dealers. Power Through the Barrel of a Gun This week, on July 30, the United States militarys African Command (Africom) admitted that it was flying armed drones out of a U.S. base in Niamey, Nigers capital. Africoms spokesperson Samantha Reho said that the government of Niger gave the U.S. permission to do so in November 2017, and that the U.S. began to fly these armed drones in early 2018. There was no admission that the U.S. has fired any of these drones. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Very soon, these lethal drones will move from Air Base 101 in Niamey to the newly constructed Air Base 201 in Agadez. This new base is one of the largest drone bases in the world. The drones from here can travel from one end of West Africa to cover most of North Africa. Another U.S. drone base in Djibouti is able to send its lethal machines across East Africa and deep into Central Africa. In sum, with these two bases, the U.S. is able to strike targets across most of the African continent. All this with no debate in the U.S. Congress and with little care for the sensibilities of the African people. The question of sensibility should not be sniffed at. In late March, the government of Ghana signed a military agreement with the United States. Ghanas military would get a paltry $20 million to train its troops, while the U.S. would get access to Ghanas airports and to Ghanas radio spectrum and the U.S. would be able to bring in military hardware duty-free. Eager to set up a military base in Ghana, the U.S. miscalculated the residue of anti-colonial sentiment in the country. This sentiment is the reason why the U.S. African Command is based in Stuttgart, Germany, rather than in any African country. No leader can afford to be seen to allow the United States to encroach so brazenly on the sovereignty of an African country. It is important to underline the fact that no U.S. command headquarters is located outside Western Europe and the United States. The Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America, was based in Panama from 1963 to 1997. Now it is based in Doral, Florida, having been ejected by the governments that followed the ouster of the old CIA asset Manuel Noriega. The Central Command headquarters, which monitors and directs U.S. operations in the Middle East, is located 200 miles north in Tampa, Florida. The headquarters of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which oversees operations in Asia, is located in Hawaii. The people of Africa, Asia and Latin America do not want the United States footprint to be placed so heavily on their soil. It is one thing to have to tolerate bases and joint exercises. It is another to allow the full weight of U.S. imperialism on ones soil. Threats of One Kind or Another Theres an old adage: if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The sheer scale of the U.S. military arsenal gives its political leaders a rush. They feel that they can intimidate the rest of the planet to suit their needs. Peace does not define U.S. foreign policy. Everything is geared toward intimidation and war. Heres a scanner of recent maneuvers by the Trump administration that are contrary to a policy of peacemaking. Korea. A great feat of humanity pushed the two Koreas to renew their dialogue toward a normal future. The United States has consistently attempted to spoil this process, with Trump being churlish about the good feeling between the Norths Kim Jong-un and the Souths Moon Jae-in. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on a march across Southeast Asia, pushing ASEAN countries to continue to sanction North Korea despite the consensus within ASEAN to lighten the burden on the North as a way to open the road to peace. The United States indicated that North Korea is continuing with its missile program, just when senior military leaders of the North and South met at the border on July 31. These mischievous statements by the U.S. did not deter the Koreans. Lieutenant General An Ik San of North Korea and Major General Kim Do-gyun of the South continued with their dialogue. Artillery will be withdrawn from the shore of the West Sea and military exercises will cease. The people of the North and South regard our talks as important, said Lieutenant General An. The military leaders are committed to peace and do not want Korea to be the battlefield for U.S. aggression. Iran. On July 22, Trump woke up and wrote a tweet in all capsNEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. Threats of this kind are routine. The Iranian leadership shrugged them off. In the military spending bill that just passed the U.S. House of Representatives, there is a sentence that bears notice: nothing in this act may be construed to authorize the use of force against Iran. But in another part of the act, there is license for the Trump administration to pursue cyber-war against Iran, North Korea, Russia and China. The bill gives Trump carte blanche to escalate against these four countries. These are the dramatic threats. In the shadows linger worse atrocities that have become normal. The U.S. drone base in Salak, in the north of Cameroon, houses a Rapid Intervention Battaliona Cameroonian detachment, which has been filmed executing civilians. Last year, the Intercept reported that U.S. operatives of one kind or another had tortured prisoners at this base. There is no human rights agenda here. Threats of the Imagination The United States claims that it requires such a massive military and deployment in places such as Niger because of the threats not only to the U.S., but to the world. In the belt of countries that make up the Sahel region of Africawith Niger at their centerthere is a claim made by the West of the threats of al-Qaeda and other assorted groups. Many of these groups are indeed a threat to the people of the region, but many of them are also merely gangsters (al-Qaeda is largely a smuggler of cigarettes and weapons across the Sahara Desert). The real threats that have brought in the United States and France are elsewhere. It is worthwhile to make a list of these (based on my reporting from last year). China. The United States has made it clear that Chinas presence in Africa is unacceptable. Unable to best China in a straightforward bid for resources and markets, the U.S. has turned to the use of force and intimidation to threaten countries to provide advantages to less supple Western firms. The ring of bases along the Sahel and downward toward South Africa is plainly to throttle Chinas interests in the continent. Resources. The countries of the Sahel are home to very important resourcesgold in Burkina Faso and Mali, uranium in Niger and iron ore in Mauritania as well as proven reserves of coal, cobalt, diamonds, fluorspar, manganese, platinum, rare earth minerals and a host of other minerals. European and American mining companieswith old colonial rootsare eager to protect their investments here and protect their future profits as the mining laws in this region are slowly being dissolved in favor of the large corporations. Drugs. It is now clear that South American drug smugglers, exhausted by the difficulties posed along the U.S.-Mexican border and along the U.S. coastline, have now turned toward Africa as a pathway to the United States. Large quantities of cocaine are flown into the Sahel, where they are then carted at considerable risk across the Sahara into Europe. From Europe, these drugs are shipped across the Atlantic to the United States and Canada. Drug enforcement is the task of the phalanx of troops that are now in the region. Migration. Europe has been eager to move its border from the northern edge of the Mediterranean Sea to the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. French troops and European Union funds, alongside the U.S. presence, are in operation to block the traffic of migrants who are fleeing economies destroyed by IMF-driven policies. There is ugliness here. Tired liberal motives drift away into the shadows as the harder motivations flourishto control and to appropriate. This is our world. But beneath this world are people who have better ideas, better dreams. This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. ====== Note To ICH Community We are currently searching for a new comment system as we have run out of options on how to prevent the constant bickering and attacks by troll's, whose intention is to paint our website and newsletter as, anti-Semitic, anti-American, pro-Russian fake news. We can no longer afford to invest hours of our time each day, trying to have people behave in a manner befitting those who say they are concerned for others, while offering abuse and hostility to other ICH community members. When we have found such a comment system we will restore the comment function. We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. This would be a better use of out time than trying to prevent abuse of our comment system. Thank you for your continued support. Peace and joy Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
Vanguard

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his erstwhile deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, clashed, again, yesterday, after the former, said God will not forgive him if he supports Atikus presidential bid ahead of 2019 election

Punch

Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District and President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, Shehu Sani, speaks with LEKE BAIYEWU and JOY MARCUS about his struggle and freedom

Thisday

Gombe State Governor, Dr. Ibrahim Dankwambo saturday declared intention to contest presidential race on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), making him the fifth aspirants the indicated interest in the party nomination.

The Sun

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Judiciary Reforms, Mrs Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, believes that Nigeria must spare nothing in the fight against corruption.

Guardian

Taraba State Police Command, yesterday, confirmed that four persons were killed and several houses razed following upheaval in Kunini village of Lau Local Government Council of the state.

The Nation

Four persons were yesterday crushed to death by a tanker in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

The Nation

Thses senatorsspectively, Isa Hama Misau and Rafiu Ibrahim have warned their counterpart from Katsina south, Abu Ibrahim and his colleagues in the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to foment any trouble when the Senate resumes on September 25, as the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki would never resign from the position.

Daily Trust

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has pledged to devote 21 percent of the federal budget to education if elected president next year.


Barely three days after celebrating the defection of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, recently from the ruling All progressives Congress, APC, senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio is now perfecting moves to decamp there.

Nigerians have taken to social media to react to the purported defection. In their argument, some noted that the APC was in the habit of making sinners look like saints, the moment they decamp to the ruling party.

Whereas, some stated that, it was wrong for PDP members to always pretend their members are saints and wait for them to decamp before they admit that those members were ever sinners.

Some even argue that Akpabios eventual movement to APC will confirm previous assumptions that the ruling party tolerate looters as long as they are members of the APC.

See reactions below

The hypocrisy of APC rejoicing over the supposed defection of the new saint Senator Akpabio is disgusting to say the least. One thing is for sure now, fight against corruption is definitely fight against opposition and Buhari's integrity is an non existent as his certificate.  No one (Pilot by Affidavit) (@ilynem) August 5, 2018

But how come Akpabio has not been arrested in 3years of this govt and because he intends to decamp means his file will be covered? Seems you guys know so much about his corrupt acts maybe you should refer them to the govt for immediate action.  NigeriaUnited-#BringBackOurGils (@amenahuruemu) August 5, 2018

One commenter even named reasons why Akpabio may leave PDP

Here are some of the potential reasons Akpabio wants to leave PDP:

1. Win back control of Akwa Ibom politics with the help of the governing party

2. Be the tip of the spear to cut Saraki to size in the Senate

3. Position himself for a possible anointing to be President in 2023.  HENRY Okelue (@4eyedmonk) August 5, 2018

I am in no way amused by Senator Akpabios impending defection to the APC. In as much as it has the potential to change the Nigerian electoral map, I must admit, it simply confirms that there is indeed just one political ideology in Nigeria  self.  HENRY Okelue (@4eyedmonk) August 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/YemieFASH/status/1026033634833321984?s=19

https://twitter.com/MrStanleyNwabia/status/1025903005353299969?s=19
Ghanaian-born American comedian, Michael Blackson has taken to his social media page to expose a direct message he got from a Nigerian woman who is married to an Igbo man.

Just read it for yourself below, and peep his savage reply to her.

Michael Blackson, a.k.a The African King of Comedy, has been entertaining audiences all across the country and around the globe for more than a decade.

Born in West Africa, Blackson came to America when he was 13 years old, and immediately met with some problems. I was just a regular little boy who looked forward to coming to America to live the American dream. But I didnt understand the other kids, and they certainly didnt understand me, says Blackson, whose comedy will be evident at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside on Nov. 11 as he appears with other comics in Shaquille ONeals All-Star Comedy Jam.

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Chineme Ojukwu, daughter of late Biafran warlord, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu has graduated in style from the University of Brighton in England.

She bagged a second class upper degree from Business Administration at the UK university.



In attendance at her graduation ceremony were her family members who showed her massive support. Her mother, Bianca Ojukwu who shared pictures from the graduation ceremony, wrote:

My dear friends, Thank God with me. Abuzi kwam nne a graduate. My beloved daughter Chi has just graduated from the University of Brighton with a 2:1 in Business Administration. I thank Almighty God for blessing me with a daughter who has literally been like a mother to me. I call her Nne m o. This would have been a very proud moment also for her daddy. He used to call her Daddys secretary or secretary gburugburu because as a child She loved to spend her afternoons after school with him in his office, playing with papers on the floor.



How time flies! It was a splendid ceremony and much anticipated family reunion.

Her brothers came in from the States while her Aunty, Ambassador Lilian Onoh, currently Nigerias High Commissioner to Namibia also flew into the UK for the ceremony. We joined friends for the post ceremony cocktail and then headed to Brighton Pier for a seaside treat!

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Retired superstar boxer, Floyd Mayweather took to Instagram to celebrate his daughter Iyanna Mayweather, 18, as she accepted her high school diploma three-years after she graduated.

Sharing photos with his daughter and her mother, the undefeated boxer wrote :

The sacrifices we make for our loved ones are always blessings later on down the line. I dropped out in the 12th grade, with just a couple of credits left to go just to give my parents and siblings a better life. I encourage and preach to my children every day that education is extremely important because I want them to be better than me. My daughter excelled and finished high school when she was just 15yrs old, but decided to finally walk the stage today and have the honor of receiving her diploma in her hand amongst her peers and family. This is yet another family goal and a notch under our belts that makes me proud to be a Father. I love you @moneyyayya! Keep up the good workwe are just getting started!

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Actor Kenneth Okonkwo earned the ire of a number of Nigerians after he declared support for President Buhari, stating that Nigeria will not get a better President than the current one.

He got called out for his statement but he stood his grounds and said he owes no one an apology and he stands by his words.

A number of celebrities, including Charly Boy, have called him out for his statement. Fellow actor, Digidi Dunhill also called Kenneth Okonkwo out, and actress Georgina Onuoha shared Digidis scathing message to Kenneth while praising one and joining in slamming the other.

She wrote:

Words fail me as I watched Kenneths video regarding his political views and his comments about the Igbos. Seeing these words from Digidi Dunhill just left me wondering how powerful our voices can be as actors. These two men are products of Nollywood. Both respected and accomplished in their own way. I will stand by dignity, principles and honesty over anything.

Here is Dunhills words to Kenneth Okonkwo  I want to categorically say this after watching his recent utterances on the issues concerning Nigeria, that I DIGIDI DUNHILL regrets knowing this man whose picture appears here. I am aware that we have freedom of speech, beliefs and association, but I see no freedom in what kills mothers, children, fathers, brothers and sisters.

When you are supposed to be the voice of the unheared ,but because of selfish gains decided to be a voice of the heared speaking against the unheared.That day you became a disgrace to Igbo race, a Judas to Nigerians, an embarrassment to your fans, a betrayer to politicians, a traitor to your kinsmen, an insult to Nollywood and a cancarworm to manhood.

A lot of our colleagues will not tell you this, but I am known for speaking without fear or favour, you got it wrong by telling the world that you are mentally and spiritually poor. Poverty is not how empty your bank account is,but how empty your heart is.Your fans made you, watch the same fans wreck you.I know we all need to make greens,i am ashamed of your desperation in making greens. YOU LIVE AND REMAIN IN BONDAGE

Leave your opinions and comments below. Where do you stand as a true Nigerian that wants reform, progress, human dignity and decency. I will err on path of truth.

Politics is the act of the impossible as many will do any and everything for power and money. May wisdom find us all. If the current state of affairs in Nigeria is good for you, follow your heart and continue this anarchy and Fascism going on in Nigeria masquerading as democracy. I cry for my people, I cry for my country Nigeria ??. Until we begin to look beyond our stomach and politics of identity, our suffering and bondage will only continue as a people.

Digidi I salute U.

@digididunhill @realkennethokonkwo


Out-going governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose has shutdown rumours he is set to decamp to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. The rumour mill started spinning after news broke that the Ekiti governor, visited the APC national leader, Bola Tinubu at his home in Lagos.

The foremost Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governor while dismissing the rumour, stressed that he is still very much a PDP member, and that people associating him with the APC, are only celebrating their own political self deceit.

He added that the mission was to save Nigeria from the tyrannical government of APC.

Fayose said this via his Twitter handle this evening. He added that linking him with any APC leader is linking him with the robbers who stole Ekiti mandate.

He wrote:

I remain in PDP and those associating me with the APC can continue to celebrate their own political self deceit.

Together we must rescue Nigeria and its people from the APC tyrannical govt.  Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) August 5, 2018
A jealous 3rd lady has been arrested for killing her husband and father of their two children, Olumide Ayeni, few months after they decided to get married in Lagos

The incident happened, last night, in Lagos Island. According to friends of the deceased, the wife, who is known to be hot tempered and jealous, saw Olumide with a lady, yesterday.

She was said to have started a fight with him when he got home and stabbed him in the chest in the process.

The injured Olumide was rushed to a hospital close to their Lagos Island home where he eventually bled to death.
A Kenyan lady identified as Yvonne Nyamao has taken to twitter to make an announcement on her Introduction ceremony with an UBER driver she ordered a year ago.



According to the lady, she made the bold move after the trip and asked the man out for a drink, which he obliged and today, they are set to marry.

She wrote:

One year ago, I ordered an uber, and fell in love with its driver Today we are having our Ekerorano, everything feels so right! Cant wait to seize the day.

Okay for those asking, Ekerorano is a Kisii traditional ceremony (an Introduction ceremony) when the marriage begins by the family of the bride asking the family of the groom to go with his group to her home to know each other, eat together and drink It is not a Ruracio


Troops of operation Lafiya Dole, yesterday, August 4th, arrested a wanted Boko Haram suspect, Maje Lawan at Banki in Borno State, according to Army spokesman, Texas Chukwu.

The report claims the suspect is number 96 on the wanted list earlier published by the Army.

Maje Lawan was apprehended after he infiltrated into the Internally Displaced Persons camp in the area.

The army has begun preliminary investigation and will be handed over to the appropriate authority for further action.

Chukwu urged Nigerians to be vigilant and to report any suspicious person, movements as well as activities to the law enforcement agents for prompt action.
APCOMS Army Public College of Management Sciences Jobs 2018

Latest Army Public College of Management & Sciences Teaching Posts Rawalpindi 2021 APCOMS Army Public College of Management Sciences Rawalpindi, Pakistan Army, Government of Pakistan required candidates for the posts of Visiting Lecturers.

How to Apply on Army Public College of Management & Sciences 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: APCOMS Khadim Hussain Road, Lalkurti Rawalpindi

Telephone: 051-8444555

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.
Army Public School & College APS&C Sialkot Jobs 2018

Latest Army Public School & College Education Posts Sialkot 2021 Army Public School & College APS&C Sialkot, Pakistan Army, Government of Pakistan required experienced candidates to fill the posts of Director of Studies/ Administrations.

How to Apply on Army Public School & College 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.



Official Website: www.pakistanarmy.gov.pk

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.
Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust LRBT Multan Jobs 2018

Latest Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust LRBT Medical Posts Multan 2021 Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust LRBT Multan, Pakistan required experienced candidates for the posts of Consultants, Ophthalmologist, Associate Ophthalmologist, Resident Medical Officers and Medical Officers.

How to Apply on Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust LRBT 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: 37-C, Sunset Lane 4, Phase III, Defence Housing Authority Karachi

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.
Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital Peshawar Jobs 2018

Latest Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre Medical Posts Peshawar 2021 Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre Peshawar, Pakistan required applications from experienced candidates for the posts of Consultants, Medical Officer and Women Medical Officers.

How to Apply on Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre 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: Manager Human Resources, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre 7A Block, R-3

Official Website: www.shaukatkhanum.org.pk

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.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, an uniformed official bleeds from the head following an incident during a speech by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Drones armed with explosives detonated near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as he gave a speech to hundreds of soldiers in Caracas on Saturday but the socialist leader was unharmed, according to the government. (Xinhua via AP)
EUGENE, Ore. -- The Oregon Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis foundation hosted a Great Strides walk as a part of the largest national event to raise money and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis.

Participants walked four miles for their family, friends, and themselves to raise money to find a cure for this life shortening disease.

There hasn't been a Great Strides walk in Eugene for four years, but it was brought back in honor of the group's 30th anniversary.

For Richard Walkins, his whole life has been a fight against this disease. He said he was diagnosed when he was just a year old.

He said the event surrounded him with people who understand what he's going through and gave him the support system he needs.

"Growing up, I didn't really have anybody," Walkin said. "I have a little brother and he also has CF as well so I've always had somebody, but it's better having more people around to talk to."

Event director, Faith O'Malley, said she's committed to helping people who suffer from this disease live longer lives.

"People are not living long enough. Forty years is amazing and a lot better than it was in 1955, but we want people to live full lives," O'Malley said.

She said she will advocate for this cause until "CF" stands for "cure found" instead of cystic fibrosis.

About $20,000 was raised Saturday, according to O'Malley.

She said the money will go towards funding research for a cure and she said she hopes to raise even more money next year.

To learn more about Great Strides, you can visit their website.
"The God who brings peace will soon defeat Satan and give you power over him. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you."

Romans 16:20
CALMAR, Iowa  The Winneshiek County Sheriffs Office is asking for the publics help in identifying a burglary suspect.

The burglary happened in Calmar and if you know the person in these images from the Sheriffs Office, please call 563-382-4268.
FOREST CITY, Iowa  A man has been convicted and sentenced for running a Ponzi scheme in North Iowa.

Authorities say former banking executive Randall Alan Finer, 55, began asking acquaintances and former customers to invest in a day trading operation. Investigators say Finer received a total of $887,700 from investors between 2011 and 2015.

However, the Winnebago County Attorneys Office says Randall used less than half of that money for day trading and suffered substantial losses on that. Finer was accused of using the rest of the money for personal and living expenses and using money from new investors to pay interest payments to old investors.

Finer was originally charged with ongoing criminal conduct, a class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. As part of a deal with the prosecution, Finer eventually pleaded guilty to 2nd degree theft. According to court documents, hes been sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP)  A day after police in southeastern Iowa engaged in a deadly shootout that left one man dead and another seriously injured, authorities have not released the names of the suspects or officers involved.

The shootout happened Friday afternoon after police received a report of people with guns in an outdoor area near Liberty Elementary. Arriving officers say they encountered several suspects and that at least one of them fired at officers, who fired back, killing one suspect and injuring another who remained hospitalized Saturday. A third suspect was arrested quickly.

The Ottumwa Courier reports that a fourth suspect was arrested Friday evening after he was found hiding in a wooded area near Ottumwa.

No one else was injured in the shootout. Officials say two officers were treated for dehydration during the search for the fourth suspect.

Police have not released details about what led the suspects to be armed near the school, which spent hours on lockdown Friday.

___

Information from: The Ottumwa Courier, http://www.ottumwacourier.com
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Rain likely. High 51F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low 43F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Higher wind gusts possible.
By Yi Whan-woo



One hundred eighty one elderly Koreans _ 93 from the South and 88 from the North, will meet their relatives during a reunion of separated families scheduled from Aug. 20 to 26.



The list was finalized and exchanged between the Red Cross organizations of the South and North, Saturday, through the truce village of Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone, according to the Ministry of Unification.



The 93 South Koreans will reunite with their North Korean relatives from Aug. 20 to 22 at North Korea's scenic resort on Mount Geumgang. The 88 North Koreans will have a separate reunion from Aug. 24 to 26 at the same venue.



The weeklong cross-border reunion also celebrates the Aug. 15 anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese occupation.



It will take place in line with an agreement reached between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their April 27 summit.



The two leaders struck the deal to address humanitarian issues and the serious nature of the dwindling number of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.





For many separated Korean families, reunion event comes too late [VIDEO] Koreas exchange names of separated families ahead of reunions Renewed hopes for reunion, visit to homeland From the South Korean side, 35 people are aged 90 or older, including a 101-year-old man and a 100-year-old woman, according to the ministry.



Sixty two North Koreans are in their 80s, including an 89-year-old woman.



The participants will be comprised of 68 men and 25 women from the South and 46 men and 42 women from the North.



The 93 South Koreans will gather in the border city of Sokcho in Gangwon Province, Aug. 19, where they will be briefed by the South's Red Cross officials before heading to Mount Geumgang the next day.



The two Koreas have not had family reunions since October 2015 during the conservative government of Park Geun-hye.



They have held 20 rounds of face-to-face family reunions since the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000.



According to the ministry, 132,123 South Koreans applied in May to meet their family members but that only 57,000 of the latter were found to be alive in the North.



South Korea earlier selected 500 applicants through a computer lottery, after the two Koreas agreed over the number of people to join the reunion during Red Cross talks in June.



That number was later reduced to 250 considering age, health and other relevant factors, before the list was finalized.



Seoul has constantly asked to resume the reunions but failed because the North sought to link it to economic aid that was banned under the U.N. Security Council's sanctions imposed on the North for its nuclear activities.




Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Cloudy this morning. A few showers developing during the afternoon. High 59F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 52F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Hello! Im Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

Recently, no less an expert in the field that Reese Witherspoon asked on Twitter: Why arent there more romantic movies? The Times Amy Kaufman takes a look at the state of the rom-com and the business and creative decisions behind Netflixs Summer of Love, a purposeful program of romances.

As Katie Silberman, screenwriter of the popular Set It Up, put it, When I grew up, a romantic comedy was a good thing. Something happened in the last decade or so where all of a sudden, it had a negative connotation. Its been so rewarding to hear how hungry people were for romantic comedies.

Jen Yamato wrote about her own experiences with the new Netflix rom-coms, including a viewing party with a group of friends. As she wrote, Wed suffered a great paucity of the kinds of films studios used to invest in. We were a long-starved tribe with a shared hunger for movies that at least, like Set It Up, reminded us of a time when rom-coms were good.

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We will have a number of screening events coming up in August, including one from a filmmaker I have been wanting to showcase since we first started our Indie Focus screenings six (!) years ago. For info and updates, go to events.latimes.com.

Left to right, Bronte Carmichael, Ewan McGregor and Hayley Atwell in Christopher Robin (Laurie Sparham / Disney)

Christopher Robin

The new film Christopher Robin, directed by Marc Forster, imagines what would happen if the character from A.A. Milnes Winnie the Pooh stories grew up to be an adult (played by Ewan McGregor) and how his childhood friend could continue to help him on into adulthood.

Reviewing for The Times, Justin Chang said the movie approaches its fanciful story with wit, tact and sincere respect for the audiences intelligence, as well as its desire for honest, unfussy pleasure. He added, The lessons Christopher must learn  dont work too hard, hold your most cherished memories close, love your family and friends above all else  are nothing if not obvious. And, much like Pooh himself, always worth revisiting.

The Times Todd Martens spoke to some of the creative team behind the movie. Alex Ross Perry, one of the movies three credited screenwriters, spoke of the challenges in making movie for both children and adults when he said, I wouldnt be ashamed to be a grown man going to see a Winnie the Pooh movie in the theater with no child next to me, so lets make sure were making that movie.  It has to be completely logical in that Pixar sense, where adults can go see it in a roomful of kids, but it doesnt feel like youre seeing a kids movie.

At Time, Stephanie Zacharek said the film is the movie you didnt know you needed  the picture has a charming, low-key vibe that is, here and there, brushed with just a trace of adult melancholy. Its good for kids, but maybe even better for adults who could use a little calming something.

A scene from Nico, 1988. (Magnolia Pictures)

Nico, 1988

Written and directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli and staring Danish actress Trine Dyrholm, Nico, 1988 tells the story of the final years in the life of Crista Paffgen, better known as the musician Nico. After appearing in Federico Fellinis La Dolce Vita and on the landmark album The Velvet Underground and Nico, she struck off on her own path, making records of chilly foreboding while living a life of emotional turmoil.

Reviewing for The Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, Dyrholm, an actress of formidable presence who expertly handles her own singing as well as the acting, gives a strong, truthful, unflinching performance that powers the film the way Christas energy powered the bands she was in those late days.

At the Village Voice, Alan Scherstuhl wrote, Nico, 1988 shows us the star pouring all her pain and exuberance into music that she doesnt care whether you take or leave. She even wants to leave it herself, toward the end, when the idea comes to her that she might work in a flower shop instead  that she might spend her days around life. But she cant. She might insist that some acquaintances call her Christa, but shes too Nico not to be Nico.

Lindsay Zoladz at the Ringer wrote about the real-life Nico, saying, One of many things Nicchiarellis movie reminds us is that Nicos later music was darker, deeper, and infinitely richer than most people realize. In fact, the whole second half of her career was a defiant and fascinating repudiation of everything that had drawn people to the former model and muse in the first place.

Writer Angelica Nwandu, actress Tatum Hall, actress Dominique Fishback and director Jordana Spiro from Night Comes On, photographed in the L.A. Times Studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 19 (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Night Comes On

Directed by Jordana Spiro from a screenplay co-written with Angelica Nwandu, Night Comes On explores the difficulties of the foster-care system through the story of two sisters, one who is old enough to be on her own and the other inside it. The film stars Dominique Fishback and Tatum Marilyn Hall.

For The Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, The tension and the love between the sisters is revealed as being equally real, as is Angels unwavering determination to do what she views as the right thing by violently confronting her mothers killer.  As with much of this impressive first feature, that confrontation plays out in a way that is as satisfying as it is unexpected. Night does indeed come on for this films characters, but the light of day is present as well.

The Times Trevell Anderson spoke to Nwandu and Spiro for a Q&A that will be publishing soon. Of their collaboration on the project, Spiro said, Were both opinionated people and I think that we did a pretty good job of allowing ourselves to argue with each other, mull things over, teach each other things and really hear what the other is saying. I also had to allow myself to be educated and keeping that partnership alive through the entire process of the film.

For the New York Times, Teo Bugbee noted the creative partnership between Spiro and Nwandu by saying, The result of their partnership is a film that balances penetrating clarity with compassion. Mirroring Angels dissociated gaze, Ms. Spiros camera sometimes wanders from her characters to fixate nakedly on families at rest or children at play. But when it comes to the sources of Angels pain, Ms. Spiros sharp-sighted scrutiny softens like eyes that have slipped  mercifully  out of focus.

Email me if you have questions, comments or suggestions, and follow me on Twitter @IndieFocus.
Long associated with NBC for his suite of TV procedurals, Law & Order creator Dick Wolf is jumping to CBS for his new drama, FBI.

Its the first time the veteran producer has had a regular prime time series on a network other than NBC in 15 years.

As part of CBS presentation at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour Sunday, Wolf began his panel with an expression of excitement at being on CBS. But he was quick to stress that F.B.I.  in contrast with some corners of the current political discourse  would not be tied to any ideology.

[F.B.I. agents] are assiduously nonpolitical, said Wolf. If you go back over the years you cant find evidence of anything Ive done being politically oriented. If you do that 50% of the audience is [angry] from the first frame.

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TCA 2018: All the latest TV news from the summer press tour 

Wolf also rebuffed the idea that the timing of the show was significant due to the political climate, which led to F.B.I. being delayed in 2016 given the agencys investigation into the Clinton campaign at that time.

I dont know how to answer except to say were celebrating the troops on the ground, he said.

Wolf also vaguely addressed the creative differences that led to the departure of the series original showrunner, Craig Turk. He did an incredible job on The Good Wife. This is a totally different animal, Wolf said.

FBI stars Missy Peregym, Zeeko Zaki, Ebonee Noel and Jeremy Sisto.

As for jumping fron NBC to CBS, he used an analogy befitting the West L.A. location of TCA. There was no more beachfront real estate at NBC, Wolf said.

In addition to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Wolf has three other dramas on NBC, all based in Chicago---Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D.

chris.barton@latimes.com

Follow me over here @chrisbarton.
If I wind up sounding a little daffy on the subject of Lodge 49, a 10-part series beginning Monday on AMC, it is in part that it feels like I have been sent a gift, tailor-made to my sensibilities. An hour-long comedy, rich with dramatic complication and depth of feeling, it is not without crises and conflicts; but it is also not weighed down with murders or monsters. No one here has a superpower  few have any power at all, for that matter, and even then its mostly the illusion of power. They have opposing interests at times, but there are no real villains, no antiheroes.

The series was created by Jim Gavin, an acclaimed writer of short stories mostly set in Southern California, but Lodge 49 feels more like a big comic novel. Although it has a very different story to tell, parts of it put me in mind of Mike Whites Enlightenment and David Milch and Kem Nunns John from Cincinnati in setting and tone, and of a less-mannered Fargo, minus the moral compromises and brutality.

Wyatt Russell, looking like a young cross between his actor dad, Kurt, and Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski, plays Sean Dud Dudley, an aging young man whose life has been derailed by the one-two punch of a debilitating snake bite during a surf trip to Nicaragua and the death of his father, presumed drowned off the coast of Long Beach, not long after Duds return.

Whether this disappearance was intentional or not is an unresolved sore point between Dud and his sister, Liz (Sonya Cassidy). Dud, for whom their father could do no wrong, believes it accidental. Liz, saddled with debt from a loan she co-signed for him and paying it off with grim responsibility, takes the former view.

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At the local chapter of the Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Avis-Marie Barnes, from left, Eric Allan Kramer, Kenneth Welsh, Brent Jennings and David Pasquesi come to order in Lodge 49. (Jackson Lee Davis/AMC)

While Liz labors with apathetic efficiency in a Hooters-like breastaurant, Dud is squatting in his old apartment and staking out the house he grew up in, lost to foreclosure. Blithely incapable of living more than half a day ahead, he gets by on money borrowed from his sister or taken out in usurious loans from a pawn shop in the strip mall where his fathers pool maintenance business used to be; he also sweeps the beach for lost change with a metal detector.

One day he turns up a ring in the sand, bearing an emblem he learns is that of the Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx, a kind of junior-grade Masons, with a parallel historical interest in alchemy. By fate or happenstance  in fiction, of course, where coincidence is a tool, they amount to the same thing  Dud runs out of gas in front of the local Lynx lodge, Lodge 49. (The resonance with Thomas Pynchons novel The Crying of Lot 49 is not accidental.)

Here he encounters Ernie Fontaine (Brent Jennings), a 59-year-old industrial plumbing salesman and lodge knight we have met earlier, shooing crows away from his house with a BB gun. Dud, dreamy and a little dim, insists that they were meant to meet  Russell plays him with the childlike qualities of a silent film comedian  and that he and Ernie are in cahoots. (Among other things, Dud tells his sister, We both have a background in residential hydronics.) Ernie insists they are not, and that sometimes a social club is just a social club, though he is emotionally invested becoming its next Sovereign Protector.

This is a satirical small-town comedy, in which the fact that everybody knows a good deal about everybody elses business does not mean they understand one another well, a show about community in which most everyone is hungry for connection even as they are holding someone else at arms length. Declarations of deep feeling are often left to hang in the air.

Brent Jennings portrays lodge knight Ernie Fontaine and Wyatt Russell is Sean Dud Dudley in Lodge 49. (Jackson Lee Davis / AMC)

There are eccentric characters here  and there are a lot of characters  but with rare exceptions they are not played eccentrically. (Even Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell, when he arrives late in the story, gives a relatively measured performance.) Their lives are shaped by myths and legends, from the history of the Lynx to the never-glimpsed developer called only Captain, and Lodge 49 has the quality of being mystical without mystical things actually happening. (Or do they?)

Signs and symbols, Ernie, says lodge member Blaise St. John (David Pasqesi), the house philosopher, when Ernie tells him about the crows. Characters are repeatedly seen dreaming, or waking up from dreams  more than a few times hungover in unfamiliar surroundings. (There is a lot of drinking.) There are hallucinations  or are there?  as fleeting as a blinking woman in a still photograph and as hard to ignore as a floor full of stars.

The show never winks at the viewer; it never pushes a point with a tricky camera angle or cute underscoring. There is a kind of calm to much of it, whether we are in the permanent dusk of the lodges tavern, or the doughnut shop were Dud hangs out, or in the mostly empty offices of a dying aerospace corporation.

Action does erupt every so often, but for the most part Lodge 49 is a medium-paced story, driven by conversation. It isnt slow  its remarkably busy, in fact  but its in no rush to give up its secrets, either. Seemingly random comments and mysterious glimpsed events may not be explained until an episode or two or more later, if ever  there are doors left open at the end of its 10-episode season, possibly to be walked through in a second. But the first feels close enough to complete, and I will likely watch it all again.

ALSO:

Wyatt Russells new goal: an acting career

Jim Gavin talks about the mix of fact and fiction in Middle Men

Two oddly kindred spirits wind up on the same page

Twin Peaks and turning television into a genuine art form

Television review: Enlightened

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

Follow Robert Lloyd on Twitter @LATimesTVLloyd
During its initial run, which concluded in 1998, Murphy Brown wasnt shy about addressing controversy. That legacy remains intact in the highly anticipated reboot, which was the focus of a panel presentation at the Television Critics Assn.s summer press tour Sunday morning.

In opening remarks addressing the CBS shows return, executive producer Diane English also referenced a recent New Yorker article by Ronan Farrow that included allegations of sexual misconduct against network chief Leslie Moonves and reports of a culture of harassment at CBS.

On behalf of everybody on our show, we take the allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously, she said. We actually had developed an episode on the #MeToo movement months ago.

Following the article, the CBS Board of Directors ordered several law firms to investigate the allegations of misconduct by Moonves.

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So we support the investigation fully. None of us have had any negative experience in that regard at CBS, English said. I never experienced any kind of sexual misconduct personally or misogyny, and as far as I know, no one on the crew has. Id much rather talk about our show coming back. Thats the only comment we will have until the investigation is complete.

English didnt offer further details on the #MeToo-inspired episode, other than to say that it would be the fourth to air and that it was titled #MurphyToo.

The reboot reunites members of the original cast and introduces a few new characters. Candice Bergen is back in the title role of the sharp-edged news reporter, and is also an executive producer. Also returning are Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto and Grant Shaud.

TCA 2018: All the latest TV news from the summer press tour 

In the original series, Murphy and her colleagues worked on a news magazine; this time, theyll will be working on a morning show.

Having only begun production late last month, the cast was fresh from shooting the first episode of the reconvened series, which English said will draw a lot from a climate where the press is frequently described by those in power as the enemy of the people.

But there have been more changes to the culture since the series last aired. When we left these characters in 1998, there was no internet, there was no social media, said English. Cable news was just getting started. To take these characters and put them in the world of 24-hour cable news was very rich for us.

They dont like being sidelined, Bergen said of the shows characters. Theyve all been in retirement the last few years, and they want to get back in action, especially now when theres so much action.

English said the show will open on election day 2016 and quickly move up to present day with the goal of remaining topical, so much so that only nine of the planned 13 episodes have been developed to allow for updates in the news cycle.

Some things are going to drop in September, I can feel it, she said.

The presentation also introduced Jake McDorman as Murphys son, Avery, who works as a liberal voice at a network modeled after Fox News, and Nik Dodani, who portrays the social media specialist on Murphys new show.

My job is to be the voice of the younger generation, he said.

Ford happily noted that he is the same age she was when she started on the show as perky anchor Corky Sherwood.

Charles Kimbrough, who played stiff anchorman Jim Dial in the original series, will also appear for a few episodes. The series also promises to feature more cameos from the real world of news, including one in the first episode that English said was top secret.

Weve always tried to blur the lines between fiction and reality, and we were so successful in doing that in the first iteration of the show that the vice president thought Murphy was a real person, she said.

Bergen said the tone of the reboot is set from the first episode, which continues the shows topical legacy.

This show has no fear of anyone, she said. We really stick our head in the lions mouth.

Murphy Brown returns Sept. 27.

chris.barton@latimes.com

Follow me over here @chrisbarton.
The Mendocino Complex fire continued to grow at an alarming rate, burning more than 266,000 acres by Sunday morning and becoming the fourth-largest in California history.

The massive blaze, the most serious of 17 major brush fires burning in California this weekend, was raging across wilderness on both sides of Clear Lake, forcing more evacuations in rural areas of three Northern California counties.

Officials said 9,300 structures are threatened, 68 homes have burned and 12 have been damaged. Officials expect the Mendocino Complex to climb to the third-largest wildfire by Monday morning.

The Mendocino Complex is two fires, the Ranch and River, which have burned in separate directions for days.

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Despite the dramatic growth of the fires, authorities said they are making progress.

On Saturday night, crews had good success increasing containment on the River fire and containment lines were holding well, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement. The strategic plan and operations throughout the previous day held the fire to limited fire spread.

The Ranch fire had burned 218,319 acres to the north of Clear Lake and was 23% contained; the River fire had burned 48,663 acres to the west of Clear Lake and was 58% contained.

The Mendocino Complex fire is approaching the size of the biggest fire ever recorded in California: Decembers Thomas fire, which burned 281,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The Ranch and River fires have displaced thousands of residents in Mendocino, Lake and Colusa counties. At least seven evacuation centers and two animal shelters have been operating since the blazes broke out.

The Red Cross shelter at the Twin Pines Casino in Middletown has operated much like a revolving door since July 29, as refugees from one end of the Ranch and River fires get word it is safe to return home and new evacuees flee the fires advancing edges.

The shelter is set up in a large dome behind the casino, where the slots are still being worked by gamblers. The shelter averages 120 residents a night, and 42 more people are sleeping in RVs, trailers or their vehicles.

The Pomo tribe in the Robinson Rancheria on the north end of Clear Lake, braced in a valley between the two massive fires, had hopscotched between emergency shelters to wind up in Middletown. About 30 to 40 of the tribes men stayed behind, using what little fire equipment they had to mount a defense.

Tribal member Terri Rave, 51, left the rancheria five days ago after checking to make sure all of the propane tanks were shut off. The tribes men, her nephew included, were using tractors and shovels to break up the sod and reduce the vegetation that could burn.

Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Steve Kaufman stopped at the shelter to let evacuees know what was burned and what remained standing after he made a midnight drive through the Ranch fire. But he told them he has no idea what to expect next.

We cant predict this one; the new burns each day are as big as fires themselves, he said. At different times of the day, the winds are blowing in different directions, pushing the fire in unexpected ways.

Kaufman said emergency managers are hoping roads, lakes, old fire lines, and the reduced fuel loads on the scars of the 2015 and 2016 Lake County fires will slow down the fast-moving Ranch blaze, as will the black burnt soil of last months Pawnee fire.

Farther north, near Redding, residents began returning Saturday to neighborhoods ravaged by the Carr fire, which has been linked to the death of seven people and has destroyed more than 1,000 homes.

PG&E employee dies after accident tied to the Carr fire, company says 

More than 4,700 firefighters stationed in two Shasta County base camps have battled the 160,049-acre blaze for nearly two weeks, facing triple-digit temperatures, winds up to 30 mph and desert-dry air. It was 43% contained Sunday evening.

The biggest hurdle facing firefighters will be on the fires northern edges, where its burning through steep creek drainages with unpredictable wind shifts. The goal there, fire commanders say, is to build defensive lines miles ahead of the fire to box it in and attack it directly to minimize its spread.

Numerous media reports have blamed the start of the massive blaze on a vehicle towing a trailer with a flat tire, its metal rim creating sparks as it rolled along. Cal Fire incident reports have indicated the blaze was caused by a mechanical failure of a vehicle.

Gov. Jerry Brown visited the fire command center at the county fairgrounds on Saturday. Increased year-round fire activity was the new normal for the state, he said. The Trump administration issued a federal disaster declaration to aid the firefighting and recovery effort shortly after the governor requested it.

Full coverage: Californias summer siege of wildfires 

A Pacific Gas & Electric Co. employee doing restoration work in Shasta County died Saturday, a company spokesman said. The employee, 21-year-old Jairus Ayeta, became the seventh death linked to the Carr fire.

The safety of our employees, contractors and communities we serve is PG&Es top priority, said company spokesman J.D. Guidi. My thoughts are with those involved in the incident and their families.

The large wildfires burning in the state have scorched more than 470,000 acres, displaced around 40,000 residents and are being fought by more than 14,000 firefighters from around the state and country.

The Ferguson fire near Yosemite National Park has burned more than 89,000 acres. Yosemite Valley has been closed since July 25.

Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

9:40 p.m.: This article was updated with new fire figures.

2:40 p.m.: This article was updated to include the identity of the PG&E employee who was killed.

2:10 p.m.: This article was updated to comments from Mendocino Complex fire evacuees.

11:20 a.m.: This article was updated with the seventh death linked to the Carr fire.

9:45 a.m.: This article was updated with new numbers on the size of the Carr fire.

This article was originally published at 8:50 a.m.
At age 67, Cathy Woods finally has her own place to live. Its a rental unit in Gig Harbor, Wash., a mellow port town across the Puget Sound Narrows from Tacoma. Her guardian is a short stroll away.

Before that, Woods lived in crowded prison cells and hospital wards for 35 years. Her story, four decades in the making, continues to unfold today and poses a difficult question: What, if anything, should be done for Cathy Woods, who was imprisoned for a crime she didnt commit?

Wouldnt it make sense at some point to step back and have a settlement conference and see if the parties can come together here in Reno and try to settle this case? asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Cooke at a recent federal hearing in Nevada. The civil trial Cooke is overseeing is scheduled to begin next year after the current discovery stage is completed, but she wonders about the efficacy of such proceedings if some witnesses and evidence are no longer available.

After all, it was 1980 when Woods was convicted of killing a young woman four years earlier in Reno, where Woods worked as a bartender. Prosecutors claimed Woods slit the throat of 19-year-old University of Nevada nursing student Michelle Mitchell after she rebuffed Woods sexual overtures. In time, Woods would become Americas longest-serving wrongly convicted female inmate, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

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For certain, it was a murder she did not commit. And a prison sentence she should not have served. Yet it was a bloody crime to which she confessed  in a statement written by police.

Criminal justice experts say her case raises questions about how police interrogate the mentally ill and is a troubling reminder that wrongful convictions do occur and that people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit.

Police did not tape-record Woods interrogation. Her case inspired a bill in the Nevada Legislature last year that would have made recordings uniform and mandatory. The bill by Assemblyman Steve Yeager, a Las Vegas Democrat, was backed by the ACLU and Nevada Innocence Project. Yeager said it would protect people who are more vulnerable and susceptible to false confessions, including juveniles and those with mental limitations.

At a bill hearing, Michelle Feldman of the Nevada Innocence Project, said, False confessions are a leading contributor to wrongful convictions nationally. Here in Nevada, they played a role in two of nine wrongful convictions overturned.

Kate Hickman, the countys chief deputy public defender, said that when the police officers testified to the jury, they said Ms. Woods did not appear mentally ill. They did not see the mental illness in her. They did not see the suggestibility. They did not see that she got every single detail, including the color of the car and the inability to tie a knot in a rope, incorrect. The detectives ability to come and testify, She told us this, without a jury hearing it from her was incredibly damaging to her and played a huge role in her being convicted of a crime she did not commit.

Yeagers bill passed the Assembly but died in the Senate, with 18 nays and just three yeas.

Woods lawsuit claims that interrogators failed to advise her of her right to silence, ignored her request for an attorney, wouldnt allow her to leave the room and used her debilitating mental condition against her. Police wrote out the admission of sorts, using their notes and memories. Woods never signed the document, but investigators testified that their account reflected what she said during her interrogation.

At the time, she was housed in a mental ward at Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport, La. She later said she had bragged of committing the killing in the misguided belief that by appearing dangerous she would get her own room.

Her lawsuit names government agencies and four officials  ex-Reno Police Lt. Lawrence C. Dennison, former Shreveport Det. Donald W. Ashley, onetime Shreveport Det. Clarence A. Jackie Lewis, and former Washoe County Dist. Atty. Calvin X. Dunlap. All deny forcing a confession from Woods and say they were acting under the color of law and are legally protected from lawsuits such as this.

Woods was found guilty twice, once in a 1980 trial  a verdict that was overturned  and again in a 1985 retrial. She was sentenced to life without parole.

Prison is difficult enough to handle on its own, said her attorney, Elizabeth Wang. What must it be like to also be mentally ill  and innocent? The police didnt care if she was guilty or not. They just wanted to close a case.

Wang said she prefers not to allow Woods to be interviewed by the media during litigation. She is seriously mentally ill, Wang said of her aging client, a stocky woman with thick dark hair often seen strolling the park-like shoreline of Gig Harbor.

Woods true name is Anita Carter, according to Wang. The murder case against her was filed under Carter, but she prefers to be known today as Woods, the name on her 2016 civil case claiming she was framed.

Anita, said Wang, who switches back and forth between her clients names, is aware of what is happening, understands the legal process, and is dealing with the wrongful conviction as best a person in her condition can.

The Georgia-born Woods received only an elementary school education and was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 12. She went on to be hospitalized numerous times for psychiatric treatment in her 20s and was involuntarily committed for paranoid schizophrenia at age 29 by her mother.

Woods earned her freedom after a routine DNA test of a prison inmate tied Mitchells death to Rodney Halbower, 69, a suspected serial killer and rapist in Oregon who has spent decades in prison. Halbower has yet to be formally charged with Mitchells slaying.

Woods was freed in 2016 and walked out the prison door with a few belongings, memories of electroshock therapy and suicide attempts including setting herself on fire, her attorney says. She was missing some teeth as well.

I do not fault the law enforcement involved in the original investigation, the prosecution, or the two juries that found Cathy Woods guilty, Washoe County Dist. Atty. Chris Hicks said at a 2015 news conference. They were faced with a vicious and tragic unsolved murder and were presented with details of intentional confessions from a person who resided in the area at the time of the murder. They did not have the incredible tool of DNA.

Today, Woods lives a cautious, solitary life along Puget Sound. We will wrap up discovery and then get a trial date for sometime next year, Wang said. Will there be a settlement? I have no idea.

Judge Cooke hopes it comes to that. At the last Reno hearing, she urged the two sides to work toward an agreement.

This is going to be a very complicated case. This is 40 years ago. I have a feeling many of these people are not going to remember much of anything, Cooke said.

Anderson is a special correspondent.
Waving a white flag of surrender after the failed raid on Harpers Ferry, Aaron Dwight Stevens was riddled with bullets to the face, neck and chest area. The handsome 28-year-old, who lost his baritone voice in the October 1859 crossfire, was hundreds of miles from home.

But hed long deserted Norwich, Conn., as a teenager  a rebel with a quick temper and yearning to fight slavery. In Bleeding Kansas, Stevens would join forces with abolitionist John Brown, training an army of 22 men to free the slaves  and first storm a federal armory in Virginia (now West Virginia).

Stevens, convicted of conspiring with slaves to revolt, was hanged on March 16, 1860. Nearly 160 years after his death, Norwich-area officials and residents are requesting he be posthumously pardoned.

Norwich has always been seen as the home of Benedict Arnold, but he was a traitor, Tommy Coletti said of the Revolutionary War turncoat. Here is a true American hero who is listed as a traitor also, but he wasnt. He was doing work in the 1800s that you had continued in the 1900s with Martin Luther King.

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Coletti co-wrote a biography about Stevens, A Journey to the Gallows, which gradually sparked the idea of asking the Commonwealth of Virginia to vindicate the New Englander.

The premise of the pardon is that the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments  passed after the Civil War  nullify Stevens slavery-related crimes.

It is ironic that Stevens was actually convicted of the capital crime of inciting slaves to rebellion, which of course is no longer a capital crime. Slavery ended, said Dale Plummer, the Norwich city historian.

Plummer said with the controversial removal of Confederate memorials throughout the South, its important to honor people who gave their lives to the anti-slavery movement.

In 2016, Route 138 in Lisbon, Conn., was designated the Aaron Dwight Stevens Memorial Highway. In Norwich, Plummer would like to see a bronze statue of Stevens erected on the city green  if the pardon is successful.

It may take more than a year to learn the outcome. The Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia has received the application and will review it before Gov. Ralph Northam makes a decision, a representative from the press office confirmed.

In the paperwork mailed last month, Vic Butsch attached photocopies of Stevens army enlistments, indictment and proof of death one day after his 29th birthday.

Butsch, the co-author of A Journey to the Gallows and lead researcher on Stevens, traversed the country for more than a decade to review original documents. He first learned about the Indiana Jones figure through a continuing education class taught by Plummer.

In the pre-Civil War period, both Stevens and Brown garnered national notoriety for their exploits.

People in Virginia thought he was a lot more dangerous than Brown was, and they were right, Butsch said. Stevens was a trained Army guy  big and strong. He did have a temper that would get him into trouble sometimes, and it guided his life.

Born in Lisbon on March 15, 1831, Stevens grew up in a Puritan household. His father was the choir director of the First Congregational Church in Norwich, elevating the prominence of the pacifistic family. But Dwight was not the Puritan, stay-at-home person that his family was, Butsch said. He had an itch to go.

Stevens was heavily influenced by Thomas Paines writings on spiritualism, Coletti said, and the concept that everything should be free. He joined the 1st Massachusetts Regiment at age 16 as the Mexican-American War was raging.

A 21-year-old Stevens would later enlist in the elite Dragoons cavalry, which took him to Pennsylvania and Missouri. When stationed in New Mexico, Stevens temper flared up. He tried to shoot his commanding officer.

He got arrested and was sentenced to die, Butsch said. However, the secretary of war at the time, which was Jefferson Davis, commuted the sentence. He was placed in prison, but he escaped and joined the Kansas militia.

There, as he fought the border ruffians, Stevens  using the alias Charles Whipple  met Brown. The two despised slavery and envisioned an all-out guerrilla war in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Yet the key step of the slave uprising, a raid of Harpers Ferry, was a failure.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, who signed the petition for Stevens pardon, said she wants to set the record straight and recognize his commitment to social justice issues.

We have been so interested in  his [drive] to make sure slavery ended, Osten said. Thats the part that really fascinates me: Someone as young as him was able to stand up for something he felt was right.

Kuznitz writes for the Hartford Courant.
Mere months ago, most practicing lawyers probably couldnt have defined the Chevron doctrine, even if they had some vague recollections of it from law school.

Now, Chevrons everywhere. Thats because President Trumps choices for Supreme Court justices  Neil M. Gorsuch, already on the high court, and Brett Kavanaugh, nominated  have made it clear that they arent fans of the doctrine. If Kavanaugh and Gorsuch have their way, warn some worried observers, the doctrine will fall and Washington will be radically, irrevocably changed.

The end of the Chevron doctrine would severely curtail the ability of future government[s] to meet the needs of the people, according to a post on the legal website Verdict. It would amount to clear disdain for how government affects and improves the lives of regular Americans every day, in the words of USC law professor Franita Tolson.

If a court agrees with the agencys understanding, the result would be no different from the result under todays Chevron regime.

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These fears are out of proportion to the threat. They confuse the demise of a doctrine of statutory interpretation with the demise of the regulatory and administrative agencies themselves.

The Chevron doctrine is named for a 1984 Supreme Court decision, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. vs. Natural Resources Defense Council, in which the justices were confronted with a puzzling question about whether the Environmental Protection Agency under President Reagan could apply more lenient standards to enforcement of the Clean Air Act than the standards previously applied by President Carters EPA. They ultimately found the approach of Reagans EPA to be lawful. (The archives of their correspondence indicate that it wasnt an easy decision.)

What emerged as the Chevron doctrine, then, was this principle: When a statute delegates interpretive authority to an administrative agency and the statutes language is ambiguous or vague, courts should defer to a reasonable understanding of that statute arrived at by the agency.

Deference often makes sense. Agencies are filled with experts who understand the nuances of the statutes assigned to them for implementation. Interpreting the laws can involve policy decisions that are better made by officials accountable to the elected president than by unelected judges. And  as Justice Antonin Scalia said in a 1989 speech  because Congress wrote these types of statutes with the expectation that agencies would resolve any ambiguities, courts should honor that intent.

Many judges and administrators find the Chevron doctrine useful: Judges (sometimes) like deferring to agencies on complicated interpretive questions, and administrators (often) like being on the receiving end of that deference because of the greater leeway it provides them.

However sensible the doctrine is, it isnt the only foundation for the administrative state  the sizable bureaucracy that implements the laws that regulate so many facets of modern life. The EPA, the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and their like do not rely on Chevron for their very existence.

The doctrine is a guide for a relatively narrow set of circumstances, at least when it is applied correctly: If a court finds a statute to have delegated interpretive authority to an agency, and if the court deems the statute ambiguous or vague, then the court is to defer to the agencys interpretation, so long as the court deems it reasonable. (Agencies already operate without receiving Chevron deference in a wide range of circumstances.)

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

What would happen if the Chevron doctrine were to disappear? Courts would simply do what they do in other circumstances in which theyre confronted with questions of statutory interpretation: Start from their best readings of the statutes plain text and structure, then apply long-standing legal maxims to decide what it means. If a court agrees with the agencys understanding, the result would be no different from the result under todays Chevron regime. If it doesnt agree, then in a post-Chevron era the courts interpretation would prevail as it does in other contexts.

Joshua Matz, in a post on his Take Care website, argues that, if Chevron were to fall, courts would exercise far greater authority over the meaning of federal law. That is surely correct, but determining the meaning of federal law is what courts do every day. Upending Chevron could also, as Matz says, have major practical implications by elevating uncertainty about which agency interpretations will withstand judicial scrutiny. Combined with other developments such as the shift toward politically appointed administrative law judges, the stakes loom large for disrupting at least some decision making in government agencies.

Fundamentally, however, the Chevron doctrine cannot and should not be equated with the administrative state itself. To suggest that the potential demise of the former means the dismantlement of the latter isnt sound legal analysis  its political hyperbole. If Chevron falls, government as we know it wont disappear.

Joshua A. Geltzer is the founding executive director and visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Centers Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
To the editor: At a White House briefing on Aug. 2, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was twice given the opportunity to declare that the press is not the enemy of the people. This phrase has been used by the most notorious of world dictators in the Soviet Union, China, Nazi Germany and even the United States under Richard M. Nixon.

One of these days, Donald Trump will no longer be president, and Sanders will not be press secretary. She will probably find a high-paying job at Fox News but otherwise will be a pariah. Any time a journalist in the U.S. or abroad is harassed, threatened, harmed, imprisoned or even killed, those Americans who actually believe in the freedom of the press will recall the insidious characterization of reporters by Trump and Sanders to their everlasting shame.

No job in the world is worth trading in your integrity for a paycheck or a pat on the head from the boss.

Barbara H. Bergen, Los Angeles

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..

To the editor: So, weve got these enormous news-gathering organizations with hundreds of bureaus at home and abroad, monitored by media watchdog groups and every journalism school, all gathering at a secret meeting every other Thursday night in Iowa to synchronize their watches and come up with fake news stories  but miraculously, only Fox News reports the truth?

Fox News is not news, and neither is talk radio. But they give frustrated, intellectually lazy people nifty sound bites and slogans.

Democracy demands an informed public, not one that is titillated or pandered to. Trump evidently sees democracy and the rule of law as mere impediments.

Mike Scott, Lafayette, Calif.

..

To the editor: Apparently, hostility by the media and constant negative reporting is Sanders fault. CNNs Jim Acosta, the reporter who asked Sanders about Trumps enemy of the people statements, left the press conference, saying, I walked out  because I am totally saddened by what just happened. Sarah Sanders was repeatedly given a chance to say the press is not the enemy.

I get it  its not about the news, it is about Acosta and his hurt feelings.

The media have been on an unending campaign against the president. The bias is breathtaking. They desperately need a devils advocate, someone to challenge what they say before it goes public.

Nathan Post, Santa Barbara

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Since the Watergate era of the 1970s, four presidents  Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and now Donald Trump  have faced criminal investigations into their actions led by special prosecutors. For Nixon and Clinton, those probes led to impeachment charges in Congress.

But Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trumps nominee to the Supreme Court, has argued these special investigations are a mistake and may well be unconstitutional. Though he was a key player in the investigation of Clinton, Kavanaugh has since concluded that a sitting president should be accorded temporary immunity from any criminal probe while in office.

To say a president cannot be indicted is not unusual. Most legal scholars agree the only remedy for a president who breaks the law and commits high crimes and misdemeanors is impeachment by Congress. Only after leaving office may a former president be criminally prosecuted, they say.

But Kavanaugh has taken the view of presidential immunity a step further than most. He argues that even an investigation or questioning of a president should not be permitted, unless done by Congress.

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Kavanaughs views, expressed in writings over the past 20 years, are likely to draw more scrutiny, particularly amid the probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

If confirmed to the high court this fall, Kavanaugh may be called upon to rule on whether the president can be required to answer questions from the special counsel, whether Trump can order the investigation be shut down or whether he can fire Mueller.

I believe the president should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, writing in the Minnesota Law Review in 2009

In explaining his position, Kavanaugh says the Constitution appears to assign to Congress the exclusive duty to investigate a presidents wrongdoing and, if necessary, to bring impeachment charges.

The Constitution establishes a clear mechanism to deter executive malfeasance; we should not burden a sitting president with civil suits, criminal investigations, or criminal prosecutions, he wrote shortly after President Obama took office. I think this temporary deferral should excuse the president from depositions or questioning in civil litigation or criminal investigations, he added in a footnote.

The Supreme Court has not ruled on whether a president can be indicted, but many think the answer is no.

The mainstream view is that a sitting president is not subject to ordinary criminal prosecution, said Yale Law professor Akhil Reed Amar, who has praised Kavanaughs nomination. That has been the standard view of Republicans and Democrats.

Indeed, no president has been charged with a crime or faced a prosecution. But Kavanaugh said he favored going further and shielding the president from criminal investigations while in office.

That has not been the standard view of the law until now. In 1974, in United States vs. Nixon, the Supreme Court rejected the presidents claim of executive privilege and said he must turn over the Watergate tapes to the special prosecutor who was leading the investigation. Nixon resigned a few days later after tapes revealed he had indeed led a cover-up of the White House involvement in the Watergate break-in.

View all coverage of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh 

And in 1997, the high court in Clinton vs. Jones unanimously rejected President Clintons bid for a temporary deferral of a sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee. That led to Clinton being questioned under oath, where he denied having a sexual relationship with a White House intern. The false testimony became part of the criminal investigation led by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who recommended impeachment charges to the House of Representatives. Kavanaugh served as a top deputy to Starr.

Based on his experience later, including serving as the staff secretary to President George W. Bush, Kavanaugh said he came to believe these investigations distracted the president and damaged the country. The nation certainly would have been better off if President Clinton could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots, he said in 2009.

He said Congress should pass a law exempting a president  while in office  from criminal prosecution and investigation, including questioning by criminal prosecutors and defense counsel. He explained this was not just a wise idea, but what the framers of the Constitution intended all along.

The framers appeared to anticipate that a president who commits serious wrongdoing should be impeached by the House and removed by the Senate  and then prosecuted thereafter, he wrote in a 1998 article called The President and the Independent Counsel in the Georgetown Law Journal. The Constitution seems to dictate that congressional investigation must take place in lieu of criminal investigation when the president is the subject of the investigation, and the criminal prosecution can occur only after the president has left office.

Writing in the Minnesota Law Review in 2009, Kavanaugh said special investigations of the presidents top advisors are justified, but not if the president himself is a target of the probe. I believe the president should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office, he wrote. While he agreed in principle no one is above the law in our system of government, he said the president occupies a unique role which calls for shielding him while in office.

The point is not to put the president above the law or eliminate checks on the president, but simply to defer litigation and investigations until the president is out of office, he said. Some may say the country needs a check against a bad-behaving or law-breaking president. But the Constitution already provides that check. If the president does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available. No single prosecutor, judge or jury should be able to accomplish what the Constitution assigns to Congress.

Kavanaugh, like many conservatives, is fond of the late Justice Antonin Scalias lone dissent arguing the independent counsel law  which was in effect from 1978 to 1999  was unconstitutional because it infringed on the powers of the president. To repeat, Article II of the Constitution provides: The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States. This does not mean some of the executive power, but all of the executive power, Scalia wrote in 1988 in Morrison vs. Olson. That means the president has complete control over the investigation and prosecution of violations of the law, he said.

This is often referred to as the unitary executive theory, because it means the executive power cannot be divided up and given to others in the executive branch.

In public talks, Kavanaugh said the high court should overturn Morrison vs. Olson and uphold Scalias view. In 1999, he also said the Nixon tapes case may have been wrongly decided. It took away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official, he said, referring to the special prosecutor. That was a huge step with implications to this day.

In the past year, Trumps lawyers have asserted a similarly broad view of executive authority over criminal investigations. In letters to Mueller, they said the president could not be charged with obstruction of justice for firing investigators or shutting down their probes. The Constitution leaves no question that the president has exclusive authority over the conduct and disposition of all criminal investigations, they said in a June 23, 2017, letter. It remains our position that the presidents actions here, by virtue of his position as the chief law enforcement officer, could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction of justice because that would amount to him obstructing himself, they wrote on Jan. 29, 2018.

Reacting to his nomination, Senate Democrats pounced on Kavanaughs past writings. Is there any wonder that President Trump chose Kavanaugh? said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Because he is worried that Mr. Mueller will go to the court and ask that the president be subpoenaed. His views on this issue are more extreme than just about anyone else on that list of Trumps previously released names of possible high court candidates.

Kavanaugh defenders fired back, calling this unfair and unjustified. They noted Kavanaugh had proposed Congress pass a law to shield the president from investigations. This was a policy preference. It is disingenuous to take an argument that Congress should pass an immunity statute and then use it to portray that person as believing that the Constitution already confers immunity. He specifically did not say that, said Michigan State Law Professor Brian Kalt.

The latest from Washington 

It is not clear whether Mueller will seek a subpoena to require the president to answer questions, and thereby trigger a legal battle. But if so, the case could move quickly to the high court. It could make a big difference if Kavanaugh replaces [Justice] Anthony Kennedy, said Neil Kinkopf, a Georgia State law professor and former Justice Department lawyer. Kennedy would be influenced by the courts role and the need to get to the truth. A few months ago, I would have predicted the subpoena would be upheld. Now I fear it would not be enforced, he said.

It is also not clear whether Muellers probe will uncover legal wrongdoing by President Trump, but if so, the expectation is he would report that finding to Congress.

As Kavanaugh wrote 20 years ago, removing a president from office is a political decision. The framers explained the wisdom, and perhaps also the constitutional necessity, of the idea that the public judgment with respect to the president be rendered not by a prosecutor or jury but by the Congress, he said. If Congress declines to investigate or to impeach and remove the president, there can be no criminal prosecution of the president at least until his term expires.

david.savage@latimes.com

Twitter: DavidGSavage
A thin layer of smoke has stretched across Sacramento for the past week, coming from the deadly wildfires burning to the north and east. The smoke serves as a powerful reminder of a topic likely to dominate the work of lawmakers returning to the state Capitol this week.

Were in uncharted territory, Gov. Jerry Brown said last week after a briefing by state emergency officials. Since civilization emerged 10,000 years ago, we havent this kind of heat condition and its going to continue getting worse.

What awaits the Legislature, which adjourns for the year on Aug. 31, is a series of complicated policy choices  none more so than those the role that California utilities play in preventing wildfires and the liability to which theyre exposed when their equipment plays a part in the origins of a blaze. A pending revision of the rules is drawing close scrutiny from utility companies, local governments, the insurance industry and consumer activists.

California lawmakers grapple with how to prevent deadly wildfires and who should pay victims 

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Utilities say existing fire liability rules are so costly it could lead to bankruptcy. Big businesses, fearful of the impact on what they pay for electricity, are also in favor of new liability limits. Theres also another controversial plan under discussion: Pacific Gas & Electric Co., facing billions in liabilities from deadly 2017 fires, is pushing for the state to help it borrow money to cover its costs.

Consumer groups fear utilities will pass along fire costs to California families in their monthly power bills. Brown said its time to find a reasonable balance to a serious problem.

What is the proper rule of liability? How are we going to allocate these costs? Brown wondered aloud last week.

The governor also gave voice to a growing concern that the fiscal health of electric utility companies poses a threat to Californias climate change agenda. If they falter or fail, the state could miss its targets for reducing greenhouse gases.

Utilities are at the heart of two other closely watched debates coming in August: an ambitious plan to move California toward 100% clean energy sources and a historic attempt to have the state merge its electric power grid with those of neighboring states.

The investor-owned utilities are really dealing with some serious issues, and I think we all recognize that, Assemblyman Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) said during a legislative hearing last month on the renewable energy plan, Senate Bill 100.

Nor will the smoke from the fires make climate change policy any easier. State regulators may be asked to take the blazes into account as they calculate greenhouse gas emissions.

The specter of fire spreads much further over this final month of the legislative session. Republicans hope there will be momentum for changing the rules that they say have kept Californias forests from being properly thinned  either by natural fires or by timber harvesting  and thus become explosive disasters in waiting.

We put ourselves in this position, Assembly GOP Leader Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) said during a hearing last month. Weve had a hundred years, almost a hundred years of fire suppression in California.

Lawmakers could easily introduce other proposals this month inspired by the fires to address the challenges of fewer new homeowner insurance policies being written and regarding recovery efforts in individual communities from Lake County in the north to Idyllwild in Riverside County. And thats to say nothing of the tax dollars being spent on the blazes by state firefighters, some $773 million in the most recent fiscal year.

Four weeks isnt much time for the Legislature to tackle these issues, and theres a real danger in rushing to pass proposals that arent fully vetted. Then again, its the crisis burning through neighborhoods across California that some say is proof that theres no time to wait.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast.
The glinting curves of the tuba reflected not a baton-waving conductor in a tux but a horned buck goat with a fur beard.

A brass quintet from the Pacific Symphony pulled up their chairs and unfolded their sheet music Saturday at the Orange County Fair, playing classical and popular pieces in a pop-up concert for the animal residents and human visitors at Centennial Farm.

In the shade of a pavilion that houses the chick brooders, a French hornist, tubist, trombonist and two trumpeters played a five-piece repertoire very much in the round.

The Elephant movement from Saint-Saens The Carnival of the Animals suggested the tusked beasts lumbering in the savanna.

Rossinis William Tell Overture brought to mind galloping horses and the Lone Ranger.

Strike up the Band brought to the edge of their pen some curious kid goats, their hooves against the fence rails and wiry stub tails twitching to the Gershwin standard and UCLA rally tune. The quintet also drew admirers of all ages for the Star Wars theme and a medley of songs from Frozen.

Keith Popejoy, the symphonys principal French horn, was dressed for down-home comfort in jeans and a plaid shirt. The setting nonetheless took some adjusting as he inhaled deeply to make his music.

I really havent played where youve got the barnyard smells, he said.

Susan Miller Kotses, vice president of education and community engagement for the Irvine-based symphony, said Pacific Symphony musicians regularly perform out of the formal theater setting. They bring their talents to schools, parks and the Orange County Rescue Mission.

But as for its most casual setting, this is probably it.

The Pacific Symphony returns to the area Aug. 18 for a more traditional show at the Pacific Amphitheatre, performing the score to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial alongside a showing of the film.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
Four Contra Costa County residents and a Los Angeles man have been identified as the five people killed aboard a twin-engine plane that crashed Sunday in a parking lot in Santa Ana near Costa Mesas South Coast Plaza mall, officials said.

The Cessna 414 went down at about 12:30 p.m. in the parking lot of a Staples store in the 3800 block of South Bristol Street, according to Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority. The site is just northeast of South Coast Plaza, near the boundary of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana.

The Orange County coroners office Monday morning identified the victims as Navid Hakimi, 32, of Los Angeles, Floria Hakimi, 62, of Danville, Scott Shepherd, 53, and Lara Shepherd, 42, of Diablo and Nasim Ghanadan, 29, of Alamo.

Scott Shepherd was the pilot of the plane, the coroners office said.

#BREAKING @OCFA_PIO on scene where 5 confirmed killed in small Cessna plane crash in parking lot near South Coast Plaza, Santa Ana, flying from Concord to SNA. @LANow pic.twitter.com/m5eMQ8jslL  Allen J. Schaben (@alschaben) August 5, 2018

As the plane crashed, it hit an unoccupied vehicle, but no one on the ground was injured, Concialdi said.

The pilot declared an emergency before the plane went down, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA will investigate and the National Transportation Safety Board will work to determine the cause of the crash.

I dont know anything about what this pilot did or what he was thinking, but it could have been much more tragic, said OCFA Capt. Tony Bommarito. This is a Sunday afternoon and we had people shopping, so the fact that there were no injuries on the ground is a miracle in itself.

The aircraft was heading to John Wayne Airport about two miles southeast of the crash site, airport spokeswoman Deanne Thompson said.

According to FlightAware.com, the plane left Concord in Contra Costa County at 10:23 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive at John Wayne Airport at 12:30 p.m.

(Los Angeles Times)

FAA records show the plane was owned by Category III Aviation Corp., a real estate consulting firm in San Francisco.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Lara Shepherd, Floria Hakimi and Ghanadan were Realtors with Pacific Union International, a real estate brokerage firm that focuses largely on Northern California but began doing business in the Los Angeles area this year. Scott Shepherd, Lara Shepherds husband, was a real estate developer in the Bay Area, according to her profile on the Pacific Union website.

The Shepherds are survived by two children, according to Laras profile on the real estate site.

Witnesses said they saw the plane turn before it suddenly began to dive into the shopping center.

A dashcam on a vehicle captured the moment before the plane dove near Sunflower Avenue and South Bristol.

Ella Pham, 20, of Santa Ana said she and her boyfriend were leaving the parking lot to go to South Coast Plaza when they noticed the aircraft.

We looked up to see the plane falling nose first, she said. We really didnt think it was a plane at first due to no crashing noise, but as soon as we saw people running from across the street, we went to go check it out.

It was so heartbreaking just seeing the plane crumbled into pieces.

Pham said there was no explosion, a detail that fire officials also noted during a news conference.

A lot of people tried to help until they saw that it was hard to get inside the aircraft. But by the time people stepped away, firefighters and police were there, Pham said.

The sound of the impact could be heard inside nearby businesses.

I was working and I hear a loud thud, said Christian Tornero, an employee at a store in the area. I thought it was like a semitruck that just tipped over or something.

Kathy Hayden, who was shopping nearby, said it sounded like a large truck running over something, until she saw mangled remnants of the plane.

There was just nothing left and you could smell the gas, she said.

Never in my life did I think I would see a plane fall out of the sky. #SantaAna pic.twitter.com/qcXT4bTMTR  ellaphant  (@ellaphanntt) August 5, 2018

UPDATES:

8:25 a.m. Aug. 6: This article was updated with comments from Christian Tornero and Kathy Hayden.

7:40 a.m. Aug. 6: This article was updated with the identities of the victims and further details.

9:50 p.m. Aug. 5: This article was updated with quotes from Capt. Tony Bommarito and Ella Pham.

4:35 p.m. Aug. 5: This article was updated with information about the planes owner.

2:50 p.m. Aug. 5: This article was updated with information about the pilots emergency.declaration and the planes intended destination.

2:10 p.m. Aug. 5: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 1:40 p.m. Aug. 5.
Share Our Selves handed out about 4,000 new backpacks stuffed with binders, notebooks, paper, pencils and more Saturday during its annual back-to-school distribution.

For about four hours, families visited the BESST Center in Costa Mesa to collect their backpacks and supplies. They also could visit with other community service providers and resources.

The event, in its 23rd year, provides scholastic items to needy children and families in Orange County.

Share Our Selves provides health, wellness and social services at centers countywide.

All children should have the supplies they need to start school on an equal footing with their peers, SOS Chief Executive Karen McGlinn said in a statement. Our program is here not just to give students backpacks, pencils and paper but to show them that the community cares about their futures and put them on the path to success this year and beyond.
Henry Cejudo understands the value of gold. Hes won an Olympic wrestling medal of that color, and he became the first such champion to add a shining UFC belt to his collection Saturday night at UFC 227 at Staples Center.

Now, hes pursuing the cash value of it by mining for a showdown with fellow champion T.J. Dillashaw.

Minutes after producing a captivating end to Demetrious Johnsons UFC-record 11-fight run of flyweight title defenses by split decision, Cejudo called out Dillashaw, who defended his bantamweight title in the main event, for another possible super-fight.

Look how muscular, how much bigger I am than Demetrious Johnson, Cejudo said at the post-fight news conference. Theyve always talked about a T.J.-D.J. super-fight  but now that theyve got the winner 

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Im already an Olympic champion, Im a UFC champ, and Im asking to be a triple champ. Forget about the champ-champ, allow me to go to 135 pounds and face T.J. Dillashaw. If he wants to come down, OK, but Id rather go up.

As featherweight champion, Conor McGregor coined the term champ-champ by knocking out Eddie Alvarez in 2016 to add the lightweight belt. Last month, light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier stopped heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic to become the second UFC fighter to hold two belts at once.

Now Cejudo, the Olympian born in South Central, wants his chance at it.

Orange Countys Dillashaw recorded a first-round technical knockout of Cody Garbrandt, whom Dillashaw beat for the bantamweight title last year.

Dillashaw had longed to fight Johnson this summer before a Johnson shoulder injury scrapped the bout.

A two-time bantamweight champion, Dillashaw could opt to enhance his claim as the UFCs best-ever bantamweight by fighting San Diegos Dominick Cruz, who won their 2016 title bout by split decision.

But he acknowledged that at 32, hell weigh whether Cejudo or Cruz will make a more lucrative fight.

Well see how it all comes together, Dillashaw said. [Finances are] absolutely something that goes through your head. I want to be a sportsman and continue to be the baddest man I can. But it goes through your head whos going to cause the most attention, and Im up for whatever challenge.

Cejudo, 31, eventually will revisit a trilogy with Johnson. The former champion stopped him in the first round two years ago and fell by a razor-thin margin Saturday.

But Johnson (27-3-1) believed he suffered a torn right knee ligament and broken right foot that probably will require substantial healing following his first loss since bowing to Cruz in a 2011 bantamweight bout.

He didnt blow me out of the water, but I need to get healthy first, see what the damage is and go from there, Johnson said.

Cejudo agreed a third bout with Johnson is expected.

He deserves it, but Im saying I want to go up in weight, he said. Lets do it. I want a challenge.

Cejudo won the fight by out-wrestling Johnson. The new champion scored takedowns in each of the final four rounds to defuse Johnsons hand- and foot-speed advantages.

Johnson was squirmy, I had to continue to work and I noticed when we make him scramble, he gets tired. Hes human. It wasnt an easy fight. It was very tactical, Cejudo said.

He wasnt sure hed won until he heard and new  . in the ring announcement of his champion status.

In your mind, you can meditate those moments of strapping on that belt, Cejudo said. Ive always seen him as a challenge. Beating Demetrious Johnson was much bigger than this UFC belt. Before I ever started the sport, he was the champion. That motivated me, made me stronger.

He becomes the UFCs second Mexican American belt-holder, joining former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, and provides a captivating lifetime narrative that the UFC should market to its maximum.

I may not be Oscar De La Hoya, but it feels good to carry that torch. Im a blessed human being, a very prideful American and I love Mexico, Cejudo said.

Its awesome to see what the mind of a believer can do, to shock the world in the 2008 Beijing Games, and to be on the top of the world again 10 years later.

UFC President Dana White said he was thrilled that A-list celebrities, including Chris Pratt, Matt Damon and the Red Hot Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis, were amid a sold-out crowd of 17,800 that generated a live gate of $2.9 million for his lightest divisions, and he praised Cejudos push for a super-fight.

I love guys who want to fight everybody, and I think the fans love that, too. Thats always good to hear, White said. The reason Conor McGregor is such a huge star is because hes that guy, and when you have that mentality, people like that.

White stopped short of saying hes focused on matching champions in fights, although hell do so in December when womens featherweight champion Cris Cyborg is expected to meet bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.

Its not about super-fights. That word is being completely overused, White said. Cyborg is beating everybody. Nunes has, too. Thats the fight to make.

I dont know if [Cejudo-Dillashaw is] the fight to make right now for these two, but its Saturday night and I make fights on Tuesdays.

Dillashaw said he was pleased to close the chapter with bitter rival and former Sacramento stablemate Garbrandt by staggering him with a punch, subjecting him to a following flurry, landing a disabling kick and finishing him.

He has some technical problems he has to fix, and I dont think he has a chin, Dillashaw said.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire
UFC flyweight title: Demetrious Johnson vs. Henry Cejudo live round-by-round coverage

Demetrious Johnson is one of the most skilled and accomplished competitors in MMA history. He is coming off a spectacular submission win over Ray Borg and has won 13 straight. Having repeatedly avoided a fight with T.J. Dillashaw, he will defend his flyweight title for the third time against an opponent he already beat. Henry Cejudo is an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and is 12-2 in MMA competition with two straight wins heading into this title shot.

Round 1. Something happened early with Cejudos ankle. He is having trouble walking and has landed awkwardly on it multiple times. Johnson throws a number of kicks early. He throws them low initially and then connects with a head kick nicely. Cejudo is moving fine now. Johnson leaps in with a hook. Johnson lands a body kick. Johnson lands a head kick but Cejudo gets a hold of Johnson in the process and lands a few punches from close range before Johnson backs out. 10-9 Johnson.

Round 2. The fighters end up in a clinch early but dont last long there before separating. Cejudo connects with a solid right hand in an exchange. Johnson continues to attack at different levels, going to the body and legs to set up attacks to the head. They trade kicks to the body. Johnson lands a right hand and briefly looks to set up a takedown but quickly gives up on the idea. Cejudo scores a takedown with a minute left in the round. Cejudo lands some punches from the top. Johnson powers his way up while Cejudo lands some knees to the shoulder. 10-9 Cejudo.

Round 3. Johnson puts the pressure on early in the third. Cejudo goes for a takedown and has Johnson down briefly but never has control and Johnson is quickly back up. Cejudo moves in with punches but Johnson then counters. Cejudo goes for a takedown but Johnson counters and nearly takes the back in the process. Cejudo is able to avoid that predicament. Johnson lands a nice kick to the body. Cejudo goes for a takedown and again Johnson rolls out. 10-9 Johnson.

Round 4. Johnson lands a hard right hand. Cejudo answers with a quality right hand and a knee to the body before Johnson answers back with a punch of his own. Cejudo scores a takedown at the midpoint of the round. Cejudo lands a few punches and elbows while maintaining control of Johnson. 10-9 Cejudo.

Round 5. The crowd chants for Cejudo at the start of the fifth. Johnson throws a few leg kicks. Johnson lands a crisp body kick. Cejudo lands a nice little hook. Throughout the fight Cejudo has been attacking the head much more while Johnson has a lot more offense low. Cejduo goes for a takedown three minutes in. He gains a body lock but Johnson defends on the feet. Cejudo gets the takedown but Johnson pops up, which is huge. They exchange punches. Cejudo lands a few hard punches and a kick late. Thats a really close fight. 10-9 Johnson, 48-47 Johnson.

Winner: Henry Cejudo, split decision (48-47, 47-48-48-47).

There have been more exciting fights as far as minute by minute action but there have been few as dramatic in terms of coming right down to the wire. Johnson took the first and third rounds while Cejudo took the second and fourth. That left the fifth as the deciding round and it went right down to the wire. Cejudo did better at the very end of the round and that was probably the difference for two of the three judges. Its a huge win for Cejudo over a dominant champion and almost certainly will lead to an immediate rematch in a trilogy fight between Cejudo and Johnson.

Henry Cejudo, interestingly, has other ideas. He said he wants to move up to 135 pounds next and challenge the winner of T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt.
First, lets start with a compliment to a television network. (Yeah, you know that means the opposite is coming.) Kudos to baby NBC for sticking with the Whitney on Saturday when an electrical storm delayed the running of the race. They had to supplant a show called Racing Roots and then another NASCAR show to do it.

So, again, good job by NBC Lite. I guess I was surprised when it made the right decision because they dont always. For example, why do they make the very capable Larry Collmus call all Triple Crown races and the Breeders Cup when people would love to hear the equally (if not more) talented Michael Wrona and Trevor Denman call the races when the Breeders Cup comes to Southern California.

I also thought Saturdays broadcast made me realize how much I like Laffit Pincay III . Im hoping his absence from the Whitney was a scheduling conflict and not some bone-headed move by NBC. Nick Luck was his replacement. Now, I still have a bad taste from Lucks Eclipse Award performance where he thought he was more important than the awards, hijacking and elongating an already long night.

And besides that, why does he always sound like hes trying to force words out of his mouth as fast as humanly possible?

Heres our weekly contribution from Rob Henie of the WCHR (West Coast Handicapping Report) and the ECHR (East Coast Handicapping Report). The thinking is if you can know and understand the strategies, it will make you a better handicapper.

This is the bottom level with regard to maiden claimers, $20,000 runners going seven furlongs. These races are often one of two things  either unplayable, as we always remind our members that races and horses should be backed based on positive attributes and not as a result of whos the best of the worst. Or, a short price wins it, clearly a standout amongst a bad group, just not many In between type of winners in these low-level maiden races. Horses whove had eight tries at the bottom level, never enter our radar, its always a been there done that, view we take with those sorts. We need to find the runner whod doing something new, and/or has recent confidence on his or her side. Both could be said for our top pick here TWISTED ROAD (#11) . Shes responded with two straight good efforts off the drop, now stringing three races together for the first time in his career, still only making his sixth career lifetime start, also moving from 5  to . We love the very slow drill at San Luis Rey, telling us they needed nothing from him while awaiting this next offering. In a race full of poor runners, this would be a single for us to end the day.

Before we get to the stakes races, a pretty good day of racing was ruined with a bad spill in deep stretch in the last race. The stewards placed Aussie Fox, who finished third, to last place after appearing to drift into the path of other horses.

Irish Spring went down hard and was removed by horse ambulance but did not survive the incident. Bitter Ring Home did get up and was picked up by an outrider. Both jockeys were unseated. Corey Nakatani and Geovanni Franco were taken off the course on backboards and taken to Scripps La Jolla for further examination. Neither injury appeared life threatening and they were moving their extremities.

As for the Grade 2 $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap, favorite Cambodia made a strong stretch effort to win by 2 1/2 lengths over Madame Stripes. It was his second straight win in this stakes run over 1 1/16 miles over the turf for horses 3 and up.

She put me up there in the race, winning jockey Drayden Van Dyke . Shes got that natural speed and she wants to be in the race. I was just biding my time. I had a couple to beat, but I had good aim. She likes this turf course, no doubt. Its all clicking for me right now. Im feeling good and riding good. I want to keep it going.

He broke really well, Van Dyke said. We were just sitting in there. He was relaxed. I asked him in the stretch and he went. When we went by Gary Stevens [on leader Lucks Royal Flush], he eased up. I was watching the big screen to see if anything was coming, but we were OK. I had a lot left. If anything came to him, I think my horse would have surged again.

Ive won a stake before, but that was 15 years ago at Pomona, Dunham said. The [win] was one of the first baby races of the year, so we were able to give him a little time and have pointed to this race all along. This horse is a San Luis Rey fire survivor. He was turned loose and I found him the next day in a field of a different ranch. No major burns or anything; he was lucky. He came to Del Mar and trained here, so he knows the place.

The featured stakes is the Grade 2 $200,000 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies going 6 furlongs. Bellafina is the 7-2 favorite for trainer Simon Callaghan and jockey Flavien Prat . This is her second start, having finished second at Los Alamitos in her debut.

It was a touch disappointing at the time, but it was from the No. 1 hole and weve added some blinkers since then which will help her focus, Callaghan told Hank Wesch of Del Mar. I think the extra distance is going to help and I think shes ready to step up and show what we think shes capable of doing.

The second favorite is Del Mar May, who also finished second in her debut race, earlier in this meet. She is trained by Richard Baltas and ridden by Corey Nakatani . The race is set to go around 5:30 p.m.

Earlier there is the Grade 3 $150,000 La Jolla Handicap for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles. The favorite is River Boyce at 7-5 for Jeff Mullins and Prat. The colt has won four of nine starts including victories in the Rainbow and Pasadena at Santa Anita. Second favorite, at 3-1, at Calexman, who has won two of nine races. This will be his first graded stakes.

Maiden from the Richard Baltas barn ran a very strong second when debuting behind talented Brill and may not be overmatched at all as she tackles juvenile stakes runners today. Drawn well outside and exiting the best race, she figures to fire a good shot despite the relative short time in between races.

Even though her rider Barrington Harvey is more effective on thoroughbreds than on quarter horses, I still like this 4-year-old mares chances in her second lifetime start. In runnerup debut from the rail post, she galloped out strong after breaking slow while getting bumped at the start. She gets an additional 30 yards and a positive post switch. Her three gate drills before debut were at 350 yards so the 330-yard distance suits her nicely here.

Always looking to add more subscribers to this newsletter. Cant beat the price. If you like it, tell someone. If you dont like it, then youre probably not reading this. Either way, send to a friend and just have them click here and sign up . Remember, its free, and all we need is your email, nothing more.

Del Mar Charts Results for Saturday, August 4. Copyright 2018 by Equibase Company. Reproduction prohibited. Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, Del Mar, California. All finishes confirmed by Plusmic USA. Official program numbers may not correspond with post position. 14th day of a 36-day meet. Clear & Fast

FIRST RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $36,000. Maiden Claiming. 2 year olds. Claiming Prices $80,000-$70,000. Time 22.76 46.31 58.87

Pgm Horse Wt PP St 3/16 3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 2 Its Gonna Hurt 120 2 1 2hd 1 12 13 Pereira 4.80 8 Fortnite Dance 113 6 2 1 22 22 21 Figueroa 0.70 5 Surprise Fashion 120 4 4 66 5hd 5hd 3hd Van Dyke 36.50 7 Lead Star 120 5 5 5hd 64 64 4 Sanchez 58.10 9 Tanker 120 7 3 31 3hd 3hd 51 Franco 3.50 4 Oil Can Knight 120 3 7 42 45 43 61 Gutierrez 12.90 1 Night Ops 120 1 6 7 7 7 7 Desormeaux 8.90

2 ITS GONNA HURT 11.60 4.40 3.20 8 FORTNITE DANCE 2.40 2.20 5 SURPRISE FASHION 5.40

$1 EXACTA (2-8) $9.40 $2 QUINELLA (2-8) $8.00 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (2-8-5-7) $81.57 50-CENT TRIFECTA (2-8-5) $62.50

WinnerIts Gonna Hurt Ch.c.2 by Violence out of Celestial Legend, by City Zip. Bred by Jason Hall, Jeff Neese & Jimmy Clanin (LA). Trainer: Brian J. Koriner. Owner: Lyons, Janet, Trommer, Evan, Trommer, Andrew and Trommer, Matthew. Mutuel Pool $269,294 Exacta Pool $154,041 Quinella Pool $8,206 Superfecta Pool $55,132 Trifecta Pool $95,900. ClaimedFortnite Dance by Brazeau Thoroughbred Farms L.P. Trainer: Patrick Gallagher. ScratchedDrill Down Dude, Samurai Jack.

ITS GONNA HURT stalked the early pace then bid inside, dueled a bit off the rail then inside on the turn, inched away and drifted out into the stretch and won clear under a tap of the whip and a vigorous hand ride. FORTNITE DANCE sped to the early lead off the inside, dueled between horses then outside the winner on the turn, was fanned out some into the stretch and held second. SURPRISE FASHION between rivals early, chased inside, came off the rail in deep stretch and split foes late for the show. LEAD STAR three deep early, angled in and chased outside a rival, came some in the stretch and was edged for third. TANKER stalked early then pressed the pace three deep, tracked off the rail then outside a rival leaving the turn, came four wide into the stretch and was edged for a minor share. OIL CAN KNIGHT broke slowly, saved ground stalking the pace, swung out leaving the turn and into the stretch, angled back to thee inside and weakened. NIGHT OPS veered in sharply at the start, settled off the pace inside, swung out into the stretch, raced a bit greenly through the drive and did not rally.

SECOND RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $20,000. Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Prices $16,000-$14,000. Time 22.65 46.34 58.58 1:04.85

Pgm Horse Wt PP St  3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 1 Closing Time 124 1 2 5hd 3hd 21 11 T Baze 2.00 3 Rocky Rogue 122 3 1 1hd 1 11 2nk Pena 25.10 7 Downside Up 117 7 4 7 7 52 3hd Figueroa 5.30 5 Surfside Sunset 124 5 5 41 51 4hd 44 Roman 2.80 6 Night At the Opera 120 6 3 2 22 31 53 Elliott 3.10 2 Artistic Ab 119 2 7 6 6hd 6 62 Espinoza 9.80 4 Captain Walker 124 4 6 31 4 7 7 Hernandez 15.20

1 CLOSING TIME 6.00 3.60 2.60 3 ROCKY ROGUE 17.80 7.40 7 DOWNSIDE UP 4.00

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (2-1) $37.00 $1 EXACTA (1-3) $50.00 $2 QUINELLA (1-3) $71.00 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (1-3-7-5) $48.00 50-CENT TRIFECTA (1-3-7) $101.70

WinnerClosing Time B.g.4 by Slew's Tiznow out of Quick Commander, by Deputy Commander. Bred by Joseph LaCombe Stables, Inc. (CA). Trainer: Mike Puype. Owner: Slugo Racing, Bone, Robert D., Strauss, William and Upright, Patrick. Mutuel Pool $270,095 Daily Double Pool $58,072 Exacta Pool $149,643 Quinella Pool $7,987 Superfecta Pool $62,024 Trifecta Pool $98,631. ClaimedClosing Time by Firsthome Thoroughbreds. Trainer: Adam Kitchingman. ClaimedSurfside Sunset by Hanson, Jim, Ryan and Susan. Trainer: Ryan Hanson. Scratchednone.

CLOSING TIME saved ground stalking the pace, came out in upper stretch, collared the runner-up under some urging in deep stretch and proved best. ROCKY ROGUE went up inside to duel for the lead, inched away and came a bit off the rail into the stretch, could not hold off the winner in deep stretch but saved the place. DOWNSIDE UP stalked outside then three deep on the backstretch and off the rail into and on the turn, came four wide into the stretch and was edged for second. SURFSIDE SUNSET had speed between horses then stalked between foes, continued three wide on the turn and four wide into the stretch and was edged fro a minor share between rivals late. NIGHT AT THE OPERA four wide early, dueled three deep then outside the runner-up on the turn and weakened in the final furlong. ARTISTIC AB broke slowly, pulled his way between horses chasing the pace then a bit off the rail on the turn, angled to the inside into the stretch and weakened. CAPTAIN WALKER a step slow to begin, was sent between rivals to press the pace, stalked a bit off the rail, dropped back between horses leaving the turn then outside a rival into the stretch and also weakened.

THIRD RACE. 1 1/8 Mile Turf. Purse: $42,000. Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Prices $40,000-$35,000. Time 23.69 48.04 1:11.51 1:35.67 1:47.82

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Conquest Typhoon 120 5 5 43 3 2hd 11 11 T Baze 4.00 2 Royal Albert Hall 120 2 6 72 6hd 5hd 3 2 Conner 5.60 6 Bold Papa 120 6 4 2 2 31 22 3 Bejarano 3.90 1 Any Questions 122 1 8 8 8 71 5hd 4nk Van Dyke 3.70 3 Dano's Dream 120 3 3 51 51 6hd 6 51 Pereira 8.00 4 Temple Keys 120 4 7 6 71 8 71 63 Gonzalez 18.50 7 Play Hard to Get 120 7 2 3hd 43 43 8 7hd Quinonez 4.80 8 Moonlight Drive 120 8 1 11 12 12 41 8 Pedroza 10.20

5 CONQUEST TYPHOON 10.00 5.00 3.40 2 ROYAL ALBERT HALL (GB) 6.00 3.80 6 BOLD PAPA 3.20

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (1-5) $29.80 $1 EXACTA (5-2) $20.30 $2 QUINELLA (2-5) $20.60 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-2-6-1) $41.36 50-CENT TRIFECTA (5-2-6) $52.90

WinnerConquest Typhoon B.g.6 by Stormy Atlantic out of Swanky Bubbles, by Ascot Knight. Bred by Josham Farms Limited (ON). Trainer: Jack Carava. Owner: Burns, Greg, Paymaster Racing LLC and Slugo Racing. Mutuel Pool $347,494 Daily Double Pool $29,708 Exacta Pool $189,802 Quinella Pool $9,290 Superfecta Pool $59,334 Trifecta Pool $119,284. ClaimedBold Papa by Christopher St. Hilaire. Trainer: Michael Pender. ClaimedAny Questions by Thomsen Racing LLC and Knapp, Steve R. Trainer: Steve Knapp. Scratchednone. $1 Pick Three (2-1-5) paid $85.20. Pick Three Pool $81,147.

CONQUEST TYPHOON angled in and stalked inside, bid between rivals to gain the lead into the stretch, inched clear and held under urging. ROYAL ALBERT HALL (GB) saved ground chasing the pace, came out into the stretch and gained the place. BOLD PAPA stalked between horses then outside a rival into and on the second turn, bid three deep into the stretch and held third. ANY QUESTIONS settled inside then outside a rival on the backstretch and three deep on the second turn, came four wide into the stretch and was outfinished for a minor share. DANO'S DREAM chased inside then a bit off the rail, was between horses into the stretch and was outfinished. TEMPLE KEYS hopped a bit at the start, chased outside a rival then inside on the second turn and into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. PLAY HARD TO GET stalked three deep then off the rail into and on the second turn, came three wide into the stretch and weakened. MOONLIGHT DRIVE (ITY) sped to the early lead outside foes, angled in and set the pace inside, dueled briefly into the stretch and also weakened.

FOURTH RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $100,000. 'Graduation Stakes'. 2 year olds. Time 22.01 45.68 58.52 1:05.48

Pgm Horse Wt PP St  3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 4 Tap the Wire 120 3 2 22 22 12 13 Van Dyke 3.00 2 Luck's Royal Flush 122 2 1 1hd 1hd 22 2 Stevens 3.50 1 Oliver 120 1 3 32 32 32 3 Mn Garcia 2.90 6 Carnivorous 120 5 4 5 4hd 41 45 Gutierrez 10.00 5 Our Silver Oak 120 4 5 4hd 5 5 5 Elliott 1.60

4 TAP THE WIRE 8.00 4.40 4.00 2 LUCK'S ROYAL FLUSH 4.00 3.40 1 OLIVER 3.20

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-4) $38.60 $1 EXACTA (4-2) $15.20 $2 QUINELLA (2-4) $14.60 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (4-2-1-6) $13.11 50-CENT TRIFECTA (4-2-1) $20.85

WinnerTap the Wire Ch.c.2 by Eddington out of Tap the Till, by Tapit. Bred by John Ernst & Allegra Ernst (CA). Trainer: Daniel Dunham. Owner: Ernst, Allegra and John. Mutuel Pool $393,828 Daily Double Pool $31,721 Exacta Pool $142,822 Quinella Pool $6,457 Superfecta Pool $38,303 Trifecta Pool $78,705. ScratchedBea's Boy, Grab the Munny. $1 Pick Three (1-5-4) paid $67.80. Pick Three Pool $37,157.

TAP THE WIRE had good early speed and dueled outside a the runner-up, took a short lead leaving the turn, inched away into the stretch and drew clear under urging. LUCK'S ROYAL FLUSH sped to the early lead, dueled inside, fought back on the turn, could not match the winner in the lane but held second. OLIVER stalked the pace off the rail then a bit off the fence on the turn and into the stretch and was outfinished for the place but held third. CARNIVOROUS chased outside a rival to the stretch, drifted in a bit in deep stretch and was edged for the show. OUR SILVER OAK broke in a bit and slowly, angled in and saved ground chasing the pace, came under urging leaving the turn, continued inside in the stretch and weakened.

FIFTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $60,000. Maiden Special Weight. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Time 22.00 45.26 1:11.64 1:18.74

Pgm Horse Wt PP St   Str Fin Jockey $1 3 Royal Descendent 120 3 2 3hd 2hd 11 15 Pereira 1.30 4 Kindred 124 4 5 42 31 31 2hd Gutierrez 21.60 2 Come On Kat 120 2 6 11 1 22 3 Franco 16.80 1 Varanasi 115 1 1 2hd 4hd 53 4 Espinoza 6.60 6 Madaket Sunset 120 6 7 7 51 41 5 Bejarano 4.50 7 What's Bruin 120 7 3 5 7 62 615 Roman 5.50 5 Tandalicious 120 5 4 6 61 7 7 T Baze 4.30

3 ROYAL DESCENDENT 4.60 3.20 2.60 4 KINDRED 11.80 5.60 2 COME ON KAT 8.00

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (4-3) $20.20 $1 EXACTA (3-4) $30.90 $2 QUINELLA (3-4) $49.60 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (3-4-2-1) $79.26 50-CENT TRIFECTA (3-4-2) $125.60

WinnerRoyal Descendent Ch.f.3 by Awesome Again out of Sweet August Moon, by Malibu Moon. Bred by Legacy Ranch & Team Macpherson (KY). Trainer: Brian J. Koriner. Owner: Legacy Ranch, Inc. and Team MacPherson. Mutuel Pool $487,963 Daily Double Pool $47,089 Exacta Pool $257,696 Quinella Pool $10,834 Superfecta Pool $81,915 Trifecta Pool $147,087. Scratchednone. $1 Pick Three (5-4-3) paid $72.60. Pick Three Pool $72,674. 50-Cent Pick Four (1-5-4-3) 4 correct paid $133.05. Pick Four Pool $284,477. 50-Cent Pick Five (2-1-5-4-3) 5 correct paid $1,163.10. Pick Five Pool $696,955.

ROYAL DESCENDENT stalked between horses then bid between foes on the turn, took the lead outside the pacesetter into the stretch and drew clear under urging. KINDRED close up stalking the pace three deep, bid three wide on the turn and into the stretch and edged a rival for the place. COME ON KAT had speed between horses then set the pace a bit off the rail, dueled inside on the turn and into the stretch and lost second late. VARANASI saved ground stalking the pace, came off the rail in deep stretch and lacked the needed rally. MADAKET SUNSET broke in, bobbled and bumped a rival, chased off the rail then outside, went three deep on the turn and four wide into the stretch and could not summon the necessary response. WHAT'S BRUIN broke out a bit, chased three deep then off the rail on the turn, came three wide into the stretch and did not rally. TANDALICIOUS bumped at the start, settled off the rail then chased inside, came out into the stretch and gave way.

SIXTH RACE. 5 Furlongs Turf. Purse: $62,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $40,000. Time 21.94 44.76 56.64

Pgm Horse Wt PP St 3/16 3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Little Juanito 120 5 7 71 6 4hd 11 Nakatani 3.20 1 Circus Act 118 1 2 2hd 11 1hd 2nk Franco 16.70 2 What'sontheagenda 120 2 4 6 2hd 2 3ns Conner 7.90 4 Fight On 118 4 5 4hd 3hd 31 42 Roman 8.10 7 My Heart Awakens 119 7 10 10 92 8 51 Stevens 27.70 8 Catfish Hunter 124 8 9 83 82 6hd 6hd T Baze 3.40 6 Oiseau de Guerre 120 6 3 3hd 41 52 73 Van Dyke 2.50 9 Conquest Superstar 120 9 1 51 71 71 83 Mn Garcia 24.00 3 Cummings 118 3 8 1hd 5hd 95 91 Bravo 12.70 10 Stylistics United 120 10 6 9 10 10 10 Harvey 62.60

5 LITTLE JUANITO 8.40 4.80 3.60 1 CIRCUS ACT 14.60 9.00 2 WHAT'SONTHEAGENDA 6.40

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (3-5) $24.40 $1 EXACTA (5-1) $52.50 $2 QUINELLA (1-5) $75.20 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-1-2-4) $279.95 50-CENT TRIFECTA (5-1-2) $190.25

WinnerLittle Juanito Grr.g.4 by Exchange Rate out of More Than Proud, by More Than Ready. Bred by D.J. Stable (KY). Trainer: Victor L. Garcia. Owner: Juan J. Garcia. Mutuel Pool $544,989 Daily Double Pool $57,725 Exacta Pool $321,528 Quinella Pool $13,462 Superfecta Pool $147,864 Trifecta Pool $220,659. ScratchedFacts Matter, Lauren's Ladd, Placido, The Rule of King's. $1 Pick Three (4-3-5) paid $55.80. Pick Three Pool $94,111.

LITTLE JUANITO stalked a bit off the rail, angled to the inside in the stretch, rallied under urging to the front in deep stretch and gamely prevailed. CIRCUS ACT dueled inside, inched away on the turn, fought back a bit off the rail in the stretch and between foes late and held second. WHAT'SONTHEAGENDA dueled between foes, stalked leaving the turn, bid again in the stretch and went on willingly late. FIGHT ON had good early speed and dueled between horses, stalked on the turn, bid again in the stretch and was edged for third. MY HEART AWAKENS angled in and saved ground chasing the pace to the stretch, came out in the lane and bested the others. CATFISH HUNTER chased off the rail, came out in the stretch and lacked the needed rally. OISEAU DE GUERRE pressed the pace four wide, stalked leaving the turn, came four wide into the stretch and weakened in the final furlong. CONQUEST SUPERSTAR pressed the pace five wide then stalked four wide on the turn and into the stretch and also weakened. CUMMINGS dueled between horses, stalked between foes on the turn, angled inward in the stretch and also weakened. STYLISTICS UNITED angled in and settled outside a rival, continued just off the rail on the turn, came out in the stretch and did not rally.

SEVENTH RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $60,000. Maiden Special Weight. 2 year olds. Time 21.81 45.61 58.83 1:05.65

Pgm Horse Wt PP St  3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 6 Sigalert 120 5 1 71 4hd 3hd 1 Van Dyke 2.80 10 Extra Hope 115 9 7 98 97 7 2 Espinoza 19.40 2 Stubbins 120 1 10 22 22 21 32 Gutierrez 17.40 7 Easy Shot 120 6 5 5hd 5hd 5hd 4 Desormeaux 8.90 4 Dinesen 120 3 6 83 82 82 5 T Baze 17.30 5 Union Station 120 4 9 10 10 10 6nk Smith 19.50 8 Neptune's Storm 120 7 8 31 31 41 7nk Nakatani 5.20 3 Dark Prince 120 2 4 1hd 1hd 1hd 8nk Mn Garcia 4.80 9 Lacazette 120 8 2 41 61 62 92 Bejarano 39.30 12 Babael 120 10 3 6 71 91 10 Roman 2.80

6 SIGALERT 7.60 4.40 3.20 10 EXTRA HOPE 14.80 8.00 2 STUBBINS 7.20

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-6) $44.00 $1 EXACTA (6-10) $74.70 $2 QUINELLA (6-10) $82.60 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (6-10-2-7) $835.48 50-CENT TRIFECTA (6-10-2) $400.15

WinnerSigalert B.c.2 by Street Sense out of Ouchy Night, by Cactus Ridge. Bred by Edition Farm (NY). Trainer: John W. Sadler. Owner: Hronis Racing LLC. Mutuel Pool $457,433 Daily Double Pool $64,162 Exacta Pool $242,635 Quinella Pool $10,786 Superfecta Pool $92,299 Trifecta Pool $151,908. ScratchedAbsolute Control, Easy Keeper, Flying Scotsman. $1 Pick Three (3-5-6) paid $52.50. Pick Three Pool $109,992.

SIGALERT stalked a bit off the rail then inside, came out in upper stretch, rallied under some urging to gain the lead in deep stretch and held between foes. EXTRA HOPE dropped back off the rail then just off the inside into and on the turn and into the stretch, came out in upper stretch and finished willingly late. STUBBINS a step slow to begin, went up inside to duel for the lead, took a short advantage past the eighth pole, inched away briefly in deep stretch and fought back inside late. EASY SHOT chased between horses, angled to the inside into the stretch and lacked the needed late kick. DINESEN saved ground chasing the pace, came out in upper stretch and could not offer the necessary late response. UNION STATION dropped back off the rail without early speed, angled in some on the turn, came out in the stretch and improved position. NEPTUNE'S STORM sent between horses early, stalked off the rail, angled in outside a rival into the stretch and weakened. DARK PRINCE had good early speed and dueled outside a rival, fought back in the stretch then weakened late. LACAZETTE chased outside then three deep on the turn and into the stretch, drifted inward in the drive and weakened. BABAEL stalked outside then four wide into the turn, angled in outside a rival on the turn, came out four wide into the stretch and also weakened.

EIGHTH RACE. 1 1/16 Mile Turf. Purse: $200,000. 'Yellow Ribbon H.'. Stakes. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Time 23.33 47.03 1:10.57 1:34.39 1:40.51

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 11 Cambodia 121 10 5 51 4hd 3 12 12 Van Dyke 1.70 7 Madame Stripes 120 7 1 3hd 3hd 41 2hd 2hd Franco 4.50 8 Sophie P 122 8 7 81 8 8 6hd 3hd Desormeaux 14.20 4 Hallie Belle 117 4 8 6hd 6hd 5hd 51 4nk Bravo 4.90 6 Storm the Hill 120 6 4 72 72 61 3hd 5nk Bejarano 7.40 3 Midnight Crossing 119 3 6 41 51 7 71 6 Pereira 35.80 12 Pantsonfire 118 11 11 101 10 11 9hd 7hd Quinonez 69.00 1 Beau Recall 120 1 10 11 11 10 8 83 Nakatani 11.90 2 Sassy Little Lila 117 2 2 11 1hd 11 4hd 91 T Baze 18.00 5 Tisbutadream 117 5 9 9 93 91 11 101 Conner 39.50 9 Ancient Secret 119 9 3 21 21 2 101 11 Smith 10.00

11 CAMBODIA 5.40 3.20 2.60 7 MADAME STRIPES (ARG) 5.00 3.60 8 SOPHIE P (GB) 6.40

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (6-11) $24.00 $1 EXACTA (11-7) $11.30 $2 QUINELLA (7-11) $14.20 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (11-7-8-4) $61.26 50-CENT TRIFECTA (11-7-8) $58.15

WinnerCambodia B.m.6 by War Front out of Sassifaction, by Smart Strike. Bred by Don M. Robinson &Maverick Productions, Ltd. (KY). Trainer: Thomas F. Proctor. Owner: Winter Quarter Farm. Mutuel Pool $664,792 Daily Double Pool $64,467 Exacta Pool $352,646 Quinella Pool $14,278 Superfecta Pool $162,667 Trifecta Pool $245,406. ScratchedFahan Mura. $1 Pick Three (5-6-11) paid $61.60. Pick Three Pool $98,496.

CAMBODIA stalked three deep, bid outside the pacesetter leaving the second turn, took the lead into the stretch, kicked clear under urging and proved best. MADAME STRIPES (ARG) close up stalking the pace between horses then inside on the second turn, came out some in the stretch and held second. SOPHIE P (GB) angled in and chased inside, came out leaving the second turn and four wide into the stretch and was edged for the place five wide on the line. HALLIE BELLE saved ground chasing the pace, went between horses on the second turn and into the stretch, continued between foes through the final furlong and was edged for third. STORM THE HILL stalked outside a rival then three deep on the second turn and four wide into the stretch and was edged for a minor award between rivals late. MIDNIGHT CROSSING (IRE) saved ground stalking the pace, continued inside in the stretch and was outfinished for a minor share. PANTSONFIRE (IRE) angled in and settled outside a rival, came out leaving the second turn and four wide into the stretch and made up some ground lacked the needed rally. BEAU RECALL (IRE) saved ground chasing the pace, came out three wide into the stretch and also lacked the necessary late kick. SASSY LITTLE LILA sped to the early lead, set the pace inside, dueled on the backstretch, inched away again on the second turn, came a bit off the rail in the stretch and weakened in the final furlong. TISBUTADREAM (IRE) angled in and chased outside a rival, came out leaving the second turn and five wide into the stretch and lacked a further response. ANCIENT SECRET bobbled at the start, stalked off the rail then bid outside a rival to duel for the lead, had that one slip away on the second turn, was in tight between foes into the stretch and weakened.

NINTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $62,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $40,000. Time 22.37 45.51 1:10.32 1:17.04

Pgm Horse Wt PP St   Str Fin Jockey $1 1 Tatters to Riches 118 1 10 7 51 12 1 T Baze 6.70 6 Solid Wager 124 6 8 103 61 41 2nk Pedroza 4.40 9 Flagstaff 122 9 7 51 4hd 3hd 3nk Van Dyke 2.80 4 Street Vision 117 4 1 2hd 2hd 2hd 4nk Figueroa 5.30 12 Make It a Triple 124 12 3 61 7hd 52 54 Bejarano 5.80 10 Cats Blame 122 10 12 114 101 81 6nk Conner 27.20 7 Shades of Victory 124 7 9 4hd 82 92 7 Quinonez 49.10 5 All Out Blitz 118 5 6 3 31 6hd 83 Mn Garcia 11.90 2 Fast Pass 122 2 11 12 12 12 9 Fuentes 83.00 8 Grazen Sky 124 8 4 91 117 112 10hd Roman 18.30 11 Gracida 118 11 5 8hd 9hd 10 11nk Gutierrez 17.50 3 Grade One 119 3 2 1hd 1hd 7hd 12 Stevens 15.90

1 TATTERS TO RICHES 15.40 7.00 4.80 6 SOLID WAGER 5.00 3.60 9 FLAGSTAFF 3.20

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (11-1) $36.60 $1 EXACTA (1-6) $41.30 $2 QUINELLA (1-6) $36.60 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (1-6-9-4) $56.88 50-CENT TRIFECTA (1-6-9) $63.75

WinnerTatters to Riches B.c.3 by Union Rags out of Poco Mas, by A.P. Indy. Bred by Mount Brilliant Farm, LLC (KY). Trainer: Jeff Mullins. Owner: Red Baron's Barn LLC and Rancho Temescal LLC. Mutuel Pool $537,288 Daily Double Pool $68,673 Exacta Pool $310,830 Quinella Pool $13,052 Superfecta Pool $166,463 Trifecta Pool $233,190. ClaimedStreet Vision by Herrick Racing LLC. Trainer: Joe Herrick. Scratchednone. $1 Pick Three (6-11-1) paid $79.40. Pick Three Pool $74,142.

TATTERS TO RICHES saved ground stalking the pace, bid inside leaving the turn to take the lead into the stretch, kicked clear under urging and held. SOLID WAGER stalked a bit off the rail then inside into the stretch, came out some in the drive and went willingly between foes late. FLAGSTAFF pressed the pace five wide then stalked outside, went four wide on the turn and into the stretch and also continued willingly late. STREET VISION dueled between horses, came three wide into the stretch and was coming back late. MAKE IT A TRIPLE had speed six wide then stalked outside, came five wide into the stretch and continued on well late. CATS BLAME settled a bit off the rail, angled in on the turn and improved position inside in the stretch. SHADES OF VICTORY dueled between horses then stalked outside on the turn, came three deep into the stretch and weakened. ALL OUT BLITZ dueled between horses then three and four wide on the turn, came four wide into the stretch and also weakened. FAST PASS broke a bit slowly, dropped back inside, came out into the stretch and lacked a rally. GRAZEN SKY chased off the rail then dropped back a bit off the fence on the turn and did not rally. GRACIDA chased outside then off the rail, came three wide into the stretch and weakened. GRADE ONE dueled inside rivals but a bit off the rail, was between foes leaving the turn and into the stretch and also weakened.

TENTH RACE. 1 Mile Turf. Purse: $32,000. Maiden Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Prices $62,500-$55,000. Time 22.28 45.83 1:10.44 1:23.19 1:35.21

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 9 Starting Bloc 124 9 9 112 114 112 51 1hd Bejarano 9.30 2 Zipman 124 2 7 103 91 91 2 24 Van Dyke 1.10 4 DQAussie Fox 116 4 12 7hd 7hd 51 41 31 Espinoza 7.50 1 Capall 117 1 1 21 21 1 11 41 Pedroza 8.90 5 Dignitaire 120 5 3 1 1 22 3hd 51 T Baze 9.10 12 Gotnoquit 121 12 2 4hd 41 3hd 63 6nk Roman 34.70 10 Pointed 120 10 11 12 12 12 8 73 Gonzalez 30.00 6 Spirit Mission 120 6 5 8hd 101 10hd 9 8 Desormeaux 7.90 3 Silver Fury 113 3 6 3hd 6hd 81 7hd 924 Figueroa 59.10 7 Katie's Cowboy 118 7 10 9 82 6hd 10 10 Mn Garcia 27.90 11 Bitter Ring Home 120 11 8 62 5 7hd dnf Franco 38.00 8 Irish Spring 120 8 4 51 3 41 dnf Nakatani 14.90

9 STARTING BLOC 20.60 6.80 4.20 2 ZIPMAN 3.00 2.40 1 CAPALL 5.80

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (1-9) $181.20 $1 EXACTA (9-2) $25.90 $2 QUINELLA (2-9) $16.80 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (9-2-1-5) $79.83 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (9-2-1-5-12) $6,827.40 50-CENT TRIFECTA (9-2-1) $87.05

WinnerStarting Bloc Dbb.c.4 by More Than Ready out of Broad Pennant, by Broad Brush. Bred by Wertheimer et Frere (KY). Trainer: Alfredo Marquez. Owner: Robert T. Cannon. Mutuel Pool $527,445 Daily Double Pool $146,158 Exacta Pool $306,747 Quinella Pool $13,475 Superfecta Pool $188,061 Super High Five Pool $26,837 Trifecta Pool $242,103. ScratchedData Central, King Caymus. DQ#4 Aussie Foxfinished 3rd, disqualified, placed 10th. $2 Pick Six Jackpot (3-5-6/13-11-1-9) . Pick Six Jackpot Carryover $20,489. $1 Pick Three (11-1-9) paid $191.70. Pick Three Pool $206,904. 50-Cent Pick Four (6/13-11-1-9) 4 correct paid $479.15. Pick Four Pool $904,374. 50-Cent Pick Five (5-6/13-11-1-9) 5 correct paid $2,310.70. Pick Five Pool $759,946. $2 Pick Six (3-5-6/13-11-1-9) 5 out of 6 paid $104.80. $2 Pick Six (3-5-6/13-11-1-9) 6 correct paid $14,123.40. Pick Six Pool $178,976. $1 Place Pick All 10 correct paid $6,465.00. Place Pick All Pool $33,885.

STARTING BLOC three deep early, angled in and chased inside then outside a rival on the second turn, came five wide into the stretch and rallied under urging to get up late. ZIPMAN saved ground off the pace, came out on the second turn and four wide into the stretch, rallied under urging to the front past midstretch but was caught late. AUSSIE FOX chased between horses, came in on a rival in upper stretch then went around a foe late for third. CAPALL had speed inside to duel for the lead, inched away off the rail into the stretch, kicked clear, drifted in past midstretch and weakened late. DIGNITAIRE angled in and dueled outside a rival, fought back on the second turn and weakened in the final furlong. GOTNOQUIT stalked three deep then outside a rival leaving the second turn, came three wide into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. POINTED settled off the rail then a bit off the fence, came out four wide into the stretch, was slammed and forced outward in upper stretch and lacked the needed rally. SPIRIT MISSION angled in and saved ground chasing the pace, came out leaving the second turn and three deep into the stretch, also was slammed and forced outward in upper stretch and lacked a further response. SILVER FURY stalked inside then between foes on the second turn and into the stretch, steadied sharply when impeded at the spill in upper stretch and was eased up late. KATIE'S COWBOY chased three deep then four wide into the stretch, was slammed and forced outward into a rival in upper stretch and was eased in the final furlong. BITTER RING HOME three wide early, angled in and stalked inside, inched forward leaving the second turn then fell over a fallen rival in upper stretch. IRISH SPRING stalked between horses then inside on the second turn and into the stretch, clipped heels and fell in upper stretch and was vanned off. Following a stewards' inquiry, AUSSIE FOX was disqualified and placed last for interference in upper stretch.
When it comes to craft beer, lift a glass to Colorado, whose 348 craft breweries put it in third place among states, according to the Brewers Assn. And toast to its craft distilleries, which are at the fore of farm-to-bar trends, according to Colorado.com.

But dont stop there. Time to say cheers to a new and seemingly unlikely kid on the block  wine making, which is taking much of its inspiration from its craft beer forefathers.

Its still a small industry, making up just 2% of all wine sales in Colorado, the Denver Post reported. But the Colorado Wine Industry group said the growth of wine in the Mile High State has increased 15% every year since 1992.

Denver, the leader of the pack, has almost 40 urban wineries. Most of the grapes are sourced from the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, where low humidity, warm days and cool nights are an ideal combination for producing wines.

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Lots of growers are exploring new cultivars, including Malbec, Graciano, Lemberger and newer cold-hardy varieties like Aromella and Chambourcin, said Kyle Schlachter, outreach coordinator for the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board.

We are always looking at ways to show the consumer that Colorado has world-class wines, but they might taste different than regions theyre used to  because Colorados terroir is unique, with two of the worlds highest-elevation growing regions.

Colorados growing regions range from 4,000 to 7,000 feet and are the highest in North America  second highest in the world behind Argentina.

Heres what visitors can expect as they tour Colorados biggest urban winery scene in the heart of Denver.

Infinite Monkey Theorem

No vineyard, no pretense is the motto of Infinite Monkey Theorem, so sophisticated oenophiles should leave their inhibitions at the door. (Infinite Monkey Theorem)

When you think of a winery, the first thing that comes to mind isnt graffiti-covered walls, a hodgepodge of furniture, food trucks and varietals on tap.

Thats what makes Infinite Monkey Theorem, which opened a decade ago in Denvers artsy RiNo (River North Art District) neighborhood, so special. No vineyard, no pretense is its motto, so sophisticated oenophiles should leave their inhibitions at the door.

IMTs concoctions are served in bottles and, since 2011, aluminum cans  making it the first Colorado winery with this nontraditional approach.

IMTs goal has always been to make wine fun, accessible and relevant to everyone all the time, said Ben Parsons, owner and winemaker.

IMT is shaking up the wine scene, in part by adding hops to some of its varietals such as the Dry Hopped Sauvignon Blanc. Its a collision of effervescent beer and wine notes thats ideal for summer.

The grapes for its bottled wines are grown on the western slope of the Rockies at 4,500 feet. The most popular varietals are Cabernet Franc, Malbec and the sparkling Riesling, the aptly named Bubble Universe.

Besides its Denver and Austin, Texas, locations, IMT is sold at bars and restaurants across Colorado and is available in many liquor stores. Its canned wines are distributed in 44 states.

Info: Infinite Monkey Theorem, 3200 Larimer St., Denver; (303) 736-8376. Open daily. Public tours Fridays-Sundays, $25 per person. Private tours also available.

Balistreri Vineyards

The family owned and operated Balistreri Vineyards winery is located just ten minutes north of downtown Denver and was the first urban winery to open in the city. (Balistreri Vineyards)

Its impossible to talk about Denvers wine scene without mentioning Balistreri Vineyards, where it all started.

The family-owned and -operated winery is 10 minutes north of downtown Denver and was the first urban winery to open in the city.

Assistant winemaker Ray Domenicos grandparents, John and Birdie Balistreri, and his mother, Julie Balistreri, started the winery after leaving the flower business. Their tasting room, opened in 2000, is on the same block where John once sold carnations.

Balistreri is a single vineyard, single barrel, old-school institution and proud of it.

Our brand truly is special in the sense that we are a small family-owned and -operated winery focused on making natural wines, Domenico said. Indigenous yeast, no sulfites, unfiltered and unfined. Our production is around 90,000 bottles a year.

Balistreri has 15 varietals and is best known for its Syrah, Petite Sirah and Sangiovese as well as its orange-hued white wines caused by fermenting white grapes on their skins, like a red wine.

We have created a following of people that enjoy juicy wines of character with zero manipulation, made in a traditional style, Domenico said.

Info: Balistreri Vineyards, 1946 E. 66th Ave., Denver; (303) 287-5156. Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily for tastings, tours (free) and lunch.

Carboy Winery

Carboy Winery tap room. Just a 20-minute drive from Denver sits Carboy, a winery housed in an industrial building with a wooden back bar and row of craft wines on tap. (Carboy Winery)

Carboy Winery, a 20-minute drive south of Denver, is housed in an industrial building with a wooden back bar and row of craft wines on tap. Restaurateurs Eric Hyatt and Craig Jones and sommelier Kevin Webber opened Carboy in 2016.

The fusion of wine and food comes to life at their wine club dinners, which feature locally sourced dishes such as roasted beet and heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese and braised leg of lamb.

Carboys grapes are grown on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains where the climate is dry, allowing grapes to mature faster. Some of its most popular wines are Viognier, Albarino, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Gris.

We are working with varietals people arent as familiar with but do well in Colorados unique climate and best showcase that terroir, like Tempranillo and Albarino from Grand Valley, and cold-hearty grapes like Viognier, said Webber, director of operation and sales.

We are kegging our wine in addition to bottling, which cuts down on waste, is more sustainable, carbon footprint-reducing and more economical. Plus, in a beer-driven state, pouring wine off a tap looks cool.

We also created a tap and fill system where people can purchase a 1-liter refillable Carboy growler.

Info: Carboy Winery, 6885 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton, Colo.; (720) 531-5252. Open daily. Tasting flights, $11-$15; tours from $25 by reservation.

Bigsbys Folly Craft Winery

At Bigsbys Folly Craft Winery, Wine Club members get to participate in crushing grapes each fall during the fall harvest. (Bigsbys Folly Craft Winery)

We believe that its healthy to put down your phone and take a break from technology and pick up a glass of wine and enjoy it with friends. That its possible to enjoy the best wines in the world in an urban setting.

Thats the philosophy at Bigsbys Folly, a winery and restaurant that offers visitors a hands-on experience at its RiNo location.

Our most popular experience is our Winemaker for a Day Blending Sessions, where guests can create their own Bordeaux blend, bottle, cork and custom label their own creation that they take home the same day, said Bigsbys co-founder Marla Yetka.

Its like a mad science experiment with beakers, pipes, measuring instruments and wine glasses.

She said Denverites value small-batch experiences and are willing to pay for them. Bigsbys targets this audience with diverse winery experiences such as blind tastings, where participants match red and white blends, and a VIP date-night tasting and tour, which includes a custom-labeled bottle of wine with your photo.

Brian Graham, Bigsbys head winemaker, lives in Napa, Calif., and sources the winerys fruit from some of the most prestigious vineyards in Northern California.

They [the grapes] come by refrigerated truck and arrive approximately 24 hours after being picked from the vines, Yetka said.

Bigsbys most popular varietals are the Rose of Grenache from Lodi, Calif., a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve from Napa Valley; and a Pinot Noir from the Sonoma coast.

A great winery doesnt have to be tethered to just one piece of land, Yetka said.

We can source grapes from anywhere in the world and still process  right here in Denver. In fact, our Wine Club members get to participate in crushing grapes each fall during the fall harvest.

Info: Bigsbys Folly, 3563 Wazee St., Denver; (720) 485-3158. Tasting room open daily.

More photos:

1 / 9 Infinite Monkey Theorem, located in Denvers RiNo neighborhood, has a bus for when it wants to serve its wine elsewhere. (Kate Zimmerman) 2 / 9 The Balistreri family is behind Denvers first urban winery. (Balistreri Vineyards) 3 / 9 A look at Infinite Monkey Theorems canned wine. (Infinite Monkey Theorem ) 4 / 9 Bigsbys Folly Craft Winery offers Winemaker for a Day custom blending sessions. (Bigsbys Folly Craft Winery) 5 / 9 A look at the Carboy Winery tap room. (Carboy Winery) 6 / 9 Infinite Monkey Theorem has graffiti-covered walls. (Infinite Monkey Theorem) 7 / 9 Balistreri Vineyards takes an old-fashioned approach. (Balistreri Vineyards ) 8 / 9 Bigsbys Folly Craft Winery club members can help crush grapes during the fall harvest. (Bigsbys Folly Craft Winery) 9 / 9 Heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese at Carboy Winery, a 20-minute drive from Denver. (Carboy Winery )

If you go

THE BEST WAY TO DENVER

From LAX, From LAX, United, American, Frontier, Delta and Southwest offer nonstop service to Denver, and American, Delta, United and Southwest offer connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip service from $132, including taxes and fees,

More information on Denvers wine scene

Mile High Wine Tours offers public and private visits to a number of Denvers most popular wineries.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
You must come for the rettir, my friend Kristin said.

Its her favorite time of year in Iceland  the annual fall roundup where Icelandic farmers on horseback retrieve their grazing flocks from the mountains and drive them into specially designed sorting rings called retts.

This boisterous celebration is filled with laughter, drinking and music, punctuated by Icelandic ballads and spontaneous games of tug of war while friends and neighbors help one another wrangle their sheep.

This is the fall party for countrymen, Kristin said, and extra participants are welcome.

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(Lou Spirito For The Times)

I couldnt pass up this chance to get a glimpse of rural Icelandic culture. On a chilly day in mid-September, I drove three hours north from Reykjavik to Kristins home in Skagafjordur, a farming region along Icelands northern coast.

You dont have to know someone to join in, either; there are opportunities to join the fall party.

Rounding up

Early the next morning we drove deep into the valley of Maelifellsdalur, where Kristins husband, Leo, would ride with their friend Sara Reykdal. We bumped along a rough dirt track that crossed rocky streams and eventually arrived at the windswept top of a plateau.

It was bitterly cold even though the sun was shining; I quickly piled on every layer I had brought. A fence with a single gate opened onto the highlands, Icelands vast, virtually uninhabited interior of tundra cut by glacial rivers.

The hardiest riders had set out days ago to reach the most distant sheep near Hofsjokull glacier. Now, our group would help corral the ever-growing herd and direct them along the final leg through the valley.

Near the gate, 15 riders clustered with their mounts, braced against the wind. Several Icelandic sheepdogs whirled excitedly underfoot.

Sara stood coolly beside her horses. Her sister, Tota, manages their family farm, Starrastadir, meaning place of the blackbird. Saras 17-year-old son, Ulfar, waited nearby, bright red hair peeking out from beneath his riding helmet.

Everyone sported yellow safety vests for visibility and walkie-talkies for communication  no cell service here.

This is just the way we breed sheep in Iceland, Sara told me. Shortly after lambing time in May, farmers release their flocks to live all summer off the rich highland vegetation.

1 / 12 The center of the rett is the hub of sheep sorting and social activity. Every last sheep must be delivered to its owners pen before the next round of sheep in brought in. This corral design dates back to over 300 years ago. (Ross Weinberg / Ross Weinberg) 2 / 12 A herd of sheep is driven into the center of the rett. A brief stampede ensues as the corral slowly fills to capacity. Once the sheep calm due to physical proximity, sorting begins. (Ross Weinberg) 3 / 12 At the base of the Svartardalur valley lies a sheep corral, or rett. (Ross Weinberg) 4 / 12 Father and Son, Heidar Oskarsson and Ulfar Horur Sveinsson, demonstrate how sheep are wrangled inside the rett. (Ross Weinberg) 5 / 12 Sheep are allowed to roam freely over Maelifellsdalur and other glacially carved valleys across northern Iceland during the spring and summer months. In the fall, they are rounded up by their owners on horseback. (Ross Weinberg) 6 / 12 The tag on the right ear of this sheep in Maelifellsrett indicates which farm he belongs to. (Ross Weinberg) 7 / 12 After a long weekend corraling and sorting sheep, this hot spring, located on the edge of the sea in Skagafjordur, is a favorite of locals. According to legend, Grettir the Strong swam from the island of Drangey and came ashore and warmed up in this natural hot pool. (Ross Weinberg) 8 / 12 Once the sheep are rounded up from the high country, they are packed into the center of the rett for sorting by the farmers. Tags on the sheeps ear identify which farm they belong to. (Rebecca Stumpf) 9 / 12 Mother and Son, Sara Reykdal and Ulfar Horur Sveinsson, take inventory on the sheep that they rounded up for the winter at their farm, Starrastair. (Rebecca Stumpf) 10 / 12 Sept. 1 is the official start of winter in Iceland, and the time when the Northern Lights start to appear. Here, a spectacular aurora shines over Lake Myvatn in northern Iceland. (Rebecca Stumpf) 11 / 12 Icelandic horses are driven home after a long weekend of work rounding up sheep in the highlands. They are the backbone and emblem of many northern Icelandic communities. (Ross Weinberg) 12 / 12 After being sorted, sheep wait in the holding pen of the farm they belong to. At the end of the day, they will be transferred back home for the winter. (Ross Weinberg)

If you would keep them home, they would be depressed, Sara said. They want to be free.

The group rode to direct the oncoming herd as a wave of shaggy wool squeezed through the gate.

Most of the animals obediently followed the valley road, but a few had other ideas. One recalcitrant ram balefully stared down a rider . . . then bolted up the hill into the highlands, leaping past hollering children.

Of course, its a black sheep, Kristin said, laughing.

We wended our way along the road, staying well behind the bleating crowd. The riders formed lines up and down the valley walls, moving forward only when every sheep was heading in the right direction.

If you have some naughty sheep, they can cause a lot of trouble, Kristin said. The riders hate it, but this is what I love  because its the action.

Sara and Ulfar worked in tandem, aided by their faithful sheepdog Ronja, clearing each ridge one by one. They reached dizzying heights, sometimes scaling steep cliffs to nudge crafty creatures into the valley.

This is the best time of the year for the dogs, Sara told me, because they get to do what they were born to do.

At the base of the Valley of Svartardalur lies the sheep corral, called a rett in Iceland. Here, they are sorted by their owners into their respective pens. (Ross Weinberg)

Sunbeams rolled across the landscape, lighting slender waterfalls that trickled down the slopes. Small white flowers grew next to a rushing glacial stream. High on the hillside, I spotted a patch of snow, hidden in shadow beneath a rocky crag. It hadnt melted all summer.

We relaxed near the mouth of the valley, waiting for dawdling sheep to catch up. Sandwiches were unwrapped, Viking brand beer cracked open and jokes started flying.

Now is time for the small talk and gossiping, Kristin said. We sat on the grass, savoring the sweet wild blueberries that covered the slope. A would-be troubadour began to sing, his voice rising in a lilting Icelandic melody as friends joined in.

As evening fell, we waved the flock into a holding pen, ready for sorting.

Inside the sorting ring

The next day, Kristin jounced us along a steep mountain road with perilous switchbacks to show me Stafnsrett, a traditional livestock sorting ring. Radiating from an open circle in the middle of the large rett were nearly 50 sections, each labeled with the name of a local farm: Austurhlid, Hafgrimsstadir, Vidiholt.

The rett was abuzz with people and animals: sheep bleating, dogs barking, friends hollering across the ring and chatting over the walls. Families picnicked beside an icy stream. The sun highlighted vivid geometric patterns on their handmade Icelandic sweaters. Here the sweaters werent souvenirs; they were work clothes.

A herd of sheep is driven into the center of the rett. A brief stampede ensues as the corral slowly fills to capacity. Once the sheep calm due to physical proximity, sorting begins. (Ross Weinberg)

I joined a lineup of locals in the holding pen, urging the flock to flee before us into the ring. We waved arms wildly, clapped hands and yelled  Hah! Hah!  sparking a stampede of thundering hoofs that flowed around us.

Some farmers claimed to recognize their sheep by each ones special facial expression, Kristin told me, but theyre also identified by plastic tags in their ears. Locals charged into the melee, checking tags and dragging protesting animals to their proper sections.

Several tourists snapped photos and cheerfully waded into the scrum, trying their hand at sheep wrangling.

I was swept along by the tide, buffeted by creamy, pungent wool. When a ram tried to take a bite of my pants, I retreated to a perch on top of the wall.

Retts such as Stafnsrett can be found throughout Iceland. Some are hundreds of years old, constructed of weathered stones and still in use; others are sleekly modern.

Back at the rett near Maelifellsdalur, the team from Starrastadir was sorting the sheep we had helped round up. Sara manned the gate to their section, while Tota, Ulfar and Heidar Oskarsson, Saras partner, gathered the animals.

Kristins 15-year-old daughter, Alma, accompanied us. She was the picture of modern Iceland in her traditional sweater, knitted by Kristin, and a 66 North cap  the trendy Icelandic outerwear brand.

Sara Reykdal and her son, Ulfar, take inventory of the sheep they rounded up for the winter at their farm, Starrastadir. (Rebecca Stumpf)

Alma was 4 years old when her parents brought her into the sheep sorting ring for the first time. They wanted me to experience it because its an Icelandic tradition, she said. My dad held my hands and was walking with me. They were so big to me then.

Now, the gentle bleating of the sheep reminds her of childhood.

On the farm

Stock sorted, team Starrastadir again took to horseback to lead their herd to their farm, where further selection would decide which sheep went to market and which would breed new models, Sara said.

I joined the family for dinner: lamb, of course, with rice, curry sauce and small yellow potatoes slathered with butter. The lamb was tender and sweet.

You probably get the cleanest meat in the world in Iceland, Heidar said.

The countrys regulations are strict: No growth hormones or preservatives are permitted. And because the sheep spend all summer eating grasses and berries, theyre almost completely free range, he said.

Its a standard that Starrastadir and other Icelandic farms intend to maintain  and the rettir is an essential element.

This has been going on for centuries, Sara said. I have been doing this for 30 years. My father did before, my grandfather [before him] and so on.

Its a beloved tradition, even though youre tired for days afterward, Sara said. The sheep roundup is something you do not want to miss, she said. Its a part of your life  you do not want to lose it.

If you go

THE BEST WAY TO REYKJAVIK, ICELAND

From LAX, WOW offers nonstop service to Reykjavik, and Delta, American, United, Iceland Air, Air Canada and British offer connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip airfare from $430, including taxes and fees.

WHAT TO DO

Roundups for both sheep and Icelandic horses occur throughout the country on weekends from early September to early October. Dates for specific roundups are posted in late August on bbl.is, an Icelandic farmers news resource. (Website is in Icelandic but most browsers can translate into English.)

Experienced riders can participate in the roundups through multiday riding tours; rates range from $1,795 to $2,900 and usually include room and board and transfers from Reykjavik.

In Skagafjordur, family-run Horses and Tours offers trips to the Skrapatungurett horse roundup and Audkulurett sheep roundup, while Riding Iceland has a four-day trip to Laufskalarett, the largest horse roundup in Iceland. Ishestar offers three- to six-day trips for sheep and horse roundups around the country.

Its free to join the final walk with a herd and visit retts. Most are in rural areas; four-wheel drive is required. You can stop at any of the N1 service stations along Icelands main roads to obtain maps and directions to retts in the area.

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel Tindastoll, 3 Lindargata, Saudarkrokur; 011-354-453-5002. Doubles from $330. Boutique hotel dating to 1884.

Siglo Hotel, 3 Snorrgatta, Siglufjordur; 011-354-461-7730. Doubles from $384. Scenic waterfront hotel on the Troll Peninsula.

Hotel Ranga, Sudurlandsvegur, Hella; (877) 234-7033. Doubles from $506. Eco-friendly hotel near the Rangarvallaafrettur sheep rett and the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.

Well-maintained campgrounds with electric hookups and clean bathrooms can be found in almost every town and recreational area. Pack a warm sleeping bag and flashlight.

September temperatures average between 38 to 50 degrees, though it can hit higher or lower. Sudden rain showers are common. Come prepared with rain gear, comfortable waterproof hiking boots, and lots of warm layers.

TO LEARN MORE

Visit Iceland

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
In the early dawn of July 20, a few hours after the Israeli parliament passed a divisive law defining the country as a Jewish state, Amal Asad reflected on what that law meant for him and people like him.

Like many Israelis, including members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus governing coalition, Asad was caught by surprise by the 3 a.m. vote that passed the nation-state law.

Asad is one of the Druze, members of a tiny, non-Muslim, monotheistic religion who hold a unique position in Israeli society, where they are known for fierce loyalty to the state. He also is a retired brigadier general.

Druze and Jews fight side by side in the military. Druze joined pre-state Jews in fighting for Israeli independence against the Arab League during the war of 1948. The new law, Asad thought, was just wrong: There isnt a single Jew in the state of Israel who hasnt stood beside a Druze military grave.

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After all that sacrifice, how could his country turn against him? How, he and other Druze are asking, could their country pass such a law?

In some ways, the new nation-state law is straightforward. It echoes the 1947 United Nations resolution that predated Israels establishment and defines Israel as the historic homeland of the Jewish people.

But, veering into new legal territory, the law adds that Jews have a singular right to national self-determination within it and asserts that the state sees the development of Jewish settlement as a national value.

In a further insult, the law diminishes the status of Arabic from an official language to one with an undefined special status.

Arabic is the native language of the Druze and of Israels Muslim and Christian citizens, who together form more than 20% of the population.

The law has sparked worldwide condemnation, even from some of Israels closest allies. Internally, the nation-state law has brought Israel to the precipice of an existential crisis that Netanyahu appears not to have foreseen. Many of the critics denouncing the law cite its glaring effect on the Druze.

Asad, a veteran of almost 30 years in the Israeli army, said, This law is the most painful blow Ive received in my life, something I never thought Id get from people with whom I served, alongside whom I was shot, with whom Ive built this state.

A law telling me this state doesnt belong to me? Asad asked, incredulous. Referring to Druze who died serving in the Israeli military, he added, Four hundred and fifty Druze gave their lives for the state and Bibi Netanyahu passes a law telling me the country doesnt belong to me?

A Druze and Israeli veteran carry Israel and Druze flags. The Israeli veteran also wears an outfit that combines civilian clothes with a military uniform. (Jack Guez / AFP/Getty Images)

Asad said the government is completely detached from the people, and he bet that Jewish Israelis  the vast majority in this country of 8.5 million  would stand alongside the Druze.

He announced a protest rally on Facebook, and on Saturday night, his gamble paid off. A vast crowd packed Tel Avivs Rabin Square under the banner of equality. Rally organizers claimed 250,000 people attended  about 100,000 more than there are Druze citizens of Israel.

For the first time in its history, the Jewish Federations of North America released a statement opposing a measure adopted by an Israeli government, stating it stands shoulder to shoulder with the Druze community.

As strong supporters of Israel, said the group, representing Jewish communities across the United States and Canada, we were disappointed that the government passed legislation which was effectively a step back for all minorities.

The moral insurrection against Netanyahus law spread from outraged Druze army officers to their fellow Jewish officers, hundreds of whom signed petitions opposing the measure, to the general public.

As the rally dispersed, Culture Minister Miri Regev relied on a tried-and-true Netanyahu tactic to dismiss the protest as the left-wing camp still engaging in petty politics and trying to ignite a fire between the Druze community and the Israeli government.

But it was unclear whether Israelis would accept her contention that retired members of Israels high command, who stood side by side on stage to close the rally with a rousing rendition of the national anthem, were leftist provocateurs.

Its too early to say, said Netanyahu biographer Anshel Pfeffer, but this rally was a success because it proved you can be patriotic and oppose the nation-state law. Netanyahu wanted to put out the message that anyone whos against the law is anti-Zionist, but that may have backfired.

Netanyahu, who enjoys a reputation as Israels Mr. Security, wanted a ruckus over the law, Pfeffer said, something to show his base, but he was unprepared for the implacable opposition of a group he cannot easily accuse of disloyalty to the state: its own army officers.

Israelis are beginning to ask if Netanyahus unerring political touch may have failed him as next years elections approach, and the future of Netanyahus signal legislative achievement is unclear.

Bibi went one step too far, Asad said. No law can separate us. We are one people, Israelis. There isnt a single Jew who hasnt sat grieving with us over a fallen son. Theres no Druze who hasnt cried over a Jewish grave. This was a cheap move to keep Netanyahu in power, a gift to his primary voters at the expense of the citizens of the state.

Reversing the law would require at least 61 votes  an absolute majority  in the parliament, or Knesset.

Amnon Abramovich, an expert analyst of Israeli politics, said on the Kann News television channel that Netanyahu is willing to destroy the foundations of this country for primary votes  pure cynicism.

In a furious column, the renowned author David Grossman, whose son Uri was killed during the 2006 Lebanon war, accused Netanyahu of treason.

In an extraordinary statement posted last week, after a number of army officers ostentatiously quit their posts to protest the law, Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot appeared to remove the military from the laws jurisdiction by confirming that the peoples army, whose mission it is to safeguard the security of the people of Israel and to win wars, is bound to uphold human dignity, regardless of ethnicity, religion and sex.

Israels public sphere has been awash with anguished individual cries. In Yediot Ahronot, Israels mass-market tabloid, columnist Yoav Keren published a public apology to fallen Israel Defense Forces commanders.

A photograph of Lt. Col. Hussein Amar, commander of the 12th Barak battalion of the armys elites Golani Brigade, accompanied Kerens column. Amar, who was killed in action in Lebanon in 1996, was Druze.

Joel Dagan, who as a soldier served under Amar, posted a tormented plea on Facebook asking for the personal forgiveness of Amars family, adding, Today, I am ashamed to be a Jew.

The rally against Israels new law on national identity drew a vast crowd to Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. (Amir Levy / Getty Images)

Citing Israels declaration of independence, its foundational legal document, Dagan wrote that the state of Israel is the state of all its citizens without regard to religion, race or sex. If this is the law of the land, I am not a law-abiding citizen!

One of Amars surviving brothers, Nabil, himself a veteran of an elite army unit, attended the Saturday rally. He said hed felt stabbed in the heart by the law.

Observing the ocean of Israelis at the protest, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent.
Tens of thousands of members of Israels Druze minority and their Jewish supporters, some chanting equality, packed a central Tel Aviv square Saturday night to rally against a contentious new law that critics say sidelines Israels non-Jewish citizens.

It marked the first time in recent memory that the Druze  followers of a secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam who are considered fiercely loyal to the state  staged a large public protest. Hundreds of brightly colored Druze flags, rarely seen outside the community, fluttered in the square along Israels national banners. Nearby City Hall was lit up in Druze colors.

The rally marked the biggest backlash yet against the recently passed law that enshrines Israels Jewish character and downgrades the standing of Arabic from an official to a special language.

The law has outraged Israels Arabic-speaking minority, which includes the Druze and makes up about 20% of the population. Critics say the law undermines the countrys democratic values.

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The Druze serve in the military, unlike most of the countrys Arab citizens, who overwhelmingly follow Sunni Islam and have close family ties with Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories. Over the years, members of the Druze community have risen to prominence in the military and in politics.

On Saturday, Tel Avivs Rabin Square was packed with Druze protesters bused in from all over Israel, and their Jewish backers, including former senior members of the defense establishment. The crowd chanted, Equality, equality.

We came here to tell the entire Israeli nation, with all of the Israeli people, that this country is for all of us, retired Brig. Gen. Amal Assad, who spearheaded the Druze campaign against the legislation, told the Associated Press. We were born here, we will die here, we love this country, we have defended it, and we will continue to live here together  Jews, Arabs, Druze, Circassians, Bedouins, as equal brothers.

We are all Israelis, he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Cabinet ministers have met with Druze leaders to try and pacify their concerns. But recent meetings did not go well.

According to Israeli media, Netanyahu abruptly ended a meeting with Assad and other Druze officials this week after Assad warned the new law would lead to apartheid.

Lawmaker Avi Dichter, a co-sponsor of the law, was heckled by Druze in attendance at another meeting.

Several Druze military officers recently said they would stop serving in response to the law, sparking fears of widespread insubordination.

Israels 1948 declaration of independence defined the country as a Jewish and democratic state. The government says the bill merely enshrines the countrys existing character, but critics say it undercuts Israels democratic values and marginalizes the countrys non-Jewish minorities.

The Druze, who also live in other parts of the region including Syria and Lebanon, have managed to survive by showing loyalty to their country of residence.

Israeli Druze leaders say their alliance with Jews dates back long before they helped them win independence in 1948. The Druze revere Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, whose tomb in northern Israel is one of their most sacred sites. Israels 130,000 Druze live mostly in the north of the country.
Venezuelan officials on Sunday gave a more detailed description of the two drone bombs used in an attempt to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro, saying that each craft carried about 2 pounds of plastic explosive and that the plot was foiled, in part, by equipment designed to jam radio signals.

Six suspects were in custody in connection with the Saturday attack, which failed to hurt the president but left seven soldiers injured, three of them seriously.

The government also confirmed that one errant drone crashed into an apartment building near the central Caracas street where Maduro spoke at an outdoor event commemorating the founding of the national guard. The device subsequently exploded as it fell to the ground, causing no injuries but leaving dark scorch marks on the side of the building.

Nestor Reverol, the interior, justice and peace minister, said in an interview on state television Sunday that the attack on Maduro was carried out with two remote-controlled drones that carried up to 1 kilogram each of C-4 explosive.

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Were dealing with the crime of terrorism and attempted assassination that was foiled, Reverol said.

The minister said that such drones, a model known as DJI M600, are commonly used for industrial jobs and capable of lifting relatively heavy loads, such as a video camera and a recording kit.

Plotters flew one of the bomb-laden devices over the presidential stage with the goal of activating it near Maduro, but the area was equipped with devices that block invasive radio signals, Reverol said.

The device exploded over an area where uniformed guardsmen stood at attention in ranks, injuring seven.

A second drone lost control in the general area of the event and struck a building known as Don Eduardo near Bolivar Avenue, detonating at the height of the first floor as it fell to earth, Reverol said.

One downtown resident, Mairum Gonzalez, told the Associated Press she heard a deafening explosion and ran in terror to her fifth-floor balcony. It was so strong the building shook, she said. I said, Oh my God, what happened. It terrified me.

Video of Maduro taken during the Saturday attack showed him and his wife, Cilia Flores, flinching at the sound of an explosion, then looking skyward. The cameras of the state-run television channel then cut away to pandemonium breaking out among assembled soldiers fleeing to seek cover.

Reverol gave little detail about the six people detained in connection with the attack except to say that two of them have been formally charged. Several vehicles have been seized and hotel rooms searched as part of the investigation. Security videos are being examined for clues as well, he said.

The material and intellectual authors of the crime inside and outside the country have been plainly identified, Reverol said, adding that more arrests are expected.

One of those arrested was wanted in connection with an earlier attack on a military installation, Reverol said. Another was arrested in 2014 in connection with a series of nationwide protests against the Maduro government that convulsed the country for several weeks.

Maduro is deeply unpopular because of Venezuelas collapsed economy, hyperinflation that could reach 1 million percent this year and his autocratic style of governing. More than 2 million Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years seeking better lives.

This was the first attempt on Maduros life, though in June 2017, Oscar Perez, an investigator with the Venezuelan equivalent of the FBI, stole a helicopter, flew over the capital and hurled grenades at the Supreme Court.

Perez, who was known as Rambo, claimed he was leading a revolt against the Maduro government. In January, he and other members of a small rebel group were killed by government forces.

On Saturday night, in a televised speech hours after the attack, Maduro blamed ultra-right Venezuelans in alliance with ultra-right Colombians for the attack, singling out Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as responsible. He also called on President Trump to arrest terrorists in the United States who he said were involved in the plot.

#BREAKING Speech by Venezuela President #Maduro cut off during a military parade, soldiers seen running pic.twitter.com/1mPcrSiDYV  Guy Elster (@guyelster) August 4, 2018

So far, Maduro has offered no proof to back up the charges of Colombian or U.S. involvement. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trumps national security advisor, John Bolton, stated unequivocally that the U.S. was not involved.

If the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, well take a serious look at it, Bolton said.

On Sunday, the Colombian government issued a statement dismissing the allegations as absurd, describing the charges as typical of Maduros practice of blaming Colombia for any type of situation.

Saying Venezuela is in the midst of a civil war, Venezuelan Atty. Gen. Tarek William Saab said more details on the assassination attempt would be revealed Monday.

Late Saturday, an anonymous group known as Flannel Soldiers claimed responsibility for the attack on social media, but the claim could not be substantiated.

An opposition group known as Broad Front issued a statement late Saturday warning that Maduro may use the alleged attack to clamp down further on opposition leaders and repress the constitutional rights of the people to continue protesting for the defense of their rights.

Special correspondents Mogollon and Kraul reported from Caracas and Bogota, Colombia, respectively.

UPDATES:

5:30 p.m.: This article was updated with new details on the drone attack and the explosives used.

This article was originally published at 12:10 p.m.
Standing amid a crush of trucks and cars, Khadija Rifai watched her sons load a beat-up white minivan with crates of lettuce, tomatoes and zucchini.

After four years as refugees in Lebanon, she and her husband were about to join a convoy home to Syria. But five sons and four daughters with families of their own were staying behind in the Lebanese border town of Arsal.

Now is not the time for the youth to go back, Rifai said matter-of-factly before settling into a dusty seat next to her husband. They will have to go into the army, and security is not 100%.

Two sons ran up and kissed her hand. Another tucked a few more rounds of flat bread on the dashboard. A niece buried her face in her headscarf and sobbed.

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Dont worry about me, Rifai, 57, told them with a reassuring smile. I will be waiting for you in Syria.

It was one of many heart-wrenching farewells that July day. Now that Syrian President Bashar Assads army, backed by Russia and Iran, has recaptured large parts of the country from rebels, Lebanese security forces and their Syrian counterparts have started repatriating refugees to areas where fighting has subsided.

More than 2,000 Syrian refugees have left in convoys like the one that departed from Arsal, part of a small but growing exodus since June.

Defenders of the repatriation program emphasize that participation is voluntary. But critics contend that mounting hostility toward refugees in Lebanon  and the increasingly harsh restrictions imposed on them  have left many feeling they have no choice but to go back to a country still fighting a war that began in 2011.

The agonizing decision over whether to stay or go has divided families like the Rifais, touching off a public spat between members of the Lebanese government and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, which says conditions in Syria are not stable enough to organize returns.

Last month, Russia waded into the dispute, offering to facilitate the return of more than 1.7 million refugees from Syrias neighbors and Europe in the near future. That is welcome news to countries like Lebanon that share a border with Syria and host the vast majority of the displaced.

As the United States and European nations started closing their doors to refugees, more than 5 million Syrians poured into neighboring countries. Tiny Lebanon welcomed more than a million, and refugees make up almost a quarter of the population.

But the countrys economy, never robust, has been hurt by the war next door. As fighting drags on, public resentment is building against refugees, who are seen as taking jobs, even if menial ones, and driving down wages. The U.N. has provided billions of dollars in aid, but donor contributions have not kept pace with growing needs.

Our economy is collapsing. Why do we have to wait? Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said on a visit to Arsal in June.

Underpinning much of the hostility are fears that the influx of Syrians, most of them Sunni Muslims, will upset the delicate sectarian balance in Lebanon, which fought its own civil war from 1975 to 1990.

Syrian refugees sit in their car waiting to be evacuated from a camp in the border town of Arsal, Lebanon. (Nabil Mounzer / EPA-Shutterstock)

Bassil in June ordered a freeze on the processing of residency applications by UNHCR employees, accusing the agency of dissuading refugees from going home by asking them questions about the conditions they will face, including the security risks and the possibility of losing aid.

UNHCR officials deny that, saying the goal of such interviews is to understand the concerns refugees have and offer help when they can.

If a refugee decides he wants to go back  we dont try to change their mind, said Rula Amin, a UNHCR spokeswoman based in Amman, Jordan. We respect their decision.

However, Amin said the UNHCR would need to see some safeguards before it starts organizing the returns.

Its not just about active combat, she said. Asylum seekers are sometimes entitled to asylum even if there is no war in their country  if they are persecuted, if they dont have their rights, if they show that theres a threat to their life.

The Kremlin has provided few details about its proposals, presented after President Vladimir Putins recent summit with President Trump in Helsinki. But the move appears to be part of a Russian gambit to legitimize Assad in the eyes of the United States and its allies, ease sanctions imposed on his government and raise funds for reconstruction.

People want to return to their homes, the Kremlins special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, said last week according to Russias Tass news agency. It is also in the interests of European nations to offer assistance to the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland and create corresponding conditions for that.

The destruction in cities like Homs and Aleppo, pummeled by shelling and airstrikes, is massive. The World Bank estimated last year that it would cost between $200 billion and $350 billion to rebuild. But the U.N. and European Union, whose member states are home to about a million Syrian refugees, are adamant about withholding reconstruction funds until a credible political solution is reached.

Both the Russians and the Syrians understand very well that this refugee issue is something that they can use in their favor, said Heiko Wimmen, project director for Iraq, Lebanon and Syria at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization that researches conflict prevention.

If you hold out this prize  even if its an illusion  that refugees will return in large numbers, that is obviously something that can be attractive to European politicians, or that European politicians can sell at home.

Russian officials say the refugees have nothing to fear from Assads government, but many dispute that. Those who returned to opposition-held areas in recent years were frequently displaced anew  and in some cases killed  in government offensives, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Some refugees fear they could be arrested, tortured or killed if they go back. Others worry about how they will rebuild homes damaged or destroyed in the fighting and stripped down to the wiring by looters.

If the U.N. doesnt coordinate, then what guarantee do we have? asked a 50-year-old lawyer in Arsal, who asked to be identified by a traditional nickname, Abu Mohammed, to avoid endangering relatives in Syria. Before, the border was open, but now there is an army checkpoint. No one can go and come back.

Many of those leaving are elders or children. For men of fighting age, one of the biggest fears is being drafted into Assads army. The government has offered them a six-month grace period to get their affairs in order.

Meanwhile, living conditions in Lebanon have grown increasingly harsh. New regulations have barred refugees from white-collar jobs and made residency permits difficult to obtain. Education options are limited and healthcare prohibitively expensive for many.

Authorities have refused to set up formal camps for Syrians, citing the experience with camps for Palestinians that morphed into permanent neighborhoods.

Syrians with means rent houses and apartments. But hundreds of thousands are crammed into makeshift dwellings, including tents, shacks and disused factories. They are still required to pay rent, though. And when tensions flare with host communities, they sometimes are evicted en masse.

Tented settlements dot the landscape in Arsal, tucked in mountainous and rocky terrain on the northern edge of Lebanons Bekaa Valley. Its Sunni residents mostly welcomed the refugees, many of them relatives.

But the addition of tens of thousands of newcomers to a town with a prewar population of fewer than 40,000 has put a strain on public services, which were never good, according to Mayor Basil Hujeiri. There arent enough schools, and residents only have electricity for about 12 hours a day.

Just over 3,000 of the towns refugees have registered to go home, but their applications must first be vetted by authorities in Syria, the mayor said.

Early on their appointed day, departing refugees assemble at a checkpoint on the edge of town. They travel in cars, trucks and tractors piled high with their belongings  stacks of mattresses, bags of food and clothing, the occasional motorcycle. Lebanese security officers check their identification cards against a list of approved names before allowing them to drive to the nearest border crossing.

The mayor makes a point of accompanying them whenever he can, stopping along the way to inquire after broken=down vehicles and pass out bottles of water to those waiting for help to arrive.

The most important thing in this situation is nobody is forcing the refugees to go back to Syria, Hujeiri said. They go by their own choice.

Syrian refugee Mahmoud Refai holds his 1-year-old son, Yazan, as they wait to bid farewell to his parents at a checkpoint on the edge of the Lebanese border town of Arsal. (Alexandra Zavis / Los Angeles Times)

From the point of view of human rights advocates, however, Lebanese authorities arent giving refugees much of a choice.

They adopted a set of policies that make it very difficult for refugees to stay in Lebanon, and most of them will, as a result, return, said Sara Kayyali, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.

In Syria, the Rifais were wealthy farmers with 2,000 fruit trees, including peaches, cherries and apricots. In Lebanon, they barely make ends meet, said Mahmoud Rifai, 34, who was cradling a sleeping son when he arrived at the checkpoint to say goodbye to his parents.

Only one of the brothers has found steady employment, teaching refugee children. The others do occasional construction work and count themselves lucky if they make $10 a day.

They sold most of their furniture and moved into a collection of canvas tents, which each rent for $13 a month. Water seeps in when it rains, and in the summer they are unbearably hot.

The brothers say they cant look for work outside Arsal because the Lebanese armed forces wont let them through their checkpoints.

In 2014, the town was overrun by fighters from Syria, including members of Islamic State and an affiliate of Al Qaeda. Although the armed groups have been pushed out, authorities continue to enforce tight security measures.

The army gives us too many problems here, grumbled Ali Rifai, a 66-year-old in-law of Khadija Rifais, who hails from the same western town, Ras Maara.

A year ago, he said, soldiers picked up his son in the mountains and held him for 45 days before releasing him without charge. They hit him so many times, and he didnt do anything. He was just minding the sheep.

He too concluded it was time to go back to Syria.

It was a difficult decision because I dont know what the situation is there, or what will happen to us, Ali Rifai said. Still, he added, If Im going to drink a cup of poison, Id rather do it in my own home.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Twitter: @alexzavis

Special correspondent Abdel-Monhem Amiri contributed to this report.
New Delhi: The Human Resource Development Ministry has approved new regulations on plagiarism drafted by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Thus, research students who were found guilty of plagiarism may lose their registrations and teachers could lose their job.

The Ministry had notified the UGC Regulations, 2018 this week. The new regulations also prescribe that if any member of the academic community suspects plagiarism, he or she shall report it to the Department Academic Integrity Panel.

Parliament was on Thursday informed by the government that the UGC found three cases of plagiarism in writing PhD thesis.
Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, hanger on of academia, parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Investment in venture-backed companies in the United States reached $57 billion in almost 4,000 deals in the first half of 2018. Yet, only a fraction of those dollars found their way to funds and companies based in rural America.

This capital deficit is starving innovative and valuable growth opportunities across rural communities. Many people think immediately of agriculture when focused on rural communities, yet it only makes up 6 percent of todays rural economy.

By Matthew McKenna

http://thehill.com/opinion/finance/399210-rural-america-is-ripe-with-potential-starving-for-capital
Ask Waded Cruzado if she has any plans to retire from Montana State University, and she laughs.

She points out that 85-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently suggested she may stay on the U.S. Supreme Court until shes 90. And that more than a century ago, Charles Eliot served as Harvards president for 40 years.

Cruzado, 58, MSU president for eight and a half years, smiles as she gives a sunny forecast for the upcoming year.

By Gail Schontzler Chronicle Staff Writer

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/montana_state_university/msu-s-cruzado-optimistic-expects-moderate-growth-in-coming-year/article_783a8364-a98d-570a-baf3-8f5a895f10f3.html
It's a mix of different groups with different priorities.



The gun nuts. These are 12 year olds that never grew up.



The evangelicals. We are a Christian nation, and we will kill you in the name of Jesus, if you do not comply.



The corporatists. Everything should be privatized, workers don't have any rights, and everything will trickle down to the poor if we give the rich more money.



The white supremicists. All immigration is illegal, blacks should know there place, and our destiny is a white America.



This is today's conservative slash Trump America.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs  August 5, 2018

In the Name of God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful

Excellency, Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan;

Distinguished Ministers and Members of Parliament;

Honorable Ambassadors and Members of the Diplomatic Community in Kabul;

Mr. Abdul Wali Wali, Member of the family of Shaheed Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi;

Respected Professors;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

At the outset, I wish to pay tribute to the memory of all martyrs of the era of Jihad and resistance, and of the national defense and security forces of Afghanistan.

Last year, in this very hall, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan commemorated Shaheed Musa Shafeeq, one of our countrys great political and diplomatic figures. This year, we are commemorating Shaheed Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi, a figure who introduced Afghanistan independence to the outside world, as the countrys first-ever diplomatic envoy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defense and regent of the Amani Kingdom.

Both figures were shining and brilliant historic political and diplomatic figures of our country. Nevertheless, despite being so, towards the end of their lives, they both faced ill treatment and were eventually martyred. As a bitter surprise, 89 years ago, at this very location where our seminar takes place, Shaheed Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazai was sentenced to prison by enemies of constitutionalism and republicanism and eventually martyred.

This makes clear to our present and future generations that the era of obscuring and distorting historic facts, creating fake narratives of history and imposing them on the public has come to an end.

Distinguished Participants,

Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi began his struggle in the 19th Century at a time when several countries were confronting both colonialism and internal oppression. The spirit of resistance against colonialism among the people of Afghanistan dates back to history. However, systematic political resistance, which took place alongside efforts against colonialism to bring about foundational reform and change, began with constitutionalism.

It is noteworthy that long before the formal onset of the constitutionalist movement in Afghanistan, the reformist and development movement in the region, inspired by the awakening ideas of Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan had emerged. This movement attracted broad interest among liberation movements, spanning from the Indian Sub-continent to Turkey and the Middle East.

The constitutionalist movement advocated total political independence, ending internal oppression and absolute monarch, as well as ensuring social justice and the development of society through expansion of education and the modern civilization.

These principles were primarily introduced by a generation of intellectuals who had a good understanding of the world, including of the effects of industrialization. They desired to liberate Afghanistan from the oppression and the lack of development that was prevalent throughout history, and to make sure that the country joins the modern and developed countries of the world.

One of the main differences of the constitutionalist movement in Afghanistan from that of other such movements in the region was the strong support garnered from religious scholars, such as Mowlawi Abdul Raouf; Mawlawi Mohammad Sarwar Khan Wasif and Mawlowi Abdul Rabb Qandahari.

History can attest that efforts of those who were against the constitutional movement, aimed at stirring opposition from religious scholars, proved futile. In fact, some of the movements key figures comprised of religious scholars. This constitutes another important lesson of history in the context of todays situation.

As we confront the threat of international terrorism, we must not underestimate the important role of Islamic clerics in this endeavor, particularly in relation to de-legitimizing acts of violence and terror.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The personality of Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi, as son of the last Amir of the autonomous Darwaz region, had developed through his migration to Samarqand on political and cultural grounds; his subsequent return to the country and the services he rendered during the governments of the time. A key aspect of his personality, which differed from that of other political figures of his time, was his clear and deep understanding of power relations and of liberation movements in the territories of British India and Central Asia.

At an early age, while in Samarqand, he became familiar with reformist ideas that were dominant in Central Asia and Tsar Russia. Upon his return and residence in Kabul, he not only became familiar prominent political thinkers and reformist ideas, but also gained a deeper understanding of the nature of occupation from influential figures in the Indian-Subcontinent.

Based on his experience and competencies, he was appointed as the countrys first-ever Envoy - extraordinary plenipotentiary - to introduce Afghanistans independence to the outside world; and also as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defense and regent of the Monarchy.

Moreover, based on his broad and deep understanding of political and cultural developments in the region and abroad, he not only supported constitutionalism and the end of oppression, but also had a deep conviction for the need of creating a Republic.

For this reason, historical documents and literature prove that from among constitutionalists, the group led by Mohammad Wali Khan and Ghulam Seddiq Khan Charkhi were recognized as the advocates of a Republic.

In his book Monarchs of Kabul, Mehdi Farukh, a prominent Iranian historian writes the following about the personality of Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi:

Wali Khan Darwazi is a creative, competent, humble and dignified figure who has the deepest understanding of political issues from among all of other politicians in the country.

Distinguished Guests,

In order to present a clearer picture of the personality of Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi, and his national and international standing, let me refer to a few scenes from his trial.

When the Governments of King Amanullah and Amir Habibullah collapsed in favor of supporters of an Absolute Monarchy, the new rulers placed Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi on trial because of their personal and political resentments. During the trial, Shah Amanullah, who was exiled at the time, conveyed his objection to the unjust trial and expressed support to the actions of his regent.

This hall in which we have gathered today is witness to the unjust trial of Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi.

Ghulam Mohayuddin Arti and Abdul Rahman Lodin, in this same hall, stood one after another - and vehemently protested the unjust trial. Though, They subsequently suffered for their actions.

Another figure was also present at the trial was Raja Mohandra Pardap Singh of the Indian Sub-continent. He also stood from among those present and said to the Chief of the Court: Even though I am a foreigner and dont have the right to speak at this trial, I want to say that Mohammad Wali Khan Darwai is a prominent international figure who has made great efforts for the introduction of your countrys independence to the outside world. You should therefore be cautious of your decisions.

Moreover, when Mohammad Wali Khans death sentence was being carried out in Dehmazang prison, another advocate of constitutionalism, Mohammad Mahdi Khan Chandawoli, awaiting his own execution, stated: First execute me so that I do not witness the execution of man of great integrity and stature  Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazi.

Distinguished Participants,

Todays relatively democratic atmosphere in Afghanistan has not been achieved easily; rather it has a long experience of exile, martyrdom and sacrifice in the background. This historical background beginning with the exile of Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan, to with sacrifices and martyrdom of the champions of the constitutionalism and Republic movements; to the Jihad against communism for the liberation of our country continues today, as we are making sacrifices in our struggle against terrorism and for the consolidation of democracy.

In conclusion, I want to convey my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the intra-Ministerial and Scientific Committees, as well as other relevant institutions and entities for their tireless efforts in the preparation and holding of this important seminar. I am hopeful that this event is not an only an opportunity to learn more about the different aspects of Shaheed Mohammad Wali Khan Darwazis personality, but also the start of more detailed discussions and research of historical realities which will enable us to have a clearer picture of our past.

Thank You,
August 05, 2018

The MoA Week In Review - Open Thread 2018-39

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

July 30 - U.S. Negotiates Retreat From Afghanistan

July 31 - Hawks Renew Their Attacks On North Korea Talks

The talk in U.S. media is all about "denuclearization". But denuclearization is the last step in the four step Joint Statement Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un signed in Singapore. "New US-DPRK relations", "a lasting and stable peace regime" and "security guarantees to the DPRK" come before "denuclearisation". They are preconditions. The U.S. side tries to skip over them. At the current ASEAN Regional Forum the Foreign Minister of North Korea Ri Yong Ho again emphasized the sequencing:

Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight. In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another. We believe that the only practical way for moving forward is to take a new approach of giving priority to confidence-building and implementing all items of the Joint Statement in a balanced, simultaneous and phased way. Only when the U.S. ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it, will we be able to open our minds to the U.S. and show it in action. This is the core essence of the spirit of the agreement shared by the leaders of the DPRK and the U.S.

The New York Times report on that Ri Yong Ho speech is repeating the false emphasis on "denuclearization". Its characterization of the four steps of the Singapore Statement is wrong:

Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim held their historic summit meeting in Singapore on June 12, signing a document in which Mr. Kim committed to work toward a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while Mr. Trump promised to provide security guarantees to the North and to build new bilateral relations. They recognized that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The NYT sets denuclearisation first and security guarantees and relation building as second. The "building of a peace regime", i.e. the formal ending of the Korea War by a peace treaty, is not mentioned at all. The relevant facts a reader needs to understand the North Korean complain are simply left out.

August 3 - Saudi Coalition Renews Attack On North Yemen's Lifeline

Aaron Mate interviewed Professor Isa Blumi, the author of "Destroying Yemen", on The Real News Network: The Saudi-US Agenda Behind Destroying Yemen. Blumi talks of the larger "western" motives in supporting the Saudi/UAE assault on Yemen: resources, fishing rights, sea control and more.

August 4 - Washington Post Blames Iran For Trump's Unilateral Sanctions Against It

Use as open thread ...

Posted by b on August 5, 2018 at 13:20 UTC | Permalink

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An Artsplace exhibit held at the Cheshire Public Library in July was an exercise in creativity.

Its fun! said Artsplace Director Joan Pilarczyk, of the recent show It Doesnt Look Like the Photo.

The concept of the yearly exhibit is to let the artist freestyle off original photographs. Artists are allowed to use any medium of their choice. They can create a collage using paper or other textiles; they can use watercolors or ink.

They can crop, change and eliminate subjects from photos in order to create art, Pilarczyk said.

The photographers included Pilarczyks son, Eric; Gary Lohr, a long-time Cheshire resident whose unique images are derived from travels and his skill at photographic composition, and by local artist Agnes Wnuk. Sixty art entries made this years annual show, a show made up of artists from various skills and backgrounds.

Wnuk has been with Artsplace for nine years and took her first class, a colored pencil class with Rita Paradis. Through recent showings at the New Britain Museum of Art, among others, Wnuks work is becoming becoming well-known beyond the community. Wnuk not only provided a photographic image for the exhibit, but decided to exercise her own imagination with her take on Gary Lohrs photo, Conversation in the Istanbul Market.

I love that image, said Wnuk, explaining that the artists were charged with using an image to springboard to their own art. It (my picture) looks like the picture, but its not, she said of her watercolor, titled Babushkas.

Lohr took the photo while in Istanbul. A few things struck him when he saw the women gathering, namely the juxtaposition of the ancient city, a group of women dressed in traditional garments, and then a modern cellphone in the hand of a young woman in the group.
MERIDEN  A few months before the annual Fly-In at Meriden Markham Airport, an event that spotlights the local facility and aviation safety, the Record-Journal met up with airport manager Constance Castillo of Kensington to chat about her daily responsibilities, history in the field (or, rather, in the air) and the future of the airport.

Q: How long have you been the airport manager here at Meriden airport?

Castillo: Ive been here for about four and a half years.

Q: What got you into this type of job?

Castillo: Well, Im a pilot and I had worked for flight school up at Brainard Airport for a few years and then the opening came for the airport manager here so I came back. I had worked this airport when it was run by an FBO years ago.

I actually grew up flying out of this airport because both of my parents were pilots. So I have a long history here.

Q: When did you first start flying?

Castillo: I got my license when I was 25 but I flew my whole life with my parents. They actually took me up on my first flight when I was 19 days old from this airport. So Ive been flying since I was a baby.

Q: What is your daily schedule here like?

Castillo: Well, I open the airport first by driving all of the ramps and the taxi ways and the runway looking for any debris which is called FOD, Foreign Object and Debris, that needs to be removed. Wildlife control, this morning we had a flock of geese that was on the runway so I had to scare them off.

I also do fuel tests. So we have a self-service fuel station here. I have to test the fuel every morning for any water contaminants.

Working with tenants, pilots and aircraft. We get a lot of charters that come in and drop off passengers or business people.

Every day is kind of different.

Q: How does weather and other challenges impact how the airport runs?

Castillo: Planes can still come in with certain weather minimums, theyll come on an instrument approach. A lot of the charters will still come in and out if theres bad weather. But on a good day were pretty active, we can have up to maybe 50 or 70 planes a day coming in and out of the airport.

Right now we are at full capacity. The Oxford airport was shut down for the month of July while theyre redoing the runway. So we have about 25 of their tenants here.

Q: What are some of the skills you need to do this job?

Castillo: As airport manager its familiarity with FAA regulations as far as air space, as far as pilot certifications. I work with the FAA closely, I work with the flight standards district office and Connecticut Airport Authority.

Were what is called an un-towered airport, as opposed to Bradley International Airport they have a tower which communicates with all aircraft when they come into the air space. They have everyone on radar and here we dont. So the pilots talk over a frequency which is called UNICOM, I monitor that.

Q: How do you get certified to fly?

Castillo: Its a long process, you need a minimum of 40 hours with the FAA. It actually takes a lot longer than that.

I started with my private pilot license just flying recreationally and then about 10 years ago I began getting my advance ratings. I got my instrument rating, my commercial rating and then my certified instructor rating and then my multi-engine rating.

Q: What kind of planes do you fly?

Castillo: Mostly single engine, I do have my multi-engine rating but typically I fly just small Cessnas. Either four-seater, two-seater Cessnas.

Q: What do you enjoy most about flying?

Castillo: Probably just the adventure and the freedom. Just being in the air.

Q: What is the future of Meriden Markham Airport?

Castillo: Well, next year is actually the 100th anniversary of the first plane that ever landed here so we will be planning a big event around that.

Theres a lot of growth going on here. Were building hangars so our tenant base is expanding. We built four hangars a few years ago, we have another 16 hangars that are in the process of being quoted right now to be built. We just got a 10,000 gallon fuel tank so that we dont have to fill up as often. We are supported by the FAA so we get funding and grants for airport improvements.

More information can be found at http://www.meridenmarkham.com/about.htm

akus@record-journal.com

203-317-2448

Twitter: @KusReporter
MERIDEN  Around a hundred people gathered at Silver City Ballroom Friday evening to cheer on some of the citys notables as they jigged and jived while spotlighted on the dance floor.

The local celebrities were part of the first Dancing with the Stars of Meriden dancing competition, hosted by Higher Movement dance studio.

All the proceeds the event raised will go to Seniors Have Dreams Too, Inc. The Wallingford-based nonprofit grants wishes to seniors living on or below the poverty level, who often feel isolated and dis-empowered, according to the organizations website.

Things like this help pay for (wishes), co-founder of the nonprofit Betty Berger said.

She said the funds from Friday night will go toward future wish granting, including one set for next month to bring a paraplegic woman to a casino, an activity she says she loves and hasnt been able to do for years.

Sally Smith, co-founder of Seniors Have Dreams Too, Inc., said shes been doing tap with the owner of Higher Movement, Kirby Shields, for years and was touched that Shields chose her organization to give to.

Regarding the theme of the night, Kirby Shieldss aunt, Mauri Shields, said Kirby has been a Dancing with the Stars queen and wouldnt miss an episode.

This is so Kirby, Mauri Shields said. (Shes) living the dream.

The competitors were paired with dance instructors from the Higher Movement studio, with whom they practiced their routine, all in preparation for the big night.

Channeling their inner Michael Jacksons, Meriden native and Connecticut Army National Guard member, Tony Quinones, and instructor Jazzlyn Torres, kicked off the performances.

Meriden Police Officer Joseph Stoute performed a high-energy 1990s mashup with instructor Chloie McMahon, which got the crowd cheering.

Matt Munson, an active member of the Boys and Girls Club of Meriden and former contestant on ABCs The Bachelorette, danced to a jazz-style routine with Shields.

Instructor Torey Robinson was also joined in dance by Alyssa Rae Taglia, WTNH television traffic anchor on News 8s Good Morning Connecticut.

Audience members could vote on their favorite performance, while enjoying a selection of food, a cash bar, and raffle prizes.

bwright@record-journal.com

203-317-2316

Twitter: @baileyfaywright
MERIDEN  During the summer months, all Jeshua Lopez wants to do is go swimming. But because of his rare immunodeficiency condition, he will get sick almost every time.

Jessica Figueroa, Jeshuas mom, said he suffers from common variable immune deficiency, or CVID. He has been dealing will the condition since birth, but Figueroa said Jeshua wasnt officially diagnosed until age 4. She said there is no cure.

Its an invisible illness and people sometimes see him outside, Figueroa said. But in his little body, its a war."

Figueroa said because part of his immune system is missing, he is at high risk of infections and influenza. If he didnt take all of the medications he does, he would not be able to leave his home.

Living in a bubble is not easy, Figueroa said. Before, a kid like him would have to live literally in a bubble.

According to the Immune Deficiency Foundation, the usual presenting symptoms of CVID are recurrent infections that may include the ears, nasal sinuses and lungs.

Figueroa said Jeshua must take eight to nine medications every day and spend 20 minutes in an air vest twice a day. She said if the family wants to leave the house she must carry epipens, medications, hand sanitizer and Jeshua must wear a face mask.

Sometimes when we go out, people see him and think he is contagious, Figueroa said. But we tell them this mask is to protect him from everybody.

Figueroa said her goal is to raise awareness about the condition to help her son. His school, Casimir Pulaski Elementary School, has been helpful and accomodating, she said. Figueroa has visited the school to explain her childs condition to his classmates.

I teach the kids to wash their hands before and after they get out of the classroom, Figueroa said

Dan Coffey, Pulaski principal, said Jeshua is out of school for a third of the school year. He said the school uses online learning systems to help Jeshua continue his studies.

The teachers have been great, Coffey said. We do everything we can to keep him in good health.

Figueroa spends every summer preparing for the school year by making sure her son has his own supplies and commonly shared objects like computers are wiped down.

We go through the process early in the year to have introductions and know what were up against, Coffey said.

Every three weeks Jeshua must spend eight to 10 hours at the Connecticut Childrens Medical center to receive treatment. The treatment consists of antibodies that are removed from the plasma of donated blood. She said the treatment allows him to go outside and attend school. If he did not have the treatment he would have to stay inside.

I want to go on vacation, Jeshua said. I want to go to Toy Story World.

Figueroa said she needs to visit places in advance, to make sure they are clean, before going out for special occasions. If he contracts a virus, it could be deadly.

Figueroa said her goal is to keep Jeshua safe in school and at home while, to the extent possible, having fun like every other kid.

jroman@record-journal.com

203-317-2420

Twitter: @JenieceRoman
MERIDEN  The long often controversial campaign that ended with the MidState Medical Center celebratory ribbon cutting in 1998 began a decade earlier after a merger.

The city-owned World War II Veterans Memorial Hospital on Paddock Avenue reported financial woes that threatened its future in 1990. Administrators from the Meriden-Wallingford Hospital on Cook Avenue offered to buy the 36-year-old hospital and consolidate resources with its west campus.

But the biggest challenge was selling the idea to the public.

Local attorneys Bruce Fontanella and the late Thomas Cadden lobbied for the merger and the new entity was called Veterans Memorial Medical Center. Marketing materials promised both sites would remain open.

In June 1990, city voters approved the changes to the hospital ownership 5,585 to 4,528.

Its a shame it had to go through, Maxwell Lee, president of the United Veterans Council of Meriden Inc., said at the time.

Before the ink could dry on the agreement, hospital officials began talking about closing both campuses and building a new hospital in the citys southeastern corner.

Both east and west campuses were deemed too old, too inefficient, and too small to fulfill the mergers goal of providing cost-effective health care for the residents of Meriden and surrounding communities, said the late Theodore Horwitz, then president of Meriden-Wallingford Hospital. Hospital administrators said both facilities could not survive in their current conditions.

We believe by having a single campus, well be able to have a facility that will provide much more family-oriented patient care, said Horwitz.

Hospital administrators never promised that the two sites would remain open indefinitely, Horwitz said.

The news hit many hospital supporters in the community hard.

In February 1993, 700 people filled the Platt High School auditorium to tell members of the state Commission on Hospitals and Health Care they felt duped by their local hospital.

The longest roadshow in the country, was how one speaker described the effort to close the campuses and rebuild.

The new hospital would be a 340,000- to 380,000- square-foot facility with 184 acute care beds and a focus on outpatient care, Horwitz said. It would be complete after 1997 and paid for through savings achieved from the merger.

Also, it would not be in downtown Meriden.

Finding a new home

City officials and those on the merger committee and hospital boards didnt hold back their criticism.

I think everybody  Ted Horwitz, everybody  recognizes that credibility is going to be an issue here, Fontanella said at the time. A lot of us said a lot of things before the merger.

City leaders told hospital officials the hospital should remain at one of the two campuses, preferably on Cook Avenue, where the hospital had spent nearly $5 million on improvements and was in the midst of the citys downtown revitalization.

City Planner Dominick Caruso, who helped draft the citys $23 million revitalization plan, feared what a vacant hospital would do to the effort.

I dont understand whats wrong with what theyve got, Caruso said at the time. They should stay right where they are and for once recognize that they have a community responsibility and a community obligation. The place for them is downtown right where they are.

Hospital administrators argued the age and size of the Cook Avenue facility made it impossible to renovate to suit a changing medical environment.

The new hospital will appear friendly and reassuring, Horwitz said. The old stereotypes for antiseptic high-tech hospitals will be replaced with patient convenience and a non-traditional appearance, more like that of a hotel than a hospital.

The board selected a site near Murdock Avenue in the southeast corner of the city, a short distance from exit 15 of Interstate 91. The hospital could be positioned to be visible from the highway. The cost was an estimated $122 million to build. But the plan was in a zone that encouraged uses that generate tax revenue, not hospitals.

As one of the primary architects of that zone, I can tell you that its purpose was to promote economic development, Caruso said. And thats why hospitals were specifically not included.

Caruso said he was not an expert on hospitals but I am an expert on urban planning, he said. And I know that the main cause of urban decay is whats called urban flight businesses and institutions moving out of downtowns.

Horwitz angered many when he said the hospital is not in the urban renewal business, and the city would have no hospital without a plan to rebuild.

Lucille Janatka was the senior vice president of Meriden-Wallingford Hospital at the time.

It was a time of great turmoil in the community around the health care needs, she said recently. We had two hospitals at the time, great hospitals, great people. But we knew the future would not be sustainable for our community.

There were concerns from House Majority Leader Thomas Luby, D-Meriden, and other lawmakers that the pushback from the community could risk Meridens opportunity entirely.

Endispute Inc., a community conflict resolution firm, was hired to help all sides listen to each other and come to a conclusion.

But in July 1993, the state denied the hospitals request to build in the southeast corner of the city, among other reasons, to protect Yale-New Havens Hospitals market share.

The commission told the VMMC to find a location closer to downtown where many of its patients live. Hospital officials believed the location off I-91 would allow it to recapture patients from Wallingford, Cheshire and North Haven who had been using other hospitals.

In its denial, commission members stated the hospital did not demonstrate that these towns were underserved by existing providers. It also criticized hospital officials for not seeking the communitys support before proceeding with plans for the site.

Everybody wants to get patients from the suburbs who are well-insured and arent as dependent on public programs that dont pay as well, said Gardner Wright Jr., former chairman of the hospital commission.

Hospital officials had to pick a new location from several available locations: Deefield Avenue, the International Silver Co. headquarters at 500 S. Broad St. and Lewis Avenue.

An advisory panel overseen by Endispute helped identify pros and cons of all sites and recommended the state-owned Lewis Avenue site, across the street from Meriden Square shopping mall.

By this time, Luby had brokered a deal with the state to sell the 56-acre site to the hospital for $1 million.

The original plan called for 180 beds at a cost of $122 million, but in 1994 administrators recommended a $70 million hospital with 92 beds. The hospital would be a low-rise structure of only two to three floors and much of the building would be for medical offices and outpatient treatment.

It was meant to be a medical center and not a hospital, Janatka said. The belief was that medical care would move to the outpatient center. We are now more outpatient than inpatient. Midstate was chosen to encompass patient care and medical offices.

Caruso eventually determined that the hospital did qualify as a medical center, thus bypassing the citys Zoning Board of Appeals and rules prohibiting a hospital from being built on the land.

Construction on the new hosptial began in 1996 and people submitted potential names to a renaming committee.

The feeling was that we shouldnt take one or the other name, Janatka said. To create a new culture and entity that everyone could rally around, we should choose a new name.

In September 1997, VMMC introduced the new name MidState Medical Center for the $77 million hospital.

In 1998, the City Council approved an agreement worth more than $15 million to the city over 10 years including provisions over the bonding, payments in lieu of taxes, classroom space, relocating ball fields, subsidized busing for seniors, improvements to Lewis Avenue and more.

The hospital opened in September of that year, the first new hospital built in the state in 28 years with 236,000 square feet, 92 private inpatient rooms, a bedside computing system, cancer center, cardiology center and a family center with labor, delivery and recovery rooms. The hospital was designed to be a mostly one-level building with a tall glass corridor, the Galleria, running lengthwise through its interior. It had separate entrances for different medical needs.

Were trying to separate the very, very sick from the not-too-sick, Horwitz said.

Hospital staff visited hospitals across the U.S. to learn best practices in a modern hospital. They focused on customer service, streamlining admissions processes, employee teams, and a flat hierarchy.

Former critics began to see the benefits of the new facility.

As this begins to take shape more and more, people are beginning to react in a positive way, said then Mayor Joseph Marinan Jr. The new hospital will bring added vitality to the citys north end.

MidState Medical Center administrators realized quickly that 92 beds, 35 in the emergency room, would not be enough, and planned an expansion even before cutting the ribbon to the new hospital in September 1998.

MidState would undergo several more expansions over the next two decades before opening the Orthopaedic Institute in the former Pavilian A last year.

The former hospital building on Cook Avenue ended up in foreclosure and was eventually sold to the city. After years of neglect, the city partnered last year with a developer to rebuild the facility to provide senior housing and other services. Site cleanup began last week.

Joining a largersystem

Like the merger that created VMMC, MidStates function today as a subsidiary of Hartford HealthCare reflects a vision dating back to the late 1980s. Thats when leaders realized the hospital would need to redesign the way it delivered care and operate differently in the future, Janatka said.

To do that we would need access to low cost capital so we could invest in our hospital and our community, Janatka said. The cost of state-of-the-art technology and equipment was prohibitive for a community hospital as was more clinical supervision. Another challenge, Janataka said was attracting more specialists who often looked to the larger ciities to establish their practices.

But joining a larger system would change all of that, Janatka said. We could share specialists and have access to capital to invest in the bigger picture.

The board and administrative leaders agreed to join with Hartford Hospital to create Hartford HealthCare. In July 1996, the Meriden-Wallingford Community Corp. was phased out of existence.

Hartford HealthCare leaders supported our goal to expand services in our community and improve our aging hospital, Janatka said. The first step in the process with Hartford HealthCare was to merge our two Meriden hospitals into one corporate structure. Once that happened, the merger into Hartford HealthCare took place.

The merger also allowed the hospital to compete for managed care contracts, Horwitz said at the time.

Mergers were not uncommon in the late 1990s. Bradley Memorial Hospital in Southington merged with New Britain to form the Hospital of Central Connecticut, which today is also affiliated with Hartford HealthCare.

This is a matter of survival, Martha Fordiani, executive vice president of WWII Veterans Memorial Medical Center, said at the time. It is not designed to take medical care out of Meriden and move it to Hartford.

mgodin@record-journal.com

203-317-2255

Twitter: @Cconnbiz
SOUTHINGTON  Artists put finishing touches on giant fiberglass apples at the downtown arts center overlooking the Town Green, readying them for sponsors and the Apple Harvest Festival parade this fall.

Apples & Arts is modeled on West Hartfords painted cow parade and projects in other towns that have combined a signature animal or item with artwork. Mary DeCroce, Southington Community Cultural Arts executive director, said 20 whole apples and 20 apple cores were sold to sponsors. The funds go to United Way, Bread for Life, Southington Community Services, and the arts groups program for adults with disabilities.

The apples, several feet high and white in their unpainted state, arrived from a company in Nebraska on Monday. Artists submitted designs and those that were accepted received an apple to work on.

On Friday, Audrey Kantrowitz, an instructor at arts center, was painting an apple core sponsored by Cafe del Mondo that featured coffee beans. After finishing the bottom of the mostly eaten apple, she was painting the rest brown for what will be an apple latte creation.

Another artist, Mike Berlinski, of Plainville, was painting near the Main Street buildings large front windows and replicating a scene from Southington downtown onto a whole apple for the Calvanese Foundation.

They wanted one of the Town Green, he said.

Berlinski had been painting his apple on the sidewalk the day before and appreciated working in the shade on Friday, filling in his painting with the trees and the monument of the green.

This years Apple Harvest Festival will be the 50th, and organizers are adding attractions for the golden anniversary.

The arts groups painted apples will be mounted on 50-year-old apple crates from Rogers Orchards, DeCroce said. Theyll take part in the Apple Harvest Festival on wagons or grocery carts or other whimsical, fun things or included with the sponsoring organizations float.

After the festival, the decorated apples will be installed around town. Some are destined for auction at the Calvanese Foundation gala in April.

jbuchanan@record-journal.com

203-317-2230

Twitter: @JBuchananRJ
Sesa Sen By

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The tiny state of Goa has become the battlefield for environmentalists fighting illegal mining and companies intend on extracting a profit, with each accusing the other of ruining the coastal state.

It all began in 2012 when the Supreme Court first banned mining and ore exports in Goa, after M B Shah Commission pointed out illegalities during 2005-2012 to the extent of Rs 35,000 crore.

Ever since, the industry never recovered from the ban.

In the meantime, in 2014, the court lifted the ban while capping extraction at 20 million tonnes per year. Soon again, for the second time in nearly two years, the apex court on March 15 cancelled the renewal of iron ore permits that were renewed by the state government in 2014-2015. Its this belief that for the government to go for an overkill will not only lead to a loss in revenue, but would cost it over three lakh jobs.

READ | Supreme Court scraps 88 mining leases in Goa, says can't operate after March 15

While the Central government has hitherto played a mute spectator, various mining dependent associations such as Goa Mining Ore Export Association, Goa Mining People Front Association, Goa Truck Owners Association, Goa Machine Owners Association, along with MLAs and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, have decided to up the ante in the battle to resume mining. With little to lose, Parrikar is hell-bent on finding a way out of this imbroglio.

History of botch-ups

The mining concessions originally granted by the Portuguese government were perpetual. The Centre via the Goa Daman and Diu (Abolition of Concession and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act1987, converted these concessions into mining leases under the Mines and Minerals Development Act1954, making them valid for a fixed tenure, which lapsed in 2007.

ALSO READ | Eerie silence in iron ore-rich Goa villages after Supreme Court mining order

This is because, although the Abolition Act was passed in 1987, the lease period was determined retrospectively from Dec 20, 1961, the year Goa was liberated from Portuguese yoke. In February, the SC held that any mining carried out since 2007 was illegal.

Auction is a fallacy

Most of the jetties in Goa are owned by mining companies and most of the land belongs to local communities. With the introduction of the auction process, continuous supply of raw materials is disrupted and wasteful expenditure, including dismantling of infrastructure set-up by off-going miner, and capital required for restarting mining by the successful bidder is inevitable, reasoned advocate K N Phanindra.

He said the costs involved in bidding and making upfront payments would virtually sniff out small industries and individuals from mining and allied industries. Data from Ministry of Mines shows only 12 out of 72 blocks have been auctioned in 2017-18 and since the enactment of MMDR Amendment Act2015, only two mines are operational out of the 35 blocks auctioned. Earlier, the nodal industry body had mentioned that ceasing of operations can result in about Rs 3,400 crore revenue loss to the state exchequer.

Rajan Sahai, former Controller General, Indian Bureau of Mines, had suggested that for the time being, the state government can restart mining operations, so that at least those dependent on the sector, the number of which is in lakhs, can get back to work and start earning to meet their daily needs.

The promulgation of an ordinance to amend the Abolition Act will revive the leases by extending the lease life till 2037, said BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral, who has already moved a private members resolution in the House. He added that individuals dependent on mining cannot wait for the auctioning of the mining leases, which might take 10-15 more years.

What lies in store?

On August 3, the Goa assembly unanimously passed a resolution to allow the state government to urge the Centre to amend a Central legislation governing the mining sector, allowing the state to bypass a Supreme Court order that had banned mining since February.

The Prime Minister has constituted a group of ministers. With the support of the House, I will meet them on August 7 and present this issue before them to explain how Goas concessions were different We have to bring to their attention how Goas case is different, Parrikar said.On the other hand, people like Claude Alvares of the Goa Foundation, an environmental action group, have been fighting illegal mining for more than a decade.

Truckers in a bind post mining ban

Truck owners have been rendered jobless overnight. I took loans worth I5 lakh from Goa state corporation to buy these tippers and pay EMIs amounting to Rs 2.75 lakh. Now, how will I pay it back? asked Audut Naik, who has been in the business since 2000. Naik said he is left with no option but to sell them at a walk-away price. With the ban, more than 15,000 trucks have been affected.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India has handed over a request for the extradition of bank fraud fugitive Mehul Choksi to Antigua and Barbuda. Choksi has obtained citizenship of the Caribbean nation.

According to official sources, a team from India was sent to Antigua few days ago to meet the authorities there to have Choksi extradited. The team met the foreign ministry officials of the island nation on Saturday and handed over the request to extradite Mehul Choksi to India, an official said.

ALSO READ: India seeks fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi's extradition from Antigua

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive Nirav Modi. He is wanted in India by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, which are probing the fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country.

ALSO READ: Antigua Opposition slams citizenship to PNB scam accused Mehul Choksi

Reports have claimed that Antiguan authorities approved his citizenship in November 2017 after India did not provide any adverse report to stall his application. Choksi had fled India on January 4 this year and took the oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15.

The CBI had sent its request to the Ministry of External Affairs for extradition of Choksi. As per reports, Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 had along with it clearance from the local police as required by norms.

Choksi and his companies allegedly availed credit from overseas branches of Indian banks using the fraudulent guarantees of PNB given through letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of credit issued by the Brady House branch which were not repaid, bringing liability on the state-run bank, the officials have said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary panel has asked the government to constitute an Expert Group consisting of renowned technocrats to examine the prospects of reviving all the ailing units of HMT Limited.

In its report presented to the Lok Sabha, the Committee on Petitions suggested to the Centre to chalk out a detailed strategy of allocating a 'Special Financial Package' to all PSUs, including all units of HMT, to release the withheld pay and allowances apart from statutory dues to all serving as well as retired employees before March 2019.

The panel said it was "flabbergasted" to discover the huge backlog in payment of salaries and other allowances to the employees of various units of HMT Limited, and that the "statutory dues" of retired employees or those who availed VRS had not been released.

"The Committee, therefore, recommend that the Union Government should now take the initiative of working out a detailed plan of giving a 'Special Financial Package' to all the public sector undertakings, including all the subsidiaries of HMT Limited, to release the withheld pay and allowances along with the statutory dues to all serving/retired employees prior to the end of the current fiscal year," the panel said.

Besides, it recommended that the Centre undertake an original time-bound comprehensive study to assess the overall performance and requirements of public sector undertakings in the country with a view to making them commercially viable, an engine of growth and a major employment generator.

The government had recently decided to close down three subsidiaries of HMT Limited, namely HMT Watches, HMT Chinar Watches and HMT Bearings, by offering voluntary retirement/separation schemes to its employees which is under implementation.

The company's tractor division at Pinjore, Haryana, was provided a revival package in August 2013 but could not turn around owing to various factors like rising costs, technology gap, market conditions and working capital constraints.

It degenerated substantially with mounting losses and pending dues towards salaries, statutory liabilities, outstanding dues of suppliers and service providers as well as complete erosion of working capital.